Celebrating National Volunteers Week, Chaplaincy Week and P&C Day

‘Volunteering is time willingly given for the common good and without financial gain.’ 

Celebrating National Volunteers Week! Schools, community groups and non-profit organisations benefit from this gesture of kindness and willingness to lend a hand.  Aspley SS has a vibrant and generous volunteering community. We recognise the demands of balancing work, family and life. We acknowledge the volunteers who assist in every part of school life - classrooms, excursions or Gala Days, at the tuckshop or uniform shop, at school or P&C events - as well as our School Council who assist with the school’s strategic direction. Time is precious and so are those who volunteer their time. We thank you, we appreciate you and we who learn, work and play together succeed.

Celebrating Chaplaincy Week!  Silly socks were the fashion item of the week, raising awareness for Chaplaincy Week.  Our goal this year was to make sure all students get to know Chappy Susan who joined Aspley mid Term 1.  Chappy Susan, is building strong relationships in our school supporting students with social groups, classroom activities and community events.

Celebrating P&C Day! The P&C are made up of many members who offer their time willingly and often, to assist our school. Everything our P&C members do is focused on improving the learning, engagement and experiences for all students and staff at Aspley.  We thank past, present and future members, along with our executive team for your contribution to our P&C.  Happy P&C Day on Friday 24 May!

We think our P&C executive team are ‘Marvellous’! Sharing a small gift with them to show our appreciation.  Some of the team were all smiles this morning at the P&C stand, sharing their ‘Communi-Tea’ initiative.  An opportunity to bring our families together, if you wish to know more collect a flyer from our administration building or find them on Facebook “Aspley P&C Communi-T”.

Safe Driving and Parking

National Road Safety Week was the 5 – 12 May this year.  Although the dates for this national initiative were earlier this month, it is important to remind everyone that our staff, our community and our leadership team work with families to keep our students SAFE, near roads and traffic.

Staff endeavour to remind the community of the safe road rules, when on duty.  It is your responsibility to know the traffic regulations, drop off and pick up expectations as well as obey the law when driving.  

Please consider the following:

• How you drive, and behave in the car sets the road safety behaviours for the next generation. Children are watching you and they will learn from you.
• Look out for staff on duty and others who work on the road, protect those who work to support us.
• Drive in the moment, and avoid any distractions in the car. Remind your passengers that their behaviour can be distracting. We all have a part to play in being SAFE on the road.
• We share the streets, footpaths and school zone. Respect our neighbours, do not park on their drive way, allow plenty of time for pick up and drop off.
• As the weather changes make allowances in your travels.
• Be on time for drop off and pick up. If you are late, call our administration we will assist and understand that from time to time we all get caught up in traffic or at work.

You must observe the speed limit, parking limitations and loading zone regulations at all times.

• Loading Zone – 2 minutes on school days in designated hours.
• School Loading Zone – drive your car to the furthest car bay to assist with the traffic flow.
• Parking – pay attention to and adhere to the parking limitations and signs in the surrounding areas and at the school.
• Speed Limits – the school speed limit signs are operational and you must slowdown in these areas.

Religious Instruction

Queensland state schools embrace a multitude of cultural, religious and non-religious beliefs. Under the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006, schools are to provide Religious Instruction (RI) if approached by a faith group seeking to provide RI and students of that faith attend the school.

RI informs students about the beliefs and values of a particular religion. It is delivered by volunteers of a faith group using instructional materials approved by that faith group. RI is required to be consistent with legislation and Department of Education policies and procedures.

All RI instructors must hold a blue card and participate in compulsory Student Protection and Code of Conduct training. RI instructors are only entitled to deliver the RI program approved by the department and school. A school staff member will be present during the delivery of RI. Delivery of RI is during school hours.

Participation in RI is not compulsory. Any student (except Prep students) may participate in RI if a parent has provided written instructions to the school.

Students are allocated to RI based on information provided by parents on the completed Application Enrolment, unless other written instructions have been provided to the school.

Note: This consent remains in effect unless the parent informs the school otherwise in writing.

In accordance with s.76 EGPA parents may withdraw their child from all religious instruction by notifying the principal in writing.

The school has been approached by a Christian faith religious leader who wish to provide religious instruction to students of their faith group.  At this stage the school is in the consultation process for this request. 

