Cranbrook Newsletter - 2023 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.

Friday, 19 May is National 'Walk Safely to School' Day.  This National campaign encourages all primary school children and their parents/carers to walk safely and regularly to school.  'Active kids are healthy kids!'  Remember - until they are ten years old, children must always hold an adult's hand when crossing the road. 

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. Practice when your child is calm..... 

Read more from the article by following the link below.

Mothers Day Stall thanks

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

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

Kind regards,

Jeff Capell - Principal

Coming up....

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.  

Uniform Policy Reminder

As the cool weather approaches the Cranbrook P&C have reinforced that Cranbrook State School is a UNIFORM school. This includes the winter uniform of jumpers and jackets and if purchased now will maximise the use and provide value for money.

The Cranbrook P&C were very conscious as to not ask the school to enforce the winter uniform policy when the jacket was only available due to the higher cost. However they have now had the economical fleece jumper option available for two years and as such, have now moved to have these requirements enforced.

Over the next fortnight:

• Students will receive paper notes to take home to parents reminding them of the school’s uniform expectation.
• Parents will receive emails notifying them of the Cranbrook Sate School’s winter uniform policy.
• Parents will be contacted by phone by their Year Level Principal (Amanda Allender – Prep, Yr 2, Yr 4 & Yr 6 & JeffCapell – Yr 1, Yr 3 & Yr 5) to discuss the uniform expectations.

Thank you to those parents who have been able to ensure their child represents the school with pride by wearing the school’s Winter Uniform Policy.

The Uniform Shop is open each morning from 8-9am and payment may be made by cash or card.  Alternatively, you can order via the P&C’s Big Commerce website (link below) and the purchase will be delivered to your child's classroom. 

The school jacket is $45.  The school jumper is $30.

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Cranbrook is a PBL School.  

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is a whole-school framework that promotes positive behaviour across our school and helps us develop safe and supportive learning environments.

We choose to implement the PBL framework to make sure all students are explicitly taught the expected behaviours and to establish clear and consistent boundaries. Our staff take a proactive, preventative approach to ensure all students receive the appropriate level of support to help them to be successful at school. 

Each week, we teach one focus - ten focus behaviours across the term and then revisit each of these, in the following terms throughout the year.

In Weeks 3 and 4, we revised how to be Respectful and show self-respect, courtesy and pride and how to be Responsible and act as an up-stander.  Have a chat at home - you may find these tips helpful.

Here are our Snappy winners for the last two weeks......

Congratulations to

Madison for Week 3

Levi for Week 4

who each receive $5 to spend at the Tuckshop!

Well done and thanks for being Safe, Responsible and Respectful Cranbrook Learners!

Next week we will talk about being Respectful and encouraging and supporting others.  

Then in Week 6, we will look at being Responsible and being determined to improve.

Our Learning

We learn inside our classrooms most of the time and sometimes our learning is enhanced by having visitors such as Bush Poet and Cranbrook Dad, Ben Freedman along! Mr Freedman demonstrated a variety of poems and explained that ballads can be both song and poetry and not only that, but there's older and modern types. We even had an example from Australian rock group, Powderfinger!  We also heard of the effectiveness that this genre has to convey a message, moral, emotion and be even simply, a great form of entertainment.  It's for everyone! For their assessment, Year 6 students are going to analyse and innovate a poem by Banjo Patterson.  .....but stay tuned, because there is even more exciting things to come for this unit of English!

We also get to enhance our learning outside the classroom too!

Class 2/3D's visit to the Museum....

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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.

Students in Prep, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 borrow 2 Home Readers and 1 'Read for Pleasure' book.

Students in Years 4, 5 and 6 can borrow 2 books.

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

We have some new books in our library!  Come and check them out!

The Arts Space

Rehearsals for our 2023 Musical, Mystery at Magpie Manor continue.  Please find below the rehearsal schedule for those students who have lead roles.

