June 2021

Principal News

Pie Drive

Thank you to all the wonderful parents that supported the P&C Pie Drive this term. Without the support of you as a parent body, fundraising is impossible. Through your help we will manage to raise some fantastic funds to be spent on upcoming projects. I can officially report that we have sold 717 pies!  I am sure you will enjoying eating them too!

Cleaner & Facilities Officer Day - CELEBRATION OF SOME AMAZING STAFF

Last week we celebrated and recognised some of the amazing people in our school that ensure our grounds are safe, secure and super clean. As a HUGE thank you to our amazing cleaning staff and facility officer, the student senior council presented the awesome staff members a cute little plant as a gift of thanks and Room 14 created some amazing posters to show them just how much they are appreciated. 

PBL - CHECK OUT OUR NEW DRAW BARREL

Mr Craig has completed the SHAZAM Draw Barrel and it looks amazing. This ensures that all of the Shazams are well mixed up for each of our Friday Draws. This is ready to go for our first Semester Major Prize Draw on Friday next week, where some lucky individual is going to be the very lucky winner! THANKS MR CRAIG it looks amazing and worked well at parade. 

You will also start to see some awards coming home for students that have collected 10 or more Shazams. These awards will help you at home to track how many your child has for the semester. If your child collects 1-30 Shazams they are considered to be on the Bronze Level, if they collect between 30-60 Shazams, they will move into the Silver Level and if they are super awesome and collect 60-90 the will reach Gold and if they are a miracle worker, we may even have a couple of students that may hit the Platinum Level. You will notice that each of the students has personalised one of our school superheros to be on their award. This was a lovely token made by  Mrs Hucker before she left. We certainly think they look pretty cool. I am sure you will too. 

HOLLYWOOD TRIVIA NIGHT - Major Fundraiser - SAVE THE DATE 7th AUGUST

We have our Major Fundraiser happening this year which is a Hollywood Themed Trivia Night. This will be happening on the 7th August, so please start getting organised with your friends to book your tickets as soon as they come on sale. This is bound to be a good night with some crazy fun as it is being run by the same blokes that have run our previous fundraisers, so if you have been before, you will know how much fun their events always are. Please keep your eyes peeled for more information about this event. 

If you are able to support our very small P&C Committee by nominating yourself to help out with setting up; packing up; making decorations; working in the kitchen on the night; being a waiters, please email me sslad7@eq.edu.au or contact one of our Committee Members Michelle Grice, Kerryn Harris, Pam Wode, Jodie Jansen via our P&C Facebook page. 

Unfortunately I do not have any news on the incoming Principal as yet, however as soon as this information becomes available, I will certainly let you all know. 

Junior Cohort - (Rooms 1, 1.5, 2 and 3)

On Friday 28 May, the Junior Cohort celebrated under 8's day. We had a range of fun activities available in Junior Play. We had painting, bubbles, sandpit, parchute, limbo, music, loose parts play, sensory table and construction. Everyone got involved and tried all the activities during the first session. A big thank you to the parents who were able to attend. 

Under 8's day

Under 8's day continued....

Admin News

Queensland has done such a remarkable job in responding to COVID-19 that everyone can feel safe. However, we cannot be complacent when it comes to COVID-19. The school has a duty of care towards all of our students and staff members. As it is now officially winter, colds and flu will be more prevalent. Please make sure you continue with the recommended hygiene practice to reduce the risk of transmission of colds, flu and other viruses.

Student Illness:

Please be aware that if your child shows any symptoms of illness such as a cough, runny nose or temperature for example, it is an expectation that they be kept home until the symptoms have cleared. If they are sent to school and display any symptoms of being sick, the school will contact the parent to collect from school. Any illness spreads quickly through the school particularly if the student is unable to maintain good hygiene practices.

Also, please find attached a link to Queensland Health website. This link will provide information on the recommended minimum exclusion periods for infectious conditions and will assist parents as well as medical practictioners and the school to meet the requirements of the Public Health Act 2005.

Room 5 - Intermediate - Mrs Nash

Wow! the Semester has just flown by.  We are finishing off our assessment pieces at the moment.  Everyone has tried so hard this Semester and should be very proud of themselves.  We have been reading the “Do Not Open this Book” series in class this term.  Everyone is enjoying reading these books as they are lots of fun.  I recommend checking them out. The books are written by Andy Lee.

