MacGregor State School Newsletter 2023 Edition 1

Safety Online

With the holidays almost upon us, I urge parents to be vigilant in monitoring their child’s online activity.

Regrettably we have been alerted to inappropriate activity with a group of MacGregor State School Year 6 students using the online chat platform, DISCORD outside of school hours and sometimes late at night.    

To understand more about DISCORD, please visit the Australian Government endorsed e-Safety Commissioner’s website:

• About DISCORD: https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide/discord
• About Cyberbullying: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/issues-and-advice/cyberbullying

As a school, we have limited control to intervene with this chat group but we are asking parents to please monitor and be vigilant about how your child interacts with these types of social communication tools in your home.

You may find that students are indicating to you that the platform is for school use, however, please note that there are no approved chat forums approved for curriculum teaching and learning at MacGregor SS.

We ask you to speak with your child and reinforce the safe use of online communication and social media in a positive and supportive way as children of this age are still learning and therefore not always aware of how their choices may constitute cyberbullying or inappropriate behaviour. They will benefit from knowing that they can talk to you safely as online chats are significantly different to talking face-to-face as we know.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/ is educative for both parents and children and are a great reference point for families who may not know how to start the conversation about safe online use.

Support for all families: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/resources/online-safety-for-every-family allows you to select your first Language allowing this information to be more accessible to our broader community.

Recent research into this area indicates that the average age that children are exposed to explicit online content is 11 years.  As parents I am sure this statistic alarms you as much as it does us.  Some tips around monitoring your child’s online activity include:

• Ensuring that devices are accessed where you can see the screen, for example at the kitchen table or at a workstation located in the main part of the home and not behind a closed bedroom door.
• Establishing strict bedtime routines such as limiting access to all devices after a certain time in the afternoon or evening or switching off Wi-Fi access after a certain time.
• Research from the National Sleep Foundations indicates that screentime (on laptops, iPads and cell phones) should end at least thirty minutes before bed.

At MacGregor State School we place a high priority on ensuring that our students are safe at all times.  In order to do this, we need to work closely with our families to ensure that this protection is provided outside of school hours as well.

It’s Flu Season – Stay Safe!

Influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial viruses, can result in significant disruption to schools. There are things you can do to help protect yourself and your children:

• Get vaccinated is the most effective way to prevent children and adults from getting flu, becoming seriously ill with flu or passing it on to others.
• Stay at home when sick – see the Timeout brochure
• Practice good hand hygiene wash hands regularly with soap and water or use alcohol-based cleanser
• Practice good respiratory hygiene cough or sneeze into a tissue or your arm, throw tissues away and clean hands
• Clean surfaces regularly
• Ensure good ventilation

Learning in Prep 

Our Prep students have been having a great time learning in the classroom. During PMP (Perceptual Motor Program), they are learning new skills and how to work together safely. In Science, they have been discovering different animals and where they live, which included the farm at Trevena. They have also been reading and retelling wonderful fairy tales, which they find very interesting. It's really exciting to see how much they enjoy learning and how much they are learning about different things.  

Year 1 in the Classroom

In Year 1, students had lots of exciting classroom adventures that helped them grow their creativity and writing skills. They learned how to write step-by-step instructions for making things like jam sandwiches, popcorn, pencil pets, frog in a pond, banana bread, and lemonade. They also enjoyed making cute pet rocks that showed off their own unique styles. The classrooms were filled with excitement as the students proudly showed off their creations. It was amazing to see their enthusiasm and progress as they learned important writing skills while having fun.

Year 1 Music

During music classes this term, the Year 1 students had an absolute blast exploring the world of bucket drumming. The students wholeheartedly enjoyed the experience, immersing themselves in the lively rhythms while playing along to the piece of Radetzky March. It was a wonderful opportunity for them to express their creativity and develop a deeper appreciation for music.

Junior Sports Day

Monday's Junior Sports Day brought an immense amount of enjoyment to our Prep-Year 2 students as they enthusiastically participated in various activities. The day was filled with countless smiles, boundless energy and an overwhelming sense of excitement. It was with great pride that MacArthur was announced the 2023 Junior Sports Day Champion.

Under 8’s Day

On the 17th of May, our school celebrated a remarkable Under 8's Day under the theme "You, Me & Our Communities." The day was filled with many engaging activities that ignited the imagination of our youngest learners. From hand printing and gardening to exploring the wonders of the tech lounge, face painting, interacting with a police car, fire brigade truck and ambulance officer, the children were immersed in a world of adventure. They even had the chance to get up close with farm animals and participate in AFL and NRL activities.

