July 2020

Principal's Message

At the end of week 5, we farewelled our amazing Mrs Hansen. Chrissie had been the Deputy Principal at Rosella Park for 8 years, and had been a part of the Rosella community for 11 years. Over these years she always put the students at Rosella first, and prided herself on the support she offered students, families and staff. She is a wealth of knowledge and certainly contributed to the great school that we have today.

Chrissie is now on her new adventure, where she has taken up the role of Deputy Principal at the new Palmview State Special School on the Sunshine Coast. I am sure I speak on behalf of the entire school community when I wish Chrissie all the best at her new school. We all know she will be amazing and a huge asset to this new school. She certanly will be very missed by all here.

Welcome Shelley

We can announce that our new permananent deputy at Rosella Park School will be Shelley Slade. Shelley's current position is DP at Gladstone State High School, where she has a focus on diverse learners at the school. Previous to this role, she was the Head of Special Education Services (HOSES). In both these roles, Shelley has gained extensive expereince in a leadership role as well as working with students with a disability. We are very lucky to have such an expereinced person stepping into the role, and we know she is very excited about joining the Rosella community. Shelley will join us at the start of term 4. In the meantime, Dominique Colucci will be stepping up into the role of Deputy Principal - thanks Dom!

Staffing Updates

We have had a few more staff changes over the past few weeks, Julie has taken some extended long service leave, so we have welcomed Sandy into the position. Thanks Sandy for coming on board - its been a pleasure having you!

We also welcome Narelle Price and Jill Schulze, who have both taken on short term teaching contracts.

Literacy at Rosella Park

Once again, we welcomed our literacy coach, Jane Farrall to Rosella last week. She spent the week in classrooms observing and giving feedback to all of our staff across the school. I would like to share with you a comment she wrote in an email to Peter and I in summary of her week with us.

"There are lots of positive things happening at Rosella Park.  Many of the teachers have improved both their literacy implementation and their use of AAC.  A really significant change I noticed was a greatly increased understanding among your education assistants of different aspects of comprehensive literacy implementation".

The data that we collect regularly also supports this, as we constantly see students improving in their literacy and communication skills. The staff are working so hard in the classrooms to make this happen, and I'd like to send a huge shout out to them all - their hard work is certainly appreciated!!

Community Support

We have always been so lucky at Rosella with the community support we have been shown. Just recently we were approached by Santos GLNG, who were keen to support schools during the COVID lockdown restrictions. A huge thanks for their very kind donation of much needed PPE equipment for the school, as well as a large amount of hand sanitiser. Santos was able to source these items for us when they were in very short supply.

We were also approached by Woollam Constructions, who are the company that have just built the new emergency department at the Gladstone Hospital. They donated $2000, which has been used to resource the junior play shed, which was in significant need of an overhaul of resoures to support pur younger students at play times. Thanks Woollam Constructions for your very generous donation.

School Review

The Department of Education regularly reviews Queensland state schools to ensure they're delivering a quality education to students. All Queensland state schools are reviewed at least once every 4 years.

Our school review will be conducted from the 7th to the 9th of September, 2020. This is an exciting time, as we hear about all the things we have done over the last 4 years that we can celebrate, as well as help to identify our next steps, as we work to document our next strategic 4 year plan.

Community feedback is an essential part of the reviews, with parents, students and the community encouraged to have their say. You may be contacted by the review team during this time as they seek feedback. 

We have included a factsheet below that details some more information about the review process.

Welcome Chappy Cathy

We were very excited to announce recently that we have been granted funding to have a Chappy one day a week for semester 2 this year. This service will happen on a Monday, and we welcome Chappy Kathy to Rosella in this role. Chappy Kathy works with a number of other schools in the Gladstone area, so brings with her a lot of experience in working in schools. Some of you may even know her from schools your other children attend.

One of the initiatives she will be starting at Rosella in Term 4 is a Brekky Club. This will be open to all interested students, and will run from 8.30 to 9am on a monday morning outside the home ec room. It will be a great time to focus on social skills, as well as a time to unpack the weekend with Chappy Kathy and supporting staff. With generous donations from Hopelink and CQ Nutrition, Breakfast Club will be starting on Monday 12th October (Week 2, Term 4).

