Students need to be encouraged to give it their best, never give up and use all their brains to solve problems and show us what they have got!

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1 The Parents and Citizen s Association meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month. All parents and community members are invited to attend. From the Principal s Desk RUNCHIE POSTCARDS Runchie Postcards were sent out again this week. Another 2 postcards were sent out this week to amazing workers and super star readers. Here is Zoelei C with her postcard. WELL DONE Zoelei! PRACTICE NAPLAN TESTING This week coming on the Monday and Tuesday RHSS Year 3 & Year 5 students will be completing a practice NAPLAN style testing activities. This means that we will practice what NAPLAN testing looks like, feels like and sounds like. For Year 3 & Year 5 s (who have experienced this before) will be given the opportunity to see the format, feel the testing conditions, de-brief with their teacher afterwards and show us what they can do independently. Can I please encourage parents to reinforce to students the opportunity their children have to practice their thinking, planning and testing skills and speak with the teacher after wards. NAPLAN testing (or Practice NAPLAN) is not about student A s or B s it is about school looking at their student s capabilities and determining challenges and improvements in practices and teaching. Students need to be encouraged to give it their best, never give up and use all their brains to solve problems and show us what they have got! 16 March 2018 Term 1, Issue 4 Date Claimers Thursday 22 March Harmony Day Monday 26 March Junior Disco Tuesday 27 March Parent Teacher Interviews Wednesday 28 March Senior Disco Thursday 29 March Easter Hat Parade Prep Year 2 Last Day of School Friday 30 March No school today Good Friday Public Holiday Formal NAPLAN testing is to occur on Tuesday 15 May Wednesday 16 May Thursday 17 th May More information to follow. HARMONY DAY 22 MARCH, 2018 At Runcorn Heights State School we will be celebrating Harmony Day on Thursday 22 March Ms Sally Ainsworth has been coordinating this event and has many fabulous activities and events occurring throughout the day. Posters are up around the school, dancing, celebrating cultures and unity of cultures is the number one focus of the day. Please help your child engage in these activities and the day come dressed in your cultures traditional dress, purchase some Indian, Italian or Japanese food, come and listen to our special guests or watch our children share their cultures with others. Look forward to seeing you there! FACILITIES UPDATE Works continue: Trucks, dirt and diggers: 1. Site clearing, digging and dirt removal occurring at the Old Farm Site. We now have a nice flat site being prepared for our hire build to be placed there over the holidays. After a big push we have dirt removal occurring and concrete for storm water drains being pour this coming week. 2. All major trees in the Prep site have been removed including the relocation of birds and their babies. Amazing effort by the work crew to get this done over 2 days. This will be the next site to be prepared. 3. Engineers continue to assess the stormwater tank issues and will provide a further update in the near future. 4. Arborist report continuing to be worked through trees that are dead and need to be removed for safety reasons will be continue to be prioritise throughout the 2018/2019.

2 So this could mean that some pathways, gates or driveways are closed during some work being completed. I thank you for your patience and support during this time as we allow people to get their jobs done and follow their safety procedures and processes to ensure they are safe and our student remain safe. ROAD SAFETY Thank you to those parents that have taken this information on board and kept our students safe. I have noticed a reduction of people incorrectly parking and some improvement in parents turning the correct way out of the DROP OFF ZONE. Please continue to use this properly. I have been given information about cars that are continuing to incorrectly use the DROP ZONE and have passed this information onto the council. Please note the council will be increasing patrols and fines for those that ignore the rules. STOP! THINK! You can only turn left out of the Drop and Go zone RIGHT TURNS ARE NOT SAFE You can only park in the parking bays of the Drop and Go zone NO PARKING IN OR AROUND THE DROP AND ZONE You need to use the lollipop crossing at all times RUNNING ACROSS THE ROAD IS NOT SAFE MORNING ROUTINES Thank you to those parents and students that have followed this routine each morning. Please note that students are to go directly to the Lower undercover area WITH THEIR BAGS every morning before 8am to ensure that they are safe. At 8:00am Year 3 Year 6 students will move to the top covered area WITH THEIR BAGS and be supervised by a staff member until the bell goes for them to move towards their classroom. Prep Year 2 students stay in the lower covered area WITH THEIR BAGS until 8:20am. Bags are to stay with students until they are asked to move to their classroom at 8:20am. Please help your child/ren to be successful and follow our morning routines. Aim High Cherie Moore Principal From the Deputy Principals EASTER HAT PARADE THURSDAY 29 MARCH Come and celebrate the last day of term with us at our Easter Hat Parade. Prep Year 2 classes will be participating in the special parade in the hall involving: each class parading their hats, group singalongs and dancing. Parents of Prep Year 2 students we are asking that you send your child to school that morning with a colourful hat creation that they can wear in the parade. Look out for more information from your classroom teachers in the coming weeks. YEAR 6 CAMP EMU GULLY RHSS Year 6 student have spent the past three days at Emu Gully. From all reports it has been another very successful school camp. Our Year 6 students behaviour has been outstanding, the weather has been sensational and everyone involved has enjoyed themselves thoroughly. To view photos of the camp so far please access the Year 6 Camp photo gallery on our school website. Thank you to all the staff that left their families behind to attend and support the students for the past three days. We are looking forward to hearing about all the adventures that were had on camp! HOST A JAPANESE STUDENT IN AUGUST Ritsumeikan will be back again in August! We are seeking host families for Japanese students from Ritsumeikan Uji JHS. Application forms can be collected from the school office or downloaded from the RHSS Website Host Family Application Form.

