Goondi SS Newsletter 27th October 2021
From the Principal
Dear Parents and Carers,
As stated on the World Teachers’ Day Qld website, this Friday the 29th of October, is World Teachers’ Day. Our teachers make a difference every day, educating and inspiring young Queenslanders. World Teachers' Day is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and thank Queensland teachers for their important role in our communities and for the positive impact they have on the lives of students.
This year we say thank you on World Teachers’ Day! to highlight the importance of acknowledging and showing appreciation for teachers.
Let’s join together to thank all Queensland Teachers on World Teachers’ Day, Friday 29 October 2021
#ThankQldTeachers
Intentions for 2022 – As we plan for our school structure and classes for next year, we kindly ask that any families who know that they will not be returning in 2022 please notify the school office as soon as possible. This will allow accurate building of classes and resourcing for our school in 2022.
As we approach the half way mark of the term, we are already preparing for assessment tasks, reports and of course celebrating successes. We encourage all of our students to remain focused and continue to enact the Goondi 5 - Be Safe, Participate and Work Hard, Show Respect, Get Organised and Bounce Back.
After the 2021 Year 5 leadership camp, the process for selection of our leaders for 2022 will be commencing. I will be speaking to all of our Year 5 students about what it takes to be a student leader and the skills and qualities that this important role demands. These conversations will also currently being conducted by our Year 5 teachers. Students in year 5 who are hopeful of a position on the student council for 2022 will be asked to write their applications which will be presented to the cohort in Week 8.
I look forward to seeing this process once again produce some excellent school leaders here at Goondi State School.
Regards,
Peter Begemann
Principal
School Calendar
School Events
Thurs 21st Oct – Thurs 2nd Dec – Pre-Prep Program
Week 3 & 4- Swimming Lessons
P&C Events
Mon 15th November – P&C meeting
Extra-Curricula Events
Tues 9th Nov - Life Education Talk (Year 4 &5)
Wed 10th Nov - Life Education Talk (Year 6)
Wed 10th Nov - Year 5 Camp at Camp Paterson
Student of the Week
Other School News
ENROLMENTS FOR 2022
We are currently planning for our classes in 2022. A vital part of this planning process is that we know who will be enrolled at Goondi State School next year.
Each year, we ask that if you are leaving the district, or if your child will be attending a different school next year, please contact the office. This information will be helpful as we begin putting together classes. It will also assist us with the transfer of student records when your child enrols at their new school.
It would also be very helpful that if you know of anyone who is intending to enrol their child at Goondi State School in 2022, please ask that they contact the school and complete an expression of interest enrolment form.
Our school is enrolment managed. This means that students residing within the school’s catchment can be enrolled once proof of residency is provided by the parents or carers.
Students outside the school’s catchment area can still be enrolled provided there are vacancies. These students are placed on a waiting list.
We look forward to hearing from perspective new families and students.
2022 STUDENT LEADERS
We will shortly begin to engage with the selection process for our 2022 student leaders.
After the Year 5 Camp has taken place, Year 5 students will be given the chance to nominate for a position on the 2022 Student Council.
The camp at Camp Paterson will provide a great opportunity for our students to display leadership and team skills in a different setting and in a variety of challenging activities. As usual, Year 5 students on a Goondi 5 “C” key level or higher can nominate.
In Week 7, I will be speaking to the Year 5 cohort about student leadership and the qualities that leaders need. The students will then be given the chance to nominate. To do this, they will be asked to outline their suitability for a leadership role by writing to a set of criterion.
The students will then present these to the Year 5 cohort, teachers, Head of Curriculum, Deputy Principal and Principal.
Once this has taken place Year 5 and school staff will vote via secret ballot for the students who will make up the Student Council. When the voting is completed, votes are counted, and eight student councillors selected, the process of selecting the boy and girl school captains will take place.
Again, the teachers from Year 5 and the administration team (Principal, Deputy Principal, and Head of Curriculum) will meet to select the boy and girl school captain from the elected student leader group.
The two School Captains and six Student Leaders are announced at our awards ceremony later this term. School Captains and Student Leaders are presented with a Certificate of Leadership.
P&C MEETING
The next general meeting of the P&C will be held on Monday 15th November in our school library commencing at 5:30 pm. All parents are welcome to attend.
BEFORE SCHOOL SUPERVISION
A reminder that we are unable to provide supervision for students before 8:00am and students should not arrive at school before this time. Supervision is provided in the hall for all students from 8:00am. All students arriving to school at this time are to go directly to the hall.
