Term 1 Week 7 2021

We All Belong – Free Dress tomorrow!

Tomorrow we will celebrate our school diversity with a whole school parade. The key message is that we all have similarities and differences. Our diversity is our strength and we all belong at MHSS! Students may wear something that shows a group they ‘belong’ to. It may be a family group, hobby, team, cultural group or other. Gold coin donation to Student Council. Parents are welcome to join us for this special parade. Please remember to maintain strict hygiene and physical distancing and stay home if ill. We look forward to sharing our students’ sense of ‘belonging’!

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent Teacher Interviews will be held over a four week window including the last two weeks of Term 1 and the first two weeks of term 2. Different teachers will choose different times depending on when they are ready to share assessment results and other information.

Please book interview times via https://eq.sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=70371

Bookings are currently open and will be up until Friday 19 March at 5pm. Students in Years 1 - 6 should attend the interview with their parent/guardian.

The focus of these interviews is to share how your child is progressing in the key areas of English and Maths and discuss their learning goals.

If you have any trouble accessing the site, or you don't have an email account, please contact Courtney Wicks in the office for assistance cwick83@eq.edu.au

If you are having any trouble with the times offered, please email the class teacher to arrange an alternate time.

Please see below for further instructions.

There is much excitement as we start to see some of our facilities projects finalised. The Mallard Street drop off zone has been very smooth this week. The new bike racks have eased the congestion. The new hall is emerging from the ground.

Thanks for your patience as we suffer short term pain for the long term gain! Check out the photos below!

Connection and Clarity

Our 2021 focus is on Connection and Clarity to empower and extend all students. The Annual Implementation Plan and the Investing for Success Plan outline the initiatives, strategies and actions we will engage to improve in these two areas. These are included below for you to peruse.

Parent Forum – We want to hear your viewpoint!

A reminder that parents are invited to share their views regarding our beginning of year processes at the parent forum on Thursday morning after parade. We look forward to hearing from you!

Free Dress Day

Tomorrow we are having our first gold coin donation for free dress. 

Did you know that you can pay your Gold Coin donation via our QKR app? 

QKR is easy to download following is a guide to get you started.

 If you require any assistance with this please feel free to contact Kylie in the office on email kklip1@eq.edu.au.

This week we’ve been deep in our maths work around sorting and counting principles. We need our students to ‘trust the count’ and know that what they counted the first time (touching and moving each object to ensure one to one correspondence), is still the same amount, no matter if you move them around. If you don’t add any or take any away, then you don’t need to recount the objects because you know how many are there.

When we sort objects into groups we need to be able to tell others why we have placed objects in the same group. “I put the yellow teddies in this group and the red teddies in that group because I sorted using their colours.” Or, “I have sorted using two ways! I have all the big, red shapes in this pile and I have the small blue shapes in that pile. I sorted by size and colour.”

You can help your child practise at home by counting and sorting around the house!

One other thing we are really working hard on with all of our Prep students is developing independence. As adults, when we are busy and trying to fit everything into our very busy lives, it can be easy to “take over” and do things for our little ones that they are really capable of doing themselves. Of course we are faster - we’re so much older and we’ve had way more practice than them!

When we carry our children’s bags to school and unpack their belongings for them, we send our children the implicit message “you can’t do this”. When we help them, by encouraging them, showing them how, but ultimately allowing them to do these self care jobs for themselves, we send the message “you can do this! You might be small, but look at what you’re capable of!”

Over the final weeks of this term, we would love to see all of our Prep students carrying their own bags into school and unpacking their own lunches. We know they can do it!

At MHSS, our staff work hard to build a love of learning for our students. As I’ve visited classrooms in Year 3 and 4 this week, I have seen this in action. Students are feeling challenged, yet supported. Students are engaged and driven to achieve their next step towards their goal.

