IN THIS ISSUE

• From the principal

• News from Front Office

• Important Dates

• News from the HOC

• News from the

Classrooms

• Community News

February 2019 Newsletter #2

Welcome back to Rosella Park School for 2019! The start of the new year always

brings with it a mix of excited anticipation and for some, dreaded anxiety as we

welcome students from Prep to grade 12. I feel very excited to be sitting in Kate’s

chair for 2019 and look forward to working alongside you throughout your child’s

schooling journey!!

Welcome to new families and staff

A big welcome to the new families that join our Rosella Park School Community

this year. I hope you are all feeling excited about the year ahead for your child.

We also welcome a few new faces to our 2019 school team. Our Leadership Team

welcomes Steve Leese as Acting Deputy Principal and Katrina Ward as Acting

Head of Curriculum. Once again, we are fortunate to have Angela Craze

continuing as our Senior Transition Officer on Monday and Tuesdays.

At the start of the year we welcomed 4 new teachers across our school

community – Baljeet Saran, who has relocated from South Australia; Judy

Coulston from the Redcliffe area; Cherie Hughes from Rockhampton; and Carys

Obayariade from Dysart. The new members already feel part of the Rosella

family. I hope you enjoy getting to know them as much as I have!

2019 – The year ahead…

As always, the New Year brings with it excitement, as we continue to reflect and

learn from our previous years, working towards our goal of being the best school

we can possibly be. It is nice to be at a stage where we are really consolidating

the things we truly think are making a difference for our students, largely in the

areas of Literacy and Communication. These 2 areas will continue to be areas of

focus, as we begin to bring our 2019 Improvement Agenda to the forefront.

Our theme this year is:

“How do we create a system in which every student is understood, engaged

and successful at school, going on to live a life of choice, not a life of chance?”

From the Principal

Rosella Park School

NEWSLETTER 20 Park Street, Gladstone QLD 4680

PO Box 1145, Gladstone QLD 4680

T: 07 4976 8333 F: 07 4976 8300

www.rosellapkspecs.eq.edu.au

E: the.principal@rosellapkspecs.eq.edu.au

P and C

Our AGM was held last Monday. We once again welcome Michelle Denniss as President, and

Kerryn Harris as our Treasurer. Big thanks to Naomi Ferguson who is stepping up as Vice President;

Jodie Janson as Secretary; and Pam Wode as Fundraiser. We are a school that does focus on

change for the better, and feel that we can only become the best school we can be with the

assistance and feedback from many. Please look out for the P&C Notifications, come and join us

at our monthly meetings.

Once again, we will be hosting Bogan Bingo as our main school fundraiser. This success of this

event enables us to update our facilities and ensure that your child has the best access to their

schooling environment. We are currently raising funds to build in the undercover area to provide

a multi-purpose space for all students. Please go through your address book and see if you have

any contacts who would be prepared to financially support the event – whether that be as a major

sponsor or through the provision of prizes for the multi-prize draw – all contributions are valued!!

Please come along and support our event – bring your family, bring your friends!! I can’t wait to

see you all at the PCYC on July 27 for another amazing event!

We are all very excited about the year ahead, and really looking forward to working with you

more as we continue to strive for improvement!

Kind regards,

Chrissie Hansen

Acting Principal

From the Deputy Principal

Hi, my name is Steve Leese and I am honoured to join the Rosella Park School team as Acting Deputy

Principal for 2019. I come to Rosella after studying Special Education at Griffith University in

Brisbane. My permanent position is Head of Special Education Services (HOSES) for a cluster of three

primary schools in Bundaberg. I have previously held the positions of HOSES for a cluster of 7 schools

including both primary and high schools in the area north of Emerald and as a teacher of more than

10 years at Ipswich Special School. Throughout my career I have also been an Acting HOSES at two

primary schools, an Acting Deputy Principal at two Special Schools and a short stint as Acting

Principal of a primary school. I look forward to working as part of the Rosella community in 2019.

From my first four weeks here I can see that Rosella has a great staff team, awesome students and

wonderful families. I have already met many parents/carers and hope to meet many more

throughout the year.

School Fun Run

We are excited to announce the school fun run is scheduled for Thursday 4th April.

