Dear Craigslea Community,

Can you believe we are already at the end of Week 3?  We are very much into the swing of the school year.  All our classrooms are now commencing the co-construction of our Term1 Learning Walls.  I am looking forward to working with our teachers and students as this work evolves across the term.

This Week in our School

Parent Information sessions: It was great to see so many parents and carers join us for these evenings.  Our teaching teams highly valued the opportunity to meet and talk with their families.  Thank you to the families who were able to make it.  The partnership between home and school is critically important to a student’s successful engagement in school.

Student Leadership Assembly:  I would like to extend congratulations to our 2024 Student Leadership team who were presented their badges at our whole school assembly today.  Being a student leader is a great honour that also comes with great responsibilities.  Today I spoke at the assembly to our leaders and the entire year 6 cohort about their responsibilities as leaders of our school this year.

Our 2024 Priorities

• Quality Teaching
• Student Wellbeing
• High expectations and learning success for all

Coffee & Connect

Thank you to the group of parents who joined myself and the leadership team at our first Coffee & Connect session for 2024.  It was a great opportunity for us to hear what is loved about Craigslea, what has been challenging and our opportunities to enhance the great work of the Craigslea team.  At the session we also commenced discussion of what we would like to achieve over the next 4 years feeding into our strategic planning.

Key Messages from the session

Strategic Planning – Community Consultation

This year we have the exciting opportunity to create the vision and plan for the next four years at Craigslea.  Staff, student and community voice is an important part of this planning process.  Throughout this term I will use a variety of platforms to engage our community and capture their voice in the plan.  Next week all our families will receive an online survey to provide them an opportunity to share ideas and feedback into our strategic planning.  Please keep an eye out for this in your inbox.  I am also calling for interested parents to join working party representing community voice as we create our vision and plan.  If you are interested in being a part of this working party, please email Principal@craigsleass.eq.edu.au to express your interest.  I am aiming to host 3 working party meetings between now and week 9.  Days and times will be dependent on participant availability.

Communication Strategy

Communication between home and school is a critical component in our partnership with our families. We communicate with our families in multiple ways to help keep them informed of what is happening in our school.  Our fortnightly newsletters are the most important source of information sharing for our school.  I appreciate the feedback that they can be long and we are looking for ways to share information in a more succinct way.  Ways we communicate are:

Carpark Etiquette

We have been made aware of some unsafe parking in the carpark near the swimming pool during afternoon pick up.  It is a busy time of day and I ask that families be aware of the safety of our students and the other uses of the car park at all times.

Inspired by the amazing leadership displayed by students I leave you with:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams

Yours in Learning,

Melanie Rehm

Principal

Thank you for your attendance at the parent information evening. It was fabulous to see so many families in attendance. Connection between school and home are vital. Please keep in contact with your child’s class teacher if you have any questions. Just a reminder that the before school waiting area for year 1 is located in the year 1 eating area. At 8.50am the students will make their way to their classroom and get ready to learn.

Spotlight on Year 6 Learning

Student Leaders

Congratulations to our year 6 students who have been elected to leadership roles for 2024. Our school leaders play an important role representing the student body throughout the school year. Yesterday at the Student Leader Assembly our leaders received their badges. A big thank you to all who made it to the assembly and shared with us this opportunity to recognise these astounding young people. We look forward to working with them across the year on many projects to help keep our school an amazing place to play, wonder and learn.

NAPLAN

From Wednesday, the 13^th March, NAPLAN 2024 will commence.  The NAPLAN assessments will be nothing new for many parents, or for our Y5 students, who had a NAPLAN experience when they were in Y3.

Students in these year levels sit four assessments:

• Writing
• Reading
• Conventions of Language (Spelling and Grammar)
• Numeracy

These assessments are completed interactively, online, and have been presented in this format previously at Craigslea, as students have found the interaction and engagement on a computer less stressful than facing a traditional pencil and paper test.  The only exception is the Y3 Writing Assessment, which is still in paper format.  Each of the assessments takes between 40 to 50 minutes, depending on the year level.

