Term 2 Week 5 2022
- Principal's News by Tracy Egan
- Team Mango We All Belong!
- Prep News by Melinda White
- Year 1 News by Kylie Vaughan
- Year 2 News by Ellaine Warner
- Year 3 News by Michelle Alcorn
- Year 4 News by Ben Mills
- Year 5 and Year 6 News by Martin Winney
- Curriculum News by Suzette Holm and Danielle O'Brien
- Sporting News by The PE Department
- News from our Partners
- Community News
Thank you to our wonderful Volunteers
It's National Volunteer Week and I would like to pay tribute to the many, many volunteers in our school community. We have so many amazing parents and carers who assist in classrooms and with events. Your unpaid labour makes a huge difference to our students, staff and community and we thank you!
During National Volunteer Week we also love nothing better than publicly thanking all our hardworking P&C members for the tireless work they do each year to improve educational facilities, resources and student outcomes. This Friday we celebrate P & C Day. I would like to pay tribute to and thank our wonderful P & C Executive for their leadership and support - Amy Swalwell, Yanti Weaire, Radhiki Reddy and Michelle Angayam are leading the team this year and we are very grateful for all their efforts. I also thank all parents and carers who contribute to the P & C.
Building a safe, supportive and compassionate school environment
At Mango Hill SS we are committed to providing a safe and supportive school environment. We explicitly teach students how to follow rules, get along with others, look after their mental health and manage conflicts.
Most students are very successful at school, following the rules and getting on well with others. Some students need additional support to manage their behaviour. This may be due to a disability, health needs, trauma or other factors. At MHSS, we focus on high standards of behaviour while providing appropriate adjustments and support to students who require a differentiated approach.
Occasionally you may see a child behaving in a way that is not appropriate. I ask you to withhold judgement and be compassionate, especially if it is a younger student with big emotions they are expressing. Consider, what might be happening for that little one and have faith that our staff are working to support the student in the most caring way whilst keeping everyone safe.
We have some children with complex needs and we are working hard with their families, carers and health professionals to help them succeed.
We know that shaming or humiliating children does not help. We know that making their parent or carer feel bad does not help.
I hope our Team Mango community can assist us to be kind and compassionate as we work to help students learn appropriate behaviours.
We look forward to working in partnership with parents and students to build a safe and supportive environment for all students.
National Road Safety Week
This week we have been focused on supporting students to learn safe travel to and from school. I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch our school’s safe travel options so you can ensure you are part of the solution and support your child to make safe travel choices.
Parent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6hnnnMi3Zc
Student video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52g-b2ucnDI
May I please ask that you also show consideration of our neighbours and follow rules in the surrounding streets and carpark. Could you please:
- avoid queuing at the back of the school before 2.45pm as it causes congestion for local residents.
- follow the directions of staff and the Look Out zone. Keep moving forward and do the loop if your child is not there.
- time your run! If your child is in year 3-6 they don’t get dismissed until 2:45pm and then have to make their way to your pick up point so aim to meet them around 2:55pm-3:00pm.
- park with consideration – avoid disabled parks unless you have a permit, leave the bus lane for buses and do not park in people’s driveways.
WE’RE TAKING IT IN OUR STRIDE ON FRIDAY 20 MAY 2022
Well it’s that time of year again when our school seriously starts talking about walking!
Walk Safely to School Day asks that we all consider our transport habits and try to incorporate more walking as part of a healthy, active way to get around. And although walking all the way to school isn’t realistic for many of us, it’s quite easy to figure out how you can build a walk into your family’s daily routine.
You can teach your child the healthy habit of walking more by considering the following ideas.
- Walking with them the whole way to school.
- If they get the bus or train, walk past your usual stop and get on at the next stop.
- Ff you have to drive, park the car a few blocks away from the school and walk the rest of the way.
Regular exercise like walking with your child not only helps them (and you!) beat chronic problems like obesity, heart disease, behavioural and mental health issues. It also gives you a great opportunity to teach your child safe ways to behave around roads and traffic.
Remember, Active Kids are Healthy Kids so get planning your own Walk Safely to School Day journey for Friday 20 May 2022 or be a part of the Team Mango walk!
JOIN US!
