Term 2 Week 2 2021

Respect on ANZAC Day

It was wonderful to see our school community come together last Thursday to honour the ANZAC traditions. Special thanks to Luke Howarth (Federal member for Petrie), Steven Miles (Deputy Premier and State Member for Murrumba) and Jodie Shipway (Local Councillor MBRC) for sending representatives on their behalf. Also special thanks to Renee Walls (P&C President) and Mr John Tucker from the RSL for their support and attendance.

On Sunday morning, our school captains Ashton and Michaela attended the Dawn Service at Kallangur on behalf of our school community. Thank you to these leaders and their families for their attendance.

End of Semester Awards

Our school community values excellence.  At the end of each semester, students in Years 1-6 may receive the Principal’s Award for Excellence if they show commitment to effort in multiple subject areas; outstanding behaviour; wear their uniform consistently with pride; and demonstrate commitment toward homework completion.

There are also awards for Academic Excellence and the Deputy Principal Encouragement Awards. Please read the attached criteria with your child and support them to achieve their goals.

We have had a great start to the term with students focussed on their learning. This week I have had the pleasure of visiting classrooms alongside some of our other leaders and coaches to see how students are progressing. We have listened to the students describe their learning, how they are going and how they will improve. I look forward to seeing students continue to improve as they develop clarity.

Uniform expectations

We expect all students to wear their uniform with pride. This includes plain black shoes with white socks, hair tied back and the school hat.

Most students are in uniform each day however we do have a number of students not in the correct school jumper. We ask all parents to support your children to adhere to the School Dress Code. If you are under financial hardship, please make contact with the office and we can discuss options to assist, including a payment plan. If students are not in uniform, a note is expected. Thank you for supporting your child to meet our school community expectations.

2022 Enrolments

We are excited to see over 60 Prep students already enrolled for 2022. If you have a child turning 5 before 30 June 2022, please contact the office for an enrolment pack. Later this term we will be organising Prep interviews and can’t wait to meet all our new friends!

The Care Class focus that will be delivered this Friday, is Communicating with our friends in the playground. This focus will continue in classrooms throughout the following week.

Students will work on what it means to be polite and how this might look and feel when saying kind words to each other.  Students will also talk about how to:

• Start conversations
• Interpret social situations
• Interact positively
• Listen to others.

Students will learn that communication involves both speaking and listening carefully.  We will also be reminded that communication can be non-verbal.  These skills will be introduced this Friday and continued throughout next week.

We are well into our Shared Reading unit of work.  When we learn to read, there are two things we need to tackle:  the decoding and the comprehension.  The comprehension is actually the biggest piece of work, because if we don’t understand what we read, then we are just “barking at print”.  The point of reading, is for the reader to understand the message.

The balance of learning to decode and learning to comprehend can be tricky!  We also need to have solid decoding skills to be able to access the text, to then be able to comprehend the text! 

In class, our students tackle this reading work in a number of different ways including the following.

• Model reading daily.  Our students need to see us read.  When you read in front of your children at home, you are modelling what we all need to do in life!
• Shared reading across the week.  This is when we explore texts and literature and characters and storylines and all the “big picture” reading skills.  When we understand books and we enjoy books, it helps us to piece all the little bits together when we learn to read independently.  Our Shared Reading tasks always focus on comprehension of longer texts, that we read and explore together.
• Guided reading across the week.  Students work in small groups and this is where the real teaching of the decoding skills happens.  Each group may tackle a different book and may be working on a different decoding skill.  The trick is to get the right level of challenge in these groups.  Students are reading books that are too hard for them to read independently but of course they have the teacher there helping them.  These books are chosen to be well above their independent reading level, so that the book is hard enough for them to tackle decoding challenges.
• Independent reading across the week.  As our students build their bank of words and decoding skills, they will start to be able to read more independently.  You may find your child is reading signs as you drive places, or labels on things at home.  Encourage this!  Every little bit helps!  The home readers that are starting to come home for many students are supposed to be reasonably easy, as they are to reinforce what is learned at school and to develop confidence, automaticity and fluency.

I was so proud of our little Preppies yesterday at their very first Cross Country.  They tackled their first big school event on the oval with such maturity.  Thank you so much to parents for coming to support them and cheer them on!  It was such a lovely morning. 

Playing our part to build a national picture of child health

In early 2021, our school, along with thousands of others across the country will begin preparations for the fifth Australian Early Development Census (AEDC).

The AEDC gives us a national picture of the development, health and wellbeing of children in their first year of full-time school. Since 2009, the census results have helped communities, schools and governments plan services and develop better policies to target support for children and families.

Children don’t miss any class time, and parents/carers don’t need to supply schools with any new information for the census. The AEDC gives us data at a school and community level - it isn’t an assessment of individual children.  We have used previous data from the 2018 AEDC to work with our incoming Preps and kindergartens and to share knowledge in a more “big picture way” about the students in our community and how we can work together to help them transition well to school.  Some teachers have also noticed that completing the assessments made them more aware of the needs of individual children and the class as a whole and that the census results are useful in planning for transitions to Year 1 and developing class programs. 

