Rainbow Beach State School – Term 4
Danny Stanieg, Principal, Rainbow Beach State School
The rain has been great but the hail and strong winds we could do without. Apart from a few branches down and a bit of a mess, the school held up fairly well in the storm last Thursday. Thank you for being so efficient in picking up your children and getting them to the safety of their home.
It has been one year since I started at Rainbow Beach State School. We have implemented a range of programs and incorporated numerous sporting and cultural activities for the students to learn and enjoy. The teachers and teacher aides have been very supportive and enthusiastic about these programs and we have made great progress in all areas of schooling.
We continue to undertake a range of professional development to ensure we are implementing best practice in the classroom, to ensure our students have every opportunity of success while at Rainbow Beach State School.
Attendance continues to be the only thing that I can’t make head way in. The school’s target for 2018 was 93% attendance. Our attendance rate for the year to date is 89.4% and has hovered around this figure for the year.
As a school, our total full day absences stands at 1339 days.
This equates to about 6.5 school years.
Regular attendance is critical for students to achieve optimal learning and development at school. Missing school adds up:
- If a child misses an average of FIVE DAYS a term (Prep to 12), they miss out on approximately ONE and HALF YEARS of school.
- If a child misses ONE DAY a WEEK of school (from Prep to 12), they will miss out on approximately TWO and HALF years of school.
- If a child misses TWO DAYS A WEEK of school (from Prep to 12), they will miss OVER FIVE YEARS of school.
This data is a little scary. If a child is absent from school on average 2 days a week over 13 years of school, it equates to that child finishing school in grade 7.
Preparing for high school
We have already had some of our grade 6 students participate in orientation days at their chosen high school. This is an exciting time in their lives, but can also be daunting, as students venture off to high school. Participating in orientation days does help to alleviate some of the anxieties of beginning the next stage of their school careers.
Wild Weather from Year 5/6
The Heart Foundation’s LiveLighter program found that parents choose to drive their children to school because they feel there is too much traffic on the roads, time is too tight and distances are too far for them to ride or walk.
This is despite the fact that children need 60 minutes of exercise every day to be healthy, and that getting exercise outside makes children happier and better learners.
While some of the concerns from parents are valid, they are avoidable – riding and walking to school can be easy and it is the simplest way to achieve that daily hour of exercise.
After the wild weather we had last week, we wrote descriptive pieces of writing to describe a storm. Here are some examples of our work.
As I sat next to my dog, I could see the grey storm clouds approaching. When the storm was overhead I could hear the mighty roar of thunder. I could see the bright bolts of lightning, freaking my dog out. I felt worried and my dog felt upset. When it had passed I felt relief. My dog must have too, as he was lying on me. Luckily the rain filled up my dog’s bowl!
By Wylie
Looking outside my bedroom window, I saw a terrifying big, black cloud approaching. As I silently worried, a loud rumble of thunder vibrated through my house. I spilt a little bit of dinner on myself. As I watched my dog go ballistic, the thunder kept on rolling. After dinner we went to bed, but the rain was still dripping, the lightning was still striking and the thunder was still relentlessly vibrating and shaking the house.
By Jacob