Principal’s Report

Welcome back to what’s shaping up to be a busy

and exci�ng Term 2. I trust you and your family

had a lovely break.

Thank you to everyone who par�cipated in our

school ANZAC Parade on Monday. This is a very

special annual school event and I appreciate the

effort that each of the classes goes to, to

commemorate this significant day on the Australian calendar.

Thank you also to Mrs Simpson and the school leaders for

organising the event.

(Con�nued Page 2)

1st May - Labour Day Public Holiday

2nd May - Parent Workshop:

Anxiety & New Beginnings

9th—11th May - NAPLAN (Yr 3 & 5)

16th May - Parent Workshop:

Health & Nutri.on

A Constance Street Mareeba, Qld 4880

P (07) 4092 8100 | F (07) 4092 4396 | E admin@mareebass.eq.edu.au | W mareebass.eq.edu.au | A1endance Hotline (07) 4092 8166

26 April 2017

Students laying their classroom wreaths at Monday’s whole school ANZAC Parade.

(More photos on Page 2)

Mrs Mandy Whybird

Principal

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Principal’s Report Con.nued

Voluntary Contribu.on Fee Parents and carers are welcome to call in at the

office and pay the voluntary contribu�on fee of $50.

EFTPOS is available. If you are unable to pay the

total amount, we accept part payments. All monies

go directly towards purchasing resources for

classrooms. Thank you to the family who has

recently paid:

Parking Reminders Please be aware that the keyhole/cul-de-sac

parking near the administra�on building is only to be

used for dropping off and picking up disabled

students. This area is needed for our school bus

parking and emergency access and must be kept as

clear as possible.

Also, the carparks directly outside the office are

reserved for STAFF ONLY and must not be used for

parent drop-offs and pick-ups.

Thank you for your co-opera�on

A Constance Street Mareeba, Qld 4880

P (07) 4092 8100 | F (07) 4092 4396 | E admin@mareebass.eq.edu.au | W mareebass.eq.edu.au | A1endance Hotline (07) 4092 8166

There are a number of other special events across the academic, spor�ng and

cultural spheres to look forward to this term.

This term also sees Year 3 and 5 students demonstrate their learning in the

NAPLAN tests which will run over the 9th

, 10th

and 11th

of May. We then have

our Big Day Out school open day (26th

May), the Interhouse Athle�cs Carnival

(8th

and 9th

June) and, of course, the School Fete (16th

June) to look forward to.

We wish those students aFending representa�ve events over the course of the

term such as the District Cross Country and the Eisteddfod, amongst others, all

the very best.

As prepara�ons for our biennial school fete move into full swing, please

consider your availability to assist at this important fund-raising event for our

school. Class teachers and the P & C will soon be reques�ng your assistance

through the dona�on of goods, your �me or effort to support

each of the stalls being run on the night of the fete. Your

support will be greatly appreciated and will help make a

posi�ve difference to our school!

Whilst the term will undoubtedly be another busy one, we will

remain focussed on our school priori�es of teaching explicitly,

targe�ng reading and numeracy and promo�ng regular

aFendance and posi�ve behaviour for learning. You can help us

in our endeavour to consistently improve student outcomes by

hearing your child read regularly and ensuring that they come

to school every day.

• Squillari (5S) • Dayes (3E)

• Cousley (4W)

SCHOOL OFFICE HOURS Monday to Thursday: 8:00 - 4:00

Friday: 8:00 - 3:30

Do you have uniforms and shoes that your children no longer need?

Feel free to drop them into the office, as we can always use spare clothing and shoes. All

donations are very much appreciated. Thank you!

A Constance Street Mareeba, Qld 4880

P (07) 4092 8100 | F (07) 4092 4396 | E admin@mareebass.eq.edu.au | W mareebass.eq.edu.au | A1endance Hotline (07) 4092 8166

Welcome to Term 2, 2017. Once again students and teachers will be busy learning through a wide variety of

exci�ng and interes�ng ac�vi�es.

Here is a short overview of the English curriculum for each year level this term.

