Volume 1 - 3rd February 2023

From Our Principal

We extend a warm welcome to our new families and wish our existing families all the best as they return to the 2023 school year. We hope your children’s learning journey at Leichhardt State School continues to be a rewarding and enjoyable one, and we look forward to continuing our productive relationship with our community.

In 2023, we are investing heavily to support the Department’s vision of Equity and Excellence, which sets a clear vision for a progressive, high-performing education system. The focus is on:

• Educational achievement
• Wellbeing and engagement
• Culture and inclusion.

To support this vision, our school priorities this year include:

• inclusion of all students through excellence in teaching and learning;
• positive behaviour for learning; and
• development of staff capability.

Our Leadership Team has undergone some changes at the end of last year to ensure we are catering to our students’ educational needs in the best possible ways. We now have two Deputy Principal positions: School Culture, Joy Anforth, and Teaching and Learning, Elena Finlay, to support our students’ educational achievement.

To ensure we support the Wellbeing and engagement, we have invested in a Wellbeing teacher, Sarah Hnarakis, who will be providing alternative support programs, including flexible learning and Forest School. In addition, we have received support from the Department to employ a Social Worker, Caitlin Douglas, who will be providing support to our students and their families.

Leichhardt State School has made significant investments to build and maintain a great school culture and we continue to do the same this year. Following fantastic academic successes of our students with additional needs, we now have two Heads of Special Education Services – Junior School (Prep – Year 3), Jessica Rivett, and Senior School (Years 4 – 6), Nicole McDiarmid.

I encourage you to contact our Office to make an appointment with any of our support staff.

Leichhardt State School places great value on fostering leadership skills in our students and actively encourages them to demonstrate these skills and access opportunities to lead. This year, we are introducing Student Representative positions in Years 1 – 6. Over the next couple of weeks, teachers will be sharing more information with students about this opportunity and encourage them to apply. Your support of this process is crucial to give your child confidence to apply for the position and be part of our leadership journey.

Last year, we elected Year 6 School Captains and announced them at the end of Term 4. Next week on Friday 10 February 2023, we will be holding a special event, Leaders’ Investiture, where we will formally recognise all leaders with a badge and a certificate. Student leaders’ parents have been officially invited to the event and we look forward to them pinning the badges and celebrating with their child.

From Monday 13 February, Mr Tal Mitchell will be replacing me as Principal for three weeks. Mr Mitchell comes to us from Chapel Hill State School and brings a wealth of experience across primary and secondary schools. I am sure that he will enjoy his three weeks with our students and staff, and contribute positively to our school community.

I hope you enjoy reading our Newsletter. Warm wishes for a great weekend!

From Our Deputy Principal - School Culture

Welcome back and I hope you are ready for a great and exciting 2023. This week in our PBL lessons, students have been learning all about The Zones of Regulation. There are 4 zones, Blue, Green, Yellow and Red that we use to describe how our brain and bodies are feeling.  It is important that we understand how we are feeling and to know that it is okay to talk to someone so they can help us get back into the Green zone. There are lots of useful tools that we can use to help us move back to the green zone so we are eager and ready to learn. 

From Our Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning

Reading and Writing @ Leichhardt

Reading Eggs over the Holidays!

Monday’s Week 1 Assembly celebrated students’ amazing reading achievement over the summer holidays.  The students pictured below were six of the eight students who had read consistently over the break and earned Reading Eggs awards.  Well done, students!   Leilyn (1B) and Forest (4B) also worked extremely hard completing Reading Eggs challengs over the holidays but were not present at Assembly to be photographed.

Reading and Writing in the Classroom Week 1

Week 1 at Leichhardt and the Preps are already busy developing their reading and writing skills with activities based around the letter ‘s’.  Pictured below are the Preps showing their ‘s’ art activities, developing their fine motor skills through letter playdoh activities and fine-tuning their pencil grips.  Excellent work, Preppies!

Reading and Writing in Year 5

The Year 5s have also been busy reading and writing as they commence their Term 1 English Unit.  This term the Year 5  assessment task is to write a spooky (but not too scary!) story, describing character and setting in detail and building suspense in their writing. 

The students have thoroughly enjoyed engaging with the below texts by author, Aaron Reynolds, and from the texts, have learnt the power of the ‘Rule of Three’ and the ellipsis punctuation mark in building suspense…

Further analysis of these texts highlighted the stages of a narrative which the students have captured in the ‘story mountain’ images below.  It is wonderful to see the students connecting with the spooky theme and bringing their work to life.

