Cranbrook Newsletter - Term 4 Week 4 2020

Principal Message

Welcome to our new-look school newsletter!  Our newsletters will now be published on Friday afternoons.

Considering all the challenges we have faced this year, we are pleased to be going ahead with many of our school programs and events this term, beginning with our 2020 Prep Transition Program starting next week.  Our five week program offers fun, structured classes and activities with our Prep Teachers to enable an easier transition to Prep in 2021.

It has been wonderful to see all students proudly dressed in their Cranbrook uniforms and we have been very successful in achieving our rollout results for 2020 with every child wearing a Cranbrook school uniform.  The new uniform shop extension, attached to the hall is expected to be completed by the end of the year.  Parents will be able to purchase all of our uniforms from there.  This Friday, 30th October is a particularly eventful one at our school as students participate in a Halloween Themed Free Dress Day.  Friday is also World Teacher's Day and on behalf of our students and staff I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to our Cranbrook Teachers in recognition of their dedication and support that they continue to provide to our students so they can all be engaged, successful learners.  This year's World Teachers' Day is themed "Leading in Crisis, Reimagining the Future", reflecting on the commitment that teachers all over the world have made to their students during this year's global pandemic.  Friday 30th, is also Day For Daniel.  Although we are not wearing red this year due to the clash with our Free Dress Day, our teachers will be setting aside some time in class to show the students some videos and conduct lessons based on Child Safety. 

Gradual Release of Responsibility

Our teachers and students are working hard to master the pedagogical approach. You may ask why? Listen to Dr Fisher as he explains a real life example of why this way of teaching works.

Jeff Capell
Principal 

Doug Fisher, coauthor of Better Learning Through Structured Teaching, tells the story of how his experience buying a smartphone encapsulated the gradual release of responsibility framework.

Every Day Counts - Attendance

Regular, punctual attendance at school is expected of all students.  If a student is late, a letter of explanation from the student's parent/guardian is required and be presented to the office on arrival.

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.  If the parent/guardian is aware of the absence please respond with a reason for the absence.  Letters, notes, emails or phone calls can also be used to notify the school of your child's absence.  

If your child will be absent from school please contact us:

Absence Hotline - 4726 1260

Absence Email - absences@cranbrookss.eq.edu.au

Please leave a message detailing:

• Child's name
• Class
• Reason for absence
• Period of absence

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 note to teachers or by contact this hotline.

Student Code of Conduct

What is the Student Code of Conduct?

This our school’s behaviour policy, with information about school rules, consequences and processes for addressing bullying and the use of technology. The Student Code of Conduct clearly sets out expectations about staff responsibilities to support students to understand and meet discipline expectations of the school, and guidance on the application, where required, of disciplinary consequences.

From 2021, the Student Code of Conduct replaces the Responsible Behaviour Plan for Students, Code of Behaviour and Statement of Expectations. The Student Code of Conduct is developed in consultation with each local school community, is published on the school website and provided to every student and family upon enrolment. Until a school finalises their Student Code of Conduct, the existing Responsible Behaviour Plan for Students continues to apply.

As part of our school consultation, we invite parents to read the Draft Cranbrook State School Student Code of Conduct and provide feedback at our next P & C meeting on 25^th November at 6:30pm where the document will be ratified ready for implementation in 2021. If you have any questions prior to the meeting, please call the office to book in a meeting to discuss these with me.

For more information around the Student Code of Conduct please visit: https://www.qld.gov.au/education/schools/health/behaviour

What is Your Child Learning?

At Cranbrook we teach, report and assess on the Australian Curriculum across all Learning Areas.  We have specialist Arts, Physical Education, Digital Technologies and Japanese teachers while our classroom teachers focus on the core Learning Areas.

Very soon we will publish our 'What is Your Child Learning?' flyer to inform our parents exactly what their child is learning at Cranbrook and some tips and ideas for what you can do at home to support your childs development.  If you have any feedback on this information please let us know so we can continue to improve our practices here at Cranbrook.

Extra Curricular - Environmental Club

Our students are busy in our environmental club this week making use of our shredded paper to reduce our wastage.  Our buckets for food scraps require regular cleaning and our new plants that were planted by our cleaner, Cheryl and groundsman, Peter require daily watering to keep them flowering.

