Barkly Highway State School - Term 2 Week 6
Principal's Welcome
Differentiation of curriculum is a priority of the school and a feature of every teacher’s practice. Differentiated teaching ensures that every student is engaged and learning is successful. Significant adjustments to learning programs for some students are developed for students requiring them. Students are also given the opportunity to demonstrate learning through the use of different modes including puppet theatres, performances with props, hand-made story books, use of co-constructed walk and talk mats for our active learner and learner based decodable readers for our learner focused students.
Many of our teachers are consistently engaging age-appropriate modes of teaching (pedagogical practices) whereby students are actively approaching learning through play and inquiry-based activities. The teachers guide and facilitate learning experiences which involves deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful decision making and actions to promote children’s innate drive for independent learning. The teacher’s role changes in different pedagogical approaches, as the balance between planned and spontaneous, and between adult-initiated and child-initiated learning experiences changes. It is also the teacher’s responsibility to teach children about their roles in different pedagogies in order to co-construct learning and scaffold their involvement in a balance of adult-initiated and child-initiated learning experiences.
These learning experiences are occurring across key learning areas of English, Mathematics and Science and include topics such as Place Value Party, Fractions Pizza Shop, Mathematician Friday, Treasure Map Escape Room, Maths Olympics, Living and Non-living and Habitats, Shape Hunt, Shape King 3D, Create a habitat for an Australian Animals, Help Pirate George Create a Pirate Ship. A lot of fun ….and a lot of learning!
Also, over the last few weeks, we have seen our teaching and learning opportunities for students being deliberately moved outside of the classroom walls. This has provided challenges to students to be engaged in developing skills with curriculum in different ways. Our special activities as on Under 8s’ Day where students in small groups had the opportunity to participate in many hands on activities or with visiting community services. Thank you to every one for their contribution to these learning experiences.
Don’t forget – KEEP OUR SCHOOL SAFE
If you see anything suspicious around our school, please ring School Watch on 13 17 88.
Deputy's Report
BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL EXPECTATIONS
We are asking our families to actively support the school behaviour expectations before and after school to ensure the safety of all our students. Staff at these times have meetings or are busy preparing for the days teaching and no playground duty is timetabled.
It is ideal for students to be at school for 8:20am when our students line-up to be collected by their class teachers and taken to their classrooms, however, when students need to be at school prior to 8:05am, they must sit down in the Undercover Area until the 8:05am bell. Unless otherwise directed by staff, students can then either:
- Move to other areas inside the boundaries of A / B / D / F Blocks to sit down and talk with friends or,
- Play handball in the Undercover Area or on the ‘blue cement’ area.
No other activity is to occur. The veranda areas are out of bounds before 8:20am.
When students are released from classrooms at 2:30pm, students who walk, ride or scoot home are to leave the school grounds immediately, travelling straight home. Students who wait for families to collect them are to sit down close to where they are being picked up from. Students who are in the school grounds at the 3:00pm bell are to go to the school office for families to be notified. Families are asked to collect students close to the end of the school day (2:30pm). Students at this time of the day are not supervised.
At no time before or after school are the play areas (Prep, front of school, grassed play areas) to be accessed for play.
Our younger students (Prep students), have the door to classrooms open at 8:20am. All Prep students are to be accompanied to classrooms & collected from classrooms by an adult for this first year of school. Prep students who arrive before 8:20am, are to sit down while they wait till the 8:20am bell rings.
The safety of all students will be ensured when everyone consistently and persistently work together to guide students to follow these school expectations.
Life Ed Van Visit 31 May to 7 June
Life Education Mobile Learning Centre with Jordan and Healthy Harold the Giraffe is coming next week!
We all want our students living to their full potential and believe that all children deserve to lead safe and healthy lives. This is why we are being supported by Life Education. By placing preventive education at the core of their work, Life Education instil in children the confidence to make safer and healthier choices now and in the future.
This is a free show offered to all students in Prep - Year 6. If you do not want your child to participate please let their classromm teacher know in writing.
