Admission Age And Compulsory Attendance
In 2009 children entering prep should be born between July 1st 2003 and June 30th 2004.
Ancillary Staff
The school office is staffed by a Business Services Manager and two part time Administration Officers.
The primary school has several Teacher Aides, one of whom works primarily in the library.
The school has a Schools’ Officer of Facilities and three cleaners.
Chaplain
A chaplain was appointed to the school in late 2007 and works two days per week. She provides pastoral care if needed, assists with the development of social skills in our children, provides one on one counselling with regard to behavioural or social issues, organises lunch time clubs and generally assists with the well being of our children and staff. She also attends school functions and/or excursions, camps and class activities whenever possible.
Composite Classes
As the enrolment varies from year to year, composite or multi-age classes comprising children from more than one-year level may be formed. Research indicates that learning outcomes from a composite class are identical to straight year level classes.
Collection Of Money For Student Activities
Invoices/statements for school activities/excursions are sent home once per term. This system has been introduced at the request of parents in an effort to minimize the number of payments for the various activities. It has been approved by both the P & C and the School Council. Payment can be made by cheque, cash or credit card. Please make cheques payable to “Ashgrove State School” unless stated otherwise. If paying by cash it would be appreciated if correct money were enclosed, as the school does not have the facility for giving change. Cash will only be processed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Please note that cash and che2que payments should be placed in an envelope clearly marked with child's name and class. If paying by credit card please complete details on reverse of invoice. All payments need to be placed in the Cash Collection Box located in the office foyer.
Permission notes to enable students to attend any excursions or activities must be given to your child’s teacher.
Enrolment
Ashgrove State School has an approved Enrolment Management Plan, which endeavours to maintain enrolment numbers at a level which can be accommodated within the school grounds. This allows children residing permanently within a prescribed local area and siblings of present and former students, enrolment as a right of entry. Students, other than those meeting these criteria, cannot be guaranteed placement. Copies of the full Enrolment Management Plan and the associated map are available from the school office.
Extra Curricular Activities
Book Club
The school participates in the Scholastic Book Club. This is reliant on parent helpers. Should we be unable to have sufficient parent volunteers this cannot operate. At regular intervals children may order books at reasonable prices through the Book Club. Participation by individual families is optional and children are asked to return money with their orders to the front office foyer by the date on the order form. Children will receive their orders as soon as they arrive at the school. Should we be unable to obtain parental assistance the school will run two book fairs. One at the beginning of the year and one at the end of the year.
Debating
Students from the upper school have teams that undertake debating in the Queensland Debating Union for interschool competition.
Excursions
Regularly throughout the year various excursions are organised by teachers to support and enhance the curriculum. All excursions are part of the school curriculum and all students should participate. Notices informing parents of these excursions will be sent home in advance of the day of the excursion. Signed parental permission must be provided for all excursions. Each excursion is required to be approved by the school P&C Association.
Optiminds
The school also participates in the Opti-Minds Challenge. Opti-Minds is an interschool problem-solving event for students. Teams of 7 students per team across 2 grade levels are asked to find solutions to challenging problems which require experimentation and reward divergent thinking.
Outlook Unlimited
To cater for the needs of students in the middle years of school, the school has established for years six and seven an elective based program. This allows children to study a subject of their choosing in depth with other like minded students. The program operates on a Friday between 9.00am and 12.00pm for a period of 12 weeks. Teachers design the units of work in areas in which they have a keen interest. The units are designed to capture the children's imagination and have produced outstanding outcomes for the students involved.
Year 4, 5, 6 And 7 Camp
Students in Year 4, 5, 6 and 7 are involved in the schools camping program. The objectives of the camp are social and educational and form a vital part of the curriculum program offered by the school. Information is sent home to parents well in advance of the actual dates of the camp.
Houses
The school has three sporting team houses: Binda which is blue, Munda Green and Warroo yellow. Houses are named after the Aboriginal names for water, earth and fire.
On enrolment every student is allocated to a house. All members of the same family are allocated to that same house.
Houses compete in the Annual Athletics and Swimming Carnivals. A house system has recently also been introduced to focus on other academic and social pursuits.
Leadership Program
Children at the end of Year 6 are given the opportunity to become school leaders for their final year of Primary School.
Those children wishing to participate are given an accreditation sheet which can be completed during the last two terms of their Year 6 year or may be ongoing during their year in Year 7. Upon completion of the sheet, the children are given a Senior Badge.
Those children wishing to nominate for a formal leadership position in Year 7 e.g. School Captain, House Captain, Music Captain must complete their accreditation sheet by the Friday of week 8 in Term Four of their Year 6 year. After this date badges can be earned at any time during the following year, but students will not be eligible for a formal leadership position in Year 7.
To complete their accreditation sheet, students must get all criteria signed by various staff and community members. Parents and family members are not eligible to sign for the students. Some of the criteria for accreditation are:-
- high level leadership skills;
- consistent adherence to school rules and values;
- high level of reliability, responsibility, initiative;
- well developed communication and people skills;
- high level of personal presentation;
- regular attendance at school;
- community service involvement;
- willingness to commit to and participate in school activities.
Those unsuccessful in gaining a formal leadership position are still given some leadership responsibilities
Parent Network
Each class in the school has a Parent Network representative. This person attends a meeting each term with the Principal and Deputy Principal. This meeting serves as an ideas sharing session and the parent representatives are given factual information regarding school procedures and curriculum to pass on to other parents in the class. These parent representatives also organise morning teas etc to enable parents to get to know each other and these meetings also serve as a welcome to any new families that may have come to the school.
Prep
The non-compulsory, full-time preparatory year is offered in all Queensland State Primary Schools. Children born between 1 July 2003 and 30 June 2004 will be eligible for Prep in 2009.
Religious Education
Religious Education at Ashgrove State School is delivered in a non-denominational format to children in Year 1 to Year 5 depending on the number of volunteers available.
Most of the children enrolled at the school attend these classes which are taught by volunteers from local churches for one half hour per week. All volunteers work from a pre-prepared program and supply the children with a booklet in which to complete each week's work. The program is Christian based but non-denominational and has the support and approval of all Christian churches.
If you do not wish your child/children to attend these classes, you will be required to inform the class teacher(s) in writing at the beginning of each year.
No alternative curriculum work will be provided to children not attending Religious Education classes. They will be required to do "catch up" work at this time.
Special Education Staff
The school has a Support Teacher Learning Difficulties and accesses various special education staff according to children’s needs. Special education staff includes a Guidance Officer, a Speech Language Pathologist, a Teacher of English as a Second Language, Advisory Visiting Teachers for intellectual, physical, hearing and visual impairments and behaviour support.
Access to special education staff requires a process of referral to the school’s Special Needs Committee.
Specialist Subject Teachers
The staff includes a teacher-librarian, a technology teacher, a LOTE teacher (Chinese), a classroom music teacher, a physical education teacher and two instrumental music teachers.
Staff Identification
Staff at the school, both teaching and ancillary, wear readily recognisable Name Badges. Children have been informed that if required they can seek help from an adult with such a badge.
All relief teaching staff and authorised visitors wear a visitor’s badge which identifies them as being authorised to be on the school premises.
Student Council
The Student Council consists of class representatives of Years 5, 6 and 7. The members of the Student Council are a representative voice for matters and activities within the school. The membership changes every semester to give more children the opportunity to display leadership qualities. The Student Council also supports charitable causes in the community.
Teaching Staff
In 2009 there will be twenty class teachers and four teachers working in the Prep classes.