MacGregor State School Newsletter 2024 - Edition 12
From the Principal
Dear Parents & caregivers,
This week I had the privilege of being part of the review team at Upper Coomera State School which is a P-12 school in the northern Gold Coast Region. The college has an effective enrolment of over 1700 students and it was great learning for me to observe how such a large school operates.
Yours in Equity & Excellence,
Mr. Lee Gerchow
Principal
Student & Community Safety
We continue to receive complaints about parents driving and parking in an unsafe manner when dropping off or picking up their children at school. The safest place to do this is the Drop n Go zone in front of the admin block. As with most large schools in busy urban locations, the school has no designated parent parking areas.
Most issues appear to be in the Sunny Park carpark and in the streets surrounding MOSHC, with drivers speeding, double parking, blocking access for other vehicles and parents allowing their children to walk through busy traffic areas unaccompanied or neglecting to use the pedestrian crossings.
As one parent said to me recently ‘it is not a case of IF someone gets injured but WHEN’.
The school has no jurisdiction in these areas nor any capacity to patrol or supervise in a public carpark.
Please ensure that if you insist on using the Sunny Park Carpark as a drop off and pickup zone for either the school or MOSHC that you behave in a safe and considerate manner – your child’s safety and that of others is at stake.
Prep and Year One
Welcome to Week 4!
As we are experiencing unusually cold weather at the moment, it is important that your child is dressed appropriately for school to stay warm and comfortable. Our Uniform Shop stocks appropriate uniform items for winter months. Please ensure that all uniforms are clearly labelled and comply with the school’s uniform policy.
I have also noticed an increased number of children coming to school without hats. To keep all students sun safe, children without hats will be asked to play undercover. Please help us promote Sun Safety by ensuring your child comes to school with their hat.
Please be reminded that the playgrounds are out-of-bounds before and after school. Please help us to deliver a consistent message to our learners and keep them safe.
“Ryan’s Magic Show”
Last Thursday, I was invited to visit a “Magic Show” in 1H. Mrs Keating and Ms Bailey joined me for this special event. We were absolutely impressed by Ryan’s presentation, his magic tricks and the manner in which he conducted himself. Ryan joined our school at the end of last year, knowing only a few words in English. Less than 12 months later, Ryan’s language skills and his confidence are impressive and worth celebrating. Ryan is a prime example of how quickly children learn in an environment that is supportive and inclusive. Congratulations to Ryan, 1H for being such a wonderful audience, Cora for being Ryan’s trusted assistant during the show and to Miss Dawson for providing the children with the opportunities to learn through play. The Magic Show surely made our day last week.
Ms Skipage and Prep F are in the process of designing and creating their own city. Not only they are learning about the Bird’s-Eye view (a view from above) as part of their HASS unit, they are working together and collaboratively making decisions about what their city is going to look like, incorporating real-life experiences and knowledge. Stay tuned as this city is growing and developing each day!
Prep C are very busy writing about their favourite stories and how these stories make them feel. I was impressed by the quality of writing and the level of vocabulary our Prep learners are using to write about their favourite books. The engagement, enthusiasm, ownership and pride are very evident in the work below. Congratulations to Mrs Reid and her learners!
2025 Prep Enrolments
On Tuesday, 30 July, we delivered our second 2025 Prep Parent School Tour and Information session. Over 100 participants attended the presentation, learning about MacGregor State School and what our wonderful school has to offer. Thank you to our amazing Staff, P&C, MOSHC and Donald Swimming for the support on the night.
Next week, we are commencing our first round of Prep Enrolment Interviews and look forward to meeting our potential Prep learners for 2025.
A reminder to all families who reside in the catchment area or already have children at MacGregor State School, to submit enrolment applications for eligible children to commence Prep in 2025. Your prompt response will assist the school with staffing and class planning for 2025. If you have questions about the enrolment process, please do not hesitate to contact Marcia Crichton (mcric14@eq.edu.au).
Year Two and Three
Key Dates
Monday 29th July 12.35pm
Monday12th August 12.35pm
Monday 26th August 12.35pm
There are no assemblies on Monday 2nd and Monday 9th September
A reminder that students must wear their formal uniform to assembly each week.
