23 June 2020

Newsletter Articles

Date Claimers

Principal’s Report

A Term to Remember for Positivity, Gratitude and Resilience

2020 will be a year that will stand out more than most in years to come. I will remember the positivity, resilience and gratitude that has shone through in all aspects of our school and community. Whenever a challenge presents itself there is always an opportunity waiting for someone to take advantage of it. I have seen many examples of this in working with staff and seeing how students and families have adapted to the conditions of learning from home. We have all improved our technology skills and are continuing to use these new platforms to learn, share and communicate as part of how we do things now.

Many parents have gained a better understanding of the educational needs of their students and have developed closer relationships with their child’s teacher. There has been a lovely unprecedented appreciation from our community for the work that many of our front line workers (including school staff) perform each and every day.

As a principal I have been incredibly impressed with how our staff have worked together as a team in a time of constant uncertainty, rapid change and heightened stress. We have not just survived but have thrived, collaborated and innovated in quite challenging circumstances. It has been wonderful to have the support of our parent body and amazing P&C who have also adapted beautifully introducing monthly SKYPE meetings.

While we have been unable to participate in some of our usual extra-curricular and sporting events it has been an opportunity for all of us to slow down and reflect on our own wellbeing and personal lives which so often gets left behind in our busy world. At school we have been able to prioritise students learning and focus on what is most important. Students have been more settled than we would normally see and we are excited and looking forward to a fresh start in Term Three.

Annual Report

Our 2019 Annual Report will be presented and discussed at our next P&C meeting. It is now available on our school website or in hard copy from our front office.

The 2019 School Annual Report (SAR) provides our Maleny School Community with a summary of our achievements for the 2019 school year. The report includes information about:

• Our school profile (characteristics of our student body, class sizes, school disciplinary absences, curriculum offerings, social climate, school satisfaction levels and parent involvement)
• Our staff profile (composition, qualifications, attendance, professional development and retention rates)
• Student performance (attendance and achievement)

Wear your PJ’s to School Friday

Our Student Council have organised a fun Free Dress Day with a difference for the last day of this Term. Students will be allowed to wear their pyjamas to school should they choose and donate a gold coin to support our Student Council who have had little opportunity to raise funds this year.

Purchase your new School Jumper and School Hat

Note all purchases need to be made through the online Flexischools System as the Uniform Shop is not currently open of a Friday.

Our Uniform Shop is stocked up with new polar fleece jackets. No doubt with cool weather coming these jackets will sell quickly. Our coldest weeks this year will come in Term Three. Please purchase a school jumper available from the uniform shop via Flexischools if your child doesn’t have the correct winter uniform. A warm plain navy jumper without logos, stripes etc. can be worn, ANY other colour jumpers or denim jeans are not acceptable.

A reminder that all students require a school hat every day at lunch time and for outside lessons. Please check your child has a named hat and it is in their bag each day. Hats will not be lent to students by the school. Students without the correct school jumper will be offered a clean second hand jumper until they have their own. We ask parents to wash and return these after use to school.

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 allow their children to come to the school over the weekend/holiday period and know where there 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 Three. Thanks for a great Term and your continued support.

School Resumes on Monday 13 July.

Have a Great safe and enjoyable Holiday Break
John

From the Deputy Principal

Three Reasons why Writing is Important

1. WRITING ENHANCES CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS

Before a child puts pen to paper, they need to think about what they want to say and how they can say it in a logical manner.

What are their views on the topic? What is the message they are trying to convey? How can they convey it in the most effective and eloquent manner?

All of this requires brain work – lots of it!

The more often a child practises writing, the quicker and better the child will improve their critical thinking and problem solving skills.

2. WRITING HELPS WITH ORGANISATION

All good writing has a proper structure to be followed – more often than not it involves having an introduction, body and conclusion.

The more a child practises writing, the easier it is for them to plan and structure their writing according to this plan and work out what goes where and when.

Bonus – it also helps them to further develop their decision-making skills!

3. WRITING DEVELOPS INQUIRY SKILLS

To write an essay or report a child will need to do research and collect data.

They will need to pick out the best bits out of their research from the countless books and internet pages available for them to peruse and work out a way to consolidate this information.

That’s a tough job!

Yet over time a child will work out how to weed the good information from the unnecessary.

An even bigger bonus – they will become not just better writers but better researchers too.

Semester 1 Reports

As you will be aware, the disruption to school routines as a result of the Queensland government’s response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, has resulted in changes to the teaching, learning, assessment, and reporting process at Maleny State School.

The Department of Education has modified the requirements for reporting student academic achievement for Semester 1, 2020. Schools will provide a report using the information that they have available from Term 1 and Term 2, 2020. This information will be modified from the planned assessment program as many students did not attend school for the last week of Term 1, and they participated in a home based learning program for three to five weeks in Term 2.

