Term 4 Week 6 2021
- Principal's News by Tracy Egan
- Whole School News
- Prep News by Melinda White
- Year 1 and Year 2 News by Michelle Alcorn
- Year 3 News by Ben Mills
- Year 4 News by Ellaine Warner
- Year 5 and Year 6 News by Martin Winney
- Inclusive Education News by Ellaine Warner
- Curriculum News by Suzette Holm and Danielle O'Brien
- Sporting News by Nick Hills and Tyson Newell
- News from our Partners
- Community News
Connection & Clarity to Empower and Extend
Over the past few weeks I have been visiting classrooms and listening to students speak with clarity about how to be successful. They have been able to describe the tasks they are working on, how they are going and what they need to do to be successful. The use of Bump it up Walls with clear links to the scale is really helping students develop the clarity so they can continually improve. I would like to thank all our teachers for their ongoing work improving in this area and the positive impact this is having on learning.
Preparing for 2022
It is that time of the year when we are working hard to ensure a strong finish to the year and also plan thoroughly for 2022.
We are currently planning our end of year events including the awards ceremonies, farewell parade, graduation dinner and break up party day. Further information will be provided about these events in the coming weeks. Please ensure you read the newsletter each week so you know what is happening. The dates are all listed on the Term overview sent at the start of this term.
At this stage we anticipate approximately 1550 students in 63 classes will be enrolled to start 2022. Despite our school becoming very large, we want to maintain the feel of a small school and I know our Deputy Principals work hard to get to know all the students in their sector. They talk with me about the students and we track the progress of each and every one of them.
We have recruited approximately 17 new teaching staff members and look forward to welcoming them to an induction day later this term.
We are also planning our beginning of 2022 events and will share information about these events before the end of this year.
P & C Meeting
Thank you to the parents and interested parties who attended our P & C Meeting this week. The P & C Committee endorsed our updated Student Code of Conduct (below). We also updated our refund policy (below).
The P & C are working to support our students with some new playground equipment. They have committed $50 000 toward this project. Already they have raised $30 000 and have aimed to raise the other $20 000 over the next 6 months. Can you support their Mega Christmas raffle? If every family bought just one ticket for $10 we would raise $10 000 toward our new playground!
Have a wonderful week
Tracy Egan
Principal
tegan4@eq.edu.au
Focus of the Week
The Care Class focus that will be delivered this Friday is ‘Respect – Multiculturalism – Diwali”. We will be consolidating this focus throughout next week.
- We will be learning about how to respect cultural diversity and celebrate the "Festival of Lights" - Diwali Day. We celebrate and value diversity as it adds to our community and enriches our lives. We care for self by being proud of the things that make me who I am. We care for others by appreciating everyone and respecting difference in others.
What is Diwali?
Diwali, the festival of lights is indeed the most awaited and the most celebrated of festivals of India. People in every nook and cranny of the country welcome the festival with enthusiastic gestures. This wonderful festival is a celebration over five days. On the third day of the celebratory occasion, the key rituals of the Diwali festival take place. Lighting of diyas and candles all around the house, worshipping the Laxmi Ganesha to summon health and wealth and bursting crackers are the chief rituals of the festival.
Student of the Week
Yarn and Eats invitation
This coming Monday (November 15) is our Term 4 Yarn and Eats afternoon. We welcome all of our families of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to attend. We will gather at Gigum Hall at 3pm for some tea, coffee, food and activities for the kids. We will also have our local artist working on the mural for our hall. We are so excited to see the final outcome!
If you are yet to rsvp, please email Jasmine Benfer (jbenf10@eq.edu.au) by Thursday morning. We look forward to re-connecting with everyone.
Online Services Consent Form 2022
An automated email for each of your children attending next year was sent to Parents on the 28 October with a survey link. This survey will ask you to provide online consent for 2022. This replaces paper permission notes and outlines the sites students will access. It will only take a few minutes and will have a secure login. If you could please complete this by 26 November we would appreciate it.
Our Preps are Working Hard
We’re in the full swing of assessment in Prep and everyone is working very hard. In my parade messages for this week, I’ve reminded our little ones about the importance of getting enough sleep, eating well and drinking lots of water, so that their brains can do their very best work. Please support your child with this by keeping the night routine consistent, packing lunches with a range of foods that will sustain them throughout the day and ensuring they always have their water bottle with them.
