Dear Parents/Carers,

PREP ENROLMENT
We are currently holding interviews for our Prep families who reside in-catchment after distributing flyers to our local early childhood centres, sharing some videos and PowerPoints about our school with families and hosting two very well attended Zoom information sessions. Our next Prep Zoom Information Session will occur at 9.30am on June 1.

HAPPY  P AND C DAY
We are frequently reminded of the contributions of the P and C when occasions such as the Mothers Day Stall and the closure of the Sensitivity Unit occur. The P and C organise these events many weeks and months in advance and rally volunteers to help out on the day or night of the occasion. These are just two of the events that have occurred with P and C involvement in the last fortnight, there have been a number since the start of this year and there will be many more by the end of 2021. On a daily basis the P and C Executive (who are volunteers) run OSHC, the Tuckshop and the Uniform Shop. To oversee and take responsibility for these important school operations is a massive undertaking especially as most of the Executive are in the workforce full-time or part-time.

On Friday, it is P and C Day and our P and C President Elizabeth Lynch, Vice-President Sarah Hands and P and C Operations Manager Carol Mokrzecki have been invited to a “Thankyou to Volunteers Event” hosted by Anika Wells. At this event, our President Elizabeth Lynch will receive an award for her significant service to our P and C over years at this school. We asked our students, staff and parents  to provide some words about the contribution of our P and C to mark this day. Out of these words, we have created the Wordle below. We are using this Wordle to create a presentation to our P and C Executive and key employees in the coming weeks. We look forward to sharing photos of this presentation when it occurs.

SEE YOU SOON 
As mentioned previously we had the opportunity to do some farewells for now. The closure of the Sensitivity Unit under the leadership of Sharlene Emmanuel sees her continue her great work in Regional Office, however, she will remain involved with the school through her lead role in the school’s anniversary celebrations which will be held next year.

Photos above: Former Principals Hugh Goodfellow and Pat Franks pictured with Sharlene Emanuel and Kathy Canavan.  Also pictured are the many volunteers who had volunteered at the Sensitivity Unit over the years.

This week we also said goodbye for now to our Business  Manager, Karen Rye who is on leave until at least November. We wish Karen all the best for her leave and welcome Gena Sheppard into the full-time Business Manager role. Gena’s place in the front reception for two days each week will be taken by Julie Hicks who has joined us from Hilda Rd and Debbie Otago who will do an additional day in the office. Courtney Neale will continue to work full-time in the front reception.

Top left: Courtney

READING CLUB
Reading Club is going gang-busters in the library from 8.30 each morning. I was in there reading with some students on Wednesday and giving Gotcha raffle tickets for those students participating in reading club and to the older students who were helping them read. It was an amazing sight with almost every spot in the library taken and the buzz of reading everywhere! Congratulations to Mrs Dang leading this great initiative with the support of Mrs Bryce!

PREP TO 3 ASSEMBLY
On Thursday May 27, we will hold our next Prep to 3 Assembly. Students will start moving to the hall at 1.45pm and we will start once the whole cohort is seated. We look forward to the parents/carers of Year Two students there to watch their child's assembly performance as well as the parents/carers of recent award winners joining us. Please note from this point on all our school assemblies (Prep to 3 and 4 to 6) will commence between 1.45 and 2.00pm once all students are seated in the hall. 

YEAR LEVEL FACEBOOK PAGES
I understand there are a number of year level FaceBook pages in existence across the school. These are private groups that aren’t monitored by the school or P and C. Most of the time these FaceBook pages are positive and productive spaces for parents/carers to share information and ask questions. However, it can be tricky for the administrators at times to manage when members choose to post items which are outside the spirit of the page. There are guidelines for administrators of Craigslea State School year level pages that they should share with their groups. Please email me on kcana2@eq.edu.au for a copy as soon as possible.

Have a good week,

Kathy

Do you know what your child’s reading goal is?  Ask them.  It’s important work that they are doing.

Social-Emotional Learning

Please note, you can listen to an audio of the parent information session we conducted recently via the link below.

International Competitions and Assessments (ICAS)

If you wish to have your child undertake any of the competitions this year, please take note of the information below and log on to the website to pay and enrol for this to happen.  Go to the link at https://shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps and enter the school code: YZV875

Year 3 - 4 Principal’s Mathematics awardees & Wavelength maths challenge participants 

NAPLAN

Last week, our Year 3 and Year 5 students participated in the NAPLAN tests.  All our students tried their best and were very positive about the overall experience.  Thank you to all teachers for doing such a great job in preparing our students for NAPLAN.  We look forward to receiving the results later this year. 

