Rosella Park School eNewsletter

News from the Principal

I know I have said it before, but seriously where has this term gone? How did we get to week 10 so quickly? Welcome to our last newsletter for term 2. Even with the hectic pace of the term, I am very impressed with all of the effort of the students and staff. The students have spent term 1 and 2 working very hard towards their personal learning goals.

Over the next few days, you will receive your child’s report card for Semester 1. I had the pleasure, as did the other members of the leadership team, to have a read of the report cards. It was very pleasing to see the progress each student is making. So, to the students – well done for your hard work and your effort achieving your personal education goals. Additionally, thank you to the amazing teachers and teacher aides who have supported every student at Rosella Park School.

With the end of term, we sometimes say goodbye to a staff member who is leaving us. This term we are actually farewelling 3 staff members who have all had a massive impact on our school community. Firstly, we say goodbye to Miss Barb – State School Nurse. Miss Barb has supported Rosella for a number of years, we wish you all the very best with your retirement. Our second member of staff leaving is Miss Leah – ICT support. Thank you, Miss Leah, for keeping Rosella Park School functioning and fixing all of our IT issues. We all wish you the very best with your next journey further down the coast. Finally, we are saying goodbye to Miss Tracey D. Miss Tracey D was successful in her application to become Head of Special Education Services at Toolooa State High School. We all have no doubt she will do an amazing job at Toolooa. Thank you Miss Tracey, for all of your hard work and dedication over the last 3 years, Rosella’s loss is definitely Toolooa’s gain.

As shared previously, our 2024 Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) focuses on only 2 priorities. These are:

Educational Achievement – every student realises their potential
Wellbeing & Engagement – support the engagement, health, safety and wellbeing for students and staff.

These core priorities are aligned to our school budget and will exhaust our I4S funding during 2024.

The school has been focusing a lot of time and effort on staff and student wellbeing and engagement. Recently teaching staff engaged with our school-based psychologist and the regional wellbeing coach to unpack and work through wellbeing initiatives.

The entire teaching team continues to work through strategies to support all students, including referrals to student services, school-based therapist and our school-based psychologist.

A massive achievement for Rosella Park and particularly our families is the continued above 80% attendance rate. We have been sitting in and around 82 % all year. It will be fantastic to keep this trend going and finish above 80% at the end of the year.

Please call the school at 4976 8333 if you know your child will be absent so that we can document it as an excused absence.

Until our next newsletter, please take care and we look forward to working with you to maximise each day your child attends school. I hope you all have a great holiday break and look forward to seeing you all back on deck on Monday 8^th July.

News from Administration

At Rosella Park School, we ask all students who have a phone or mobile device to sign these in at the front office when they arrive at school and pick up and sign out prior to leaving. If you allow your child to bring their phone, device or wearable device to school; it would be appreciated if you could have a conversation with your child about the Education department and school policy. Below is some information which may be of assistance.

Parents and carers

While students in Queensland state schools have their phones away for the day, parents and carers are encouraged to take an active role in supporting their children to have a positive online experience outside of school hours. Resources can be found by scrolling to the bottom of this page.

'Away for the day' – mobile phones and wearable devices

Queensland state school students are required to keep mobile phones switched off and 'away for the day' during school hours and while attending school activities, such as school sport, excursions and camps.

Wearable devices, such as smartwatches, can be worn to school but notifications must be switched off so that phone calls, messages and other notifications cannot be sent or received.

Your child can continue to bring their phone to school to communicate with you, their friends and employers outside of school hours.

'Away for the day' supports schools to maintain a strong focus on educational achievement, and student wellbeing and engagement by:

providing optimal learning and teaching environments
encouraging increased face-to-face social interactions between students
promoting the health and wellbeing of students through increased social interaction and physical activity
reducing the potential for students to be exposed to the negative impacts of the digital world, resulting from unsafe or inappropriate technology use.

As a parent or carer, you play an important role in supporting your child to engage with technology in safe and respectful ways. Parents can support schools to implement the 'away for the day' approach by:

talking with your child about the requirement to have their phone switched off and away for the day, and/or notifications disabled on wearable devices
using the school's preferred communication method to contact your child during the day, such as phoning the school office
encouraging your child to report to a staff member in the first instance if they become unwell or experience an issue during the school day
raising questions about the school's local implementation approach with school staff
establishing routines at home to help your child balance their use of devices and screen time.

