MARCH

18 Mar

-4 Apr

Parent Teacher Interviews

26 P&C AGM

27 Junior Assembly

28-29 Met North Australian Football

APRIL

1-2 Prep Bunyaville Excursions

2 Whole School Assembly

3-5 School Review

4 Year 3 Planetarium Excursion

4 District Girls Touch

5 Free Dress Day Last day of Term 1

6-22 School Holidays

23 First day of Term 2

23 P&C Meeting

24 ANZAC Assembly

25 ANZAC Day Holiday

From the Principal...

P&C Annual General Meeting

Our Parents’ and Citizens’ Association AGM will be held tonight from 6.30 in the OSHC building followed by the March general meeting. I would like to acknowledge and thank the current Executive and members for their dedication to our school and the hard work that has taken place over the past 12 months.

Our P&C has contributed significantly to our school to enhance resources and facilities, which is only possible as a result of the support of all families. I look forward to working closely with our P&C this year and I would encourage all families to continue to support P&C activities again this year to help make Albany Hills State School a better place for your children.

Prep 2020

If your child will be starting Prep next year, or you know someone who is enrolling their child at Albany Hills next year, please make sure we have your enrolment form.

Please remember you must provide a birth certificate before a child can be enrolled. We will also require evidence of address in our catchment area for new families to our school.

We will have limited capacity for out of catchment enrolments in Prep next year. To help inform our decisions, I would appreciate all current families with siblings starting Prep next year to provide us with enrolment forms as soon as possible so we have a clearer picture of our numbers for next year.

Children who were born between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2015 are eligible for Prep in 2020.

Every Day Counts

With only 8 school days remaining before the Easter vacation, I would once again like to remind parents of the importance of students attending every school day unless they are sick.

The last day of term is Friday 5 April. Please note that all students in Queensland will return to school on Tuesday 23 April. Chris Hansen Principal

Tuesday 26 March | Week 9, Term 1

Albany Hills State School Herald A High Performing Independent Public School

Website: albahillss.eq.edu.au

Chris Hansen, Principal

From the Deputy Principals… REMINDER: NO PLAY BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL

There are risks associated with students arriving at school too early or being in the grounds after school.

There is no play before school.

Students and parents are to leave the grounds promptly after dismissal from class at 3.00 pm.

There is no play after school.

We thank you for your cooperation with these rules.

PREP 2020 If you have a child coming to prep next year, please submit your enrolment forms to the office as soon as possible. This will assist us greatly with enrolment management. Students born between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2015 are to be in Prep in 2020.

Important information sessions for parents will be held in May. Parents may choose: Monday 13 May 9.00 am - 10.30 am or Tuesday 14 May 6.30 pm - 7.30 pm.

Future students and their families are also invited to join us for Under Eights’ Morning on Monday 20 May.

If you have any enrolment questions please email admin@albahillss.eq.edu.au

LEAP (STUDENT LEADERSHIP) DAY:

Last Friday, Albany Hills State School hosted the annual LEAP (student leadership) day for almost 80 primary school leaders from across our cluster of schools (Albany Hills SS, Albany Creek SS, Eatons Hill SS, McDowall SS).

The day began with a welcome and some thoughts from Mr Hansen, followed by our special guest speaker, Mr Mike Charlton, Moreton Bay Region Deputy Mayor. Mike shared his leadership experience including what motivates and inspires him as a leader. This is the ninth annual LEAP Day and Mike has been part of most of them. Our schools very much appreciate his involvement.

Students then participated in four workshops aimed at identifying their strengths as leaders and areas they make wish to develop in the future.

In the afternoon they were joined by student leaders from Albany Creek, Bray Park, Craigslea and Wavell State High Schools. They lead a series of group activities and challenges aimed at further developing the students' team, communication and leadership skills. We thank the students and the staff of the high schools for their time preparing the activities and attending the day.

For the students leaders of Albany Hills SS, the day was an appropriate follow up to their recent attendance at the Young Leaders Day in the city.

Many thanks to the Deputy Principals and Chaplains of the primary schools for organising the event.

See photos from the LEAP Day in our photo section at the end of The Herald.

NED

Congratulations to our very worthy NED

recipient for March.

SILVER TICKETS Congratulations to all of our silver ticket

winners last week.

Ivy PSG

William PJP

Marko 1KI

Hunter 2LB

Ryan 3HJ

Tobin 4SG

Imogen 6JW

Brayden 6JW

Chris Hansen Principal

ANZAC DAY ASSEMBLY

The school will be holding a commemorative ANZAC Day assembly on Wednesday 24 April at 2.00 pm, which is the second day of Term 2. Please note this important date in your calendar. Further information will be in the Herald in the coming weeks.

