School Newsletter 2023, Term 2, Week 6
Acknowledgment of Country
This staff memo comes to you from Jinibara Land. In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples today. We are thankful to be able to work, learn and play on Jinibara land.
Kilcoy State School Vision & Values
Our school vision:
"We believe that all members of the Kilcoy State School community have the right to work, learn and play in a safe and inclusive environment."
Our STAR values are:
Safety - Taking Responsibility - Active Learning - Respect
Principal's News: Belinda Nash
Dear Parents and Carers
Welcome to the several new families joining our school this term. We look forward to getting to know you and including you in our community. In the five years I have been connected to Kilcoy State School, I have learnt that the Kilcoy community is big, strong hearted and kind. Our school is always looking to connect with the community and contribute to the collective wellbeing.
We are currently revising our Code of Conduct to reflect the inclusion of the Positive Behaviour for Learning framework that our school has invested in. In line with this, we have, and will continue to, seek feedback from our community to ensure that our expectations for the behaviour of all people in our school (staff, students, families, community) are consistent and fair.
If you look at the top of this newsletter, you'll see that our vision is that "We believe that all members of the Kilcoy State School community have the right to work, learn and play in a safe and inclusive environment." Thank you for helping us achieve this vision for all.
Safety Messages:
- Students are not to be on site before 8.15am unless they are part of a before school activity provided by Kilcoy State School.
- The Royston Street Staff carpark gates are to remain closed between 2.45pm and 3.10pm. There are many small children and parents waiting in this area and it is unsafe for cars to move between these times.
- Seatbelts - Far too many parents are leaving the Stop, Drop and Go zone without making sure their children's seat belts are secured. Please do not rush to leave and forget to do this important task.
- If you need to collect your child earlier than 3pm, you must collect an exit slip from the office first. Children will not be released from class without this exit slip being provided to the teacher.
Date Claimers:
- Explore Prep - Thursday 8/6/23 9.45-10.45am
- Filipino National Day Celebration 11.30-1.30pm Monday 12/6/23
- Open Classroom Learning Celebration - Thursday 15/6/23
- Under 8s Day - Friday, 16/6/23
- Athletics Carnival (Snr) Wednesday 21/6/23
- Athletics Carnival (All) Thursday 22/6/23 - No Parade this day
- T2 Learning Success Celebration - Movie, Popcorn and PJ Session 23/6/23 - All students
Attendance: Our current attendance rate is 90% however our goal is 95%.
I'm quite concerned that our Prep Attendance sits at the lowest in the school. These days are incredibly important and I urge you to work with us if you are having trouble getting your child to school. Prep learning sets the foundations for all other learning at school and when components are missed, it can have a dramatic effect on their performance, and more importantly the learning confidence of your child.
If your child will be absent, please make sure you call the absence line on (07) 5422 3366 to let us know why they are away so that it can be recorded accurately.
Exploring Prep! Last week, I joined Mount Kilcoy State School Principal, Mrs Mead, to visit our local kindergartens to share information with the little ones about coming to Prep at one of our Education Qld Schools! We each donated a set of our uniforms to 'Home Corner' so the kindy students can role play ‘big school’. Kilcoy State School will hold an Explore Prep morning on the 8/6/23 from 9.45am to 10.45 am. Parent and children starting Prep in 2024 are invited to join us for a tour, learning experience and play in our awesome Prep Playground. Thank you to NCC and C&K for allowing our schools in to share!
The State of Origin meal deal day is on tomorrow and students are welcome to wear their Origin colours. No doubt they will also want to wear them on Wednesday as this is the match day. It has been a hard working term and we look forward to the friendly rivalry that Origin footy brings. Our kids are a bit footy mad and we love to indulge them. It's not a fund raiser, not a requirement, just a options for those who want to.
