Ripples

Throw a stone into a pond and the ripples spin slowly out to the edges in almost continuous circles. The same thing happens when we make eye contact with someone passing by and say 'hello'.

This simple common courtesy forms an important part of our social learning at Peregian Springs State School. My hope is that all staff model it, all parents take the lead and that all children join in and make it part of their social habits - just like 'please' and 'thank you'.

As Principal I try to get out in the playground in the mornings or in the car park in the afternoon and take the time to acknowledge the presence of children, to say hello and have a chat about whatever comes up. I love how kids eyes light up when you notice them - even the older boys who look as if they wish the ground would swallow them (or me) when I pass them hold their heads a bit higher and walk more jauntily (if that's possible with some of them!) to class.

Some kids - most in fact - will walk alongside me chatting about their weekend, their hair, my hair, what they saw someone do in the car park, my dress, the colour of my toe nails, the fact that Dad has gone away to work, and what Mum did on the way to school - not much passes their scrutiny (and there's not much privacy either)!

And why is this important? It's because even a small acknowledgement can be all a child needs to influence their day; that one small ripple that flows over their sense of self can change their day in the classroom and change how they interact with every person they meet that day. For some children it might be their only positive acknowledgement of the morning. They may have been around people, but that doesn't mean anyone has shown any interest in them or has taken the time to slow down, look in their face and wish them a good day.

Taking this time with more than 800 children will be my challenge this year and I'd love every parent, family member, staff member and student to help. Let's all slow down and smile and acknowledge each other every day. Here's to a wonderful 2014.

Love the last week of school

I love the last school week of the year.

There's an excitement in the air that isn't present at any other time. As I wandered about today there were presents drying on racks, Year 1s making Christmas cards, the Pied Piper (aka Mrs Hobson) carolling with her Recorder Band (I even scored a chocolate), tinsel adorning Year 2 classrooms, Year 3s stuffing their bags full of items from their tidy trays, kids with Santa hats under their school hats and reindeer antlers on top, and Preps practising for their concert with Miss Sara belting out Six White Boomers like there's no tomorrow (she was also waving her arms about a lot - the Prep concert is serious business). Year 5s are returning resources in a business-like manner, and Mr Hutchins is attempting to instruct Year 3s on how to knock over skittles. This could be a useful skill for the holidays.

Ms Marszalek's office is piled up with computers and teachers keep rushing in their with their iPods, iPads and chargers to prove these precious resources are all still in one piece. The Teacher Aides are in the Resource Centre cleaning screens and putting all our ICT resources together for another year. They have music blaring and are having so much fun. Maree and Meryl are having less fun as they attempt to cram all the returned books back onto shelves.

The office staff sigh as they process another enrolment and they look longingly at the fridge where they have stuffed all the chocolate bootie brought in by thankful parents - and Kaz is checking it all carefully for nuts!

The Year 7 rooms are quiet - they are on camp and I miss them. They'll be back tomorrow for their Christmas party.

Pete is teaching Rock and Water - 'this will help you in the holidays' I hear him yelling, and I'm wondering what it is that Year 6s will be doing in the holidays that they will need Rock and Water.

Mrs Allan can't believe how well behaved everyone is and is enjoying her time in the office. She told me today that she was prowling the classrooms trying to be proactive in case someone needed her to sort out a problem but everyone sent her on her way. Oh well, there's a few more Prep enrolments to do!

Mr Foxover is rushing about with a sheaf of paper in one hand and lost property in the other. He has a mission to return every item by Friday afternoon. Two little girls come looking for the lost property basket - not to collect something but to put more in!!

The builders are flat out. They have promised me the new relocatables will be ready for 20 January. And the foundations of the Indoor Sports Centre are in. The Site Manager is after my mobile number - I hope he doesn't need to call me too often.

Sonia is fitting uniforms on new students - it's lovely to see their excited expectant faces. I reassure them that they are coming to the friendliest school on the Coast.

Year 4s are nowhere to be seen. I peek in their classroom windows, and yes, their heads are down and they are still concentrating on some last minute maths problems. Talk about determined to ensure every last minute of learning time is wrung out of the year!

I love the last week of school - there's a lot to do but when I take a minute or two to wander about I can smell summer holidays in the air and I can hear the closing minutes of the last day of the school year.

Merry Christmas, everyone, and Happy Holidays!

A Year in Review - in the words of our Student Leaders

Last week at the Year 7 Graduation Assembly our Student Leaders reviewed the year. It was an excellent snapshot of what we've been up to - the words of kids. If you were unable to attend and hear them speak, I hope you enjoy this blog post  (edited).

Jadyn:

I feel honoured to be given this opportunity to address you today. Our school is amazing and as student leaders we would like to talk about a number of events that make it so special. 

