Nirimba State Primary School Newsletter Issue 2 2022

Principal's News

Dear parents, carers and members of the community,

It's hard to believe that we have come to the end of Term 1 already. It has been a wonderful term with great teaching and learning happening in classrooms. I have really enjoyed seeing students enjoy coming to school and making new friends. You can be very proud of your children for doing such a great job this term.

I am extremely proud of the teachers and support staff for all of the great work that has been achieved this term. It has been challenging with different staff being out at different times but the team has pitched in and ensured we had continuation of learning in classrooms. Well done and thank you for all of your efforts this term.

As part of our Explicit Improvement Agenda (EIA) I have been focussing on Connecting with Community to encourage partnerships with external individuals or businesses to provide sporting and artistic opportunities for our students. So far, we have Dance Energy that has been operating from our school for a number of weeks and conversations regarding Soccer, Tennis and Basketball are progressing very well. I look forward to sharing further updates with you all very soon and getting these sporting opportunities operating from our school. 

Regular and uninterrupted attendance at school is critical and contributes greatly to individual confidence, academic progress and overall well-being. We can't teach children when they are not here at school. Thank you to those parents and carers who worked with the school regarding their child or children's attendance this term it is greatly appreciated. We are here to help so if you need support in getting your child or children to school please reach out to us. 

I would like to sincerely acknowledge the great work that the P&C committee does for our school. Their time given in supporting the school is commendable and we can’t thank them enough. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the new P&C committee for 2022/2023 who were elected at the recent P&C Annual General Meeting (AGM):

Nadine Mackle – President

Cas Dillon – Vice President

Suzanne Kenah – Treasurer

Charlotte Buckley – Secretary

When you return to the school after the holidays, stage 1 building will be mostly complete. You will also notice a few aesthetic additions that would have occurred that I am very excited about.

Lastly, feedback is very important to us as a school team so we are eager to hear your thoughts, ideas and suggestions as we continue to build our school together. In the next few days I will distribute a survey link to parents and carers and we would appreciate your time in completing the short survey so that we continue to improve our services. 

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday with family and friends we look forward to seeing everyone back next term.

Yours in education

Steven Moore

smoor124@eq.edu.au

Finance News

2023 Enrolment Packs P - 6

General Notices or Reminders

School resumes on Tuesday the 19th of April. We look forward to seeing everyone back for Term 2. 

The Pick Up / Drop off area is not to be parked in. There are still a number of parents and carers who are parking in this area and getting out of their vehicle to collect their children. Please don't do this. Please remain in your vehicle and you should only remain stationary for a minute. Thank you for help keeping us keep students safe. 

As winter approaches, please ensure you read the Uniform Policy for the school. Different coloured jumpers, hoodies, long pants etc. are not part of the school uniform and not permitted. The Uniform Shop is open Monday and Thursday from 8:00am - 10:30pm. 

Donations: Wigs, Props and Costumes

Do you have any old or no longer used wigs, props or costumes that you would like to donate to our Performing Arts Department? If you do please drop any items off to the office and we will get them to Ms Davis our Arts Teacher. Thank you!

Do you have any old A3 or A4 picture frames that you no longer use? We want to display student artwork in the stairwells to make it a colourful place. If you have any old frames please could you donate them to the school. 

Parents and Citizens (P&C) Association

Easter Hamper Raffle - Tickets for our Easter raffle are available for purchase via Munch Monitor or at the Tuckshop.  $2 a ticket or 3 for $5. The hamper is on display at tuckshop and the winner will be drawn on Friday, 1^st April after the Easter Hat Parade. The P&C also have a couple of prize hampers to give 2 lucky winners at the easter hat parade so be sure to get creative with your designs!

Important upcoming dates:
Friday 22^nd April - Anzac Day Ribbons - we will have ribbons for sale (gold coin donation), money raised is being donated to Young Veterans Sunshine Coast.

