Leichhardt State School eNewsletter

From the Principal

Thank you for your partnership, support and kind words that helped us through some challenging times this semester. As you know, the main challenge for our school has been student and staff absences due to illnesses. We still have multiple teachers on sick leave; however, due to our proactive approach to staffing this year, we managed to cover almost all classes internally, with teachers who are familiar faces to our students. This means that the effect of low teacher attendance on student learning has not been significant; however, it has been felt in all parts of the school.

I must acknowledge the hard work of all teachers, support staff and Leadership Team, who work so well together to support our students and meet their learning needs. With the support of the parents and carers, our team is able to achieve great goals and truly enrich our students’ school experience. This Tuesday, our teachers spent almost three hours doing Planning and Preparation for next term to ensure our students have the best possible start.

Over the last couple of weeks, our students have enjoyed an author’s visit with Samantha Wheeler, Maths Week packed with different activities and a special appearance of ‘Captain Redbeard, who sailed the seven seas to come to Leichhardt and give prizes to students who solved maths problems’ and our Deadly Dancers performed in two different locations in Brisbane.

The first one was at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, South Bank, where the students performed in front of a very large crowd. This performance was preceded by Leonee Thompson’s Welcome to Country in Yugara language followed by a translation in English, which brought tears to the eyes of many people in the audience, including the presenter who spoke after the performance. Nine parents and family members joined our staff at the performance to support their children. It was a truly proud moment for Leichhardt, where lots of love and kindness was shared in the true spirit of Leichhardt State School.

Deadly Dancers also had the opportunity to visit Payne Road State School this week to perform and teach their students some of the cultural learnings they have acquired through their work with Aunty Marly. This is the second year we are continuing this beautiful relationship with Payne Road State School and we cannot wait to welcome them to Leichhardt for our NAIDOC Celebration.

Aunty Marly’s efforts to support the Deadly Dancers have seen the students visit many different places over the last two years and experience some wonderful things. Their next performance will be at the Marburg Race Day, where they will perform Acknowledgement of Country.

Joy Anforth, HOD PBL, and Anna Neville, HOSES, presented at the Positive Behaviour for Learning Conference in Brisbane (the event at which the Deadly Dancers performed in the morning of the presentation day). When the audience saw what our students could do, they were interested to find out what our school was doing to educate children in that way. Many people attended the presentation and the feedback was excellent. Our team effort to educate our students through the Positive Behaviour for Learning approach has resulted in a culture of learning where our students strive to be kind and safe learners.

Today, we dressed as pirates and enjoyed lots of fun activities for the Body Mind Character Day. We had the Police Band perform for the students in the morning and Firefighters visit in the afternoon. The day ended with discoes organised by Kasey Curwen and the kids loved the opportunity to dance and have fun.

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

Prep B @ Leichhardt

On Monday we listened to Author Samantha Wheeler, read her book, Once I Munched a Mango. She then showed us a video of her friend singing a song she wrote from the book. We really enjoyed the book and the song so much that when we returned to our class we were inspired and we decided to write our own book as a class. We are very proud, excited authors and illustrators.

Prep A & B @ Leichhardt

This week in Prep we have enjoyed merging classes and doing our learning together. We have had special visits from some Yr 6 leaders and was lucky enough for a story to be read to us. In math we had so much fun making number kites and even tested them outside. It was so fun running and watching them fly in the sky. We also have so much fun at the Sports carnival. We loved doing the three-legged race.

Premier’s Reading Challenge @ Leichhardt

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is well underway and we already have 17 amazing students who have completed the challenge and working on completing another Premier’s Reading Challenge record form! Here are 16 of the students who have finished the initial challenge and are now working on their next goal!

Please encourage your child to complete the challenge. Students have until August, 26 to complete it. 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.

Author's Visit @ Leichhardt

Leichhardt students thoroughly enjoyed their day of author workshops with Samantha Wheeler. Ms Wheeler had visited the school earlier this term as the ‘quiz master’ for the Readers Cup. So, it was lovely to have Ms Wheeler visit again and this time to engage with all our students, to not only share her love of writing with them, but to further encourage their author/illustrator talents.

Ms Wheeler shared the inspirations for her Australian animal stories with the Years 4 to 6 classes and ended the session with a game of ‘Scat and Trails’. Ranginui (5A) won the game. Well done, Ranginui!

