Thangool State School eNewsletter

From our Principal

Welcome back to Term 3! I hope you enjoyed your winter break from school and are refreshed for a new term.

The start of a new term is always a great time to revisit our expectations ensuring clarity and consistency.

Our Thangool Capable Learner relates to the classroom and in the playground. By consistently emphasising our school rules, dispositions, values and holding high expectations, we ensure that all students are kept safe and are able to learn to the best of their ability. Our capable learner is built on key foundations and surround by ensuring we are inclusive, focus on wellbeing and provide feedback using our language of good, better, how. Please consider discussing our capable learner with your child/ren at home.

School Review

Every Queensland state school is reviewed by the Education Improvement Branch (EIB) at least once every four years. Our School review is scheduled for week 4, Tuesday 2 August-Thursday 4 August. The review plays an important part in how the department supports school improvement. A review provides our school with independent feedback, tailored to our context and needs. Principals use the review findings to work with their school community and assistant regional director (or principal supervisor) to develop clear actions to move the school forward.

Reviews are conducted by experienced educators trained in the use of the National School Improvement Tool, a nationally recognised framework for reviewing teaching and learning practices. Our Review team consists of three reviewers;

Mr Scott Medford-Review Chair
Peer Reviewer – Darren Sengstock
External Reviewer – Lesley Vogan

Reviewers look closely at each school’s performance data and speak with a wide range of staff, students, parents and community members to get an accurate picture of the school. Unlike many other review systems, schools aren’t ranked or given a performance rating. Instead, the school is given a comprehensive report for consideration. The report details key findings and recommended improvement strategies to maximise student outcomes.

After our review I will share this information with staff and school community to help shape the school’s strategic direction.

Feedback from parents and the community is an important part of school reviews, with everyone encouraged to have their say. Our reviewers will be chatting with parents before and after school and also making phone calls, please let me know if you’d like to have a chat with them.

School Opinion Surveys

The annual suite of School Opinion Surveys will be conducted 18th July to 12th August 2022. All families, school staff and students in target year levels will be invited to participate. We encourage you to take this opportunity to have your say about what our school does well, and how we can improve. The Department of Education will commence sending email invitations to participants in the first week of term 3. Check your junk email folders if you can’t find it.

Reading

This year we are involved in an inquiry cycle on reading at our school. All students have an individual reading goal and will have come home with a bookmark stating their goal. Please talk with your child’s teacher if unsure of your child’s reading goal

Some tips for home reading

Establish a home reading routine. Read aloud with your children everyday. Ten minutes for each child around a book of his/her choice. If English is your second language, read in your home language. If you lack confidence in reading aloud, the fact that you are reading with your child is what matters. Talk about the illustrations and contribute where you can. Share your excitement for reading and this will be the model your child will adopt.
The reader holds the book! There is a lot of power and control in the world of reading. The reader needs to have the power.
During home reading time, turn off electronic devices and give each child ten minutes of your undivided attention.
Before you read a book, set your child up for success. Reading is not a test! Reading time is only ten minutes so do some of the following: Keep the introduction short – one minute is enough. Talk about the illustrations and the title. Read the blurb and talk about the author, talk about any unusual words, read a page here and there as your child flicks through the book, discuss the characters. This is a short introduction, not an interrogation. If the book is already a familiar one, then this step is unnecessary.
If reading time is stressful, move the reading to a new location. Instead of sitting at the kitchen bench, move to the lounge room floor, or go outside and sit under a tree or take the books to the local coffee shop.

Find a reading time that works for your family. Limit the time and set the timer if reading in the past has always been difficult. It is better to have an enjoyable 10 minutes than a laborious 30 minutes where everyone is left feeling frustrated.
At the end of the 10 minutes, ask questions that encourage discussion, for example: What was your favourite part? Tell me about the characters. What do you think will happen next? What did you think about that setting? What do like/ dislike about this book? There is no need to interrogate the reader. Make it a conversation as you would in a book club.
Encourage your child to read independently. A bedside light is one of the best enticements for your child to read before going to sleep. After the 10 minutes of reading with you, the child can elect to continue reading independently.
The less you interrupt the 10 minutes of reading, the more you are supporting the readers independence, resilience and confidence. Zip your lips, monitor the miscues, and listen as your child reads.
Avoid judging your child’s reading with words such as: ‘good’, ‘excellent’ or ‘getting better’. Instead say things about the strategies your child uses when reading such as: ‘I like how you read on when you came to that difficult word.’ ‘I like how you changed your voice to be the voice of the character in the story’. ‘I noticed that you reread the bit that did not make sense.’
If you child is reading independently and has reached the level of chapter books, it is not
necessary for you to read aloud together any more. Your job is done. That is not to say, you cannot continue to share reading time because it is what you love to do as a family or that you sit and read silently together or that you talk about the books your child is reading because you are interested in his reading choices. Readers read differently in their heads as compared to reading aloud.
Visit the local library — make it a family ritual on a set day every week. Let your children select their books while you select books you are interested in reading. Not every book has to be read cover to cover. Your child might select books based on illustrations or factual information about a topic of interest.
Independent readers pick and choose what they read. They are entitled to read some and reject others. They are entitled to not complete books because they are boring. Readers make choices.
Model what it means to be an enthusiastic reader. Create a home of readers where everyone reads – It is just what we do in this house! Talk about what you have read. Read aloud what makes you laugh and share it with your child.

Have a wonderful week.

Fiona

From our Head of Curriculum (HOC)

Phonics

Phonics involves recognising the relationship between letters and sounds, also known as the ‘alphabetic principle’. Research states that the teaching of phonics needs to be done using a systematic and explicit process, where the order of teaching the sounds taught facilitates their blending into simple words. Through blending the sounds children can immediately practice their new skills, building automaticity and confidence. The research also recommends that these new skills are reinforced as early as possible by having children both listening to high quality texts and reading connected text themselves. The teaching of phonological/phonemic awareness and letter-sound relationships, phonic skills can be taught simultaneously.

In the Early Years, we use the following phonic sequence, supported through the programs Decodable Readers Australia and Jolly Phonics:

As students become successful with the acquisition and manipulation of the sounds, students move to using the THRASS program to identify the many spelling choices for each sound/phoneme.

Project Club Day - Monday 22nd August

Meal Deal - Project Club - 27th July 2022

Date Claimers - Term 3

P&C News

Can you help with Tuckshop in Term 3? Please add your name to the Sign-Up Zone Online Roster. Your support is appreciated.

The P&C has also been asked to help out at the Rugby Union Finals on 6th August. It will consist of collecting gate entry fee and handing out arm bands. If you can spare an hour or two please add your name to our Rugby Union Volunteer Roster. Thanks for supporting our P&C.

Thangool State School Tuckshop Roster

Thangool State School Rugby Union Volunteer Roster

H.P.E News

Next Tuesday and Wednesday, some of our 10-12 year old students will head to Gladstone to compete in the Port Curtis Athletics trials.

This year the trials will be held over two days and we wish our students the best of luck at these trials. Selected students need to remember to bring their PC paperwork with them on the day. If you have any queries regarding the trials please contact Mrs Nancarrow.

Red Ball Tennis, Orange/Green Ball Tennis, T20 Cricket and Interschool Netball will all be held this term. Once dates are finalised a note will be sent home outlining the details and nomination processes.