Friday, 13th March 2015

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Cross Country ..........................2

3-6 Camp .................................2

Traits writing ..........................2

Canberra possibility …………….2

P-2 News ..................................2

3-6 News ..................................3

Attendance ...............................3

Pre-Prep students………………...3

ATTACHMENTS

Redeemer Easter Festival

Wowan soccer permission

& treat kitchen form. Years

3-6

Prospect Creek State School Dawson Highway

PO Box 180

Biloela Q 4715

Phone 07 4992 1490

Fax 07 4992 1902

E-mail principal@proscreess.eq.edu.au

Web Address https://procreess.eq.edu.au

Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Prospect-Creek-State-School/704280269613200

The Prospectus

Hi Parents,

Notice something different about our newsletter this week? We are trying out a new format and welcome your feedback on it.

What a wonderful day we have had celebrating the success of our cross country runners this morning. It was great to see and hear the team spirit of both houses and as always, the sports-manship of our students was outstanding. Thank you to those of you who were able to come and be a part of the day. Also, thank you to Liz, Trudy and Robyn who fed us!

We have contacted parents of the Year 3-6 students to request parent teacher interviews. As per policy, we report to parents four times per year – two parent teacher interviews and two written semester reports. This is an important time to gain an early understanding of strengths and weaknesses of your child and how we can work together to make further growth. Attached to this newsletter is a slip requesting times for the P-2 students. Please return your slip early to secure a preferred time.

Friday 20 March we are participating in the annual Anti Bullying Day. Each child will receive a wrist band and conversations around bullying, including building strategies, will take place. If your child talks to you about bullying:

1. Listen calmly and get the full story. Your calm response is important to allow your child to tell you all about the situation. After they’ve told you their story, ask questions to get more details if you need to: who, what, where, when. Although you may feel some strong emotions about your child’s experience, try to keep calm to avoid more distress to your child.

2. Reassure your child they are not to blame. Many children blame themselves and this may make them feel even worse. You could say things like, ‘That sounds really hard to deal with. No one should have to put up with that.’ or ‘I’m so glad you told me. You should be able to feel safe at school; that’s not fair at all’.

3. Ask your child what they want to do and what they want you to do. A critical part of your response is to avoid jumping in to solve the problem. While it is natural to want to protect your child, helping them to find their own solution is a better option. It helps them feel they have some power in the situation.

Visit www.bullyingnoway.gov.au to find some strategies. The website has tips and ideas for different bullying situations. One idea is to practise strategies at home to help your child feel more confident.

4. Contact the school. Your child may be reluctant for you to do this, so discuss the idea and reassure them that the school would want to know and is able to help. Make an appointment to meet with your child’s teacher and, if you need to, ask to talk with the principal. Contact the school immediately if you have a concern about your child’s safety.

Check in regularly with your child. Keep the conversation going. It can take time to resolve issues, so check in regularly with your child about their experiences and their feelings. Your ongoing support is important.

Prospect Creek State School has an updated Responsible Behaviour Plan which has been circulated. A copy of this can be found on our website.

An opportunity has come up for Prospect Creek State School to be involved with Jambin State School again with a visit to Canberra in 2016. We would commit to this every three years. The camp will be for Years 4-6 students only. While we have not yet sourced quotes to give you an accurate costing, I can tell you that in 2013, the excursion to Canberra was close to $1500 per student. This would be around the maximum cost and the P&C will coordinate

fundraising to help bring this cost down. This trip has many curriculum links with visits to Parliament House, the War Memorial, Nation-al Art Gallery and Museum, Questacon and the snow. At this stage, I am seeking interest from all families as to whether this is some-thing you would like to see our school partici-pate in. Please see the attached slip (email and hard copy) and return to school on Monday with your preference.

SMALL SCHOOLS CROSS COUNTRY

CANBERRA POSSIBILITY 2016

On Friday 27 March, Prospect Creek will be hosting the Small Schools Cross Country event. The event will start at 9:30 with a walk around the track. We will then run the events. Eligible students will be selected to participate on the day. We will have a morn-ing tea available for parents set up for purchase. This will be run by the remaining students from the 3-6 classroom. The stu-

dents in the P-2 classroom will continue their lessons as per normal.

We are asking if families could please donate a cake or slice for us to sell to other parents throughout the morning. Please mark the Wednesday or Thursday evening in your calendar to bake some yummy goodies (or to go shopping and purchase something to sell).

