6 September 2019

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

As we come close to the end of another school term, we have a lot to celebrate and so much more to complete in the next two weeks. As I mentioned in the last Newsletter, I will be taking long service leave in week 10 so this will be the last newsletter for the term but I look forward to catching up with you in term 4. While I am away Tamara Hall will be stepping up into my role and will be well supported by Luke Kenelley, David Bird and Katie Halsall. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to our staff, students and parent community for another wonderful term and for the support you continue to show in our wonderful school. Please note school resumes in Term 4 on Tuesday 8th October.

2019 NAPLAN Results

Last week, preliminary results for this year’s NAPLAN were released. These initial results for our school were extremely pleasing, reflecting our clear agenda of focused effort, achievement and sustained improvement. Our year 3 students sit above the Upper 2 Band State and National averages in all the five NAPLAN domains. Year 5 in the Upper 2 bands, our students performed above the State in all domains and above the Nation in Numeracy and Grammar and Punctuation. In the other three domains, our Year 5 students were on par with the Nation. Well done and congratulations to our Year 3 and Year 5 students, our hard working staff across all year levels and our supportive parents – these are results to be very proud of! Our staff will investigate our 2019 NAPLAN results and data – at student, class, year and whole school levels – to look closely at the areas where we can build on our performance and ensure we are supporting and challenging all our students. Each student in Years 3 and 5 will be provided with their own ‘Student Report’ for NAPLAN, these reports will be distributed soon.

Although NAPLAN results form a useful piece of information, they are not the be all and end all upon which to judge a school’s success. It is important to remember the results represent point-in-time testing over a few hours each May – for only two of our seven year levels. The NAPLAN results are important but are just one of the many pieces of information our school uses to improve learning outcomes for our students.

Teacher Aide Day

Today, Friday 6 September is World Teacher Aide Day. This is where we recognise the great work our Teacher Aides do to support our students and teachers. Teacher Aides provide assistance that goes a long way in our classrooms, providing the extra attention some students need to get the most out of a lesson and supporting our teachers to organise engaging and educational activities each day. On behalf of our school community, I would like to say a big thank you to all of our wonderful Teacher Aides and assure them that their work is greatly appreciated by all not only on Teacher Aide Day but every day!

Speech Choir Performances

Congratulations to all our classes and staff who participated in the Speech Choir competition last week. As they do every year, they did our school proud. It was our most successful year to date, with three classes, Prep Silver, 1 Blue and 5 Ruby receiving 2nd Place in their category. We also received the highest of praise given to our other participating teams. This extraordinary achievement is due to the huge commitment and dedication that our teachers give to this event and the hard work our students put in to learning and presenting their poems.

Julie-Anne McGuinness - Principal

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Maths Bee Competition 2019

A big congratulations to all students from Year 1-6 who participated in Musgrave Hill’s Maths Bee competition 2019. It was wonderful to have the support of our whole school community. The class champions and year level champions are listed below.

Prep 2020 – Classroom Experience Friday 13/9/19

Colour Run is upon us!!

Get excited people, the 2019 Musgrave Hill Colour Run is about to hit for its second year! A note will be sent home shortly with all the details. Below are some points to note …

When: Friday 20th September (week 10 – last day of term)

How it will work:

• All students will meet on the oval at 1:50 for a 2pm start.
• All students will run two laps of the oval and then finish their afternoon in the centre of the oval for a Colour Fun Disco.
• Approximate starting times
    -  Prep – start time 2.00pm
    -  Year 1 – 2.05pm
    -  Year 2 – 2.10pm
    -  Year 3 – 2.15pm
    -  Year 4 – 2.20pm
    -  Year 5 – 2.25pm
    -  Year 6 – 2.30pm

• You will need to supply a white t-shirt for students to change into on the day.

Mrs Halsall

ASSEMBLY AWARDS

Monday 2/9/2019

Monday 26/8/2019

TUCKSHOP NEWS

We are going to be closing Flexischools ordering very soon and will only be takings orders over the counter or via the Qkr! App. If you have any concerns please come and see Sally or Rach in the Tuckshop. All orders are to be placed before 9.15am each morning and we only make to order which allows for no waste and also allows us to keep our prices down. If you forget to order your child’s lunch before the cut off time we will only be able to make them a vegemite, jam or honey sandwich and a piece of fruit.

