11th February 2020

g with Friends

Fun in the Rain A few photos from our modified lunchtime play and PE lessons last week – we couldn’t get out to the oval but we kept those bodies moving with some dancing under our covered areas and inside games!

NAPLAN Online 2020 This Thursday Mr Hansen and I will be participating in NAPLAN Online training in Hervey Bay. Our Year 3 & 5 students will complete their NAPLAN testing online this year, as the whole nation moves towards online testing by 2021. Our Year 3 & 5 students will receive some additional tuition during Digital Technology lessons this term, to ensure they are confident navigating the online testing platform. NAPLAN testing takes place in May. I will also be travelling down to the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane to attend the Principal’s Business meeting and Independent Public School’s Conference this Friday and the coming Monday. Mr Hansen will be leading the school during my absence. Air Conditioning Air conditioning is being completed in our school library this week. This project is part of the State Government’s Building Future Schools project. It certainly makes for a much more comfortable learning environment for our students and staff.

Star Students Congratulations to our Stars of the Week. It was lovely to celebrate with students and family members following parade on Friday and I‘d like to thank those family members for their attendance at parade. Woolworths Rewards At the end of 2019 we received our art and craft items from Woolworths Earn and Learn promotion. Thanks to parents and family members who collected stickers for our school. These items will be used across the school during our art lessons & lunchtime craft activities. Chicken Pox We have been made aware that a student in 4G has been diagnosed with a mild case of chickenpox. Please see advice from Qld Health below regarding chickenpox signs, symptoms and control.

Wed 19th February Grip Leadership Day Wed 12th March Chess Competition Fri 20th March NDA Bulling

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Signs and Symptoms: “The disease starts with cold-like symptoms such as a mild fever, headache, runny nose and cough. A day or 2 later a rash begins, starting as small pink blotches but rapidly progressing to itchy blisters which usually last 3 - 4 days before drying out and turning into scabs.” Control “People with chickenpox should be excluded from childcare facilities, schools or work for at least 5 days after the rash first appears and until dry scabs have replaced all blisters. Any contacts with lowered immunity, such as those with leukaemia, should be immediately excluded and referred for specialist advice.” For further information please follow the link below. http://conditions.health.qld.gov.au/HealthCondition/condition/14/217/23/chickenpox-varicella Wet Weather With the wet weather playing havoc with our school routines last week, I’d like to thank parents for your cooperation in ensuring children are being dropped off and picked up from school safely. Last week I spoke with students about afternoon routines. One of the safety rules is for children crossing the car park to come around the path to the beginning of the crossing, rather than crossing through the disabled carpark space, where cars may not see them approaching. I ask that parents assist us with this and guide children towards the beginning of the crossing.

Our carpark is very busy in the afternoon, to keep the traffic flowing, please remember to move on from the ‘Stop and Go’ as quickly as possible. Staff are there to help direct children to cars, however, if your child has not come to the car promptly, please move on to the parking area. Thank you for helping to keep our students safe.

Queensland Ready Reading

The Ready Reading program invites parents and community members to make a difference in their local community by volunteering in schools to support children’s reading.

Reading is a powerful tool to help children grow their vocabulary, language skills and imagination. It helps them to develop life-long skills that will support their future growth and learning.

The Department of Education’s Reading Centre and Volunteering Queensland are working together to help improve literacy for children in Queensland by training up to 3000 volunteers to share their knowledge and time to foster a love of reading.

Register your interest to become a Ready Reading volunteer.

From the Deputy’s Desk

PBL/Reboot – Week 3, Term 1: Conflict Resolution: This week we are building on our focus of ‘Respect in the Play areas’ from last week by learning about conflict resolution. Here at St Helens we know that sometimes there are disagreements between students, however disagreements shouldn’t lead to physical misconduct. This week students are learning about the High 5. It would be great if you could reinforce these steps at home with your child:

1. Ignore

2. Speak in a friendly voice

3. Walk away

4. Speak in a firm voice

5. Report to a staff member

Often students are great at the first 4 steps but then fail to report to a staff member before reacting in a negative way. This is crucial as if we don’t know what’s happened, we can’t support the students to resolve the conflict. Reading with your children: With school well and truly underway now, your child will be bringing home books for reading each night. This week I have focussed on some key points providing ways in which you can assist your child to read at home. Reading with your child will begin when your child becomes familiar with the story and can take over some of the reading. When your child reads to you, allow time for working out words and ask questions to see if he or she understands what they have read. If your child is trying to read a long or tricky word, give your child time and ask questions like these:

Look at the picture, what can you see that might start

with that letter?

