28 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

Welcome to the hidden gem of Maroochydore – Maroochydore State School

KAIZEN – improvement, continuously improving

Prep to Year 5 Swimming

The weather has warmed up nicely and it’s time to prepare for swimming.

All students will need to bring their togs, a towel, sunscreen and thongs or sandals to wear to and from the pool, in a bag each day next week. Some students may also wish to bring goggles. All students are encouraged to help pack their bag each day and be responsible for being prepared and ready each day for swimming.

All students will wear usual school uniform to and from school each day whilst attending swimming.

Year 6 Surfing Mooloolaba Beach

Again with ideal weather conditions this will be a fantastic opportunity for our Year 6 students.

All students will need to bring their togs, boardies, a towel, a hat, a water bottle in a bag for each day of surfing. Thongs or sandals can be worn to and from the beach on the bus trip.

All students are expected to wear their usual full school uniform home.

A new school in 2019?

Across this term we are looking ahead to the 2019 school year.

To assist us minimise the risk of disruption to classes in the first few weeks of the school year could you please advise us of any change in circumstances.

In the link below is an electronic form to complete if you will be leaving us at the end of the year (except current Year 6 students).

Can I ask all parents to complete this form as soon as you become aware that you may be moving schools for 2019.

P&C Raffle

Many thanks to all who contributed with the selling and purchasing of raffle tickets to support our P&C.

The major prize winner of the Maroochy Seaplane flight from Paradise Seaplanes was Nevi from our Prep class. Just wonderful!

Congratulations also to the McDade family, the Rohan family, the Owens family, the Apatuetoa family, and the Doller family who were the major prize winners this year.

Thank you to all our local community donors for their wonderful contribution to our raffle – Paradise Seaplanes, Laserzone, The Ginger Factory, Aussie World and Spinners Bar and Bowl.

Special thanks to Tracey Cook who spent countless hours sourcing the prices, organising the raffle and getting the tickets ready for the draw with just seconds to spare!

Staffing 2019

There will be some changes in staffing for 2019 with:

• Mr Habel moving to Baringa SS as a permanent Deputy Principal,
• Miss Clelland will be on leave for at least Semester One (possibly for the whole year whilst she is in London),
• Mr Chamberlain has additional hours at Currimundi SS,
• Mrs Noke has a classroom position at Kuluin SS

Volunteers

We are very fortunate to have a large number of wonderful volunteers who contribute to our school in a number of different ways across the school year.

Sincere thanks from Mrs Pool, Mr Habel, the class teachers, teacher aides and myself for your magnificent efforts in the classroom, in the tuckshop or as a valued member of the P&C again this year. Your time and effort makes a difference and contributes to Maroochydore State School being that hidden gem of Maroochydore.

Chappy’s Breakfast

Monday and Thursday morning – all students are invited to come along and have a piece or two toast and a cup of milk or Milo in the forecourt area.

Did you know – one special grandmother continues to donate the Milo for everyone? A sincere thank you for this generosity for all.

Talent Quest

Mr Spurr has been listening and watching, watching and listening the student acts over the last couple of weeks. Yes, he is nervous, as we give the students the opportunity to get up on stage and perform for the whole school. Come along and support the student acts.

Monday December 10 from 1:10pm in the School Hall.

I love summer!!

The sun, the sand, the sea… The hot days and the sometimes desperate need to cool down. If you’re like my family, we try to get to the shops early and spend a few hours sucking up someone else’s air conditioning to keep the summer electricity bills low. But on those days where going out is not so appealing, it’s time to get creative, and get learning with WATER!!

The opportunities for language development through playing with water are endless! We can work on early language concepts such as next to, beside, first, then, before etc. These are the linguistic concepts I find are causing the most trouble for the students in prep to year 2. Why?

Consider this:

The classroom teacher has just asked the class to:

“Put your hands akim your head and your pencil hom the scrumple.”

What do you do?

• If you are like most kids, you will watch the other students and wait to see what others do.
• If you are confident you may ask the teacher to repeat the instruction, but find that even that doesn’t help. So you wait and see what others do.
• If you are an independent thinker, you might try to work out what was meant and put your pencil on the table in front of you, then put your hands on your head.
• If you are really confident, you may ask what akim, hom and scrumple mean.

