Dear Craigslea Community,                                                                                                                                       

We are very much in the groove of the year with our students settled into the routines and ways of working in their new classrooms.  We are moving to the business end of our term where our students will start to undertake assessment of their learning. Our teachers are highly skilled in providing support to our students and making adjustments to give them every opportunity to demonstrate what they know and can do.  However, this can be a challenging time for some of our students as the work demands increase.  If you are concerned how your child is going through this time, please do not hesitate to contact their class teacher.

It has been fabulous to have our swimming program kick off this week after a delayed start due to pool repairs.  Swimming lessons will continue to the end of the term.

Parent Teacher Interviews 

In Week 10, parents will have the opportunity to meet with teachers to discuss their child/ren’s term 1 learning progress.  I encourage all parents to take this invaluable opportunity to connect with the class teacher/s and understand how your child/ren’s learning is progressing.  This year interviews will take place on one afternoon/evening, Tuesday 26 March from 3:15pm – 8:00pm.  Booking information will be sent to families on Monday 11 March.

NAPLAN

Next week our year 3 and 5 students will undertake their NAPLAN assessments.  Our students will undertake these assessments online using their iPads with the exception of the writing test for year 3 which will be hand written.  Our students had the opportunity to practice within the NAP browser last week to familiarise with logging in and answering the questions online.  At Craigslea, we focus on quality teaching of the Australian Curriculum to prepare our students for NAPLAN.  NAPLAN is a point in time assessment that needs to be considered alongside the student’s portfolio of work in English and Maths.  NAPLAN timetables have been shared with year 3 and 5 families.

Show & Shine

On Thursday 21 March we will open the doors of our classrooms and invite parents to see the learning undertaken this term.  The afternoon will run from 2pm – 3pm.  We are running the session for 1 hour to allow parents time to visit multiple classrooms if they have more than one child to visit.  The teachers and students are very excited at this opportunity to share learning with our community.

2025 Prep Enrolments Open

• Applications are now open for Prep 2025
• Forms can be download from our website or can be collected from the office
• Out of Catchment expression of interest link went live 8am 01/03/2024
• All information can be found on our website - https://craigsleass.eq.edu.au/enrolments/prep

Strategic Plan 2024 – 2027

We are continuing to collect data and feedback to inform our next strategic plan. Last fortnight I met with our teaching teams to capture teacher perspective on our strengths and opportunities for the next 4 years.  Last Friday I met with a group of parents to capture their thinking and ideas.  On Wednesday I met with our students to hear their views. There are very clear themes emerging across all stakeholders for our next four years.  I am hoping to have a draft plan ready by the end of this term.

Community Engagement

On Friday I had the pleasure of working with a group of parents on our Strategic Plan.  I am loving hearing parent perspective on Craigslea’s journey to this point and listening to feedback to improve our ways of working for our students.  An absolute strength of Craigslea is the community involvement and their connection to our school.

Principal's Afternoon Tea

Last Friday I hosted my first Principal’s afternoon tea for the year.  I enjoyed spending the afternoon with nominated students from each of our year 3 – 6 classes. It was a great opportunity for me to talk to students about school life and especially their learning.  This week I am hosting morning tea for Prep to year 2 nominated students.

Don’t forget to regularly check Schoolzine calendar to keep up to date with all our upcoming events.

“Community is much more than belonging to something it’s about doing something together that makes belonging matter.”  Brian Solis

Have a great fortnight.

Yours in Learning,

Melanie Rehm

Principal

Easter Hat Assembly (Thursday 28 March 9.15-10.15am)

Easter is fast approaching. This year our whole-school assembly will be held in the hall. Students from Prep to Year 2 will parade in their hats, followed by any students from grade 3-6 who would also like to join in. It will be a wonderful whole-school event.

