Volume 5- 1st April 2022

From the Principal

Leichhardt State School has had another great term of teaching and learning despite the myriad of challenges we faced over the last 10 weeks. Thank you, parents and carers, for being such great partners in your child’s education by communicating openly with us and trying your best to support your child to get through this difficult time. We are hopeful that Term 2 will bring more calmness and fewer absences for our students and staff.

Staff absences have been higher this term due to people being close contacts or unable to come to school due to illness. However, our timetable is such that we are able to cover classes with our own teachers most of the time, which resulted in more consistency for our students and better learning opportunities. Mrs Anna Neville has done an excellent job to manage teacher replacements saving us an amount of money that will now be used to buy sound amplification systems to be used in our classrooms to assist staff and students.

Last week, we inducted our 2022 Student Leaders during the Leaders’ Investiture ceremony. A few of our students were unable to be there on the day and they will be inducted at a later stage in Term 2. The Leaders have already started doing some really important work and helping with different events we ran this term: Harmony Day, Swimming Carnival and Body Mind Character Day. We are so proud of them and the responsibility they show every day!

This week, we celebrated Harmony Day in a wonderful ceremony organised by Ms Nic Curwen. I am so proud of our students who shared their culture and language with us. With over 30 nationalities in our school, we are a truly multicultural place. Thank you to Trezell Bell-Mailman for doing Welcome to Country and proudly showing his cultural heritage! Thanks also to other students who talked about their cultures: Australian, Tongan, Samoan, Maori, Serbian, Chinese... to name a few. Thank you, parents and carers, for supporting your children.

As we go on holidays, I wish you peace, calm and happiness. May you and your family enjoy the next couple of weeks, rest and recover from the busyness of Term 1. Thank you for your kindness, support and patience this term and look forward to seeing you all in Term 2!

From the HOSES

What a different but wonderful first term we have had in 2021. I am so proud that despite the many changes and differences, our students have still been able to settle into our inclusive classrooms and make progress with their learning.

This year, we introduced our pedal desks and special furniture to junior school classrooms. Every classroom also received a replenished sensory box with a lot of new items to assist students to regulate in the classroom.

I am very happy to be able to announce that, after a successful trial in two of our classes we will be placing an order for new Juno FM systems to go into our classrooms. These sound amplification systems help both our students and teachers by amplifying and projecting the teachers voice from a microphone worn around the neck to a speaker which can be moved to the most suitable position on the room depending on the way the classroom is set up. With the ability to hear the teacher’s voice consistently as they move around the room, students find it easier to follow direction, understand what is being said and engage in their learning activities. It is also helpful to overcome the interference of background and environmental noises that can often be distracting and make it difficult to focus on the person speaking.

I can’t wait to come back in Term 2 to work with our wonderful students and watch them continue to reach their learning goals. Until then, I wish you all a relaxing, enjoyable and safe holiday.

Families for Inclusive Education

“From Vision to Inclusion: Advocating for your child at school”

Friday 29th April, 2022

9.15AM – 2.30PM

IPSWICH

BROTHERS LEAGUES CLUB, RACEVIEW

Presented by Community Resource Unit LTD

About the Workshop:

This free workshop will help you become more confident in advocating for your child in the education system. Learn about:

• The benefits and features of authentic school inclusion
• How to share and maintain a positive vision with the school
• Setting high expectations for your child
• Effective communication skills and navigating challenges in the school system
• Policies and legislation that can support you in your advocacy

Who is CRU?

Community Resource Unit LTD (CRU) has an over 30 year track record of working throughout Queensland to promote positive change so that people with disabilities can belong to and participate in community life.

The Families for Inclusive Education workshops are delivered by CRU to assist families of students with disability to be clear, informed, confident and connected so they can work as respected and valued partners in their children’s education.

Event and Venue Details

Date and Time

• Friday 29^th April 2022
• Please arrive by 8.45AM for a 9.15AM start. Morning tea and lunch provided.
• Concludes at 2.30PM.

Venue details

• The venue is Brothers Leagues Club

20 Wildey St, Raceview QLD 4305

• For additional venue details you can call directly on (07) 3817 2999

Cost

• Attendance is free, but bookings are essential.
• Morning tea and lunch will be provided.

Book Tickets

• Please book your tickets through the following link: https://events.humanitix.com/ipswich-29-april-from-vision-to-inclusion-advocating-for-your-child-at-school  
• RSVP and Registrations close Thursday 21^st April

Cancellations

• CRU's cancellation policy is on our website. Please use the following link: http://cru.org.au/about/policies/#cancellation 

These workshops are delivered by CRU to assist families of students with disability to be clear, informed, confident and connected so they can work as respected and valued partners in their children’s education.