We have 2 weeks left of swimming.  I have seen so much improvement in individual students and I am proud to say they have represented the school beautifully; always showing Respect and being Safe while at the pool.

On the last Friday of term we will be celebrating our PBL rewards day.  We will be travelling to Lions park as a school and participating in fun activities while there.  Students can either purchase McDonalds for lunch; a note has gone home with choices if you wish to do this OR you can send in your child’s lunch as per usual.

I look forward to a hopefully slower Semester 2 with you all.

Swimming lessons with Room 5

Room 6 - Senior - Mrs Buckle

Welcome to June and a frightening fact for you is we only have 2 weeks left of Term 2.  Since our last newsletter we have been finalising our assessment pieces and moderating the standard of work.  This means other teachers look at what I propose as an A B C D or E rated collection of work assessments and samples.  They read through the evidence and align it against the Australian Curriculum Standards and provide feedback if they agree with my original rating.   This gives us peace of mind when we write the report cards knowing our marks have been agreed upon by the other teachers. It is a good collaboration exercise of grading our students work. 

Meanwhile we have continued with all of our programs as per usual.  Here are some photos.

Also, many thanks parents for keeping your child’s belongings labelled especially with this colder weather where jumpers are easily removed and donned throughout the day.

Room 6

Room 7 - Intermediate - Mrs Thompson

Welcome from Room 7.

We are ready for a holiday 😊 because Term 2 has been really busy for us all. Our teachers have been assessing our knowledge of all things Math, Science, HPE and Technology which means we have been busy remembering lots of information. Our swimming on a Tuesday has been fantastic as we learn our safety procedures in a pool along with learning how to float and swim. It also gives us time to relax and have fun; noodle horse races are amazing. Have a great rest of the term….

The students of Room 7.

Room 8 - Intermediate - Ms Schulz

Amazing to think that it is almost the end of Semester 1.  Room 8 students have been very busy completing their assessments for their different learning areas.  There are only 2 more swimming lessons to go. Term break is coming up fast and the students are looking forward to having a well earned rest from all their hard work.

In PE, we have been joining in with the other Intermediate classes and having a group PE session on Monday afternoons.  This week we tried our hand at quoits, hopscotch and bouncing balls.

The students were super excited for the pizza and free dress day which was held last Friday 11th June, helping the year 12 students raise funds to donate to Safe Haven Wombat Sanctuary.  Tehmarni even brought in a bag of rolled oats for the wombats.  I think this has been the highlight of the term.

Room 8

Room 10 - Senior - Mrs Bickle

This term, Room 10 have been learning about shapes and we have also been learning about halves and wholes.  Rory showed his excellent knowledge of halving by breaking one of his toe bones in two halves.  Great work Rory.

Design technology has been great fun experimenting with rocket cars fuelled by balloons.  Kielin’s car design was the fastest and he was very proud of his efforts.

Static electricity was very interesting to explore. We used balloons and learnt how the static can hold balloons in the air, make our hair stand on end with positive and negative charge and we took turns to use the balloon and hold plastic in the air.

For our class rewards for making green choices throughout the week we have been having fun Friday lunches, which have included: pizza, KFC and hot chip ‘butties’.

Jesse has been the ‘go fish’ champion while we have been playing with the 100 and 200 most frequently used words.  He also loves to play the ‘fart’ card game which involves numbers.

Miss Simone has been showing her artistic side making animals and objects out of balloons, such as a teddy bear, flower, nerf gun, axe and water pistol.  The balloon duck has been Kassidy’s favourite for sure.  Zach’s favourite was trying to burst the balloon snake with his foot.

Miss Simone also got her groove on by dressing up and acting out the hungry caterpillar story, which was enjoyed by all – especially Kassi.

There is always something exciting happening in Room 10 – lots of fun and laughter. 

Room 10

Room 11 - Senior - Mrs Dunstan

Even though assessment time is not our favourite time of the year, these are some of the things we have been doing to show how much we have learned.

Scooter boards in PE we fun.

We also like making 2 dimensional shapes in Maths.

Best of all we loved making 3D shapes in Maths because we got to eat the marshmallows afterwards.