The words “akim”, “hom” and “scrumple” are made up words performing the roles of linguistic concepts in this direction. They have no meaning unless we assign them one. The point of course is, if we don’t know a word, we can’t follow a direction with that word in it. And like us in this example, our children run the risk of seeming to be uncooperative or disrespectful by not following given directions in the classroom if they don’t understand some foundational language concepts.

What does that mean for us as parents?

Let’s use this summer break to ensure our children have some of the foundational concepts to succeed. And let’s make use of the hot summer days to motivate them to participate without even knowing they’re learning something!

First of all, let’s get a big bucket (or buckets if you can) or a clean empty rubbish bin. Fill it with water and bring out a pile of items from the kitchen.

For example:

Now what?

You can also work on linguistic concepts making lunch after a long water play session:

• Not – What should NOT go on this sandwich?
• If… - If the cheese is mouldy, we will open the other packet.
• Beginning – Do we eat lunch in the beginning of the day or the middle of the day?
• Without – Do you want your sandwich without butter?
• Between – Let’s put the tomato between the cheese and lettuce.
• Unless – I can’t cut this unless I get out a knife.
• Underlined – (useful if you are using a recipe and underline something in the recipe)
• If, if not – If I have salami we can put it on your sandwich, if not, what would you like?
• Until – Don’t eat until we have our drinks ready too!

Of course, remember to empty the bucket when you’re done and don’t use anything sharp or dangerous!

By Merrett Pastourel

2019 Booklists

Back2School at Kunda Park is the company we are using this year, following Henry’s retirement from Swan News at the Plaza.

The book lists are finalised and instructions for ordering online and collection of the book packs directly with Back2School are in the following attachments.

Each family will need to set up an account after accessing the Back2School website.

The year level reflects the year level your child will be in for the 2019 school year.

Staff Car Park Area

BE Safe – is one of our 4 school rules.

Could all parents and students ensure they DO NOT use the staff car park area as a thoroughfare or a place for dropping off or picking children up from.

Routines and Expectations

Wearing the correct school uniform including a broad brimmed hat for play times.

All students should be dropped off at school from 8:20 to 8:30am.

School learning starts at 8:30am sharp.

There are high expectations around student work, personal achievements and behaviour.

For any student absence please call the school before 8:30am on the day of the absence. 5475 1555.

Our 4 School Rules are:

Be Respectful    Be Responsible    Be Safe    Be a Learner

All student mobile phones are to be taken to the School Office for safe keeping during the school day. Students collect them at the end of the school teaching and learning day at 2:30pm.

Hats – all students should have a green bucket hat for outside activities including both breaks. Parents please ensure your child’s hat is named.

Toys – all students are to leave their toys at home for play at home and to not disrupt the teaching and learning of the teacher and other students.

Be Responsible

Please reinforce with your child the idea that we do not solve disagreements by being physical. That we use our words, walk away or seek a teacher to assist.

Rule: Be Responsible Buzz Phrase “I Choose to Defuse”

• I say STOP if someone or something is upsetting me.
• I WALK away from the situation to a safe place.
• I TALK to someone I can trust.
• I CONTROL myself and keep my COOL.
• I can solve problems in a calm manner.

Resilience in this context means that students need to take responsibility for their own actions. Regardless of what bad things we experience or others may do to us we are still responsible for how we react. It is not acceptable to justify our inappropriate behaviour as a result of someone else’s behaviour towards us.

School Absence and Text Messaging Service

A reminder:

If your student is absent - Phone the Student Absence Line before 9:00am to advise of any/all occasions when your child/ren will be away from school.

If/when you receive an SMS message, reply to the SMS with the reason for your child’s absence and their name immediately OR if you believe your child/ren is/should be at school contact the school office immediately to notify us.

Playground Use

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.

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Every day counts

Term 3 Whole School Student Attendance Rate – 87.8%
Our whole school target is 94%

Parents are reminded of the importance of sending children to school every day. Being at school every day is important, 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.

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.

Term 4 Dates

Year 6 Dates