1 June 2021

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

During our recent Professional Learning Day, we focused on Mindframes for Success. This training was another chapter in the improvement journey that we began in 2017 to ensure growth for every child in every classroom every day. The training offered us the opportunity to celebrate our achievements over recent years and create shared and individual goals to move our teaching to the next level. In addition, the day was a reminder that as teachers, we are also learners, and each of us has both strengths and areas for development. The challenge we now face is no different from those faced by the learners we teach every day, shifting the focus from doing to learning. To achieve this, we require your help, just as we did two years ago when we asked you to change the wording of a question that caregivers had asked their children for generations. It was about moving away from doing to learning, and that golden question was:

What did you learn at school today?

To support our teachers in their learning journey, we are now seeking your support in asking them the following question next time you meet to discuss your child.

What mindframe are you focusing upon, and how is that supporting my child's learning?

MINDFRAMES FOR SUCCESS

I am an evaluator of my impact on learning.

I see assessment as informing my impact.

I collaborate with my peers and my students about conceptions of progress and impact.

I am a change agent and I believe all students can achieve.

I strive for challenge and not merely "doing your best".

I give and help students understand feedback and I interpret and act on the feedback given to me.

I engage as much in dialogue as monologue.

I explicitly inform students what impact looks like from the start.

I build relationships and trust so that learning can occur in a place where it is safe to make mistakes and learn from others.

I focus on learning and the language of learning.

Andrew Gilsenan-Reed

News from the Prefects

Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea

On Friday the 28th of May, we held Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea in the canteen here at Quorn Area School. This event raised vital funds for the Cancer Council to help make a difference to those impacted by cancer. We served hot milo’s with a biscuit or lamington to both students and teachers. The money from these sales as well as a few kind donations led us to raise a total of $213.00. The money we made has been matched by our Prefect fund, raising the total amount to $426, which has been donated to the Cancer Council Foundation.

Cheers,
Jayde, Maya and Ethan

Secondary Report

MNSEC Netball

Last Wednesday a team of the Year 8-12 girls travelled to Port Pirie to play in the MNSEC Netball carnival. The wet conditions did not stop the girls playing some great netball. They won 3 out of 4 games and only lost the last game by two goals to Jamestown. I would like to thank all the girls who played, as well as Tricia for umpiring and Dani and Angie for their support.

Thanks, Miss Tomney

Homework Club

Primary Report

We’re skipping through the term!

Jump Rope for Heart is well underway and it’s great to see so many children out in the yard skipping with smiles on their faces. There are plenty of ropes in the JP foyer that you can borrow at break times.

It’s not long until our Jump Off Day on 30th of June, so keep on practicing those tricks. If you want to log your skipping to reach the school goal of 10 hours, there is still time. You can sign up online, it’s easy just follow this link and enter your details.

Foundation Class

Literacy

In Literacy this term, we have been learning about persuasive texts and personal recounts. In our persuasive writing unit, we focused on sharing our opinions/point of view and developed reasons to support our point of view. This allowed us to listen and consider other people’s viewpoints and how they may be different to our own. We learnt language and sentence structure used to share our opinions such as ‘I think that…’ and ‘I believe that…’ and using the word ‘because’ to explain our reasoning.

We have also been learning about feedback and how to give feedback to someone to help them improve. Learners are learning to share their work with a partner and give feedback which includes one thing that worked well and one thing that they can work on to improve. A few weeks ago, I asked learners questions about what they already know about feedback to find out their prior knowledge. This was a good starting point to find out what they already know. I would like to share their responses as they were interesting!

Here are also some examples of learners giving some feedback after a big write session. This is after a short time learning about feedback. I will post videos at the end of the term to show learners growth in giving feedback to each other to improve learning.

Feedback will be a continued focus throughout the term and it will become common practice in our literacy lessons and other learning areas. Feedback helps us to improve our learning and growth!

Dance

We love Dance! So far in Dance we have been learning about beats and rhythm. We have been practicing keeping to the beat and rhythm with tapping stick, clapping and stomping. One of our favourite activities is counting and keeping in time with the beat by clapping and doing sequences of movements. You can see below in the video we are persevering to keep to the beat with short sequences of 2 counts or 4 counts.

In Dance we have also been exploring dance moves. We created a short dance sequence to one of our favourite songs. We all contributed ideas to the dance and practiced until we could put all the dance moves together. Just watch us go!

PE

In PE this term, Foundation learners have been practicing the fundamental movement skills of throwing and catching. They have been learning how to use the correct technique of underarm throwing, overarm throwing and catching. They have been practicing through a range of activities such as skill in isolation, target and aiming practice throwing into hoops and buckets and game situations like bombs away and ready, aim fire!

Watch the videos to see learners explain the technique for throwing and catching and practicing the skills in partners and game situations.

Subject Report

Tech Studies

Students have been developing skills using the investigate, design, make and appraise process used in developing projects and solving problems. They identify problems that can be solved using creative solutions using practical materials. Students develop an understanding of the materials and how it can be shaped using hand and power tools. They create models, and explore ways to join materials using traditional joint construction and modern furniture fittings as well as looking at welding methods and safe machine operation.

Miscellaneous Reports

Cricket Nets

The finishing touches have been made to our cricket nets. Thank you for everyone’s patience during this process. We look forward to seeing the students use these new facilities.

Save the Date – Sports Day

QAS Sports Day has been set for Friday 6th August

Pichi Richi Marathon – Sunday 27 June 2021 – 1km Junior Dash

Show off your running speed and skills by competing in the 1km Junior Dash as part of the 39th Pichi Richi Marathon, being held on Sunday 27 June 2021. Registrations are $10 and you can register online at the link below.

All participants get a medal.

Open for ages up to 12 years.

Registrations close 23 June 2021.