The Team Mango walk will involve a range of staff, students and parents, walking to school together from the locations marked on the map below. Our walking groups will leave at staggered times:
- Group 1 @ 7.50am
- Group 2 @ 8.05am.
Keep an eye out for staff in the Team Mango vests who will be leading the walk! We look forward to a wonderful morning (weather permitting!)
Speech and Literacy Development in Early Primary
Children commencing school at around five years of age are typically well understood by everyone. They are able to say most speech sounds correctly but may still have difficulty pronouncing the /r/ and /l/ sounds in consonant clusters (e.g. spray pronounced “spway” or “sweep” instead of sleep). The ‘th’ sounds (e.g. this, thumb) might also be tricky for some children until 8-9 years as well as /s/ and /z/ if their front teeth are missing! From Prep, our students are beginning to understand that spoken sounds correspond to written letters. Five-year-old children can hear and make up rhyming words, break words into syllables or beats (e.g. am-bu-lance) and tell you the first sound they hear in a word. Each year students build on their literacy and language abilities to become confident readers and writers – two very complex skills! Phoneme segmentation, which involves breaking up words into sounds (e.g. dog = d – o – g) and phoneme blending, where sounds are blended together to form a whole word (e.g. s – a – n– d = sand), are two of the most important early literacy skills for reading and spelling success. You can help your child’s early literacy skills by speaking clearly yourself, getting face to face when speaking with them, incorporating shared book reading into your daily routine and playing sound games like ‘I spy’. For further information and helpful activities, try searching ‘phonological awareness’ at the Five from five (www.fivefromfive.com.au) and Raising Children Network (https://raisingchildren.net.au/) websites.
If you have questions about your child’s literacy development, it’s always great to arrange a time to speak with your child’s Teacher. For any concerns about speech you can:
- make an appointment with your GP
- locate a Speech Language Pathologist in your area by using the Find a Speech Therapist function on the Speech Pathology Australia website speechpathologyaustralia.org.au
- get your child’s hearing tested by an audiologist.
Focus of the Week
The Care Class focus that will be delivered this Friday, is Safety in the Learning Environment. This focus has the purpose of developing the following.
- when I care for self I am being safe and secure in the classroom
- when I care for the environment I am respecting belongings
- when I care for others I report unsafe equipment so that people don’t get hurt.
Students will be discussing how it looks/sounds/feels to walk sensibly in the classroom, use equipment sensibly, ask permission to leave the classroom, only go into a room when a teacher is present, sit on chairs safely and ways to self-regulate their emotions. This focus will also be reinforced the following week so students can practise their learnings.
Upcoming Parent Forums
Student of the Week
Let’s talk about the importance of play!
Play, both structured and unstructured is critical for child development.
We incorporate as much playfulness into our school day as we can but like everything in life, the more practice, the better!
Allowing children to play gives them autonomy and collaboration practice (they make their own decisions in the play as well as having to compromise with others), they build their oral language skills and they build literacy and numeracy skills.
You might have to join the play with them, to model how it’s done! Take some inspiration from Bandit and Chilli in Bluey and join in the fun! A few weekends ago our whole family played “dance mode” at Chermside shopping centre (on a Saturday night no less!) and you can bet I was hoping I wouldn’t run into any Team Mango families when my kids had turned my “dance mode” on! (For the Bluey novices, each person has an imaginary remote control and you can turn on someone’s dance mode at any time. Literally any time).
Yesterday in the playground, a Preppie asked me to play “that animal game” with them. That game (to me!) was soooo boring. I made it up a few weeks ago when it was raining in the morning and we couldn’t get the equipment out but then they played so I made it up on the spot. Essentially, they do animal walks and pretend to be animals and I’m the zoo keeper / vet / only person not jumping like a kangaroo? We played it again yesterday and I was like a DJ taking requests... “can we be rabbits now?” “Can we be lions next?” Was I a tad bored? Sure. But did I love the absolute joy on their faces when I joined in? Absolutely!
We’d love to see some pics of what kinds of play you get up to in your homes. Email your teachers, or me! We can share all the wonderful ideas with other students and maybe they’ll find inspiration for their next game!