We’re also in full swing of transitioning our little Preps to big Year 1s. I’ve had the pleasure of taking Prep L students for some morning “sprints” to focus on perceptual motor and handwriting. On our way back to class, we enjoy taking the stairs! Some of our Year 1 classrooms are upstairs in the two storey building and it’s fascinating to see how many students aren’t confident navigating stairs. Many families have one level houses and if their classrooms are also on ground level, there’s probably not that much opportunity for them to practise navigating stairs. You can help to prepare your child for Year 1 by practising using stairs when you’re out and about.
Another way you can help your child to prepare for Year 1 is to allow them to unpack their own bags each morning. We still see many Prep parents doing lots of jobs that their Prep child is capable of doing for themselves – and unpacking their own bag is one job they really can do alone. When we build the routine for them, and allow them plenty of opportunity for practice, they show us they can do it! If you are one of our families who may need a bit of help in how to build that morning routine for your child, please speak with your class teacher for tips.
Melinda White
Deputy Principal - Prep
mwhit37@eq.edu.au
Every Day Matters
As we begin our end of year assessments it is the perfect time to remind children and families the importance of being at school every day and on time.
Each day this week teachers have been introducing students to a range of assessment tasks and stepping them through the success criteria. This essential learning will continue to be broken up over the next two weeks to help students have a deep understanding of the task requirements and allow opportunities for them to self-reflect and receive feedback from the teacher encouraging a growth mindset.
You can help set your children up for success by ensuring the are ready to go into class 8:15am each day. Missing that morning routine can make it tricky for some to catch up when they walk in to a lesson that has already commenced. For some missing that morning connection with their teacher and peers can also be unfortunate as they miss out on that quality time to check in at the start of each day. During this time of assessment you can help us help your child by ensuring they are at school on time each day, unless they are unwell of course. Packing them a healthy snack and lunch to fuel the brains and ensuring they get a good night of rest are great ways to help them be in that Ready to Learn zone each day.
Change to Afterschool Procedures
Starting next week we will be moving our afterschool junior supervision to the Piazza as opposed to the Junior Undercover Area. With more and more students waiting for older siblings we have decided to move the waiting area to a more central space. The expectations will remain the same to ensure the safety of our students. We will have teacher aides on duty in the Piazza from 2:30-2:45pm daily who will continue to supervise our junior students and remind them to be safe and responsible as they wait for their older siblings by sitting on the Piazza stairs. If you could please also remind your child of the change to the routine in preparation for Monday, it would be greatly appreciated.
Have an excellent week.
Michelle Alcorn
Deputy Principal – Year 1 & 2
malco14@eq.edu.au
Year 3 News
The teamwork and collaboration displayed across the Year 3 classrooms has been amazing all year and it was well and truly on display over the past week. Our teachers at MHSS work hard to engage our students by supporting them to be active participants in the learning process. We use many structures and routines strategically to support students to collaborate in a meaningful way during the learning process.
In 3L, students were using the ‘stand-up, hand-up, pair-up’ routine to give and receive feedback on their writing. I was really impressed with how carefully 3L read each other’s writing and gave helpful suggestions, according to next steps on the scale. What a powerful learning opportunity for those students!
In 3F, students were completing a ‘Chalk-Talk’, writing down all of the great noun and verb groups that they could think of too match a setting for their poem. Once these ideas were all written down, their ideas were able to be posted onto the learning wall for all students to access and include in their writing. It is amazing to see what the students produce when all of their minds come together!
In 3R, students were using the Quiz-Quiz-Trade structure to match different representations of money amounts. This was an excellent way for students to consolidate their understanding of money as they worked with and learned from their peers.
It is always inspiring to see the level of collaboration and teamwork happening in our MHSS classrooms every day!
Ben Mills
Deputy Principal – Year 3
bxmil3@eq.edu.au
Feedback in Year 4
Our students receive feedback about their learning from their teachers every day. Students also give and receive feedback from their peers. In 4C the other day, students were in small groups listening carefully as one of the group members read their writing piece aloud. Students would then give feedback. I heard great examples of peer feedback such as “Consider adding a rhetorical question”, “I think this piece will be improved by more use of evaluative nouns” and so on. Giving and receiving feedback are skills in themselves and our Year 4 students are building these skills successfully. Check out the photos of 4C students giving and receiving feedback.
