2 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

School Opinion Survey

As you may remember earlier in the year Parents, Staff and Students from years 4, 5 and 6 were invited to participate in the annual School Opinion Surveys, which are undertaken each year across the State to help schools identify what they do well and how they can improve.

While the P&C and School Council are forums for parents to give their opinions, the School Opinion Survey allows every parent the opportunity to have a say in our school each year and help set the future direction.

Preliminary results from these surveys have recently been received and we are very pleased that as a school we are continuing on our improvement journey.

While all questions from the School Opinion Survey are important, and provide our school with useful information to guide the future direction, I have included a summary of key responses from ‘staff’, ‘students’ and ‘parents/caregivers’ that were extremely pleasing to see.

Parents:-

My child likes being at this school. 100 %
My child feels safe at this school. 100%
Teachers at this school expect my child to do his or her best. 100%

Students-:

My teachers expect me to do my best. 100%
I am getting a good education at my school. 100%

Staff-:

This is a good school 100%
I enjoy working at this school. 100%

School Leaders for 2019

The School Leaders election process for 2019 is underway with many current year 5 students showing interest in undertaking one of our leadership roles. The applicants are required to complete a detailed application and then have an interview with the Principal, Deputy Principal and Head of Wellbeing. From there successful applicants will be shortlisted and head into the next phase of the process. Formal speeches by the shortlisted candidates will be conducted in the coming weeks. After these speeches, the staff and students will then be asked to undertake a voting process to identify our School Captains and School Leaders for 2019. All of our school leaders will be formally inducted at a ceremony prior to the end of the school year. I have no doubt that the caliber of students vying for our leadership positions will conduct themselves admirably and I am extremely confident that our school will continue to be in good hands when we elect our Student Leaders for 2019.

Day for Daniel

A big thank you to the Musgrave Community for your continued support of the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. We were able to raise $441.35 this year and every cent raised helps ensure this foundation continues the amazing job they do to educate our children about personal safety. Well done Musgrave.

2019 Enrolments-: Important

Thank you to the many families who have already returned the letter indicating your intentions for 2019, whether you are returning to Musgrave Hill in 2019, not returning or taking an extended holiday. If you have yet to return the letter, I ask that you please do so as soon as possible as this will make such an incredible difference to staffing and class placements.

Prep 2019

As you would be aware in 2017 Prep became a compulsory year level in which your child needs to attend school. So to ensure your child has a confirmed placed at Musgrave Hill State School for 2019, it is vital you have lodged your enrolment forms. These are available from the office OR you can download them from the school website. (NOTE: you MUST bring your child’s original birth certificate as proof of date of birth to be able to enrol).

Cyber Safety

Protecting our children and ourselves in this social network world is becoming more difficult and horror stories appear daily in the news. A couple of suggestions to help reduce this threat are educating our children around the dangers of posting any photos, ensure that your child’s computer is in a “public place” in your house (not in their bedrooms) and having them leave their mobiles on the kitchen table when they go to bed at night or even before. These are just a couple of suggestions that may assist to limit the invasion of these new technologies into home time. Age restrictions for social media platforms are in place for very good reasons. I have attached information regarding these ages and encourage parents to ensure they are followed for the safety of our students.

The link below provides important information for parents about cyber safety and cyberbullying. It suggests what parents and caregivers could do if their child is the target of, or is responsible for, inappropriate online behaviour.

Information for parents and caregivers

Report Cyberbullying- if you or your child are concerned about cyberbullying, report it. Click on this link:

Julie-Anne McGuinness – Principal

ASSEMBLY AWARDS

STUDENT RESOURCE SCHEME (SRS) 2019

You are invited to join the Student Resource Scheme (SRS) for 2019. From 1 January 2012, the scheme has operated under the policy and guidelines of the Department of Education and Training FNM-PR-018: Student Resource Scheme. The scheme is still supported and approved annually by the School’s Parent and Citizens Association (P&C), is still managed by the school and still operates in accordance with Section 51 of the Education (General Provision) Act 2006.

The Resources Scheme has again remained at a reasonable $130.00. We can achieve this pricing if we can get all our families participating.

The scheme is voluntary and you are under no obligation to join. However, please be aware that books, materials and consumables required under the scheme are not funded by school grants. Therefore if you do not wish to join the scheme you are still responsible for providing your child with the items that would otherwise have been provided by the scheme to enable your child to engage with the curriculum.

As technology is now an essential part of student learning the school can access programs such as Mathletics and Reading Eggs at a special bulk pricing. If you choose not to participate it will be the parents’ responsibility to purchase individual access to these programs.

The provision of this scheme ensures that well-resourced learning by our students remains our key focus. The scheme is not a fundraiser for the school. Its purpose is to provide you, the parent, with a cost effective, value for money alternative to purchasing textbooks, technology access, resources, consumables and materials elsewhere, through the school’s bulk purchasing process. Fees are paid directly into the child’s classroom account to buy essential resources and materials used in his/her classroom.

Please find attached the SRS Form to be completed and return to the school office with payment by the 30/11/2018.

Invoices will be issued on the 5/11/2018.

SPORTS TALK

Reminder that RUN CLUB has changed mornings!

RUN CLUB WILL NOW BE HELD ON THURSDAY MORNINGS AT 8AM.

This started week 2. Run Club will continue each Thursday morning up to and including week 7. Class and individual student results will then be calculated for the year.

Mrs Halsall – Physical Education

TUCKSHOP NEWS

GREAT NEWS ….. The slushee machine is now up and running, we have blue and red slushees available for $1.50.

