Banana State School Newsletter
Term 1 2020 Week 7 Principal’s News Thanks
Many thanks to Jason Dales, Rob Haley and Craig Jones for
their great work in reinstalling the spectators’ seats in our
shed.
Clean Up Australia Day - February 28th February 2020
The Prep, Yr 1 and Yr 2
students were kept very
busy cleaning up the
school grounds under the
watchful eyes of Miss
Rynne, Mrs Stevens and
Mrs Jones. They did a
wonderful job of making
our school grounds look
clean and tidy.
Leah, Flynn and Zoey
Butler teamed up with
Cecilia Kurtz to weed
the playground that
incorporates our old
fort. This was a huge
task and eventually
all students of our
school pitched in to
give Leah a helping
hand.
Thank you, Mrs Kurtz, for organising this event for our school.
Mrs Kurtz and her trusty band of Yr 3 helpers found some of the
most amazing trash at the Banana Park - mind you, they thought it
was treasure.
Mrs Haley and some of our
Yrs 3 and 4 students gave a
thumbs up to show their
support for working to
keep the Banana
community clean.
Fiona and our Yrs 5 & 6
girls hit the highway.
They had the front of our
school looking really
smick.
Of course, Mr Donohoe’s mowing marathon made
all the difference. Many thanks to Dan for assisting us with
the upkeep of our grounds - it is great for every member of our
community to be able to take pride in our school.
Mrs Butler and our
Yrs 5 and 6 boys took
care of the weeds but
there were some
tense moments when
they mistakenly took
care of some young
plants as well.
Obviously, they need
more practice looking
after their Mums’
gardens at home on
the weekends.
Thank you to the P&C for providing
our students with a cool, refreshing
icy cup at the end of the day -
green and yellow ones of course!
Matilda and Chase expressed their
appreciation on behalf of all of our
students and they are looking forward
to the next event in 2020 when they can
work with the Banana P&C again.
Week 10 Open Day - Monday 30th March 2020
You’re invited to join us between 1.00 - 3.00 pm on Monday,
30th March when we are having an Open Day to celebrate and
showcase the achievements of our students in Term 1.
Please mark this date on your calendar and keep it free so that
you don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to share your
child’s learning journey in this first term of the year.
I’m certain that you will be amazed by some of the wonderful
things that will have been achieved!
NAPLAN Why NAPLAN is moving to online. All schools are moving to NAPLAN Online by 2021
as the online format will change NAPLAN for the better. One of
the main benefits of NAPLAN Online is tailored (or adaptive)
testing, in which the test presents questions of higher or lower
complexity depending on a student’s performance, resulting in a
more engaging assessment and more precise results.
This year, between 12 and 22 May, our school will be
doing NAPLAN Online. NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are
already learning at school. On its own, NAPLAN is not a test
that can be studied for and students are not expected to do so.
NAPLAN is just one aspect of our school’s assessment and
reporting process – it does not replace ongoing assessments
made by teachers about student performance; however, students
and parents may use individual results to discuss progress with
teachers.
Read the NAPLAN Online information brochure for parents and
carers. To see the format of the online tests, visit the public
demonstration site.
Elaine Pelling
Our Improvement Priority for 2020 is - Challenging learning for every student, in every classroom, every day.
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which Banana State School is built, the Gangulu
people.
Miss Rynne’s News
English
Students have commenced exploring task two of their
English unit. All students are learning to give an
imaginative response. Prep are retelling events in the
beginning and end of a known story. They will also
draw a character from the story and experiment to
write sentences with capital letters, finger spaces, full
stops, sight words and familiar words from the book.
Year 1 are writing a retell about the beginning,
middle and end of a familiar story. Students are
ensuring they make their writing interesting by using
nouns, noun groups, adjectives, verbs and adverbs
from the story. Year 2 are writing a fantasy narrative
using a character from a familiar story. Students are
learning to plan ideas for a fantasy short story with
three parts: orientation, complication and resolution.
Spelling
Prep have been very busy over the last seven weeks!
They have learnt fourteen new letters so far! Miss
Karen and I have been working collaboratively to
design hands on and age appropriate activities that
match the jolly phonics songs and actions. Students
have made snakes for ‘s’, created an ant for ‘a’,
played tennis for ‘t’, created an inky mouse for ‘i’
and pink pig for ‘p’, made an aeroplane for the ‘n’
sound, used castanets for ‘c’ and ‘k’, ate and created
a giant Easter egg for ‘e’, made an origami dog for
‘r’, had fun playing hopscotch for ‘h’, made yummy
marshmallows for ‘m’, played the drums for ‘d’ and
listened to a gurgling drain for ‘g’.
Design and Technology
Students have investigated some problems that can
occur on farms, and are designing solutions to fix
these problems. Problems that can occur are cows
getting stuck in mud, birds eating fruit from
trees/vegie patch, eagles and dingoes preying on
chickens, cows and sheep trampling the vegie patch
because the fence is broken etc. We know there are
much more! However, students decided to work
together to create a designed solution of a scarecrow.
Their solution was to put the scarecrow close to the
fruit trees/vegie patch to scare the birds away. The
scarecrow is now an extra member of our class, it has
scared me late in the afternoons on more than one
occasion!
Students’ Belongings
Please ensure all items brought to school from home
are labelled clearly with your child’s name. Objects
like hats and toys are the biggest priority. Many
students are leaving hats behind, and I can’t tell
who’s they are. If hats are left behind, they will be
put in the lost property box. There are similar issues
with toys being left in the playground or around the
school.