NAPLAN – Years 3 and 5

NAPLAN Key Points:

• Writing Test – Wednesday 13 March
• Reading Test – Friday 15 March
• Conventions of Language Test – Monday 18 March
• Numeracy Test – Tuesday 19 March
• Identified students' families will have been contacted by Craigslea staff regarding reasonable supports for your child during the tests. Please ensure you have responded to our communication around this and returned signed paperwork by Tuesday 12 March at the latest.
• All students will be using a school iPad, even our Year 5s who BYOD. This is to ensure that all iPads used can access the testing environment. There have been recent updates to Apples iOS which has caused some issues in the stability of the Lockdown browser that is used. We are updating with patches as required.

How can I help my child prepare for NAPLAN?

NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are learning through their regular classroom activities. As such, excessive preparation or coaching is not required. You can help your child prepare for NAPLAN by reassuring them that the tests are just one part of their school program, and by reminding them on the day to simply try their best. NAPLAN is not about passing or failing, but about assessing learning progress. See the NAPLAN Public Demonstration Site for more information on how to familiarise yourself with the type of questions and related functionalities available in the NAPLAN Online assessment.

What if my child is absent from school on NAPLAN test days? 

During the NAPLAN testing window, if your child is unwell or is unable to attend school, please follow regular student absentee procedures or notify the school via QParents.   Where possible, we will arrange for individual students who are absent at the time of testing to complete missed tests at another time during our testing schedule.

Thank you to the families who were able to make it to our 2024 NAPLAN Parent Information Session. For those who missed it, please see the link below for a copy of the presentation.

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.

To celebrate Walking, Wheeling Wednesdays and National Ride to school day, we are planning an event full of fun and colour where students, teachers and parents will discover the fun of riding to school.

We are inviting all students and families to Bling Your Ride to School on Wednesday 20 March 2024 to coincide with our Active School Travel Day. Everyone is encouraged to dress up their bikes, scooters, wheelchairs with bright, colourful decorations. The best decorated ride from each grade will win a prize! So, start planning your creations! All children participating will go into the draw. This event will take place at the Cool Courts from 8:30-8:50am.

February’s Golden Boot winner was 6C, congratulations! They had the highest % of walkers for February.

For March, the Golden Boot will be awarded to the class with the highest % of bike riders – which class will it be?

Check out how your class is traveling.

How will you actively travel to school next Wednesday?

Have an amazing fortnight of fun and learning,

Natalie

Harmony Day

On Thursday the 21 March 2024 (Week 9), we celebrate Harmony Day.

Harmony Day (Harmony Week) celebrates the rich diversity that makes Australia unique. This week includes the 21st of March which is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

We will celebrate Australian multiculturalism, and the successful integration of migrants into our community, with Australia being one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world. Let’s celebrate this and work to maintain it.

Some important messages about Harmony Day at CSS:

· Whole school assembly on 21st March starting at 9:30am

· Buddy Class Activity from 10:15am

· Activities around the school at first break

How can you help?

· Contact your child’s teacher to offer to share stories or artefacts that represent your cultural heritage;

· Dress your children in either orange to show support or in cultural dress for the day (small part of the day);

· Volunteer to teach a cultural dance, game or simple activity (contact Anthony Kleidon on ajkle1@eq.edu.au); and most importantly of all

· attend the special whole school Harmony Day Assembly.

I look forward to seeing you on this special day in our school calendar.

Anthony J Kleidon

The focus for the fortnight is: Be safe in all Environments – I am safe and respectful when using the toilet.

This fortnight we have been talking with students about using the toilets safely and respectfully. We have discussed with students what goes in the toilets and what doesn’t, what we do when we go to the toilet and what we don’t, and we are now appealing to you to help us.

We are hoping you can remind your child about the following simple rules about using the toilets:

Be Safe - Use the toilets to do your business, and then leave. We have discussed that we go, flush, wash hands and leave. We do not play in the toilets, and we definitely do not eat in the toilets. We also wash our hands after, and when drying our hands we use one piece of paper towel and make sure it goes in the bin.

Be Respectful - We should always aim to leave the toilet cleaner than how we found it. Check the rim of the seat after you use it to make sure you haven’t left any surprises. We also flush! We do not put foreign objects down the toilet. It causes blockages and costs us extra money! We NEVER look over the stall to see what someone else is doing, we RESPECT each other’s privacy.