In Year 3, I was able to be a part of 3L’s Maths lesson. Mrs Langman and the students in 3L were looking at how many numbers they could find that had a difference of 6. Students were engaging with a range of tools to support them with this open-ended challenge, such as counters, hundreds charts and strategies that they had been taught. The excitement around the room was contagious as students experienced success with the task.

In Year 4, I had the opportunity to join 4T as they learned about improving their writing through the use of carefully selected noun groups. The students in 4T collaborated with others in their room to identify nouns in their writing and then improve these nouns to make their writing more descriptive and engaging to the reader. As the class generated these noun groups, they added them to their class Learning Wall to help them with their next writing pieces. Fantastic teamwork 4T and Mr Thomas!

Electives

Our Year 3 and 4 students are loving electives on a Friday afternoon. Last Friday, I visited the iMotion and digital art electives. In iMotion, students had created backgrounds for their animated movie and added in characters to begin filming. I cannot wait to see the movies they create! In digital art, students were using colours and emojis to create new images. It is lovely to see students participating in activities that they enjoy every week.

Care for Learning in Year 5 and 6

This week marks assessment time for our Year 5 and 6 learners and what has been the build up to a lot of great teaching and learning. Congratulations to all of our learners across Year 5 and 6. The current data on student learning outcomes is that approximately 97% of students reached standard on their latest maths assessment which is a couple of percentage points above where each year level finished in 2020. This week I had the opportunity to work with students on their next maths goal. Well done to 5P for their great collaborative learning and the work they did to represent different elements on their fractions scale. I also had the opportunity to work in 5W with students who were ensuring their punctuation provided for an engaging story that entertained the reader. Great work Year 5 and 6!

Speaking and Listening in English

As part of our English program, students have the opportunity to develop and apply a range of skills associated with speaking and listening. In Prep, students have been learning to communicate with a whole new group of peers and adults, and as the months progress they will learn to use spoken language to express their emotions, needs and ideas.

 In the coming weeks in Year 1, students will listen to and read a range of picture books about animals as they learn how to share their opinions about a favourite character. They will have a chance to share their opinion as part of a class discussion, answering and asking questions. In Year 2, students will also participate in a discussion, focussing on sharing ideas related to poems. They will be listening for funny or entertaining words, as well as words that rhyme.

In Year 3, students will participate in a small group discussion, working on their persuasive skills as they try to convince others of their point of view. In Year 4, students will also share their point of view but in reference to some historical picture books. They will use ideas from the books and refer to specific words and images.

In Year 5, students will work in small groups to create a multimodal book cover before persuading others that their cover is the very best. They will begin to explore how tone, pitch, volume and pace influence others when we are speaking. In Year 6, students will work in small groups to discuss some of their favourite short stories, asking questions to clarify the ideas of others.

We look forward to seeing students applying their developing skills, not only in English but in the real world where effective speaking and listening means we can care for others and be successful. 

Accelerated Reader

Our Accelerated Reader database not only records quizzes and progress with levels, it also counts the number of words students read each year. This year we have already had 3 students reach one million words – an outstanding achievement.

This week we celebrate and acknowledge the super reading of Chloe and Ipshitha. We are very proud of both these girls and have added their photos to our special AR Millionaire display in the Hub. Pop on down to see their photos.

Helping Hands

Uniform Shop

Uniform shop hours during the term are:
Monday 8.00 am - 10.30 am
Wednesday 1.30 pm - 3.30 pm
Friday 8.00 am - 10.30 am
Online @ www.wearitto.com.au/schools/mango-hill-state-school.   

As it is starting to cool down in the mornings have you thought about our winter options?

We have Zip Jackets, knit jumpers, long sleeve polos and also track pants to keep your little ones warm. 

I have attached the link to our on-line store (above) which may help you also.   If your child is coming to school feeling a little cool in the mornings pop in to see me to grab them some winter items.   Otherwise you can order online and have your items ready for when term 2 starts.

If you are unable to catch me in the above hours please either email me at mangohill@wearitto.com.au .

Have a great week,

Belinda Myers
Uniform Shop Convenor