Rosella Park School eNewsletter

News from the Principal

Welcome back for Term 4. By the time the newsletter comes out, we will all be well and truly back into our daily routines focusing on maximising each school day.

It has been a very busy start to term 4. Week 1 involved a whole school review. This occurs every 4 years and is an integral part of our school improvement journey. Over 3 days we welcomed 4 members of the Review Team who spoke to 90+ members of our school community. Through this discussion, the Review Team was able to identify and share some great positive affirmations as well as identify a number of key improvement strategies. We should receive the School Review Report in the coming weeks. I look forward to sharing that with the school community.

Massive congratulations to some of our sporting stars that spent a few days down in Brisbane competing at the State Championships for Track and Field. Well-done to all the students how represented our region and our school. You all did your very best and should be extremely proud. Thank you also extended to Miss Harris for attending and providing support to our students and other students from the CQ region. Cannot end without thanking the families of these sporting stars, without your effort and support (especially getting them to Brisbane and back) they would not have had the opportunities to participate and represent our school and region so proudly.

Staff have begun processes to determine class groups for 2025. As soon as the class groups are completed and confirmed, we will begin allocating staff to class groups. We will endeavour to share the class groups as soon as possible, so that we have plenty of lead up time prior to 2025. Additionally, we will also begin staffing processes to ensure our school community are aware who their classroom teachers and teacher aides will be. Please keep an eye out in the coming weeks for updates.

Final celebration is the continued student attendance. Our school data continues to remain above 82% attendance which is a huge improvement on 2024. Thank you all for ensuring your child is attending each day. Also, a reminder to let the school know if your child will be away. If you do not notify us, we will send daily SMS text messages seeking an explanation.

Term 4 is notorious for being a super-fast period of time. I am looking forward to what we can all achieve this term, and I am particularly looking forward to getting to read students’ progress during the report writing period in term 4.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the school to arrange a time to meet.

News from the Deputy Principal

The Importance of School-Home Communication

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Term 4! As we embark on the final term of the year, I’d like to take this opportunity to emphasise the importance of maintaining strong communication between home and school. Working together ensures that we are all supporting your child’s learning and wellbeing in the best way possible.

To support you in this process, we encourage the use of the following communication tools:

Class Dojo / Communication Book

For day-to-day updates, quick reminders, and general information sharing, please continue to use Class Dojo or your child’s Communication Book. This is the fastest way for teachers to share updates about your child’s school day, classroom activities, and any other important reminders.

Phone Calls for Absences or Urgent Matters

If your child is absent, or there is a more urgent or serious matter that requires immediate attention, please give us a phone call. This ensures that we can respond quickly and appropriately and helps us to keep accurate records and avoids any unnecessary disruptions to your day.

Email for Attachments and Sensitive Documentation

For more detailed information sharing, especially when it involves attachments or sensitive documentation (such as medical reports or personal updates), please use email. This allows for more in-depth communication and ensures that important information is safely documented and accessible to the relevant staff.

By using these different channels effectively, we can work together to ensure the best outcomes for your child. We value your partnership and look forward to continuing our collaboration in Term 4.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Your feedback is always welcome, and we are here to support you and your child in every way we can.

Warm regards,
Dominique

Junior 1 - Miss Hannah

Busy, Busy Bees in room one this term! We have hit the ground running and are powering through our units of work! Students in Room one have really enjoyed Science and Maths sessions where we have explored sequencing language. We have been practicing the steps to wash our hands, plant a flower, blow bubbles and make toast just to name a few. A classroom favourite has been exploring the lifecycle of a Butterfly. We have started our Water sensory sessions again on a Thursday this term. Please remember to send your child’s swimmers with them to school on a Thursday so they don’t miss out on the fun. Fun Fridays will continue this term where students will engage in fun, play based activities to explore colours, letters and sounds, PBL focus and learn to play and share with others. As it begins to heat up, please also don’t forget to send a water bottle to school with your child each day. We will re-fill as needed throughout the day and ensure you child is drinking plenty of water on these warmer days. I hope everyone has a fantastic week :)

Junior 2 - Miss Helen

Welcome back to another term. The students have settled in nicely and are eager to get back into their work. We have started our regular combined sensory and water play sessions with our Junior cohort. Last semester, our personal and social capability focus was on Engaging with peers. The students have shown great engagement and appropriate social interactions between each other. This semester, our focus is on persevering with tasks. The students have shown this by supporting each other to problem solve difficult tasks and working together to finish activities. Junior two have had a very successful year and have achieved some of their goals set.

