Volume 3- 4th March 2022
From the Principal
Our thoughts are with our community this week as we get through a very difficult time together. Many of our student families and our staff have been impacted by the floods and suffered great losses this week. Our school’s Community Support Coordinator, Nic Curwen, has been instrumental in coordinating the provision of support for our families, which has come from many external organisations. Leichhardt State School is grateful for our ability to connect our families with the local support providers, and bring a smile to people’s faces.
This week’s disruptions meant that many of our students did not attend school. We are hopeful that with the weather improving and COVID restrictions easing from 6:00pm tonight, that all of our children will be able to come back to school. We have four weeks left in Term 1 and our focus will firmly remain on the teaching and learning.
I hope you enjoy our Newsletter. Stay safe, strong and connected. We are in this together.
From the HOSES
This week we acknowledge World Hearing Day. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness of how to prevent deafness and hearing loss, and to promote better ear protection and health across the world. This year’s global theme is ‘To hear for life, listen with care.
Due to the significant disruptions we have experienced this week, we will discuss hearing and the importance of taking care of our ears in our classrooms next week.
In the home, you can support your children to develop healthy hearing habits. Just as wearing sunscreen can protect against sun damage, these healthy hearing habits below can protect kids from hearing loss caused by loud noises.
Hearing tests for children in the early years of school are important. Leichhardt State School acknowledges this and works, every year, with the local the University of Queensland to carry out hearing screeners on our Prep Students (with parent consent). Our School have also invested in training staff members to carry out simple hearing screeners with students (at the request of parents), to assist with identifying or eliminating potential hearing difficulties and know whether further investigation is warranted. If you have concerns about your child’s hearing and would like the school to carry out a hearing screener before you access a professional hearing test, please contact Mrs Neville at the school.
Teaching and Learning
Our classes have been doing a wonderful job at learning what it looks like to be ready to learn. The start of the school year is an important time for students to be learning their new classroom routines and expectations and it is fantastic to see this happening across our school. Routines and expectations are extremely important to assist our students in striving to be the best learner they can be.
It has been wonderful to see our students continuing to develop their organisational skills this week. Students are encouraged to be organised with their equipment for learning with the key focus having a pencil, book and ruler ready in each session. They are also continually encouraged to develop their independence in creating an organised desk area. Well done to the students for taking so much pride in learning how to be an organised learner!
PBL News
Congratulations to all of our students that have been exhibiting the PBL expectations and values. We appreciate your hard work and you will be presented with the awards on Monday. Have a safe and healthy weekend.
Joy Anforth
From our Community Support Coordinator
Hi! I’m Nic Curwen and I am currently working as the Community Support Coordinator at our school. Most students and parents know me as Ms C.
I have worked at Leichhardt for over 20 years I have been in various roles during this time. Most recently in Student Services. During my time at Leichhardt, I have been able to support students and their families, enabling me to gain an understanding around some of the complex issues and situations that our community members face.
I am excited to work in this new role and assist our families in accessing support through different community support networks.
If you need any assistance, you can contact me through the school office.
Flood Relief
As you are aware, over the past week severe weather has significantly impacted our school and wider community.
I have listed below several links for families to access assistance, as well as including links which may help you to support your children through this difficult time.
Please take the time to explore some of these links and be aware that some avenues of support such as the Emergency Hardship Assistance Grant
are only available for a short period of time according to the webpage.
Ipswich Evacuation Centre
This is located at the Ipswich Showgrounds. I have personally visited this centre and have already been able to pass on food and support to some of our families affected by the floods.
Ipswich Community Recovery Hub
This is located at the Ipswich Trades Hall, 4 Bell St, Ipswich (near the train station).
Open daily – 9am – 5pm
The Hub can help with a range of flood-related matters including:
- Psychological, emotional and personal support
- Financial and practical assistance
- Housing support
- Information about clean up and recovery
- Information and referral to non-government organisations and local services.
Links of Support
Qld Government –
These include the following:
- Emergency Hardship Assistance Grant
- Essential Household Contents Grant**
- Structural Assistance Grant** (uninsured or unable to claim insurance – check eligibility)
- Essential Services Safety and Reconnection Grant** (uninsured or unable to claim insurance – check eligibility)
Commonwealth Government –
South East Queensland Floods, February 2022 - Natural disaster - Services Australia
Including the following:
- Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment - South East Queensland Floods, February 2022 - Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment - Services Australia
- New Zealand Disaster Recovery Payment - South East Queensland Floods, February 2022 - New Zealand Disaster Recovery Payment - Services Australia
- Australian Government Disaster Recovery Allowance (income loss) - https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/south-east-queensland-floods-february-2022-disaster-recovery-allowance
- New Zealand Disaster Recover Allowance (income loss) - https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/south-east-queensland-floods-february-2022-new-zealand-disaster-recovery-allowance
Rental property information –
- Information sheet from Tenants Union Queensland on tenants affected by floods - Information for tenants affected by floods updated (tenantsqld.org.au)
Website: www.tenantsqld.org.au Phone: 1300 744 263
- Information from Residential Tenancies Authority - Natural disasters | Residential Tenancies Authority (rta.qld.gov.au)
Links for supporting children and young adults
Birdie and the flood available as a downloadable PDF or on YouTube.
https://childrens.health.qld.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/PDF/qcpimh/birdie-and-the-flood.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j6aJO52JYg
https://www.childrens.health.qld.gov.au/natural-disaster-recovery/
Reading @ Leichhardt
Last Monday was International Mother Language Day, and Leichhardt State School celebrated the day with online presentations and activities by Aunty Sharron, a proud Wiradjuri Gamilaraay woman.