Prep to Year 2 Athletics Carnival

Students from Prep to Year 2 this week participated in their athletics carnival on the school oval. Participating in a range of events including sprint races, ball games, sack races and obstacles course.  The students had an amazing day challenging themselves and giving it their best shot.

Congratulations to MacArthur house who were the champion house on the day.

Out of this world adventures in 3E & F

Some very special intergalactic packages have been delivered to 3EF over the past few weeks. We are receiving letters from Pleta from Pluto who is travelling through space visiting all of the planets on his way to Earth. He is asking questions about Earth and we are researching cool Earth facts and sending information back to him via rocket post. So much universe, so little time!

Exploring new ideas and concepts in 2D

Students in 2D have been busy exploring many new concepts in their learning.  They have been interacting with the display from Queensland Museum, creating dynamic learning environments outside their classroom and used a range of different techniques to measure objects in their classroom, including a snakeskin from the Museum.

Hands on learning in 2B

Hands on learning in 2B is a fun and exciting time when the students get to explore new concepts in a supportive and collaborative way.  This dynamic approach allows the children to tackle their work in a supportive way, engaging with their peers to share ideas. 

ICAS 2023 at MacGregor State School

If you would like your child to participate in ICAS 2023 as a MacGregor SS student, please keep an eye out for registration details that will be shared early next term.

We are currently reviewing how we have offered ICAS in the past however we don’t anticipate any major changes.

National Reconciliation Week

Year 4CD and 5AB students discussed around reconciliation and how we can share culture and knowledge and build up on a shared history.

Solar Power Pizza Ovens

5D have been busy making solar powered Pizza ovens of different 3D shapes and successfully cooking pizza.

BOGGLE

4F start off their day with a game of boggle - Mr CC puts up some letters on the board and the students have a time limit to come up with as many different words as they can make

Chess

On Tuesday 6^th June, 28 students represented MacGregor State School competing at Brisbane Primary Logan Interschool Chess Tournament term 2 2023. Our Team 1 won 1st place 🥇 in top level Premier Division. Team 4 won 3rd place in Open B Division. Team 6 won 3rd place in Open C Division. Team 7 won 3rd place in Open D.  All players represented MacGregor with pride, displaying great sportsmanship by wishing their opponents good luck and thanking them after the game regardless of the results.

ICAS 2023 at MacGregor State School

If you would like your child to participate in ICAS 2023 as a MacGregor SS student, please keep an eye out for registration details that will be shared early next term.

We are currently reviewing how we have offered ICAS in the past however we don’t anticipate any major changes.

Transition to Secondary

Recently, I had the chance to meet staff and students of MacGregor State High School. I spent time out and about during break times and was able to wander through classrooms and learning spaces to see teaching and learning in action in one of our local secondary schools.

I was incredibly impressed by the students – from Years 7 to Year 12, they demonstrated politeness, welcoming and genuine curiosity to see a new face in their setting.

It was really nice to see how our 2022 Year 6’s settled in with many of them coming up for a chat and sharing how they’re going. The 2022 Paula Daveron Bursary recipient, Claire was spotted in Industrial Design. Here she was able to share a project she was working in and provide feedback on life as a Year 7 student at MacGregor State High School.

We are currently planning transition to secondary opportunities for MacGregor State School students enrolled or considering enrolment at MacGregor State High School. Keep an eye for information coming home in Term 3.

Camp Mapleton

Year 6 Camp to Mapleton and Australia Zoo is well and truly underway. We have finalised our plan for the two full days on Camp. Early next term we will be sending home ‘What to Pack’ information so that you can plan ahead with your child.

Having been on camp with these students in Term 4, 2022 I have no doubt they will be super organised and ready to go in Week 6 of Term 3.

It will be chilly up in the hinterland so make sure your child has some warm clothing organised.           

Reader’s Cup 2023

The 2023 Year 6 Reader’s Cup team have recently competed in the local competition up against 29 schools from our local region.

Over the past 10 weeks, the team have been practicing weekly under the guidance and support of Mrs McShanag. All members of the competition team and the reserves have turned each up week well read, well organised and ready to practice. They were required to read five chapter books each and then be able to answer questions based on each of the texts.  

Our team did a fantastic job on the day – placing 6^th, our players were challenged but hung in their with the MacGregor State School fighting spirit.

Thank you to Mrs McShanag who supported our 2023 team from start to finish.

Year 6 Open Classrooms – Celebration of Learning

Thank you to the families who were able to attend our afternoon of open Year 6 classrooms. It was lovely to see the students proudly sharing their achievements from this semester.