Water Bottles
Parents can you please ensure that students bring a
water bottle to school, especially Fridays. It makes it
easier and quicker for students to get access to a
drink of water when they have their water bottle with
them out on the tennis court. Thanks!
Once again, please don’t hesitate to come and have a
chat throughout the term if you have any concerns.
Jessica Rynne
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which Banana State School is built, the Gangulu
people.
Mrs Butler’s News
Parent Meeting Reminder
Don’t forget this afternoon at 3:15pm we will be
holding our Yr 5 Parent Meeting in the library. I
look forward to seeing you there.
Science
Last week, students in Yrs 3 & 4 conducted an
erosion investigation where they learnt that the more
water they poured onto their sandcastles, the more
erosion occurred. This learning will help them
prepare for their assessment in the coming weeks.
We would like to thank Mrs Urquhart for emailing
her photos of erosion to us. My email address is
[email protected] for anyone else wishing to do the
same.
Spellzone
This week students in Year 5 have commenced using
Spellzone to practise their spelling. These activities
can be accessed from home. Students will need to
see me to get their user names and passwords.
Design and Technology
Students in Yrs 5 & 6 have planned and designed
their school vegetable garden. Next Monday, they
will begin making their 3D model. They will need to
have all of their resources at the school by this
Friday. If you have anything that you think may be
useful, please don’t hesitate to drop it into the
classroom. I know that some students are looking for
onion or orange bags or any other item that can be
used as netting.
Maths
Our new topic in maths is Data representation and
interpretation. So far students have revisited
common sources of data collection as well as
collected and displayed data using various types of
graphs.
Staying healthy
With coughs and colds already prevalent, now is the
time to practice good hand and respiratory hygiene to
help protect against infections. Students are
reminded to cover their mouth and nose when
coughing and sneezing with a tissue, or cough into
their elbow, dispose of the tissue into a bin and wash
their hands afterwards. Students should be washing
their hands with soap and water regularly, especially
after using the toilet and before eating. I have hand
sanitiser on my desk for students to use, but it would
be a good idea for them to also carry one in their
lunch box to use as required.
Kay Butler
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which Banana State School is built, the Gangulu
people.
P&C and Community News Thank you to everyone who attended the AGM last week.
It was great to see a large number of parents involved with
our P&C again this year.
Thank you to all members who held positions last year
and took on the responsibility of their roles. We
appreciate your commitment.
Welcome to all our new members, we look forward to
seeing you involved in the P&C and can see great things
ahead for 2020.
The 2020 executive roles are as follows;
President: Nadine Kurtz
Vice President: Nicole Newman
Secretary: Philippa Galloway
Vice Secretary: Fiona Brumpton
Treasurer: Katie Jones
Vice Treasurer: Carl Anderson
Thanks also goes to Sue Jarvis who has resumed role as
Tuckshop Co-ordinator, Sarah Richmond as Safety Co-
ordinator and Steven McCamley as Maintenance Officer.
I wish you all the best in your roles for the year! Did you know Clean up Australia has been running for 30
years?! The Banana SS team made a great difference on
Clean Up Australia day, with 10 bags of rubbish collected
and a big area of grass removed from the playgrounds
also. Some of the interesting things we found included a
mouse trap, a shifting spanner, a toothbrush and three
socks! There were a lot of small plastics collected; with
over 31 straw wrappers in our haul around the school.
Make sure when you have a popper that you remember to
put the straw wrapper in the bin too before it blows away,
as every little piece of litter adds up. There were a couple
of aluminium cans which we will return to the container
refund scheme for 10 cents. Remember to collect yours at
home too! Thank you to everyone who lent a hand on
Friday, it is a great initiative to be a part of. This Friday the P&C are opening the tuckshop for
children attending the Cricket gala Day. If you are able to
lend a hand for a couple of hours it would be most
appreciated. We will be at the school from approx.
8:30am to set up and get things ready. If anyone would
like to donate some baking for the day it would also be
most appreciated. Only a week and a half to go until the Cent Sale!! There
are some AMAZING things up for grabs already with so
many generous local sponsors. If you have something to
donate as a prize, please pop it in either the tuckshop or up
to the admin office before Friday this week. There are a
few jobs that we will need help with next week in order to
get the day organised. Please see the list in the breezeway
and pop your name down where you can assist. Again,
any baking donations on the morning (or the day before)
would be most appreciated. We will be catering for up to
150 people so a slice or cake would be a great help.
Look forward to seeing everyone there!
Nadine Kurtz – P&C President
March
12th, 18th, 19th,
25th, 26th P-2 Reading Groups
12/03 Breakfast Club & Tuckshop
13/03 Cricket Gala Day – Banana SS
Yrs 3 - 6
19/03 Breakfast Club & Tuckshop
Prep Parent Meeting 3pm
22/03 P&C Cent Sale
26/03 Breakfast Club & Tuckshop
27/03 Cross Country – Banana SS
30/03 Open Day 1:00 – 3:00pm
April
1st, 2nd P-2 Reading Groups
02/04 DV Cross Country – Bauhinia SS
Breakfast Club & Tuckshop
03/04 Final Day Term 1
20/04 Day 1 Term 2
Tuesday,
Wednesday &
Thursday
Homework Club
8:15 – 8:45am
05/06
19/06
Athletics Carnival
DV Athletics Carnival
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which Banana State School is built, the Gangulu
people.
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which Banana State School is built, the Gangulu
people.
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which Banana State School is built, the Gangulu
people.