Volume 9 - 23rd June 2023

From Our Principal

What a fantastic term of teaching and learning we have had! Our student data is yet again showing great improvements across all Learning Areas of the Australian Curriculum. Our A-C assessment results for the whole school for Semester 1, 2023 have improved by 3%, and the percentage of As and Bs has increased by 2.7% since Semester 2, 2022. We are very proud of all the hard work our students and teachers do every day.

This semester was also the first time we reported on the Yagara language learning and our students in Years 5 and 6 showed great knowledge, understanding, effort and engagement with the language and culture. We are so grateful for the privilege to offer Yagara at Leichhardt State School and proud that we have the ability to work together with the Traditional Owners to make the program even stronger in the future. As a result of the great work we have done so far, we have again been successful in winning Department’s First Nations Language Program grant worth $15,000.

The Salvation Army continues to support Leichhardt students and community in 2023 through The Red Shield Appeal, as they have done in previous years. With their support, we have been able to invest additional funds to improve students’ access to technology and support their engagement with Media Arts, Digital Technologies and English.

A huge thanks to our community members who have nominated our school through the Rebel Sport Rebate Program resulting in the purchase of resources to support Forest School. Forest School is a wellbeing initiative our school runs to support students who benefit from learning in outdoor areas. Your support is greatly appreciated!

This morning, our Deadly Dancers performed at Mt Crosby State School and taught their Prep students and staff traditional dance moves, with the support of Aunty Marly. Some of our former Deadly Dancers, who are now at The Ipswich State High School, were there too as part of their dance troupe. We hope this beautiful connection between our schools continues into the future.

On behalf of all of us at Leichhardt State School, we wish you happy and safe holidays!

From Our Deputy Principal - School Culture

Safety during school holidays

Ensuring the safety of primary school children during school holidays is of paramount importance. Here are some key considerations and tips to help promote a safe and secure environment for children:

Supervision: Adequate adult supervision is crucial during the school holidays. Parents, guardians, or responsible adults should be present to oversee children's activities and provide guidance when necessary. Supervision can help prevent accidents, injuries, or other safety risks.

Establish rules and boundaries: Set clear rules and boundaries for your child's activities during the holidays. Discuss guidelines regarding going out, interacting with others, using technology, and visiting public places. Reinforce the importance of following these rules for their safety and well-being.

Safe environments: Ensure that your home and any other environments your child visits are safe and child friendly. This includes securing cabinets with hazardous substances, keeping potentially dangerous items out of reach, and installing safety gates or childproofing areas as necessary.

Water safety: If your child is participating in activities involving water, such as swimming or visiting the beach, prioritize water safety. Enrol them in swimming lessons, supervise them closely while swimming, and ensure they use appropriate safety equipment, such as life jackets or flotation devices.

Internet and digital safety: In today's digital age, it is essential to educate children about online safety. Teach them about the responsible use of technology, including safe internet browsing, avoiding sharing personal information online, and reporting any inappropriate or concerning content.

Stranger danger: Remind your child about the importance of not talking to strangers or accepting gifts or rides from unfamiliar individuals. Teach them to recognize and react appropriately in potentially unsafe situations, such as seeking help from trusted adults or authorities.

Health and well-being: Encourage healthy habits during the holidays. Emphasize the importance of good nutrition, regular physical activity, and adequate rest. Teach them about proper hygiene practices, such as handwashing, to prevent the spread of illnesses.

Emergency preparedness: Teach your child what to do in case of emergencies, such as natural disasters or accidents. Ensure they know how to dial emergency services, memorize important contact information, and follow evacuation procedures if necessary.

Community involvement: Engage with local community organizations or programs that provide safe and supervised activities for children during school holidays. These can include sports clubs, community centres, libraries, or holiday camps that offer age-appropriate activities and experiences.

Remember, safety is a shared responsibility between parents, guardians, schools, and the wider community. By implementing these measures and promoting a culture of safety, we can help ensure that primary school children have enjoyable and secure school holidays

Mobile Phones

Leichhardt State School has implemented a policy that restricts students from having mobile phones. Such policies are not uncommon in educational institutions and are often put in place to create an optimal learning environment, minimize distractions, and ensure the safety and well-being of students.

By prohibiting mobile phones, the school aims to encourage students to focus on their studies, engage with their peers, and participate in classroom activities without the interruptions and potential negative effects associated with mobile phone use. It can also help prevent issues such as cyberbullying, inappropriate content access, and the misuse of technology during school hours.

Parents and students should be aware of the school's expectations and abide by the rules in place. If your student brings their mobile phone to school, they must hand it into administration at the beginning of the day for safe keeping.  Leichhardt State School appreciates your support with this matter.

