1 September 2020

Newsletter Articles

Date Claimers

Principal’s Report

Colour Fun Run – Register Online now only 3 Weeks to collect Sponsors

This event is our major P&C fundraiser this year, please ensure you have registered your child online and are collecting sponsors. The last day for collecting sponsors is the final day of term. All children need to be registered online to be able to collect prizes earned from sponsors collected.

Our goal is $20 000 which with maximum participation should be achievable.

Profits raised will be used to purchase resources for our school and benefit all students.

So far we have raised $8 894 from only 94 students.

This Friday is a Pupil Free Day

Please be aware this Friday 4 September is a Pupil Free Day for all schools. Teachers will be planning and participating in professional development activities.

Father’s Day Stall 2020

Our Father’s Day Stall will be open this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:15am to 8:45am. Please see P&C parent Mandy McMahon (contact the office 54998333) if you can help on the day. Prices will range from $2 to $10, I am sure our Dad’s will love whatever they receive. A huge thank you to Mandy for coordinating this event this year.

MALENY STATE HIGH SCHOOL – Year 7 in 2021 Parent Session

Maleny State High School will be holding a parent information session for year 6 parents in our hall this Thursday at 3:00pm. It is essential that parents complete an enrolment application as students must have their application lodged to be available to attend the High School Transition Days later this year.

2021 Classes

Class Preference Forms Due in by Week 3 Term 4

Please ensure you have completed a class preference form in writing by Friday 23 October 2020 if you would like us to consider any educational reasons about the placement of your children in 2021. I remind parents that we are a relatively small school and most year levels have two full class cohorts, this does not allow for a great deal of flexibility around which class or teacher some requests may ask for. All requests on time are considered but ultimately decisions are made by the school to benefit all students rather than specific individuals. We aim for balanced classes and a lot of time is put into making classes up by teachers who consider numerous factors including, academic, behaviour, social-friends, emotional, students with special needs, disabilities, physical classrooms, legitimate on time parent requests. Sorry late requests from parents will not be able to be considered. For requests to be considered they must be lodged on time on the correct form. Any request previously submitted in a past year must be resubmitted again this year if you wish the same circumstances to be considered.

Leaving our school or have a 2021 Prep student enrolling

Our staffing formula is based on student day 8 2021 enrolment numbers and as such it is crucial that 2021 Prep students enrol now to assist us with our class structure organisation. It is also crucial that if families are leaving next year they alert us now.

SKYPE P&C Meeting – Give it a Go - We Need New Faces!

Our last P&C meeting for the term will be held on Wednesday 9th September at 6:30pm. Please just click on your Skype email invitation (all parents will receive one on Monday next week). Tune in for an hour just to see what happens. You can cook or eat your evening meal while participating in our meeting in the comfort of your own home. Everyone’s ideas and support are welcome. We desperately need new parents to attend our meetings especially from our younger year levels.

Prep Information Session – Save the Date

A Prep information session will be held on Wednesday 4 November at 5:30pm at our school. Please phone 54998333 to RSVP by Friday 30 October.

Register for Prep now! Don’t wait.

It is essential that parents who have not contacted the office to register their child for Prep in 2021 do so now. Please do not assume we know you are coming. Registration can be completed in a one minute phone call (Ph54998333) or an email to admin@malenyss.eq.edu.au.

Note: all students will require a birth certificate before commencing Prep in 2021. I look forward to meeting with you soon. If you know a family in the area that has a Prep eligible student for 2021 please encourage them to contact us immediately.

Prep Enrolment Interview Dates:

Interviews will be held over 2 days (Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd October) and are already filling fast. If you have not booked your Prep enrolment interview please do so as soon as possible.

Please Call 54998333 to book your 20 min interview with your child, you can collect enrolment forms and packages from the office and our Website.

Transition to Prep Days

We will be holding a series of Transition to Prep days to ease the children’s transition from home, kindy and day-care to Prep. Children are invited to attend any or all of these days with an adult. These transition mornings will provide you with an opportunity to visit the Prep classrooms and playground and meet the friendly staff. Please bring a hat. Parents can order uniforms for students on these days. Students need to be enrolled to attend our transition days.