Tuesday 3^rd and Wednesday 4^th May - Mothers Day Stall - classes will have allocated time slots on Tuesday 3^rd to visit the mothers day stall and purchase something special for Mother's Day! A copy of what is available and prices is attached here and will also be handed out prior to the day - anyone who needs to revisit the stall can do so on Wednesday 4^th May before school or during a make-up time slot the same day.

Friday 6^th May - Mothers Day Breakfast - the P&C are hosting a before school breakfast - bring your mum and enjoy breakfast together - tickets will be sold in advance and more details are to follow, with a little luck we should also have our coffee machine all up and running by then too!

Our next P&C meeting is Monday 9^th May at 6pm in the school administration building it would be great welcome more P&C members to the committee. 

We hope you all have a wonderful school holidays and look forward to lots of great things happening in Term 2.

Deputy Principal (Teaching and Learning)

What an incredible few weeks we have had at Nirimba State Primary School! Our students had a wonderful time at our Foundation Student Morning and experienced a smoking ceremony, indigenous dancer performance (they even managed to get all the staff up to dance!) and participated in some fantastic activities. I enjoyed working with all the students to create their self-portrait tiles- we have so many budding artists in our student cohort!

Our Prep students had a fantastic Teddy Bear’s Picnic as a fun and engaging way to practice speaking about a special object and say why it is special. Students enjoyed meeting “Jeffery”, a rather large bear, listening to stories, becoming Teddy Vets, a dance party, painting, building teddy houses, playing games and following instructions to decorate a biscuit. A huge thank you to our Prep staff team for organising such a fun morning of activities to support our students to develop their confidence when speaking in front of their peers.

As part of our Explicit Improvement Agenda, I have been focussing on Australian Curriculum implementation, or what we teach. Staff have been working together collaboratively to support students in all year levels to achieve their goals. I have enjoyed seeing students work, particularly when they show me their first draft of a writing task and their final draft – Jerome in 5/6A and Prep B students shared their work with me and I was very impressed. Our classroom teachers in all year levels use targeted feedback and learning goals to support students to have multiple opportunities for success in their school tasks. Our students are absolutely thriving using this approach.

I have also been working with teachers over the last couple of weeks to plan for curriculum delivery in Term 2. There are more engaging and exciting activities and tasks planned in classrooms for students to continue to build upon their knowledge and understanding they have obtained this term. Our teaching team are dedicated to ensuring all of our students reach their full potential across all of the Australian Curriculum learning areas, using a variety of teaching approaches to ensure all students are engaged. I can’t wait to see what our students produce in Term 2.

Have a fantastic Easter holiday break and I look forward to seeing all of our families back at school on Tuesday, 19^th April.

Elise Maguire

Deputy Principal

emagu5@eq.edu.au

Deputy Principal (Engagement and Innovation)

With the end of the term very near and student completing assessment items, I’d like to say a huge THANK YOU to all of the students, staff and families for their commitment and dedication to the learning of all of our students. What I have been seeing completed in classrooms and the effort the students have been putting in is to be commended.

In 2A students are finalising their assessment items, in particular their assessment in Science around changes in the sky and on the land. They are also beginning their journey into Storyland and learning what elements make up an exemplary narrative.

In 3/4A students have been busily finalising their assessment tasks and utilising one of our new apps, Mine Craft Education, to assist in their learning journeys. The amazing amount of creativity and dedication the students are showing in all lessons which is great to see.

4/5A,  have really enhanced their sentence structure to create effective and descriptive paragraphs. Students have utilised their iPads in lessons and found them to be a great way to learn, even for those who sometimes find it challenging. All students are achieving success and this is a credit to themselves and their families.

In 5/6A students have spent hours editing and perfecting their English and Math assessments. The quality of what each student has produced is amazing and each student needs to be very proud of what they have achieved. I know Mrs McKenna is and so am I.

After all I have seen this term, and the number of students that have come to the administration building to show us how they are progressing, the quality of the work and the enthusiasm students have shown towards their learning has blown me away. I can’t wait to see what Term 2 has in store for us all.

