28 April 2016

Newsletter Articles

UPCOMING EVENTS

April/May 2016

PAYMENTS DUE

PRINCIPAL'S NEWS

Lest We Forget! These are three poignant words that rouse our spirit and make us feel humble and appreciate the contribution of the men and women who have served to defend Australia, and the allied countries, in all wars and conflicts.

Students from Aspley State School were honoured to have the National Serviceman's Memorial Drum and Pipe Band who played at the school Anzac ceremony on Thursday 21 April 2016. Special thanks to Mrs Nelma Wright, A/Deputy Principal and the school leaders who planned and led a ceremony which was a perfect commemoration of the 100 years since the first ANZAC day ceremony was held in Brisbane in 1916.

Our thanks to the bugler, Mr Jack Duffy and also to our special guest speaker, Mr Gary Lancaster who represented the Geebung-Zillmere RSL and Memorial Club.

I am confident that the year 6 students are eager to visit the Australian War Memorial later this year when they visit Canberra, our nation's capital.

To visit the Australian War Memorial Website go to:

A display of the Aspley State School commemorative service can be found below.

NAPLAN

The 2016 NAPLAN testing will take place for students in Years 3 and 5 from 10 May to 12 May 2016. NAPLAN testing covers the areas of reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy. Test results assists to identify areas of strength for each student and also informs teachers' further planning and teaching. NAPLAN test results will be released to parents/ carers later this year. Please ensure that student are in attendance on these days. Students have completed a practice test and are familiar with the test experience as one form of assessment. Parents can support students by ensuring they have a good night sleep in preparation and enjoy a healthy breakfast on the day of the tests.

Premier's Reading Challenge

The Premier's Reading Challenge is an annual statewide initiative for students. The Premier's Reading Challenge is not a competition but a way to encourage students to develop a love of reading for life. Through the challenge children and students are given an opportunity to develop their appreciation of the English language and are encouraged to explore and enjoy a wide range of literary texts.

Aspley State School students can participate in the challenge and students who complete the challenge have their efforts recognised through the receipt of a Certificate of Achievement signed by the Premier of Queensland!

The reading period for Prep to Year 6 students will commence on Monday 16 May 2016 and finish on Friday 26 August 2016.

For a student to successfully complete the Premier's Reading Challenge they must read or experience the number of books indicated in the table below. Experiencing a book can include classroom or at home activities such as shared reading, listening and reading along with a book, or being read to.

Teachers will provide students a challenge sheet for students to record their reading! So hop to the library and find some great books to read!

Australian Curriculum

It is parents, families and carers who have the most influence on their children. When families are actively involved in their children's education, children usually enjoy school and achieve better results.

This section of the newsletter provides information for families and carers about their children and the Australian Curriculum. Want to know what your child is learning at school? See the link:

Leann Griffith-Baker
A/ Principal

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL'S NEWS

Drop Off/ Pick up

It has been brought to our attention that parents are choosing to be unsafe in and around the school grounds with dropping students off in the school driveway and then backing out onto traffic on Mandrell Terrace; parking in front of the boom gate blocking staff from entering the carpark; encouraging students to walk across Maundrell Terrace against the lights; leaving their car in the 2 minute drop off and pick up zones and parking in the disabled carpark without a sticker.

As you are aware, both Brisbane City Council officers and Police officers patrol these areas from time to time as the carpark is Council property. We would hate to see parents fined for these offences.

The worst situation would be that one of our students, staff or community members are involved in an accident. Your child's safety is our main concern. We, as adults need to show the students behaviour which we want them to emulate. Please assist us in this endeavour.

Waiting Areas after School

Just a reminder that we have 3 supervised areas for students to wait to be picked up after school. These are the drop off/pick up areas in Maundrell Terrace and Horn Road and the office (with prior arrangement). We do not encourage the students to wait in the playground as we cannot guarantee their safety.

If you are with your child in the playground area, it is your responsibility to actively supervise your child as it will not be the school's responsibility if they get hurt. It is also your responsibility to ensure that they are not being unsafe or damaging property.