Before instruction can occur, we will review all student enrolment details and permissions.  The school will contact all parents/guardians via email who have given permission on the enrolment form for religious instruction, based on the Christian faith.

Students who are not participating in RI will be provided with other school-based instruction by our teachers, in a separate supervised location. Other instruction must relate to part of a subject area covered in class.

This initial correspondence, via our newsletter is sharing information with our parents and guardians about this possible RI program at Aspley SS. It is the beginning of the consultation process for the request for RI to be established at Aspley SS.  We will keep our community updated on this matter via the newsletter and would consider that the consultation process will take all of Term 2.

 QParents

QPARENTS Overview - Watch this video

Parents with children at participating QParents schools can access student information through the QParents application. The term 'parent' is used throughout to denote parents, carers, kinship and families.

QParents is a secure, online portal free to all Queensland state schools. It provides parents quick and easy access to:

• view upcoming events
• access and provide digital consent
• view timetables
• view and update student and attendance details (including future absences)
• view behaviour information
• view and pay invoices
• access payment history
• access report cards and assessment planners
• access enrolment history.

The QParents app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and accessed through a:

• smartphone
• tablet
• personal computer.

Note: Initial registration cannot be completed via the app and must be completed using a personal computer. Once registered, you can choose to use the QParents External link app on your tablet or smartphone, or via the mobile browser. Refer to registration and access for more information.

Make sure you use the latest browser version (e.g. Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge) when logging in to QParents from your computer or mobile device.

Note: Internet Explorer is not supported.

Curriculum News

REPORT CARDS - IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR FAMILIES

At the end of Term 2 all parents and caregivers will receive their child’s Semester 1 Report Card.

To ensure you receive these reports on time please ensure you;

• contact our administration as soon as possible to update your contact and email address details if they have changed.
• contact our administration team if you do not have an email address, and require a paper copy of the report.
• add ONESCHOOL@qed.qld.gov.au to your list of safe senders to ensure report card emails are not directed to your Junk folder.

At the end of each semester, teachers make an ‘on-balance’ judgement about students’ overall levels of achievement, against the aspects of the achievement standards being assessed in the different learning areas. This judgement is based on evidence of student learning demonstrated during summative assessment tasks and takes into consideration the most recent evidence.   

Aspley State School teachers participate in cyclic, evidenced based moderation processes to ensure that our judgements are consistent across each year level.   Our Whole School Curriculum Overview is available on our school website and contains information regarding the learning areas and curriculum content your child has experienced this semester.   

What is Literacy? 

PART 3 - PHONICS

According to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) ‘Literacy involves students listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral, print, visual and digital texts, and using and modifying language for different purposes in a range of contexts.  

At Aspley State School we understand that learning to read and write is a complex process that involves the integration of six key elements.   Evidence-based research suggests that the explicit teaching of these ‘Big Six' components is the best way for children to learn to read and write.   Over the next newsletter issues, we will explore the components of the “Big Six” elements of literacy learning and even hear explicit lessons beginning delivered in some of our junior school classrooms.

In today’s instalment we will look at the literacy element of;

• Oral Language 
• Phonological and Phonemic Awareness 
• Phonics 
• Vocabulary 
• Fluency 
• Comprehension  

Phonics builds on phonological awareness.   During phonics lessons at Aspley State School, students learn to connect the sound or phoneme to the letter of the alphabet or group of letters that is used to represent it.

Phonics is the matching of sounds (phonemes) to letters (graphemes). It is also the term used for the teaching of reading and spelling by learning about the relationships between letters and sounds. Phonics instruction involves explicitly teaching students about the 44 sounds in English and the various ways they can be represented by the 26 letters of the alphabet.  Grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) are represented by approximately 123 different spellings (Eide, 2012). 

Once a few GPCs have been explicitly introduced, Aspley students are taught to blend them together to form words.   As published in the previous newsletter, segmenting, blending and phoneme manipulation are essential phonemic awareness skills that are taught in conjunction with GPCs or phonics.

Evidence shows that the most effective way to teach phonics is to use a systematic synthetic phonics approach. This approach is:

• systematic: it explicitly teaches letter–sound correspondences in a sequence from simple, common code to complex, less common code
• synthetic: it explicitly teaches children to ‘blend’ (or synthesise) all the sounds of a written word together to read words.

