PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

TEACHER-AIDE DAY: With everything that’s happening at Hampden on Friday (Disco; Free-Dress; Sport; Jump-Rope; Executive Director visit; Rock-Pop rehearsal) this very important event almost slipped under the radar!

There are more than 13,000 teacher-aides working in Qld state schools, undertaking a range of tasks that enrich the learning experiences of students on a day-to-day basis.

On 05 September we celebrate Teacher-Aide Day to recognise and reward the commitment, dedication and contribution they make to the achievements of our students.

Thank-you Rita, Rosie and Karen as well as our admin staff Zoe and Kathy who often substitute in these roles as well, from all our students and teachers.

You really are our “partners in the classroom.”

ROCK POP MIME: With only a week to go until the performance night the Rock-Pop crew are really cranking up their efforts to make this our best performance yet.

Three years ago the thought of ever winning the RPM competition was just an elusive dream, yet here we are now chasing our third consecutive title!!

Regardless of the placings however, there can be no denying the huge amount of time, hard work and co-operative effort that has gone into this year’s production.

The creativity is amazing and the dedication by all involved has been marvellous, so I urge everyone to make plans to be at the Canelands Sound Shell next Friday evening (12^th) to support our team in their quest for a hat-trick of wins!

Howard Frost

Principal.

SCHOOL NEWS

ACTIVE AFTER-SCHOOL: These programs will continue until the holidays this term, i.e. for the next two weeks.

ENGQUEST: This week we heard from the “Newspaper Dome” group. See all about the girls’ project later in this newsletter.

INTER-SCHOOL SPORT: Friday is the last of our inter-school sport for this term. Next week we’ll be fully occupied by Rock-Pop-Mime.

We’re looking forward to our competition with Marian tomorrow. The 6/7’s will be playing at Hampden, while the 4/5’s will be going to The Leap oval.

Last week’s competitions against Mirani were very close, with wins to the netball and touch football teams, but loses to the soccer teams.

FREE DRESS DAY: Friday is the Student Council’s term 3 free dress day. “True Colours Day” raises money for cancer research.

DISCO FEVER: The Year 6’s have come up with a “never been tried before” theme for tomorrow night’s disco – MASQUERADE.

If you haven’t got a mask to wear, why not use make-up or face paints to “paint” one on?!

YEAR 7 RETURNS: Monday is the final day for year 7’s going to Mirani High next year to have their parent enrolment interview appointment forms returned to school. After this date families will need to phone the high school to arrange suitable interview times.

Scholarship applications are due in about one week’s time for those interested.

PHOTO-STORY: A reminder that Rosie Dittman will run a “Photostory” in-service session for interested parents this Friday night while the kids are at the disco.

Phone Rosie if you’d like more details.

LITERACY P-D: To celebrate National Literacy and Numeracy Week, regional literacy project officer Sue Hamilton-Smith is running some cluster-based literacy professional development opportunities for teacher-aides, parents and community members who support middle phase literacy learners.

Hampden will host one of these P-D days on Tuesday 16 September. Please phone the office to register your interest in attending.

FIRST-AID COURSE: As advised earlier, a First Aid Course will be conducted at Hampden on Saturday 25 October.

This will be a “workbook course”, meaning that participants will receive a workbook approximately 2 weeks before the 25^th, which they complete sections of in their own time. This reduces the normal 2 day course to one day, from 8.30am to 4.30pm.

The cost for the full course is $126, however those requiring a CPR update only can attend just the after lunch session (1.30 – 4.30) for just $59.00.

Poetry Workshop

By Chelsea Perna & Alyce Volker.

On Wednesday the 27^th August, students from the Calen Cluster came and participated in a poetry workshop. Mandy Tunica, a famous poet, came and ran the workshop. Mandy travelled all the way from the Blue Mountains in NSW so everyone was very grateful.

At the workshop the children did cloze activities, wrote their own poems and listened to a song called Saltwater. Overall everyone had a great time.

