Volume 2 - 16th February 2024

From the Principal

On Wednesday this week, we celebrated our Student Leaders with a Leaders’ Investiture ceremony attended by students, staff, parents and carers of our 2024 Student Leaders. I am excited about the year ahead and what wonderful things our leaders are committing to doing to organise and lead for other students in the school. The House Captains are already working hard to help the Health and Physical Education teachers set up for lessons and make announcements on Assembly every Monday. It is great to see how they are developing the public speaking skills on stage.

Leichhardt State School’s extracurricular program continues to grow to include Football sessions for senior boys and girls with Mr Scott, and daily Rugby League sessions in preparation for The Ipswich State High School’s Rugby League Gala Day with Mr Woodford and Ms McQueen. We recognise sport as a great way to engage our students in teamwork and physical movement, as well as teach respect for self and others.

Over the next few weeks, I will be sending you emails seeking feedback on our Student Code of Conduct and implementation of Positive Behaviour for Learning strategies. We will organise an opportunity for parents to offer feedback on the policy in the form of an afternoon tea with the Leadership Team. I thank you in advance for your engagement with the feedback process.

From the Deputy Principal

NAPLAN

Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 will take part in the 2024 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) from Wednesday 13 March to Monday 25 March 2024.  The students will be assessed through four assessment tasks in the areas of writing, reading, language conventions, and numeracy. 

On Friday, 23 February, our Year 3 and 5 students will engage in NAPLAN practise testing.   NAPLAN practise testing provides students with an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the types of questions in NAPLAN, and the online test design.

The below links provide information about NAPLAN and the privacy of student information collected during the testing.

https://nap.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/naplan-information-brochure-for-parents-and-carers.pdf

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) privacy notice (PDF, 129KB) 

Any questions regarding NAPLAN should be addressed to Mrs Elena Finlay, Deputy Principal – Teaching and Learning (efinl9@eq.edu.au).

Week 4 Awards @ Leichhardt

Reading Eggs, Mathletics and Education Perfect Awards

Monday’s Week 3 Assembly celebrated students’ amazing online leaning engagement over the first two weeks of school! It was wonderful to see two of our 2024 Preps, pictured below, receive awards at their third school assembly.  Well done, Preps!

Mia (Year 1) pictured below receiving her Reading Eggs Awards.  Well done, Mia!

Jack and Zoe (Year 2) were excited to receive their awards. Well done, students!

Sophie (Year 4) picture below receiving her Reading Eggs Awards.  Well done, Sophie!

Well done to Kaden (Year 5) (pictured below) for winning the EP Award!  Kaden completed 893 questions for the month of January.  Amazing  work, Kaden!

Spotlight on Reading in Year 1!

At Monday’s Week 3 Assembly, it was lovely to have Jasper (Year 1) share the important reading skills that are being focused on in class.  Jasper demonstrated his phonics knowledge by sounding out an unfamiliar word.  Next, he modelled to the audience his phonemic awareness skills by segmenting, deleting and manipulating sounds within a word with ease.  It is important to note that these skills are not only critical for reading but also underpin spelling.

If you would like to find out how your child is progressing with their reading and spelling development, pleaes contact your child’s teacher.

From Head of Department - Teaching & Learning

Teaching and Learning

Our students are continuing to learn classroom expectations and routines. This includes how they can be organised for their day and prepared with their learning equipment as well as how they set their books up for each subject (L.S.S. bookwork expectations). We are very proud of the hard work students are doing to set themselves up for success and be the best learner they can be! The weekly focus of PBL is understanding respectful ways to speak to each other at school. We encourage you to remind your child of respectful ways to communicate to each other and adults. 

From the Community Support Coordinator

We are so excited to let our school community know that we have been awarded a grant by Department of Health called Pick of the Crop. This grant is all about promoting food culture in schools. The grant will support Breakfast Club, Garden Club, fruit for students and also to assist our technology classes to have their own garden to grow food for their lessons.  We are very thankful and feel proud.

From the School Leaders

Student Leaders’ Investiture

Wednesday, 14 February, was the 2024 Leichhardt Student Leaders’ Investiture.    We were all very nervous as we waited for our names to be called to go on stage to receive our badges.    It was a very solemn moment when we pledged the Leichhardt State School Pledge and promised to do our best.  We are all very grateful for the support of our families, fellow students and staff and appreciative of this wonderful opportunity to be the Leichhardt State School 2024 Leaders.

Student Leaders' Investiture Ceremony

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 12

Next

Instrumental Music

Hi, My Name is Ruby and I’m the Music Captain for 2024.

I have been part of the instrumental music program for 2 years now doing percussion and am super excited to start making some noise, I mean music with our new brass instruments! Students in upper school will now have the chance to learn percussion, trumpet or trombone with Mr Schilling on Wednesdays. I can’t wait to show you what we will be working on!

And remember, Wakakirri practice happens during session 2 and 3 on Wednesdays at the STEAM hub and choir practice is now also at the STEAM hub at second play on Thursdays.

From the Deadly Room

Our Deadly Dancers performed at National Apology Day 2024 in the Concert Hall Foyer at QPAC, Brisbane.

Each year, the 13 February offers an important time to reflect on how generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have been affected, and continue to be affected, by the past policies of the Australian Government and the ongoing impacts of this on the health and wellbeing of First Nations People.

We are so proud that our Deadly Dancers represented our School on this day of reflection. The event was streamlined on the day and our students had the opportunity to watch it live in their classrooms. We are so greatful our students got this opportunity.