2021 Queensland Engagement and Wellbeing Survey
Later this term, students in years 4 to 6 will be asked to take part in the Queensland Engagement and Wellbeing (QEW) Survey.
We know that wellbeing and engagement are important parts of your child’s life at school. The department and your school are looking at ways to collect information on these important areas so we can support our students in the best way possible.
The QEW Survey is designed to measure how state school students view their wellbeing and engagement.
Results from this survey will tell us about students’ levels of wellbeing and engagement. This information will allow us to better support our students and meet their needs.
In 2021, the QEW Survey will take place between these dates:
Term 2
Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 June, 2021
An information letter has been sent out to parents and carers. If you have any questions, please contact the school.
Prep Blue Classroom News
Prep Blue have been learning about retells. This week, our story was The Three Little Pigs. Miss Connolly has been using Age Appropriate Pedagogies to engage the students throughout the unit. The class created puppets and props to help present their retells. The students did a fantastic job using interesting voices and including lots of detail from the story.
IMPACT: Solve IT
For the next 10 weeks, 15 Year 4 students are participating in the IMPACT program: Solve IT.
This is a numeracy extension project that aims to further develop their problem-solving ability. The students will:
- Learn and apply a process for comprehending and solving problems;
- Develop a bank of problem-solving strategies to use on demand;
- Be taught by a specialist teacher from the IMPACT Centre;
- Build technology skills and confidence for future online learning and assessments.
The IMPACT group and Mrs Roberts meet every Wednesday afternoon in the library for 60 minutes and connect online with a teacher from The IMPACT Centre.
Students thoughts on the project so far:
- I think IMPACT has been lots of fun and will help me with my maths learning. Darcy
- I like how I can solve problems on the computer and not just on paper. Matilda
- I’m already for IMPACT tomorrow Mrs Roberts, I love it. Hayden
- I like doing maths on online and having classes online. Patrick
Questacon Science Circus is coming to Barkly Highway!!!
Next Friday, 4th June our students have the exciting opportunity to be involved in a Questacon Science Circus experience.
A Science Circus experience is designed to stimulate and challenge students to explore science and technology for themselves.
The primary school show is a one-hour interactive show that uses demonstrations and volunteer involvement to explore two of the following topics: flight, sound, collisions, structures or bubbles.
The lower primary show (P-2) has a particular emphasis on introducing the scientific method and uses these topics to illustrate the process of experimentation: ask a question, guess some possible answers, test and observe what happens.
The upper primary show (year 3-6) illustrates scientific concepts related to the topics and aims to encourage curiosity, inspire students to ask how and why, and promote enthusiasm towards science.
This is a free show offered to all students in Prep - Year 6. If you do not want your child to participate please let their classromm teacher know in writing.
NAPLAN 2021
Over the last 2 weeks our Year 3 and Year 5 students have been participating in NAPLAN online, undertaking 4 tests in the areas of Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy. All of our students showed great resilience and determination to complete all tests to the best of their ability. Congratulations!
I would also like to thank the rest of our school staff and students for being so flexible during this two-week period. Well done Barkly Highway, NAPLAN is all done for 2021! We look forward to sharing student results with families later in the year.
Library News
The Pemier’s Reading Challenge is in full swing and we have some proud students telling us how many books they have already read and recorded. Keep up the great work!
Book Club issue #4 has was handed out this week and orders are due back by Friday this week if you wish to order.
Kind Regards,
Svenja Spitzner-Lewis
Under 8s' Day
On Friday, 21 May the school held there annual Under 8s' Day! It was a massive success and with that we would like to thank every one that came along to either volunteer or to enjoy.
Bicycles
Respecting and Caring for Belongings:
To prevent theft, if your child brings a bike to school please:
1. Provide a lock so that they can lock their bike up in the bike area.
2. Remind your child to make sure their bike is locked before they leave the bike area.
Compliments
Barkly Highway State School would like to thank the PCYC for organising a Year 3 & 5 NAPLAN breakfast and for volunteering their time at our Under 8s' Day. Your support does not go unrecognized.
A massive shout out to our Student Council who organised another successful Pizza Day.