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3-6 CAMP

Camp deposits were due in today. We have the majority of our 3-6 class travelling to Bar-caldine via Rubyvale for an exciting week in August. The P&C have kindly donated $100 per child to participate in this camp. This brings the cost of the camp down to $275. Further P&C fundraising for the camp will be a cake stall and a car wash in Term 2. Obviously, the more help we have, the more

money we raise and the cheaper camp be-comes so please keep your eye out for ways you can be involved. Please feel free to make payments off your child’s camp cost. There are approximately 13 school weeks before camp payments will be due. This is approxi-mately $20 per week. When making pay-ments via direct deposit, be sure to include your surname in the reference.

Aaron Picton— Growing independence in class

P-2 Award will be handed out next week.

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

TRAITS WRITING

We have been looking at focusing the topic in our writing traits this week. Coming up with an interesting, original idea is something that most students find difficult. Students need to continue thinking about:

Narrowing down a small part of a big idea.

Whether they can explain their idea in a simple sentence.

Choosing information that matches the idea.

What the reader will need to know.

P-2 NEWS

Hi All,

Look out for a writing piece next week. I am currently marking a narrative by all the students. I will send home a copy for you to look at. I will discuss it further with you during parent/teacher inter-views in week 10. This will give you time to look at their work for yourself before we have our discussion.

PRE-PREP STUDENTS

As part of our Pre-Prep program (which will commence in Term 4), we are offering all chil-dren who will be enrolling at Prospect Creek State School in 2016, an opportunity to join Reading Eggs under the school licence. Please

call the school if you would like your child registered. A rewards book will be given to each child with stickers to encourage their participation.

3-6 NEWS

Thank you to the parents who have asked about literacy home-work. The homework is always a follow up activity from the Trait studied the week before. Next week, students will be given an activity to complete on develop-ing an Idea.

Don’t forget all students have Mathletics and Reading Eggs accounts which can be accessed from any computer/tablet at home with an internet connec-tion. In Mathletics, topics are opened as they are completed in class, this means that the activi-ties on Mathletics are directly related to your child’s classroom learning.

Students should be reading eve-ry night. A child who reads for 20 minutes a night will read for 3,600 minutes in a school year and read approximately 1,800,000 words. This boosts children’s fluency, comprehen-sion and confidence to tackle learning tasks in all learning areas. Please ask your child about what they have read, e.g.

Describe the best part of the book so far.

Compare ? to ?

Evaluate the book and give it a score out of 10. Why?

Describe what might hap-pen next in the book.

Compare character A to character B.

I have many question stems at school so if you require more information, please let me know.

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week1

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School Attendance Term 1, 2015

School

WANTED—SAUCE BOTTLES

We are asking for dona-

tions of sauce bottles (the

squeeze variety). If you use

these at home, could you

please bring in any empty

and washed bottles?

Zoey

“Get out of the way!” said the bird. The bird is going to land with an otter on its back.

Tane

“Help me!” I said “Seth, call 000. HELP!” This is going to be my last glimpse of the world so I better make the most of it.

Along with the Ideas Trait, students have been learning how to effectively use dialogue in their

writing.

Prospect Creek State School

Dawson Highway

PO Box 180, Biloela, QLD 4715

Phone: 4992 1490

Fax: 4992 1902

School Mobile: 0477 760 014

Email: the.principal@proscreess.eq.edu.au

Principal: Jo Northey

Staff

3-6 Teacher: Jo Northey / Patrice Baird

Prep—2 Teacher: Chris Couchman

Teacher Aides: Belinda Gardiner/ Sally Neve

& Jacinta Philips

Admin Officer: Robyn Matheson

Administration days: Monday, Wednesday &

Friday

Grounds Persons—Tim Boyd

Cleaner - Brenda Koroiko

P&C Committee

President—Sally Neve

Vice President—Cherie Gooding

Treasurer—Adam Northey

Secretary—Robyn Matheson

DATES TO REMEMBER

Pie Drive forms must be returned—Wednesday 18th March

Pie delivery— Thursday 26th March

Small School Cross Country—Friday 27th March (Years 4-6) 9.30am

Small School Soccer Day Wowan —Thursday 2nd April (Years 3-6)

Last day of term—Thursday 2nd April

Term Two starts—Monday 20th April

Mobile library visit—Tuesday 21st April

Science Day—Wednesday 22nd April

ANZAC Service—Thursday 23rd April—9.00am service

Biloela ANZAC Memorial Club Raffles—Friday 24th April

Mobile library visit—Tuesday 5th May

Biloela ANZAC Memorial Club Raffles—Friday 8th May

Mobile library visit—Tuesday 16th May

Prospect Creek Athletics Carnival—Friday 29th May

Smalls School Athletics Carnival Prospect Creek—Friday 12th June