Nirimba State Primary School Newsletter Issue 4 2022

From the Principal

Dear Parents, Carers and members of the community,

I would like to take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome to all of the new students and families who have joined Nirimba State Primary School this semester. It is hard to believe that we are approaching the end of another term here at our school. It has been a very busy term so far with lots happening and coming up this term. Our Under 8s Day celebration was a tremendous success and it was wonderful to welcome our future Prep students and families to the event. Our staff and the P&C committee go above and beyond in organising many different opportunities and events for our students. I thank all staff and the P&C committee for all of their efforts in contributing to our great school.

I recently had the privilege of attending the District Athletics Trials where our school placed 5^th out of 16 teams. This is a remarkable achievement for our school’s first outing as an athletics team. I have also seen the dance routine our Dance Troupe has been working on in preparation for the upcoming Aura Festival and Dance X Competition that will be held at the Night Quarter in September. The Dance Troupe is doing an amazing job and I look forward to seeing them represent our school.

Thank you to all of the parents who participated in the recent School Opinion Survey through the department of education. This feedback will be incredibly useful as we start planning our long-term strategic plan for the school and I look forward to inviting feedback and input into the shaping of this strategy a bit later on this year. Our School review date through the Education Improvement Branch (EIB) of the department is scheduled for the 14^th – 16^th of November. Similarly, I have also requested an Inclusion Review and a School ‘Health Check’ to ensure that we are on the right track with ensuring our school is responsive to the needs of our diverse learners and that governance systems and processes are sound.

I am extremely pleased how our community partnerships are progressing and our intention is to offer more opportunities as we grow as a school. We currently have formal partnerships in place with Dance Energy, Caloundra Basketball, Elite Tennis International and Brazilian Skills Football. In addition to these partnerships, we have partnered with Ocean Grace – child, adult and family therapy and we look forward to welcoming a private occupational therapist who will be operating from our school. The allied health professionals operate in a private capacity from the school and it is at a family’s discretion if they choose to access these services. We also intend to broaden this initiative to include more services in the future. I would like to take this opportunity to announce as part of our school’s broadening range of services that we will be offering a playgroup for parents and younger siblings at the school – details to come.

Our school is rapidly growing with some classes already at capacity. You may recall we started the year with 161 foundation students, however this has now grown to 190 enrolments at the time of this publication. Our school is now on track to start 2023 with at least 275 students – reaching 300 students at some stage next year. As part of our growth, we have recruited excellent teachers from across the State who will be joining the Nirimba State Primary School team next year. I look forward to introducing them to the community in a newsletter publication in term 4.

Wishing you all an enjoyable rest of the term!

Yours in education

Steven Moore

Principal

Finance Reminders

Finance News

A friendly reminder to all parents and carers that school invoices for the stationery and iPad Student Resource Schemes (SRS) need to be paid for by the end of Term 3 unless a payment plan has been arranged with the school. There are still a large number of outstanding fees for the 2022 SRS, could you please ensure these are brought up to date by 16^th September 2022. We also have a number of upcoming events that require payment, please see the table below. Should you wish to discuss your payment options or initiate payment plans you can contact our Business Manager, Kylie McIntosh on 5413 7777.

Bpoint payments

When paying invoices via Bpoint please ensure that you are following the Bpoint link at the bottom of the invoice and paying each individual invoice separately. Whilst this can be time consuming, it automatically matches the invoice number to the Bpoint reference. We are currently receiving numerous payments coming through that are unallocated, therefore these are not automatically matching to student invoices and need to be manually reconciled. Thank you for your support with these matters. 

P & C

During Term 3 the P&C have been working with the school to find ways to support our families. To date the following things have been subsidised by the P&C to help families financially.
Year 5/6 Senior Shirts
Year 4/ 5/ 6 School Camps
Swimming Lessons

Fathers Day Stall: Tuesday 30th and Wednesday 31st August - Please see attached a copy of the class timetable. Items will range in price from $2 to $10 and a poster of the items will be available on our Facebook page from Wednesday, 24th August.

