Term 2 Week 1 2021

A great start to Term 2!

It is wonderful to see the students return in such a positive manner after the Easter break. There has been plenty of excitement catching up with teachers and old friends and making new friends. A special welcome to families new to our school community!

Please see photos below.

Staff changes

Welcome to the following new and returning staff.

• Tamara Wills who will teach 1W on Thursday and Friday.
• Lee Peno who will join the Inclusive Learning Team replacing Nicole Batterbee who starts maternity leave this week. Best wishes Nicole!
• Louise Slade will teach 2E each Tuesday while Rachel Elliott coaches colleagues.
• Vanessa Abbott returns as Executive Assistant.
• Katherine Tracey joins our school community as our Student Welfare Officer.

ANZAC Day

This Sunday is ANZAC Day – an important day to commemorate and remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Tomorrow Thursday 22^nd April, we will hold a whole school parade from 8.40-9.10am in the piazza to commemorate this important day. All parents are invited to join us if you are well. Please remember to social distance. Special thanks to families who contributed flowers and foliage for our class wreaths. They are looking spectacular!

On Sunday our School Captains will represent the school at the Dawn Service laying a wreath and paying respect. Schools are unable to march with the veterans this year at the Pine Rivers Service.

A reminder that Monday is a public holiday for ANZAC day.

The Care Class focus that will be delivered this Friday, is The Four Cares in the Playground. This focus will continue in classrooms throughout the following week.

We use the Four Cares to help us care for self and others in the playground.  In particular, students will review:

Instrumental Music

This morning, we held a brief meeting with our instrumental students, to revisit how to care for our instruments.  Many staff members have noticed that our students are leaving their instruments laying on the ground in the middle of pathways, or they aren’t being stored appropriately.  All musical instruments are fragile and easily broken.

Together with the instrumental students, Ms Bogdan and Ms White agreed that we would:

• Take responsibility for our instruments and care for our belongings.  Go Team Mango Instrumental!
• Help each other, by reminding our friends to ensure our instruments are always stored safely.
• Understand that instrument cases aren’t made of “magic” and won’t protect our instruments from damage.  We need to ensure they are stored correctly; that’s our job!
• Recognise that our parents and carers have invested their time (and money!) in us learning a musical instrument and are proud of us and our commitment.  In return, we will try our very best to be responsible for our belongings!

This week, we will send home a copy of the PowerPoint presentation we went through with our students, so that you can help us to reinforce these messages at home.  Our instrumental students listened well to these important messages and are very keen to do their best.  Over the coming weeks, we will be looking for students showing care and respect for their belongings and learning.

Thank you for your support!

Save the Date – Mid-Year Concert

We are very excited to inform you about our Mid-Year Mango Hill State School Concert which will be in held in two separate sessions.  The evening will showcase the juniors and the seniors separately to allow more tickets for families. The night will be held on Thursday the 24^th of June, week 10 of Term 2.

This is always a great evening celebrating and showcasing the students’ performing arts skills and talents. It will be a great opportunity for all our students to be on a stage in front of a large audience!

They have all been rehearsing and preparing for a dazzling night of music, dance and drama!  We look forward to seeing you there.

When:  Thursday, the 24^th of June

Where:  Mueller College Performing Arts Centre

Doors Open for Junior Show:  5:00pm 

Junior Show Start time:  5:30pm

Junior Show Finish time:  6:30pm

Doors Open for Senior Show:  6:45pm

Senior Show Start:  7:15pm

Senior Show Finish:  8:45pm

Information regarding ticket sales will be announced in the upcoming weeks!

2021_Mid_Year_Concert.pdf

2021_Mid_Year_Concert _pdf 715.63 KB

Office Hours

From Tuesday the 27^th of April our office will be closed each Tuesday at 3pm. Please note the office opens at 8am to 3:30pm every other day.

Holidays are over in a blink, but it’s certainly been a joy this week to welcome our youngest learners back to our classrooms.  Our Preps continue to amaze us with their effort and care.  They managed the snap lockdown in the last week of term with ease and have returned after the slightly extended break with eagerness and enthusiasm for learning. 

