10 May 2017

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Colour Run

The inaugural Colour Run was a great success. Staff, students and family members enjoyed the day and the P&C were very happy with the money raised. The funds raised will be allocated to the building of a senior playground, which we hope to install in time for the start of next term. Due to the success of the Colour Run we plan to make this an annual event.

Junior Playground Update

The rain from ex tropical cyclone Debbie delayed the completion of the retaining wall around the junior playground. The wall is starting to take shape now and we are looking forward to being able to re-open the playground very soon. The existing equipment will be upgraded and we are currently selecting new equipment to be installed. The sandpit will be relocated to the playground area.

Thank you to the students for their patience waiting for their playground to be available. I am sure they will be happy with the final result.

Air Conditioning Survey

Thank you all for the outstanding response to the air-conditioning survey. The response was overwhelmingly in favour of air-conditioning the classrooms. We are now getting some quotes to give us an indication of how much we will need to raise for each block. We will be holding a parent information session very soon to discuss the results of the survey and to decide the order of installation of the units and most importantly to discuss how we are going to raise the funds.

Seedlings Program Working Bee

The next stage of creating a working garden for our school community!

3 raised beds to fill
3 small herb gardens to create
3 worm farms to start and set up – we will be taught how to do this properly

Bring your herb seedlings, vegetable and herb seeds, and your big smiles

Meet at the school hall on Sunday 21 May at 8am

The P&C are providing a BBQ for all helpers.

Attendance

It is very pleasing to see an improvement in attendance. It is important to have your children ‘in class, on task and learning’. This is best achieved by attending school every day.

Last term a large number of students attended school every day. Congratulations to all of them and we look forward to more students achieving this goal in Term 2.

Behaviour

This term, students will be participating in an explicit Positive Behaviour for Learning lesson as well as a social skills lesson from the Second Step program. These lessons will be held once per fortnight.

Term Two Focus:

Listening to and Following Directions
Trying Our Hardest
Showing Respect
Doing our Best

Bronze Dojos

Congratulations to all the students who have received Bronze Dojos badges, especially Year 3 with every student having gained their medal. We are looking forward to students gaining their Silver Dojos very soon.

Second Step Weeks 4 & 5

Under Eights Day

On Friday 26 May, Prep to Year 2 students will be participating in Under Eights Day activities designed to embrace the joy of early childhood. The theme of this year’s event is ‘Children are playing Country to Coast, Inspiring Learning in the Early Years through Play’.

Teachers have planned a variety of activities for our junior school students to enjoy and the students are looking forward to this fun event.

Life Education

The Life Education Team and Harold the Giraffe will be visiting Worongary State School from 12 May – 29 May 2017. Life Education motivates and empowers young people to make smart life choices for a healthy future. Students will participate in the programs outlined below.

The Life Education team is happy to provide parents with any information they require about the programs and to answer any questions or concerns you may have. An information session is being offered to interested parents on Friday 12 May at 2:00pm in the van which will be located in the staff carpark next to I Block. As parents you can also get involved by going to the Life Education Parent Hub and downloading the parent resources. This way you can continue the conversation and learning at home. Click below:

Fidget Spinners

This latest craze has hit Worongary State School. Students have been seen with both the spinner and the box. Besides being distracting to students, we have also received reports that some students are trading these toys.

Fidget Spinners and Fidget Boxes are not permitted at school.

There is no research that supports the marketing strategy that these toys help students with ADHD to focus or students with ASD to calm. As with all toys, we ask that students leave them at home to play with after school and on weekends.

LEARNING VINE AWARDS

Curriculum Corner

Hello Again Everyone,

This week I have included “6 Tips for Helping Your Child Improve Reading Comprehension” which was written by Ginny Osewalt.

Make connections.

Connecting what your child already knows while he/she reads sharpens his/her focus and deepens understanding. Show him/her how to make connections by sharing your own connections as you read aloud. Maybe the book mentions places you’ve been together on vacation. Talk about your memories of those places. Invite your child to have a turn. Remind your child that good readers make all kinds of connections as they read.

Ask questions.

Asking questions will make your child want to look for clues in the text. Pose questions that will spark your child’s curiosity as you read aloud. Frequently ask him/her, “What are you wondering?” Jot down those “wonderings” and then see how they turn out. Remind your child that good readers challenge what they’re reading by asking questions.

Create “mind movies.”

Creating visual images brings the text alive. These “mind movies” make the story more memorable. You can help your child do this by reading aloud and describing the pictures you’re seeing in your own imagination. Use all five senses and emotions. Invite your child to share her “mind movies.” Notice how they’re different from yours. You might even ask your child to draw what’s in her imagination.

Make inferences.

We “infer” by combining what we already know with clues from a story. For example, when we read, “Her eyes were red and her nose was runny,” we can infer that he/she has a cold or allergies. You can help your child with this reading skill by predicting what might happen in the story as you read aloud. Then invite your child to do the same.

Figure out what’s important.

Determining what’s important is central to reading. When you read a story with your child, you might download a “story element” organizer. You can use it to keep track of the main characters, where the story is taking place, and the problem and solution of the story. Nonfiction texts look different from fiction. They’re organized with features like the table of contents, headings, bold print, photos and the index.