We have added some new items to our Thursday menu –

1. Honey Sesame Chicken with Brown Rice for $4.00 on its own or $6.00 with a Water and Quelch iceblock.
2. Chicken Fingers, Salad and Corn for $4.00 on its own or $6.00 with a Water and Quelch iceblock.

The sushi menu has changed and will only be available on a Monday and Tuesday, all pieces are $2.00 each and come in a variety of flavours.

NEW Ice Cream – Weis mango and passionfruit bars (Gluten Free) $2.00 each.

You can place your orders via FlexiSchools or over the counter, all orders must be placed by 9.15am each morning. If you have any dietary requirements or would simply like to have a chat with one of our tuckshop ladies please come up for a visit. We are always looking for new ideas for our menu.

Uniform News

Our new uniforms have arrived, we are still waiting on some of the bigger sizes which should be in soon. The new sports hats are also available for purchase.

Sally McWilliams - Tuckshop & Uniform Convenor

CLASSROOM CAPERS – PREP ORANGE

Wow! There is so much happening in prep this term! In week 2 we began our digital technology lessons with Mr Driscoll. We have been introduced to augmented reality technology and dash robots. Prep Orange students are super excited to learn about what these dash robots can do using the Wonder app. They have also had fun visiting the library during lunch times as well as the playground on the oval. The students are allowed to venture outside the prep playground at lunchtimes now in readiness for next year. It’s hard to believe that this year is nearly over!

Mrs Burke – Classroom Teacher

CLASSROOM CAPERS – 5 MAROON

5 Maroon scientists have been delving into physical and chemical science, expanding on their knowledge of the relationship between solids, liquids and gases. To investigate the properties of the three states of matter, our aspiring scientists have been carrying out some exciting practical experiments to prove or disprove hypotheses.

Does gas have mass? Students investigated this question by balancing two equal sized balloons at the end of a ruler. One balloon had been poked by a pin and over time, the balloon with more gas tilted as it was heavier.

The students then experimented with different mixtures to create gas. They diluted bicarbonate soda with water and then trialed different amounts of citric acid to the solution, to create their own fizz. Students discovered that the more citric acid, the longer the solution bubbled and the more fizz that was created.

Mr Larkin – 5 Maroon

A WORD FROM OUR GUIDANCE OFFICER

Anxiety presents itself in many different ways!

Much in the same way that a smile can communicate pleasure or happiness, and a frown can communicate sadness or displeasure, behaviour is a powerful means of communication. Often when children don’t understand what they are feeling or don’t know how to express themselves in words, their ACTIONS become their language. Behaviour is a way of expressing what’s happening on the inside. There are some effective ways of responding to and changing inappropriate behaviour. In order to respond appropriately to inappropriate behaviour we need to realise that:

• We are all different. We have different personalities, and we all respond differently. Behaviour depends on the meaning we give an event.
• Behaviours are illustrations of distress.
• All behaviour is purposeful.
• The underlying causes of the behaviour need to be assessed.

Children may “act -out” (be difficult or aggressive) or “act- in” (in the form of depression, self-harm, or withdrawal), but both forms of behaviour have one thing in common: they are responses to what is causing pain and distress, but the child may be as unaware as the adult of the meaning of the behaviour. When asking a `why’ question often does not necessarily lead to an appropriate reason. The child’s explanation may have no connection with the behaviour, so the answer “I don’t know” is often true!

For effective parenting, as well as giving unconditional love, keeping your child safe, and being there for your child, try these principles:

• Be consistent
• Be united and have one set of rules
• Be in charge – you are the parent
• Be realistic (age appropriate expectations)
• Give encouragement but also permission to fail/make mistakes
• Talk to your child’s teacher about your concerns so you are ‘on the same page’.

Joy Wheeler – Guidance Officer

A WORD FROM OUR CHAPLAIN

What a way to come to school being greeted by students supporting Chappy’s Spare Change Challenge. Thank you so much Musgrave Hill SS community and students for your generosity and support. I love being part of this school!

Please note that Chappy Rusty's days for this term have changed to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Chappy Rusty

THE ARTS

Things are getting busy in the Arts room! Assessments are drawing near and the students are preparing themselves for their relevant tasks –

Year 1 – are going to show us their rhythm skills.

Year 2 – are acting out fairy tales in groups.

Year 3 – are going to see how much they have learnt in our ukulele unit. They did a fabulous job at ‘Meet and Greet’ singing Delta Goodrem’s ‘Dear Life’ to Ms McGuinness for her birthday. She was quite moved.

Year 4 – are going to be performing a 3-4 minute mime performance in front of their peers. There are some extremely high quality rehearsals going on. I can’t wait to see the final pieces.

Year 5 – are getting ready for the ‘lip sync battle’ in Week 9. Parents/carers of students in 4/5 Teal, 5 Aqua, 5 Ruby and 5 Maroon are invited to come and watch your child as they display their musical theatre skills - Thursday 6th December at 11:30 in the hall.

Year 6 – are displaying their improvisation skills. The third year of our Theatre Sports competition comes to completion this week, with a fabulous perpetual trophy for the winning class or teacher team to display. There are only 2 points separating the three teams. The winners will be announced in the next newsletter.

It is important that our students attend every day, especially during assessments, as most arts assessments are done in groups – their absence not only lets their group down, but also makes it very difficult to assess their work accurately.

Ms Doolan – Arts Teacher

READING DOGS PROGRAM

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”

UPCOMING EVENTS

Keebra Park State High School

Broadwater Netball Club