Newsletter No 51 03.08.2017

From the Principal - Mr David Hillhouse

Key to Success this fortnight: Getting Along

Farewell to Mrs Forbes

During our assembly last week, Mrs Forbes announced that she will

be retiring next Friday the 18th of August. We have been very

fortunate to have Mrs Forbes working at Sandy Strait in various

roles since 1997. During this time, she has been a classroom

teacher, regional advisory teacher and more recently Deputy

Principal. Mrs Forbes has taught and touched the lives of thousands

of primary school children over her 40 year career. For many years

Mrs Forbes has shared her passion for literacy with staff, students

and parents at Sandy Strait. We will be forever indebted for her

leadership in this area and her legacy will live on for many years to

come. Next Friday afternoon parents and community members are

invited to come along to our Junior Assembly to farewell Mrs Forbes.

At this stage, we are currently undergoing a recruitment/selection

process for Mrs Forbes’ replacement. We look forward to

announcing the successful applicant early next week.

School Review

Recently our school was involved in a comprehensive review that

saw three senior review officers spend 3 days at our school

scrutinising practices, processes and policies. Every staff member

was interviewed and parents and community groups were also

requested to give feedback. The purpose of the review was two fold:

1. To identify practices that were deemed to be going well.

2. To help set a focus for the next 4 years.

The school will receive a comprehensive report in the coming weeks

but before the review team left us they took the time to give us a

snapshot of their findings. The review team was very impressed with the quality of teaching our teachers performed, particularly in our

focus areas of Mathematics and English. They mentioned that the way

teachers used data (students work samples and results of

assessments) to help shape their planning and teaching was to be

congratulated. They concluded that our school was on a very good

journey and commended the whole school community for their

contribution.

News from the Principal — Mr David Hillhouse Continued…...

We are excited to be taking part in the 2017 Woolworths Earn &

Learn program being held between 26th July to 19th September

2017. During the previous campaign, we were able to purchase some

great resources with the points we earned. Thanks to the families

who contributed.

Collect your stickers at Woolworths and for every $10 you spend

(excluding the purchase of tobacco, liquor and gift cards), you will

receive a sticker. Your children can then place them on the special

sticker sheet. Once completed, bring it to the school or drop them

into your local Woolworths collection box.

A sticker sheet was sent home with students last week, and

additional sheets are available at the school office or local

Woolworths stores.

The more points we earn, the more we can redeem from a choice of

over 10,000 educational resources including mathematics and english

resources, art and crafts materials and much, much more!

We are grateful for your support and look forward to a successful

program.

Next P&C Meeting is being held on Wednesday,

3.00pm, 23rd August, 2017. Every one Welcome.

School Opinion Surveys

Today, the youngest sibling of all families will receive an invitation to

participate in this year’s School Opinion Survey. The survey will give

each of our families an opportunity to have their say about what

Sandy Strait does well, and how we can improve. Participation in

the survey is anonymous and all information that you provide will be

treated confidentially. The survey is online and closes Friday the

25th of August.

Every Day Counts

This year our attendance target at

Sandy Strait is 93.5%. I would like to

remind parents of the importance of

sending children to school on every

school day unless there is a reasonable

excuse for the student to be away, such

as illness. Research shows that students

who have a good attendance record

are more likely to achieve high results

and develop strong friendships with their peers. Going shopping,

visiting family, staying up late, being tired or extending school

holidays are not acceptable reasons to be away from school.

On the 1st of September, we will

be holding our annual Rug

Reading/Grandparents day to

coincide with Book Week. We

would like to invite all Grandparents

to share a wonderful morning of

reading with their grandchildren.

News from the P&C President—Mrs Kylie Dinte

News from the Chaplain—Chappy M

Two weeks ago we had a new student’s lunch. It was lovely to catch

up with those who’ve joined Sandy Straits. It was also a great

opportunity for our student leaders to welcome them and hand out

certificates. A job well done.

