newsletter-2015-04-21 - Albany Hills State School
Transcription
newsletter-2015-04-21 - Albany Hills State School
Albany Hills State School Strength through Knowledge Tuesday 21 April 2015 Edition 11 What’s on April 22, 23, 29, 30 Year 4 Excursions 22 Regional Netball Trials 23 District Girls Touch Trials 24 ANZAC Assembly 27 District Cross Country 28 Regional Hockey Trials 28 Whole School Assembly 30 District Boys Touch Trials May 1 Gala Day 5 Senior Assembly 6 Junior Assembly 22 Gala Day June 5 Gala Day Reminders Front Gate Closed 8:30am - 9:00am and 2:50pm - 3:15pm Back Gate Open 7:30am Closed 3:20pm Closed weekends and school holidays Uniform Shop Tues 2.30 – 3.30pm Wed 8am – 9.30am Thurs 8am – 9.30am Fri 8am – 8.30am 2:30 – 3:30pm Money Collection Mon - Fri Place in window box outside school office. Office Hours Mon-Fri 8:00am – 3:00pm A message from Mr Rod Mason... Dear Parents and Caregivers A Warm Welcome to Term 2 The first task Beth, Steve and I undertook on Monday was to visit all 31 classrooms at the beginning of the day. We were greeted by the smiling faces of students, staff and parents, all obviously refreshed by the break and ready to take on the exciting challenges of the next ten weeks. Many thanks to parents who managed to get their children to school on time for the start of instruction at 8:30. Every class was engaged (especially the Preps who were particularly excited and ready for a chat about their holidays), thanks to the staff who also deserve recognition for their efforts to prepare well for the new term. There are numerous school community events scheduled for the term, beginning with ANZAC ceremonies at the end of this week. Sessions for prospective 2016 Preps are scheduled for next week as are Under8s Morning. The best way to keep up with events is to access the school website. Priorities for this term are focussed on the implementation of the Mathematics program. Consistent teaching of Maths concepts using a variety of teaching and learning approaches will be planned and practised by teachers throughout the term. A Maths session consists of Mental Maths, introduction and practice of New Concepts and concludes with Reasoning and Problem Solving. Careful assessment by teachers provides for high standards and individualised attention where needed. New faces around the school Dianne Carpenter has taken on the role of BSM, replacing Carol for the next couple of terms. Please pop in and say hello if you get the chance. Kirstie Itel returns to year 2 replacing Anita Roberts who will still be seen in the library and is also leading the development of the school Science program. . Changes to facilities Visitors to the library will have seen the creation of the ‘Professional Learning Area’ at one end of the room. This will be used for staff meetings and during planning sessions, providing a comfortable environment in which to work and interact. The furnishings were provided in a joint project between the P & C and the school. Enhancement of our teaching skills through professional development and collegiate engagement is proven to be a significant factor in high performing schools. Thanks to the P & C for their support for this. P & C Meeting next Tuesday evening – all welcome. Some items I will raise for discussion include: Explicit Teaching – what does it look like? Continued development of the facilities and environment project Formation of the School Council o Vote on the Draft Constitution – copy available in the office and on the website o Steve Wiedman (Deputy Principal) has agreed to be the Returning Officer for the elections to be held on 26 May (nominations due 12 May). Rod Mason Principal Lest we forget Keong Road PO Box 378 Albany Creek Qld 4035 Albany Creek Qld 4035 The Herald: [email protected] Phone: 07 3264 0777 Fax: 07 3264 0700 Student Absence: 07 3264 0760 Email: [email protected] Website: www.albahillss.eq.edu.au [email protected] From the Deputies…… NED Award Congratulations to our very worthy recipient of the NED award for April. the second has details on how School Councils are formed and operate. An information package for prospective nominees will be available soon. - Steve NAPLAN National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) equating study School Council Elections This term will see elections held for positions on our School Council. The process will involve the adoption of a constitution at both staff and P&C meetings. These will be held on 28 April. The draft constitution is available from the school office or on the school website (documents section). Nominations for two parents and two staff (one teaching and one non-teaching) will be called with nominations closing on 12 May. The election will take place at special meetings (one for parents and one for staff) on 26 May. These meetings will be held in the school. As the appointed Returning Officer, I will be overseeing the election process. These two websites provide additional information: http://education.qld.gov.au/scho ols/independent-publicschools/resources/ipsprospectus.pdf http://education.qld.gov.au/scho ols/about/school-councilhandbook.html The first is an overview of Independent Public Schools, and As you may be aware, NAPLAN tests are administered to Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students in May each year. You may not be aware that each year a sample of students in these same year levels, from across Australia, are also required to sit the NAPLAN Equating Study. Equating is a process carried out to enable the results of tests completed year to year to be reported on the same assessment scales. For NAPLAN, a representative national sample of students is selected annually to participate in this additional equating phase or equating study so that NAPLAN test results can be compared over time. