Science – Inquiry Learning

We are always seeking to improve our practice here at Dayboro State School. For the last 12 months or so, we have been learning about the inquiry approach to learning and implementing this in Science. We phrase our Science unit purpose as a Big Question for the class to solve and then develop a series of guiding questions to answer during the investigations. Year 1 are investigating sources of sound and light and so their guiding questions have been:

What makes light? What makes sound? They have been exploring possible sources in their classroom/school environment and using the iPads to record their findings.

In week 1, we moderated with teachers at Mt Samson SS and Petrie SS in the learning area of science. We collaborated about our inquiry approach teaching strategies to engage our students and shared practice around teaching to the A standard in science. We are excited to see how these collaborative opportunities allow us to ensure we are really clear about marking to the standards, and also sharing engaging and purposeful teaching strategies.

Digital Learning – Digital Learners for the Future Program – Year 3 and 4 2025

We met with our P&C on Monday evening and discussed the Digital Learners for the Future Program for both 2025 Year 3 and 4 students. Collaboratively we reviewed the recent Year 2 parent survey responses, and agreed that the majority of the parents who responded wanted to opt in for an optional Year 3 program next year. We agreed that towards the end of 2025, we would go back to community consultation and feedback on this Year 3 introduction and once again discuss with our P&C.

We are offering our final information session about this optional program for our 2025 Year 3 and 4 parents on Thursday 24 October at 3:10pm in the 3C classroom.

Further information about the Digital Learners for the Future Program and the setup/requirements etc, can be found on our school website:

https://dayboross.eq.edu.au/curriculum/bring-your-own-device

We look forward to working with you.

Planning for 2025 – Class Considerations

We are busy planning enrolments, facilities, resources and staffing for the 2025 school year. If you have a child due to start Prep in 2025 and have not yet enrolled, please contact our Administration Officer ASAP. It was lovely to meet many of our 2025 preppies and their families last week.

If you have any information that you would like us to consider for your child’s class placement in 2025, please email me on the principal email address, Principal@dayboross.eq.edu.au by Thursday 7 November. Please note:

• You may wish to include information about family circumstances that should be considered.
• You may like to describe the qualities in a teacher that suit your child.
• We do not accept requests for a specific teacher.

A reminder that we usually only have two classes in each year level, so we cannot always accommodate student grouping requests. Our staff work extremely hard to achieve the best outcomes across all class groups and we certainly consider parent information. This is a confidential request.

Please also notify, by email, if your child will not be returning to Dayboro SS in 2025, so that we can ensure our staffing and resources are as accurate as possible.

Thanks for your assistance.

Student Leadership Opportunities

We are about to commence discussing with our Year 5 students the leadership opportunities for 2025. We will also begin to include our Year 4 students in this process. This Friday, we will meet with our Year 5 students to discuss the application process for 2025 leadership positions and the timeline for the process. We will also discuss our Leadership Passport that can help guide our students when deciding on whether to nominate for positions.

Please see attached the leadership process and timeline for this term. We look forward to working with these cohorts of students to provide opportunities and also information for electing great school leaders.

Student Success!

One of our year 3 students, Nate, was recently selected to play for the Fiji Qld U10’s team. They have been training hard with students from all over South-East Queensland to play in the 2024 Gold Coast Rubgy League Multicultural Festival. Unfortunately, the festival had to be postponed but we look forward to hearing about Nate’s success when it is rescheduled.  

REBOOT – Emotional Regulation Program – Let’s skill our students!

Our students have been busy with their Reboot learning. Class teachers have been checking in with students daily to see how they are feeling and what tools they can use to feel ready to learn.

Young people may need help managing how they feel and react to stress. Self-regulation is a learnt skill and one that we can help our children practise. There are 3 steps in the self-regulation process, (it’s not as easy as it can sound):

• Identifying emotions and feelings
• Choosing a strategy that works for you
• Employing the strategy independently

It’s great practise for kids to start by naming their emotions and recognising how they feel in their bodies, so that they can then choose an appropriate strategy. Lots of the time, we just feel ‘off’ or ‘yucky’ and it takes time to learn where and how we feel emotions. Reboot training says that we have to ‘name it, to tame it’. Could you chat or draw pictures with your kids about where and how they feel emotions? You could use colours for each emotion or draw butterflies or lines to represent the feelings. 

We’ve been teaching our students that it is normal to feel all of the emotions, but that we need to pick the right tools to help ourselves. It would be wonderful to ask what helps your student feel better at home and what could help them feel better at school.

Having a bank of self-regulation strategies is a tool for life.

Stay tuned for some suggestions!

Parent Calendars

Please find attached the latest version of the Term 4 Parent calendar to assist you in planning forward for events.

A reminder that Friday 25 October is Day for Daniel. We would like the students to wear red to mark the significance of the day. Our Student Council with Mrs Mathiesen will lead a walk from the Roderick A Cruice Park at 8am to our school. Families are welcome to walk with our students and staff.

Have a great week!
Gabrielle