Term 2 Week 8 2020

Thank you to the parents who attended the P& C on Monday evening. It was great to have Cr Shipway attend to present $5 000 toward our seating for the café. The photo below shows Renee Walls (P & C President) receiving the funds on behalf of our school community. The P & C also decided to contribute additional funds for the floor for the café. Thank you!

At the meeting we discussed the traffic concerns and shared some of the solutions being considered. We are certainly aware of the issues for parents and our neighbours. Our primary concern continues to be student safety and I encourage parents to consider active travel on bikes, scooters or walking or utilising the bus services to reduce the car traffic around the school. Thank you to Cr Shipway for providing an update on the council’s plans.

The P & C committee also endorsed the Student Resource Scheme for 2021. This will be $90 which includes all eLearning subscriptions, photocopying and art supplies. Parents will be supplied with a book and stationery list to purchase separately.

We are excited to see over 100 prep students already enrolled for 2021. If you have a child turning 5 before 30 June 2021, please contact the office for an enrolment pack. We will shortly be organising prep interviews and can’t wait to meet all our new friends!

School Photos were postponed this term due to COVID19 restrictions. We have now planned for school photos to be taken on Tuesday 27 October and Thursday 29 October. 

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

The focus of the week beginning on Friday and revisiting each day throughout next week is ‘Building Character through our Mango Hills Values.’

Our five Mango Hill Vaules are:
Respect, Commitment, Teamwork, Innovation and Excellence.

Throughout the Care Class lesson, students will brainstorm how we:

• Display kindness and respect with peers and the wider school community
• Bring the commitment and effort during lessons and school activities
• Work well with others as a team and contribute to my class and my school
• Try things in new ways or try new ideas
• Reach for the stars, being the best I can be, someone I would be proud to know.

Thank you 
Peta 

Students who have participated in Performing Arts this semester will complete their Dance unit this term through a filmed performance. In their Week 9 or 10 Performing Arts lesson, their class will be filmed (students who have permissions) and this film will be uploaded to the class Showbie or the Prep portal, allowing parents to be the audience.

NO COSTUMES ARE REQUIRED. We look forward to seeing our amazing students shine in their performances.

Last week, I talked about the cognitive load for writing; how much brain power and brain energy goes into learning to write a sentence.  This week, let’s turn our attention to learning to read.

Reading is such a complex process!  Students need to know that print contains a constant message, that we read from left to right and top to bottom, that letters go together to make sounds, these sounds go together to make words and then these words go together to make a sentence.  Phew, that’s a lot!

Students also need to know that the whole point of reading something in the first place is to make sense of it!

When we visit classrooms, we ask our students questions about their learning.  We ask, “what are you learning?”  It can be really tricky for our youngest learners to articulate what it is they are actually learning, especially when it comes to such a big skill like learning to read, because there are so many little skills that need to be learned and then we need to learn how to put these skills together.

There are different ways we teach students to read. When we model how to read, the teacher opens up their reading brain and ‘thinks aloud’ so that students can hear the reading process happen.  In Shared Reading, the teacher and students explore the text together, working together to unpack characters and plot and story.  In Guided Reading, we work in targeted groups, focusing on those smaller skills, to make progress at our instructional reading level.  When we read independently, we work really hard to piece it all together ourselves!

At the end of first semester in Prep, we would like to see our students:

• Demonstrate a strong understanding of concepts of print; reading from left to right and top to bottom
• Know the difference between a letter and a sound and recognise all letter names and recall all sounds
• Demonstrate one to one word correspondence, with confidence
• Recognise a small bank of sight words
• Start to use a small range of reading strategies, such as using the pictures for clues and getting their mouths ready to say the correct sound
• Recount what they have read or what has been read to them
• Have an understanding of the text and be able to answer comprehension questions.

Reading as a family is the most effective way you can help your child to learn to read.  When your child sees you read; they know that reading is something that grown ups do; they see that it’s an important part of life.  When we read together with our children, we are able to enjoy books together and it’s a simple way to reconnect, after spending the day apart from each other.

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

What sort of learners do we want our children to be?

We want lifelong learners who are able to verbalize their learning and work in a team. Collaborative learning opportunities in the classroom develop these skills.

In Year 1 and 2 classrooms, the teachers have been working hard to teach their students the skills to collaborate. This student-to-student interaction allows children to build academic language, provides opportunities for active interactions and sets up learning to work in a group, building accountability for their learning. In collaborative learning, we can hear the students think aloud and they can spend a large amount of the day practising the language of the learning area.

Of course, our Year 1 and 2 students have had to learn how to interact in a group, assume group roles and build their accountability in group tasks. This learning is so worth it. When students get to practise their problem solving, receiving peer-to-peer feedback, they build their confidence as learniners before they have to represent their learning individually.

See below as our little ones develop their collaborative learning skill…

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

We are so very proud of how well our students have been working on improving their writing this week in Year 3 and 4. They have done a wonderful job editing their work and conquering the learning goals. It has been such a celebration visiting classrooms and having students leap out of their seats to share their work. How wonderful that they felt so proud of their accomplishments.