Due to our location and easy access, Peregian Springs State School lends itself to be a strong participator in Travel Smart events. Many pupils live close to the school and this provides them with great opportunities to walk, skate or ride. Not only does this improve the environment, but it also benefits the health of each individual. We are one of the highest performing Travel Smart Schools in the Sunshine Coast.

All the Student Leaders for 2013 were fortunate enough to be invited to participate in the Brisbane Leadership Convention in February. When we arrived at the conference, we were surprised by the large number of students seated in the huge Auditorium. They had journeyed from many different schools across South East Queensland. It was interesting to see the range of school uniforms and behaviour but our school was definitely the one that stood out as having the smartest uniform and exemplary behaviour. The individual guest speakers who came on stage were very inspiring. They explained through their personal life experiences and practical applications what leadership skills meant to them in everyday life. They talked about how everybody can be a leader in everyday life, in their own right. I will always remember the very funny moments and stories shared on that trip.

Makayla:

I am sure that all the students in Years 4, 5, 6 and 7 enjoy the school camps which  are really fun and exciting. We learn so much about getting along with others and  Year 7s will soon learn some life skills such as how to cook up something to eat for dinner. I will really miss the home cooked meal on the night we camp in the bush with no electricity or tap water.

 

Every week we have the most amazing assemblies!  One of the most memorable performances that was so so funny was when the Preps were pretending to be the teachers and staff. And that was very cute too.  

Elise Bampton:

This year we have had so many exciting school events such as

- swimming, netball/ basketball, tennis hot shots, athletics, cross country, and ... surf skills.

Yes, we actually went to the beach this term to learn about swimming in the surf! Well, I think the idea was to swim but unfortunately many of the Year 6 and 7 students found themselves with their noses buried in the sand under the waves!

I am sure that you would all agree that one of the best events was the fantastic Lapathon. It was great to see everyone who participated running in their costumes, leaping over obstacles with music, getting prizes but most importantly having fun. It was a fun way that we, as students could help to raise money for the school. We would like to especially thank Mr Hutchins for organising not only this event, but every sporting event in the school in 2013.

Tomorrow, we have our swimming carnival for Year 4’s to 7’s. Good luck to everyone participating in such a great event.

Krishan:

I have been at this school since the foundation year and since then the school has grown so much. We now have around 740 children and more coming each week. With all the new students arriving at our school, it has just kept on expanding. This year we had the two new demountable classrooms built and the construction of the hall has fianlly started. When these new buildings were being built some of our routines were changed, and it meant that we had  to adapt and cooperate by sharing our limited play areas with each other. But that is something that we are very good at doing at this school.

Our school is very multi cultural, and we have students from all over the world. Some of the students arrived here and could not speak a word of English, but since they have come here they have learnt very quickly. The biggest multicultural event this year would be the two Japanese tour groups that have visited our school. This year was the first year our school has had a group of students from another country come and visit us, and I know sensei wants to do it again.

Caitlin Savic

Something else that is great about our school are all the other extra-curricular activities such as the Lunch Clubs which many students participate in. These include Robotics, Chess club, Radio Ramblers, Film Club, Sing Groups, and many more. These lunch clubs provide a great opportunity for students to meet other kids and when you want  to do something different at lunch.

Book Week was great fun. This year’s theme was Out of this World. It was great to see everybody participating and dressing up. Pete and Mr Hughes performed their story with Mr Thomas’ song at the end. Pete’s story telling is definitely out of this world.  Book Week 2013 will be one of the best memories from this year.

The Talent Show is also another great memory from this year. With the help of Chloe, Eliza, Mr Wise and Mrs Hobson we selected 10 people out of about 60 to perform in front of the school. Even if you did not make it into the finals you all had great talent. Our Talent Show ended with the Pssst Teacher Band. With Miss Hobson and Miss Bridoen as the singers fighting against Mr Hughes who argued back using the Take 5. Over all, the Peregian Springs State School Talent Show 2013 was a great day.

Jayden

Finally, to conclude our Student Leader’s Speech, I would like to say - wow what a year it has been. We have laughed, we have cried. We fell, we stood up. We have made friends for the rest of our lives and have had the pleasure to spend time with teachers that will stay in our thoughts for ever. But most importantly I’d like to make the most of this opportunity to thank Ms Sands for creating such a fantastic learning environment. 

Fellow students in Year 7 - we are just about to embark on another exciting journey that will take us to places that will expose us to new challenges and new life opportunities. We extend our greatest thanks to the hard work and dedication of the teachers of this school. They have done everything they can  to prepare us all for our journey, and for that, we will be forever grateful. We wish you all the best for your future.

I would like to ask everybody to give a big clap for our great school.

It's a long way to the top...

When I was fourteen my friends and I went along to Memorial Drive in Adelaide to see the biggest concert ever to hit this little city - five headlining bands, starting at 5.00pm and finishing whenever. 10 000 screaming people crammed into Adelaide's open air tennis courts to see ACDC, The Angels, Daddy Cool, Skyhooks, Sherbet. I can say unreservedly that my father was less than impressed with most of this line up!

