24 February 2017

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

Parent Information Sessions

A big thank you to the many parents who attended the Parent Information Sessions on Wednesday afternoon. I know with the busy lives we all have that it is not always easy to find a spare moment. We certainly appreciate the priority you place on your child’s education with your attendance. Afternoon’s like these are extremely important as it helps build stronger and more positive relationships between Teachers and Parents.

Notification of Student Absences using Mobile Phone Text Messages

In the coming weeks, parents/guardians or caregivers will be informed by mobile phone message – Short Message Service (SMS) each time their child is away from school.

At Musgrave Hill State School, student attendance and student safety is a high priority. We know that students who attend regularly are more likely to be successful and safe at school. To improve our attendance and safety procedures, we will be informing parents/caregivers about any unexplained absences for their child. It will be extremely beneficial for parents/caregivers to contact the school in advance if they know their child is to be absent or late.

In the coming weeks an SMS text message will be automatically sent to the mobile phones of parents explaining that our records show that your child is absent from school. Please save the number in your mobile phone under “Musgrave Hill State School” so that when the message arrives, you are aware the message has come from the school.

The message will read as follows:

Responsible Behaviour Plan for Students

Last year we conducted a review on our Responsible Behaviour Plan for Students. The updated policy has been approved and signed off by the School Principal, P & C and the Assistant Regional Director. A full copy of the policy can be found on the home page of our Website.

Run Club

Run Club has been such a wonderful initiative and it is great to see so many students and families participating each week. I’ve just received this email from a parent and it reaffirms just how important this program is and how determined our students are to ensure they keep running or walking those laps week after week.

Extract from email

I just wanted to take the time to let you know that I think that Run Club is such a wonderful program and you do such a wonderful job.

My daughter Cameron was absolutely thrilled with her Rebel Card for the student who ran the most kilometres.

Every single Wednesday morning of 2016 this determined girl dragged myself and her brother to run laps around the oval before school, it was sometimes really hard to get ready and out the door in time. It was sometimes hot, it was sometimes hard with a 2 year old who refused to walk around an oval! It was such a beautiful surprise for her today to be recognised as the girl in her school who had run the most laps during the year with a special rebel sports card in front of her peers. I am proud, her father is proud, and she is proud.

A big thank you to Katie Halsall (PE Teacher) for creating the concepts and ensuring it continues to flourish.

New School being built at the end of Nakina Street

Education Queensland has leased the land at the end of Nakina Street to Edmund Rice Education Australia. Construction on the new school will commence in the next month or so. The Principal Peter Tracey assigned to the new school has written a brief of the school below.

The Southport Flexible Learning Centre is a new initiative of Edmund Rice Education Australia, Youth+. It will be a registered co-educational school catering for years 7- 12 high school students. It is part of a wide network of 19 flexible leaning centres across Australia. The school seeks to respond to the needs of young people and offers a socially inclusive educational environment to young people disenfranchised from mainstream education because of complex multiple factors associated with personal, family, social and community alienation. The Southport Flexible Learning Centre seeks to build honest and authentic relationships with young people, their families and communities, supporting and celebrating the uniqueness and dignity of each person.

The new school will commence late 2017. The building of the new school will commence in approximately 4 weeks. The facility will cater for approximately 80 young people and will have the following dedicated learning areas:

• Food Technology area
• Music room
• Manual arts area
• Art area
• Covered Outdoor courts
• Dedicated parent room
• General Classrooms
• Off street parking

This new school will have minimal if any disruptions to our school and will provide many benefits to our students who will be able to access the first class facilities being constructed. Peter is more than happy to address any issues or concerns our communities may have.

Smoking on or around Schools

Just a friendly reminder to all regarding the smoking laws in Queensland. The Queensland Government has passed amendments to the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act (1998), banning the use of smoking products, including tobacco and electronic cigarettes, in all enclosed and outdoor areas at state and non-state schools in Queensland—including primary, secondary and special education facilities and for five metres beyond the boundary of school land.

The new laws took effect from 1 January 2015. These laws offer further protection to the Queensland public and in particular, children and young adults from exposure to harmful environmental tobacco smoke. The new laws apply at all times during and after school hours, on weekends and during school holidays.

The five metre ‘no smoking’ buffer will ensure that smokers extinguish their smoking products well before they approach school land.

Smoking in motor vehicles where children under the age of 16 are present has been banned in Queensland since January 2010.

School land is defined as:

Land on which a state school provides education programs under the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006.

