COMING UP…

Playgroup every Tuesday 9-11am

26 June: End of Term Celebration—Tennis/Dinner

27 June: Soccer/Netball Carnival Quinalow

28 June: Last day of Term Two

6 July: Bunnings BBQ Toowoomba North

15 July: Day One of Term Three

4/5/6 September: School Camp at the Beach

For advertising please

email your items to

the.principal@kulpss.eq.edu.

au

by the MONDAY before

publication.

Please note we are not able

to advertise events for

individual profit.

Newsletters are published

M/S 1945, Peranga Qld 4352

4692 8239

0477 337 503

the.principal@kulpss.eq.edu.au

www.kulpss.eq.edu.au

Issue 09– 11 June 2019

NEWSLETTER KULPI STATE SCHOOL

Playgroup

9am every

Tuesday during

school terms.

WEEK 6

TERM 2

Megan

From Mrs Lever’s Desk Recently Mr Leon Proud, Assistant Regional Director, came to visit Kulpi state School. I explained to the students that Mr Proud was one of the region’s leaders in charge of school improvement, and that he was my boss. This was fascinating to many of the students, who found the idea that their principal had a leader herself very interesting. We discussed the idea that Mr Proud was coming to help me improve our school, and that his job was also to tell me about things that he felt could be improved.

It was a great opportunity for the students to see that I am a learner too. There is never a point where I can say that everything is finished, and that our job is done. There are students who need specialised help, and it is a challenge to find out new ways (or old ways) of helping them learn to the best of their ability. Some students are gifted and need to be extended- they have a right to be learning at their level too.

Mr Proud gave me important feedback and ideas about the next stage in our improvement journey. Currently many schools- including ours- are concentrating on making the learning intent of lessons very clear to the students. The assessment tasks are discussed early in the unit and dissected so that everyone is clear as to what they have to learn and achieve to pass. In fact, the ‘goal posts’ should be clear and each lesson linked to success criteria. This is a long way from the practice of the past where students progressed throughout the term to find a test at the end- that sometimes did not relate to the class work at all.

I feel very confident that Kulpi students are receiving a quality education with every opportunity to achieve their best. This only encourages me to look forward and build on our students’ successes.

Until next time,

Rosita Lever.

Attendance: We’ve had some

children away ill—let’s get back on track for the last three weeks of this term. There are many

more learning opportunities planned.

WEEK 7

TERM 2

Reggie

Our Aim at Kulpi State School is to be:

Working together to ensure that every day, in every

Classroom, every student is learning and achieving.

Page 2 I s sue : 09 , 2019

SCHOOL NEWS ...

Each Newsletter we will share some of the vocabulary that students will be

learning over the course of the year.

Thank you to all of our

wonderful cooks who made

the delicious goodies for the

Bake Stall held on Election

Day. We also thank our

customers who helped raise

over $370 towards

supporting children get to

camp.

Blue Zone: Used to describe a low state of alertness. The Blue Zone is used to describe when one feels sad, tired, sick, or bored.

Green Zone: Used to describe the ideal state of alertness. A person may be described as calm, happy, focused, or content when he or she is in the Green Zone. The student feels a strong sense of internal control when in the Green Zone.

Yellow Zone: Used to describe a heightened state of alertness. A person may be experiencing stress, frustration, anxiety, excitement, silliness, or fear when in the Yellow Zone. The student’s energy is elevated yet he or she feels some sense of internal control in the Yellow Zone.

Red Zone: Used to describe an extremely heightened state of alertness. A person may be experiencing anger, rage, explosive behaviour, panic, extreme grief, terror, or elation when in the Red Zone and feels a loss of control.

This week:

Rock Brain thinking2:

A rigid thinking pattern in which a person gets stuck on an idea and

has difficulty considering other options or ways to do something.

We were invited recently to join in a series of

‘May your stories be told’ workshops for primary

school children; aiming at promoting the children’s

creativity, one ‘imagine it’ tool at a time.

The workshops ‘Imagine it…’ delved into an Ideas

Toolbox, showing children how to create original ideas

on demand using images, words, sounds, drawing and

brainstorming techniques.

Author Emma Mactaggart worked with all of the clas-

ses across the school building excitement and enthusi-

asm for writing. Emma kindly donated several books to

the school, and gave each P/1 child a book of their

own.

All of the children enjoyed working with Emma and

look forward to future opportunities.

Congratulations

Logan!

One of our Year Five

students. Logan Pearce,

has enjoyed success in

several gymkhana

events recently.

Pictured here is Logan

wearing just a few of his

prizewinning

Ribbons.

Well done Logan!

Page 3 I s sue : 09 , 2019

SCHOOL & COMMUNITY NEWS ...

Date Claimers- please note the following events that are planned for our

students as part of the Quinalow and District Sports Association

Soccer and Netball Carnival 27 June at Quinalow State School- Yrs 3-6

Under Eight’s Day 28 August at Kulpi State School- Kindy, playgroup,

students under eight years old.

Touch Football Carnival 13 September at Dalby Touch Fields- Yrs 3-6

Cricket Carnival 8 November at Jondaryan State School- Yrs 3-6

Please note there is the possibility that these dates may change due to circumstances beyond our

control.