3 NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST BULLYING Today is National Day of Action Against Bullying. Runcorn Heights State School is in partnership with more than 50% of other Queensland state schools that are taking action and standing united, by being a Bullying. No Way! school. To highlight this day, as a school community, we are wearing orange today, to show our stance on the prevention of bullying in our school. Teachers will be discussing out bullying program The High Five. The High Five has been developed for all students to use when dealing with a bullying situation. Through the consistent use of this by all students we aim to reduce the incidents of bullying in the school and empower the student body to give them skills and confidence to respond appropriately to these situations. Aim High Maria Healy & Jacinta Morris Deputy Principals Head of Curriculum News Reading and reading comprehension continue to be the learning priority at Runcorn Heights State School. Learning to read is the most important academic skill children master at school. Improvement in reading ability is the major focus for every child, every day. READING GOALS Over the past few weeks our teachers have conducted one on one diagnostic reading assessments with each student in their class. These assessments have allowed teachers the opportunity to observe the reading strategies your child uses when faced with an unfamiliar text. The information gained from these assessments assist the teacher with setting a learning goal for your child to work on to make improvements. Teachers will discuss your child s progress in all areas of the curriculum, not just reading, during the Parent Teacher Interview night.

4 SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD S HOME READING During school holidays, students are encouraged to practise reading daily in order to improve in their fluency and comprehension. Here are some comprehension strategies you can practise with your child at home to support them at school. ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE When students make connections to the text they are reading, their comprehension increases. Good readers constantly try to make sense of what they read by seeing how it fits with what they already know. When we help students make those connections, before, during and after they read, we are teaching them a critical comprehension strategy that the best readers use almost unconsciously. Jodie Kemp Master Teacher RETELLING AND SUMMARISING (FICTION) Students in the lower years are required to retell stories in their own words to demonstrate their comprehension of a whole text. As they get older, their retelling needs to be more succinct, addressing only main events and some supporting details. Parents can model retells using language such as first, then, before, after and next. You can assist your child to retell fiction texts by using this 5 finger prompt: SEQUENCING AND SUMMARISING (NON-FICTION) When reading non-fiction texts, children need to summarise the information in order to discern the most important ideas and concepts. You can help your child to do this by: pointing out key ideas during reading, reviewing information from each section, reviewing the main points in the order they were read, modelling language such as first, then, before, after, next, THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM At Runcorn Heights State School, our students develop knowledge and skills in eight learning areas: English, Mathematics, Science, Health and Physical Education (HPE),Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS),The Arts,Technologies and Languages (Japanese). Find our more information about the Australian Curriculum on the Parents page of the Australian Curriculum website where you can download fact sheets and brochures providing detailed information about the Australia curriculum and each of the learning area and samples of student work. Junior Science Update TERM 1 - PREP In Prep, we have been learning about living things and what living things need to survive. No more plants will die in your garden again Mum and Dad. TERM 1 - YEAR 1 Year 1 students have stepped back to the Jurassic age and have enthusiastically learnt about dinosaurs, what they ate, where they lived and how they protected themselves. TERM 1 - YEAR 2 In Year 2, student have been exploring different materials and their purposes. We have been hard at work making a new object for Mrs Moore to carry her lunch to work! Nancy Bucher Prep Year 2 Science Teacher

