PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

SCHOOL CAMP SUCCESS: Last week’s camp to North Keppel Island was indeed a huge success in every sense of the word, with all 38 students and 12 adults enjoying the experiences provided immensely.

Each year’s camp has specific learning objectives, and this year these were mainly designed around the marine environment, alternative energy and conservation, and indigenous culture.

The development of social skills is always on our camp agendas with activities fostering teamwork and co-operative approaches to problem solving built in. Less structured social development comes from simply having to live together with 8 others in a cabin for a week. I call it developing social resilience!

The most important outcome of all from camps, it could be argued, is personal growth, and this was certainly high on our agenda also.

The first day set the scene here with the children confronting unknown challenges in an unfamiliar environment as they completed the special adventure causing segment at the end of the Capricornia Caves tour. This continued that night on North Keppel when they were taken to a beach on the other side of the island and, without torches, asked to make their own way back to camp in small groups. Of course the adults had been strategically hidden along the way to both supervise and scare them!

The week continued in this manner with the kids facing and overcoming personal challenges in relation to snorkelling, outrigging, ropes courses, night activities and many more, and all have returned with a vastly improved self-confidence and pride in accomplishing tasks they wouldn’t have dared to attempt ordinarily.

It was indeed an exceptional camp!

R.E. BREAK-UP CONCERT: Don’t miss your invitation to Tuesday morning’s R.E. grand finale for 2007 – it’s on the red insert in this newsletter.

As we have come to expect, the R.E. volunteers have done a fabulous job again this year. Through their dedication and belief in the Christian principles of love, peace and tolerance they have been central inn reinforcing the values we aspire to at Hampden.

Please join us on Tuesday morning to both thank them for their efforts and to enjoy the participation of your children in their end of year performances.

BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT REWARD: All parents should be now have received an orange notice concerning the P & C’s end of Semester 2 good behaviour reward outing, to be held following the R.E. break-up.

The permission slip at the bottom of this page must be returned if children are to attend this special outing to the Mackay Leisure Centre.

CHRISTMAS BUSH DANCE: Don’t forget to let all your friends and relatives know about this fun night on Wednesday 12^th. Everyone’s invited!

A special flyer and program will be sent home next week.

Howard Frost

Principal.

2008 BOOKLISTS: Students received these on Wednesday. Please read the covering letter carefully and contact the school should you have any queries. Our school booklists have been faxed to major newsagents/suppliers in Mackay, however it is often the case that considerable savings can be made by “shopping around”, especially when it comes to stationery and the like.

DISCO FEVER: Don’t forget to boogie on down for tonight’s Christmas disco, the last for 2007!

As well as the usual goodies, glow sticks will be on sale for $1.00 each.

JUMBLE SALE: Thank-you for your support of the Student Council’s jumble stall on Election Day. $170 was raised. A special thanks to the parents who assisted the children on Saturday.

SCHOOL REPORTS: The plan is to have reports sent home on Thursday now, a day or two later than our original estimate.

Hampden is one of a small group of schools trialling a new web-based computer generated report format which has been causing us a few teething problems.

SECRET SANTA: Children in years 4-7 are running class Secret Santa activities again this year. This Wednesday is the first day for “clues” to be opened. Presents for the “grand finale” can also start to be brought inform Wednesday.

LAST DAYS: As the school year winds down, now is the time we start asking for your help to ensure all school property is returned to enable us to complete end of year stocktakes.

Please send back to school all library books, home readers, calculators, etc by the end of next week.

SWIMMING CARNIVAL: This Friday is the “small school” fun swimming carnival at the Calen Pool. Children will participate in swimming races appropriate to their ages and abilities, as well as in novelty events.

At the end of these events there is usually time for a “free swim” using tractor tubes and other inflatables to further enhance the enjoyment.

Parents are welcome to attend if they wish, either for the whole day or just a part. The carnival will commence about 9.45am and conclude around 2.00pm.

Children should come well prepared for a day in the sun, bring a water bottle (named) and their lunch. Alternatively, a sausage sizzle lunch is available. Details/orders forms will be provided on a separate note.

LAST SWIMMING DAY: as mentioned, Friday is our fun swimming carnival, however our last swimming lesson will be on Monday, at the usual time. The usual $4 bus fares will be required each time, but on these hot days the children all agree its well worth it!!

WRITERS WORKSHOP: Five Hampden students attended a workshop yesterday designed to enhance their excellent writing capabilities even further.

Feedback from the children and the facilitators has been very positive.

Hello Everyone

Over the last two weeks students in Prep/Year One formed friendship groups or worked individually to plan and make a model of their own farm. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of working alone or working in a group prior to making our decisions.

Before animals could be introduced all the built features of the farmscape had to be completed and all the animals’ needs had to be met.

All farms were required to have a water source and demonstrate how the water would get from the reservoir to the animals and people who drink it. As a result we have pipes, drains, and gutters to channel the water from rooves into tanks, from dams into troughs and from bores into pipes and to the tank.

Fences were necessary to keep stock safe, to separate them from other animals, and also to make sure no-one’s farm encroached on anyone else’s!

The children have used a variety of materials and lots of ingenious construction ideas (mostly involving sticky tape) to make their models.

P & C NEWS

XMAS HAMPER RAFFLE: We’re counting on your generosity again this year to provide the contents of this raffle, the proceeds from which will go towards the cost of our bush band Hullabaloo at the break-up night celebrations.

