Term 3 Week 2 School Newsletter
- Upcoming Events
- Principal Message
- Year 5 - 6 News from the Deputy
- Year 3 - 4 News from the Deputy
- Prep - Year 2 News from the Deputy
- Head of Inclusive Education News
- Year 3-6 Curriculum News from the Head of Deparment
- Prep - Year 2 Curriculum News from the Head of Department
- Guidance Officer News
- PBL - Positive Behaviour for Learning is our Whole School Approach for behaviour
- Focus
- Q Parents
- Have you lost your scooter?
- We are Hiring
- Year 2 Incursion Roaming Wild
- Year 2 Incursion Cairn Museum ‘History on the Move’
- Instrumental Music - Come Together
- Art Showcase
- Art Fundraiser
- Indah's fundraising event
- MS Readathon
- Premier's Reading Challenge
- Book Club
- Run Club
- Young Scholars
- Athletics Week
- NAIDOC Week
- 100 days of prep
- Prep Fun Club
- Student of the Week
- Attendance Award
- Golden Garden Gnome Award
- Busted Being Brilliant
- Around the Classroom
- In the Playground
- School Musical Update
- Bike Bus News
- P&C News
- Tuckshop News
- Paradise Pals Playgroup
- Paradise Playgroup
- Prep Enrolments Open
- Smithfield State High School
- Community News
Upcoming Events
Principal Message
Year 5 - 6 News from the Deputy
Welcome back and happy term 3. Our team are so pleased to see so many happy faces returning and so many new students joining us. Term 3 is a busy one with students receiving their first semester reports and working towards their goals and improvement.
What a fantastic last week of 2 term we had. It was great to see so many students competing in our athletics carnival. Thank you to all the parents that came out to support as well. Congratulations to Michaelmas who were our house champions.
Congratulations also to those students who were selected to participate in the Young Scholars rotations this term for the first time. If you child did not receive an offer and would like to be part of the program, please arrange a time to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss the next steps towards achieving a place.
Kind regards
Leanne Bell
Deputy Years 5 & 6
Year 3 - 4 News from the Deputy
Welcome to Term 3, how quickly the year is flying by! Term 2 was huge and one of the highlights for me was having the opportunity towards the end of the term to read through all of the report cards and celebrate all the wonderful achievements our Year 3 & 4 students have had throughout the semester, well done to our fabulous students!
I am excited to announce that I will be continuing to work with our amazing Year 3 & 4 students, staff and families until the end of Term 3. I am loving my time in this position and getting to know the students and our families better has been a highlight over my past 10 weeks in the position so it will be lovely to have the opportunity to continue to build on these relationships and spend some more time with you all.
Semester 2 is an opportunity for students to consolidate what they have learnt throughout the first half of the year and start to build on this new knowledge. New concepts are often introduced during Semester 1 units and Semester 2 units allows students the chance to apply these to their learning to increase their understanding further. Please be sure to keep in touch with your child’s classroom teacher regarding academics, behavioural concerns and anything else, this can be done via email or by making a time with them to catch up before or after school. Your child’s classroom teacher is the best point of call for any concerns or queries as they are with your child the majority of the day and will have the most knowledge to be able to answer your questions. If the classroom teacher feels there is a need for a Deputy to be in attendance for these they will request that I attend otherwise, all information is passed onto me via our One School platform so I am then aware of what is happening with all our little people.
Curriculum
All terms are busy terms and Term 3 is no exception. Our Year 3 & 4s are already well into their new units of work and have already been busy continuing to build their skills and knowledge throughout Weeks 1 & 2. Both year levels have an excursion this term which is very exciting for our students. Year 3 will be heading to the beach as part of their English poetry unit and Year 4 to the Waste Management Centre as part of their HASS unit. More information around each of these will come home later in the term.
Have a fantastic Term 3 everyone 😊
Prep - Year 2 News from the Deputy
Head of Inclusive Education News
We’re off and running into Term 3 and with it comes the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) that happens in schools every year in August. The NCCD is an annual count of students who are being provided with adjustments to address disability. All Australian schools and approved authorities for schools participate in the NCCD each year.
As a parent, guardian or carer, what do I need to know?
Under the Disability Discrimination Act (1992) and the Disability Standards for Education (2005), schools have an obligation to ensure that students with disability are able to access and participate in school on the same basis as their peers.
To ensure this, students with disability may receive adjustments or support, depending on their functional needs, to access and participate in education.
As parents, guardians and carers, you have an important role in your child’s education. Working collaboratively with the school to ensure that the school understands your child’s needs and that appropriate adjustments are made to enable access to education is essential to engage your child in learning.
If you would like to learn more about the NCCD, further information can be found on the NCCD portal https://www.nccd.edu.au and you can access the Fact sheets for parents, guardians and carers about the NCCD here.
Enjoy the Cairns Show Long Weekend!
SAMANTHA ILIC
HEAD OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
Year 3-6 Curriculum News from the Head of Deparment
It’s great to see students back after their break ready to engage in learning!
