Filter Content
Learning using digital tools
We use digital tools in our learning at school. Planned use of devices, to enhance our students’ learning, can extend students’ application of their learning. We do not replace hands on learning, reading and writing.
In the first few weeks of this term, we have already engaged in ways to complement the learning with our devices. Some examples:
- Year 1 using devices in flexible ways during phonics instruction and timing fluency reading.
- Year 2 helping to record the photos for a scavenger hunt in the environment to kick off the unit.
- Year 5’s working on persuasive arguments by researching for the topic “what is the best chocolate bar?”
- Year 6’s recording to develop their ‘news reporter’ presenting skills for their English persuasion unit.
We are mindful of providing our students with digital skills to navigate in the world as per the Australian Curriculum, particularly in Digital Technology. At Dayboro, our use of devices assist in the students’ learning, they are not THE learning.
Persuasion
Our students, in this term’s English units, are developing their Speaking and Listening skills. We are using the genre of persuasion. A warning to all parents: Our students are proving VERY skilled in the art of persuasion! Recently, a year 4 student even independently developed his own PEEL paragraph to present to me a persuasive argument for introducing a lemonade stand to Dayboro SS in the summer. Watch out to see if he was able to persuade me!
School Review
Thank you to all community members who participated in providing feedback for our recent School Review. We have now collated this feedback, creating a draft report outlining Key Findings, Key Affirmations and Improvement Strategies/Next Steps. A Validation Team will now come to Dayboro State School on 12 and 13 August to work with our staff and community, finalising this review. The team of 3 reviewers would like to speak with members of our community to hear their feedback and align with our report. I will publish some opportunities for parent groups to feed back. Please consider taking part in the review.
School Opinion Survey
Our 2026 School Opinion Survey has now opened this week, and Invitations have been emailed to Parents / Caregivers of any student at a state school, directly from the School Opinion Survey Team. Please consider providing feedback for the 2025 school year.
Thanks for your help!
District Athletics Team
Our District Athletics Team represented Dayboro, competing in the district trials at Nudgee this week. Congratulations to all students for their efforts! We are super proud of their sportsmanship and extra training leading up to the event. Some students have been selected to compete at the next level forming the Met North Team. We will announce these students at assembly on Monday.
School Calendar
Please find attached our latest school calendar V4 to keep you informed of our term 3 events.
Have a great week!
Gabrielle
Dear Families and Friends
TRANSITIONS
At this time of year, we start to look forward to a very important part of our role here at Dayboro and that is educating our students for all settings and preparing them for change. Not only do we start to think about welcoming and providing information to our future Prep students and families for 2026, but we also begin to prepare our Yr. 6 students for the next phase of their education journey- the transition into high school.
Our Partnerships with both early educators and high schools are very important to us and we encourage their involvement and participation in our school as much as we can.
PREP 2026
To help with the transition from Kindy to Prep we held our PREP INFORMATION 2026 session today where all parents enrolling their children in Prep for 2026 are welcome to attend and learn more about our school and our Prep rooms and teachers. We will follow this information session up with a series of visits to Prep for these students in Term 3 and 4.
Please also ring the school to book an interview time in October, if you havent already. Spaces are filling up fast.
JUNIOR ATHLETICS CARNIVAL FRIDAY 8th AUGUST
This term we have our Junior Athletics Carnival on Friday 8th August. We love parents and family members coming along to watch, so if you can, lock this date in your diaries for a fun filled day of sports and memories. Class teachers have also sent an email outlining the events for the day.
PREP CELEBRATING 100 DAYS OF PREP LAST FRIDAY.
Positive Behaviour for Learning UPDATE!
Our Values Awards are: Be Kind, Be Positive, Be Responsible, Be Respectful, Be Proud and Be Tolerant.
Our Behaviour Expectations Rewards: Every week we also have students who receive GOTCHA awards. These students are spotted by other teachers in the playgrounds and classrooms and rewarded for doing the right thing with a GOTCHA award. These GOTCHAS then go into the draw box where every week, 4 students names are pulled out of the box.
The winners receive a prize from the Prize Box and an ice block voucher.
This week our Explicit Classroom focus is about how to maintain Healthy Friendships and how to be a good friend to others. All teachers will be teaching lessons in class with an explicit focus on this area.
In the playgrounds, our focus will be on the area of PLAYTIMES and the expectations around how to Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be a Learner at Playtimes.