PS - important side note. Play fighting games are never good, at home or school. We tend to find they turn into actual fights. So we will always say no to play fighting games at school.
I’ve attached a link to an article about play for you to read below.
Have a lovely week
Melinda White
Deputy Principal - Prep
mwhit37@eq.edu.au
Learning in the Great Outdoors
Our Year 1s had a great time this week on their excursion to the Nudgee Beach Environmental Education Centre. They started their day with a journey into the mangroves to explore the ecosystem that exists there. One surprising fact the children learned was that mangroves breathe through their roots that act like snorkels coming out of the mud. How amazing is that!
Back at the centre, the children got hands on. They got to touch and feel hermit crabs, fish, sea cucumbers and starfish. Ask your child what it was like to hold one of these fascinating creatures.
After that, the students set out to explore the beach. They did lots of digging and investigating. On the beach they built a model of the land out of sand. The teachers at Nudgee Beach used the model to show the children how pollution is carried from the city into the oceans. The children could really see through this demonstration how important it is to care for the environment and put rubbish in the bin.
A big shout out to all the parents who volunteered to come along to this excursion. We really appreciate giving up your time to support this day out of the classroom.
High 5 to Mr Pollock for organising the excursion and to all our teachers and teacher aides who do lots of work behind the scenes to make the day happen.
Our final group of classes 1P, 1C, 1H and 1W will get their turn at Nudgee Beach on the 2nd of June We can’t wait to hear of their adventures!
Learning in Year 2
We are in fabulous Week 5. In Math, our students have been focusing on showing 3-digit numbers in lots of ways and explaining their place value. Teachers have been informally gathering information about how students are progressing throughout the term so that teachers know next steps for our students and can make decisions about what the students in their class need to learn next. This week, students will have a more formal assessment task. Our Math focus will then move to solving addition and subtraction problems. Students are also regularly learning about measurement.
Play time in Year 2
Fencing has now gone up around parts of our play area, and students are learning about the new play area. We are all focusing on being the best friends we can be at play times. Students are continuing to build friendship and problem-solving skills with lots of support from their class teachers. Staff on duty move around their respective duty areas interacting with students and helping resolve concerns. We ask students to choose one of the play areas available to them, and then “stay to play” for that break. Students know they can always choose a different area next break. We encourage “stay to play” in one area so that students are in proximity to staff for assistance.
After school routines
Students who are waiting for older siblings in the afternoons should go straight to Sibling Pickup in the Piazza at 2:30pm in the afternoon. Staff supervise students until their older siblings arrive just after 2:45pm.
Take care!
Ellaine Warner
Deputy Principal- Year 2
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
Messy Maths Time
Drawing on tables is not something we would usually encourage, however drawing on tables as a Messy Maths space, how can we say no?
Students in 3E love the time they get to have to make their thinking visible on their table as they try to solve tricky multi-step problems. This week we revisited a range of strategies to be used to solve multi-step addition and subtraction problems. It was wonderful to see students identifying the important information in the problem to determine which strategy would be most efficient to solve the problem. Our clever 3’s then worked with their buddies to share why they decided to use that strategy and why it was most efficient. Great work 3E!
Have a great week
Michelle Alcorn
Deputy Principal- Year 3
malco14@eq.edu.au
Year 4 Mathematicians!
Over the past week, our Year 4 classes have wrapped up their Maths unit of odds and even numbers and moved onto exploring strategies for multiplication and division. Our teachers have been working hard in their team meetings to develop high-quality, engaging maths lessons to support and challenge their students. I have seen 4B coaching each other to solve multiplication problems using the written algorithm, 4R practising a range of strategies, and 4L and 4Z playing number fact games to improve their ability to solve problems with larger numbers. It has been great to hear students share their thinking with me and each other.
Being Grateful in Year 4
Across our Year 4 classes, students and teachers are taking the time every day to reflect on what they are grateful for as they work towards their Four Cares Celebration at the end of the term. This week, 4G reached one of their mid-term class targets and as a reward, had a class disco. It was great to see 4G celebrating their achievement and making the choice to be grateful every day.
