We have had a wonderful start to the school year here at Foxwell State Secondary College.  Our students have settled in well and continue to demonstrate their SPIRIT values and in particular their gratitude.  I have been impressed by their confidence, manners and work ethic over this past week.  Their teachers and staff have been building strong positive relationships with the students and taking the time to get to know them personally and also in relation to their learning styles and goals.

Thank you to many members of our school community who have gone out of their way to show their appreciation to our staff, including emails and messages of thanks, lovely chats at the school gates and by also modelling our SPIRIT values to their children.  I will share with you a few of our lovely messages of appreciation.

Dear Students and Staff of the Foxwell State Secondary College,

I wish to thank the Foxwell State Secondary College staff for the opportunity to attend the first day on 28 January 2020. The hospitality shown by all was very much appreciated.

I was very impressed with the design and finish of the new College. The staff’s enthusiasm will no doubt lead to students success in sporting arenas and academic fields.

Thanks again for the opportunity to attend this unique event.

Graham Foxwell

Message from Foxwell State Secondary College Family member:

I picked up my nephew and his friend from school today. I wanted to say the staff out the front were so accommodating, friendly and proud of the school.  When I was encouraged to look around this amazing school, the cleaners were also so friendly, proud and knowledgeable as well. What an amazing, modern and exciting high school for Coomera with such an exciting future.  I’m beyond impressed.

Phone call from father of student to Principal:

I wanted to thank you and your staff for going above and beyond to support my daughter who is not only new to the school, but new to the local area. You ensured that she had lovely friends to welcome her from day 1 and every morning since, and you ensured that her technology was set up within the first few days. She is so happy to go to school every day and on Saturday even told us that she wished it was a school day because school is so great. That has never happened before for her or any of our other children.  Keep up the great work and the high expectations.

Coomera Police Welcome

Today we welcomed 6 Senior Officers from the Queensland Police Service – Coomera Station to our school for a tour and the commencement of our close partnership.  We discussed our Project 4209 and how together we will work towards an even greater future for the Coomera community. 

The officers got to meet some of our students and were very impressed by the uniform, behaviour, and most importantly the smiles on the faces of our students and teachers.  They agree that we are so fortunate to have incredible facilities here at our school and will often be on site as we continue our partnership.

Please don’t ever be alarmed if you see QPS vehicles or staff on site, as at Foxwell State Secondary College, we welcome the positive partnership with our wonderful local police officers.  As I often say, Together we are Great. 

School locker incident

This morning there were some significant wind gusts in the Coomera area and at approximately 9.05 am the wind blew over two banks of lockers on our school verandas. No students or staff were in the locker area at this time and no injury was sustained by any person. Immediately following this incident FKG staff conducted additional safety check and secured the lockers to meet the highest safety standards. Should you have any questions about this incident, please feel free to contact me directly.

Twilight Community Event:

We are proud of our school community and the strength of this community is evident already. We look forward to welcoming you and your extended family and friends to our Twilight Community Evening this coming Friday.  Our event will go ahead rain or shine – we have plenty of space for all activities, performances and tours to go ahead under cover.  If you are within walking distance we encourage you to walk to the event as although we have lots of parking on site and in the nearby streets, this may fill fast.  There are food options to suit most people and their budgets and lots of activities for kids of all ages. 

Kym Amor

Principal

Health advice from the Queensland Government.

There is no need to be alarmed as this is only a precautionary reminder. At present we do not have any members of our school community affected.

The advice includes: 

• anyone who has been in contact with any confirmed novel Coronavirus cases must self-isolate (self-isolation means staying at home and not accepting visitors) for 14 days following exposure;
• travellers who have visited Hubei Province of China need to self-isolate for 14 days after leaving Hubei Province;
• returned travellers who have visited China cannot attend school, childcare or TAFE for 14 days after leaving China including Hong Kong.

If you fall into any of the above categories, I would ask that you take the appropriate action and follow the above guidance.

So to be clear if you have been in China or Hong Kong in the last 14 days you cannot attend school until fourteen days have passed.

Head Lice

Please be aware that we have had a reported case of head lice. Please ensure you are checking and treating your childrens hair for head lice. 

Foxwelll State Secondary College invites Foxwell families and the Gold Coast community to our Twilight Community Evening - Friday the 7th of February 2020, 5.00-8.00pm

We will have live performances, food trucks, an artisan market and guided school tours to celebrate the opening of our new school.

The official opening ceremony will be held later this year.

We will be collecting a gold coin upon entry in an effort to raise funds to assist with the current bushfire crisis. The benefiting community organisation will be selected by our Year 7 cohort and announced prior to our event.

We would encourage everyone to follow us on Facebook and to visit the event page. This event page provides the most up-to date information on stall holders, food trucks and entertainment.

Remember! This is not just a School event, we would encourage all members of the wider community to attend. Please show your support by sharing our event on your Facebook Page!

Thank you to our families for the adherence to our School Dress Code Policy. 

We have been very impressed by the way our students proudly wear their uniform and we have received significant feedback from members of the local community and businesses acknowledging the way our students look in their Foxwell State Secondary College uniform.

Leather school shoes are required with formal uniform to meet Safety Standards.  We have included the segment from our Dress Code Policy and the picture provided to all parents upon enrolment to assist you to ensure your child has the right shoes for our labs, workshops and studios.

A reminder that for our Sun Safety Policy our students are to wear their hats to and from school and when outside of their classrooms.

All 2020 Student Resource Scheme invoices will be emailed directly to the contacts listed for your student. 