Helen Gilbert

Teacher

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Junior 3 - Miss Michelle

Hello families,

As we are now well into term 4 and the weather is warmer the junior cohort have recommenced participating in some water play fun in the Sensory Garden. Students look forward to this activity each week and thoroughly enjoy exploring and splashing in the water. With encouragement they are sharing and taking turns with the water play equipment and some students have gained confidence around the water and are now comfortable putting their toes in. Two new areas of the school junior 3 students will be transitioning to this term will be the activity room in L-Block and exploring with the bikes and scooters on the bike track. We are extremely impressed with how well students are walking together as a group to and from these areas and positively exploring new and different activities. This semester for science junior 3 students have been exploring life cycles. We had a great time planting and caring for our grass heads last term and this term we have been creating amazing craft pieces representing the life cycle of a butterfly. Thank you all for a great start to a busy term and we look forward to telling you about our endeavours in the next newsletter.

Thankyou Junior 3 staff.

Intermediate 1 - Miss Maguire

Welcome to the pointy end of Semester 2. Students have already begun their testing of individual goals for English, Maths, Science, Japanese, art, History and Geography. All students have really enjoyed Japanese over the semester. Mrs Thornton has been wonderful in engaging the students with Japanese culture, art and language. They have picked it up relatively quickly and enjoy coming back and trying to teach me.

Students are looking forward to our Halloween themed activities planned for the week 28^th of Oct. Where we share lollies, focus on spooky disgusting describing words and recipes with a scary twist. Just a bit of fun towards the end of the school year. It’s hard to believe that there are only about 40 more school days until the end of the school year and about 70 days until Christmas.

Intermediate 2 - Mr Mark

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Intermediate 3 - Miss Sharon

The staff and students of Intermediate 3 had loads of colourful, splashy fun at the Rosella Park Colour Fun Run at the end of Term 3. We also had an awesome time at the Spooky Disco. Watch this space for more fantastic adventures in Term 4!

My New Gallery

Intermediate 5 - Miss Dobbie

Students in Intermediate 5 have been having lots of fun learning numbers and counting. We have been discovering that we can count lots of things. We can count our steps when walking to the eating area, when walking to the undercover area and when walking up stairs. We also enjoyed counting different animals when playing with farm animals and counting food. The boys loved counting smarties and putting them on top of icing on milk arrowroot biscuits. But the best part was eating them!

My New Gallery

It’s hard to believe Intermediate 6 is at the end of its journey. The time has flown by and Santa will be here before you know it.

We had enormous fun at our Colour Run at the end of term 3. Christopher got up close and personal with the fire hose! Everyone played until they were shivering.

We’re still working on our pattern recognition and ability to replicate in Maths, living and non-living things In Science, our Community in HASS and imaginative texts in English.

I’m sure we can agree Bears are living things and the kids had messy fun painting their very itchy Bear and putting another living thing; the Flea, on him.

We’re making a great start on our Xmas crafts, we’re sure our families are going to love. There’s eight more weeks left of this long term, for everyone to show Santa whether they’re naughty or nice. Aliah has gotten a head start, looking fabulous in her new wheelchair. Here’s to a smooth ride for the rest of the school year…

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In science we have been studying habitats and eco-systems which led to our year 9 and 10 camp at Mon Repos to visit the Turtle Centre.

Our first stop was at Hinkler Hall of Aviation to learn about the history of the world-famous local aviator, Bert Hinkler. The students were surprised to learn that his planes were made only from wood and cloth. They especially enjoyed using the flight simulators.

Following this, it was on to Turtle Sands to unpack, set up and chill out in the pool and enjoy the sausage sizzle and soft drinks the holiday park provided to welcome their guests. In the late afternoon the students organised, prepared and made hamburgers for dinner.

After a delicious breakfast of loaded potatoes, bacon and Sunny Dunny eggs, we enjoyed a short walk through the bush to the Mon Repos Turtle Centre. A Guide spoke about endangered turtle species, their diet, habitat, and the importance of caring for our environment so that animal life is protected. She also told us of how to care for the beach so that it is a safe place for the turtles to lay their eggs.

Back for a scrumptious snack of student baked scones with jam and whipped cream.

In the afternoon the students then went for an environmental walk and investigated the mangroves and waterways. Following our walk, we headed for the pool back at camp where we enjoyed the cool water and peer play.

