PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

PARENT-TEACHER INTERVIEWS: Once again this year our end of semester 1 interviews have been very well attended, with over 80% of parents represented.

Hopefully the information you have been provided with answered any queries you may have had in relation to your child’s schooling at Hampden. On the other side of the coin, I’m sure the information you provided each teacher will be used in a positive manner to help us tailor the delivery of our programs to best support each individual.

Thank-you for making your time available for these important exchanges.

I would like to thank both teachers and parents for making your valuable time available for these important conversations to occur.

SCHOOL SPEELOVER: This coming Saturday, 02 August, the school staff will host your children to a school sleepover to reward them for their continued good behaviour throughout semester one.

Permission forms will be sent home on Monday and must be returned by Friday for catering purposes.

Those in attendance will be provided with an evening meal and breakfast, and be entertained with activities and DVD’s.

We haven’t done this for a few years, however past experience has shown that the kids get a real buzz out of the experience, as do parents lucky enough to have all their children of school age!!

Howard Frost

Principal.

PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE: The P.R.C. has reached its halfway mark, with only seven weeks to go until reading ends on Friday 05 September.

How’s your child’s progress going?

POSTPONED EVENT: The Mackay District Track & Field carnival which was postponed due to the weather will now be held this Wednesday, 30 July.

All students involved have been informed already.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC: If you’re considering having your child taught a keyboard instrument then have a talk to Mary Hawkins who visits Hampden on Thursdays.

Mary now has vacancies during and after school each Thursday. Contact number 49575441.

AUSKICK 2008: The AUSKICK program will commence at lunchtime this Wednesday for interested students.

A visit from one of the co-ordinators occurred last week and flyers have been distributed to all students.

BOKCLUB TERM 3: For those children wishing to order from this latest issue of Bookclub the return date for orders is Monday 11 August.

CHOIR 2008: Former music teacher Kath Woodruff and pianist Robyn Sheedy have volunteered to coach our choir again this year, for which I’m truly thankful as I can’t play or sing!!

Twenty-four upper school students expressed an interest in being members of this year’s choir which will practise each Monday.

MOVE-A-THON: Although the weather hasn’t been the best for outdoor activity for much of this week I’m sure the children will be able to do enough to fill in the first box of their Energex Move-A-Thon.

Don’t forget to fill these in weekly kids, before you forget what activities you’ve been involved in.

TREE DAY: The rainy weather has forced a postponement of our planned planting day until Wednesday, however the moisture will be very beneficial in the long run.

A second “Tree Day” planting will be held in another week or two as well.

ACTIVE AFTER SCHOOL: The term 3 programs were scheduled to commence next week, however as yet the organisers are still unable to find a provider to deliver the second afternoon’s program.

We’ll therefore postpone the start for one more week and then, if necessary, commence with just one afternoon’s activities.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

The greatest gift you can give to somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, “If you will take care of me, I will take care of you.” Now I say, “I will take care of me for you, if you will take care of you for me.”

Jim Rohn

MOBILE LIBRARY: We are pleased to inform you that Mackay Regional Council' s Mobile Library will resume normal service on Tuesday 5 August 2008. The first day of operation at the schools in the area will be as follows:

Hampden State School

Wednesday 13 August 1.30pm – 3.15pm

Lots of work has been happening ‘behind the scenes’. Lorraine Insch and Julie Burns has completed a magnificent backdrop for our set. Allyson Witham is busily choreographing. Barb Perna and Rosie Dittman are helping with the ‘script’ and prop design. Other helpers are ready to ‘come on board’ to assist where they are needed. (Michell, Kerrianne, Kerry, Steph, Therese, …)

Lorraine and Julie have designed some fascinating costumes for our characters, and if you are able to help with sewing (hand or machine sewing), there will soon be some piecework to be completed for each costume.

Our performers have completed their auditions and have been told the characters they are to portray. Their enthusiasm for Rock Pop Mime this year is to be commended with a record number of applicants! We can only have 25 performers on stage at any one time, so some children have opted to assist backstage and with props and set production.

Our first practice will be on Sunday 27^th July from 9.00 until 11.00am.

Hello Everyone!

We are investigating everything royal this term – Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses, knights, castles, and fairytales!

When we ‘brainstormed’ all the words about kings and queens, we then had to decide how to group the words. Here is the result:

(We soon found that some words belonged to more than one group.)

Titles – Queen, King, Prince, Princess, Your Majesty, Your Highness (We know that titles are a sign of respect and some other titles are Miss, Mrs and Mr)

People – cook, servant, jester, knight, guard, soldier, enemy, ogre, witch

Things they do – click their fingers, bow, curtesy, respect, invite, guard, cook, crown, ‘are in charge of’ (we know there is one word that means the same as this but we haven’t found it yet)

Things they wear – crown, robes, gown, slippers

Where they live – kingdom, London, England, castle, palace

Other words – throne, red carpet, carriage, horse

As we investigate more words are added to each group.

Thank you to Mrs Burns who brought us some pictures with captions of real live princes and princesses from a magazine. As a result we can add ‘polo’ and ‘Denmark’ to our growing word wall.

We had a visit from a ‘Queen’ who had some problems sharing her jewels fairly amongst her friends. Luckily we were able to help her by pretending our counters were jewels, and drawing pictures, to solve her dilemma. (We didn’t want to be thrown into the dungeon.)

