Term 4 Week 9 2020

Recent Celebrations

Congratulations to students who received points for behaviour celebration. Students have enjoyed rock climbing, the disco and the jumping castle. A wonderful celebration in a challenging year!

Great to also hear of the wonderful experience at the Year 6 excursion to the ropes course.

Last week’s swimming carnival was a great success. Well done to all students who participated and special thanks to Mr Hills and Mr Newell for their organisation and to all the staff who worked tirelessly on the day.

End of Year Festivities

Over the next week we have the following festivities

Go Red for CF – We are looking forward to all students wearing red this Friday, bringing along a gold coin for CF Queensland and having fun on the giant obstacle course!

Awards Assemblies -  Next Monday we will hold our end of semester awards ceremony. If your child is receiving an award, you should receive an invitation from the teacher. Congratulations to the students who are being recognised!

Year 6 Graduation Dinner – We look forward to celebrating our Year 6 students next Monday evening at Eaton’s Hill Tavern.

Break up Party Day – Next Tuesday we will hold our break up party day. Free dress! Teachers will communicate with you regarding what is happening that day for your child’s class.

Farewell Parade – Will be held next Tuesday morning. This is for students and staff only to limit numbers of adults gathering on site.

Year 6 Walk out – This will be held next Tuesday afternoon. Parents of Year 6 students are invited to gather on the oval (socially distanced) from 2.20pm.

Clean up Day – This will be held next Wednesday. No formal lessons on this day.

2021 Classes

Next Monday parents will be emailed their child’s class placement for 2021. Many, many hours have been spent forming classes ensuring each class has a good balance and taking into account parent considerations. Please be respectful of your child’s class allocation. Students will have time on Monday afternoon to meet their new teacher (where possible).

Report Cards

Report Cards will be emailed home to parents next Monday. Staff have carefully moderated results to ensure consistency across the year level and beyond our school. A reminder that a ‘Working With’ in Prep, ‘Sound’ in Year 1-2 and C in Year 3-6 are all good results and mean that your child is meeting the achievement standard. If you have any questions about your child’s report results, please make a time to see the class teacher.

2021 Staffing

Next week we will farewell a number of staff who are moving on to new adventures in 2021. Farewell and special thanks to Jenni Black, Sara Brewster, Ella Coles, Andrea Townsend, Michelle Hodges, Tim Gregory, Elyse Towel, Simon Jockel, Erin Stacey, Ellie Goodwin, Anita Smyth, Donna Clarkson, Linda Donnelly, Gill Gould, Samantha Topping and Andie Halliwell. Each of these staff members have played a significant role in the lives of our students and we thank them for their outstanding efforts and wish them all the best for their next adventures!

I will send you a full teaching staff list next Monday with your child’s class placement.

Carpark safety

There has been some recent discussion on social media about not having crossing supervisors next year. I would like to assure you that crossing supervisors will remain in place in 2021. While different people will be doing the role, I can assure you that the crossings will be manned.  Student safety remains our highest priority.

A number of parents have recently contacted us raising concerns about the volume of traffic in the carpark and surrounds. We certainly realise that the carpark is very crowded and will have further options in place for 2021 which I will outline before school returns. Once again, I implore you to be courteous, to slow down and prioritise student safety.

Final Communication

This will be the last newsletter this year. Next Monday I will email you with details of your child’s placement and include information about our procedures for the start of 2021.

On behalf of the staff, I wish you all a safe, happy holiday.
Tracy
tegan4@eq.edu.au

Focus of the Week 

Imagining and hoping for a positive future for yourself is a healthy mindset.  Hope is about expecting the best in the future, working to achieve it and believing a good future is something that can occur.  Imaging our Future is thinking about what is important to us and creating a picture in our mind.  Images of the Future is creating a picture or pictures of what our future may look like.

Expecting the best and believing that a positive future is possible can transform one's future. Strongly associated with a growth mindset, high hope people understand that disappointments and challenges are normal and to be expected.   

