Volume 5 - 28th April 2023

From Our Principal

Our students returned from holidays excited to see their teachers and friends again and participate in the joy of learning. The first assembly on Monday morning in Week 1 was filled with celebrations of their efforts in Positive Behaviour for Learning, Reading Eggs and Mathletics. We also celebrated all students who continued to learn over the holidays by accessing online platforms that support the development of literacy and numeracy skills.

Students’ success with learning is greatly improved when students attend school every hour of every day. Research shows that attendance at school is a key indicator of their learning successes now and in the future. If there is anything preventing your child from attending, please contact our Community Support Coordinator, Ms Ferguson, who will be very happy to help with any questions or concerns you may have.

We welcomed a new Guidance Officer, Ms Tenille St Ledger, who started her guidance work in full-time capacity this week. Tenille’s passion for students’ wellbeing is evident in her communication with students and their families, and the connections she has managed to make in less than a week. Should you wish to access support from Tenilee, please contact our office to book an appointment.

Our school also provides a number of Wellbeing programs led by the Wellbeing teacher, Ms Hnarakis and the Social Worker, Caitlin Douglas. These programs are designed to assist our students to better engage with learning in the classroom. This term, our Wellbeing team will be sending out permission notes for different programs designed to support our students’ social and emotional development.

Over the last couple of weeks, we welcomed new teachers who have already built a great rapport with our students and are looking forward to the year ahead. Mr Bryan Marshall, an experienced HPE Teacher, joined our HPE team with classes in Years 2, 3, 4 and 6. Ms Clio Girvin joined our general teaching team this week with a class in Year 2. We have been very fortunate to have such passionate educators join our team.

This week on Monday, our school held a respectful and solemn ANZAC Service in the School Hall. We had many special guests in attendance and are grateful for the support shown for our school. As staff and students, we acknowledged all Australian and New Zealand soldiers who served or are still serving in the army to protect our safety. Our beautiful ceremony could not have happened without the excellent efforts of Ms Kasey Curwen who worked tirelessly to ensure everything was done in a timely and respectful manner.

On Tuesday this week, our Student Leaders represented our school in the laying of wreaths at the West Ipswich One Mile Honour Roll organised by Community Outreach Pastor, Robert Howells. Ms Kasey Curwen led the signing of the National Anthems, with the help of the Leichhardt State School choir joined by a number of students from other local schools. Many of our staff, students and their families were in attendance.

I hope that the term has started well for your and your family. Thank you for your partnership in education.

Australian wide anxiety treatment study for 7 – 12 year olds

This treatment study is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and is being conducted by Griffith University, Queensland. This study will determine if a computer delivered treatment designed to help children control their attention improves and reduces children’s anxiety compared to another computer-delivered treatment based on cognitive-behavioural therapy. Anxiety is defined as feelings of nervousness, worry and fear that is usually brought on by seeing or experiencing certain triggers or events, and/or by the expectation that this is too frightening or difficult to cope with. Anxiety can be helpful when dealing with new challenges and novel situations. However, if it occurs too often or too strongly, it can lead to children not coping in many situations. For many children and their parents, anxiety can be highly disruptive and prevent children from doing things that other children their age can do. This project will examine two treatment conditions and determine if they are as effective as each other in alleviating children’s anxiety disorders. 

For more information about our study and our team, or if you would like your child to participate, please contact us: (07) 3735 3351 or cadrp@griffith.edu.au

From Our Deputy Principal - School Culture

Attendance Matters

It's vital that your child is at school, on time, every day.  Week 5 we will be awarding students with a paw badge that have attended 100 days of school.

Each parent of a child who is of compulsory school age has the legal obligation to ensure their child is enrolled and attends a school, on every school day for the educational program in which the child is enrolled, unless the parent has a reasonable excuse. A child should be enrolled in and attend school from the beginning of the school year in the year that they turn compulsory school age (six years and six months). Each parent of a young person in the compulsory participation phase has the legal obligation to ensure that the young person is participating full-time in an eligible option, unless the parent has a reasonable excuse. Parents may be prosecuted if they do not fulfil their legal obligations in regard to enrolment and attendance of their child at school, or participation in an eligible option.  Parents should provide a reason for a child’s absence before or on the day of the absence, or as soon as practicable.

From Our Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning

Year 4 to 6 Electives – Reading with the Kindy Kids Elective!

The Wednesday and Friday afternoon electives are well and truly underway again! The Reading with the Kindy Kids electives had the opportunity to read with Prep and Year 1 students last week before heading off the Kindy across the road in Week 2.  The Preps and Year 1s were thrilled to have the Seniors visit.  Well done, students!

Reading and Maths Awards on Assembly!

It was a great start to the term with students already receiving awards at the first Assembly of the term.  The below pictured students were excited to receive their March: Reading Eggs, Mathseeds and Mathletics Awards.

Ayden (Year 3) took out the ‘most read books’ award from the Reading Eggs library, reading 109 books in March!  Ayden also earned the ‘most completed lessons’ award on the Reading Eggspress platform!

Well done, Mr Saran (4B) and Ms Fox (3B) for earning the Teacher Reading Eggspress and Reading Eggs Class Engagement Awards!

The April Awards will soon be upon us!  Please encourage your child to engage with Reading Eggs, Mathseeds and Mathletics (Years 3-6) so we can celebrate their learning.  If your child does not have login details for the above online platforms, please contact your child’s teacher.

