Goondi SS 29.03.23 Newsletter

From the Leadership Team

Dear Parents and Carers,

As term one draws to an end, I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate all our students on their attitude and efforts at school. It is great to see our students engage in some great learning experiences provided by class teachers and achieving great things.

This week, we are holding our Parent-Teacher Interviews.  I would like to thank all those parents and carers who attended.  These occasions are an invaluable way to support your child’s educational progress.  They allow parents and teachers to develop productive relationships and are a great opportunity to ask for clarification around any issues or areas of concern.  If you are one of those parents or carers who could not attend, I urge you to contact your child’s teacher and arrange for an after or before school interview early in Term 2.

Last week, we held our 2023 Inter-House Cross-Country event.  It was fantastic to see lots of support for our students from parents and carers. As you know, support makes the day very special for the students and we thank you for this. Congratulations to our newly elected house captains. You did a wonderful job at Cross-Country engaging your houses in cheers and encouraging great sportsmanship. We look forward to our athletics carnival next term.   

On Friday, we sadly say goodbye to some of our staff. We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support, guidance, teaching and caring of our students. We wish you well on your next chapter.

Next term, we will be welcoming Miss Ashley Sutcliffe in Year 3A and Mr Dominic Ward who will be teaching Year 5/6.  Mr Azzopardi will be working as a Teacher Aide in the 5/6 block and we welcome Blake Leaver, who will be the new Teacher Aide in Year 4.

As this will be the last newsletter before the break, I would like to invite all our families to join us as we commemorate ANZAC day on April 25th at the Innisfail march.  Our students will assemble in school uniform opposite the RSL at 8:00am.  The march will begin at 8:30am.  We hope to see many of you there to represent Goondi SS as we take part in the march.  Please note that ANZAC day times and details may be subject to change as we are guided by the Innisfail RSL.  We will notify you of any changes made as soon as we are made aware.

Wishing you all a safe and wonderful holiday, we will look forward to seeing you all in Term 2.

Regards,

Tania Kaitara                     Kristina Haigh

Principal                               Deputy Principal

Prep News

Week 10 and just like that it’s the end of Term 1!

During the past few weeks, both Prep classes have been very busy completing Assessments.  The students worked so hard and had a RedHot Go!  Well done to all our Prep students.

Prep classrooms will continue to learn the curriculum, over the remainder of the week.  Classrooms will complete the remaining activities and of course have some fun while completing the tasks.

Over the holidays, we encourage families to continue working on Sight Words as Prep will begin Reading Groups and Home Reading in Term 2.  Sight Words are an important key to reading.

Our Prep staff would like to thank all our families for a successful Term 1.  We look forward seeing you all in Term 2.

Happy holidays and stay safe.

Yours in Prep

Mrs Myers, Mrs Barba, Mrs Ferguson and Mrs Tanti 😊

Year 1 News

First of all we would like to congratulate Year 1 on a great start to the year. They have settled in well to the routines of Year 1 and have made great gains in all areas so far this year. We are very excited to see what they will achieve throughout the year.

This term in Literacy we have learnt new digraphs which have helped us to read and write tricky words. We have shown that we can write interesting stories with correct punctuation and we have used adjectives to make our writing more interesting.

In Maths we are getting extremely fast at recalling our basic addition facts. We learnt how to read calendars and the names of 3D shapes. We are still practising how to count in 2s, 5s, and 10’s and much, much more. We cant wait for next term!

Happy Holidays!

Leigh, Hayley, Wendy, Fiona, Kimberley and Anita.

Year 2 News

Greetings from Year 2!

We have all made it to the end of Term 1. We know that students are tired and looking forward to their holidays, and they should use this time to relax and get ready for next term. Don’t forget though that you can keep learning over the holidays with your students! Some great things to include are daily reading (and asking questions about what you read), asking your students what time it is, and getting them to help in the kitchen (measuring things is great). If you travel over the break, this is a great chance to talk about distances, the way we travel, how long things take, and different things we can do or see at different places.

