‘It takes a village to raise a child’…and it takes an entire school community to navigate the requirements of a pandemic.

The above African proverb is a wonderful encapsulation of the important role everyone in our school village plays in raising and educating our students. I have used this quote previously however, the current COVID pandemic has particularly highlighted how the support of the entire school community is vital for us to ensure we can provide a safe and supportive environment for all students and staff. While 2021 has seen some restrictions relaxed, there are still many things we need to adapt to comply with COVID guidelines so we can undertake the array of activities we wish to deliver. To this end I would like to again pass on a huge thank you to our school community for the overwhelming and ongoing support we have received. Last week’s activities such as Parent Information Night and our outdoor Lunar New Year Lion Dance could only happen because of our community support and the adherence to our changing rules. Thank you one and all for understanding our restrictions and for supporting us when we have had to put new procedures in place. Our community makes Rochedale a great village to be part of.

Prep 2022

Yes that is not a typo we are already planning for next year. Today we have opened our enrolments to new members of our village who will begin Prep in 2022. If you live within our catchment area and have a child beginning Prep in 2022, or you have another student at our school already enrolled and attending in 2022 and have their sibling beginning Prep in 2022, enrolments are now open. Once again we will be running an extensive transition program for these students and by enrolling now for Prep 2022, your child will be given the opportunity to participate in our transition processes. Information will be sent home to all enrolled catchment and sibling Prep students, so please enrol for Prep 2022 now to take advantage of this excellent, transition opportunity.

If you live out of catchment, you may still lodge an enrolment form; however please understand that we are an enrolment managed school, due to our growing size, and we have not offered out of catchment enrolments for the past three years. It is extremely unlikely that we will offer any out of catchment Prep places in 2022. This means that even though we have a waiting list, we cannot guarantee any out of catchment places for 2022. Due to the increasing demand, we have to ensure that all catchment students and siblings of existing students have a place in our school. Please refer to our webpage for our catchment map and enrolment details.

Student Code of Conduct

All state schools in Queensland have been asked to review their Behaviour Support Plans and include the most up-to-date strategies to support children to make positive choices. A draft of Rochedale’s new Code of Conduct has been placed on our webpage. It is lengthy and some of the wording is generic from our Education Department and so cannot be altered, but I believe you will see the intent of the policy is to support your children and our school to be a safe, kind and respectful place for students and adults to learn and work. If you have any feedback on this policy document while it is in the draft stage, please email the school, see me in person, or send me a copy of your thoughts. The document has been reviewed by our staff and will go to our P&C and then School Council for endorsement later this term.

Caution around the neighbourhood

I have had a couple of recent reports that needles/syringes have been seen in some of the grass footpath areas in the neighbourhood. I have also been told of some snake sightings in the long grass areas. Please remind your children that they should not pick up or touch anything that could risk their safety when making their way to and from school. Sticking to the dedicated footpaths and crossing at lights and crossings is a great way to increase safety. On this point, if you are parking around the school, please do so in a legal way. Parking on footpaths, with cars blocking access ways, causes students to leave the paths to walk around cars and head on to roads or long grass increasing the risk of danger to them. Please do the right thing and remember; it takes all of us to keep our students safe.

District Swimming

Our first representative sports team for the year competed last week at the District Swimming Carnival. We had an extremely strong squad this year and I would like to congratulate all of our students in our school team and thank them for being wonderful ambassadors for our school. All students swam well and gave their best. Further congratulations to Matilda G, Joshua A, Megan B, Kusha J and Eve W who were invited to join the Mt Gravatt District Team to compete at the Met East Regional Carnival.

Learner Profile: Attribute focus for the week – Communicators – Students demonstrate this by using their best manners and showing respect to all people within our school community at all times.

Kind regards
Keith Graham
Principal

The first few weeks of the new school year have run very smoothly and I have been impressed with all our classes settling into a great learning routine.  Although we are only at the beginning of week four, it has been a very busy term already with lots of significant things happening around the school.

