Term 3 Week 4 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
- News from our Partners
- Community News
School Opinion Survey
Thank you to all of those who have already completed the Parent/Caregiver Survey. If you have not had a chance to complete the survey yet, please note that the online surveys will remain open until Friday, 12 August 2022. This is your opportunity to provide feedback about what our school does well and how we can improve.
To have your say, check your email for an invitation from the Department of Education titled School Opinion Survey for parents and caregivers, 2022.
Can’t find your invitation? If your family has more than one parent/caregiver, check that they haven’t received the invitation and/or check your junk email folder.
Congratulations MHSS Athletes – Relay Champions
On Monday and Tuesday 42 students represented Mango Hill SS in the Pine Rivers District Athletic carnival. I am so proud to report the display of respectful behaviour and sportsmanship demonstrated by students.
We had some wonderful individual performances and some outstanding results in the relays. In fact, MHSS was awarded the Pine Rivers District Track & Field Trophy – beating 21 other schools in our district.
Special thanks to parents who supported and our wonderful PE team – Mr Hills, Mr Newell, Ms Richards and Ms Hodges.
P & C Meeting Monday
Thank you to the parents and supporters who attended our P & C Meeting on Monday evening. Outcomes from the meeting include yjr following.
- The Term 4 Health Unit on protective behaviours was endorsed by the P & C with individual parent consent (more details later this term).
- We met the staff from PCYC who will provide our OSHC service from 19 September.
- We acknowledged the contribution from the Deputy Premier Steven Miles and Deputy Mayor Jodie Shipway (MBRC) toward a second coffee machine for Gigum Hall. This will be a wonderful addition for events at Gigum Hall.
- We discussed the upcoming fundraisers including the Tea Towel fundraiser, Father’s Day stall, the Art Show and the Colour Explosion. Keep an eye out for ways you can assist with these fundraisers.
Our next meeting will be held on Monday 12 September.
Public Holiday Monday
Please note that the school will be closed next Monday, 8 August due to the Public Holiday for the EKKA. School will be open as usual on Tuesday 9 August for the rest of the week. I would like to wish all families a lovely and restful long weekend.
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day is a time for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities to celebrate the strength and culture of our children. This year’s theme is ‘My Dreaming, My Future’.
At MHSS, we have 67 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students. We encourage all of our students to learn about and embrace our First Nations Australian culture by:
- embedding Indigenous perspectives into the curriculum
- hosting lunchtime clubs (Wunya Ngulum club) to learn about Indigenous culture
- having traditional Indigenous games as a lunchtime club
- encouraging classes to have their own acknowledgement of country each day
- learning the language of our local Indigenous people.
Last week was National Tree Day and through our gardening club, we were lucky enough to be provided with some local Indigenous plants to add to our school vegetable garden. Thank you to Mrs Verster for organising this.
In continuing to seek out opportunities to promote and celebrate our First Nations Australian culture and language at MHSS, we have recently named another building using a local Gubbi Gubbi word. Our old school hall will be called the Wandani Centre. ‘Wandani’ means ‘gathering’ in the Gubbi Gubbi language. We look forward to using this space in years to come as a gathering place for our community to learn and connect.
National Tree Day
Friday last week, National Tree Day was held across Australia. Thanks to Torque Toyota who donated a variety of indigenous plants. The students had great fun relocating these plants to their new home in our school garden.
Focus of the Week
The Care Class focus that will be delivered this Friday is ‘Using your strengths”.
Every person has character strengths or assets that are important pathways to building resilience and wellbeing. By knowing and understanding our strengths and making choices that are aligned with those strengths, we create more opportunities for positive emotions, social connectedness and wellbeing in our lives.
You might like to get your child to write an affirmation note to a friend about a strength they have.
Early Departures – New window service 1pm to 2.30pm daily
We would like to advise all parents and carers of a change of practice at Mango Hill State School. If you are needing to collect your child early from school please report to the Late Arrivals and Early Departures window at the side of the Admin building. The window will be open from 1pm until 2.30pm each day. If you are collecting your child before 1pm, or from Sick Bay please proceed to the main Administration office.
ICAS Ready
With ICAS assessment starting next week it is important to ensure student devices are ready to enable them to complete the assessments. Please access the following link for instructions on how to download and install the lockdown browser prior to their assessment - https://www.icasassessments.com/support-technical-requirements/
Students taking part in the Spelling will also need to bring their headphones to their assessment.
