MacGregor State School Newsletter 2024 - Edition 17
From the Principal
WORLD TEACHER’S DAY
World Teacher’s Day honours the dedication, hard work, and passion of teachers who play a crucial role in shaping the minds and future of children.
This years theme is ‘hats off to teachers’! The term ‘hats off’ has a long history of being used to show respect, admiration and offer congratulations. It can be traced back to medieval times when knights would remove their helmets to show respect.
To each and every member of our teaching team we say THANKYOU!
Prep and Year One
Welcome to Week 4!
We are approaching the busiest time of the school year. During this time, our learners will begin to complete a number of assessments to demonstrate and celebrate their progress in learning. Assessments play a crucial role in the learning journey, and we kindly request your support in ensuring that your child attends school every day, as every day of learning counts. If you have plans for a holiday before the school year concludes, please inform the classroom teacher and the office as soon as possible.
This Friday, 25 October, is a World Teachers’ Day.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish a Happy World Teachers’ Day to all the wonderful teachers at MacGregor State School. On this day, we honour and celebrate the incredible dedication, passion and impact that the teachers bring to our learners and the school community. Their commitment to fostering a love for learning is inspiring!
Thank you for making a difference in the lives of so many each and every day! I am truly blessed to be working and learning alongside such a wonderful team of educators!
Celebrating Learning
Thank you to 1C (with Mrs Davidson) and 1D (with Miss Burridge) for putting together a wonderful display of learning in the tuckshop area.
Hats at school
In the last past, I have written about the importance of every child coming to school with their school hat. Unfortunately, we still have a large number of students in Prep and Year 1 sector who come to school without their hats, requiring constant redirection during the breaks to stay in the shade. Please help us keep your children well and Sun Safe by ensuring they come to school with their hat every day.
Year Four and Five
News from Year 4 and 5
As we are motoring through the term there are many events to increase our busyness at MacGregor.
Year 4: Lone Pine excursion:
- 4A, 4B, 4C will attend their excursion on Wednesday 30th October
- 4D, 4E, 4F, 4G will attend their excursion on Thursday 31st
All payments are now due and if payment is not received by Monday, we may unfortunately have to leave your child at school. The buses will depart promptly at 8.30. Please meet the classroom teachers in the Tuckshop at 8.15am to have names marked off and ready to board the buses.
Year 5:
Year 5 have certainly been keeping themselves busy. Last week saw all classes participate in their Media Arts incursion where the students learnt how to make an animation around a topic. All students enjoyed their sessions.
Bebras Competition Round 2:
Year 6 Health Transition to High School:
On Wednesday Mr Damian Forbes who is the Year 7 Coordinator at MacGregor High School came along with 4 past students to discuss the transition to high school for our Year 6 Students. This is part of the Year 6 Health curriculum. The students learnt to read a high school timetable, how to manage homework and assignments and moving from classroom to classroom – the students practised this as well.
World Teacher’s Day:
Friday 25th October is the day where we acknowledge and thank our wonderful teachers for all the effort they put into the lives of the students they teach. Mathnasium kindly brought in a load of treats to say thank you. Ruchi and Ritesh are previous MacGregor parents and their daughters have fond memories of their MacGregor Teachers.
Year Six
This week, I am opening up our messages for Year 6 families with reminders about appropriate use of technology at school. We continue to see students in Year 6 make choices about what they access in class when using a device that are not aligned with expectations for learning. Our teachers will make decisions about consequences if students are not making the expected choices when using a school device. We appreciate your support in conversations at home about the importance of, not just following directions, but making safe choices when using devices as a learning tool at school.
e-Safety Commissioner Website
The e-Safety Commissioners website continues to update their resources for parents who are navigating challenging times with their child/ children accessing social media or gaming when using a device at home. There are no messages that reflect the need for children to not access online environments. There are multiple messages and support materials that seek to prioritise the need for children to be supervised when online at home.
For more information (and in multiple languages) go to: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents
Date Claimer! Don’t forget to mark your calendar for the Year 6 2024 Graduation! We are currently in the planning process but one thing we can confirm is Wednesday 4th December is our formal graduation event. I will be forwarding official information to Year 6 families by the end of Week 5.
Our next Parent Committee Meeting is on Monday 28th October from 5.30pm.