Robotics and Coding

The students in the Robotics and Coding clubs have really taken a shine to the development of fun and exciting bots and applying creative and engaging coding to get their bots to move and make noises. As this is a great beginning for those students, the next phase will be to get these bots to now move and navigate around obstacles and collect items to add an extra layer of complexity. With quite a few robotics days coming up in Term 2, we will be looking into sending students to gain more valuable insights into the world of Robotics and Coding.

Guidance Officer Messages

Hello Nirimba Families,

Wow, where has Term 1 gone?! It has been such a busy term with the school buzzing with lots of learning, activities and special events. I’ve had the opportunity to chat with students, visit classrooms, talk with parents and connect with local support services. It’s wonderful to be part of such a friendly and supportive school community.

School holidays are a great opportunity for the family to spend some quality time together, however, they can also be stressful trying to keep the kids busy while juggling housework, shopping and other priorities. Sometimes a slower pace is just what’s needed after a busy school term and less stress is always best!

Here are some handy hints and tips to help you make the most of the holidays:

Plan to keep it simple

• Sit down and write a list of things both kids and parents want to do in the holidays
• Plan ahead by creating a simple calendar for the week so everyone knows what is happening
• Be prepared to be flexible with your ideas, sometimes things don’t always go to plan e.g. the weather forecast might predict sunshine when it is raining
• Have a box of non-perishable snacks already in the car (e.g. muesli bars, packets of chips, crackers) for when the kids get hungry

The best things in life are free (and accessible!)

• Beach trips, picnics, parks and playgrounds (especially fun if they have water play areas too), activities at the local library and community centres are generally low-cost outings that children enjoy (check out their Facebook page as they will often advertise school holiday activities on there)

Routines are still important

• Following the same morning routine that your child has when getting ready for school can help when preparing your child for the day’s activities
• Too much change can be overwhelming for some children, so make sure you let them know what the plans are ahead of time, even before they go to bed at night, so they have an idea of what they will be doing the next day

Don’t forget self-care

• It’s important to take time out for yourself. This means different things to different people, so choose what’s right for you. It might be taking the dog for a walk, having a hot bath or just putting your feet up with a cup of tea or coffee.
• It might help to factor some self-care time into your calendar of activities just so you get this time to yourself. If you are happy and relaxed, chances are your kids will be too

Boost Healthy Activities

• Set reasonable and clear expectations about technology use and screen-time. It might be worthwhile scheduling some time into the calendar in the morning and/or afternoon
• Encourage your child/children to get outdoors and move their body and burn off some excess energy e.g. go for a bike/scooter ride, organise a bushwalk, go to the beach for a swim, jump on the trampoline, help with the gardening

I hope everyone has a lovely holiday and gets the chance to rest and recharge ready for another busy and exciting Term 2.

Happy holidays,

Michelle Sinclair 

Guidance Officer 

msinc25@eq.edu.au 

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L)

What a great term we have had. The students are really taking to the fortnightly lessons and using what they are learning in their classrooms, the hallway and stairs and the playgrounds.

It has been a busy term with many different activities being held, but the students have adjusted and really taken to how the use of positive language, self-reflection and self-talk can help them through many different situations. It was great to see so many students in orange for Harmony Day and National Day of Action Against Bullying. The messages that the students heard from our own school leaders and the activities they did in class complemented how we approach behaviour and working with others within our school.

This coming Friday, we will be opening the 'Nirimba PB4L Shop' for the first time this year. This 'shop' is a place where students can ‘cash in’ the Burra Bucks they have been reinforcing positive  throughout the term for items like fancy pencils, cool kids’ magazines, build your own models and lots more. Starting in Term 2, the shop will be open twice a term, giving the students an extra day to go ‘shopping’ for rewards they would like or they can bank their money up to get something that might cost a bit more than they have at the time. 

Thank you to everyone for supporting our positive behaviour initiatives and we look forward to what next term brings.

The PB4L team

Sports Update

Cross Country:

Unfortunately, cross country has been postponed to Thursday or term 2 because of the weather. 

