18 February 2022

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

Welcome to the start of 2022. While it was a somewhat different start to a school year, I am happy to report that our students have settled in well over the past 2 weeks. This can be attributed to the hard work of both parents and staff preparing the students for such a smooth transition. Thank you once again for entrusting the Musgrave Team with the education of your child. Educating children is one of the most important professions in the world because our future is being-shaped today in our classrooms.

What a huge responsibility we have at Musgrave ensuring we prepare our students for the best learning opportunities possible. To do this well, it is important that our school and community work together and pull in the same direction. Our teachers are here to help all children realise their potential and I encourage you to stay in regular contact with the class teacher and to encourage your children to maximise the opportunities our school offers.

I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to our new students and families joining the Musgrave Hill State School community. This year we also welcome many new faces to the Musgrave staff-:

• Suzanna Zachara Teacher Prep Purple
• Ned Swan LAT Teacher Prep
• Bernadette Donnelly Teacher Aide Prep Purple
• Linda Bobbin Teacher 1 Green
• Molly Crompton Teacher Aide Year 1
• Kat Campbell Teacher 2 Mauve
• Ellen Hahn Teacher 2 Red
• Hayley Hampson Teacher 4 Lime
• Samantha Benson Teacher 6 Emerald

Effective Communication-:

Research leaves no doubt that when parents and teachers work together the educational outcomes are always better for children. In addition to improved educational outcomes, a strong partnership between home and school ensures maintenance of children’s wellbeing, parents feel more confident and teachers feel supported.

All staff will respond to email and phone messages in a timely manner during business hours. Some staff may choose to respond outside of these hours and this is their choice to do so. However, there is no expectation that staff will respond to emails after 4.00 pm and before 8.00 am.

We expect that staff would respond to communication within two school days.

Teachers are always your first port of call, if the matter requires further clarification and/or discussion please contact the Leadership Team member assigned to your child’s area of the school-:

• Prep and Inclusion – Fiona Zielke
• Year 1 and 2-: Bridget Bartolo
• Year 3 to 6-: Tamara Hall
• Our Guidance Officer-: Tamara Napper

For urgent matters, student absences, early collection, enrolments, changes to contact details, and to arrange a time to meet with teachers or the School Leadership Team please contact the office by telephone: (07) 5644 5555. Please note that office hours are Monday to Friday – 8:00am-3:30pm.

MHSS COVID-Safe Back to School Plan Reminders

Key Points for families:

• Mask wearing is mandatory for all school staff and for parents/carers.
• Mask wearing is encouraged for students from Years 3-6. Students are able to remove the masks once they are seated in the classroom.
• All excursions, assemblies and camps for Term 1 have been cancelled.
• All face-to-face parent meetings will be cancelled and will be conducted over the phone.
• If your child is sick or showing any cold or flu like symptoms, they must remain at home.
• For those students who develop any cold or flu-like symptoms while at school, parents will be called immediately to collect them. It is important that if you are called to collect your child, someone is available to collect them.

Limiting access for visitors-:

• Our school will continue to follow the Health recommendations and Education Queensland expectations by limiting access to all parents/carers and visitors on our school site.
• Any parent/carer or visitor wishing to enter the school grounds or having an enquiry, please phone ahead or wait outside the front office and someone will attend to you as soon as possible

Drop Off- Prep and Year 1 parents ONLY-:

• Prep-: One parent can escort their Prep child to the Prep waiting area near the top prep gate. Please “Settle, Kiss and Go”.
• Year 1-: If you still feel you would like to escort your child to their Meet & Greet (hall) area, please follow the same entrance and exit used in week 1 (via car park to the back of hall). Otherwise please drop your child off at the front gate and they can enter the school by themselves.

It has been a wonderful start to the school year and I continue to be amazed by the resilience of our students and the phenomenal support from our parents and carers. Take care, stay safe and well.

Julie-Anne McGuinness – Principal

WHAT’S HAPPENING

NAPLAN Online 2022

This year our school will be participating in NAPLAN Online for Year 3 and 5 from the 9th – 20th May. This will mean that students will complete the NAPLAN Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy tests on computers, excluding the Year 3 Writing test which will still be delivered using paper.