In Catchment/ Sibling interview process

We request that parents wishing to enrol their children for Prep 2017 ring the school office on 38639111 as soon as possible.

This year 'in catchment and sibling' interviews will all be held on the 17 May. A letter outlining the booking process will go home shortly to all parents who have handed in their enrolment booklets. Please claim this date in your diaries.

Active School Travel

'Streets Ahead' with Road Safety

As part of the Active School Travel Program, RACQ's 'Streets Ahead' program will visit our school to teach students how to be safe pedestrians, riders and passengers.

As more students and parents are actively travelling to school this year by walking, riding, carpooling or catching public transport, it is important that we teach the road safety skills through programs like 'Streets Ahead'.

MUSIC DEPARTMENT NEWS

Aspley Choral Program

Congratulations to Senior Choir

Congratulations to our Senior Choralists for their inspiring performance at the Anzac Day Ceremony held at Aspley on Thursday 21st April. A beautiful performance students, congratulations.

Junior Choir Performing at Albany Creek Uniting Church

The Aspley State School Junior Choir has been invited to perform at the Albany Creek Uniting Church Annual May Fair. Students have now received a parent information letter outlining the finer details of this exciting performance. This is a wonderful opportunity for our talented Junior Choir members to perform to the wider community in a caring, friendly and fun environment. Please take note of the following details for our very first performance for 2016:

PERFORMERS:

Junior Choir

WHERE:

Albany Creek Uniting Church, 652 Albany Creek Road, Albany Creek

DATE:

Saturday 7th May 2016

ARRIVAL TIME:

All choral members are to meet with Mrs McIntye under the big tree at the front of the church by 12.30pm. We will then move into the side room for warm up time. Please be aware, parking at the venue can be quite busy as many schools are performing on this day, so you may wish to allow time to find parking

PERFORMANCE TIME:

Junior Choir - 1:15pm – 1:45pm

PERFORMANCE UNIFORM:

All students are to wear the Aspley Choral & Instrumental Performance Uniform (Black Trousers with a Long Sleeved White Shirt) with Black Shoes & Black Socks. Performance Vests will be handed out at the performance.

WHAT TO BRING:

Water Bottle with name clearly marked

MUSIC PERFORMANCE UNIFORM

All students participating in Junior Choir, Senior Choir, Boys Choir, Senior String Orchestra, Junior Concert Band and Senior Concert band have received a letter outlining the Aspley Performance Uniform for the 2016 school year.

The Aspley Performance Uniform is worn by all performing ensembles at Aspley State School (excluding Beginner String students). Performing students are required to wear the following Aspley Performance Uniform – Long Black Dress Pants, Long Sleeved White Dress Shirt, Black Socks and Black Shoes.

All orders placed through the Aspley Shop are expected to be available for collection from the Aspley Shop (Uniforms) Tuesday 26th & Wednesday 27th April 2016. A notice will be sent home advising the arrival of your order for your collection.

Continuing String/ Woodwind/Brass/Percussion and Choral students should have the necessary uniform requirements.

CURRENT AND UPCOMING MUSICAL EVENTS - TERM TWO 2016

Please take note of upcoming musical events for Term Two below:

Monday 9th May (Week 5)
1.25pm –2.10pm
Hall/Stage
Junior Band commences
All beginner Woodwind/Brass/Percussion students

Monday 16th May (Week 6)
Senior Concert Band
Assembly performance

Tuesday 7th June – Thursday 9th June (Week 9)
Education Queensland Northside Junior String Camp 2016
Beginner String Students
Stafford SS (8th & 9th June) &
The Old Museum Building (10th June)

Wednesday 8th June (Week 9)
EQ Northside Beginner Band Blitz 2016
Aspley Beginner Woodwind/Brass/Percussion Students
Aspley State School

Monday 13th June (Week 10)
Senior String Orchestra
Assembly Performance

Wednesday 15th June (Week 10)
Semester One Music Performance Evening
All Music Ensembles – except Beginner String Students

Monday 20th June (Week 11)
Senior Choir
Assembly Performance

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC NEWS

PRIMARY MUSIC TOUR – 13th – 15th September, 2016

Places for the combined Aspley/Craigslea Music Tour have now closed. Tour letter number two will be coming out to students in the very near future. A reminder that final payments of $190.00 are due by Friday 19th August, 2016.

