Goondi SS Newsletter 24.05.23

From the Leadership Team

Dear Parents and Carers,

Australia Biggest Morning Tea is a community event that raises vital funds to make a big difference for those impacted by cancer. Goondi State School hosted this event on Tuesday morning on the oval, with parents, grandparents, family members and younger siblings all participating.

Donations were not collected at Goondi State School and parents were informed of donating to the Cancer Council Foundation. It was an absolute pleasure meeting many of the families and seeing everyone eating, talking and sharing food on mats and chairs on our beautiful grassed areas. Strong community focus at Goondi State School encouraging and welcoming all families.

Another big event on our calendar is this Terms athletics carnival.  Our students across all year levels have been practising and training over the last few weeks.  As in previous years, we will run some of the events on Wednesday (June 21st) and the main carnival will take place on Friday (June 23^rd).  On Wednesday, selected students will run the 200m, 800m and shotput.  On Friday, all other events will be held in the full carnival.  Parents, carers and families are welcome to attend.  On the day, we will meet on the Cavallaro oval and hold our House War Cries at 8:50am.  The first event, sprints will commence at 9am. 

We are grateful to our P&C who are organising catering for the day.  Please look out for information from the P&C about what food will be available and how to order.  We are all looking forward to a great day. 

At Goondi, the end of this term means teachers are working on assessing each child’s learning progress and on writing comments in preparation for the Semester 1 Student Reports.  Reports will be sent home on Tuesday June 20th.

We encourage you to talk with your child about their report, discuss their success, their challenges and support them as they look forward to Semester 2. It is great to be able celebrate accomplishments, but also so important to look at areas where a child can set achievable goals they can plan and aim for and feel success once achieved. 

2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge

I am delighted to invite all Goondi State School students to join in the 2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC).

The PRC is a way to encourage students to develop a love of reading for life. Students are encouraged to select a range of fiction and non-fiction books suited to their reading ability and record books read during the reading period between 22 May to 25 August. Your child’s class teacher will give your child a reader record form and a consent form informing you about how the school and the Department of Education will use, record and disclose your child’s personal information and material.

To complete the challenge:

• Prep to Year 2 must read or experience at least 20 books
• Years 3 and 4 must read at least 20 books
• Years 5 to 9 must read at least 15 books.

Experiencing books can include shared reading, listening to stories, or reading picture books. The aim for the 2023 challenge is to encourage students to make time to read. Last year saw more than 130,000 children from around the state participate.

For suggested books or for more information about the PRC, please visit: readingchallenge.education.qld.gov.au or contact Kath Long at Goondi State School.

Every student who completes the challenge and returns the completed record reader form and consent form, will receive a Certificate of Achievement signed by the Premier. I look forward to seeing as many of our students as possible take part in the 2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge.

PREP ENROLMENTS FOR 2023

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 the 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 in later this term.

We will be holding a Prep information session in Week 9 for both new and existing families of Goondi State School.  Details of this session will be advertised in this newsletter and Facebook.

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. 

Our school attendance target is 95%.  At the moment, our actual attendance figure sits at 91.28%.  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.

INTER-HOUSE ATHLETICS DAY

8:50am - Students assemble in houses on the oval for war-cries

9:00am - Start

1. Age sprints (5yrs – 12yrs)
2. Tug-o-war (Junior and Senior teams)
3. Morning Break (10:30 AM – 11:00 AM)
4. Field Events (9yrs -12yrs) and Year 1-3 ball games
5. Field Events (9yrs -12yrs) and Year 1-3 relays
6. Afternoon Break (12:30 – 1:00 PM)
7. Ball games Year 4-6 and Year 1-3 field events
8. Relays (9-12yrs)
9. All age relay
10. Parent/Staff relay – If time allows
11. Presentations
12. Clean up and dismissal

Students should wear house colours on the carnival day.  House colours are as follows:

Geraldton – yellow

Palmerston – red

Johnstone – green

Parents are reminded that Friday is a normal school day and all students are required to attend for the full day. If you need to take your child from school early, due to illness or other family commitments, the normal procedures apply and you will have to call in at the office and sign your child out.

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION

This year, Religious Instruction is offered to our Years 1-3 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.