HAIKU CLUB
We have added a new club to our Lunchtime Clubs- HAIKU CLUB. Two of our Yr 6 students are running a club at first break eating times Wednesdays in Mrs Mill’s room.
Here are some examples that Isaac from Yr 6 has of HAIKU:
Silly dog, so fluffy
Eats a giant fuzzy sock
Now he looks like glum.
Only so many Hours.
And so much to get done.
I’d rather take a nap.
LUNCHTIME CLUBS
It is so amazing that our wonderful staff provide a range of lunchtime clubs and activities to provide our students with an interesting array of options at playtimes. Staff run these clubs in addition to their regular duties at play times.
We share the Lunchtime Club timetable at Assembly and in class, but it is also below if you wanted to discuss with your child the options available to them as well.
Thank you from Mrs Ryan
Our Vision: “To inspire students to reach their full potential in a safe, caring and educationally challenging environment.”
You may have heard on the news last week about the new ‘Year 1 Phonics Check’ that has been developed to support the monitoring of young students’ reading aligned with the new Simple View of Teaching Reading approach rolling out in State Schools through the new Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum.
What is the Year 1 Phonics Check?
In Year 1 your child’s teacher can use the quick and easy Phonics Check to better understand the phonics knowledge of their students. The Check looks at how well your child can 'decode' written words. ‘Decoding’ was explained in our week 5 newsletter, in term 1, this year. The teacher will listen to how the child sounds out the letter and letter groups and how they blend these sounds together from left to right to read words.
The Phonics Check helps your child's teacher and the school to confirm whether your child is making their expected progress in reading. Teachers and schools can then use this information to inform their teaching program.
How does the Phonics Check work?
Your child will sit with their teacher and be asked to read up to 40 words aloud.
These words are a mix of real words and made-up words (sometimes called 'pseudo words', 'non-words' or 'nonsense words').
Your child may have read some of the words before, while others, like the made-up words will be completely new.
The Phonics Check normally takes around 10 minutes to complete and is carefully designed not to be stressful. There is no set time limit for it and if your child is struggling, the teacher will stop.
After the Phonics Check
The teacher will analyse each child’s results and if your child has found the check difficult, the teacher will be able to identify what supports are needed in class to help them progress with their decoding. They will also be able to share this with you so you can specifically support them at home also (see below for ideas).
It is important to remember that all children are individuals and develop at different rates.
Some Home Reading Tips
Practice in reading aloud is very important for literacy development. Reading with a parent or carer is a great opportunity to do this.
When your child is a beginning reader and has difficulty reading a word, the following is an effective way to help them:
1. Wait for around 5 seconds - this is important because children can often work out the word if they are given the right amount of time. They need time to put sounds together to read a whole word. If we jump in too quickly, we are stopping the decoding process and they will eventually just learn to wait to be told the word.
2. PROMPT - if your child cannot read the word, you can offer them a prompt:
e.g. ‘What’s the first sound in that word?’ This might be all they need to start sounding out the word. If they do not identify the first sound, tell them and then encourage them to sound out the rest of the word.
If they still can’t get it, model how to sound each letter out in the word with a quick pause between each letter e.g b a t then ask your child to sound each letter out and then blend it together in one word - bat
If they still have difficulty, tell them the word—and move on.
3. PRAISE - is an important part of reading and helps to keep reading a positive experience. Giving specific praise for reading behaviours is important e.g ‘you corrected that word, great job’ or ‘you sounded out each letter and blended it together clearly – wow’.
For older students
For older students who misread a word and continue on reading without stopping to self-correct, wait until they get to the end of the sentence before stopping them. Sometimes they will realise their mistake because it doesn’t make sense—and then self-correct—but they often need to get to the end of the sentence to realise this. We want readers to be able to read for meaning, and self-correcting is an important skill for them to develop. If we immediately stop and correct them again, we undermine this process.
If they don’t self-correct however, and read on into the next sentence, stop them and ask: ‘Did that make sense?’ If they think it made sense, then ask them to read the sentence carefully again. Sometimes reading it more carefully helps them to recognise the error.
If they misread the word again, go back to the word and ask them to have a close look at it. If they recognise their mistake, get them to read the sentence again with the correct word.
If they cannot read the word, help them to sound each letter out in the word slowly then blend the sounds together to read the whole word (this strategy can also be used if your child stalls/pauses and does not know how to read a word in the first place).
If they still have trouble, read the word for your child and move on. At the end of the text, discuss the word with your child – its meaning, pronunciation etc so they can read and understand it correctly next time.
