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- Principal's Message
- Parade Certificate Awards - Week 2
- National Reconciliation Week
- What's Happening in 4B
- Student Wellbeing Team News
- Attendance
- Regular School Attendance
- Dr Seuss' The Cat in the Hat - Live on Stage! Gladstone GECC
- P&C News
- Uniform Hours
- RotaKids News
- Quick News
- Dentist Notes
- Gladstone State High School Presents...
- Rotary Voyage
- SpeakUp
Welcome to Week 3.
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. Our third strategy is Expectations for All. Our second action is “Enhance consistency of PBL implementation across the whole school, through the PBL Action Plan, including accurate data recording, analysis and targeted supports.” Each week in the newsletter, the PBL (Positive Behaviour for Learning) team features information for our community. Currently, students have been asked to think about and draw the re-design of our school mascot, Smiley. A combination of their design ideas will be gathered to create our new mascot. The new mascot will be featured in a book for our new prep students in 2024 with a social story about your first day at Calliope State School. This is just one strategy the PBL team are developing to prepare our students for school. Please read the PBL section of the newsletter each week for updates.
Calliope State School Parent/Caregiver Survey
Today is the last day for parents/caregivers to participate in the parent/caregiver survey. Our school does value parent/caregiver opinions about our school. 30% of parents/caregivers have responded to the survey to date. The survey takes 5 minutes to respond to.
This survey will consists of two parts. The first part has questions that are included in the Department’s School Opinion Survey, in addition to some other questions. Your response to this will give us some data on how we are progressing with our
priorities from Term 1. This will enable us to adjust our strategies can continue to improve.
The second part of the survey includes consultation on the nature of Calliope State School’s swimming program and activities and to assist in deciding whether the programs will be facilitated by school-based staff or an external provider.
Student Code of Conduct
Each week I will focus on an aspect of Calliope’s Student Code of Conduct. This week the focus e PBL expectations for parents and the standards we commit to as staff:
Please see below.
Thursday – Crazy Accessory Day; RotaKids
Week 4, Tuesday, 9 May – P&C Meeting
Week 4, Wednesday, 10 May – Mother’s Day Stall
(For more details on these events please see RotaKids information and P&C News included in this and previous newsletters)
Calliope State School will be celebrating Reconciliation Week from May 27 to June 3. Our classrooms will be doing activities to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. We would love to involve our community, so if you have ideas or would like to be involved in our celebrations, please contact Naomi Hughes on nhugh56@eq.edu.au or phone the school office.
NAIDOC WEEK
Calliope State School will be celebrating NAIDOC Week on 23rd of June (Friday of Week 10) due to the dates of the week being during our school holidays. Our classrooms will be participating in activities to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
On Friday June 23, we will be having our Whole School Parade from 9.15 – 10am. Our classrooms will then be open from 10 – 11am for parents and caregivers to visit and participate in NAIDOC week classroom activities. From 11am to 11.45am will be holding a picnic and all parents and caregivers are invited to bring a picnic blanket and lunch to share with their children from 11 – 11.45am.
This term 4B has settled back quickly into learning after the Easter break. Students are doing a wonderful job of following our classroom rules and the school’s expectations and have been working hard towards understanding new concepts in all learning areas.
In English we are working towards writing a Historical Recount of events that occurred during the colonisation of Australia which will be delivered as a speech. We are reading a book called Eliza Bird and another historical journal entry that will be used to assess our comprehension of the two historical texts.
In HASS we continue to learn about the First Fleet and the changes that occurred due to the colonisation of Australia. We will learn about laws and rules and why they are important and will transfer our knowledge in HASS to understand and write our recount in English.
In Science we are learning about materials and their purposes. We will be looking at different materials and how they can be changed to suit a purpose. Students will investigate the properties affecting the use of ochre, connecting English, HASS and Science learning together.
In Math we have already looked at identifying odd and even numbers and completed our first Assessment Task for the Term. We have now started to look at interpreting simple maps and will continue to learn our multiplication and division facts.
*4B’s Science learning wall and investigation table *Working hard in maths on Cardinal Directions.
PBL Focus
This week students are focusing on speaking respectfully. All classes are going to look at social stories of people being respectful and disrespectful and identify who is being respectful and disrespectful.
