26 March 2018

Newsletter Articles

Date Claimers

• 30 March: Good Friday - PUBLIC HOLIDAY
• 16 April: PUPIL FREE DAY
• 17 April: Students return for Term 2, 2018
• 18 April: P&C Meeting @ 6:30pm
• 20 April: Maleny State School Cross Country
• 24 April: Anzac Day Assembly
• 25 April: Anzac Day - PUBLIC HOLIDAY
• 30 April: Glasshouse District 10-12Yrs Cross Country
• 7 May: PUBLIC HOLIDAY
• 1-2 June: Maleny Show
• 25 June: Maleny State School Junior Carnival (Prep – Yr 2)
• 26-27 June: Maleny State School Senior Athletics Carnival (Yr 3-Yr6)
• 29 June: Last Day Term 2, 2018
• 16 July: First Day Term 3, 2018
• 9-10 August: Glasshouse District Athletics Carnival (Yr 9 – Yr 12
• Throughout Term 3, Tuesdays @ 3:00 – 4:00 afterschool rehearsals Pirates! We're Pirates!
• 2 & 16 September: Sunday Dress Rehearsals Pirates! We're Pirates!
• 19 & 20 September: Performance Dates Pirates! We're Pirates!

Diary Dates

Principals Report

Thank you for a Wonderful Term

We are very impressed with all of our student’s progress this term particularly in our focus area of writing. Equally impressive is the positive culture that staff and the P&C work tirelessly to foster. This is reflected in our high school attendance rate for this Term currently sitting at 94.3%. Interestingly last Thursday was our second highest attendance day of the year 97.5%, incidentally this happened to be school photo day. Please ensure students come to school every day this week including Thursday.

Congratulations to our new look executive committee.

President – Merrick Ilett
Vice President- Adrian McCallum
Treasurer - Chelsea Harper
Assistant Treasurer – Fiona Halliday
Secretary - Kylie McAuliffe

It was pleasing to have some dedicated parents at our AGM meeting this month. I always encourage new faces to each meeting to ensure our P&C views are truly representative of our whole school community. We desperately need more parents to come and join our P&C to lighten the work load and ensure we have a balanced representation of parent views.

My expectation of all parents is that they will support our P&C on decisions they make, especially when it comes to making tough decisions that occasionally present themselves. Everyone has the opportunity to have their voice heard at P&C meetings. Members need to attend 1 meeting to enable them to have voting rights at the next meeting. I understand many parents may be unable to attend meetings, hopefully if you are in this boat you will keep your eye out for opportunities where you can support as a volunteer in classrooms, tuckshop or at P&C fundraising events.

I take this opportunity to sincerely thank our past committee members President Adrian McCallum, Vice President Charmaine Lucas, Secretary Kylie McAuliffe and Treasurer Chelsea Harper and assistant Leah Treloar. The time that each of our past executive have given to our school has been truly commendable and the results they have achieved have been outstanding. Our P&C is in great shape financially and has a reputation of being a positive and efficient organisation. I truly love the passion, effort, common sense approach and creative ideas that our parents consistently produce to enrich our school.

Next P&C Meeting 18 April 6:30pm First week back (Due to school holidays)
Agenda Topic: Country Fair – (new ideas, roles and responsibilities and timelines)

Knitfest Donations of Felt / Wool Required

This year our students will be decorating our front fence for Knitfest (last weekend in June) and we will require quite a lot of felt and wool. It will be an Outer Space and Science Fiction theme so all colours will be required. It could be rockets, galaxies, astronauts or their favourite Science Fiction characters that students make that we will attach to hessian on our front fence. I’m sure aliens will be popular.

If you see some cheap felt/wool or have some that you don’t require please drop it in to the office. If you would like to help we would be very appreciative even if it is attaching complete items on to the hessian, many hands make light work here.