School Calendar

TERM 2 CALENDAR, Please save the dates:

School Events

Thurs 8^th June - Under 8s Day

Fri 9^th June - Innisfail Young Performers

Wed 14^th June - Prep Information Night

Mon 19^th June – P&C Meeting at 5:30pm

Tues 20^th June - Cairns Eisteddfod - Senior Choir

Thurs 22^nd June - Pre-Prep Session

Sport Events

Wed 21st June – Inter-House 200m, 800m, shot-put

Fri 23rd June – Inter-House Athletics Carnival

Prep Capers

Our prep classes have been very lucky to have an extra adult in their room.  Olivia Dickinson is in Prep A and Lucy Hall is in Prep B.  They are currently on placements for the university practicums.   All students and Prep staff are enjoying the company of our Uni students.

Our classes have been reading the story of Mrs Wishy Washy and then writing about the characters in the book using their Clever Clown resource to support their sentence starters.  Students are enjoying their reading groups and are becoming confident readers while looking at the pictures cues to help with difficult words in the texts.  Our Letterland Diagraphs have been very interesting as we learn about the sounds of “unvoiced/ voiced “th”, “or” and “ar”.  Word family sentences focus on sounds such as ig’ as in pig and ‘ug’ as in rug.  Students reconstruct their Letterland sentences then read to see if it makes sense.  They are doing a fabulous job they are doing with their sentences!

During the Maths lessons, classes have been learning about “Days of the week” and specialist timetables, adding numbers to ten, comparing collections, one more and one less on a number track and continue to learn to represent numbers to ten in different ways.  Students revise addition strategies and draw pictures to match the addition problems.   

Prep classrooms have been busy keeping a regular check on the daily weather and temperature and continue to record each day.  Family posters look fantastic and students have began sharing their posters with their peers.  During the Health unit, students are recognising how they grow and change, different emotions, identify actions that help them be healthy, safe and physical active.

During this term in Week 10, Prep will be attending a day excursion to the Daradgee Environmental Education Centre. The visit allows the students to do activities such as a Farm Visit, Sensory Talk and a Snake Talk.  This excursion contributes to the curriculum for Term three.  Staff are currently in the process of preparations.  More information, forms and costs will be sent out in the next couple of weeks.  

Yours in Prep

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

Year 1 Capers

Half way through the term already. Students have been working hard and we are getting ready to head into assessment time. The students have been working on their arguments for persuasive writing and have been having some great ideas to convince us of their views.

In Maths we have been continuing to explore data and how we display it and use it, identifying place value in 2 digit numbers, giving and following directions and addition and subtraction problems. 

In Science we have been looking at different materials and their properties. We are continuing to experiment with different materials testing if they sink and float and are waterproof. Students will be combining all their knowledge from their experiments to build a boat to see which designs can hold more.

HASS we have started identifying natural, managed and built/ constructed features in our environment. We have looked at different places in Innisfail and Australia to work out if they are natural, managed or built.

Regards, Year 1 team.

Year 2 Capers

Hello from Year 2!

Our term is flying along, and week 6 sees us consolidating a lot of information we have learned in the past few weeks, getting ready for our assessment period, which will start in week 7. Attendance is always important (every day counts), however it becomes particularly so at this time. Goondi has a target of 95% attendance, and it helps get the most out of every school day. While illness is unavoidable (and please don’t attend if unwell), every day your learner could be at school, they should be at school.

Other areas where you can help your learner achieve their best include healthy foods both at home and in lunch boxes, and enough sleep. Sleep is a big driver in poor performance, and it can really show when students have been up the night before. The Australian Government Health site (Health Direct) recommends 9 – 11 hours a night for 7 and 8 year-old children.

Another school event coming up is our annual Spellathon competition. This year the spelling words will come home on May 31^st (next Wednesday), with the actual test being sat on June 14^th. These words take the place of regular homework words, and the more they can be practised the better your learner could do. Fundraising will happen as well with each student being able to be sponsored, although we strongly discourage doorknocking, opting instead to collect money from friends and family.

Regards,

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

Year 3 Capers

Year 3 are in the thick of revision! We will do our Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry tests next week, along with our timed addition, subtraction and multiplication tests. The students are keen to see their results, as they saw improvements from Term 1 in their Statistics and Probability achievement.

Only one more week to write expositions. Our last one is our test in Week 7, and after this we will write procedures. We’ll start with simple ones, like how to make a fruit stick and how to make a vegemite sandwich, before being imaginative and writing a ‘potion’ procedure to turn their teacher into a toad.

Students are now researching an event in HASS, and are almost ready to write up their powerpoint presentation to share with the class.

Of course, the sun didn’t shine when we wanted to do our shadow experiment so we had to do it another day. It was interesting to see the shadow start long, become short and then long again. We now know that when the sun is low the shadow is long.

