6 August 2019

Newsletter Articles

Date Claimers

Principal’s Report

Enrichment Centre Showcase Morning Tea

It was fantastic to see quite a number of parents from the Enrichment Centre enjoying a Showcase morning last Tuesday. Parents were able to interact and collaborate with our SEP team and learn about the specialized support programs and resources that the Enrichment Centre provides. Among the numerous displays were ideas and resources for Social Skilling, Speech Language Programs, Assistive Technology, Differentiation, Fine-motor Programs and Sensory Support. The budding Lego Masters Club, which supports students with transition challenges before school, displayed their Lego We Do projects. These included a Glowing Snail and a Motorized Fan which students had built and programmed. Parents were also able to interact and share ideas with each other, drawing on their own personal experiences.

If anyone from the school community would like any further information regarding students with disabilities please contact Sharon Furlong, our SEP Team Leader, who is more than happy to assist you.

New Behaviour Bee Design for School Rules

This week all students will be contributing their ideas and designs of what our new Rules Mascot will look like. We are sticking to our Bee theme, however rather than having a different Bee for each of our four rules (which we currently have) we want the same bee to be depicted in each different rule. This means students will need to think how this Bee will look/dress or what items/symbols it may have that are different to indicate which of the four rules the bee is representing. Our rules are Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible and Be a Learner. This is not a competition as we want all students to be involved and have some ownership. The final design will more than likely be a mixture of ideas gathered. We welcome parents to help students to present their ideas. Once we have all the students designs we will work with some of our talented artistic parents to create some visuals that will be displayed around our school.

Loose Change Donation

Not sure what to do with all of your small change that you collect. You may like to donate it to your child’s Class Collection Bottle.

As part of our Year 5 Country Fair Stall this year each class will have a Class Collection Bottle in their room that students/parents can put their loose change in during this term. Collection Bottles will be on display at the Country Fair for people to contribute to their class of choice. The class that collects the highest amount will win a pizza party donated by the P&C.

Parent School Opinion Survey - Please Participate We Need Your Views

Our Annual School Opinion Survey commenced last week. It is essential that as many parents as possible respond to our surveys to ensure that the data we analyse is truly reflective of our entire school body. We look forward to a positive participation rate from our parent body. Staff and students from the upper years will also participate in their respective School Opinion Survey.

Colour Fun Run – Please save the date: Tuesday 17 September

Please register online so your child can start collecting sponsors for this major school fundraising event. Many children that were successful in raising funds last year gained sponsors through their parents advertising to their family and friends via social media. Individual reward prizes will depend on the amount of funds students raise. These prizes will be distributed in the days following the actual Colour Fun Run day. Students will require an older white T shirt to wear for this event. We are hoping to have as many parents support this fun event as possible. All funds raised will directly benefit students through new school resources and upgrades to our playgrounds.

Father’s Day Stall

Our P&C is seeking donations for our Father’s Day Stall which will be held from Tuesday 27 August to Friday 30 August. Please drop them into your child’s classroom or to the office.

Country Fair only 9 school weeks away (18 October, Week 2 Term 4)

Each week commencing 19 August we will be asking for donations of a variety of different items from the whole school – please give generously where you can. These items will be used in a variety of class stalls. We are using this approach this year to ensure items required for class stalls are donated and that we are not required to purchase them as this deminishes any profit made by the stalls. While this is a great community event and lots of fun, it is also our school’s P&C’s major fund raiser.

P&C Meeting Wednesday - New faces Welcome

Please join us on Wednesday the 14 August at 6:30pm at our next P&C meeting. Our main task will be ensuring that our Country Fair and Colour Fun Run organisation is on track. We will require lots of parents to assist with a variety of jobs. Please let us know if you can assist so we can allocate you a task. This will help us distribute the workload evenly.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Great to see so many parents taking advantage of our Parent Teacher Interviews over the last couple of weeks. These face to face meetings build on parent, teacher, child relationships and allow a more personal communication and information exchange around your children. If you missed this opportunity please don’t hesitate to make an appointment with your child’s teacher in the future.