Last Friday in Care Classes, students viewed stimulus photos to predict what their future environment might look like. In Grade 6, students used chalk and talk strategy to write and draw what they think our planet would look like in the year 2070.

What will my values be? 

What kind of house will I live in?

What sort of person will I be? 

What will be important to me? 

What holidays will I have? Where will I go? 

What mode of transport will I use? 

How healthy will I be? 

What job will I have? 

What sort of education will I have achieved?  

What relationships do I have? Who do I have around me?

If you’re interested in any further reading for encouraging children to dream big:

https://www.mumtastic.com.au/parenting/634859-raising-children-who-dream-big/?utm_source=OriginIQ 

Student of the Week 

Italian News

YEAR FOUR CARNEVALE MASKS

Year Four experienced Carnevale by making some traditional Venetian masks complete with papier-mache moulded masks, paint, sequins, gemstones, ribbons, feathers and glitter. The process began with Year Four learning about different festivals including Carnevale, and the Commedia dell’Arte characters who are portrayed during Carnevale. The students designed their masks, painted them and then selected decorations to complete a stunning mask.  A Carnevale ogni scherzo vale!  

 YEAR FIVE GIOCANO CON YEAR TWO

Year Five explored the concept of games this term and created an Italian game for Year Twos based on the fairy-tale of the Three Bears. They enjoyed playing the game with Year Twos using Italian to play the games. Tocca a te!  Ho vinto!

ITALIAN EXCELLENCE GALLERY EXHIBITION

Our Year Five and Year Six Italian Excellence class held their very own gallery exhibition in the Hub this week. The Italian artists Giuseppe Arcimboldo and Antonio Vivaldi inspired their Italian works of Art. The students greeted a special guest, Signora Belton with whom they enjoyed sharing their work and a freshly made Macedonia di Frutta.

ILC ITALIAN CALLIGRAM COMPETITION

Students were invited to enter the Italian Language Centre Calligram Competition. The entry involved drawing a picture only using words. Students selected a Fairy Tale and using Italian words from the fairy tale, they used the words to create the picture.

We would like to congratulate the following students for their creative effort:

Bodhi(Prep)  Gold First Place

Rutendo (Year 3)  Certificate

Abhijot (Year 4)   Certificate

Ky (Year 5)   Highly Commended

Madison(Year 6)  Highly Commended

Junior Italian 

Prep students have been busy this term preparing a present to give to their Italian mascot, Pinocchio.  They were very excited last week when Pinocchio arrived from Italy to greet them.  Students were able to give their gifts and cards to Pinocchio and use Italian language to communicate within the exchange.  Students learned to say Grazie, Prego, Fantastico and Perfetto!  What a fun term of learning Italian in Prep.  Bravissimi ragazzi! 

Have a good week
Signora Connie Lammertsma
Signora Shona McEvoy

Borrowed Uniforms

A reminder that if you have borrowed uniforms from the office, please return in the next few days so we can store them away for emergencies for next year!

Still Working Hard!

This Friday is our last playgroup of the year! We have had such a wonderful time at playgroup each Friday with our families. Huge thanks to Miss Livvy for planning such engaging activities for our little ones.

Playgroup will resume next year, on the Friday morning of the second week of the school year.

Please enjoy these photos of some children enjoying playgroup recently. 

Our Preps are still working hard in their classrooms, with guided reading groups and writing activities happening this week. We are working hard to do our very best, right up to the end!

When you receive your report card next week, please take the time to reflect with your child about their wonderful progress and their amazing achievements. Please also take the time to thank your committed Prep teacher and Prep teacher aide, who have helped your child on their learning journey this year.