Year 3 and 5 teachers will email out some information for parents about NAPLAN in general, including information on how to look at the Public Access site, with test samples, so parents can experience the type of environment the students will be accessing.

Students absent for one or more of the assessments may be able to sit a ‘catch-up’ assessment during the NAPLAN schedule window, however, if students are away for a number of days during this period, it will not be possible to make up all of the assessments.

Special consideration can be made in limited circumstances, to assist students who may be challenged in accessing the assessments.  In general, parents will be contacted by school staff to discuss the implementation of these changes, if it is understood that a student will require these adjustments.  Students may also be withdrawn from assessments under specific circumstances, such as inadequate language proficiency in English to meaningfully engage with the assessments, or students may find the assessments too stressful.

Our students are always well prepared for our NAPLAN experience, and the switch to the online format has considerably reduced anxiety.  Further information will be circulated closer to the assessment dates.

Active School Travel

 Walking Wheeling Wednesday’s

Wednesdays at Craigslea, are Walking Wheeling Wednesdays! Our school is a part of the Brisbane City Council initiative – Active School Travel.

Next Wednesday, 14^th February, join us for our Healthy Hearts, Happy Hearts Walk. Children will embark on a journey from the local park to school, promoting physical activity, active school travel and heart health. It's a fun-filled event for the whole family to enjoy together. Upon arrival at school, treat yourself to some delicious fresh fruit, fueling both body and mind for a productive day ahead. Let's take steps towards a healthier active future, one stride at a time! 

Where: Meet at either Huxtable Park or Frederick Annand Park.

When: 8:30am meet up, 8:40am leave, 8:50am arrive at school

How will you actively travel on Wednesdays? #activeschooltravel

Don’t forget, The Golden Boot award for February will be awarded to the class with the highest percentage of active travellers who walk to school.

Have an amazing fortnight of fun and learning,

Natalie

The PBL focus for the fortnight is:

Be Independent - I know my job, your job, our job.

Classrooms are a team of people, children and adults, who work together to progress the learning of each and every student. Knowing our jobs and how these fit together helps to build an effective classroom community. Children who know, understand and demonstrate their job build their independence, feel success and are ready to learn.

Some student jobs are:

• coming to school prepared,
• paying attention,
• actively participating,
• staying on task and
• completing work.

Our teachers do an amazing job at building our students independence by:

• differentiating their teaching,
• guiding students when they need help,
• giving feedback and
• showing students what they need to do to improve.

Together, children and teachers have common jobs. These jobs are like common goals that foster the class community, as everyone is working together for the success of the students.

Our jobs together are:

• do our personal best,
• listen to each other,
• respect and help each other,
• know our jobs and
• be responsible for them.

Introducing Our New Play Space

This year we have opened the Sensitivity Unit as an alternate play space during lunch breaks. The Sensitivity Unit is our new space for students who may find the noise and busyness of the playground overwhelming and need a quiet space to re-energise before returning to class for the next session. It is a space that is quiet and calm. In this space students can read, do some puzzles, draw, colour-in or just relax on the large cushions in a cool, relaxing environment.  

In this edition… 

1. Five cent February
2. OSHC afternoon programs for term 1 and 2
3. Rockaoke – Saturday 11^th May

 Also….

• What an amazing ‘Welcome back to school Movie Night and BBQ’ on Saturday 3^rd We had so many families attend this free event. Thank you to Bart Mellish, Lions Club of Aspley, GF Sistas and our Craigslea Leadership team for making this night possible. Also, a special thank you to our student leaders for putting together a little welcome information video that was played prior to the movie. We sure loved seeing you on the big screen!

