Nirimba State Primary School Newsletter Issue 2, 2023
From the Principal
Dear Parents, Carers and members of the community,
A very warm welcome to all of the new students and families that have joined our school community this term. We continue to receive a number of enrolment inquires for this year and next - it is exciting to see our school community continuing to grow. It is wonderful seeing great learning happening in classrooms. I am in awe of the creativity and application of skills that are demonstrated by our students.
As you may be aware, the Australian Curriculum has been updated and will be rolled out in all state schools over the coming four years. Next year, the updated English and Mathematics curriculum will be implemented in all year levels. We have partnered with local schools in the area and are working together to update and innovate on our English and Mathematics units to ensure our students continue to have fantastic opportunities to engage in the Australian Curriculum.
Our 1-1 iPad program will be of benefit to our students, particularly due to the increased expectations around using digital tools in both English and Mathematics. Our Nirimba students will continue to engage and thrive with their new learning next year. A special thanks and acknowledgement to Mrs Maguire and our excellent teaching staff for the progress on this important work.
The P&C committee have been extremely busy preparing our first Winter Fair that is taking place on Friday the 2nd of June. I would like to sincerely thank them for the wonderful work that they do for the students at our school. They play a key role in subsidising and supporting initiatives that benefit our students. They are a small but hugely proactive team who are always looking for people to help and support their work. Please reach out to them if you are able to contribute your time: nirimbapandc@outlook.com
On Monday the 29th of May we welcome a number of schools to the Choral Fanfare that we are hosting. I know that Ms Davis, Ms Murphy and students in the choir have been working hard on their performance. I wish them all the best for their performance.
Congratulations to the students who represented our school in the district cross-country trials. You can be very proud of your efforts.
Yours in education,
Steven Moore
Pick up and Drop Off Zone
The Pick Up and Drop off zone is becoming problematic again. Parents and Carers are reminded that you cannot remain stationary in this area for more than a minute, it is causing major conjestion problems. Please do not park in this area.
Stairwell Conjestion / Waiting Areas
At the end of the school day students are excited to return home and parents and carers want to see their children. In order to facilitate better pedestrian traffic and alleviate emerging saftey concerns, please could parents and carers refrain from congregating at the exits to the classroom blocks. Thank you for your cooperation.
Before and After School Procedures - Reminders
- If you are not dropping your children off at school, please could you remind your children that they need to wait in the correct areas between 8:20am and 8:40am. P - 2 need to be in the eating area next to the Discovery Centre and Year 3-6 need to wait in the canteen area.
- Students are not allowed to play on the play equipment after school.
Deputy Principal - Ms Maguire
It has been wonderful to see our students settled and learning every day. I have had the privilege of
reading some of our students writing and I am very impressed! It is wonderful that so many of our
students are keen writers and are happy to share their work.
Our students are working hard to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding from this semester’s units of work. As assessment tasks are started or continued, it is important that your
child is at school every day to maximise their learning opportunities. Report cards will be emailed home to parents on the 23rd June.
A very big thank you to our families who attended the Caloundra ANZAC Day March on the 25th
April. This is such an important event in our local community and the respect that our students
demonstrated on the day was commendable. Thank you to the parents that marched with the
school and to our students for their exemplary behaviour. They certainly represented Nirimba State Primary School well.
Our Book Fair this week was a huge hit with our students and families! Huge thank you to Mrs
Schultz and Mrs Ogden for organising and running the fair from our Discovery Centre throughout this week. Every purchase made supports our school to continue to build upon the resources in the library. It has been great to see so many students browsing through the books and making purchases to read at home. We hope you enjoy reading their chosen books together.
Yours in Education,
Elise Maguire
Deputy Principal
GO news - Miss Sinclair
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is when someone uses online content or communication to humiliate, harass, intimidate, or threaten a child or young person under the age of 18. It can take many forms including sending abusive messages, hurtful images or videos, nasty online gossip, excluding or humiliating others, or creating fake accounts in someone’s name to trick or humiliate them.
Online bullying can have a devastating impact on young people, whose online life is a key part of their identity and how they interact socially. Your child may not tell you if they are experiencing bullying behaviour online because of a fear it might make things worse for them or they may lose access to their devices and the internet.
Signs to watch for:
• being upset after using the internet or their mobile phone
• changes in personality, such as becoming more withdrawn, anxious, sad or angry
• appearing lonely or distressed
• unexpected changes in friendship groups
• a decline in their school work
• changes in their sleep patterns
• avoidance of school or clubs
• a decline in their physical health
• becoming secretive about their online activities and mobile phone use
Stay calm and open — don’t panic
You want your child to feel confident that you’re not immediately going to get upset, angry or anxious if they tell you about the situation. You want them to know they can talk to you and feel heard. The best way to do this is make sure you have an open dialogue. Talk to them without being judgemental or angry, and make them feel like they can come to you with anything, without fear of being punished.