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) manages the NAPLAN Equating Study, and the assessment contractor is the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). ACER is responsible for all aspects of the administration of the equating tests. This year, Albany Hills State School has been selected to be part of the Equating Study in the area of Numeracy only. 25 students from Year 3 and 27 students from Year 5 have been selected. This will involve the classes 3BC and 5JS respectively. The NAPLAN Equating Project Team at ACER has selected the classes at random, to ensure a range of student abilities in the test sample. If students are absent from those classes on the testing day, students may be selected from other Year 3 and 5 classes to take their place. These students will complete a paper-based assessment, similar to a regular NAPLAN test, on Thursday 30 April. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] , or your child’s class teacher. 2015 NAPLAN TESTS In Week 4 of this term, students in Years 3 and 5 will sit the annual NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) tests. The dates for the tests are as follows: Tuesday 12 Language May conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Writing tests Wednesday Reading test 13 May Thursday 14 May Numeracy test It is important that Year 3 and 5 students are present on these dates so that they are able to sit the tests under the same conditions as their classmates. Friday 15 May is set aside as a ‘catch up’ day for the tests, however, this will usually be done under the supervision of a teaching staff member in the administration building. We strongly advise that you ensure your child is present on the set dates to participate in the tests with their classmates. This week, parents of students in Years 3 and 5 will receive a brochure entitled “NAPLAN: 2015 Information for Parents”. More information can be obtained from your child’s class teacher or at www.nap.edu.au If you have any questions or concerns around exemptions, withdrawals or special considerations, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher, or me at [email protected] Uniform Excellence Thanks, Parents Curriculum Corner We would like to thank the parents of Albany Hills State School for their efforts ensuring their children are in correct uniform each day. This was very noticeable on our recent visits to classrooms. We are very proud of our students and their high standards. A reminder that students in Years 4 – 6 will need to wear their black shoes and navy socks to school on Gala Days. If they have special shoes for their sports they are to change just prior to the game. We would like to thank all parents and carers for attending the parent-teacher interviews held at the end of term one. These interviews provided an important opportunity to discuss children’s progress and to build positive relationships between home and school. Our school will continue its learning focus on proportional reasoning throughout Term 2 as part of our commitment to improving the learning outcomes of the students. The purpose of the column this week is to outline what you can do as parents to contribute to this learning focus because the role you play in your child’s learning is critical. Prep Enrolments 2016 If you are planning to enrol your child in prep for 2016, please contact our school office to receive your enrolment forms. Students born between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2011 are eligible for Prep in 2016. Important information sessions for parents will be held in May. Parents may choose: Monday 4 May 9.00am 10.30am or Tuesday 5 May 6.30pm 7.30pm. Future students and their families are also invited to join us for Under Eights’ Morning on Monday 18 May. Thank You Thank you to the parents and community members who attended Albany Creek’s Longest Dinner recently. It was a great fundraiser and we thank you for the support shown for chaplaincy at Albany Hills and our local schools. Assembly Changes There will be just one assembly this week, the ANZAC Assembly on Friday. Next Tuesday 28 April will be a Whole School Assembly. Our regular Senior and Junior Assemblies resume on 5 and 6 May. Stay Informed! There are at least four easy ways to stay informed about what’s going on at Albany Hills. Website: www.albahillss.eq.edu.au Smile! Twitter: @AlbanyHillsSS School photos will be taken on 27 and 28 May. Our students always look outstanding in photos with formal school uniforms including plain black shoes, navy socks, school coloured hair accessories and adherence to jewellery rules. Payment envelopes with information will be sent home soon. QSchools app: download and make Albany Hills a favourite Facebook: Albany Hills State School Parents page (managed by parents) Kind regards Steve Wiedman Beth Henderson Deputy Principals Proportional reasoning in its simplest description can be thought of as a constant relationship, for example when we go shopping, the “price per unit” on the price tags outlines the best buy for that product range. That idea of “best buy” uses proportional reasoning as its basis. Some other conversational ideas you can explore with your child are the following: Cooking – altering a recipe based on one ingredient and adjusting the rest so the recipe will work, such as a recipe requiring two eggs but you only have one. This means that the whole recipe needs to be halved to keep the ingredients in the correct proportion. Travel – if your child walks or rides their bike to school, the distance travelled is always the same. The speed at which the child walks or rides alters the time it will take to arrive at the destination. You can include