2022 Newsletter Issue 4 - March 18th
Principal's Message
As another fortnight passes us by, today we have the opportunity to hold our first “face-to-face” school parade for the year. It is great to able to welcome parents and community members into our school to celebrate the wonderful work of our hard-working students.
However, as COVID-19 is still being detected in communities across Queensland, I just wanted to take this moment to remind you and your family to:
- monitor yourself and each other for COVID-19 symptoms
- stay home if you or your children are displaying any symptoms or feeling unwell.
If your child is unwell, please take them to a Queensland Health Service where they will be prioritised for a free rapid antigen test (RAT).
If you, your child or a household member tests positive to COVID-19, please follow Queensland Health guidelines for isolation.
If students become symptomatic while at school, you will be contacted and asked to collect your child. You will also be provided with a free rapid antigen test (RAT) to administer at home.
More COVID-19 related information is available at www.covid19.qld.gov.au
School Disco
The Year 6 students have met with me for a number of Leadership Group meetings over the past few weeks to discuss a range of events and fundraising opportunities that they would like to organise throughout the year. Ruby, Jesse and Grace are very excited to be the school leaders and to represent their younger peers during 2022. The first Year 6 Leadership Group lead event is a school disco which will be taking place on Thursday 24 March (Week 9, Term 1) from 6.00pm to 7.30pm. The disco is themed “Silver and Gold- a bit fancy” and students are invited to wear fancy clothing with silver and gold colours and accessories. Students are also asked to bring a gold coin donation for entry into the disco. A range a food will be provided free of charge and the Year 6 leaders have also organised a range of games and prizes for the evening. The disco will be held in the upstairs Year 3-6 classroom and will be supervised by a number of staff members.
School Hats
As a “Sun Safe” school, students are reminded of the importance to bring their school hat to school each day. Each week, classes take part in a range of outdoor learning opportunities ranging from science experiments and walking to the library at the Visitor Information Centre to swimming lessons at the pool and team games on the school courts. It is vital that students have their hats with them so that they can take part in all of these fantastic experiences. Each student has a homework nook in their classroom and are encouraged to leave their hat in the nook each afternoon in readiness for the next school day. If your child has misplaced or lost their school hat, please contact the Thargomindah SS admin office so a replacement hat can be organised.
School Camps
Planning is underway for two camps that will take place (COVID protocols permitting) for the Thargomindah SS students during 2022. The first camp will be a Canberra Snow Trip for Year 3 to 6 students which will take place from Monday 18 July to Monday 25 July (Term 3, Week 2). It is hoped that the students will have the opportunity to visit the Dubbo Zoo, Parkes Observatory, National War Memorial, Questacon National Science Centre, Parliament House and Perisher Snow Fields. Visiting these venues fits perfectly with the upper primary HASS curriculum and would provide a wonderful learning experience for our students.
The second camp planned is the 2022 Thargomindah Sports Camp. As in previous years, students and staff from a number of surrounding cluster schools will join us at Thargomindah SS to take part in a range of exciting games and sports development sessions. This camp will also provide a wonderful opportunity for students to build friendships and to take part in a variety of team sports. The Sports Camp will begin on Monday 12 September and conclude on Friday 16 September (Term 3, Week 10).
With classroom learning, community events and school camps, the Thargomindah SS students are certainly in for an exciting and action packed 2022!
If you have any questions regarding the school camps or need to catch up with me at any stage, please feel free to email jmcca133@eq.edu.au or call the school on 07 4655 3132 to arrange an appointment.
Have a fantastic Friday and weekend!
Kind regards,
Joel
Week 8, Term 1
Student Awards
K-2 Classroom Award- Sabrina
3-6 Classroom Award- Liliana
Principal Award- Charlize
Kindy Report
Kindy this last fortnight has been one of great adventure. First few days learning how to be their own Picasso painters, then we moved into learning about how colours can be connected to how we feel. The kindy students very quickly identified that red=angry, blue=sad, green=sick, and so on. We then moved to mixing these colours together and seeing what happens to them. From that the kindy children went and made coloured sand castles and cakes and added some lovely decorations such as leaves, sticks and rocks to add a bit more flare! More reading, creating and playing in the second week for kindies with costumes, counting and making! Only one more fortnight left for kindies this term and their first whole term at school will be done and dusted.
Bye everyone!
Miss T and Miss M
K-2 Class Report
Hello everyone!
What a busy fortnight we have packed in for the K-2 class! You might not have noticed, but for the students; we have taken a turn in our day-to-day routines. Each morning, students in the K-2 class are expected to get to school, put away their lunchbox, bring their homework in, etc. Then, instead of playing in the classroom, it is a time to settle in and do some independent activities/colouring/reading. This is in effort to get the students ‘ready to learn’ and to shift their mindset from ‘home me’ to ‘school me’. I have found that most students have a little bit of trouble adjusting at 9:00am when we start to learn, so in order to cut out this transition time, we will trial this morning routine and see if it helps the students.
English has had a major focus in the last fortnight on writing a question response that moves from “good” to “great” to “best”. This is in effort to produce compound sentences that use rich descriptive language and give justification to their statement. For example:
GOOD “I like the Gruffalo.”
GREAT “I like the Gruffalo and his terrible teeth.”
BEST “I like the silly Gruffalo because he has terrible teeth that scares the other forest animals.”
This has caught on very quickly with the students and they have produced some really great writing in their English assessment. In addition to this, students have been utilising the Learning Walls well, they are able to read a question and find that information and when one of their peers needs help, it is readily available by asking one of their friends for help finding it on the Learning Wall.
Mathematics has been focussed on asking questions, collecting the data, then interpreting this to make decisions. In the last fortnight, we have made judgements on what types of healthy snacks we like to create, our favourite stories from a selection of books, and choosing our favourite modes of transport (pretty obvious win for the motorbikes there). This learning has also been proven successful in their data assessment results – very happy teacher dances happening at the moment!
With most of our English and Math assessment out of the way, we can focus on also getting the Science and HaSS assessments out of the way. A really big congratulations to the students for getting through their assessment with *little* persuasion and we can soon move into end of term celebrations, activities and games! We can see the finish line and the kids are almost there!!
Have a wonderful fortnight everyone,
Miss T 😊
3-6 Class Report
Welcome to Week 8 of Term 1. With the end of the term approaching very quickly, we have been completing assessment with gusto. A special mention to all students who have got in and completed their assessment with largely positive attitudes.
This week students have been discussing persuasive texts and the langauge features involved in creating them. We have also been discussing different sentence types and why it is important to use different sentence types in our writing to make it more interesting and persuasive to an audience.
During Maths lessons, students have been exploring concepts around symmetry and have developed their knowledge of flip, slide, turn, reflection, translation and rotation. They have also completed activities which explored the concepts of compass directions, map scales and grid references.
In HASS, we have been exploring what it means to be a citizen of a country and the rights and responsibilities that citizens have. We also constructed a roleplay in which students had to be different community groups in Thargomindah and act out their responsibilities and roles in the community. Students were engaged and really enjoyed exploring the different groups in the community and their importance.
In Science, we have been discussing and exploring natural disasters. Last week we built mini worlds in the sandpit and caused some destruction to these mini worlds with ‘storms’ (watering cans). After the storms came through our mini worlds, we discussed the impacts of the natural disaster and ways that the significant damage could have been prevented. We are almost at assessment time for this unit as well. Students will create a presentation about a natural disaster and the impacts of the disaster on people and the planet.
Well done to everyone so far maintaining engagement and being superstar learners this term so far!
Ms Morgan and Mr McCaskie