Listen, think, pause
Try not to respond immediately. Take some time to consider the best course of action. Reassure your child you are working on it and will come together again very soon to talk through some options. Let them know you are there if they feel like they need to talk in the meantime.
Act to protect your child if necessary
If your child is being threatened, or if they indicate a wish to harm themselves, you should get professional help.
• Call Triple Zero (000) immediately, if their physical safety is at risk.
• Contact a counselling and support service like Kids Helpline.
Empower your child
Where possible, try to build your child’s confidence and help them make wise decisions for themselves, rather than telling them what to do. If you feel they may be struggling to open up to you, connect them with other trusted adults or with professional support.
Collect evidence
Don't delete the posts or abusive material straight away. Instead, start by taking screenshots and collecting evidence including dates and times. The evidence may be useful if the behaviour continues and you need a record of how long it has been going on. You may also need evidence if you want to report it.
Report the online harm
1. Report the content to the relevant online service provider. Many social media services, games, apps and websites have a simple process to report content posted by other people.
2. If the service provider does not take action, you or your child can report to eSafety. They will ask you to complete our the eSafety online reporting form and include evidence, such as a receipt,
reference or report number from the service provider.
eSafety will determine whether the abuse meets the legal definition of what can be removed. They can then take action to get serious cyberbullying material taken down and provide advice, support and assistance.
Prevent further contact
Advise your child not to retaliate or respond to bullying messages, as sometimes people say hurtful things just to get a response and it could make things worse. If they have already responded, encourage them not to respond further. Help your child to use in-app functions to ignore, mute or block the other person.
Term 2 Webinars for Parents and Carers
The eSafety Commissioner provides free webinars on a range of topics for parents and carers to develop their knowledge around online safety. All webinars are 30 minutes in duration and include practical tips, conversation starters and digital parenting advice.
Term 2 topics include:
- Getting started with social media (TikTok, YouTube, Instagram)
- Online relationships and consent
- eSafety101: how eSafety can help you
- Setting your child up for success online
https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/webinars
If you would like to get in contact or make an appointment to discuss any concerns you may have in relation to your child, I am available every second Tuesday and weekly on a Wednesday and Thursday, or email me at msinc25@eq.edu.au.
Information adapted from the following website:
https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/issues-and-advice/cyberbullying
PBL
Hello from the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) team and welcome to Term 2. This term we will focus our teaching on these areas:• Following instructions - first time, every time• We use our hands and feet appropriately – to keep everyone safe• We follow the Discovery Centre’s processes – to keep our library a calm space. These teachable moments come from the areas in which our students are in need of some reminding and/or support. We will also share this focus with the community at our parades on Monday and on Facebook so that you can stay informed of the areas that have a spotlight focus on positive behaviour management. The PBL team also looks at our school attendance data as Every Day Counts and a huge congratulations to Prep B for having the overall best attendance rate in all of Term 1, with a fantastic rate of 96.8%. Reinforcing to our students the importance of coming to school is a big focus at Nirimba as we love seeing all of our students at school and learning. A great resourcewe would like to share is the Queensland Government’s Every Day Counts website https://everydaycounts.education.qld.gov.au/ It has great child friendly videos and stories for you and your family to share.
My New Gallery
Sports Update
Athletics
On Tuesday the 6th and Wednesday the 7th June (Week 8), NSPS Athletics Carnival is taking place. All students from Years Prep – 6 have begun practising for events in their weekly PE lessons. The Athletics Carnival will once again be held across the road at the Nirimba Sports Complex.
Students born between 2011 – 2014 will kick things off on Tuesday with a small number of events. The whole school will then compete on Wednesday. Below are some approximate times for the order of events across the two days.
Tuesday, 6th June (9 – 12 Year olds ONLY)
Time Event 9:15am – 10:30am 200m (Heats & Finals)
11:30am – 12:30pm 800m
Wednesday, 7th June (Whole School)
Junior Carnival (5 – 8 year olds) Senior Carnival (9 – 12 year olds)
9:10am – 10:30am Field Events Sprint Races (Heats & Finals)
11:30am – 1:10pm Sprint Races Field Events
1:45pm – 2:30pm Senior Relays, Staff v Students v Parents Relay & Presentations
District Cross Country
Today, 18 students headed to St Michael’s College in Caboolture for the Glasshouse District Cross Country. These students were selected in the school team after their performances in the School Cross Country at the end of Term 1. The students will race against all the other schools in the Glasshouse District, competing for points that will go towards the trophy that is presented to the overall winning school.
