A HUGE thank you to our amazing P&C for hosting our first ever Movie Night generously sponsored by Bendigo Bank. While we were competing with some other big community events the covered play area was jam-packed with chairs and picnic blankets with families enjoying the delicious hot food, cold drinks and the delights from the show bags. Congratulations to the Monster Raffle winners, in particular Nyree Burton who won the Garmin Watch valued at $1499! Our next P&C meeting is tonight (Wednesday 16th August) at 5pm in the staffroom where we will discuss the outcome from the Movie Night - all welcome to attend.
This fortnight has also been jam-packed with:
- Jeda & Mataya attending the Daradgee Writer's and Illustrators camp – their books look amazing
- Over 50 of our newest learners from the Kindy & community visiting MSS for our second Prep Open Morning
- Our Student Council Jeans 4 Genes fundraiser – perfect for this cold winter weather
- Tablelands Athletics Carnival where a number of our students did exceptionally well
- Student ICAS testing (Writing, Digital Tech, English)
As mentioned earlier, we had a number of students who participated in the 2023 Tablelands Athletics Carnival. Special mention and congratulations to Claire Whitehall who was the tied aged champion for the 10 years girls and Callum Sielaff, Brooke Carey and Dima Kravchenko who placed in the top 10 for their respected age groups.
For the first half of Term 3 we have been trialling a change to the eating times for our learners. This sees students having a snack break around 10am then going straight to play at 10:55am, returning back to class at 11:40am for their eating time. This change has been very positive for our learners with students returning to class after first break calm and ready for learning. As a result, we will make this a permanent change at Mareeba SS. Just a reminder that by the snack break at 10am many children are quite hungry. Families are encouraged to ensure their child/ren are having a big breakfast each morning and are bringing along some fruit for their snack break.
As we begin the second half of Term 3, we still have a lot of exciting opportunities ahead for our students. Next week is Book Week with the theme: Read, Grow, Inspire. Students are encouraged to dress as their favourite book character on Monday 21st August where we will host a whole school parade at 9am with prizes for the best dressed cohort – families welcome to attend. Coming up in week 7 is the Year 6 camp and in week 10 our annual Art Show, Under 8's Day and Parent Teacher Interviews – be sure to check out the date claimer for dates.
Beginning next week, for 2 weeks, our teachers will engage in a full day collaborative planning opportunity. These are valuable days for teachers to collaborate and plan pedagogies and teaching strategies for Term 4. During this period of time we do acknowledge some students find it difficult to adjust to a change of teacher. In order to support your child, please check in with their class teacher for strategies on managing this change of teacher.
Prep planning day Thursday 24th August Year 1 planning day Tuesday 22nd August
Year 2 planning day Friday 25th August 1/2B planning day Wednesday 30th August
Year 3 planning day Tuesday 29th August Year 4 planning day Wednesday 23rd August
Year 5 planning day Thursday 31st August Year 6 planning day Monday 28th August
Family planning day Monday 22nd August Specialist half planning day Monday 4th September
Just a reminder of the importance of Cyber Safety for young people. Technology is everywhere and more and more of our MSS students are accessing social media sites and apps to engage with peers and the wider community. This link is a useful YouTube clip for parents to start conversations with their child about being kind online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhTMObSW2Hc
As we finally start to approach Spring, and with it some warmer weather, a reminder about correct uniforms. Well done to those students who have been wearing our correct school uniform and clearly labelling personal items. Correct uniform can be purchased from the school P&C Uniform Shop and consists of:
- Jade school shirt or 2023 Senior shirt (for Yr6 students only)
- Black shorts or skorts
- School hat
Next term swimming will begin for all students in Prep-Yr6. Students will be required to wear a swim shirt. Swim shirts can also be purchased from the P&C Uniform Shop. Note: sports shirts and other special shirts such as Artie, TEEC Leader, Deadly Choices shirts etc. should be worn on a Friday only where possible.
Don't forget our School Opinion Survey closes this Friday 18th August – please provide feedback by completing the survey if you haven't already done so.
Finally, congratulations to Ms Shannon Hurst who will be the acting Principal of Irvinebank SS for the remainder of 2023. Ms Kirsty Shakespeare will teach 6H for the remainder of the year with Ms Anna Wilkinson and another teacher (TBA) to share the teaching role in Family A for the remainder of the year.
- Hannah Simpson, Principal