the km/h that the child travelled if your student is in the later primary years. Enlarging or reducing pictures on the computer – there are simple discussions that you can have with your child by experimenting with what happens when you enlarge a photo by dragging the corner of the photo and then dragging one of the sides – dragging the corner keeps the image in proportion whereas dragging one side distorts the image and all proportion is lost. If you would like some other ideas for proportional discussions with your child please feel free to email me at [email protected] Christie Meiklejohn Head of Curriculum Anzac Day Assembly The school will be holding a whole school assembly to commemorate ANZAC Day this Friday 24 April. The assembly will commence promptly at 2 pm in the auditorium. There will be representatives from the Australian Defence Force and a retired service person from the Kedron/Wavell RSL involved in the assembly. Mrs Ormiston has selected children to sing at the assembly. There will be two representatives from each class laying a wreath. Two senior ADF children will be representing the Defence families in the school. This is an important date in our school’s calendar as we have a large number of Australian Defence Families at the school. Everyone is welcome so please come along and help us educate our children on the importance of ANZAC Day. Help us remember on ANZAC Day. Karen O’Connor lots of hands it only takes about 1 hour to set up the auditorium Host Families Needed Any parents that would like to be involved by volunteering their time for this special event please contact the school office on 3264 0777 or email [email protected] to Mrs Karen O’Connor our Defence School Transition Aide. Any time you can spare would be greatly appreciated. 17 students and 4 adults will be visiting us from our sister-school in Japan from July 25 until August 9 for two weeks. They were so generous in hosting AHSS students in Japan last year, it’s now our turn to show them our hospitality and introduce them to Australian culture. Students will be billeted individually. They will come to school each day with your child/children and participate in a variety of classes and excursions. As a homestay family, it would be good if you could organise sight-seeing or an interesting activity for the middle weekend. Unfortunately, there will be no financial assistance for host families nonetheless the experience can be quite rewarding for the children from both cultures. If you are interested in becoming a host family please contact me. Anzac Day Badges ANZAC Day badges will be on sale outside the tuckshop on Wednesday 22 April, Thursday 23 April and Friday 24 April. The school captains will be selling badges from 8.15am until 8.45 each of these mornings. There is a choice of a badge for 50 cents or a sticker for only 20 cents. Remember to wear your badges or stickers to the special ANZAC Day assembly on Friday 24 April 2015. Karen O’Connor Defence School Transition Aide Staff Car Park A reminder that the staff car park is not a drop off zone for students. This is becoming a frequent practice for some parents and presents a potential safety risk for students and staff. If you are dropping your child off in the morning, please do so at the designated two minute zone at the front of the school. Two Minute Zone Helpers needed We are looking for volunteers that could spare some time on the morning of the ANZAC Day assembly (Friday 24 April) from 9.10am to help set up the auditorium ready for the assembly in the afternoon. With A reminder to drivers that if you are not ready to leave this zone within two minutes, you will need to leave and come back later. This will allow the traffic to flow and for children to be collected by their parents. Police frequently patrol this area. Thank you Nicki Newmarch [email protected] Cleaners Wanted We are seeking expressions of interest to go on our casual relief cleaners list. The hours are 5.00am - 8.30am and 2.30pm 6.00pm. If anyone is interested or you know of anyone who may be interested please call on 3264 0777 or call into the office. P&C News Tuckshop Roster 27 April – 1 May Louise Monday Cobie Sue St Tuesday Sue Sc Order now: http://www.entbook.com.au/2215 7v4 If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Melissa Dunning 0447 711 139 Fete News Wednesday Nicky A Thursday Friday Jenny Nettie Bianca Cassie Fete Newsletter We can email you the Fete Newsletters straight into your inbox so you don’t miss out on all the latest updates, activities, competitions and information. Subscribe by emailing us at [email protected] Fete Committee Bring Week This week’s item is pasta spirals. Please drop them into us at the tuckshop. Entertainment Books The new 2015 | 2016 Entertainment Books are coming soon! A book will be sent home with each family for you to check out, on 30 April 2015. Order your new 2015|2016 Entertainment Membership today to receive up to $195 in Early Bird Offers! Choose from the traditional Entertainment Book or the NEW Entertainment Digital Membership, which puts the value of the Book into your iPhone or Android smartphone! Each membership has hundreds of 50% off and 2-for-1 offers for restaurants, cafés, attractions, hotels, shopping, groceries and travel and contain over 2,000 offers that you can use whenever you like until 1 June 2016. PLUS Albany Hills P & C retains 20% of the price of every Membership sold which goes towards our fundraising! Community News Bushcare Bushcare at McConachie Street, Albany Creek May 10. All welcome. For details contact [email protected] Movie in the Park Apex Albany Creek 2 May 6pm Jacaranda Park, Albany Creek. Cheeseburgers, hot chips, popcorn, drinks and chocolates will be available for purchase.