Look at the picture, what word makes sense?

What letter does it start with? What sound is represented

by the letter? What letter does it end with?

Book talk is an important part of reading. Chat about the book before, during and after reading and really encourage your child to talk about their ideas and ask questions about the book. Here are some questions you can ask at different times before, during and after reading the book:

What would you like to read about?

Would you like to choose a book you know?

Look at the cover – what do you think this book is about?

What is happening in the pictures?

How could we work out these tricky words?

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What do you think is going to happen next?

What was your favourite part of the book?

Who was your favourite character in the story? Why did you like that character?

If you could change the ending of this book, what would it be?

It’s also important for you to show your child how you read every day for different purposes, for example: recipes, greeting cards, calendars, shopping lists, food labels, instructions, maps, newspapers, emails, signs and websites. P&C Meeting All executive positions will become vacant at the AGM on Tuesday 10th March. It would be wonderful to see an increased involvement from parents this year. You don’t have to take on an executive role to be involved and help to shape the direction of our school. If you can spare an hour a month for a meeting and a bit of time to help out with fundraising events, we would love you to come along and join the P&C.

The tuckshop will re-open on Friday 21st of February. A new menu and online ordering information will be on next weeks newsletter. Uniforms It was lovely to see our students looking so smart in their uniforms this week. All students need to have a broad brimmed hat for school and these can be purchased from Sauers or B&H Designs in Maryborough. Jewellery should be kept to a minimum (watch, stud or sleeper earrings). Thankyou for ensuring that your child is dressed in appropriate uniform each day. Names on property Please ensure that your child’s belongings are clearly labelled with their name so any lost items can be returned. In particular, ensure that hats, drink bottles and lunch boxes are clearly labelled. Library News Please remind your child to return their library books on their borrowing day. Students may also return and borrow books before school or during the first lunch break. Class borrowing days are as follows; Monday – 2/3C, 2B, 6S, 5D Tuesday – 1/2A, 1F, 4H, 4G, 3B, Prep W, Prep P Wednesday – 6HB Thursday – 5S

Nut Allergy We need to raise awareness that a

child in our lower school has a nut

allergy. In an effort to ensure a safe

school environment, we would

appreciate if you could save nut

based items for after school treats

and not send any nut based

products into school. This includes

chocolates and cakes that may have traces of nuts.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Book list items available from the office

“My Home Reader” - $6. Headphones - $16 Targeting Handwriting Year 1 - $13 Targeting Handwriting Year 3 - $16 New book bags can be purchased for - $15 (very good quality) Year 6 Student Diary - $3 We are also accepting payment of the $70 prep levy. EFPTOS is available for all of these.

Prep – Don’t forget to read your home reader every night and write it in the blue book. Ask your child what letter we talked about today! 1F- We are learning about teen numbers in 1F. Count items as often as you can at home, especially up to 20. Teen numbers have a ten and some ones and they are between 10 and 20. It’s important to emphasise this as young children often get ‘teen’ and ‘ty’ numbers mixed up. Eg: 19 and 90. 1/2A – In science we are learning about habitats. Discuss with your child a habitat in our local area and some plants and animals that night live there.

TUCKSHOP

NEWS

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2B – Homework was sent home yesterday and is due back to school each Monday. If you have any questions regarding homework please do not hesitate to come and see me. We have begun literacy groups and math rotations this week and are still looking for some volunteers to help with groups. If you can spare some time please come and see me or send the note back. 3B – This week we are learning about grouping animals and plants. Animals are often placed into 7 different groups (insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds, fish and arachnids). Plants are often placed into 4 different groups (conifers, mosses, flowering plants and ferns). Animals and plants are grouped basic on their observable features (skin covering, how they have and feed their young, leaves, seeds, spores, flowers, etc). Ask your child if they can identify some of the observable features for different groups (eg. Birds - two legs, wings, covered in feathers, they lay eggs and most can fly).

