Term 3 Week 6 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
Collaboration – Learning Together
Mango Hill SS has been part of a ‘Critical Friends Network’ with a focus of improving writing for students by learning alongside colleagues in other schools, providing feedback and suggestions for improvement.
This week we are hosting over 50 visitors including Principals, Deputy Principals, Heads of Department and teachers from 6 other schools – Caboolture East SS, Burpengary SS, Moreton Downs SS, Elimbah SS, Narangba Valley SS and Jinibara SS. They are visiting classrooms and speaking with students about their learning to gauge their level of clarity. Participants have provided us with wonderful affirmations and also suggestions for our next steps to further strengthen this fantastic work.
Our collective work over the past two years has resulted in almost 10% more students across our schools reaching standard in English and almost 15% of students reaching an A or B standard which is a wonderful achievement.
Our ‘Critical Friend Network’ was recently awarded the Regional showcase Award for Excellence in the Primary years. We are thrilled to be recognised for this work and proud of the effort of our staff.
The photos below show students engaged in these Learning Walk and Talks with visitors this week.
Daffodil day
This Friday 19 August we ask all students and community members to wear yellow for a great cause.
Daffodil day is a chance for Australians to come together and give. We all have the ability to create change in the lives of people impacted by cancer, by funding cancer research.
Book Week Celebrations
Next week we celebrate Book Week! This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate all that we love about books! Parents are very welcome to join us at the sector parades in Gigum Hall.
All students are invited to dress up as a Book character and bring along the book to share. Alternatively, you may like to wear pyjamas and bring your favourite book to show how much you love to snuggle up and read a bedtime story!
We are looking forward to a wonderful celebration of Book Week!
Welcome to our Wandani Centre
We are very excited to announce our renovated old hall will be officially named the Wandani centre. Wandani is the Gubbi Gubbi word for ‘gathering’. This gathering centre will be used for group gatherings, meetings, collaboration and information sessions.
Following consultation with families in our school community who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, we are excited to name the hall in recognition of the connection our First Nations people have to our area and our school.
Look at our lovely artwork by Robin Conlon.
Prep, Year 2 and Year 3 Swimming Program
In Term 4, students in Prep, Year 2 and Year 3 participate in the Learn to Swim Program at Grace Pool Rothwell.
Permission notes will be sent home this week. Consent forms and payment is due by Wednesday 14 September.
Colour Explosion
Our Colour Explosion Fun Run is coming up on Tuesday 13 September.
This is the major fundraiser for the P & C and all students can participate.
A hard copy of the permission note will be sent home in the near future.
We encourage all students to start collecting sponsors. All donations should be made online www.myprofilepage.com.au (Please don’t bring in any cash).
Once they have sponsors, the children can choose their prize from the booklet (sent home this week). As little as $10 sponsorship allows them to choose a prize. The more donations, the better the prize!
There are other great prizes for the class who raises the most and individual highest fundraiser.
Even if children don’t get sponsors, they can still participate if they have a permission note returned. There is no cost to participate.
On the day of the Fun Run, students should wear a pale coloured shirt and older shorts that they will stay in all day. Please ensure they are old clothes as the colour may not come out.
We will be looking for volunteers. Further information will be sent next week on how to sign up to assist.
We look forward to a fabulous event!
Enrolling at PCYC OSHC
We are working hard behind the scenes to transition to our new OSHC provider PCYC who will start on Monday 19 September replacing Helping Hands. If you haven’t yet enrolled your child, please do so asap as enrolments are filling fast. The directions below should assist.
Student free Day
A reminder that Friday 2 September is a student free day. Helping Hands OSHC will be open that day so please contact them if you need to book your child for care. Our school staff will not be on site on this day.
A Conversation can Change a Life
R U OK? day is comping up soon - Thursday 8 September.
R U OK? inspires and empowers everyone to meaningfully connect with the people around them and to start a conversation with anyone who may be struggling with life.
You don't need to be an expert to reach out - just a good friend and a great listener.
Use these four steps and have a conversation that could change a life:
- Ask R U OK?
- Listen
- Encourage action
- Check in.
Before you can look out for others, you need to look out for yourself. And that’s ok. If you're not in the right headspace or you don't think you're the right person to have the conversation, try to think of someone else in their support network who could talk to them.
To help you decide whether you’re ready to start a meaningful conversation, ask yourself the following.
- Am I ready?
- Am I prepared?
- Picked my moment?
For more information see: https://www.ruok.org.au/
Focus of the Week
The Care Class focus that will be delivered this Friday is ‘Care for others”. We will be consolidating this focus throughout next week.
Students will be learning how to care for others and show empathy towards each other. Teaching children about caring starts with compassion or an awareness of other people’s feelings. It’s important to teach children about emotions as it helps them better understand the person, the situation, and how they can respond appropriately to both.
