Barkly Highway State School - Term 2 Week 2
Principal's Welcome
Welcome back to Term 2! I trust everyone has had a safe and relaxing Easter holiday break and are ready for a very busy term of classroom learning, school sport and many other extra-curricular activities.
In such a short time, we have had several changes. 12 students from (6 families) have transferred at the end of the term, we have enrolled 6 students (3 families) in Prep, Year 1, 3, 5, 6 and know of others who are enquiring about enrolment, also.
We have farewelled 3 Gold’s classroom teacher, Mrs Kasenka McGilchrist, and welcomed Mrs Anita Mears, who has been working from the District Relieving Teacher pool, onto the class.
This term, the school is hosting pre-service teachers who are in their final year of their university studies. Currently, we have Miss Eve Wall (Prep) and Miss Amelia Wood (Year 3) from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and in a few weeks, pre-service teachers from Kelvin Grove Teacher Education Centre of Excellence (KGTECE). These are valuable opportunities for both our classroom teachers and pre-service teachers as they work together during their time here.
On Friday, we held our school’s ANZAC Day parade. As our school tradition, this parade is an opportunity for our student leaders to be integral part of its organisation. Our school captains lead the parade, while our house captains and class representatives (Student Councillors) lay their class wreaths and assist Prep to Year 3 students with theirs. Many families attended on Friday to commemorate this important occasion with their children.
At the Dawn Service, at the cenotaph, our captains placed a wreath, which had been created by students in Prep Gold, while a floral wreath was placed at the Morning Service. The community march on Sunday was well attended by our students, staff and families. Well done, everyone! I also acknowledge and thank our students for their exemplarily behaviour and respectful manners shown during these services.
Over the last few weeks, trespassers in the area have deliberately and unnecessarily damaged our school buildings and grounds at night-time. If you see anything suspicious around the school, please ring School Watch on 13 17 88.
Kind regards,
Fiona Kropp
Deputy's Report
Cybersafety basics for parents and families
The Life Ed Van & educator visit our school this term. Every class will be attending a session with this educator in the van from Monday 31/05/21 to Monday 07/06/21. Visit their website to find more resources and a podcast for parents on parenting tips by clicking on this link: https://lifeeducationqld.org.au/
This information comes from the Life Education Resources. Want to know more? Click on the link below: URL: https://lifeeducationqld.org.au/cybersafety-basics-for-parents-families/
Respecting and Caring for Belongings:
To prevent theft, if your child brings a bike to school please:
1. Provide a lock so that they can lock their bike up in the bike area.
2. Remind your child to make sure their bike is locked before they leave the bike area.
Unfortunately another bike was taken from our bike area last week.
Library News
We started the term with the arrival of Book Club Issue #2 and the remaining Book Fair orders arriving, which means all orders up to date have been filled.
Book Club Issue #3 has gone out on Monday and orders will be due this Friday. As always, you are able to use the popular LOOP online ordering or you can fill in the form on the back of your brochure and return with your payment to the office if you wish to order.
We are welcoming our Prep students from this term in the library to borrow books.
In order to borrow a book students from P-3 need a library bag. Books are due back weekly and need to be returned before being able to borrow the next book.
May is National Family Reading month. If you would like to sign up please click on the link below:
https://www.scholastic.com.au/scholastic-in-the-community/national-family-reading-month-2021/
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any queries you may have.
Kind Regards,
Svenja Spitzner-Lewis
P&C News
Welcome to Term 2 and welcome to our new Tuckshop Convenor, Rebekah! We hope you are as excited as we are to have our Tuckshop up and running again, and we congratulate Rebekah on her successful application. Can't wait to see how you make it your own.
In saying that, we want to thank Amanda for the amazing job she has done these past few years. The Tuckshop thrived. The kids loved it and we will miss you. Thanks for everything and we wish you the best!!
Also...THIS TUESDAY NIGHT IS P&C MEETING NIGHT!! Come along to hear about all the great things that the school and P&C are doing to deliver an amazing education experience for your kids! The meeting starts at 6:00 in the Administration Office. ALL WELCOME!! Hope to see many of you there.
