Montville News Week 4 Term 1 2024 Issue 18
From The Desk of the Principal
This is our first newsletter for 2024 and I would like to welcome back all of our families and extend a special welcome to the 18 new students and their families who are attending Montville State School for the first time. It has been very pleasing to see all of the students coming to school and following our 3 school rules – Care For Yourself, Care For Others and Care For The Environment. Also following our latest expectation “Be on TRACK” where TRACK stands for Thoughtful, Respectful, Accountable, Co-operative, Kind.
I particularly would like to acknowledge our Year 6 students for the outstanding way they have accepted their leadership responsibilities.
Starting a new school year takes a lot of time and effort and I would like to acknowledge the Montville State School staff for their dedication in ensuring the year started smoothly and positively.
I also would like to recognise the many volunteers that have assisted over the holidays and in the first 2 weeks. Thank you to all our brilliant volunteers, running tuckshop, staffing the uniform shop, organising events and assisting in the classrooms. It is well and truly appreciated.
I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of our new online ordering system FLEXISCHOOLS which is the ordering platform for all P&C activities and communication. If you haven’t signed up yet here is the link.
This year we have 93 students enrolled across 4 classes and our major infrastructure project for the year, our outdoor play and learning area is scheduled to start in 4 weeks’ time. My fingers are firmly crossed that we get fine weather, and this exciting project can get underway.
We will be holding our second assembly in the hall this Friday. I would like to encourage all parents and community members to come along each Friday from 2:15pm to see awards being handed out, hear information about the school and listen to student performances. We will be holding assembly every second Friday afternoon from 2:15pm and then this will be followed by opening up the playground for the children to play and parents to catch up until 3:10pm.
Last week we commenced the Daily Rapid Reading Program 30 students (In Years 3 & 5) who will be reading to a volunteer 2 days a week (Tues & Thurs) for the next 10 weeks. During this time, they will either be supported or extended depending on their needs. Each term we will choose a different year level to participate so that by the end of the year, all students would have had a turn. Mrs Kelly has done a fabulous job organising this and currently we have 12 volunteers helping out. We always could do with more help. If you or someone you know can assist helping us support and extend our students, we would love to hear from you.
I would like to strongly encourage our parents to be as involved with the school as much as possible. On Wednesday 13 March at 3pm I will hold the P&C ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING in the computer Lab. The purpose of this meeting is to establish a committee containing a President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer as well as sub committee members (Uniform Shop, Tuckshop, Grants etc). I really want to stress that our school is only as dynamic as our P&C and I would like everyone to please consider coming along. The meeting will conclude at 4pm and we will provide afternoon tea for the students and have staff supervising the playground so they can play whilst the meeting is on.
I would like to remind everyone about our Instrumental Music Program. We currently have 21 students in our program with room for 6 more. If your child is in Year 4-6 and is interested in learning to play an instrument, please contact the office. I must stress that it doesn’t matter if they have never played an instrument before, all are welcome. The tuition is free and instruments are provided for a small fee.
Fair Play Vouchers
Please be aware that Carly our Student Welfare Worker is a referral agent on behalf of the school for the Fair Play voucher program where children can receive a $150 voucher each calendar year to put towards the cost of registering for organised sport. There are many organisations on the Sunshine Coast that accept these. Click on the link to search for your local sporting clubs.
We understand that this cost can be prohibitive for many families so please contact myself or Carly celli355@eq.edu.au if you require some for your child/children.
Years 3-6 Cultural Camp to Brisbane
Please see attached Activity Consent form for the upcoming camp, this has been handed out to students in class last Friday. Please complete last page and return to office.
Otherwise if you have signed up to QParents you can accept permission note here. No need to send form back!
If you have any queries or if you would like to set up a payment plan. Please either email Alice in the office at adyke7@eq.edu.au or come into the office. See below for link.
Finally, I would like to encourage everyone to speak to their child’s teacher to find out how they can support their learning and thank you all very much for the enjoyable start to 2024. I look forward to a positive and productive school year.
