Volume 16 - 14th October 2022

From The Principal

We have started Term 4 very strongly in terms of teacher and student attendance. This has resulted in our students showing high levels of engagement with their learning in and out of the classroom. Our Community Support Coordinator, Trish Ferguson, and the Indigenous Community Coordinator, Aunty Marly, have been working tirelessly to keep in touch with our families and provide the necessary support.

As I have informed you earlier, our students in Years 5 and 6 and our Jarjums have commenced their Yugara language study last week. Student engagement with the language and culture has been wonderful thanks to the fantastic efforts of the Thompson family. The learning is taking place in the Deadly Room and in different outdoor areas, with an excursion to Queens Park being planned for Week 5.

This term, we have invested in additional support staff and teacher aides who are instrumental in supporting our teachers to deliver a world-class curriculum through high-quality teaching strategies. We are finding that this investment is paying off in terms of teaching and learning outcomes in particular. We are very lucky to have had such wonderful people join our team.

Focus on teaching and learning is key to improving student outcomes in all areas. You may be aware that our school invests in the Head of Department – Teaching and Learning position to support our students to develop good organisational and thinking skills to unpack the curriculum. The student feedback on these strategies has been overwhelmingly positive and their achievement results show this very clearly. Ms Emily O’Connor’s leadership in this area is key to continue to drive this improvement. Organisational and thinking skills are crucial for Senior Students as they transition to high school.

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

From The Head of Department - Positive Behaviour for Learning

This week our expectation is - we are safe. As we are coming into the hotter months we are specifically focussing on Sun Safety this week.  As a part of lessons this week, Students watched Despicable Me 2 Sun Safety Campaign with Stephanie Rice and classes were asked to develop a sun safety message to share with the school. Please see below some of the amazing posters from our Students.

It is really important that while Students are outside playing, that they have a hat on. Please ensure your child has a hat at school. School hats are available for purchase from Mrs Helen at the Office for $9.00.

From The Head of Department - Curriculum

STEAM News

This term in Science, the students in Grades 5 and 6 will be focusing on Biological Science linked to Indigenous culture. The Year 6 students will be completing a unit called ‘Grow and Survive’. During the unit they will investigate ecosystems and plant physical conditions. The students have learnt about ecosystems, living things and physical conditions and identified these in our forest.

Our Year 5 student’s unit is ‘Keeping Cool’, where they will plan and conduct an inquiry exploring factors that influence the design of traditional shelters. They have learnt about opaque, transparent and translucent objects and started planning an inquiry into how the position of a light source affects the size and length of a shadow.

From The Head of Department - Teaching and Learning

Teaching and Learning

Welcome to Term 4! It has been a wonderful start to the term with the students showing great enthusiasm towards their learning and new topics. Year 4-6 students are again working hard in weekly AVID lessons and building their understanding of note-taking across each subject. This week they have been learning to read and understand their weekly timetables. These skills continue to prepare our students for high school and lifelong organisation skills. You can see here the 5 and 6 students are colour coordinating their timetable and adding in any extracurricular activities. The students commented that they like reading their timetable the night before/morning of each day to prepare them for what's to come. 

The other photos I have shared this week are of excellent bookwork from our Year 3 students. Well done, Year 3!

From The Head of Department - Reading

Reading Awards 

At Monday’s Week 2 Assembly we celebrated the September Reading Eggs awards.   It was great to see that a number of students had engaged strongly with this online reading resource over the September holidays! Well done, students!

Let’s now celebrate the students and teacher who received Reading Eggs gold awards for the month of September!

Teacher Engagement with Reading Eggs Award for September. 

This is the seventh month running that Ms Simonds (Prep B) has won the Reading Eggs Teacher Engagement Award!  Well done, Ms Simonds! 

If you have a child enrolling in Prep for 2023, they will have access to Reading Eggs on enrolment!  It would be wonderful to see 2023 Preps receiving Reading Eggs awards on Assembly during this term even before they have officially started school! 

Please contact Mrs Elena Finlay (Head of Department:  Reading) efinl9@eq.edu.au, if you have any questions regarding Reading Eggs access.

