Barkly Highway State School eNewsletter

Principal's Welcome

CONGRATULATIONS, KYLIE TOMS!

Kylie Toms recently participated in the departmental recruitment merit process for the Head of Special Education Services role based at Barkly Highway State School. Kylie has won the permanent position and will officially start on 20 March. Kylie has been working in the Special Education Program at our school for many years. Congratulations, Kylie!

RECIPROCAL WALKS AND TALKS - SCHOOL VISIT

On Tuesday morning, our prep teachers hosted visitors from our Regional Office: Regional Director, Joseba Larazabel; Assistant Regional Directors, Helen McCollough and Phil Sweeney; ECEC Director, Sandra Upton and local principals including David (Healy SS), Hayley King (Mount Isa Central SS) Kath Donnelly (Happy Valley SS). The smooth transition from kindy / pre-prep days into Prep at Barkly Highway where our teachers have deliberately created an environment to engage each child with routines, structures, predictable and teachable moments were acknowledged. The classrooms’ Learning Walls were celebrated with clear learning intentions, success criteria where students could clearly articulate what they must know and do to be successful. Congratulations and thank you Bec Samios (Prep Blue), Sarah Tanielu-Smith (Prep Gold) and Bec Cremona (K-2 Deputy Principal) for the great work providing our students a great start to school life.

SCHOOL REVIEW

The ultimate goal of school improvement is to improve outcomes for students, including levels of achievement and wellbeing. For this reason, direct measures of student outcomes are essential to all school improvement efforts. However, ‘school improvement’ fundamentally means improving what a school does. The Tool provides evidence about a school’s day-to-day work to complement, and possibly shed light on, measures of student outcomes.

The School Improvement Hierarchy tool highlights the 9 domains of which SCHOOL COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS is vital.

Don’t forget, if you are interested in being involved and will be available during week 6 to meet with the review team, please contact the school office by email – use SUBJECT “School Review” so we can include you in our future planning (admin@barklyhighwayss.eq.edu.au). Parent feedback is an important part of the any school review, so I encourage you to consider having your say.

Kind regards,

Fiona Kropp

Deputy's Report

CELEBRATING OUR MATHEMATICS PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES –Maths Professional Learning Community (PLC)

Our Maths Professional Learning Community this year is focused on building our capabilities to teach using Open-ended and Inquiry based learning activities to improve the mathematical problem-solving ability of our students.

Our devoted teachers in our Maths PLC shared how they approach Inquiry based learning activities in their Maths lessons in our recent staff meeting. Yvette Wehlow (1 Blue class teacher – see photos below) is a member of our Maths PLC and in the photos below has used an age appropriate inquiry approach to engage her students in learning about Counting where students were involved in mathematical conversations with their peers to solve maths counting problems with counting materials. Yvette explained that this inquiry activity was lead by the students and followed the “four D” approach to inquiry based learning:

Discover – the children made predictions, discussed the question, collaboratively listed follow up questions
Devise – the whole class discussed follow up questions, brainstormed counting strategies
Develop – the children decided on the best strategy and tested it
Defend – the children reflected about their successes

Eve Wall (2 Gold class teacher – see photos below) also explained how she has used an age appropriate inquiry approach, involving the character Humpty Dumpty, to engage her students in learning about Counting where students were involved in mathematical conversations with their peers to solve maths counting problems. Cameron Alley (5/6 Blue Class teacher – see photos below) explained his classes’ age appropriate inquiry-based learning activity where the students visited the 5/6 Escape Room. When there, the students were presented with a situation and scenario to establish interest and provide an outcome of the work. The challenges were derived from the current unit of learning and were designed in a way to leverage student understanding. Emma Perkins (3 Gold class teacher) explained how she used an age appropriate guided inquiry approach, what stopped in the mud? to engage her students in learning about Measurement where students were involved in mathematical conversations with their peers to solve maths measurement problems with manipulatives. She explained how she used the ‘four D” approach – Discover, Devise, Develop and Defend to engage her students in the mathematical learning.

Our students are fortunate to have teachers who strive to continuously improve their practice and support each other through these professional learning opportunities.

I plan to continue to share more of the effective research-based practices that our teachers use to improve our students’ learning outcomes.

1 Blue’s How long is the road? Inquiry-based learning with Yvette Wehlow:

2 Gold’s Humpty Dumpty’s Wall Inquiry-based learning with Eve Wall:

5/6’s Escape Room Inquiry-based learning with Cameron Alley:

3 Gold’s What stopped in the mud? Guided Inquiry-based learning with Emma Perkins:

YEARS 3 & 5 NAPLAN TESTS are happening at the moment Term 1 Weeks 8 & 9

Please see timetable attached.