Term curriculum overviews from each year level will be sent to all families, these provide a snap shot of what students are learning in class. An assessment schedule is also included in the overview so parents and carers are aware of when students will have assessment tasks occurring throughout the term.
Our school has received whole school results for NAPLAN. Teachers will use these results to inform their teaching over the remainder of the year. The QCAA will send the individual student results over the coming weeks, as soon as we receive these, we will send them home to our families.
Prep - Year 2 Curriculum News from the Head of Department
Welcome back to Term 3. We are halfway through the year already. Term 3 will see us celebrate Book Week and also hold our second Book Fair for the year. We will continue to read books for the Premier’s Reading Challenge and also participate in the MS Readathon. It is great to see so much reading and celebration of books happening!
Save the Date!
Book week is coming! We will be celebrating all things book week in week 7 of this term. The theme this year is “Read Grow Inspire”
Costume Parade – Monday 21st August 9:15am
Our Book Fair will also be held during week 7.
Monday 21st August to Friday 25th August
Premiers Reading Challenge
Keep reading those books – you have till 25th August to read as many books as you can! Completed forms can be returned to the library or your class teacher.
Guidance Officer News
If you have worries about your child, what can you do to support them?
Talk to your GP if you or your child requires any support around mental health. GPs have excellent training in recognising and assessing mental health concerns. They can also provide a Mental Health Plan if needed, which provides supports at a reduced cost.
Family and Child Connect – This service visits the school each Tuesday afternoon (from about 1pm – 3.30pm), and Holly Haste is the worker designated to our school. This service also operates over school holiday periods from their main office, in Cairns city. Families can engage with this service in order to be linked with appropriate support options for their children. Families can self-refer during holiday periods, or anytime via Act for Kids’ main office in Cairns city (Phone: 07 4033 8500) or Mobile: 0458 735 738 (Holly’s work phone).
If you, a family member, or your child needs counselling support, there are some excellent services who are generally able to work with families in the Cairns area. Two of these, who already do some work with families at our school are:
- Uniting Care Counselling – Provide 1:1 counselling for children and adults, and can do this at school for children if needed, families can self-refer – Ph 1300 096 203
- Centacare counselling – Provide 1:1 counselling for children and adults, and can do this at school for children if needed, families can self-refer – Ph 4044 0130
For parenting support, the following websites have excellent resources and referral ideas - https://raisingchildren.net.au/ or https://parentline.com.au/ - Parentline also has a phone service, available on 1300 301 300 (providing free counselling and support to Parents and Carers).
PBL - Positive Behaviour for Learning is our Whole School Approach for behaviour
Our PBL team worked hard throughout Term 2 refining processes from feedback given by students, parents and colleagues. Our “Busted Being Brilliant” lunchtime initiative saw a decrease in lunchtime behavioural incidents and an increase in students thinking about our school expectations in the playground and how to communicate respectfully with staff and students. Whilst we do have multiple staff members in all areas, with a school of nearly 1000 we can’t have eyes on all kids at all times. At times, we do rely on your children reporting incidents to teachers. This needs to happen as soon it occurs, not when the bell goes or when it’s home time. Often incidents need investigating to get an understanding of the context surrounding the incident and this takes time therefore the sooner the students report, the sooner it can be followed up. Students are well aware of where they can find duty teachers and all teachers are in fluorescent vests therefore easily identifiable from a distance. Please continue encouraging your child to report incidents as we will continue to do at school.
In more exciting news the Trinity Dollar shop has been restocked with many exciting new toys! Although our “Busted Being Brilliant” has ceased for the time-being, we will continue to reward our student’s demonstrating excellence in following school expectations through our Trinity Dollars.
Focus
Week 1
Week 2 & 3
Q Parents
To continue to streamline the school’s sale for all items – school fees, excursions, performances, instrumental music we are moving to a cashless school. This allows our school to reduce the time, effort and expenses required to collect and follow up payments from parents and students. When you receive an invoice payments can be made online via BPOINT or QParents.
We are proud of being a relatively-cashless school and thank you for moving online with us!
QParents
QP is an online portal helping the school move toward a cashless and paper friendly school.
- The QP portal allows Parents and Carers to grant participation consent online for activities such as swimming and excursions which reduces our need to print out paper consent forms
- Also, the QP portal enables Parents and Carers to make payment online for school activities and viewing unpaid invoices payment history.
Thank you to all those parents who have registered for QParents. This means every registered parent now has the opportunity to access to their children’s student records at their fingertips, anytime, anywhere. Haven’t received an invitation from us yet? There’s still time! Please let us know immediately. Or if you are simply looking for further information, videos and FAQs on QParents, visit https://qparents.qld.edu.au
Have you lost your scooter?
If you have lost your scooter please call into the administration office as we have two scooters looking for their owners.
We are Hiring
Year 2 Incursion Roaming Wild
Year 2 Incursion Cairn Museum ‘History on the Move’
Instrumental Music - Come Together
Art Showcase
Art Fundraiser
Indah's fundraising event
One of our students, Indah, at 11 years old, will be the youngest Australian to summit Mt Kilimanjaro to raise funds for cancer research.
