HOMESTEAD HEADLINES HOMESTEAD HEADLINES HOMESTEAD · Library revamp During Term 3, the staff have...

HOMESTEAD HEADLINES HOMESTEAD HEADLINES HOMESTEAD

Issue May 2017 www.homesteadss.eq.edu.au

Included in this edition:

Principal’s report

Student Awards

Calendar of events

Birthday wishes

P&C Report

Around our school

School Watch



Principals Report Hi Everyone Looking Back on Term 3 It is hard to believe we have reached the end of Term 3 in the blink of an eye. The old adage ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ certainly rings true. Here are some of the highlights of an action-packed 10 weeks:

Athletics Carnival at Pentland – again another fantastic atmosphere for the communities of Ravens-wood, Pentland, Greenvale and Homestead to enjoy some wonderful athletic prowess and friendly rivalries.

School Camp in Charters Towers - A memorable few days to kick start the term, exploring numerous historical sights, adventures and plenty of fresh air. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the time away. If you are looking for a quick getaway then a few nights at Bivuoac Junction might be worth a thought.

Poetry Evening – Thanks for everyone who attended the night’s entertainment. I was impressed with the recitals of all the poems and the dances were a blast of fun. Some of the old favourite dances certainly got the heart racing and a few laughs for all.

Working Bee – Thanks to everyone for attending our working bee to beautify our grounds. There cer-tainly was a real sense of comradery. The gardens look terrific, the morning tea – outstanding and team work on display by our hard-working crew. What a terrific community event!

2017 Annual Improvement Plan (A.I.P.) Update Attendance – Our school target for student attendance in 2017 is 93%. This term, most of Queensland has struggled with severe illness outbreaks with gastro and influenza com-monly occurring. As a result, our attendance percentages have dropped from 94% to 92.11%. Thanks to everyone for keeping the school informed when your child has been unwell and for also making great ef-forts to send your children to school when they have been able to. Keeping your child at home when se-vere bouts of illness are rampant also assists the community in containing the nasties. We have been fo-cussing on personal hygiene with the students by supplying plenty of tissues, hand sanitiser and covering our mouth when coughing and sneezing. The graph below shows the main reasons for student absences this year. Hopefully Term 4 will be a much healthier one for our community.

80% of students will achieve a ‘C’ or better in English, Maths and Science The last few weeks has seen many assessment tasks completed in all subject areas. The use of ‘Learning Walls’ and explicit teaching by all our staff are key strategies we implement EVERY day at school to en-sure we are teaching with a literacy focus. As a result, students are able to identify what they are learning about and what is required to be successful. In the new term we will hold our oral reporting to update you on how your child is progress. It is one of the highlights of a busy last term. Thanks to all of our students and dedicated staff on your efforts throughout Term 3. Reading Progress All students have steadily improved during Term 3. Our staff meet regularly to review student data and plan for future learning and targeted teaching. A few standout performances in reading have been Caleb and Tyler improving their reading levels by almost 2 years since the end of 2016 – outstanding effort boys!! Mia has also achieved a level 1 reading level. This is the first indicator that a beginning reader is using a variety of reading skills. This milestone is as significant as a child becoming a school captain, making representative sporting teams or graduating from high school. Well done Mia!! There has also been a noticeable improvement and renewed efforts for home reading. In the last few weeks we have been awarding a reading prize at the end of the week. Well done kids and thanks to all parents for supporting this initiative.



Spelling Progress The end of term assessments for spelling has resulted in the majority of students improving by more than a term over the last 10 weeks. It is pleasing to see students being able to verbalise spelling rules, proof-reading their writing, using phonogram rules and sounds to decode words in texts. I encourage you to take the time to praise your child for their efforts in spelling this term and ask them some of the rules they have learnt. Kindy Works Over the holidays there will be building works being carried out as part of the Kindy Works program. These are being done to ensure the safety for our children and for improved learning outcomes. We have also created a designated ‘Early Years- Kindy’ space in the classroom and have been commended by the North Queensland Regional office staff for our reconfiguration of learning spaces and inclusion of kindy learning activities with our Prep-years 2 students. We are supported by a Kindy specialist teacher Emma Flanagan and regularly seek feedback and advice on best practices and legislation for our Re-mote Kindy Pilot Program. Library revamp During Term 3, the staff have engaged in a collaborative process to review our learning spaces. Stem-ming from this we have commenced a revamp of our library. During the holidays a permanent wall will be built for a new Principal’s office. This will future proof the school by enabling the office staff to work in purposeful and practical space at the front of the school without needing to share the room with the prin-cipal. We have received overwhelmingly positive feedback for this change. The layout of the library has also been modified to include a designated Teacher Reference Room, rea-lignment of the main bookshelves and Junior Fiction section. Once the office has been built we will be purchasing additional noticeboards and creating a ‘Media and Maths’ space. Staff Professional Development Fay and I recently visited Townsville South State School for their ‘Sharing Day’. It was a wonderful op-portunity to meet with other small school staff and engage in sessions which will benefit our whole school practices. Fay and I also used our Planning Days in week 7 to review the current units of work for Term 3 and also identified the focus for Term 4. In week 8, I attended a Cluster Planning Day with several other principals. We will be working closely together to collectively plan and monitor student learning. I also visited several schools in the Burdekin to take a closer look at some of the ‘Show Case Schools’ who presented outstanding teaching practices and student results. Their initiatives also align with our school focus in the 2017 A.I.P. This week, I will be attending the Australian Principal’s Association Conference in Brisbane and look for-ward to developing my practices further as a principal. Fay Staub will be teaching the class in my ab-sence. Library Borrowing We have changed our library borrowing sessions to Wednesday afternoons. Please remind your child to bring their book on this day. Students may also borrow at lunch times throughout the week. P&C and Tuckshop I would also like to take the opportunity to extend my appreciation to our fantastic P & C and volunteers for our Tuckshop. The children and staff all enjoy the delicious food on offer. Happy Holidays I wish everyone an enjoyable break before another exciting final term for 2017. Thank you to everyone for your support and I look forward to catching up after the holidays. Yours in Education Damien Pressley