After a delicious student prepared meal of fried rice, the inaugural Year 9 – 10 UNO Championship Tournament was held. The overall tournament winner was Beau, with Jayden winning the silver medal and Rayne the bronze.

A few of our Seniors had an earlier start in order to travel to Brisbane for athletics. Congratulations to those that participated in the athletics in Brisbane. Everyone looked the part in their Capricornia uniform.

All the students were a credit to Rosella Park school and are to be commended for the excellent behaviour throughout all 3 days.

My New Gallery

Welcome to Term 4. As I write these words, there are 45 school days and 63 actual days to the end of term. And only 75 days until Christmas.

We have made great progress in our studies so far this semester and have already completed our assessments in Geography and for the Time unit in Mathematics. We are continuing to work towards our assessments in all other areas; I am sure that everyone will work their hardest to ensure they have the best possible results as we look forward to 2025.

In English, we are continuing to focus on improving our reading and we are developing our ability to relate characters and situations in various texts to events in our own lives. We have studied all sorts of texts including Shakespeare, the Greek myths and Sherlock Holmes. In Maths, we are focusing on money, with our key priorities being counting Australian notes and coins and calculating correct change.

Our History studies have been a highlight so far this term and the students have enjoyed seeing pictures of Gladstone in the past and visiting East Shores to study the HMAS Gladstone.

I will continue to post details of our activities on ClassDojo. Please do not hesitate to contact me at the school if you have any questions about your child’s studies.

Senior 4 - Mr Shaun

Term 4 already. Busy times ahead. Assessment is well and truly underway and beginning to start report card writing. The students have grown so much this year be proud of them.

Math Curriculum revolves around

Connects events and the days of the week.
Explains the order and duration of events.
Groups objects based on common characteristics and sorts shapes and objects.

English Curriculum involves

Uses predicting and questioning strategies to make meaning from texts.
Recalls one or two events from texts with familiar topics.
Understands that there are different types of texts and that these can have similar characteristics.
Identifies connections between texts and their personal experience.
Reads short, decodable and predictable texts with familiar vocabulary and supportive images, drawing on developing
Knowledge of concepts of print, sounds and letters and decoding and self-monitoring strategies.

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

Senior 4, Shaun B.

Transition 1 - Miss Sally

It's hard to believe we are in Week 3 already!

This term we will focus heavily on our upcoming school camp and of course, graduation! We are looking forward to heading to the Gold Coast for camp and all the fun adventures that we have lined up. Our recycling program contributed significantly to reducing the camp costings and we are ecstatic for the financial relief that this has provided families.

Graduation is all locked in for Friday 29^th November. Just a general reminder for any families that have not returned forms about cars for the graduation arrival, can you please do so ASAP so we know how many cars we need to organise. Stay turned over the coming weeks, as students lock in their choices and organise graduation, more information and invitations will be sent out.

In other news, five of our classmates qualified for Capricornia in Track and Field and headed to Brisbane for the State event this past weekend. They all did very well despite the deluge of rain and should be exceptionally proud of themselves.

We have been steadily progressing through all our subjects and continue to access post schooling options in the community. Students have identified a range of agencies that we will be visiting over the coming weeks to ascertain their relevance and importance for students after school.

Day for Daniel day is coming up on Friday 25^th October. Don’t forget to wear red to aid in education and awareness for child safety.

Miss Sally & Miss Simone 😊

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Transition 2 - Mrs Leeson

We have had a very busy start to the term. Our school had its School Review in week one. This is where a team of 4 reviewers come to the school for 3 days to check out how we work. Their job is to celebrate all the good work we do and offer suggestions on what improvement strategies we could implement to make our school a better place. This process occurs every 4 years in all schools in Queensland. For this review, we thought it would be nice if our Café / Tuckshop program students did the catering for our visitors. So, Transition 2 students set about planning the menu. We had to cater for morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea for 4 visitors for 3 days. I have to say it was a big job and each and every student involved were amazing. Take a look at the photos to see how impressive of a job they did.

We are busy finalising the last of the arrangements for school camp. We are so excited looking at all the activities we are going to do. Don’t forget to get your paperwork back as soon as possible and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Tuesday the 29^th of October is our excursion to the Gladstone Entertainment Centre to watch the Bangarra Dance Theatre present Waru, Journey of the Small Turtle. This looks like a really cool performance.

Our Graduation is coming up very fast also. Keep an eye out for news on this event soon.