Prep – Using the text ‘Wombat Stew’ students will explore how language is used to inform a reader. They will

explain characters they liked or disliked in this text and create a descrip�on of a picture.

Year 1 – Students will explore and iden�fy features of non-fic�on texts. They will create an informa�on

report about an animal to present to their class

Year 2 – Students read and listen to a range of poems to create an imagina�ve poetry reconstruc�on.

Students present their poem or rhyme to a familiar audience.

Year 3 – Students will revise narra�ve and persuasive texts in prepara�on for NAPLAN. They will then explore

procedural texts and create a procedure that explains how to do something for a familiar audience.

Year 4 – Students will create an informa�on report on an Australian animal and present this report to their

peers.

Year 5 - Students will revise narra�ve and persuasive texts in prepara�on for NAPLAN. They will then listen

to, read and view a range of poetry, including narra�ve poems, to create a transforma�on of a narra�ve

poem to a narra�ve story.

Year 6 – Students will write an autobiography outlining significant events in their life, in prepara�on for

mee�ng their high school teachers during Transi�on Day.

WriFen report cards are completed for students at the end of each semester. Children are assessed and

reported on in a 5 point scale for the Australian Na�onal Curriculum areas of English, Maths, Science and

History, and in some year levels, Geography. Students will also be reported on in the areas of HPE and Music

and LOTE (for years 5 and 6 only). Term 2 report cards will be sent home to parents, via their children, on

Wednesday, June 21st

. - Valerie Dayes, Head of Curriculum

Curriculum Update

CRUSHING SEASON NOTICE

Mackay Sugar’s Mossman mill will commence its 2017 Crushing Season opera�ons on a seven day per week

basis, on Monday 5th June, 2017. The season may extend to November. Locomo�ve and road transport

opera�ons are beginning and once the crushing season is underway, there will be a significant increase in

locomo�ve, road transport and cane harves�ng opera�ons on highways and roads within the Mossman,

JulaFen, Mareeba and Atherton districts. While this Company con�nues to make every endeavour to ensure

these traffic movements are safe and least intrusive as possible, public awareness will greatly enhance this

objec�ve. As coach and school buses have a high exposure to this sec�on of the industry we wish to draw

your aFen�on to the start date of the crushing season and the resultant increase in road and rail ac�vi�es

which will occur and ask that you make your students aware of the same. Our road transport contractor is

aware of all school bus routes and speed limita�ons around school zones and bus routes, and of our

expecta�on of a high standard of driver behaviour. They will con�nue to operate on UHF Channel 40 during

opera�ons, and welcome par�cipa�on and loca�on calls from school bus and coach drivers when they are

sharing roads. Your awareness and co-opera�on will greatly enhance the safety of all stakeholders. If there

are any route specific situa�ons you would like to inform us of, please email or call Don Fowler on

(07) 4030 4126 or d.fowler@mkysugar.com.au.

A Constance Street Mareeba, Qld 4880

P (07) 4092 8100 | F (07) 4092 4396 | E admin@mareebass.eq.edu.au | W mareebass.eq.edu.au | A1endance Hotline (07) 4092 8166

A note from your

Guidance Officer

TIP SHEET FOR PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH WORRIES

Children o?en take note of parent behaviour when they are learning how to deal with problems and

worries. Parents can be great role models – by indirectly and directly teaching their children that they

need to learn how to manage challenges.

There are 3 parts to worries / challenges:

1. Our body reacts to worried thoughts – rapid heart-beat, rapid breathing, sweaty palms.

2. Our thinking speeds up and repeats nega�ve thoughts over and over.

3. We either try to: fight someone or run away from/ avoid the thing that worries us or freeze in one spot.

In order to get on with; life, schooling, sport or work – we need to develop the skills to deal with our

challenges. The way to do that is to calm our breathing first then calm our thinking then work on handling

the challenge in an up and clean way.

- Breathing deeply un�l your body is calm.

- Problem solve out aloud ie: “Even though I want to scream like a baby – I’ve got to calm my farm”

-To stop thinking about my worries I’m going to focus my aFen�on on something interes�ng / difficult like

saying the alphabet backwards : “zyx, wvu, str, qpo, nm, lkj, ihg, fed, cba!”

