Term 1 Week 8 2021

National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence

This Friday, we will stand together, as a community, on the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence.  We will use the opportunity to, once again, teach students the important messages that bullying and violence is never okay and how to respond if they encounter it.   Each class will make the traditional bunting with important messages. They will also decorate a ribbon and make a class pledge or a commitment to action that they will take to help stop bullying. Students may wear an orange ribbon or shirt (sun safe) to show their commitment.

What is bullying?

Bullying is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening.  Bullying can happen in person or online, via various digital platforms and devices and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert).  Bullying behaviour is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time (for example, through sharing of digital records).  Bullying of any form or for any reason can have immediate, medium and long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders.

Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.

How can parents help?

Parents and other carers have a key role in preventing and responding to bullying.

Learn what bullying is and what it is not. This is the first step in talking about how to prevent or respond to bullying with your child. 'Bullying' is a word that is used for lots of things that are not actually bullying. These other behaviours may be just as serious, but may require different responses.

Schools can be much more effective when parents report bullying and support their efforts to deal with it.

If your child reports that bullying is occurring at school, or the bullying involves students from the school outside of school, you should let the school know the situation.

Working together with the school is the best way to help your child resolve bullying issues.

Schools will work with you to resolve the situation and will also work with the other student's parents. Due to privacy laws, we will not be able to share information about any other students involved.

For more information go to https://bullyingnoway.gov.au

Social Media – How do you model respect?

Once again, I would like to remind people that our only social media site is the Mango Hill State School Page facebook page (shown below). Other pages set up by parents or locals have NOT been endorsed by the school. Unfortunately, these other pages can sometimes be hurtful and untrue so I recommend to all parents to contact the school for accurate information. If you have any concerns or issues, airing them on social media exacerbates the issue and does not work toward a solution. If you are genuinely concerned about something and want to solve the issue, please contact the relevant staff member to assist you. We all want the same thing, for your child to be happy, safe and learning – so let’s work in partnership to achieve this!

School Council Parent Representative

Congratulations to Jodie Shipway who was elected as the new Parent Representative on the School Council. The School Council is made up of the Principal (Tracy Egan), P&C President (Renee Walls), two Parent representatives (Tenille Dumbell and Jodie Shipway) and two staff representatives (Fiona Graham and Michelle Alcorn). Special thanks to our outgoing School Council Chair Guy Kelly and staff member Ellaine Warner for their contributions over the past two years. I look forward to working with the new School Council to ensure we are creating the best school possible.

Thanks to our Federal member for Petrie Luke Howarth who attended our school parade last Thursday for ‘We all Belong Day’. Mr Howarth spoke about the change to our National Anthem and presented our Student Leaders with a new Australian flag, Aboriginal Flag and Torres Strait Islander flag.

Welcome new families

We are excited to welcome a number of new families to our school community this year. We invite you to join with me and members of the leadership team for a coffee and chat on Thursday 25 March at 8.30am at SOLE’s café.

Buy a Brick and have your name on permanent display!

We are currently building a new school hall. As part of this build, we are offering individuals, families, staff members and those who have an association with our school, the opportunity to ‘buy-a-brick’ for $25. You will have your details inscribed on the brick as a permanent record of your association with our school.  You can buy one for your family, one for each of your children, your business or as many as you like! This is a fabulous way to have your association with our school permanently on display. We have kept the price reasonably low so most families can afford to participate. All funds raised will go to the P & C to support further initiatives and improvements in our school.

Orders and payment should be placed at https://my-site-109270-105702.square.site/shop/buy-a-brick/14. Orders close on Sunday 28 March. Sorry no late orders will be taken.

Depending on the numbers ordered, the building team will design a wall or pathway with all pavers included for display as part of the hall project (similar to the photo below).  If you know of families previously associated with our school, please don’t hesitate to let them know about this.

Thank you for your support of our school.

We are starting to learn how to read!

Reading is a complex process (as is writing)! We are working on starting to put our Term 1 learning together so that we can turn our attention to learning to read.

• • • • • We need to know...
        • How to hold the book the right way
        • How to turn the pages
        • How to track what is happening in the words and the pictures - picture cues are a real guide with early readers; One to one correspondence and really knowing the difference between a letter, word and sentence; A small bank of sight words (just enough to get us started!); How letters and sounds work together to create words; How to blend two or more sounds together.