This is an important date in our school’s calendar as we have a large number of Australian Defence Families at the school. Everyone is welcome so please come along and help us educate our children on the importance of ANZAC Day. Help us remember on ANZAC Day.

AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE FAMILIES

Special invitations were emailed last week to ALL Australian Defence Force families at Albany Hills inviting them to our ANZAC Day Assembly. The assembly will be held after the school holidays on Wednesday 24 April at 2.00 pm. If for some reason you did not receive an invitation, please contact Karen O’Connor, our Defence School Mentor on email kocon48@eq.edu.au.

ANZAC DAY MARCH

On ANZAC Day, Thursday 25 April, Albany Hills will be marching in the ANZAC Day March at Kallangur with the Pine Rivers District RSL Sub-Branch. This is a great opportunity for the students to proudly represent our school.

Further information on the march will be in the Herald in the coming weeks.

Beth Henderson Steve Wiedman Jodie Farley Deputy Principals

FORMS & DOCUMENTS

Year 3 Brisbane Planetarium

Lunch Clubs

Term 1 Curriculum Overview

District and Met North Sports

Music events calendar 2019

Parent communication document

Term 1 Year Level Newsletters

Uniform Price List

Tuckshop Menu

Enrolling at Albany Hills State School

ATTENDANCE TARGETS

Thank you parents and students for this great result for the year so far!

ATTENDANCE TARGET : 95%

ATTENDANCE TO DATE : 96.2%

ATTENDANCE LAST WEEK : 95.2%

IMPROVING STUDENT WRITING

The final strategy in our series on Seven Steps to Writing Success is Exciting Endings. This strategy is known as Endings with Impact for persuasive texts and is introduced to our students in Year 1, then revised and consolidated each year.

“And they lived happily ever after” is an ending teachers dread reading in student work. It is unimaginative, fairy tale-like and generally not suitable for most writing that we do in schools. In good writing and story telling, there are often two endings that authors use – the action climax and the character resolution, which give richness to student writing. Think about the ending to your favourite action movie – there’s usually a few minutes after the big action finish where the character arcs are concluded, sometimes with the main characters walking off into the sunset, the sworn enemies becoming friends, or the romance finally is able to blossom. This is why the story graph shows the two sections at the end of the story.

Great endings are well planned and we encourage our budding writers to put as much effort into planning the ending of their story, or how they will conclude their persuasive text, as what they do regarding the action sequences. We say NO! to the quick fix endings such as “and they woke up and it was all a dream”, or “and they lived happily ever after”, or even “to be continued…”. These endings lack imagination and flair and rarely fit with the overall text structure.

Next week we will conclude our series on Seven Steps to Writing Success with how we can use the Seven Steps strategies to support students to edit their own writing. If there is anything else you would like us to address in the future regarding student writing please feel free to email me at cjmei0@eq.edu.au.

Christie Meiklejohn Head Of Curriculum

HOW TO REPORT

SCHOOL ABSENCES

OPTION 1

Phone the student absence line: 3264 0760

OPTION 2

Email the school:

studentabsences@albahillss.eq.edu.au

OPTION 3

Log your child’s absence through your QParents account via the mobile app.

Need to register a QParents account?

Contact the school office for more information: Phone: 3264 0777 Email: office@albahillss.eq.edu.au

PEDAGOGY NEWS

Last year, Albany Hills State School implemented a new and exciting vocabulary program across Year 3 and Year 4. The program implementation has continued this year and Robust Vocabulary Instruction (RVI) is alive and pumping in 2019.

Term 2 will be an exciting time as RVI is introduced to all Year 2 students. Last week, the Year 2 teachers were hard at work learning all about what makes this program so effective for students writing and learning about ways to explicitly introduce new words in preparation for the program to begin next term.

INSIGHT INTO RVI IN YEAR 3

I would love to share with you some feedback I recently received from one of our Year 3 teachers.

My class has been loving the Robust Vocabulary Instruction (RVI) program this term. Every week we look at a couple of new words and do some fun activities with those words but also some explicit, focused activities that help the children to understand the meaning of the words and in which contexts they can be used effectively.

The children particularly like constructing their own sentences using the words. I am hearing/seeing the new vocabulary in their everyday language, sentences and story-writing. You might even be hearing some new words at home and wondered where they came from – probably RVI words. I even find that I am using these words more often too, which means my vocabulary must have needed a refresher!!

