Barkly Highway State School - Term 3 Week 2
Principal's Welcome
Welcome to Term 3! Already our students have participated in a variety of activities both in and out of the classroom. In every classroom, new units of work in English, Mathematics and Science, learning areas that teachers planned for at the end of term 2, when cohort planning sessions were held with Head of Department: Curriculum (HOD-C) Miss Yvette Wehlow. Other learning area units in Health Physical Education and the Arts have also commenced.
Our school’s identified effective teaching and learning strategies, have also commenced and are in place to support the delivery of the curriculum and most importantly our focus areas of our Annual Implementation Plan 2021 (AIP) -
- Supporting strong relationships
- Consolidating quality teaching and learning of reading
- Strengthening mathematical pedagogy.
Our strategies have been identified to assist support meet the needs of every student in our school, so that every student is successful in 2021. In particular, all Prep and year 1 teachers engage in Collaborative Inquiry on a fortnightly basis with facilitator, Literacy Teacher, Mrs Bec Cremona. The teachers come together to evaluate and examine teaching practices and use their analysis of data to identify recommendations for improvement, using marker students to identify future student-based goals. When teachers meet again after 2 weeks of teaching, the student’s learning, through the presentation of data collected during this time, is analysed to identify the next path to assist on the future improvement journey.
Outside of our classrooms last Friday, we celebrated NAIDOC as a whole school. After the parade, all students had the opportunity to engage in activities prepared by our NAIDOC team. The parade and engaging activities were enjoyed by all. If you were able to be present or just have feedback on the special day of celebrations, so that the team can reflect for 2022, please forward to admin@barklyhighwayss.eq.edu.au with subject line “feedback NAIDOC”. Thank you PCYC for joining in our activities and everyone who assisted the NAIDOC team on the day.
Don’t forget our weekly parades on Monday at 2:00. This week, our Adopt-a-cop, Constable Daisy was presented with her certificate after her formal investiture and our Semester 2 Student Councillors were presented and received their badges. Student of the Week certificates were presented and students were acknowledged on parade. Next week, special awards will be presented to some of students who are in the Strings Instrumental Program. I have also heard that Miss Appelcamp and 5/6 Green will be our next class to lead the singing of our school song.
With Semester 1 Academic Reports now at home with families, parents and or caregivers who would like further information on the semester’s academic results are welcome to contact the classroom teacher or teacher responsible. After the reports were distributed, the accuracy of some of the attendance explained / unexplained data is being reviewed.
Disappointingly, during the school holidays, classrooms in the Prep Precinct were broken and entered. This resulted in a glass door panel and the security sliding screen door being repaired and replaced.
Then on Sunday evening our Resource Centre Library main entrance glass door was also damaged.
Please keep an eye on our school and contact School Watch to inform of suspicious activity.
Don’t forget – KEEP OUR SCHOOL SAFE. Please ring School Watch on 13 17 88.
Deputy's Report
School Opinion Survey
Thank you to all of those who have already completed the Parent/Caregiver Survey. If you have not had a chance to complete the survey yet, please note that the online surveys will remain open until Friday, 30 July 2021. This is your opportunity to provide feedback about what our school does well and how we can improve.
To have your say, check your email for an invitation from the Department of Education titled School Opinion Survey for parents and caregivers, 2021.
Can’t find your invitation? If your family has more than one parent/caregiver, check that they haven’t received the invitation and/or check your junk email folder.
Parents/caregivers who do not have access to the internet at home are welcome to complete their survey online at the school. Our school computers will be available for use at school in the STEM Room in the Resource Centre from 8:30-9:00 on this date: Tuesday 27 Jul. One of our Information and Technology Technicians will be available to support you to access the survey.
Our Annual Implementation Plan goal this year, is to have 75 or more parents/caregivers complete our School Opinion Survey. The image below tells us we have received 55 responses so far. Please take the opportunity to give our school your valued feedback.
ECE P-2 Workshop
Rebecca Cremona and Leah Wilcox recently had the opportunity to attend a Professional Development in Townsville to learn about the National Quality Standards for Kindegartens. They worked with leaders from the region to break down the standards, and gain more knowledge about what it would look like if the National Quality Standards (NQS) were aligned to Primary schools, particularly the years Prep – 2. The teachers will now lead the staff through a reflection period, focusing on broadening staff understanding of the NQS before creating goals to help make Barkly Highway State School even better.
Library News
Welcome back to an exciting and fun filled Term 3!
Book Club Issue #5 has been handed out and orders are due this Friday. Ordering through the LOOP online is easy and cashless, but you can also pay at the office, if you wish to order.
Our second Book Fair for this year will be Week 6, from August 16-20. We are looking forward to welcome you in our ‘Reading Oasis’.
Book Week will be in Week 7, and we will celebrate with our now well-established Dress Up Day. Please mark your calendar for Friday, August 27 for our Dress up Parade at 8:25. We are looking forward to seeing many fantastic and amazing Book Characters from old favourites to the not so familiar. Let your imagination reign free!
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any queries you may have.
Kind Regards,
Svenja Spitzner-Lewis
P&C Association
The P&C would like to invite you to our next meeting at the school. It will be held in the staffroom, starting at 6:00 on Tuesday, 3 August. All parents and citizens are welcome to come along, have input and influence into the happenings of the school.
We would like to congratulate Bek on getting through her first term of being our Tuckshop Convenor! It was always going to be a huge undertaking and we want to thank her doing such a great job. She's been able to have such a positive influence on the ordering processes, menu options, getting volunteers into the tuckshop and we look forward to the future happenings in the tuckshop.
We have implemented a new menu for Term 3 only, with some new hot food options so we hope you are as excited as we are.
Lastly, we are working really hard to get the new playground equipment happening, so stay tuned for more updates, and also for possibly some exciting fundraising/community events to get involved in.
Thanks for your support, and hope to see you all at the next P&C meeting.
Crazy Hair & Pyjama Day
On Thursday 15 July, our whole school was invited to participate in our latest PBL whole school celebration. The Student Council chose to celebrate by wearing pyjamas and having crazy hair. Each term the whole school works towards filling our PBL token jars and celebrating with an event.
Year 4 Zoo
At the end of last term our year 4 students opened the doors to Barkly’s first ever interactive zoo! Our students researched Australian endangered animals for their science assessment and then transferred their knowledge to teach their peers. Classes across all year levels came to interact with the zoo keepers and their animals. We raised $164 in gold coin donations. This money will be gifted to Paw, Hoofs and Claws: Animal Rescue here in Mount Isa.
Maths Club
At the end of last term some of our classes participated in event-based mathematics learning days. The children explored time and place value through playful and creative learning opportunities. Some activities included making a human clock, following a timetable to complete challenges, using a place value fruit loop abacus and a “What number am I” lolly challenge! This term our team is growing and we have been busy planning new events for this term! Stay tuned for more updates.
100 Days of School
On Monday, Prep Blue, Prep Gold and Prep/1 Green celebrated 100 days of school. The students wore shirts with 100 things on them, completed many activities involving 100 and even got to meet some 100 year olds! Our celebration was a fantastic opportunity for students to acknowledge their hard work at school this year. 🙂
School Photos - Budd Photography
We are seeking positive and negative feedback from our school photos this year. If you have any recommendations on how we can improve next years experience please email admin@barklyhighwayss.eq.edu.au
2022 Prep Open Day
2021 Prep staff will welcome prospective 2022 prep students on Saturday, (24 July) 9:00-11:00. Families with prep age children in 2022 (turning 5 years old 1 July 2016 – 30 June 2017) are welcome to visit our Prep Precinct. Meet our 2021 Prep teachers and Admin team.