This usually consists of a visit from the local firies with the fire truck and huge water

sprayer which keeps us cool while we do laps of the school oval.

We have sent home the sponsorship forms with your student which has all the

instructions on how to raise money and order prizes. The easiest and safest way to

fundraise is through online fundraising. To start fundraising online go to your

student profile page at schoolfundraising.com.au and share your online fundraising

link. If you are not comfortable with online fundraising or do not have access to a

computer, just return your form and money to the school and we will be happy to

help out. Fundraising ends on Friday 22nd March.

News from the Front Office

Important Dates to Remember:

School Photos

Wednesday 20th March

* Fun Run

Thursday 4th April

* End of Term

Friday 5th April

Late Arrivals and Early Departures

No student is allowed to leave the school grounds without first being signed out at the office, if

they are leaving before our official finish time of 2.45pm. If your child is late arriving to school they

must also be signed in to the school. It is expected that all parents/carers report to the office when

picking your child up during school hours Please do not go directly to the class room as it is very

disruptive for other students.

Pickup by other Agency Representatives

We have a number of students that are collected by carers across the week. To ensure that we

meet our duty of care, we need to ask that you advise the school, either by message in the

communication book, class DOJO or by phoning the office to let us know that an outside agency is

to collect your child from school. We also ask that any agency representative report to the school

administration office to sign the student out of the school grounds. Please also advise these carers

to have their identification with them on the day. Thanks for your help here!

School Uniforms

Can we please remind all parents and carers that Rosella Park School does have a school uniform

policy and it is expected that students wear the correct uniform at all times. Please refer to the

attached uniform policy. If you have any queries, please contact the school office for clarification.

One of the many highlights of working at Rosella so far is the amount of mail I receive

from the students. Pictured is just a sample of the letters I have received from all areas

of the school. I hope to receive many more and as the year goes on and I always try to

send a reply. It has also been fantastic to visit the classrooms and see the work being

completed by the children. I also enjoy getting out and about during playtimes and

jumping on trampolines, having a kick about on the oval, sliding down the slide or playing

in the soft play area with the students.

I’m looking forward to a great year.

Cheers Steve

News from the Classrooms

Room 1 – Junior – Mrs Coulston Hello from Room 1,

We have been busy this term, getting to know each other and

showing our new teacher, Miss Judy all the great things we can do.

We are currently reading a story about the jungle so our room is turning into

a jungle theme. We are learning about the letter V and L. Last week we

studied the Very Hungry Caterpillar and got to sample some of the foods the

caterpillar ate in the story. During maths we are learning about numbers and

time.

Room 2 – Intermediate/Senior – Ms Hughes Hi All

I feel like Room 2 has had a wonderful start to the year. This term we are focusing on peer

communication through play and whole class activities. In Literacy we doing shared reading,

independent reading, shared writing and independent writing. Numeracy is everyone’s favourite,

especially counting songs. The soft play room is also very popular.

I am looking forward to the rest of the term and the fun and learning it will bring.

From Miss Cherie, Miss Lin, Miss Tracey and Miss Di

Room 3 – Intermediate/Senior – Mrs Saran We have had a great start of the year in Room 3. Students have been engaged in literacy and numeracy

learning through sensory and communication (PODD) activities. We have been reading “Rainbow Fish”

story during our shared reading time. Students have participated in creating a class poster depicting the

Rainbow Fish story. We all enjoyed reading and listening to the story and have learnt that sharing makes

us happy. Keep checking on ClassDojo for our upcoming success stories!

Room 4 – Junior – Ms Appleton Room 4 has had a great start to the year, with students settling in nicely. We welcome Jaxson

who started at Rosella this year and has transitioned beautifully into the school routine. The

class enjoy our morning routine where we listen to a morning song and greet each other in a

variety of ways. Some mornings we go out for a jump on the trampoline, which the children

love. In the mornings each child enjoys choosing an animated song to listen to before we kick

off our day. We do predictable chart writing which develops throughout the week and is made

into a classroom book that we read on Fridays. For letters and sounds we use songs and

readers to expose the children to the letter names and their sounds. Over the past few weeks

we have completed craft activities that link to the Letters of the Week. Their crafts will be put

on display. As a link to letter ‘J’ the students recently worked with jelly, with an overwhelming

preference to taste it. This week we will be sampling a variety a vegetables, which will

hopefully be met with the same enthusiasm. Fun Friday rotations will continue every Friday;

we divide ourselves between Room 1 and 5 to enjoy letters of the week activities. Rotations

are a nice opportunity for students to engage with other students and staff. Your child is

encouraged to dress up for this. Our current maths focus is counting, number recognition,

counting groups of objects and numbers that come before and after. This is scaffolded

according to each child’s capability.