Dee Mathiesen
Head of Curriculum
Friday 15th August 2025: COLOUR RUN IS COMING!
Get ready to get loud, get messy, and get moving—our bi-annual Dayboro State School Colour Run is back and bursting with excitement!
This isn’t just a run—it’s our biggest fundraiser of the year, and every colourful step helps us leap closer to our goals.
A brand-new playground for our kids to climb, laugh and play
And air conditioning for the school hall—because even learning deserves a breeze!
Whether you’re a student, parent, or community legend, we want YOU to be part of the fun. Mark your calendar, dust off your white shirts, and prepare to be showered in colour for a cause that counts!
Here is the link for the fundraising page
The Tuckerbox
Sushi it is!
Take a break – Sushi Day is rolling in next Monday 4th August!
Pre-order now under Events on School24. Orders close Friday 1st August at 12pm sharp.
Volunteer Opportunities
We have a couple of events on the horizon that we would love some help with. Colour Run and the Father’s Day stall are really fun events to be involved in, please jump on to School 24 Volunteer Roster if you are able to help out at all.
Any time you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Colour Run Preparations – Tuesday 12th August, 9am – 11am
Colour Run – Friday 15th August
- Setup 11.45am – 1pm
- Event 1pm – 3pm
- Packup 3pm – 4pm
Father’s Day Stall – Tuesday 2nd September
Rhiannon Fealy
P&C President
Welcome Back
Book Week Preparations
Our annual Book Week celebrations are scheduled for 18th – 22nd of August.
Our Character Costume Parade will be held on Wednesday the 20th of August from 9:15 a.m. on the oval.
Please remember that students in a book themed costume will have their names entered into a lucky draw for each class. One winner will be selected from each class to win a book prize.
Students are welcome to come and work in the maker space on Fridays at first break to create costume elements (e.g. a mask, a crown, etc) in preparation for the costume parade in August.
We also have two competitions available for students to enter – a colouring in competition and a camper bus design competition. Prizes for upper school and lower school winners for these two competitions will be book vouchers to spend with Book Club. Students can visit the Library for more information and entry forms. Prizes will be presented during Book Week.
We have started our weekly prize draws for students who have collected their stamps. Well done to our first winner, Peyton from 6C, who was drawn out of the draw of entrants last Friday. Winners will be announced at assembly each week.
We have Meerkat Productions returning this year to perform a live-action retelling of two of the books that have been nominated to win prizes during Book Week. This year’s performance date is Wednesday the 20th of August. This year’s books are “The Garden of Broken Things” for Prep – Year 3 students in the hall from 1.50 p.m. and “Small Acts” for Year 4 – Year 6 students in the hall from 12.15 p.m. We hope everyone can join us for these events. Invoices for the $9.25 payment for students to attend these shows have now been sent to families.
During Book Week each year the Children’s Book Council of Australia award prizes to Australian authors in 6 different categories. This year’s shortlisted books for the Younger Readers Book of the Year and The Eve Pownall Award categories are shown below.
Our pick from the Younger Readers category is “Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger”. This story is about the youngest bushranger on the Ballarat goldfields in 1859 and is full of adventure and intrigue.
A simple costume idea for this book is to come dressed as Tigg – a broad brimmed had, kerchief or scarf tied at the neck, a jacket and some long pants.
From the Eve Pownall Award category for non-fiction books we enjoyed “Flora”. This book is a detailed study of many and varied forms of Australian plant life across the continent. The illustrations are hand drawn and are beatuifully detailed.
A simple costume idea from “South With the Seabirds”, is to come dressed as one of the Scientists who travelled to Macquarie Island to study the variety of bird life that live in this area of the Southern Ocean. Scientist costume could be as simple as shoes, long pants, jacket or jumper, and beanie with a clipboard or a pair of binoculars to complete the look.
Premier's Reading Challenge
The Premier’s Reading Challenge for 2025 is still running. To complete the challenge students in Prep – Year 4 need to read 20 books, and students in Year 5 and Year 6 need to read 15 books. Reading record sheets are available from class teachers and from the Library.
Congratulations to Terrors House who are still leading the competition by a very small margin.
Reading Ideas on SORA
Students in Years 3 – 6 have access to the Education Queensland digital library using the SORA app. See the poster below for reading ideas and suggested book collections from SORA for this term:
Have a great week
Mrs Wilkinson