Fathers Day Breakfast: Thursday 1st September 7am to 8.40am - Celebrate dad with breakfast before school. Tickets will be available via Munch Monitor from Monday 22nd August. Coffees and beverages can be purchased on the morning at Kookaburra Cafe. 

Colour Run Update: Thank you to all the children and families who have joined our Colour Run fundraising campaign. We have so far raised $8083.00 towards our $20,000 goal. The funds raised through our colour run will go towards; repaying the loan taken to launch our Kookaburra Cafe (tuckshop), and subsidising excursions to reduce the cost to families for school camps and more... 

For anyone wanting to collect cash rather than fundraise through the portal, cash can just be returned to the Kookaburra Cafe with your forms closer to the Colour Run event on Friday 9th September.

If anyone has a business or knows of a business that is interested in a Colour Run advertising opportunity,  please contact our team on nirimbapandc@outlook.com for more information.

We are still on the look out for volunteers to assist in the tuckshop between 8am and 8.40am especially, but anything between 8am and 12pm would be amazing. Feel free to reach out if you are able to help in anyway.

Deputy Principal - Elise Maguire

The 2022 school year is certainly flying by! I have been in my role as Deputy Principal for over 12 months now and it’s amazing looking back and seeing just how far we have come as a brand-new school in that time. All of our students are accessing exceptional teaching and learning in our beautiful facilities, students are excelling in sport as well as The Arts and we have had so much to celebrate over the last few weeks. I am lucky enough in my role to focus on teaching and learning throughout the school along with the early years of schooling from Prep to Year 1. These last few weeks have been some of my favourite of the school year as we have focused on books, reading and everything that makes being Under 8 so special!

Our very first Book Fair was a hit in our Discovery Centre. Mrs Schultz did an amazing job setting it up and all of our students loved looking through the different books that were available for purchase. It was wonderful to hear them talk about their favourite books (the Pig the Pug series is certainly a fan favourite) and see our families involved in the fair. Thank you to all of our staff who helped run the event.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is almost finished. Students have until Friday the 26^th August to hand in their record forms. Prep to Year 4 students need to read 20 books while years 5 and 6 students need to read 15. These books can even be Home Readers that your child is bringing home! It would be great to have as many foundation students as possible complete the challenge and receive recognition from the Premier.

Book Week is coming up next week! Teachers will be doing a range of activities in the classroom to support our students develop their love of reading. The week will culminate in a dress up day and a performance by Shake and Stir on Friday. Students (and staff!) are invited to dress up as their favourite book character for the day. Those students participating in interschool sport can still dress up, they will just need to bring a change of clothes to change into. I can’t wait to see all of the creative costumes that will be on display.

Finally, a very big thank you to Mrs Williams and the Prep team for organising such a successful Under 8’s Day. It was fantastic! Not only did our students from Prep to Year 2 participate in a range of fun activities but we also welcomed some 2023 students for an afternoon of fun. Thank you to Petit Early Learning Centre who brought some of their Kindy students to participate.

Our Prep teachers have also been visiting our local Kindergarten Centres (Goodstart, Petit and Milestones) as part of our Prep Transition Program. Mrs Cumming, Mrs Beacham and Mrs Williams are enjoying getting to know some of our potential new students whilst also becoming a familiar face for our 2023 preppies. The next phase of our Transition Program is our first Orientation Day which will be held on Wednesday, 7^th September. We already have many RSVPs from our new families so make sure you book your place by contacting the school office (5413 7777). We are hoping to see as many of our 2023 Prep students as possible to support them with their transition to school.

Just a friendly reminder that Friday, 2^nd September is a Pupil Free Day. Please contact our OSH Care if you need to book your child in for the day.

Have a fantastic week!

Yours in Education,

Elise Maguire

Deputy Principal

Emagu5@eq.edu.au

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Deputy Principal - Luke Morris

And just like that, we are already halfway through Term 3. This term students have come back to school ready to engage and learn better than they did in Term 2.

