Thangool State School eNewsletter

From the Principal's Desk

Welcome to Term 2 2022!! Hope you had a restful break from the routines of school life.

Our feet hit the ground running on Tuesday morning and they will not stop running till the end of Week 10! What will Term 2 bring apart from the annual inter-house and Zone athletics carnivals, Under 8’s Day, report cards, Year 3 and 5 NAPLAN testing, Biloela Show Holiday. There are 4 short weeks along with Year 6 camp, professional learning, P&C and Project Club fundraising, and so on. Of course, our most important activity for the term is TEACHING AND LEARNING!

Please make sure you regularly check the important dates section of the newsletter to ensure that important occasions are not missed.

For staff development and strategic direction, our staff, through collaborative professional learning communities will be continuing to work on reading, visible learning and 4D behaviour. As we do each term, teachers will be attending moderation cluster days with our fellow schools to build our capacity that builds systematic curriculum delivery, expert teaching teams, and effective pedagogical practices.

Class Newsletters

Our class newsletters are being distributed by teachers and come out twice a term. Please keep an eye out in your email inboxes for the newsletters. These newsletters outline what is happening in individual classrooms around learning for the term. They also provide reminders about homework expectations, absences, Library days, and so on.

NAPLAN 2022

NAPLAN Online for Year 3 & Year 5 – 11-21 May. This year, between 11^th and 21^st May, our Year 3 & Year 5 students will be doing NAPLAN Online.

Student Code of Conduct

The beginning of a new term is always a good time to remind everyone about our school expectations.

Our school rules are: - We Care We Learn We are Safe.

Attendance

Students achieve more when they are at school every day learning. Our school goal for attendance is 94%. There are some real challenges in “catching up” after such an unusual start to the term, so parents are asked to make sure absences are genuine. No pressure should ever be felt to send children when unwell-just be mindful that other absences can be avoided.

ANZAC Day 2022

On Friday last week our school stopped to reflect and acknowledge what ANZAC day means to us as a school community. Our year 1 class did a wonderful job leading our school service.

On Monday our school represented at both Biloela and Thangool services. Many thanks to our school captains, our students, staff and parents who participated in these community events.

Medications at School - Important!

All medication, including over‐the‐counter medications, e.g. paracetamol, ibuprofen or alternative medications, are identified as drugs or poisons that may cause side effects. As such, the school requires medical authorisation from a prescribing health practitioner, e.g. doctor, dentist, optometrist, but not a pharmacist, to administer any medication to students, including those bought over‐the‐counter.

Unlike parents/guardians, school employees are unaware of a student’s complete medical history, and are unable to provide ongoing, direct supervision of the student for the course of their illness. They are therefore unlikely to recognise if a student is having adverse effects to any medications administered. Health practitioners also have knowledge of medical history in order to determine which over‐the‐counter medications are appropriate, dosage amounts and potential side effects or interactions with other medications.

What you need to know:

The school can no longer administer any medication, including over‐the‐counter medications, e.g. paracetamol, ibuprofen or alternative medications identified as drugs or poisons that may cause side effects, to students without medical authorisation from a prescribing health practitioner e.g. doctor, dentist, optometrist.
Medical authorisation from a pharmacist cannot be accepted.
Over‐the‐counter medications currently stored at school will no longer be administered to students without medical authorisation.
Listed emergency contacts for the student are able to personally attend the school and administer over‐the‐counter medications to their child if they do not wish to obtain medical authorisation.

Please ensure your medication details are updated with the school and that you have alerted office staff to medical conditions that we need to be aware of.

Facilities

This term we have a lot of our facilities upgrades occurring. Over the Easter break we had the inside of the prep building and upstairs building painted. Our cubby house area had cementing completed and new cubby will arrive shortly.

This week the work on our front area with the dental slab will commence-this will see our front garden removed (to enable van access) but a new garden will be replaced once the work is completed. We also will have the cementing completed at the front of the school along with our newfront gates.

Premier's Reading Challenge

The 9^th of May marks the beginning of the reading period for the 2022 Premier’s Reading Challenge. To complete the challenge students in Prep – Year 2 need to read or experience 20 books, students in Year 3 and Year 4 need to read 20 books, and students in Year 5 and Year 6 need to read 15 books (this number of books acknowledges that older students are more likely to select longer and more complex books).

May is National Family Reading Month

This year is the 26^th year of National Family Reading Month which celebrates and encourages families reading together. Why not take the 31 Day Family Reading Challenge? To participate in the 31 Day Family Reading Challenge simply read for a minimum of 10 minutes each day and mark the day’s reading on the record chart. The reading record chart is available from the Library and is also included below. Students who return their completed reading chart will receive a certificate of participation.

TSS Capable Learner Framework

Feedback

Feedback is an important part of our capable learner framework. At Thangool feedback is given using the terms good, better and how. Attached to this newsletter is a parent survey where I am seeking your feedback on our school and my leadership. If you could complete and return either via email or drop it into the office so I can use the feedback to reflect on mine and school practices to ensure I am providing the very best for our students; your children.

parent_survey_2022.docx

Mother's Day Stall

Next Wednesday and Thursday our P&C is holding a Mother’s Day stall. Students can bring in money to school and purchase items from the stall in the morning 8:15-8:45am. Items range from $2-$10. We are after a couple of dads to help in the stall so our mum’s get a lovely surprise. If you are able to help please contact our office or one of our P&C executive members.

From our HOC

From our Guidance Officer

Hello everyone,

Welcome back – I trust you all enjoyed a refreshing break and hope that Term 2 is much more settled than the previous one! Speaking of which, last term in some of the schools I support, I have had some children having challenges with separation from their parents, which is impacting the transition from home to school. Children are especially prone to separation anxiety during times of stress. If you feel that your child is a little more ‘clingy’ than usual, here are some tips to help them, and you, navigate the transition more easily.

Practice separation: tell them that you are just popping into the other room for 5 minutes (or to put the jug on) and you will be right back, and they will be alright. Make sure you do return in 5 minutes – a reliable timer is very handy!
Schedule separations after naps or feedings (more useful for younger children, but helps get them ready for when they go to day-care, kindy or school).
Develop a quick “goodbye” ritual - including maintaining your calm voice and happy, relaxed face. If children pick up that you are worried/anxious it is likely to escalate their own feelings of anxiety.
Leave without fanfare
Follow through on promises
Keep familiar surroundings whenever possible, and make new surroundings familiar. Spend some time introducing your child to their teacher - particularly at the beginning of the school year, you’ve changed schools, or there is a new teacher.
Have a consistent primary care-giver.

If your child is experiencing separation anxiety and it lasts for more than 4 weeks or is impacting on family/school life, do not hesitate to seek professional support. The following website has some very useful information that can help.

https://raisingchildren.net.au/babies/behaviour/common-concerns/separation-anxiety

I am at Thangool State School every second Friday (even weeks of the term), and can be contacted by calling the school on 4990 0333, if there is anything you would like to talk about regarding how to support your child.

David Reeves

(Guidance Officer)

Beyond Blue Kids Helpline Lifeline Australia

www.beyondblue.org.au www.kidshelpline.com.au 13 11 14

1300 22 4636 1800 55 1800

Tuckshop

Tuckshop will resume this Friday. The menu will be attached to the this newsletter or can be accessed by clicking the link below. If you can help with tuckshop this term, either by baking or working please add your name to the sign up zone by clicking the link below

https://signup.zone/ThsSHrk7KximNJSnN

Orders can be placed via the QKr app (preferred) until 8am on Friday morning.

tuckshop_menu_2022.pdf