Jane Farrell visited Room 4 this week and shared ideas on how to best to enhance your child’s

communication and language development through shared reading and writing. She provided

us with strategies that are suited to your child’s capabilities. I am looking forward to

implementing what I have learned into the class this term.

Room 5 – Junior – Ms Walsh Welcome to 2019! I welcome all our new students to our school. Our Junior class is focusing on

getting into routine and understanding the school systems. We enjoy our Four Blocks activities

and are eager to find our letters of the week wherever we can. Students are thoroughly

enjoying our fun Fridays and we encourage them to come dressed up! We have engaged in a

range of literacy activities that include; shared reading, self-selected reading, predictable chart

writing and taking any opportunities for writing. In maths we are practising counting to ten and

identifying the numbers zero to ten. We count at every opportunity. Students are also looking

into shapes and patterns. Within visual arts students are being encouraged to make

independent choices when creating their art. Students are building their knowledge and

understanding of the school rules and are becoming aware of our traffic light system. Overall

students should be proud of their successful start to the year. I look forward to our many

adventures in 2019.

Room 6 – Intermediate/Senior – Mrs Buckle Room 6 students have all settled nicely into routine. They arrive in class knowing to put their

lunch boxes in the fridge, bag on the ledge, Communication book on the shelf, collect their

pencil box and help place the chairs at the desks and tables. A big THANK YOU to our parents

and carers who are ensuring that their child is coming to home dressed in the correct

uniform. It is lovely to see the respect for our school uniform. We have three fantastic

Teacher Aides working in Room 6 across the week- Miss Nicole is with us every day with Miss

Andrea three days (typically Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and Miss Jess two days a week

(typically Tuesday and Thursday). We can’t achieve our learning without them they are

invaluable. All of our programs are going well. Our learning goals have been decided upon

and are ready for discussion at our ICP meetings coming up soon.

Here we are posting our letters to our new acting Deputy Principal Mr Steve. We find many

purposes for writing every week as we write every day.

Room 7 – Intermediate – Mrs Strutton Hi all and welcome to 2017. All Room 7 students are settling in to their new classroom

and routine quite well. Thank you to those parents who attended last week’s Parent

Information Session, it was great to see you. If you haven’t already done so, could you

please return your ICP Meeting times. I’m looking forward to catching up with you all.

We will be continuing our balanced literacy journey this year with our Four Blocks

Program. Students participate in a wide variety of enjoyable, age appropriate reading

and writing activities. Keep an eye on Dojo for our “Words of the Week” and “Book of

the Week”.

Please ensure that your child has a piece of cut up fresh fruit for fruit break. It is also

important that your child has a heathy lunch every day. Kids are more alert and

focused when they are fuelled on healthy food. Higher levels of concentration mean

that kids can more readily retain information and therefore learn.

Thanks

Michelle, Kirsty, Emily and Simone

Room 9 – Senior – Mrs Obayoriade It was the choice of the pupils in Room 9 this semester to have animals as our topic! So animals it

has been! We are looking at the chapter book “Varjak Paw” and have thoroughly enjoyed

unpicking the language of the first few chapters. We have already found the characters to be

interesting and unpredictable and have used this to write settings and first person narratives.

We have been focusing on the different spelling choices for a single sound to help us improve

our spellings.

In amongst all this hard work, we have made sure we have had lots of fun too including a class

party!

Thanks Carys

Room 10 – Senior – Mrs Bickle We are off like rockets in Room 10!!