See the insert for samples of poetry written by attending children from Hampden.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want our of life in this: decide what you want.” – Ben Stein

Hello Everyone

Problem solving has been a focus in our classroom during our Kings and Queens Unit, and last week Preps and Year One children worked independently to try and solve a problem for the king. The King has only two different sets of armour – one red and one blue, each consisting of helmet, shield, hauberk and sword. Our students had to discover and draw different ways the king could combine the two suits. When we put together all of our combinations we found 16. Most students were able to discover and represent 8 different combinations by themselves. The king can now attend sixteen tournaments without wearing the same outfit twice. Well done everyone! For our efforts we have each received an immediate knighthood. Latarni came very close to receiving her own castle and piece of land after discovering twelve different combinations!

It was our Prep students turn to design and put together an obstacle course for Playgroup and Year One this week. As a class we will now discuss the ‘toughest’ parts of the courses we have designed together and use these in our new plans for a ‘Knight Training’ Course. It will be necessary to write rules and instructions for the Knights to follow. The Knight Training course will be set up on the tournament grounds on the day of the Emperor’s Feast.

The Year One students have been investigating how to enhance their writing using describing words. Here are some of the suggested titles for their retelling of ‘The Princess and The Pea’ – “The Beautiful Princess and the Annoying Pea”, “The Lovely Princess and the Green Lumpy Pea”, “The Pretty Princess and the Hard Green Pea”, “The Real Princess and the Little Green Pea”. The stories will be retold in the Great Hall at the Emperor’s Feast!

GROUNDSCARE NEWS

Thank-you to the August volunteer group of Zeb Hall and Clint Balsillie for keeping our grounds tidy. Our September people are Peter and Kylie Leahy and Max Grov.

Then after the holiday break we will finish with:

October – Terry & Robyn Pridmore, Gary & Maryanne Volker
November – Rex Munchow (2^nd time around) and Colin & Joanne Burley
December – We need volunteers please ☺

“GYMNASTIC FUN DAYS”

Get active during the holidays. Mackay Gymnastics Inc will be holding fun days for boys and girls aged 6 – 12 years on Wed 24, Fri 26, Mon 29 September, Wed 1 and Fri 3 October 2008. These will be at the Swayne St venue, North Mackay. There will be 3 sessions per day – start times 9 a.m., 10.30 a.m. and 12 noon. Cost is only $10 per child for 1 hour of fun in the gym. Number are limited so bookings are essential. Phone the club on 4953 1425 / 4951 0376.

COMMUNITY SOFTWARE PLAN

Recently, we sent home coloured leaflets about the CSPplus (Community Software Plan Plus) that explained the benefits of the new Federal Government 50% Education Tax Refund for your family and gave a great opportunity to harness it for our school community.

It’s now time for you to send your orders in to the front office or classroom teacher. Remember, for every dollar you spend with the CSPplus our school will receive 15% in CSPplus Discount Dollars that we can use to purchase computers and software for our school. If for any reason you miss the closing date you may order directly with CSPplus. See the order form for details.

Good afternoon,

For some time now, Mackay Regional Council Libraries have provided access to the wonderful homework help tool, Your Tutor. Your Tutor is operated by Tutoring Australasia, an Australian-owned company that provides a unique online tutoring service to libraries, schools, and territory education departments. Thousands of students around Australia connect to the service daily to get help with homework, assignments, projects and exam revision.

Your Tutor is available for all students form Year 4 to Year 12 and operates Monday to Friday from 4.00pm to 8.00pm. Subject areas include: Maths, English, Science, Research, Study Skills.

Students can log into Your Tutor form home if they have an internet connect ANT a Mackay Regional Council Libraries membership card, or they may use the public computer facilities at Mackay City Library, Gordon White Library or Walkerston Library to gain access to the service. Access Your Tutor at this web address – http://www.mackay.qld.gov.au/libraries/student_links/your_tutor and click the circular icon with the yellow “t” inside to get started (see attached jpeg file).

After log on:

Students select their subject and year level
Students then enter the Online Classroom where they are connected to a live tutor
Students then ask their questions and the tutor works through it with the student using the interactive whiteboards, interactive web browser and file sharing tools.

(Requirements - What you need to connect to Tutoring Australasia and the Your Tutor online tutoring service at home: Compatible Operating systems (Windows 2000; XP; Vista; Mac OS X); Compatible web browsers (internet Explorer; Firefox; Safari); Additional software – Macromedia Flashplayer Version 8 or higher)

Issue no. 29, 4th September 2008

Issue no. 29, 4^th September 2008