10 June 2015

Issue 8

DATE CLAIMERS

Bulloo

Billboard

12 June Reader’s Challenge—Augathella

15-18 June Parent/Teacher Interviews—Report Cards

26 June End of Term 2

STUDENT OF THE WEEK

FRI 29 MAY

3-6—Craig for showing

persistence in class

activities (not giving

up).

3-6—Libby has shown

great effort this week

in all that she has

done. Keep up the

great work!

3-6—Kyra has shown

great persistence this

week with her

newsletter article.

Awesome work!

P-2—Flynn for

working really hard

and staying on task.

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

End of semester Report Cards Semester One Report Cards will soon be provided for all students attending Thargomindah State School. These written reports are a culmination of how a child has achieved in their academic studies over a school semester. The report cards contain the following information:

An overall academic achievement for each subject

An effort achievement and

A comment Education Queensland implements a uniform reporting process in all schools using a consistent 5 – point scale as follows: Prep – Year 2: Applying, Making Connections, Working With, Exploring, Becoming Aware Years 3 to 6: A, B, C, D, E An important point that deserves clarification is that the 5 point scale has some subtle differences these days and that when we see a “Working With or C” on our child’s report card it means something a little different to what it used to on our own report cards, many years ago. The best description is that a “Working With or C” means a student’s academic

development is exactly where it needs to be – A “Working With or C” is ON TARGET or AT YEAR LEVEL STANDARD.

With this in mind, we must accept that it may be harder to get an “A” or a “B” than it used to be. These grades are no longer awarded simply to the top students in the class; they are only given to students who show that they are independently capable of working beyond the criteria for their year level. Some points to remember as you read your child’s report:

The “Effort” grades are a really important reflection of whether your child is achieving the best they can.

An “A” for effort and a “C” for achievement indicates that your child is “On Target” for their age and “applying their best effort”. This grade should be celebrated with students because they have worked hard to be where they need to be. As mentioned previously the end of semester report card is a culmination of your child’s results over the semester. With parent teacher interviews being offered to all parents at the end of each semester, parents will be well informed of their child’s academic progress. It is important to note that not every aspect of every subject (English, maths, science etc.) is assessed and reported on each semester or term. This means that the result students receive on their end of semester is indicative of the content that has been taught and assessed during that semester, and not necessarily indicative of the entire subject content. This means that a student’s results may vary from semester to semester, because they are being assessed and reported on different aspects of the subject/ curriculum. As always if you have any concerns about your child’s progress please ring the school on 4655 3132 to arrange a meeting with either the teacher or myself. Kind regards, Steve Bennett

HELLO FROM THE P – 2 CLASS!

In the past weeks the P – 2 class have been exploring different forms of art. Students have been using their creativity, imagination and senses to express their ideas, experiences and feelings through visual art.

Students have been looking at line, colour and pattern in oil pastel painting, collage, pointillism and most recently mosaic.

Along with visual arts students have been getting creative with the design and construction of their Science assessment.

Year two students have been creating a lunchbox that can withhold the weight of an orange and sandwich. Year one students have been having a ball making a boat that floats and carries marbles

and preps have been making a wind ornament.

I have been extremely pleased with all the effort the students have put in leading up to the end of the term. Well done everyone!

Simone Langley

P-2 Class

2

E-KINDY NEWS

KAY’S CLEANING AWARD

29 May 2015

The Yrs 3-6 were the recipients of Kay’s Cleaning Award. Keep up the good work!!!

This week the Ekindy students have been exploring things they like. With

many different interests that the students had, we decided to make paper

mache dinosaurs. We have also been learning about Family and what makes them special to us.

Who is older? Who is younger? Who is short? Who is tall? – Using these

questions to draw their family members. Online with Kathy Nan, the students used play dough to make beds and paddle

pop icons to sing ‘5 Little Monkeys’. They also used play dough to make a

tightrope and cut out elephants to sing ‘5 Elephants Balancing’. Makala Byrne

Ekindy Teacher Aide

5

4

ANZAC PROJECT 2015

Last Term we participated in the Premiers ANZAC Prize 2015 which saw high school students

selected to travel to Gallipoli. We decorated a small timber cross with our student’s names and our

school logo.

A young girl, Lala Grogan from a Queensland High School was selected to take our cross across to

Gallipoli and place it on the headstone of our adopted soldier Private George Henry Andrews. Before leaving Australia Lala was required to conduct extensive research of his story.

