Goondi SS Newsletter 17.08.2022
From the Principal
Dear Parents and Carers,
As we pass the half-way point of the term, our students are learning, investigating, cooperating and making great progress. We have however, seen a very high level of absences in both students and staff this term. This is due not only to the pandemic but also a very strong year for flu and colds.
I urge you to maintain vigilance around symptoms of flu-like illness and if sick, stay home. We encourage our students to observe personal space, wash hands regularly and report any symptoms as soon as they are felt so that the proper attention may be given.
These unprecedented times have also meant it is very challenging to replace staff when they are sick. We encourage all of our families to talk about the Goondi 5 of Be Safe, Show Respect, Participate & Work Hard, Get Organised and Bounce Back so that students can easily maintain the high standards of school work, behaviour & conduct that we all expect and help to maintain consistency in school routines and expectations.
This week we wish good luck to all of our students who are taking part in ICAS testing. The International Competitions and Assessments for Schools, or ICAS for short, is an independent, skills-based assessment program. ICAS recognises and rewards student achievement in areas such as English, Maths, Science, Spelling, Writing and Digital Technologies. The series of tests are designed to match and test skills that are learned in the school classroom.
As stated on the ICAS website, students who undertake the ICAS test are ranked based on their percentile in each year level across every participating state (Australia) and country:
- Top 1% of students receive a High Distinction
- The next 10% of students receive a Distinction
- The following 25% of students receive a Credit
- The next 10% of students receive a Merit Certificate
- All other students receive a Participation Certificate
Regards,
Peter Begemann
Principal
School Calendar
TERM 3 CALENDAR
School Events
Wed 24th August - Under 8's Day 9am to 11am
Thurs 25th August – Prep Information Night 5.30pm
Fri 26th August - Book Week Parade
Mon 12th Sep - Poetry Idol Finals
Tues 13th Sep - Parent-Teacher Interviews
P&C Events
Rescheduled to Mon 22nd Aug – P&C meeting (5.30pm)
Pupil Free Day
Friday 2nd Sep - Pupil Free Day
Other School News
PREP ENROLMENT INTERVIEWS
As mentioned earlier in our last newsletter, on Thursday 25th August, we will be holding our annual Prep Information Evening. We will be presenting information about our school values, curriculum and pedagogy. One of the main topics is always Goondi Pre Prep program, which is an invaluable way to help children of Prep age to become school ready for 2023.
The Prep classrooms will be open from 5:30pm to 6:00pm followed by an information session in the school hall.
Our Deputy Principal, Mrs Jackson, is conducting enrolment interviews for Prep students who will be attending Goondi next year.
Our Pre-Prep program will commence in the first week of term 4. 2 sessions will be available for the duration of the program. Morning (9:00-11:00am) and afternoon (1:00-3:00pm) sessions will be run on Wednesdays. Parents are asked to select one of these sessions.
If you have a Prep age student at home or know someone who does, please do not hesitate to talk to the school about the program and enrolment for 2023.
NATIONAL DATA COLLECTION ON STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Collecting data on school students with disability helps teachers, principals and education authorities support the participation of students with disability in schooling on the same basis as students without disability. All Australian Governments have agreed to work together on the annual collection of data on school students with disability in every school each year.
The data collected at the school level to be reported nationally is the:
- number of students in the school who are provided with an adjustment to address a disability;
- level of adjustments we provide for those students; and
- broad category of disability.
Safety in Drop Off and Pick Up
As previously stated: Can I remind parents and carers about safety while parking, picking up or dropping off students. Please ask your child to cross ONLY at the supervised crossing and no other place. There have been a number of occasions where this has caused safety concerns for our students.
Although there may be no traffic at times, we must teach our children general road safety at all times. Secondly, please take care when parking or leaving. Only use the designated parking places, do not park across the driveway or in the staff car park. Turning is also much safer for everyone at the end of Maple Street and not in the school driveway.
Pick up and drop off are incredibly busy times and thank you for your cooperation as we all work together to keep our students safe.
UNDER 8'S DAY
We will be celebrating our Under 8's day again this year on the 24th of August from 9am-11am. Please let us know if you would like to join in the fun and bring any younger siblings along. There will be face painting, water play, animals from Roaming Wild, obstacle courses, police, painting, food making stations and so much more. Mr Barista will join us as well for any parents/carers who would like to purchase beverages.
Hi Goondi families!
Next week is book week! The chosen theme is “Reading is dreaming with your eyes open”. This has lots of scope for thinking of characters to dress up as – from Indigenous dreamtime stories, to fairy tales and other stories that may have the dream concept in them. However, we are very open to any book character that your child wishes to dress up as!