Harmony Day Town Performance

This magnificent community event last Wednesday morning brought together our four local schools (Maleny State School, Maleny State High School, River School and Independent school) who came together as one in harmony and presented reflections on what Harmony Day means. Students performed four songs and an expressive dance. The energy, beliefs and enthusiasm shown by student’s performances was outstanding and brought the Community Hall to life. Lou Walsh (year 3 teacher) once again has done an outstanding job to coordinate this annual event that just keeps getting better each year. A huge thank you to all our staff (Lou Walsh, Anne Coogan, Emma Back – year 3 teachers) and parents (Will Audley, Max Sportelli, Tim and other River School staff and parents) that prepared students beautifully. The event was held in the Community Hall (A huge thank you to the Community Hall for allowing this to occur at the last minute) due to the weather. The acoustics of the hall certainly enhanced student’s strong message of Harmony to our community. I personally was overwhelmed by the parent and community support with the hall full to the brim. Actions speak louder than words and will be remembered for much longer. Lou, Anne and Emma’s efforts are what maintains the beautiful positive and inclusive culture that we strive to maintain at Maleny State School, well done ladies.

Harmony Day Assembly with an Anti-bullying Message

One of the many highlights of a jam packed week was to see our student leaders, teachers and myself giving a strong message to our school community that Bullying will not be tolerated at our school. Bullying shows up in all areas of society at different stages. The most successful way to tackle bullying is when the whole community takes responsibility by ensuring each of us plays out part in preventing it. Below I have included some of the main messages that we want all of our community to understand. If bullying is not exposed it will continue hence why the reporting stage is a crucial step in the process. I lead this assembly each year as it is my responsibility as principal and something I am passionate about to ensure children are safe at school and develop the skills to equip themselves to deal with situations of conflict and bullying in life. We focus on each and every one in our community to lead by example in contributing to building a strong positive and inclusive school culture in which everyone feels like they belong.

To be classified as bullying the act needs to be: (some behaviours are hurtful and appalling but are not bullying, often because they are a one off so will be dealt with different to a bullying scenario)

• Harmful
• Deliberate
• Ongoing
• An unfair balance of power is occurring

It is important to identify the roles people play in bullying situations so that you know how to act to prevent potential bullying situations. Ask your children to explain and identify the 3 B’s in various situations. Some younger children will find this a challenge at first.

The 3 B’s

The Bully person doing the bullying.

The Bullied the person being bullied.

The Bystanders the people present when the bullying occurs.

Bystanders Make A Difference

Once the 3B’s are understood our main focus needs to be on the Bystanders behaviour. Research shows the bystanders have the most power in being able to make a difference. Bystanders will make a positive or negative difference.

What to do if I am being bullied.
Use the High Five Strategy

Disco – Magnificent Attendance and Evening

There was certainly lots of energy and colour in the hall last Thursday evening at our first disco of the year. Student attendance, behaviour and parent participation was exceptional. A Big Thank You to John Joosten our DJ, all staff in attendance, our Student Council, Gunnar and all parents that assisted on the night.

District Sports Representatives

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to represent the Glasshouse District at the following Regional trials.

11yr Rugby League

Travis
Ben

District Under 12 Boys Rugby League

Tom
Jack

Netball 11yrs

Alicia
Ebanee
Mia

Netball 12yrs

Maleka

Regional Swimming

Seanna
Darcy

Keeping our School Safe

Please keep an eye on our school over the holidays and report any suspicious activity that you may notice as unusual. It is a credit to our community that we thankfully have not experienced any of the vandalism etc. that many other schools do struggle with. This being said we realise that we must all continue to be observant and play our part collectively to ensure that this continues. A big bonus for us is that parents don’t not allow their children to come to the school over the weekend/ holiday period and know where children are at all times. Our local police also do a wonderful job and regularly patrol our school out of hours, I very much appreciate their continued efforts.

Have a safe and relaxing holiday, I look forward to catching up in Term Two.

School Resumes on Tuesday 17 April. (Monday is a Student Free Day)
Have a Great Easter Break John

From the Deputy Principal

Maleny Camera and Flash Words!

At Maleny State School our Sight Word Program terms the words that students need to know as 'Camera' and 'Flash' words. Students in Prep – Yr 2 have Camera and Flash words that correspond to our Phonics Program, that is also being taught. Students in Prep will have a set of words that they are currently learning at the time and students in Yr 1 – Yr 2 will have their Camera and Flash words dispersed throughout their spelling lists.