Our school is participating in the Earn and Learn program through

Woolworths again this year. If you would like to support our school

with donations of your stickers, we would be most

appreciative. Just drop them into our letterbox!

Thank you!

THANKYOU

The Maclagan Windermere

Kindergarten would like to thank the

Community for their support of our

Trivia Night, if was a very successful event.

We hope you all had a good night.

Are we still collecting bread tags?

YES!!! Please keep sending in

your collections of brad tags for

the students to count.

Queensland Ready Reading

The Ready Reading program invites parents and community members to make a difference in their

local community by volunteering in schools to support children’s reading.

Reading is a powerful tool to help children grow their vocabulary, language skills and imagination.

It helps them to develop life-long skills that will support their future growth and learning.

The Department of Education’s Reading Centre and Volunteering Queensland are working together to help improve literacy for children in

Queensland by training up to 3000 volunteers to share their knowledge and time to foster a love of reading.

Register your interest to become a Ready Reading volunteer. Ring Kulpi School or more information, or clink on the link on ur website

edition.

Page 4 I s sue : 09 , 2019

PARENTING IDEAS ...

6 tips for parenting anxious kids by Dr Jodi Richardson

If you’re the parent of an anxious child you’re most certainly not alone. The number of children experiencing an

anxiety disorder is currently estimated at 117 million worldwide. Here in Australia, there’s an average of 2 anxious

kids in every classroom; and they’re the ones with a diagnosis. Many more anxious kids are yet to have their

anxiety identified and understood.

As much as we’d like to, we can’t rid our kids of their anxiety, but we can help them to manage it in ways that

enable them move it from centre stage and get on with living a vibrant, rich and meaningful life.

Here are 6 tips to support you to parent your anxious child:

1. Explain anxiety

Anxious kids can struggle to explain how they feel and can worry that no-one will understand what they’re going

through. That’s why explaining anxiety is an important step in supporting an anxious child. The knowledge that

anxiety is well understood, that other kids experience it and that it’s manageable brings them immediate relief.

Teach your anxious child that the part of their brain that protects them from danger is always on high alert. Called

the amygdala, it’s meant to protect them from genuine danger but for anxious kids, it can be almost constantly

activated.

Explain that when they feel anxious, their amygdala sends signals to their body to fight or flee from the threat,

whether it’s real or imagined.

Next, talk about the body changes such as increased heart rate, rapid breathing and an upset stomach that power

them up to fight or flee. They might even feel dizzy, hot, sweaty and panicked. Anxiety effects thinking and

behaviour too.

2. Respond with empathy

In the midst of an anxious moment it’s natural to want to reassure anxious kids they’ve got nothing to worry

about. Reassurance works in the short term but it soon wears off and they come back for more, which becomes an

unhelpful pattern.

Instead, respond with empathy and validation. Use ahhh statements such as:

“Ahhh, I see you’re feeling really anxious right now, I know how hard this is for you”

“Ahhh, I know you’re feeling really worried right now, it’s not much fun feeling like that is it?”

Anxious kids need to know you understand what they’re going through.

3. Show the amygdala they’re safe

Once the amygdala senses danger, the cascade of events that follow can’t be stopped. The body and brain will

respond as if the danger is immediate. The best way to help an anxious child calm their anxious brain is to teach

them to show their amygdala they’re safe. Deep and intentional breathing helps an anxious child to calm their

amygdala and will begin to reduce their anxious symptoms. Practise intentional breathing regularly between

anxious times before applying this technique in the midst of an anxious moment.

4. Practise mindfulness -the antidote to worrying

Anxiety is distress now about a possible future event, which is why worrying is common for anxious kids. When an

anxious child’s mind fast-forwards to an upcoming event or expectation, their amygdala can respond as if the

‘threat’ to their safety is immediate. The antidote to worrying is mindfulness. Put simply, mindfulness is paying

attention to what’s happening in the present moment. It may take time to learn, but is a powerful anxiety

management strategy once it’s mastered.

5. Practice defusing sticky thoughts

Anxious thoughts can get stuck, refusing to budge no matter how much attention is payed to them. Defusion is a

strategy that helps anxious kids look at their thoughts rather than from them.

Imagine your anxious child is worried about an upcoming test. They’re thinking “I’m going to fail the test”. The

thought makes them feel awful. Defusion helps kids (all of us) to look at their thoughts by reminding them that the

words in their heads are indeed just words, not reality.

Your anxious child can defuse his unhelpful thoughts by putting a statement in front of the thought such as: “I

notice I’m having the thought that I’m going to fail the test.” Alternatively, he can say the thought in a character

voice like Darth Vader or Peppa Pig, or sing it to the tune of happy birthday or a nursery rhyme. Defusion puts

distance between anxious kids and their thoughts and is a wonderful skill to learn.

6. Get the fundamentals right

Ample sleep, good nutrition and exercise are essential for anxious kids. Support your child to adhere to their

optimal bedtime so they wake naturally around the time of their alarm, reduce their sugar intake to support their

gut health and to exercise regularly for optimal mental health.

These are some of the many strategies that you can share with your child to support them to recognise and

manage their anxiety so they can live life in full colour.