Sometimes we may have an accident. That’s okay, but you need to come and let us know. Great people to come and report accidents to are Courtney, Kerrie and Jade at the office.

While staff are handing out classroom points to encourage children to make strong decisions in the classroom, and gotchas for demonstrating strong independent behaviours in and around the toilets, conversations on the home front would take the support full circle. 

The SEL focus for the term is: Emotional Literacy

Emotional literacy is the ability to understand and express feelings. This includes learning how to get along with each other, share and understand our feelings.

Learning to recognise and identify their own emotions and how to respond to the feelings of others is a core part of a child’s social development. This is the foundation for developing friendships.

Emotional literacy is based on the words a child uses. Even before they learn to talk, children begin to learn this vocabulary.

So how can you support your child’s emotional development?

• Be a positive role model of what you would like your child to do.
• Name feelings for your child and refer to them regularly.
• Talk to children about your own feelings.
• Read stories about being a friend, happy feelings, sad feelings, problem solving, self-confidence, etc.
• Talk about things other people do and how they might feel.
• Build up a language of pro-social behaviour by talking about taking turns, sharing, helping, looking after others, etc.
• Explore the range of facial expressions to act out stories and explore problem solving.
• Praise your child when you notice your child is making an effort to get along with other children.

Circle Time Lessons

The last two weeks have been busy at Craigslea State School and some lucky classes have been able to experience the fun that is Circle Time. These lessons provide classes with an opportunity to develop caring, inclusive communities, a sense of belonging and school connectedness. These lessons also allow students to develop skills that are important when being a good Craigslea student and the development of positive self-concept and a good sense of self. I am looking forward to working with more classes.

Renee McGregor (Head of Inclusion)

In this edition… 

1. Five cent February
   
2. Birthday Zooper Doopers available from tuckshop
   
3. P&C meeting – Monday 11^th Please note this will start at 6:30pm for the AGM.

 Also….

• OSHC – you may have seen a visitor at OSHC this week. This is because we had our regulatory authority attend the service to carry out a routine assessment of our OSHC. A report on their visit will be presented at a future P&C meeting.
• Swim club returns! It was so lovely to be back in the pool swimming on Friday 1 March. Despite being away from the pool since last year, there were a significant number of personal best times broken and 11 kids moving up distance to 25m or 50m. We are making full use of the pool with five club nights remaining before the end of the season on 22nd March. 
• Easter Raffle – this year the P&C have organised some amazing vouchers for 3 Easter baskets. We will also be selling the raffle tickets online in our ongoing effort to reduce paper waste. More details to come soon.
• Can you help? Volunteering opportunities available
• P&C Contacts – Get in touch
• Fundraising Opportunities
   

1. Five cent February

• A big congratulations to 3DM who raised and amazing $134.50!!! A big thank you to everyone who donated.
• In total we raised $1009.50 (which is the equivalent of 20,190 five cent coins!!).
• The winning class will be presented with a certificate and the P&C will arrange with their teacher an appropriate time for them to claim their frozen treat (or equivalent) from the tuckshop. 
  
  

2. Birthday Zooper Doopers available from Tuckshop

• Wouldn’t you love the convenience of being able to order your child’s birthday treats directly from the school? Well, you can now order Zooper Doopers for your child’s class – just give the tuckshop at least 2 days’ notice and email them directly (see contact below). You can then pay via Munch Monitors. 
  
  

3. P&C meeting – Monday 11th March. Please note this will start at 6:30pm for the AGM.

• The meeting will be held in-person (OSHC Building) and online via Teams (link in the SchoolZine Calendar)
• To join or renew your membership for 2024 please complete the online application form: https://forms.office.com/r/ywNJVsDq8d.
• All P&C Committee positions will be open for nomination at our AGM including the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Grants Office. If you would like to nominate for one of these positions please complete this form: https://tinyurl.com/3j2d7cm2
• We’re looking to run the meetings “paper free”, so please use an electronic device instead of printing.

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, Kate)

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