Participation in the AEDC is voluntary. Parents/carers don’t need to take any action unless they choose not to include their children in the census.  To find out more about the census and how communities are using the data to help children and families visit the AEDC website: www.aedc.gov.au.

If you have any questions, you can contact me at mwhit37@eq.edu.au or call me at the school.  

Have a wonderful week

What an amazing start to the term we’ve had in Year 3 and 4! I have been so impressed by the way our students have settled in for the term, have set personal goals and are working hard to achieve these.

In Year 3 this week, our students have visited the Caboolture Historical Village to learn about life in the past and to investigate how schools and life in general has changed over time. Our students had a great time visiting the village and experiencing a little bit about what life was like. I know they will have plenty of stories to share from the excursion!

In Year 4, students have been reading Rowan of Rin. As they read the text, they are analysing the text to unpack how the author develops the characters. Students then take on the character of Rowan to write a diary entry based on a point-in-time event from the story. It was wonderful to see students unpacking ‘A’ exemplars and using their scales to identify how they can improve.

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 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

It was a positive and productive week of learning in Year 5 and 6 to commence Term 2. This year Mango Hill State School has enacted the vision of Connection and Clarity to Empower and Extend all learners. Meaning, if teachers provide opportunities for students to build relationships, engage with school and expectations they will have an increased connection towards education. While, if teachers provide clear learning goals and a clear map to success, students will achieve. In many classrooms that I visited I could see a real focus on collaborative learning structures. Research suggests that the person doing the talking is the one doing the learning. Teachers have made a real effort in week 1 to provide opportunities for students to talk and have conversations about the concepts they were learning. In 5S I observed students discussing and debating numbers on a number line. Students had to argue their point of view and come to a consensus response. In 6C I observed students tackling problem solving tasks regarding angles. Each classroom I visited I was struck with the engagement of students. Students were smiling and laughing while really attending to their learning. Great example of not only connection and clarity but also care for learning in Year 5 and 6!

Gala Day

A popular event on our school calendar for Years 5 and 6 is always Gala Day. Last week our students participated in their first Gala Day for 2021, the Year 5’s first ever Gala Day. It was great getting around the groups seeing the smiling faces of our students as they connected with their peers and members of other schools outside of the classroom. Although we achieved great results in a lot of the sports in which we participated, more importantly our students displayed great commitment and teamwork; skills they will need to be successful throughout life. Super job Year 5 and 6 students and teachers and a big thank you to Mr Hills and Mr Newell for their organisation.   

Year 6 Camp

A part of building connections with and between our students and connecting them with teaching and learning is school camp. This year our Year 6 camp to Tallebudgera is being held on the 19-23 July. If you have not done so already can you please return your permission note indicating that your child is or is not attending school camp. If they are attending please organise payment by the 18 June. We look forward to connecting with our students to empower them as they approach secondary school.  

We have been very excited to see so many students visiting the Hub since the return of school in Term 2. There have been many students talking about their goals and asking for help to reach these! The beginning of a new term is such a great time to set some goals – will you be able to reach a new level, read a specific number of books, or reach one million words? Anything is possible, especially when you take the first steps!

This week we are very excited to announce that Ipshitha has reached two million words. She has been working hard during the holidays and in the last week. We have added her photo to our special AR display, and look forward to seeing how many millions she will be able to read this year! Congratulations Ipshitha!!

Scholastic Bookclub

This week a Scholastic bookclub brochure was sent home with all of our students. This is a great opportunity to purchase some new books and to support our school. The school receives a percentage of all sales as ‘free book’s, meaning we can continue to add to our growing Hub collection. All support is appreciated, no matter how big or small.

Bookclub orders can only be made online this year (i.e. there will be no cash accepted at school) and should be finalised by Tuesday 4 May. Any orders received after this date will not be able to be processed.

Volunteers

We are so very lucky to have a handful of Hub volunteers who have been super busy over the last couple of months. In particular we would like to thank Meghan, Courtney, Amanda and Melissa – who collectively have contacted 100s of new books. This significant contribution means that we are able to add all of these new books to our shelves and they are now ready for borrowing! Thank you so very much!

If you are interested in helping with contacting new books for the Hub, pop in to see us one day soon.

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

Pantry Drive List

Pantry Drive List 84.30 KB

P&C Mother's Day Stall

We have the Mother’s Day Stall coming up on Wednesday 5 May and Thursday 6 May. 

We still require a few more volunteers for this event. If you are available to help run the stalls on either of the days for an hour or more, this would be greatly appreciated. The times that we require help are listed below.

Wednesday

9am to 10:15am

11:30am to 12:30pm

Thursday

9am to 11:30am

We will also be setting up the tables on the Tuesday afternoon prior to the stall and again on Wednesday if anyone is available from 2:45pm.

Please email any availability to mhsspcvicepresident@gmail.com

Uniform Shop