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Welcome to Week 9. Yesterday we celebrated Harmony Week by wearing the significant colour orange to school. It was amazing to see our students recognise all cultures in our community.
Annual Implementation Plan (AIP)
Our Priority for 2023 is “Calliope State School embraces Equity and Excellence for All”. We have three strategies to achieve this. This week I will continue to focus on our first action, Approach to Pedagogy. Our fourth strategy is targeted use of resources to support student engagement, learning and wellbeing – physical, financial and human resources. As a school we strategically utilise allocated resources to support students to achieve their best possible outcomes.
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 a Whole School Approach to Discipline. A copy of Calliope State School’s Student Code of Conduct can be found in the following link.
Calliope State School uses Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) as the multi-tiered system of support for discipline in the school. This is a whole-school approach, used in all classrooms and programs offered through the school, including sporting activities and excursions.
PBL is an evidence-based framework used to:
• analyse and improve student behaviour and learning outcomes
• ensure that only evidence-based practices are used correctly by teachers to support students
• continually support staff members to maintain consistent school and classroom improvement practices.
At Calliope State School we believe discipline is about more than punishment. It is a word that reflects our belief that student behaviour is a part of the overall teaching and learning approach in our school. Our staff take responsibility for making their expectations clear, for providing supportive instruction about how to meet these expectations and strive to use behavioural incidents as opportunities to re-teach.
The development of the Calliope State School Student Code of Conduct is an opportunity to explain the PBL framework with parents and students, and gain their support to implement a consistent approach to teaching behaviour. The language and expectations of PBL can be used in any environment, including the home setting for students. Doing everything we can do to set students up for success is a shared goal of every parent and school staff member.
Any students or parents who have questions or would like to discuss the Student Code of Conduct or PBL are encouraged to speak with the class teacher or make an appointment to meet with a member of the leadership team.
End of Term Events
As the term comes to an end next week, we have several upcoming events to celebrate our learning over Term 1.
- Cool Coins – At the end of this week Cool Coins will be counted and the winning classes (Lower/Upper) announced. These two classes will have a free dress day next week. Stay Tuned !
- Monday 27 March – Cross Country
- Week 10 – Parent Interviews
- Wednesday 29 March – Arts & Technology Party
- Friday 31 March – Easter Celebration (Assembly, Easter Hat Parade, Open Classrooms, Picnic on the Lawn)
I am looking forward to seeing amazing Easter Hats next Friday. After our short assembly and Easter Hat Parade, parents are invited into classrooms for a “Celebration of Learning” where you can view all the amazing work your children have done this term. Parents are also invited to stay for a picnic with your children at 11:00 am on the grass area near the Undercroft. Please bring a picnic rug if you like. We thank Mrs Smith-Ashton and her class for organising this.
In Health lessons this term, we have been exploring ways to be healthy, having fun along the way.
Year 5 - Learning about heritage and culture on an historic treasure hunt.
Prep: Playing safely
Keeping our environment healthy and safe is everyone’s responsibility.
Lots of children have been getting involved. Check out these litter legends! Has your child been helping out?
^Year 3: Strategies for a healthy and positive school.
Year 2: Strategies to keep our school healthy and safe.
We’ve had a go at the Universal Design for Learning pedagogy in Health this term. Students have been exposed to more choices and responsibility in their achievement. Having choice and making decisions for their own learning can be a little daunting sometimes. It takes some practice, but Calliope kids are showing that they are independent learners who can find their own best way to achieve.
Some students like to work with numbers and tables and others like to manipulate materials.
Mrs Mastro is lucky enough to get into the classrooms with some of the Year 3 – 6 classes on Wednesdays. We’ve been trying out Universal Design for Learning with phonetic spelling strategies. What a great effort the students have made to contribute to our “UDL@CSS” Spelling Website; a collection of choices for our clever Calliope students to practise spelling.
Congratulations to 2C who had an amazing attendance rate for week 8. Their attendance rate was 99.09% for the Week!