And then comprehension! What’s this story all about anyway?

You can help us at home by attending to some of these things when you read with your child each night. Help your child by pointing to each word as you read to them. Model the thinking in your head, out loud. “Hmm let’s turn the page and see what happens next.”

Next Tuesday is our first Cross Country and on the last Thursday of Term 1, we will hold a Fancy Bonnet Parade, to celebrate the end of the term and upcoming holiday. Both events are very focused on participation, fun and trying our best! Parents are welcome, following Covid Safe distancing and hand washing. Please remain home if unwell.

Cross Country Reminders

On Tuesday 23^rd March we will be taking part in our Junior Cross Country. Our students are super excited to be taking part and are looking forward to having a run with their friends. In the junior years we very much encourage all our friends to have a go. Cross Country for our P-2 students is a non-competitive race with a focus on inclusion and participation. We look forward to seeing everyone ready to race!

Important Things to Remember...

School will start as normal and we will be ready to head to the oval for 8:30.

Children will need:

• To wear sports uniform (different running shoes are optional for the race (no spikes) and regular school shoes need to be changed back into for the remainder of the day).
• Full drink bottle
• School hat
• Brain break in a container or named snap lock bag please as this will be coming with us to the oval.
• Sun cream will be available at school to put on but children may want to apply it before coming to school if they can.

The cross country should finish up by the time first break starts at 10:15am.

Showing what we know. This has been the theme of my time in classrooms this week. Students have been representing their learning from their units of work throughout the term, applying the final bits of their teacher’s feedback to create some outstanding writing pieces.

I was lucky enough to observe 3C this week doing exactly this. The students in 3C first worked together to improve a common writing sample, before moving onto their own pieces of writing. They were all able to tell me about what they had already done well and what they needed to do next to improve their work. Well done to Miss Curran for providing such clear next steps to the students and well done 3C for showing such great growth mindsets!

Positive Play

It has been wonderful walking around at playtime and seeing the students engage in a range of positive play options. We are so lucky to have staff members actively involving themselves in the games and activities, as well as our student leaders joining in and leading a range of games. I have seen students doing chalk drawing, building with blocks, making trains, skipping, playing Connect 4 and playing soccer. Check out some of the pictures of these activities below.

NAPLAN online

On Thursday next week, students in Year 3 will be participating in a practice NAPLAN online test. Information regarding this was emailed out to parents last week. Students will require the NAP locked down browser on their iPads for this. If you have any questions or concerns regarding NAPLAN online, please contact your child’s classroom teacher or myself at bxmil3@eq.edu.au

Care for Learning in Year 5 and 6

It is hard to believe that we are about to head into week 9 of Term 1. Where has the time gone? I had the pleasure this week of working in some Year 5 classrooms, in particular 5B and 5K. I really appreciated observing the learning culture present in 5B. Students were using a collaborative learning strategy to assist and support the learners to achieve their next part of their fraction goal. It was great listening to the conversations in which peers were tutoring their friends so that they could achieve the lesson success criteria. In 5K I had the opportunity to work with students who were presented with fraction problems solved, however with a mistake. Students had to use higher order thinking to pinpoint the mistake, explain the advice they would give the person solving the problem and then solve the problem correctly. This gave Mrs Duffey some great formative data in which to provide students with intervention before their upcoming assessment. Great work 5B and 5K!

Hub display

This week in the Hub we have a new display from the Qld Museum, celebrating Democracy. Everyone is welcome to visit the Hub and have a look at this interesting display. What do you know about democracy? How do you think democracy has changed in Australia?

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We are looking for volunteers to sell tickets for the Easter raffle. We need at least two people for the following times:

Friday 26^th March 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm outside the canteen

Monday 29^th March 8:00 am to 9:00 am outside the office

Monday 29^th March 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm outside the office

Tuesday 30^th March 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm outside the office

Wednesday 31^st March 8:00 am to 9:00 am outside the office

Wednesday 31^st March 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm outside the office

Thursday 1^st April 8:00 am to 9:00 am outside the canteen

Please reply to the email mhsspandc@gmail.com with any times you may be available.