Maleny High School Musical

Congratulations to Liz Druit and her team for coordinating a magnificent musical in the first week of this term. Children and staff alike absolutely loved the performance from start to finish. As Primary School Teachers we invest so much of ourselves into all of our students, not just those we teach in our specific classes. It is extremely rewarding to see these students, some six years on, perfoming on stage. Many of these students also participated and stared in our primary school musicals showing their amazing creative talents. Well done to 14 of our Yr 6 girls who also performed beautifully in many dances throughout the musical. A special mention to Sonny in Yr 3 who wowed the crowd with a brilliant solo break dance performance.

Have a Great Week. John

From the Deputy Principal

What is Grammar in simple terms?

As part of our focus on writing we, as a school have been targeting the teaching and learning of ‘Grammar’. For many parents our understanding of grammar may be hazy as it has been a long time since we may have studied grammar, so I thought I would highlight what grammar is and what some basic terms are with examples.

Grammar is the study of words, how they are used in sentences, and how they change in different situations. ... The study of sentence structure. Rules and examples show how the language should be used.

An example of grammar is how commas and semicolons are supposed to be used.

One of the earliest understandings of grammar taught is the understanding of a simple sentence and what makes a proper sentence. A simple sentence consists only of a noun, a naming word, and a verb or action word. For example, in the sentence “Mary walked”, Mary is the naming noun and walked is the action verb. ... Mary is the proper noun in the example sentence above but can be substituted in following sentences by the pronoun she. What also is important is the understanding that a sentence – needs to make sense!

Because grammar involves the way we structure our sentences, it includes the eight “parts” of “speech”: nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections (like “ouch!”). I have already stated what a noun and verb are in the previous paragraph, so some definitions of the other parts of speech are as follows:

Pronoun: A word that takes a place of a noun (for example, I, me, he)

Adverb: A word that adds meaning to a verb (for example, sang ‘beautifully’) In English many adverbs have an -ly ending.

Preposition: A word that usually describes the relationship, or the position between words in a sentence. Prepositions can indicate:

• space (for example, ‘below’, ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘to’, ‘under’. 'She sat on the table.')
• time (for example, ‘after’, ‘before’, ‘since’. 'Í will go to the beach after lunch.')

Conjunction: A word that joins other words, phrases or clauses together eg. Mum and Dad are here. (joining words)

Interjection: Interjections are words used to express strong feeling or sudden emotion. They are included in a sentence (usually at the start) to express a sentiment such as surprise, disgust, joy, excitement, or enthusiasm.

For further information that may assist in understanding what your child/children are learning at school, the Australian Curriculum website is a great spot to start as it relates to the teaching of Australian English. The following link will take you to the English glossary:

Paula Heiniger – Deputy Principal

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.

PBL (Positive Behaviour Learning)

Buzz Phrase – “Bounce Back”.

Our focus rule is Be a Learner rule - “Bounce Back”. This buzz phrase is about being resilient. Building resilience is the ability to adapt well to adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress. We need to help our children manage stress and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty.

Students are encouraged to identify and manage their emotions, solve problems calmly, take time to chill out, talk to someone and use positive self-talk – I will be ok, I am ok, I will bounce back.

PBL Team

Prep A & Prep B

100 Days of Prep

The preppies recently celebrated their 100th day of Prep by dressing up as superheroes like Zero the Hero who has been visiting them every tenth day of Prep since starting school.

The highlights of the celebration were playing games with the zero numbers, making special 100 glasses to wear, finding 100 gold coins in the playground, eating chocolates in the shape of the number 100, doing some number dances, counting and building with 100 objects.

