Barkly Highway State School eNewsletter

Principal's Welcome

Welcome to our final newsletter for Term 1.

While it has been a very busy term, we will enter Term 2 knowing that the preparation for the year has been completed. One of the important tasks always for Term 1 is to finalise staffing which I am pleased to say has been completed. Last newsletter, I announced Kylie Toms as our Head of Student Services and the following positions have now been confirmed.

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT (CURRICULUM)

The recruitment process for the permanent Head of Department (Curriculum) (HODC) has now been finalised. Yvette Wehlow was the successful candidate for the HODC permanent role and will start in the role Term 1 2024. Yvette has been working as a classroom teacher and Head of Department (Curriculum) at our school for the last 8 years. Congratulations, Yvette.

Kamrynn Roberts, will continue as HODC for the remainder of the year, while Donna Freestone will continue as Engagement and Wellbeing Support Teacher. Thankyou, Kamrynn and Donna.

GUIDANCE OFFICER

Brett Jeffery has been our allocated Guidance Officer this term. Brett has recently accepted a full-time role in Dysart and so we farewelled Brett this week.

SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM (SEP) TEACHER

We welcome Aaron Baigent who has joined our student support team on Monday, Tuesday and Friday for the remainder of the year. Welcome, Aaron.

MORE GREAT NEWS! PROJECT 1000 EXTENSION!

During the P1000 Community of Practice (COP), Regional Director, Joseba Larazabel, announced the extension of the P1000 and the engagement of the K-2 Deputy Principals until the end of 2024.

While this acknowledges the important work in which the 6 deputies are engaged within Mount Isa’s primary schools and wider community, there has been ongoing concern that the purpose and targets of the Project still required an extended commitment to ensure sustainability into the future. This decision aligns to our educational strategy - Equity and Excellence, enabling the strength of the “K” (Kindergarten) to “P” connection to be in place.

THE SEASONS AROUND US – A VISIBILITY OF CULTURE PROJECT

Continuing on our cultural journey, Sarah Tanielu-Smith, Jenny O’Riley, Donna Freestone and Anna Eggmolesse attended the first day of “The Seasons Around Us” Project on Wednesday 29 March at the CLaW. The project is designed to build connection between schools and First Nations Elders, to co-design a localised season calendar based on the work of the CSIRO.

This opportunity will provide dedicated time to share and plan, making curriculum connections for Prep and Year 1 by attending days in residence in Mount Isa into Term 2. There will be opportunities for facilitating localised excursions and learning experiences in Term 2, with one or multiple, Prep or Year 1 classes or target groups of students to learn about the visible changes of seasons.

SCHOOL REVIEW – Term 2 Week 6

(Tuesday 23, Wednesday 24, Thursday 25 May)

School Review is scheduled for Term 2 Week 6 with an Executive Summary (3 pages), Whole School Report (18 pages) and Info gram Placemat expected to be released in the following 2-3 weeks after completion.

Reviews give schools focused, independent feedback about how they are performing and where they can improve. Principals use the findings to work with their school community and assistant regional director or principal supervisor to develop clear actions to move the school forward. The review process is not used to compare schools, or to assess the performance of principals, teachers or other staff. This feedback informs region’s allocation of the differentiated support for each school. This support is tailored to a school’s context and needs.

Before we get excited about the holidays, I want to acknowledge and thank all our teaching and non-teaching staff for the tremendous efforts to assist our students achieve their goals for the term.

Again, I encourage you to be involved as this will influence the future journey of the school.

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 every school review, so I encourage you to consider having your say.

Parent-teacher-student discussions

For families who participated in parent-teacher-student discussions you had the opportunity to hear of student learning and set next steps. Over the last few weeks, teachers have worked together to plan our Term 2 curriculum, as this enables teaching and learning to commence day 1 of Term 2. Every day counts!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday and we will see everyone back to school on Monday 17 April.