Upcoming Events
Over the next few weeks, Year 4 students have a couple of events to keep in mind. In Week 6, Year 4 and 5 classes will be attending First Aid Training sessions. These are scheduled over 3 days from Tuesday to Thursday. In Week 7, classes will be attending Australia Zoo to support their learning in HASS. It will then continue to be a busy 2nd half of Term 2, as we approach our Four Cares Celebration, sports carnival and of course, lots of learning!
Have a super week
Ben Mills
Deputy Principal – Year 3
bxmil3@eq.edu.au
Care for Learning in Year 5 and 6
Over the course of the last 18 months a significant part of our professional learning plan for our teaching staff is the development of more collaborative learning that promotes active student learning and, more recently, gaining regularly formative evidence of learning and responding with intervention. These strategies all combine to ensure that students own their learning and represent their learning in some format. This week I have had the opportunity to visit and work with some classes that have put these strategies in place and are achieving great outcomes. This week I had the opportunity to work with 5P who embedded a moveNprove activity in which students were presented with four different paragraphs all ranging at different standards. Students had to pick the paragraph they thought achieved the highest standard and stand in a different corner of the room. From there, students developed arguments about why they thought their paragraph was the better paragraph and then debate it in the class. Not only did this allow for more active learning but provided clarity of success when the class worked through their reasoning and then agree on a standard. When I worked with 5B it was great observing students utilise peer feedback to provide differentiated support that required students to do the cognitive work. Students were able to collaboratively write their paragraphs and provide these as formative assessment of learning. While in 6R it was great observing students collaboratively participate in a paragraph jigsaw to help reinforce their understanding of effective paragraph structure. Well done Year 5 and 6!
Year 6 Camp
Our Year 6 team are excited to prepare for Year 6 camp to Tallebudgera Outdoor Recreation Centre. The camp is in week 2 of Term 3 for 6D, 6C, 6R and 6V and in week 3 of Term 3 for 6B, 6H, 6T and 6W. As camp approaches teachers are connecting with families to ensure supports are in place to ensure every student has the opportunity to access this exciting opportunity. As the families impacted will already know, this year we unfortunately had a clash of schedules between our camp in week 3 and Wakakirri. Although the school worked at changing our Wakakirri participation to another date, this could not be achieved. The teachers of the 13 students that this impacts have been in touch with families and worked through options for getting these students to camp on the Tuesday. This includes families transporting their child to camp or working with the school to organise car-pooling with other families. We are also working with the camp to ensure families are only invoiced for the time they are at the camp. If this clash in dates impacts you and need more clarification please contact your child’s class teacher or feel free to contact me.
Martin Winney
Deputy Principal – Year 5 & 6
mwinn7@eq.edu.au
Problem Solving and Reasoning in Maths
Students are busy proving, justifying and explaining their thinking in Mathematics. Teachers are providing opportunities and learning environments where students need to apply their existing strategies to seek solutions to mathematical problems, use mathematics to represent unfamiliar situations, transfer their learning from one context to another and prove whether something is true or false. This deepens students’ understanding, supports their fluency with processes and enhances their ability to pose and solve problems and reason in number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability.
See photos below of students using the power of mathematical reasoning in tasks like ‘Destroyer, ‘Discuss and Defend, ‘Rate the Response’, ‘Move and Prove’ and through a variety of collaborative structures.
AR Millionaires
This week we are excited to announce that there are 2 new AR millionaire readers. Congratulations to Franco and Amaan who have both reached their goals of reading 1 million words in AR. We are very proud of both of them and have added their photos to our special display in the Hub.
Congratulations also to Lachlan who this week achieved his AR goal – he has reached the very top of AR, successfully completing two quizzes at 8.9. This means Lachlan is now on AR 9.0 which is a very impressive level to have reached! Lachlan is now looking forward to reading lots of different AR books at lots of different AR levels!
Don’t forget your AR goal could be focussed on reaching specific levels, passing a particular number of quizzes and/or reaching a million words. Have a word to your teacher or Ms Holm in the Hub to set a new AR goal.
Premier’s Reading Challenge
This is a great week to begin the Premier’s Reading Challenge! All students are invited to participate to read, read and read! Students should record the books read on the special PRC reading record form (attached or available in print from the Hub). There is plenty of time to read and record your books as the challenge goes until the end of August. Students can include home readers, library books or any of their favourite books from home.