Below is a copy of the timetable and save the dates. Class teachers will be made aware of when students should be attending their registered assessment.
We are using the High Five in the playground to try to solve our problems.
The High Five is...
*talk friendly
*talk firmly
*ignore
*walk away
*report.
Some problems are Big Problems and we might need a grown up to help us. In the playground, this would be hands-on behaviours. Other things that happen, are things we can learn to solve ourselves. This might be when someone is on the see-saw for a long time and I might want a turn. We practise saying, “Excuse me, can I please have a turn?” If the Prep friend isn’t very keen on giving up the see saw, I might try again with “It’s my turn now please!” (I might use a stronger voice, still being kind).
It’s tricky for us to sometimes know the difference between when the problem is something we try to solve or whether we need a grown up. But with practice, we will improve.
If I come home with a stamp on my hand, it could be because I’ve used my High Five! Make sure you ask me about it when I get home (and hopefully I will remember).
You can help us by encouraging our independence in the home. If it’s a problem we can solve, give us some time to solve it. If we are arguing with a sibling, give us a minute to see if we can solve it ourselves first. This is how we develop our skills of resilience and our skills of independence.
Melinda White
Deputy Principal - Prep
mwhit37@eq.edu.au
Location, Location, Location
This term in Maths, our Year 1 students are learning all about location. They are learning to give and follow directions to familiar locations using the language of left, right, up, down, forward and back. The children are having lots of fun exploring grid maps and creating pathways. In some classes, they’ve even been using Bee Bots to explore direction.
Bee Bots are programmable floor robots that the children can control. The students plan their pathways to a location and then program their Bee Bot with directions. After pressing ‘Go’ the Bee Bot is off and racing, following the children’s programmed pathway. So much fun combined with so much learning!
Circle Time
One of the ways we focus on student wellbeing across the school is by engaging in Circle Time. Circle Time happens once a week in classrooms with students coming together with their classmates to unpack issues from across the week. Circle Time helps to develop positive relationships between children and aims to developing skills such as thinking, listening, looking, speaking, turn taking and concentration.
Circle Time often offers an opportunity to address issues that are affecting students in the class, school or wider community and problem solve together. It fosters respect and provides a platform for students to collaborate to achieve a common goal.
Here are 1P engaging in their weekly Circle Time.
Learning in Year 2
We have had another great week in Year 2. I have enjoyed time in all our classes, including participating in Math lessons in 4 of our rooms. Your children are solving tricky fraction problems. Students also regularly do “Rapid Recall” where we practise a range of Math knowledge and skills to ensure deep learning.
Yesterday, all the Year 2 teachers met with our Head of Department and me to unpack our students’ progress in writing. We have so many celebrations. Of course, we also shared strategies and ideas for students who have some more steps to take.
Year 2 Excursion
Notes will be emailed in the next week for our Year 2 excursion to Samford Museum. We are going across 3 days (22, 24 and 25 August) so please make sure you identify which day your child’s class is going. We can’t wait!
Take care and have a wonderful week
Ellaine Warner
Deputy Principal- Year 2
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
Super Star Writers
Mr Wong’s and Ms Curran’s class have been working very hard generating creative ideas and language features to engage the reader as the create the next chapter of Kumiko and the Dragon. Carefully they have been crafting their story using clues from the text and some of their own ideas to keep the story going. It has been great to see the range of noun and verb groups, similes, metaphors and idioms used to give detail to their story, engaging the audience in every sentence. Visiting classrooms across Year 3 I can see this great work continuing. I also have seen some great collaboration as classes have worked together to build a range of resources for their Bump It Up wall. These are great resources the students can then access during their learning time to help conquer their individual learning goals in writing.
Well done 3H, 3C and the rest of our Year 3 students on their narrative writing this week. I look forward to seeing how you continue to improve your writing as you edit and publish your work.
Have a great week
Michelle Alcorn
Deputy Principal- Year 3
malco14@eq.edu.au
Bumping up our Writing
There has been a big focus in Year 4 this past week on ‘bumping-up’ our writing. Throughout Term 3, Year 4 students have been reading and writing traditional Asian tales that include a moral. Students have been learning about how to structure their text, use verb and noun groups for effect, and carefully consider when a new paragraph is required.