Please watch Aunty Sharron’s video on Leichhardt State School’s facebook page. In the short video Aunty Sharron shares why the preservation of Indigenous Languages is critical for the First Nations’ People and all people.
During the online presentation, Aunty Sharron facilitated fun games with the students where students learned to count to five in Language, play number grouping games and learn the names of Australian animals in Indigenous Language. Thank you for sharing your culture and your language with us, Aunty Sharron!
Thank you to Aunty Marly for organising the day. Thank you too to Miss Emma for helping facilitate activities in the classroom during the presentations. A big ‘Shout Out’ to Teniesha (Indigenous School Leader) for her deadly ‘thank you’ speech at the end of Aunty Sharron’s presentations!
This event has been assisted by the Ipswich City Council’s Quick Response Funding Program.
Only 3 weeks to the Term 1 ‘Spell-Off’! I hope everyone is practising their ‘Spell-Off’ spelling list words. Even the Preps have a ‘Spell-Off’ list as they learn more and more letters each week! Well done, Preps!
Last week I caught up with Delilah-Rose (1A) and Angelica (4C) who were keen to display their amazing spelling skills. Angelica spelt the word ‘wrinkle’ and Delilah-Rose spelt the word ‘frog’. Both girls were very confident as they spelt their words. Well done, girls! I look forward to catching up with more of Leichhardt’s incredible spellers and sharing their spelling prowess!
If you do not have a copy of the ‘Spell-Off’ words, please contact your child’s teacher.
Learning @ Leichhardt
Wow! What an excellent start to prep we have had here in Prep B. We have been spending a lot of time working on learning how to spell our names and write them using the correct letter formation. Instead of just writing all of the time we decided to collage our names, firstly we applied the glue to each letter following the directional arrows and then stuck small pieces of paper to the letter again following the arrow. Not only was this a great learning experience we were able to build our fine motor muscles, have fun and make some beautiful art for our class room.
Last week in 1B's science lessons we each manipulated a piece of paper in order for it to hold small teddies. This extended on the students' learning about manipulation methods such as bending and folding, and the ways these methods can change objects into different things with a different purpose. The students are enjoying the hands-on element within each lesson and the changes that they observe to ordinary objects.
Year 2
In year two we have been learning about procedures in English. We have been imagining making our own Wombat Stews and putting all the slimy, sticky, icky things inside. We are enhancing out writing by using some interesting describing words (adjectives) and describing how we are going to do things by using verbs and adverbs.
We are working hard on our handwriting and revising all our sounds so we can be awesome readers!!
In maths we are working on numbers to 100 writing them in words and partitioning them into tens and ones. We are working hard at our number facts and trying to remember our rainbow facts and number facts to 20 and part-part-whole.
This term in health we are learning about sun safety slip, slop, slap, seek and slide and how we can take care of ourselves and keep ourselves safe while playing in the sun.
We hope you all are ok after the floods and massive rainfall!!
Best Wishes,
Miss Rivett (2A) and Ms Reck (2B).
STEAM News at Leichhardt
This term in Science, the Senior Students have continued their units focusing on chemical science linked to indigenous culture. The Year 6 students have learnt about natural adhesives and the different traditional uses for resins. Our Year 5 students, have learnt about traditional cooking methods and the changes to states of matter that occur in each method.
In Arts, the students have reflected on what art means to them personally. They have begun created artworks displaying their feelings towards art linked to indigenous culture.
The students in Year 5 have built robots and continued learning about electrical energy in Technology. The Year 5 students have designed, programmed and built robots with movement, light and sound using Lego devices. Our Year 6 students have learnt about electrical energy and the way circuits are formed and created.
Our students are all having an amazing time learning in STEAM!
From Student Services
Student Services…We Care!
In Student Services we have been very busy working at keeping our students safe and well!
Please remember, if your children are unwell in any way, keep them at home to rest and recover.
Students showing any signs of illness will be sent home and if showing symptoms of COVID-19 will be given a RAT test to be completed at home. Students may return to school when they have a negative test result and are symptom free.
Lost Property!
If you have lost something, please come down to Student Services and check out the big red tub, where you will find lost property.
There are towels, swimmers, water bottles, undies, jumpers and some odd socks.
Preloved School Uniforms!
If your children have grown out of their school uniforms, it would be greatly appreciated if you would please consider donating them to Student Services. Student’s often require a change of clothes while at school and our supplies are getting low.
Gardening!
Our potted fruits, that we are growing outside of Students Services, have grown so much over the last 2 weeks. We have strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers all starting to fruit. Some of the children have been showing a great deal of interest and can’t wait to try some when they are fully grown.
Let’s keep on laughing!
Did you know that laughter increases your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain, creating a general feeling of well-being? In other words, laughing helps us to feel happier!
So, don’t forget, if you have a funny joke that you would like to share, please write it on a piece of paper, with your name and class, and pop it in the ‘Joke Box’ at Student Services.
