Living & Learning Together

Transcription

1 Living & Learning Together Friday, 17th February, 2017 Acting Principal Mr Ryan Trama Teachers Mrs Libby Johnson Mrs Louise Fulwood Mrs Allie Hill Student Support Teacher Mrs Kelly Webster Students of the week Support Staff Ms Jane Trevethan Mrs Brenda Stahlhut Ms Lorraine Lewis Mrs Jenna Morris Mrs Mel Kelly Grounds Officer Mr Ray Stahlhut Cleaner Mrs Donna Bennett The Thallon SS way is to be at school every day, always do your best, live and learn together, be safe, responsible, respectful and an active learner! P&C President Mr Darren Kelly Address PO Box 8 Thallon Qld The.principal@thallonss.eq.edu.au Website

2 Page 2 Thallon State School Newsletter Principal s Award PRINCIPAL S NOTE Congratulations to Shayla M and Brittany P-D for being awarded with the Principal s Award for weeks 3 and 4. Both students have demonstrated consistent leadership qualities around our school, and always strive to succeed in the classroom. Balonne Sport Congratulations to Clancy W and Shayla M who represented Thallon SS at the Balonne District Swimming trials recently. Thallon SS was the Overall Champion school, with Clancy also being awarded as the Overall Boy s Champion, and qualifying in all events for the Regional Swimming Trials in Charleville next Friday. Well done to Clancy W for also being selected as a member of the Balonne Boy s Rugby League team. Same Day Student Absence Notifications The safety and wellbeing of students are the highest priorities for our school and the Department of Education and Training. From the beginning of this year, all state schools are required to notify parents on the same day a student is absent from school without explanation. At Thallon SS, we will be using up to 20 minutes of dedicated Teacher-Aide time daily, to make phone calls or send SMS messages to parents who s children are absent without explanation. This Teacher-Aide time is extremely valuable in the classroom, so please help us to minimise the time one of our Teacher-Aides has to spend out of the classroom by doing the following: Please notify the school of a child s absence as soon as possible on the day of the absence, prior to 9.00am, by sending an SMS to Explicit Improvement Agenda, 2017 Thallon State School's Explicit Improvement Agenda for 2017, is the Teaching of Reading. To drive improvement in our students' reading outcomes, we are focussing on the following strategies: Developing an expert teaching team through targeted Professional Development and Coaching. Continuing to refine and implement our whole-school approach to the Explicit Teaching of Reading and Reading Comprehension strategies. Upskilling our Teacher-Aides to achieve the best outcomes from our reading rotations, and to provide support to the students who need it most. Developing and implementing a Reading Intervention program to support learners who are at risk of not achieving National Minimum Standard or Regional Benchmarks. Investigating and implementing ways to better communicate reading data and results to parents and families. Please remember the important role you play at home in supporting your child's reading development - it is essential that parents are engaging their children in various texts at home, talking about what the child has read, and very importantly, ensuring children are reading for enjoyment, daily. Attendance At Thallon SS, we share a common belief that all students can learn and be successful. For this to be a reality, it is essential that students attend school, every day. Our whole-school attendance target for 2017 is 95%. Acting Principal: Mr Ryan Trama Remember, the Thallon SS way is to be at school every day, always do your best, live and learn together, be safe, responsible, respectful, and an active learner! Well done to our 100% attenders in week 3! Brittany Jayden Chaise Hazel Lola Brodie Jack J Abigail Marshall Brock Lyla Noah Jack P Kate George Beau Mikaela Daniel C Sophie Georgie Chloe J Mac Meg Claire Skyla John F Daniel G Chloe L Shayla Clancy Clay

