It has been the very strangest of terms that has brought all manner of challenges. I remain absolutely impressed by the way the whole community, staff, students and parents have met those challenges and not just survived but in many ways thrived. The school has settled into its new normality. We have returned to 96% attendance of students which is what our attendance rate was pre-Covid. Teachers have been busy finalising assessments and have begun working on academic reports. Given the semester that it was, these reports will be modified substantially and will not be available until Week 4 of the new term. They will cover only English, mathematics, science and physical education. The contents of the reports in these areas will reflect what was taught and able to be assessed during the semester. In term one, not all the assessment program could be completed for all students because as you know, the second last week was marked by growing absenteeism as parents became more concerned with the threat posed by the health crisis and of course the last week of school was cancelled. The last five weeks of this term have been spent reviewing, reteaching and

consolidating the work covered by students at home during the first five weeks. Any assessments that students missed during the semester will be noted in the reports. Next term, we will maintain the social distancing protocols presently in place for staff and parents. I really appreciate your cooperation with these. Hygiene protocols will also be maintained. We will however recommence student assemblies, bands, ensembles and choirs. We will also be able to give consideration to excursions. The Year 6 camp remains booked pending a review in early third term. I would like to acknowledge and thank Andrew Newbold who stood down as President of our P&C Association this week. The P&C, like the rest of the school, has had a semester like no other with their operations all impacted by Covid. The volume of work imposed on the executive, while perhaps not widely known by the community, has been onerous indeed. During all this, Andrew and the rest of the executive, have been amazing in their steadfast support of the school and its operations. I hope you all have a great holiday Anthony Gribbin Principal

NEWSFLASH!!! Next term, we will be resuming some activities and this includes Dance.

Creative Dance Industries have confirmed that they will be presenting the term 3 dance program.

There is no plan around a disco at this point. Lessons will - Be held Mondays,

Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Begin in term 3, week 3

The year 2, 3 and 5 program will run weeks 3-6.

The year P, 1, 4 and 6 program will run weeks 3-10. (These groups will be assessed.)

More information around costs etc. will be forwarded in term 3, week 1.

Leigh Harrod Deputy Principal

Term 3 starts 13 Jul

Creative Dance Wk 3

SCHOOL WATCH

School Calendar

Office Hours 8:00am - 4:00pm

Message from our Principal

Ph: (07) 3421 6222 Student Absences: (07) 3421 6260

Email: admin@hollandparkss.eq.edu.au 26 June 2020

Active School Travel will not recommence this term.

We will have more information on this in the near future.

Be safe Be responsible Be respectful

Message from our HOC

Page 2 Holland Park State `School Newsletter

The Effective Teaching of Reading Foundation Skills

This term, the Prep Synthetic Phonics Literacy Program commenced. Synthetic phonics starts with phonemic awareness and the matching of phonemes to single letters. At the same time students are taught how these phonemes (sounds) can be 'blended' (“What word do these sounds make when we put them together sss-uuu-nnn?”) to produce words and how the words can be ‘segmented’ (“Sound out this word for me”) to write. Teaching phonics is part of the Prep – Year 2 Literacy Program at Holland Park State School and is helping to get our students off to a flying start in literacy.

Research indicates that students have better future prospects as readers if they develop understanding of the alphabetic code by the end of second grade. For this reason, we have invested considerable resources into teaching and remediating disabilities by the end of the second grade with explicit phonics emphasis during reading and writing instruction (Moats, 2012).

Explicitly teaching critical content, which is broken down into smaller instructional units, is crucial. At Holland Park, we use the Gradual Release of Responsibility pedagogical framework. This model of instruction gradually releases the responsibility of learning throughout four phases from teacher to students. The four phases of the GRR, I do it; We do it; You do it together, You do it alone are used to scaffold students’ learning.

Research by Brady (2012) has shown that students who learn the alphabet sys-tem and can decode effortlessly reap many benefits including:

focus mental energy on comprehension,

experience joy of engagement with text,

access a wide range of texts,

increase vocabulary and knowledge.

Julia Whittaker

Head of Curriculum

Student absences; please advise with reason via QParents or Absentee Line 3421 6260

Maths Teasers 1. Fran and Tom are twins. Fran saves

and Tom spends. Tom finds a $20 note on Sunday evening and spends $2 a day starting on Monday. Coincidentally, Fran starts work on Monday and gets $2.50 a day.How long will it be before Fran has more money than Tom?

2. Paul keeps a piece of string from a parcel that came for his birthday. It is 30 cm long. He plays with it and makes different shapes. He thinks that all the rectangles he makes have the same area. His sister Maggie disagrees.

Be safe Be responsible Be respectful Page 3 Holland Park State `School Newsletter

Message from our Community Liaison

2021 Prep Catchment and

Sibling Enrolments

We are accepting catchment and sibling enrolments for prep 2021. If you have younger children commencing prep next year, please complete and return the enrolment application forms as soon as possible. These are available on our school website. If this is your first child commencing prep, please make sure you include two documents for proof of residency, along with the original birth certificate. For sibling enrolments you just need to bring the original birth certificate. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Class Parent Representatives The Class Parent Representatives program will commence in 3rd Term. I have organised the relevant documents and they will be coming home via the classrooms (who do have a Rep) in the next day or so. If you would like to volunteer for this role for your class, please do not hesitate to email me. Karen Oliver Email: koliv33@eq.edu.au

3. Who is right and why? We think that you’ll find a pattern in the numbers below.

4. 8 x 8 + 13 = 88 x 8 + 13 = 888 x 8 + 13 = 8888 x 8 + 13 = 88888 x 8 + 13 =

Does the pattern extend indefinitely?

Healthy Habitats This semester year one students have been learning about how to meet the needs of living things in different habitats. Students planted seeds in newspaper pots with the goal of establishing a community vegetable garden to provide some healthy foods for the tuckshop menu. Throughout the term students nurtured their plants as they grew from tiny seeds into healthy seedlings. With the help of year 6 buddies in 6GW and the Eco Warriors, this week all the year one students planted their vegetable seedlings which included carrots, lettuce, rosemary, snow peas, raddish and marigolds to help keep pests away. The curriculum focus on

designing and growing a community vegetable garden to provide some healthy foods for the school tuckshop has provided a great chance to not only teach students about growing and caring for plants but also the importance of composting and sustainable practices. The students and teachers are appreciative for the ongoing support they have had from the Eco Warriors in years 5 and 6 who will continue to help care for the garden and promote more sustainable practices across the school.

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Be safe Be responsible Be respectful Page 4