Goondi SS 10.05.23 Newsletter
From the Leadership Team
Dear Parents/Carers
I would like to formally welcome, Khadeeja Mohammed who is appointed as the permanent Deputy of Goondi State School, commencing Term 3 this year. I would also like to acknowledge Mrs Kristina Haigh who is acted in this role for the past 14 weeks. We have appreciated your support and dedication to Goondi State School students, staff and community.
PREP ENROLMENTS FOR 2024
This year we will be again offering our Pre-Prep Program and a number of transition and information sessions for prospective Prep students and parents to ensure that our 2024 Prep students have the best possible start to their formal education at Goondi State School.
Is your child, or a child you know, eligible for Prep next year? We are taking enrolments from new students and students who have brothers or sisters attending Goondi State School. They will automatically be offered a place in our 2024 Prep classes.
We are also taking Expressions of Interest for children who live out-of-catchment and want to attend Goondi State School. If there are vacancies, these students will also be offered a place in our 2024 Prep classes.
Come to the office as soon as possible with your child’s details to complete an Expression of Interest form even if you are in-catchment. Our Pre-Prep program will begin this Term.
We will be holding a Prep Information Session and School Tour in Week 9 of this term for both new and existing families of Goondi State School. Details of this session will be advertised in this newsletter, Facebook and local media.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION
This year, Religious Instruction is offered to our Years 1-2 students in Term 3. Students will be placed in religious instruction classes according to religious instruction consent on enrolment paperwork.
Parents and carers are reminded that religious instruction is not compulsory. Information will be sent home shortly with details of the religious instruction available at this school.
At any time parents/carers can provide written instruction to the principal to change their preference for their child to participate in or be withdrawn from religious instruction.
ATTENDANCE
As you know, coming to school every day is so important for our students to improve their learning, maintain friendships and feel a sense of belonging to the school and community. In recent times, attendance has slipped, mainly due to the restrictions in place for COVID-19. Now that most restrictions have eased, it is a great time to think about ensuring your child comes to school every day, unless sick.
Our school attendance target is 95%.
At the moment, our actual attendance figure for the year sits at 91.24%. We encourage you to make every effort to have your child come to school each day so that they give themselves the best chance for a successful school year and a bright academic future.
SUN SAFETY
It is the policy of this school to prevent any student without a hat from playing outdoors during recess time. Students without hats will be restricted to the covered play areas. Only our school hats with a wide brim are allowed. Plain caps, visors and the like are not suitable as they offer little if any protection and are not to be worn to school. The school wide brimmed hat is available from our Uniform Shop, open 7:45am - 8:45am Thursdays or online www.goondissuniforms.com.au
Each classroom has a bulk supply of sun screen lotion and this is used by students during extended periods in the sun eg. sport afternoons, swimming, excursions etc. Parents however, should encourage the wearing of sun screen by providing their children with their very own supply for regular usage both at home and at school.
TERM 2 CALENDAR
School Events
Monday 22nd of May - P&C Meeting at 5:30pm
Thursday 8th of June - Under 8's Morning (9.30am-11am)
Friday 9th of June – Young Performers
Wednesday 14th of June - Parent Information Night/School Tour
Thursday 22nd of June - Pre Prep Session
Sport Events
Wednesday 21st of June – Inter-House 200m, 800m, shot-put
Friday 23rd of June – Inter-House Athletics Carnival
Music News
INNISFAIL YOUNG PERFORMERS’ COMPETITION CHOIR DAY
Friday 9th June at the Innisfail Shire Hall
JUNIOR CHOIRS – Years 2 & 3
This year the school will be taking two Junior Choirs to compete. The Year 2 and Year 3 Junior Choirs will perform in the morning on Friday 9th June at the Shire Hall. More details will be given when the program is available.
SENIOR CHOIR – YEARS 4-6
The Senior Choir will be performing in four sections (Sacred, Folk, Unison and 2 Part singing) starting mid-morning on Friday 9th June. More details to follow.
The children are excited about the Competition and look forward to showcasing their pieces that they have worked on over the last few months. Choir permission notes will go home shortly as soon as we know the performance times.
Many thanks to the P & C Association who have generously donated a significant amount of money to cover all costs for the Competition.
CAIRNS EISTEDDFOD
The Senior Choir will be performing at the Cairns Performing Arts Centre in Week 10 of this term. As soon as the date is confirmed we will contact parents. It is a very exciting opportunity for our Senior Choir to compete against schools on a regional level.
Regards
Kerry Macgillivray
MUSIC TEACHER
Prep Capers
Week 4 already!!!
