Term 3 Week 2 2020
Building a safe and supportive school environment
Over the past week we have been reinforcing the important messages about how bullying is not okay and how we care for others at our school.
The national definition of bullying for Australian schools says:
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.
Behaviours that do not constitute bullying include:
- mutual arguments and disagreements (where there is no power imbalance)
- not liking someone or a single act of social rejection
- one-off acts of meanness or spite
- isolated incidents of aggression, intimidation or violence.
Parents can also reinforce the importance of being kind and caring.
- Talk about the value of diversity with the community and understanding that each individual is unique and brings with them individual differences that should be values and respected.
- Talk about bullying with your child at home to make it easier for them to tell you if something happens. Make sure they know what bullying is and how they can respond. Help prepare your children to prevent online bullying and to know what to do if it happens.
- Start when your child is young to guide them to develop the social and emotional skills they will need to build positive relationships throughout their lives, including problem-solving skills.
- Recognise the warning signs of bullying. Although there may not be an issue, you should talk to your child if you have any concerns. Raise the topic generally if you don't want to ask directly. Be aware that many times children and young people won't ask for help, so it is important to know what to look for.
- Learn about how to respond appropriately if your child tells you about bullying. You can reassure your child by remaining calm and being supportive.
- Find out as much as you can about what has happened by talking calmly with your child. A good understanding about what has happened can also help you in communicating with the school about the situation.
- Read about strategies that can help. Practising strategies at home with your child is a good way to prepare them to use them at school.
- Contact the school if bullying has occurred and the school needs to be involved. Read about how you and the school can work together to support your child, whether your child was bullied, bullied others, or witnessed bullying.
We can be much more effective dealing with bullying when parents report and support our efforts to deal with it. If your child reports that bullying is occurring at school you should let us know about the situation. We care for your child and want to ensure all students are safe and supported at Mango Hill SS.
Working together with the school is the best way to help your child resolve bullying issues.
Further information is available at https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/
Celebrating our values
With COVID-19 restrictions limiting our gathering, we have continued with virtual parades to share school messages. Our weekly ‘Students of the Week’ are announced on parade each Friday and we continue to acknowledge the values these students have displayed. This term we have introduced a time for members of the leadership team to meet with the Students of the Week to further acknowledge these students. It was lovely to meet with these students yesterday and share their celebration. We are so proud of them!
Have a wonderful week
Tracy
tegan4@eq.edu.au
Focus of the week
The Care Class focus delivered on Friday, Week 1 was Bullying No Way with a focus on Reporting. Acts of bullying are unacceptable at our school and indeed, anywhere. For a definition of bullying, see http://bullyingnoway.gov.au/ Our focus on Bullying No Way continues in classrooms throughout this week (Week 2).
This topic links to Care for others and also to Care for self. In particular, students have reviewed the importance or reporting.
Student of the Week
School Banking
Our school banking has now commenced for Term 3. School banking will be held every Tuesday morning. Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who assist us to manage this activity for our students.
Playgroup is back this week
Playgroup will begin this Friday morning! We do need to have an attendance register, so you can register your attendance each week by emailing Jasmine Benfer at jbenf10@eq.edu.au. Due to social distancing and hygiene and health guidelines, we will need to limit the numbers attending, so we do ask for you to only rsvp, should you intend on coming that week. Please note that you will need to RSVP each week. Should there be significant demand in the coming month for playgroup spots, we will work together with our playgroup families to find a suitable time for a second playgroup morning, to ensure all of our families are catered for. Families attending playgroup need to bring their own water bottles. We will be doing lots of hand washing and cleaning of equipment! We ask that parents in attendance ensure they are always 1.5 metres away from others.
Road Safety Reminders
With everyone back to school and families returning to the work place it’s a great time for a reminder on how to be safe around the school crossings.
As we all know children can be unpredictable so extra care must be taken when driving around schools and the crossings. This ensures the safety of both the children and our School Crossing Supervisors.
Here are some tips to make sure that we all remain safe:
- Obey the STOP sign displayed by the school crossing supervisor, do not drive through the crossing until the pedestrians have cleared the crossing and the supervisor has returned to the footpath.
- Do NOT make a U-turn across a single or double continuous centre line, across a continuous line to the left of a broken line or over a painted island in the centre of the road.
- Watch your speed – School Zones are in operation from 7-9am and 2-4pm, some schools have all day school zones. The speed limit for a school zone is 40km.
- Everyone has after school activities, please don’t speed through the crossing or try to cut ahead of other cars queued on the crossing. This puts many lives at risk.
- Do not park in a no standing zone or in the crossing area, doing this impacts the visibility for the school crossing supervisor and makes it difficult to see what is ahead.
We’re over halfway through our first year of school!