The object of learning Camera and Flash words is that these words are the non-decodable words, ie sounding out does not work in identifying these. Students need to be able to recognise them by sight in nanosecond speed (hence the terms ‘camera and flash’ - when we take a photograph it is instantaneous) so this frees up working memory to concentrate on other tasks such as comprehending text. Learning the Camera/Flash words by sight is only one aspect of knowing these words, students also need to know how to identify and read them in a sentence, spell them in isolation and write the word incorporated into a sentence. So learning sight words involves:

• By sight
• By reading
• By spelling
• By writing

If your child comes home with Camera and Flash words to learn please take the time to work with them on ‘developing’ this instantaneous recall! The benefits of doing this in the early years has a significant bearing on later more complex reading skills. As our catch-cry goes we are - HELPING EACH CHILD DEVELOP THEIR READING AND WRITING WORD RECOGNITION SO THEY CAN SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE! – and the best way to do this requires a team response between home and school.

Dental News

The dental van has moved to Kenilworth State Community College. Your children’s dental treatment should be completed if dental forms were returned to us and appointments kept. If you have any queries regarding this please feel free to contact us at the dental van. Your children can still access the van at any location.

If your child has a toothache or concern prior to our next visit, please contact the dental van or the Nambour School Dental Clinic for an appointment.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all staff, teacher, parents and students for your patience and co-operation, and making us feel welcome during our stay at Maleny.

Kylie & Enza
Dental Van Staff
PH. 0419 736 942 (Dental Van)
PH. 54412763 (Nambour School Dental Clinic)
Email: SC-Nambour-OralHealth@health.qld.gov.au
With the subject “Maleny SS dental appt required”

From the Office

Payments

Payments can be made by any of the following methods.

1. Directly into our bank account noting the invoice number, initial and surname of the student for whom you are paying. Our Bank account details are:
   - BSB: 064-462 Account Number: 10080359
2. Credit card using the bPoint reference number that is located on the bottom left hand side of your invoice. Credit card payments can also be made in person at the office.
3. Cash and cheque can be made by placing the cheque/correct change in a payment envelope and depositing it into the drop-safe in the office. Please ensure that the envelope is sealed so the cash does not fall out. Please write the student’s name, class, amount enclosed and what the payment is for, clearly on the envelope.

Office hours are 8:00am to 4:00pm on Monday - Friday.

Contact Details – Do we have your most up to date contact details?

There are times when we may need to contact parents and carers. Do we have your most up to date contact details? If not, please contact the school on 5499 8333 so we can update our records. These details include parent/carers’ name, address, phone numbers, email address and emergency contact details. Please remember to contact the school if any of these details change.

Year 4 A, B & C

Year 4 students have been thoroughly engaged in the science unit this term. Our focus has been on Geology. 4A were lucky enough to have a visit from Mr Leach who is a Geologist. He showed the students various samples of rocks and fossils that he had found. We are very grateful for his knowledge and enthusiasm.

In English, we have moved onto our new unit – reading and interpreting Poetry. The students have been learning about poetic devices and how authors make poems interesting and humorous. We have looked at some Spike Milligan poems, among many other short poems. The students have been very creative in developing their own spoonerisms, neologisms and puns to enhance short poems.

We are looking forward to the Writing Round Up today, where all students will get a chance to participate in workshops with authors. Ross Watkins will be presenting a session about illustrated writing. This is a fantastic culminating activity for the term as writing is our focus this year. We are so fortunate to have many talented authors in our local community who are willing to give up their time to share their expertise. We are looking forward to the motivation and enthusiasm from this event having a flow on effect to our students into next term.

Kind regards,
Jodie Kyte (4A), Kerry Lees (4B) and Kerry Hadson (4C).

Year 5A & 5B

As we approach the end of Term 1, we are very busy finishing off unit work. Our Science “Create-A-Creature” powerpoints are now finished and all students created some unusual creatures suited to their particular environments.

In English, we are using our knowledge of the Seven Steps and the Fantasy genre to complete a short imaginative story so that it is ready to publish. Editing is a big focus to ensure that our writing is accurate.