Next week is NAIDOC week and we are selling a Sausage Meal Deal throughout the week. It will be $5 for the meal which consists of a sausage sizzle, water and ice block but the most important part is $1 from every meal deal sold will go towards our NAIDOC activities for the following year. This meal deal will be available on Qkr! and over the counter.

We will be reducing the size of our menu items for the last two weeks of the term to minimise food wastage.

Recycling News

We are now asking all children to bring their empty poppers, water bottles and flavoured milk bottles when they have finished with them. We will be exchanging these items for money that will go towards our school. Remember every little bit helps. Just for an example; we roughly sell 110 flavoured milks each week, so for the term we could possibly make $100 and that would equate to approximately $400 a year that we can put towards purchasing some great things. So remind your children to return these items to the tuckshop.

Uniform News

ATTENTION YEAR 5 STUDENTS – You can pre-purchase your 2020 senior shirt from the tuckshop or via the Qkr! App. If you have any queries please come and see Rach or Sally.

Sally and Rachele - Tuckshop and Uniform Convenors

P&C News

Well you probably all should have got your note by now and know the big surprise at the end of the Term is………..that’s right it’s a COLOUR RUN!!!!!!! I’m so excited it’s going to be an amazing day. So remember it is on the last Friday of term 3. HOWEVER if you do not get your signed note and money to the tuckshop before cut off unfortunately you will not be able to participate. And trust me you don’t want to miss this fun.

Please remember we are raising money for our new playground which is very expensive so every little bit helps.

Melissa Holland - P&C President

THE ARTS

Here at ‘The Hill’, we are fortunate to run an arts program that covers 4 areas of The Arts – Visual Arts, Media Arts, Drama and Music. Each student will experience all of these disciplines from Year 1 to Year 6.

You may wonder why your child is doing Art while others are doing Media…or Music while others are doing Drama. This is because we stagger the subjects so your child can experience each of the four curriculum areas.

What does each year level do?

As you can see from the table –

Year 3 are doing Music – They are learning the ins and outs of the Ukulele and are almost ready to perform a short piece in public…almost

Year 5 are also doing a music unit. This is a musical theatre unit and the students are working hard to rehearse a routine for the Lip Sync Battle in Term 4. I encourage our talented Year 5 students to attend all Arts lessons, as this is a team effort and absences let the team down. It is very difficult to choreograph a routine if students are missing. Costumes are purposefully basic, but we will be putting calls out in the next few newsletters for costume piece loans/donations. An invitation will be going out to Year 5 parents and caregivers prior to the upcoming holidays to give ample time for parents to plan their calendars. Last year’s Lip Sync Battle was a wonderful occasion, thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.

Year 6 are doing Drama – Theatre Sports. The students are enjoying the process and are looking forward to the competition in Weeks 1-4 in Term 4 (Thursdays 1:15pm). Six Gold is keen to retain the trophy again this year! (Ms Kennon has held the trophy two years running) Can they make it three? We shall see in Term 4!

Kerrie Doolan - Arts Teacher

CLASSROOM CAPERS – 5 RUBY

It has been a hectic few weeks in 5 Ruby!

We achieved brilliant success at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod last week, coming 2nd place in the Year 5/6 Speech Choir section. This was the very first time for many students to perform on stage and they represented Musgrave Hill magnificently. Well done on such a wonderful achievement!

In science, 5 Ruby have been constructing INCREDIBLE light mazes, which are the culminating product of an interesting unit this term. We have used our science knowledge to reflect and refract light around our mazes, as well as change the appearance of the light within the maze by using translucent or opaque materials. It has been brilliant to see lots of great teamwork throughout the construction phase of these projects!

Mrs Graham and 5 Ruby

NAIDOC

Jingeri Jimbelungs (Hello friends),

Musgrave Hill State School is celebrating NAIDOC Week next week. It will be a week jam-packed with activities and events to promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and perspectives within our school. Emphasis will be on students broadening their understanding of the Kombumerri People on whose land the school is located.