All the best to Ella (3/4A), Hannah (3/4A), Rory (5A), Billy (5A), Lilli (5A), Harrison (5A), Sophia (5B), Liam (5B), Finn (5B), Eva (6A), Nesha (6A), Cooper (6A), Yashmina (6A), Olive (6A), Sophia (6A), Matteo (6A), Hunter (6A) and Noah (6A).
Interschool Sport
This Term for Interschool Sport, the sports on offer to our Year 5 and 6 students are Netball and Soccer. Teams have been chosen and some students have already commenced training whilst others will begin training in the near future. Interschool Sport will be held over the last three Fridays of Term 2 with Netball being held at Glasshouse Mountains State School and Soccer games being played at Glasshouse Sports Complex. Selected students will be bringing home a note that contains all the relevant information for parents, as well as the permission note and payment information that needs to be completed as soon as possible so their children can attend.
District Sports
At the end of Term 1, three of our Year 6 students were selected in Glasshouse representative teams to compete at Sunshine Coast Regional Carnivals. A big congratulations to Noah and Hunter who were chosen in the Glasshouse Rugby League team and to Matteo who was selected in the Glasshouse Football (Soccer) team. The boys have since participated in their carnivals where they performed to a high standard and did extremely well!
Well done boys!!
Arts Update
44 students from year 1 – 6 will represent the school in the Choral Fanfare Choir Competition on
Monday May 29th, with other schools in the local area. Parents are welcome to come along and
watch. We will be hosting the event in our school hall at Nirimba, starting at 10am.
The School Musical Moana has been postponed until Term 4, due to unforseen circumstances. Exact dates to be confirmed soon. Our backstage crew will be joining us for rehearsals soon. Students have shown outstanding dedication
to their rehearsals and have exceeded my expectations already!
Year 3/4A and 4A welcomed Helen, a puppet making master from the Dead Puppet Society last
week. Students constructed some very technical, magical characters to use for their drama stories in the coming weeks. Students found it challenging and rewarding. “Infinity, infinity fun! The best thing I’ve done all year,” reported one student.
Thank you, Luisa Schutt from our P&C, and Miss Murphy for coming along to the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) excursion in Brisbane with the Visual Art Extension students. A number of gallery staff commented on how our Nirimba students demonstrated such lovely manners and maturity in the gallery. Lots of fun and learning all round.
Miss Hayley Davis
My New Gallery
Japanese
Students at Nirimba have been exploring some different まつり and celebrations that are celebrated in Japan. As the seasons are the opposite to Australia, Japan has been enjoying the delights of spring as the さくら bloom and the weather gets warmer. Year 2 students decorated their own cherry blossom branch while students in Year 6 wrote their own はいく. Haiku is a traditional Japanese poetry that concentrates on the things we can see, feel, touch, smell and hear
using three lines with a set amount of syllables (5, 7, 5). The student’s work can be seen in B Block, Level 1, outside the Japanese classroom.
Japanese words for this newsletter:
まつり(matsuri) - festivals
さくら (sakura) – cherry blossoms
はいく (haiku) – form of Japanese poetry
My New Gallery
Discovery Centre
The Discovery Centre has been transformed into Lego Land as the excitement of our Nirimba LEGO Masters Competition takes effect. The students are working in teams of four to create a pirate themed Lego creation for the first challenge. The competition will run for the remainder of the term, with a new challenge in Week 7. The winning team of each challenge will be announced on parade.
Our school has registered to participate in the Premier’s Reading Challenge for 2023. Students interested in participating need to have signed consent forms and complete the school reader record forms. As outlined from the Department of Education, there is no compulsory reading list, however there are book lists available on the PRC website.
The specified number of books for each year level is listed below:
• Prep to Year 2 – read or experience 20 books.
• Years 3 to 4 – read 20 books.
• Years 5 to 6 – read 15 books.
Below is the website for further information.
https://readingchallenge.education.qld.gov.au/
Our school has registered for National Simultaneous Storytime reading which will be taking place on Wednesday 24 May 2023 at 11am. The book is the Speedy Sloth by Rebecca Young & Heath
McKenzie. The Alia website for more information is listed below:
https://www.alia.org.au/Web/Web/Events/Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=NSS2023
A special thank you to our parents and students for supporting our Book Fair. The commission
earned from Book Fair will contribute to the purchase of books to expand our collection of quality
books in our library.
