22 June 2018

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

How the Term has flown by, so as we close the door on yet another successful term, I would like to take the opportunity in our last newsletter to thank our parents for their continued support, our wonderful students and our dedicated teachers.

Thank you for your ongoing support with our uniform policy. It is now a little chilly in the mornings and afternoons, please ensure your child has an appropriate school jumper or jacket. I thank you also for your support by assisting us to have the majority of students in black shoes as per our uniform policy. We do have a little way to go to ensure everyone is in the correct footwear but I know we are all working towards making this happen. Please remember if you are purchasing new shoes for your child that they need to be completely black.

Report Cards

Your child’s report card will be emailed home to you next Wednesday 27th June. This is a perfect opportunity to remind all parents that a “C” is worth celebrating. I encourage parents to pay particular attention to the effort grades for each subject and support their children to continually try their hardest at school.

The level of achievement your child receives in each area of their report is determined by how well they have achieved the required national standard, not on how well they have achieved compared to others in their class.

Mums, Dads and Carers sometimes feel disappointed if their child has one or more ‘C’s on their report card. This can be because they understand a ‘C’ to mean ‘average’. However, a ‘C’ does not mean average. A ‘C’ is something to celebrate!

Achieving a ‘C’ means that a student has achieved the required standard for their year level as outlined in the Australian Curriculum. In general, it means that students can remember and understand learning considered essential for their age. Students who achieve A’s and B’s are usually required to demonstrate some kind of ‘higher order thinking’.

Of course, it is FANTASTIC when a student achieves an ‘A’ or a ‘B’, and ALL of our children are encouraged to strive for excellence. That said, you can feel justly proud if your child achieves a ‘C’ and should let them know that they have performed well.

Students receive a ‘D’ when they require support and have not yet achieved the standard for their year level, however, are working towards it and continue to learn and develop. Students who receive an ‘E’ are experiencing difficulty and require significant intervention and support. Whatever rating your child receives, the teacher’s comments will tell you how hard they are trying and describe the progress being made.

One of our school values is Excellence and we encourage all students to strive to achieve to their potential. For some students, regardless of their level of achievement, their rating is a result of them applying themselves and working extremely hard. When this is the case, these students should feel proud of their efforts and be congratulated.

We trust that you will find the information in your child’s report card informative. We welcome parents to discuss any aspect of the report card with the relevant teacher or administration.

Visitors Must Report to the Office

A reminder that it is a school requirement that all visitors to the school during the school day report to the office before going to classrooms.

This ensures that teachers and students can undertake teaching and learning without interruptions. It also ensures that office staff can direct visitors to the appropriate place in the school as often children are with their teachers in a location other than their classroom as part of a normal school day.

Prep Eligibility

• Children must be 5 on or before 30 June in the year they enrol in Prep.
• To determine if your child is eligible to enrol in Prep please check the Education Queensland’s Prep Ready Calculator.
• A Birth Certificate must be provided with the enrolment application before the enrolment can be accepted.
• All new Prep families are required to meet with an appropriate staff member prior to your child commencing Prep.
• Enrolment forms can be completed and handed in to the office with a copy of the child’s birth certificate.

Drop off and Pick up Zone

Schools are busy areas, please make sure to take extra care when parking on the roads and streets around the school and please follow the signed parking rules at all times. This includes not parking in restricted zones such as bus parking spaces, yellow edge lines and across driveways. It is disheartening and concerning that some road users are not following the road rules to ensure safety of our children.

There is always a staff member supervising and assisting in the Drop Off and Pick Up zones and they are there to help keep our children safe and to keep the traffic flow moving.

Parking in Nakina Street in front of the school is prohibited between 2.30pm and 3.30pm and 8am to 9am in the morning. This side of the street is a pick up and drop off zone only. You are not permitted to park your car and get out as you stop the flow of traffic. The effectiveness of our Pick up and Drop off zone depends on parents doing the right thing.

HOW TO USE THE PICK UP ZONE

• The passenger pickup zone/2 minute zone allows for quick pick up of children during congested peak school ‘let out’ times.

THE CONCEPT

• Vehicles move slowly along the loading zone towards the front of the queue
• Children see the vehicle and are ready to get in
• Motorists ‘give each other a fair go’

If your child is not there then you move to the front of the line and can stay there in your vehicle for a maximum of two minutes before you are required to move off and park or go around the block and re-enter the line.

RESPECT THE TIMING

• Do not stop for more than two minutes
• Do not park in the zone and walk away from the car.

PICK UP AND LOADING BAGS

• You can get out of the vehicle only to assist the children to load bags
• Never double park to pick up children – it is illegal and dangerous.