Take a look at the wonderful sentences from this class:

The rich lady took a glimpse at the pool before diving into the sparkly clear water.

I took a quick glimpse at the grumpy stern man as he was strolling down the old dusty road.

I felt a surge of anger forming in my chest when my friend broke a huge promise.

The teacher had a stern look on his face as he glimpsed at all the neat, kind, gentle students as he was strolling around the classroom.

I was strolling around feeling awkward when I dropped my delicious rainbow sprinkled donut on a beautiful lady’s purple spotted shirt.

I was prancing around the school when I got to see the lovely Mrs Farley with my magnificent sentences.

I dug up an ancient, mummified body that had an awkward look on its bandage covered face.

Jodi Langenhoven Pedagogical Coach

It is:

Multiple encounters with a word

Rich and extensive opportunities to

practise using new words

Numerous opportunities to learn

and reinforce vocabulary through

wide independent reading.

Nurturing an appreciation for

words and how they are used.

Explicitly taught word

meanings

Students who receive Robust Vocabulary

Instruction (RVI) are able to demonstrate

the following:

1. Respond more quickly to word

meanings in timed tasks

2. Better comprehended stories con-

taining target words

3. Engage in complex thinking and

display knowledge of words being

assessed

4. Put target words into context

Students take pride in their use of words,

display ‘word ownership’ and develop

‘word awareness’ in their learning environ-

ment and in other parts of their own lives.

Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary

Instruction (2nd Edition) By Isabel L. Beck,

Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan

“Results of Frequent, Robust Instruction”

What is RVI?

Science News... WOS

Science News... WOS

Our Year 6 teachers have been planning with the Wonder of Science team from the University of Queensland. WoS is an inquiry approach to STEM teaching and learning, as we work towards promoting a STEM culture at Albany Hills.

Ms Roberts Science Enrichment Teacher

ALBANY HILLS SUCCESS AT WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL

Congratulations to the Albany Hills State School Turtle Crusaders on achieving 3rd place in the final of the World Science Festival art competition currently being held at the Queensland Museum. Yashi and Josie were so excited and proud to be there on behalf of our school to except the award presented by the State Education minister.

The AHSS Turtle Crusaders entry was Rethink the turtle. The early years students collaborated to make Rethink. Year 1 and 2 students collected plastic waste from

TUCKSHOP ROSTER

TUCKSHOP DONATIONS

The tuckshop would appreciate any donations of pasta spirals or penne, Jatz or Aldi Eton Crackers. Pop any donations into your child’s tuckshop box.

Thanks Sharon

Tuckshop Roster

Week 10 of Term 1 1–5 April

Monday

Therese Rebecca

Tuesday Vic Natalie Claire

Wednesday Trudi Gwen

Thursday Daniela Liz Clare

Friday Dana Rachelle Natasha Lou

the eating area that could end up in our oceans and used it to create an art piece to raise awareness about marine pollution. They stuffed the rubbish into a big plastic bag, made a shell and then Preps, Year 1 and Year 2 students drew little turtles to decorate Rethink. Then a small group of Year 2 and Year 3 students presented the art work and its message to the school community.

HARMONY DAY

On Thursday 21 March was Harmony Day. This is a day where we celebrate how all of our differences

make Australia a great place to live. As part of our Harmony Day celebrations, we have displayed a world map showing the 33 countries (so far) where our students and/or their parents were born. There

have been some great

discussions with our students about different cultures,

YEAR 1 GOMA EXCURSION

This week’s photo gallery…

LEAP (Student Leadership) DAY

P&C AGM ON TONIGHT

Tuesday 26 March at 6.30 pm (please note the earlier start time)

In the OSHC building.

Membership forms for new members available on the night. All welcome!

General monthly meeting for March will be held after the AGM.

YEAR 6 CAMP

FREE COMMUNITY

8 WEEK CHALLENGE

On the 6th April Anytime Fitness Albany Creek are launching a FREE community 8 week challenge. There is no better time then right now to achieve your health and fitness goals!!

When you register you'll get: - Free six step transformation guide + meal plans - 8-Weeks of free fitness training (7am-8am every Saturday at Albany Hills School on the oval - Free 45-minute results accelerator session with a trainer - Weekly motivation and support - 2 Week membership at Anytime Fitness Albany Creek (for non members)

This challenge is valued at $440 but you get it ALL for FREE. We do ask for a small optional donation of $30 to R U OK? They're an Australian charity which supports mental health and the awareness of mental health. Click the link to get all the details!

REGISTER HERE