Interschool Sport:

On Friday, 18^th March, Nirimba’s Interschool Sport Softball team travelled to the Glasshouse Sports Complex for our very first Interschool Sport day. Our Softball team played extremely well on the day especially because this was the first time any of them had ever played a competitive game of Softball. Throughout the day they played three games and finished the day with two losses and one win. The highlight of the day was a 11 to 10 win against Maleny SS in which Kai hit a home run. Some of the best performances on the day was Ayden’s fielding, Kai and Cooper’s batting, Olive’s catching and the fact they tried their hardest all day. The second day of the Softball carnival is in Week 10 and hopefully we can try and finish that day with a few more wins.

Glasshouse District Trials:

We have continued to have a number of students trial for Glasshouse representative teams. These teams are very competitive and hard to be selected for, and although our students have just fallen short in being chosen, they have gained valuable experience around what is required to be successful in their chosen sports.

Hunter (4/5A) – Rugby League

Ayden (5/6A) – Rugby League

Kai (5/6A) – Rugby League

Harry (3/4A) – Rugby League

Sustainability

The gardens are really taking shape and the seedlings planted out at our Nirimba Foundation Day are really coming along. All of this wet weather, with a few hot days in between, has really allowed the seeds to germinate and has seen some of the seedlings already try to produce flowers.

Mrs Mortimer, the Sustainability Superheroes (the amazing students who help in the gardens) and myself can’t wait to see what in waiting for us when we return next term. We have applied for the Woolworths Landcare grant to assist in maintaining our gardens into the future through the purchasing of more seeds, potting mix, equipment and natural water retention elements to help our gardens become self-sufficient into the future.

We have also started to look at how we can utilise the scraps from our fruit breaks and lunch times in our gardens to reduce the amount of waste going into the rubbish so we can encourage worms and other good animals into our garden production.

Thank you to everyone who has assisted with our sustainability area and our garden and we hope to use our produce after the holidays to create some tasty treats.

From

Mr Morris , Mrs Mortimer and the Sustainability Superheroes.

日本クラブ-折り紙 (Japanese Club - Oragami)

In Japan on the 3^rd day of the 3^rd month they have a festival to celebrate Girl's Day. This festival is also known as Doll's Festival because families with girls display traditional dolls that represent the Emperor's court. The festival is to pray for the girls of the family to be happy and healthy and to wish them good luck for the coming year. Students in the Japanese Club were able to make origami figures of the court to help celebrate this festival.

From 

Sensei Ogawa

Japanese Teacher 

Arts Department Update

Congratulations to Savannah Beacham, our Arts leader who helped to organise a heart-warming activity for Harmony Day. Alyysa Brannen and Michelle Mbugua in year 5/6, and Olive Lyon in year 4/5 have been appointed as Arts assistants.

In classes this week, Year 4/5 students have been exploring the issue of endangered animals in drama. I have been impressed by their courage to perform in front of peers and work harmoniously in groups. Preps are getting creative in music, writing their own words to songs they know and love.

It is lovely to see and hear some younger students have now joined choir. We have a strong mix of female and male voices. We are working on a song to perform for parents on parade next term. 

Thank you to the community for the wonderful donations of costumes and props. We are still collecting, so feel free to continue sending them in.

From

Hayley Davis 

Music, Dance & Drama Teacher 

Instrumental Music

The Instrumental Music program at Nirimba has some vacancies for interested students on the following instruments:

Bass Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone and Tuba.

If your son or daughter is interested and would like a chance to try out one of these instruments, please contact our Instrumental Music Teacher Mrs Jimenez  ecjim0@eq.edu.au (Brass, Woodwind and Percussion)

Coding and Robotics Club

The past few weeks in robotics club, we have been learning about the Lego Prime robotics kits, block coding language and design thinking skills! 

We started our journey off by creating simple structures using our Lego Spike Essential kits. Once students were able to create and follow building instructions with the simpler kit, we were able to start tackling creations using the more complex building materials! 