Exciting Writing

Our whole school focus in writing is Grammar. In Prep this means that we are learning that words and groups of words make meaning. The children will know that they are successful when the order of their words make sense. For example: Hop will frog the. X The frog will hop. √

Our other Prep writing goal is to “Ban the Boring” and make sure our writing is interesting for others to read. We have been encouraging the use of adjectives (describing words) and WOW words when the children are writing.

We hope you enjoy reading some of our stories....

Lions roar in the jungle. (Flynn)
Pink pigs flutter in the sky! (Georgia)
Frogs jump super high on lilypads. (Noah)
Grey elephants patter in the water. (Xavier)
Creepy bugs crawl everywhere. (Maya)
My pet rabbit has a habit. (Amelia)
Feisty dogs grab onto bad robbers. (Georgia)

Mandy Bauer (Prep A) & Lindy Hicks (Prep B)

Year 1A & 1B

Mary Cairncross Excursion

Thank you again to all who have volunteered their time to help at the Yr 1 Science and HASS Excursion to Mary Cairncross Reserve. The proposed date for the excursion is Thursday, 12 September 2019 (Term 3 Week 10). For those of you who were free on other days – thank you for offering your valuable time. There will be more information to follow closer to the date.

Special Focus Message: Writing

Our School Focus area this year is Writing. The children will be participating in focused daily writing activities. Students of 1A and 1B will continue to develop superb writing skills through explicit teaching of the 7 steps to Writing Success resource. This Term we will be focusing on the following writing topics: Planning for Success and Show don’t Tell. There are classroom resources explaining what these topics specifically entail – it is good to know exactly what the children are talking/learning about! We can’t wait to see and share the wonderful written pieces the children will create – fun times ahead!

Jo Dykes and Jenny Jenkinson

Year 2/3C

We completed a focus on geometric shapes 2D and 3D in class at the end of last term. Students explored the features of 3D shapes. We located and counted faces, edges and corners (vertices) and then examined them as nets. A highlight was the construction of various prisms using playdough and toothpicks, paper and construction sets.

Other related activities included creating 2D shapes with rubber bands on geoboards, matching pattern blocks on stencils and using OSMO to explore and create tangrams.

Our class has also recently started engaging in Bucket Filling! We have read through, ‘Have You Filled a Bucket Today?’ by Carol McCloud and discussed the concept of Bucket Filling together as a class. Each student has a bucket for receiving strips from others within the class. Students are able to complete compliment strips and place in other student’s buckets. After students have read their strips, we add them to our kindness chain suspended in the classroom to watch it grow throughout the room. The purpose of “Bucket Filling” is to improve social & emotional learning. It is based on a simple concept where we each have an invisible bucket with the singular purpose of holding good thoughts and feelings about ourselves.

Kerry Lees

Year 3A & 3B

We have been enjoying reading The Lorax book in English and writing a retell of the story from another character’s perspective. The students are going to present their retell to the class in a speaking presentation. This story is about Sustainability which has fitted in beautifully with our Health unit. On Friday we were fortunate enough to have our guest speaker from the Waste2Resource Centre leading the hands-on activities about recycling with the emphasis on Avoiding buying some products in the first place. The students were dismayed that one 6 pack of juice poppers generates 19 pieces of rubbish, compared to buying a 2L bottle of juice and sharing it out, which only has 2 pieces of rubbish.

We have been exploring length, capacity and mass in Mathematics, with hands-on activities that are great for learning.

There is great excitement about our upcoming Colour Fun Run on Tuesday 17th Sept to raise money for Sports equipment and repairs to the Senior Playground.

Thank you in advance for any donations for the Father’s Day stall due by Fri 23rd August, with the children purchasing gifts the following week.