Setting up for success

Prepare for phone-free days at school with these steps to help your child adjust:

Save the school phone number into your contacts.
Don't text your child through the day – contact the school if you need to pass on a message.
If your child needs to contact you through the day, remind them to let their teacher or school office staff know.
Make sure your child knows how and where their phone will be stored during the day.
Share some ideas with your child about what they can do during breaks. Are there lunch time activities they can join? Maybe they could pack a game or other activities for entertainment.

For some young people, being without their phone can be challenging, especially after school holidays. However, a bit of basic planning can help reduce the impact as they put their phones away for the school day.

Positive technology habits start at home. Setting early expectations around device use and encouraging your child to reduce their screen time will support them to have safe and positive online experiences.

School Photo Day

School photo day is coming up in Term 3 with our school photographers Leading Image. The date set for photos is Wednesday 31st July. Please order all photos online using the access key below.

News from the School Psychologist

My name is Kelsie Realf and I am the Wellbeing Psychologist at Rosella Park School. Here are some things about me and my role here at Rosella:

I’m a registered Psychologist employed by the Department of Education under the Student Wellbeing Package.

I am at Rosella Park School every Monday.
I provide therapy for students with mild-to-moderate mental health concerns. I usually have 10-to-12 therapy sessions with a child and their caregivers as required. This therapy is for students who have barriers to accessing mental health supports outside of school (this means that if your child already has access to mental health care or funding for mental health care outside of school, I am unfortunately not able to provide therapy).
I like to approach therapy with a collaborative, empathetic, warm and sometimes cheeky style.
You’ll probably hear me talk about my fabulous doggos, Mildred and Murphy.
If you would like to know more about how to access Kelsie's services, please contact your child’s classroom teacher.

Kelsie’s Spotlight on… Hey Sigmund

This website contains the latest research and news in psychology. It attempts to bring psychology into the mainstream, unfolding the brilliance that happens within the scientific realm and explaining WHAT it means and WHY it matters. The creator of Hey Sigmund is Karen Young, an Australian psychologist. Karen is also the author of five books, including the bestselling ‘Hey Warrior’ and ‘Hey Awesome’, which creatively assist children to understand and manage anxiety.

Anxiety Videos for Kids
Anxiety Videos for Teens & Young Adults
Karen has also written a beautiful blog post called How to Build Relational Safety at School – And why it is so important:

“The part of the brain that is in charge of learning, self-regulation, making deliberate (good) decisions, thinking through consequences, and connecting can only open up when physical safety and relational safety are fully felt. This isn’t about what is actually safe or not safe, but about what the brain perceives. It’s about felt safety. How children do, will always come from how they feel.”

News from Junior 1

Who can believe it is almost the end of Semester 1, 2024! We have been so busy in Junior 1 that the last two terms have just flown by. I am happy to report that all assessment is complete and report cards will be sent home in the mail over the next week. As we come to the end of semester 1, I would like to congratulate the students in Junior 1 for your efforts. You have all done an amazing job settling into the new school year, following routines and classroom timetables, making new friends and working hard on communicating with others. All Junior 1 students should be very proud of themselves!

Also, a big shout out to all of the Junior parents who have attended our little parent’s group on a Tuesday morning over the last few weeks. It has been a great opportunity to get to know you all and for you to get to meet the other parents in the cohort. I am looking forward to continuing this group next semester and would love to see some new faces come along too. We meet every Tuesday morning 8:45am-9:45am. We have been enjoying a chat over a coffee in the last sessions however next semester I would like to see if I can bring along some guest speakers for some of our sessions. If you have any suggestions or topics you would like to chat about during our meets, please feel free to let me know. I want to make sure all parents are getting the most out of this time.

I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday- Rest up and I will see you all next semester!

News from Junior 2

The Junior cohort have focussed on the skill of 'Engaging with Peers' and recognising the feelings of others. Our students have participated in sensory play and whole class activities with their peers. The students have learnt to work together by taking turns and sitting and waiting. It has been great to see how they have all worked as a team and showed care for one another. Junior 2 have demonstrated the rules in our classroom and how they can follow directions.