Year 6 Guard of Honour – Prep to Year 5 School Farewell for our departing Year 6 students
Following on from the success of last years whole school Guard of Honour, we will be farewelling our Year 6 students on Thursday 5th December from 2pm with a whole school guard of honour with students from Prep to Year 5 participating in this lovely farewell gesture. Year 6 parents are welcome so make sure you keep up to date with emails and newsletters so you don’t miss out on important details.
Planning for the next 4 years….a huge TEAM MacGregor effort!
Last Thursday, the Deputy Principal team consisting of Mr Davey, Mrs Keating, Mrs Ghusn and I, led a group of our teachers, teacher aides and leadership team through a day of strategic planning as MacGregor State School prepares for the next four years of school improvement. Our Principal, Mr Gerchow took a back seat observing and listening to the conversations, ideas and strategies highlighting the importance of staff voice as a key element of school wide planning. Donning our Team MacGregor t-shirts, it was full day of thinking, applying, strategising, collaborating and sharing initial ideas and priorities taken from our recent school review, School Opinion Survey and the broader state-wide Excellence + Equity messaging. Thank you, Mr Gerchow, for providing this opportunity. And, thank you to the participants who enabled such indepth, relevant and important conversations.
If you’d like to learn more about what is happening at and for your school, we encourage you to attend MacGregor State School P+C Meetings that are held each month of the school term.
A little thanks to nature……
Finally, early this week, I was walking past this beautiful, showy jacaranda tree on my way to L Block and stopped to admire its carpet of purple and mauve hues that settled all around the perimeter. Whilst this picture doesn’t quite capture how beautiful it was in that moment, it is a reminder to stop and notice how clever nature is. From a wellbeing perspective, taking in the simple pleasures of nature can reduce anxiety, lessen stress and remind us how fortunate we are to experience such lovely things. So, thank you little jacaranda tree for your part in making us smile.
Inclusion Team Update
High School Transitions for students with Additional needs
It is extremely beneficial for all year 6 students to have opportunities to visit their intended high schools for 2025. Most high schools offer an orientation day for students going into year 7 and also some schools offer extra transition sessions for students with additional needs.
Please see below for some important key dates for up-and-coming transition opportunities for some of the local feeder high schools:
- Macgregor State High School
https://macgregorshs.eq.edu.au/our-school/contact-us
- Students with Additional needs remaining sessions: Wednesday 30th October 8:45am to 12:00pm
- All year 6 students transitioning to MSHS for year 7 in 2025: Monday 25th November 8:45am to 2:45pm
- Runcorn State High School
https://runcornshs.eq.edu.au/our-school/contact-us
- Students with Additional needs sessions: Wednesday 30th October 1:00pm to 2:30pm, Wednesday 6th November 1:00pm to 2:30pm and Wednesday 13th November 1:00pm to 2:30pm
- All year 6 students transitioning to RSHS for year 7 in 2025: Monday 18th November, 2025.
- Mansfield State High School
https://mansfieldshs.eq.edu.au/our-school/contact-us
- Students with Additional needs remaining sessions: Wednesday 30th October 1:00pm to 2:30pm and Wednesday 4th November 1:00pm to 2:30pm
- All year 6 students transitioning to MSHS for year 7 in 2025: Friday 29th November 9:00am to 10:30am
- Rochedale State High School
https://rochedaleshs.eq.edu.au/our-school/contact-us
- Students with Additional needs sessions: Wednesday 30th October 1:00pm to 2:30pm and Wednesday 6th November 1:00pm to 2:30pm
- Please contact Rochedale SHS for the Year 7 Orientation Day date and time
Sports Updates
Congratulations to Jontae who has been representing QLD in softball for the past week.
His team has been successful in being crowned national champions. Reports are that Jontae has performed amazingly during the week and played his role in helping QLD to victory.
Congratulations Jontae we are all very proud of you
Finance
We have implemented QParents for payment and consent for SRS, excursions, incursions, camps and extra-curricular activities.
- A consent will be loaded to Parent QParents account with a specific due date. If you do not have QParents, it is parent responsibility to contact administration to obtain a paper copy and complete/return.
- Parent will be notified of the SRS/excursion/incursion/camp/extra-curricular activity via email.
