1

Students of the Week

Week 3 Logan Stace Ella Baxter

Landon McNab Ciara Kelk-Mannell

Aden Hohn

Week 4

Isla Marchant Lincoln Mengel Emma Scobie

Principal’s News 1

P&C Notes &

Reminders

2

Students of the Week

Advertisement

3

Parents Section 4

P&C Items

School Community

Items

5

School Priorities, 5Cs

value focus

6

Attendance Data

Newsletter Survey

7

Inside this issue:

28th February GRIP Leaders Conference

27th Feb, 6th & 13th Mar NO SCHOOL BANKING

5th March Arts Council—Brookstead

8th March Mayoral Morning Tea—School Leaders

8th & 9th March Pittsworth Show

13th March SCSS Cross Country

15th March P&C Meeting

Dates to Remember

Website: http://www.soutcentss.eq.edu.au/ Email: the.principal@soutcentss.eq.edu.au Telephone :07 46910142 Fax: 0746910334

Newsletter

Southbrook Central

State School

1 School Road, Southbrook. 4363

16th February 2018 From the Principal’s Desk

Last weeks Swimming Lessons were a big success, the development and progression of the

students skills in the water was evident by the end of the week, even though they were a little

worn out.

Thank you very much to the staff for their consistent efforts throughout the week , as well as

all the parent/community helpers for their assistance with the younger children of the school

during lessons. Your time and effort is very much appreciated.

P&C

Last week, I was able to attend my first P&C meeting at Southbrook Central State School. It

was great to see a number of parents in attendance and the work that goes into making our

school a positive, community based environment. I really appreciated the vision and direction

that the P&C would like to see at the school and it provided me with the opportunity to pre-

sent my vision and direction for the school over the coming years. Please feel welcome to come

along to the P&C meetings happening throughout the year, it would be great to see even more

parents in attendance.

School Improvement

Our school has one main focus or vision for 2018 and that is “Improve Reading for ALL

Students”. Reading is the basis of all learning and the staff are committed to delivering the

very best outcomes in this area for all students at our school.

With a strong foundation in Reading, all learning there-after is much easier to attain and

students will have improved learning outcomes as a result of being able to not only read other

material, but comprehend the information they are reading.

Staff are also embarking upon a journey of using data and testing information to inform their

teaching practices and adjust classroom lessons, in order to provide all students at our school

with an opportunity to succeed.

Newsletter

Please see within the school newsletter a note regarding updates to parent email addresses,

allowing me to provide information to you before the week starts, as per previous years, as

well as a survey regarding the delivery of the newsletter as a preference of print copies or

email. Please note, failure to return the survey will result in newsletters being sent as emails,

as we look to reduce our environmental footprint through the use of paper.

Kind Regards,

Lars

2

Reminders

School Uniforms

We strongly encourage all students to be in correct uniform for the following reasons. The wearing of our school uniform is endorsed by our P&C. The Southbrook Central State School student dress code assists in providing a safe and supportive school environment by: Allowing ready identification of students; Eliminating distraction of competition in dress and fashion at school; Fostering a sense of belonging; and

Developing mutual respect among students through minimising visible evidence of economic or social difference. There is also a range of second hand uniforms, especially good for those students who are in their last year.

President: Michael Train Vice President: Kirsty Brown Secretary: Wendy Thornber

Kirsty will continue in the Uniform Shop (open Thursday mornings).

Kerri Train and Amy McNab will continue in the Tuckshop (now running on Thursdays).

Reminder to complete your 2018 membership form (attached) and hand in to the school.

All assistance is greatly appreciated, please keep an eye on the P&C noticeboard for updates.

Another busy year ahead for our hard working P&C committee and volunteers!

P & C Notes

Southbrook Central State School

Collecting Coles Vouchers

Co-ordinator Ms Holmes

3

Students of the Week

Week 3—9th February

Students of the Week

Week 4—16th February

Students of the week

CONGRATULATIONS! Students

of the Week: Logan Stace, Ella

Baxter, Landon McNab, Ciara

Kelk-Mannell and Aden Hohn.

Southbrook Sports Club

Family Fun Afternoon

Easter Egg Hunt

24th March, 2018

From 4PM

At the Southbrook Sports Grounds

BBQ

BAR, Cold Drinks

All Welcome

CONGRATULATIONS! Isla Marchant.

