Volume 14 - 13th October 2023

From Our Principal

Our students have returned to school keen to continue their learning and finish Term 4 strongly. Daily attendance has improved greatly compared to the data at the end of Term 3, which will result in better learning and improvement in student outcomes across the board leading to the end of the year. Despite lower attendance in Term 3, our students achieved excellent results in English and mathematics, and we are predicting to see even better results in December. We are grateful to the parents and carers for their continued support of our students’ learning and wellbeing.

This week, we had large numbers of parents and carers attend Parent-Teacher Interviews. We know that many parents valued the opportunity to meet with their child’s teacher and discuss their child’s progress. If you have any feedback on the timing or format of the interviews, please let us know, so your opinions can be considered in preparation for next year.  

Earlier this year, parents of students in Years 5 and 6 had an opportunity to complete the School Opinion Survey. We are grateful to everyone who took this opportunity and thus helped us better understand how our school performance is perceived by our parent community. Over the next few weeks, we will be focusing on planning for 2024 and we will need your input on specific aspects of our work. One of the key focus areas is Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL). All parents will be sent a survey with questions to answer, and we thank you, in advance, for completing the survey.

We look forward to welcoming our new families to the Prep Open Days starting Wednesday 25 October and continuing on 1 and 8 November 2023. It is very exciting to think that our Prep students will have a new Prep playground to enjoy when they start their schooling in January 2024!

From Our Deputy Principal - School Culture

Safe Bus Travel to and from school

Traveling safely on a school bus in Queensland, Australia, is essential to ensure the well-being of students. The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads provides guidelines and regulations to help students, parents, and bus drivers ensure a safe and comfortable journey. Here are some key tips for traveling safely on a school bus in Queensland:

Arrive on Time: Be at your bus stop at least five minutes before the scheduled pickup time. Rushing to catch the bus can be dangerous.

Stand Back: While waiting for the bus, stand back from the road, and avoid playing near the bus stop. Make sure you're visible to the bus driver as the bus approaches.

Queue Up: When the bus arrives, wait your turn and line up to board the bus in an orderly manner.

Seat Belts: In Queensland, seat belts are mandatory on all school buses, so be sure to wear your seat belt at all times. This is a crucial safety measure.

Stay Seated: Once on the bus, remain seated while the bus is in motion. Do not stand up, move around, or engage in any behavior that may distract the driver.

Listen to the Driver: Follow the driver's instructions promptly and without question. They are responsible for your safety.

Keep the Aisles Clear: Keep the bus aisles clear of bags, backpacks, and other objects to allow for safe passage.

No Bullying: School bus bullying is not acceptable. Treat fellow students with respect and report any incidents of bullying to the bus driver or school authorities.

Emergency Procedures: Familiarize yourself with the bus's emergency exits and procedures, just in case they are needed.

Stay Quiet: Excessive noise can be distracting for the driver. Keep conversations and noise levels down.

No Throwing Objects: Do not throw objects inside the bus, as this can be dangerous.

Stay Inside: Do not attempt to exit the bus until it has come to a complete stop and the driver signals that it's safe to do so.

Cross Safely: When getting off the bus, look both ways before crossing the road. Always cross in front of the bus where the driver can see you.

Avoid Distracting the Driver: The bus driver's primary responsibility is to operate the vehicle safely. Avoid distracting behaviours or actions that could divert their attention.

Report Safety Concerns: If you notice any safety concerns on the bus, report them to the bus driver, school authorities, or your parents.

Parents also play a crucial role in ensuring the safety of their children when traveling on school buses. They should teach their children about these safety guidelines and discuss any concerns or issues with the school or the bus service provider.

Remember that safety is a shared responsibility, and everyone must do their part to make school bus travel in Queensland as safe as possible

We are learning to use the High 5 to solve problems

Ask your child about the High 5

Talk Friendly

• Use a calm voice.
• Maintain eye contact.
• Confident body language.
• Maintain relatively close body proximity.
• Use “I” statements – “I feel… when you… because…”
• “Please leave me alone.”