In English, we have continued our weekend writing and have started retelling in our writing lessons. Students have been introduced to the Clever Clown poster which helps students with sentence starters such as First, Next, Then and After that. We revise capital letters, finger spaces and full stops for completing a good sentence. During Letterland Phonics sessions, students are currently learning about 'Friends at the end', ck, ll, all, ve, ff, ss, sh, ch and th. This term, we continue to learn about word families such ‘en’ as in hen, ‘un’ as in sun’, ‘op’ as in shop and ‘at’ as in sat. Our reading groups have begun and the students are really doing a great job using their strategies during reading groups. Great to see students enjoying their home readers as well.
Term 2 Maths lessons are off to a very busy start. During the addition lessons, students are using materials and addition mats to add one-digit numbers. Students are exploring AB repeated patterns, 3D shapes, subitising numbers to ten, using familiar groupings and comparing weight using language such as heavy and light. Students continue to revise the formations of numbers using the number rhymes.
Our prep classes have begun Term 2 Science and HASS units, students are observing the daily weather conditions and recording the weather symbols on their chart. Students have been exploring Families and what families might look like and have started creating their Fabulous Family posters. They are looking really good, and students are happy to have them in their classes to share with their peers. We have also been learning about maps and describing locations. Students are exploring positional language such as left, right, around, behind, beside, over, under, forwards and backwards.
A big thank you to our prep families for supporting your child with homework daily. It is very important to be practising sight words as this helps students with reading, writing and spelling. Home Reader books get changed on the Friday, ready for Monday to be sent home.
Yours in Prep
Mrs Myers, Mrs Ferguson, Mrs Barba and Mrs Tanti 😊
Year 1 Capers
The time has flown by this term, it is hard to believe we are almost half way through the term. The students have been hard at work in writing persuading their readers that holidays are better than school, dogs are better than cats and Summer is better than Winter. The students have shared some great arguments in their writing.
In Maths we have been learning about halves, partioning two digit numbers, chance and collecting and interpreting data. We have had some great lessons making paper plate pizzas and graphing m and m colours.
In Science we have been lookign at different materials and their properties. We are experiementing with different materials and how we can make changes to them to make them stronger, hold more or if the changes actually make the material weaker.
HASS we have been exploring memories and differences from the past to the present. The students have been intrigued by some of the ways things were done in the past.
Year 1 team
Year 2 Capers
Hello from Year 2!
Term 2 is flying along, with lots of learning happening in our rooms. Thanks to everyone who submitted baby photos for our Science lesson, we’ve been looking a lot at life cycles of living things, and comparing ourselves to butterflies, chickens and bean plants! In HaSS we addressed envelopes to ourselves, and have been exploring how the mail gets to different towns.
English has been all about Australian animals as we write our information reports. So far, we have covered kangaroos, cassowaries and koalas, and this week finds us exploring the wombat. Students have enjoyed learning fascinating facts about these animals, and turning their notes into reports.
With no librarian at the moment we ask that all library books be returned as soon as possible, as borrowing for students with overdue books may be restricted until they have been returned. If you have any Goondi library books at home please send in with your learner.
We also have a target of 95% attendance here at Goondi, and while we understand that there are family commitments and illness, we hope that everyone endeavours to get to school on every day possible. Every day really does count, and we thank you for your assistance in this.
Nathan Worth, Robyn Scheiwe, Kathy Pike and Jeanette Spataro.
Year 3 Capers
Week 4 and we are focussed! There is so many concepts to revise and master before our end of term testing.
Students are now writing good quality introductions for persuasive texts. We move on to the argument paragraphs, where we need to create four sentences. A topic sentence, an explanation sentence, a sentence that lists some examples and finally, finishing with a sentence that links things back to the topic sentence.
9 times tables will be our focus for the next two weeks and we review, money, time, angles and graphing. Students will do their first maths test at the end of Week 5.
Students are enjoying our science unit on Earth, Sun and the Moon. We know the direction Earth rotates, how long it takes to rotate and that it obits around the sun in 365 and 1/4 days. Shadows is the next topic we will explore.
In HASS, we are ready to use the computers to research 5 questions on New Year’s Day. After this students will select a celebration or a commemoration and pose their own 5 questions to research. This information will be typed into a PowerPoint presentation to share with the class.
As you can see we will be busy learners and appreciate your help in keeping students organised for each day.
Until next time, Ashely, Janelle, and Amanda.
Year 4 Capers
Term 2 has begun and what an outstanding start we have had. It is only Week 4 and already we have had Life Education visit, ANZAC Day and May Day but we aren’t letting anything stop our learning.