Learning in STEM
Throughout the term in STEM, students have been observing forces in their everyday lives, including forces related to simple machines. They have been describing the components of simple systems, such as stationary objects subjected to pushes and pulls, and show how objects move when subjected to pushes and pulls. They are using their understanding of gravitational and frictional forces to design their own pinball machine. I have included a few photos of our students focusing intently on this task.
Student Wellbeing
As students complete a range of assessment tasks over this week and next, our wonderful Year 4 teachers are balancing achievement of these tasks with student wellbeing. They are maintaining routines as much as possible, and continuing all of our student wellbeing universals such as “What Went Well” and greeting circles.
Have a fantastic week.
Ellaine Warner
Deputy Principal - Year 4
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
Care for Learning in Year 5 and 6
As we head into Week 6 our students are at the pointy end of their assessment, in particular their current writing assessment. To help ensure every student succeeds, our Year 5 and 6 teachers will intentionally collaborate this week and reflect on the most up to date piece of writing from particular students in their class, that are indicative of similar students, and highlight the precise next best learning move for their students. Teachers will use this to make a last push and provide explicit feedback within their classrooms to cause learning for their students. Well done teachers!
2022 Student Leadership
Congratulations to all of our Year 5 students who successfully completed and submitted their Student Leadership Passport last week. This week myself and Tracy Egan have been interviewing students who have nominated for a leadership position. All of these students, for many years, have been role models within our school and I loved hearing their aspirations to become the next generation of our captains and mentors. To support our decision on who to shortlist, all our Year 5 students will complete an initial vote on who they want to hear a speech from, for captain positions, and we will announce a shortlist on Monday of Week 7 with speeches in Week 8. Good luck Year 5 students!
Have a terrific week.
Martin Winney
Deputy Principal – Year 5 & 6
mwinn7@eq.edu.au
End of Year Transitions
The transition from primary school to secondary school is a significant change in your Year 6 child’s life. At Mango Hill State School, we spend time planning and supporting our students to be ready for this change. There are transition opportunities where students visit their new schools. Our Inclusive Learning Team run sessions with students where students can learn about secondary school, including through photos of schools, timetables and classrooms. Finally, in the last part of Term 4 our Year 6 teachers run a timetable similar to secondary school where the students change classrooms for different lessons with the Year 6 and Specialist Teachers.
There are many resources available online to support families with the transition into secondary school. Three are listed below.
The most important thing is to have a GROWTH MINDSET. Everybody will experience challenges, successes and maybe even failures but it is important to remember … tough times don’t last but tough people do!
Growing up in Australia https://growingupinaustralia.gov.au/publications/transition-secondary-school
Raising Children Network https://raisingchildren.net.au/pre-teens/school-education/school-choosing-starting-moving/starting-secondary-school
Headspace https://headspace.org.au/friends-and-family/the-transition-from-primary-to-secondary-school/
Have a great week
Ellaine Warner
Deputy Principal - Inclusion
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
Assessment in English
Over the next couple of weeks students will be engaged in a range of assessment tasks. These are important parts of our English units of work as they provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate all that they know. We look forward to our students ‘showing off’ their writing skills as well as their independent reading skills. Students will be supported to complete these tasks by their teachers and the learning resources in their classrooms. We also look forward to students responding to the feedback provided by their teachers. At Mango Hill we have a special feedback process, where teachers will help students identify what they can already do and what their ‘next steps’ are. Sometimes these ideas are recorded on their writing scales and sometimes on a post-it. These processes help our students focus on one thing at a time that they need to ‘bump up’ their writing. Don’t forget to celebrate all of their successes at home too!
AR Millionaires
We have had a big run of students joining our AR Millionaire’s Club this week and we are so very proud of all of them. April, Alexander and Evie all reached one million words which is fabulous! Each of these students have been working hard all year to read and quiz their AR books.
Congratulations also to Chloe who reached the outstanding milestone of 5 million words! Chloe’s latest photo has been added to her column of photos to celebrate her commitment to reading throughout all of 2021.
For all students, there is still time to continue to complete AR quizzes for the next couple of weeks. If you are super close to reaching your goal, now is the time to sprint to the line! Happy reading!
Last week for borrowing
This week is the last week for Class borrowing as we need to begin to return all books to the Hub. For those students on AR there is one more week for AR borrowing. We appreciate everyone’s support to return all of our MHSS books to the Hub.
Museum display
This week in the Hub we have a special display to celebrate Asian celebrations, including Diwali. Pop on down to have a look at some of the special things including a great mask and some lovely fabrics.