Operation Christmas Child

We are now encouraging students both individually and as classes to

get involved in packing boxes for Operation Christmas Child. This is

a great way for students to be

a part of having an impact on

the world. Letters will be

sent home this week. Should

you need boxes or more

information please contact me

at the school on a Thursday or

Friday.

Maryborough Madness

Maryborough Madness is now

open for bookings. This is a

great camp for year 5 & 6’s,

held each year at the scout

camping ground. It is held

during September holidays and

proves to be loads of fun. For

more info hop onto the

Scripture Union website or

google Maryborough Madness.

(Hope to see you there).

Have a great weekend.

This fortnight I’d like to share some of the great work our students

are producing across all learning areas in the Junior school.

PREP – Visual Arts

This term all of our students across the school are involved in a

whole school Visual Arts program that explores the key elements of

Line, Shape, Colour and Texture. The following samples of work

show the artistic talents of some of our Preps.

Year One – English

Our year one students are completing their character description for

their assessment. The following writing shows the learning our year

one students have made in writing in sentences, using descriptive

vocabulary and describing their character so we have a picture in our

minds of the character.

Buster Nose

Buster Nose is a big gorilla. He is rough and a bully. He has bulging

arm muscles. Buster Nose has a wicked smile. Buster Nose is

scared of gorilla’s bigger than him. His clothing is black and spikey.

He is cool and tough.

By Jacob

Buster Nose is a male gorilla and a big ‘bully’. He has big bulging arm

muscles. He is hairy and brown. Buster Nose has a spikey black

shirt and blue jeans. He is cool and strong.

By Josh

Buster Nose is a big gorilla. He is a buff gorilla. His is strong all

over. He is hairy, his clothing is black and spikey. He looks cool. He

is a bully and unkind. He is wicked and he is nasty.

By Randy

Buster Nose is a gorilla. He is hairy and big. He has a spikey jacket

and an angry face.

By Khai

Year Two – Science

Year Two have been learning about life cycles. They looked at themselves as part of a life cycle and an animal life cycle that showed

changes in form as the animal developed.

1. I have blonde hair. I can crawl. I am about 50cm tall. I need

my parents. 2. I have brown, long hair. I can walk, run, eat and play. I am

121cm tall. I need my parents to do some things for me. 3. I look like my dad. I can drive, do jobs, get married and buy a

house. I need nothing.

4. I look like my grandma with wrinkles.

By Isla

By Isla

1. Egg laying.

2. A baby turtle is a hatchling. No change. 3. Hatchling. Gets bigger and stronger. Looks for food. Turns to

walk. 4. Adult turtle. Gets bigger and very strong. Swims in the sea and

hunts for food.

By Charlotte

1. The female lays the egg on the leaf. The caterpillar is growing

inside the egg.

2. The caterpillar hatches and eats leaves. The skin splits and a case

called a chrysalis wriggles out.

3. Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar changes into a butterfly. The

caterpillar grips a stem with its tail hooks and spins a silk belt

around its waist.

4. The case splits and a butterfly crawls out. It sheds its skin three

times and changes colour.

By Paige

YearThree -HASS

Year three are learning about Indigenous drawings and symbols that

were used to map places and to describe places of importance.

By Sienna By Madison

By Kalai

Events in August

Year Two excursion – August 14th (Monday)

Pre-Prep session 1 Numeracy – August18th (Friday)

Prep Teddy Bear’s Hospital – August 25 (Friday) Whole School – Grandparents Day/Rug Reading and book week

dress up—September 1st (Friday)

News from the Junior School Deputy Principal— Mrs Helen Forbes

News from the Senior School Deputy Principal— Mr Bruce Jackson

Zone Athletics Summary

Congratulations to all our students who participated in the Zone

athletics carnival last Friday. Competitors where vying for positions

in the Hervey Bay Athletics team to compete in the regional trials to

be held later this month in Childers. We will know sometime this

week if any of students were successful in making the Hervey Bay

team.

