24 June 2022

Newsletter Articles

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

As this is the last newsletter for the term, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support and your resolute commitment to our school. Sustaining strong partnerships between home and school is vital to the success of any school and we are extremely fortunate to have very positive relationships with our school community.

Under 8’s Day-: It is great to be under 8

What a morning it was! Under Eight's week is an event proudly initiated by Early Childhood Australia Queensland Branch. It has been running for over 55 years across Queensland. We held our celebrations on Wednesday 22nd June. Our Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students plus many of our local Kindergartens had the opportunity to take part in so many fun and exciting activities from face painting to pony rides and my favourite, cuddling some very cute baby animals.

A massive thank you to Mrs. Kat Campbell for all her organisation and hard work behind the scenes plus to all the staff involved. You all ensured this day was one our students would enjoy and remember. I am not sure who had the most fun the staff or the students, all I know is everyone had the biggest smiles on their faces and laughter could be heard from every vantage point around our oval.

Staffing Update for Term 3

We have a number of changes to staffing in Term 3. Caitlin Woynarski, LAT Teacher, is taking 6 months off to return to Canada to visit her family after many years of not being able to travel. Kaeley Kalinowski, Year 4, has taken a wonderful opportunity to further her teaching career at another school starting Term 3. We wish both Caitlin and Kaeley all the best and wish them well.

We have been able to secure wonderful replacements which will allow for a seamless transition for our students. We welcome back Rebecca Orr from leave and she and Catrin Alban will be the new teachers of 4 Pink.

School Opinion Surveys

The annual suite of School Opinion Surveys will be conducted in Term 3 and will close on 12 August 2022. All families, school staff and students in target year levels (5, 6, 8 and 11) will be invited to participate. We encourage you to take this opportunity to have your say about what our school does well, and how we can improve.

An invitation to complete the Parent/Caregiver Survey will be emailed to one parent/caregiver per family in the week beginning 11 July. The invitation will be sent from the Department of Education, not the school, and it will have the subject line School Opinion Survey for parents and caregivers, 2022. Check your junk email folders if you can’t find it. The survey can be completed as soon as the invitation is received and will take approximately 5 minutes using a computer, tablet or smart phone.

Julie-Anne McGuinness – Principal

STEM CHALLENGE DAY

On Tuesday, Musgrave Hill State School had the privilege of participating in the Gold Coast North Primary Schools STEM Challenge Day hosted by Pacific Pines High School. Students battled against 9 other schools in the region to be reigned regional STEM champions.

Throughout the day, there were numerous events that offered students an opportunity to apply their understanding of engineering and science principles. Students competed in a trebuchet challenge, model plane challenge, robotics challenge, water filtration experiments and load-bearing spaghetti bridge challenge.

Congratulations are due, to our students who took 2nd place in the water filtration experiment. Students used a collection of natural materials such as rocks, pebbles and sand to clean dirty water. Results were declared by comparing pre and post test samples.

The highlight of the day, and the main event, was the Spaghetti Bridge challenge. This was a collaborative relay, where students formed teams of 4-5 students and took turns to create a bridge that spanned a 50cm gorge. At the end of the event, all schools gathered to witness exactly how much weight each bridge could hold. A bucket was suspended from a wooden block, that was placed on the bridge, weights were placed in the bucket to measure the load.

I am beyond happy to report that Musgrave Hill State School won this challenge. Our students engineered a bridge that held a whooping 7.5KG. The bridge that came in second place in this challenge, managed to hold approximately 4KG. So, we won by a mile!

Well done Musgrave Hill State School.
Mrs Kent

A WORD FROM OUR BUSINESS MANAGER

2022 Student Resource Scheme

A reminder that final instalments for 2022 SRS are due by July 29.

A statement has been sent home so you are able to see the remaining balance on your child's account. Please click on the Bpoint link to make your payment.

A negative amount means your account is in credit. (No payment required)

If you are having problems with payment, please come to the office and we can discuss a payment arrangement.

Reminder notices will be sent out each month from August to December to remind those parents of their outstanding amounts.

Thank you to all parents who have paid or made payment arrangements.

Mrs Connolly – Business Manager

ASSEMBLY AWARDS

TUCKSHOP NEWS

Uniform News

Once again thank you very much for your understanding in regards to the delay in our stock arriving. We’ve had a few hiccups along the way with Covid restrictions, truck strikes, flooding and a few public holidays thrown in as well. As soon as the stock arrives all backorders will be sent out and stock levels will be updated via the Qkr! App. If you have any queries please give me a call on 5644 5555 and use the Tuckshop/Uniform extension.