Mia - Learning letter names & sounds, reaching Level 1 in reading

Tyler - Great spelling results, consistency in home reading

Caleb - Taking care of your own & others property

Jasper - Great spelling results

Megan - Great responsibility with her class job list

Dana - Great spelling results

Denzel - Great spelling results, excellent times tables knowledge

Darcy - Great spelling results

Makayla - Great spelling results, taking care of your own & others property

Mackaydee - Having a bright & positive

attitude every day at Kindy, reaching Gold!

Daniel - Reaching Gold for the first time!

Around Our School

School Support Staff Recognition Week 2017, July 31—August 4

Thank you to Sondra Epong, Jayde Pemble and Brodie McGill for all your hard work and dedication to education at our wonderful School!



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2 Peyton Polinelli

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4Luke Bredden

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12 Jodie Polinelli

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14 Darcy Hoch

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27 Tahnee Pemble

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Past prac teacher, Peter Edwards, called in to Homestead State School with fond memories of his under-graduate life here at the school. The staff and students were delighted to meet him.

Thank you to Mrs Curtis for being such a talented and encouraging teacher for our bush dance practices!

Thank you to Mr Perks, our hard-working Groundsman, for helping us with our activities which had to be completed before the working bee to beautify our wonderful school!



The students and staff at Homestead State School welcomed the Homestead community to a Poetry and Damper Night on Friday the 8th of September. Charters Towers poet, Mrs Wendy Emerson joined us for a poetry workshop earlier in the term and provided assistance to the students with the process of writing poetry. The students were incredible. The poetry was thoroughly entertaining and enjoyed by all. The bush dances were a bunch of fun and the campfire cooking was delicious! The students did a wonderful job preparing the damper, and thank you to Tracey Ford and her assistant chefs for the scrumptious campfire stews. Thank you Mrs Staub for organising and working hard towards this wonderful night.



Congratulations to Tyler Polinelli for achieving First in the Charters Towers Invitational Bow Shoot (Cub Division) last weekend.







Officer Christine Beattie from Pentland Police visited our school for Queensland Road Safety Week (21-25 August). Officer Christine brought with her some very important advice in regards to the “Fatal Five’ - Speeding, Drink and Drug Driving, Seatbelts, Fatigue and Distraction. Officer Christine emphasised that Road Safety Week is not just about enforcement, it is also about education. Thankyou Officer Christine for sharing your knowledge and information with us and endeavouring to help keep us all safe.



Well another footy season is done and dusted. The winners are: 1

st – Peter Griffiths – 352 2

nd – John & Tahnee – 343 3

rd – Maxine Leggett – 336 4

th – Jon Griffiths – 334 5

th – Peter Leggett – 331 Last – Kieron Jarvis – 240 Thanks to everyone who has supported the Homestead P&C this year by playing our footy tipping competition. Your support is greatly appreciated. All footy winnings will be handed out at the Footy Tipping BBQ which will be held in October. Details for this will be sent out closer to the date. For those playing the finals series I look forward to receiving your tips this week and for those that are not playing finals keep an eye out for the footy tipping BBQ flyer. It would be great to catch up with you there.

On Tuesday, 12th September, Homestead State School visited Pentland State School to experience the Musica Viva performance, ‘Party Music around the World by the Sousaphonics’. This was a lively performance which was very much enjoyed by all.



Calendar of Events

Newsletter Items:

An issue of the Homestead Headlines will be printed at the end of each month. Anyone wishing to place an article in the ‘Headlines’ must have their article in to the school by the Wednesday before printing.

Small articles can be emailed to [email protected]

Any additional flyers or inserts must be pre printed before submission.

The next issue will be printed on Thursday, October 2017.

I

Keep a watch on our school these holidays

With the holidays fast approaching, we need you to look out for after-hours crime in our school. If you see anything suspicious, please

call School Watch on 13 17 88.

The School Watch program is a partnership between the Department of Education, Training and Employment, the Queensland Police Service

and the State Government Protective Security Service. It aims to re-duce vandalism, theft and arson in Queensland schools.

If you do see something suspicious, please don’t attempt to intervene. Call the School Watch number and let the local police or State

Govern-ment Protective Security Service deal with the matter. Keep the number handy —

13 17 88 — and let’s work together to help create a safer school

community.

Monday, 2nd October—Public holiday

Tuesday, 3rd October—Start of Term 4

Wednesday 11th October— Prep Orientation Day (8:30-2:30)

Monday 16th October—Pupil Free Day

Thursday 19th October—Sleepover, Greenvale State School

Friday 20th October—Dalrymple Cluster Swimming Carnival

Wednesday 25th October—Prep Orientation Day (8:30-2:30)

Wednesday 8th November—Prep Orientation Day (8:30-2:30)

Wednesday 22nd November—Prep Orientation Day (8:30-2:30)

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