Kind Regards,

Anne Coogan & Shelly Chandler

Students of the Week: Week 1 Term 3

Highest Class Attendance for Week 1 Term 3

Students of the Week: Week 2 Term 3

Highest Class Attendance for Week 2 Term 3

CHAPPY NEWS

BE THAT ROLE MODEL

I’ve recently been thinking about how vital a parent’s example is in the life of a child. I have seen how much my 10 year old daughter watches me and is forming her own values and behaviours based on my example. At the same time, I see how much my 9 year old son desperately wants to spend time with his Dad and seeks his approval and attention. I am astounded at the influence we make in a child’s life, whether that is good or bad we are always being an influence. I am challenged daily to give my own children my full attention, to prioritise them over any pressing job I may feel I need to do. I see the value in investing in my children’s lives and believe that when a parent shows their child that they matter, that what they say matters and validate them every day, behaviours change dramatically. I want to encourage you to always look for ways to validate your child. Look for opportunities to teach them a life lesson – even if it’s through your own mistake! Show them that they are loved and heard. Be the kind of role model you wished you had as a child. Have a great week everyone.

News…

1. Any parent volunteers for Breakfast Club or to become a Mentor are most welcome
2. Grandparents’ Coffee and Chat in Chappy’s room from 9-10am every Monday morning
3. Donations of spreads, milo and butter is appreciated for the Breakfast Club

Chappy Becky

P & C News

Next P&C Meeting Wednesday 14 August 6.30pm

From Our Tuckshop

Maleny State School Tuckshop Review

The Maleny State School Tuckshop is an entity of the Maleny State School P&C. The tuckshop is currently open 3 days a week, operating with one paid Tuckshop Convenor, two casually paid workers, and a number of volunteer parents. Over recent years the P&C has worked with the Queensland Association of School Tuckshops (QAST) to implement the Smart Choices framework for a healthier tuckshop menu.

This year the P&C established a working group which with QAST undertook a review of the tuckshop operations, to consider the financial performance, menu and future directions of the tuckshop.

The review found that the Maleny State School tuckshop performs very well financially compared to like-sized school tuckshops, with nearly double the net operating profit of other schools. In 2018 the tuckshop contributed over $10,000 in revenue to the P&C, which will be returned to the school in 2019 through the commitment by P&C to over $65,000 in expenditure for playground equipment, computer upgrades, increased Teacher Aide hours and support to student activities. The review found this financial performance was achieved through ingredients being purchased at minimum prices, combined with the clever use of ingredients/recipes, thrift, value adding and minimal wastage. Several items on the tuckshop menu were found to be below the QAST recommended pricing.

The review also found that the QAST Smart Choices framework is being successfully implemented, with over 80% of food provided being amber or green category. There were a number of recommendations for improvements which have begun to be implemented, and the P&C will continue to work with the Tuckshop Convenor to ensure ongoing quality and continual improvements in the tuckshop offerings.

A final aspect of the review was future directions for the tuckshop. In addition to the traffic light system in Smart Choices supporting green food choices, we are looking for ways to ensure the operations of the tuckshop are green by reducing plastic wrapping and wastage. We are also linking the tuckshop closely to the school garden club, to involve students in the production of food and help link the source of food production to the food being provided. The tuckshop menu will continue to be an opportunity for teachers to engage students in learning about healthy choices, and the traffic light system provides an accessible way to reinforce this. Parents are encouraged to use flexi schools as the preferred method of payment for tuckshop orders. In addition to providing us with better tracking of sales, it will allow parents to see the red/amber/green options and make well informed choices to support healthy eating, and to discuss this with their children.

I would like to thank the working group of Kirsten Cash and Fiona Halliday, and acknowledge the leadership provided by Kylie McAuliffe in undertaking the review. I would also like to thank Tuckshop Convenor Gunner Jonsson for his ongoing commitment to providing healthy, varied, fresh and interesting food to our students and staff.

Merrick Ilett
President P&C

The Tuckshop is open three days a week – Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. If you can help, please see Gunnar at the Tuckshop. Your support will be much appreciated. FlexiSchools is our preferred ordering system and is simple and easy to use.

To register go to:

Please see our New Menu attached which will go live on Flexischool from 25 August 2019.

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 at the link below by 5pm Wednesday for Friday pickup or class delivery.

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.

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