Happy reading
Suzette Holm
shol0@eq.edu.au
Big PE Dates in Term 4
A reminder of our big dates this term in PE:
- 19 November (Friday, Week 7) – Gala Day (Year 5-6)
- 2 December (Thursday, Week 9) – MHSS Swimming Carnival (8-9yrs)
- 3 December (Friday, Week 9) – MHSS Swimming Carnival (10-12yrs).
MHSS Swimming Carnival Information for Years 3-6
Later this term our MHSS Swimming Carnival for all Year 3-6 students will be held. Our goal is to ensure all students can participate in a variety of swimming races and have an enjoyable day with their peers.
In 2020, we have made the decision to split our carnival over 2 days. Students in Years 3-6 who are turning 8 and 9 years old in 2021 (born 2012 and 2013) will compete on the first day, which will be Thursday 2 December (Week 9). Students in Years 3-6 turning 10, 11 and 12 years old in 2021 (born 2009, 2010 and 2011) will compete on the second day, which will be Friday 3 December (Week 9).
Students compete at sporting events, including at representative levels, in age groups, not in year levels. Therefore, our carnival days run to align with this process.
Below is the initial parent information for both days. Students will receive more information at school in the coming weeks. This will include a permission and race nomination form, which will need to be returned for your son/daughter to attend. There is no cost for parents associated with the swimming carnival days.
If you need to contact us regarding any sporting issue at MHSS, feel free to send an email to Mr Nick Hills (nhill96@eq.edu.au) or Mr Tyson Newell (tnewe20@eq.edu.au).
Mr Hills & Mr Newell
Physical Education Teachers
nhill96@eq.edu.au
tnewe20@eq.edu.au
P and C News
Join P and Cs QLD for a fun day with lots of information and a chance to network with other P and Cs from around your area. Keynote speakers focusing on P&Cs and parents as well as an update from both P&Cs Qld and the Department of Education. This event has been tailored to suit P&C Executives, general members and parents, offering both daytime and evening sessions to ensure everyone can attend – with lunch or dinner provided FREE.
Day Session Agenda:
11:00am - Introduction to Jason Crandon, Member Engagement & Training Officer and Melissa Moulton, HR Services Manager, update on P&Cs Qld services.
11:15am - Queensland Education Department update.
11:30am - Fun workshop session with Jason Crandon.
12:00pm - Lunch - provided by P&Cs Qld.
12:30pm - Keynote speaker - Parent focused session.
1:15pm - Keynote speaker - P&C focused session.
2:00pm - Conclusion - P&Cs Qld staff will remain at the venue for any open floor questions.
Tea & coffee provided, cash bar available for beverages.
Evening Agenda:
5:30pm - Introduction to Jason Crandon, Member Engagement & Training Officer and Melissa Moulton, HR Services Manager, update on P&Cs Qld services.
5:45pm - Queensland Education Department update.
6:00pm - Fun workshop session with Jason Crandon.
6:30pm - Dinner - provided by P&Cs Qld.
7:00pm - Keynote speaker - Parent focused session.
7:45pm - Keynote speaker - P&C focused session.
8:30pm - Conclusion - P&Cs Qld staff will remain at the venue for any open floor questions.
Tea & coffee provided, cash bar available for beverages.
Below is the link for anyone who would like to register to this FREE event.
https://www.facebook.com/events/609507463542744/?event_time_id=609507473542743 OR P&Cs QLD (pandcsqld.com.au) (https://www.pandcsqld.com.au/eventdetails/11248/brisbane-north-professional-development-sessions)
Uniform Shop
Uniform shop hours during the term are:
Monday 8:00am - 10:30am
Wednesday 1:30pm - 3:30pm
Friday 8:00am - 10:30am
Online @ www.wearitto.com.au/schools/mango-hill-state-school.
Greetings! A few friendly reminders as we get closer to the end of the school year.
Lay-Bys - If you have a layby with us, a reminder that layby payments are due fortnightly and all laybys need to be finalised by the end of this term. Last day for collection is during opening hours on Friday Dec 10.
Online purchasing - Are your child's uniforms getting a little snug? As we near the end of the school year, you can still make online purchases to have your student ready for next year. Online purchases can be easily collected from our shop or sent to your child's class. If you would like it sent to class, just send an email to mangohill@wearitto.com.au with your order number, child's name and class, and we can get it to them.
Thank you
Zoe and Rochelle