We’ve had such a fabulous first year of school; there’s so much to celebrate! 
Melinda
mwhit37@eq.edu.au

Transitions

The class teachers have been working with their sector leader to carefully place children in balanced classes for 2021.  It is a tricky process to ensure children are placed in best fit classes.  In the Early Years, we do move students around quite a bit to ensure that the students have the chance to meet and form bonds with many students across the year level.  Now that the classes have been established, the teachers have been working hard this week to ensure smooth transitions for our students particularly those in the early years.

Some of the transition opportunities planned include: having Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 teachers start visiting the Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 classes and our Meet the Teacher Afternoon on Monday 11 December. If children require extra transitioning, classroom teachers will be providing extra opportunities over the last two weeks of school to engage with the new teacher or the new classroom environment and provide the children with a social story to read over the holidays to prepare them for the next year level.  Some Prep classes have already had a turn in visiting the Year 1 classrooms, which was very exciting, and we will continue to offer this process over the next few weeks.

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

A Celebration of a Great Year

What a wonderful year it has been. It has been such a celebration to see how far our students have grown over the course of the year. Visiting classrooms is always a highlight and I love to hear the stories they share about where they started, next steps and the celebrations of their hard work. I am super proud of each and every one of our Year 3 and 4 students, they have overcome some big challenges this year and still managed to conquer many goals. Congratulations girls and boys.

To all our wonderful families I wish you a very happy and safe holiday.
Michelle 
malco14@eq.edu.au

Care for Learning in Year 5

Welcome to the final full week of 2020. I am sure you will all agree that it has been a year unlike all others. I want to commend all of the students in Year 5 and 6 for the way in which they have focussed on continuing their care for learning. This week Year 5 classes participated in the annual Market Day assessment. This activity provides students the opportunity to stretch their learning of financial maths skills to a real world problem. Students are required to collaboratively create a business, manufacture and market a product and ensure they account for profits and losses. Students were heard saying how much they love working with their friends and found the real world context really useful in helping stretch their learning. This has had an evident impact with 66% of our students (130 in total) achieving an A or a B on their report card for maths. Great job!!!

Care for Others and Self in Year 6

This week our Year 6 students participated in an excursion, instead of the cancelled Year 6 camp, that provided an opportunity for them to build relationships, resilience and other interpersonal skills required for life as they continue to grow and achieve. With secondary school fast approaching, and with it an increase in independence, students will be required more and more to collaborate and think critically. Opportunities like the Year 6 excursion have helped contribute to this development. It was great seeing students engage with peers that they do not normally get the opportunity to meet. Great care for others and self Year 6 students!

EcoMarines showing Care for the Environment

Our EcoMarine Ambassadors this week had the opportunity to visit Tangalooma and continue their quest in caring for the environment. On the day students collaborated with environmental experts and learnt how to care for the environment, in particular the marine environment. The highlight of the day, of course, was the student’s opportunity to feed dolphins in the natural playground.  

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

Thank you to our 2020 ILT 

In 2020, the Inclusive Learning Team has collaborated across the school to ensure that all of our learning environments are inclusive of all students. Our team this year has included Ellie Goodwin (Guidance Officer), Vicki Doyle (Speech Language Pathologist), Ann Stewart (EAL/D support), Cass Stewart (ILT supporting Prep), Kara Rufford and Sarah Watson (ILT supporting Year 1/2), Angela Ray and Kerrie-Ann Wood (ILT supporting Year 3/4), Lisa Davey, Emma Farrugia and Kelly Koch (ILT supporting Year 5/6), Kara Gough and Peta Fishburn (ILT supporting Student Engagement), Jane Courtney (Student Welfare Officer). The team is supported by our hardworking and empathetic ILT teacher aides. 

On behalf of the Inclusive Learning Team, I wish all of our students and families are safe and happy holiday. We are excited to see you again in 2021. We wish our Year 6 students the best of luck for the future. We will miss you.

Take care
Ellaine
ewarn23@eq.edu.au

Returning all books

Just a reminder that all library books need to be returned to the Hub this week. This will allow us plenty of time to take stock of all of our resources. For any lost, missing or damaged books we ask families to donate a replacement book to the Hub.

