PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

L.O.T.E. CHANGES: Since its inception as a key learning area about 20 years ago there have been on-going criticisms about the way L.O.T.E. (Languages Other Than English) has been implemented and delivered in Queensland schools.

Individual schools, school clusters and education regions have now been given the opportunity to develop a system whereby L.O.T.E. can be delivered in a manner most suited to them, rather than simply be forced to adopt the “one size fits all” model as currently exists. In our case this means two 45 minute lessons of Japanese each week.

In this newsletter you will see two flowcharts outlining timelines and options available in regards to L.O.T.E. for 2008. Please spend a few minutes perusing these and should you have any suggestions for L.O.T.E. at Hampden please bring them along to this month’s P & C meeting where this will be an agenda item.

Questions you may contemplate could include such as

Is L.O.T.E. important?
Is Japanese the L.O.T.E. we should be teaching at Hampden?
If L.O.T.E. is taught at Hampden, should it start in Year 1 instead of Year 6?
Should all students learn L.O.T.E., or just those who want to?

I look forward to hearing your opinions at our P & C meeting on the 21^st.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!: The importance of the role of mothers in any family cannot be understated, and as our modern society evolves at an increasingly rapid rate so the role of mothers is becoming even more complex.

Mums, the love and support you provide your children will never go out of fashion, however.

Keep up the great work, and enjoy some well earned leisure time this Sunday!

Howard Frost

Principal.

SCHOOL NEWS

SPORTS SHIRTS: Only one week to go now it you would like the school to print the sports house logo onto a t-shirt for your child. Simply leave your shirts, clearly named, at the front office.

SCHOOL AUDIT: Internal Auditor Mark Staunton conducted a comprehensive audit of all facets of the school’s financial, human and physical resources over the last two days and was pleased with our operations.

INTERSCHOOL SPORT: Unfortunately the proposed visit to Mirani today was unable to proceed due to the conditions of their grounds.

At this stage payments made for the bus have been retained at school pending next week’s draw. If Hampden does not have to travel next Friday, all money will be refunded.

SCIENCE CIRCUS: As mentioned last week both the Arts Council and the Shell Questacon Science Circus will be visiting Hampden during the week 21 – 25 May.

To spread the payments a little the Arts Council envelopes were sent home last Friday, and in today’s newsletter is an information page and payment/permission envelope for the Science Circus visit.

RELIEF CLEANERS: I haven’t had any calls yet regarding people who may wish to do some cleaning at the school in a relief capacity. (Approx 4.5 hours per day in two shifts.)

If you’d like to know more, please give me a call on 49 540189.

“GET ACTIVE”: Travis Norton and three Institute of Sport athletes were at Hampden today for the final visit in this year’s “Get Active” program which promotes healthy lifestyle choices.

Despite the wet conditions all classes had fun in their activity sessions and responded well to the healthy lifestyle presentation.

McDONALD’S MATHS: Two teams of year 6/7 students have been chosen for this competition to be held next Wednesday at the Mackay North State High School assembly hall.

Please have all permission slips returned ASAP to assist with organisational matters.

CONGRATULATIONS NEWTON:

Congratulations to Bronwyn Wiseman’s son (and former Hampden student!) Newton for an outstanding performance in the recent State Clay Target Trap Shooting contest.

Not only did he win the State Junior Title, but also claimed the B-grade Title as well!

Newton will shoot in the Australian Titles early in 2008, with all our best wishes going along with him, I’m sure.

CROSS COUNTRY: In last week’s newsletter I mentioned all the children who ran a place at the Seaforth Cross Country. I failed to mention that Jordan Perna gained 4^th place in the girls 11yrs event.

Congratulations Jordan! Jordan now joins eleven other children from Hampden competing at Sarina today. We wish them all the best.

We will report on this event in next week’s newsletter.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

I believe anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps on doing them until he gets a record of successful experiences behind him.

Eleanor Roosevelt.

EEC NEWS

Hello Everyone

Another busy week at Prep/Year One. We enjoyed playing indoor games with the Get Active team. We also spoiled our Mums with lots of levely presents for Mothers’ Day.

Many thanks to our teacher Aide Mrs Insch and parent helper Mrs Ashcroft who assisted us with cooking.

Congratulations to our first Afternoon session presenters – Mikeely, Ashlyn, Nakita and Andrew who displayed lots of confidence and enthusiasm for their tasks.

We received some new board games in our classroom this week. Board games promote many important concepts, both social and academic including: taking turns, following rules, logical reasoning, counting and visual discrimination.

P & C NEWS

Just a quick reminder this week about the general meeting for May which will be held on Monday 21^st at 7.30pm. All Welcome.

FOR SALE BY TENDER

The school has the following two items available for tender:

a. “Samsung” 48cm television with remote control. Purchased 1994. Good condition.

b. “Sharp” video recorder with remote control. Purchased 1999. Good condition.

Please address tenders to: The Principal

Hampden State School

Post Office

Kuttabul

4741

Tenders close Monday 21 May.

MARIAN MARKETS

Church Grounds Marian

Sunday 13^th May 8.00am – 12 noon

Plenty of great stalls.

Sausage sizzle & refreshments available

Silent Auction

Issue no.14, 11th May 2007

Issue no.14, 11^th May 2007