Teamwork at Leichhardt

Leichhardt students are always keen to help their peers and it was wonderful to see the Senior students during their Wednesday Session 6 elective share their reading prowess with the Year 1 students.  Below is pictured Jack (1B) reading with Chase (5A).

In the picture below, Tai (5B) is reading with Blythe (1B).  Well done, boys!

From Our Head of Department - Teaching and Learning

What wonderful start to 2023 we have had! It has been fantastic to see students learning the classroom expectations and becoming familiar with their new routines. This year students in Prep through to Year 6 will be learning AVID strategies starting with 'Organisation'. Students are learning how to organise their belongings as well as their bookwork. You may even hear your child talk about 'STAR notetaking', a strategy that all students at Leichhardt will be learning to organise their bookwork, develop their thinking and build lifelong learning skills. The student's learning is celebrated each week on parade however I also look forward to sharing more about AVID in the newsletter each fortnight. For example the photo you can see is Year 1 using 2 coloumn notes to organise their thinking for a Science activity. Well done, students! 

From Our Community Support Coordinator

Welcome back to term 1 2023. Just a few things that I would like to bring to your attention: -

1. When you are late to school please bring your child to the Student Reception to be marked present.
2. If you are picking up your child/children early please remember to have them signed out.
3. If your child/children are absent from school there are a number of ways to contact us: -

• sms 0429464792
• absentee line 3813 3222 choose option 1
• school stream app

4. Please remember to label school items with the child’s name. Items include bags, clothing, hats, lunch boxes, drink bottles.

Attendance matters at Leichhardt State School, below are just some of the key reasons why it is so important children attend school:

• To learn.
• To have fun.
• To make new friends.
• To experience new things in life.
• To achieve.
• To develop new skills.
• To build confidence and self-esteem.

If there is any way I can help you and your child with improving their attendance just get in touch with the school or email me pferg18@eq.edu.au

From Our Teachers

Prep B 

Prep B has settled into school life with a positive outlook towards their school journey.  Last week, the students learnt the sound ‘s’ and engaged in practicing writing the letter.  As the students formed the letters, it was like we had a room full of snakes as the students were making ‘ssssss’ sounds.

This week, the students have been focusing on number recognition.  We went on a treasure hunt around the room looking for numbers.  When the students found the numbers, they coloured in the numbers on a sheet on a clipboard.  This was a positive learning experience which saw the students develop their number recognition as well as develop their social skills and friendships. 

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 10

Next

Year 1A 

Students in 1A this week have been learning about the Zones of Regulation and how the zones can help us to regulate our feelings, energy and sensory needs, which therefore helps us to interact with each other in a positive manner. We look forward to learning more about the zones next week.

Year 1B

Year 1 have been working hard practicing their new routines and understanding what it means to be a Kind, Safe, Learner. These photos show a number of activities they have been doing throughout the first two weeks of school including practicing their sounds/letters/alphabet, learning about toys from the past and discussing bend and scrunch in Science! Year 1 have been encouraged to ask their family and friends what toys they played with when they were kids and talk about what is different or the same to the toys they are lucky enough to play with in the present. 

Year 3 

The Year 3’s are settling in nicely to the year. This week we have brainstormed classroom rules as part of our HASS unit and voted on our 5 most important rules as part of our DEMOCRATIC process. In Science we have been learning all about MATTER, and how to identify the properties of Liquids, Solids and Gases. We have started an exciting English unit, learning about Adventure and Action Narratives. Enjoying stories like Where The Wild Things are and Harry The Dirty Dog.

League Stars

Over the last 2 weeks, students have had an opportunity to take part in a free lunch time program called League Stars. If your child went, they would have received flyer to sign up for the 6 week program starting on Wednesday in week 3. The program will cost $79 and start at 2.45pm. 

All information on how to sign up can be found at this link.

https://www.playrugbyleague.com/leaguestars/find-a-program/

Simply put 4305 in the postcard search and the Leichhardt State School League Stars program will pop up. Once you click on the program just follow the prompts to sign up. Any students from prep to grade 6 to sign up for the program, even if they didn't attend any of the free lunch time programs.

Any questions or queries feel free to contact me - Mr Woody

From Our Front Office Administrator

Hello families,

I am Ms Helen, I work in the Front office.

Office hours are from 8:00am to 3:00pm Monday - Friday.

I would like to send a message out to all of our 2023 year 6 parents/carers to remind you to have your child’s birth certificate in your possession before the end of the year in readiness for high school enrolments in 2024. There have been a few students from last year that haven’t been able to start high school in 2023 as they didn’t have a birth certificate for their enrolment.