Accelerated Reader

As the year draws to a close there are still a handful of students working hard to reach their AR goals. Once such student who has been working extra hard over the last few weeks is Charlotte. This week she reached one million words in AR. As you can see from her beaming smile she was so very proud of herself. Congratulations Charlotte on reaching this milestone. We have added her photo to our special display in the Hub.

Premier’s Coding Challenge award winners!

Earlier this year, Mango Hill State School ran a Coding Competition linked to the annual Premier’s Coding Challenge. This year, the challenge was to code an interactive and innovative digital solution to raise awareness of cybersecurity. We had a number of sensational entries from across the school. Our Year 5 and 6 students had the opportunity to enter the official Premier’s Coding Challenge. Ky G (5V), Madison G (6T) and Ngan N (5D) all sent in outstanding entries.

Congratulations to Ky, on his participation award and to Madison and Ngan on their merit awards. We are very proud to have such innovative thinkers at our school!

Learning and Practising Number Facts in the Holidays!

At MHSS we place a high value on students learning and knowing their number facts. Number facts are simple addition, subtraction, multiplication or division number sentences. They are the number sentences that students are expected to ‘just know’.

‘Just knowing’ these facts isn’t easy as there are so many to learn. Because of this, it is important that students have strategies for calculating simple number facts, while they learn and become more fluent with them. Therefore, we prioritise a strategy-focussed approach to learning number facts, whereby students have the opportunity to practise their facts through games and activities, but are also explicitly taught how to find an answer when they don’t know it.

Why strategy-focussed?

It is important that children develop their number sense as well as fluency. Some children (and adults!) are able to quickly recall answers to mathematical questions, but are unable to explain how or why it works. Developing number sense helps children understand this and apply that knowledge across a range of contexts. Therefore, when learning number facts, students should see the connection between numbers in a variety of ways and not only in the form of ‘a + b = c’. The diagrams below display how we determine if students ‘know’ and are able to recall a number fact effectively:

A resource we recommend using for practising number facts is ‘Hit the Button’ (https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button). This site allows students to practise a focus number fact or strategy at a time and in a variety of formats (it can also be downloaded as an app). Using this for 5 minutes a day will be an excellent way to reinforce the learning done at school.

Students practise their number facts regularly at school. Ask them to teach you a game they have learned and join in the fun!

Have a wonderful week
Suzette and Ben
shol0@eq.edu.au
bxmil3@eq.edu.au

2020 MHSS Swimming Carnival Results

Congratulations to all competitors at both the 8-9yrs and 10-12yrs 2020 Mango Hill State School Swimming Carnival. Special congratulations must go to the Barton House who for the first time took home the MHSS Swimming Champions Shield in 2020, and broke Flynn’s run of 8 straight victories! Barton had a big year finishing on 425, with Walker on 355 and Flynn on 330.

It was great to see students enjoying the day with the splash zone a big hit once again.  It was also great to see students trying their best in the different events and supporting one another. The level of competitiveness was high but this did not stop the wonderful caring of others after races had finished.  Big smiles and congratulations were a highlight.

A big thank you must go to our wonderful groundsman team for all their work in setting up and to all the staff for their assistance on both days.  We were also very fortunate to have so many Year 6 student helpers on both days.   I am sure they loved the opportunity to be in the water assisting some of our swimmers but their help made the day so much more enjoyable for the students and easier for MHSS staff as well.

All age champions are announced, and awarded their medallions at the End of Year Awards Parade.

Early in Term 1, 2021, 10-12 year old students who finished in the top 3 for 50m final events and have achieved a time under the Pine Rivers District Schools Swimming suggested qualifying times, will receive nomination forms for the Pine Rivers District Swimming Carnival to be held at the Lawnton Swimming Pool.

Have a fantastic week 
Nick and Tyson
nhil96@eq.edu.au
tnewe20@eq.edu.au