- On the consent due date, an invoice will be generated to Parent who has completed the consent, this will be sent via email.
Payment amount will also be loaded to QParents. If a consent is not received by due date, children will not be able to participate in the SRS/excursion/incursion/camp/extra-curricular activity and will not be invoiced.
- Payment will be due by a specific date which will be specified again on the invoice.
- If payment is not received by the due date, despite signing a consent, children will not be able to participate in the SRS/excursion/incursion/camp/extra-curricular activity.
- As a courtesy, generic reminders will be emailed to Parent prior to the due date.
If you are experiencing financial difficulty, please do not hesitate to contact the Finance office.
Message from our Guidance Officer
Day for Daniel - Reflecting on Our Day of Learning
Today, our school took part in Day for Daniel, Australia’s largest child safety education and awareness initiative.
What is Day for Daniel?
Day for Daniel serves as a powerful reminder that child safety is a shared responsibility. Through today’s activities, we reinforced the importance of staying safe, teaching our students that they have the power to protect themselves and seek help when needed.
We focused on the Three Rs of child safety:
• Recognise: The students learned how to identify situations that might make them feel unsafe or uncomfortable.
• React: They were shown how to react in unsafe situations, including walking away or finding a trusted adult.
• Report: We emphasised the importance of reporting concerns or incidents to a trusted adult as a critical step in staying safe.
Today was a meaningful opportunity for our students to deepen their understanding of personal safety, and we hope these conversations will continue at home. Thank you for your ongoing support in creating a safe and nurturing environment for all our students.
H.O.D. Update
“Creating Cultures of Thinking”
Building dynamic learning communities that engage students, promote deep understanding, and sustain a lifetime of inquiry.
A school priority in MSS’s 2024 Explicit Improvement Agenda (EIA) is “Educational Excellence”. A key success criterion is to
Deliver continual professional development opportunities for staff around catering to high-cognitive ability learners.
Teaching staff have recently been involved in developing their own understanding of, and reflecting on:
- What is Thinking?
- How do we create cultures of thinking in our classrooms?
At the end of Term 3, Katelyn French (Year 6 teacher), Leanne Harvey (Year 6 teacher) and myself had the opportunity to attend a two-day workshop on Creating Cultures of Thinking with Ron Ritchhart.
Ron Ritchhart is a senior research associate with Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. During the Creating Cultures of Thinking workshops, we engaged with, and practised a series of thinking routines. We learnt that these simple structures scaffold and support learners’ thinking in all kinds of learning situations.
We then partnered with Year 6 teachers to practise the CSI visual thinking routine with Year 6 students. The CSI thinking routine encourages students to identify and distill the essence of ideas from reading, watching or listening in non-verbal ways by using colour, symbol, or image to represent the ideas.
More recently, the staff engaged with practising several of these thinking routines:
- The Give One, Get One- a routine for sharing ideas and building explanations
- I used to think… But now I think…- a routine for reflecting on how and why our thinking has changed
- The CSI.
Natarsha (Tarsh) van den Boogaard
Instructional Coach of Pedagogy/Acting Head of Curriculum.
Hello from our Chappy Mr T.
Grab a Green Apple
Every 3 weeks, the school get a delivery of green apples from our charity supplier Eat Up. Fresh green apples from Stanthorpe.
The apples are available to our students at Breakfast Club and also for our teachers to collect for their classrooms for munch and crunch or fruit breaks.
If there are parents or businesses who wish to donate fruit for our students, please email me - bthie14@eq.edu.au I'm available to collect.
Uniform Shop
Reminders - we sell second-hand uniform including Performing Arts (boys) and Hats. Come and take a look at our rail, if you’re size isn’t there, just ask, we may have some in the storeroom.
We have a small selection of stationery items for sale all year round. Price list can be found on the School & MOSHC websites.
Volunteers - we are still looking for a regular volunteer/s to help in the Shop on a Monday between 8:00-9:00am. If you are able to assist, please email uniformshop@msspcorg.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 Four Menu 2024
There is a new menu for term 4 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/
Student Achievements
MacGregor Chess Team 1 Austin, Emma, Martin and Queena competed in the 2024 QLD Inter-School State Championship. Among thirty-eight primary school chess teams across the state, MacGregor team ranked the 6th place after two days competition.