The Staff Carpark

Please do not use the staff car park for a pick up and drop off for your child. This is an unsupervised area and we have already had a couple of near misses this year. It is a narrow area. All foot traffic through the car park should be on the footpaths provided – not between the cars.

Reporting of Dangerous or Illegal Parking

If someone parks a vehicle illegally or dangerously the council has the authority to fine the offender and even have their vehicle towed. You can help keep your children’s school zone safe by reporting badly parked vehicles.

Contact your council to report an illegally or dangerously parked vehicle.

It has been a very rewarding Term 2 and it is hoped that all our students have a safe, restful and enjoyable holiday period. I very much look forward to what Term 3 has to offer.

Julie-Anne McGuinness – Principal

WHAT’S HAPPENING

NAIDOC Assembly

ASSEMBLY AWARDS

SPORTS TALK

Congratulations!!!

We were very excited to hear that Agapetos L-F and Hesed L-F have both been successful in making selection into the Broadwater Rugby Union Team. Additional to that, Agapetos L-F was also successful in making selection into South Coast Teams for BOTH Rugby League AND Rugby Union! There is no stopping these boys! Congratulations and all the best with further trials.

CUA Fundraising

Unfortunately there has been a small hold up with prizes as some students had not registered their prize selection. Fingers crossed that this has been finalised this week and prizes will be on their way shortly. I greatly appreciate your patience here and also whilst we await the draw of the hover board.

Katie Halsall – P.E. Teacher

TUCKSHOP NEWS

Sports Day

Please remember to pre order your Sports Day Lunches on FlexiSchools or over the counter at the Tuckshop as there will be a very limited selection of food for sale on the day. If you are able to volunteer on sports day after 12pm please come and see Sally in the Tuckshop, remember, many hands make light work.

New Products

Slushee Machine

We have acquired a new Slushee machine in the Tuckshop, it comes in two flavours and they are fruit based, you can buy these for $1.50 each.

Messy Monkeys

Messy Monkeys gluten free chips are $1.50 and they come is 3 flavours, Burger, Pizza and Cheese.

Uniform News

Our uniform stock is very low at the moment as we are waiting for a shipment to come in. We still have size 14 and 16 in the old green and gold Polo, some green and gold jackets and some green skorts and shorts. They are still 50% off the original price.

In regards to fleece jumpers for these cold winter mornings please make sure you are buying the navy colour for your children. This will be the colour accepted as part of our school uniform, although the bottle green or dark green will still be allowed to be worn until December 2019.

Lost property

I have a number of school jackets at the tuckshop in Lost Property, so if your child is missing a jacket please come up and have a look.

Sally McWilliams - Tuckshop and Uniform Convenor

P & C NEWS

Firstly I'd like to congratulate Sally McWilliams for her success with being appointed Tuckshop Convenor. Sally enjoys what she does and is very efficient, she is an asset here at Musgrave Hill and it is fantastic to know that she is more than happy to stick around a little longer.

Disco

BIG NEWS - we are having a DISCO.

We are trying something new this year and are having our disco on Friday 29th June, the last day of the Term. It will be during the day and run through class time. All children are invited to the disco and it will be free to attend. We are selling a disco Meal Deal which is as follows:

$5.00 - sausage sizzle, bag of lollies, slushee, free dress charge and glow sticks.

If you do not wish to purchase a Meal Deal you can purchase all items separately, please see below:

Sausage sizzle: $2.50
Glow sticks: $2.50
Slushees: $1.50
Bag of lollies: $1.50

Plus you need to bring a gold coin donation for free dress day.

All monies raised will go directly into our playground upgrade project.

The disco will start with prep to year 2 from 12pm - 1pm. They will receive their food from the tuckshop after their disco. Year 3 to year 6 will be from 1.45pm - 2.45pm and will receive their food from the tuckshop after their disco ends.

This deal will be available over the counter and on FlexiSchools, if you have any queries please come and see the lovely ladies Sally and Rach at the tuckshop.

Melissa Holland - P&C President

THE ARTS NEWS

This term is coming to an end and planning for the second half of the year has already begun. Hopefully you will get a chance to check out some of our art and media work at the Poetry Café.

Next Semester, years 1, 3 and 5 are doing a semester of Music and Years 2, 4, and 6 are doing a semester of Drama.

Music

Year 1 will be learning the basics of drama.

Year 3 are learning to play the ukulele.

Year 5 are doing a unit on musical theatre, which will culminate in a performance in front of their peers.

Drama

Year 2 are doing a wonderful unit called From Page to Stage, where they will be bringing the story book “Go Home Cheeky Animals!” to life.