Thank you for your continuing support

Fiona Kropp

Deputy's Report

SCHOOL PHOTOS

With 2023 school photos timetabled on Thursday May 18 next term, 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. The online order portal is now ready to accept the orders for the School photos. Please find attached a flier (at the end of the newsletter) explaining the online order process.

Please note that the sibling photos can ONLY be ordered up until the time outlined on the flyer. The ordering of sibling photos will be deactivated after this time.

What day are photos being taken?

Thursday 18 May

Morning session: Staff, Prep, Year 1 & 2,

Middle session: 3, 4 & 5/6

Afternoon session: Captains/Vice Captains (School & Sports), Sibling photos (as well as during both lunch breaks)

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

LIFE EDUCATION EDUCATOR Visit

After the feedback from our community – teachers, students and parents – the school has booked the Life Education Educator to visit the school again in Weeks 2 & 3 of Term 2 – 26 April to 3 May.

The school has taken up the opportunity this year to cover the cost of this program by having it subsidised through funding from The Australian Government via the Communities for Children Mount Isa program. As a part of this funding, we ask our parents and carers to complete the Data Consent Form attached to the end of our newsletter. This form will need to be signed by parents/carers and returned to the Life Ed Educator prior to or on the day of delivery which is Wednesday 26/03/23. This data is not used to identify or contact individuals once provided, it is for reporting purposes only. We have attached a 1-page flyer around privacy of the data collected to the end of the newsletter. Please advise the school if you do not want your child/ren to participate in the Life Education sessions next term. We have also emailed these forms to every student’s family and the teachers have sent home paper copies of these forms as well.

ATTENDANCE – at Barkly Highway State School Every Day Counts!

This term the attendance for ALL our students was 91% for the year. Our school target is 93% attendance for all students.

Congratulations to the students with 90%+ attendance for Term 1.

As we are nearing the end of term, our teachers are planning activities to ensure that the learning in the classrooms continues until 2:30 Friday 31 April, the last day of Term 1. This week, classroom learning will be based on the curriculum knowledge and understanding from this term’s class work that may require consolidation or extension.

We continue to promote the message to our students and families that “every day, every student is learning” and we expect to see every student at school enjoying the learning until Friday 2:30. Thank you to everyone for supporting the school in this regard.

Please enjoy a safe end of Term 1 holiday.

Looking forward to seeing all our students return after the holidays refreshed and ready for learning.

Cheryl Gallagher

K-2 Deputy - Age Appropriate Pedagogy

Play increases higher order thinkers!

At Barkly Highway State School, we pride ourselves on knowing each learner and their interests and needs to give them opportunities for success in each subject area at the highest level. We embed effective pedagogy as an integral part of systematic curriculum delivery as our whole school approach.

Age-appropriate pedagogies (AAP) offer a research-driven and custom-built language about effective early years pedagogies and a decision-making framework that supports teachers to select and employ a range and balance of approaches and characteristics, when teaching to:

actively engage children in purposeful learning experiences
enhance learning outcomes
create higher order thinking and problem solving
support children to innovative
build positive dispositions towards learning, now and in the future.

AAP is evidence-based and flexible in nature. It supports teachers to plan and make decisions about teaching and learning experiences that are responsive to the child, teacher, context, curriculum and evidence of learning within and across diverse educational environments.

We encourage parents to visit classrooms and see the way our staff are engaging children, building a successful foundation for life time learners while ensuring students wellbeing. Please pop in and talk to any of our staff. We always welcome questions, thoughts and feedback.

Kind regards,

Bec Cremona

Engagement & Wellbeing

What a great term Barkly Highway students have had! Students have participated in AAP learning days that bring so much fun to the classrooms. We have had a sausage sizzle fundraiser, PBL whole school dance party, an ice block day and we introduced our school mascot Barkly Bee. As I’ve walked through classrooms and spoken to students, it has been wonderful to see the engagement and participation in learning across the school. This week, we look forward to the Easter bonnet parade for Prep to Year 2 students on Friday at 8:30 and the whole school Easter raffle at 2:00. I wonder who will walk away with a bag full of chocolates?