Lincoln Mengel and Emma Scobie—

Students of the Week

4

Parent Section (compiled by Maree Andrews)

True Grit helps kids succeed (By Michael Grose) “Talent or persistence. Which would you choose for your child?”

I often ask this question at my parenting seminars and the responses are fascinating. Parents naturally want both. Sorry, but that’s not an option. When pushed most parents choose talent over persistence, which in many ways reflects the current thinking around achievement. Intelligence, sporting prowess and ability in whatever it is we value will only get a child or young person so far. Talent is purely potential. They need more than this to achieve sustained excellence in anything they do. It is the character traits of hard work combined with their ability to stick at a task and see it through that makes all the difference.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book ‘Outliers’, described twenty-something American student Renee, who took 22 minutes to work out a complicated math question. The average student gives up after THREE minutes, preferring to ask for help than work through a problem. Renee is unusual as she persisted for 22 minutes until she got the solution. The funny thing is that she doesn’t describe herself as a good math student. But she is highly successful at Math. Grit rather than pure math talent is her forte.

Character matters Cognitive skills by themselves aren’t enough for children to succeed over the long journey. Many recent studies (most notably the work of US-based Angela Duckworth) have found that character not cognitive ability is the single most reliable determinant of how a person’s life will turn out. These traits include the inclination to persist at a boring task (grit); the ability to delay gratification (self-control) and the tendency to follow through with a plan (conscientiousness), which are invaluable traits at school, in the workplace and in life in general. Character works as an indicator of success when it’s seen as a set of strengths and personality traits rather than personal values such as loyalty, tolerance or forgiveness.

Character is forged under difficulty The key character traits of grit, self-control and conscientiousness are forged under hardship and duress. This makes our current propensity to over protect and over indulge kids problematic – something I wrote about in my book Spoonfed Generation. When kids continually experience easy success we set them up for failure because when they finally face up to difficult situations many lack the capacity to push through the tough times. Encouraging kids to step out of their comfort zones and take learning and social risks is one of the great challenges for modern parents. It’s critical that we challenge children and young people to attempt activities where failure is a significant option. Overcoming setbacks and pushing through difficulties are how character is formed.

Character is malleable The good news is that character, like intelligence, is malleable. It’s not fixed. It’s important to establish in your own mind as a parent and also in children’s minds that character traits such as grit, self-control and conscientiousness can be developed. To this end it’s important then that parents steer clear of using absolute language to label behaviour and views traits and abilities as fixed. Comments such as “You’re no good at math” become a rule that young people learn to live by, and become default thinking that’s hard to budge. Make grit part of a family’s brand In my book Thriving! I wrote how every family has it’s own distinctive brand, which is a reflection of the strengths and traits that all members share. For instance, if high work ethic is a common trait then it’s a fair bet that hard work is something parents focus on in their family. Parents can actively promote grit and persistence in kids by making character part of their family’s brand. They can focus on character in conversations. They can share experiences where character paid off for them in their lives. They can discuss how character contributes to excellence and success in every day life including at work, at school and in the sporting field. Character and its many components can become part of the family narrative regardless of the age of children.

Build proprietary language around character Families develop their own language around what’s important to them and that needs to include character if the parents want to foster excellence. Continuous messaging of terms and phrases such as ‘hang tough’ and ‘hard yakka’ help weave character traits into the family DNA. Parents should reflect on the language and terms they already use and build key phrases and terms around the following key character strengths: grit, self-control, conscientiousness, enthusiasm, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity

Character becomes the default mechanism Habit and character go hand in hand. Conscientious young people don’t go around consciously deciding that they’ve got to delay the fun stuff until they’ve done their work. They’ve just made it their default mechanism to stick at their task, or delay gratification, or jump into a task with enthusiasm. Conscientiousness doesn’t always serve a young person well. They can sometimes place full focus on menial or unimportant tasks when a smarter option may be to cruise and save energy for the important times such as exams. That’s where parental guidance plays a part. However in the long run conscientiousness serves a young person well when it’s their default because when the stakes are high they will automatically make the right choice. In fact, it will be the only option when excellence really matters.

5

P&C Items

Southbrook Possums Playgroup We have changed our Playgroup to Wednesday and is held every 2 weeks. Our next Play-group days are 21st February and 7th March 2018.

For any enquiries phone 0409055679.