Teamwork divides the tasks AND multiplies the successes!!
Thanks,
Mischa
President - Barkly Highway SS P&C
Prep Blue Classroom News
Prep Blue have been busy learning lots of different things in Maths. The students have been creating and continuing patterns, sorting collections of items and learning about numbers. Here are some photos of our learning.
In English, Prep Blue have also started to learn about how to present a retell. Our story focus for this week was ‘Mrs Wishy Washy’. Students were able to retell the story using mud, water and animals, just like in the story! We then made some puppets to present a retell to our class. Miss Connolly is very proud of your efforts!
QUT Prac Students
I’m Amelia Wood and I am a final year Professional Experience teacher from QUT at Barkly Highway State School for the next three weeks.
I am in the amazing 3 Blue with Ms Freestone and am loving every second of it. The lessons I have been focusing on are persuasive writing and mathematics and I am really enjoying seeing the students’ progress and engagement.
Currently, we are working towards filling our jar with pom poms from displaying great behaviour and good deeds in order to celebrate with a pizza party for the end of my Professional Experience. We are also learning to keep our noise level in check with our noise-o-meter.
Overall, my experience here at Barkly Highway State School has been nothing short of incredible and I’m so thankful to have such great students and teachers to support me.
Hi, my name is Eve Wall. I am a fourth year university student from QUT in Brisbane. This is my first time in Mount Isa and so far loving it!
I am spending 4 weeks in Prep Gold with Leah Wilcox. I am learning so much and am so grateful for every minute. In Maths, we are learning numbers 1-10 using hands on activities, such as building towers. In English, I am running the reading rotations. I am really enjoying putting some new techniques into practice and watching the students’ skills develop. We are also learning about events and characters in stories, using actions for our learning intention to present a retell.
1 Blue - King 3D
One Blue had a very exciting visit this week by ‘King 3D’!
King 3D had written One Blue a special letter asking if they could create a 3D kingdom for him as his other kingdom had been destroyed and taken over by bunch of Sillynders. Can you imagine that! Of course, King 3D had a list of requirements, as most kings do, of the 3D shapes that needed to be included within his kingdom. But fear not Barkly Highway! One Blue have accepted the challenge of creating King 3D a kingdom and will be learning about 3D shapes to help create the perfect kingdom for our new 3D friend!
The Arts
MICE Poetry Competition: Mount Isa Community Ensembles (MICE) are offering a poetry competition to schools in Mount Isa. Barkly Highway State School are pleased to announce we are supporting this. Any student in the school is welcome to partake in the Poetry Competition. Students that are interested need to see Miss Jones and submit to her by Thursday 13 May. Winners will be announced by MICE Monday 17 May, and will have their poem used in the main song in MICE's performance later in the year, Symphony Under the Outback Stars.
Opera QLD and Choir: Students involved in choir regularly have been invited to attend a workshop at school, community rehearsal, and performance with Opera Queensland. Students are very excited about this fantastic opportunity and experience. Watch this space for updates on the choir's progress and activities with Opera QLD.
School Photos
School photos will be delivered directly to the school by mid-late May. Once these have arrived we will dispurse them out to the students.
Thank you for your patience.
Anzac Parade 23.04.2021
Student Banking
School banking services will cease to be offered in our school and all Queensland state schools from 31 July 2021. In line with several other states and territories, the Department of Education’s decision is in response to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) Review of School Banking Programs report in December 2020. Students will be able to maintain their banking relationship directly with their bank. Consumer and financial literacy will continue to be delivered to students as part of the Prep to Year 10 Australian Curriculum, including Moneysmart and the BuySmart competition.
PCYC - OHSC
PCYC are looking for casual educators. If you are passionate about working with children and would enjoy a flexible work environment, please apply.
Blue card is essential.
Experience preferred but not necessary.
PCYC is hosting a breakfast from 8:00 on May 11 & 18 for students participating in NAPLAN testing.
This will be held in the PCYC courtyard.
Fruit and cereal will be provided.
Good Luck Year 3 and Year 5 students!
This is the Draft NAPLAN Online Test Schedule.