Incursions & Excursions
Year 2 – Dr Cameron Stelzer
Year 3 – Street Science
Special School Events
Tuesday 13th August – P&C Fun Run 2pm – 3pm
Public Holiday
Wednesday 14th August EKKA Show Day
Student Free Day
Friday 30 August
Welcome to the new recipe section of the newsletter. We hope you enjoy trialling these recipes.
Gluten-free cheesy corn & capsicum muffins Ingredients (11) · 500ml (2 cups) milk Method 1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Line 12 80ml (1/3 cup) muffin tins with muffin cases 2. Place 375ml (1 1/2 cups) of the milk in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the polenta and stir for 1 minute. Set aside, stirring occasionally, to cool slightly. 3. Meanwhile, heat oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add capsicum and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until softened. Transfer to a bowl. Add corn and shallot and toss until well combined. 4. Whisk flour, baking powder and seasoning in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle. Add eggs, polenta mixture and remaining milk. Season and stir to combine. Stir through half the capsicum, corn, cheese and green shallot. 5. Divide mixture among prepared holes. Scatter with remaining capsicum mixture. Bake for 17 minutes or until golden and set. Allow to cool and sprinkle with extra shallots before serving. |
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Teaching and Learning Focus
Phonemic Awareness – Key to Reading Success
At MacGregor State School, we use the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness program.
Understanding Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds—phonemes—in spoken words. It is a critical skill for learning to read and spell, serving as the foundation for phonics, which involves the relationship between sounds and their written symbols.
Why Phonemic Awareness Matters
Research has shown that phonemic awareness is a strong predictor of later reading success. Children who develop this skill early on tend to become proficient readers. By focusing on phonemic awareness, you are helping your child build essential skills that will support their reading and writing development.
Activities to Promote Phonemic Awareness at Home:
- Rhyming Games
- Play games that involve rhyming words, such as finding words that rhyme with “cat” (e.g., bat, hat, mat). Rhyming helps children focus on the sounds within words.
- Sound Matching
- Gather a collection of small objects or pictures. Have your child group items that start with the same sound. For example, a picture of a dog, a doll, and a dinosaur all start with the /d/ sound
- Clapping Syllables
- Clap out the syllables in different words together. Start with simple words like "apple" (ap-ple) and move on to more complex ones
- Sound Isolation
- Ask your child to identify the first sound in a word. For example, “What is the first sound in ‘dog’?” (Answer: /d/). Then move on to identifying last and middle sounds.
- Sound Blending
- Play a game where you say the individual sounds of a word slowly (e.g., /c/ - /a/ - /t/) and have your child blend them together to say the word ("cat").
- Segmenting Sounds
- Reverse the blending activity by saying a word and asking your child to break it into its individual sounds. For example, “What sounds do you hear in ‘sun’?” (Answer: /s/ - /u/ - /n/)
- Sound Manipulation
- Challenge your child to change one sound in a word to make a new word. For example, “What word do you get if you change the /b/ in ‘bat’ to /c/?” (Answer: cat).
Cotton Ball Olympics: Bringing the Spirit of Competition to 3G's Maths Lessons
3G is diving into the Olympic spirit by incorporating the competitive nature of the games into our maths lessons. This week, we kicked off our measurement unit with a focus on length, and what better way to make learning fun and engaging than with the Cotton Ball Olympics!
The Cotton Ball Olympics featured four different events, each designed to get the students actively involved in estimating and measuring lengths. Students participated, estimating the distance their cotton ball travelled before measuring the actual distance.
Through these activities, students practiced key skills such as making predictions, measuring accurately, and recording data. We also calculated the difference in our estimates to see if there was a trend in the data. The Cotton Ball Olympics also fostered teamwork and communication as students worked together to ensure fair measurements and encouraged one another.
QPARENTS
QParents is a great App that all parents can download to assist in a range of services whilst your child is at our school.
The main purpose of using QParents is to grant permission for your child to participate in excursions, activities, camps and extracurricular events.
If you choose not to register for QParents, you will need to complete a hard copy of the form at the school office each time a permission where it is required for your child/ren.
QParents is a user-friendly portal accessible via app or web browser, providing parents with secure online access to information about their child's state schooling.
