Volume 9 - 10th June 2022

From The Principal

Our School Hall was packed with students and teachers last Thursday when Leichhardt State School hosted the Readers’ Cup for the second year in a row. Mrs Finlay’s organisation of the event was exceptional. From the book sellers and event organisers to the 20 student teams competing, everyone had a great time and enjoyed the opportunity to connect through their love of reading. Our teams were placed sixth and eighteenth this year, after winning the first round. We are very proud of our students’ efforts and achievements.

With the cold weather this week, we are seeing more students present at Student Services with different symptoms, including cold and flu as well as gastro. Our school is able to provide first aid to our students, but we are not allowed to administer any medication without a medical plan approved by the doctor and parents. Our process is to call the parents and ask that the child be picked up as soon as possible in the interest of safety of everyone at the school.

The school continues to do special COVID cleaning every day, and we continue to air the rooms to ensure good ventilation and reduce the spread of germs. We are grateful to all our parents and carers who keep their children at home when sick and assist us in reducing the risk of virus transmissions.

Student illness has a profound effect on our school. When students are sick, our teachers get sick and we end up with supply teachers or merged classes. Our students engage with learning much better when they are with familiar people and in familiar situations. That is the reason our teachers supervise classes internally whenever possible.

This week, we are preparing for our Sports Days on Thursday and Friday next week. Student Leaders have been so helpful and have worked very hard with Miss O’Connor to ensure the days go smoothly. Another area where our Student Leaders will be assisting staff is during Week 10 for our Maths Week. We are very lucky to have such hard-working and enthusiastic students. After meeting with them today, I am excited about their aspirations and plans for leaving a legacy. I will write more about this in ensuing editions.

I hope you and your family stay well, safe and strong!

Readers Cup @ Leichhardt

Our Leichhardt students did an amazing job at the Readers Cup event that was hosted by Leichhardt State School on Thursday, Week 7.

Our Year 5s were superb ambassadors as they directed the 20 visiting teams from 11 different schools to the Hall and advised where to sign in and the location of important facilities, namely the canteen and the toilets.

Our female Vice-Captain confidently presented ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ and greeted the audience in Language.

Our two teams, Leichhardt Lions 1 and Leichhardt Lions 2, represented Leichhardt strongly and displayed exemplary behaviour throughout the event.

At the end of the competition, Leichhardt Lions 2 achieved 6^th position and Leichhardt Lions 1 achieved 17^th position out of a possible 22.  Well done, Leichhardt!

The Readers Cup Quiz Master for 2022 was children’s author of Australian native animal stories, Samantha Wheeler.  The students enjoyed speaking with Ms Wheeler after the competition and having their photo taken with her as she signed their books.

Ms Wheeler will be visiting Leichhardt State School again on Monday, Week 10 to run writing workshops with our students.

Ipswich Library @ Leichhardt

We have been very fortunate to have the First 5 Forever Team from the Ipswich City Children’s Library visit our Playgroup during this term.  Parents/carers and children have thoroughly enjoyed the storytime and activities presented by the First 5 Forever Team.   

Attending the Leichhardt State School based playgroup is a wonderful way to help transition your child to Prep at Leichhardt State School.   If you would like more information about the Playgroup at Leichhardt, please ring Channon on 0475798198.

Prep Reading @ Leichhardt

At Monday’s Week 7 Assembly, fourteen Preps received Sight Word Awards for meeting their personal sight word goals!   Great work, Preps!

Below are the names of the students (with media permission) who received awards

Ivan, Zoe, Phoebe, Isabella, Alexia, Jakiy, Tiahleigh, Jozenna, Logan, Blythe, Hunter and Kaluaka.

How is your Prep student progressing with their sight words?  The guide below shows the average acquisition of sight words during the Prep year and Term 1 of Year 1.

End of Term 1 of Prep = 3 sight words known

End of Term 2 of Prep = 15 sight words known

End of Term 3 of Prep = 50 sight words known

End of Term 4 of Prep = 91 sight words known

End of Term 1 of Year 1 = 100 sight words known

If you would like to know more about how your Prep or Year 1 student is progressing with their sight words or ideas to help your child learn their sight words, please contact your child’s teacher.

Learning @ Leichhardt Year 3

Year 3 have been busy creating posters for their HASS Assessments.  Students were required to answer questions about ANZAC Day commemorations and made up a question of their own to research on the computers.  Students then put the information onto posters and finished it off with pictures they downloaded from the internet that related to their responses.  This also tied in with their Technology unit.

Writing @ Leichhardt

In Term 1, three students’ writing was submitted to the ‘Write For Fun’ competition.  On Tuesday we received notification that these three students’ stories were all short listed in the competition. Well done, students! 

Teaching & Learning @ Leichhardt

It has been fantastic to see students persevering through a busy part of the term finalising assessment tasks. Our teachers have being ensuring they are breaking up tasks for our students with brain breaks. Brain breaks not only allow students to connect with each other but they also allow the students to have a break from what they are focusing on.

Bookwork expectations continue to be a focus in Years 4, 5 and 6. It has been wonderful to see and hear the pride the students are taking in their books. Once students have built confidence in setting up their books they will then start to learn skills to add and review their notes.

HPE @ Leichhardt

We have continued another great week of moving our bodies and developing our gross motor skills! This week we have continued running and jumping activities as well as teamwork by practicing ball games. It was wonderful to hear students positively encouraging each other to be the first team to complete the challenges in preparation for sports day.

Recycling @ Leichhardt

At Monday’s Assembly, Ahmad (6A) shared a presentation on waste and how, as a school, we can deal positively with it.

Ahmad discussed how rubbish could be turned into cash and used to buy sports and educational equipment for the school.  The student audience was very excited to hear his idea and they were keen to support the recycling strategy.  To help with recycling, students were asked to place empty fruit box drinks (e.g. poppers) or any empty drink containers with a recycling image into the specially placed yellow bins under B, D and E blocks.  Students were informed that every recyclable container would lead to the school receiving 10 cents.  Ahmad’s presentation definitely received the thumbs up from all the students.  Well done, Ahmad!

Premier's Reading Challenge

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is here!  Please encourage your child to complete the challenge.  Students have until August, 26 to complete the challenge.  Below are the targets:

• Prep to Year 2 must read or experience at least 20 books.
• Years 3 and 4 must read at least 20 books.
• Years 5 and 6 must read at least 15 books.

If students do not have access to many books at home, please remember the Reading Eggs library is very extensive with books from a range of genres.

If you would like to complete the challenge at home with your child, please contact Mrs Finlay (HOD-Reading) at efinl9@eq.edu.au for a Premier’s Reading Challenge record form.

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!

 Please remember to clearly name your child's belongings. This enables items to be returned to their owners. 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. Students often require a change of clothes while at school and our supplies are getting low.

A huge thankyou to those families that have already donated!

Tuckshop @ Leichhardt

The lovely ladies, who volunteer at our school tuckshop, have been very busy preparing food for our hungry students. Why not support our tuckshop by ordering one of their value packed Lunch Packs for $5.  Lunch Packs include a sandwich (vegemite, jam, honey or cheese), popcorn or shapes biscuits, muesli bar or le snack, a piece of fruit, a cupcake and a popper. That's right! All 6 items for only $5.

Tuckshop is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Orders should be placed by 9am and payment may be made by cash or eftpos.

Volunteers are always welcome. If you have an hour or two to spare, please consider helping at the tuckshop. Many hands make light work!