31 March 2021

Newsletter Articles

Date Claimers

Principal’s Report

Covid Updates

If you are unwell or develop any COVID-19 symptoms at all, please get tested  immediately.

I would also encourage you to continue to refer to general information as provided on the Queensland Health website. It is important that we all continue to focus on our own wellbeing and mental health and there are some great resources and information tools available on this website.

For assistance in languages other than English, please refer to the National Translating and Interpreting Service , and the Translated Australian COVID-19 information and resources.

I thank all parents/carers for your support as we work together to manage the situation and any impacts on our school.

I look forward to bringing our whole school community back together again and resuming our normal school operations in Term 2.

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 English. Equally impressive is the positive supportive learning culture that staff and the P&C have been working tirelessly to foster. We hope you have a wonderful break and look forward to seeing everyone back to commence Term 2 on Monday 19 April.

World Autism Awareness Day

is an internationally recognized day on 2 April every year, encouraging Member States of the United Nations to take measures to raise awareness and understanding about people with autistic spectrum disorders throughout the world.

Autism can be tricky to define. Autism is a developmental condition that affects how a child learns and interacts with the world around them. Because autism has many different characteristics, no two people on the spectrum are alike. However, those on the autism spectrum may need support in two main areas:

Social communication issues

• Understanding non-verbal communication, such as body language
• Understanding when and how to appropriately respond in social interactions
• Developing, understanding and maintaining relationships with others
• Expressing and comprehending information

Repetitive patterns of behaviour

• Repetitive use of movement, speech or objects
• Affected by changes to expected routines and surroundings
• Intense focus on limited, specialised areas of interest
• Increased sensitivity or lack of sensitivity to particular sensory signals, such as sound, touch, taste, etc.

Maleny State School’s values are High Expectations, A Supportive Learning Culture and being a Reflective Lifelong learner. All students of all abilities especially those on the autistic spectrum are welcome at our school with every student, every day experiencing quality teaching leading to learning success. At Maleny State School diversity is respected and embraced and enhances our strength in building a truly supportive learning culture. We tailor our practices to meet the needs of students of all abilities, their families and the wider community.

At Maleny, we are committed to ensure that all students are truly part of the school, valued in their classrooms and their individual strengths are celebrated. The Enrichment Centre staff do an excellent job working collaboratively with all teachers to plan and provide support for all of our student’s individual needs. Programs focussing on social communication, emotional regulation and friendship skills have been developed to cater for individual needs. Students also participate in intensive literacy and numeracy programs using a variety of inclusive strategies to support challenges. Digital technologies are used to support students’ engagement and access to learning. Contact Sharon Furlong our Head of Special Education Services to find out more. Our classroom teachers do a wonderful job at differentiating their daily teaching to ensure they are using inclusive practices to enable all students to achieve success.

We will celebrate World Awareness Autism Day this Wednesday with a special video

This is a great opportunity to discuss with your children how we are all different and all have our own individual strengths and challenges. I believe it is essential we all learn more about conditions like autism so we can better understand and communicate respectfully with one another. It is also a great chance to discuss Equality V’s Equity with students. The visual below often helps to give a better understanding of these concepts.

At Maleny State School, we advocate for inclusivity with all children being included, accepted and appreciated for their individuality as they develop and find their place in the world.

“EQUITY is who has the keys to the room.
DIVERSITY is who is in the room.
INCLUSION is who feels welcome in the room.”
Emmanuel Schanzer, Bootstrap Program Director

Sharon Furlong and John Byrne.

School Review 2021

Every Queensland state school is reviewed by the Education Improvement Branch (EIB) at least once every four years. The reviews play an important part in how the department supports school improvement. They provide schools with independent feedback, tailored to their context and needs. Principals use the review findings to work with their school community and Assistant Regional Director to develop clear actions to move the school forward.

Reviews are conducted by experienced educators trained in the use of the National School Improvement Tool, a nationally recognised framework for reviewing teaching and learning practices. Our review team will consist of three reviewers and occur on Wednesday to Friday 28 – 30 April in Week 2 Term 2. Reviewers look closely at each school’s performance data and speak with a wide range of staff, students, parents and community members to get an accurate picture of the school. Unlike many other review systems, schools aren’t ranked or given a performance rating. Instead, the school is given a comprehensive report for consideration. The report details key findings and recommended improvement strategies to maximise student outcomes. This report will be shared with staff and the school community to help shape the school’s strategic direction.