WANTED:  JUICE AND MILK BOTTLE TOPS

The Environmental Club would like to make art to hang in our environtmental centre.  Please bring your used bottle tops to school and place them in the containers provided in the classrooms.  

Extra Curricular - Chess Club

Multiple times a week at 2nd break these students play chess against each other to build their skills around strategy.  Many staff and students have lost matches to these students, they are very good and we look forward to a time when we can compete against other schools again.

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Our PBL Acknowledgement system:

• Reinforces the teaching of new behaviours;
• Harnesses the influence of students who are showing expected behaviours to encourage the students who are not;
• Improves the school climate;
• Creates positive interactions between adults and students.

In week 3 and week 4 our PBL focus has been on Showing Self Respect, Courtesy and Pride and Acting as an Upstander.  

From the Music Room

The Junior String Ensemble is made up of students in year 3 who commenced learning the violin or cello this year. These students attend a 30min group lesson with our lovely string teacher Ms Mulligan where they learn how to read music, play and take care of their instrument. In this performance the performers are demonstrating their individual instrumental skills and their  ability to play as part of an ensemble. We hope you enjoy this Twinkle performance.

2020 Junior String Ensemble

Cello- Margaret, Addison, Skylah

Violin- Chelsea, Jane, Kairi, Emilie, Jack, Noelani

Congratulations to our Year 5 and 6 students who represented Cranbrook at SHEP last week.

Resource Centre News

Thank you to all the Cranbrook students and families who purchased books and items at Cranbrook's Book Fair last week.  

From our sales, Cranbrook Resource Centre received 67 new books for students to borrow.  

Your support is always outstanding and greatly appreciated

Mrs Shepherd

What's On in Year 4

Our Year 4's are having another exciting term!  They have already had a trip to Paluma Environmental Centre in week 3 where they engaged in a various activities around the rainforest flora and fauna.

At present they are also preparing for the school musical to be performed later this term.  

In English, they have been looking at the language used in advertising, the visual effects of product packaging and their impact on the target audience.  

Our students have particularly been enjoying their Science experiments on forces this term, learning about gravity, push, pull and friction through fun hands on activities.  

Sustainability has also been on the agenda for HASS and we are learning how to reduce waste in our home and school environment.

Mrs Craperi

Year 4 Camp Paluma Environmental Centre

What's On in Year 6

This term 6A, 6B and 5/6D are researching plants and their living conditions before designing a Sensory Garden in Minecraft. The students will use Sway to present their design proposal to their peers and will assess advantages and disadvantages to design choices before voting for their preferred design. Students will then build then garden next to the Environment Centre for the rest of the school to use and enjoy.

We have 3 in/excursions coming up in the next couple of weeks! Bunnings (virtual), the Wulgurukaba Plant Trail excursion and a visit to the Riverway Sensory Garden

What is a sensory garden? (By Celine Harnas) A sensory garden is a garden that has opportunities for the person/people in the garden to use all of their 5 senses. Sensory gardens may include features, surfaces, objects and plants that stimulate our senses through touch, sight, scent taste and sound. They are places that can be designed with many different purposes in mind eg stress relief, autism, coping with anxiety and much more. Sensory gardens can be used by all ages from small children to the elderly! They can be anywhere, in your local park to your backyard, even schools may have them.

Mathematics: the students have been learning about prime, composite, square and triangular numbers

Minecraft: this term’s Maths assessment is a test…. in Minecraft!

Science: Students are planting Thai Basil seedlings and testing for optimal living conditions:

o How much sunlight do they prefer?

o Which is the best fertiliser?

o How much watering does Thai Basil require?

We can’t wait to taste the finished product ????

Year 6 Week 4 - Award Winners

Kindness: Emeilia O, Naomi H, Dale C

Attendance: Derek C, Hy N, Liah M

Excellence in Learning: Calum G, Lillian N, Izac A

Behaviour: Lily M,  Charlotte T, Harmony P

Snappy of the Week: Zane N

Mrs N Bartels

Day For Daniel

Friday, 30th October is Day For Daniel.  

Day for Daniel is Australia’s largest day of action to raise awareness of child safety, protection, and harm prevention and is held to honour the memory of Daniel Morcombe.

Although we are not wearing red this year due to a clash with Free Dress Day, our teachers will be setting aside 30 minutes to show the students some videos and conduct lessons based on Child Safety.

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