From Our Head of Department - Teaching and Learning

Welcome back to another busy term! It has been so wonderful to see the pride students are taking in their work and learning. We are continuing our focus on organisation of belongings and bookwork. STAR notetaking is a fantastic way for us to learn these bookwork organisation skills as well as develop lifelong learning skills. This term, teachers will begin to guide students to take notes and discuss appropriate graphic organisers for their required task to develop higher order thinking and great skills for life. We again look forward to celebrating students learning in our Newsletter, on Parade each week as well as by displaying work in the Student Office. Stay tuned for amazing work!!

From Our Health and Safety Advisor

Animals on School grounds 

Here at Leichhardt State School we understand that pets are important members of many of our families and therefore take part in many daily activities. While we value this involvement, we also recognise that bringing animals onto school grounds can bring with it the risk of injury to our students, cause allergic reactions, and create stress for children/adults who may be afraid of certain animals. These reactions can occur even with the most friendly and well-restrained pets.

As a school, we therefore remind families that animals are not permitted on our school grounds at any time unless they are assistance or service dogs.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

From Our Wellbeing Teacher

This term Leichhardt State School will be running a Forest School Program. Forest School is an evidence-based program that supports the wellbeing of students. The process helps facilitates more than knowledge-gathering; It helps learners develop socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually. It creates a safe, non-judgemental nurturing environment for learners to experiment and take risks. Forest School inspires a deep and meaningful connection to the world. Learners constantly expand on their abilities by solving real-world issues, building self-belief and resilience. This program will allow your child to explore their natural surroundings through outdoor play, while building fundamental life skills. 

From Our Teachers

Year 1A

1A participated in the beautiful school ANZAC Day Ceremony on Monday, which allowed staff, students and guests to remember the landing of troops at Gallipoli. Lest We Forget. 

Year 1B 

What a great first couple of weeks of learning we have had! We have been practicing our routines and getting back in the swing of our classroom expectations. We strongly encourage our students to be reading each day at home, practicing their sight words and letters (Jolly Phonics on YouTube is great for this!), participating online with Reading Eggs and Mathseeds. If you have any questions regarding this, please let us know. 

Year 2A

This week we have enjoyed getting back to nature and taking our learning into the great outdoors! 

Year 5 Science

We have had a busy start to our learning in Year 5 Science! We started the term off by understanding our assessment task. Students worked in groups to put their marking guide jigsaw back together. There were some fantastic conversations around this. Year 5, then started to look at a variety of different environments and discuss the challenges that would take place for a living thing there. 

Wakakirri

This year, we have 25 of our senior students participating in Wakakirri. Wakakirri is a story dance competition, based on the ethos ‘great stories inspire change’. Over the course of the next two terms, a group of students in year 4-5 will be learning a story dance that will be entered in to the Wakakirri competition and performed at our Arts Night later in the year. We are excited to update you with progress and hope to share some snippets over the term!

ANZAC Day Ceremony

Bremer State High School News

Bremer Expo 23 (Open Day)

The annual Bremer Expo is back and scheduled for Wednesday, 17 May 2023, from 4:00pm. This open evening event is the perfect opportunity for families with students in Years 4, 5, and 6 to explore the facilities, learn about our Signature Programs in Science, Sport and Music, and connect with their dedicated staff and enthusiastic students. Families are encouraged to register for the event via our website. By doing this, the families will receive important emails regarding the event, enrolment timelines and scholarships/signature programs.

Enrolling at Bremer

Enrolments for Year 7 2024 are open. To start an in-catchment or out-of-catchment enrolment, prospective families are to submit a general enrolment enquiry via Bremer’s website. Once submitted, the families will receive an immediate response to their nominated email address regarding next steps. Families with students in Year 4 or 5 may also submit enquiries for 2025 and 2026.

Key enrolment dates for 2023:

• 17 May - Bremer Expo 2023
• 24 May - Enrolment Interviews Open
• 19 June - Round 1 Out-of-Catchment, Scholarship, Excellence and Signature Program Applications Due
• 24 July - Round 1 offers made to applicants
• 11 September - Round 2 Out-of-Catchment, Scholarship, Excellence and Signature Program Applications Due
• 16 October - Round 2 offers made to applicants
• 28 November - Last day to interview in 2023, late applicants may be required to enrol and interview in the new year
• 30 November - Orientation Day for enrolled students

National Fire Ant Eradication Program

Fire ants are one of the world’s most invasive pests and they have the potential to devastate our environment, economy and the outdoor way of life we know and love. To stop the spread of fire ants, the Department of Education is collaborating with the National Fire Ant Eradication Program to manage fire ants across schools within South East Queensland. This important work will help protect our schools and community from the dangers posed by fire ants. 

An initial pilot program has treated 46 schools across the Logan, Ipswich, Somerset and Gold Coast City local government areas (Metropolitan and South East education regions). This will expand over the coming years to include additional schools. The treatment consists of applying two rounds of an insect growth regulator which sterilises the fire ant queen and prevents new ants from maturing into adults. These types of products are widely used in mosquito control programs, cockroach treatment and pet flea collars and when used according to instructions, are not harmful to humans, pets or wildlife.   

The first round of treatment occurred in early 2023 and round two is being completed during April and May. The fire ant bait is being applied by experienced pest management technicians.

The school treatment program supports efforts to eradicate fire ants within South East Queensland by suppressing the fire ant population in areas until eradication treatment takes place. Under the Biosecurity Act 2014 all Queenslanders have an obligation to manage biosecurity risks. The Department of Education is meeting its obligations by managing fire ants on land it owns or manages.  

The National Fire Ant Eradication Program is also running a range of community projects to provide residents in selected suburbs with free fire ant bait to treat their yards to support eradication goals. For the latest information on community projects or for more information about fire ants visit: https://www.fireants.org.au 

Out in Our Community