Newsletter 2022 Term 3 Week 3
Principal's Report
Welcome to Term 3 and I hope you all had a lovely break. It is great to see the students enjoying their friendships as they reunite for the new term and settle back in to school routines. This semester we will continue to place increased focus on lifting student writing outcomes and developing our approach to positive learning. Our staff continue to be busy developing individual learning goals for our students with a particular focus on writing, with student ‘Bump It Up Walls’ displayed in the classrooms.
Our Positive Behaviour for Learning strategy continues across the school, with students focusing on one behavioural 'goal' each fortnight. 'Fuzzies' are received by students when they display positive behaviours which are then collected by each class and go toward filling our 'bucket' on Parade. Last term, students were rewarded with a Pizza and Pyjama Party, accompanied by a movie! It is very pleasing to witness the continual improvement in behaviour and respect at Amamoor by all students.
Attendance remains essential to academic achievement. It has a dramatic impact on a teacher's ability to assist student learning, with research showing that once attendance drops below 85%, there is a negative impact on learning, both for the current year, as well as the years that follow, due to gaps in learning. I encourage all students to stay home when unwell; however, I strongly encourage parents not to allow students to have unnecessary absences.
With Parent/Teacher interviews conducted at the end of Semester 2, parents should have recently received a copy of their child/children's Term 3 Overview from classroom teachers. This overview outlines what your child/children will be learning and assessed on for this term. If you should have any questions regarding your child's progress, or missed the chance to have an interview last term, please do not hesitate to get in touch with your child's teacher.
All families should have received a link to the school opinion survey. This survey provides an important 'snapshot' of how our school is progressing and how it is perceived by students, staff and parents. It would be greatly appreciated if as many families as possible could complete the survey, which closes on August 12.
Our Instrumental Music programme continues to flourish, with 16 students now accessing the programme. This is an outstanding start to instrumental music at our school and the uptake means that 26% of our students are participating! Mr Luke Coonan, who facilitates the programme, works with the students every Monday and will be visiting us in Week 5 to conduct a full-day workshop.
Quite a few students will be representing Amamoor State School at the upcoming District Athletics Trials on 4 and 5 August. The trials, held at Albert Park, Gympie, will see our students competing against the best athletes in the district in disciplines including 100m, 200m, 800m, 1500m and discus. I would like to wish Dextur, Francesca, Kirra, Gracie, Leila and Ella all the very best.
On Tuesday 9 August and Wednesday 10 August, selected students from the 4/5/6 class will be heading off to One Mile State School to compete in the 2022 Gympie Primary Teams Challenge. We will be sending four teams of five students to represent Amamoor SS across both days. The competition will be focused on Maths and English, with Miss Broome preparing our competitors over the next two weeks. Good luck!
Our staff have been incredibly busy supporting students with their entries for the upcoming Mary Valley Show. On top of this, we have RawArt planned for Week 5, a Japanese Drumming group visiting the school in Week 6, and the 4/5/6 students visiting Mary Valley State College to participate in their annual Science Fair in the same week! As always, much happening!
Thank you to everyone who has supported our recent fundraising activities. The Year 6 Student Council continues to quickly sell their chocolates, while the P&C have recently held another successful sausage sizzle at Bunnings. With the Gympie Muster just around the corner, the P&C are in desperate need of volunteers to help put up signage. If you can spare a couple of hours this Sunday (or next), please don't hesitate to contact our wonderful President, Rachael, on 0409 833 500.
With the cold weather still upon us, especially in the mornings, I have noticed there remains a pile of uncollected jumpers in the lost property box outside of the 2/3 classroom. If your child is missing a jumper, please check the lost property box. Staff check regularly, however, if there is no name on a uniform, we are none the wiser.
If your child arrives late at school, for whatever reason, please ensure that they proceed directly to the office to have their name marked off the role. Once this is done, they will receive a 'late slip' which is then handed to their teacher. If the Office is unattended, you may also have your child's name marked off the role at the Library with Mrs Alford.
