PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

MUSIC TO MY EARS! Just like winning the Rock-Pop-Mime for the first time, hearing Hampden’s name announced as the winning choir in our section at the Eisteddfod last Friday was indeed music to my ears.

I certainly don’t mean that in the competitive sense that Hampden has to be first or it’s not good enough, but rather that after seeing the time and effort put into the choir by teacher Kath Woodruff and pianist Robyn Sheedy, the determination and effort of the children themselves, and the support of their parents and others, it was so gratifying to see their hard work bear fruit in this way.

From my viewpoint, (unbiased of course!!) the choir sang beautifully, looked smart and behaved well, and deserved the adjudicator’s number one position.

Congratulations everyone!

SCHOOL PHOTOS: Thank-you for having your children here on time this morning and looking their smartest for our school photos.

Following the completion of the photography work today I was given a preview of the completely new products which will be available in 2009, which I’m sure will be well received.

SCHOOL UNIFORMS: On the subject of “looking smart” please remember that the school developed a dress code earlier this year which provides for a degree of flexibility for our children, allowing formal shirts and dresses, sports shirts with bottle green or navy blue bottoms (shorts, skirts or skorts), and the wearing of house coloured shirts when other uniforms aren’t available.

There appears to be lately a few children regularly coming to school in board shorts and/or non-uniform shirts which do not constitute suitable school wear, however I understand that at this stage of the year parents are reluctant to outlay large sums of money on uniforms that may be too small, or inappropriate to wear in 2009 in the case of year 7’s.

We are quite happy to assist in these instances with uniforms which can be borrowed.

Wherever we go, or whenever visitors come to our school, they invariably comment on the eye-catching presentation of our students.

It’s one more thing to be proud of, and to work together to maintain.

Howard Frost

Principal.

SWIMMING: It was a little chilly for the younger group on Monday, but that aside, day one of this year’s swimming program went well.

We’re hoping for warmer weather this Monday!

FUN CARNIVAL: The date for our end of year small school swimming carnival has now been set. If you’d like to come along mark Monday 08 December in your diary.

BOOKWEEK COMP: Congratulations to Samara Mitchell (prep) and Michael Ormonde (Yr 7) who both won prizes for their colouring-in of the Mackay Regional Council’s Bookweek competition.

CONGRATULATIONS JACK: Jack Cahill (Yr 7) has just been awarded the runner-up prize in the Mackay Regional Council’s “Waterwise: design a sticker” competition.

Congratulations, Jack!

ORIENTATION VISIT: The year 7’s intending to begin at Mirani S.H.S. next year enjoyed the first of their 2 day orientation program at the high school last week.

All came back motivated and enthused, which was great to see.

Elective subject selection forms should now have been received by the high school.

The second of the orientation days is Wednesday 03 December.

SPEECH NIGHTS: It’s that time of year again when high schools hold their Awards/Speech Nights.

Please inform the school if your secondary children have won awards so we can spread the ‘good news’ via this newsletter.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“What is success? To laugh often and much. To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children. To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty. To find the best in others. To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition. To know even one life breathed easier because you have lived; this is to have succeeded.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803 – 1882)

EEC NEWS

Hello Everyone,

We have been investigating commands, questions and statements this week. Year Ones looked through their pirate stories to find commands that a pirate captain might give and preps played ‘Captain’s Coming’ with Miss Dittman.

In math we gave the calculator commands by keying in the information we needed to solve problems involving sharing (as repeated addition, then using the ‘x’ symbol). We then checked our answers using blocks. We found there were more ways than we thought to share 21 and that 24 could be shared in many ways.

We also investigated number lines. We found lots of objects in our classroom that looked like number lines such as metre and 20 centimetre rulers, thermometers, clocks, and tape measures – but the numbers didn’t go on forever at both ends like a number line. At the moment we are using our number lines to help us with number sentences involving counting on and counting back.

After looking at solid shapes and lots of discussion and experimenting with sliding and rolling, we decided that pirates would have used objects in the shapes of cubes, cylinders and spheres. Crates were easy to stack; barrels could be rolled and stacked and of course lots of spherical cannon balls were necessary.

GROUNDSCARE NEWS

Well here we are at the end of another month, and despite the very dry weather the grounds are looking quite attractive thanks to October’s mowing roster families, the Volkers and the Pridmores.

Also adding to the school’s attractiveness is the pruning work being done in our gardens by Mrs Shane Thompson.

Thank-you to all three families. Novembers mowing roster group will be contacted in the near future.

Kathy Frost

Groundscare Co-ordinator.

WEEKLY CLASS AWARDS

Principal’s Award: Jordan Watkins (Prep) – Maths Award

Year 6/7: “Waterwise Award” for all entrants in the MRC water conservation comp.

Year 4/5: Oral Language Award – Darcie Cahill, Shannon Leahy, Abbey Medway. Writing Award – Madelaine Burley. Scholastic Spelling Award – Layton Morrison, Courtney Proctor, Hapi Anaru.

Year 2/3: Cat Cahill, Lillyann Burgess – Super Writer Award. Jack Mitchell – maths. Douglas Pridmore, Denzel Fagan, Kade Starrett, Andrew DePaoli, Dylan Edmonds – Oral Language.

Prep/Year 1: Great Writing Awards to – Jordan Watkins, Emilee Burgess, Dale Richards, Zoe Hall, Lee Olsen. Peaceful class member awards to: Joel Ashcroft, Adam Perna.

Congratulations go to two Milestone Award achievers this week. Ashlyn Burley on 50 awards has become an official LEARNED LEGEND, while Riley Cruickshanks on 120 awards is now a MILLENNIUM MASTER. Keep up this excellent accumulation rate you two!

COMMUNITY NOTICES

DATE CLAIMERS:

1. The Kuttabul Community is invited to the Hampden State School’s Christmas Concert Evening, 2008 on THURSDAY 11 DECEMBER.

2. A small Remembrance Day ceremony will be held in the Hampden State School Remembrance Garden, commencing at 10.45 on November 11. Community members are welcome.

FOUND: A sum of money under the covered area on Wednesday afternoon. Enquiries to the office.

Issue no.35, 30th October 2008

Issue no.35, 30^th October 2008