Every child, every day, learning to be their best Telephone: 3813 5222 Corner Omar and Keogh Streets, West Ipswich Qld 4305 Facsimile: 3813 5200 Absences: absences@ipswwestss.eq.edu.au Email: admin@ipswwestss.eq.edu.au Facebook: www.facebook.com/Ipswichwest Website: www.ipswwestss.eq.edu.au

21 June 2016

Newsletter

From The Principal Three days until end of term This has certainly been a productive, enjoyable term and I find it hard to believe that we are almost at the end. Teachers are still teaching and assessing until the end of Thursday and so students are learning. Children who are away for reasons other than illness are missing out on learning new knowledge and skills while the other students are still here, getting smarter.

The focus on teaching and learning this term is so impressive! It is important to recognise the amazing work that our staff, students and school community, including you, are doing from the very beginning of the day, making every minute count. Last Thursday morning, for example, students were in full school uniform, Year 3 were moving into their class before the music had finished, the Year 4-6s were silent as soon as the music had finished playing, and Year 4/5 were waiting in two straight lines for their teacher. Year 4, 5/6J and 5/6T moved across the bitumen in straight, partnered lines one after the other to their rooms, stopping at points along the way. 2/3 and 2W were straight into sight word writing out. 2W was also converting medals on the traffic lights into stamps – run by the students with one announcing and the other putting the stamps in the students’ books, while the rest of the students wrote out their sight words. A parent came in at 9:30 and told us that the school was so quiet that she thought the students had gone somewhere. That’s because there is so much teaching, learning and assessing going on!

Checking our students’ literacy - Decoding Over the last few weeks and this week, teachers and aides have been checking students’ learning over the term. There are key literacy skills that we check each term to ensure that students are on track to learning the skills required to read and write—phonics, sight words, affixes and reading levels.

Reading = decoding + comprehending. In order to read, a child needs to be able to decode and comprehend. Decoding means recognising the letters on the page to then say them as words and sentences.

From Prep, we use the Jolly Phonics program to teach students the 42 sounds that commonly make up words. The sounds are taught in a specific order (not alphabetically) to enable children to begin recognising and building words as early as possible. As soon as students can recognise some of the sounds, it’s important that they learn to blend these sounds to read words eg t-a-p-s = taps, s-n-a-ck = snack. Blending is practised all the way to Year 6 with the words becoming longer (as long/longer than their age) and the sound combinations more complicated to include affixes and word roots. Head to https://youtu.be/eCjJYB07aSU or search Jolly Phonics sounds on YouTube to hear the sounds matched with the letters/letter clusters—that way you will be prompting your child to say the sounds correctly.

When your child is struggling with working out a word that plays by the phonics rules, have him/her point at each letter cluster (eg ch) and say the first sound, then move his/her finger to the next and say that, blending the two sounds together (eg ch-a = cho), then move his/her finger to the next and say that, putting the three sounds together (eg cho-m= chom), keep going and blend the sounds to read across the whole word (eg chomp). Words that play by the phonics rules include struggling, finger, sounds and next because we can blend the sounds from left to right to read the words.

Some words don’t play by the phonics rules, so we also teach the students 300 sight words that make up an average of 70% of the words used in reading and writing. Students need to automatically recognise the sight words to be able to read them, rather than blend the sounds in them.

To further build students’ decoding and vocabulary we teach Years 3 to 6 students 50 affixes (prefixes—word beginnings, and affixes—word endings). Learning these, their meanings and how they are used helps students’ reading.

When your child incorrectly reads a word that he/she should be able to decode, ask him/her, “Does that look right?” and prompt blending of phonics or affixes and remembering sight words if relevant.

Recognising and blending phonics and affixes, and recognising sight words creates fluent (smooth) decoders. The next step is building their comprehension—understanding of what they read. More on that next time.

See you at Sports Day on Friday if you can come. Have a great two week school break afterwards, returning Monday, 11 July.

Cate Whiting Principal

2015: 91.9% 2014: 89.7% Goal: 95%

Breakfast Club Last week we had a visit from Catherine Hannell from the YMCAs’ School Breakfast Program. The YMCA have been doing a great job of providing free bread, milk and fruit for our thrice weekly breakfast program. Catherine was very impressed by the nice manners of our students and the volunteers working hard to make breakfast. A big thank you from the school to Catherine and everyone at the YMCA for providing a healthy breakfast option for our students.

Breakfast Club runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 8.00am. If you would like to help out please let Mr McCarney know.

Important Cyber Safety Tips The department has recently been alerted to random users contacting children using the social media app ‘Instagram’. The following tips are provided to parents on how their children can avoid random contact on social media:

1. Know which social media your child uses.

2. Discuss with your child who their online friends and followers are. Only be friends with people online who you know and trust in the real world.

Take a proactive approach and establish clear and agreed rules for your child’s internet use.

