Term 3 Week 6 2020

Parent Teacher Interviews

In the last two weeks of term, all parents will be offered the opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher at a parent teacher interview. The booking for these interviews is now open via SOBS and will close on Thursday 3 September. Please follow the link below to book a time for this interview.

https://eq.sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=70371

Further information about how to book is included in the attachment below. We look forward to collaborating and partnering with parents to provide positive outcomes for each child.

Powerful partnerships

This week we have had over 30 visitors to our school to conduct Learning Walk and Talks. This network of educators form other schools have visited classrooms asking students a range of questions to ascertain how we are going with our improvement journey and whether students have clarity in their learning, their progress, feedback and next steps to improve. It is a great opportunity to celebrate our success and hear ideas from colleagues. Below is some of the feedback we received.

Seeing the work that has been done at MHSS over the years in order to develop the depth of understanding among your staff and students is inspiring.  Please pass on to your teachers our appreciation of their willingness to welcome us into their rooms and share their practice. 

Principal Elimbah SS

I was most impressed by the students’ ability to clearly articulate the next steps required for their learning. It is clear to see their teachers have been providing explicit and individual feedback to all students.

Principal Burpengary SS

Below are some photos of our visitors working alongside some of our leaders speaking with students and discussing their learnings.

Prep to Year 3 swimming

At Mango Hill SS, we are committed to providing opportunities for students to learn to swim through the school Learn to Swim classes. In term 4 all students in Prep to Year 3 will be involved in six lessons using the swim school at Grace Pool. The cost for these six lessons will be $42, the same as 2019 and represents real value for money. Further details regarding the timetable will be sent home later this term. A note will be sent home today with details and permission.

Have a wonderful week
Tracy
tegan4@eq.edu.au

Focus of the Week

The focus introduced on Friday and carried on throughout this week is ‘Filling Our Buckets’. The concept of bucket filling is to use actions and words to make someone feel good about themselves, to enhance resilience and inspire happiness. We all have an invisible bucket.  We can either add to our friends' buckets or we can dip into them.  At Mango Hill State School, we strive to be bucket filling stars. We know that everyone in our school is an important part of our community.  It is good to have our bucket filled, and it is also good to help fill other's buckets.

Ask your child what they did today to be a bucket filler. 

Thank you 
Peta 

Instrumental Music

Event and Rehearsal Update

Students are busy enjoying rehearsing as part of the Senior String Ensemble and Senior Concert Band and we look forward to the Junior Concert Band meeting for the first time on Thursday 20 August. It will be lovely to hear the younger students coming together to make music as this is a vital part of their musical development.

Information has been sent to parents of all students who are required to participate in the Junior Concert Band. If you have any questions please contact mjame38@eq.edu.au

Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 restrictions the planned Solo Soiree Evening later in Term 3 and the Peninsular Music Festival due to take place in Term 4 have been cancelled. We know this is disappointing news but the first priority is the health and well-being of the students, teachers and community.

Thank you 
Claire 

Start Smart

It is never too early to teach children the value of money. Research indicates that it is crucial to develop financial literacy skills from an early age. The Start Smart Primary program teaches these skills in a way that students can understand and enjoy. It was developed with a panel of leading specialists in primary education, cognitive development, instructional design and financial literacy. The CBA funds this program to be delivered in schools.

Next week we commence our Start Smart financial literacy lessons for all students from prep-Year 6 at MHSS. Each class will have a 35-45 minute session with an educator. The Start Smart Primary workshops address topics including understanding between needs and wants, identifying currency, how to shop, different ways of earning an income and saving money to achieve personal financial goals. Class teachers will continue the learning with support from the resources provided by the program facilitators.

Achieving our Reading Goals 

In Prep, we’re all about reading, reading and MORE reading!  We welcome Ms Brewster to the Prep team, three days each week, to support our Guided Reading groups.  Our specific focus is building sight word knowledge and using our beginning reading strategies.  We are working hard to make sound to letter, and letter to sound connections.

At home, you can support your child with this work by trying some of these new ideas.

