Term 4 Week 8 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
- Sporting News by Nick Hills and Tyson Newell
- News from our Partners
- Community News
Great Opportunities and a Caring School Environment
Recently I had the pleasure of listening to our current Year 5 students as they spoke about being a leader next year. I also had a chat with some students about what they love about Mango Hill SS. The students all had different answers depending on their interests and passions. However, the words that came up most frequently were caring people, supportive teachers and great opportunities!
Students spoke about how they felt MHSS students and staff showed care for them in many ways. They talked about our wonderful staff who ‘go above and beyond’ to help them be their best. One student described how we celebrate diversity and show kindness and care to others. Another spoke about being bullied at her previous school and how valued and embraced she felt at MHSS. A year 3 student spoke about how he felt the teachers really cared about him.
Many, many children described how they love the opportunities to participate in a range of curricular and extra-curricular activities at our school. Some children love the sports offered and value the gala days and the chance to represent their school. Others enjoy the arts including music, dance and drama, especially when they get to perform in the band or in concerts or eisteddfods. Some children were enthusiastic about STEM and Italian and loved the challenge of these subjects. Other students loved the lunch time clubs, electives, camps, swimming, sports days, excursions and other special events. And some little people told me they love maths and going to the hub to chase those million words in AR!
I am not sure what answers I expected from the children, but as I listened to each child, I was so proud to be part of our school community where children can describe such wonderful attributes of feeling cared for and given opportunities to grow, learn and achieve together!
Look at these little faces enjoying their friends – learning, caring and playing together!
Focus of the Week
The Care Class focus that will be delivered this Friday is ‘Images of the future”. We will be consolidating this focus throughout next week.
By imaging the future, we are Caring for Self, and thinking about what is important to us by creating a picture in our mind. Visualising this can help to achieve many things in life. Expecting the best and believing that a positive future is possible can transform one’s future.
This focus is strongly associated with a growth mindset.
ICAS Celebrations
ICAS is an opportunity for parents, students and educators to see how a student is able to put into application their knowledge and skills in new contexts, using a range of higher order thinking strategies. This year Mango Hill State School once again offered the opportunity for parents to register their child/ren in the 2021 ICAS tests and for those who participated there were a number of celebrations. Students were acknowledged for their participation and achievement with a number of students receiving Distinctions and High Distinctions for their work. Well done to all those that gave it a go and for those that received awards for their incredible achievements. We are so proud of all our participants' achievements, well done!
MHSS End of Year Concert Ticket Sales
Our End of Year concert is getting closer and we are super excited to announce our second round of ticket sales will go on sale Thursday 25 November 2021 at 5:00pm. Ticket sales will be uncapped for those wishing to purchase extra tickets with the second round being sold as “first in, best dressed”. Tickets can be purchased through this Try Booking link https://www.trybooking.com/BVNJL .
On the night please show proof of purchase either by printing your tickets or showing the team at the door your digital tickets. Tickets will be $5.50 per person and will include a digital download of the performance after the event. Access to the digital download will be emailed to Mango Hill families using the email address registered to purchase the tickets.
Classes taking part in the End of Year Concert would have received a letter and consent form which needed to be returned to the class teacher last week. If you are unsure whether your students' class is part of the End of Year Concert, please contact your classroom teacher. It is essential that all students performing on stage and going to rehearsal return their permission note and media consent prior to the concert.
If you require wheel chair access or have any ticketing enquiries please email Jasmine Benfer - jbenf10@eq.edu.au.
Please note there has been a slight change to the door opening times.
Tuesday 30 November
- Session 1, Junior Show (Prep O, Prep J, Prep G, Prep M, Prep B, Prep L and Junior Eisteddfod) – Doors open at 5:00pm for a 5:30pm start (6pm finish)
- Session 2, Senior Show (3F, 3H, 3E, 3R, 3M, 3C, 4A, 4D, 4S, 4G, Senior Choir, Senior Dance, Junior Eisteddfod Team 2021) – Doors open at 6:15pm for a 6:30pm start (8:30pm finish)
Wednesday 1 December
- Session 1, Junior Show (1M, 1W, 1P, 1S, 1N, 2E, 2J, 2S, 2W, Junior Choir, Junior Dance Club, Senior Eisteddfod Team 2021)– Doors open at 5pm for a 5:30pm start (6:30pm finish)
- Session 2, Senior Show (5S, 5W, 5K, 5B, 6C, 6T, 6O, 6P, Senior Choir, Senior Dance Club, Senior Eisteddfod Team 2021, Wakakirri Team) – Doors open at 6:45pm for a 7:00pm start (8:15pm finish)
Still working Hard!
We’re still working hard! Reading groups, number work, taking turns and sharing. It’s all still happening in Prep!