Feedback from parents and the community is an important part of school reviews, with everyone encouraged to have their say.

Thank you to our 2020 P&C

I would like to thank the 2020 Maleny P&C members and Executive led by Merrick Ilett for an incredibly successful year in what were very challenging conditions. With only a small membership group a lot has been achieved. Congratulations to those members that have been consistent in attendance at meetings and have organised or contributed towards participating in fundraising activities.

The continued efforts and hard work of the Executive have been very much appreciated by myself, our school and by our parent and community body. The dedication that has gone into developing sustainable governance processes and practices has been amazing, and one that few outside the executive would understand the amount of time that has been dedicated to these tasks. The new structures around budgets, uniform and tuckshop operations and storage of documents on the TEAMS platform will enable a much smoother change over process for new P&C committees in the future. Ultimately this will make the running of the P&C much more effective and efficient. The deliberate strategy of engaging with our parent body and business community has been incredibly beneficial both financially and collaboratively to our school, which we look forward to continue to develop. Seven welcome afternoon teas with our parent body at the start of the year helped to highlight the important role the P&C plays within the school and has helped achieved our school value of providing a supportive learning culture where everyone that enters Maleny SS feels a sense of belonging.

Congratulations to our new 2021 Executive Committee.

President – Merrick Ilett
Vice President- Zoltan Bourne
Treasurer – Kathy Fernance
Secretary – John Cassidy

Our next P&C Meeting will be on held on Wednesday 12 May at 6:30pm, we are looking forward to seeing as many parents as possible in attendance.

Farewell to Crossing Supervisor Karen Sherwell

This will be Karen’s last week on our crossing after 30 years of magnificent service to our school keeping our kids safe. We will celebrate with Karen and thank her publicly at our first assembly on Wednesday 28 April at 2:15pm. We look forward to showing our gratitude to Karen and hope you can attend.

Have a Magic Week in Maleny.

John

From the Deputy Principal

What parents and carers can do to assist with writing

Holidays are always a great opportunity to do some writing and to see how your child/children take part in the writing process. Here are a few ideas that may provide some structured holiday fun.

• Encourage children to write, write, write! Provide many opportunities such as writing the shopping list, sending letters and cards to friends and relations, writing emails, keeping a diary, publishing personal stories, labelling photos in the family album, and leaving notes. Locating writing aps such as Book Creator. Writing should be relevant and meaningful rather than writing for the sake of writing.
• Give children opportunities to read their stories aloud (while you sit back and listen). Listen with a focus on the message they express. Comment on what they have done well, for example: ‘I enjoyed how you used interesting words such as X, Y, Z.’ ‘The character you created seems so real. I can imagine how he looks.’ Leave comments about spelling, punctuation, and grammar to another time — they are important if and when it is to be published.
• Draw children’s attention to how writing is presented, for example, on brochures, billboards, books, and electronic media — these are models of writing for real purposes.
• Create a community of writers. Provide a quiet place for writing with lots of writing materials. Leave notes for each other, write poems for your children, and send messages in lunch containers. Play writing games, for example, one person writes the beginning, another the middle and the other the end of a family story. Write together.

Happy Holidays!

Have a wonderful, safe holiday everybody.

Paula Heiniger

Students of the Week:

Lost Property

Thank you to all students and families for naming and looking after your belongings

Lost property is checked weekly and named items are returned to their owners. There are a few items remaining and if not collected by the end of the term, will be washed/cleaned and donated to local charities. Notably, there are three lunchboxes, several good-quality drink bottles, a leather-look jacket, a pair of school shoes and some rashies. Please ask your children to have a look, or yourself, in the alcove next to the Year 4 eating area.

Now would be a great time to write your name on your jumpers as it can be cool in the morning and then children get hot at playtime and lose their jumpers!

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)

Be Responsible - “Big Effort, Big Results”

For our last two weeks of Term 1, our Positive Behaviour focus is a Be Responsible rule with the Buzz phrase “Big Effort, Big Results”.

For our students, this means:

• I stay with a task and never give up.
• I show commitment, pride and a positive attitude in completing tasks.
• I am patient and willing to work hard.
• I set goals and stay focused.
• I always do my best; I strive for excellence.
• I am willing to risk failure for a worthy goal.
• I am self-disciplined.
• I make sure to learn from my mistakes and failures.