In 4A and 4B, students have been deepening their clarity about their next steps and where they can go for help through teacher feedback and using resources from the learning wall to improve their work. In 4A, students were collaborating to find examples of text connectives that they could use when writing their own traditional tales. Students in 4B have done the same, as well as unpacking good exemplars so that students can compare their work samples to these.
Building connections and celebrating learning
At MHSS, wellbeing is highly valued as we work towards supporting students to be the best versions of themselves. We have a multitude of ways in which we work to strengthen students’ connections with each other and increase their wellbeing at school. One strategy our classes use is doing a What Went Well at the end of each day. This is an opportunity for students to reflect on their day and celebrate what they have learned or the positive experiences they have had with friends.
This week our care class focus was on Ready to Learn plans. I loved visiting 4Z during their Care Class this week and seeing the class strategies they were developing to help them get ready to learn. It has been wonderful to see across all of the Year 4 classes, that so many students have strategies in place to help them get ready to learn.
Bunyaville
Over the next few weeks, all of our Year 4 classes will visit Bunyaville Conservation Park as a part of the Earth Science unit. Some classes have already visited this week and have learned about the benefits of weeding and the impacts of soil erosion. From what I have heard, our students have been exceptional at demonstrating care for the environment while at Bunyaville.
Have a super week Ben Mills
Deputy Principal – Year 4
bxmil3@eq.edu.au
Care for Learning in Year 5 and 6
It has been all systems go in Year 5 and 6 classrooms this week. With Year 6 camp complete and Year 5 camp fast approaching, classes have been hard at work to ensure they engage in high impact teaching and learning. I had the pleasure of visiting 5K as they continued their work on writing a “moment in time” narrative. Students did a great job of utilising their Bump It Up Wall to reflect on their writing and ensure they were including complex sentence that foregrounded the feelings of the characters into their narrative. While in 5I I had the pleasure of working with a range of students as they participated in a Rally Coach collaborative structure. Students completed a “spot the mistake” at the start of the lesson to work out which students had grasped the concept and which students need their peer for support. Students engaged in the Rally Coach as a way to teach their peers. This was a great way for students to build connections in their class while causing learning. Well done Year 5 and 6!
Year 6 Graduation Committee
I am looking forward to meeting with the Graduation Committee meeting on Wednesday 3 August at 5:00pm in the Administration Block. If you would like to join our committee it is not too late! Please email Jasmine - jbenf10@eq.edu.au to register your interest.
Have a great week
Martin Winney
Deputy Principal –Year 5 & 6
mwinn7@eq.edu.au
Hub Display
This week in the Hub we have a new display from the Museum, celebrating early Australian explorers. Pop on down in the next week or so to see some of the artefacts and posters. I wonder what it would have been like to have travelled in the Endeavour to this great southern land?
Premier’s Reading Challenge
Don’t forget to return any completed forms to the Hub as soon as possible. There is only a couple more weeks to complete this super challenge!
Book Week
Don’t forget that as part of our Book Week celebrations we have a special Book Week competition. We already have 1 super entry but would love to see so many more! The theme for Book Week is ‘Dreaming with your eyes open’, so our competition is a great way to share what kind of places you like to dream and read about!
Accelerated Reader
Congratulations to Nesandi who this week reached one million words in AR. Nesandi has been working consistently on her AR quizzes all year and we are very proud of her efforts. We have added a special photo to our AR display in the Hub.
There are also lots of other students working very hard on their AR goals… now is a great time to really strive for the next level, the next million or a specific number of books. Pop on down to the Hub if you would like support to reach your goal! The Hub is open every morning from 8.15am and until 3pm every afternoon. See you soon!
Have a fantastic week
Suzette Holm and Danielle O'Brien
shol0@eq.edu.au
Donations for our P & C
P&C would like to request for donations for the Father's Day Fundraising event this month. If you are able to donate any of the following, it would be greatly appreciated.
- Individually wrapped chocolates/sweet treats.
- Mini Patty Pans/Mini Cupcake Liners
- Unsalted butter
- Sweetened Condensed Milk Can
- Cocoa Powder
- Chocolate Sprinkles
- Coconut Flakes
All donations can be brought to the canteen by Wednesday 10 August.
Thank you
MHSS P&C