The choices to start off with will be: Weetbix with Milk (and sugar if wanted);

Toast with margarine and either Vegemite, Jam, Peanut Butter or Honey.

We hope to share some photos and stories from this great new initiative in our next newsletter.

COVID-19

The health and safety of students, staff and the broader community is the Department of Education’s highest priority. The department continues to take advice from the Chief Health Officer and Queensland Health in making decisions regarding the operation of schools during COVID-19.

As a school, we are following this advice, and working to keep ur staff and students as safe as possible. The following measures continue to be in place to support this.

Health and hygiene

• Students and staff showing signs of illness or feeling unwell must not attend school
• Parents or carers will be contacted to collect any student that becomes unwell whilst at school
• Practising regular effective hygiene protocols, including washing hands with soap and water or using hand sanitiser and covering coughs and sneezes
• Increased cleaning frequencies of high-touch surfaces such as light switches, door handles and drinking water fountains/bubblers (students are encouraged to bring their own water bottles for personal use)
• Regular cleaning of playground equipment and play materials
• Use of school facilities such as swimming pools, hydrotherapy facilities and gymnasiums may be limited.

Physical distancing

• Physical distancing of 1.5 metres required by all adults
• Restricted access to school grounds by adults, including parents, carers and visitors
• Parents and carers should contact the school or their child's teacher by phone or online wherever possible
• Adults must not gather in and around school grounds, car parks, school gates, outside classrooms and in office environments
• Use stop, drop and go or similar facilities wherever possible
• Supervision at school gates and during movements between gates and classrooms, including at drop-off and pick-up times
• Technology used for gatherings, meetings and assemblies wherever possible.

P and C News

A huge thank you to our amazing P&C for organising the recent pie drive. It was a very successful fundraiser for the school. Thanks to all the families and friends that supported the initiative.

We have been unable to have our major fundraiser this year due to COVID, so the commottee have been focuing on smaller initiatives that can be workig in the background to help add money to the P&C bank balance - at the end of the day every little bit counts. Below are 2 initiatives to bring to your attention:

DRAKES COMMUNITY DOLLARS

Roger Drake values the importance of giving back to the community. He firmly believes that it is the local community that contributes to the success of his business every day. One initiative that we have been a part of for many years is the Community Dollars Program.

The community dollars program was established as a way for Drakes to regularly give back to the local groups which operate in the community.

How it works is that your not-for-profit organisation, in our case our P&C committee receive an amount of Community Dollars Key tags for distribution. For every $1 spent at a participating Drakes store in QLD, 1c will be accredited to your organisations fund. Our local store is Drakes Sun Valley.

This week, new tags will be sent home to families. Please, if you shop at Drakes, make sure you have your tag scanned upon purchase of your goods. This is a great way for families to assist the P&C in fundraising for the school. If you would like more tags for other family and friends, please let us know -we can send home s many as you would like to use.

CONTAINERS FOR CHANGE

The Containers for Change scheme is all about reducing litter and increasing Queensland’s recycling rates. The scheme aims to incentivise recycling by offering a 10 cent refund for every eligible beverage container returned to authorised container refund points (CRPs) across Queensland. Any container returned to a CRP is recycled into new material for a cleaner Queensland.

Our P&C have set up an account with the Gladstone Depot. All you have to do is take your containers down to the depot and state the scheme ID. A small business card will be sent home this week for you to keep in your wallet.

You can also Download the Containers for Change QLD app on Google Play and the App Store. This app enables you to scan the scheme ID every time you deposit containers at the depot. Click on the either of the links below to access the app.

Term 3 is going very fast - before we know it the end of the year will be here. 2020 has certainly been a year like no other. We hope you are going okay in your respective families, and the situation down South is not impacting your loved ones too much. Stay safe everyone.

PLEASE NOTE - it is a Pupil Free Day on Friday the 4th of September, 2020 for all state schools in Queensland.

Yours Sincerely,

Kate Hucker and Peter O'Sullivan

Room 1 (Junior 3) - Ms Atkins

We have been busy busy busy in room 1 the past month. We celebrated Leona’s birthday with delicious pink cupcakes cooked by the class. We have been working hard in our literacy rotations and have been doing some excellent writing. We have also been working hard in PE. The past few weeks we have been trying yoga, meditation and mindfulness and everyone has enjoyed it. Can’t wait for all the fun of the next few weeks.

