29 March 2022

Newsletter Articles

Date Claimers

Principal’s Report

Maleny SS Vision: Connected Learners – Creative Leaders

Thanks for a great First Term

Certainly, this Term has been like no other, with many interruptions and unpredictable changes occurring frequently. There have been many positives shining through that have made the many challenges either opportunities for positive change or simply hurdles to jump and continue on. Our parent, staff and student bodies have been extremely understanding and supportive of any changes required and I wish to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to all.

Student behaviour this term has been excellent, with our supportive culture making Maleny SS a school of choice for students and staff.

We look forward to welcoming students back in Term 2 which will commence on Tuesday 19 April.

World Autism Awareness Day

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 but so important for all of us to understand. 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, embraced and enhances our strength of 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 ensuring 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 (found at the link below) on assembly. 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.

Poultry Club News

Our ladies below, Speckles and Chicken Little, will be entered in the Maleny and District Annual Poultry Club Show on the last Sunday of the school holidays. The school poultry club is very excited after both Speckles and Chicken Little picked up first and second placings at the last Maleny Show.

Mrs Dykes (Year 1 teacher) does a magnificent job teaching students how to care for poultry and prepare our chooks for show presentation. Come along to this event and support our students and see their very loved and pampered chooks on display.

2022 Maleny State School Cross Country

Due to wet weather and the Year 5/6 interschool softball competition needing to change their dates, we have decided to postpone our school cross country until Friday 22 April. Below are the details relating to the day:

Please be aware times are approximations and may vary on the day. A special parade will be held at 2:30pm to announce and recognise 1st - 3rd place. Students will need to bring:

• Water bottle
• Appropriate Running attire and joggers
• Sports Shirt
• Hat
• Asthma puffers if required

We look forward to seeing students and parents at our Cross Country and if you have any questions please contact the school on 5499 8333.

Farewell to Crossing Supervisor Dean Faunt

This will be Dean’s last week on our crossing after 4 years of wonderful service to our school keeping our kids safe. We will celebrate with Dean and thank him publicly at our assembly this Wednesday. We look forward to showing our gratitude to Dean and hope you can attend.

Have a Magic Week in Maleny. John

Students of the Week:

Positions Vacant

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)

Big Effort, Big Results!

As we are approaching the end of the term, we have introduced a new Buzz Phrase which is a Be Responsible rule – Big Effort, Big Results!

That 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.

From the
PBL Team

Year 4A & 4B

A Fantastic Performance for Harmony Day

The year 4’s sang beautifully for our special parade on Friday for No Bullying Day and Harmony Day. The song was an Indigenous Lullaby called ‘Inanay’. Many thanks to our lovely music teacher Mrs Abbott for helping us practice the song during our music session. Both Mrs Dennis and I felt very proud!

In English both classes have finished off their Twits chapter for their assessment. The students completed an illustration to go with their chapter.

We have started looking at Poetry in our new unit of work and have been having fun writing puns and nonsense poems. Eg. Eden wrote “Do you want to hear a pizza joke? Never mind it’s too cheesy!” “What do you call a belt made out of watches? A waste of time!”

In Science we have been looking at what causes erosion and ways to repair and prevent erosion. As part of our assessment we are completing an investigation where we model how three different land surfaces (grassy surface, mulch surface and bare soil) can have an impact on possible erosion.

In Hass we have been looking at early European explorers and learning about Captain Cook and Joseph Banks. We have tracked Captain Cook’s first voyage on the HMS Endeavour. Today we became botanists and drew some different plants.

4B Scientists, Readers, Authors!

It has been a busy few weeks in 4B! In Science, students have been exploring different types of weathering and erosion through participating in hands-on experiments. They particularly enjoyed exploring a variety of weathering stations in the Science Lab. During our reading lessons, students have been focussing on the strategy of Making Connections and have been practicing the recording of their thoughts in their reading journal. 4B have also been putting an amazing effort into writing a new chapter for The Twits as part of their English assessment. Well done, Superstars!

Lou Walsh & Trish Mackay (4A) Shalisa Dennis (4B)

Year 5A, 5B & 5C

WHAT A TERM!

We have all worked really hard to complete assessments as some of us were flooded in, isolated due to Covid or away for other reasons. BUT WE DID IT!

In English we had to write an imaginative text (narrative/ chapter) with fantasy features. Some were scary, magical or humorous. These all meet the purpose of a narrative, ... to entertain the audience. Before the holidays we are all starting the next unit of Persuasion- so stay strong parents, their skills may become quite convincing.

In Science we have been working hard to create our own creatures for 2 different environments. These creatures’ structural features and behaviours have been adapted so that they will survive in the environments.

In Art we are still designing our heroes and villains ready to create our 3D sculptures or models.

Last week we had our first taste of NAPLAN online where we familiarised ourselves with various tasks, features and formats. We will continue to look at these in preparation for NAPLAN in term 2.

Thank you

On behalf of the Year 5 teachers we’d like to thank you for being so flexible and accommodating with everything that has happened this term. We look forward to Term 2 and hopefully a little more settled, although it will be very busy. Have a safe break!

Debbie Darcy (5A) Eric Faulkner (5B), Caroline Hartley (5C)

War on Waste

Garden Club Members Have Been Busy in the Rainforest

Over the last two weeks the garden club members have been busy designing signs to show the new seedlings we have planted in our school rainforest. We have added some bush tucker plants as well as Richmond Birdwing Butterfly Vines and Corronia Vines to attract two endangered species (Richmond Birdwing Butterfly and the Pink Underwing Moth).

New Growth

Our garden is looking lush this week and the students have been weeding and pulling up sweet potatoes.

Kind Regards
Lou Walsh

P & C News

The results from the recent P&C Uniform Shop / Store Items Survey have now been released and can be accessed here: Survey Results | Maleny Primary P&C Association (malenypandc.com.au) Thank you to everyone who took a little time to give the P&C a lot of useful information, thoughtful comments, new ideas and honest feedback. The P&C Membership is reviewing these results and these will be formally discussed at our next P&C Meeting at 3pm on Wednesday 11th May. Everyone, Member or not, is always welcome to join us for a free afternoon tea!

Some respondents didn’t appear to know that the P&C runs an online store for the purchase of Uniforms and other items. This replaced the Flexischools portal in April 2021. If you haven’t ordered online before, it is easy and delivery to your child’s school bag remains the most popular option. Visit: Maleny Primary P&C Association (malenypandc.com.au)

We hope you could help us again with completing our next short Survey about the P&C Tuckshop & Pop-up Café where you have the opportunity to comment on the Menu and the possibility of opening a morning pop-up Café service adjacent to the Tuckshop. We look forward to your responses. This will be separately emailed to families.

Next P&C Meeting

Wednesday 11 May @ 3.00pm

From Our Tuckshop

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 visit the link below:

Uniform Shop

The Uniform Shop's regular hours are Friday mornings between 8.30am and 9.00am. Payment options are EFTPOS or cash at the uniform shop only. Alternatively, orders can be placed online via the link below by 5pm Wednesday for Friday pickup or class delivery.

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.

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

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