Perseverance

It may help our students to also think about...” What is Perseverance?”. Perhaps you have some personal stories you could share with your child. Explore the following together:

• Why perseverance plays such an important role in success?
• An experience in which your perseverance led to a great reward.
• One goal you have and write down steps you can take to persevere as you seek to attain it!

Stop Think Do! Rocket update.

On Assembly last week we were all very excited to see the rocket over two-thirds full and the whole school is looking forwards to an extra 20minutes playtime before the end of Term.

Enjoy the Easter Holiday break. Congratulations to all our students on an excellent Term 1 for 2021.

PBL Team

Year 4A & 4B

In Science the students have been focusing on erosion. They have identified and have taken photos of examples of erosion around our school grounds and have conducted experiments on the effects of erosion caused by water runoff.

In Hass we have tracked Captain Cook’s first voyage and researched the impact he had on the different cultures he encountered.

We have also been reading and writing poetry and focusing on different poetic devices and structural features.

We innovated some humorous poems.

Everyone is very excited about going to Camp next week, it should be a valuable and special time together.

Kerry Lees (4A), Lou Walsh & Trish Mackay (4B)

Year 4/5C

In Class

This term in English we have been reading a David Walliams’ book, FING. The assessment for this unit was to write a new chapter. Students invented a new monster which the horrible daughter Myrtle demands her poor parents to find and bring home. Her are 2 snippets from some assessments

“The wind gusted outside the Meek’s house, Myrtle and her parents sat down eating dry toast and cold chocolate. “I don’t like the useless dirty Fing,” Myrtle muttered underneath her breath.

“What’s that honey pumpkin pie?”

“I SAID, I DON’T LIKE THE FING!!!! Are you guys deaf?”.

“Oh, twinkle toes that’s not necessary”. (Olivia)

Myrtle Meek was a selfish ruthless brat of a child and requested a family of Comba Bats. Comba Bats were bats no bigger than your fingernail but in common with Myrtle they could squeal down a whole building.

“My Comba Bats will be here this afternoon no later, right?” growled Myrtle grinding her teeth together. “Right my dear” chuckled Mrs Meek uncertainly. As soon as their daughter left their sight Mr and Mrs Meek’s legs began to wobble, teeth began to chatter and hairs stood on end. “What shall we do”? They both said in unison. They stood in silence thinking, then “Oh I know”! Mr Meek exclaimed, “We must look online and find where Comba Bats are sold”. (Aisha)

Health

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at product promotion and marketing as a persuasive technique. It has been interesting to see how companies influence our decisions with catchy names, images, jingles, slogans and claims. We have watched a few videos detailing some of the tricks used for advertising various food products. Then we compared the commercial to the reality. This will help us to become more informed as consumers.

Deb Darcy (4/5C)

Year 5A & 5B

Fantasy Narratives

Year 5 has been very busy editing their Fantasy narrative for Unit One. Once students had completed their final copy, they then had the opportunity to give and receive feedback with a partner. This was a productive and useful session for all students and we were very impressed with their focus and attitude towards wanting to produce their very best work. Here are some examples of what our fabulous year 5’s are producing.

Pumping through her blood, the rage fuelled her to get up. No longer cautious, she sprinted as fast as she could, her feet pounding against the ground. She forced her mind not to wander again. Almost immediately, she froze. Time seemed to stop as she soaked up what was before her. An electric bolt of fear struck her as she willed herself not to scream. There, before her eyes stood the Cave of the Clambered, said to be the deadliest place in Heind. She started to think she couldn’t do it. But she had to stay brave, she had to stay strong. She had to stay dedicated. Anna

The air was cold and still, the night was dark and all was silent. Eventually a soft gale of wind blew soundly, causing a large gate to squeak open slowly, making an eerie noise, filling the silence. Meanwhile Dr. Apocalypse, as they called him these days, was combining many elements. It was bubbling, steaming and burning, the laboratory smelled of algae, damp and decay. There were loud chemical reactions exploding everywhere, freezing, melting, burning and even just withering away into a pile of dust. It had been released. The Death of the Living… Justice

Eric Faulkner (5A), Caroline Hartley (5B) & Tammalee Johnston (5B)

Innovation Centre News

Welcome to a new year of reading!

Last year the eBooks Digital Library played an important role in providing 24/7 access to books and audiobooks at school and at home, registering over 800,000 checkouts across Queensland. This year, we'll continue to encourage reading for enjoyment anywhere, anytime.

