Barkly Highway State School - Term 1 Week 6

Principal's Welcome

We are certainly experiencing challenging times in schools.

While it’s complex, exciting and rewarding our flexibility, patience and resilience is tested.

Thank you to our families who have kept students home or collected from school due to displaying COVID 19 symptoms. The communication with the school during this time has allowed staff to know how our school community is managing and to maintain accurate attendance records. From 6pm, tomorrow (4 March) schools will return to COVID-normal operations. Additional information is now available to guide our school operations including:

· Face masks will no longer be required to be worn by staff or students in Queensland schools, however, staff and students who wish to wear a face mask at school may continue to do so.

· Rapid antigen tests will be supplied by the school to staff and students who become symptomatic while at school throughout Term 1. The current arrangements for symptomatic staff and students who record a positive RAT result remain in place, based on current health advice.

· School parades are permitted to be held with restrictions on parents, carers and visitors to schools being eased. See you Monday afternoon

· Parent-Teacher-Student Discussions scheduled for Week 9-10 are permitted, adhering to physical distancing and other COVID-19 control measures. Further details are available on the Queensland Government COVID-19 website.

Please stay COVID safe,

Fiona Kropp

Deputy's Report

SCHOOL PHOTOS

With 2022 school photos timetabled on Thursday March 10 & Friday March 11, students are asked to ensure they are wearing school uniform on the day of their photo. (Only House Captains will have their special group photo wearing house colour shirts.) Again this year, along with a whole class photo, the opportunity for individual and sibling photos are also available. Online ordering and payment are preferred however, order forms can be collected from the office and are to be handed back on photo day with the correct money, no change will be given.

What day are photos being taken?

Thursday – Staff, Prep,Year 1, 2, 4, 3 & 3/4, 5/6, Captains/Vice Captains (School /Sports), Sibling photos (also during lunch breaks)

Friday – any Sibling photos not completed on Friday

Any questions about the photo days, please contact the Office.

SAFETY FIRST – Keep our footpaths outside the school free of parked cars.

We ask that you, our parents/caregivers, take the extra few minutes to park or drop off/pick up students in the appropriate areas around the school as this will improve the safety of our students.

Please do not park on the footpaths outside Staff Carpark near the Supervised Crossing on Buka Street or use the Staff Carparks to drop off and/or pick up our students as we want our children to enter and exit the school safely.

BARKLY HIGHWAY STATE SCHOOL IS A SAFE AND RESPECTFUL WORKPLACE:

Communication

Talk to us

There’s a saying that we have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.  Here at Barkly Highway State School we want everyone to communicate with one another with respect, after all we are all working towards the same goal. 

We are a safe and respectful school community and we expect parents and school visitors to be polite, to act as positive role models, and to recognise and respect personal differences. If you have an issue with your child’s education ask for a meeting to discuss your concerns in the appropriate environment.

Remember we are working together to give your child the best education possible. Your child, our student. One team.

NAPLAN 2022 FOR YEAR 3 & 5 STUDENTS:

NAPLAN is a nationwide measure through which parents, teachers, schools, education authorities, governments and the broader community can determine how well young Australians are developing the literacy and numeracy skills that provide the critical foundation for other learning and for their productive and rewarding participation in the community. 

• NAPLAN tests are one aspect of each school’s assessment and reporting process. NAPLAN does not replace the extensive, ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance. A child’s teacher will have the best insight into the child’s educational progress. NAPLAN results do not measure overall school quality.
• NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are already learning through the school curriculum. Children can prepare for NAPLAN through learning the curriculum. On its own, NAPLAN is not a test that can be studied for, and students are not expected to do so. 
• The assessments allow parents to see how their child is progressing against national standards in literacy and numeracy and over time. Along with other school assessment reports, NAPLAN supports parents in discussing with teachers their child’s strengths and areas for improvement.  
• NAPLAN results can assist teachers by providing additional information to support their professional judgement about students’ levels of literacy and numeracy attainment and progress. 
• NAPLAN can support school improvement by enabling teachers to monitor their students’ progress over time against the national measure, to identify strengths and areas to improve in teaching programs, and to set goals in literacy and numeracy.
• Both paper-based NAPLAN and NAPLAN Online test the same range of skills in literacy and numeracy taught through curriculum content. Student results continue to be measured against the one NAPLAN assessment scale, and students answer the same number of questions in both NAPLAN tests – paper and online. 
• Students and parents wishing to familiarise themselves with NAPLAN Online can visit the public demonstration site on the NAP website. Some past NAPLAN papers are also available. 
• The number of adjustments available aim to encourage participation in NAPLAN Online for as many students as possible.