Writing 

On Thursday, Week 1, Leichhardt Year 4, 5 and 6 students excitedly engaged in writing workshop sessions facilitated by Bremer High School Year 7 Co-ordinator and published writer, Mrs Charmaine Clancy. 

The Year 6 students completed two writing activities during their workshop session.  For the first activity, students were given words which they had to use in a story. It was fascinating to hear how students came up with different stories even though all students used the same words in the same order.

For the second activity, students created a character who was betrayed by someone and lost something valuable, for example, a friendship. They are also were a suspect of a murder. The below images show the Year 6 students picking props that they were going to use to help them describe an item that was special to their character. 

The Year 5 students were thoroughly excited by the dragon writing task that they were set by Mrs Clancy.  Armed with their laminated dragon picture and worksheet, they busily worked on creating their dragon character and the world in which it would reside.  Students were excited to hear that they were able to keep the dragon picture at the end of the session.

The Year 4 students were set the task of creating their own quest map for their session.  Students enjoyed detailing their map and considering what challenging landscape they would create for the villagers who lived there and the feat that a brave villager or villagers would have to achieve.

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Reading 

Reading definitely is everyone’s business at Leichhardt State School.

At Monday’s Homework Club, we welcomed back our wonderful Reading Volunteers, Mrs Rose and Mrs Lyndall.  Students love reading with Mrs Rose and Mrs Lyndall and look forward to their visits at Monday afternoon’s Homework Club.  Thank you, Mrs Rose and Mrs Lyndall!

On Wednesday morning, Dominyk’s mum (Sonja) helped out with sounds and sight words.  Thank you, Sonya! 

Wednesday, after first play, Faith Lutheran College students visited to read one on one with our Year 2, 1 and Prep students!  Our students thoroughly enjoyed this time with the ‘big kids’ and are excited for their return next Wednesday. 

Wednesday afternoon, students in the ‘Reading with the Kindy Kids’ elective, visited the day care across the road to read stories and sing songs with the kindy kids.  They did an amazing job!  Thank you, students!  Here are just some of the students who attended the elective.

From The Head of Special Education Services

Ipswich State High School Deaf and Hard of Hearing Hub Information Evening

Ipswich State School Parent Information Night - 20th October 2022 at 5:30 - please see flyer below for more information. 

From The Community Support Coordinator

Every day counts 

Children do better when they go to school all day, every day. They learn better, they make friends, they are happier and they have a brighter future. Watch the video below of Jimmy and Sam the dog. 

If you need assistance with managing your child's attendance, please come and see me or email me at pferg18@eq.edu.au 

From Our Teachers

Prep A

This week we had our first school swimming lesson with Mr Woody, Miss Brittany and Miss Carolin. The Students were so excited about going swimming, they have been talking about it all week. Firstly Mr Woody explained all the safety rules, in and out of the pool. He taught us how to safely enter the pool, this is called a "safety entry". We learnt how to monkey along the wall. We then finished the lesson in the small pool, slowly getting use to putting our head in and under the water. 

Prep B 

Last term in Science we were learning all about the weather especially wind and how it effects different objects so we started this term experimenting with different objects and creating our own wind ornaments. We had lots of fun exploring and building but most importantly we learnt what objects make the best ornaments because they move in the wind and make noise.

From Student Services

Spare Uniforms at School

If your child comes home in any of the spare clothes provided by the school, please wash them and return them back to Mrs Benson at the Student Services as soon as possible. As we have a shortage of spare clothes available at school and limited sizes, can we please ask parents/carers with children in early years to make sure their children always have a spare set of school clothes in their bag. Please make sure that all items are clearly labelled with their name.

Also, if you have any spare school uniforms that you would like to donate, please drop them off to Mrs Benson at the Student Services.

Playgroup at Leichhardt State School

Leichhardt Play Group is held every Thursday in the hall during school Term @9am untill 11am. Free group with morning tea included. For more information please call or text Channon on 0475798198. Please see below the timetable for Term 4. 

Out in the Community

Ipswich Early Education Centre Leichhardt - Kindergarten Information Night, please see flyer below for more information