We’ve been visiting Year 1 and practising walking up stairs. We’ve been to the Year 1 playground and had a turn. We’ve been walking ourselves to the canteen to buy treats at break time.
The next two weeks will be busy busy, with concerts, events, end of year tidying up... it is so important to get a decent amount of sleep in these busy times. Balance is key!
Have a lovely week.
Melinda White
Deputy Principal - Prep
mwhit37@eq.edu.au
Celebrating our Learners
What a wonderful time of year to see all that hard work of our learners as they start to publish some of their favourite writing pieces. Visiting classroom this week there were a lot of happy faces eagerly wanting to show and share their writing. In Year 1 and 2 our learners have demonstrated a growth mindset as they check their work against the success criteria and look for ways to self-improve. They then have taken their best work and published it to share with their teacher and peers. Our students should be super proud of their work. we certainly are.
Over the next few weeks students will begin taking home some of their workbooks. I highly recommend taking the time to let them share their best work with you and to explain why it was so important to them. What did they learn from it?
Have an excellent week.
Michelle Alcorn
Deputy Principal – Year 1 & 2
malco14@eq.edu.au
Year 3 News
We are getting so close to the end of the year now and as I reflect on 2021 with our Year 3 students, I am so proud of the growth they have all made. Their academic development in the classroom and level of maturity when managing problems inside and outside of the classroom, has been great to see.
In classes this week, I have seen our students practising a lot of the skills that they have learned throughout the term and the year. Our Year 3 classes continue to work hard on their reading, number facts, spelling, café writing and grammar and punctuation.
Our specialist lessons have been particularly exciting this week. Classes doing dance are having extra rehearsals in preparation for the End of Year Concert in Week 9. We can’t wait to see our performers do their thing in Gigum Hall! In STEM lessons, students have been making the solar ovens that they designed based on their knowledge of heat transfer. We have some seriously innovative, future engineers in Year 3! I look forward to seeing the finished products at the end of the week.
Upcoming events
Week 9 is a very busy week for our students. We have the End of Year Concert for some of our classes on Tuesday, Swimming Carnival on Thursday, and our Four Cares celebration with the Street Science show on Friday. It will be a busy but exciting week!
Ben Mills
Deputy Principal – Year 3
bxmil3@eq.edu.au
Learning in Year 4
As students complete assessment, the learning continues in Year 4 as teachers take this important time to consolidate student learning this semester and provide students additional time to gain deep knowledge and generalise their new skills.
Casting our votes
Our Year 4 students are actively engaged in our Student Leadership process this week. Students attended yesterday’s Student Leadership speeches by Year 5 students, and will attend again tomorrow. This allows our students to carefully consider who will lead our school as Student Leaders in 2022 before they vote. Congratulations to all Year 5s who are presenting speeches and well done to our Year 4s for their thoughtful participation.
Special events
We have so much to look forward to over these final weeks – concerts, swimming carnivals, Four Care celebrations and so on. Please make sure you have all consents back to your child’s class teacher. Thank you for all the support you give your children!
Have a fantastic week.
Ellaine Warner
Deputy Principal - Year 4
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
Care for Learning in Year 5 and 6
This week marks the final week of assessment and reporting in our Year 5 and 6 classrooms. As I have visited classrooms this week I have observed the values of commitment and teamwork. Students and teachers have been collaborating with one another in providing last minute support and feedback to ensure that all students learn and achieve. As part of the Term 4 curriculum, our Year 5 students are participating in the real-world money unit in Maths. Students collaboratively create a business with a product and market and sell their product to their peers in Year 5. The purpose of the unit is to help expose our students to lifelong skills of budgeting, money management and understanding terms like expenditure, profit and debt. Each year our students find this unit particularly engaging and I certainly encountered some engaged learners in 5D this week. I look forward to getting into other classrooms next week and celebrate the success of other young entrepreneurs.
Welcome to High School Transition Week
As part of our transition to secondary school, our Year 6 cohort this week commenced their Welcome to High School Transition Week. In surveying students, who have transitioned to secondary school previously, we know that our students need some support in managing a timetable, being organised for multiple subjects and engaging with more than one classroom teacher. To help prepare our students, within the safety of an environment they are familiar with, we have developed a mock high school week in which students mix in different classes. This helps to build more connections with students as they enter high school. Students have a collection of different subjects based on the Year 7 curriculum with different teachers and they move from class to class as they will do next year. As I spoke to students this week I heard great things about how they were feeling towards the transition week. Michael from 6P said that he thought, “the high school week is a great experience because it is a total change to normal primary school and it will help people transition to high school”. While William said, “I love the high school week because everyone gets to meet new people and make new friends”.