My New Gallery
Coding & Robitics
It has been a busy start to robotics in Term 2, with the addition of our after-school robotics program, which is focused on preparing for the Robo-Rave competition.
Our lunch time clubs have also been hard at work. The senior robotics club have created a robot with a purpose. Some groups have decided to construct battle bots, and others have created robots to perform a specific task, for example helping with sweeping the floors. It has been wonderful to see a high standard of creativity and collaboration amongst the teams.
Sustainability Club
Exciting News...We have won a grant for our Sustainability Garden area!!!
We are looking at putting shade sails over the garden area, installing a rain tank, as well as supplying some benches and stools for students to sit on when out in this learning
environment.
What a busy time we have had in the garden! We came back from school holidays with lots of vegetables and herbs to harvest, so many that we have had to have our first Harvest Sale. The expression on students faces seeing the supply of products we could pick and sell was priceless. Our lettuce, spinach, cabbage, tomatoes, beans and cucumbers were sold out in a matter of minutes. We had so much lettuce we even provided some to our school canteen, where they used this in munch monitor lunches. The money raised has given us the opportunity to buy more seedlings and soil for the garden beds and start all over again.
Already this term we have planted lettuce, coriander, basil, leek and oregano from seedlings. We
challenged ourselves to try our luck with broccoli seeds and they are already sprouting and doing
well. Fingers crossed they keep thriving! We have seen the growth of rockmelon on the vine as well
as some of our fruit trees baring lemons, limes and apples.
Our club days consist of lots of watering with the hose and the watering cans and everybody loves
working as a team to ensure we all get a turn. If you have some old watering cans in your sheds no
longer being used, we would love to take them off your hands.
My New Gallery
Mindfulness
Mindfulness Club on a Monday has been very well attended this semester, with students engaging in various activities to encourage a calm mindset. We have a range of puzzles, boardgames and colouring that students can complete individually, or with their friends. Yarn craft and Diamond art have proved to be very popular, as is the giant joint colouring depicting life under the sea.
Ms Rose.
My New Gallery
Prep
Mums are AMAZING!
On Friday 12th May, Prep students welcomed all our lovely mums into the classrooms to celebrate all they do for us with our Mother’s Day Afternoon. Our Very Special People were pampered with
massages, manicures at the Nail Salon, necklaces, portraits and crowns. The joy experienced by
students and mums alike was witnessed through large smiles and a lot of laughter. Thank you to all our mums for coming in for “the best day ever!” Happy Mother’s Day!
My New Gallery
Year 1
This term in Year One, students have been diving into exploring their iPads. We
have been using Seesaw to engage in a range of learning activities across
Maths, English and The Arts. We have been completing spelling activities,
drawing and typing in English and taking photos of our artworks to publish in
Seesaw. We are so excited to further explore more applications on our iPads to
engage in new learning.
My New Gallery
Year 1/2 & 2
This term in Mathematics, Year 1/2A and 2A have been practicing telling time to a quarter of an hour. Children have engaged in a range of small-group and wholeclass learning experiences to extend their learning. We have used a variety of hands-on and digital resources, as well as visual reminders to represent analogue clock times and accurately position minute hands. We have enjoyed relating our learning to real world experiences and practicing our new skills throughout the school day.
My New Gallery
Year 3
With our Science unit being all about living things and lifecycles we were lucky enough to
start our term off with an excursion to Australia Zoo where we had a great introduction to
the lifecycles of plants and animals. Did you know that out of 200 eggs laid from a crocodile
only 1 will reach adulthood? CRIKEY that’s not many! All Year 3 students walked their
little legs off to see many animals from our country, Australia, to the wider countries such as Africa.
A big Thank You to Mr K for organising this excursion for us.
In Maths this term we have already begun learning how to tell the time to the 5 minute and
the minute. This has been challenging but we have loved using the hands-on clocks we
made, seesaw lessons and time games during rotations to learn this concept. Number
concepts we will cover this term are fact families for addition, subtraction, multiplication,
and division and how they connect. We will expand our knowledge and skills to continue
counting patterns and will learn how to classify numbers as odd or even.
English has consisted of us having a blast with procedures. We love explaining to our teachers Mr K and Mrs Dodd, how to do something. It has proven to be FUN in Year 3, as the students write their procedures in their books and then use their IPADs to video themselves and re-enact how to do something. We even learnt how to use the iMovie app to share our procedures with our classmates. 3A extended their procedure writing and made pizzas, 3B are learning how to be pirates. Both classes will write, share, and present their procedures with fellow classmates in character. This will then link to our assessment task to write a procedure about a character from the book we are reading “Charlotte’s Web.” We too will be learning how to write persuasive texts through a letter style of writing. Watch out as our students' become experts at persuading you to do something.