School Community Items

SOUTHBROOK CENTRAL STATE SCHOOL UNI-

FORM SHOP All uniforms available

OPEN Thursday 8:30am to 9am

0448170049 Kirsty

Uniform Shop

TUCKSHOP

We need your help in our School Tuckshop! If you can volunteer please write your name down on the roster located on the door of the School Tuckshop. All help is greatly appreciated.

HOME BAKE—NO PEANUTS please !

Student Insurance

Did you know that the P&C pay for stu-

dent Personal and Accident Insurance

every year for your child?

The policy cover is provided whilst a

student is at school and or undertaking

school based activities. In addition, the

scope of coverage also includes necessary

direct journey travel to and from such

activities and or the school.

If you would like more information

about this, the P&C have left an infor-

mation booklet in the staffroom for your

convenience or you can access further

information from this web address. http://www.pandcsqld.com.au/pc-resources/insurance/

6

Southbrook Central 2018 School Priorities

Reading - Learning to Read & Reading to Learn

Reading

Focused professional development on the teaching of reading.

Effective use of observation, coaching and feedback

Consistent teaching of reading and Implementing the “Big 6”

Sporting Schools

NO SPORTING SCHOOL

ACTIVITIES IN TERM 1

School Banking

School Banking continues next Tuesday, then takes a break for

three weeks while I am on leave.

No School Banking for week 6 (Feb 27th), week 7 (Mar 6th) and week 8 (Mar 13th), so I look forward to

heavy yellow Dollarmite wallets with all your

savings when School Banking returns in week 9 (Mar 20th).

Courtesy

Using manners in all

situations

Consideration

Thinking about others

Commitment

Always doing my best

Care Looking after: Ourselves Our school Our community

Courage

Knowing what is right and

acting upon it

5Cs

Southbrook Central’s 5C’s — Values

The value for Term 1 week 3 & 4 is COURTESY. COURTESY means using your man-ners in all situations. Speak politely. Raise your hand. Be a good sport. Use appro-priate language. Share school equipment.

Below are the processes around our PBL reward system at Southbrook Central:

We have fortnightly focus on one of the 5 values throughout each term

Coloured Pentagon tokens are given anytime, anywhere to acknowledge any good

effort/behaviours that demonstrate any of the 5 school values. Eg. Student continues read-

ing over holidays and records this in reading diary, the teacher would reward that student

with a “Commitment” pentagon for demonstrating commitment to learning.

The focus value for the fortnight will attract double rewards of that particular token.

Students collect all pentagon tokens and save these to trade for vouchers sold at the V-

Shop.

Vouchers range from 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 250 pentagon tokens thus allowing regular

reward for students who need this and also allow students to ‘save’ for a more significant

voucher reward.

Participation in end of term Golden Pentagon Celebration day — Students participate

upon receiving an invitation. Students excluded from receiving an invitation will have

behaviour records in One School for that term. These records are produced through our

current behaviour slips/data collection methods which are aligned to our Behaviour ma-

trix consequences. Criteria for which students are excluded from the Golden Pentagon day

will be - three or more minor behaviour breaches or one major behaviour breach. This will

result in that student not receiving their invitation to attend the golden pentagon reward

day and instead, work on goals for next term.

2-6 Classroom daily point systems will result in the reward of a pentagon every time stu-

dents reach 5 points. Pentagons are given at the end of the day. Classroom Jobs in the 2-6

class are categorised under the school values and will be paid in pentagons at the end of

the week.

‘Student of the week’ rewards continue to be selected by the teacher and will result in a

pentagon token reward as well as a certificate during assembly.

Reading awards will attract a Commitment pentagon every time a student reaches the

milestones outlined in their reading diaries. Number fact and spelling post test results

will result in a pentagon reward when achieving set target scores.

Continuing Focus

Work

Teaching of Reading

Continuing Focus

Work

Explicit Instruction

Quote for the week:

We must use time

as a tool

not as a couch

JF Kennedy

7

Southbrook Central State School – Attendance Data – 2018

SCSS 2017 % DDSW % Target SCSS 2018 %

92.8% 93.5% 95.9%

Southbrook Central State School - Newsletter Survey—

I/we would like/would not like, to receive weekly updates from the Principal via

email.

Email:____________________________________________________________________

Email:____________________________________________________________________

I/We would like to receive the fortnightly school newsletter in our chosen

preference:

Print:

Email: - Sent as a PDF File

Email Address:

______________________________________________________________

Email Address:

_____________________________________________________________________