Some highlights from the beginning of the term include:
1. Student excitement about bringing their iPADs to school
2. Walking ourselves to class each morning and unpacking our own bags
3. Bringing money to school and buying a treat from the tuckshop at second break
4. Sharing our holiday adventures with our friends
5. Reconnecting with our classmates.
In English, we have been exploring texts to see why we like them – or not like them! This term we are going to create a poster as part of the very beginning of persuasive writing. We will explore the characteristics of a range of picture books and try and entice others to read these stories. In Maths, we continue to build our understanding of numbers to 20, as well as exploring Mass and Location. At the start of each term, teachers look at student work samples, to decide what their ‘next steps’ for learning are. We use our Bump It Up Walls, to show are our students visually, what 4 Star learning looks like. None of us start the term showing 4 Star work! We work together across the term, using our growth mindset, to make the progress we need across our units of work.
Next week, we start welcoming our 2021 Prep students for their enrolment interviews. We will conduct these interviews on a range of days across this term. If you know of families who live within our catchment, but whom are yet to enrol, please encourage them to collect an enrolment pack from Kerry, our Enrolments Officer as soon as possible!
Have a lovely week
Melinda
mwhit37@eq.edu.au
‘Bumping-Up’ our writing in Year 1 and 2
At Mango Hill, you will often hear us ask students, “How can you ‘bump-up’ your work?” In other words, how can you improve this or make it better? We want to stretch our students so that they are always working to their potential.
I had the pleasure of seeing our Year 1 and 2 students working hard at ‘bumping-up’ their writing this week. Classes across both year levels have been analysing pieces of writing and sentences within texts and exploring how these can be improved. It was great to see students in Year 2 using their senses to develop powerful noun groups that paint a picture in the mind of the reader. In Year 1, I saw classes working collaboratively to improve on their teacher’s examples.
We are very lucky to have so many outstanding authors here at Mango Hill State School! I can’t wait to see more ‘bumping-up’ of our learning throughout the term.
Have a great week
Ben
bxmil3@eq.edu.au
Growing our Maths knowledge
In the middle school we love our Maths and the different ways our teachers help us build our knowledge and understanding.
This week in Year 3 we have been working with the Mad T Model to represent their knowledge of multiplication and division facts. Students did a great job working in small groups helping each other practise and make connections between the two facts, creating fact families.
Year 4 Camp
This year our Year 4 students are scheduled to attend the Runaway Bay Camp in Term 4. Last week I was advised by the camp that they had finalised their Covid 19 Safety Plan and are able to confirm that our camp is able to go ahead. Due to these unprecedented circumstances I would like to seek feedback from our families as to how we move forward. Runaway Bay is a fantastic opportunity for our students and provides a rich context for their Term 4 English unit along with building students resilience, connectedness and leadership skills.
If for unforeseen circumstances the camp was unable to go ahead due to future government restrictions a full refund would be given.
A very short survey monkey to be completed by 31 July 2020 was emailed to parents earlier this week. If you did not receive the email and have a child in Year 4, please contact Jasmine Benfer in the school office at jbenf10@eq.edu.au.
Have an amazing week
Michelle
malco14@eq.edu.au
Care for Learning in Year 5 and 6
It has been great getting into classrooms over the last two weeks to see the great work Year 5 and 6 students have commenced in Term 3. I had the opportunity to work in 5L on Monday to collaborate with and observe students continue their learning of noun groups. This is being taught to improve students descriptive writing. I read some great descriptions of Dissolute Droughts and Scrawny Sheep. I also had the pleasure of observing 6L as they begun deconstructing advertisements. They were looking at different shot types and why these were used to achieve a specific reaction. Great work Year 5 and 6!
Year 6 Graduation
In the coming days I will be sending a survey to all Year 6 parents regarding this year’s graduation. The intent is to get as much parent voice in this space as possible before decisions are made regarding what the event will look like. I encourage all parents to have their say. What is guaranteed is, that our Year 6 cohort will have a great event that is a fitting celebration of their contribution to Mango Hill State School.
Have a great week
Martin
mwinn7@eq.edu.au
Visual Supports
Visual supports and strategies are used to help children with a learning difficulty or disability. The most common visual support used by teachers is a visual schedule. This is a set of pictures used to show the sequence of a day or part of a day, or the next step in a specific activity. This can help children with knowing what is going to happen next, changes to routines, or following and completing tasks independently. Visual supports are used to help students improve their skills in processing information, communicating, understanding and interacting with their physical and social environment. Visuals are also used to help support students with their emotional regulation, to follow classroom and playground rules and to show examples of what is expected. Students who have difficulty following verbal instructions or paying attention to language may respond better to information presented visually.
This information is adapted from the Australian Parenting Website: raisingchildren.net.au. Please visit this website for more information. The photos below set out some visuals in use at our school.
With thanks
Ellaine and the ILT
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
The Premier's Coding Challenge (including entries from students all across Queensland) need to be completed by September and will be uploaded via the website above.
If you are interested in any further information please click the link below.
https://education.qld.gov.au/about-us/events-awards/awards-competitions/premiers-coding-challenge
Have a wonderful Week!
Jess
jxqui5@eq.edu.au