Room 11

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Room 12 - Senior - Mrs Ward

CELEBRATION TIME

We are celebrating the completion of assessments with some fun activities. One of our favourite games involves eating chocolate. We sit in a circle on the floor. A huge family bar of chocolate a knife, fork and rubber gloves are waiting on a table nearby. We take turns to roll a set of dice to find matching lower case and upper case letters. When we find a match we race up to the table, put on the rubber gloves and eat the bar of chocolate only using the knife and fork to cut the chocolate. The lucky player keeps going until another player rolls a double. Sometime over the next couple of weeks we will play again in Math’s. To make it inclusive we will use three dice and players will match either a numeral and quantity or a numeral and number name. We are already looking forward to it.

Room 12

Room 13 - Transition - Mrs Oliver

Transition students have had a busy few weeks. The students in room 13 have enjoyed listening to and talking about different books that we have been reading. We particularly enjoyed listening to the Sugar lump and the Unicorn. We like looking at and feeling the book, it had lots of bright colours and sparkles.

Within the year 10 program, we have been cooking lots of different things that we could make ourselves e.g. pizza, apple turnovers and tacos. The year 10 students have enjoyed our cooking program and are a great team in the kitchen at both prepping, cooking and cleaning up after themselves.

We have continued to enjoy our swimming this term. Some of us have made great improvements in the water with our techniques and with our confidence however, because it is getting a little chilly at the pool swimming has been cancelled for the remaining 2 weeks of the term.

Room 13

Room 14 - Transition - Ms Harris

Wow it's winter already! This year is flying by. We have all been continuing to work well together in Room 14. The students wrote some fabulous emails to businesses asking for donations towards our PBL prizes and we have had some come in. We are hoping to get more donations over the coming weeks.

The students in Room 14 have a few messages for you themselves.

Smithy says: He has been writing stories about Lucy the pink fish, her name is Lucy Hopkins, she is Smithy’s favourite character.

Tina says: There are lovely teachers and teacher aides and teenagers in transition. I feel spectacular.

Ethan says: This classroom is amazing because the teachers are teaching us to type words.

Aroha says: I am looking forward to the Pizza on the 11^th and McDonalds on the 25^th this month.

Shayla says: I think Room 14 is a great class because we do lots of independent work.

Angel says: Cert 1 is a lot of fun even though it is hard I still learn a lot from it.

Keira says: I am looking forward to the free dress day on 11^th June and going to Dream World on school camp from the 6^th to 10^th September.

Jayden says: I am looking forward to graduating next year.

Room 14

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Room 15 - Transition - Mrs Leeson

Not long now until the school holidays. This is a very busy time for us in Transition as we finish off our subjects in readiness for new topics to start after the holidays. Teachers are super busy writing report cards. These will be mailed home at the end of the term. I will be making contact with each parent or carer after the holidays to discuss your child’s progress. Our English group in Room 15 have been writing letters to our groundsman Craig and our cleaners to thank them for all the work they do around our school. Our Room 15 Maths group continue to visit the Night Owl Centre each week. They are doing an amazing job independently checking the money they have, working out what they can purchase with their individual budgets, making their purchases and checking that they get the correct change. The year 12 students were very busy this week ensuring that they had everything organised for their fundraiser Friday 11th. Most of the school really enjoyed having pizza for lunch and the free dress day. We are hoping to raise lots of money for Safe Haven. Our next newsletter will have all the photos to share with you.

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)

This year we have revamped our PBL rewards process. You may hear your student speaking about earning "Shazams" at school. Students are awarded a "Shazam" when they are caught showing any of the Respectful, Positive and Safe behaviours we have in place at school.

As part of the new process, we have sent out letters to local businesses attempting to source some prizes for our tier progression.

To this end we would like to send out a huge thank you to QAL for donating some fantastic prizes for student rewards.

Community News

Be fire safe:Help prevent the devasting consequences of house fires. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services outline 3 simple steps to protect your home. Please click on the link below:

NAIDOC Week Celebrations:

The National NAIDOC committee has announced NAIDOC week celebrations will be held from 4-11 July 2021. This gives all Australians the chance to celebrate the rich history, diverse cultures and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the oldest continuing cultures on the planet.
Please click on the link below to access the NAIDOC website.