Below is a link to watch our Deadly Dancers performace @ the National Apology 2024

From the Teachers

Prep, 1 & 2 HPE 

During our first four weeks of school our Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 classes have been working hard and having lots of fun in their HPE classes. Prep A and Prep B have been working on their gross motor skills while our Year 1 and 2 classes have been developing their throwing and catching skills with tennis balls. It has been great to see so many of our students bringing their hats and water bottles to their lessons. Keep up the great work.

Mr Woody

Year 1

1A are learning about light and sound in science. We have been exploring how sound is made by vibrations. We felt this through speaking into plastic cups, where the vibration travels through the string and can be heard in the plastic cup at the other end. The children had a great time making different sounds into the cups and listening to their friends.  

Year 4

How exciting!

This week, Year 4 students explicitly learnt what our reading rotations will Look Like, Sound Like and Feel Like.  Reading groups help students consolidate their knowledge, share their knowledge and skills and encourage their peers to become the best readers they can be.  Oral story telling in the sandpit will also be part of our rotations.

If you would like to come and share this experience with you or be the Year 4's Mystery Guest Reader please let me know.

Performing Arts and Technology

Hello Parents and Carers,

Can we believe it is week four? It has been a lot of fun getting to know the students in particularly Years 5 and 6, but also in Years 2 to 6 through choir and Wakakirri. We have had so much interest in these extra-curricular activities and we look forward to the students being able to showcase their talent in numerous ways as the year continues. Friendly reminder that Wakakirri rehearsal is on a Wednesday in Sessions 2 and 3 at the STEAM, and choir is on a Thursday second play at the STEAM. It was exciting to begin learning our dance story for our Wakakirri entry earlier on this week.

There is some amazing learning experiences happening in the year five and six Arts and Tech space, and it has been great to see so many students engaged, interested and enjoying the units. In Year 5 Technology, our students are designing and building a robotic arm and in Year 6 Technology students are researching, designing and creating a maths resource for the Year 4 students in our school. In Year 5 Arts, students are creating a documentary about someone they consider to be their hero and in Year 6 Arts students will be working in groups to create and perform a script. Please endeavour to have thoughtful conversations surrounding these assessments with your students.

My Year 5 English students have already been showing incredible improvement in their writing, punctuation and use of language features as they continue with the endless possibilities that their imagination can create. The spooky stories unit is a task loved by all, and it has been great to see your students personalities, interests and ideas shine through throughout this creative process.

If you have any concerns regarding your student, please feel free to reach out and contact me via email address.

Thank you for your support in your student's learning.

Miss Clio Girvin

Cgirv2@eq.edu.au

Year 5 Science

This term students are learning about the three states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. They are learning that solids can hold their shape,while liquids flow and can't be stretched or squeezed.

Year 5 Maths

Year 5 have been learning all about number, fractions and converting fractions to decimals!! They have really enjoyed learning how to use Education Perfect to complete some tasks and quizzes and some students have even been doing this in their own time at home! Well done, Year 5. 

Year 6 Maths

Year 6 have been learning how to find the greatest fraction, putting fractions into decimals, using the crossover method, multiplication, crack the code and mapping.

Year 6 English

This term in English, the Year 6 students are completing a compare/contrast of two texts and writing an adaptation (prequel, sequel or another event) for one of the texts being analysed.  Will (6A) shared this information at the Week 4 Assembly and discussed how the values in one of the texts they were analysing, ‘The Little Refugee’ by Anh and Suzanne Do, mirrored our school values of Gratitude, Respect, Teamwork and Perseverance.   Malakai (6A) was also happy to share with me the document he was annotating as he analysed the texts.  Well done, students!

Electives

Our students are in their second week of electives. These activities provide students with a supportive environment to try new things, develop new skills, showcase their abilities, establish new friendships and receive positive feedback and recognition.

Sport 

Students are continuing on with their Indigenous games. Their favourite is Kabi Kabi which was a traditional game of some Aboriginal groups such as the Kabi Kabi in south Queensland. The game was played with a ball made of kangaroo skin, which was called a buroinjin. 

Minecraft 

Minecraft Builder Elective by Aybell Ridley-Vaughan

One elective option for Wednesday and Friday, Sessions 8 and 9, is the Minecraft Builder Elective facilitated by Ms McQueen and Ms Kayla.  This is an amazing elective!  Students can work together with their friends to make their wildest creation come to life.  Students show great perseverance as they open their imagination to get their creations just right!  The Minecraft Builder Elective  is a popular elective and not surprisingly, gets booked out very quickly.

Gardening 

 Our students and teachers are excited about getting the gardens ready for our Pick of the Crop plants.

Japanese 

Students are learning how to introduce themselves in Japanese! 

‘Reading With the Kindy Kid’ Elective

The ‘Reading With the Kindy Kid’ Elective has commenced for Term 1.  It was wonderful to hear how much our 14 students and staff, Ms Nieass and Ms Fitzpatrick, and Kindy Kids enjoyed the afternoon reading session together.  Our students thoroughly enjoyed sharing their love of reading with the younger students. 

Creative Arts

This week students made valentines Day art for their special people at home. Students are enjoying being creative and learning new techniques. Engaging in creative activities teaches students that there are always multiple ways of completing the same task.

P&C News

Tuckshop

Our Tuckshop has officially opened for the year!! The opening hours are Wednesday - Friday from 8:00 - 8:45 for orders, first play and eating break for hot food & snacks and second play for snacks.

We thank our volunteers who worked hard to get this up and running for 2024.

From the Community