These days will be held on:

• Wednesday 11 Nov - 9.00am – 10.00am
• Wednesday 18 Nov - 9.00am – 10.00am
• Wednesday 25 Nov - 9.00am – 10.00am

Crossing Supervisors Times

Please note our Crossing Supervisors’ hours of operation are from 8.00am to 9.00am each morning and from 2:35pm until 3:10pm of an afternoon. This means our supervisors are commencing 10 minutes earlier of an afternoon to cater for Prep parents that collect their children at 2:40pm and years 5 and 6’s that finish at 3:45pm due to our staggered exit times. Both Karen and Dean do an amazing job at keeping our kids safe your support for both of them is welcomed.

Have a Magic week in Maleny.
John

From the Deputy Principal

Helping children develop independent learning skills

At school one very important skill that teachers try to develop in students very early on is independence, we use the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model as our prime pedagogy in developing independence in our students in every area of the curriculum. We also encourage parents to assist us in helping their children to develop independent learning skills and manage their own learning through:

• Providing the right amount of support at the right time;
• Encouraging children to take risks with their learning;
• Using open-ended questions;
• Ensuring children retain responsibility for their learning; and,
• Giving the least amount of help first to encourage children’s ownership of the task

Parents of prep-aged children can encourage their child’s oral language development through conversation and read to their children. For students aged year 1 to year 6 parents can support reading activities and general academic activity by setting routines and encouraging good work habits.

Parents can encourage prep-aged children’s oral language development by creating spaces for their talk and keeping conversations going; using intentional pausing creates time for children to think and construct a response. Parents can create space for children’s talk by using ‘I wonder’ questions such as ‘I wonder what happens outside when it’s autumn?’ These types of questions invite children’s thoughts and ideas about a topic. Several strategies can be used to keep a conversation going, such as:

• Having conversations about children’s personal experiences, lives and interests which might involve using photographs or video snippets as a prompt
• Using active listening techniques such as making eye-contact, using short verbal clues, facial expressions and gestures
• Paraphrasing a child’s talk to model more complex language (e.g. If a child says, ‘Look there’s a bird’, you might respond, ‘Oh yes, I can see the lorikeet in the tree. It reminds me of a colourful rainbow
• Promoting shared reading can support oral language development and early literacy.

Paula Heiniger – Deputy Principal

School Photographs will be taken on Thursday 15 October 2020

Advanced Life, our school photo provider, have advised if you have already purchased your package please be assured that your package will be delivered once the rescheduled photography has taken place.

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)

This fortnight’s PBL goal- I keep my hands and feet to myself

It’s smart goal time for PBL. This means we have a new buzz phrase and the rocket is back!

Our buzz phrase is “Keep your cool and let it go”. What does this mean? It means:

• I keep my hands and feet to myself
• I let go of what I can’t control
• I use calming strategies when I feel upset
• I use the high 5 to help solve problems
• I move away and re-set
• I play fairly
• I am a team player and show good sportsmanship
• I use positive talk to myself, my peers and adults.

We are doing this so that everyone enjoys their time at school and feels safe and happy.

How does the rocket system work?

When students show the “keep your cool and let it go” behaviour in the playground they will get a sticker. This sticker is then traded for a coloured ball in the bucket in the classroom.

Each week each class brings their bucket down to the office and they empty the bucket into the rocket. Then when the rocket is full, everyone gets 20 minutes free play.

Prep A & Prep B

Keep your cool and let it go

To help us let go of our worries we have made some “Worry Monsters” for in the classroom and out in the playground. We are drawing or writing about something that is bothering us, scrunching it up and feeding it to the worry monsters. This helps us to understand the concept of letting go.

Our Town

As part of our HASS learning about Special Places, the Prep children have been taking turns to take the class Green Sheep home to share some of their favourite special places. We have enjoyed seeing photos of the Green Sheep at home and out and about. He has been having quite an exciting adventure so far.