Monitor comprehension.

Readers who monitor their own reading use strategies to help them when they don’t understand something. Teach your child to stop when the text is not making sense. Read together and when meaning breaks down use these “fix-up” strategies:

• Re-read.
• Read on—now does it make sense?
• Read out loud.
• Read more slowly.
• Look at illustrations.
• Identify confusing words.

I hope you find these tips useful.

Remember that when you are reading, if the text is not making sense then you are not really reading, you are just reading words or letters on a page. The most important thing when comprehending text is that it makes sense.

Until next time……

Try and find some time to share a book with your child this week! It will be worth it!

Kind Regards Leslie Ward, Head of Curriculum

ICAS

Congratulations to all who have chosen to participate in ICAS 2017. We’ve had a resounding number of entries this year with nearly 100 students ready to challenge themselves with a test that is taken in over 10 countries around the world. Science is the first assessment to be taken at the end of this month 30 May, with English and Maths in August.

READING @ Worongary

The South East Region has made it a priority to improve all students’ reading.

In the senior school here at Worongary, to enact the region’s sharp focus, we use a program called Strategies to Achieve Reading Success or STARS (as the acronym). This program specifically focusses on reading comprehension, one aspect of what good readers can do. In combination with guided reading sessions, teachers use the explicit direct instructions contained in the STARS program to teach the 12 core reading strategies that assist in students’ understanding of texts. This term’s first strategy is recognising cause and effect, which looks at making links between what happens and why. The second strategy covered is comparing and contrasting, comparing the similarities and contrasting the differences. The final strategy this term is making predictions, using clues and information already known to make a good guess about something. When reading with or to your child/children, try testing them with some questions around the topics mentioned above. “What happened first/last in the story?” “How are the two characters similar? How are they different?” “What do you think the character will do next and why?”

In Prep and Year 1 this year (and Year 2 next year) Worongary has invested in the Get Reading Right program. This is a phonics program teaching the fundamentals of letter sounds, which builds students’ fluency in reading. Students are taught how to break words into separate phonemes (sounds) and blend phonemes together to read and/or spell a word. Check out all the information about the program below:

Kind Regards Tom McDonald, Teaching and Learning Coordinator

Behaviour

Behaviour Focus

This week our students in Year 3 and Year 5 have their NAPLAN testing. Formal exams are an inevitable part of schooling for most children, so we thought parents might like a few ideas to help reduce the amount of stress their child experiences around NAPLAN and make it a helpful learning experience for them:

1. Discuss

Discuss a “try your best” attitude to exams in your home if NAPLAN is mentioned – be clear to your kids you are proud of the effort they put in, and you are less concerned about the outcome (i.e. the marks they get and how they compare to others – as many factors out of your child’s control affect these).

2. Explain

Explain how exams are at least a little bit stressful for everyone – maybe share an appropriate story about a time when you had to complete an exam and found it stressful, but you just tried your best and got through it (this “normalising” of stress is helpful for many children).

3. Encourage

Your child to do their best and support them by ensuring they have

1. A nutritional breakfast
2. Plenty of sleep
3. Good routines

And they arrive at school in plenty of time on the day of the tests.

Each Tuesday, from Tuesday 9 May we will be offering toast and fruit to children who are seated in Central Games before school from 8.30-8.45. The breakfast of toast and fruit has been very generously donated by IGA at Highland Park. We thank Dale and the IGA team for supporting Worongary State School. Our School and Vice Captains will be assisting in the running of this program.

Resource Centre

Week 7 & 8 – May 29 to June 8 Our Annual Book Fair.

Come along and browse through the books, posters and novelties. Every purchase benefits our school Resource Centre. Fliers will come home the in next couple of weeks with sample books etc. The first 3 days will be for viewing only (please don’t send in money), then sales will start from Thursday 1 June and continue through until the following Thursday 8 June.

World Book Online

The Resource Centre has now subscribed to World Book Online for student use. As part of this subscription, families can access this online encyclopedia from home as well.

Once in, there are several options to choose from. ‘Kids’ is for younger students, and ‘Student’ would suit years 3 or 4 upwards. There are games and activities, as well as lots of information.

Music Corner

Please make sure your child is practising and bringing their instrument home from school. There have been some improvements this week with practise and band rehearsal attendance, however I still have students who have not practised at all and have left their instrument at school all week.

CONCERT

The end of Semester Music Recital is on Tuesday 13 June 2017 at 3.30pm in the school hall. All parents, friends and family are invited to come along and see the students play in Concert Band. The School Choir and String ensemble will be performing too. It is compulsory for all Concert Band Students to attend this recital.

Read and Grow

We had lots of new friends join us for Read and Grow last Tuesday. We sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Old McDonald had a Farm. We listened to the story Time for Bed by Mem Fox and lots of the children knew all of the animal names and sounds. We played with the puppets and put them to bed, made faces that went to sleep, read some stories and went looking for the animals in a tub of rice. Next week we are going to be looking for the Green Sheep! We’d love someone to help us find him! We’ll be using all of our position words like over and under, next to, in front and behind. We’d like to see all of our friends back again but remember, new friends are always welcome! Come to 1 session or all sessions. It’s free and siblings are welcome to come along and join in.