Instrumental Music Update: This week, we say a sad goodbye to Megan Dodds, our Instrumental Music teacher. Megan has secured a dream job with the Army and has wisely said yes to this exciting opportunity. While we will miss her terribly, we wish Megan all the best in her new role. Our IM program is now thriving thanks to Megan's hard work and leadership, and for that we are incredibly grateful. Our new IM teacher (Mr Phillip Hayter) has such a great basis to start from and will start in Term 3 after we return from holidays. My Hayter will work on Monday mornings and Tuesday all day.
Kind regards, Mrs Nash.
Deputy Principal's News: Lisa Webster
The final week of Term 2 has provided students and staff with multiple opportunities to celebrate our wonderful school community.
Curriculum Teaching and Learning - Staff have been busy writing reports, planning curriculum for Term 3 and moderating student assessment and folios of student work. The staff at Kilcoy State School are committed to ensuring all students have access to the curriculum.
Under 8s Day was held last Friday. Whilst the students were busy making craft activities, flying foam planes, sitting in emergency vehicles, viewing surf life saving equipment and getting their faces painted, the overall feeling of the day was a very calm one. Students, adults and community members were content and happy. Thank you to the P- 2 teachers and support staff for ensuring a happy celebration of U8s students. Thank you also to the children of Mount Kilcoy State School, NCC Early Learners, Kindy and Play to Learn for joining our Early Year Celebrations.
Our 2 days of Athletics Carnival resulted in a win for Mackenzie House, but the real winner was the school community. The students ran and jumped their hearts out! They congratulated and supported each other. The staff, lead by Mrs Smith, worked tirelessly to ensure a smooth athletics carnival. Congratulations to our school and community.
Mrs Webster - Deputy Principal.
Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)
It was lovely to see our State Member for Nanango - Mrs Deb Frecklington attend our school last week, and comment on how lovely, quiet and respectful our students were. Deb was at school to work with our Year 5 and Year 6 students learning about Civics and Parliament in the real world.
While she was here, Deb also congratulated our Parents & Citizens President Mrs DJ Whitley on the work of our P&C, awarding them a 'Local Heroes' grant to go towards upgrading our Tuckshop.
As we walked the school grounds, Deb mentioned her appreciation of how calm the atmosphere felt. This was also reflected in our behaviour incident data that Mr Rasmussen shared with staff at our recent meetings. Over 85% of our students are experiencing great success with no need for any behaviour intervention at all. This needs to be celebrated! A small portion require regular reminders and reinforcements, and an even smaller portion require access to significant supports to access learning in a safe manner for all.
The explicit teaching of behaviour expectations to all students at Kilcoy State School is helping to ensure that every child can access the right to work, learn and play in a safe and inclusive environment.
-The Kilcoy State School PBL Team
Students of the Week
It was lovely to see so many students receiving their Student of The Week certificates on Parade last week. Please join us in congratulating them for their effort.
LEGO Club with Mrs McCarron
Thank you to the students who frequently visit LEGO club, and thank you to the students who pop in sometimes. You are all more than welcome in this calm, quiet and creative space, so if you haven’t already come to visit, please come along.
When your child engages with LEGO, they are invited to be as adventurous as they want. They are encouraged to experiment, test out and build new ideas/designs. LEGO is an awesome activity for improved eye/hand coordination, persistence, patience and problem solving skills, just to name a few.
I am really enjoying watching the teamwork and new friendships that are forming. We have lots of cupboard space so we get to keep our designs stored with our names on them in order to come back to add details and to make our creations better.
Kind regards, Mrs McCarron.
ps: here are a few photos of our little LEGO masters in action:
LEGO Club Gallery
Developing a culture of kindness and connection.
Can you keep a secret? Well Year 3A can!! What a lovely group of classmates.
Mrs Racchi’s class took a little time out from their story writing on Friday to throw their teacher a surprise Birthday Party. Year 3A kept the birthday cake surprise secret all week and Mrs Racchi had such a lovely time sharing her cake with the hard working students in her class. Happy Birthday Mrs Racchi!!
Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. If you have any suggestions for content, please forward them to admin@kilcoyss.eq.edu.au
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