Cranbrook Newsletter - 2024 Term 2 Week 4

Principal's Message

When your child is ill

Please be reminded to consult Queensland Health's Time Out brochure, if ever you are unsure about the correct course of action to be taken, when it comes to your child being ill.

Emergency Contacts - Please ensure the school has up to date information regarding emergency contacts so that you can be reached if an illness or accident should occur.

From My Readings...

Are We Raising Great Kids?  Make Caring for Others a Priority! 

Research shows that parents tend to highlight their children’s happiness and achievements over their children’s concern for others. Yet, this should be a priority as children need to learn to balance their needs with the needs of others, whether it’s passing the ball to a teammate or standing up for a friend who is being bullied. 

They need to hear from parents that caring for others is a top priority. A big part of that is holding children to high ethical expectations, such as honouring their commitments, even if they don’t want to. For example, before kids quit a sports team, choir, or a friendship, we should ask them to consider their obligations to the group or the friend and encourage them to work out problems before quitting. Instead of saying to your children: “The most important thing is that you’re happy,” say “The most important thing is that you are kind.” Ensure that children always address others respectfully, even when they’re tired, distracted, or angry and emphasise caring, yourself, when you interact with other key adults in your children’s lives. 

It’s never too late to become a caring person, but it won’t happen on its own. Children need to practice caring for others, express gratitude for those who care for them and contribute positively to others’ lives. Studies show that people who are in the habit of expressing gratitude are more likely to be helpful, generous, compassionate, and forgiving—and they’re also more likely to be happy and healthy. Learning to be caring is like learning to play a sport or an instrument. Daily repetition—whether it’s a helping a friend with class work, helping out around the house, or having a classroom job—help make caring second nature and develop and hone children’s caregiving capacities. Learning gratitude involves regularly practicing it. 

Don’t reward your child for every act of helpfulness, such as clearing the dinner table. We should expect our children to help around the house, with siblings, and with neighbours and only reward uncommon/unexpected acts of kindness. Discuss with your child about the caring and uncaring acts they see on television and about acts of justice and injustice they might witness or hear about in the news. Make gratitude a daily ritual at dinnertime, bedtime, in the car, or on a family walk. Express thanks for those who care and give to us and others in large and small ways. 

Children learn ethical values by watching the actions of adults they respect. They also learn values by thinking through ethical dilemmas with adults, e.g. “Should I invite a new neighbour to my birthday party when my best friend doesn’t like her?”. Being a moral role model and mentor means that we need to practice honesty, fairness, and caring ourselves. But it doesn’t mean being perfect all the time. For our children to be able to respect and trust us, we need to acknowledge our mistakes and flaws. We also need to respect children’s thinking and listen to their perspectives, demonstrating to them how we want them to engage others. Model caring for others by doing community service at least once a month. Even better, do this service with your child. Give your child an ethical dilemma at dinner or ask your child about dilemmas they’ve faced. 

Here’s a simple way to teach your kids to calm down: ask your child to stop, take a deep breath through the nose and exhale through the mouth, and count to five.  (It's a good idea though, to introduce this and practise, when you're child is calm.)

Mothers Day Stall thanks

Thank you to the Student Council who ran the Mother's Day Stall this week and thanks to you, our school community, for your support of it.

We hope all of the special ladies in our students' lives enjoy their day on Sunday.  

Enjoy your weekend!

Jeff Capell - Principal

Every Day Counts - Attendance

Regular, punctual attendance at school is expected of all students. 

Students should be present at school ready to prepare for the day's learning by 8:30am.

Late Arrivals

Students arriving after 8:50am must report to the office to receive a lateslip.  If a student is late, a letter of explanation from the student's parent/guardian must be presented to the office staff on arrival.

Absence

If a student is absent and the parent/guardian has not notified the school, they will receive an automated text message by 10am that day.  

Parents will receive a text message informing them that their child is absent. If you receive one of these text messages, please contact the school to explain the reason for your child’s absence.

A working mobile number should be registered with the school, if available.

Please remember that absence is only marked for the days specified by the parents. If you ring up on a Monday informing that your child is sick and they remain away from school for the following 2 days because they are sick you need to inform us that this was the reason for their absence. You can inform us after the absence via a message directly to the teacher or by contacting our absence hotline or email.

If your child is absent, please leave a message detailing:

• Child's name
• Class
• Reason for absence
• Dates or duration of absence

PBL - Positive Behaviour for Learning

In Week 3, we looked at being respectful and making sure we show self-respect, courtesy and pride. 

This week, we looked at being responsible and making sure we act as an upstander.  

Below are the 'for families' poster of our lessons, which gives you a chance to continue these conversations at home and possibly apply them to your daily family life.  

Congratulations to our Week 3 Snappy Draw winner.....Tyler!

Congratulations to our Week 4 Snappy Draw winner....Nora!

Our weekly $10 'Golden Snap' draw for Week 3, went to Levi!

Our weekly $10 'Golden Snap' draw for Week 4, went to Alistair!

Bullying....no way!

Over the remainder of Term 2, we will feature some information, articles and websites to explain and guide through the topic of bullying.

We hope this will help you learn and then adapt, knowledge to guide your families through any issues that may arise for them (and you!) in life.