If you wish to have a copy of the powerpoint that the students will be engaging in to reinforce at home, please email jxran4@eq.edu.au.
Tiered Behaviour Data
The triangle graph has been used to indicate the percentage of students at Calliope State School at each Tier. These are categorised into Tier, 1, 2 and 3 – as previously explained in the newsletter. We are currently sitting at 92.7% of students in Tier 1. Our target is to have this percentage above 90% each semester. Below I have represented the data in whole numbers to show that 92.7% of students is a lot of students – 521 students to be exact.
Expression of Interest for PBL Parent Representatives
We have decided to cancel the Parent Feedback and Information Sessions and instead we have a fantastic opportunity where we are looking for some PBL Parent Representatives. Position includes:
- Meeting with PBL Team Leader and PBL Coach
- Attendance and Engagement at PBL Meetings
- Gather feedback from parents to bring to PBL Meeting.
- Completion of Parent Mandatory Training
If interested please email Jade @ jxran4@eq.edu.au.
Congratulations to 3/4D who had an amazing attendance rate for Week 2. Their attendance rate was 97.72% for the Week!
Unfortunately, there were no classes at or above our school attendance target of 94% for Week 2.
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.
TICKETS TO GIVEAWAY TO THE CAT IN THE HATThe Cat in the Hat is coming to the Gladstone GECC in the June/July school holidays!Calliope State School are pleased to offer one lucky family a double pass (2) to this exciting live performance, worth over $80.
If your attendance is 85% or higher during Term 2, you will automatically go into the draw to win this fantastic prize which will be awarded to one lucky family on Principal's Pararde in Week 10. For more information on the show please visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Catinthehataustralia or website: www.catinthehatlive.com
Hi everyone! We hope you’re enjoying these short weeks.
Over the next few weeks, we will use this space to start to introduce ourselves. We are all really enthusiastic to be working together and excited to bring all our individual strengths to the table to continue the great work the P&C has always facilitated. This week we will put the spotlight on our new secretary Lisa Newby. Lisa has been a parent in our school community for 26 years! She has been involved with the P&C for 15 years and has been a regular volunteer in our tuckshop for 12 years! You may know her husband as our wonderful Groundskeeper; Lee Newby, who professionally maintains our school grounds, having them looking fabulous, always! Lisa is exceptionally dedicated to our school and feels she still has more to offer and so she very graciously nominated herself for the secretary role this year.
Our next P&C meeting is next week; Tuesday May 9th at 5:30pm in the Admin building conference room. We would love to meet you and hear your thoughts on our agenda items. You would also get to have a say on our strategic plan which we will start to develop in future meetings. If you have a vision for our wonderful school, we genuinely welcome your input.
Other upcoming key dates are:
- P&C Meeting Tuesday May 9th at 5:30pm
- Mother’s Day Stall Wednesday May 10th in the hall
If you would like more information on anything we have mentioned or anything that we haven’t, we would love to hear from you at; pandc@calliopess.eq.edu.au
Warm regards,
Heidi, Geoff, Angela and Lisa.
Normal opening hours:
Friday 8.30am to 9.00am
Uniform Shop located at the entrance to the Multipurpose Hall (closes to the oval). Uniform can also be purchased through the QKR app.
- RotaKids are currently selling tickets to students before school, for some lucky students to be able to name the Polio Koalas. We have 4 Koalas (2 x Prep- 2, 1 x Year 3-4 and 1 x Year 5-6). This is running from Wednesday Week 2 to Friday Week 8 with the selected names being drawn on Week 9 and presented on Week 9 parade. Students select a name for their year level Koala with the name selected going into a barrel. Tickets are 50 cents each. All money raised goes to support the cure of Polio.
- Week 3 - Thursday 4th May: Crazy accessory day. Students can wear crazy accessories for the day to raise money for Ronald McDonald house. Some examples include - headband or socks. This will be a gold coin donation. Some information about Ronald McDonald house
- Week 5 - Thursday 18th May: Fun athletics activities. RotaKids will be running fun athletic activities for all students to participate in during first break on the front oval. We welcome all parents that have their mandatory training to come. 11.15-11.40pm front oval. Please sign in at the office. If you would like to attend, please email Amanda: awhal20@eq.edu.au.
- 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.
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.