Talk Firmly

• As per Step 2 – Talk Friendly
• Use an assertive voice, slightly raised.
• Tell them to stop it.
• Re-state your “I” statement – “I said…”
• “I asked you to leave me alone.”

Ignore

• Pretend you didn’t hear it.
• Do not make eye contact.
• Maintain positive body posture – calm and confident.
• Think positive self-esteem statements.
• Count to five in your head slowly.
• Take deep breathes.

Walk Away

• Stand tall, head up high.
• Mouth closed.
• Look confident.
• Do not use eye contact.
• Walk somewhere, preferably towards a congested area or to a safety zone (a teacher).
• Do not look back. Walk confidently, but don’t run.

Report

• Walk away and tell a staff member.
• Go to a safety zone.
• Bystander – support and report.
• Report, report, report until somebody listens.

From Our Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning

Parent-Teacher Interviews @ Leichhardt

On Tuesday afternoon, the Hall was a buzz with parents and carers meeting with teachers discussing their children’s progress with their learning.  It was wonderful to see so many parents and carers attending the session and teachers sharing students’ learning this term.  It was also lovely to hear parents and carers describe the improvements they have observed at home in their children’s reading and writing.

If you were unable to attend the parent-teacher interview session, but wish to discuss your child’s learning with their teacher, please make contact with your child’s teacher.

Pictures below of just some of our teachers preparing for the interviews.

Thank you, teachers, for your dedication and commitment to our students’ learning!  Thank you, parents and carers, for partnering with us to support your children in achieving success in their learning.

Celebration of Learning @ Leichhardt

Monday’s Week 2 Assembly celebrated students’ achievements in Reading and Maths with the September Reading Eggs and Mathseeds Awards being presented to proud students.  Pictured below are just some of the award winners.   

Well done, Preps!

Well done, Year 1 students!

Well done, Year 3 students!

Well done, Year 4 students!

Well done, Year 5 students!

Well done, Year 6 students!

Please encourage your child to engage daily with Reading Eggs and the online Maths programs.  These are excellent tools for helping your child develop strong reading and maths skills.  They are engaging, effective and tailored to your child’s individual learning needs.   If you do not have your child’s password for any of the online programs, please contact your child’s teacher. 

For Year 4, 5 and 6 students, Education Perfect is now available to practise Maths, English and Science skills.  If you have any questions regarding Education Perfect, please contact Mrs Finlay, Deputy Principal – Teaching and Learning on efinl9@eq.edu.au.

Celebrate World Nursery Rhyme Day @ Leichhardt 

‘Reading is everywhere.  Reading is everyone’s business’

Faith Lutheran College Service Team Returns to Leichhardt

It was great to see the Faith Lutheran College (FLC) students return to Leichhardt on Wednesday of Week 2.  The fourteen high school students showed great enthusiasm and commitment as they completed reading and writing tasks with Year 2, 3 and 4 students.  Our students were very excited to spend time reading and writing with the ‘Big High School Kids’, as they call them. The students were also very excited to each receive a badge (pictured below) that the FLC students had made for them to congratulate them on working hard with their reading and writing.  Thank you, Faith Lutheran College Service Team, for sharing your joy of reading with our students and encouraging them with your gift!

Here are some of our students and FLC Service Team students pictured below.

‘Reading with a Kindy Kid’ Elective

Like the FLC Service Team reaching out to read with our students, our Year 5 ‘Reading with a Kindy Kid’ Elective commenced their reading with the day care centre next door this week.  It is a great to see our students making a positive difference in the community, providing younger students with a lifelong love of reading.  We look forward to sharing photos in the next newsletter.

From Our Head of Department - Teaching and Learning

Welcome back to what I am sure will be another busy term. It has been wonderful to see students getting straight back into their classroom routines and revisiting classroom expectations. This term, students will need to show organisation of their belongings in terms of swimming to ensure they have their appropriate belongings each week. Please encourage your students to prepare their swimming belongings the night before their lesson.

The Student Office is lucky enough to often get student visitors to show their learning, which we love to display on our board and celebrate on Parade. This term, we will 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. These notetaking skills combined with bookwork and belongings organisation are such important skills for our students to learn. We look forward to celebrating their work with another competition and exceptional bookwork awards in the coming weeks! 

