Term 1 Week 1 2024.

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome back to school. We are so pleased to see our students and families back into the swing of school. I’d also like to take this opportunity to welcome our new families to our beautiful school community. Our staff are looking forward to working alongside families this year to get the best for our students. I trust everyone has had a fantastic break. I managed to spend some quality time with my family doing what makes us happy, spending time by the water, either the beach or the pool. 

Thank you for preparing your child for their return to school with the stationery and uniform requirements. We have a small number of students without full black shoes and it would be appreciated if everyone could be wearing the correct uniform with pride. If any family is struggling to do this, please send us an email and the school will see how we can assist. Please email Jasmine jbenf10@eq.edu.au. 

Parking will always be a little congested with such a large number of students enrolled at our school. We need your help! Please be patient, polite and follow the signed rules. Please do not park in the bus zone as this only causes traffic issues and you will be asked to move. Please also be respectful to our neighbours and park appropriately. Student safety is of paramount importance so please do the right thing. As from next week, Year 6 student leaders will be assisting with the drop off zone in the look out, therefore we encourage parents to drop and go in this zone. Please note if you are using the look out drop off and pick up zones, it is important you stay in your car. 

Please see map below of the car park. This will help you decide which lane is best for you to drive in and where not to park. 

Yellow line-  follow this if you'rer a little early. Please do a lap and drive right through. 

Green line - follow this if you are doing the drop and go option 

Pink line- follow this if you are parking your car and walking into the school to collect your student from their classroom or another spot inside the school ground.

Red crosses- NO PARKING, only for buses. Please do NOT use.

Mango Hill State School is an Independent Public School (IPS) and as such is required to establish a school council. The purpose of a school council is to enable greater involvement of the school community and other stakeholders, such as industry, in setting the strategic direction for the school. The school council must perform its role in accordance with legislation and in a way that achieves the best learning outcomes for the school's students. The school council assists in monitoring the school’s strategic direction including the annual estimate of revenue and expenditure. We thank Mr Netterfield for his tenure on our school council. Unfortunately, Mr Netterfield has moved out of the area and no longer has links to the school therefore we need to elect an additional parent member. To be eligible you must:

• not be the principal of the school or the Parents and Citizens’ association (P&C) president
• be available to attend a meeting at least once per term
• have not been convicted of an indictable offence, unless the Minister gives approval under the Act (s.93)
• attend a meeting called for the purpose of electing parent members or staff members
• be the parent of a student attending the school (for elected parent member) or be a member of staff at the school (for elected staff member, and
• submit a completed nomination on time.

The general term of office for elected parent members or elected staff members is two years, although a different term may be set by the school council to create uniformity in the end dates of members’ terms of office.

If you are interested in nominating for this voluntary position, please complete the attached nomination form and email Jasmine Benfer on jbenf10@eq.edu.au by Monday 26 February.

We will be holding our Welcome Afternoon on Thursday 8 February. We are hoping to see as many families as possible. Please refer to the flyer below for details.

Communication and Facebook

At Mango Hill State School, we value effective methods of communication. Each week on a Wednesday we publish our weekly whole school newsletter. This will be sent directly to your nominated email address. We encourage you to take the time to read through the newsletter each week. Our weekly newsletter is a hub where you can find lots of information on everything that is happening in and around the school. Another great way to stay in touch with the school is by joining our official school Facebook page (please see picture of landing page below). On the school’s Facebook page, we will post important reminders, event information, updates, weekly videos from staff and best of all, some snippets of the children “Growing, Learning and Achieving”. Please note that any posts made by the school on the school’s official Facebook page are not to be snipped or screen shot and re-posted on any other community Facebook page. The school’s page is the official page, all other Facebook pages have no affiliation with the school. We appreciate your understanding and support with this matter. If you have any concerns at any time about our school, Facebook is NOT the place to post this. We want this page to remain positive. Should you need to inform us of any concerns, we encourage you to please contact the school to discuss these. Please contact Jasmine jbenf10@eq.edu.au or call 3482 8111.

Student Phone or Smart Devices 

Student Phone or Smart Devices

If students choose to bring their phone to school, they must switch it off and hand it in to the office on arrival to school. Personal devices are not to be used on school grounds. Smart watches and other devices can be worn, however, must be switched off. This approach is being implemented on all QLD state schools to:

• Reduce distractions in the classrooms
• increase face to face interactions between students
• promote health and wellbeing
• reduce the potential for students to be exposed to negative impacts of the digital world, such as cyber bullying.

Should you have concerns or any issues relating to your child, please initially talk to your child’s class teacher. Should your concerns continue, please make an appointment to meet with your child’s Deputy Principal. If your concerns are still not alleviated, then it would be appropriate to make an appointment to talk to me (Principal). It’s important teachers are given the opportunity to address any issues prior to members of the leadership team being involved unless the matter is one of urgency.

Collection of Students early

We understand that from time-to-time appointments and circumstances occur where parents and carers may need to collect students early from school. While we do not encourage parents to collect students from class early, our office staff are happy to help you with collecting your child early as per the following procedure.

If you need to collect your child early from school, we are no longer taking over the phone requests to organise students to the office for a nominated time (unless in emergency situations). We now ask that you factor enough time to come into the school office when you are ready to collect your child and office staff will call them to the office from their classroom after you have been into the office to sign them out. Please take note of the break times as it is often very hard to locate a student during outside playtime as they don’t always hear their name being called over our PA system.  Break times are as follows.

Senior- 10.40-11.10am

1.00-1.30pm

Junior- 10.00-10.40am

12.30-1.00pm

• Care for self
• Care for Others
• Care for Learning
• Care for Environment

Greg McCallum
Deputy Principal- Year 5
gmcca24@eq.edu.au

Welcome back to school!

It’s been a wonderful few days welcoming our Year 6 students for their final year at MHSS. Our classes have spent time getting to know each other and developing classroom structures and routines to set them up for success for the coming year. A special welcome to the new families that have joined us in 2024! After being the Deputy Principal for this cohort of students in 2021 and 2022, I am excited to once again be closely involved in their learning journey.

Over the first few weeks of Term 1, we will be reinforcing key messages with students, such as uniform expectations, before and after school waiting areas and playtime areas. A reminder to all families that students may wait in the Piazza or on the Senior Astro-turf Area (underneath the Year 5 and 6 block) before school. They can also play on the Oval or Multipurpose Court. Each day, students should have plain back shoes and plain white socks to go with their Mango Hill State School uniform. Our students have made a great start at meeting these expectations.

Many of our Year 6 students also carry a phone with them to and from school. If students are bringing their phone to school, they must sign it in at the office before school and collect it again after school. Phones may only be used once outside of the school grounds. If your child is bringing a phone to school with them, please reinforce this message with them.

I’ve enjoyed visiting classrooms over the past few days and seeing students reconnect with old friends and develop new friendships as well. Year 6 is a wonderful year where our students will make many great memories. I look forward to being a part of the journey with them and you in 2024!

 
Ben Mills
Deputy Principal –Year 6
bxmil3@eq.edu.au