It is crucial for young readers to understand phonics in order to be able to decode words and access texts.

Systematic phonics instruction at Aspley is;

• Instruction that starts with a clearly planned sequence of phonics elements
• A logical progression of skills and knowledge (e.g. introduction of carefully selected and sequenced letter sound relationships in a logical order; simple to complex)
• Planned with sufficient practice to build fluency and ensure learning is reenforced and retained over time
• Activating previously learned skills and applying them to new examples.

Explicit phonics instruction at Aspley is;

• Teaching that explains, models and demonstrates the content or skill to be learned
• Clear and unambiguous – we use consistent language
• Defined with a stated learning objective
• Teacher modelled and then teacher guidance is followed by scheduled opportunities for practice with immediate feedback.
• High student/teacher interaction - and students are active and engaged participants
• Designed so that learning is not left to chance.

Aspley State school P-2 teachers use a carefully planned sequence for teaching is constructed in logical steps from simple to complex content and skills, commencing from the point at which the students are already competent. Clear and precise teacher explanation, followed by guided and independent practice, accompanied by frequent monitoring, ensures that every student is learning.

Aspley’s Explicit Phonics Instructions Teaching Sequence includes;

1. Phonemic Awareness
2. Visual Drill
3. Auditory Drill
4. Blending Drill
5. New Concept – New Sound
6. Word Work – including sentence dictation
7. Irregular Words
8. Connected Decodable Text Reading

Steps 1 through 4 serves as a warm-up and review of previously taught concepts. 

Step 5 is an explicit introduction to a new concept, including guided practice reading and spelling words. 

Steps 6 through 8 are opportunities to apply concepts through reading and writing activities at the word and text level. 

Below you can see some work from a phonics lesson in Mrs Chalk’s 1A classroom.  The students are learning about split diagraphs this week.    Can you spot them!

So, what’s different from when I was at school?

Transitioning from Word Walls to Sound Walls.

What is a word wall?

When I was at school, my teachers displayed word walls, organized alphabetically, using all 26 letters of the alphabet.  They would also place words and “sight words” under each letter based on the first letter of each word.   During the week we would place the new word on the word wall, we would listen for the first sound in the word, find that letter and staple the new word on the word wall.  

Now, did that process always work?   Not exactly.   Many times, a word would begin with a letter that didn’t make the sound we heard.   For example, listening to the word ‘she’, we heard /sh/, not /s/ or the word ‘know’, we heard /n/ not /k/.   The word ‘our’ or ‘hour’?   Forget it!   My teacher would explain these words were “rule breakers” — and we just needed to “know them by sight” and not sound them out.   

Being asked to recall from memory, how to read and spell words based on letter names rather than sounds was like asking me to memorize a suggested password.   If I did memorize a word, I was able to read and spell only that word.   The process did not help me learn to read new, unfamiliar words.  There was nothing to anchor me to the learning, and that’s not the way our language system works.

What is a sound wall?

Teachers at Aspley now build sound walls.  A sound wall supports students by focusing on the articulation of sounds/phonemes and the various letter/grapheme patterns that represent the sounds/phonemes in words.    

When we listen for the phonemes in a word, we can use a sound wall to identify the different ways to spell the sounds. For example, the word ‘know’ on a word wall would be placed under the K. However, on a sound wall, a student could listen for the sound /n/, find that sound organized by phonemes, and identify the ways to spell that sound: n, kn…even gn or pn. While those spellings of the sound /n/ may not be as frequent, we are supporting our learners and giving them tools to apply these spelling to new words.

Sounds walls help our students connect the phonemic awareness skills you read about last week, to the printed/written code. This process allows students to navigate a sound wall independently. They can hear the sound, feel it on their mouth and locate the spelling choices for this sound.  A sound wall is created from the student point of view rather than the teachers.  This instructional tool creates opportunities for students to learn many words by transferring the knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondence to many words, rather than just one, as is often the case with word walls.

Listen to the 44 sounds of the English language here with Speech Pathologist Alison Clarke.

Look at some of our PREP sound walls.

 How can families help with phonics learning at home?