The Semester 1 student reports from Maleny State School will be emailed out to parents/caregivers on Friday 26th June, the last day of this term. At Maleny State School students will be provided with a level of achievement for English, Maths, Science, HPE, Music and LOTE – Japanese (for year 5/6 only) and Instrumental Music (for only those students involved) This level of achievement has been determined using the available information about student learning and achievement from Term 1 and Term 2. Students in Prep will not receive a level of achievement rating on their report for English, Maths and Science but will have comments on their learning progress provided.

Please ensure the school has your current email address. We also ask parents to add Application.ONESCHOOL@qed.qld.gov.au to your list of safe senders to ensure report card emails aren’t sent to your Junk folder.

Parent teacher meetings will take place in week 3 of term 3, via Skype or phone call. Please look out for further information regarding this booking process.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or your student’s teachers if you require further information.

Paula Heiniger – Deputy Principal

Wanted: Casual / Relief Cleaner

Are you interested in being a casual / relief cleaner?

Casual / relief cleaners may be required to work between the hours of 6am & 9am and 2pm & 6pm.

It is a requirement that departmental employees hold a Blue Card (Working with Children) and you would be required to pay the application fees cost which is currently $92.30. The card is valid for 3 years.

You would also be required to agree to a criminal history check which is undertaken by the Queensland Police Service.There is no cost.

If you are interested or know someone who might be, please ask them to contact the Business Manager, Trachel Rapley.

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.

SWPBL (School Wide Positive Behaviour Learning)

Be Responsible – Make Good Choices

Our last 4 Be focus for Term 2, is a Be Responsible rule with the Buzz Phrase “Make Good Choices”. Ways in which we can support students at home and at school is by talking with them about:

• I think before I act
• I take responsibility for my own behaviour
• I am on time
• I am organised
• I look after equipment and own belongings
• I take responsibility for my behaviour
• I speak respectfully to ALL
• I think first not just follow

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday!

The PBL Team.

Prep A & Prep B

Having Fun with Recycled Materials at Prep

To culminate our science learning about materials, the Preps have been thinking about where all our rubbish goes. We have talked about how to reduce waste by looking at the objects that can be recycled, reused or composted for the garden. We enjoyed reusing some materials to create recycled sculptures and a giant wall art. The children’s garden ornaments were sent home last week. We hope you found a special place for them in your garden.

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

Year 1A & 1B

Chickens

The students had a lovely time learning about life and living and the chickens were a wonderful vehicle in which the children could learn. We hope they are enjoying life at their new homes!

100 Day Party

With only a few days left in term 2, it continues to be school as usual, except for the fact that the children are excitedly counting down to the 100 day party, which will be early in term 3.

Have a happy and safe break and we will see everyone in term 3!

Jo Dykes (1A) and Jenny Jenkinson (1B)

Year 2A & 2B

A big thank you to parents and students on a terrific return to the school routine. It has been a huge adjustment, but everyone has really embraced a return to some normalcy, and we appreciate the dedication families have made to consistent school attendance.

Also, we are very grateful for families that so quickly assembled those lunch boxes for science! There have been some fantastic designs and some very thoughtful combining of materials. It was a sudden turn around back to the materials unit and it was wonderful to see that so many students could recall everything they learnt and were able to apply it in the testing and the recording of observations we made.

Thanks again and we hope you have a wonderful break and return healthy and happy for Term 3.

Sarsha Anthony, Hayley Chamberlain (2A) & Libby Ferguson (2B)

Year 3A & 3B

We are very pleased with the children's return to school routine after the 5 Week Lockdown. The children have been working well and have been very cooperative in finishing their assessment for this semester. It was lovely to see the smiles on their faces when they were able to meet up with friends. We have noticed that the children have matured over the break and have immersed themselves in learning since returning.

We have started completing work on our next units of work. In English we have begun exploring the story of The Lorax, which will follow up with a retell of the story. The children have been thoroughly enjoying exploring symbols and patterns in Aboriginal Art.

We wish you all a safe and happy holiday and look forward to our return on the 13th July.

Kathryn Brown (3A) & Shelly Chandler (3B)

Students of the Week: Week 9

Students of the Week: Week 10

Uniform Shop

The Uniform Shop will be closed at this time.

Orders can be made through Flexischools and items will be delivered to Classrooms.

Chappy News

Business Support

I just want to acknowledge the local businesses in Maleny who have been generously donating food for many years now to support the Breakfast Club. Because of COVID I have been unable to offer this free service every Wednesday morning, however the Maleny Bakery, Maleny Dairies and Woolworths have still been happily donating the same food to me and I have been able to distribute it directly wherever the need has been. If it wasn’t for our local businesses and their faithful support, our school would not be in a position to bless and help others. Hopefully next term we can continue this wonderful service every Wednesday morning so if you’re keen to help once a fortnight, please see me for more details.

Chappy Becky

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

Community News

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