PARENT PICK UP
3pm is very busy at the parent pick up gate. There is no need to wait! Parents and carers may pick up children at 3pm. This will help to ease the number of students waiting, some for up to 30 minutes, after school has finished. There are parking bays along the entire school and oval frontage available for use.
TERM 4 HEAT
The temperature has certainly now begun to rise with temps of 31˚- 32˚ forecast this week. Please remind your children about the importance of sun safety, wearing a hat/sunscreen and drinking plenty of water to keep hydrated.
Prep Capers
The Prep students have been working really hard. Persuasive writing is about “How to make parade better”. Spelling tests are happening weekly on the Friday, as is Fast Facts number facts tests. Reading groups have seen students moving up levels with their PM readers which is an amazing effort. Students have been bringing in their favourite toy to speak about it in front of their class and showing how the toy moves.
Happy learning from Prep A, B and C, Angela Kehrer, Kathy Pike, Priscilla Bird, Rose Sardi, Anita Knight, Amanda Kleve and Cassie Tanti.
Year 1 Capers
In Writing last week we wrote a persuasive text convincing the reader that The Beach is better than the Town Pool. Here is an example from one of our students.
In addition, you can play beach cricket at the beach however you can not play it at the pool because the pool doesn't have any sand. ~ Nievan
This week we are going to convince our classmates that My toy is the best toy.
This week also we have been very excited to begin swimming lessons at the Town Pool. We are so busy learning these new swimming skills that the teachers have decided to give the students a week off from doing homework.
Hayley, Leigh and Fiona
Year 2 Capers
We are flying through our final term together!
It’s Week 4 and we have been doing a fantastic job writing persuasive pieces about pets, technology and this week we are writing about which job would be the best.
In Maths we are continuing to practice our problem solving, time problems, mapping and location questions and comprehending word problems.
For Science we have been exploring push and pull forces and are completing a parachute experiment to try and decide which parachute is the best for our army man.
In Technology, the students have been practicing their coding skills on Scratch.
We are looking forward to swimming next week, thanks to all the parents who have volunteered their time.
All our best, Miss Mollenhagen, Mrs Hollywood and Mrs Spataro.
Year 3 Capers
This month, we’ve experienced a noticeable change with increasing intensity of the hot weather. We encourage students to bring water bottles into class. We’re looking forward to hitting the pool commencing Week 5. Please ensure the swimming permission note has been returned and fees covered.
Speaking of liquids, both our Maths and Science lessons fit within this theme. We’ve trialled freezing a variety of liquids which has led us to interesting conversations on viscosity.
In Maths, we’ve been comparing liquid amounts using litres and millilitres. We’ve continued to practise telling the time using analogue and digital terminology as well as predicting what time it will be if we add extra hours and minutes. Frequent practice of addition, subtraction and multiplication facts at home is always appreciated.
In English, we are working on improving the quality of our imaginative recounts especially focussing on accurate punctuation. Students are expected to regularly change their readers independently to improve the quality of their reading and enhance their ideas bank for imaginative writing. We have acquired some new beautifully illustrated books recently to encourage regular home reading.
In Technology, the students are thoroughly engaged in trialling ideas to make their own cardboard pinball machine. Their innovations with recycled materials is varied and interesting.
Until next time, Robyn, Janelle, Paula, Jackie and Lizette.
Year 3/4 and 4 Capers
We are fast approaching the half way mark of Term 4. How time flies when you’re having fun! It has been a busy term so far with many changes to regular routine e.g. swimming this week as well as Day for Daniel and the Halloween Disco both this Friday. That said, we have already covered a lot of critical content and are currently preparing for mid-term testing, in particular our PAT tests, which illustrate how far the students have travelled academically throughout the year. On another note, it is clearly obvious that summer has arrived, and it is certainly heating up. Please ensure your child wears sunscreen to school each day, and comes with a water bottle to keep hydrated. To help cool off, swimming began this week. If you haven't done so already, please ensure your child wears their school uniform each day and packs their togs, towel, thongs, goggles and a spare plastic bag. Students will be working hard Monday to Thursday practising skills in order to pass their swimming levels and then they will enjoy a day of fun on the slides on Friday as a reward for all of their hard work. Slip, slop, slap! Thanks, Kath and Lisa.