Year 6 Graduation
Plans are gearing up for our Year 6 Graduation. A reminder that the Graduation is on Wednesday 8 December and commences at 5:00pm (4:45pm seating) in Gigum Hall. An RSVP form has been sent home through students. As in previous years we ask that students nominate two adults to attend the event. Please return this by Monday 29November. Last week I also sent home a permission letter advertising child minding through Helping Hands. Helping Hands have been kind enough to offer their service of child minding for families who have children older than kindy age. If you would like to take up this opportunity, can you please complete and return this RSVP by the latest, Friday 3 Decemeber. No younger siblings are able to attend the graduation evening. In terms of the night the following has been organised.
- Formal ceremony in which each student receives their graduation certificate and yearbook as well as speeches
- Food vans with a range of options catering to vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, celiac and halal
- Cupcakes for graduating students
- Disco
- Family trivia competition
- Complimentary use of photobooths
- Family portraits from MSP (at a cost)
- Games.
Have a terrific week.
Martin Winney
Deputy Principal – Year 5 & 6
mwinn7@eq.edu.au
Swimming Carnival
The swimming carnival is a big change to our normal school day. It is very import to go through all information about the swimming carnival, sent out by Nick Hills and Tyson Newell, to assist students with the change of routine. Some important things to remember for the swimming carnival include the following.
- Students need to bring plenty of water and sunscreen. It will be a very hot day!
- Students are responsible for their own belongings and money.
- All belongings need to be marked well as kids will be sitting altogether in houses and it is easy for things to get mixed up.
- Communicate any concerns your child has about the swimming carnival with their classroom teacher.
We are very excited that parents can spectate this year. We can’t wait to see you there!
Have a great week
Ellaine Warner
Deputy Principal - Inclusion
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
Accelerated Reader
Even though we have now finished borrowing from the Hub for 2021, we still have a handful of students working very hard to reach their goals. Congratulations to Avery who late last week reached 4 million words! This is an extraordinary achievement and we are very impressed by her commitment, reading and quizzing all through the year. We were very excited to add her photo to our huge display of AR Millionaires from 2021. These photos will stay on display for this year and next, and we look forward to adding lots of new faces in 2022.
This week we were very excited to join in the excitement of Aliyah who reached the very top of AR at Mango Hill State School. Aliyah has completed all of the levels, reaching the dizzy heights of 9.0. Congratulations Aliyah – this is a goal only reached by a handful of Mango Hill students.
This week we also had an unexpected visit from a past student, Brodie. Brodie was also an AR Millionaire and it was only fitting that we found her old poster from 2012 to consider how much she has changed, and of course how much she has stayed the same. She still loves to read so that is definitely something worth celebrating!
Returning all resources
Don’t forget that now is the time to return all library books to the Hub. We are very keen to have all of our resources returned as soon as possible so that we can begin our stocktaking processes and plan for 2022. Thank you for your support with this tricky task.
Happy reading
Suzette Holm
shol0@eq.edu.au
Big PE Dates in Term 4
A reminder of our big dates this term in PE:
- 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
The MHSS P&C Raffle has just over a week to go until the draw on Monday 6 December. Get your tickets now!
https://rafflelink.com.au/mhss-pc-mega-raffle
Fast Fuel Meals - Have you heard?
There will be an exciting new Taster menu for the rest of Term 4 on FlexiSchools!
We are offering four new lunch items for students to try.
- Sushi Rice Bowl
- Shepherd’s Pie
- Pumpkin Ravioli
- Karaage Chicken – 200gm or 300 gm.
These meals are freshly made and refrigerated before being heated for your child’s lunch. Fast Fuel Meals has been endorsed as a GOLD supplier by P&Cs QLD as a provider of healthy, convenient and cost-effective meals for school tuckshops to offer. These meals will be added to our current menu and may in time replace frozen products currently offered. There will be an extended meal range offered in 2022!
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.
Are your child's uniforms getting a little snug? Needing to go up a size for the new year? You can beat the January rush by coming in to see us during our additional opening hours in Week 10.
Mon 6 December - 8:00am-10:30am
Tue 7 December - 8:00am-10:30am
Wed 8 December - 1:30pm-3:30pm
Thu 9 December - 8:00am-10:30am
Fri 10 December - 8:00am-10:30am
January Hours - Beat the heat! - This year for the first time we are opening an additional week in January to fulfill your uniform needs. January 11-14 will be an appointment only week, where you can avoid the wait in the week before school and choose your own appointment time. Appointments can be made by using the following link https://wearittomangohillss.simplybook.me/v2/
Swimming Carnival - Don't forget to come in and see us if you need a new hat for your protection during the upcoming swimming carnival. Hats are available in all house colours.
Lay-Bys - Reminder that layby payments are due fortnightly and all laybys need to be finalised by the end of this term.
Online purchasing - 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