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Parents and carers have a key role in preventing and responding to bullying.

Learn what bullying is and what it is not. Understanding the definition of bullying is the first step in talking about how to prevent and respond to bullying with your child. 'Bullying' is a word that is used for behaviours that are not actually bullying. These other behaviours can be just as serious but may require different responses.

What is bullying?  Bullying is complex social issue. It resists simplistic ideas and solutions.

Knowing exactly what bullying is and understanding why it happens are critical to finding positive and evidence-informed solutions for everyone involved.

The national definition of bullying for Australian schools External link (transcript (DOCX, 29KB)) says:

Read more at:  https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/ 

Learning at Cranbrook - Year 5

We had a little peek into 5B's classroom to see what they are up to......

Year 5 have been busy using digital technologies in their learning this term. In English and Hass, they have been using sway to create timelines of Australian inland explorer's lives. They have also collaborated on a map of Australia to identify where the explorers have travelled to. The students have been using teams to access and upload learning, as well as accessing their digital learning journeys. In science, students have been researching the features of planets and comparing these features to decide which planet is most suitable to live on.

Year 5 Solid Pathways

Minecraft Competition!

Diving into a world of learning with @Queensland Parliament! 🏛️

Let’s cheer on our students as they embark on an epic journey through the Minecraft landscape, participating in the 2024 Queensland Parliament in Minecraft Competition!

Using the Minecraft Education app, students will channel their creativity to recreate the Green Chamber with precision. From proportions to colours, features to fittings, and surfaces to details, they will mirror the real Chamber.

Find out more 👉 https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Minecraft

Thanks Mrs Morgan for guiding our group of students working on this!

From The Arts

Imagine a Dragon

is our 2024 Musical, being performed by our Year 4 and 5 students (with some additional Year 6 friends).

28 and 29 August.

Term 2 Musical Rehearsal Schedule

In keeping with our exposure to musicals, Year 4 & 5 students (along with select Year 6 students) have been invited to a dress rehearsal of Kirwan State High School's 'Happy Days' musical on Wednesday 22 May.  Permission forms will be emailed home.

The attached form is for your information only.

Fanfare 

Instrumental Fanfare - Fanfare is the biennial statewide festival of bands and orchestras from Queensland state schools. It showcases the exciting music-making that occurs in school-based ensembles across the state. The emphasis for Fanfare is on improving the quality of ensembles, promoting the highest possible standard of performance, striving for excellence and encouraging participation.

Following the regional finals, up to 5 primary ensembles and 5 secondary ensembles will be selected to take part in the primary and secondary state finals in Brisbane on Thursday 15 August and Friday 16 August.

On Tuesday 4^th June, both the Cranbrook SS Band and the Cranbrook SS Orchestra students will compete in the Townsville Primary Schools Fanfare Heats. All sessions for primary school divisions start at 9am and will be finished by 3pm.   Students will travel via Bus to and from school to the venue at Pimlico State High School Performance Theatre. 

Permission forms with all the details of the day, will be emailed home for completion.

The attached form is for your information only.

Week 4's Arts Class of the Week goes to.....

** 3A **

for listening to all instructions respectfully, being kind to one another and trying their hardest in Arts and Music.

From the Sports Desk....

From the Resource Centre

Class Borrowing Days

For students in Prep / Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3…..you must have a library bag to protect your books.

It is very important that books are returned every week. 

Students are not allowed to borrow more books until any outstanding ones are returned.

Please return your child’s home reader and library books on the following days:

Book Fair 

Thank you to everyone for your support of our Book Fair.  It was amazing to see families coming in and enjoying choosing some wonderful books to read and items to enjoy!  With all your fantastic support, we were able to choose some new books for our library also, for everyone to share and enjoy.

We'll see you again for our next fair in October.

Meanwhile, May is National Family Reading month!  If you didn't get a new book for your family bookshelf at home, make sure your child has their library bag (for years Prep to 3) so they can borrow a book from our library to share with you at home.  Read more in May!

......and that means, that it's the perfect time to also start the Premier's Reading Challenge!

The PRC is not a competition but a way to encourage students to develop a love of reading for life. Students are encouraged to select a range of fiction and non-fiction books suited to their reading ability and record books read during the reading period, from 7 May to 23 August. 

All Prep and Year 1 students will receive a letter and record form.  Students in all other year levels, are offered to chance to opt in and will then receive a letter and form also.

Please find both the letter and the form, available to download via the link, below.

From your P&C

Our Cookie Dough Fundraiser is going along nicely!  Thanks everyone, for doing your bit! 

A date for your diary.......Chappy Dinner 2024!

Sports Pride Fridays

Community News

Food Recalls:

Saver Plus

Could you use an extra $500 towards school costs in 2025?

The Saver Plus Program is about boosting financial skills, to develop (and keep) good savings habits.

You can put money towards education expenses including:

• Computers, laptops, and tablets
• Books, uniforms & shoes
• Sports & music, camps, excursions, and more…

If you save up to $50 a month for 10 months, Saver Plus will double it. $500 saved + $500 matched = $1000 (in 10 months).

Visit www.saverplus.org.au for more details.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information printed in this issue is up to date and correct at the time of publication.