Thanks
Adam
QParents
Late arrivals /Early Departures
Late arrivals /Early Departures
It is a Education Queensland requirement that any student arriving late to school or leaving early is signed in or out through the office. If your child is getting to class after 9am they must sign in through the office. If they are leaving before the bell at 2.45pm they must be signed out through the office. Teachers cannot sign students in or out.
If students are being collected early they must be signed out by a person listed as an emergency contact on their school profile unless the school has been notified in writing of a casual person who may be picking them up. This can be by email or text.
By prior arrangement students can be waiting in the office to be collected. Students are not permitted to wait at the butterfly to be collected early, we have a duty of care to primary school students to make sure they are collected by an authorised person.
If you have an appointment to get to please allow enough time to attend the office and sign students out.
We will do our best to make the process as quick as possible.
Thank you for your support with this very important safety policy.
Prep/1
Welcome to the Prep/Yr1 classroom.
We welcome our new 2024 students in Prep and Yr1, everyone has had a great start to the year and we are now in full swing.
Everyone has managed to navigate their way around the classroom and our routines. Keep up the good work.
It is lovely to see so many parents come into the room in the morning, this is a positive way for the kids to begin and settle into their day.
The kids have been busy working with numbers, counting forwards and backwards, 10 less/more, missing numbers, skip counting and much more. During English we have been engaging in stories, retell events and make personal connections to the story or characters. Ask your child to share their thoughts about some of the stories we have been studying.
The P/1 have been meeting up with their Buddies every Wednesday afternoon, some great friendships are being made. The yr5/6 class has been doing an amazing job looking after the younger kids.
Negotiated Play on Fridays has been a highlight at the end of the week. All students have been enjoying engaging with their friends and getting to know each other.
This week we were lucky to have some parents come into the classroom and help us with reading groups, thank you. If you would like to join us during reading groups please let us know.
We would like to thank all our families for a smooth transition into the 2024 year and we look forward to an exciting rest of the year.
Miss Sheree and Mr Jake
Year 2/3
As we enter week 4, we are doing so building our class team successfully. Our morning roll call has been a lot of fun, as we answer the roll with a response to a ‘get to know you’ question. Team building has been evident also during our fun ‘FriYay’ STEM challenges. Combining mathematical problem solving, critical thinking and collaborative learning, it has been great to see all students engage with each challenge.
We have been enjoying reading many imaginative texts, completing story maps, character analysis’ and examining language features to build our understanding of narrative text structure. Drawing the main character from our weekly focus text is included in our weekly art activities.
Last week, we all participated in a Maths challenge as part of our number warm ups. We broke off into groups and used some concrete resources to support us solving an open-ended question. Strategies were then compared and discussed and I was so proud of how well everyone worked together.
Well done on a great start to Term 1 team!
Many Thanks, Mrs McKinnon
Year 3/4
We have been working hard on getting to know our new "are you on TRACK" behaviour overview. The 3/ 4 class have been focusing on different sections and working through their meanings. We are using the language are we on TRACK? Thoughtful, Respectful, Accountable, Cooperative and Kind.
We are off to a lovely start this year and I wanted to thank the family members who have come in to help on our Friday morning Reading Groups time.
Year 5/6 Update
The 5/6 class has hit the ground running! We have been busy learning all about our history in both English and HASS and have been reading some amazing novels.
We have been focused on fractions, decimals and percentages in maths and have been enjoying rounds of fast maths during the week.
We are all very excited about our new student council and all the great ideas and plans we have discussed.
We have also been enjoying spending time with our buddies on a Wednesday afternoon.
A great start to 2024.
Health and PE
Date Claimer: Montville School Cross Country will be held in Week 9 on Monday 18th March.
As a lead up we will be starting running club which will be held on the school oval every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 8.15am to 8.35am. Students will have their laps counted to go towards their sporting house. This will be supervised by a staff member so please wait under A block and a staff member will take you down to the oval. You can walk/run/skip - come down and enjoy with your friends. Parents welcome.
