Thargomindah State School eNewsletter

Principal's Message

As each week quickly passes by, I have been so impressed to see the high level of student engagement and the commitment to learning that is taking place in the Thargomindah SS classrooms. Students have been delving into unit work and are now beginning to move onto assessment tasks over the coming few weeks. The Thargomindah SS staff continue to implement quality learning tasks and programs that promote student success in the focus areas of reading and vocabulary with all students from Kindy to Year 6 completing daily synthetic phonics and vocabulary sessions. With improved reading skills being achieved, our students can successfully transition their focus onto developing and refining their writing craft.

Student safety and wellbeing is such an integral part of any school and at Thargomindah SS this makes up a large portion of our core business. A caring and supportive environment is essential for the healthy academic and emotional development of children and over the past four weeks, our students have been taking part in a number of sessions and workshops that promote wellbeing. Yesterday, the TSS classes had the opportunity to take part in “Birdie’s Tree Roadshow” where stories were shared about natural disasters and how children can use a range of strategies to cope and bounce back during challenging times. This was a highly engaging and relevant workshop and I would like to thank the South West Hospital and Health Service for presenting this very valuable session to our school and the Thargomindah community.

The students are also continuing to take part in online wellbeing sessions with the team from Kids Helpline during weekly Health lessons. These virtual sessions with the KHL presenters have assisted the TSS students to develop their knowledge, skills and strategies in the areas of being resilient, making positive friendships, managing emotions, safe online choice making and monitoring digital screen time. All of the learning that has taken place will give students the skills to equip them for the years ahead.

Today, the Thargomindah SS students have been invited to wear pink to school as a fundraising event in support of the Breast Cancer Foundation. Each child has donated a gold coin which will be passed on to the organisers of the “Thargo Power” fun run/walk that is taking place on Sunday 6 March. The students, staff and myself are very proud to be supporting such a worthy cause.

Finally, just a reminder that the P&C AGM for 2022 will be held this coming Tuesday (March 8) at 5.30pm in the Thargomindah SS Year 3-6 classroom.

Once again, if you need to catch up with me at any stage regarding the coming weeks, please feel free to email jmcca133@eq.edu.au or call the school on 07 4655 3132 to arrange an appointment.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Kind regards,

Joel

Free Dress Day - raising money and awareness in support of the Breast Cancer Foundation

K- 2 Class Message

Hello everyone!

This fortnight in the P-2 classroom we have been incredibly busy with having fun and learning! I am so very happy to say that we have made some great progress again this fortnight and it’s looking like we might have a very successful end to the term’s learning.

This last fortnight in English we have really focussed on writing our responses to questions that ask about a story and our preferences for the characters, settings and events. Luckily, we have lots of wonderful writers in the P-2 class and our work is coming together quite nicely. The next fortnight will see us continuing to develop our writing, sentence structure, story recall and retelling a story without reciting it.

In Mathematics, we finished off our Language of Direction and Maps learning and the assessment results prove the results of some very positive learning that is the result of outdoor adventures paired with lots and lots of instructional practise! We have now turned to focus on collecting, recording and interpreting data for our next math unit. This has started off with a tasty twist and venturing into some unknown vegetable territory. First, we gathered data on which stories the class preferred, then moved onto which healthy snack was the class favourite! We had fun creating and tasting and gathering data about carrot caterpillars, cucumber snails, PB&J apple sandwiches and kiwi fruit people. Lots more data to explore and collect I think!

In addition to all the key learning area lessons, we have had the opportunity to work with and learn from some special people who had visited us virtually and in person. Last Friday (25^th February) we celebrated our designated Chinese New Year day with the Australian Chinese History Museum and Miss Claire. This involved learning the significance of the Dragon in Chinese culture and how to create a paper lantern with our very own Miss Claire! On Thursday (3^rd March) we had Andrea, Angie, and Kathy visit us from Queensland Health to read, play and teach us about taking care of ourselves when we are feeling ‘big feelings’ and what to do if you find yourself in a natural disaster.

A very, very fun last couple of weeks in the P-2 space and I am looking forward to more exciting and jam-packed fortnight ahead.

Bye everyone!

Miss T

Kindy Recap

This fortnight in the Kindy space we have been doing lots of hands-on constructive learning with a focus on the theme of each day’s storybook. Some learning experiences created with the students around these books are; creating a mini-world for mice and their homes, playing with and making houses for and cuddling teddies, leaping leaping leaping like frogs fighting over a fly, creating playdough animals, and learning to salsa dance from Giraffes can’t dance!

In kindy at Thargomindah State School, we like to follow a rigorous and positive learning program sequence. This sequence also enables students the freedom to choose additional activities that can be tailored to what they are learning and practising. So, if a student asks to do painting, building, creating, playing, dancing – this is weaved into the learning and an explorative lens is held over this. Therefore, the last fortnight in the Kindy space has been one of rich learning and adventure!

Thanks!

Miss T and Miss M

3-6 Class Message

We are now half-way through Term One! This fortnight we have had a few interruptions to our usual learning activities, which has meant that instead, we were having fun learning some different and exciting new things. On Friday last week we explored culture in HASS by being involved in Chinese New Year activities with Miss Claire. We really enjoyed making our lanterns and viewing some videos that contained information about Kung Fu – a Chinese martial art.

This week, we were very pleased to have some more visitors to our school. We had a teacher and principal from the Centre for Learning and Welbeing (CLaW). Thank you to our visitors for their help over the days they were here. On Thursday, three wonderful ladies from South West Hospital and Health Service visited us to share stories from the Birdie’s Tree series. These stories cover how to cope with natural disasters as well as different strategies to deal with stress in our daily lives. We really appreciated their time and loved the engaging story – Birdie and the bushfire. These books directly relate to our science unit this term which is exploring the impacts of natural disasters.

In Technologies, we have been manipulating materials using different strategies eg. Cutting, gluing, hole punching and folding. We have created different 3D animals using these different strategies for our learning wall. We also created a puppet from the story that we wrote during our reading of Birdie and the Bushfire.

Over the coming weeks we will be beginning assessment in English, Maths and Science. While at times, assessment can be a bit stressful for students, a reminder that students are capable of great things when they put their mind to it and there is always help available from learning walls, teachers and Teacher-aides.

Warm regards,

Ms Morgan and Mr McCaskie