In the Year 2 to 6 space, students have been eagerly engaging in their learning and really diving deep into each learning area. The teachers on each class have been vigilant in ensuring all students are accessing the curriculum at their level, giving each student the best possibility of accessing the learning they need to improve.

In 2A, students have been engaging in fun and exciting rotations. All students have been interacting with each other in a positive manner and welcoming new students into their room in a very mature manner. It has been great to all students engaging in their spelling activities in class and really working hard to master this skill.

In 3/4A students have been working extremely hard in all areas of the curriculum. It has been great to see the students working on their bookwork and ensuring they are making the most of every opportunity with their learning. I am always amazed at the expertise the students show when they are working with ICTs and engaging in their learning.

In 4/5A the students have been showing amazing work in all aspects of the classroom. These students have been busily focusing on all things English and Maths and working very hard on their vocabulary, comprehension and paragraphing.

In 5/6A students have spent some time working with the Sunshine Coast Council on the STARS program. This program has students at school working and leading the identification recycling of food, waste and recycling products within the school. Students from this class will be working with other classes to show them how to use the new bins being placed into the classrooms and to work with the cleaning team at our school to reduce the amount of recyclable waste going into landfill.

With the end of the year quickly approaching and lots of things happening, I would like to remind students and parents to ensure all notes that go home are quickly returned so that we can ensure planning is completed ready for the intended activity. Finally, with Yr4 camp approaching could students and parents please assist us by having all equipment that is taken on camp labelled so that we can easily find the owner. Have a great rest of the term.

Yours in Education

Luke Morris

Deputy Principal

Guidance Officer

Hello Nirimba Families,

I hope you are all well and enjoying the warmer weather as we approach Spring. It has been a very busy term and it’s hard to believe we are over half way through Term 3 and the school year. They say time flies when you’re having fun! Over the next few newsletters, I will be raising awareness around screen time, online safety and cyberbullying. Did you know that at 4-5 years old, children average more than two hours of screen time each week day? By 12-13 years old, this increases to more than three hours per week day and almost four hours on a weekend day. This means that up to 30% of a child’s waking time is spent in front of a screen (From Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, 2015 Report). eSafety research shows screen time is a top concern for parents of children of all ages.

How much is too much?

There is no magic figure. The right amount of screen time can depend on a range of factors like your child’s age and maturity, the kind of content they are consuming, their learning needs and your family routine.  Consider your child’s screen use in the context of their overall health and wellbeing. For example, is online time getting in the way of their sleep and exercise? Is it impacting on their face-to-face connections with family and friends? The answers to these questions will guide you and help strike the right balance of online and offline activities for your child.

Signs that your child’s online activity may be impacting on their wellbeing: 

• less interest in social activities like meeting friends or playing sport
• not doing so well at school
• tiredness, sleep disturbance, headaches, eye strain 
• changes in eating patterns
• reduced personal hygiene
• obsession with particular websites or games
• extreme anger when being asked to take a break from online activity
• appearing anxious or irritable when away from the computer
• becoming withdrawn from friends and family

7 Tips for Managing Screen Time at Home

1. Be involved

Sharing screen time and online activities like gaming with your child helps you gauge the appropriateness of what they are doing and manage potential risks. It’s also a great way to start conversations with your child about their online experiences.

1. Work with your child to set boundaries for screen use

If you decide that setting screen time limits is right for you and your child, discuss these new rules with your child. Older children are more likely to cooperate if they have been part of the decision-making process. Colourful pictures or charts of daily limits and other important activities is a fun way to get younger children on board.

1. Be clear about the consequences of not switching off

Part of our role as parents is to set clear limitations and boundaries. The same applies to technology limitations so, being clear and consistent about the consequences for your child is important.

1. Set device-free zones and times at home

Device-free zones can help you manage your family’s digital use. Here are some ideas for setting digital boundaries within your home:

• no devices in the bedroom for younger children
• all screens off in bedrooms after a certain time for older children
• all screens off at least one hour before planned bedtime
• all family members switch off at dinner time
• charge devices overnight in a place your child cannot access

1. Ask your child to explain their screen use

Get your child into the habit of explaining why they want to be in front of a screen or online. It’s a great way to get them thinking about their own digital habits and balancing screen time with other activities.

