Welcome to Week 7 – Reconciliation Week and Calliope’s Sports Carnival Week. Students have been enjoying participating in activities at lunchtime to recognise 

Reconciliation Week. The week started well yesterday with our Prep Cohort enjoying their afternoon of sport.   Today our Year One and Year Two Carnival is scheduled with Year Three to Six having their carnival on Friday.  I know we will hear lots of cheering.  There will be no assembly on Friday, this week due to the Sport’s Carnival.

Student Code of Conduct

Each week I will focus on an aspect of Calliope’s Student Code of Conduct.  This week the focus is on Focused Teaching.

Approximately 15% of all students in any school or classroom may require additional support to meet behaviour expectations, even after being provided with differentiated and explicit teaching. These students may have difficulty meeting behavioural expectations in a particular period of the day or as part of a learning area/subject, and focused teaching is provided to help them achieve success.

Focused teaching involves revisiting key behavioural concepts and/or skills and using explicit and structured teaching strategies in particular aspects of a behaviour skill. Focused teaching provides students with more opportunities to practise skills and multiple opportunities to achieve the intended learning and expected behaviour.

Support staff, including teachers with specialist expertise in learning, language or development, work collaboratively with class teachers at Calliope State School to provide focused teaching. Focused teaching is aligned to the PBL Expectations Matrix, and student progress is monitored by the classroom teacher/s to identify those who:

• no longer require the additional support
• require ongoing focussed teaching
• require intensive teaching.

 Calliope State School has a range of Student Support Network staff in place to help arrange and deliver focused teaching to students who need more support to meet expectations.  In addition, the school invests in the following evidence-informed programs to address specific skill development for some students:

• Zones of Regulation
• You Can Do It!
• Functional Based Assessment.

Participating in online environments

At Calliope State School we take our responsibility to maintain the health and safety of our students and staff very seriously.  This responsibility includes issues related to online choices and behaviours.

 Participating in the online environment can be a positive experience, but there are also a broad range of concerns that may need to be considered, including online privacy and information protection, online etiquette, digital citizenship and knowing how to get help to deal with online issues.

 As you may be aware, comments posted online about people and organisations may impact permanently on their digital reputation. This includes teachers, other staff, students and the school. There can be very real negative consequences from online posts – relationships between school staff, students and parents can be permanently damaged.

 Facebook and other social networking sites are generally not private communities and, depending on an individual’s privacy and security settings, comments may be read by many people and remain online indefinitely. 

 If you or your child are posting information online about the school, staff or students, I ask that you consider the ramifications of these comments on the school and any individuals in the school community. As a rule of thumb:

• Public discussion is most effective when it is conducted in a polite and respectful manner;
• Before posting, it is important to consider whether those people you are posting about want information, including photos and comments regarding them and their children, posted on Facebook or on other sites. Perhaps ask the people involved in the post for permission before you publish something or tag someone online;
• Rather than airing complaints or grievances in a public forum like Facebook, come and talk to the school first about how to resolve your concerns;
• Remember that as a parent you have a responsibility to supervise and regulate your own children’s online activities at home and their impact on the reputation and privacy of others.

 For further information on managing cybersafety, please go to https://behaviour.education.qld.gov.au/resources-publications/Documents/cyberbullying-parents-caregivers-guide.pdf

 If you have any concerns and would like to discuss further I invite you to make an appointment with me.

Parent and Community Code of Conduct

Parents and other visitors to schools support safety by ensuring their communications and conduct at the school and school activities is respectful. 

Approaching other students in the school grounds to discuss concerns with them is not appropriate in any school.  Please refer to the Parent and Community Code of Conduct and request a meeting to discuss any concerns about your child’s education – allowing staff time to prepare and appreciating our time may be limited. 

Upcoming Events Calendar

 Some reminders of upcoming events from the calendar include –

Week 7 – Reconciliation Week

Week 7 – Sport’s Days

Week 9 – P&C Meeting

Week 9 – Zone Athletics

Week 10 – Under 8’s

Week 10 – NAIDOC Week Celebration