From Our Principal - Teaching and Learning

Consent form reminder

Please ensure the following consent forms are completed and returned for your child as soon as possible.

1. Premier’s Reading Challenge form
2. Online Consent Form
3. Prep Vision Screen Form

If you require copies of any of the above forms, please contact Mrs Elena Finlay (Deputy Principal – Teaching and Learning) on efinl9@eq.edu.au.

Partnerships @ Leichhardt

It has been wonderful having the Year 10 Ipswich State High School (ISHS) students visit on a Tuesday morning to practise handwriting and reading with our Year 1 students.  The Year 1 students thoroughly enjoy this one-on-one attention and love showing how their writing and reading are developing.  We look forward to the Year 10 students continuing the visits next term.  A big ‘Thank You’ to Ms McKenna, ISHS teacher, who has co-ordinated the Year 10 students’ visits to Leichhardt!

Also, a big ‘Thank You’ to Ms P (4A teacher) and Ms Emma (teacher aide) who have facilitated the Reading with the Kindy Kid elective students to visit the Day Care Centre across and read with the Kindy Kids!  As can be seen from the pictures below, the elective students are doing an amazing job, sharing their love of reading with their young reading buddies.  Well done, students!

2023 Readers Cup

At Monday’s Week 10 Assembly, we celebrated the hard work and commitment of the nine students who competed in the Annual Readers Cup held at Blair State School earlier this month.  Preparation for the Readers Cup commenced at the end of Term 1 when students began reading and studying the set texts for the competition and culminated on the day of the Readers Cup, when students had to work diligently in their teams to answer complex questions relating to the set texts.  Well done, students!

Five of the nine students from the Leichhardt Readers Cup Teams are pictured below. From left to right:  Angelica (5A), Christianna (5B), Chris (6A),  Leah (6A) and Maci (6A).   Students absent from the photo:  Ruby H (5B), Ava (6B), Melicia (6A) and Ruby B (5A)

A big ‘Thank you’ to Ms Carolin who ensured students stayed on track with their preparation for the Readers Cup this year.

Fun Learning Activities Over the Holidays!

The Ipswich Library has some amazing holiday activities scheduled over the June/July Holidays.

The Online Book Bingo Challenge pictured below, links in well with the Premier’s Reading Challenge!

On July 1 and 8, author, Brian Faulkner will be facilitating a creative writing workshop at the Springfield Library.  This would be a wonderful activity for students wishing to hone their writing skills leading into the ‘Write a Book in a Day’ challenge which will be taking place in Term 3.

For students who wish to further develop their illustrating skills, there is the Illustration Workshop with illustrator and author, Sophie Beer.

For the students who are science enthusiasts, there is the Big Bang Science Show!

For more information on the above programs and other programs offered at the Ipswich Library over the holiday break, please contact the library on 3810 6887 or click on the following link:  https://www.ipswichlibraries.com.au/whats-on/children/

From Our Head of Department - Teaching and Learning

Well done on a fantastic term of learning! It has been so wonderful to see the pride students are taking in their bookwork. The Student Office is often getting student visitors to show their learning, which we love to display on our board and celebrate on Parade. Next term we continue to build on organisation of both bookwork and our belongings. We will also continue to strongly build our STAR Note-taking skills with a focus on STA (Set up, Taking Notes, Adding to notes) from Prep right through to Year 6. I am excited to announce that in Term 3 we will also have a bookwork competition where students will be able to enter their bookwork to go in the competition to win some great prizes! More information on this will be announced after the holidays. Have a happy and safe holiday, make sure you keep                                                             up your reading and writing and we will see you in Term 3! 

From Our Community Support Coordinator

It’s been a busy term 2 for us all at Leichhardt State School. We are extremely  grateful for all the assistance we have had from City Hope Church, YMCA who help us provide breakfasts,  Ipswich Rotary and Tony and the boys from Brassall Fruit shop, Warren who brings us bread, One box organisation, Faith Lutheran College and the many staff members who give of their time to assist us in the school for the benefits of our community.

Just a reminder to parents to reply to the absentee line or phone in when your children are not coming to school. The absentee sms gets sent out at approximately 10am and you can reply to that message with the reason. If you child is going to be late to school please remind them to go to the student office to get their late slip otherwise they will not be marked on the connect roll and a sms will be sent out to parents.

Enjoy your holidays, be safe, have fun and we will see the children back on Monday 10^th July.