Did you get your notice regarding the Premier’s Reading Challenge? Please keep a record of books students are reading for homework, along with any book they are reading for pleasure.

Until next time, Ashley, Janelle and Amanda.

Year 4 Capers

What an awesome start to Term 2. Last week Miss Reitano joined the Year 4 team. 4A will have Miss Reitano full time whilst Mrs Long is HOC full time for the remainder of the term.

The reading groups are flying through reading either Tom Appleby or Eliza Bird. The students have been stepping into the life of a convict, recently they have written about being a prisoner at Newgate Prison and attending Old Bailey Courts. Their writing is incredible as they are really getting into what life was really like in London in the 1700s.

This term in Maths we have been looking at number and algebra, measurement and recently started exploring chance and data. We have been investigating chance events and the likelihood of different events occuring and also when two events cannot occur simultaneously such as tossing a coin and it landing on heads and tails. This sparked a lovely discussion about other potential events.  Please if you want to assist your children please continue with IXL focusing on statistics, number and algebra and also shape over the next two weeks.

Science has seen the students actively engaging in different types of forces and friction. The students are investigating gravity and magnetism with some really fun games (aka experiments). Who said learning can't be fun?

As we get to the business end of the term it is essential students are getting adequate sleep, eating breakfast and staying hydrated. Please also ensure your child gets a chance to have a break and be a kid for their own mental health as we come into assessment time.

Thanks, Leigh, Kath, Jade, Blake

Year 5 Capers

We are all away on our school camp at Tinaroo, check out our photos on ClassDojo.

Year 6 Capers

Hello Class 6B and Class 5/6 families!

Wow! We’re already more than half-way through Term 2, and both classes are busy consolidating and completing work before the assessment period begins. In English, students are bringing together everything they’ve learned about narrative writing and the unique structure that makes it special, to continue to improve their writing each week. They are choosing words and techniques to “Show, Don’t Tell”, including similes, metaphors, adjective groups, adjectival phrases, and more, and making best use of varying paragraph and sentence length.

In Maths we are revising core concepts, while also applying what we’ve learned and using our skills and knowledge to problem solve. The Bar Model continues to be explored in great depth, as both classes make tremendous improvements in solving complex word problems.

In Science, we have been looking at the damage feral animals have caused to Australia’s unique eco-system, and the damage that humans cause as well! Thankfully, humans have also had positive impacts on the environment, and we’ve explored and discussed these too. It’s been interesting to learn about animals that can survive in extreme environments – ask your child what sorts of conditions a water bear can survive in!

We’ve also been working hard in our other key learning areas, as well as developing skills each day for our upcoming athletics carnival.

Just a note that for homework this week, students are practising the words listed on their homework sheets as Week 8 words, as Spell-a-thon is scheduled for weeks 7 and 8 this year. Spell-a-thon lists will be sent home for students in Week 7, and practice for this will start then.

Until next time,

Mrs Worth, Mr Ward and Mr Azzopardi

The Arts News

Drama is in full swing with students eagerly performing for their peers.  Our students have been utilising improvisation skills and techniques to perform a variety of stimulus characters to assist in voice, movement and expression development. Drama games such as Character Bus, SPLAT, UP/DOWN and Energy Circle continue to amuse and create collaborative learning opportunities that build confidence, leadership and teamwork skills. We have also started reading a variety of Play Scripts which are performed in groups. Well done to all students for enthusiastically contributing to all classes and demonstrating effective groupwork and negotiating skills.

The Arts

Francesca Rosa

Instrumental Music News

On Thursday of Week 1, all students who are in their first year of learning a brass or woodwind instrument were invited to attend our annual Beginner Band Workshop, which is held at Innisfail State College. Students experienced a full day of music learning, and they met new friends from different schools across the cluster. Nervous at first, the students quickly immersed themselves in the activities and by the end of the day, the newly formed Beginner Band successfully followed the conductor to play several songs together. The students were joined by Innisfail State College musicians in the afternoon, and they were treated to a performance followed by a Q&A session.

Goondi State School students should be congratulated on their behaviour and hard work throughout the day. Learning a musical instrument in an ensemble setting has been shown to have a positive impact on social, emotional and academic development and we look forward to watching these students develop into well rounded musicians in the years to come. The beginner band will now rehearse every Wednesday afternoon for the rest of the year. They are working towards their first performance at the end of this term (more information to come). We wish them the best of luck for this exciting opportunity.

Community News