Lastly, in Design, Technologies, and Visual Art we will be repurposing waste, recyclables, and
materials into a vehicle capable of transporting cargo. As designers we will produce ideas
and make decisions about what materials will be best to use. We will plan and create our
vehicle and make modifications to it along the way. When our vehicles are completed, we
will show the elements of art by painting it and then have FUN testing them.
My New Gallery
Year 3/4 & 4
What a fantastic and fun filled start to the term it has been! The Year 3 and Year 4 classes took
learning to another level this term with an incredible adventure at Australia Zoo to help introduce
our new Science Unit, where we able to explore animals, their needs, habitats and life cycles!
In English this term students are reading and comprehending traditional stories from diverse
cultures that explore life lessons and morals. Students will also be creating their own short story that includes an important moral of their choice. As an additional bonus, students will be given the
opportunity to turn their story into a short puppet film clip to share with their peers and help teach younger students in Prep and Grade 1 an important moral lesson.
In Mathematics, students have been exploring all things time-related; including the difference between AM and PM, converting between units of time and solving problems involving the duration of time. They are just beginning to investigate chance, by identifying dependant and independent events and explaining the probability of everyday events occurring. Students will also have the opportunity to identify the relationship between odd and even numbers and to describe number patterns.
Students have enjoyed being able to make a pinball machine and design a games environment in Design Technology this term. They have used recycled materials and their understanding of forces to design, create and evaluate their own pinball machines, which are not only feats of engineering, but also fun to play!
My New Gallery
Year 5
Term 2 has started with a bang and students have transitioned well back into learning. Students
have begun to ‘find their groove’ in their classroom spaces and it is encouraging to still see new
friendships forming.
In Science, students have investigated the properties of light and shadow, exploring the difference between transparent, translucent and opaque objects. In our HASS lessons, students are continuing our focus from last term, specifically focussing on the impact the Eureka Goldfields had on the foundations of democracy in Australia. Our Mathematics focus areas so far this term have been chance & probability and 12hr & 24hr time. Our English focus this term is examining and constructing feature articles. Students are learning the important language features used in media texts to persuade a reader to a particular point of view.
In 5A, it has been a few weeks since we have seen our Prep B buddies, but we are back in the swing of it now. 5A students are using their understanding of writing stories to help their prep buddies to write their very first narrative. I am continually pleasantly surprised by the level of care and support 5A students demonstrate with their buddies.
In 5B, we have enthusiastically participated in our first Prep C buddy classes of the year. Prep and
Year 5 students recently scientifically selected appropriate materials based on their properties to
design and test a boat that floats. We look forward to our upcoming afternoons when students will
be exploring the properties of light and creating a shadow puppet short story. We are immensely
proud of our success so far and know this will continue the remainder of the term.
My New Gallery
Year 6
Welcome to Term 2 in 6A. The class has well truly settled into their final year of primary school and are all doing a great job. We started the term with a lovely Anzac celebration lead by our
student leaders and the annual Caloundra RSL march. 6A made a lovely wreath and donated it to the RSL for their service.
This term in English we are exploring advertisements! We have read, watched and listened to some catchy advertisements to immerse ourselves in what makes an advertisement appealing.We will now plan, draft and work towards creating our advertisements based on our dream holiday destinations. Look out for our travel plans by the end of the term!
Our HASS learning has now moved into the goldrush era and in Week 6 we will embark on a “gold themed” immersion day, watch this space for more information soon.
In Maths, we have explored Cartesian planes and are now focusing on number properties. We will move into a focus on ‘time’ over the next few weeks.
Science has been filled with researching and exploring natural disasters. We are building our knowledge on how the Earth’s surface changes with a natural disaster. For homework, 6A are creating a project book to share their learning, creativity skills and research with a younger audience in week 10.
6A still continues to have a big focus on self-regulation strategies, wellbeing and mindfulness. We have been compiling a list of many tips to help ourselves in stressful times. We have looked at elements of movement, music and art therapy with more practice to come.
Finally, we have many students from our class regularly paying it forward to the younger students at Nirimba. Our ‘burra buddies’ have been out playing mini golf, creating art work and helping in the library, just to name a few things. A special mention to Baylee and Casey for their dedication to their ‘burra buddies’ duties, keep up the great work boys!!
Looking forward to a great remainder of the term.
Mrs McKenna