We have also been learning about maps and models. The children have been working together to make a model of the main street of Maleny. We’ve included features like the school, the parks, the Library, shops, houses, roads, crossings and roundabouts.

We enjoyed reading a series of rhyming books written by the author Kes Gray. One of our favourites was ’Oi Frog’ written by Kes Gray and Jim Field. Have a look at our fabulous frogs we drew following a directed drawing by Jim Field himself on You Tube.

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

Year 1A & 1B

Mary Cairncross Park Excursion for Science and HASS

Due to CO-VID19 restrictions, year one students are unable to attend our yearly excursion to Mary Cairncross Park. As Mary Cairncross Park is a short drive away there is opportunity for you and your family to visit on a weekend we would encourage you to do so with your child.

In both Science and HASS, students are identifying Natural, Managed and Constructed Environments and Mary Cairncross Park is a wonderful place for students to walk through the nature walk and identify all of the natural features that they can see. Then, proceed to a picnic lunch near the playground and get the students to identify how the managed environment (the park and paths) meet up with the natural environment. If you are feeling particularly brave, and still have time left in your day, go on up to the viewing deck (above the café) and get the kids to look out over the view to see all of the constructed parts of the environment. While there, they can also spy lots more managed and natural parts of the environment.

For assessment this year, we will find our own Natural/Managed and Constructed environments here at school, however we do hope you can find the time to enjoy this time in such a beautiful place with your child.

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

Year 2A & 2B

Year 2 should be very proud of themselves as their procedural writing went extremely well with students writing some fantastic recipes that were thoroughly enjoyable to read. We are now moving onto our next English Unit which is writing an informative text. This, along with our science unit on life cycles has created much interest in our natural world. For the remainder of the term students will be reading various texts for the purpose of gathering facts and developing their informative writing skills. For assessment they will be creating their own information text around a selected animal.

Students are also enjoying some meditation time after lunch to help relax and calm their minds after what can be a long day. This time allows students to reflect on their day or to simply just rest and recharge. Students can also enjoy this at home with their family. There are many YouTube videos for kids guided meditation.

Just a friendly reminder to please remember hats for play.

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

Year 3A & 3B

We are full steam ahead with many tasks. In English, we have been exploring the text ‘Kumiko and the Dragon’, a wonderful book on how to overcome problems and fears and we have explored the solutions. Students will be creating a multimodal presentation for their assessment task.

In Science our ‘Hot Stuff’ Unit has allowed students to work through a range of activities showing how heat can be transferred between objects in a number of ways. 3A and 3B have enjoyed doing experiments to increase their understanding of heat transfer. It was fun learning to measure accurately using a thermometer. We then graphed our results and wrote up our explanations.

Students have also found some lovely ways to strengthen friendships and we have also learnt many traits about ourselves through the Health Unit.

Dave Francis (3A) & Shelly Chandler (3B)

Students of the Week: Week 6

Students of the Week: Week 7

P & C News

Our last Skype P&C meeting for the term will be held on Wednesday 9th September at 6:30pm.

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 8:30-9:00am 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 9.00am. 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.

Chappy News

Convictions

This week in my girls group we discussed what Convictions were and how having them gives us strength in making hard decisions. The word ‘conviction’ means to have a ‘fixed or firm belief in something that’s important to us.’ As a group we specifically focused on friendship convictions and talked about things that they believed were important in their friendships. Each girl wrote down statements that they would try to do, and things that they would try not to do within a friendship. At the very end of the lesson some of the girls stood up and shared a statement that they were committed to working on personally in their friendships. Some of these statements were, “I will try not to be controlling or needy” or “I will try to include more people into my friendship group.” Others included things like, “I will try to encourage and gossip less” and “I will try to speak less and listen more.” Each week I am astounded at the honesty and wisdom that often comes from these girls and each week I feel that they leave, having grown just that little bit more. This week I encourage you to spend some time reflecting on things that you will strive to do, or not do in your own personal relationships. Have a wonderful week.

Lunch Games

Monday – Year 1 and 2
Tuesday – Year 3 and 4
Wednesday – Year 5 and 6

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.

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

Community News

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