QParents allows you to access and manage information online about your child including:
- online permission forms
- report cards
- attendance records and absences
- invoices with online payments.
The benefits of using QParents include
- access anytime, anywhere via a smart phone, tablet or computer
- access to the latest information in one central place
- improved administration efficiencies with fewer individual emails, central secure record of parent responses and more effective communication
- elimination of issues with junk email and spam for excursions and invoices.
Health and Wellbeing
Illnesses
With cold and flu season quickly approaching, please remember to look after yourself and your family. While we want all of our students at school every day sometimes, this isn’t possible.
If your child is showing any signs of illness, then please keep them at home so they can rest and recuperate. The school will be contacting families if your child is showing signs of illness or complaining that they are not feeling well during the day. Please ensure that all your contact details are up to date so we can contact you if we need to.
Year Four and Five
As we move through the term, I want to congratulate the Year 4 and 5 students in showing their responsible behaviour in IT. As we have recently had cold weather, there is lots of coughs and colds going around. Please ensure your children are well enough to attend school – we understand sometimes it is hard juggling work commitments, but if they are unwell at school we will phone you anyway.
Year 4
Invoices have now been sent out for the Waste Management excursion. Please ensure you make payment on time. If you are still outstanding with consent, this needs to be actioned as soon as possible to ensure you have time to make payment.
4A: We say goodbye to Mrs Jones as she finishes her contract whilst Mrs Cowan was on Long Service Leave. Mrs Cowan will be back on Monday.
Year 5
Student Leadership program: Next week we will announce who is successful moving forward in the Leadership program. We had a large number of students apply which was amazing.
Year 5 Camp: I am finalising the paperwork for our camp and hope to have the online consent set up next week. Please share with your children the information sent home last week so they are aware of the place they are going. If you have any financial issues, please don’t assume that means your child can’t attend. If we know we can work with you to support your family.
Prep buddies: Year 5 and the Prep classes have been working together. This afternoon, Prep C and 5__ Prep Olympics together.
News from the library
We are very keen to get a group of parent volunteers to support Mrs Pelyni in the library, returning the books between 8.45-10am and returning books to the shelves from 2-3pm. Other jobs may involve covering new books so they can get on the shelves quicker. If you would be able to offer your support, please contact me on skeat33@eq.edu.au and I will arrange a time with Mrs Pelyni.
Year Six
I have absolutely loved getting into learning with the Year 6 English unit this term! With a focus on all aspects of creating a vlog on a topic students are passionate about, I have jumped on board by sharing Ms Bailey’s Weekly reMINDer Vlog!
Combining my passion and advocacy for online safety, each Monday morning I release a vlog that the students can collaboratively provide feedback on, answer questions about and practice writing back to me with their teacher using the ‘Comment’ option. The online safety message has been leading with, ‘Who is your shepherd?’ Who are the people looking over you, protecting you and keeping you aware of potential risks or danger?
And, I may have included a special guest or two!
Whilst these vlogs have been entertaining, the message remains for our students (and parents) – ‘Who are your shepherds and how are they keeping you safe?’
Don’t forget, parents can be great ‘shepherds’ for the children by visiting: https://www.esafety.gov.au/
A FREE OPEN Invitation to parents, teachers, community members
With a focus on children’s mental health in the digital age, this will be a compelling seminar that educators, medical practitioners, digital leaders, parents and allied professionals are encouraged to engage with.
This is an authentic opportunity for you to be part of the conversations, challenges and solutions required to ensure our young learners are safe, well and engaged in life in healthy ways. This seminar hosts credible speakers who are seeking to raise the profile of the need to keep our children safe online – a whole of community approach.
For your convenience and information go to:
https://events.humanitix.com/mastering-children-s-mental-health-in-the-digital-age
What are our School Captains up to?
Watch this space as they work behind the scenes to bring our community together for the benefit of those less fortunate than us….coming soon!
2024 Year 6 Graduation + End of Year Farewell *Date Claimer*
Please note in your calendars the 2024 Year 6 Graduation event will be held on Wednesday 4th December at Nissan Arena. This will be an evening event again for the whole family (including extended family!). More details will be provided over the ensuing weeks.