5 Pedagogy Coach News On Thursday in our hall, our very own Mini Golf Course was built by students in 5M to enhance their coding skills. In preparation for their digital technologies assessment task, 5M were presented with numerous challenges to build their skills in collaboration, problem solving and programming. For the first task, 5M designed and built their own Battle Bot and then competed in our own competition. They designed a prototype, built their model and then controlled their robot using drive function to push other robots out of the arena. For the mini golf challenge, the students designed their own mini golf course using tape and then collaboratively programmed their robot to move through the course without touching the edges. This task was a massive challenge and the students in 5M are to be congratulated for their resilience and ability to effectively work in teams. There is so much excitement in our school about our new robot resources! Throughout the year, other classes will have the opportunity to participate in robo-lessons as part of their learning in Digital Technology. APPLE ADVICE FOR FAMILIES Did you know that Apple has an excellent resource sit for families? This site gives some great advice about the over use of digital technology by children, ways to monitor your child s usage and also ways you can share apps and resources on Apple devices. Go to: Scott Ward Digital Pedagogy Coach Library News STAR READERS CLUB WOW! I m loving seeing all the students attending Star Reader s Club. I m so happy that our Library is a place where families can come together and share a love for reading. Our upcoming guest readers are Mrs Munro, Mr Tate, Mrs Brown and Miss Zaghini. Star Reader s Club is on Monday to Thursday at 8,00 am. Our guest readers are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. RETURNING LIBRARY BOOKS To keep our Library running smoothly it is important to return all library books when due. Students are able to return books before and after school and during their library lessons. Students need a library bag to borrow books so please try to remind your child to bring their library bags on their library days. If anyone has some spare bags at home, we would love your donations as this allows us to loan a bag to students so they can borrow and enjoy a good book. HARMONY DAY We will be running a colouring competition for Harmony day. There will be prizes and a display when they are finished. Please see Mrs Sue or one of the Teacher Librarians for an entry form. Entries will be due by Friday of week nine, please return them to the library staff. There are 3 age groups Prep/1, 2/3 and 4/5/6. Happy colouring. Here is a picture of some of our regular Star Readers. Melissa Walker Library Team Coles Sports for Schools Coles Sports for School is back in 2018 to help Aussie kids stay fit and healthy. When you shop at Coles, you'll receive Sports for Schools vouchers that RHSS can exchange for sports gear. The more vouchers you collect, the more sports gear we will receive. Start collecting today! RHSS community members you have until May 11 to collect and return your Sports for Schools vouchers to RHSS collection points. Please keep collecting over the school holidays and return your vouchers to the school office when school resumes in Term 2. Thank you for your continued support.

6 Music News CHORAL SINGING MIGHT BE A NEW TYPE OF EXERCISE! "Exercise is one of the few activities in life that is indisputably good for us," writes Daniel H. Pink in his new book, "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing." "Choral singing might be the new exercise." Have a read through this article to see how singing in a choir can be good for our health. JUNIOR AND SENIOR CHOIR If your son or daughter is interested in joining either our junior choir (for year 1 & 2 students) or our senior choir (for year 3 6 students), it s not too late to join. Singing in a choir is a fantastic way to build confidence in the safety of a large group and develop singing skills at the same time. We have a lot of fun, learn lots of songs in all kinds of languages, and get to perform together several times a year. Please see Mr Neil for details if you are interested. Our senior choir will be performing their first song of the year at our Harmony Day Concert on Thursday next week. Come and support them and see how beautifully they sing after only 1 month of practicing. My address is bneil22@eq.edu.au and I m always happy to help with anything musical! Ben Neil Music Teacher Book Club Issue 2 orders have all been processed (if you are registered for LOOP you would have received your ) and all orders should be distributed to your child s class early next week. We sent away an order of $ and Scholastic Australia gave us $ in bonuses for the school to spend. The Learning Resource Centre has spent some of these points on some really great books for the Library so you will have to watch out for these. From next term you will only be able to order Book Club through On Line Ordering and Payment (LOOP). NO MORE CASH ORDERS CAN BE ACCEPTED. So follow the instructions, go on line and register.

7 Sport News CROSS COUNTRY RESULTS Congratulations to Oxley House for winning this year s cross country, held last Friday 9 March. Oxley last won the cross country in 2013, so it was a great comeback from the mighty blues! POINTS: Oxley Logan Cunningham 166 points 211 points 179 points AGE CHAMPIONS: 1 km 8 yr girls Caitlyn H (L) 8 yr boys Abdullh F (O) 1 km 9 yr girls Mia S (C) 9 yr boys Hayden M (O) 2 km 10 yr girls Maraea K (O) yr boys Ryder K (O) km 11 yr girls Emily S (O) yr boys Adam O (L) km 12 yr girls Violet G (O) yr boys Caleb M (C) It pleased me to see so many students having a go and participating in the cross country with smiles on their faces. Even though distance running is challenging for many, our students Aimed High and gave it their best. I hope everyone felt a sense of achievement when they crossed the finish line. More importantly, the points that every competitor received for participation, all counted to determine the end result. Our students are certainly team players and achievers! I was also impressed with the resilience and responsibility shown by all students, when it started to rain. All students patiently and sensibly waited out the rain with very little fuss or upset. I was extremely proud of our junior students who returned to the oval for their fun runs with beautiful capes just a little sodden. That did little though to dampen their spirits, with the whole school and parents creating a supporters ring around the oval to help get them across the line. I would like to thank Mr Hore for helping me set up and pack up the equipment on the day, the house captains for being sensational leaders, students and all staff for their support in ensuring the success of the carnival. Thank you to those at home for being so encouraging and supportive of your children. DISTRICT CROSS COUNTRY This year the district cross country is being held at CJ Greenfield Sports Complex, Richlands on Wednesday 2 May. Letters will be sent home before the holidays to students who have qualified. Training will continue for those students after the holidays. TENNIS REMAR SCHOOL CUP Congratulations to Baani K and Anandini D who represented RHSS in the Remar School Cup competition at Redeemer over the last 4 weekends. The fantastic news is that the girls are CLUB CHAMPI- ONS!! Well done to both girls on an amazing achievement. CALAMVALE LEOPARDS JAFC During the week I received an from the Secretary of Calamvale Leopards JAFC, wanting to promote their AFL sign on day coming up soon. I was disappointed to hear that the club have had a decline in the number of children wishing to play AFL. I would urge Runcorn Heights State School families to consider allowing their children to play a club sport, such as AFL. Playing a sport can have a positive impact on a child s physical and social development which will help to develop life skills such as confidence, resilience, team work, communication and problem solving. Please see the club s flyer at the end of the RHSS newsletter. Sue Shelley HPE Teacher