I am pleased to advise that as part of our swimming programme at Amamoor SS, we have booked the pool at Kandanga for the first five weeks of Term 4. Commencing in Week 7, we will be heading to Noosa Main Beach every Friday to participate in a 'Surf Awareness' course, run by Surf Life Saving Queensland. I would very much like to thank the ongoing support of our P&C in helping to fund this programme initiative.
As always, if you see anything suspicious happening around our school after hours, please phone School Watch on 131 788. Have a wonderful fortnight and if you have any queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me via the school office.
Regards,
Tony Benzie
P/1 Classroom
2/3 Classroom
P&C News
Off to a flying start to the term, with the Bunnings sausage sizzle the first Saturday back. Thank you Christine, Wayne, Miyuki, Elisa, Alex, Deb and Darryl for all of your help on the day. Also a special thanks to Francesca's parents, who unable to attend, made a monetary donation instead.
Starting this Sunday, at 8am, we are beginning our work at the Muster, by putting up signage around the site. If you are able to help, whether for a couple of hours or more, please let Rachael know by phoning 0409 833 500. If you volunteer over six hours, you will receive a free day ticket for the Muster. We will be back out there next Sunday as well, so if you can't make it this week, feel free to join us the following week. This is an amazing fundraising opportunity for us and will help offset costs for parents with excursions and camps.
Next meeting is scheduled to be held on 10 August at 3:30pm in the school's Playgroup room. All welcome to attend and we'd love to see new members.
Rachael.
Library Happenings...
Technology Learnings...
Thursday afternoon Technology 2/3
Today we talked about protecting your personal information and being safe online.
Mr Boyd discussed what information is personal and unique to us and how can we be safe online. Using things such as a nickname instead of your real name and never giving where you go to school, your birth date or your address to a website.
Feel free to use esafety.gov.au ‘Hectors World’ to find more resources to discuss with your children and keep them safe using technology.
Student of the Week
Our Week 2 winners were Phenix, Ari, Blaze, Elizabeth and Mathew!
Our Week 3 winners were Ella, Maddisen, Makayla, Deklin, Roisin, Yarran, Gabby and Hartley!
PBL Rewards Day!
At the end of Term 2, our students were rewarded for fantastic behaviour with a pyjama, pizza and movie afternoon. Lots of fun was had by all...perhaps too much!?!
Chappy's Corner...
Hi Everyone,
Welcome back to Term 3. It is so wonderful to see everyone’s beautiful smiling faces returning after the holidays. I hope that you all had a fantastic holiday and that you were able to relax and rest. This term is pretty exciting with a lot of fun activities and incursions happening throughout the term, there is so much going on and I am looking forward to seeing all that happens.
As we head into Term 3, I wanted to remind everyone about Cyber Safety. This is something that as a school we focus on with our Year 6’s before they head off to high school, but I know that this is something we all need to be aware of. The internet is an incredible space of knowledge and connections, such as social media; however, we all need to be aware of our presence online. Students should not have access to social media before the appropriate age, with many having a requirement of 13 years as a legal requirement. Also, it can be harmful to a child's developing brain to be on social media too young. More information about what is appropriate for your child’s age online can be found at
https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents
ESafety also have some great resources for children about how to be safe online and what is appropriate behaviour on social media and online.
The key to remember when interacting online: everything is there forever.
I hope you have a safe and good week, and I look forward to seeing you around the school.
Chappy Caitlin
Student Council
This week our school focus is...
listen respectfully to the person who is talking and use manners.
Please do not put citrus into the compost box because it will make our worms die.
Please continue packing healthy lunches for students as it helps us learn.
Parade is on Friday mornings at 9am and parents are welcome to attend.
Thanks,
Bella Leucht
Kitchen / Garden Programme
Our Prep / 1 student continue to enjoy accessing the garden and making lots of yummy dishes. Here's a few photos of us in action!
Fraser Coast Equestrian Competition
Two students from our school will shortly be participating in the Fraser Coast Equestrian Competition. Daniel and Ollie Edmonds will be competing over two days in mid-August and we wish them every success! If you have a child that may be interested in participating, please see the information below...