Principal's Update
This Friday we celebrate World Teachers' Day in Australia. This day is a great opportunity for us to recognise the wonderful work that teachers do on a daily basis in this vital and dynamic profession. I'm sure students will take a minute or two on Friday to tell their teachers how much they appreciate the lengths they go to in supporting them with their learning and achieving. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank the hardworking teachers at Mareeba State School for their tireless effort and commitment to ensuring 'everyday, in every classroom, every student is learning and achieving'.
Speaking of students succeeding, a big well done to Darriana McPherson on her wonderful effort at the 2022 State Track & Field meet in Brisbane recently. She did an amazing job representing herself, her family and our school and we were all very proud of her effort!
Recently our school received our 2022 School Opinion Survey (SOS) results. It was incredibly pleasing to see the consistency in responses with parent/caregivers, students and safe all agreeing that our expectations remain high and consistent with regards to doing their best and that parents/caregivers feel they can talk to their childs teacher about their concerns. It was also encouraging to see our staff reflect on the use of student data to modify teaching and using coaching and mentoring to build teacher capability. As with historical SOS results, parents/caregivers, students and staff have all given us an insight into the improvement areas of student behaviour with student feedback inidcating more student voice is needed across the school. These two key areas will be addressed in our 2023 planning.
Student leadership takes many forms within our school: from peer supporters helping out in the playground, to Student Council Representatives helping inform a range of school decisions, to those who represent the school at academic, sporting and cultural events. Similarly, students who simply set a good example to others by making good choices in the classroom and playground can also be considered leaders - the scope of leadership is both broad and rewarding. However, at this time of the year we ask the Year 5 students to consider their aspirations towards formal leadership positions within the school and to nominate themselves as school leaders for 2023. Nomination booklets are available from the office and completed nominations are due back this Friday 28th October.
Last week our Year 3 & 5 students received their 2022 NAPLAN reports for parents/caregivers. While the overall school data reports have not yet been released, we are very proud of the individual successes for many of our students. Well done to all of our students who sat the test and congratulations to those students who achieved in the Upper 2 Bands for each of the testing areas (Reading, Writing, Numeracy, Spelling and Grammar & Punctuation).
Just a reminder to parents that we have a number of events coming up in weeks 9 & 10 of this Term. Please be sure to mark these important events on your calendar!
- Whole School Transition day for students in Prep-Year 5 Wednesday 30th November
- Yrs 4-6 Swimming fun day Friday 2nd December
- Prep-Year 2 award ceremonies on (Prep - 05/12, Year 1 - 01/12 & Year 2 – 02/12)
- Yrs 3-6 Awards night – 9-11am Thursday 8th December
- Yr 6 Graduation – 12-1:30pm Thursday 8th December
- Yr 6 Fun Day – Friday 9th December for all year 6 students
- Semester 2 report cards will go home Wednesday 7th December