1. Use tech tools to help manage access

There are products and device functions which allow you to see which apps are being used in your home and for how long. Be open about the process and check the whole family’s usage, including your own.

1. Lead by example

Your behaviour is one of the most effective ways to help your child develop a positive digital mindset. Show your child you can put down your device too

(Adapted from eSafetyparents factsheet – Screen time for your child 7 tips)

www.esafety.gov.au/parents

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Premier’s Reading Challenge

The 2022 Premier’s Reading Challenge is almost finished! Our students have until Friday, 26^th August to complete the challenge and hand in their forms. It would be wonderful to get as many Foundation Nirimba students to complete the challenge as possible. At the moment 3/4A have a 100% completion rate - Well done! Following closely behind are Prep C on 47%.

Prep to Year 4 students need to read 20 books and those students in years 5 and 6 need to read 15.

Get reading and make sure your forms are handed in by Friday, 26^th August.

Positive Behaviour for Learning - PB4L

A warm hello from the Positive Behaviour for Learning team. You may notice that at our assemblies we share our lesson focus for behaviour. These lessons are planned from the start of the year and are implemented based on the needs of our students. This term we will focus on:

• Respecting others’ differences by being kind
• Being safe by using our hands and feet appropriately
• We use polite language and good manners
• We play by the agreed rules and show good sportsmanship
• We report inappropriate behaviour to a trusted adult

These lessons are designed to support students in making safe and respectful choices to help them with their decision making inside and outside of school.

Do you know what the benefits are for using a Positive Behaviour for Learning framework in our school?  This framework helps our school to:

• Be consistent in the way we support and respond to student behaviour
• Develop clear expectations and boundaries for students
• Differentiate our behaviour support according to the individual needs of our students

Finally, in Week 5, we ran another successful Burra Bucks shop where our students had the opportunity to cash in their “Burra Bucks” for recognition of their great actions in Being Safe, Being a Learner and Being Respectful. We would love it if families could adopt some of this language at home when you recognise great efforts in these areas.

Keep up the great work Nirimba Students!

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Sports News from Mr C

District Athletics:

On the 28^th and 29^th July, 28 students from Years 3 – 6 represented Nirimba at the Glasshouse District Athletics Carnival. This was the first Athletics Carnival we participated in as a school and we achieved some fantastic results. The highlight results being that Evie (4/5A) placed 3^rd in the 9 Years Girls 80m, Amelie (5/6A) placed 3^rd in the 12 Years Girls 1500m, 2^nd in the 800m, 2^nd in the 200m and 1^st in the 100m, Finn (4/5A) placed 3^rd in the 10 Years Boys 800m. Amelie was also named Age Champion for the 12 Years Girls and as a school we finished 5^th overall in the running for the aggregate trophy which was an outstanding achievement! Every student who participated was a credit to themselves and the school! Great job Team Nirimba!

Amelie will now represent Glasshouse District at the Sunshine Coast Regional Athletics Carnival on the 31^st August and 1^st September. All the best, Amelie!

Interschool Sport – Week 9:

On the 7^th September, the Nirimba Sports Complex is hosting the Billy Moore Central Rugby League Gala Day. Information around this event will be handed to Year 5 and 6 students over the next week.

School Swimming – Term 4:

Earlier this week, swimming notes were sent home to families in relation to school swimming that will happen over the first 5 weeks of Term 4. All students from Prep – Year 6 will participate in swimming lessons. If you have any questions in relation to swimming, please contact the office and I’m happy to help with any queries you may have.

Students in Year 1/2A playing a game of ‘Run The Gauntlet’ as part of the Term 3 PE unit where they are working on the fundamental movement skills of dodging and running.