• Reading a picture book together each night.  This helps to build their big comprehension skills and their vocabulary.
• Reading their home reader.  This helps to build their sight word knowledge, their understanding of beginning reading strategies and their fluency.
• Practising sight words.  You can make so many games in this space!  Memory, Nnap, Go Fish are all very popular. 
• A transformation is when we have a simple sentence, students read that simple sentence over and over until they master it, then you cut the sentence up, and the student has to rearrange the words back into the sentence.  This helps our students to learn sight words both in context (in the sentence) and out of context (more like a flashcard).  When students are only able to recognise sight words out of context (by flashing them individually), and not in sentences in a book, they find it challenging to gain fluency in their reading.

English as a subject is comprised of so many different elements.  In the first semester of Prep, many of our students' strong oral language skills really help them to achieve.  In Semester 2, the focus shifts to our students learning about English as a written language and being able to decode and use this language in a more written way (reading and writing).

We strongly encourage all parents to book a parent teacher interview at the end of the term (bookings will open soon), to chat with your child’s class teacher about where your child is at with their learning and what their next steps for learning are.

Have a lovely week
Melinda
mwhit37@eq.edu.au

Feedback is our friend!

To continue their learning, students need to develop their capacity to take on board feedback. In our classrooms, one of the ways we teach students about feedback is by using the Learning Star Scales.

During the learning process, the Year 1 and 2 students have been becoming familiar with the star scales for that learning goal for example, the writing scale or the number learning goal scale. Each lesson the teachers refer to the success criteria on this scale and the students measure the success in their learning against this criteria. The teachers have been working hard to provide feedback for their students against the criteria and teaching them to understand and use this feedback to improve. Students receive feedback from their teacher, their peers and they also are encouraged to self-assess their work against the success criteria during the learning process and of course during the assessment process. Our early year’s students are getting very good at receiving feedback and many have developed their skills in using it to improve their work and to understand their next steps for learning. See the students below using the start scales to receive feedback.

Have a great week
Gabrielle 
gdoug7@eq.edu.au

Care for Learning in Year 5 and 6 

This year Mango Hill State School is really focussing on students knowing more about their learning. In particular knowing what their next learning steps are and what they can do to improve their outcomes. This work is informed by Lyn Sharratt’s Clarity work; a study on what really achieves success in the classroom. In Year 5 and 6 this term I have been able to work with many students and teachers who have utilised bump-it-up walls as a way of providing feedback to students and showing them how to achieve their next steps. These bump-it-up walls have been co-constructed with students, using student work annotated against our star scales. Students have said to me that they know exactly why they are achieving a certain result currently and what they need to do to improve. So, if you want to talk to your child about their learning, ask them about how they use bump-it-up walls to succeed. You will be amazed by their answers.

Electives – MicroBits 

The MicroBits elective this semester is all about coding our tiny MicroBits! What’s a MicroBit? A MicroBit is a small microchip shaped “computer” that has a small screen made of LED lights. Students learn to code through the MicroBit app, connecting different code blocks to display different messages on the screen, play games or even step count! This week we coded out MicroBits to randomly generate symbols for paper, scissors, rock and challenged each other in a tournament.

Year 6 Graduation

This week the official invitations for the Year 6 Graduation will go home to families. Graduation is at the Eaton’s Hill Hotel on Monday 7 December commencing at 5:00pm. As soon as students return their RSVP forms to the office the school will invoice families so that families have time to pay off their tickets. To help raise money to fund the event the Graduation Committee is hosting the Queensland Election Day on Saturday 31 October at the school. From 8:00am-2:00pm we will be facilitating a sausage sizzle, drinks and bake stall. If you are interested in volunteering your time, drinks or baked goods, please see my email sent to all Year 6 families. We are also asking each Year 6 class to provide a hamper to be raffled off during the Election Day.  If you can, please donate something for your class hamper. The themes are: 6V and 6K – "For Him", 6H - "For Kids", 6B and 6D – "For Her" , 6L – "Gourmet Savoury" and 6T – "Gourmet Sweet". All goods can be submitted to the classroom teacher for collection.
Thank you for all help, it is this help that ensures the Year 6 Graduation is a wonderful evening.

Have a good week 
Martin
mwinn7@eq.edu.au

Care Class Mystery Visit

Each week this term, Ms Egan and all the Deputy Principals look forward to the Care Class Mystery Visit at 10:00am on Friday. Early on Friday morning, at Virtual Parade, Ms Egan announces who the Care Class Mystery visitor for that week will be. It might be the person with the most letters in their name, third on the roll, or the person with the last birthday in the year. 

At 10:00am, the Care Class Mystery visitor meets with one of the following.