Room 2 (Junior 2) - Mrs Wellsteed

It is busy times in Room 2. We had a great time learning about National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day and did some special activities and stories. Everyone has been working hard on their communication and trying out lots of different activities. We are working on families, celebrations and special places in HASS this semester. We are hoping all our families will share some information and photos with us to help make the topic we are exploring more personal. Thank you from Room 2.

Room 3 (Junior 1) - Mrs Hayne

Welcome to Term 3. Room 3 students have settled well into  the class routine after the break. Room 3 has a new student Oscar Carriage and we enjoy his happy smiling face and his dance moves.

We have continued our Literacy focus on a daily basis and are making some interesting books with the Predictable Chart writing. These books then become a part of our class library collection so that we can read them again during  self–selected reading. This term there has been an introduction of a new subject-HASS-Humanities and Social Science. The focus is on the my family history and places that are special to the students.

The Maths songs are popular with the students and produce great counting opportunities. We will also be investigating and sorting 2D shapes. The health component of HPE will investigate how to keep ourselves safe.

The change in our lunchtime structure with play first and then eat has proven successful . The students have enjoyed the variety of activities available to play with. The students are definitely ready to eat. 

The photos show Room 3 cooking with a letter of the week. The class made donuts for the letter D. Lots of fun pouring, mixing, cooking, icing and of course eating.

My New Gallery

Room 4 (Inter/Senior 1) - Mrs Rossiter

Room 4 have been investigation numbers through sensory learning and we have almost completed our number display in our room to number 10.  

In cooking we have made fruit salad and enjoyed listening to the fruit salad song. Chilli and Mica didn’t like the apple and preferred banana the most. We have also been bike riding in the mornings and it was a celebration seeing Dang on the bike with his feet on the pedals.

Balanced literacy is looking different in our room this term and students have enjoyed learning English with Mrs Nash and we are proud of how our students have been transiting between classes.

Room 4

Room 5 (Junior 4) - Mrs Coulston

Welcome to Semester Two! This semester we are running Literacy groups. The groups are a combination of room one and room five students. The morning is divided up into three sessions; letters, sounds and words, writing and shared or guided reading. We have been able to stream the students so they are able to work with others at the same level as they are.

During this semester we are identifying body parts and discovering the different ways we move. It is quite funny to watch everyone try to move their nose or ears. We have also discovered that our eyes are all different colours. It has been fun to discover how we are different and simular to each other.

We are looking forward to a fun filled semester with each other while we develop social skills and learn to communicate effectively with each other.

Room 5

Room 6 (Senior 1) - Mrs Buckle

Hello Room 6 Families, welcome to August!!

What been happening in Room 6?  Lots!!!

Firstly you will have received your child’s report card.  You will have noticed that they received academic results for all their subject except Maths, Dance and Visual Arts.  These ICP goals will be rolled over for this semester as well.  However for English, HPE, Geography and History new goals will be identified for your child.  We will discuss these at our Parent/Teacher meetings. 

Most of the students would regard Dodgeball as the highlight of their mornings. We squeeze in two to three games before moving onto our Alphabet jingles for the letters of the week.  Charlie’s favourite song is the letter ‘H’, it has a catchy tune.  He has also given us breathy ‘b’ sounds for ‘bye’- Great progress Charlie. 

Cassie has consistently asked us on a daily basis this term “What is the purpose for reading today?”  She is keeping us on our toes- Great job Cassie.

 Kielin has been creating the most amazing creatures out of playdough to coincide with the ‘letters of the week’- talented hands Kielin.

 Kitarna has been most attentive to her shared readings throughout the day- great concentrating Kitarna. 

Lane has been using buttons to represent each word of his sentence for writing – fabulous work Lane in using interesting vocabulary.  

Rory loves BTN and always chooses a topical World Issue, he contributes well to the discussions- Rory writes his best sentences when given these topics- great work.

Across our week, we follow this timetable of ideas

Two of our students have their birthdays in August.  Please remember parents if you are sending in party food to share it has to be store bought and not prepared at home.  The COVID guidelines are mandating this.

I’m looking forward to seeing you at our next ICP meetings. Have a great August.