P-2 Parent/Caregivers

Reading Information Session

Via ZOOM  

Next Thursday, 27 May at 6pm there will be a P-2 Parent/Caregivers Reading Information Session via ZOOM.  This session will be presented by our Head of Curriculum, Sarah Abdy.  All P-2 parents/caregivers will recieve an email with the link to the ZOOM session and a copy of the reading powerpoint. 

The following topics will be discussed:

• Craigslea State School Literacy Framework;
• How reading is taught in P-2;
• Reading goals and feedback;
• Tips and strategies to support your child with their reading.

We look forward to seeing you online! 

GROWTH MINDSET 

Practice Makes Progress

Practice is a fundamental principle of growth mindset.  The more we practice something, the better we get at it.  Practice is what turns hard into easy and can be an exercise itself in persistence. When we practice we are helping our brain to permanently remember new information. We are also learning to do things automatically which helps us free up our brains to focus on learning things that are more complex.  It may not always feel enjoyable, but every time we practice something with focused effort, we are improving our performance. Every little bit of practice time adds up and can make a big difference. 

How do teachers give feedback to my child in their writing?

Prep - Year 2

Learning to write in the early years is a complex and multifaceted task. Students are learning how to plan, draft and publish texts while at the same time applying their developing knowledge and understanding of spelling, grammar and punctuation, and developing mastery of handwriting skills.

Teachers initially monitor and assess students' writing for ideas and print conventions,and based on what students can do then plan to support them in their responses.

Teachers provide regular feedback

Effective feedback focuses on:

• how well students understand and perform the literacy skill
• the process used to apply the student's understanding
• the student's self-monitoring skills
• the student's ability to personally evaluate their writing

Providing feedback about writing focuses on how students effectively and independently use their knowledge and skills during each stage of their writing tasks - planning, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading and publishing.

Below is a classroom writing example from a Year 1 student, including the teacher feedback. In this writing activity students are focusing on writing a retell from a familiar story. The begining of the story is given to students and then the student is asked to complete the story by recalling the sequences of events. Students focus on using full stops and capital letters, using spelling patterns to spell tricky words, using time connective words such as first, next, then and finally to write their retell.

On completion of their writing students are given the opportunity to personally evaluate their own writing and tick off the writing skills they have achieved on the feedback sheet. Students are then given individual verbal and written feedback by the teacher on how well they wrote the retell and then discuss their next steps on how to improve their writing. 

All students are working well to improve their writing.

Ask your child about their writing.

Can they tell you what their next steps are to improve in their writing?

If you would like more information about your child's writing or any aspect of their learning please contact your child's classroom  teacher. 

Next week I will share some more writing samples and feedback from years 3 - 4. 

Have a great week,

Dee Giudice 

Head of Inclusion

Sports Events

• Gala Day was washed out - back up Gala Day will take place 11 June
• Cross Country 15 June
• Junior Sports Carnival 17 June
• Senior Sports Carnivals 21 and 23 June

Seeds From Space Project
We are excited to have partnered with the 'Asian Herbs In Space' program that is allowing a group of year 5 students to access seeds that were harvested from plants on the International Space Station. The purpose of the project is for students to compare the growth of seeds grown in the micro-gravity environment of the International Space Station with seeds grown in our own gravity environment here on Earth. The seeds are set up in the Library so that all students can be part of this project, make their own observations and learn more about space biology. 

National Simultaneous Storytime

This week we participated in National Simultaneous Storytime, an event held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association to encourage kids across Australia to all read the same book at the same time. This year's book, 'Give Me Some Space' by Philip Bunting was read by astronaut Dr Shannon Walker from the International Space Station. A recording of this reading can be accessed here if you would like to share this story with your children.

STEAM Zone
We have recently opened the STEAM Zone in the Library. At 1st break each day, children can visit this maker space area to participate in activities, challenges or their own free choice projects that are linked to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. We have different themes throughout the term but would love to have some experts help us out to dive deeper in to STEAM experiences. If you have a special skill or interest in this area and would be willing to share it with us, please contact me: tknig93@eq.edu.au

Premier's Reading Challenge

See All Events On Our School Calendar: https://craigsleass.schoolzineplus.com/calendar/1