CHANGES TO LESSONS AND ENSEMBLE REHEARSALS

Wednesday 11th May – Woodwind/Brass/Percussion lessons and Senior Concert Band will be cancelled as per Woodwind/Brass/Percussion Timetable.

Thursday 12th May – Senior String Orchestra cancelled, however, lessons will continue as scheduled on the String Timetable.

JUNIOR CONCERT BAND

Our Junior Band members have been issued with their green band folder. Please send this folder along every week. Students need to split their practice time between their book and band pieces. This folder has a name tag and includes 4 band pieces ready to start band on the 9th May 2016 at lunchtime. So very exciting for our young beginners!

JUNIOR BAND BLITZ

In Term 2, our Woodwind/Brass/Percussion beginners will be invited to attend the Education Queensland Junior Band Blitz on Wednesday 8th June 2016. This one-day camp is $40.00 per student and is hosted at Aspley State School. A reminder to students that the medical/consent form for the Nortside Band Blitz Workshop is due to the school office by Friday 20th May, 2016.

NORTHSIDE JUNIOR STRING CAMP

Nominated String Students will this week receive an invitation to attend the Education Queensland Northside Junior String Camp to be held at Stafford State School from Tuesday 7th June – Thursday 9th June 2016. The cost is $85.00 per student with medical/consent forms due back to the school office by Friday 29th May, 2016.

ARTICLE FROM: THE MUSIC PARENTS GUIDE – A SURVIVAL KIT FOR THE NEW MUSIC PARENT

3 Ways Music Instruction in Schools Teaches Grit (and Why Children Need it So Badly Now)

The "self-esteem movement" in this country is coming to an end. We have learned that giving a trophy to all kids just for participating hasn't worked, and — even worse — has undermined the natural grit that our nation is built upon.

We are also at a crossroads in education, where people are starting to finally wake up to the fact that passion and perseverance matters more than intelligence when it comes to being successful. Hard work and stick-to-itiveness trumps "talent" and "good genes" every time, and usually gets most of us to where we want to be in our life and in our work. Grit is what we want our children to cultivate during their time in school, not just good test scores.

What is grit?

I write about grit quite a bit on this blog. Grit is the result of struggle, risk-taking, determination, embracing failure, working relentlessly toward a goal, and perseverance to accomplish tough tasks. Make no mistake about it: Like talent , grit can be learned and cultivated. In my opinion, developing grit should be one of the core goals of raising and educating our children, and sadly is missing from our test-rich school culture these days.

Failure in a safe environment is how our children learn. Considering that failing is the worst thing that can happen in school (think red pens, slash marks, and standardized test scores), we need music instruction now more than ever to help our children cultivate grit throughout their K-12 education.

Here are four ways students learn grit through music — perhaps more than any other subject in school:

It takes guts to perform.

Once the honeymoon is over with choosing an instrument or singing in choir, students must engage in performing, both alone and in an ensemble. And it takes some guts to "put oneself out there" for all to hear — blemishes and all — even if things aren't going to go that well. It's up to parents and teachers to use performance as a future motivator in order to increase the opportunities for students to build up their grit. Think of how great you would feel knowing that your child is building confidence for the tough road ahead that we call life.

With the right help from adults, children learn resilience through music study.

Playing a musical instrument does not yield a lot of immediate gratification — at first. This is a new concept to our ever-connected young generation, yet it's more crucial now than ever before that we create a culture in our schools that allows our students to embrace failure and frustration in a safe environment. Parents' whose first instinct is to protect their child from embarrassment or setback must develop grit of their own and remember the struggles they had that led them to their successes. Teachers must constantly reinforce the concept of resilience and give students the tools to succeed as the result of some sweat equity on their part.

Initiative and perseverance are traits we want all our children to learn.