The Arts

Congratulations to the Prep students and Choir for a courageous and charismatic performance for Under 8’s Day. We had a couple of technical issues with microphones and main characters being away sick, but I was proud of how the students stepped up and carried on. We had lots of fun. Thank you to the parents for your support and encouragement.

This semester in Music we will be looking at world music, music technology, musical stories and more. We have been exploring lots of Australian Indigenous music this term too. It was wonderful for the students to experience music and cultural knowledge first-hand from Indigenous artist Majeda Beatty during NAIDOC week.

In Drama, Preps have been discovering different types of homes and characters with role play. Year 1/2 are just about to jump into playing with shadow puppet techniques. Year 2 have been loving drama games this term and we will be exploring stories based on their own cherished memories.

Year 3/4 are ‘Watching Wildlife’ for dance inspiration and have started creating costumes for their animals. Year 5/6 are developing some sophisticated dance ideas exploring symmetry and using artworks as a started point.

Please come along and watch our Dance Troupe compete at Dance X at Night Quarter, Sunday September 11, 9am. Tickets are $15 for adults and free for under 8s, there is no allocated seating. We will be holding auditions for the 2023 Dance Troupe in week 10 this term. This will be open to current year 2-5 students, as we plan for a new competition piece and other dance projects for 2023.

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Japanese 日本語

During Term 3 in Japanese Club we have been looking at some traditional games and activities that children would play in Japan.

Students have tried けんだま(kendama) andふく(fuku)わらい(warai) , practising very hard to become more skilled! Some decided to again make おりがみ(origami) while others decided to practice their Japanese hiragana alphabet by playing Blooket.

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Dental Van coming soon....

Prep A - Mrs Cumming

Prep A have been busy learning about the weather and how it affects the lives of people and animals. We have been conducting Science experiments such as “A Walking Rainbow”, exploring how the primary colours mix to make other colours and “Rain in a Bag” where we showed how condensation forms in the clouds to make rain. We have also been using different painting and printing techniques to create Visual Artworks about the weather. The creativity and thirst for learning is always high in Prep A!

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Prep B - Mrs Beacham

"Weather Watch"

Our Science Inquiry this term focuses on observing the weather around us. Prep B students have been learning what weather is and how the weather affects us. We have been using our senses to explore and make daily observations about the weather in our local environment. This week students created weather collages as a visual art activity. In these lessons we talked about colour and texture and experimented with different materials, techniques, technologies and processes to make our wonderful artworks. We are very proud at of our work!

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Prep C - Mrs Williams

"What does 100 look like ?"

Prep C celebrated their 100 Days of School by exploring the inquiry question; What does 100 look like? Students shared and compared bags of 100 objects, created different items made of 100 things and participated in a lap of the playground on the 100 Fitness Trail, completing 10 lots of 10 different movements. It was a fabulous day full of 100!

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1/2 - Miss Khan

This Term in English 1/2A are listening to and retelling cultural stories. Students wrote a retell of ‘When the Snake Bites the Sun’ in their English books. They then used Book Creator on their iPads to create a digital book. Students demonstrated a range of skills they have learnt this term such as typing texts, using different font styles, changing the size of texts and creating images to match their retell.

Student sample: written and illustrated by Marlowe Masoe.

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2A - Miss Rountree

"Good Vibrations"

Our Science Inquiry this term focuses on exploring light and sound. Year 2 students have been thinking like scientists during hands on investigations as they explore how sound is produced when something vibrates. They constructed cup-phones and used 100’s and 1000’s to help them “See” vibrations. Students created water instruments to demonstrate how soundwaves can produce a low sound, or a high-sound, through the speed that the soundwaves are vibrating. Students also used Makey-Makey to construct a playdough piano to demonstrate and share their understanding of pitch. This week, students engaged in design thinking to meet the brief of their STEAM challenge. Children worked in groups, each taking on a different role, to construct a working drum in the given timeframe. I was impressed by the creative and collaborative thinking that students demonstrated during the challenge.

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3/4 - Mr Kolanowski

Semester Two has been off to an amazing start in 3/4A!

