Newsletter - 02/08/2024

Principal News

Semester 1 results

We have finalised our Semester 1 results and have some really wonderful results to share. Our target for students achieving a C or above in English and Maths is at 88% by the end of the Semester 2 reporting period. The statewide target for English and Maths C and above is 80%. I am really happy to be able to report that at the end of Semester 1 we achieved 87.5% of students in English and 86.6% of students in Maths sitting at C or better on their end of Semester 1 reporting period.

Staffing

We welcome Holly Merritt to the school this coming week. Holly is a previous student of Fitzgerald State School and if you recognise the name Merritt, you would know that Holly’s father is a previous teacher at Fitzgerald. Holly will be working in Year 5A.

Miss Kendall will assume her new role as Teacher Librarian this coming week meaning that the Library will be back up and running 5 days per week as of Monday. Library borrowing times are from 8:30am Monday to Friday and again until 3:30pm Tuesdays through to Fridays. Mis Kendall also takes multiple classes across the school during school hours supporting the Digital Technology and ICT capabilities of students within the school.

World Principal’s Day

Today is World Principal’s Day and I would like to acknowledge the work that our school Deputy Principals do. Every day they are working to support the learning and the learners at Fitzgerald. Together we are focussed every day on ensuring that Every student is succeeding, Every Educator is Effective and Every Person is Safe, Valued and Well. This looks different every single day in the way that we support our students, staff and community members. Make sure that you thank them today.

Eisteddfod

In the coming week, we have a number of students participating in the Mackay Eisteddfod. Thank you to our parent community for supporting this cultural program of the school by ensuring that students have been at rehearsals and are ready and attending these events having put in the preparation required through hours of practice both at school and at home. Thank you also to all of the staff involved in preparing our students and who will be supporting our groups at the various events. Thanks must also go to Mrs Pam Jensen who is our choral accompanist for all of our choral groups. Pam is a volunteer for these groups and attends the school every week for rehearsals. Thank you Mrs Jensen. Good luck to all of our groups, may you play and sing well and be proud of all that you achieve.

Tracey Adams
Principal

New Staff Members

Head of Department/Curriculum

How children learn to read

Learning to read is a process that needs step-by-step teaching and plenty of practise at school and at home. Unlike walking or talking, reading is not a skill that we learn naturally — everyone needs to be taught how to read.
Reading requires two very important skills:

• decoding (reading) the words on the page
• making meaning from the words, sentences and paragraphs that are read.
  For children to learn how to decode words, they need to understand how sounds and letters link together. They are taught that:
• words can be broken up into sounds (the word ‘cat’ is made up of 3 sounds: c-a-t) and that sounds can be blended to form words (the sounds c-a-t blended, forms the word ‘cat’)
• the sounds in words can be represented by letters or groups of letters.

As children develop their understanding of letter-sound correspondences and apply this knowledge to reading words and texts, they learn more complex English spellings.

• The same sound can be represented by different letters; the words ‘play’, ‘rain’ and ‘stage’ all contain the sound /ay/ but the spelling is different in each one.
• The same letter can represent different sounds; the letter ‘c’ can represent a ‘k’ sound as in ‘cat’, or an ‘s’ sound as in ‘race’.
• Small parts of words can have a meaning all their own; in the word ‘walked’, the ‘-ed’ tells us that the walk has already happened — it marks past tense.
• Children practise their word reading skills by reading decodable texts that contain only the letter-sound correspondences children have been taught.
• As children develop their decoding skills and their reading becomes more automatic, they will move from reading simple decodable texts to authentic texts. Authentic texts are any texts that are read for enjoyment or learning and that support word reading, language development and engagement.

Children develop their language skills through the language they hear and read. In the early stages of reading instruction while children are developing their decoding skills, it is very important that they are read to often, so they hear lots of new words and learn about new things that they may not yet be able to read about themselves.

Parents play an important role in helping children learn to read by both:

• listening to your child read aloud to practise decoding words
• reading aloud to your child to build their understanding of language and literacy.

Attendance Matters

Everyday counts in a child's education.  The table below shows when a child is a little bit late or leaves a little bit early, it can have a major impact on the amount of time spent learning.

Terri Robson 
Head of Department/Curriculum

From the HOSES

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on
School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) this is currently being collated for 2024. The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019). Parents will receive a letter and information in the next few weeks if your child has been included in this Data Collection.

Children who may be identified in this data, may not necessarily have a recognized disability, but are included because they require some level of support to access all areas of schooling. This could be due to one or more of the following reasons:

• they have a permanent disability of ASD; Intellectual Disability; Vision Impairment; Deaf/Hard of Hearing; or Physical Disability.
• they have academic difficulties requiring them to need support to access the curriculum.
• they have communication difficulties and are on an Individual Speech Program
• they have a medical diagnosis that effects their functioning at school e.g. Epilepsy, Anaphylaxis, Diabetes, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, ADHD, Anxiety etc

Carolyn Berck
Head of Special Education

Finance & Front Office

Music

Instrumental Program 2025

Cultural Evening

Congratulations to the students who performed at the school’s Cultural Evening last Wednesday evening.  Students from the Year 3 Choir, Year 4 Choir, Senior Choir, Folk Group, Beginner Concert Band, Senior Concert Band, Beginner String Ensemble, Senior String Ensemble, Recorder Ensemble and Guitar Group, all performed beautifully to a very appreciative audience.

All of these groups (except for the Guitar Club) will perform at the 2024 Mackay Eisteddfod.  I wish all of these groups the best of luck in their upcoming Eisteddfod performances over the next 2 weeks, and thank all parents for their continued support of our Cultural groups at Fitzgerald State School.

“The fact that children can make beautiful music is less significant than the fact that music can make beautiful children.”  (Cheryl Lavender – Doctor of Music Education

Mackay Eisteddfod

Linda Miller
Music Teacher/Instrumental Music Coordinator

Sport

World Ninja Championships

Congratulations to Isabelle O'Neill in 6B who competed in the World Ninja Championships in the United States of America. Izzy had an amazing time, competing in four competitions.

Isabelle finished:

110th in in UNAA
58th in OCR3K
53rd in FINA
10th in US Nationals

Isabelle also had the opportunity to meet some of her idols, Taylah Greene, Kaden Lebsack and the Ninja Kids as well as making some new friends.  Well done Isabelle you are amazing!

Russell Hope
Sports Coordinator/HPE Teacher

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