Principal: Rhonda HAWTHORNE Email: principal@macknadess.eq.edu.au

Ph : 4777 2709 Web site: www.macknadess@eq.edu.au

Newsletter Issue 14 – 12 August 2018

Dear Parents/Carers

From the Principal

Week 4 of Term 3 evolved into an extremely busy week for everyone at Macknade State School. Firstly, I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to Michelle Holmes who without hesitation, agreed to fill in for Janelle when she fell ill and required hospitalisation.

On a sad note, Janelle has been advised by doctors that she must give up work in order to regain her

health. Janelle has been a

valued employee of Macknade SS and I am certain that our

community joins with me in

thanking Janelle for her years of loyalty

and commitment. It has been a privilege getting to know Janelle this year. I will miss her happy

demeanour and high work ethic but most of all I hope she takes the time

she needs to heal and enjoy her beautiful family. Thank you Janelle. The staff and students of Macknade State School will miss you.

Our school cleaners are highly valued staff members at Macknade State School. Without them, our school would simply be a ‘mess’. This beautiful photo of our two lovely ladies, was taken recently at a morning tea in recognition of their hard work on World Cleaner’s Day. Thank you also to our P&C committee and tuckshop

convenor, for their efforts in making this celebration such a special occasion.

On Monday of Week 4, Mrs Fichera attended training with other BSM’s at the Ingham State School. Professional Development is an important part of our roles, which ensures we stay up to date with changes in policies and procedures within our department. From all reports, Mrs Fichera stated that the day was very worthwhile and she gained a wealth of invaluable information that would support her in her role as BSM.

On Tuesday last week, we also had a visit from Lesley Pecchiar who is our Assistant Regional Director. The purpose of ARD visits is to ‘check in’ to ensure our students are learning, our staff are teaching the correct curriculum and that we are all travelling ok. What was reported back to me following this visit was that our students are happy, they all love their teachers and all our students are learning and making progress.

Mrs Pecchiar randomly selects students to speak to and she asks a series of questions to ensure all is as it should be in our school. As writing is our explicit improvement agenda focus for 2018, it was delightful to hear that students reported their Principal for nagging them about not using capital letters or full stops in their writing. This indicates to me that I am doing my job in the classroom by providing feedback to my students in how to improve their writing!

On Thursday and Friday, I attended a Learning Fair with all other Principals of Band 5/6 Schools in North Queensland Region. The first day of the Learning Fair incorporated a multitude of key messages from Head Office in Brisbane. Learning Fairs are an invaluable source of professional development for Principals, and provides us with opportunities to network with our colleagues from similar sized schools, across the region.

Included in the presentations of day 1 was a thought provoking presentation by Deb Dunstone who is now the Assistant Director-General State Schools – Disability and Inclusion. I will be presenting her ideas to staff in our next staff meeting.

Show-casing the inspirational work with students at Thuringowa State High School in Townsville, Principals were fortunate to hear about the Global Tropics Future Project. Global Tropics Future (GTF) results in enriched learning outcomes, aspirations and pathways for students.

“The Global Tropics Future Young Scholars have opportunities to engage in innovative experiences in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This STEM elective is designed to extend students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It challenges and excites students with the possibilities of the future. It involves 21st century learning opportunities and emphasises inquiry based learning.”

Smithfield SHS in Cairns also runs this project providing selected students (GTF Young Scholars) in Years 5 - 9 with enrichment and enhancement opportunities within Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The purpose of the project is to build their knowledge and skills, to provide them with opportunities and experiences and to inspire them to follow a STEM pathway.

At the start of Term 3, I enacted strategies set out in our Investing for Success document where I allocated funding to further improve reading and writing across the school, via extra Teacher Aide support for students and mentoring for staff. Mrs Geaney was allocated the TA time to provide extra support to students in writing, and she has been working on strategies each week, with various students, in a small group or one-on-one situations.

On Tuesdays, our whole school writing program takes place with all classes working together, on strategies that will improve their writing in all curriculum areas. I am so proud of our students who have truly enjoyed what we have been doing so far. All students from Prep-Year 6, can engage in the program together to enhance their writing, and the activities I have chosen, are completed according to their own ability, with ideas to enhance the outcome. This program

further serves as a professional development session for staff who are all present during each session, to provide support for students if they require it. We have had many laughs because of some of the answers, but at the end of the day, everyone is taking the opportunity to learn skills or enact strategies they had forgotten about.