The date is next Friday August 26th. There are book prizes for each grade. The parade is at 9am and parents are welcome to come watch.
There is also a current book week colouring competition – overall 2 winners and 2 runners up – 1 from P-2 and another from 3-6 will be chosen. The entries must be in by Thursday 25th to the library please.
Looking forward to all the amazing characters we will see next Friday.
EDWARDS, Sue
Goondi State School Resource Centre
Prep Capers
In English we have been writing an information report on pigs. The Prep students have learnt so many interesting facts about pigs. In Letterland, the students continue to learn about many initial consonant blends such as ‘dr’, ‘fr’, ‘pr’ and ‘gr’.
We are still looking at teen numbers in Maths. The Prep students will learn about the numbers 15 and 16 over the next two weeks. Also, in Maths we have been comparing and ordering collections. The Prep students are able to name numbers and identify one more and one less. In the coming weeks, we will be learning about adding on zero, time and plotting numbers on a number track beginning from different starting points.
All Prep classes have got a class fish. The class fish is apart of our Science Unit: Our living world. We have discussed the needs of living things and how we are going to look after the fish. This week the Prep students will draw and label a fish. Next in Science, we will be exploring managed environments. We will be using our senses to investigate a farm looking at what farms look like, smell like and sound like. At the end of the unit, the Prep students will plan and create an enclosure for an animal.
Kind regards: Prep Staff
Year 1 Capers
Flowers, flowers and more flowers! That’s what we are hoping to see in our Year One garden very soon! Marigolds, petunias, sunflowers, angelonias and cosmo are just some of the flowers that we planted last Friday and excitedly wait to grow. Our very own Goondi Floriade! We hope these bright, colourful and sweet smelling flowers will attract many insects and pollinators into our garden. A huge thanks goes to Bunnings Warehouse for once again kindly donating all plants and soil improvers to get our garden started.
We are writing reports about ants this week and have certainly learnt some interesting facts already. Ask your child to share an interesting fact they’ve learnt with you. This will be the third report the students have written and will be their last practise before attempting their final writing assessment task for the term, which will be completed independently.
The Poetry Idol class finals will be held at the end of Week 8. We ask that you help your child to memorise their poems so they don’t need to read off their sheet.
Have a great week!
Leigh, Hayley, Tayla, Fiona and Kimberley
Year 2 Capers
We can’t believe Term 3 is already halfway over! We’ve been doing so much that the time has flown by. Thank you to everyone who gave their student baby photos to bring in, we used them in Science to compare features of when we were a baby to how we look now. We could then compare this to the bean sprouts we grew, and discuss life cycles.
In HaSS we are still comparing new technology to old technology, with what has stayed the same, and what has changed. This allowed for some interesting observations, such as the symbols for making and ending a phone call on a mobile phone, and the Save symbol with documents.
Maths has seen a lot of growth this term as we begin to explore multiplication, and compare it to repeated addition. If you hear your student talking about an ‘array’, make sure to ask them what it is. They have been busy using stickers to create them as we explore this new concept.
We will soon be in our assessment period, which will start around week 8. This will be a big time for the school, and for the little learners in our class. Try to encourage enough sleep, healthy food choices, and the importance of making effort in class, and we can help our students achieve the best results they can.
Regards,
Nathan Worth, Robyn Scheiwe, Leigh Tredwell and Jeanette Spataro.
Year 3 Capers
Hi everyone,
We’ve been busy, busy, busy in the Year 3 classrooms!
In Literacy we have been learning about the structure of Information Reports and are now jointly writing a report about Indonesia. The first round of Poetry Idol is not far away, so please ensure that your child can recite their poem off by heart, with appropriate expression and gestures. Class finals will be in Week 8.
This week in Maths, we are covering a unit on Measurement, which involves length, area, mass and capacity. Next week we will be reviewing and extending our knowledge of multiplication and division. Most children are progressing very well with the learning of their multiplication facts.
In Technology we are nearing the completion of the creation stage of our pinball machines. Some of them are looking really good and I’m sure we’ll have fun testing them out. Next we will be evaluating them, making modifications and completing our Design and Technologies assessment portfolio booklet.
Until next time, Donna, Janelle, Paula and Lizette
Year 4 Capers
This week, I would like to start by commending our students on their respectful behaviour during our excursion to the Cairns Aquarium. The students listened attentively and asked relevant questions. Congratulations Year 4.
This term the students have enjoyed reading and writing about different feral animals and their negative environmental impacts. The students will impress you if you ask what it means to be “a restricted invasive species is under the Biosecurity Act 2014.”
