Barkly Highway State School - Term 4 Week 2
Principal's Welcome
Welcome back to the last 9 weeks of the 2021 school year. Term 4 is a very busy term with our final cycles of research-based practices (Instructional Coaching Cycles, Collaborative Inquiries and Reading Data Conversations) which support the focused teaching and learning in target year levels. Learning activities during the last weeks of the term will focus on skills that need consolidation, so the previous year’s skills are embedded for the next year. Students in every classroom will continue the learning through focused curriculum teaching until the last day of term (Friday, 3 December). Please have students at school everyday.
Our classroom term overviews were sent home with students on Friday, last week. These identify the curriculum for the year level, as well as important information relevant to the individual class. If you have not read through the Term 4 Overview for your child / children, please follow this up as these communicate with families what is happening in classrooms. If the document has not reached home, your classroom teacher can be contacted.
This term, we also prepare for our 2022 school’s learning journey which starts Day 1 of Term 1. The school improvement plan outlines the strategic direction of the school. This includes the preparation of the Annual Implementation Plan and Explicit Improvement Agenda, Whole School Curriculum Plan and the Data Plan. This is through a collaborative process during staff meetings. Professional Learning Communities (PLC) will focus on key areas to identify the strategies and targets for the whole school improvement agenda for 2022. Each PLC will review 2021 achievements after revisiting our core documents - School Review Report and Executive Summary (2019) and the BHSS School Quadrennial Report (2019). An extremely busy time of the year!
It’s Rock Pop Mime at Tony White Oval, tomorrow evening. Around 50 of our students and 4 time-poor teachers have dedicated lunchtimes, holidays and many weekends for the last 12 weeks to prepare for the students’ performance. This year, we again have a Junior and Senior Team to perform. I acknowledge here the commitment of our lead Rock Pop teachers - Nicole Brebner, Leah Wilcox (Junior Primary) and Bec Samios, Cathy McKenna (Senior Primary). Thank you to the parents and who have generously given their time to assist with the props and costumes.
Final rehearsals have now been completed, on parade on Monday at the Tony White Oval stage. Please go along and support the school’s performances. Good luck to our Rock Pop Mime teams on Friday evening.
Congratulations to students who are representing our school at the ATSIAP (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aspirations Program) and Optiminds Thursday and Saturday this week. Further information will be available in future newsletters.
HOSES’ POSITION FINALISED
The formal recruitment process for the permanent Barkly Highway State School - Head of Special Education Services position has completed with Sandra Gregory being appointed to the position. Sandra has HOSES’ experiences since 2011, including Early Childhood Developmental Program (ECDP) and Cluster responsibilities. I look forward to welcoming Sandra on her arrival.
Sandra is preparing for her relocation to Mount Isa and is expecting to start at Barkly Highway State School during Week 3 after her arrival.
I thank Kylie Toms for her work in holding the HOSES’ role and her commitment to continue to support the Special Education Program at the schools in the cluster for the first few weeks of the term. Kylie will return to her Special Education Program teacher support role; whole Tanya Madden will return to classroom teacher duties for the school.
Deputy's Report
2022 STUDENT LEADERSHIP
All year 5 students will be challenged at the beginning of this term by classroom teachers to consider student leadership in our school in 2022. On Friday this week, I will have meetings with our year 5 students to discuss the importance of and roles of our School Captain and School Vice-Captain in our school community.
Students who show an interest in nominating for School Captain/Vice Captain will receive the Student Leadership paperwork on Friday (22.10.21) next week. The students will be required to submit their application, including a nomination form signed by their classroom teacher and a parent/ carer by Friday 29 October. In the following weeks, before School Captains are announced on the Prep to Year 5 Awards Parade (Monday 29 November), short-listed students will be asked to have an interview, present a speech to year 4 and 5 students, with voting by year 4 and 5 students and all staff.
While the School Captain process is conducted at the end of the year with the year 5 students, the House Captain process is early in Term 1 and students will be informed of this by Mr Benson in 2022.