We have changed our operating hours for the Uniform Shop to allow parents to be able to come in. We will be open the following days and times:

Monday: 1:30-2:50pm
Tuesday: 1:30-2:50pm
Wednesday:1:30-2:50pm

If you do require an appointment outside of these times please call the Uniform Shop so we can try to accommodate this.

Sally McWilliams - Tuckshop and Uniform Convenor

A WORD FROM OUR GUIDANCE OFFICER

Teaching your child great communication skills!

Managing interrupting

Have you ever been busy with a task and heard a little voice calling your name over and over and over? Have you been on the phone only to have your child launch into a story about which colour plate is the best? Does some version of this story seem familiar to you? Interrupting usually happens when children can’t control their urge to talk. But unless it’s an emergency, it’s important to help your child to learn to wait. Letting others finish what they’re saying or doing is part of positive communication and helps children get along with others and will support them to be great communicators when they are away from you as well.

The way you manage interrupting will depend on your child’s age and stage of development. For example, younger children and children with additional needs might find it hard to understand that they should say ‘Excuse me’ and wait for you to respond. Prep students might be able to cope only with a quick ‘Just a minute’ before you give them your attention. Upper primary children should be able to wait for longer.

These general tips for managing interruptions will help most children:

• Let your child know when it’s OK to interrupt immediately. For example, if something dangerous or urgent is happening, they should be allowed to interrupt.
• Teach your child to put their hand on your arm if they need to say something while you’re talking. Then you can put your other hand on top of theirs to let them know that you’ve understood.

When your child gets older and you know they can wait, you can try some or all of these ideas to manage interruptions:

• Remind your child of your family rule about interrupting. Then continue your conversation until your child says ‘Excuse me’ or uses the nonverbal cue.
• When your child says ‘Excuse me’, try to reward your child with your attention quickly. Your child will see that if they do the right thing, they get what they want.
• Praise your child when they say ‘Excuse me’ and wait for you to give them your attention. This encourages your child to keep speaking this way. For example, ‘You waited until I finished my call before you asked for help with your doll. Well done!’
• If you have an important call or activity that really can’t be interrupted, try distracting your child with some special toys or an interesting activity.

Things that affect your child’s conversation skills

There are a couple of things that might affect how children develop conversation skills:

• Self-regulation: this includes the ability to manage your behaviour and your reactions to things happening round you. It’s an important part of learning to talk and listen. Children develop self-regulation as they grow.
• Temperament: for example, a very social child might want to be involved in every conversation and have trouble listening. On the other hand, a child who is shy or slow to warm up might find it easier to listen but harder to respond.

There are some developmental and other issues that might affect talking and listening. Language delay is a delay in using sentences or knowing how to speak with others. Speech difficulties include lisping, stuttering or forming sounds. If your child is experiencing any of these issues, you could also ask your child and family health nurse or GP for advice.

Adapted from:

JUNIOR WRITER’S FESTIVAL

On Wednesday, 15 aspiring authors from Year 6 attended the ‘Ignite 2022 Junior Writer’s Festival’ at Coombabah High School. These students participated in an intensive, full day of writing workshops to help hone their creative writing skills. Lead by a team of expert writers, including 2 published authors; Josh Donellan and Samantha Turnbull, they covered an incredible range of topics and were given practical tips they could apply in order to become highly skilled writers. Our students represented Musgrave proudly, and many were awarded certificates for their teamwork, creativity and originality. They are now busily preparing a narrative to submit in a competition, and we’re so looking forward to reading their wonderful work when they’re done.

Mrs Chapman

Year Six Camp at Thunder Bird Park

What did you enjoy most about your year six camp?

Mr Waugh – Year 6 Teacher

CLASSROOM CAPERS – 2 RED

We have loved learning about life cycles in science, exploring ways in which living things grow and develop. We have discussed examples of living things, characteristics of their life stages and the language associated with those stages.

This term, we have discovered many new facts about different sea creatures. We created our very own sea turtles and habitat using water colours and oil pastels.

Miss Hahn – Classroom Teacher

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”

Martial Arts at Musgrave Hill

Robotics at Musgrave Hill

Code Camp

UPCOMING EVENTS