The students have impressed us with their confidence and competence with the Tinkercad program as they design their 3D boats. We are looking forward to finishing these and seeing how many print successfully and can actually float!
The Poetry Idol competition is just around the corner, so students should be practising their poems along with completing their homework. All students have been given two copies of their chosen poem, one for school and one for at home. If your child does not have a poem at home to practise, please let us know. Our in-class final will be held during Week 8. We have some very passionate poets, so good luck to all!
Until next time Kath and Kathy
Year 4/5 & 5 Capers
Hark...Hiss...Hear that? Yes, Poetry Idol is just around the corner; please ensure your child is practising their poem at home every night. In English, we are continuing to analyse language, respond to the issues and compare and contrast characters and setting in the text Omar Raising.
In Maths, students have been consolidating concepts and skills. They have also been working hard at explaining outcomes in chance experiments in Probability.
HASS has challenged students with inquiry questions about people’s rights and responsibilities when it comes to Australian laws and who enforces these laws.
In our Science Adapting to Survive unit, students have been researching physical and behavioural adaptations of animals and exploring physical and behavioural adaptations of plants. Next week we will start to explore how plants release water into the atmosphere through the process of transpiration and they will understand that desert plants slow down their rate of transpiration through developing adaptations which help them survive the harsh environment.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns.
Warm regards,
Jessie, Rebecca and Janette
Year 6 Capers
It’s been an exciting week in Year 6, with students attending the Term 3 transition session at Innisfail State College, where they learned how to navigate the school and read a highschool timetable. Some students were also able to attend HOTSHOTS sessions this week. It’s been really noticeable how much more confident the Year 6 students are attending ISC this term, and we’re all really thankful for the time and effort Mr Sharrock and his team at ISC put in to making the transition to secondary school an enjoyable experience for our students.
Poetry Idol is just around the corner; please ensure your child is practising their poem at home every night. In English, students are also refining the structure of a persuasive text during writing lessons and showing impressive improvements each week during Writing On Demand. As we get closer to the end of our class novel, we’re also getting closer to students having to decide if Ned Kelly is a hero, a villain or a victim, which will form the basis of their final written assessment. What do you think? Ask your child what they think and see if they can convince you to change your mind if you disagree!
During Maths, we are continuing our investigations into various Maths topics, as well as reviewing concepts in the approach to our end of term assessments.
In Science, students have learned about the Beaufort Wind Scale, and will be continuing to learn how to read the weather by interpreting synoptic charts and investigating preparation strategies for natural disasters.
Students also continue to investigate their roles and responsibilities both as citizens of Australia, and as global citizens, in HASS.
Year 6 has also had the pleasure of welcoming the lovely Miss Trenear to our Year 6 team this week, where she will work alongside Mrs Worth in 6B for 5 weeks.
Melanie Worth, Tjaart Richards, Janette McClelland and Teagan Trenear.
The Arts News
We have been creating some dynamic work in the Arts over the fortnight. Prep to Year 2 students continue to work on their airplane drawings and are finally resolving their pieces. Year 3 and 4 are now beginning to use watercolour pencils to finalise their Microbe paintings. Year 5 have commenced using black pen to create more elaborate automatic designs. They will also be using paint to resolve their two-dimensional works. Year 6 have now started using their technical expertise to create three-dimensional realistic drawings of different types of shelters based on nature. Last week, students created sculptural shelters from cardboard as well as paper, and were also asked to draw using shading and tone to enhance their overall design. Quite challenging, however some fabulous drawings were completed! Well done all.
Francesca Rosa
The Arts
L.O.T.E News
Years 5 and 6 Italian classes are speaking, writing, listening to new words, phrases, sentences and questions in Italian. In this manner, students are enhancing and furthering their knowledge of the Italian language.
Year 5 students are learning to use teacher-developed noun and adjective tables with the definite article table (“the”) with types of pets. Year 6 students are building on their vocabulary by learning the days of the week, months of the year, sports and hobbies, verbs, adjectives and adverbs of time. Year 6 students are also using and
revising teacher-developed tables to understand nouns and adjectives. All students are learning a vowel song.
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
Sports News
Senior classes are working hard on their Cricket and Netball skills, and junior classes playing Minor Games and working on their throwing, catching and batting skills.
Congratulations to Addison who recently played in the Girls Qld. State Football Championships (10-12y.o.) as a member of the Peninsula Team. Addison played every match and her team won every match; she is therefore the very proud member of a State Champion Team. Addison is looking forward to being a team member again next year.
Tiffanie Bulstrode
Health and Physical Education Teacher
Community News
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