Donna Freestone

Engagement and Wellbeing

Barkly Highway State School is a Safe and Respectful Workplace

School Culture

Creating a positive school culture

At Barkly Highway State School we pride ourselves on our positive school culture and with your help we can make it ever stronger. You can do your part by speaking positively about the school and its staff. If there is an issue that needs addressing ask for a meeting to discuss your concerns and understand that there may be times when compromises are necessary.

No one benefits from negative comments or gossip about other school community members – including students – whether it’s in person, in writing or on social media.

Recognise that staff are responsible for supporting the whole school community and every student is important. Remember we are working together for your child. Your child, our student. One team.

STEM

Over the last month, 7 Year 5 Students have been involved in Queensland Virtual STEM Academy – connecting and collaborating through digital innovation.

This Skill Builder, iSee Licence, provides the foundational skills upon which the students will build their ability and fluency in iSee virtual classroom. The students will also collaboratively access and gain experience in using a number of other software platforms (For example: Class Notebook, Tindercard and Padlet).

The course runs for a total of 10 weeks, the students meet Mrs Roberts in the library every Friday for an hour lesson.

Last week in our QVSA lesson, we began learning about the scientific method. We took observations as our hand unfolded in water and we made predictions when we placed skittles in the water.

This week, we will look at creating a hypothesis and learning about the variables of a scientific investigation.

Recently 1 Blue celebrated all their hard work this term with a class party! It was the students choice of reward after filling up their jar with PBL tokens! We made our own party hats, danced the afternoon away and finished the day with cake.

5/6 Red - Througout the Term!

The Escape Room!

Students worked collaboratively with their peers to solve set clues and codes to move onto the next activity in the escape room. There was a range of hands on activities related to the maths unit on ordered pairs, transformations and symmetry.

Our Solar System!

Students were able to apply their knowledge of our solar system when they created their own science reports and models of our solar system aligned to the current science unit.

Minecraft Maths Party!

Last week, students enjoyed participating in a range of maths activities that have related back to the three maths units that students have learnt throughout the term. Students were able to use their knowledge of fractions, coordinating pairs, symmetry, multiplication and data to complete a range of fun hands-on activities.

School Crossing Supervisor

We would like to welcome our new Crossing Supervisor, Jordynn! Barkly Highway State School students have missed having a welcoming face of a morning and afternoon. Our students have loved being greeted by Jordynn as they have arrived to school and she is an important part of our Barkly Highway family by keeping our children safe. Don’t forget to say hello as you walk by and remind your children to follow instruction when crossing the road.

P&C News

Barkly Highway SS P&C had their AGM on the 14 March 2023. It was a success with a full committee being formed again! Previous members Mischa (President), Leah (Secretary) & Candice (Treasurer) have stayed on in their positions which we are very grateful for but, you will see from our photo that we have a NEW Vice-President, Miss Bec Samios! I'm sure the whole school knows that Bec is going to be a great addition to our committee, and we can't wait to see where the year takes us.

Just a quick reminder about tonight's GLOW PARTY DISCO!! This is our first fundraiser for the year, and we are trying a new venue to try and get a closed, air-conditioned, dark feel for our glow products to work their magic! We hope to have a great turnout, please come along and enjoy the disco and support our P&C.

Some updates also about our P&C: We've applied for a number of different grants in the last couple of weeks for a variety of projects or enhancements. Being successful in any of these will mean exciting times ahead for Barkly Highway SS with some major enhancements to our wonderful school.

I know it's a long way off but we will be having our next P&C Meeting on Tuesday, 9 May so we are looking forward to that. We will hopefully know all of our grant application outcomes by then so fingers-crossed. If anyone in our school community knows of other grant ideas, or is also great at writing grant applications, please let us know so when one comes up we can get together.

Thanks for your support for our school and P&C, look forward to seeing everyone at the disco and enjoy your holidays.