When we are kind and caring towards others, life is so much nicer. When we show others that we care we feel good, too.
Dinner time conversation question starters could include the following.
The Countdown is on to… Wandani Arts Fest
Across the week of September 5 – September 9, we will celebrate all things arty at Team Mango, culminating in our art show with art auction on the Friday night. This is our first whole school gathering in quite some time and we’re really looking forward to it!
For those new to Team Mango, each class creates an art piece with their buddy class and we auction these pieces during our Friday night Arts Fest event. Our fabulous friends at Ray White, North Lakes provide us with real life auctioneers to set the auction pace! Each child in the whole school has an individual art piece on display and we try very hard for the display to look like a real art gallery and throughout the Arts Fest week, classes visit the art gallery and see the art displayed.
Last year, we held the event at Gigum Hall. We weren’t able to do our usual real time auction because we weren’t able to gather with such a large group, but this year, we’re excited to be back! “Doors” open from 4.30 pm on September 9, with the official commencement at 5 pm. We anticipate the evening will end before 7.30 pm.
Over the coming weeks, we will seek volunteers for a range of jobs including:
- Set up and pack up
- Food preparation and food sales
- Helping students to engage in a range of activities (supported by our wonderful staff):
Maker Space- Range of craft and construction activities and challenges
STEM Activities- Range of Science and Maths challenges.
Calico painting- We’re going to collaborate to paint large pieces of calico! We need enthusiastic sewers afterwards, who can turn our large, painted pieces of calico into tote bags (which we will sell from the café).
Mandala Art and Henna- We’re going to decorate the paths with mandala and decorate our arms with “henna”. We need volunteers to assist!
Story Telling- We’ve invited story tellers to come and engage with our students. We’d love parents to assist with supervision and engagement.
Mosaic Art- Our Italian teaching team would love our parents to join in with their mosaic activity
So save the date and keep an eye out on facebook and in upcoming newsletters for information about how you can volunteer to assist. If you’d like to register your interest to volunteer now, please email Ms White at mwhit37@eq.edu.au
ICAS Assessments
Over the next few weeks ICAS Assessments will continue in the Lab as per the timetable attached. Please remind your child that they will need to bring their device and have their headphones if sitting the Spelling Assessment. Mrs Koch will send reminders to classroom teachers on the day.
Personal Project – Walking in my Artist’s Shoes
Over the next two weeks students looking for an enrichment project are invited to enter our Arts Fest Competition – Walking in my Artist’s Shoes. This mini project can be a solo piece or done in collaboration with family members. Whilst there is a task card attached students are able to creatively represent their artist in any way of their choosing. All projects should be handed into their classroom teacher no later than Wednesday 31 August 2022.
Teaching Maths
In maths, we incorporate problem solving and reasoning into our everyday lessons. This is not the way I was taught maths when I was at school! When I was at school, like many of our Prep parents, you were “good at maths” if you could recite things or memorise steps. I have an excellent memory, so I was considered good at maths in primary school. In reality, this was probably far from the truth! As the mathematical concepts became more and more abstract, I could no longer rely on my strong memory or my rote learning. Eeeek!
We still have many parents tell us their Prep child is “good at maths” because they can count to 100 or because they can do some addition sums. It’s the way we were taught maths, so it seems to us that that’s what being good at maths is all about.
However when we know better, we do better. As teachers, we know now that when our students can see mathematical concepts presented in different ways, as part of their daily learning, then it switches on their thinking brain and they learn how to use mathematical logic - and the skills learned in class - to tackle the question.
The true definition of being “good at maths” is being able to work out problems, using all the resources around you! It takes practice to see a problem and have a go, rather than thinking “ooh that looks too hard”.
I’ve attached some pictures of the work in maths that’s happening across all Prep rooms. We’re pretty proud of how our Preps are developing their mathematical thinking skills! Growth mindset is a huge part of this success - if we believe effort makes a difference, then we can accomplish anything!
Melinda White
Deputy Principal - Prep
mwhit37@eq.edu.au
Problem Solving and Reasoning in Mathematics
Learning Mathematics involves more than just recalling factual knowledge. When children are working mathematically, they solve problems and reason. Problem solving in Maths is about finding a way to apply the knowledge and skills that you have to answer unfamiliar types of problems. Reasoning involves being able to explain your thinking about how you arrived at an answer.
The children in Year 1 are given lots of opportunities to problem solve and reason in their Maths lessons. They apply what they know to unfamiliar situations and are encouraged to explain their thinking using different representations. Some of these representations include the use of concrete materials, drawings, number lines, tens frames, part/part/whole models and number sentences.
Look at these great examples of problem solving and reasoning in our Year 1 classrooms.