- “Ok now that my thinking is calmer – think about breaking up the challenge up into parts X, Y, & Z”

- Work on solving a small part of the challenge - “What can I do to work on the X challenge?”

- “I’ll do that – then start on the Y challenge”

- Take some deep breaths and calm my body

- Distract myself with thinking about something posi�ve / complicated – and calm my worried thinking.

- When my mind and body are calm - I break the problem up into specific concerns

- Then I make a plan to deal with each specific concern.

- Then I start ac�ng on each specific concern.

- Take deep breaths

- Distract themselves from worried thoughts

- When calm – discuss the challenge and break it down into each specific parts

- Let them decide which part of the challenge they want to begin working on a solu�on for

- Begin ac�ng on the specific part of the challenge.

- Jo Jones Laifoo, Guidance Officer

When you have a challenge and your child is within ear shot or eye shot – model how you

handle challenges.

When your child is calm (ie; in the car) talk to them about the smart thinking and doing

things that you do that help you when you are worried about something. Ie;

When your child is worried – remind them to;

Thank you to Brumby’s Bakery, Howe Farming, Mulungu and

Muluridji Tribal Aboriginal Corporation for donating food for

emergency lunches. We appreciate your generosity.

SCHOOL DENTAL CLINIC

The Dental Clinic is open Monday - Thursday 8am to 4pm. (Closed

on Fridays) Call 4092 1575 or pop in-to the clinic to make

an appointment.

Spor.ng Schools Program This term, free Spor�ng Schools

Golf and Athle�cs sessions will be

offered on Wednesday and

Thursday aUernoons, commencing

in week 2 (for students in Years 3 to

6 only). Sessions will be run on the

oval from 3:15pm to 4:15pm. Golf

will run for 4 weeks and Athle�cs

will run for 8 weeks. Mr Samanes

will be taking athle�cs sessions

along with a registered athle�cs

coach, and Mr May will be doing the

same with the golf.

Permission forms are available at

the office.

PBL Update (Posi�ve Behaviour for Learning)

Welcome back to Term 2! We trust everyone had a great and safe holiday. We have so many exci�ng

ac�vi�es to look forward to this term, I believe it will go really fast. With that in mind, we are hiVng the

ground running this term and keeping up those high expecta�ons of our students.

Our rule focus for weeks 1 and 2 is: I am a Learner - “I am confident, organised and on .me.”

Congratula�ons to the ‘I am’ winners for week 1:

Prep – year 3: Prep R

Years 4-6: 5E

Focus expecta�on for weeks 3 and 4 is – I am Safe – “I stay in my ea.ng and play areas”

Have a great start to term 2! - PBL Team

We have started the term with mixed aFendance in classes so far. Not

all students are back from their holidays and with ANZAC Day and

Labour Day weekend coming up, the focus needs to be on being at

school every day, because EVERY DAY COUNTS! Last term finished

with 2 classes receiving the AFendance Awards at Parade. 3C won the

P-3 compe��on with 93.6% and 4T won the year 4-6 compe��on with

95.1%. Well done to the other classes who came very close to this.

On Wednesday 19th

April we celebrated 100% AFendance with a

morning tea for 246 students across the school. A huge thank you goes

to Lisa Has�e and her team of tuckshop volunteers for providing this

fabulous morning tea. Thank you also to Ronnie and Marcia for the hard work in tracking all the data. While

this is a great ini�a�ve, it takes many hours of work, so thank you to all the class teachers for your work in

promo�ng the aFendance in your classrooms.

Our school target is 95% and we had 497 students finish term 1 in the 95-100% category, which is really

fantas�c. Please con�nue to send your child to school, as it is so important for their learning, social and

educa�onal outcomes. If you need support geVng your child to school please speak to your classroom

teacher or make an appointment to see Miss Marcia. Our staff work very hard to contact home if your child is

not at school, so please make sure the office has your correct phone number on file.

- Nyree Burton, A*endance

A1endance Update