While the majority of assessment is finished, a few students are still finishing up this week, and others will still be learning, so attendance is just as important this week as any other. There are no report cards this term, but the information we get from these assessments helps us greatly in Term 2, and throughout the year. We also have an in-class rewards session on Friday, where students may get to do a craft activity.

From the Year 2 team we hope everyone has a safe and happy break, and we look forward to seeing everyone in Term 2.

Nathan Worth, Robyn Scheiwe, Kathy Pike and Jeanette Spataro.

Year 3 News

Week 10 is finally here and we are ready for a much needed break to recharge. Thank you so much to families for your support. We welcome Miss Ashley Sutcliffe to the team for Term 2 and will catch up with her during the holidays to do a hand over. A massive thank you to Brooke Buchanan, Deb Sclippa and Lisa Patterson for their dedication to the Year 3 program.

We are looking forward to Rewards Afternoon on Thursday where we celebrate our efforts in achieving an A, B or C key for behaviour. The effort we put into our learning is just as important as our results for each subject.

We finished the term learning the 4 times tables, exploring patterns in maths, listening to speaking tasks, writing an exposition ‘why students should behaviour in class’ and learning more about Anzac Day in a Hass Lesson. There were some very decorative ‘All About Me’ posters shared and we will display these proudly in our room. It will be a hard choice to pick a couple for the show display.

Please have a safe break.

Until next time, Deb, Lisa, Janelle, and Amanda.

Year 4 News

Year 5 News

In Year 5 we have now completed our NAPLAN testing. Students have completed a writing test, reading, language conventions and a numeracy test.

In English, we wrote our assessment story with the stimulus ‘The Key’ where students wrote an imaginative text.

In Maths, we have completed three tests to show our knowledge and understanding of the Year 5 Maths curriculum.

In HASS, we are looking at why people work in our community and why it is important.

In Science we are creating ovens out of pizza boxes. Students have been challenged with only a few materials, to then design and create an invention that will melt marshmallows using the power of the sun.

Cheers for now,

Mrs Nolan, Miss Hutchins and Mrs McClelland.

Year 5/6 & 6 News

Wow! It’s the last week of Term 1 and suddenly we’re almost a quarter of the way through the year! It’s been great to see so many of you at Parent-Teacher Interviews this week.  Don’t forget, you can contact us via ClassDojo or via the front office any time with any questions or concerns, or to celebrate wins!

This week has been a big one for our Year 6 students, who attended the first transition event on Monday. The students came back excited about what they’d experienced, and with a lot less nerves about high school than they had at the beginning of the year. Some students have also attended the HOTSHOTS program this week, and many students have a goal to be able to attend one or more of the sessions they’re interested in next term.

Well done to all students for their resilience and hard work during this assessment period. The results of these tests are invaluable for us to plan for next term, and it’s been exciting to see how much we’ve learned in such a short amount of time. The end of term is a great time to reflect on where we are and to look ahead to where we’d like to be by the end of next term. As we organise ourselves this week, please ask your child about whether they’ve run out of any stationery items so they can be replenished during the break.

It is with much sadness that we say goodbye to two members of our team this term - Mr Richards and Mrs McClelland - who are both reluctantly leaving this cohort, even though they are also both excited about their different paths ahead. The students have benefited hugely from their calm, caring demeanours and their high expectations. We wish them both all the very best in their futures, and welcome Mr Ward and Mr Azzopardi to the team next term.

Melanie Worth, Tjaart Richards and Janette McClelland.

The Arts News

It has been a fantastic term of Dance! All the students have worked hard to improve their dance skills individually, as well as part of a group. It has been wonderful to see the progression of our students collaborating on set tasks, listening to others and giving directions when creating dance routines. Highlights of the term include learning about cultural dances, iconic and famous music video and film dances, and creating choreography focused on being in unison. All students have shown more confidence this year when performing in front of their peers, and I congratulate them all on a fabulously energetic and fun term. Next term, we will be focusing on Drama. Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday!

Francesca Rosa

Arts Teacher

Library

Some of our students this term drew a picture of ‘What they love most about the Library’!

Community