Stay and Play Afternoon
Special loved ones are invited along to our upcoming Stay and Play afternoon to celebrate Father’s Day. This afternoon will take place on Tuesday 30 August 1:45 – 2:15pm. Please lookout for your invitation coming home soon. We ask those attending to RSVP to your child’s class teacher. We’d love to see all our loved ones there celebrating with us!
Learning in Year 2
Your students have come so far this term with their descriptions of places. Over the next week and a half, all students will draft and edit their final description. Students have their own “next steps” they are working on. For example, for many students their next step is to write maintaining a mood. This means that if their mood is “relaxing”, the noun groups, verb groups, figurative language and so on used by students are all chosen with precision to enhance the “relaxing” mood (eg the soft croak of frogs, soothing sounds of gentle rain). Once our unit writing is finalised, students will begin their Speaking and Listening unit. Of course, students will continue to write daily.
Year 2 Excursion
We can’t wait for our Year 2 excursion to Samford Museum next week. The museum staff and volunteers have organised interesting experiences and activities for us that will support Year 2 learning in Humanities and Social Sciences. On Friday of next week, we will also be celebrating Book Week with a year level parade. All parents are welcome to attend.
Term 4 Swimming
Class teachers have handed out Term 4 Swimming letters to their students this week. Our teachers are already preparing for swimming lessons in Week 1 – 6. If you have any particular concerns about your child swimming or have any new information to share that may impact on your child swimming, please make contact with your child’s class teacher.
Take care and have a wonderful week
Ellaine Warner
Deputy Principal- Year 2
ewarn23@eq.edu.au
Writing Like an Author
Across our Year 3 classrooms this week students have been busy brainstorming the next event in their class novel 'Kumiko and the Dragon'. Students have been working very hard to apply what they had learnt about the characters, setting and events thus far to generate new ideas about the next event in the story. It was great to see them build on their ideas and use a range of language features to engage the reader. I can’t wait to read their stories over the next week!
Nurturing a Growth Mindset
Bouncing back from challenges isn’t easy, but it is something we have the power to do when we have a growth mindset. Sometimes for our students they can find it very tricky to not get fixed in the moment and become upset or frustrated when they don’t get something the first go. Modelling to our students the power of a growth mindset, the power of ‘yet’, can help build our students confidence to keep on trying and bounce back from challenging situations.
In Year 3 we continue to model to students the language of a growth mindset and praise them for their efforts and perseverance. It can be tricky at times to ‘bounce back’ from challenging situations. Being a part of Team Mango means we really want to create that positive growth mindset in our children to see themselves as learners. With the power of ‘yet’ we are able to pick ourselves up and keep on trying. I can’t do this….. yet! I’m not good at this ….. yet!
Have a great week
Michelle Alcorn
Deputy Principal- Year 3
malco14@eq.edu.au
Keeping the beat in Music lessons
I loved visiting 4L’s Music lesson this week. Mrs Almond set up an engaging learning sequence that allowed every student to play a percussion instrument, including the ukulele. In Music lessons this term, Year 4 students are working towards collaborating to play a song that keeps to the beat. I was so impressed with 4L’s ability to keep to the beat as they played along to familiar songs, with some students even challenging themselves to play more complex rhythmic patterns. What a talented group of musicians we have!
Checkout these great photos below.
Building connections and celebrating learning
When visiting 4O this week, I was lucky enough to observe their Circle Time lesson. Circle Time is a weekly opportunity in each classroom for students to connect with one another and for teachers to address or unpack issues that may arise. Our students love sharing their thoughts, feelings and life experiences during this time each week.
As a way of connecting with students from across the school, every class has a Buddy Class that they connect with throughout the year. I happened to pass by 4L and 2L doing a buddy class activity this week, where students in 4L where teaching the 2L students about fractions. I was blown away by the Mango Hill values of teamwork, respect and excellence on display for this activity.
Fun with lunchtime clubs
We have been so excited to open our new multi-purpose court this week. Our Year 4 students have thoroughly enjoyed using this space. It looked so fun that I may have even participated in a game or two! We are so lucky to have such quality play spaces at MHSS!
This term our senior students have had the opportunity to participate in a new club supported by a parent volunteer, Mr Dickson. Mr Dickson is teaching our students martial arts. It has proven to be very popular, with many students coming along each week to learn this new skill!
Have a super week
Ben Mills
Deputy Principal – Year 4
bxmil3@eq.edu.au
Year 5 Camp
Last week our Year 5 students enjoyed their camp to Curriumundi. The camp is specifically designed to focus on building leadership, conflict resolution and problem-solving skills. It was great to see that as the week unfolded these skills became more and more of a way of working for our students. Students became more collaborative and were able to develop skills to ensure they were successful, not only within the camp activities, but in general camp life away from home and school. It was great to see their smiling faces on Thursday. Well done to all of our students and a special thank you to our teachers who ensured the experience was a positive one for our students.