Room 7 (Senior 2) - Mrs Dunstan

As part of Rosella Park School's commitment to a safe, respectful learning environment, weekly Positive Behaviour for Learning lessons are taught. This term’s focus has been "Play by the rules, fair play and being inclusive of others".

Room 7, together with schoolmates from Rooms 6 and 10 have had great fun demonstrating how well they share equipment, take turns and try their best during our morning Dodgeball games. They have also shown terrific examples of sportsmanship and acceptance of everyone during the games.

Room 8 (Intermediate 2) - Mrs Thompson

Hello there from Room 8.

Well a lot has been happening in our room since our last newsletter. We have welcomed Riley into our class. We have changed our literacy groups so that different classes can mix and learn with each other and we have also begun learning about our personal history and the geography of our region; Gladstone.

Learning about our own history has been great fun as we have shared baby photos with each other.  Mrs T has shown us a photo of herself when she was a little baby and Chappy Kathy has brought in a photo of herself when she was on a rocking horse playing in the yard. She looks so cute………….

In math, our goals have also changed.  Some of the exciting things we are doing involve measuring with informal measurements; tree pods, pens, paper clips. We have also marked how tall we are on the classroom wall and will see how much we have grown by the end of the year.

We hope everyone is well and keeping healthy and safe.

Bye for now: Room 8

Room 10 (Senior 3) - Mrs Bickle

Wow, week 5 already.  Room 10 have hit the ground running and have been doing some awesome learning.   We have continued our Literacy and Maths goals this Semester and have included a HASS (geography & history).   History sees us looking at important events/dates and changes that occur in our own lives. So keep an eye out (on DOJO) for questions that we may send home about your family special events.  Geography sees us looking at features of places that are special to us and how we can look after these places. 

We have been enjoying our combined senior cohort sports lessons on Mondays.  We are looking at how our bodies respond to exercise and have completed the skipping component and are moving into the circuit exercise training component.   We have also have been joining classes in the morning for a game of dodge ball to get us moving and ready to learn.  The trampoline has also been a favourite for reward time and has proven great to increase our stamina and identify our body’s responses.   During Health we are looking at how to make safe and healthy choices, specifically at present healthy food choices and body hygiene and poisonous substances and their storage.

Wednesdays sees us cooking for our Maths measurement goal and this is always a favourite and is a very messy learning lesson but always fun and we all enjoy eating the fruits or ‘sweets’ of our labour.  We have also been looking at time durations and having been working with timetables and calendars, specifically birthdays of people around the school.

We had fun celebrating Miss Donna’s birthday and played a party game called ‘dice double dare’ wear you were required to eat a double dare jelly bean which was a gamble of being a good flavour like watermelon or a bad flavour like rotten cheese – lots of laughs were had by all.   We are looking forward to Joshua’s birthday next.

Room 10 says…………………………Go TEAM!

Room 10

Room 11 (Transition 3) - Mrs Leeson

Here in room 11 we have been working very hard on quite a few projects. The year 12 students have begun volunteering at the Salvation Army Family Store. They have been sorting clothes and toys. So far, the students have displayed outstanding workplace skills by following instructions, completing jobs to a high standard and showing respect to all of the staff and workers. Keep up the excellent start Year 12’s. Room 11 maths students continue to work on money and hopefully we will start visits to the Night Owl Complex soon to put these skills into practice. The room 11 English class are working on literal and implied meanings in texts. Lots of reading activities based on becoming text detectives coming up. I hope you are all taking care in this cold weather. There are many head colds circulating in Transition at the moment with students and staff absences high. So make sure you rest up if you are unwell.

Room 12 (Senior 4) - Mrs Ward

This term students will be exploring how to describe and represent the location and direction of features of places on pictorial maps and models. They will be using maps to identify the places where people live and belong, such as their home, neighbourhood, state or country. Students will be required to respond to questions about familiar and unfamiliar places by collecting, recording and sorting information from sources provided and this is where I will need support from carers and family.

Initially we will be undertaking the mapping of a place very familiar to all students…their bedrooms J As students skills progress they will attempt to map and describe other familiar places such as their house, yard, local park or neighbourhood. It would be great if you could provide photos of places familiar to your child. Students are more driven to participate in learning experience related to real life.