Learning a musical craft helps children learn to take initiative. As long as parents and teachers give ownership of learning to their students , children — over time — will become self-starters. We are all trying to educate future leaders, and taking initiative is one of the primary determinants of leadership.

Once children begin their musical journey, they must stay focused on it. It's this perseverance that is at the core of cultivating grit. We see it all the time: someone has a setback and overcomes it only to be stronger moving forward — as long as they don't quit. That said, arguments I hear from colleagues about how testing also develops grit mostly falls on my deaf ears. There is much choice involved when it comes to music as opposed to tested subjects; children choose which instrument they want to play and make music with others — this concept of student choice is a stark difference music has from other subjects.

Today's digital age is eroding grit in all of us. At the end of the day, children still need focused attention for an extended period of time to realize their full potential in any subject in school, and also as human beings. We need to teach our children that working harder and smarter is something they can control — and music consistently gives them rewarding feedback through sound as to how they are doing.

We know more now about how the brain works than we ever have before. Psychological studies of children have finally shown us that "talent" and "intelligence" is not always what leads to success. It's clear that it's not only a small percentage of us who are destined to rise to the top. Grit is something that we can cultivate in all our children, regardless of race or socio-economic status. While education reform will hopefully catch up with this old yet often-neglected idea, music education has been providing children the opportunity to cultivate grit for ages — and every school in our nation must embrace music education in its curricula for music's beauty and its benefits in this regard.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of students around our nation start studying music in school. What if administrators, teachers, and parents used this opportunity to not only commit to supporting their child's potential lifelong love of music, but to also cultivate their children's grit that will serve them well throughout their lives by simply not giving up when times inevitably get tough?

Christine Jabs
Instrumental Music Teacher

Happy Music Making
The Aspley Music Department

JAPANESE STUDY TOUR

SCHOOL STUDY TOUR 2016

Our school will be hosting a Study Tour this year. A study tour is a group of international students coming to Australia (Aspley SS) to learn English and be immersed in the cultural experience of going to an Australian school and staying with Australian host families. The group of 20 Japanese students aged 14-15 years old, will be arriving on the 21st of August and departing on the 2nd of September. This particular group of students are from a prestigious school in Japan called Ritsumeikan Uji Junior High School, which is located in the Kyoto Prefecture.

An important aspect of Study Tours is in providing "homestay" for the Japanese students. Information about providing "homestay" and the application form follows this message. If anyone is interested in providing "homestay", please complete the application form and return it to the Administration Office.

I will keep you all up-to-date with any details regarding the Study Tour. Elaine Dooley (6DA) is also an Accredited Officer of Study Tours which is fantastic! She too will be working with me on the Study Tour.

Kind Regards
Rowena Mina (6MV/LOTE Teacher) and Elaine Dooley (6DA)

CANBERRA TRIP NEWS

I would like all children who took chocolate boxes to have the money and any unsold chocolates returned by Tuesday, the 3rd May please. If you or your child feel you could sell some more boxes in the next couple of weeks, then please let me know and I can give them some more boxes. There are about 25 boxes remaining at school.

I will hold a meeting for parents to inform you all about the Year 6 Canberra trip on Tuesday, the 10th May commencing at 5:30pm. The meeting will go no more than an hour and will be in one of the Year 6 classrooms.

Nelma Wright (0407643072)

SPORTS DEPARTMENT NEWS

Congratulations to the following students who have progressed to the next district level –

Tennis: Sebastian Iselin-Shea (North District team)

Touch: Jahrel Iselin-Jansen (North District team), Jamaji Iselin-Leone (North District team)

Cross Country (North District team):

India Esselmant (2nd)
Jamaji Iselin-Leone (1st)
Jahrel Iselin-Jasen (4th)
Rohan Platts (2nd)
Oskah Stewart (3rd)
Fionn Malrooney (6th)

Overall results: Aspley State School (2nd)

Thanking You
Anthony Schmidt

LIBRARY NEWS

The Library has been quite busy this year during lunch times. Currently all children from Year 1 – 6 are able to come to the library at break times. We also like to encourage as many students as possible to make use of the library. All students are encouraged to bring a library bag to help keep our resources in good condition when they borrow.