We are currently creating a “Hopper” using a range of motors and sensors. Students are then going to adapt their designs to improve the robots efficiency in moving across the tables. 

We’re looking forward to an exciting year ahead in our robotics club! Watch this space for some awesome robot designs in the near future! 

From 

Mr Kolanowski & Mr Perrin 

Prep's Teddy Bear Picnic

Last Friday our three Prep classes combined to celebrate their learning about stories with a Teddy Bear’s Picnic. The children enjoyed a rotation of activities and a picnic snack outside with their assortment of bears and cuddly friends who joined them for the day from home. The children painted a picture of them and their bear, built their bear a home out of blocks, iced and ate teddy bear biscuits, danced with their bears, cared for their bears at the bear hospital and even did acrobatic tricks with their bears throwing them through hoops! The Prep children started their day with a story about A Very Brave Bear, read by Mrs Maguire. What fun we have in Prep at Nirimba!

1/2A Maths Super Stars

The students in 1/2A have thoroughly enjoyed their maths learning this term. They have been using lots of hands on manipulatives to show their understanding of number, data collection, location and direction.

Students have discovered patterns in numbers and strengthened their number sense while engaging in activities using our giant 100’s grid. We have been learning all about positional language by giving and following directions to a hidden object. Students have also thoroughly enjoyed programming Beebots to navigate through a simple maze.  

2A - Spin it, Year 2!

Our Year 2 students have been “on the move” during Design Technology lessons this term.  Students have been engineering and developing ideas to design spinning toys that meet design briefs, and evaluating their design and production processes. One of our favourite design briefs has been the construction of Ferris Wheels for our Lego Spike Fun Park. We explored how technologies use forces to make objects spin and were able to build and code our own Ferris Wheels.  

3/4A

The past week in 3/4A have been writing our English assessment pieces, focusing on friendship. Students have been working extremely hard to create stories that showcase their writing skills and share a story of friendship that faces a challenge.

Students have also been creating data displays after surveying class members about categories they have chosen. We found out that pizza was the most liked food (by far).

Mixing it up at the end of the week, we were exploring the use of tints and shades within Visual Art! We spent our Visual Art lesson mixing colours, adding tints and shades to our colours to create visually appealing backgrounds that we may later create more designs on!

A fantastic week in 3/4A!

Year 4/5

It has been all handS on deck in the 4/5 classroom since our last newsletter. The students have been working tirelessly to achieve their goals. In such a short time, it has been outstanding to see the level of improvement in our writing from week one to now. It is a credit to the students for taking feedback on board and making changes to their work.

In Mathematics, we have been studying measurement, specifically mapping. Students used their newly developed knowledge of scale to collaboratively measure our classroom and create a scaled map in their book.

Our year five classmates have also been busy, not only are they tackling new and exciting content, they are learning new skills as well. We have been particularly focusing on using our iPads to conduct independent research to answer inquiry questions during Science lessons.

Wasn’t the Foundation Morning something special? It was wonderful to see our community come together to celebrate the school. The tiles look amazing, and we cannot wait to see them on display.

Finally, we have a buddy class! Each Friday afternoon, we will be reading with our buddies in Prep B. It has been amazing to see our students step up and help our little friends as they begin to develop their love for reading.

Year 5/6A

This term 5/6A have been working hard on planning, drafting and writing a chapter of a Fantasy novel.  We started the unit by immersing ourselves in listening to and reading fantasy texts that involved good and evil characters, on quests to take over fantasy worlds. 

We looked at imagery from well known fantasy characters, brainstormed character traits to best describe these characters and collaborated together to create and analyse our own text, “The Stolen Crown.” Shortly after having fun with these tasks, we used what we already knew and what we learned to start to create and draft our own stories. 

Throughout the drafting phase, students received peer coaching and teacher feedback. 5/6A then used their teacher feedback to apply this to their personal goals and finished off the task by using their technology skills to edit and improve their writing.  It was a wonderful way to start our English journey for 2022 and it was great to see how our creativity was captured throughout many areas of literacy this term. 

Kookaburra Cafe