Week 4 saw Mrs Long stepping into the HOC role Monday – Wednesday. Thank you to Mrs Patterson for helping out 4A. Miss Reitano will be joining the Year 4 team very soon.
We have started reading groups this term which has seen students exploring the life of a convict through either Tom Appleby or Eliza Bird. This fits in beautifully with our genre writing. So far students have started writing as an orphan child, living on the streets and going to court in London in the 1700s. The students are really getting into character and writing some amazing pieces.
Last week we had our first assessment for the term. Students completed a small assessment focused on measurement. They were assessed on measuring temperature, time, perimeter and area.
In addition to measurement the students are continuing to explore number and this week stepped into the world of statistics. Please if you want to assist your children please continue with IXL focusing on statistics over the next two weeks.
We have started investigating forces, we have looked at how things move, what causes movement and also friction and the impact friction has on the movement of an object. The students have thoroughly enjoyed the different activities and learning when it doesn’t feel like learning.
This term we have started looking at the before, during and after times of colonisation. This has sparked some interesting discussions.
Monday | Library |
Tuesday | Music & HPE |
Wednesday | The Arts |
Thursday | Music, HPE & Parade |
Friday | Homework due |
Until next time, Leigh, Kath, Jade, Blake
Year 5 Capers
Students are starting to get excited for camp. Camp is in Week 6, 24th – 26th of May. Next Friday, the 12th of May, all payments are to be finalised and completed. If you are having any difficulties, please contact us or the office. If students are not attending camp, they are to still attend school as normal and alternate learning arrangements will be made.
In English we are working on our speaking skills for debating.
In Mathematics, we are calculating the area and perimeter of rectangles. We have also been practising our multiplication skills. Please continue practicing them at home as they are a very important skill in maths.
In Science we have been looking at Australian animals and the adaptations they have made to survive in the harsh Australian climate.
In HASS we have been looking at the Australian environment and how other continents are similar to it.
In Digital Technology we have been learning about binary numbers and how they are used to create codes.
Cheers for now,
Mrs Nolan, Miss Hutchins and Mr Azzopardi.
Year 6 Capers
Hello Class 6B and Class 5/6 families!
It’s been a busy start to the term for Year 6! With two public holidays meaning two short weeks, we have been working hard to ensure we are getting the most out of all learning areas.
In Maths, we have been consolidating knowledge and focussing on areas highlighted by our Term 1 assessment as needing extra practice.
In English we are continuing to follow Brian on his journey to survive the Canadian wilderness in the novel Hatchet, and are exploring the structure and features of the narrative genre. Each week we have been writing about various survival scenarios – from a first day at a new school, to surviving a volcano eruption - and it’s been wonderful to see the students applying what they’ve learned each week to write some captivating stories.
In HASS we are continuing to explore the federation of Australia after European settlement, and the opening of the first parliament. Earlier this term in Science we went on a small “field trip” within the school, examining evidence of life in our school grounds, and we’ve continued this by looking at the importance of field trips in gathering data, and how scientists in the field use this to their benefit. We’ve also learned that mould is not also harmful, but can also be beneficial! Health has seen us discussing things that influence us, and we’ve considered the differences between celebrities, heroes and role models.
Our Design Technology unit is looking at the pros and cons of mass food production, which has garnered some great discussion in our classrooms!
Next week Mrs Worth and Mr Ward will meet with Year 7 teachers from ISC, where they will “unpack” a Year 7 English unit with them, to further ensure the smooth transition between primary and high school. Initial discussions with the high school indicate that many of the habits we instill in our students, such as insisting on them showing full working out in Maths, for example, are habits that will continue to serve them well, and are vital in their senior studies. We are excited to discover how we can further assist our Year 6 students in their transition to high school.
Thank you for your support!
Melanie Worth, Dominic Ward and Greg Azzopardi.
Sports News
All classes are busy preparing for out INTER-HOUSE ATHLETICS DAY on Wednesday 21st June (morning 9-12y.o 200m, ShotPut and 800m) and Friday 23rd June, for all students, all day.
SPORT REPORT
Well Done to all students who competed in the District Cross Country Trials at Warrina Lakes on Friday. All students ran their very best. The following students have been selected in the Cassowary Coast Team: Ethan Goodwin (8th 10yo boys ), Harper Pierantozzi (3rd 10yo Girls), Lokie Vue (6th 11yo Boys), Ellias Allen-Ankins (7th 12yo Boys).
Congratulations to Addison Tanti who has been selected in the Cassowary Coast girls U/12 football team for the second time.
Good luck to all students for their upcoming Peninsula Trials.
Tiffanie Bulstrode
Health and Physical Education Teacher
Community News