The boys have been enjoying getting to know each other and what happens in Room 10! So far

we have been looking at patterning, skip counting, writing, PE and our favourite; cooking! We

have been using our writing time to invite friends and Mr Steve (our new Deputy) to our

classroom to partake in PE activities with us. We are actively focusing on playing fairly, being

safe and following the rules. Here are some pictures of our time so far! If you aren’t on Dojo

please check your emails for the invite Link so you can keep up with us all the time!

Room 11 – Transition – Ms Harris Room 11 has had a great start to the year together. The students are all adjusting well to our

busy schedule. Everyone works well together in room 11 and are able to balance each other’s

abilities. Kallum is new to Rosella Park School and his sense of humour and charismatic

personality keep things light. Lauren is a wonderful social influence and encourages us all to

interact and care for one another. Tina has a strong sense of what is right and influences

everyone to follow the rules and be kind to one another. The room stays on time thanks to

Sierra and her frequent time checks and ensuring everyone is on task. Nathan, or as we call him,

Smithy keeps everything tidy and is so eager to help with any tasks involving washing. Ethan has

a wonderful imagination and entertains us with his stories and hypotheticals. The seventh

student in the room is Conner and he has impressed us all with his ability to get our attention

and indicate what he wants. The teacher aides in room 11 change from subject to subject and

the students are listening to and respecting every aide equally. I have been very proud of how

well they have handled the changes in staff from session to session. As we reach the half way

point in Term 1 the goals are being set for everyone for the Semester. The students will be

working within the Australian Curriculum across their 7 subjects. The strongest focus being on

their Literacy and Numeracy skills. I am always happy to be contacted by parents and really

appreciate being informed about anything that may affect their schooling. My email is

charr512@eq.edu.au and you can also message me on class DOJO at any time. The rest of 2019

will be a great year for Rosella and especially for Room 11 as we all continue to grow and learn

together.

Room 12 – Senior – Mrs Maguire Room 12 have started the year running. We have commenced work on expected ICP goals for the

semester and continued with a four blocks program targeting selected goals for individual

students. In maths students will be looking at identifying and quantifying Australian coins and

notes including adding coins to solve problems. Students will be consolidating knowledge of skip

counting to enable them to solve money problems. In HPE students will be looking at ways that

they can remain safe including resources from the Daniel Morcombe program to enable them to

adopt strategies to respond to situations and identify possible treats in the wider community

include on line situations. The students have also begun exploring different colours and textures

in art. They have also started a drama program on Fridays. So far all students have participated

and have enjoyed aspects of costume and performance for enjoyment with respective teaching

staff. All student have demonstrated a keen interest in participating in all activities and I am

looking forward to a productive, enjoyable time throughout the year.

Room 13 – Intermediate – Mrs Nash Hi and welcome to term 1 2019. We have had a fantastic start to the year in room 13. We have

been busy setting up our traffic light behaviour system and have become very good at working

out what is a green and what is a red choice. We have also been looking at our 3 school rules

Respect, Positive and Safe and how these look. It has been great fun pretending to make red

choices so we could take photos for our traffic lights � .

Balanced literacy is once again a big focus for us in room 13. Don't forget to check out the

communication book for our book of the week so you can discuss this with your child.

I look forward to speaking with you all in week 6 at our ICP meetings. In the meantime feel free

to call or Dojo if you wish to have a chat.

Joan and Carolyn

Room 14 – Transition – Mrs Leeson Wow! can you believe it is week 5 already. The year 11’s and 12’s that are working out of Room

14 have been very busy working hard on all their subjects. The first 5 weeks have consisted of

lots of theory and soon we will be heading out into the community on a regular basis. The year

12 students will be volunteering at the Salvation Army and investigating what agencies and

services are in the community to help them in their lives after school. The year 11 students will

visit a variety of places in our community to familiarise ourselves with the way technology is

used in the community to ensure we can keep up with how to function in a basic technological

society. They will also visit a variety of community locations to check out the rules, regulations

and our responsibilities when using these community areas. Room 14 Mathematics students

will head out to the shops once a week to practice using money for personal use and the Room

14 Literacy/communication students will head out into the community to practice appropriate

ways of communicating in a variety of settings in meaningful ways. So as you can see there will

be lots of notes coming home soon and we will be extremely busy. I look forward to catching up

with everyone next week for their parent/ teacher interviews. If you haven’t booked an

interview time, it is not too late as I would love to see you.