MS Readathon
Dear Parents/Carers,
On Tuesday the 25th July we will be running a Book Swap to raise money for the MS Readathon charity.
Students need to bring to school 1-6 ‘good’ books that they have already read to donate and a gold coin donation. They will receive a token in return and can go to the library at first lunch to choose an awesome new book to keep. Children that are unable to donate a book can still take part at second lunch with a gold coin donation.
Books for donation and gold coins will be collected from classrooms at the start of the day.
The MS Readathon is a great charity that raises money for people with Multiple Sclerosis and their children to go on special family camps and do fun activities to learn more about MS.
Anyone can sign up to join the MS Readathon! All you need to do is go online at https://www.msreadathon.org.au to register. You will collect sponsors and throughout the month of August your child will read as many books as possible all while raising money for a great cause. You can even use books from the Premier’s Reading Challenge towards your tally. You will be able to change your avatar online, create a dashboard, log your books in a virtual bookshelf and receive badges as you reach new goals. You may even receive a t-shirt to keep! Link your account to the school team to add to our school tally.
Let’s get behind this great cause and raise as much money as we can for these kids all while reading books.
From Tora 6F
Premier's Reading Challenge
We’re participating in the Premier’s Reading Challenge for 2023. An email outlining the information and the reader record form has been sent home.
As a school we’ve set ourselves the goal of reading 5,000 books!! If you haven’t already, start reading today.
Reader record forms can be picked up from the library and completed forms can be returned your class teacher or the library.
Book Club
Run Club
Run Club | A step in the right direction…There are over 100 students participating in Run Club each Thursday morning from 8am on the school oval. Nyah one of our student leaders in Year 6 is leading this entire initiative. Thanks to Rebel Sport, Event Cinemas Smithfield and Woolworths Smithfield for your generous support and donations. Congratulations to all the students who beat their personal goals.
Run Club is getting bigger! | Every Thursday from 8am. Thankyou Woolworths Smithfield for the fresh fruit…
Young Scholars
Our Young Scholars took out the top place at the JCU Philosothon today. This is a unique opportunity our students participate in due to our partnership with Smithfield State High School Tropical North Learning Academy and James Cook University.
My New Gallery
Athletics Week
1500m
High Jump records being broken.
800m
Junior Athletics
Thanks for supporting the P-3 Athletics Day!
Age champions announced and Michaelmas takes out top points as 2023 Athletics winners!
NAIDOC Week
This is Suzanne Foxell and her grandchildren John from 2C and Ruby from Prep C looking at photos of great uncle John Yanner and Poppy Denis Yamaguchi both Elders of the Gangalidda clan.
Thank you to all our families that contributed to the For Our Elders display.
Guest reader Claire Sharpe along Coral (5D) and Archer (6C) Reading a traditional story to some of our Prep students.
NAIDOC week activities | Aunty Rosie teaching our students traditional weaving with coconut palm fronds.
100 days of prep
100 days smarter, older, wiser, more curious, intelligent and excited. Thank you families for your support! We love our school.
Prep Fun Club
Prep Fun Club has a range of activities as a reward for students who display adorable behaviours at school. Today was a touch of beautification in our Prep play area.
Student of the Week
Week 10
Week 1
Week 2
Attendance Award
Week 10
Week 2
Golden Garden Gnome Award
Week 10
Week 2
Busted Being Brilliant
Busted Being Brilliant | Look who has scored themselves a $10 tuckshop voucher… for brilliance in the school grounds.
Around the Classroom
Visual Arts with Mrs Graham is an endless canvas of creativity. See what our Year 1 students have achieved from Mrs Graham’s inspiration, planning and commitment to our students and school.
In the Playground
The wet weather does not dampen our day.
School Musical Update
Trust us - you don't want to miss this one! Save the date now. Tickets available soon...
We believe in dreaming, shooting for the stars….Rehearsals are back in full swing!!
Bike Bus News
Award winners for week 10
P&C News
We thank you our P&C Association for a significant donation to our school. Over the holidays we have installed CPAC quality performing arts lighting in our Hall.
This was a $61,000 financial contribution from the Trinity Beach P&C Association.
This is just in time for our school musical early Term 4. We don’t know how to use the lights yet but we pushed a few buttons for our first parade and…wow.
Thanks again to all families for your generous time and involvement by supporting our great school.
Tuckshop News
Paradise Pals Playgroup
Paradise Playgroup
Prep Enrolments Open
Smithfield State High School
In order to manage attendance, bookings must be made through our online booking system (SOBS)
https://eq.sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=70160
✅ How good is this? Year 8 students from Smithfield State High School Tropical North Learning Academy came and read to our Prep students today. The high school students modelled exceptional reading to our littlest students. Our Prep students loved the opportunity. It is so good to have this partnership under our Tropical North Learning Academy partnership.
Community News