Mr. Andrews enlisted in Townsville at the age of 26 having previously worked as an agricultural

assistant. He departed Brisbane and headed to England where he did further Army training before

being sent to the Western Front as part of the 47th Battalion. George was killed in action at Messines,

Belgium on the 9th June 1918.

SERVICE PERSON’S STORY/EULOGY:

Prepared by Lala Grogan George Henry Andrews was born in 1888, to David and Fleurine Elsie Andrews, in a small town called Ma Ma Creek, near Grantham, in the Lockyer Valley Region, Queensland. His occupation was an agriculturalist and he had been working as a farm hand at the Gatton Agricultural College for three years. He had also been in Townsville for over a year helping establish an agricultural stock experiment farm. He enlisted at the age of 27 in Townsville on 27 March 1916, where he was assigned to the 11th District Base for a month before transferring to the 47th Battalion/4th Reinforcements ranked as a Private. On 16 August 1916, he boarded the ship called HMAT A42 Boorara at Brisbane and disembarked in Plymouth, England in October 1916. At Plymouth he was assigned to the 12th Training Battalion in Wiltshire and here he participated in further training and preparation for fighting and living on the Western Front.

In January 1917 he travelled overseas from the 12th Training Battalion to the 4th Australian Divisional Base Depot at Etaples, France and then in February 1917 he was taken on by the 47th Battalion Australian Imperial Force. He was listed as wounded and missing in action on 8 June 1917 and on the next day, 9 June 1917, at the age of 28 years, he was listed as killed in action at Messines, Belgium. George had two brothers, James Martin Andrews (4357) and Bertie Reginald Andrews (4358), who were both also killed in action.

Lala Grogan was selected to take our cross to Gallipoli

3

The count down to the end of term has started with only 14 days left of school. In saying this, the importance of attending everyday has not lessened as we are still strongly focusing on our next

units of work.

In English we are investigating Poetry and concentrating on responding to a range of poems from different authors and eras. We have been looking at different terminology such as ‘toff’ and ‘keen at repartee’, and using our I-pads to research the meanings of these words and terms (to

assist with making meaning).

In Maths we have continued to revise learnt concepts around fractions and multiplication. We have also been continuing to look at area and volume, investigating how we end up

with m2 and m3 (powers). Over the next couple of weeks we will be drawing focus to chance and data, and explore how to record chance as a fraction and percentage, along with recording and interpreting

data.

Students are continuing to focus on perspectives and drawing using vanishing points. Over the last few weeks of term, students will be putting their learned skills to practice, creating their very own art works of their choice. I for one cannot wait to see the end products and I am very proud of how supportive and positive students have been regarding theirs and

others art work.

In Technology students are continuing to learn about databases. We have been creating our very databases

that can use to record data from simple questions or questionnaires. Hopefully I can remember all the steps so to ensure students have all the best possible chance of

their databases working.

In Science we have been experimenting object properties and how they change under different circumstances, for example, we melted chocolate, cheese, ice and wax to record the changes after 5 minute, 10 minute and 15 minute intervals. During this experiment we encountered an unforeseeable variable; the crows thought they would prefer to eat our chocolate and finish it off with a nice bit

of ice.

Mel O’Neill 3-6 Class

P.O. Box 303

Thargomindah QLD 4492

Phone: (7) 4655 3132

Fax: (07) 4655 3102

E-mail:

the.principal@thargomindahss.eq.

edu.au

2015 Term Dates

Term 1 27 Jan—2 April

Term 2 20 April—26 June

Term 3 13 July—8 Sept

Term 4 6 Oct—4 Dec

NEWSLETTER DATES

The newsletter will be

compiled on the following

dates:

June 22

July 20

August 3

August 17

3-7 CLASS NEWS

Australia Post News

Revised Mail times—Cunnamulla & Local Routes

Customers are advised that the mail service schedule for Thargomindah and surrounding properties has changed The new timetable is shown below:

Day Inwards From Outgoing Mail To Closes at

Monday

Thargomindah Stn, Picarilli, Wathopa, Boodgheree, Kilcowera

10:45am

Cunnamulla 4:45pm

Wednesday Cunnamulla (sorted by 9:30am)

Bulloo Downs, Nooyeah, Nockatunga, Noccundra

Thargomindah Stn, Picarilli, Wathopa, Boodgheree, Kilcowera

10:45am

Thursday

Cunnamulla 4:45pm

Saturday Cunnamulla (sorted by 9:30am)

Bulloo Downs, Nooyeah, Nockatunga, Noccundra