We look forward to planning another opportunity in Semester 2 for our families to step into their child’s class so we can continue to celebrate their learning with you.

Thank you to our teachers for offering this opportunity. Your commitment to our Year 6 learners and their growth was visible in each of the classrooms on Tuesday afternoon.

ICAS 2023 at MacGregor State School

If you would like your child to participate in ICAS 2023 as a MacGregor SS student, please keep an eye out for registration details that will be shared early next term.

We are currently reviewing how we have offered ICAS in the past however we don’t anticipate any major changes.

Respectful Behaviour

We continue to support our Year 6 students as they navigate the reality of the on-line world. Whilst we do have very clear expectations regarding technology use at school and for educational purposes, we are also providing support for our students as they learn how to engage online respectfully – towards themselves and towards others.

Click here for a copy of the Australian Government’s e-safety Commissioner’s webinar resources for parents. These webinars give parents and carers the knowledge, skills and tools to support their children to have safe online experiences. From Term 3, the webinars include a broad range of topics that are delivered by their education and training team.

Our Guidance Officer, Megan Brodie and I will be participating in educator webinars so that we can ensure we are using the right language and supports when our students are faced with challenges when interacting online.

Reporting

Academic reporting occurs at the end of Term Two and Term Four and communicates information to parents and students about student achievement and progress for each learning area at a point in time.

Teachers make professional judgments about the quality of the evidence of student achievement using the year level Achievement Standard. They make standards-based judgments to award an overall level of achievement against the relevant Australian Curriculum Achievement Standard using the student assessment folio at the end of each reporting period. A five-point scale is used for reporting on overall levels of achievement and acknowledges the range of performance against the relevant achievement standards for each learning area.

The Levels of Achievement Infographic outline and explain the various levels of achievement.  Please be aware that a C, Sound or Working With level of achievement indicates that a student is achieving at Year Level expectations.

Report Cards will be emailed to families by the end of Week 10.  Please celebrate the successes that your child/ren have achieved over the semester. 

What is the NCCD?

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact the school.

Kind regards

Jessica Kanowski
Head of Special Education Services

MSP PERFORMING ARTS PHOTOS

MSP will be here on Wednesday 26^th and Thursday 27^th July to take photos of our performing arts groups.  A letter will be sent home early next term with the schedule for the days and what the students need to bring or wear.

WIND SYMPHONY PERFORM AT QLD YOUTH ORCHESTRA CONCERT

Wind Symphony received an invitation to perform at a recent Queensland Youth Orchestra concert at the Old Museum Concert Hall.

This was an exciting opportunity for our students to perform in front of a large audience on a professional venue.  David Law who conducts the Qld Youth Orchestra, adjudicated our students in the FANFARE competition and was so impressed extended this amazing opportunity to our students.  We look forward to further collaborations with the QYO.

MACFEST

On Friday 16^th June, students from the performing arts program came together for our annual MACFEST 2023.

This is an opportunity for members of our school community to come together and showcase and celebrate the talented students from the performing arts program.

Students performed both in the assembly hall and outside in the Junior Playground area to a captive audience.  With over 1000 members of our community in attendance, it was an evening full of many magical moments.

JAM BAND

Our Junior Aspiring Musicians have been busy all term having their lessons on a Friday afternoon with the music staff.  As a culminating event the students will be performing in the JAM Band Live in Concert.

• This Friday - 23^rd July (Week 10)
• 2:30pm
• MacGregor SS Hall
• With special guests from MacGregor High

ALADDIN JNR

After a couple of years of not being able to hold a school musical, we are pleased to advise that this year we will be performing Aladdin Jnr.

Our school staged this musical ten years ago and it was simply amazing.  So to celebrate, we have decided to stage this musical again in Week 3 of Term 4.

Some of the cast delivered preview performances of a couple of the numbers at MACFEST on Friday evening.

Please keep an eye out next term for when tickets go on sale.

TERM 3 EVENTS & WORKSHOPS

This term will see a number of our performing arts groups head off to compete in Eisteddfods at both the Gold Coast and Beenleigh.

BEENLEIGH EISTEDDFOD

Dance groups will be performing on Friday 4^th August at the Beenleigh Eisteddfod.  These groups include:

Year 3 MacGregor Dancers

Year 4/5 MacGregor Dancers

Year 6 MacGregor Dancers and

Dance Excellence.

Students will need to be at school by 7.15am on this day as the buses will depart at 7.30am.  Our first group is competing in the 8.30am session.