From Our Community Support Coordinator

Prep Open Day Information

Dear Parents/Carers

The Prep Open Days are coming up and here is some information that you will need - 

Dates for the open days are:

• Wednesday 25/10/2023
• Wednesday 1/11/2023
• Wednesday 8/11/2023

We would appreciate it if you could RSVP to the school before each week if you are coming to the open day. You can call 38133222 or email admin@leichhardtss.eq.edu.au.

Where to meet: Outside the Deadly Room at 8:50am

What to bring: hat, water bottle and wear enclosed shoes

What you will be doing:

• Lots of fun activities
• Reading and art activities
• Sing and Grow
• Touring the school
• Going on a bear hunt
• Reading Eggs
• PE
• Meeting lots of Teachers in our deadly School

We look forward to seeing you😊

Community Garden Project 

How deadly are our garden gurus this term? They have been busy digging holes and planting native trees such as lemon myrtle, gumbi gumbi and native plum pine. The gumbi gumbi plant provides medicinal health benefits and healing and has been around for thousands of years. The native plum pine is a fruiting tree with fleshy purple-black berry. The lemon myrtle is a popular Australian native bush tucker plant much loved for its lemon-scented foliage. Our gardeners have also been harvesting our tomatoes and giving them away to lucky people. You are very welcome to come and look at our garden up behind G Block.

From Our Indigenous Community Coordinator

Spring has sprung

Have you had the opportunity to see our native garden, medicinal garden and vegetable garden? As we continue to enhance and embrace First Nations perspectives here at Leichhardt State School, make sure you take the time to walk on Country with your class to see natural beauty and eco systems that are being created within the school. These plants have existed for thousands of years and to see their beauty flourishing at our school gives me great pleasure. Thank you to all the deadly jarjums, who have helped take care of our gardens.

Once again, I had the pleasure of visiting the kindy kids at the Ipswich Early Education Centre. We spent time learning about symbols. The jarjums were so excited.  It was so deadly to see that they were so engaged as I was telling stories through art.  Story telling in our cultural is so important as it teaches one of our first lessons, which is listening.  The jarjums demonstrated this skill as they shared their own stories with me.  Looking forward to sharing more story times together. 

The Deadly Room has been busy with potting and planting and lots of art work.  This has been very therapeutic for our children who benefit from these extracurricular activities. 

As always, Language continues to be a great success in and out of the classroom, growing healthy jarjums and growing healthy Country.  Thank you to the Thompson family for all their support.

From Our Teachers

Year 1 

Year 1 have had a strong focus on reading and writing as we begin the term. We highly encourage your child to be in the routine of reading and writing each day at home. Reading eggs is a wonderful tool to help with this. 

We have also started a new subject 'Philosophy' run by our Guidance Officer. This has had such a fantastic impact on our learners already and we are excited to see this continue over the term. Philosophy encourages the development of thinking and listening skills and aims to help our students build positive relationships with each other. At the start of the lesson they sit together in a community of inquiry and in the initial lessons have had many discussions of the expectations around what a listener looks/sounds like, what it means to be a thinker!

Year 2A 

Year 2A enjoyed having the Year 4 - 6 senior elective students read with them this week. 

Year 5 Science

We have had an exciting first week unpacking what we are learning in Science this term. Year 5 have had a great start and are excited to learn about materials, shadows and designs of traditional shelters as well as explore the purposes. We look forward to sharing our learning over the coming weeks! 

Swimming lessons 

Swimming lessons have kicked off this week with some very excited and enthusiastic swimmers in attendance. Prep and year 2 practised safe entry and exit, bubble blowing, leg kicks and star-fish floating. The upper school practised assisted freestyle and backstroke techniques. 

From Our P & C Tuckshop

The tuckshop is back open for Term 4 with an updated Summer Menu. All orders are to be placed no later than 9am over the counter or by 8:30am via the Flexischool app. Please remember to have correct change if you are ordering over the counter. 

Out in Our Community

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