I hope you were able to explore the outdoors and enjoy some of the wonderful weather over the holidays.  We were lucky enough to spend some time at Bribie Island (an old favourite haunt, that’s become a new favourite again with my own small children).  Nothing fancy, just the calm beach each morning and afternoon; however, what adventures were to be had, when given the time and space for imaginations to run wild!  We found “Treasure Island” (some small sandy section, slightly cut off by 10 cm of water), trees to climb, soldier crabs burrowing, sea cucumber egg sacs, fish jumping… it was a feast for the eyes and for the soul.  Being outdoors, and seeing different things also allowed for good conversation and building of vocabulary.  My kids were learning – without even realising it!

This term in Prep, we will be writing about some of our own adventures, through our recount writing unit.  In order to piece together some ideas in written form, we do need to be able to talk out our ideas orally first.  This is something you can help with at home.  Sequencing ideas when sharing with others, “first we went to the park.  Then we ate an ice cream.”  Adding interesting words when we are sharing what has happened.  “We went to the beach.  I saw blue crabs burrowing into the sand.”  We don’t expect correct spelling in the first semester of Prep!  What we are aiming for, is that our students understand that letters and sounds go together to make words, that these words go together to make sentences and that print contains a constant message for the audience.  We can communicate our ideas, through writing!

Morning Drop Off and Afternoon Collection for Preps

Last year, our Prep students were dropped to the under covered area in the mornings and collected from there in the afternoons, from the beginning of Term 2.  Whilst it initially began as a Covid Safe practice, our Prep teachers, as well as many Prep parents commented on how successful this was, to set students up for the day.  It enabled students to chat together in the mornings and it helped parents with the drop off rush and the car park.  Our students were able to unpack their own bags so successfully, because we taught them how and we showed them what to expect.  It was a lesson to us that our little ones are so capable, if we show them what to do!

We will begin to gather like this again (meet in the Prep under covered area each morning and afternoon) in the coming weeks.  Unlike last year, it won’t be compulsory to drop your child to the under covered area in the mornings and parents remain welcome in our classrooms and in our school grounds.  But we will have supervision in the Prep under covered area from 8.00 am each morning and our Prep teachers will collect students waiting there at the 8.15 am bell and walk them to class.  Should you wish to continue to walk your child to their own classroom, you very welcome to do so.

In the afternoons, our Prep teachers will walk their class to the under covered area to dismiss them at 2.30 bell, into your care.  Just like at the classroom, we won’t let them go until you come to collect them from the under covered area.  We will continue to walk students to Look Out each afternoon and we will continue to supervise our Preps waiting for older siblings until 2.45 pm.  We found last year that collection worked well from this space, as it is open, with many entry points.  It’s easy to maintain physical distancing in this space.  It’s also a lovely way for us to gather each morning and afternoon as a Prep community and build those connections.

Your Prep teacher will let you know when this will commence, via email.  If you have any questions, please see your class teacher, or give me a call or email.

See you all at Cross Country next Tuesday morning!

Welcome back to school everyone! I’ve had the pleasure of getting around to all of the Year 3 and 4 classes over the past few days and hearing all about some amazing school holidays experiences. As I have visited classrooms this week, I have noticed a sense of calm and routine, with students ready to learn. Our teachers have done a wonderful job at engaging the students back into learning. We know that every day at school counts! View the photos below to see our happy faces while learning.

Last term across the school, we focussed on showing kindness. While we will continue to look for opportunities to show kindness every day, our focus for this term is Team Mango. As a school community, we all belong to Team Mango. I encourage students this term to think about how they can contribute to Team Mango in a positive way, ensuring everyone in our community can feel like they belong. 

Playtime

To begin each break time this week, our Year 3 and 4 classes have come together before heading out to play. At this time, students are reminded of positive playtime behaviours and where they can go to for help. Students have responded well by making great choices as they solve problems in the playground and look out for one another.