The Year 6 End of Primary School Farewell will be held on Thursday 5th December from 2pm. This will be a whole school event – Year 6 parents welcome to attend.
School Captains Corner
Welcome back to our School Captains Corner! This week, we are sharing more about Sarah and Inba!
My name is Sarah
My School Captain position is Sustainability Captain
I have been at MacGregor for six years – this is my seventh!
My favourite activity outside of school is doing arts and crafts because it helps me relax, and sports. This is something that I’m proud of in this school.
A charity I think we should fundraise for is The Children’s Hospital so kids with serious injuries could have an opportunity to be healthy again.
In Year 6 I am most looking forward to the camp in Canberra!
We can make our school a better place by cleaning up after ourselves like picking up rubbish and being tidy.
My name is Inba
My School Captain position is Sports Captain
I have been at MacGregor SS for six years.
What my friends call me….Inba
My favourite activity outside of school is cricket
Something that I love the most about MacGregor SS is the range of opportunities
What I’d like to do when I finish school is study astro-physics and become an astro-physicist
A charity that I think we should fundraise for is Doctors Without Borders
In Year 6 I am most looking forward to being the last grade in primary and being a Sports Captain
We can make the world a better place by ceasing the use of fossil fuels and using a cleaner source of energy
We can make our school a better place by adding more plants as they boost peoples happiness
My favourite movie is Mission: Impossible
Paula Davoren Bursary
* APPLICATIONS CLOSE FRIDAY 2ND AUGUST *
https://macgregorss.eq.edu.au/our-community/the-paula-davoren-bursary
In conjunction with MacGregor State High School and the Lion’s Club of Brisbane (MacGregor), one student in Year 6 will be the recipient of the Paula Davoren Bursary. Please visit learn more about the application process – the bursary is open to any student who will be enrolling at MacGregor State High School for Year 7 in 2025.
Inclusion Team Update
Deadly Choices Cooking : Kangaroo Burgers and Fruit Salad
This term our indigenous students are learning all about cooking with indigenous and healthy ingredients. Over the last two weeks the students have learnt about the Healthy Diet Pyramid and the five food groups. They have worked together to create a healthy kangaroo burger and fruit salad. They all agreed that the healthy alternates to fast food options tasted much better.
Link to Kangaroo burger recipe:
https://k-roo.com.au/recipes/healthy-kangaroo-burger/
Finance
Hello from our Chappy Mr T.
Hi MacGregor School Family. Hope you are having a good week so far.
During second break Wed-Fri, I open up my room in Harmony Place for all to come in and play. The kids can draw and colour in, play puzzles/board games, draw on a giant white board, play Lego and read books.
Its to help kids form friendships in the room and give a safe place for them to play. I supervise the room and play with the children. If you know your child is alone during lunch time, encourage them to come to the Chappy Room in Harmony Place in Lunch 2 on a Wed, Thu, Fri.
As always, I'm contactable via email - bthie14@eq.edu.au
Mac Shack News
Volunteers Needed
The Mac Snack Shack needs your help to keep our tuckshop running smoothly and efficiently. We are looking for volunteers who can spare a few hours a week to assist in the tuckshop. No experience necessary, just a friendly smile and a willingness to learn. Please follow this link to sign up – https://msspc.org.au/tuck-shop/
Online Ordering
Flexischools continues to be the fastest and easiest way to place orders. You can sign up online at https://flexischools.com.au/parents or download the Flexischools app. Orders must be placed before 8.30am for same day orders. Alternatively, you can order up to a month in advance.
Term Two Menu 2024
There is a new menu for term 2 2024. The tuckshop will continue to make our most popular daily specials. New daily specials are available, as well as new items added to our regular menu. Take a look at the new menu here https://msspc.org.au/tuck-shop/
Uniform Shop
Volunteers - we desperately need some extra help, especially on a Monday morning. If you are interested in getting involved, please email me at uniformshop@msspc.org.au or visit us at the shop when open.
Winter stock - Microfibre Jackets are now back in stock.
Legionnaire caps (green) - sold out. We are expecting a delivery later this week (hopefully).
Second-hand stock - we are running low on second-hand items. If you have any that you would like to donate, please bring to the Uniform Shop on either Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays.
Road Safety