Year 4 are getting their teeth into a ‘Basel Mask’ unit. We actually have a theatre incursion happening at the beginning of Term 3. The Goat Track Theatre are coming to give an overview of the masks and how to use them. Students will learn the individual characteristics of the masks and go on to join a group performance, which they will devise and perform in front of their peers.

Year 6 are doing a unit of Theatre Sports. If you have ever seen “Thank God You’re Here” or “Whose Line is it Anyway?” you will know how much fun this unit will be. Again, the Goat Track Theatre is bringing an incursion, which will highlight to the students the basic skills needed for improvisation. They will then go on to learn various games and eventually will have the opportunity to join a team within our lunchtime theatre Sports Comp in Term 4.

Another very busy (but exciting!) semester of learning ahead!

Kerrie Doolan - Arts Teacher

CLASSROOM CAPERS – 6 ONYX

This term in Science we, Six Onyx, have been learning about ‘Fair Testing’ and how scientists conduct investigations to find out how changing one thing ‘a variable’ affects another. We used the acronym ‘Cows Moo Softly’ of changing one variable, measuring another variable and keeping all other variables the same to enable a fair test. Our investigation was based on reversible and irreversible change and a bold statement made by a certain gentleman called ‘Bill’. Our experiment, to test Bill’s statement, involved the heating and cooling of four materials ice, cheese, wax and a yummy marshmallow.

The Experiment Results

After a complete risk assessment was undertaken our experiment was ready. Firstly, the ice was heated in a heat-resistant mesh extender (a tea strainer) over a stable heat source (a candle) for 3 minutes, then transferred to a heat-resistant observation receptacle (pot plant saucer) to cool and then finally placed in the freezer. This process was repeated with all four materials and observations were taken throughout. Although results were varied, students’ scientific minds were ignited, observing the changing states of matter and they also really enjoyed burning stuff! Upon comparing results there was an overall consensus that perhaps Bill was not a clever scientist after all.

Mr Waugh – Classroom Teacher

MUSIC NEWS

Join Drum Club

Drum Club has been organised to give as many students at Musgrave Hill an opportunity to participate in a percussion based ensemble and learn basic drumming and music reading skills in a fun but disciplined and inclusive environment.

Drum Club is available to all students in years 4, 5 and 6 who are not currently in the Instrumental Music Program. Students are not required to audition. No prior music experience is necessary, just a willingness to get involved and have lots of fun.

There is no cost to participate in Drum Club. Drums, practice drums, drum sticks and mallets are provided.

Drum Club meets on Monday in The Arts/Music Room at 1.15pm for 30 minutes unless indicated otherwise.

Enrolment Forms for Drum Club are available from the Arts/ Music room or from Admin.

Come along and hear the Drum Club perform on Monday 25th June (week 11) in the undercover area at 1.15pm

Mr Denning and Miss Williams – Instrumental Music Teachers

A WORD FROM OUR GUIDANCE OFFICER

Parenting is hard, but you’re not alone

It’s a myth that you’re born with parenting skills. You learn as you go and there are going to be times when parents will feel overwhelmed or frustrated with the pressures of raising children. But you’re not alone — all parents struggle with the stress of parenting.

Getting it off your chest helps. Just talking to someone about what’s worrying you can be the first step to realising you’re not alone and getting the help you need.

The Talking Families website is full of helpful information and easy ways to ask people around you for help before you feel like you’ve reached breaking point and you may be surprised at just how many people you know who would be happy to offer support.

Parents can also follow the Talking Families Facebook community for information about events, tips for parenting, and different ways to get some support @talkingfamiliesqld

Talking Families is an initiative by the Queensland Family and Child Commission.

Joy Wheeler – Guidance Officer

A WORD FROM OUR CHAPLAIN

Week 2 of Roles of a Chaplain

I feel very privileged to serve as Chaplain at such an awesome school as MHSS. Please know that you can contact me anytime if you feel I can be of any support to you, your student and your families. My days at school are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

SOUTHPORT STATE HIGH SCHOOL

Excellence Programs

Southport State High’s second round of Excellence Applications are open for our 2019 intake.

Applications Close: Monday 30th July, 2018
Exams, Trials and Auditions: Term 3, Week 8

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”

Bright Sprites Art Classes at Musgrave Hill State School

Centacare Children First Holiday Program

Divorce and Separation Program for Children

The program includes a variety of creative activities to explore:

• Changes to our families
• Living in two homes
• Coping with feelings
• Communication skills
• Looking after ourselves
• Moving forward

Animal Welfare League – School Holiday Activities Program

Animal Antics. This is a fun filled, educational day at our Gold Coast Rehoming Centre for ages 6-10 years. It is an opportunity for our younger generation to learn about responsible animal care as well as how to stay safe around dogs in their own homes and the greater community.

Eco Explorer Programs

UPCOMING EVENTS