Please drop an extra item or two into your shopping trolley for this purpose.

Tickets in this raffle are attached to this newsletter.

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST: Are you interested in being our secretary or tuckshop convenor in 2008? These positions will be vacant, so please let us know if you’d like more details.

TUCKSHOP: As my tuckshop year draws to a close today it is only fitting to thank all who have helped during my years as tuckshop convenor, by way of home baking, serving, etc. My hope is that my successor gains the enjoyment that I received throughout the years. Best of luck and thank – you. Cheryl Barratt.

LAST MEETING: A reminder that our last meeting for 2007 will be brief, following which the P & C will provide refreshments and nibbles in appreciation of the contributions you have made to the school’s operations throughout 2007.

Please join us for this social interaction on Monday 10^th December, at 7.30pm.

WEEKLY CLASS AWARDS

Principal’s Awards: For Honesty:- Emily Chidgey, Jett Jones. For Helping Serve on Election Day Jumble Stall – Chelsea Perna, Jordan Perna, Andrea Perna, Ben Perna, Anthony Leeding, Alyce Volker, Jazmine Holliday, Courtney Perna, Lacey Mackenzie.

Year 6/7 Awards: Leadership Award – Sarah Smith. Improvement Award – Luke Kippen. Home Reading Award – Tamara Patchett. ICT Award – Michael Volker.

Year 4/5: Home Reader of the Year – Tim Patchett. Most Improved 2007 – Mitchell Lake. Homework Award 2007 – Sean Gee. Best Attendance 2007 – Winston Dwyer. All ‘As” for Effort 2007 – Darcie Cahill, Demi Cruickshanks, Kimberley Wales, Andrea Perna, Tiffaney Wales. Smarter Than a 5^th Grader Award – James Medway, Damian Volker. Writing Award – Emily Chidgey.

Year 2/3: Oral Language – Layton Morrison, Dylan Edmonds, Ryan Olsen, Shannon Leahy. Conscientious Effort – Josephine Faltinsky.

Prep/Year One: Fantastic Work Award to the whole class for their “What’s In the Box” project, that involved writing, drawing, cutting, pasting, stencilling and wrapping!

Congratulations to all the above-named children for earning your awards, which are the last for 2007.

Next week we’ll have School Camp certificates and Term 4 Behaviour Management Award certificates to present.

With only 2 weeks of school left now, please count your awards as soon as possible and bring in your folders if you’re at a milestone level.

Schools are very busy places at the end of the year and we will need time to print your award.

Well Done to the following large group of Milestone Award achievers! They obviously didn’t need to be reminded to count their awards!!

Ryan Olsen (10 awards) STAR STUDENT, Jack McLeod (20 awards) CHAMPION STUDENT, Andrew DePaoli (20 awards) CHAMPION STUDENT, Abbey Medway (20 awards) CHAMPION STUDENT, Madelaine Burley (80 awards) PERFECT PUPIL, Douglas Pridmore (100 awards) SUCCESSFUL CENTURION, Riley Cruickshanks (100 awards) SUCCESSFUL CENTURION, Demi Cruickshanks (165 awards) SUPER STAR, Sarah Smith (165 awards) SUPER STAR, Kimberley Wales (180 awards) GALACTIC GENIUS, Tiffaney Wales (180 awards) GALACTIC GENIUS, Damian Volker (180 awards) GALACTIC GENIUS, Ben Wales (215 awards) WONDERFUL WORKER

NORTH KEPPEL CAMP

By Demi

Hi everybody, my name is Demi Cruickshanks and today I will tell you about School Camp at North Keppel Island.

Day one. On the first day we went on a trop to Yeppoon. Half way there we stopped at Capricorn Caves. We explored the cave that was really fun! They told us that they have weddings in the caves. I thought that was amazing. When we got to Yeppoon all the children helped unload the bus and we got on the boat. Jazmine was freaking out. When we got going it was really rough on the water. Some people even got sick but I didn’t see them or I would have got sick as well. When we arrived at North Keppel Sarah and Rianna (the staff) told us a bit about the island. Soon we went to our cabins and put out togs on and a stinger suit on because we were going for a beach swim. It was getting dark and Sarah and Rianna told us we were going for a walk to Marie Bay. It was really nice and peaceful, until the adults scared us.

Day two. On the second day straight up we had cabin inspection. They told us about snorkelling and African Drumming and we did that in rotations. When we played the African drums it was a really beautiful sound. After that we went on a cultural walk to the solar panels and the energy sources. When it started getting dark the wide games started. I had the most fun ever!

Day three. Cabin inspections – our cabin was really tidy. Everyone had a turn to outrig to Conical Island. Then we went fishing but I didn’t catch anything. Later in the afternoon we went kite flying but only some people did it. At about 7.00 at night we went searching for plankton on the boat. After we had enough plankton we went back to the island. We went into the science lab and had a look at the plankton on the microscope. It was cool! After we had a good look we went to play on the earth ball.

Day four. On the fourth day of camp we spent half the day on the boat snorkelling and jumping off the ramp of the boat. THAT WAS SUPER FUN! When we got back we did the rope course and that was good! The last day was sad. I didn’t want to leave but I did. When we returned to mainland we jumped on the bus and went to the Dreamtime Cultural Centre to buy our family a present. Everyone said goodbye and went HOME!!

Issue no. 38, 30th November 2007

Issue no. 38, 30^th November 2007