She also needs some outfits for each member of the Royal Family to wear to a very special occasion, and asked the class to design them for her.

Maybe we will receive an invitation to a ball!

P & C NEWS

TUCKSHOP: Please note tuckshop will be on Thursday next week as Friday is a ministerial holiday.

SPECIAL MEETING NOTICE

A Special Meeting of the P & C will be held at 7.00pm on Monday 18 August, 2008 (prior to the usual monthly P & C meeting) for the purposes of: (1) adopting a new constitution required as a result of the new Education Act (2006), and (2) adopting the Hampden State School P & C Association Student Protection Risk Management Strategy.

WEEKLY CLASS AWARDS

These recommenced today and the names of our first Semester 1 awardees will appear in next week’s newsletter.

Over the holidays we’ve had 3 children who discovered that they’d reached Milestone Award targets. Well done and congratulations to:

Zoe Hall (10 awards) Star Student

Jayde Mellross (120 awards) Millennium Master

Jack Cahill (230 awards) Scintillating Student

FARLEIGH STATE SCHOOL CENTENARY

Farleigh State School will be 100 years old in 2009 and we are preparing celebrations to mark this centenary for 11^th April 2009! We are keen to hear from past students, families and staff about their experiences and memories of Farleigh School. Any photographs or memorabilia that could be displayed at the celebrations would be gratefully received. Please contact the school on: 07 49598 229 or Joyce McNichol, Farleigh State School.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR 2008 LIONS ROCK POP MIME SHOW

The 2008 Rock Pop will now be held on Friday, 29^th of August at Queens Park.

The show will commence at 6.00pm, starting with the Primary Schools, and then after an intermission, the Secondary Schools will follow.

We have had to move the event to Queens Park after the Aquatic Centre construction delays have meant the Sound Shell in unavailable.

Due to the timing and the lack of other suitable venues, we will have to put both nights into one night. But by starting a little earlier, and perhaps going a little later, we will fit it all in.

We ask that representatives from all the schools be present at 5.30pm in the assembly area at the stage. At this time the running order of performances will be announced. The order is not to be decided until that afternoon. The show will then commence at 6.00pm.

Glen Christensen

The 6/7’s have written reports about a few of their recent extra-curricula activities. Here are a few for you to enjoy!

Joey League by Bill Brown

On Tuesday 22July, we had our first rugby league lesson with Brad, the Development Officer.

We played tons of games including “clap catch” , “kick the ball into the circle”, and “run and kick”.

Brad taught us how to do grubber kicks, chip kicks and torpedo kicks.

I’m sure everyone is looking forward to doing rugby league again next week.

Whitsunday Voices by Andrea Perna

On Friday the 18^th of July the year 6/7 class and come of the year fives went to the Whitsunday Voices. There were five choices of workshops. The first ones were Alison Lester or Borrie-Prior. 10 people went to the Alison Lester workshop while the rest went to the Borrie-Prior performance. I went to see Borrie-Prior. He is an aboriginal and he was so, so funny. I heard that in the Alison Lester workshop they made a counting book which was cool. After we had those sessions we had some morning tea. The next two sessions were the Garth Nix book talk and Archie Fussilo writers workshop. I went to Archie Fussilo writers workshop where we learnt to draw cartoon characters. Some of my classmates told me that they thought Garth Nix was boring. After that we had to go straight to Doug McLeod’s performance without eating lunch. He told this story about Cinderella but it was Cinder-roller – it was a robot instead of person! He was so, so funny. After that we went back to school. I thought the day was so cool!

Whitsunday Voices Excursion by Jack Cahill

On Friday the 18^th July, years 6/7 went into town to Whitsunday Anglican School for Whitsunday Voices. There were heaps of performances like Borrie Prior, Garth Nix, Doug McLeod, Archie Fussilo and Alison Lester.

The whole group that went to town enjoyed the performance. We split into groups of ten because we all couldn’t go to the same performances. Doug McLeod was one of the funniest performances along with Archie Fussilo. Archie Fussilo and Doug McLeod books made me crack up. The books I liked best were “The 3 Nuns” by Doug McLeod and Archie Fussilo’s funny drawings like the dog, man, baby and his ex-girlfriend.

I thought the excursion was excellent because of all the funny authors and illustrators.

Whitsunday Voices Excursion By Tiffaney Wales

On the 18^th of July the whole class went to Whitsunday Voices with some of the grade fives. We got on the but at 9.30am.

When we got there we had to go in groups of 10. Some went to the Alison Lester workshop while others went to Borrie Prior. People say it was very funny, and the people who went to the Alison Lester workshop got taught how to make a counting book. Then we went and had lunch. While we were eating out lunch there was a play. It was very fascinating.

After lunch some of the class went to see Archie Fussillo. We got taught how to draw 3 cartoons then we had to write about them. While some people went to Archie Fussillo the other people went to Garth Nix Book Talk. People say it was not much but the Archie Fussillo was very funny. At the end everyone went to Doug McLeod’s performance. Doug McLeod told a story about Cinderella, but it was about Cinder-rolla. Doug McLeod, Archy Fussillo and Borrie Prior were the funniest. My opinion is that it was a worthwhile excursion.

Issue no. 23, 25th July 2008

Issue no. 23, 25^th July 2008