Junior 2

News from Junior 3

Hello families,

Another fun filled productive term has flown by. The junior cohort had a fantastic time flying some very colourful kites on the oval last week. We were so proud of the students who walked as a group to the oval and happily participated in the activity. We would especially like to thank the Transition cohort who were very thoughtful and helped us transition to the oval and then demonstrated how to fly the kites. Each term in week 10 students participate in rewards day as part of our PBL program. This term we had a carnival theme. Students enjoyed exploring the different activities and were very excited to receive a prize after completing each game. Thank you to the PBL team for yet again putting together a brilliant rewards day.

Wishing you all a safe break.

The Junior 3 team

News from Intermediate 1

Students were asked what they enjoyed about this term and their responses are as follows. Isaiah’s favourite experiment was making boats to carry the most teddies. He said, “It was frustrating and hard but I persevered.” Aleeza enjoyed cooking Nutella muffins. Spencer likes to cook omelettes at home. Bella really liked an experiment that required us to melt ice, crayons, cheese and bicarb. She said “the cheese melted the quickest.” Levi is the best egg cracker in the class. Lachie likes to "fall" over in soft play with help and Kishan is great with numbers. They have really earned their holiday. Have a happy safe holiday and see you all when you return next term and we do it all again.

News from Intermediate 2

Intermediate 2 have had a great term. We enjoyed learning about the materials that different objects can be made of and the properties of that material, such as whether it is waterproof, whether it floats, and whether it is flexible. We also had fun making our game for the end of term PBL rewards day, which involved painting and paper mâché. We decorated gingerbread men and have been learning to play percussion instruments and keep a rhythm.

News from Intermediate 3

It has been a busy term in Intermediate 3. Our weekly excursions have been a huge success this term. We have loved choosing books at the Gladstone Regional Library and participated in the National Simultaneous Reading of “Bowerbird Blues”. We have shopped up a storm at Coles and made lots of yummy things in our weekly cooking. We look forward to continuing our community access programme next term.

Intermediate 3

News from Intermediate 4

Term 2 is coming to a close already! What a fun and fast term it has been.

These past few weeks' students have engaged well with play-based learning. We have also been working on our social skills and having play times with students from Intermediate 5. The two intermediate classes have been getting on well together, taking turns and working towards sharing the playground.

We also welcomed our new student Kayden in week 8; he is already getting on really well in class and is a great addition.

Sadly, we are also saying goodbye to Aleah this term as she is moving away. So, we will have an all-boy’s class once we get back from holidays.

For term 3, we will have a lot of learning that takes us out of the classroom and around the school; and hopefully some more excursions also.

I will be in touch with families regarding setting student’s goals and to give information on the units of work we will undertake for Semester 2. I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday and comes back with big smiles and happy memories.

Miss Harris.

Intermediate 4

Most mornings Intermediate 5 and Intermediate 4 classes start their day playing in the undercover area together. They have been learning some really important social skills like taking turns, asking for help, indicating ‘more’ and ‘finished’. We all look forward to our time together where we learn together when we play together.

Intermediate 5

News from Intermediate 6

It’s hard to believe we’ve been enjoying each other’s company for half a year already.

We’ve continued our fun packed time of learning through our regular routines and tonnes of sensory play. The students love to get their hands, faces and anything else that’s in close proximity, messy.

Some of the activities we’ve enjoyed were making Fireworks with chalk art and glitter to represent the night sky. Thorin wore a wig for the letter W. We found our letters of the week in our trays of rice. We made Rainbow fish with coloured ice and enjoyed time in the activity room.

We enjoyed a fabulous HPE excursion to the cinema to learn about our emotions as many students in Intermediate start to go through puberty. Aliah and Zarli loved riding the chair lift up the stairs, almost as much as they enjoyed the movie.

Can’t wait for next term when we move on to learning about living and non-living things in Science; and take a look at History and Geography.

Enjoy a well-deserved holiday, stay safe and come back well-rested to start our fun learning in term 3.