 This week Ms Goodall's class was one of many with big smiles on their faces. As they got into the mindset of being Rowan they began to write their diary entries. The lights were turned off, the soundtrack of a forest with rain softly playing in the background and students had the opportunity to lay on the floor pretending that they might be staying in the forest for the night. 4W produced amazing work this week.

Fantastic work 4W!

Have a wonderful week 
Michelle
malco14@eq.edu.au 

This week has been all about reading samples of writing for our Year 5 and 6 classrooms.

It has been the highlight of my term reading all of the Year 6 analyses of Blueback and the Year 5 persuasive responses. I have appreciated students’ ability to craft a well organised paragraph using the TEER structure and then use the structure to ensure they have high quality evidence to support their opinion. Keep up the great work Year 5 and 6!

Thank you to all of the parents who have scheduled a place at the three upcoming Graduation Committee meetings. Due to the 10 person restriction on meetings these are now full however, I will be scheduling meetings for next term and will report back discussion points from the meeting. I can assure all families that regardless of social distancing restrictions, we will plan a great event to celebrate the graduation of a fabulous cohort.

Last week we welcomed representative from Murrumba State Secondary College who spoke to our Year 6 students about their school’s academies. The students loved hearing about the sporting academy, the Spanish Immersion program and all of the great opportunities high school has to offer. Next week, we welcome teachers from Mango Hill State Secondary College. This is the start of our work together with the local secondary schools, to ensuring our students are best prepared for their next journey.

Our future scientists in Year 6 have been working hard since their return to school in SciConnect. This term students are learning about gravity. Students have been conducting experiments using different weighted balls and studied the impact of their mass and inertia. Students have used the opportunity to make a hypothesis, collaborate on their learning and discover new things.   

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

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD).
The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au). If you have any questions about the NCCD, please feel free to contact me via email ewarn23@eq.edu.au.

With thanks 
Ellaine and the ILT
ewarn23@eq.edu.au

Did you see Mr Mills and Mrs Rivett's video on Facebook about the Coding Challenges that are running?

In preparation for the Premier's Coding Challenge (including entries from students all across Queensland) to be completed in September, we are running our own school-based coding challenge for students at Mango Hill. Competition entries are due on Friday 24 July.

If you are interested in any further information please click the link below. 

https://education.qld.gov.au/about-us/events-awards/awards-competitions/premiers-coding-challenge

Don't forget to add the Showbie code to be a part of the competition (6VHWV). Here you can upload your entries and ask questions. You can also see your STEM teacher to find out more information!

Good Luck 
Ben and Jess 
bxmil3@wq.edu.au
jxqui5@eq.edu.au

Accelerated Reader

We have been very excited to welcome so many visitors to the Hub in recent weeks, as many students refocus on their AR goals. The Hub is open before school (from 8.15am) and after school (until 3pm) for all students who would like to return and/or borrow a new book. The Hub is also open at lunch times on Mondays & Wednesdays for Years 3 &4; on Tuesdays & Wednesdays for Years 5 & 6; and Thursdays & Fridays for Years 1 & 2.  We look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Congratulations to Prithuvi who has been working hard to reach his AR goal in the last few weeks.

He has been reading some very thick books and taking his time to locate all of the answers within the book. This week he reached 3 million words! This is such a fantastic achievement and we are very proud of his efforts so far this year!

Happy reading 
Suzette 
shol02@eq.edu.au

Payment of $55 for Term 2 Student Resource Scheme is now overdue if you have not already paid this could you please do so as soon as possible.  If you are experiencing financial difficulties with making this payment please contact Kylie on kklip1@eq.edu.au so that options can be discussed.

How can I make my payments?

1. Telephone payments from debit or credit cards via the Interactive Voice Response system on 1300 631 073 (details are located on the bottom of invoice)
2. Via Qparents with BPOINT (if you don’t have QParents set up please make contact so we can get you setup as soon as possible it’s a quick and easy process.)
3. Via the BPOINT website
4. By setting up an Electronic Direct Debit Registration; BSB: 064185 A/C#10161814
5. Call into the cashier window on Monday, Wednesday or Friday morning between the hours of 8am and 9am card payments only.
6. Set up regular payments via Centrepay, we can assist.

Have a lovely week 
Kylie 
kklip1@eq.edu.au

Fundraising meeting to be held 10:00am Thursday 16 July (Week 1 of Term 3) to help the P & C revise and complete planning for any fundraising activities for Term 3 & 4.

This planning session has become necessary to ensure any actitices can be held under current circumstances and restrictions relating to COVID-19.

 At this stage, the meeting will be held at the school, socially distanced with less than 20 people subject to current requirements. We could look to use the outdoor area of the staffroom or alternative location as suggested by yourself.

We could also hold the meeting on ZOOM. I am happy to communicate final plans to the attendees effective Monday 13 July as confirmation.

RSVPs and meeting location suggestions can be submitted to me via email - mhsspcpresident@gmail.com

Thank you 
Renee 
mhsspcpresident@gmail.com