NAPLAN assessments provide parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. NAPLAN is not a test that can be studied for and students are not expected to do so. Students can see the types of questions and experience the types of skills both at school and home by visiting:

Students can access various typing programs online to assist with their typing skills and navigation of the keyboard. Two popular ones are:

Nitro Type:

Tux Typing:

Tux Typing install link can be found on the student sharepoint page.

Students will be involved in a National Coordinator NAPLAN practice test session on 24th March. To find out more information about NAPLAN Online, visit the link below.

Parent Information Sessions 2022

This year, Parent Information Sessions will look a lot different to previous years. You will receive a presentation from your class teacher/year level teachers with important information regarding procedures and processes within your child’s class. This information will assist with a smooth transition for you and your child into a new year at Musgrave Hill. These presentations will be shared on our student sharepoint page on Friday, 4th March. Class teachers will provide you with more information closer to the date.

SCHOOL PHOTOS 16TH AND 17TH MARCH

PREP VISION SCREENING

The screener for preps at Musgrave will be held on 29th and 30th March.

LUNCHTIME CLUBS

FINANCE NEWS

How does finance work in Musgrave Hill State School?

We will no longer be accepting cash payments in the office. The office will now only accept EFTPOS.

Excursions

Your child will receive a note with all the excursion details.

You will receive an emailed invoice for the excursion.

If you wish your child to attend please pay using the Bpoint link on the bottom of the invoice as this is the fastest and most secure method of payment.

If your child doesn't attend the excursion you will receive an emailed adjustment note to inform you that the original invoice has been removed from your child's account.

Statements

During the year you will receive at statement to inform you of your account balance.

When checking the statement remember that a positive balance (+) amount is owed to the school and a negative balance (-) amount is a credit on the account.

If you have a credit (-) on the account you can request to apply these funds to excursion invoices.

Thank you to the families who have already paid for their Student Resource Scheme in full/ part payment or through deductions from Centrelink.

If you are paying over three terms, the first payment is required by the 28th February.

Please don’t hesitate to contact the office if you have any queries.

Janette Connolly – Business Manager

TUCKSHOP NEWS

Welcome back, I hope you all had an amazing holiday and a big welcome to our new families - you are going to love Musgrave. For those who don’t know me my name is Sally and I work in the Tuckshop and Uniform Room. If you have any tuckshop or uniform queries you can give me a call on 5644 5555 and follow the prompts for the Tuckshop and Uniform Shop.

As there has been some supply issues with food items due to Covid-19, I’ve had to amend the tuckshop menu and hopefully by Term 2 we will be back to normal. I can assure you that there are still delicious options available.

All tuckshop orders need to be placed via the Qkr! App by 9.00am each morning. We are no longer taking any payments over the counter. If your child receives a ‘Musgrave Way Award’ simply write a note with your child’s name and class and what they would like and attach the award to the note. Your child will be able to deliver the note to the Tuckshop. We are still currently abiding by the Covid-19 rules of no parents at the counter.

A little Information about the Tuckshop

Our tuckshop runs by the ‘Traffic Light System’ which means we have

Green Foods – which are everyday foods

Amber Foods – which are sometimes foods

Red Foods – which are our once a term foods. These can be a Pizza Day, Ice Cream Day, etc.

Our Lunch Times

Please remember to label all of your children’s containers and lunch boxes. We have a lost property bin near the tuckshop which I will be checking each week. If the items are named they will be returned to the child however if they aren’t we will be disposing of them.

UNIFORM NEWS

Please remember all orders must be placed on Qkr! The orders will be delivered to the classrooms no later than 48 hours after the purchase. Qkr! roughly takes around 24 hours to process and send through the order to me. If you place the order on Monday before 9.00am I will not see the order until 7.00am Tuesday morning. I deliver uniforms once daily between 7.30 -8.00am. If your child has not received their item please contact the uniform shop and let me know. If you are unsure about sizing, please ask your child to come and see me and I can arrange a fitting and send you the details. If you receive your goods and the sizing doesn’t seem right, simply return the item with a note via your child to the uniform room and I can swap for a different size.

