Term 1 Week 8 2022

Productive Parent Partnerships

Thanks to the parents who attended our Parents and Citizens Association AGM on Monday evening.

 Congratulations to our new P & C Executive

• Amy Swalwell President
• Yanti Weaire Vice President
• Radhika Reddy Treasurer
• Michelle Angayam Secretary

We look forward to working in partnership with these wonderful volunteers.

I would also like to acknowledge outgoing executive members Renee Walls, Karen Puckeridge and Luciana Bortot for their commitment over the past year. Renee and Karen have been long term members of the P & C holding executive positions for many years. I would also like to acknowledge Cindy Clenton who has been an active P & C contributor for 10 years. We thank them all for their outstanding, generous contribution of time and energy. They will be missed!

It is also wonderful to see so many parents and families attend our Stay & Play afternoons over the past week. A great opportunity to build connection between students, parents and staff members.

Next week our staff will start parent teacher interviews. Don’t forget to book your interview by Friday afternoon so you have the opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher over the next four school weeks to hear an update on their progress and collaborate with the teacher about how you can work together to help your child reach their potential.

Costs for Parents 2022

At Monday evening’s P & C Meeting, the committee endorsed the 2022 costs for parents (Draft 2). Please find below a breakdown of all anticipated costs for this year.

Wear Orange for National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence

This Friday, we will stand together, as a community, on the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. We will use the opportunity to, once again, teach students the important message that bullying and violence is never okay and how to respond if they encounter it. Students may wear something orange in recognition of this important day. Students are asked to donate a gold coin. The Student Council will donate all proceeds to The Smith Family to help families in need, building a kindness culture.

What is bullying?

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.

How can parents help?

Parents and other carers have a key role in preventing and responding to bullying.

Learn what bullying is and what it is not. This is the first step in talking about how to prevent or respond to bullying with your child. 'Bullying' is a word that is used for lots of things that are not actually bullying. These other behaviours may be just as serious, but may require different responses.

Schools can be much more effective when parents report bullying and support their efforts to deal with it. Our Student Code of Conduct outlined the procedures we follow if a bullying incident is reported. https://mangohillss.eq.edu.au/Documents/Student%20Code%20of%20Conduct%20(PDF%202MB).pdf

Working together with the school is the best way to help your child resolve bullying issues.

We will work with you to resolve the situation and will also work with the other student's parents. Due to privacy laws, we will not be able to share information about any other students involved.

For more information go to https://bullyingnoway.gov.au.

Goodbye Axel

It is with immense sorrow that we heard of the passing of former MHSS student Axel Baiju.

Axel was a much-loved student at Mango Hill SS. He was very well regarded by staff and his peers and was voted School Vice-Captain in 2020. His infectious smile, his optimism and his care for younger students was noticed by many. He always tried his best for his peers, his school and himself. Axel loved his sport and was particularly fond of team sports like cricket. His support of peers, kindness toward others and sportsmanship were outstanding traits. He loved Italian and enjoyed learning another language and celebrating the diverse cultures in our community.

Over the past week, many students have spoken to me about their love of Axel. They have talked about how he helped them, gave them piggy-backs, walked them to class, played with them and cheered them up when they were sad. His legacy of kindness will remain a part of our community. He set a wonderful example for younger students.

Axel was the son of Baiju Paul and Soney Mullackal Joseph. His sister Hazel is also a wonderful little student at our school. Axel was a much-loved son, a doting big brother and a friend to all. On behalf of our school community, I extend our love, thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of Axel. He will always be remembered.

Good Things Come in Threes 

Last week our Year 1s were entertained by the performers from Meerkat Productions with their show Good Things Come in Threes.  Three of the students’ favourite fairy tales were performed using three different styles of puppetry.  The actors used marionettes, shadow puppetry and hand puppetry to bring to life the fairy tale stories of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs.

After each story, the performers spent time showing the students how the puppets were designed and some lucky audience members even had a chance to use the puppets.

This incursion experience helps to support the teaching and learning of writing and shared reading in the classroom.  When children get to see and experience the stories they’ve read about bought to life on the stage, their understanding of language is enhanced.

Here’s what some of the children said about the show….

‘I liked when the wolf came out and tried to chomp the people in the audience.’ – Bethany.

‘I liked when Crystal joked with Steve and put her hand over his mouth to stop him talking.’ – Lizzie.

‘It was so funny when Steve dressed up as a fairy with a tail.’ – Prabhleen and Lucas.

‘I liked it when they used the shadow puppets to tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.’ – Bodhi C.

Thank you to all of the wonderful classes that have invited me into their classroom over the last week. It was a pleasure celebrating the learning that is occurring in each of the classrooms. I loved working with some students in 5B as they examined open-ended, problem solving questions that had a real world element. It was great listening to students collaborate as they planned out the dimensions for a classroom in our new building and use mathematical language to discuss and defend their selection.

I also had the opportunity to collaborate with students in 5L as they participated in a Rally Coach activity and taught their peers how to order fractions. I loved the connections between the students as they taught each other and deepened their own understanding of fractions.

In 6T it was great observing students consider the use of a variety of sentence types to help ensure their narrative is entertaining and engaging and then to represent their learning on the Bump It Up Wall – these resources will help their peers bump up their work. Finally I loved celebrating the writing that has occurred in 5P. I had the opportunity to read some great “show, don’t tell”, descriptive writing. Well done Year 5 and 6!

Robo-Olympics

Our Robotics team travelled to Moreton Downs State School where we learnt how to code our EV3 robots to joust, play tug of war and even sumo wrestle! Some events and code use different sensors to navigate the arena so we discovered how the light and depth sensors could change the robots' actions. This immersion day was great to help us learn how to code and build the best robot for these three events, so we can compete against other schools in the ROBOlympics next term!