Congratulations Allira

Congratulations to Year 4 student Allira

who recently competed in the state golf

championships held in Toowoomba.

Allira had to tackle two challenging golf

courses during the event. She performed

extremely well, and considering she was

one of the youngest competitors the

future looks bright for her.

Even More Mathematics Ideas from Michael Ymer

You would recall that last term we had Mathematic consultant

Michael Ymer visit us from Melbourne. He held a parent workshop

during his visit and it was very well received. Since his visit we have

been sharing some tips for parents to help children with

Mathematics.

Some General Principles

There are a number of general principles which you might keep in

mind when you are helping your children.

Encourage children to talk. Talking about mathematics is an

effective way of learning and the family is one of the best

places to talk, especially when a mathematical situation arises

naturally.

Some Suggested Activities

The following are some activities that you can do with your children.

Some are general and some relate to specific aspects of the

mathematics curriculum.

Length

We often compare objects and distances by length and height.

Children can first do this without using units, then using informal

units (like paces). Then they learn about metres, centimetres and

kilometres. Also:

When you are measuring materials, ask the children to

estimate where a particular mark would be.

Put up a height measurer for children marked in centimetres

on which the children can record their height at progressive

intervals, such as once every two months. The children take

an interest in the way that they grow, and it also provides

a language for describing how their height is changing.

News from the Tuckshop—Ms H Sulzenbacher

Tuckshop Open

MONDAY, WEDNESDAY,

THURSDAY, FRIDAY

Eftpos Available

Hot Chocolate—$1.00

Hash Browns—$1.00

available from 8.00am to 8.30am

Please contact the office or go to the Tuckshop

and see Heidi.

Book Week News—Ms M Mills

Officially around Australia, Book Week celebrations will be

occurring in week 7. Due to various school demands, it has been

decided that we will schedule our school events in week 8

(28th August-1st September).

We will be operating a Book Fair (like a

pop-up book shop) during the week, and will

have our dress-as-your-favourite-book-

character day, Rug Reading, and Grandparents

Day combined on the Friday, 1st September.

Specifics will follow via the newsletter and Facebook.

Date 26/07-19/09 Woolworths Earn & Learn Stickers

10/08 Senior Assembly—2.15pm—Hall 11/08 Junior Assembly– Farewell Mrs Forbes -

2.15pm-Hall

14/08 Yr 2 Historical Museum Excursion

18/08 Pre Prep Session 1—Numeracy—9.30am

22&23/08 School Photos

23/08 P&C Meeting—3.00pm

24/08 Senior Assembly—2.15pm-Hall

25/08 Junior Assembly-2.15pm-Hall

25/08 Yr 3/4 Gala Day

25/08 Prep Teddy Bear’s Hospital

28/08-01/09 Bookweek/Bookfair 1/09 Grandparents Day/Rug Reading/Dress-up-

as-your-favourite-character

“A Reminder” - Payments of School Resource

Scheme

Centrepay available—Please contact the Business Manager, Mrs Brady on: 41970333

TUCKSHOP OPEN - MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

Methods of Payment

Eftpos available at office. Minimum $10.00

Correct Cash payments taken—No Change available.

Centrepay available—please contact the Business Manager,

Mrs Brady on: 41970333

Bank Account details for direct payment:

BSB: 064-426

ACC: 10065993

Reference: Quote Invoice Number or Student Name/Payment for Note: Please ensure BPoint & EFT are submitted at least 2 days prior to due

Change of Details: Please let the office know if your contact or emergency details change.

Student Absences: Please call the absence line on: 41970360.

Sandy Strait State School Office Hours: 8am to 4pm Mon-Thurs, 8am to 3.30pm Friday

SCHOOL BANKING TUESDAY

Date Claimers 2017 Payments Due

News from Helping Hands OSHC

QParents

Please complete and return the

‘Preparing for QParents’ document to the school office

as soon as possible.

This will provide details to send the

invitation letter to the correct email

address.

Position Vacant—Yarrilee State School

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