26 October 2016

Newsletter Articles

Champion Writers

Congratulations to some of our Year 5 and Year 6 writers who have received awards from the Lion’s Club of Mooloolaba in their annual writing competition. This is a wonderful result for the following students –

Three big cheers to our Champion Writer for 2016 – Kahlan R, on her outstanding piece of writing and being recognised by the Lion’s Club as the best writer.

Congratulations also to: Charli, Natasha and Lilly from Year 5 and to Hope, Jasmine and Bianca from Year 6.

Special thanks to our Writing Coach Mrs Jenny Sharp who has worked across the year levels on the student’s writing along with the class teachers.

High School Scholarships

We are delighted to share some excellent positive news for two of our students who will be attending Maroochydore High School next year. Congratulations to Hope Miller and Vaughn Blake for being the successful recipients of the 2017 Scholarship.

Swimming

What a successful week of swimming we have just had. Our participation numbers were very high and it is very encouraging to see our students keen and eager to improve on skills that are so important when you factor in how close to the beach and rivers we are. Thank you to parents for supporting our swimming programme and its importance in the school curriculum.

Day for Daniel – Keeping Kids Safe – 8:30am October 28

On Friday October 28 all students are invited to wear something red and join in our whole school activity on the school oval at 8:30am. Following this we are inviting grandparents to come along to the classrooms and join in with an activity or two.

Grandparents Day

It was wonderful last year to welcome a large number of grandparents to our classrooms, with a memory of what school was like for grandparents. Following our school activity for Day for Daniel all grandparents are welcome to visit the classrooms. This will start around 9am.

End of Year Prep to Year 5 Movie

Mrs Skehan is getting a little bit excited as she is working with the cinema on having a new release movie on offer for this enjoyable end of year class activity. New release – special screening of SING.

The cost will be $10 per school student.

Term 4

It is amazing to think that the 2016 school year has only some 6 weeks left and continues to be an important term in your child’s learning journey.

At this stage of the year all students from Prep to Year 6 should be very familiar with our classroom and school expectations as well as taking greater responsibility for their learning and behaviour choices.

Do keep regularly checking in with your child about their daily learning and how they are working towards an improvement in their learning. I know Year 6 have been completing assignments, a regular high practice, with a submission deadline and I have been impressed with the way a number of students have worked hard at both school and at home to complete their work.

2016 Departures and 2017 Enrolments

We are currently trying to accurately plan our class and staffing structure for 2017. Having the most accurate information regarding student enrolments is essential in this process.

We please ask that if you will not be returning to Maroochydore SS in 2017, can you please contact the Office ASAP. Your thoughtfulness is appreciated.

Also if you are planning to enroll a new student, or know friends who are, can you please contact the school office straight away to arrange enrolment.

Prep will be compulsory from 2017

The Queensland Parliament recently made important changes to the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006. From next year, it will be compulsory for all Queensland children to undertake the Preparatory (Prep) Year, prior to entering Year 1. The legislation identifies specific exceptions that can be determined by principals on a case-by-case basis. To minimise disruption to schools and families, the new requirement will not apply to children already enrolled in Year 1 for 2017. There has been such positive learning outcomes since the introduction of Prep. The Education Department is pleased all children will now enjoy this important start to their learning.

Prep 2017 Information

Playgrounds after school

It is great to see students and families enjoy the wonderful facilities and playgrounds straight after school. However, I need all of the community to please support this practice in the following way. If students are to use the playground after school, their parent must be actively supervising their child from right next to the playground. I appreciate everyone’s support with this.

Term 4 Dates

Day for Daniel & Grandparents Day – Friday October 28
Year 6 End of Year Night – Tuesday December 6
Year 6 End of Year Excursion – Wednesday December 7
Prep to Year 5 Movie Day – Thursday December 7
Term 4 finishes – Friday December 9

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Our student attendance average is just over 91% - we still think we can obtain 95% Every day counts

Parents are reminded of the importance of sending children to school every day. Being at school every day is important, if with one day absent each week quickly adding up to two months of missed lessons in a year.

Unless your child is ill, it is expected that your child will be at school learning every day of the school year.

More information on the importance of regular school attendance is available via the link below. The videos associated with this link highlight issues often faced by parents and dispel some myths about absences form school and are worth a look.

By sending your child to school every day we are together developing good habits for success at primary school and beyond. When parents do not support developing a solid routine of attending school every day issues of truancy and poor work habits can emerge.

If you have any concerns regarding your child’s attendance, please do not hesitate to contact the school for support.

This week’s rule of the week is – Be Safe. No using sticks in the playground and definitely no throwing of sticks over the school fences.

P&C News

Term 4 tuckshop – only open Friday mornings.

Thank you to the P&C who are funding this term’s Science Show in the last week of the school year. There will be two sessions and through the generosity of the P&C all students will join in and see this amazing presentation of some eye popping science experiments.