The Year 3-6 class have had a busy Term 3 already and are this week up to their first piece of assessment in English. Students have all been studying poetry and are quite the budding poets, even if I do say so myself! I only have to say the word ‘hist,’ and off they go on a rendition quite astounding. Maybe next year we could enter the Winton Poetry Festival to take away the Small School’s Division trophy! Just a thought.

On reflection back to my own days in Primary school, I never learned anything like what our students are currently learning, and I am so proud that they can easily identify the poetic devices used by writers to make their writing interesting and entertaining. I wonder how many parents can identify similes, metaphors, assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and personification. These devices are language choices made by a poet, to create meaning, including imagery and sound devices.

Our year 5/6 class are analyzing a poem they have studied this term whereby they are required to demonstrate their knowledge of all the strategies learned these past 4 weeks. As this assessment is a monitoring task, the 5/6 class knows it does not contribute to their end-of- semester mark in English. Their next task however, will contribute to their end-result and builds upon the work they are doing in this first poetry unit.

The year 3/4 students are writing and presenting a poetry adaptation, which they have been practicing each lesson with a range of poems. They are getting the hang of it and all know what is expected.

I am so extremely proud of their efforts in this unit and I am certain they will all achieve a happy result if they follow the instructions. Without effort, there is no reward. We have used a multitude of examples in class, the students have practiced presenting to their peers (which we recorded) and we have then analyzed presentations as a class. Some of the results have been nothing short of spectacular, so I have

come to expect a huge effort from a focused and driven bunch of students. Well done kids!

HASS news

Humanities and Social Sciences is our new look curriculum area which combines History, Geography and Civics and Citizenship into the one learning area. This term so far, the students are enjoying this learning area. I am teaching the Year 5 and 6 class their individual units and Mrs Marini has Year 3 and 4. My timetable has acknowledged the individual time requirements for each curriculum area, and to ensure each student gets the most out of their learning, they are completing straight year level curriculum.

Teaching straight year level curriculum ensures that when our students transition across to their secondary education, they have been given the best foundation with their learning, to support them in their secondary years.

The Year 5/6 units in HASS this Term are geography based units, which have to date, been extremely interesting and engaging. The students are exposed to lots of terminology they have never heard of, but for the budding world travelers of the future, the knowledge they gain in Term 3 will be invaluable.

Year 5 topics include:

Characteristics of places

Characteristics of Europe

Characteristics of North America

Landforms influence places

Climate influences places

Interpreting climate data

Comparing Spain and Finland

Case study – The Dust Bowl (USA)

Acid rain in Europe

Case study – Urbanisation in Mexico

Assessment – People and the environment.

Staffroom for Improvement

RACQ wants to reward Qld Teachers for all their

hard work! Show your appreciation by writing a

thank you note to a member of your teaching

community. Every thank you note places your

school in the draw to win a $20,000 staff room

make over. Thank you notes can be written by

everyone!

Also, 2 runner-up prizes of a $1,000 EFTPOS

gift card are up for grabs and the school with the

most entries will receive a $1,000 EFTPOS gift

card. So, let’s get everyone saying ‘thank you” to

our amazing Teachers.

Thanking your teaching staff is simple and easy.

Entries close on Monday 3rd September 2018.

https://www.racq.com.au/about/community-and-

sponsorships/staffroom-for-improvement

Ingham Arts Festival

On Wednesday 22nd August, our whole school

will be performing in the ‘Choral Primary Choirs –

Small Schools” section at the Ingham Arts

Festival. All students have been working with our

music teacher – Mrs Caroline Gunston and they

are sounding wonderful already.

The event will be held at the Shire Hall and our

whole school will need to be there by 9:15am. We

will be looking for parental transport please. A

permission form was issued with the last

newsletter so if you have misplaced your form,

please come to the office to collect another one.