Land on which a non-state school provides primary education, secondary education or special education under the Education (Accreditation of Non-State Schools) Act 2001.

Land on which a state or non-state school provides other educational facilities, instruction or activities, for example sport grounds. This includes land that is owned or leased by the school.

Five metre buffer includes:

A five metre no-smoking area around the perimeter of the school, beyond the school land boundary, including all structures in this area, such as bus shelters and car parks.

Five meter buffer excludes:

Residential and business premises that share a boundary with the school grounds; meaning that if the land shares a boundary with a residential or business premises, the five meter buffer does not extend into this land.

WHAT’S HAPPENING …

Starlab Planetarium Incursion

From Tuesday 28th Feb – Friday 3rd Feb our hall will be transformed into a massive indoor dome. Students from Prep – Year 6 are invited to attend this magical experience.

What is Starlab?

Starlab Planetarium is a giant silver dome that simulates the night sky of our Southern Hemisphere. Inside, students can discover more about space and our solar system through the use of visual projections, demonstrations and multimedia. This is an interactive experience enabling the students to participate by asking questions and making observations about space.

Starlab Planetarium provides excellent, easy to understand, demonstrations of astronomy concepts.

• Why do we have day and night?
• Why do we see the Moon?
• What is a solar eclipse?
• What are moon phases?
• What are stars?
• What are constellations?
• What is gravity?

ASSEMBLY AWARDS

Mathletics

eLEARNING

February 2017

Netts: Number Explicitly Taught Through Skills

Musgrave Hill State School offers a targeted program for improving the understanding of Number concepts and problem solving in Prep to Year 4/5. This is the third year that it has been offered and it is a way of exploring number concepts in a fun, game and digital learning environment. While it supports the school program and Australian Curriculum, it also focuses on improving students’ skills from the level that they are working at. It is a program unique to our school.

To promote understanding of number I will include interesting websites and fun activities that can be done at home in this newsletter once a month.

Do you like Maths? Are you good at it?

This month I have added a link to an Australian Government list of top tips for improving literacy and numeracy here. It offers some helpful strategies on how we can improve attitudes and skills in number. We all know that if we start with a positive attitude we are halfway there!

I would love to hear how you find the tips and if you would like more information, please do not hesitate to email or come in and see me in the NETTS Room in the library.

Annette Vlaanderen
avlaa2@eq.edu.au

PHOTO DAY

A MESSAGE FROM THE OFFICE

Final Student Resource Payments are now due. Thank you to those parents who have already paid.

Cash payments can be made at the office on a Tuesday and Thursday morning from 8am to 10am ONLY, however we can take credit card/EFTPOS at any time during office hours. You can also pay over the internet. Our bank details are as follows:

BPOINT Payment Option

Bpoint is an additional payment channel which is available to you to pay your school invoices.

The internet weblink will provide you with a method of paying school invoices from your own computer.

Enter the information from your invoices into the fields and your payment will be processed and you will receive a BPOINT transaction reference.

Your child’s account will be credited with the payment.

Remember there will be a processing delay of 48 hours between your payment and the school receiving the funds

CLASSROOM CAPERS- 5 LILAC

The stirring classical music begins, the “Shhh” sign is posted, erasers vanish into tidy-trays and pencils twitch nervously in anticipation. Suddenly, the stimulus appears on the screen; one small, simple word scratched in the sand….’FUN’.

“Ready boys and girls? You have 10 minutes…GO!”

As part of our plan to help make writing fun and engaging for every student, even the not-so-enthusiastic writers, we’ve been practising on-demand writing, every day for 10 minutes. ‘Quick Writes’ are now well and truly embedded in our daily routine in 5 Lilac, and everyone can recite the ‘rules’ off by heart:

1. No rubbers allowed!
2. Keep your pencil writing!

We know it’s all about maintaining the flow of ideas, and not everything we write is perfectly publishable, yet some of us are pretty proud of our work so far!