• Reading groups began last week and I have enjoyed working with groups in both year five and six on their reading progress.
• Many of our upper sector students are busy trialling for our Interschool Sports program for the semester; Girls Touch Football, Soccer and Netball
• Thank you to the many parents who attended our Parent Information Evening and met our fantastic year five and six team
• Congratulations to our entire Rochedale swimming team who competed at last week’s district meet and in particular to the selected few who will go on to the regional competition. 

It was also wonderful to celebrate the Lunar New Year with many of our families last Friday.  The Lion Dance is always a highlight of my school calendar.  新年快乐 

Year 5 Challenge Day

The year fives are busy beginning to investigate the key elements needed for successful group work in their first Unit of Inquiry.  Last Wednesday February 10, the teaching team designed a whole day of group activities as an opportunity for students to put this knowledge into practise.  Students got to rotate through a variety of challenges in their class groups, focusing on the skills of Active Participation, Communication and Decision Making.  Activities included team games, physical and mental challenges.  The day was timed perfectly for the beginning the year, as it was a great way for the classes to develop the essential collaboration skills they will need for a great year together.  It was great to see how different classes approached the challenges and judging by the feedback from both the teachers and students it was a very enjoyable provocation.  Thank you to our terrific year five teachers for organising the day.    

Enrichment Opportunities

At Rochedale State School we are committed to true differentiation in the classroom and to this end, each year level plans how they will extend their top learners.  In years five and six, there are differentiated reading, writing, spelling and maths groups as part of our daily routines.  We also regularly provide opportunities to enrich the classroom programs. 

Selected students in the sector will participate in an upcoming Rochedale State High School Science Extension Program, where they will get to participate in high interest, hands on science extension activities.  We are pleased the popular program is being offered again (because of COVID it didn’t run last year). 

Another exciting opportunity for some of our best year six writing students is ‘Here is the News’.  The program is an introductory course in writing news stories, which has been developed for students in upper primary classes.  The course focuses on the Short News Story style of writing which is the basic style of news journalism and was the common style of writing for printed newspapers.  Students will develop skills in news story planning and research, writing and editing.

The course is presented in an online format on The Learning Place and includes quizzes and assignments.

Have a great week,
Kellie Maxton
Deputy Year 5-6

Dear Parents/ Caregivers,

Taking Action is a unique key characteristic of the PYP.

Action extends a child’s learning beyond their classroom. A child may decide to independently bring something into class to share with their class. They may bring a book, a picture, a photograph or an artefact that links with either their current or past Unit of Inquiry.  They may even have watched a documentary on TV or seen something they wish to share with their class. 

When taking action, students make connections to new knowledge they have acquired and apply their skills in everyday life. This helps students develop a deeper and longer lasting understanding. This also assists students to build upon important life-long learning skills.

Like all of us, when we have collected, synthesised and analysed information, we like to do something with it. This links learning to the real world. Action forms a step in our OSCAR inquiry cycle, this gives the children a guided opportunity to make those links.

The Year 6 Exhibition is another example of children taking action beyond the classroom. The children inquire into a topic. In the course of their inquiry they may discover what actions others are taking to tackle the issue. They may be inspired themselves (or inspire others) to participate in some way.

Taking Action is not always about fund raising, its true purpose is in encouraging others to become aware and  participate in different projects and ideas within our local area, country or internationally. 

Action is about putting learning into practice. It is about becoming aware and sharing knowledge and understanding with others. Action is about being a positive active citizen in your school, local community and the world.

While some action takes place inside classrooms, other forms of action may take place across the whole school. 

May l ask you to encourage your children to participate in any classroom or school Action.

Have a great week
Paul Kelly
PYP Coordinator

Welcome to Week 4 of 2021!

Student Borrowing

Term 1 is off to a flying start with students having their first week of borrowing last week.

Some reminders in regards to student borrowing...

Prep-Grade 3 students require a library bag to be able borrow.

Prep-Grade 1 students borrow 1 book for a period of 1 week

Grade 2-4 students may borrow 2 books for a period of 1 week

Grade 5 and 6 students may borrow up to 3 books for a period of 2 weeks.

