Welcome to Week 5.

This week I had the pleasure of sharing a morning tea with some of our wonderful volunteers to our school.  Volunteering is the heart of Australian communities.  Thank you to every person who volunteers at our school.  You contribution makes a huge impact on all our students.  May 19 marks P&C Day.  Members of our P&C work tirelessly each year to improve educational facilities, resources and student outcomes.  A huge thank you to both the outgoing and incoming executive of our P&C and all members.  You have a huge impact on our school.  To volunteer at any Queensland State School, Mandatory Training is required to be completed each year.  This is done to ensure our volunteers understand Departmental Code of Conduct and to ensure the safety of all our students.  We hold sessions each term and they take about 30 minutes.  Please consider joining our P&C or volunteering at Calliope State School.

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 Consideration of Individual Circumstances.

Staff at Calliope State School take into account students’ individual circumstances, such as their behaviour history, disability, mental health and wellbeing, religious and cultural considerations, home environment and care arrangements when teaching expectations, responding to inappropriate behaviour or applying a disciplinary consequence.

 In considering the individual circumstances of each student, we recognise that the way we teach, the support we provide and the way we respond to students will differ. This reflects the principle of equity, where every student is given the support they need to be successful. This also means that not everyone will be treated the same, because treating everyone the same is not fair when each student has different needs. For example, some students need additional support to interpret or understand an expectation. Others may benefit from more opportunities to practise a required skill or behaviour. For a small number of students, the use of certain disciplinary consequences may be considered inappropriate or ineffective due to complex trauma or family circumstances. These are all matters that our teachers and principal consider with each individual student in both the instruction of behaviour and the response to behaviour.

Our teachers are also obliged by law to respect and protect the privacy of individual students, so while we understand the interest of other students, staff and parents to know what consequence another student might have received, we will not disclose or discuss this information with anyone but the student’s family. This applies even if the behavioural incident, such as bullying, involves your child. You can be assured that school staff take all matters, such as bullying, very seriously and will address them appropriately. We expect that parents and students will respect the privacy of other students and families.

 If you have concerns about the behaviour of another student at the school, or the way our staff have responded to their behaviour, please make an appointment with the principal to discuss the matter.

Equity and Excellence

What does Equity and Excellence mean for our school and community?

 In the short term it means that we keep doing the great things that our school is well known for with Everyone at Calliope State School working together to ensure that every day, in every classroom, every student is learning and achieving.

 The strategy from the system, combines with the insights from across our local school community and evidence from our school review to inform our school strategic plan and the actions we take each year to implement that plan. Equity and Excellence is a strategy that will unfold over a number of years.

 We will monitor our school plans during 2023 and make updates as we gain further insights about what Equity and Excellence can mean for our school.

 We will be continuing our whole school conversation about:

• student achievement (particularly in English and mathematics)
• attendance
• and student disciplinary absences.

The data we gather in these areas is designed to inspire conversations about what is working well and where can we be doing better. Which students are thriving and which students would benefit from further support in order to reach their potential.

 There is a range of exciting system initiatives that will bring benefits in the longer term as we continue to explore digital innovation in teaching and learning, and effective collaboration between schools and other community services.

 Connections to First Nations culture enrich the learning of every student and strengthens all of our work. We value First Nations culture and voice in our approach to learning for all students. Embedded throughout Equity and Excellence there is a focus on outcomes for every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student.

 As a system we are maintaining our commitment to students, schools, parents and the community to working together to maximise student learning and wellbeing. 

 As a school we will continue work together as a community to review our practices and continue to improve to achieve the best outcomes for all our students.

Upcoming Events Calendar

Some reminders of upcoming events from the calendar include –

Week 5 - Thursday, 18 May – Rotakids Fun Activities @ first break

Week 5 - Thursday, 19 May – Walk Safely to School Day

Week 6 - Wednesday, 24 May – National Simultaneous Storytime (the Speedy Sloth)

Week 7 – Reconciliation Week

Week 7 – Sport’s Days

 (For more details on these events see information included this newsletter)

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National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 23nd successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.