BARKLY HIGHWAY STATE SCHOOL IS A SAFE AND RESPECTFUL WORKPLACE:

Collaboration

Two heads are better than one

It’s often said that two heads are better than one, and at Barkly Highway State School we couldn’t agree more. We are a safe and respectful school community and are keen to collaborate with parents to give our students the best possible education.

To do this we need your help. These simple things will go a long way to helping your child succeed:

make sure your child comes to school every day ready to learn
ensure they arrive and leave school safely on time and
read and encourage your child to understand and follow the Student Code of Conduct.

Remember we are working together for your child. Your child, our student. One team.

PARENT-TEACHER-STUDENT DISCUSSIONS are happening in Week 9 from 20/03/23 - 24/03/23

Parent-Teacher-Student Discussions are to be held next week. This is one of the two formal opportunities that is scheduled in the school calendar for parents/carers to discuss their individual student’s achievement, effort and behaviour, as well as set student goals for future success with our teachers. Our teachers are currently sending home information about these meetings. This is a wonderful opportunity to share the latest information on your child/ren’s progress with their learning and an opportunity for some feedback for the next steps.

SAFETY FIRST – STAFF CARPARKS

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 enter our staff carparks to drop off or pick up our students and support us with keeping our students safe by using the Stop Drop N Go Area and pedestrian gates on Buka and Bougainville Streets to enter and exit the school.

LIFE ED VAN VISIT TERM 2 WEEKS 2 & 3

LIFE EDUCATION VAN VISIT

After the feedback from our community – teachers, students and parents – the school has booked the Life Education Van to visit the school again. This year the school is hosting a Life Education Van Visit in weeks 2 & 3 of next term from Wednesday 26 Apr- Tuesday 2 May. There is free access to the Life Education Hub. Registering to the Hub will provide you access to vital health and wellbeing resources, which compliment the Life Ed van visit – including interactive lessons, post visit resources including activities and podcasts. To register simply click here.

Link to life ed hub

https://lifeeducationqld.org.au/life-education-hub/

Link to register at the life ed hub

https://lifeeducationqld.powerhousehub.net/

The Arts

This year has seen a bit of a change to the Arts as I have stepped into the new role as the arts teacher this year.

We have kick started 2023 off with a music focus, enjoying listening to, composing and performing a variety of music types.

Our lucky little preps have been involved in the Arts as a whole, enjoying a mixture of Music, Visual Arts, Drama and Dance this term. They have also been talking about ways we can save the environment, performing songs, colouring in competitions and creating a waka (canoe) using Kowhaiwhai patterns and designing a hoe (paddle).

Year 1 and 2 have been focusing on music about saving the environment. They have performed and played an instrument to a familiar environment song and have worked on composing their own.

In year 3 and 4, their focus has been about music of celebrations and commemorations. They worked hard on creating their own ostinato patterns, performing to an audience, and using dynamics in their composition.

Year 5 and 6 have explored music around the world. Performing as an individual or an ensemble, two songs from different countries.

We are excited to explore a new area of the arts next term with drama for our year 1 - 4 cohort and media arts for the 5 and 6 cohort.

Ngā Mihi

Sariah Tamihana-Ratana

Our first Book Fair this year was a great success. Despite the adverse weather conditions, we had many families coming through and enjoying the Book Fair. A big thank you to all our Barkly Highway families! Also, a very big thank you to all our wonderful staff who gave up their time as well as all the students who helped out throughout the week.

Due to the fantastic sales, we are now able to use our commission of over $1000 for new resources. These resources are going to directly benefit our students.

The guessing game was also a great success, with many students estimating very close to that secret number.

The actual winner was Austin from 5/6 Blue, who guessed the correct number of 142.

He was able to choose $20 worth of books and is sharing the jar of lollies with his class. Congratulations!

We had to re-order a few popular items and as soon as these arrive, they will be handed out to students.

Book Club Issue #2 orders have arrived and been distributed to students.

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

Kind Regards,

Svenja Spitzner-Lewis

Yr 3 - 6 Swimming Carnival

Kent House and Vice- House Captains looked pretty happy after taking the win! It was great to see everyone participating, having fun and making Barkly Highway SS proud.

A massive thank you to Mr Benson for all his hard work in making our sporting events possible.