9 December 2016

Newsletter Articles

UPCOMING EVENTS

December 2016/January 2017

PRINCIPAL’S NEWS

Prep to Year 3 Christmas Concert

Last week we enjoyed beautiful and fun performances from the students in Preparatory – Year 3. The students sang cheerful, festive season, songs and the jingle of bells rocked the hall. We were lucky enough to have a special visit from Santa who dropped in to see the children and bring treats for them all.

Staff Update

Teachers transferring into Aspley State School for 2017 include Ms Sally Boorer-Williams and Ms Katrina Mann. We welcome them and look forward to working with them in 2017.

Mrs Donna Boyce has been transferred to Kallangur State School in 2017. It is with great sadness that Mrs Boyce will leave the school at the end of this year and we wish her every best wish as she continues her career in a new school. Mrs Boyce has been at the school since 2011.

Mrs Tamara Balfour has transferred to Albany Creek State School. Mrs Balfour has taught a number of classes and science in since she has been at the school since 2012.

Mrs Liz Campbell has concluded her contract as Master Teacher and we thank her for the great work she has done to support teachers with literacy development, modelled lessons and action research to support teacher best practice. Mrs Leanne Youitt will take up this role in 2017. Mrs Youitt is currently acting Head of Curriculum whilst Mr Thomas is on leave.

Karen Lowe, Teacher aide concludes her work at Aspley State School and I thank her for her support with diverse learners. We wish Ms Lowe every best wish for her future career.

Writer’s Club

This week I was honoured to attend a learning celebration of the Junior Writer’s Club. These students meet weekly with teachers to extend their creativity and capability with writing. The students enjoyed publishing a story book. The standard achieved by these students is excellent! Special thank you to the teachers who support the students at Writers Club including Mrs Oliver, Ms Campbell and Mrs Youitt.

School Resumes in 2017

Students Resume for Semester One 2017 on Monday 23rd January 2017.

Teachers resume for four days of professional development on Tuesday 17th January 2017. During this time they will participate professional development on topics including inquiry learning, catering for diverse learning, cooperative learning and high order questions to challenge students and using ICT to support literacy development.

The Queensland State School 2017 Calendar is at:

Happy Holidays

I wish each student and their family, a safe and happy holiday. Keep reading each day and remember that our local libraries are a great place of fun activities over the holiday period.

We look forward to an exciting year of learning ahead where our students will continue to dream, believe, create and succeed!

Leann Griffith-Baker
Principal

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL’S NEWS

Final Assembly – 6 December 2016

Congratulations to the Class of 2016 who were farewelled at the special Assembly held on Tuesday afternoon.

The afternoon also including a formal Handover between the 2016 Captains and the incoming 2017 Captains, together with the staff farewells to Mrs Boyce and Mrs Balfour and the presentation of three Aspley Medallions for Academic Excellence.

2017 Captains and Senior Leaders (Round 1) for 2017

Congratulations to the following students that have been elected to the relevant Captaincies through the respective Ballot processes:

School Captains: Mae Sampson, Hayley Turner, Zane Lai and Willem Kennedy

Music Captains: Georgina Gothard, Luciella Spink, Ian Azordegan and Saskia Platts
Sports House Captains: Charlie Wendt and Keely Plumb (Oxley)
Hannah Lipscombe and William Pobjie (Kennedy)
Sanuli Etipola and Zayne Rohde (Mitchell)
Library Captains: Amelia Coates and Connor West
Tech Captains: Mrigank Jhala and Krina Chauhan
Hospitality Captains: Isabella Scott, Sebastian Iselin-Shea and Ryan Host

Round 1 Senior Leaders for 2017 – in addition to those Captains listed above:

Aisling Mulrooney, Alicia Patrick, Annika Pearson, Aum Surani, Ben Campbell, Braith Annan,
Eamon Langton, Ella Van Trier, India Esslemont, Kaitlyn Schultz, Laura Donaldson, Lyla Van Trier,
Marina Medoro, Molly Nocher, Olivia Dakin, Shafa Lovianditya, Skye Sinclair and Sofi Ham.

The Induction Ceremony for the Captains and the Round 1 Senior Leaders will be held at a Special Assembly on Monday of Week 5, Term 1 2017.

Aspley Medallions for 2017

Congratulations to the three students presented with Aspley Medallions for Academic Excellence:

Tom Power – Year 4: High Distinction, ICAS Mathematics; High Distinction, ICAS Digital Technologies.

David Brown – Year 4: High Distinction, ICAS Science; High Distinction, ICAS Digital Technologies; High Distinction, ICAS English

Imogen Alick – Year 4: ICAS/ University of New South Wales Medallist for English. Imogen receives the Medal as her ICAS English exam received the top score in English in Year 4 in Queensland. Imogen also receives a medal winner’s certificate.

Well done to Tom, David and Imogen for receiving the Aspley Medallions in 2016. Well done!

P-3 Christmas Concert

Once again the children from Prep- Year Three performed beautifully in both their singing and dancing. The Footsteps tutor was on the scene ensuring the children were all in step to the music and in sync with their moves.

Our hall was literally bursting at the seams with doting parents, grandparents and friends. They were entertained by the children who did not miss a beat. Our lovely comperes from Year 3 - Angus Dooley (3F), Mia Le Vieux (3G), Jasper Rohde (3B) and Rory Baldwin (3N) did a fantastic job introducing the items.

Finally, Santa’s arrival with his bags of goodies completed the event!

A job well done by all the class teachers, Mrs McIntyre and of course the children.

BUDDING ENGINEERS IN YEAR 1

Some Year 1 classes have been involved in various STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) mini projects. These were based on the ‘Pigeon stories’ from the author Mo Willems. The students worked both individually and in pairs. They set about to solve specific challenges.

A challenge was presented and then using limited materials and following specifications, the students had to build various structures in order to solve the problem. These challenges included building a raft to keep a Pigeon (cut-out) dry. Building the highest tower, using one sheet of paper and 20cm of tape to hold a cookie and constructing a bus to travel the furthest distance using an egg box, bottle tops and a moving axel. The students had great fun and loved problem solving, collaborating, creating and constructing. The best part was racing their buses down the slope and of course eating the cookies! Each challenge was reflected on and recommendations were make for future improvements.

Our little engineers have also been given the task of designing and constructing a new playground for themselves. They have really let their imaginations run wild, but at the same time they have had to come up with rules for safe play. They also had to design a sign for the playground and give it a name. All we need now if for their ideas to become a reality.

Solid Pathways UQ Funfest Event

On Tuesday Sebastian Iselin-Shea and Jamaji Iselin-Leone attended the solid pathways UQ fun fest which is an extension program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who achieve in the top 2 bandwidths on their NAPLAN testing. They completed classes in digital storytelling, agriculture and food science, health and behavioural science and robotics. It was an amazing opportunity to visit the St Lucia campus and discover the old buildings and experience the lecture theatres of the old Forgan Smith building.

PREP C & J GARDENING

In the previous newsletter it was written that only Prep C children were enjoying the Prep gardens. Prep J were also loving and exploring our wonderful new vegetable and herb garden beds. Many apologies for the oversight.

CAMP AUSTRALIA NEWS

COMMUNITY NEWS

NO DIRT JUST DANCE

Once again the No Dirt Just Dance Hip Hop lessons will be kicking off in Term One, 2017. Download the flyer below for more information.

Chinese Class

Swamp Studios