Please send photos in with your child (we can photocopy them and return them to you the next day) or email them as an attachment to kward91@eq.edu.au

UNIFORMS

What can I say? You guys are awesome!! Thank you so much for always sending your children to school in full uniform. They all wear their uniforms with pride and are great role models to others.

BIRTHDAYS

Miss Artemis turns 15 on the 24^th of August. Hip, hip, hooray!!!!!

Room 13 (Intermediate 1) - Mrs Nash

Welcome Room 13 parents and carers to Term 3.  What a mixed up first semester, fingers and toes are crossed that we do not have any more interruptions to our learning.  This semester we shall be completing HASS, which is a mixture of History and Geography.  To assist us with this we shall be looking at going out into the community looking at special places around town and why they are special to certain people.  We shall also be looking at special events in your child’s life.  If you have some photographs of your child at special events that you could email or send to school for us to use it would be greatly appreciated. 

We are well into the streaming of our intermediate students for their literacy program.  This is looking to be very successful giving teachers more time to focus on what the students in their grouping (emergent, transitional and conventional) are requiring.  In our emergent group we are having a fantastic time exploring the different letters of the alphabet.  We are also doing a fantastic job in our independent writing.

I think term 3 is looking at being an extremely busy term.  Don’t forget you can always contact me via phone or class Dojo.

Room 14 (Transition 1) - Mrs Maguire

Welcome back to Semester two! Students of room 14 have already been hard at work in both maths and English. In Maths students have been working towards their individual number and time goals. The focus has been on developing a concept of time looking at how long things take to do. So far we have looked at things that you do in the day and at night and things that you might do in both. We have also focused on language of time with picture sorts of activities that take seconds, minutes and hours to complete. In English, we have continued with our four blocks approach and of course communication, communication, communication. We have had a busy start and fingers crossed this term our learning will not be interrupted.

Room 14

Room 15 (Transition 2) - Ms Harris

In Room 15 we have a positive behaviour system where our students work towards a chance to spin the Reward Wheel. Students who are in room 15 get a ‘notable good behaviour’ written down when they go above and beyond. Some examples of this are:

• When Zac has put his hand up to get our attention and used positive words to ask for a turn in a game.
• When Angel has completed her work, noticed a classmate having trouble, and helped them with their work.
• When Shayla used her tools to self-regulate and have a good lesson; despite a rough start.
• When Keira used a strategy to help her spell unfamiliar words.
• When Abbey joined in with her classmates in an unfamiliar game and took turns.

There are many more examples, and parents will see that when students bring home their reward certificates. Each reward certificate comes with a copy of the ’10 Notable Good Behaviour’ sheet on the back of it so you can read the 10 things your student has done to get to spin the wheel. The rewards on the wheel change from time to time, based on what I have available to give to the students.

If you have a student who works in room 15, and they have a particular activity/food/toy/craft that they really love at home please let me know and I can incorporate that into the prize options.

It is wonderful how well the students are behaving and how frequently they are getting up to their 10th note. Well done transition students!

P & C News

Father's Day Stall

The P&C have been working hard in the background acquiring gifts to be sold at our annual Father's Day Stall. All gists will be priced at $5.

Students will have the opportunity to go shopping for Dad's gift on the 2nd and 3rd of September. Please send cash with your child to school if you want them to purchase a gift.

Admin News

Finance

Dear Parent / Guardian / Caregivers,

Rosella Park School has a new alternative method for parents to pay your school invoices.

BPOINT is an internet web link you can use as a method of paying school invoices securely from your own computer.

BPOINT offers several payment options as below:

1. Internet Payment (single payment) via Web Link  (this link is on the School Webpage under Quicklinks) or simply click on the link below and open in a new tab.
   
2. Re-occurring direct debit (payment plan) - Authorise to have your credit or debit card in a secure environment for approved payment plans (e.g. text book, school fees, etc.)
3. Please follow this link for a step by step guide
   

The school is endeavouring to provide more up to date communication to parents electronically as well as to reduce the school environmental footprint by sending out the majority of our correspondence, account statements and invoices via email.

If you have any queries in relation to this new procedure, please contact Julie Nott, Business Manager on 4976 8333 or accounts@rosellaparkspecs.eq.edu.au

Account office hours are between 8.30am – 3.00pm Monday – Friday

Community  News