Why NAPLAN is online

• All schools are to transition to NAPLAN Online by 2022, as the online format improves NAPLAN. 
• NAPLAN Online provides a better assessment and more precise results. 
• One of the main benefits of NAPLAN Online is that it uses tailored (or adaptive) testing. This means that students receive questions better suited to their abilities, giving them more opportunity to demonstrate what they know and can do. 
• Feedback from students is that they find the online test more engaging.
• For more information about the move to online, visit the NAPLAN Online page of the NAP website 

This year, between 10 and 20 May, our school will be doing NAPLAN Online

• Read the NAPLAN Online information brochure for parents and carers. A copy of this information is being sent home this week for all students in years 3 & 5. To see the format of the online tests, visit the public demonstration site.

Multimedia

Library News

This term is flying and we are looking forward to our first Book Fair for the year. The Book Fair will be on 14-18 March, Monday - Thursday from 8:00 - 3:00 and Friday from 8:00 -11:00. The Book Fair is supplied by Scholastic and students and families will have the opportunity to browse and purchase books during this time. Students will spend 30 minutes at the Book Fair and will be able to add items to their Wishlist to take home. While the school will earn a commission on all purchases, there is no obligation to purchase. We are looking forward to welcoming all our Barkly families during Book Fair.

Currently we are awaiting the arrival of our Book Club Issue #1 orders, which will be handed to the students as they arrive.

Due to the shortened first term, Book Club Issue #2 has arrived already and was handed out this week as well. Orders for that are back due this Friday, 04 March please.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any queries you may have.

Kind Regards,

Svenja Spitzner-Lewis

P&C Association

Barkly Highway SS Parents & Citizens Association (P&C) would like to invite you to our next meeting on Tuesday 8 March, 6:00 in the Resource Centre. It's our Annual General Meeting (AGM), all positions will become vacant. All are welcome, fresh faces bring fresh ideas. The role of the P&C is to make our school better for our kids, so come and be a part of it. We would love to see you there.

Chappy News

I have the privilege to be working with amazing staff at Barkly Highway, who go above and beyond the call of duty to teach and care for their students. I am grateful for the opportunity to support staff and students on the days I am on site.

Pastoral Care – In my role as Chaplain, I have supported a number of students in various life challenges. I listen to them and often the student can figure out for themselves what is the best plan of action to take. Some of these challenges can be social or emotional, friendship skills, self-regulation, restorative conversations, reaching goals or changes in dynamics.

During first and second play, I engage with the students' doing arts and craft in the courtyard and offer a range of games and activities on the oval with a group.

On Friday March 18, Barkly Highway State School will be supporting this important event as a whole school wearing orange and doing activities for the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence.

Each class will be doing an activity and we would like to invite parents/caregivers to come along and see their child/ren’s work displayed on the stage/undercover area from 2:00 on the day of the event. Please take the opportunity to visit the website https://bullyingnoway.gov.au where you can access resources on understanding bullying, kinds of bullying and how to respond if this happens.

5/6 Red News

This semester grade 5/6 have been studying 'Our Changing World' in science learning about different natural disasters. Last week, we looked at Earthquakes and replicated the effects of an earthquake using mars bars.

This week 5/6 Red and Gold combined for a science experiment outside simulating a Tsunami using a tub filled with water and a clipboard. The students were able to replicate the waves and feel the energy created when pulling the board towards them. We are all looking forward to our next natural disaster experiment - volcanoes.

Events

Want to know what's happening within the school? Check out our School Calendar to keep up to date.

https://barklyhighwayss.schoolzineplus.com/calendar/1

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