The library is open of a morning once the music plays at 8:30am until 8:50am for any students who would like to borrow more often.

When the library is open at lunchtime students are also welcome to borrow if they wish.

Captain Read It

Congratulations to our Captain Read It Winners from Week 3

Prep I            Matthew J
1A                 Wenxi Z
2C                 Yilin L
3W                Kiyon H
4R                 Grace M
5R                 Brendon K
6C                 Bettina P

Have a great week!
Jackie and Lorraine

Dear RSS Community,

It has been wonderful to see your children settling well into school life for 2021. Having them together in the school hall for parade on Fridays as a full student body brings a good sense of normality and joy. As part of chaplaincy in schools, we facilitate lunch-time programs to support and encourage our students. These programs are optional and require parent permission [signed consent forms]. We look forward to our self-esteem girl’s program [Shine] and a SUPA [Scripture Union Primary] program for upper primary students commencing soon. Please remember that the chaplaincy service is for all in our school community, if you need support please email suem@chappy.org.au

Thankfulness –

As parents of all cultures and nations there are some basic life skills that we teach our children that align with each other and one of those is thankfulness. From a very young age we give a baby something and teach them to say -Thank you, Obrigado, Arigato, Merci, Xie Xie or Gracias, or whatever wonderful language you speak.

We want our children to respond positively with a thankful heart to good things that are given to them and we hope that when they are at school, a friend’s home or with grandparents, that they continue to show thankfulness without us there prompting them. Being thankful is always important and it brings blessings with it. The more thankful we are, the less time we waste on complaining!

I am very thankful for Rochedale State School and I pray you and your children are too.

Kind regards,

Sue Murphy [Chappy Sue]

Next meeting – AGM and General Meeting - Tuesday 23 February, 7pm – Staff Room: All are welcome.

The AGM is next week. Download the AGM meeting pack using this link.

https://rochedalesspandccomau.sharepoint.com/:f:/s/RochedalePnC/EjCz53hqIgVIs5eBCH-5gpoBKnJZbVKkr8MO-ZDhiD8MLg

Following acceptance of the minutes from the 2020 AGM, all current office bearer roles will be declared vacant and nominations called for the following positions:

-           President
-           Vice President
-           Secretary
-           Treasurer
-           General Officers (3)

All Rochedale State School parents, teaching staff and community members are welcome and encouraged to attend the AGM.

You may submit your application for Rochedale State School P&C membership without attending the AGM. Please complete the membership form and return to the secretary prior to the AGM and your membership will be approved at the meeting.

The following persons are eligible to be members of the Association: (a) a parent of a child/student attending the school. (b) staff member of the school  (c) an adult who is interested in the school’s welfare (d) an employee of the Association   

P&C membership forms are available on the school website https://rochedalss.eq.edu.au/Ourcommunity/PandC/Pages/PandC.aspx

The following persons are eligible to be Officers of the Association:  (a) a parent of a child/student attending the school (b) staff member of the school, (at a ratio of not more than one-third)  (c) an adult who is interested in the school’s welfare 

Executive/Officer nomination forms are available on the school website https://rochedalss.eq.edu.au/Ourcommunity/PandC/Pages/PandC.aspx

Following the AGM is the General Meeting, where the President will run through P&C’s plans and commitments for the year. Each year standing motions are reviewed for ratification. To ensure the night doesn’t run too late all information will be in the Meeting Pack; please contact us if you have not received one by the end of the week.

P&C meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of the month unless holidays demand a change. These meetings are held in the school’s staffroom starting at 7.00pm. Please come along. With your support I am sure we can continue to improve our school and its community. If you have any ideas, concerns or suggestions please contact me via the links below.

Regards
Greg Heath
P&C President.

For any enquiries please contact us on the addresses below:
Website: https://rochedalss.eq.edu.au/Ourcommunity/PandC/Pages/PandC.aspx
Email: pandc@rochedalss.eq.edu.au