For more information call CRU on 07 3844 2211 or email: educationproject@cru.org.au

Proudly supported by the Queensland Government through the Department of Education.

Contact Community Resource Unit LTD.

• Phone: 07 3844 2211
• Email: cru@cru.org.au
• Website: cru.org.au
• Address: Level 2, 43 Peel Street. South Brisbane. Queensland.
• ABN:16 143 460 250 ACN: 617 860 009

Reading @ Leichhardt

Last Monday was World Poetry Day!

The Library Elective group celebrated this day last Wednesday afternoon by making acrostic poems using the letters from their names.

Below are some of the wonderful poetry creations!

The students’ colourful work is now on display in the library.

A big ‘Thank you’ to Ms Sarah for organising this engaging activity and sharing the joy of poetry with our students!

Spell-Off @ Leichhardt

Leichhardt State School students have been working hard on their spelling this term.  A big ‘thank you’ to parents/carers for your support in helping your child to learn their ‘spell-off’ words.  There were a few classes that had students tie for first place.  Even after a second ‘Spell-Off’, it was not possible to determine one outright winner!  Well done, students!

Here are the ‘Spell-Off’ winners from each class for this term.

Readers Cup for 2022 has commenced! Leichhardt has two teams entered in the competition this year.  Below are pictured seven of the eight students receiving one of the titles that will be read for the competition. The Readers Cup event will be held on Thursday 2 June in the Leichhardt State School Hall.

Sight Word Celebrations @ Leichhardt

It is exciting to see our Preps learning to read!  An important part of reading is to learning to recognise high frequency words or sight words without relying on sounding them out.  Recognising words by sight, helps children become faster, more fluent and confident readers.  To ensure reading acquisition is progressing appropriately, research has shown that by the end of Term 1, Prep students should know at least 3 sight words.  The recommended average growth in sight word knowledge throughout Prep is as follows:

By the end of Term 2, Prep students to know at least 15 sight words.

By the end of Term 3, Prep students to know at least 52 sight words.

By the end of Term 4, Prep students to know at least 91 sight words.

This week it was lovely to see Preps receiving Sight Word Certificates for achieving the first sight word goal of knowing at least 3 sight words!  Here are some photos of proud Preps with their certificates.  Well done, Preps! 

We look forward to celebrating more sight word achievements next term!   Please see your child’s Prep teacher if you do not have a sight word booklet for your Prep student.

Also, don’t forget to encourage your child to engage daily with Reading Eggs to further promote their reading development.  If you do not have Reading Eggs login details for your child, please contact your child’s teacher or Mrs Finlay (Head of Department:  Reading) efinl9@eq.edu.au

Author/Illustrator’s Visit @ Leichhardt

Yesterday the Year 3 students had the wonderful opportunity to meet and learn from Sam Bayly, author and illustrator of the amazing books pictured below.  Students thoroughly enjoyed learning new techniques to bring their illustrations to life and add further depth to an illustrated story.

Teaching and Learning

It has been wonderful to see our senior students continue to learn and develop their skills in organisation. This will remain a focus for our senior students next term where they will continue to develop their understanding of the bookwork expectations at Leichhardt. The students will build their skill set to deeper their understanding and knowledge across all of their subjects. We look forward to sharing more of their fantastic learning and hard work as they continue to learn new skills.

Learning @ Leichhardt

Prep B 

This term we have been learning about the property of materials through experiments. We have tested materials to see if they are water proof or not water proof and to see if they blocked the sun or not. After we tested the materials we had to decide which materials would be appropriate to use to make a rainy day hat or a sunny day hat. This week we made our hats. We are so proud to show off our learning.

1A 

What a busy week we had at 1A!!  During our English writing lessons, we learnt how to write appropriate sentences matching for the pictures given.  We remembered to use capital letters, finger spaces and full stops appropriately. We also learnt to add relevant descriptive words and write stretchy sentences. It was a great productive week at 1A!!

As promised in the last newsletter, this week’s newsletter showcases some of the Year 6 students’ writing. The Year 6 writing task this term was to write a humorous story to entertain an audience. It can be challenging to bring to life on paper a humorous story; however, the Year 6s have worked diligently on the elements that make a story funny to create written pieces that do entertain. Here are four stories from the Year 6 classrooms. We hope you enjoy them.

Senior HASS

The Year 5 students have continued to develop their research skills to understand the significant people and events of the gold rush. 

"Edward Hargraves received the government reward for finding gold, but he didn't share it with others". 
"Many people moved everything to go and mine for gold". 