While we have assigned a day to different events, activities will be timetabled to suit each class throughout the week. The program for the week is as follows:

Indigenous family/ community morning tea on the hall deck after assembly – Indigenous parents and students all welcome

Please contact individual class teachers if you would like more information about particular events and when they are occurring.

If you would like more information, please contact Annette Vlaanderen or Luke Kennelly, Indigenous Champions within the school.

We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we learn, work and play, is the land of the Kombumerri people. We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging. We would also like to further extend that respect to all present and their ancestors.

Book Week Celebrations

During Week 7, Musgrave Hill, enjoyed participating in the 2019 Book Challenge to help celebrate Book Week. The winning class was 2 Indigo - Congratulations for your amazing reading.

Many students used their lunchbreaks in the library to add to their class totals. We set the target of 1000 books and within 4 days the final count was an outstanding 2081 books. Prep to Year 6 took every opportunity to buddy read, personal read and listen to their friend’s favourite books.

For Thursday’s Parades it was a literary delight to see so many students dressed as the characters from their favourite books. The costumes were creative and difficult to judge by our Admin team (many more books were awarded). A big thank you to families for supporting this event which aims to encourage fantastic reading habits.

Photos of costumes will be shown at the upcoming Senior and Junior Assemblies.

A WORD FROM OUR GUIDANCE OFFICER

Helping Children Learn to Manage Anger

Children’s angry behaviour is often difficult to deal with because it stirs up feelings of anger and annoyance in others. It can also frustrate parents and carers when anger is used to push them away. Everyone feels angry at times. Parents and carers can help children learn how to cope with anger in positive ways by teaching them to be aware of feelings, to find appropriate ways to express them, and to identify and solve the problems or frustrations that lead to angry feelings.

How Parents and Carers Can Help

Be aware of feelings

Children need to learn that having angry feelings is normal and okay, but that reacting aggressively towards others when you’re angry is not. Adults can help children become aware of feeling annoyed, frustrated, angry or furious by naming feelings. Learning to say, “I’m feeling angry” or “I’m really frustrated” gives children a way to separate feeling angry from how they react.

Time to talk

Talking to your child about what has put him in an angry mood will help him see that feelings have causes and that solutions can be found. Once you find out what he was angry about you can help him think up better ways to handle the problem. This kind of conversation doesn’t work while he is really angry. Sometimes it must wait until later.

Children often find it easier to talk in informal situations where they feel less pressure. Find a relaxed time to talk to children about feelings. Asking, “What makes you angry?” can be a good way of starting a conversation about anger.

Find alternatives

Getting children to think through a difficult situation helps them develop problem solving skills. Asking, “Is that what you wanted to happen?” or “What else could you have tried?” encourages children’s helpful thinking. Thinking of alternative solutions helps children plan different ways of reacting next time. Be sure to praise their efforts.

Have ways to calm down

When emotions are strong, it is easy to act without thinking. Encourage your child to take control and allow time for the emotions to subside. Walking away, using a quiet spot to think or doing something else like riding a bike or listening to music, are all activities that can assist in reducing strong emotions.

‘Cool Down’ Steps to Teach Children

1. Recognise that you are angry

• Notice the body signals that mean you’re angry, such as getting hot, heart racing, tense muscles etc.
• Give a number from 1 to 10 to show how angry you are

Remember it is hard to manage anger and your thinking when you are at your angriest so work to cool down

2. Cool down your body

• Breathe slowly. Count to ten or to 100 as you breathe making sure you slow the counting as you go
• Take time-out in a quiet place
• Go for a walk, do something physical, challenging and /or repetitive
• Draw/write how you feel

3. Use coping self-talk

• “It’s okay. I can handle this. I need to calm myself so I can think straight

4. Try to solve the problem

• Talk to someone who is a good listener
• Sort out what the problem is - what are the options, which one is worth trying, try it then review. Plan what to do next time.

Adapted from:

Joy Wheeler – Guidance Officer

SPOTLIGHT ON OUR WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS

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”

Immunisation Information

Junior Athletics Holiday Clinic

UPCOMING EVENTS