Visit www.behaviour.education.qld.gov.au for more information.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Wed 22 Jun Lost and found display—in the courtyard 22-23 Jun Advanced Music Workshop at Woodlinks State

School—selected students by invitation Fri 24 Jun School Sports Day, Second Hand Market Stall, P&C Sausage Sizzle & Coffee Stall 8.00am Uniform Shop open Last day of Term 2 Mon 11 Jul First day of Term 3 Fri 15 Jul School Banking resumes Tue 19 Jul Student Tuckshop resumes Bike Education Program—Years 4 & 4/5 Fri 22 Jul Tuckshop resumes Mon 25 Jul 9.30am Excursion and Live Recording of Eat

Smart B Active Program—at Civic Centre Tue 2 Aug Animal Welfare League Queensland Visit Recurring Events Assembly 8.45am in the Undercover Area Mondays—Years 3-6 Tuesdays—Prep-Year 2 Garden/Kitchen Skills 9.30am Mondays—Years 4 & 4/5 Student Tuckshop 11.00am Mondays (resumes week 2, Term 3) Uniform Shop 2.45-3.15pm Mondays & Tuesdays Dental Van Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays Breakfast Club 8.00am Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays Senior Choir Tuesdays—second break & Fridays—first break Music Bus Thursdays Cooking Classes 1.30pm Thursdays—Years 4 & 4/5 who opted in School Banking Fridays (resumes week 1, Term 3) Tuckshop Fridays (resumes week 2, Term 3)

Tuckshop Tuckshop will resume in Term 3, on Friday 22 July.

Oral Language and Role Play Area (Junior Playground)

This new area is looking fabulous, thanks to the hard work of dedicated staff. Donations for the toy kitchen area would be greatly appreciated (eg. toy plastic cups, plates, cutlery, mixing spoons, egg flippers, saucepans, storage containers, etc.).

Library Books A reminder that library books are due back now please!

Lost and Found All lost and found items will be on display Wednesday 22 June after 2.30pm. Any unclaimed items will be donated.

Artist of the Month June: Yasmin Aitchison / July: Mai’tia Paterson

Artist of the Month will have their work featured in the office for a month. Come and take a look at their amazing work!

P&C News Pie Drive: Thanks to all who supported our recent pie drive fundraiser. We made a profit of $446.50!

Student Banking: This will resume first week of Term 3 (no student banking on Friday 24 June). Stay tuned for more exciting banking rewards coming in Term 3!

Lolly Jar Competition: Come into the office and guess how many jelly beans in the jar! (50c per guess or 3 guesses for $1). The winner will be announced on Sports Day.

Sports Day (Friday 24 June): We will be serving a sausage sizzle at first break and selling barista made coffee throughout the day. Volunteers are needed prior to first break to help serve the sausage sizzle. We would also appreciate donations of cakes, cupcakes and slices to sell on the day. Please contact Anne Wright (0418 194 327) for volunteer and donation information.

The uniform shop will be open on Friday 24 June at 8.00am for any students who require a hat for sports day. Due to health and safety regulations, hats will need to be purchased and cannot be loaned. The cost of hats is $8.50 and money can be sent in with your child - all sizes are available. The P&C will not issue any hats without payment up front.

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK P/1 Beau, Seth, Eva, Gracie, Hugo, Dylan 4 Connor 4/5 Melissa, Eva, Majenta 5/6T Lachlan ART Mai’tia, Tomyka, Willow, Summah, Taylor, Alex, Adelaide, Beau, Hudson, Alex, Isabelle, Jonah, Charlotte, Charlie, Aidan, Jaydon, Ash VERY GOOD ATTENDANCE (95%+) P/1, 1, 5/6J, 5/6T 100% ATTENDANCE ON AT LEAST ONE DAY Prep, 1, P/1/2, 2, 4/5, 5/6J, 5/6T 150 STAMPS—BIG PRIZE! Anesu, Darion, Lincoln, Tharn, Kade, Lorenn, Ben, Isaac, Raymond, Brady, Leonidas

Congratulations and thank you for helping our school

A friendly reminder to return BOTH the media consent and permission slip to the office by 21 June.

Both forms need to have the student’s name, class and parent/carer signature. If we do not receive them, your child will not be able to attend the live recording of the Eat Smart B Active production at the Ipswich Civic Centre on Monday July 25. If your child has misplaced their forms, please contact the office staff and they will give you another copy.

AWLQ Visit The AWLQ will be visiting the school on Tuesday 2 August and not 4 August as previously stated.

The donation box for our furry friends is slowly filling up so a big thanks to those wonderful students and families who have donated so far. If you would like to make our ‘furever friends’ lives a little nicer, please consider donating a tin of dog/cat food, old blankets/towels or even kitty litter. The donation box is outside the kitchen block on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays and you can leave your donation at the office outside of these days.

Our tuckshop students had a great time preparing healthy snacks and selling them to students and staff this term and we would like to thank you for your support. We will be back week two of next term with a new group of very keen and eager budding chefs so we ask

that you please continue supporting this venture. Student tuckshop will be available to the whole school each Monday. Please preorder at the tuckshop Monday mornings and collect first break. Prep students may preorder through their class teachers.

We are excited to introduce our new Adopt-a-Cop, Constable Skinner and welcome him to

our school. Constable Skinner will not only provide an educational role within the school but also build relationships with the students, staff and parents/carers. Part of his role will be to deliver presentations to students, staff and families as well as attending key school events. He will speak about a variety of topics including road safety, stranger danger, social media safety, etc.

The benefits of the Adopt-a-Cop program include the enhanced safety and wellbeing of children through education, positive attitudes of children towards Police and the community, the encouragement of law abiding behaviour, and the professional development of Police Officers and Police Liaison Officers.

Constable Skinner will be joining us for some of our upcoming events so please feel free to introduce yourself to him and help welcome him to our wonderful school.

From Carlotta Graham Community Support Worker