Towards the end of Term 1 and to begin Term 2, there have been a large number of students bringing in Pokemon and/or Yu-Gi-Oh cards. We strongly encourage students to take care when bringing these cards in to school and not to trade their cards with other students while at school.

ANZAC Day Ceremony

This Thursday morning is our ANZAC day whole school parade. Our students have spent time with their buddy classes this week creating wreaths to commemorate our ANZACs. Thank you to all the families who donated some of the beautiful greenery that has been added to these. What a wonderful way for our students to connect with the message of ANZAC day!

NAPLAN online

For families of students in Year 3 and Year 5, there will be a parent information session for NAPLAN online from 8.45am on Thursday 29^th April, in the school hall. If you have any questions regarding NAPLAN online, but cannot make it to the information session, please email your child’s classroom teacher or our school’s NAPLAN coordinators Ben Mills (bxmil3@eq.edu.au) and Jess Rivett (jxqui5@eq.edu.au).

Care for Learning in Year 5 and 6

Students and teachers in Year 5 and 6 have made a fantastic start to Term 2. There is a sense of urgency as I walk around to all classrooms with teachers responding to the Term 1 student outcome data and ensuring that all students are demonstrating significant growth. I had the pleasure of visiting many of the Year 5 classrooms this week as they commenced their learning of persuasive writing. I spoke to students about their use of the TEER paragraph structure and how they were using this structure to formulate their arguments. As NAPLAN fasts approaches many of the Year 5 classrooms have had a special visit from Ms Holm, one of our Heads of Department (Curriculum), as she introduced students to a variety of skills needed to be successful when responding to writing task.

NAPLAN Online

For families of students in Year 3 and Year 5, there will be a parent information session for NAPLAN online from 8.45am on Thursday 29^th April, in the school hall. If you have any questions regarding NAPLAN online, but cannot make it to the information session, please email your child’s classroom teacher or our school’s NAPLAN coordinators Ben Mills (bxmil3@eq.edu.au) and Jess Rivett (jxqui5@eq.edu.au). 

This term promises to be an exciting term of learning. We look forward to supporting all of our students to be their very best as they continue to develop and apply their new understandings.

In English students will explore a range of texts including picture books, novels and arguments as they learn more about characters and events, as well as the ways in which authors persuade others.

In Prep our students will start to fly with their writing, as they write a retell of a familiar event. In other year levels students will write diary entries, descriptions, arguments and persuasive texts.

In Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) students will investigate changes in their own world, as well as changes in our natural and man-made world. This will include in Year 3 considering how schools have changed over time, and in Year 4 considering what our environment was like before the arrival of white settlers. In Years 5 and 6 students will investigate the history of gold and the history of democracy in Australia.

Students from Prep to Year 6 will also continue to work on developing their knowledge of Visual Arts. They will also produce their own individual art work. These will form part of our Arts assessment this semester and will also be used as part of our Term 3 Art Show.

More information about each year’s curriculum can be found on the Term 2 Curriculum Overview.

It was great to see some many students eagerly borrowing this week. Don’t forget that for most students they need to return their current book before they can borrow another one. For students on AR, they can have two books out at a time.

Accerlerated Reader

Congratulations to Areesha and Roma who began the term in style. Areesha has now reached 1 million words and Roma has successfully read 2 million. We are very proud of both these girls and have added their photos to our 2021 AR display in the Hub.

The beginning of the term is such a great time to set some new AR goals. What level would you like to reach? How many books do you think you could read this term? How many words could you aim for?

Hi Mango Hill Families,

We are still running a Pantry Drive for Mango Manchies and Sole Cafe. 

We are looking for donations for staple items. For example jam, vegemite, margarine to name a few and all the things we need to continue to run a growing canteen.

For each item donated your child will receive a raffle ticket.

Every Friday 2 tickets will be drawn and 2 children get to choose from our prize basket.

Thank you for your support

Louise, Bec and the Canteen Crew