• Teach children to write their name.   Use a capital letter at the beginning and lower case for the rest of the letters. Write it for them and let them trace it, copy it, make it from play dough or draw it in sand.
• Find interesting words in stories you read together.  First, talk about the sounds you both hear, then, point out the letters that make that sound when reading together.  
• Encourage children to find the letters in their name or the names of family members in other places such as books, signs, product packaging and shop windows.
• Word Building with Magnetic Letters - have your child use magnetic letters to practice building words; choose words that have a phonics pattern your child is learning. CVC (consonant – vowel – consonant) for young readers using word chains – cat, mat, rat, and include non-words – cat, mat, rat, hat, wat!
• Point out different fonts, different ways to write the same letter, when reading and in your local environment.   Did you know that the McDonald’s company designed their logo just so you could talk about the letter M and the /m/ sound while you were out and about? So kind of them!!

Please read our next newsletter when we will explore reading decodable texts and how you can assist you child’s fluent reading / decoding development at home. 

Eide, D. (2012).
Uncovering the logic of English: A common-sense approach to reading, spelling, and literacy.

Learning Walls at Aspley State School

Learning Walls at Aspley

Bump It Up Walls and Worked Examples

What is a worked example and how do they relate to bump-it-up walls?

Worked examples provide novice learners with an expert’s solution to a problem. For example, in subject English Y1 students are learning to create a character description using writing and images. 

In Prep, students are creating a retell of a famiiar story The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Teachers use Bump It up Walls with worked examples to demonstrate excellence (think of WAGOLL or ‘What a good one looks like’). In a classroom setting, we can use partially worked examples and give students the task of completing the ‘problem’, for example ending a story. We can also give students pairs of worked examples to compare and contrast.

In Year 4 students are writing a traditional story that teaches a moral to a younger audience. Year 6 students are learning how to create a multimodal advertisement and explain how it persuades the viewer to visit a particular destination. The worked samples are used to demonstrate how the students are able to successfully complete the task and describe what the students are to demonstrate in their work to be successful.

Worked examples can be used to demonstrate excellence in any learning area of the curriculum. Worked examples reduce cognitive load (Paas et al., 2003). For example, showing a student a figure of a square, rather than trying to describe the square verbally, reduces the extraneous cognitive load for that student. This means students’ attention can be redirected toward information that is important for the development of concepts and skills, such as vocabulary and real-world examples (e.g squares are 2D shapes that have four equal sides – like a waffle or a floor tile).

Classroom News

PC

This term in Science, Prep C have been exploring materials and their properties. This has involved many fun activities and experiments to find out which materials are best suited for a particular purpose. For our experiment this week, we needed to find the best material for a waterproof umbrella for the Gingerbread Man! The paper materials certainly weren’t the best, as it resulted in a very soggy Gingerbread Man!

1C

The year 1’s have certainly enjoyed the Design Technology Unit this semester - designing and creating a puppet with a moveable part. 1C and 1D had a display in the foyer a few weeks ago.

In English the 1’s have been learning to write character descriptions. They have been enjoying listening to different stories and identifying what a character looks like, their feelings and actions at the beginning and end of a story. From the book Giraffes Can’t Dance we learned that Gerald changed when he listened. The 1’s are looking forward to making a boat that floats as part of their Science assessment coming up.

2C

As part of Design and Technology, 2C have been investigating the purpose and design features of different toys.  We especially looked at the forces used in spinning toys and the materials, tools and techniques used in creating them.  We learnt that spinning tops are made by many Indigenous peoples of Australia. One such spinning top is the mammandur, made by the Guugu Yimidhirr Aboriginal people of Cape Bedford.  The children enjoyed making their own replica mammandur using modelling clay and a hexagonal pencil with a sharpened tip and competing to see how long their tops would spin for.

3C

This term in mathematics we explored the features of 3D objects. Using a range of physical shapes, students identified the quantity of corners, edges and faces of each unique 3D shape. We also conducted an inquiry into cube nets. Students discovered new ways to structure a cube net through trial and error (see photos). Students recorded their new cube nets in their grid book. After the inquiry we discussed how this could be useful in the real world, particularly in the world of flat pack packaging and furniture.

4C

In English we have been preparing for our assessment, ’Creating a traditional story’. We were privileged to have Ms Karen Newton, Head of Department - Curriculum, come and model a lesson using foldables as a technique to plan a traditional tale. 

What is a foldable?