The uniform room is currently waiting on a delivery of stock. Unfortunately, I have no size 4 polos, size 12 polos, size 6 shorts or jackets in stock at the moment. Once they arrive I will deliver them to your child.

Attention Current Year 6 Students

We will be placing our second and final order for senior shirts this term. The cut-off date is for order/payment is Friday 18th March at 2.30pm. The order will be placed that afternoon and we should receive the stock around week 2 or 3 of Term 2.

Please remember we only order what you order, so please double check your sizes as there are no returns or refunds.

Please ensure your uniforms are clearly labelled with a permanent marker so you have a better chance of having them returned to your child if they are lost.

P&C NEWS

Run Club is Back

Our PE Teacher Mr Clarke holds Run Club on Wednesday mornings from 8.00am. The teachers will soon receive an updated list of all students and what laps they are on. You can still purchase your Badges via the Qkr! App for $3.00, $1.00 from each badge goes back to the school fundraising.

P&C Meeting

Our next meeting is still being finalised as we are trying to work out how to meet with everyone whilst abiding by the new Covid regulations, once a decision has been made, we will communicate the details.

A WORD FROM OUR GUIDANCE OFFICER

Welcome Back!

Congratulations! You’ve started back at school and navigated another year that has looked different than our expected start to school. We have been thrilled to welcome back our families and celebrate new families beginning their school journey at Musgrave Hill State School.

I hope that your child and you have enjoyed a smooth start to the year, however, if you have noticed the excitement wear off and some nervousness or reluctance creep in, please be aware that your child is NOT alone in this feeling and it is a very normal process of adjustment.

So, what can you do if you notice your child is becoming a little hesitant around returning to school? The messages we send our children around school and their ability to cope are so important to their success and transition to school.

1. Encourage a positive mindset – remind your child that you believe in their skills to be successful at school! Find opportunities to point out skills you see in your child, things like “Wow, look at you remembering to put away your bag, you’re so great at remembering routines now” or “I loved the way you figured out what to do, you’re a brilliant problem solver”. Sending your child messages that you believe they are capable will help them feel confident when they are away from you.
2. Confidently reassure your child – research has shown that excessive reassurance can actually make children’s worries worse. Children take cues from their parents send messages that you know your child will be okay. Remind them of times they have been successful already “remember on the first day when you told me about that great game you played”.
3. Help your child plan – talk with your child about what their favourite subject is, who they will play with, what club they might join etc. Talk with them about what teacher’s they connect with and who they can find if they need some help problem solving any speed bumps they may come across in their day.
4. Promote Positivity – Support your child to develop positive attitudes about school. Make it a routine part of your family life to think of three positive things that have happened in your day. Model to your child how to think positively by sharing things which have happened to you!
5. Reach out – If your child is struggling, we want to know so we can help. We want to partner with you to support your child. Contact your child’s teacher with any concerns, they will advise you and can refer your child to access additional school supports and to make plans to further support your child if needed.

I hope your child has had a wonderful start to the year, remember, good days and tricky days are to be expected but we are looking forward to a fantastic school year and are here to support your family wherever we can!

Tamara Napper – Guidance Officer (Mon, Wed, Thur, Fri)

CLASSROOM CAPERS

Prep Yellow has had a wonderful start to the school year. We have been very busy getting to know each other and our classroom routines. Prep Yellow has already started to learn some phonics sounds and work on our fine motor skills. We have read some of the Mr Men books to introduce 2D shapes. Check out our Mr Men crafts!

We are looking forward to a fabulous year in Prep Yellow.

Ms Benson and Miss Heather

A BIG THANK YOU

Thank you to Monica Zidar who has generously offered her time to teach Music Therapy to our ECDP Unit.

Music Therapy helps with :-

• Expressive and receptive language
• Speech development
• Self-regulation (emotions, behaviour and attention)
• Sensory integration
• Executive functioning (memory, attention and thinking skills)
• Motor skills (fine and gross motor)

Here is the link if you would like to learn more.

KINDYLINQ OPEN DAYS

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”

Little Alphas Robotic Club – Every Tuesday in the Hall 3pm – 4pm

Keebra Park High School

Southport State High School

UPCOMING EVENTS