Graduation Committee – Arts Fest
Friday 9 September we are holding the Arts Fest. As part of the Arts Fest our Graduation Committee runs a sausage sizzle station, a bake stall and sells the traditional class hampers. All funds raised from these three activities go to funding the Year 6 Graduation. For it to be a success we need your help. Shortly I am going to email all families with information about the class hampers. If you can donate goods for your child’s class hamper that would be wonderful. You can also help by showing off your baking skills and delivering them to the school in the afternoon to be sold at the bake stall. Finally, you can help by donating your time to help on the night as we will need cooks for the BBQ and people to sell food from the bake stall and sausage sizzle. If you can donate your time on the night can you please email Ms Jasmine Benfer (jbenf10@eq.edu.au) with the times your are available. Thank you!
Parent Forum – Transition to Secondary School
Last term I hosted a Transition to Secondary School Parent Forum to provide information to families ahead of their child’s move to secondary school. A suggestion that came out of the night is for Mango Hill State School and Mango Hill State Secondary College to co-host the next forum in a Q&A style format. We will be hosting the forum on Wednesday 31 August at 6pm in the Studio. If you would like to attend please RSVP to Ms Jasmine Benfer (jbenf10@eq.edu.au) by Friday 19 August with your question or topics you are interested in discussing so that I can ensure myself and the representative of the College are prepared.
Martin Winney
Deputy Principal –Year 5 & 6
mwinn7@eq.edu.au
Accelerated Reader
Congratulations to Areesha who this week reached her goal of 1 million words. This is a fabulous achievement and we are very impressed by her commitment to reading.
Congratulations also to Lucy who reached 2 million words late last week! This is such an impressive achievement and we look forward to seeing how many more words she will read this year!
Well done to Areesha and Lucy – we are proud of both of you and have added photos to our special AR display.
Premier’s Reading Challenge
Don’t forget to return any completed forms to the Hub as soon as possible. There is only two 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 a couple of super entries 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! Our competition ends on Monday 22 August so there is still plenty of time! Don’t forget to add your name and class to every entry.
Book Fair
We are also excited to announce that our Book Fair will soon be here! Opening on Friday 19 August, Book Fair will provide a special opportunity to purchase some new books for the whole family as well as support our school. For every book purchased, our school receives a percentage of funds from Scholastic to buy new books for the Hub. The Book Fair will be open from Friday 19 August until Wednesday 24 August from 8am until 3.15pm. Book Fair will also be open every first break for these few days! We can’t wait to see you there!
Have a fantastic week
Suzette Holm and Danielle O'Brien
shol0@eq.edu.au
Please see below information regarding our Interschool Sporting Events as well as our PE Curriculum for Term 3.
Interschool Sport (Year 5-6)
Students in Year 5 and 6 will again this semester get an opportunity to participate in the Pine Rivers Interschool Sport with 3 more days this Term. Dates are as follows.
- Friday 26 August (Term 3 Week 7)
AFLQ Schools Cup Brisbane North-Wide Bay Finals
The Mango Hill boy’s AFL team were placed into a very difficult pool, up against teams Villanova and Perigian Springs.
With results not going our way in the pool games, including a coach killing goal on the siren to lose our second game by 1 point, this forced our team to take the long road through the quarter-finals.
With a couple of players down going into the tournament, including Daniel, who injured his knee representing our school at the athletics carnival earlier in the week and Angus, who was absent due to state AFL representative duties it was always going to be a tough battle for the MHSS. But their determination and effort was never questioned. A hard fought 14-13 quarter final win lead to a semi-final showdown with Villanova.
Unfortunately, we went down in an absolute nail-biter. Maintaining a lead up until the final minutes and fighting valiantly for the entire game. But alas it was just not meant to be. Finishing the game 17-5 down and one win away from the grand final game and a guaranteed position in the state finals.
On a side note, congratulations to Angus B who was selected as the Vice-Captain for the QLD Schoolboys AFL team. He will be competing in Adelaide this week at the 10-12yrs National AFL competition. Best of luck Angus!
PRD Track & Field Results
Pine Rivers District Sport Trials
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 3pm on the due date
|
Event |
Date of Trial |
|
Pine Rivers District U/12 Cricket Trials – Boys and Girls |
18/8/22 |
Physical Education Teachers
nhill96@eq.edu.au
tnewe20@eq.edu.au
Helping Hands
Pupil Free Day program attached below.
Canteen Update
As advised previously there are still product shortages with our suppliers and some products may not be available.
I would like to ask all parents to try and place orders as early as possible through flexischool to avoid your child being disappointed.
Cut off for orders is 8.30am everyday.
We would love to see some volunteers in the canteen!
So if you have any spare time after school drop off we would love some help. Please either just pop into the canteen and see us or email Louise at mhsspccanteen@gmail.com