Exciting Developments.

Last year we purchased the Online version of Oliver (Softlink Library Management System), this allows 24/7 access to our Catalogue over the internet. What does this mean for Aspley Families? Students are able to login and see what books they currently have out, and when they are due for return. We can send overdue notices via email to parents or students (MIS school email addresses only for students). Students will be able to search our catalogue for resources they need, and should be also able to access certain web pages with information relative to their curriculum needs.

How do you get access:

Accessing the library catalogue from home

1. Login to the school library system at the link below acess the School Library System
2. You will be able to search the catalogue without logging in.
3. To login click on the red login button on the top right.
4. Type in your MIS Username. Students from Year 4 to 6 will know their ID.
5. For younger students please contact the library for the User ID details on library@aspleyss.eq.edu.au use Junior Login in the subject line.
6. Type in the Password Aspley2016
7. You can change the password after you login.
8. You can check to see what resources you have on loan and when they are due.

The option for using a smartphone app is also available, you will need to download the App from the Playstore or from App Store and follow the directions in the accompanying document.

Lunchtime Activities.

This year we have been offering a variety of art, science, craft and language activities as well as card and board games. Our most popular activity so far has been marshmallow and spaghetti construction, with colouring pages and various craft activities a close second.

An iPad mini has been purchased by the library and this is currently being used for class and lunchtime activities.

Needed!! LEGO , All shapes, sizes, types, colours!!

Too old for Lego? Wanting to clear out the old for new? Send us your Lego pieces that you no longer need or want! Leave your old Lego bits and pieces in the bin provided at the library!! Then watch this space.

Book Fair

Book Fair is coming on 19 May to 25 May. Last year we were able to earn enough points to purchase Scholastic Literacy Pro for the school. We currently have year 5 students enrolled and are hoping to fund enough licences for adding further Year levels. Also to add to the library collection more recent books for the enjoyment of all. So please support this iniative.

Library Staff
Hope Francis (Teacher-Librarian)

SPARROWS SOCCER PROGRAM NEWS

Parent field helpers required

Sparrows Soccer is issuing a call-out for additional adult helpers at before-school training every Thursday.

Our free-of-charge program only exists because volunteer "coaches" work with groups of grade 4, 5 and 6 students on basic soccer skills development drills.

A core five parents and teachers currently supervise small training groups, but with the program's popularity seeing numbers reach almost 100, your children will benefit from all the help we can muster.

Grade 4 and 5 family members are especially encouraged to join the Sparrows training team. This helps to overcome generational turnover volunteer changes at the end of each school year. When 2016 ends, a number of founding Sparrows parents with grade 6 students will sadly be leaving us, so we are preparing for this eventuality in advance.

Mums, dads, other family members/caregivers - if you have a child participating in Sparrows Soccer we urge you to consider lending a hand from 7:30am-8:15am each Thursday on the oval. Perhaps you have limited or no soccer experience? Doesn't matter! All we need is you in sporting attire, bringing your enthusiasm and being a good role model.

To express your interest, please contact Kym Farrow, Classroom Teacher, directly on kafar0@eq.edu.au

For Sparrows information

Kym Farrow, Class 6F teacher & Sparrows Coordinator, kafar0@eq.edu.au | 07 3863 9111

Carolynne Hassall, parent & Sparrows communication/administration support, carolynne.h@dhconsulting.com.au | 0404 883 462

HIGH SCHOOL OPEN DAYS

Aspley State High

COMMUNITY NEWS

VALLEYS RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB

We are also running a FREE girls' rugby clinic every Friday night from 6:30PM (however over the next two weeks it will be from 5:30PM -6:30PM).

For more information, parents can contact;

Shantel Netzler
Registrar
North Brisbane Junior Rugby Union Club Inc.
150 Shaw Road | Wooloowin 4030
PO Box 353
NUNDAH QLD 4012
AUSTRALIA
Mob : 0435 141 283
E: snetzler@gmail.com
W: http://www.northsjuniorrugby.com.au