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Welcome to week four of term one. 2025 is the Year of Reading. Our school will focusing on the teaching of reading in 2025. Reading is one of the most researched aspects of learning. A vast body of contemporary cognitive research provides clear direction on the most effective way to teach reading.
The department’s Effective Teaching of Reading Literature Review (PDF, 6MB) provides a synthesis of existing research on how children learn to read. It can inform the effective teaching of reading for all students through the Australian Curriculum. Please see the link below for more information and reading at home using shared reading practices.
Equity and Excellence
- The reading portal is continuing to be updated as we share more information about what works best to support our children as they learn to ready.
- There are resources for parents to use directly with their own children, including tips for reading at home.
- In addition, we are continuing to use the latest research to inform our decisions about how to teach reading effectively in the classroom.
- You might think that it is all done the same as it has always been and how people have experienced in the past.
- Researchers have learnt from many successes and from those students who took longer to engage with text, and we are drawing on evidence-based practice to update the way we all work to support our children in their learning.
- Additional information and advice documentation for parents and the community is available on the Reading Portal – Advice – For parents and community section: https://det-school.eq.edu.au/reading/advice/parents-community
Rota Kids
RotaKids continues in 2025, with class representatives from Years 4-6, along with our Year 6 leaders. Mrs Liz Cunningham from Calliope Rotary will be presenting our Semester One RotaKids with their badges on parade this Friday. All parents are welcome to attend.
4A have settled back quickly into our daily school routines after returning from the Christmas Holidays. 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 on our comprehension skills as we look at Traditional Stories from all over the World.
In HASS we continue to learn about James Cook’s first Endeavor Voyage to Australian and how he claimed it to be Terra Nulla (land belonging to no one). We are also learning about what changes occurred and what stayed the same for the Aboriginal People.
In Science we are learning about forces and will be creating our own 60 second game that requires forces to be used. We had great fun making friction frogs and testing different materials for their friction properties. This knowledge is also used in Technology as students learn about the impact of forces and how materials can change the force of an object. Students will be making a Pinball Machine in Term 2 as their assessment for Technology.
In Math we have already learnt about symmetry and completed our first part of an 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.
Overall we have had a wonderful start to the year implementing Kagan Co-operative learning Startegies and The Resilience Project into our daily routines to ensure we are all engaged happy learners.
Students working in their Resilience Journals and showing their Character Strength boxes
Isabella demonstrating how to use a Friction Frog
- Share
- Take turns
- Outside Help
- Postpone
- Humour
- Avoid
- Compromise
- Chance
Our students will be going over these in the whole school lesson. An activity at home could be to discuss different ways they have resolved conflict and if there are better ways they could have tried to solve the conflict that they have previously had. Additionally, if they were to have another conflict, what mode would they try to use.
Why are resilience and wellbeing important?
- Research shows us that there is a direct link between wellbeing and academics, therefore children who are not emotionally healthy will have difficulty learning. When we are stressed, the part of our brain responsible for learning does not function effectively.
- Calm children can focus and retain more information.
- Resilience enables children to take safe risks without fear of failure.
- The statistics indicate that the number of adults struggling with mental ill health has increased over the years. Statistics also tell us that mental ill health is affecting young people at alarming rates and the onset is getting earlier. Prevention is the key to seeing these figures improve.
School Photos will be on March 3.
Sibling orders will close on the day prior at 4:30pm (March 2) in order for us to generate the list of siblings to photograph the following day.
Individual ordering remains open for up to a week after photo day.
All ording are to be completed ONLINE - Please see the link below for the unique code.
NAPLAN will be occurring later this term for our Year 3 and 5 students. The purpose of NAPLAN is to assess the literacy and numeracy skills your child is already learning at school. NAPLAN is about assessing learning progress and is not about passing or failing. Encouraging your child to do the best they can on the day is the best approach for preparing your child
If you have any questions about NAPLAN, please contact your child’s teacher as a first step.
Participation
All students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are expected to sit the NAPLAN tests unless they are withdrawn by their parents/carers or exempt. An information sheet will be sent home this week to all Year 3 and 5 parents.
Withdrawals
Parents can withdraw their child from the tests by notifying the school in writing before testing. Withdrawal is intended as an option to acknowledge religious beliefs and philosophical objections to testing.
Test Timetable
Below is the test timetable for Calliope State School in 2025.
SONGBIRDS 2025
Who are the songbirds? The choir for the school that sings, dances, has fun and performs at parades throughout the year.
When is practice? The practices will be held on Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 8.15am to 8.50am Where? In the library which is accessible for all and every student knows where it is located.
How often do I need to attend? It is recommended to attend both practices as we learn and perform new songs through the term. However, if being able to attend school at that time is difficult in your routine, once a week is okay.
What happens if I miss three practices in a row without explanation?
You will be asked to reconsider your commitment to the songbirds.
What do I need to consider before I commit?
The songbirds are open to all that want to be part of a fun community. Children who are shy are supported by their peers. You do not need to be a great singer, or even a good one, you just need that passion to be part of a fun cohort that is inclusive and supportive of one another.
Who am I? I am a full-time teacher at CSS and have volunteered my time to be the choir co-ordinator. Unfortunately, there may be the odd time through the year that I am unavailable due to teaching/personal commitments that may arise without notice. This will be communicated as quickly as possible to parents and students.
QParents
QParents is a secure, online portal that is free for all Queensland state schools to use and provides parents with quick, easy access to their student information including:
- student and parent contact details
- attendance details
- report cards – all report cards (past & present) are available to view and upload
- invoices and payment history
- Online consent management
The student information displayed in QParents is surfacing information that is already recorded and managed in One School. The benefits of using QParents for schools and parents include:
- a faster, more efficient way to communicate with parents regarding student information
- a secure, convenient and automated process for parents to pay school invoices
- significant time and effort savings for both your school and parent community
- an innovative online communication tool that’s free of charge for both schools and parents to use.
How do I register for QParents?
You will be sent an email inviting you to register for QParents. You will then be able to register via the secure QParents website: qparents.qld.edu.au using the unique invitation code contained in the email. You will require each child’s unique EQ ID and you must verify your identity by providing 100 points of identification. If you cannot verify your identity online, you should contact your child’s school for assistance. The school will review your registration and approve your account. You will then be able to access the QParents app.
Please note: if you have not received the QParents invitation email, please send correspondence through to admin@calliopess.eq.edu.au with your full name, student/s full name & DOB to request your QParents invitation.
- 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.