PREP 2022
To support a successful transition for our new Prep students for 2022 from Kindergarten to school, we have been meeting with parents and our future students this term. This is part of our school’s process of preparing for our new students for 2022 so that our new children and their families feel welcomed as part of the school community. Our Prep teachers plan to visit the Early Childhood Education Centres that our 2022 Prep students currently attend to also support a smooth transition process.
On the 16 and 18 November we will be continuing this process of welcoming our new students by holding our two transition mornings where our future students meet with our Prep teachers to participate in a morning in prep.
These activities are important ways in which we begin forming relationships with our new families and students. Research tells us that children tend to do better when they get along with their teacher and classmates. Parents and carers can support their children’s learning by being positive about school, respectful of teachers and by supporting good relationships with friends and classmates at school.
Parents, we ask for your support with encouraging our students to follow our Student Code of Conduct by speaking with your children about:
- Being Responsible and eating their own lunch. We discourage sharing of food or drink items as some students may have an allergy to a food or drink. We encourage eating healthy foods while at school. We discourage children bringing lollies to school. These ‘sometimes’ foods are best keep for eating at home.
Year 6 Camp
During Week 10 of Term 3, our Year 6 students travelled to the Gold Coast and attended Tallebudgera Beach School Camp. A wonderful time was had by all students. We participated in many fun-filled activities including: kayaking, exploring the natural world around Tallebudgera, an escape room, David Fleay’s Nature Reserve, body boarding, tubing, the tree top challenge, swimming in the ocean and many more. The whole camp was based around the Hero’s Journey Program. By the end of camp, students could recognise their own hero within: Mastermind, Warrior, Champion or Guardian.
The Hero’s Journey Program
The Hero's Journey took our Year 6 students out of their comfort zone as they completed puzzles and overcame many obstacles to find the final "Prize". On their adventure they worked with their classmates to: explore the natural world, solve problems, journey through natural environments, face "dragons" to overcome fears as they worked in groups to crack the secret code to open the treasure chest.
As a result of this learning journey, the students are transformed by their experiences contributing to their personal and social development, gaining a deeper understanding of their personal capabilities and skills and develop the confidence to be the Hero in their life's journey.
Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day
BHSS staff wore green on Wednesday 6 October 2021, to acknowledge Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day.
2 Blue - English
Students in 2 Blue are learning to write an imaginative event to add to the story 'Spirit of Hope'. Students have to creatively move a little house to a new location for their event in the story.
To make this task more engaging, we decided to 'build' our new event before we begin writing about it. Everyone had lots of fun creating their little houses, hot air balloons and rockets.
Safety Heroes
Last Thursday we had the team from Ergon Energy come to our school to deliver the Safety Heroes Program to all of our Prep to Year 6 students. Stephen, Anthony and Nathan delivered some very important information about how to be safe around electricity as well as showing students some of the very important equipment they use to maintain the powerlines and facilities around Mount Isa. They even rescued some of our handballs from the roof of the under covered area with their tele-tick while they were here. A big thank you to Stephen, Anthony and Nathan for their time! Our students learned a great deal and really enjoyed their presentation.
Below is a website where you can find more information and resources for electrical safety at home. https://www.ergon.com.au/network/safety/safety-heroes
Have a look at the “Home Safety Checklist” attached to this newsletter. This can be conducted as a family to ensure your home is free from electricity safety hazards!
P - 2 Swimming Lessons
Day 1- The instructors spent some time talking to the children about water safety before getting them into the shallow pool and putting them into groups. We did some kicking, blowing bubbles and rockets and had lots of fun. I wonder what we will learn tomorrow?
Day 2- Another exciting day at the pool. We did lots of kicking, bubbles, rockets, gliding and floating on our backs.
Day 3- Our confidence in the pool is growing. Today we did more bubbles, frog kicking, shark fins and some of us even did cheeky monkeying in the deep end. Two more days of water fun!