 The event takes place online.  This year NSS takes place on Wednesday 24 May 2023. At Calliope State School, this will take place at 11.15am in the library. 

 ALIA National Simultaneous Storytime 2023

Term 1 saw 2B doing lots of Poetry and the students created a new poem, starting from an original poem. This was challenging but they powered through!

In Maths there was lots of practise with number patterns and collecting data.

In Science, the topic was materials and everyone made a container that had to hold a sandwich and an orange – there were some interesting creations!

In Term 2, we are learning about describing characters from Fairy tales, learning about Quarter Past and Quarter To on analogue and digital clocks, and working with forces – push and pull - to make a toy.

PBL Focus

This week students are focusing on dress code. All classes are going to look at:

• ‘Why have a dress code?”,
• “Why do we have a school uniform?”,
• “What is our Calliope State School uniform?”,
• “What is inappropriate dress for school?”,
• “What happens when a student wears the wrong school uniform?”,
• “What can we wear on free dress days?”.

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 who are at each tier. 

Major behaviours – Major behaviours are behaviours that are so serious that immediate assistance is needed, have strong negative impact on others, or are so disruptive that teaching and learning cannot continue.

Universal Supports Tier 1 - 'differentiated and explicit teaching for all students', or school-wide interventions, are the critical foundation for PBL. Interventions are at the whole-school level and are provided to all students across academic, emotional and behaviour dimensions of learning. The focus of tier 1 intervention is on all students and staff across all settings—whole-school, classroom and non-classroom.

We are currently sitting at 91.6% of students in Tier 1. As you can see from the above triangle, usually Tier 1 sits at around 80%. PBL targets are 80% for all Queensland PBL schools. Below I have represented the data that we have at Calliope State School in whole numbers to show that 91.6% is 516 students in Tier 1.

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

Please email jxran4@eq.edu.au to express your interest.

Congratulations to 3/4D who had an amazing attendance rate for Week 4. Their attendance rate was 97.27% for the week!

Also, congratulations to 1 class which was at or above our school attendance target of 94% for week.

Remember, every day you are away is a learning day lost.

Hi everyone! What a big week it has been! We trust all of our Mums, Caregivers and Grandmothers enjoyed their special day and loved their gifts that their children picked out for them. Congratulations to all of our winners of the Mother’s Day Raffle we drew on Friday morning. Also, thanks to everyone who bought tickets! Every little bit helps us to invest funds into the school for things such as camps and excursions. These costs are continually increasing like everything else, so the more we can support families with these costs, and many others, the happier we are! Since it is ‘Volunteers Week’, another big thank you to all our volunteers who helped us out at the Mother’s Day stall last week and to Mrs Smith-Ashton and the grade 6’s for facilitating the raffle ticket sales!

If you have an hour or so spare throughout the school week, have you considered volunteering in the tuckshop? Or if the great outdoors is more your thing; why not lend a hand at the upcoming senior (Yr3-6) Athletics Carnival on Friday June 2^nd? You don’t have to commit to a whole day; just a small portion of your day would go a long way in helping and would be immensely appreciated.

As the mornings are starting to cool down, in the near future our tuckshop will be selling warm milos before school. Thanks so much to Helping Hands for donating the Milo for this fundraiser!! Watch out for a Facebook post with more details on this.

Did you hear about the upcoming Pizza days? Check your child’s bag for a flyer, or check out the Calliope SS P&C Facebook page for all the details. Ordering is easy peasy, just through QKR! Remember to check that your child’s class has been updated for this year.

Time to put the spotlight on our Vice-President, Geoff Kerr! Geoff and his family are in their 5^th year at our school and last year he was our assistant treasurer. This year, Geoff nominated himself for the VP role so he can continue to contribute to the school community, especially in the forms of implementing our new strategic plan and improving parent engagement. Geoff is really excited about what this year is going to bring and he genuinely welcomes and values our families’ input. So, if you have any fresh ideas or comments, email us at pandc@calliopess.eq.edu.au

Warm regards,

Heidi, Geoff, Angela and Lisa.

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

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. 

TICKETS TO GIVEAWAY TO THE CAT IN THE HAT

The 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