A foldable is a way of telling a story where different parts of the tale unfold as you open it up, like opening a book with multiple flaps. In a folktale, this technique can be used to reveal characters, settings, conflicts, and resolutions one at a time, making the story more engaging and interactive for the audience. Not only do foldables reinforce skills and strategies essential for reading success, but they also provide a kinaesthetic tool for organising learning.

The students have thoroughly enjoyed using foldables and they have simplified and refined their planning process. A few different stories were planned as a class, using a format with just 7 steps! Ideas were generated and discussed in groups. The next step is to select one of their plans and use it to write their own assessment piece.

5C

In HASS, students in 5C recently learned about the responsibilities of legal personnel by understanding their roles and responsibilities in managing communities. In small groups, they had to describe the duties and obligations of key people in law enforcement and the legal system such as, Public Health Department Officials, Customs and Border Protection Officers, Judges and Lawyers, and then sort information according to who performs what in their various roles.

6C

Students in 6C have been examining electrical circuits and how they transfer and transform electricity. They are investigating and designing circuits, making observations, and explaining what they discover. Additionally, they are exploring different sources of energy, sustainable and non-sustainable, to see how electricity is generated and the various ways energy is transformed during electricity production.

In HaSS, students have been exploring what it means to be an Australian citizen. They have discussed how experiences of democracy and citizenship have varied among different groups over time, particularly our First Nations peoples, women and migrants. Through this unit, they are gaining a deeper understanding of the diverse perspectives and historical contexts that have shaped Australian citizenship.

ASPLEY MUSIC DEPARTMENT 

SEMESTER ONE MUSIC EVENING

The Aspley State School Music Program will hold its Semester One Music Evening at the Aspley State School Hall on Wednesday 12 June commencing at 6.30pm. Our talented Instrumental Music Students and choristers have had a fabulous semester of music making and we are all very excited to share our achievements with the Aspley Community.  Performing ensembles at this event include Junior Concert Band, Senior Concert Band, Senior String Orchestra, Junior Choir and Senior Choir.   

The Semester One Music Performance Evening will be a free school event.  To ensure that all families have the chance to see their performers, we ask you to book your seats (one ticket allows up to five seats including any non performing students) in advance, securing your digital ticket using the humanitix link provided in the parent/carer information letter that all performing musicians have now received to bring home to their families.  Please ensure to book your digital ticket no later than Thursday, 6 June 2024. 

Please save this date into your calendars, it promises to be a very special evening sharing our young musicians’ achievements!!

ASPLEY CHORAL PROGRAM 

SENIOR CHOIR – SingFest 2024

Excursion consent/medical forms and payment for Senior Choralists to participate in the upcoming 2024 Education Queensland SingFest Workshop to be held on Monday 19 August 2024 at The Old Museum Building Bowen Hills were due to the school administration office Friday 3 May 2024.    Outstanding excursion consent/medical forms/payments are due to the school administration office as soon as possible.  Thank you to families who have returned the necessary documentation and payments thus far, this is greatly appreciated. 

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

NORTHSIDE JUNIOR STRING WORKSHOP – WEDNESDAY 5/ THURSDAY 6 JUNE 2024

We wish our young musicians the best of musical luck for their participation in the Northside Junior String Workshop to be hosted at Aspley State School on Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 June 2024.  Participating families are reminded to refer to the parent information letter for the finer details of these exciting workshop days.

NORTHSIDE HONOURS MUSIC WORKSHOP

Senior Instrumental Music students accepted to participate in the Northside Honours Music Workshop (to be held on Tuesday July 9 to Thursday July 11 2024) are reminded to register for this activity using the online iVvy Registration & Payment link provided on the acceptance letter.  Online registrations to this event will close at 10am on Monday, 10 June 2024.  No extension to this close-off date will be possible – requests for late registrations will be refused.  If you wish for your student to participate in the Northside Honours Music Workshop, please ensure to complete and return the excursion consent form to the school administration office no later than Monday 10 June 2024.

The Aspley Music Team

(Mrs Macca, Ms Jabs and Mrs Kim)

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) Day

NSS is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association and in 2024 on Wednesday 22May.  Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. The story this year was Bowerbird Blues.  Prep B students enjoyed the unfolding story of the bowerbird who was in search for something blue.  Their delight of the story took them on a hunt for something blue, too!