Library
Let Book Club help you kick-start your child's reading for 2024!
There’s so much more to Book Club than just buying books. You are making a huge difference to your child’s life through books and reading, and your purchase gives Scholastic Rewards back to your school for additional learning and literacy resources. Your child will love receiving their new books at school – books they’ve chosen, sparking a wonderful reading journey.
Book Club helps Australian families grow into reading and grow through reading and has raised generations of lifelong readers for over 50 years!
Read on to learn more about Book Club...
What is Book Club?
Book Club provides families with an affordable and convenient way to access the best in children's literature to encourage leisure reading. Book Club brings the magic of reading to families by
- curating the catalogue in age-appropriate sections with a huge variety of excellent quality, affordable books.
- providing regular access to books for the home via your school to build good reading habits.
- contributing learning and literacy resources back to schools.
15% of every purchase on Book Club goes back to your school in Scholastic Rewards to buy valuable educational resources that benefit your child.
- Place your Book Club order
- Your school earns Scholastic Rewards
- Your school redeems Scholastic Rewards for additional school or classroom resources!
- Your child will bring home their Book Club catalogue from school.
- Browse the pages with your child and help them choose books that suit their age and interests.
- Order online via Book Club LOOP.
- The books are delivered back to your child's classroom where the teacher will hand them out to very excited students!
- Carefully curated with age-appropriate titles.
- Great value books from as low as $3!
- Quality publishing with the best children’s books from Australia and around the world.
- Books for everyone covering all interests and abilities to ignite a passion for reading!
Story Dogs
Story Dogs is a fun and unique reading support program that improves children's reading and commication skills by children reading to an accredited companion dog and it's handler. Fortuantely we have "Nellie" and Rosemary who come to visit us at Montville State School every Monday during the school term and read with chosen students by the classroom teacher.
Back to School - Road Safety
With school back for 2024, we need to keep safety top-of-mind when travelling through active school zones and around our school community.
School zone times have been standardised in Queensland to help motorists remember when to slow down. The standard operating times for most school zones in Queensland are 7–9am and 2–4pm, with some operating all day between 7am–4pm.
Speeding remains a significant concern, contributing to fatalities and injuries, and police will be on the lookout for speeding motorists. Keeping below the signed speed limit in school zones helps keep everyone safe. This simple adjustment may have minimal impact on travel time but has the potential to significantly contribute to saving lives.
Children's crossings are identified by children's crossing flags, displayed near crossings before and after school hours.
When the crossing is supervised, you, as a motorist, must:
- Wait until all pedestrians, bicycle riders, or personal mobility device riders have crossed the road and the crossing supervisor has returned to the footpath.
- Abide by the direction given by the School Crossing Supervisor.
Please keep our children safe by staying alert, slowing down and obeying our school crossing supervisors who are there to help kids cross the road safely.
You can also help children become more road safety aware by:
- Showing them how to look for vehicles coming in and out of driveways and discourage them from playing behind parked cars, or with toys or balls when walking to school.
- Ensuring your child knows the safest route to and from school. This is usually the way with the least traffic and the fewest roads to cross and teach your child to always walk on footpaths.
- Showing your child how to cross at traffic lights when the green 'walk' sign is showing at pedestrian crossings when vehicles have stopped and at supervised school crossings when the supervisor has signalled it is safe to do so.
- Accompanying children when walking or riding to school until they are old enough to understand road safety (usually around 10 years or older).
- Teaching your child if they catch the bus to never cross in front of or behind a bus; wait until the bus goes before crossing the road.
- Making sure wheeled devices (bicycle, scooter, skateboard, or rollerblades) used to travel to school are well maintained and that the appropriate protective and safety gear (for example, helmet, visible clothing, knee and elbow pads) are used.
Visit the Street Smarts website for more information about what to do at pedestrian and children crossings.
2024 School Calendar
P&C News
Community Announcements
Sunshine Coast Public Health Unit Update
Pertussis (Whooping Cough) increase in the Sunshine Coast Region. Please read the attached letter and Fact sheet.