When: Tuesday Morning 9.00am-9.45am
Where: Prep Maroon Classroom
Who: Children 3-5 years not already attending Prep.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Regards Katie Huggard, Prep Teacher

Excursions

P&C News

MOTHER’ S DAY STALL

Thank you to all the volunteers who have helped wrap Mother’s Day gifts. Your help is very much appreciated.

The Mother’s Day Stall will be held tomorrow Thursday 11 May (with extra gifts available for purchase on Friday 12 May)

To ensure that no one misses out, further donations will be gratefully accepted right up until stall time so please do not hesitate to deliver any last minute gifts to us in the P&C room/ Uniform Shop.

Donated gifts will be priced for sale between $1 and $10. Please remind your child to bring in their money and a plastic bag for their visit.

We wish an AMAZING weekend for all of those special Mums, Grandmothers and Carers out there.

SCHOOL BANKING

The Commonwealth Bank has launched a new app called the CommBank Youth app.

With the CommBank Youth app, your child can:

• Check the balance of their Youthsaver account.
• View School Banking deposits in their transaction history.
• Track the number of Dollarmites tokens they collect.
• Set up savings goals and monitor their progress.
• Create a list of chores they can do to earn pocket money.

Explore more about the CommBank Youth app, and how to get your child started, by visiting the link below:

COLOUR FUN RUN

A huge thank you to everyone who participated, raised money and sponsored our fun run. It was a great success and from our feedback it sounds like everyone had a fantastic time. We can’t wait to do another one next year.

We do not have a final amount of how much we raised as there is still monies coming in. We do however know that it is over $10,000. WOW, well done everyone!

All monies raised from this event will go towards the first stage of our new senior playground.

Once all monies have been received, the prizes will be finalised and start being sent to the school for the students to receive. Please note this may take a few weeks.

Again, we thank you for your support in this massive fundraiser.

Regards P&C

Tuckshop & Uniform

Tuckshop News

IMPORTANT – Five Minute Read

Changes to Lunchtimes

As you are all aware, there have been some changes to lunchtimes this term, as the school trials having playtimes before eating times. This has had an impact on how we operate in the Tuckshop and we have had to implement quite a few changes in order to fit in with the different times. Please note the following changes that parents and students need to be aware of:

• We no longer refer to the breaks as Little Lunch and Big Lunch. Instead, we now call the breaks ‘First Break’ and ‘Second Break’. Please use these terms on your Tuckshop orders to avoid confusion about which break you are ordering for.
• Over the Counter Sales are still available. At this stage, we are offering Over the Counter Sales for senior students at the ’First Break’ and for juniors (Years 1 and 2) at ‘Second Break’.
• Pre-Ordering of Frozen items at ‘Second Break’ only. Frozen items are to be eaten in play time, not the eating time. In order for this to happen, frozen items must be ordered on the ‘First Break’ bags. Students will receive the bag at the first break eating time and can hold on to it (fold it up and put it in the zip pocket of their shorts/skorts) during the middle learning session and they can collect the item/s at the second break play time.

Summary for Parents of JUNIOR Students

• Lunches are now called First Break and Second Break.
• Juniors (Prep – 2) can pre-order frozen items on First Break bag to eat at Second Break playtime
• Over the Counter Sales for juniors (grade 1 and 2 only) is at Second Break.

Summary for Parents of SENIOR Students

• Lunches are now called First Break and Second Break
• Seniors can pre-order frozen items on First Break bag to eat at Second Break playtime
• Over the Counter Sales for seniors is at First Break

Interschool Sports – Order Full day of Tuckshop at First Break Only

Traditionally, students ordering Tuckshop on interschool sports day have been able to collect their ‘Second Break’ orders early, on their way to the sport bus. However, due to the changes to the lunch breaks mentioned above, this is no longer feasible (i.e. students will have only just finished eating at First Break when catching their bus). Please note that you can still order enough tuckshop food to cover their needs for the day, but all orders will need to be prepared for and served at First Break. Hot items can be eaten at the first breaks and snack items can be taken on the bus to sport to be eaten later. Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Uniform Shop News

Interschool Sports

Interschool sports is now well underway. Footy socks and Interschool Sport shorts are still available in all sizes so come on up and kit your child out in the correct uniform so they can represent our school with pride this season.

Winter Stock

Our shipment of Winter stock has arrived. I am happy to let you know that prices remain the same as last year, despite an increase in cost to the P&C. Limited stock are available for pullovers and zip-ups.

We will have the following items available for purchase:

• Unisex Zip-Up Cardigans: $37.00
• Unisex V-Neck Pullovers: $28.00
• Unisex Track pants: $23.00
• Girls Tights: $ 7.00

Polo Shirt Shortage

Please note that polo shirts are currently out of stock in size 6 and size 8, with delivery of our next shipment expected to be early in Term 3. Thank you in advance for your patience.

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