Also, congratulations to the 9 classes which were at or above our school attendance target of 94% for Week 8.
Remember, every day you are away is a learning day lost.
Parents and caregivers must send children to school every school day under Queensland law unless there is an acceptable reason such as:
- Illness
- Competing in school events.
If your child is going to be absent from school, you must let the school know why the absence has occurred within two school days of their return. If possible, it is best to advise the school beforehand.
Avoid keeping your child away from school for reasons such as:
- Birthdays
- Shopping
- Visiting family and friends
- If they sleep in
- Looking after other children
- Minor check ups or care, such as hair cuts.
Routine medical or other health appointments should be made either before or after school or during the school holidays.
Establishing good routines around school can assist with regular school attendance. These include:
- Have a set time to go to bed
- Have a set time to get out of bed
- Have uniform and school bag ready the night before
- Have a set time for starting and finishing breakfast
- Set a time for daily homework activities
- Speak about school positively
- Send your child to school every school day including their birthday and the last day of term.
If you are experiencing difficulty in sending your child to school, contact the school for advice and support.
PBL Focus
This week students are focusing on morning routines. Setting a morning routine enables all students to be prepared and ready for learning. To address this, all students are focusing on before school routine to be able to start the day with clear expectations.
If you would like a copy of the Ready to Learn PowerPoint that the students will be engaging in to reinforce at home, please email jxran4@eq.edu.au.
Whole Class Stamp Chart
We are currently at 18 whole class stamp charts for our whole school total. We need to hit 20 charts to get our whole school reward. This means we are 90% of the way through our term goal. That is a fantastic effort from our students and our teachers getting the stamps for being safe, respectful and responsible. Ask your child what did they do to receive a stamp today.
Whole Class Rewards
As part of our PBL processes, when each class completes their whole class stamp chart they receive a whole class reward, this ranges in what the students want to do. 3A had an awesome time with technology.
Tiered Major Behaviour Data
The triangle graph has been used to indicate the percentage of students at Calliope State School who have repeated major incidents. These a
re categorised into Tier, 1, 2 and 3 – as previously explained in the newsletter. We are currently sitting at 94.35% of students in Tier 1. This is a great start to 2023.
P&C AGM -
The P&C Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 18th April at 6pm in the Office. Everyone is welcome to attend.
All positions will be declared vacant. The positions available for election are:
- President
- Vice President
- Secretary
- Treasurer
Being a part of the P&C Executive Committee gives you the opportunity to be involved in the school’s decision-making processes, helping to shape our school’s future.
The P&C is responsible for our school Tuckshop and Uniform Shop. It also supports the development of facilities and improvement of equipment in our school. We would love to see some new families get involved and help CSS to continue to be a great place to learn and to work.
Uniforms -
Size 10 shirts and small-medium hats have been ordered and the P&C are awaiting the delivery of them, keep an eye out on QKR.
Easter Donation -
Our amazing P&C raises funds to assist with bringing the price of camps and excursions down, as well as providing funding for many important projects and programs in our school.
Year 5 & 6 with the support of the P&C will be running the Easter Raffle this year. If at all possible, you would be able to donate a small Easter item, this could include Easter eggs, lollies, baskets, colouring in, Easter themed ornaments or other items that could be put into an Easter bundle, this would be greatly appreciated. All donations are to be taken to the office, where a tub will be located on top of the pigeonholes for your donation to be placed inside.
Tickets will be sold prior to the Easter Parade at the double gates between the library and Prep building, for $1 a ticket. The raffle will be drawn on the final parade of the term, March 31.
Calliope State School is fortunate to have the School Dental Van on site for Term 2.
Students should have bought home a Child/Adolescent Consent and Medical/Dental History Form back in March. If you haven't received a form, we have spare ones in the office.
On Tuesday we were very lucky to have the Year 11s from Calliope State High School visit our Year 5 and 5/6 classes to run touch skill sessions and a modified game with our students. The students loved having the big kids teach them some touch football skills. Mrs Betts was impressed with the maturity and competence of the Year 11 coaches. We all had a lot of fun!