The Year 6 students have enjoyed learning about pre-Federation Australia and the problems that society faced at this time. They have found the societal issues of colonial Australia very interesting and enjoyed researching Australia's history.

From the Community Support Coordinator

Community Support Catch-Up

Attendance Matters!

As I continue my goal of helping all families achieve a minimum attendance rate of 85% and above, I’d like to acknowledge the families who have been working with me and overcoming hurdles which had previously impacted their attendance. I am very excited to see student’s at school, learning, smiling and enjoying the company of their friends.

I have included some documents outlining the importance of regular school attendance for parents to read.

Remember, I am here to help you and your family so we can have our students AT SCHOOL, EVERY DAY ON TIME!

If you need assistance with managing your child’s attendance, please contact me through the school office or by email at ncurw1@eq.edu.au .

The Good Foundation – Jamie’s Ministry of Food

The ‘Back to Basics’ 5 week cooking program through Jamie’s Ministry of Food Ipswich has come to an end.

Check out the last two meals they prepared!

Jamie’s Ministry of Food have another opportunity for any families affected by the recent floods.

For further information or to book in, please scan the code below.

Another COVID Pop up Clinic will be held on Tuesday 9th April 9am-1pm. This is open to all of our leichhardt students and their family in the Leichhardt Community. 

Pop up Clinic will be located at student services and in the OLA area. 

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.

Updating Contact Details!

Please remember, to update your contact details with the school. Up-to-date contact details ensures that the best care can be given to our students.

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.

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.

Health and Wellbeing!

The school holidays are a great time to take care of some of those dreaded nasties!

Headlice: Throughout the term there have been numerous cases of headlice within the school. Daily checking, treatment, and prevention of headlice is the best way to break the headlice cycle. There are many treatments that are available, however a very effective and cheap way of treating headlice is to apply and comb through hair conditioner. This should be done daily for 14 days, breaking the cycle, and eliminating the headlice. To prevent headlice returning, it is advisable to wear hair up while at school and apply a headlice preventative if desired.

Intestinal Worms: Children pick up and pass on intestinal worms very easily. These can be treated with over-the-counter products, and it is advisable to treat all family members at the same time. Regular handwashing and clean fingernails will help to prevent intestinal worms.

NAPLAN

Here is a NAPLAN training page that people can practice on holidays.

https://nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site

Swimming Carnival

Swimming Carnival

On Thursday, the students from the Junior School and Senior School participated in our annual Swimming Carnival at Leichhardt Swimming Pool. The students had such a great time competing against each other and supporting their teams. It was wonderful to see so many parents and carers from our Leichhardt community come out to encourage the children. A special thank you to Miss Everingham, the Leichhardt staff and all the staff at Leichhardt Swimming Pool, who helped organise and run the event. Our Year 6 leaders made us incredibly proud with the way in which they helped run the Junior Carnival and cheer on the younger students.

Our winning House for the day was Banksia with 554 points overall, with Acacia in second place and Kurrajong in third place.

Results:

From our Year 6 Media Captain L.J.

On Thursday 31^st March 2022, Leichhardt State School held a swimming Carnival. First was the Junior swimmers. In the first event, year 1 students rode pool noodles like bicycles in a race to the finish. Then the year 1,2 and 3 students sat on the edge of the pool with kick boards, then they dove into the pool and kicked their way through the water to get to the finish line.

At 11:00 am, the senior swimming carnival started. The events were different and more challenging then the junior swimmers. These included backstroke, freestyle, breast stroke and diving into the pool. Most students earned a ribbon in one of these events.

We ended the day with a delicious sausage sizzle and a slushy.

P&C News

Tuckshop will resumes on 27/04/22. Term 2 the tuckshop will only be open  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday due to a short supply of Volunteers. Volunteers are welcome come see us at the tuckshop or email us at leichhardtpca@gmail.com for more information.

Mission Australia Play Group

Term 1 for the Leichhardt Play & Learn Discovery Group has had virtual groups via Messenger, face-to-face groups & some cancellations due to the floods & COVID.  This aside, it has been a good term where we have learnt about animals who live in & around our Oceans.

In Term 2 the focus will be around stories & nursery rhymes with the addition of a special Eat That Session from the Active Children Thrive program on Thursday 5^th May.  If you would like to attend this session, you need to register/book as spaces are limited & for catering purposes.

Unfortunately I will be away from playgroup for 2 weeks as I will be on placement & don’t have anyone to step in & run the group in my absence.

Please contact Channon Schiemer from Mission Australia to find out more information on Facebook messenger or call her on 0475 798 198.  Or to register for the Eat That session.