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Kilcoy State School Newsletter 6 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

V O L U M E 3 I S S U E 5

September

• 5/6 Sept Year 3

Camp

• 7 Sept FREE

DRESS DAY—

Wear PINK

• 12 Sept

Exemplary BBQ

• 14 Sept Valley

Champions Sports

Carnival

• 15 Sept LAST

DAY OF TERM

October

• 2 October

Queen’s Birthday

Holiday

• 3 October School

Resumes

• 9-13 October P-3

Daily Swimming

Lessons - Cost $22

• 23-27 October

Book Fair

• 23-27 Oct 3/4-6

Daily Swimming

Keeping You Informed……..

In a letter that went home to all families, I advised you that I have been successful in being appointed as principal of Currimundi State School as of Term 4.

When I came to Kilcoy, my goal was to bring out the best in all staff and all students resulting in improved outcomes for all students. I can tell you I was not suc-cessful; as ‘all’ is a big word and I did not reach this aspirational target. I am still ex-tremely happy with what we achieved at this time.

The Power of Belonging

First I want to tell you about the power of a feeling of belonging. I know this power first-hand. These past seven years I have been working with schools across Queensland to promote young adolescent education (Junior Secondary). I have worked with over 120 schools, with as many Principals, so many fantastic Deputies and wonderful heads of Junior Secondary, and over 3000 committed teachers. In all of this time I have lost one of the most important of basic human needs – the need for belonging. Whilst I was involved in all these schools, I was not part of these schools, and as I worked away from my home these years – I lost my own sense of belonging with my own family, friends and my community. Kilcoy State School and I have worked together with great success in a range of areas (see below). I have been paid back several-fold with a wonderful sense of belonging. For what I have given to this great school, I have received much more back from stu-dents, staff and parents with a powerful sense of connection and community – I thank you!

To find out more of the power of sense of belonging and how this relates to your own

life and that of your children – please come to my parent workshop in the last week of

school. I hope to see many parents at our parent workshop on September

13, from 5:30pm till 7:00pm in the Hall. This workshop, presented by me and my son,

Phil Janz, will focus on our various roles in building the wellbeing assets of our children.

We will share the actual wellbeing data that we have gathered from our Years 3 to 6’s

and provide an update on the P-2 project. We will build your knowledge about chil-

dren’s wellbeing and together devise strategies to actively build their wellbeing assets.

I want to finish by outlining some of our achievements this year and others that we built on the great work done prior to my arrival, (please refer page 2).

I can assure you that ours is a wonderful school and will remain in my heart.

I have grown deeply fond of staff, students, and the many parents whom I

have got to know. Thank you for being so supportive and welcoming. I am

proud of our progress, particularly in reading but also in building on the

supportive Kilcoy culture and taking this to a higher level.

Terry Janz, Principal

P A G E 2

Our Achievements This Year

1. Reading improvement! NAPLAN is a single set of tests earlier in the year and there

is much room for improvement. However, the current systematic approach that

we have developed in the teaching of reading continues to make massive gains. A

massive 92% of Prep students reached the semester one targets and all year levels

have shown great improvement. Already in Year 5, 19 out of 28 students have

reached end of year reading targets. I hear children across the school talking about

their reading progress, I hear them talk about the number of books they have read

and their word count. We have created an environment at Kilcoy where reading is

‘cool’ and motivation and performance is driving young people to be great readers.

2. Improved attendance! We introduced Friday afternoon activities to address the

drop in Friday absences and now have made a gain of 1% - which doesn’t sound

much but is equivalent to an extra 5 weeks of schooling over the years your child

will be at school – an obvious advantage.

3. Our focus on building a positive, friendly and collaborative environment – just ask

your son or daughter to put their hand where the part of the brain is that is most

involved with success at school. Also ask them what makes this part of the brain

work best and what stops it from working?

4. Partnering Griffith University in a P-2 study - this is going well and is now half way

through – and will finish at the end of Term 4. A range of short, yet impactful

teaching practices are used to promote students having focussed and sustained at-

tention and self-regulation. These are all prerequisites for effective learning.

5. Sport shed funding – we have just gained nearly $30000 funding to build a sports

shed.

6. The introduction of Teacher teams – this powered our success with our reading

agenda.

7. Full School Review - Our full school review in June validated our approach and the

recommendations from this review will form the basis for the school’s work over

the next four years.

8. Finally, I can take no credit for this one – it was part of our staff’s existing culture.

The review team told me that Kilcoy State School was the most inclusive school

they had ever seen (including the reviewers own schools). No matter whether the

student had a disability, a learning difficulty, a non-English home language, had lost

their lunch, or was a bit upset - everyone pitched in. The staff did not say that’s

someone else’s job – they all have ownership of all the children at our school – and

that makes this school very special.

Best wishes

Terry

UNIFORM SHOP WILL BE OPENED TOMORROW

7 SEPTEMBER FROM 3:00PM TO 3:30PM

Staff on Leave

Term 4

Mrs Cameron replaced by

Ross McHutcheon

Mr Wade replaced by

Shane Schodel

3 to 13 October

K I L C O Y S T A T E S C H O O L

Swimming Term 4

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 3 I S S U E 5

Swimming will commence Week 2 Term 4, 9 - 13 October with daily lessons for Prep to Year 3. Year 3/4 to Year 6 will commence Week 4, 23 - 27 October with daily lessons. Permission notes will be sent home Week 1 Term 4. The cost to cover pool entry for swimming lessons and carnival will be $22.00 per student. Daniel Book, Physical Education Teacher

NO SUPA CLUB OR BREAKFAST CLUB THIS WEEK (7 September).

Operation Christmas Child

Collections until the end of this Term. Chappy Kate

NAPLAN - The Department of Education moving into the technology age, has designed a wonder-

ful advanced NAPLAN Online testing program which will cater for individual differences for students.

In preparing our school for this to start in 2018, our current Year 4 students will be having a go at a

simulated experience this week and other classes are exploring it during their Library/Technology les-

sons with Mrs Bauer. Those who have looked at it so far have been excited and think it is great! Fami-

lies can access the Student Demonstration site by searching for NAPLAN Online.

BOOK WEEK

Our Annual Scholastic Book Fair will be held next term Week 4.

We have moved it to this time of the year as people may like to buy gifts for Christmas and holiday

reading. “The Very Cranky Bear” will visit us throughout the week.

Mrs Bauer, Teacher/Librarian

Amelia

Emma

Mrs Killey at the

Instrumental

Music

Advanced

Workshop

Father’s Day Raffle winners: Nathaniel Seeto, Jarvis Weaver, Angela Burgess and Amelia Wolff. Congratulations!

LOST PROPERTY BOX IS

OVERFLOWING - ITEMS

NOT COLLECTED WILL BE

DONATED TO CHARITY AT

THE END OF TERM

STANLEY RIVER CRICKET CLUB

WOODFORD SPORTSGROUND

PLEASE CONTACT DANNY 0407 747 793

K I L C O Y S T A T E S C H O O L