8 English Star Learners It s been lovely to have so many familiar faces attending our Multicultural Morning Teas with free English lessons. If you haven t attended one of these lessons, please come and join us after dropping your children off at 8:30am on Friday mornings. We have been focusing on continuing conversations about different topics such as food, sports and TV shows. Today in our lesson we wore orange clothes for the National Day of Bullying, spoke about having a growth mindset and how to prepare your child for the upcoming ICAS competitions. Our English Star Learner students in years 1 and 2 have been working really hard to improve their reading comprehension skills, sight words and letter sound recognition. The years 2 have also been working on improving their grammar, sentence structure and tense through different activities.. From the EAL/D Staff Ms Sally, Mrs Gameren, Ms Helen, Mrs Sarah, Mrs Ali and Mrs Bruback. RHSS Harmony Day Parade On Thursday 22 March our school will celebrate Harmony Day. We come from many different countries so we d like to invite our students and their families to perform a dance or song or show something from your culture on our harmony parade. For example: Indian Bollywood Dancing, How to wear a Japanese Kimono, How to write in your language projected onto the big screen, Telling a story from your country, Singing a song etc. Please Ms Sally sains1@eq.edu.au or Mrs Gameren rgame8@eq.edu.au or see us in the EAL/D room if you can participate.

9 School Banking Hi ya, been managing that rain we still have? Hold down the fort, it doesn t seem to be slowing down any time soon. Just like Student Banking. Amazing amount of students this week, 131 bankers. Well done!! Let s talk Prizes/Rewards. For first term you are able to order the Secret Scratch Pad and the Twister Power Handball from the 2018 rewards card or in the Parents Flyer. You can also download from the website. You may also order the Colour Change Markers, Epic Earphones, Outback Pat Bag Tag, Volt Handball, Pencil Tech Case, Smiley Emoji Keyring and the Tablet Case. Student Banking is a Commonwealth Bank program. If you would like to open an account for your child, please pop into the office and get an Information Parent Pack. We will also be holding an Account Opening/Information Session on Wednesday 21 st March at 8am. If you open an account on the day, each banker will receive a Money Box. There are Flyers in the Office also about the competition the bank is running. You could win a trip for the family to Hawaii. There are also flyers in the Office about the App students can go on. This is where they can check how many times they have banked and if they can claim a reward. It also gives you the balance of their account. We also have the Facebook Group called Student Banking Tuesday Runcorn Heights. Bronze Certificates, none yet. But when you Bank 10 times you will receive a Bronze Certificate. On the Spot prizes, went to Riley M 4G and Timothy W 2C. Class Certificate went to 5H and Prep K. I will be handing these out at random to the class who has the most bankers that banking day. If your yellow folder isn t in your class grey folder it doesn t count. So get your banking into your class grey folders if you want yours to count towards your class possibly getting the certificate. New Bankers prize we didn t have one this fortnight. Don t forget to bank EVERY week! Saving on a regular basis is the key! A healthy habit to get into. REMINDERS Write your deposit slip out in PEN. Bring Class Bags down before 9am. Only Australian currency! Fill out all details on your deposit slip. If there is no account number or student number then I can not bank your child s money. Especially for new accounts, I do not have your information yet to try and find details on my system. Student Banking is a Youth Saver Account. This is the only account that can be used. Once they turn 18 years old this account turns into an Access Account. So please make sure when opening your child s account online, that you are opening a Youth Saver. Until the next newsletter, Totsiens. Anneke Panter Student Banking Coordinator.

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