We have been engaging in lots of hands on activities to consolidate our learning and experience new concepts.

We are starting our new STEAM unit focussing on sustainability and repurposing materials. Our end goal in the unit is to plan, design and prototype our own vehicles using repurposed materials that are capable of transporting cargo!

Last week, we were looking at 3D shapes. What better way to explore materials, properties and design thinking than creating our own 3D shapes using a variety of materials. Some more appropriate than others!

Towards the end of the term, Mr K will put the call out to parents for required recyclables that will be transformed and repurposed into vehicles!

Exciting times ahead! 

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4/5 Mr Perrin

               Hi families, Term 3 is quickly passing us by. I cannot believe we are halfway to camp already! In class this term, we have been tackling a variety of new subjects across all of our learning areas.

Our numeracy focuses have covered chance, geometry, measurement and as always, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It has been wonderful to utilise the physical space available to us to explore the room, discovering the angles and shapes present in our room.

In English, we are reading the quest novel, Rowan of Rin. Our goal is to analyse the language features used by the author and how they are used to represent a main character and setting from the text. The in-depth discussions happening on a daily basis have been a highlight for me this term.

We have been lucky enough to have Mr. Moore in our classroom to teach us the use of VCOP (Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation) to analyse and enhance our writing. In the short time we have been using this approach we are already seeing improvements in our writing.

During reading rotations, we are using different methods to enhance our reading accuracy and fluency. One of our groups rehearsed and performed a play based on their guided reader for the week. From the initial read of the text to the final performance, each student has demonstrated outstanding growth in a short amount of time.

Finally, in Science, the Year Five students have been studying light. Each week we research the theory behind different light theories, including reflection and refraction. These theory lessons are followed by an experiment to solidify our understanding.

It was a been a busy but rewarding start to Term 3. There is plenty more to come this term and beyond. Well done to all of the students for giving their best efforts every day.

Regards

Mr Perrin

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Year 5/6

Welcome to Term 3! 

5/6A have started the term off in English with all things Poetry.  We have explored literary pieces that have been written by AB Patterson and we have analysed the bush poet’s way of including our wonderful rich Australian history. In literacy rotations we have focussed on our inferring skills, spelling knowledges, poetic devices and reading for enjoyment. In Mathematics, we started with chance and probability and had fun using skittles to complete our investigations. We then progressed to measurement focussing on area, perimeter and converting between measurements for mass, capacity and length. We will finish our term off learning more about number, shape and geometry.

In Year 5 Science, students are exploring light and shadows and will eventually use this knowledge to make a maze out of mirrors and light reflection. Year 6, Science has started with exploring energy transformations and will finish with making electrical circuits. Our HASS units will focus on the connections between Australia and our Asian partners, in particular Indonesia. The unit of learning will also explore mapping skills and locating places on a map using longitude and latitude. Digital Technologies will have a strong focus on using technology to create an information brochure that will share details about a healthy food / meal choice. Students have been enjoying creating Minecraft worlds to show their knowledge and understanding of the five food groups.

In week 4, we also experienced a “High School Experience Day” at Baringa Secondary College.  I was lucky enough to attend the day with all the students which gave all Year 5 and 6 students a taste of a day in the life of a high school student.  The students completed their first circle time in base camp sharing what they are grateful for. They then moved to lessons in Art, Dance/Drama, Humanities, Technologies and even shared lunchtimes with some of their soon to be peers in 2023 or 2024. The entire day was wonderful and a huge thank you to Mr Sampson, Ms Harris and the Baringa team of teachers for making us all feel so welcome.

This term we also welcomed Alissa, Matteo, Sophia and Maddie into our 5/6A family. They have been such a wonderful addition to our class and we look forward to their valuable contributions for the remainder of the year. As a class, we also worked through our Social Emotional Learning where we discussed and role played ways to solve problems. These rich discussions have helped with handling situations more positively in the classroom, in the playground and also online.  Such a great term so far with more exciting things to look forward to in the coming weeks and months.

Yours in Learning

Mrs McKenna

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