CALLIOPE STATE SCHOOL
CROSS COUNTRY FUN RUN
YEAR P-6 PROGRAM PARENT INFORMATION
Monday 27/03/2023
Please ensure your child is wearing suitable running shoes, has a hat with their name on it and a water bottle. If they own a sports shirt, Monday is the day to wear it!
There will be a designated area for parents to sit/stand. All students must sit in their house tents, and not go and stand with parents.
- ARTICLES FOR OUR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER: If you wish to publish a NOT FOR PROFIT COMMUNITY article in our school newsletter you can do this by sending an email to admin@calliopess@eq.edu.au with all the relevant details. This will then go through our approval process prior to publishing.
- REMINDER TO PARENTS: Reminder to parents and visitors to the school to drive carefully when accessing the front entrance of the school. Please drive slowly, abide by the speed limit, normal road rules and be mindful of your surrounds. We appreciate your attention and understanding.
- COLLECTING YOUR STUDENT EARLY FROM SCHOOL: We realise that, on occasion, students may arrive late for school, or need to leave early; it is hoped that these occasions can be kept to a minimum so that the learning of the student, the class and the routine of the school is not unduly disrupted. In the event that your child is late or leaves early, please ensure that the correct procedure is followed to sign in/out by going to the Administration building signing out on the iPad, collect a slip and present it to the classroom teacher.
These processes are in place so that the teachers and school staff are aware of the movement of students at school. This is for the protection and welfare of all staff and students. It is important to look at the impact that late arrival and early departure have on a student/s education and those around them. It is not only disruptive to learning that is occurring in the classrooms at the time of arrival and departure, it is all time that accumulates to missed opportunities for learning. A student who is arriving late or leaving early by 15 minutes twice a week will miss, in total, the equivalent of 4 days of school across the year.
- RETURNING CALLS TO THE SCHOOL: We ask parents to assist us by checking their message bank before returning calls to the school, to establish which staff member has phoned. Due to the high volume of staff within our school it is not possible for us to identify who may have called you. Please call the member on their direct number if they have provided this as this will free up the office phone lines.
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MESSAGE TO STUDENTS: As you know, schools and classrooms are very busy places!
To ensure our students are fully engaged in their learning, and our office staff are able to complete their multitude of daily required tasks, we ask that parents communicate clearly with their child at the beginning of each day where you will be picking them up from in the afternoon.
As you can imagine it is extremely difficult for our office staff to field scores of phone calls asking for messages to be passed on to children regarding pick-up information.
Should you need to contact your children throughout the day, please do this via the office. These should be emergency situations only. Messages received after 1.45pm may not be acknowledged by the class in time, so please ensure children know their pick-up arrangements. - LOST PROPERTY: There are a range of items that have been placed into the lost property container. If your child is missing their hat, shoes, towel, water bottle, lunch box or jacket/jumper these items can be collected from outside the office. Any left over lost property will be sent to charity at the end of the Term.
As we start a new year, police would like to remind parents and caregivers that the areas marked in yellow below on the map are ‘No Stopping’ areas, which means that you can’t pull up and wait an extended period of time for a car to leave a car park or stop to drop your children off.
These areas are clearly signed and marked with a yellow line.
Also a reminder that the Stop, Drop and Go area is limited to 2 minutes for the loading and unloading of passengers. Police have and will continue to issue fines for vehicles stopped along the yellow lines and parked in the Stop, Drop and Go area for an extended period of time.
The maximum penalty for these offences is 20 penalty units (one penalty unit = $143.75) and can attract
3 demerit points.
To avoid the end of school traffic congestion, consider parking a bit further away and walking to collect your children or delaying pick up for 5 – 10 minutes.
Remember school staff will be at Stop, Drop and Go until 3:30pm.
Students can win prizes and have their art exhibited in an art gallery setting*.