Intermediate 6

News from Senior 1

I have been enjoying getting to know the students in Senior 1 while Miss Cindy has some rest and recovery over the next few weeks. We have been doing lots of practice with our literacy and maths and are setting up a meal plan of what to cook next term as we will be learning about procedures. I hope you all enjoy the 2 weeks of holidays and come be to school excited to start some fun activities next term. - Miss Amy

News from Senior 2

As we approach the end of the first semester of 2024, I have been working on my students’ report cards. This has given me the opportunity to reflect on the progress they have made since the start of the year.

I have been very pleased with the progress made by the students in Senior 2 this semester. This has helped me decide on their goals for the future. In all cases, I believe I have selected goals for the students that will be more challenging and will help them develop their full potential over the next six months.

Looking forward to Semester 2, we shall be studying time and money in Maths, improving our reading and listening skills in English and looking at how the environment affects living things in Science. We will also be studying History and Geography units in place of HPE.

I hope that everyone enjoys a restful Winter break and returns ready to engage with the opportunities that will be available in the second semester.

News from Senior 3

Senior 3 have had a "terrific" and "interesting" Semester 1. The learning areas the students have enjoyed most were Maths, Science and Friday cooking sessions.

Our class stall for the PBL Carnival was "Pick a Pop" prepared by Rory and Riley. The major prizes, large lollipops, were won by Jesse, Shontae, Norman and Kyson.

Report cards will be coming home in the mail shortly.

Have a wonderful holiday and see you all next term on Monday 8th July.

News from Senior 4

Can you believe it we are half way through the school year? Be proud of your child efforts so far this year. Hope you all enjoy the holidays.

Math Curriculum revolves around making connections between number names, numerals and quantities up to 10 and answers simple questions to collect information and makes simple inferences.

English Curriculum involves identifying connections between texts and their personal experience. Describes likes and dislikes about familiar texts, objects, characters and events.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any concerns, either by using the communication book or ClassDojo.

Senior 4, Shaun B.

News from Transition 1

What a great semester we have had.

Students have been working diligently towards their final project for their Active Citizenship subject. This has seen them organise and run a food drive and a whole school sausage sizzle. They received a huge range of donations and over $200 for their sausage sizzle which will be donated to the Gladstone Food Centre and Ray’s Soup Kitchen. A huge thanks to our amazing school community for supporting this worthwhile project.

Our vocational training continues with our Tuckshop/Canteen program and recycling business. Funds raised from our recycling business contributes towards our end of year school camp. We have locked in the Gold Coast this year and are busy now planning all the fun activities and experiences that we will take part in. Camp will be 4th – 8th November. Stay tuned for further details as Mrs Leeson and I work through it all.

We have booked in our Year 12 graduation at Yaralla. This will be held on Friday 29th November. Students will start the preparations and planning of this event under their Rites of Passage subject next semester. We look forward to making this an event they will remember!

We are excited to start some new ventures next semester under our vocational training program, where we will continue to work on workplace skills and post schooling options for all. We are actively seeking work experience locations within the community, so if you do know of anyone who may be able to assist, please do not hesitate to pass on the details.

Below are some photos from us! Have Happy Holidays!

Miss Sally & Miss Simone 😊

Transition 1

First of all I have to say a thank you to all the staff and students who worked so well while I was away at the beginning of the term. I had a lovely holiday and was so grateful knowing that the students were in good hands and worked so well for the staff. As you can see from the photos, all programs ran smoothly. They included a visit to Gladstone Linking Agency where they made musical instruments and attending the Equip Career Expo at the university. With this semester coming to an end, we can look forward to report cards coming home over the school holidays. Next semester will see us continue with some programs but begin some new ones as we count the months down to graduation. We have locked in the Friday 29th of November for our year 12 graduation with all students to receive invitations towards the end of term 3. On a final note, this year’s school camp plans are slowly coming together. We can confirm we will be heading to the Gold Coast the week of November 4th to 8th. We hope to get a note home to all families by the end of this term. Have a great holiday and we will see you all in July for what will be a very busy semester.

Transition 2

News from the Technology Teacher

Over the past few weeks in Design and Technology students have been making some interesting products using different technologies, both natural and man made. These include painting on canvas, making pet rocks, making torn paper collage with papers made from plants materials, painted paper artworks and making painted paper art. We also made a mobile from seed pods we found in the playground. Students helped to design a swing for their pet rocks and we tested them out and made adjustments so our pet rocks could swing outside in the trees. It was a lot of fun and problem solving.