To this day, I can clearly remember ACDC belting out the most exciting music I had ever heard - let alone seen in real life! Bon Scott and Angus Young rampaged around the stage making more noise than you would believe possible, while the lights and cold ice machines flashed and sizzled. In those days, security at the front hauled girls over the barricades and onto the stage, people threw bottles (glass, not today's plastic), everyone was smoking (goodness knows what), and someone somewhere was constantly hosing the crowd down. (No wonder Dad was worried!) Rock and roll performances these days are a lot more controlled and the only thing audiences get away with is waving their arms around a bit and yelling.

Yesterday I was invited to the Performing Arts room to listen to our Year 7 Rock Band. They played - you guessed it - It's a long way to the top, if you want to rock and roll - complete with BAGPIPES!! What a treat! I can't believe that one of our kids can play the bagpipes!

They did a great job, ably supported by our own rock and roll star, Mr David Foxover. They managed to get over their nerves and even did an encore performance. And those bagpipes took me all the way back to Memorial Drive.

Well done, kids! ACDC probably started out jamming in primary school - keep doing what you love - you never know where it will take you.

Number sense - what is it and how do we get it?

I've blogged about number sense before ( see The times they are changing - your times tables, that is.).  It's an area we have put a lot of emphasis on over the last 18 months. And we've seen that students with number sense approach maths with a 'can do' attitude (no political pun intended here), they enjoy maths more, they start problem solving tasks with purpose, and most simply, they just know what to do. (Hands up everyone who felt like this in a maths class at school!)

Last week a parent asked Kathleen Gordon, one of our Year 4 teachers, for some assistance in helping his child with maths. As luck would have it, Kathleen had spent the Friday before with some of our other teachers at the uni learning some new techniques and understandings for parent education in maths, and more specifically number sense.  Kathleen's reply is a 'must read' for every parent (edited below).

'There is a tension between wanting to reach year level benchmarks and making sure students have established a strong foundation in the basics first. For example, pushing students to memorise multiplication and division number facts before they have a sound understanding of addition and subtraction number facts will result in poor quality understanding of both concepts.

Research shows that rushing on leads to poor performance and anxiety about maths. In the words of a highly regarded maths educator - it's like building the roof of a house before the foundations are complete. You can do it but chances are it will fall over before too long.

This may not be what parents want to hear. There is no quick fix for any child. 

Research shows that both using timed practise drills and using strategies to learn number facts are effective. However, when students know and use the strategies, they can recall facts long after tests and use this information to work out extended facts (3 x 2 = 6 so 3 x 20 = 60) and approximation tasks, and hence problem solve effectively.

Our school program supports the learning of number facts in multiple ways including teaching strategies for learning particular number facts and doing regular timed practise drills. The strategies are taught at school and form part of the take home package to practise with as homework.

If students regularly use these strategies and repetitive drills at home and school (rather than just trying to rote learn and memorise the facts) they should in time develop the required fluency.

Some students prefer to learn with visual aids and others with auditory ones. We teach students to find their preferred approach and use it repeatedly. Repetitive activities will help students learn. The kind of repetitive activities you can try include:
- saying the strategy (when appropriate) when writing down the number fact e.g. 'I know that 5 + 5 is 10 so 5 + 6 is one more which is 11' and doing this repeatedly
- recording the strategies for particular number facts (see number 1) on a mobile device such as an iPod and listening to it repeatedly
- make a poster of the tricky facts and put them up where they will be seen (bedroom, on the back of the toilet door etc)
- playing with flash cards (you can make your own, download them from the Internet or buy them from the supermarket for about $10) or fact family cards (available from class teachers)
- playing ‘beat the timer’ games with a set of number facts (allow four seconds for each – ten number facts in forty seconds) play these on paper, on the Internet, CD Rom or iPod (or similar) device
- learning rhyming chants or listening to and signing along to multiplication songs (these can be purchased on the Internet)
 

Fact family cards which we use in the classroom are available from class teachers. You may like to use them too. They help students see the relationships between addition and subtraction and between multiplication and division. They are also useful because they appear to reduce the amount of number facts to learn - (learn one and get three more for free – i.e.. If I know 2 x 6 = 12, I also know 6 x 2 = 12 and 12 ÷ 6 = 2 and 12 ÷ 6 = 2 ).'
 
This is fantastic advice for any parent wanting to help their child 'know what to do' when faced with a mathematics problem - and these problems present themselves everywhere in life, too - at the supermarket (or anywhere money is used in a transaction), when calculating quantities of an item required for a project, when estimating time for bus timetables or the number of days until the holidays.  Maths is everywhere - and fluent number sense kids can navigate these situations with ease.