Maths has seen us look at many areas including: Number concepts for whole and decimal/fractional numbers; data - collecting, displaying and analysing; chance and probability as well as working hard to improve our number fact recall.

We are also looking forward to starting our “Hero or Villain” sculptures. So far we have investigated known representations of various heroes and villains, their symbols, costumes and also strengths or powers. Now we will use our own designs to bring these ideas into a 3D form using various media.

Music Notes

Pirates! We're Pirates!

Wow! What an amazing Day! Wednesday 14th March was Audition Day for more than fifty students trying for only twenty-four acting roles in this year’s Musical ‘Pirates! We’re Pirates!’ With so many students ‘trying out’, the task of choosing a child for each character was extremely difficult and I wish we could have included everyone! Thank you to our Acting Director Bec Paltridge, her husband Sparky and David Shortland who assisted me with the auditions. We were all impressed by how many ‘budding actors’ had rehearsed their lines and with their excellent manners, and the respect the students gave each other while auditioning.

To all our Auditioning students ‘Thank You’ and Well Done Everyone!

Dancers for our Musical have not been forgotten; I am very happy to announce that Dawn from ‘Maleny Dance Academy’ has kindly volunteered to choreograph and help us learn a number of the dances in our show.

Liz Shortland - Classroom Music Specialist Teacher

Innovation Centre News

GEMS STEM Roboclub Sumo Battles

The club members attended a Sumo Lego Robotics Day at Chancellor College last week. There were over 90 students in attendance from all over the Sunshine Coast region as far north as Gympie and South as Redcliffe. Our students explored building a basic Sumo robot design, the Riley Robot from Dr Damain Kee's website , that is needed to compete in the Regional Sumo competition in May. The students explored how to not only drive the robot via code but also control the 2 main sensors needed I.e. the Ultrasonic sensor and the Colour sensor. Trial and error was the standard of the day. Bugs appeared in code all day long requiring students to debug the code to understand what was going wrong and how to fix it. There was even a chance to test battle the robots on the day in a few informal challenges. We even won some of these.

Anzac Day Donations

Any groups wishing to donate books to the school for Anzac Day, please feel free to go to Rosetta Books in Maleny. Every year we make an arrangement for groups to donate a book voucher, to an amount you wish to donate. The school will organise a selection of books for purchase with these vouchers. Rosetta Books will kindly wrap these. If you wish to collect these and lay them at the service on Anzac once wrapped, we will collect them on the day. Otherwise if not collected prior we will take these to the services on the day and lay them on your behalf.

Mr Greig and Ms Shelley - Innovation Centre Team

War on Waste

Students trained by Sunshine Coast Council to conduct a Waste Audit

Last week a group of students from years 3, 4 and 6 completed training with a coordinator from the Sunshine Coast Council on how to carry out a waste audit. These students will monitor and keep a record of what is being thrown out throughout the day and during both lunch times by their class members and their teacher. One class from year 3, 4 and 6 will have 9 labelled buckets in their classroom. These include; plastics, aluminum, compost, paper, steel, cardboard, glass, soft plastics and waste. Over the three days the students must sort their rubbish in the correct category and the class auditors will record the information for council. Once the audits have been completed the data will be sent back to council to give us feedback on our practices and offer us suggestions on how to make improvements to reduce our landfill waste.. All year 3 and 4 students have made great progress in recycling their rubbish and are now reducing packaging and identifying soft plastic. We have now taken 3 garbage bags to the RedCycle bin at Coles to be reused to make new products.

P & C News

Next P&C Meeting 18 April @ 6:30pm

Agenda Topic: Country Fair

Uniform Shop

If you have one hour per month that you may be able to help us out in the Uniform Shop please contact the office on 5499 8333. Open from 8:30-9:30am on Fridays, bring along a friend and be part of our happy team.

The Uniform Shop's regular hours are Friday mornings between 8.30am and 9.30am. Payment options are EFTPOS, cash or cheque at the uniform shop only. Alternatively, orders can be placed online in the link below by 5pm Wednesday for Friday pickup or class delivery.

Community News

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