2/3C - This week we are writing character descriptions as a lead up to writing narratives. We are currently reading “Audrey goes to Town”, by Christine Harris and looking closely at the words and techniques the author uses to describe Audrey. In science we have been grouping living things, with an emphasis on animals. Our classroom is feeding a couple of citrus caterpillars and eagerly watching them get larger and larger and ready for the next stage of their life. Just a reminder that all Home Practice folders are due back each Friday so your child can change their home readers and get their work checked. If you have had an out of the ordinary week and your child has not completed their work, their folders are still expected to be returned, as the routine is just as important as the practice.

4H – Parents, please assist your child with their homework this week and remind them it’s due on Mondays. The students are very excited this week because our silkworm eggs have arrived. We can now begin creating their habitat and observing their development.

4G – 4G have had another great week with some students reaching their 1st milestone of 25 stars! A Study Ladder permission note went home last week. It would be great if they

could be returned this week so that we can begin using Study Ladder next week. 5D - In English, we have been learning about the fantasy genre. In class, we are reading the book, ‘The Forests of Silence’ by Emily Rodda. It would be great if the students could read any fantasy genre books or watch any fantasy genre movies at home. This will help give them some inspiration for when they need to write their own fantasy narrative for our English assessment later in the term. 5S – Home reading has begun this week. Please ensure that your child is reading for at least 10 minutes per afternoon/evening and then sign their reading log. Students then return their reading log and book to school the next day so our Homework Monitor can check that reading has been completed and issue stars to those who have completed reading. 6HB – This week, your child is trying to expand their vocabulary by using more adjectives in their writing. Ask your child about the picture they had to describe today in their writing warm up. 6S – Dear parents and caregivers, homework went out for the first time last week and will be due back in Thursdays. Any student struggling is aware that they may come and see me in the mornings for extra help. Please make sure you return the senior shirt order form by this Friday. NO PAYMENT IS NECESSARY YET.

COMMUNITY NEWS

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St Helens is getting sorted

Red Bin (RedCycle) – Soft plastic

Blue bin – Containers for Change

Green – Organic waste for composting

Yellow – Hard plastic, clean paper and cardboard

Grey – Landfill

Help Wanted We are wanting a group of parents to take our RedCycle to Coles and Woolworths each week and also to take our Containers for Change recyclables to the CFC drop off place. If you are able to do this, we will roster you on so that we have a regular group that will take responsibility for this job. Please see Maxine in 2/3C if you are able to help. Thank you

Sustainability at St Helens

Our waste sorting bins have made our lives so much easier. So proud of all

our students for caring about this endeavour and making the effort to put

their waste in the correct bin. A huge thank you to 4H for being our

Waste Watchers last

week. They took turns

to supervise, assist and

sort the waste at the

end of the breaks. They

all showed great

enthusiasm for the job.

This week 4G are on the

job and in just two days, have shown the same dedication

to the job.

Today we had our first meeting for 2020 for children

interested in becoming an Eco Super Star. It was just a

sign on day today and the children will be involved in

composting, gardening, resourcing our waste free initiative

and much, much more.

Every Thursday is Waste Free at St Helens State School!

Remember… Keep it simple, fresh and healthy

Buy in bulk and put smaller portions

day

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What’s in your lunchbox this week?

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Star of the Week

Prep Possums

Georgia P For consistent fantastic behaviour. What a great start to the year!

Prep Wombats

Aryana T For settling in so well into our classroom routines and trying her best to follow our rules.

Year 1/2A Coen K For a great start to the year and being a fantastic, independent worker!

Year 1F Mia W For a fantastic start to the year!

Year 2B Benjamin T For an excellent start to year two. You are a great role model in our class.

Year 2/3C Maya S-A For your positive energy and enthusiasm. We are so lucky to have you in our class.

Year 3B Tyson H For consistently demonstrating our 3 values. You are amazing!

Year 4H Dalin K For working hard on all tasks and showing respect towards all teachers and students.

Year 4G Gracey B For a fantastic start to the year. St Helens is lucky to have you.

Year 5D Jack B-S For a fantastic start to the year, with excellent behaviour and effort in class. Well done!

Year 5S Riley P For putting in a fantastic effort in all classroom tasks.

Year 6HB Aidan H For the determination you showed during mathematics this week, top effort.

Year 6S Oliver C For such an enthusiastic and positive start to the year. Fantastic effort!