Ms Egan (Prep B, Prep C, Prep G, 4C, 4J, 4MC, 2S, 2T, 6K and 5W)

Ms White (Prep L, Prep M, Prep R, 6H, 6L, 4W, 2G, 2P and 2N)

Ms Alcorn (Prep S, Prep V, 1L, 4S, 6V, 5D, 2O, 2M and 3B)

Ms Douglas (1C, 1B, 1N, 5H, 5K, 5L, 3G, 3H and 3J)

Mr Winney (1O, 1R, 1S, 5P, 6D, 5V, 3M, 3P and 3R)

Ms Warner (1VM, 2B, 2E, 6T, 5S, 6B, 4M, 3T and 4R).

It’s such a lovely time as students get to meet in small groups and get to know students from other classes and year levels, share their highlight or new learning from Care Class that morning, and tell us what went well for them that week.  We often get to hear weekend plans too. Students are back in class or at break time by 10:15am.

It’s a great way for students to reinforce their learning and add to their wellbeing by building community across our school. Check out some of the Care Class Mystery visitors so far …

With thanks 
Ellaine 
ewarn23@eq.edu.au

Guided Maths 

At Mango Hill State School, we place a high value on differentiated instruction that is, providing learning opportunities that are appropriately challenging to each student. In Maths lessons, all teachers from Prep to Year 6 do this through our Guided Maths approach. 

Every week, each class dedicates two Maths sessions to Guided Maths. In this time, teachers work with small groups of students based on their level of understanding demonstrated in previous whole class lessons. The learning that takes place during this time is not about practising the skills that students already know, but using what students already know to achieve their ‘next step’. 

This model also encourages students to do the thinking, rather than being “spoon-fed” answers. If they can’t find the answer, we don’t simply give it to them. Rather, we guide students to the answers by prompting and cueing their thinking. 

The purpose of Guided Maths at Mango Hill State School is to provide support to students as they strive to ‘bump-up’ their knowledge and understanding of mathematical concepts. 

Remember Science Week is fast approaching. Please see flyers below about the Science Week competitions we have going. 

Helping Hands 

P & C Update 

FATHERS' DAY RAFFLE  - The P&C is currently collating all prizes and finalising the online details to open ticket sales in the 2020 Fathers' Day Raffle. Thanks to the families & local businesses that have arranged prize donations. Keep an eye out for the link via the school Facebook page. The raffle will be finished in time for winners to collect their spoils before the big day on Sunday 6 September. 

Your P&C is recruiting! 

We are looking to appoint three Casual Pool Canteen Assistants. Please note this is not an offer or guarantee of employment. Employees in the casual pool will be advised of the nature of the position and the appropriate rate of pay. To register your interest, please send your resume together with covering information in an email detailing the following:

• days you are available to be rostered on
• when you can commence in the position
• willingness to acquire a Blue Card required to commence employment with the Mango Hill P&C
• relevant experience, if any.

SEND TO - pandcsecretary@mangohillss.eq.edu.au

DID YOU KNOW - Athlete's Foot have a School Rewards Program? 

How it works - Athlete's Foot will give back $5 for every shoe sold to a student or family member of Mango Hill SS. The rebate back to MHSS will be given in the form of Athletes Foot vouchers. Simply mention Mango Hill SS and the Rewards Program when you make a purchase in-store.

When you visit The Athletes Foot, they undertake the following. 

1. Fitting Expertise – to measure every foot - Most back to school brands offer widths in key models (additionally, Ascent offer half sizes in key kid’s sports models).  The Athletes Foot North Lakes and Chermside stock almost every fitting option provided by their stocked brands.
2. Staff Training is provided to ensure everyone is up to speed with all fitting options and Product technology. - Shoes that are good for growing feet and lower limbs – Using our “Myfit” fitting technology, they provide a test for every foot. Their staff are given a basic understanding of the biomechanics of the foot on how particular shoe models can provide the best support and cushioning for the different foot types. 
3. Guaranteed Fit – They back up their fitting expertise by providing a “Fit Wearantee”.  If the feet aren’t happy, the customer can return the shoes (within 30 days) and they will refit, whether they have been worn or not.
4. They are exclusive stockists of the Australian Ascent brand of shoes.  These durable school shoes are designed by Podiatrists and are based right here in Geebung, Brisbane.

Thank you 
Renee
mhsspcpresident@gmail.com