Links for holiday school ideas.

https://www.discoveripswich.com.au/school-holidays/

https://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/about_council/initiatives/sustainable-ipswich/sustainability-in-the-suburbs/EnviroEd/school-holiday-programs

https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/holiday-activities

Prep 2024

If you have a child born from 1^st July 2018 to 30 June 2019 then they will be starting Prep in 2024. We would love you to connect with the school and collect an enrolment pack from the front office. Prep is a full-time program in primary schools. Children attend Monday-Friday 8:30am – 2:30pm.

Leichhardt State School extends an invitation to future Prep students and their parents/carers to attend our Prep Open Days for 2023.

Community Garden Elective

The students from the community garden elective have had our first harvest and were super excited to share it with the community. The students picked lettuce, rocket and spinach and bagged it up for our school community to take home.

Aunty Marly and myself are very proud of the work our students have done. At the beginning of the term they decided what to plant then planted it out and tended it. Twice a week they have carted water by watering cans to the gardens. They have also weeded the gardens including the indigenous garden out the front.

We have some great plans for our gardens and look forward to sharing updates with you.

Aunty Marly and Miss Ferguson.

Thank you Rebel Sport

We are so grateful for these wonderful new games and activities that we have received from Rebel Sport. These new items are going to support our Forest School and our PBL rewards. How exciting is that! I can see lots of laughter and enjoyment coming from the forest school! We are so blessed to have support from the community, thanks again Rebel Sport for the support to our school.

From Our Teachers

Year 1 

It has been yet another busy week in Year 1 practicing our handwriting, sounds and sight words. We strongly encourage students to continue this over the holiday period by writing as often as they can as well as online programs including Reading Eggs. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask the Year 1 teachers. 

Year 1 were also lucky enough to have a visit from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES). They had so much fun and learnt some very key lessons. The QFES spoke the importance of our children knowing their address and asking adults to make sure their smoke alarms are working.

Year 2A 

2A wrote a recipe for Frog in a Pond. With Mr Jack's help, we got to make jelly. After it was set, students could put their freddo frog in the jelly and it became Frog in a Pond. It was delicious!

Year 5 Science 

Year 5 finished off the term doing a number of activities related to animal species. They designed their own animal that would survive in a desert, created PowerPoints to share information about a chosen animal and their favourite activity was working in teams to create a 'One Pager' fact sheet about an animal of their choice. They took so much pride in this activity and designed some wonderful 'One Pagers'. Well done, Year 5! 

Year 6

Last week, a group of Year 6 students went on an Arts Excursion to ‘Monet in Paris’. They learnt about the impressionist era, while walking through the beautiful sights and artworks of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas & Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The sensory, immersive experience was something that our students and staff hadn’t experienced before… but we gave it 10 out of 10! If you’re looking for something to do on your holidays, we highly recommend exploring this exhibit!

Sports Day

Congratulations to our Age Champions on their fantastic results at Sports Day. Well done to Banksia House for being the overall champions for 2023! A big thank you to all students who participated on the day and all of our parents who turned up to show their support. 

Mind, Body and Character Day 23/6/2023

High School News

Ipswich State High School 

We invite all current year 6 students who are interested in joining Ipswich State High School’s rugby league academy to register their interest and attend our upcoming trial by clicking on the QR code on the attached poster or on the link below;

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=xccAZrUWr0uekzI72MAduto_cyzOp-1Lq48WcpfjTKpUQTVaVDY1NjdQTEVYNkFCUENCNTJBR0hFVy4u

The trial for students in year 7 in 2024 (current year 6 students) is being held on Thursday 3rd August, 2023. We would like to invite any students who wish to trial to complete the form.
On these trial day, students will have the chance to take part in skills, drills and games to demonstrate their ability to join the rugby league Excellence program. 

The trials will run from 9am to 12pm.

Students will need to ensure they meet at Ipswich State High Schools - front oval (Located off Hunter Street) and register their attendance at the start of the day. 

They will also be required to bring the following equipment; 
·       Boots
·       Mouth guard/protective equipment
·       Training shirt & training shorts 
·       Water bottle

Students who have successfully gained a place within our program will be notified after the trial date via email.

Out In Our Community

Early Years Expo 

School Holiday Program 

Ipswich Libraries - Inspiring Students Over The School Holidays - FREE writing workshops for students

Please note that the above workshops and programs are not affiliated with Leichhardt State School.

School Watch

With the school holidays starting on Friday 23rd of June, empty schools provide an opportunity for criminal activity – becoming targets for unlawful entry, arson, stealing, graffiti and property damage offences.

All of these have the potential to delay the new school year starting off.

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).

Let’s all work together to help create safer school communities and ensure children get off to a great new year of learning.