Year 5 Capers
Term 4 is certainly off and running! The rest of the term will be very busy for Year 5 with swimming lessons, camp and our end-of-year assessment.
In the classroom, students have been revising their historical imaginative recount writing skills in preparation for this term’s Eureka Stockade assessment.
In Maths, students have been learning about fractions and decimal patterns, fair and biased data and the perimeter of compound shapes.
Science has the students exploring matter and testing the viscosity of different liquids.
In HASS, students are looking at the cause and effect of the Eureka Story which will assist with their English assessment.
It is getting very hot so a reminder for all students to bring a water bottle to school.
Warm regards Emily, Rebecca & Kerry.
Students in Year 5 can now order Senior Shirts for 2022
Year 6 Capers
It is hard to believe that we are in Week 4 already! The students have been very busy in English, revising the TEEL structure for writing a paragraph with this week’s opinion piece asking the students whether it is okay to eat our pets.
During Maths, the students have been plotting numbers on a cartesian plane as well as learning how fractions, percentages and decimals are used in everyday situations.
Science has the students exploring which materials dissolve well and investigating the evaporation of salt water.
In HASS, students continue to conduct research in order to plan, budget and design their unique environmentally-sustainable community space.
During our new Digital Systems unit, students have been exploring components that make up digital systems and learning about how data is transmitted. They have also been discovering what binary codes are and how whole numbers are used to represent all data.
Once again, we remind you to ensure your child is eating well, exercising and getting enough sleep to be able to achieve success in their final term at Goondi State School.
Cheers for now, Marica, Aaron, Melanie & Janette.
Student Council News
Day For Daniel
We ask all to participate in Day for Daniel which will be held this Friday. Please wear a Red T-Shirt for Daniel and bring along a gold coin donation. Wear a Red T-Shirt, however normal school uniform shorts and skirts must be worn. Remember to wear red for Day for Daniel this Friday, October 29th.
Halloween School Disco
The Student Council Term 4 Halloween School Disco will be held this Friday. Please see details below and keep an eye out for reminders on Class Dojos and on Goondi’s Facebook page.
See all you critters and creatures for our Halloween Disco this Friday. It’s going to be Spooktacular!
Where – Goondi State School Hall.
Who – Goondi students only attend.
When – Friday October 29th (Week 4)
Time – Junior Disco (P-3) – 4:00pm — 5:00pm sharp.
Senior Disco (4-6) – 5:30pm — 7:00pm sharp.
Cost – Gold coin donation upon entry.
*Bring along some extra money as drinks and snacks will be available to purchase.
Theme – Halloween Dress
The Arts News
It’s been such an exciting fortnight in Media Arts, as all students have now participated in decorating the Media Arts Studio with ‘Media Arts Vocabulary’ and ‘Emoji Art Designs’.
In Prep, students are exploring ideas and characters through stories in images. Using the nursery rhyme ‘Humpty Dumpty’ students have been drawing pictures to represent each line of the rhyme. They have discussed how the pictures show that we all 'imagine' 'see' and ‘think’ in pictures differently - representing different points of view. Lower years have learnt about the importance of Class Camera Rules and how to use technology responsibly. Students are learning about media technologies that can capture and edit images, and the difference between good and bad images. Using the iPads students will continue to experiment with photography and different types of shots. Upper Years are learning about representation and have created selfies using the iPads. They are learning about all the different types of devices that can create selfies and will be creating unique representations of themselves through edited images. Years 5 and 6 are also learning about the importance of photography as a form storytelling about cultures and societies.
Francesca Rosa | Media Arts Teacher
Year 5 students practising taking a photo with class iPads
Music News
LOTE News
Benvenuti (Welcome) to Term 4. The Years 5 and 6 Italian classes at Goondi State School are focusing on furthering their knowledge of the Italian language by speaking, writing and listening to new words, phrases and sentences.
Year 5 students are learning how to describe pets and Italian native animals by using a table to understand nouns and adjectives in Italian. They are also learning an Italian alphabet song. Year 6 students are furthering their knowledge of Italian nouns, verbs and adjectives by completing sentences about School Life in Italy whilst making comparisons with Australia.
The bookwork standard shown in their exercise books is pleasing. Feedback and assistance is given to students regularly. Continue encouraging your child to speak Italian with you and discuss what they are learning.
Arrivederci (Goodbye)
Signora Lazzarini
Community News
School Savvy Innisfail