Official Programs for the Ingham Arts Festival

are on sale at Ingham Newsagency and the

Paper Shop. The official program will be up on

the Ingham Arts Website for parents.

Thank you Mrs Gunston for all your efforts in

getting our students ready for their performance

and also thanks Mrs Rita Phillips for giving up

your own personal time, to play the piano for our

students’ practice performances to date. I am

certain their efforts have not been in vain. The

kids sound fabulous!

Twelve students in Year 3 – Year 6 class are

preparing craft items for the Art and Craft display

which will be handed in on Friday 17th August.

Costs for all nominations will be covered by

the school.

Day to Day in Prep/Year 1/Year 2

Braydan enjoyed reading to Tyler and Isabella this week while the other Year 1’s and 2’s were at Religion. It was great to see him sharing his expertise with them.

Gary and Hamish have been learning about

fractions. They have been discovering how to

partition objects and collections into halves,

quarters and eighths. It was a little tricky trying to

cut the straws into eight equal parts, but they are

getting the hang of it.

In Prep Science, we

were investigating

the effects of the sun

and wind on items in

our environment

using our senses.

We were able to see

the plants swaying in

the wind and feel it

against our skin. We

were able to see the

shadows cast by the sun, feel the warmth on our

skin and feel that the concrete and metal railing

had become hot in the sun.

Isabella and Tyler put an ice cube in the sun and

predicted it would melt. They were very excited

when we came back later and it had melted.

Thank you to the lovely ladies in the tuckshop for

providing us with some ice cubes.

Here we all are together in Design and

Technology. We went for a walk around,

identifying hardware in our school. We are

learning about the difference between hardware

and software. It is a bit tricky. To help us

remember which parts of digital technologies are

hardware and software, we are making a

slideshow. We are very excited about sharing

our slideshow with the bigger students once we

are finished. We took lots of photos to put into

our slideshow, and discovered that we could use

PowerPoint to make our slideshow. PowerPoint

is a form of software and Ms Fontana’s laptop is

the hardware we are using to make the

slideshow.

Notes from 125Year Celebrations Committee

Hi everyone, Just a ’short note’ to keep you all updated with the progress of our ‘reunion’ festivities. At the moment we have 12 corporate sponsors for the festivities. Many thanks to all of our sponsors for their support and we hope to see them all at the school on the day. We also have 29 Black & White page sponsors for the ‘Memory Book’. Thank you all for your support. As promised, I have listed the stalls (and their coordinators) that we will be having and we (Macknade SS P&C Committee and 125 year Committee) are going to require a lot of help to run them.

Bar - Kim Burnell (P&C) Registration Booth - Gloria Buffa

BBQ & salads - Lions Club Ticket Booth - Gloria Buffa Fish & Chips - Lions Club

Cent Sale & Raffles - Kim Burnell Spaghetti - Belinda Zullo

Photo Display - Gloria Buffa Cake & Desserts - Lee-Anne Waller

Memorabilia - Gloria Buffa Photographer - Tracey Adams

Time Capsule display - Gloria Buffa During the week prior to November 10, we will require lots of muscle and help to set up the grounds for the reunion. We will call for helpers when the date gets closer. A helper’s form is attached for volunteers to complete and return to the school as soon as possible, which will enable rosters and lists of work to be done, to be made up. If you have any queries, please call either Kim Burnell or myself and we will be able to assist. Currently the 125 Year Committee are running ‘grab-a-grand’ and 500 Club raffles along with the regular 100 Club. It would be appreciated if Ticket books being sent home today, could be sold by families. Any unsold

tickets should be returned to the school to enable others to sell them prior to festivities. We are intending to run a couple of series (200 tickets) of each and they will be drawn at the reunion. If you would like to come along to a meeting, we hold them every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month, in the multi-purpose hall at 7pm. All are welcome. The fundraising that the 125 Year Committee is doing, along with the proceeds of the reunion, is all going back to the school and their students, so we can help supply our next generation with the best opportunities in life. Thank you to all of our wonderful families for your support. The families and friends of our little school are the backbone of its success, and is how we have been able to achieve 125 years of quality education. Congratulations and I look forward to a successful ‘reunion.’ Have a happy day Gloria Buffa Secretary