Please note that all families who elected to pay the Student Resource Scheme in full, this is due by this Friday the 7th of Feb 2020. 

Families who elected to pay via the term instalment plan, $120.00 is due by thie Friday the 7th of Feb 2020. 

If you have any questions in relation to your invoice or account, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kimberley Knowles

Business Manager

School photos are scheduled for Monday 10th February. Individual student photos will be taken on this day for all students. All students are required to wear their formal school uniform on this day. Students in 7F and 7G are asked to bring their sports uniform to school with them in their bag to change in to after their photo has been taken.

The photo taken on Monday 10th February will be used for student identification cards which are included as a part of the student resource scheme. Parents and carers have the opportunity to purchase a personal photo pack as per the attached envelope.

All students must present their photo envelope to the photographer on the day (Monday 10th February). Orders can be made online or alternatively cash may be placed in the envelope for return on the day. Please ensure you enclose the correct money as no change is available.

If your student is absent on Monday 10th February there will be a catch-up photo day on Friday 21st February.

Please take a moment to read the following additional information from MSP Photography.

Payments

• Ensure your order is placed by photo day to avoid any late fees.
• Ordering online using your child’s Unique Shoot Key is the easiest, safest and most secure way to order. If you do not know their Unique Shoot Key, please call our office on the number below.

• Payments can be made by cash, cheque, credit card or money orders only. The correct amount needs to be put into the envelopes, as the photographers do not carry change. All credit card orders must be placed online using that child’s Unique Shoot Key. Unique Shoot Keys cannot be shared between students.
• Orders placed after photo day will incur a $20 search fee. Please advise parents to call us to organise any late payments. Late orders are not processed until payment is received.
• Parents can pay for all of their children’s orders in one envelope. Please write all the children’s names on the one envelope that contains the payment. Each child requires their own envelope on photo day to ensure their order is placed and processed (even if the payment is in a sibling’s envelope).
• If enclosing payment inside an envelope, please ensure the correct money is provided as no change is given. Cash, cheques and money orders are accepted.

• Don’t seal envelopes inside each other. You can pay for all children in one envelope, however each child needs to have their own envelope on photo day. Please indicate on the child’s envelope that contains all sibling payments the names of the children you are paying for.

Envelopes

• Spare order envelopes are provided for the school office. These can be handed out upon request to any new students, or anyone that has misplaced the original.

Split Orders

• Parents can place multiple orders for children by either:
  o Placing all the orders in the one envelope. The photos will be returned to the student together.
  o Handing in multiple order envelopes (the second parent can collect a spare one from the school office and complete it as usual). If this is the chosen method, each parent will need to tick either ‘Mother’ or ‘Father’ at the top of their photo day envelope so we can return the packs with the correct labelling.

Gold Coast Health is providing free vaccinations for all Year 7 students on Wednesday 29th April as part of the Queensland Health’s annual School Immunisation Program. All Year 7 students are being offered free vaccinations as recommended on the National Immunisation Program to protect against vaccine preventable diseases. Students will be offered human papillomaviras (HPV) and diphtheria-tetanus-pertrussis (whooping cough) vaccination.

The vaccinations will be conducted by a team of authorised registered nurses and/or medical practitioners.

Within the coming weeks you will receive an email from Queensland Health in reference to immunisations with directions. If you do not have access to this email, a consent pack is available for pick up from school administration. Please read the information provided by Queensland Health carefully, and should you wish to proceed, provide consent via the directions provided

Parent, legal guardians or authorised persons are encouraged to ensure their children have eaten breakfast on the morning of the vaccination. For more information about the School Immunisation Program, visit www.health.qld.gov.au/clinical-practice/guidelines-procedures/diseases-infection/immunisation/default.asp or call 13 HEALTH (13 43 24 84).

Please ensure that you follow all traffic signs when entering, exiting, and driving within our school car park and driveways. Queensland Police Officers have observed some illegal driving behaviour and have requested that I provide a warning to parents prior to fines etc being imposed. 

• Do not drive the wrong way down the one way roads.  All roads within the car park are one way only.  Drivers have been observed doing illegal turns against the No Entry signs at the end of the car park rows and driving against the arrows indicating the one-way road
• Do not do an illegal U-Turn at the top of the school driveway. Drivers have been observed at the intersection exiting the car park doing a U-Turn back in to the entry driveway
• Adhere to the 40 Km school zone – many speeding fines have already been imposed along Foxwell Road in past week
• Do not stop for more than 2 minutes in the Stop-Drop-Go lane and remember that the driver must stay in the car at all times.  If you arrive before 3pm please park your car in the car park as the school bell does not go until 3.00pm and students will not leave class until this time
• Do not leave children unattended in car
• Do not exceed 20km in the school grounds at any time
• Do not use the car parks designated as Disability Parking unless displaying a valid permit
• Do not use mobile phones when driving or with your ignition on in the stop-drop-go area.

The safety of our students, family members and staff is our priority.  A few final safety messages include:

• Remind your child to exit the car on the Kerb side and not in the flow of traffic
• Do not drop students off from the roadway – ensure you enter a parking or stopping zone before allowing student to exit vehicle
• Move your car to the very front stopping bay so that traffic can continue to flow
• Please use only the marked traffic crossings if crossing the road.

Together we will ensure that our students and families are safe and that our school traffic flows effectively. Thank you to the many families who are following our Active School Travel program by encouraging bus, scooter, bike travel or walking and carpooling.