Caring for our books
Don’t forget that using a library bag is a great way to care for our books, especially during this very wet weather. Students can use a special library bag purchased from the Uniform shop or they might prefer to use any kind of fabric or plastic bag. Please help us to care for our precious resources. All wet, damaged or lost books will need to be replaced.
Have a fantastic week
Suzette Holm and Danielle O'Brien
shol0@eq.edu.au
Athletics Carnival
A reminder for our Athletics Carnival Dates for the end of this term.
- Week 10 Monday 20 June – Junior Sports Day (all Year Prep, 1 and 2 students compete)
- Week 10 Tuesday 21 June – Senior Athletics Carnival – Discus, 200m/800m Finals (Some Yr 3-6 students compete)
- Week 10 Wednesday 22 June - Senior Athletics Carnival – 8 & 9 Year Old students (Year 3s and some Year 4s compete)
- Week 10 Thursday 23 June - Senior Athletics Carnival – 10,11 & 12 Year Old students (Some Year 4s, all Year 5s & 6s compete)
We will be releasing more information regarding the Athletics Carnival in the coming weeks so be sure to check the newsletter each week.
AFLQ Schools Cup
Our boys AFLQ Schools Cup team recently progressed through as champions of the Brisbane North Regional area and will now play next term in the SEQ Championships. The boys AFLQ Schools Cup team will commence training again each Thursday from 3.00pm-4.00pm on the MHSS School Oval.
Pine Rivers District Sport Trials – Term 1 and 2
Below is a list of upcoming Pine Rivers District trials. Most trials are limited to students turning 11 or 12 years of age and who are considered at a high level in the sport eg Div 1 or A Grade. If you are interested in your child trialling for Pine Rivers District more information can be obtained from the Pine Rivers District School Sport Website https://prdss1012yr.teamapp.com/?_webpage=v1 or Mr Nick Hills - nhill96@eq.edu.au (MHSS PE Teacher).
Costs
Some Pine Rivers District Trials that occur during the school day will incur a fee to cover the supervision costs of teachers running the trial. Trials which are run after school will be free of charge. All Metropolitan North Trials in 2022 are free of charge as well.
- Pine Rivers District Sports Trial (after school) Free
- Pine Rivers District Sports Trial (half day or full day) $10.00
- Metropolitan North Sports Trials Free
Please Note:
- Trial information and district forms are not available until 2 weeks prior to trial date.
- District forms must be returned by the due date for students to be nominated
- Trial fees must be paid online by 3:00pm on the due date.
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Event |
Date of Trial |
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Pine Rivers District U/12 Rugby Union Trials – Boys |
25/05/22 |
|
Pine Rivers District U/12 Tennis Trials – Boys and Girls |
25/05/22 |
* Due to high student interest in attending the PRD Football trials, MHSS will be conducting internal trials to select the students who will attend the PRD trials.
Mr Hills & Mr Newell, Miss Richards and Miss HodgesPhysical Education Teachers
nhill96@eq.edu.au
tnewe20@eq.edu.au
P & C News
Uniform Shop Updates
Good news! The uniform shop is now open an additional day. We are now open on Thursday afternoons 1:30pm-4:00pm.
Uniform Shop hours during the term are:
Monday - 8:00am-10:30am
Wednesday 1:30pm-3:30pm
Thursday 1:30pm-4:00pm
Friday 8:00am-10:30am
Online orders - can be placed through our website www.wearitto.com.au/schools/mango-hill-state-school
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Mango Hill State School - Schools - Wearitto Wearitto delivers high quality uniforms in a way that makes things easy for schools and parents. We create clothing for school, work and play. |
Orders are packed through the uniform shop during our opening hours and an email is sent to let you know when your order is ready to be picked up, or, if you'd like your student to bring the uniforms home with them, email us at mangohill@wearitto.com.au with your student's name and class name and we can get it to them.
Zoe and Rochelle
Uniform Shop Convenors
Recently our EcoMarines visited Tangalooma Island. The Resort also offers a 15% discount for EcoMarines teachers, students and school families.: www.tangalooma.com/tangalooma-ecomarines-discount.