3 Thallon State School Newsletter Page News In English, students knowledge of noun groups, verb groups and prepositional phrases are deepening, and the affect these have on a text is being demonstrated, as students identify and describe these within a familiar text, and use them in their writing. In Maths, we are investigating and identifying multiples of 2, 4, 5 and 10 using various strategies, practising recalling addition and subtraction facts, and practising efficient computation strategies. In History, we are investing early European Explorers, including Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama, and posing questions to discover more about the significance of their journies, the explores, and events they encountered. In Technology, we are investigating various materials and their properties, and sustainable practices. Regards, Mr Trama Mr Trama Reading Comprehension Focus - Weeks 5-6 Prep - Year News In English, as we delve deeper into The Forests of Silence by Emily Rodda, students are studying the traits that are evident in different characters, the plot structure as the suspense is being built and the theme of the book, good versus evil. We are looking particularly at the excellent use of description in stories and hoping to improve our own writing using the descriptive techniques observed. Maths, at present, is a combination of looking at number patterns and identifying equivalent fractions in models, diagrams and number lines. Students are taking a close look at the settlement of Van Diemen s Land in History, the affects this had on the environment, the Indigenous inhabitants, the convicts and the soldiers involved. Whilst in Science, we continue to study the conditions needed for living things to survive, setting up investigations to observe the affects of various degrees of light intensity on the growth of seedlings. We are looking at how living things are organised into groups according to criteria and fall into the categories of consumers, producers and decomposers. Our planned GRIP leadership day for Year Sixes in Moree will not be able to go ahead due to the date falling on the 1st May, which is a public holiday in Queensland. The student council have had their first meeting for the year and have decided on some items to buy for the benefit of the students. They decided their first free dress day would be to raise money for Epilepsy research. It will be held on Friday, 24th February, and the theme is to come as your favourite character. Regards, Mrs Fulwood Years 3-6

4 Thallon State School Newsletter Page 4 P-2 Catch up Wow! How quickly the term is flying by! I have had a fabulous introduction into the Prep-2 classroom. We have been busy little bees working hard in Math, History and Science. Maths Over the past two weeks, we have been focussing on days of the week, months of the year and seasons. We are enjoying learning lots of catchy tunes to help us remember the order of the days of the week and months of the year. The Year 2 class even learnt a rap to remember how many days are in each week! Science This term, we are focussing on Biology in Science. Our class is learning to use their senses to observe the needs of living things, both animals and plants. This week, we looked at our pets and their needs. We will also examine how living things change as they grow. History This term in History, we are focussing on the past and specifically how stories can be shared to learn about the past. Last week, everyone was asked to bring in an object from home that told a family story from the past. Thank you to the students who remembered to do this. It was really interesting listening to all of your stories. I certainly learnt a lot about each of you and your families. P-2 Catch up We are nearly half way through the term. Time flies when you are having fun! The children are well and truly used to the school routine. The Preps are becoming so responsible and they are always organised and ready for the day. Each morning they come in, say good morning and get their desks ready with a pencil, rubber and ruler. It is delightful to watch them work through their routines so confidently. In Maths, the Year 2 students have been working with two digit numbers, learning about rounding off to the nearest 10. They have enjoyed learning this concept and they are getting confident with it. The Year 1 pupils have been doing heaps of work with teen numbers. They have been looking at the place value of these numbers and learning how to partition them. They are becoming very confident with these numbers. The Prep children have been looking at numbers one to ten. The children have been counting out objects and identifying numbers. They are also learning to subitise. This is looking at a collection and know what number is displayed without having to count the number of objects. Reading a dice is an example of subitising. When we look at the dice we instantly know what the total is without counting. Most of the children are doing a fantastic job with their homework. Please make sure that homework reading is completed each night and that the page is signed. At this young age, it is extremely important that all children are reading every night. Each child is different. Some are happy to read in the afternoons, others prefer to read first thing in the morning. When you do it is entirely up to you. We ask that you please read every night. Regards, Mrs Libby Reminder: Please ensure your child returns their library books each Thursday. Regards, Mrs Allie

5 Thallon State School Newsletter Page 5 HELP!!!! If anyone has any old magazines sitting around at home the P-2 class would appreciate if you could send them to school for cutting out activities. Thank You School Banking A reminder to parents that Thursday is school banking day. Library News Could parents please remind children that library books need to be returned every week on Thursday, so that they can borrow a new book to take home to read. Where: When: Time: Playgroup Thallon State School Tuesday 29th November 9:00am - 10:00am What to bring: Yourself + Child/children aged from birth to 5 years, a drink and a snack. Cost: No cost Come along and enjoy a social morning out in a safe and friendly environment. February Friday 24th Important Dates Regional Swimming Trials Thallon PBL Expectations Monday 27th Balonne Touch Trials TBA P & C AGM March Friday 17th Thallon Trivia Night TBA Swimming Lessons Instrumental Music - Wednesdays Week 5: 22nd February Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful, and Be an Active Learner! PBL Focus: Week 7: 8th March Week 9: 22nd March The Arts / HPE - Thursdays Week 5: HPE Week 6: The Arts Week 7: HPE Week 8: The Arts Week 9: HPE Week 10: The Arts Week 5 Week 6 Eating Time Routine Make healthy choices. Be Safe Walk inside on stairwell and on Concrete. Use stairs one at a time. Keep to left on stairs and paths.

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