The Year 3s enjoyed planning their story maps and sharing them with the class.

Ms Wheeler ended each session with a reminder to students the importance of reading, not only at school, but everywhere in their lives, both now and in the future. Thank you, Ms Wheeler!

It was wonderful to celebrate the May Reading Eggs Awards at the Monday Week 9 Assembly. Below are just some of the students who received awards.

Ms Simonds (Prep B) (right) took out the Reading Eggs engagement award for the third time running!

Ms Rae (3A) (left) took out the Reading Eggspress engagement award for the second time!

Well done, teachers for encouraging your students to engage with Reading Eggs!

The June Reading Eggs Awards will be celebrated when you return to school after the holidays! Please encourage your child to continue to engage with Reading Eggs over the holiday break.

If you do not have your child’s Reading Eggs login details, please contact your child’s class teacher.

We would like to say a BIG Thank you to Ipswich Foodbarn for their kind donations which support our school Breakfast Club program. I would also like to thank Miss Jodie and all the student helpers who prepare and serve Breakfast Club in the mornings throughout this term!

This term our school was also lucky enough to receive a weekly Fruit Box donated by The Rotary Club of Ipswich, through the YMCA program and prepared weekly by Tony from the Brassall Fresh Produce store at Brassall Shopping Centre. Mandarins, bananas, pears and apples were enjoyed by all students as a fruit snack at eating breaks and throughout the day.

Math’s Week @ Leichhardt

This week we celebrated our pirate themed Math’s Week here at Leichhardt State School with a range of engaging maths activities for the students to enjoy. World of Maths were here at the beginning of the week where the students had lots of fun working in teams to complete maths puzzles. Our Senior Leaders were amazing at supporting the Junior School in reading the questions and helping them solve the puzzles – we are so proud of them. During break, the children were searching for Captain Red Beard who had left maths questions all around the school for them to solve. Every day the students solved a maths question to receive a piece of the treasure map, which was buried in school. Once they knew where the treasure was buried, they went and searched for it with Captain Red Beard. Children were busy cooking their pirate themed cakes for the baking competition, the cakes looked amazing – well done everyone who entered! The students finished the week dressing as a pirate and our competition winners, throughout the week, were invited to a Pirate Party hosted by Captain Red Beard.

HPE @ Leichhardt

Well done to all students for a fantastic two days of Sports Day. It was wonderful to see so many students participating in the events across both days and showing great sportsmanship. The Year 6 leaders set a fantastic example of our Leichhardt values and their help was invaluable.

To our staff and parents, thank you for your assistance on the day and supporting our students it was wonderful to have you attend.

Overall winners -

Juniors:

1^st - Banksia

2^nd Acacia

3^rd - Kurrajong

Seniors:

1^st - Kurrajong

2^nd - Banksia

3^rd - Acacia

Congratulations to the following students who won age champion:

2014 Boys - Ayden

2014 Girls - Olivia

2013 Boys - Will

2013 Girls - Jewelistah

2012 Boys - Trezell

2012 Girls - Hayley

2011 Boys - Plattinym

2011 Girls - Stephanie

2010 Boys - Angus

2010 Girls - Nayah

Well done everyone!

Teaching and Learning News @ Leichhardt

Congratulations to the students showing great pride in their work over Semester 1. We are so proud of the work students have done to establish great bookwork expectations in preparation for learning notetaking and organisation. I am excited to continue to share their work as we continue through this year.

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

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!

Upcoming school holiday programs offered by Ipswich City Council

Free school Holiday Fun with Ipswich City Council!

A range of free active and environment-themed school holiday programs are coming these June/July holidays.

You can drop in to the Queens Park Environmental Education Centre between 9.30am-11.30am on certain days for Kids Go Wild! All activities are free and bookings not required. See the program at Ipswich.qld.gov.au/enviroed

You can also sign up for free Active Kids activities, with circus, hockey, football and more on offer! See the calendar at Ipswich.qld.gov.au/activekids

School Watch

The School Watch Program is a partnership between the Department of Education and the Queensland Police Service (Protective Services).

The program aims to reduce criminal activity in Queensland schools and encourages everyone to look out for after-hours crime in our schools.

If you see anything suspicious, please don’t attempt to intervene. Instead, call the School Watch number of 13 17 88. If you see a crime in progress, please call Triple Zero (000).

Volume 10 - 24th June 2022