STRING QUARTET – BEENLEIGH EISTEDDFOD

Our String Quartet will be competing at the Beenleigh Eisteddfod on Wednesday 19^th July.  Their session runs from 1.30pm – 3.00pm and students will be dropped down to the Logan Entertainment Centre by their parents.

YEAR 5 BAND WORKSHOP

We will be hosting the Year 5 combined schools band workshop on Wednesday 19^th July.  This is an opportunity for the students to come together from a number of local skills and focus on developing their skills and experiencing what it is like to perform in a larger band.  We look forward to hearing great music played on this day and welcome our local primary schools to MacGregor.

JUNIOR STRINGS WORKSHOP

Students in Junior Strings will have an opportunity to participate in a workshop on Thursday 7^th September.  Please keep an eye out for further information.

INTERMEDIATE STRINGS WORKSHOP

Students from Intermediate Strings will be participating in a workshop with other local primary schools on Thursday 17^th August at Warrigal Road State School.  Students will need to be dropped off at Warrigal Road State School on this day and collected at 3.45pm once they have finished performing.

This is another great initiative, which allows out students to mix with students from other local primary school and develop a greater love of music and playing in a larger orchestra.

Sports Days

Sports days were hosted over the last few days.  An amazing effort by all students involved.

Junior Sports Day

Junior School Championship goes to MacArthur!

Senior Sports Day - Age Champions

9 Year Girls - Amelia from MacArthur
9 Year Boys - Romeo from MacQuarrie

10 Year Girls - Zoe from MacKenzie
10 Year Boys - Boaz from Mackenzie

11 Year Girls -  Abby from MacLeod
11 Year Boys - Zac from MacKenzie

12 Year Girls - Chelsea from MacQuarrie
12 Year Boys - Brandon from MacQuarrie

Congratulations to Zoe from MacKenzie who was awarded
'Most Outstanding Athlete'

The winning house for 2023 goes to ..... MacKenzie!!  

You are invited to attend three FREE interconnected online seminars to provide you with a toolkit of practical strategies that will help you guide your child’s behaviour, manage everyday worries, and build healthy peer relationships. Attending all three seminars will provide you with the strategies you need to best support your child’s development and help them thrive now and into adolescence.

Seminar topics:

• Power of Positive Parenting (Triple P Seminar)
• Helping Your Child to Manage Anxiety (Fear-Less Triple P Seminar)
• Keeping your Child Safe from Bullying (Resilience Triple P Seminar)

To learn about the seminars, please watch the following video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aC9rpf-ZHg

Want to get involved?

• Register via the following link:
• https://able.adelaide.edu.au/education/thriving-kids-and-parents/for-parents#power-of-positive-parenting
• If you have any questions, you can contact the project team at: thrivingkidsandparents@uq.edu.au

About Me

I was born in Singapore and migrated to Australia 42 yrs ago with my family. Mostly lived in local area Eight Mile Plains, Runcorn and Sunnybank Hills. I have 2 daughters in Yr 12 and Yr 10, they are very good volleyball players. My hobbies and interests include the  gym, cycling, volleyball, soccer,  and working with young people 🙂

Happy safe school holidays and see you in Term 3.

Regards

Boon Thie

Update

Term 2 is coming to an end and it's my first full term as school chaplain at MacGregor State School. I started in Week 7 of Term 1. Thank you to the students, teachers, staff and parents for helping make a comfortable transition to the new role.

I got to know many students from all grades with all their energy and many questions. My role as Chaplain is to support the emotional and social well being of students. 

With the assistance and guidance of Mr Davey and Mrs Keating, Yr 6 volunteers and parent volunteers, we restarted the MacGregor breakfast club, which is on every Thursday morning from 8.00-8.30am. Cheese toasties, raisin toast, yoghurt, cornflakes, bananas, and even milk shakes were on the menu throughout this term. 

Please contact our office if you require assistance setting up your Qparents account.

Winter Menu

The winter menu runs for term 2 and term 3. The new winter daily specials have been very popular amongst the students. The specials will continue on in to next term with one slight change. Our Monday special, Bento Box, will now be served on Wednesday. Wednesdays special, Korma Curry, will now be served on Monday. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

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.

Have a great break and see you next term.

Mac Snack Shack Team

Student Fundraising

Some of our Student Leaders came back on Wednesday 21^st June to open our new oval bubblers.  These students were a part of the fundraising efforts last year for this project and it has been a very popular addition to our school.  Many thanks to Bradley for cutting his hair to raise the funds!