I hope that you’re all having a wonderful start to the school year. 😊

Regards,

Ms. Helen

From Our Library

The library will be open at first play this year for students wanting to borrow books to use in class. If your child would like to take their library book home, please provide a library bag for them. Classes will visit the library with their teachers during the week as well to borrow.

There are a number of missing books from 2022, please have a look around the house and get your child to return them, no questions asked.  School books have a Leichhardt State School barcode sticker on the back and a stamp in the front pages.

We now have published two books with some amazing writing by our 2022 students in Prep, Grade 5 and 6. They can be found on display in the front area of the library.

Book Club catalogues have been sent home. There are plenty of affordable books to encourage your learners to read at home. Please remember that the school office does not take cash payments, so the easiest way to order Book cClub is through the website www.scholastic.com.au or via the free LOOP app. Orders for issue 1 are due by Friday, 10^th of February.

All students have access to Reading Eggs and MathsSeeds or Reading Eggspress and Mathletics as part of their enrolment. If you have not received your logins and passwords please contact your child’s teacher. All students are encouraged to use these programs at home to complement their learning and we will celebrate engagement and achievements on parade every month.

Homework Centre is starting on Monday, 6^th of February and is for students in years 1-6. If your child would like to attend, permission forms for 2023 can be found in the office foyer.

From Our Student Media Liaison

World Read Aloud Day!

Wednesday was World Read Aloud Day and while every day is ‘Read Aloud Day’ at Leichhardt, it was lovely to see some extra reading aloud taking place.

In the library at first play, Mr Saran (Year 4B teacher) shared one of his favourite books with a group of keen students.   Mr Saran chose this book because he loves penguins and he loves Antarctica.  When he saw the book, ‘Ming’s Iceberg’, he knew that he just had to read the book for World Read Aloud Day.  Thank you, Mr Saran!

World Read Aloud Day celebrations continued in the afternoon with the Senior Session 6 Reading Elective reading to the Year 1 students.  The Year 1s thoroughly enjoyed the Senior students’ visit as can be seen from the photos below.

From Our Student Services

Asthma Puffers

If your student has a asthma puffer at school, can you please check in at Student Services to ensure that the puffer is in date and asthma plan is current and up to date.

Sun Safety in hot weather                                                                        

With the hot heat we have been experiencing lately, I have seen the number of students that come down to Student Services increase.

To ensure that your child/children stay safe in these hot summer days there is a number of things you could do to help

• Make sure they have a wide brim/bucket hat to wear at play times with their name on it.
• Drink plenty of water. Having an insulated water bottle to keep the water cold will help. The school has cold water taps available under D and E blocks for students to refill their bottles.
• Slip, slop, slap with sunscreen before coming to school. Everyone should reapply sunscreen every 2 hours to ensure that they are always protected from the sun.  Sunscreen is provided in all classes. Parents, please advise your student’s teacher/s or admin if they can NOT use the sunscreen.
• Wear a shirt that covers their shoulders (school shirts are the best for your child, especially with the collar to provide extra protection around their necks) and shorts/skirt that fits correctly. Wearing long pants will only had to the heat and they will struggle to cool down.
• Remind them that if it’s too hot outside there is always somewhere to play in the shade.

From Our Tuckshop

The Tuckshop is only open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - 1st and 2nd Eating Break. All orders need to be placed before 9am. We are now accepting orders via Flexischool. 

Keep an eye out for any information on the Facebook page: Leichhardt State School P&C

Play & Learn Discovery Group

Out in the Community

KARATE LIFE SKILLS FREE LESSON

💥 Secure FREE Karate trial lesson - Limited spaces available 💥

www.agkk.com.au  📞 0409474494

Beginners Welcome ALL AGES - ALL LEVELS 

We Guarantee Your Child's - 

✅ Confidence & Focus will improve 

BENEFITS of traditional Karate:

✅ Builds Confidence & Resilience 

✅ Increases Focus & Concentration 

✅ Improves Self Esteem 

✅ Enhances Respect & Fitness

✅ Strengthen school focus & results 

✅ Make friends fun & enjoyable 

At AGKK we prepare positive, resilient students for the challenges of today & tomorrow.

These purposeful Martial Arts lessons are a great way for kids, adults & families to advance life skills in an inclusive, fun, safe, experienced and structured environment. 

You are most welcome to secure your complementary lesson. 

The program and curriculum is designed to align with traditional family values for both beginners and more advanced students.

All instructors are experienced, dedicated & accredited in Japan & Australia.

ALL AGES - ALL LEVELS welcome 

🎯 Outstanding life skills for home and school.

✅ You are most welcome to register today for your FREE KARATE LESSON 

www.agkk.com.au 0409474494