Here are a few ‘Quick Write’ quotable quotes from our class:

“I like Quick Writes, there’s no pressure so it’s easy and fun” Lachlan

“Quick Writes are fun because you can get your ideas out of your head and on the page” Luke

“I like Quick Writes because you get to write about anything you want” Bridie

“I like Quick Writes because I like writing stories” Aiden

“I think Quick Writes are good because they’re relaxing and you can continue the story you were writing, and even improve it” Herbert,

“Quick Writes are great, because it’s a way to express yourself” Amily

“Quick Writes are awesome because there’s no stress about punctuation or spelling so you can write what you like” Ethan

“Quick Writes are fun and we can challenge ourselves to do better each time” Gemma

SPORTS TALK

Run Club …

Welcome back, Run Club is up and running, despite the heat! If you happened to miss Meet and Greet Friday of week 2, I had the great pleasure in announcing the overall Run Club Winners for 2016. The two students that managed to complete the most amount of laps within the calendar year were Cameron B and Oliver B. What made these achievements even more special is that they were from Prep and Year 1!! I am extremely proud of both of these students - it goes to show, when you are willing to turn up week after week, and put your best effort forward, anything is possible. Congratulations to you both, I look forward to hearing what you spend your Rebel Sports vouchers on

A reminder of Run Club times …

Tuesday 2nd Break play bell (students only in years 1-6)
Wednesday 8am before school (all are welcome, parents, carers, grandparents, siblings!)

Want to try something new??

Why not remind your child that Aerobics has started on Wednesday lunch times? I had 18 very enthusiastic young ladies come along to high kick it out with me last Wednesday! Needless to say, we had a lot of fun whilst getting hot and sweaty!!

Up and coming Broadwater Trial Dates …

A reminder that these trials are for Club Representative players only, they are not a come and try afternoon. If your son/daughter plays club level and is wanting to trial for the Broadwater District Team, the following sports and age divisions are approaching. Please tell them to come and see me ASAP.

12 Yrs Boys/Girls Hockey
11 Yrs & 12 Yrs Girls Netball
12 Yrs Boys Rubgy League
12 Yrs Boys/Girls Basketball

Mrs Halsall

FROM OUR GUIDANCE OFFICER

Advice for when Kids feel left out or lonely

As we start a new school year, some students may find it difficult to settle into a new class with new peers. The following is an excerpt from kidshealth.com which offers some ideas for parent to help their child establish new friendship groups.

It's hard when a best friend isn't around — maybe because he/she moved to a different school or a different class, or maybe he’s/she's just home sick for the day. Recess or lunchtime can feel lonely without him/her. Will it ever feel the same? You want to have new friends, but how do you make them? Maybe it seems like everybody else already has their friends. But remember, there's always room for more friends.

Start by looking around your classroom — think about which kids you'd like to play with at recess. Look for chances to say hi to them, smile, and be friendly. Offer to share something or give a compliment. Invite someone to play with you or say "Do you want to sit here?" in the lunchroom. When you're at recess, walk over to kids you want to play with, act friendly, and say "Hi, can I play, too?" or just join in.

If you have trouble doing this or if you're feeling shy, ask your teacher to help you make new friends. Teachers are usually pretty good at matching up friends. The best way to make friends is to be a friend. Be kind, be friendly, share, say positive things, offer to help — and pretty soon, you'll have one, or two, or even more new friends.

You might still miss that special best friend. But when you see each other, you can share something you didn't have before she left: You can introduce her to your new friends!

Free Programs for Parents

MUSGRAVE HILL Y.M.C.A

Important Notices from your Coordinator

Welcome back to 2017. Our children have been very busy settling back into routine and their new classrooms. YMCA would also like to welcome our new preps.

YMCA after school care has been focusing on the Chinese New Year. We have made Chinese Lanterns, Chinese New Year dragons and Chinese New year roosters.

YMCA encourages parents to use the “My Family Lounge App” for bookings. The application makes it easier for parents to book/change bookings for their children. If you have any questions about this please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!
-YMCA Musgrave Hill Team

Sarah Fahey
P. 07 55283490
M.0439752168
E. amh@ymca.com.org.au

A MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAPLAIN

Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club will be on each Thursday on the veranda outside the hall from 8am prior to our meet and greet, all students are welcome to come and have some delicious breakfast.

What a wonderful way to start the day.

Mum’s Self Care Workshop

COMMUNITY NEWS

“This is a service provided when space permits. The school acts solely as a messenger and is not actually recommending any activities advertised”

Hocky

Any students wishing to play Club hockey will be welcomed at LABRADOR HOCKEY CLUB.

The Club is now recruiting boys and girls for the 2017 season. For children under 10, sign on is at 9am - 11am Saturday 4th March at the Labrador Hockey precinct. Look for the Labrador Hockey tent, then any Saturday thereafter at the Clubhouse. Access is via Hockey Lane off Musgrave Ave. For more information email Bruce at juniordev@labradorhockey.org.au.

Sand Safari

UPCOMING EVENTS