• We had a large turn out to our first P&C meeting of the year. Thank you to those parents that joined us in person or online and our staff Leadership Team for also attending. Our 3 key messages from the meeting: 1) The P&C will purchase our wonderful groundsman, Jay, an industrial mower to make his large mowing job a lot easier; 2) P&C will donate $200 to kick start the ‘Pay it Forward’ account on Munch Monitors; 3) There is outstanding support for fundraising activities (such as our Summer Free Dress, Bunnings BBQ in December, and Movie Night), and we’re quickly approaching the target for our new water coolers.
• Swim club – we are still waiting to hear from Craigslea High School about the pool maintenance. Updates will be provided on the CSAC facebook page when available.
• Can you help? Volunteering opportunities available
• P&C Contacts – Get in touch
• Fundraising Opportunities 

1. Five cent February

• Five cent February has started! Each class is challenged to collect as many five cent pieces as they can.
• This year we are excited to announce donations can be made in two ways: either place 5c coins into the classroom container (this will be collected and counted every Wednesday) or donate through Munch Monitors. When you place your lunch order, simply select your donation option (5c, $1, $10) under either big lunch or second break.
• The current top 3 classes (in no particular order) are: 3DM, 5/6K, 1C.
• Don’t forget - the classroom who raises the largest amount will win a special prize. 

2. OSHC afternoon programs for term 1 and 2

• Kylie and her amazing OSHC team have been busy organising some extra circular activities for after school during term 1 and 2.
• For term 1 we have InRhythm Drumming sessions on Monday afternoon hitting the beat. Then Thursday afternoons are filled with creative flare from RawART.
• Term 2 has Young Engineers getting our young Einstein’s engaged in building projects and Hip Hop Lessons to get them busting a move.
• Please contact OSHC to find out more about these amazing sessions. 

3. Rockaoke – Saturday 11^th May

• Ok, so this event isn’t on until May but you just might want some time to rehearse your performance. What is Rockaoke you ask? It is karaoke but instead of just recorded music playing will get to sing on stage with a live rock band backing you. You can sing solo or with a group of your friends.
• This will be an adult only fundraiser event with tickets available for purchase. More information to come but in the meantime click on this link to listen the Rockaoke playlist

https://tinyurl.com/CSSsecretplaylist

Can You Help?

Help to make Craigslea State Primary School a better place by volunteering for these activities:

1. Tuckshop – tuckshop are always after volunteers during the week. Even if you only have a short amount of free time please reach out and get in touch with Deb (see the P&C contacts below)
2. Mother’s and Other’s Day stall (Friday 10^th May) – If you like online shopping and would like to help find products for our upcoming Mother's and Other's fund raising stall please contact Emily at the uniform shop (see below for contact information).
3. Bunnings Sausage Sizzle – 22^nd June 2024 – more details to come

P&C Contacts

P&C Executive (Joel, Charmaine, Raechal, Sophie)

enquiries@craigsleapandc.org.au

https://www.facebook.com/CSSPandC

http://tinyurl.com/2xkuvtx9 (link to download P&C 2024 Calendar)

The Hub (Carol)

3350 8741 or operations@craigsleapandc.org.au

Tuckshop (Deb, Jolei, and Emily)

3350 8744 or tuckshop@craigsleapandc.org.au

Bookshop and Uniform Shop (Emily)

3350 8741 or uniforms@craigsleapandc.org.au

Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) (Kylie)

3350 8724 / 3256 3688 or oshc@craigsleapandc.org.au

Sustainability Group (Jen)

sustainability@craigsleapandc.org.au

https://www.facebook.com/groups/223902536111469/

Swim Club (Andrew)

info@craigsleaswimming.com

Fundraising Opportunities

• Entertainment Books: Craigslea State School link - https://au.entdigital.net/orderbooks/225332?utm_campaign=2021-130521
• We currently have spaces available for advertising on our electronic school sign at the front of the school.  Should you be interested, please contact Carol on either 3350 8741 or operations@craigsleapandc.org.au