A big congratulations to Jesse Janson on the fantastic effort he and the rest of the Transition students put in at the State Track and Field Carnival in Brisbane. You should definitely be so proud of yourselves.

My New Gallery

Welcome to the first article by our school’s (Communication Lead Support Person).

This role is designed to support your child’s communication journey towards independence and autonomy.

Rosella Park School has always placed an importance on communication as the fundamental block for building our curriculum knowledge and understandings. Our staff are passionate in wanting the best outcomes for your child.

As a school we will look at the various forms of AAC- Augmentative Alternative Communication. These communication tools (devices and programs) are what we use when verbal communication is not possible, or their message is not understood. Examples are- PODD, Proloquo2go, Sign Language

This role will help all of our staff reflect upon their understandings of the purpose of AAC in communication. Plus look into programs to help us assess where our students need the most help in their communication journey to independence. Some of our students are independent communicators already and as such have achieved autonomy in their conversations (with and without AAC).

Many of our students will have their communication behaviours mapped on a Communication Tracking Tool to unpack and highlight an area of need in communication.

At another time I will share more about the ROCC (Roadmap of Communicative Competence) which is the tracking tool we will be using.

Let’s keep chatting and raising the profile and importance of AAC.

From CLSP for 2025 Janice Buckle

Scholastic Book Club

Parents keep an eye out for issue 8 of Scholastic Book Club!

There will be many stocking filler ideas guaranteed to make the whole Christmas process that little bit easier!

Our school will benefit by receiving 15% of all sales that can be used towards school resources.

Athletics

We had 13 of our athletes competing at State Championships this month. It was a very successful event, and we had lots of great achievements. The best success as an athlete is beating your own personal best; whether that be the distance of a jump or throw or the speed of a race. Any time an athlete achieves a personal best that means they are performing the best they ever have. We had so many athletes achieve personal best (PB) times/distances the training they are doing and support they have from their families is really paying off.

Below is a summary of the results:

Day 1 results:

Kayden got 10^th in his 100m race and ran it in a PB time, and came 6^th in long jump

Jack came 17^th in his 100m race

Day 2 results:

Kayden got 10^th in his 200m run and ran it in a PB time

Jack came 14^th in his 200m run and ran it in a PB time

Jack came 7^th in his 800m run and ran it in a PB time

Day 3 results:

Rory got 5th in the 100m and ran his PB (a personal best) time

Tyriq got 8th in the 100m and ran his PB time

Sami got 6th in the 100m and ran her PB time

Tehmarni got 9th in the 100m and ran her PB time

Holly got 2nd in the 100m

Tyler got 5th in the 100m

Jack got 10th in the 100m

Joshua got 9th in the 100m

Jesse got 8th in the 100m

Jessy got 2nd in the 100m

Jayden got 10th in the 100m

Our girls relay team came in 5th

Our boys relay team came in 3^rd

Day 4 results:

Rory got 2nd in both shot put and javelin throwing PBs in both events

Jayden got 4th in shot put with a massive PB throw

Tyriq got 5th in the 400m and ran his PB time and 2nd in the 800m

Tehmarni got 6th in the 400m and ran her PB time and 5th in the 800m

Holly got 1st in both discus and shot put

Tyler got 2nd in shot put and 4th in 400m

Joshua got 5th in the 400m and ran a PB time

Jesse got 6th in the 400m

Jessy got 1st in javelin and in the 400m with a great PB time, his first time running the event in under a minute!

Day 5 results:

Tyriq came 5th in the 200m and ran a PB time, he came 2nd in the 1500m with another PB time, this means in every race he ran Tyriq ran his best ever time!

Tehmarni came 4th in her 1500m race

Sami came 4th in her 200m race and ran her PB time

Jayden came 10th in his 200m race with another PB

Rory came 7th in his 200m race running a PB, then came 5th in long jump

Jack came 8th in his 200m race; top ten; such a great way to finish!

Jesse came 7th in his 200m race running a PB time despite an injury during warm up, amazing resilience

Joshua came 9th in his 200m run

Tyler came 5th in his 200m run

Jessy had a very successful final day getting 2nd in both the 200m and long jump

For 2025:

We will be offering both Cross Country and Track and Field events to any Rosella student who is between the ages of 10-19 and has a desire to compete. Please let Caroline Harris (our school sports coordinator) know if you are interested in participating. The sooner she knows the better, especially if your student will be a new athlete, as there is some paperwork involved in becoming a registered multiclass athlete (this means an athlete with a disability).