Congratulations to Week 3's Class of the Week.....Prep B for being enthusiastic when learning their Hickory Dickory dance, being safe while rehearsing their dancingand being kind to one another when playing ‘Kangaroo, Skippy Roo’ in music.

Congratulations to Week 4's Class of the Week....6C!  Awarded for their planning, preparing and creating of their sculptures in class time AND their own time, for working as a team to clean the Art room and for caring so well for their buddies when making Mother's and Special Other's gifts.

Well done to our Nightingale choir who performed ‘Our Heroes Today’ at the Cranbrook ANZAC Ceremony. Students were rewarded with an ANZAC biscuit each, that they thoroughly enjoyed!

Wind in the Willows Performance

In Week 30 students from Drama Excellence attended a performance of The Wind in the Willows on Wednesday 3^rd May at the Civic Theatre. After the performance the students got to meet the actors and develop their drama skills in play building and scene writing.

Here's what some of our students had to say about their experience.....

The show was great how they only used blocks and the workshop was amazing and fun. I liked the actors - Matilda Year 6

10/10 it was fun would go again fun, fun, fun! - Skylah Year 6

I thought the excursion was fun because there was four people and a lot of characters. Also after that we went to the workshop. I thought it was amazing because we did acting and activities - ELI Year 6

I thought it was so fun and we got to play so much games - Joshua Year 3

The excursion was fun because we did games that I have never played before - Addy Year 6

I thought that it was fun and amazing and it was a wonderful experience meeting everyone - Eevee Year 5

The excursion was fun because we got to see the actors after the show - Rylan Year 4

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Sports News

Thanks so much to all the families who have been making the extra effort to get your students to cross country training so early in the morning!  We really appreciate it.....and it will pay off!

Please remember that this coming Monday and Thursday we will be going over the course which is at Bicentennial Park on Queens Road in Hermit Park.  Please make sure you are on time as we don't want to have students running the course without adult supervision.  Thanks!

Two of our students have been selected for the Northern 10-11yrs Rugby League team. Congratulations to you both, Harley and student A.  

In another great achievement, congratulations to Deakyn, who has been selected for the Northern 10-12yrs basketball team.  

Congratulations to Class of the Week for Week 4.......Miss O'Reilly's 5C!  This class had excellent work doing their long jump and shotput, with great motivation and willingness to taken on the feedback given to them.  Nice job, students!

2023 School Photos

Engagement and Wellbeing Survey

In Term 2, students in Years 4 to 6 will be asked to take part in the Queensland Engagement and Wellbeing (QEW) Survey.

We know that wellbeing and engagement are important parts of your child’s life at school. The QEW Survey is designed to measure how students view their wellbeing and engagement across different topics. The information we get from the survey helps us better understand and support our students.

If you have any questions, please contact the school. More information, including FAQs, can be found on the Education website: https://qed.qld.gov.au/publications/reports/statistics/schooling/students/queensland-engagement-wellbeing-survey

Sports Pride Fridays

Community News

Saver Plus – helping take the stress out of back to school time
The Saver Plus community program has helped over 55,000 Australians take the stress out of back to school time. It’s free for eligible people to join.

At Saver Plus, we pair you with a savings coach while you budget and save over the next 10 months. You attend online workshops to learn tips, tricks and information to grow your budgeting and savings skills. Once you reach your agreed savings goal, ANZ matches your savings dollar-for-dollar, up to $500. You can use that money towards education costs such as uniforms, text books, laptops or extra-curricular activities such as sport or music.

You could be eligible to join Saver Plus if you:

• have a Centrelink Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card
• are at least 18 years old
• have some regular income from work (you or your partner) including casual, part-time, full‑time or seasonal (we also accept child support and carer’s payment as income)
• have a child at school or attend vocational education yourself.

If you’re eligible, start now and we’ll help take the stress out of next year’s back to school.

To find out more, or to apply, go to www.saverplus.org.au or call  1300 610 355.

Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information in this issue of our newsletter at the time of publication. 

For all enquiries please contact our School Office on 4726 1222.