Room 15 – Transition – Mrs Oliver We would like to like to take this opportunity to welcome back, hope everybody enjoyed the

holidays? Room 15 are well into the swing of things with their programs. It’s hard to believe

that we are nearly half way through term one already! So much has happened, Room 15 would

like to welcome new members to the transition cohort and to our school Michaela and William

they have settled really well and are enjoying their time in Rosella. So much has happened over

the last few weeks in below are some photographs to show you what we have been up to.

On Thursday the transition cohort were privileged to meet Oscar, Alan and Phil members of

MUA union who very kindly donated $1000 towards our school. Our school Captain’s Zach and

Rhianna, gave a speech thanking the members and accepted the cheque on behalf of the

school.

uu

Learning through games

NCT – Mrs Colombus and Mrs Ross Welcome to Room 8 drama ! We have an action-packed program involving movement, games,

props and dress ups and so far have explored masks, cosmic yoga, charades, Simon Says and

freeze games. Each week we will update you on the element focus with the highlights on The Arts

dojo. We are off to a great start and thoroughly enjoying this time engaging with the children in

such a beneficial way.

Research participants required for two

studies

Do you have a child with Down syndrome? Or do you have a child with autism spectrum disorder

who also has a diagnosis of global developmental delay or intellectual disability? Is your child still

at school (5 to 18 years)? If yes, we would like to hear from you.

We’re working to better understand the quality of life of school-aged children with disability, to

discover how to improve the lives of these kids and their families for generations to come.

Participation involves completing an online or paper survey. To learn more about becoming

involved, please contact:

Associate Professor Jenny Downs

Email: Jenny.Downs@telethonkids.org.au

Phone: 0411161138

OR

Associate Professor Helen Leonard

Email: Helen.Leonard@telethonkids.org.au

Phone: 0419956946

This project has received ethical approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee at the

University of Western Australia.

News from the Community

The student dress code consists of an agreed standard and items of clothing that students wear when:

• Attending and representing school

• Travelling to and from school and

• Engaging in school activities out of school hours

Students of Rosella Park are required to wear the following:

Junior & Intermediate Students (ages 5-12 years):

Navy and Red polo shirt – This is a specifically designed ‘lower school’ shirt available - Purchased

through EVERYTHING UNIFORM*

• Navy shorts (mid-thigh length preferred) or pants. Girls are also permitted to wear a navy

sports skirt if preferred.

• White socks and closed in shoes (white or black)

• Navy Hat (First hat supplied by the school. If you require a replacement you can buy one

through the school for $10)

• (In winter) Navy fleecy jumper/cardigan with navy tracksuit pants.

Senior & Transition Students (ages 13-18 years):

• Navy and Red polo shirt – This is a specifically designed ‘senior’ shirt available -

Purchased through EVERYTHING UNIFORM*

• Navy shorts (mid-thigh length preferred) or pants. Girls are also permitted to wear a navy

sports skirt if preferred.

• White socks and closed in shoes (white or black)

• Navy Hat (First hat supplied by the school. If you require a replacement you can buy one

through the school for $10)

• (In winter) Navy fleecy jumper/cardigan with navy tracksuit pants

The P&C of Rosella Park School resolves that it supports a student dress code for Rosella Park School

because it believes that a student dress code promotes the objectives of Education (General Provisions) Bill 2006. In

particular, the P&C supports the intention of a dress code in providing a safe and supportive teaching and learning

environment by:

• Ready identification of students and non-students at school

• 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 differences

The Rosella Park School community thanks you in advance for your support!

Michelle Denniss Kate Russ

Rosella Park School Rosella Park School

P&C President Principal

Uniforms are ordered from *EVERYTHING UNIFORM - Phone: (07) 4972 4481 - Address: 53 Lord Street, Gladstone

Queensland 4680

Rosella Park School community has determined that students at this school will wear a uniform.

Uniform is an important factor in developing positive school tone and pride in the school and it is

expected that students will wear the uniform and that parents will support the uniform policy by

ensuring that their students arrive at school in full school uniform each day.