The Queensland State Schools eBooks Digital Library is a shared collection of eBooks, audiobooks and read-along eBooks hand selected for the students and educators of the department. Content is available to all participating schools, and the collection grows as more join, providing access to a much larger collection than any single school could afford on its own.

Maleny State School has again decided to provide all students free access to this wonderful service for 2021. It is now open for Maleny students to access this free collection. All students need is their student school username (MIS-ID mentioned in the picture below). If unsure check with your child’s class teacher or Mr Greig. It is one way to keep your children reading throughout the upcoming school holidays.

Are you new to Sora? Get started in 3 steps. Once you have the Sora app, reading is easy.

GEMS Robotics Club

Last week Maleny State School hosted a regional Robocoast Immersion Day learning about the LEGO EV3 and Spike robotics systems. Students from four schools were in attendance on the day all learning together. It was a long day filled with various challenges. It was also nice to see 2 students end up winning the interschool Sumo battles at the end of the day. The day is a lead up program for our school to attend the RoboRave event later this year

Maleny State School is intending on sending some teams to compete in this Australian event.

Adrian Greig - Innovation Teacher

War on Waste

Welcome to all Our new members!

Over the last two weeks we have had a number of younger students keen to join the garden club. The older students have enjoyed showing the new members how to weed and plant new seedlings, snow peas, sugar snap peas, lettuce, marshmallow, dill and our basil and sage are looking so lush. After planting and mulching the kids enjoyed making their own labels to put in the garden.

Hazel is in charge of growing mushrooms and we are eagerly waiting to see new growth.

Kind Regards
Lou Walsh

Chappy News

MEEKNESS & SELF-CONTROL

A values-based program that I do at Conondale Primary and Kenilworth schools has been such a wonderful tool in teaching children incredible keys to success. Each week we focus on specific values, and through the use of hands on, active based learning, the students are able to recognise and identify values that they may need more of, or, already have. The program is called UNLIMITED and focuses on unlocking their unlimited potential through demonstrating and choosing to use COURGAGE and bravery. As the students realise their own potential for growth and the skills they need to choose to work on, their belief in themselves and what they are capable of, becomes very evident and rewarding.

One activity we did last week focused on the value of MEEKNESS which means to have strength with restraint. We talked about when someone is demonstrating meekness, they have it within their power to inflict harm and/or pain, however they choose not to do so, because of the betterment of the other person. We talked about how self-control is needed to make that possible because they might FEEL like being hurtful to a friend i.e. Spreading gossip, but choose not to. Meekness enables a person to look at the ‘bigger picture’ and willingly put aside their own desires for the good of others. It is power under restraint. We demonstrated this concept through an activity using pool noodles. Each student was given a short pool noodle to hold. All of them had to create a "tunnel” for one student at a time to pass through. While they were crawling through the tunnel, everyone had to clap their noodle into their hands and make a BIG noise. No one was allowed to touch anyone with the noodle. At the debriefing, we talked about who had the power in that activity and how that made them feel. We discussed feelings that the people holding the pool noodles felt, and the immense self-control that some of them had to choose whilst participating.

I encourage you as a parent to look for these values in your child. Encourage them when you see them, because they are the things that are shaping their future. Have a great week!

Chappy Becky

Mothers’ Day Stall

We are excited to announce that our P&C will be running a Mothers’ Day Stall. Our aim is for students to be able to purchase inexpensive gifts for someone special on Mothers’ Day. Some of the items for sale will be provided by the P&C but we are also seeking quality donations from families.

Suggested items to donate may include: soap, candles, chocolates, tea, coffee, linen, trinkets, toiletries, stationery or anything that Mums will love!

So, have a look in your cupboards, re-gift unwanted pressies or drop something new into the "Mothers’ Day Stall Donations" box in each classroom.

We will be accepting donations up until Friday 30 April.

On Tuesday 4 May - Friday 7 May between 8.15 and 8.45am, students will be able to purchase a gift from our Stall at the Hall.

Most gifts will be priced at $5. More information will follow in Term 2. Our stall has always been well-loved by students and families and if you would like to assist please see Mandy McMahon or leave your details at the office. Thanks!

Thank you for supporting the P&C

From Our Tuckshop

The Tuckshop is open three day 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:

Uniform Shop

An order of school jumpers has arrived just in time for Winter, these are available now at the uniform shop

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.

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.

Community News

P&C’s Qld - Click through to view their most recent editions of Parent Talk

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