Mapleton State School acknowledges the traditional custodians of the place we now call our school.
We pay our respects to the Elders past and present and are proud to be supporting and encouraging emerging Indigenous leaders every day.
Term 3 Week 4
From the Principal
The Mapleton Way- positive behaviour
Like literacy and numeracy skills, behaviour expectations need to be explicitly taught. Starting Week 3, our new Mapleton Way behaviour expectations matrix is displayed in each class and around the school. The matrix provides staff with an opportunity to help reinforce our Mapleton Way behaviour expectations and to support student’s with the redirection of their behaviour.
As part of Parade each week, we will refer to a section of the matrix as our key focus for the week.
Key behaviour focus:
Week 4- Care for ourselves. Use positive and respectful language.
Week 5- Care for others. Keep hands, feet and objects to myself.
Week 6- Care for our school. Care for school grounds, buildings and equipment.
Week 7- Care for our learning. Follow the rules of each classroom. First time, every time.
Week 8- Care for ourselves. Use courtesy and manners.
Week 9- Care for others. Choose words and actions that support all students to do their best with their learning.
Week 10- Care for our school. Play school approved games fairly.
There are many positive things happening at Mapleton each day. As a school, we need to recognise and celebrate our student's success. Starting Week 3, each class will have a set of certificates and a record sheet for teachers to record who has been given a Mapleton Way positive behaviour certificate. The positive behaviour will be in each student's permanent file.
School Opinion Survey 2022
Don't forget to complete the 2022 School Opinion Survey which is now open until 12 August 2022. The School Opinion Surveys are designed to obtain the views of parents/caregivers, students and school staff from each school on what they do well and how they can improve.
In 2022, students in Years 5, 6, 8 and 11, parents/carers and school staff will be emailed an invitation with a unique link to complete survey. The emails will be sent from central office (not schools) and all personal details such as email addresses will be separated and deleted from responses before data is stored for reporting.
Students in Years 5 and 6 will have the opportunity to complete the school opinion survey at school during Week 4.
The suite of 2022 School Opinion Surveys will open between 18 July and 12 August 2022.
Contact us
Survey team
Performance Monitoring and Reporting
Department of Education
Free call: 1800 067 971
Email: SchoolOpinionSurvey@qed.qld.gov.au
NAIDOC
NAIDOC celebration fall during the school holidays. This year, Mapleton State School celebrate NAIDOC Day, at the end of Week 4.
End of day bell
From Monday the 25th of July, we will no longer be ringing an early school bell before 3:00pm. We will resume our normal school timetable and end the school day at 3:00pm.
Student performances at Parade for Term 3
From little things, big things grow. While we might be starting small, as part of our weekly parade each week, we will be showcasing what our amazing students have been doing in class. The student performance will be at the end of each parade. Below is the timetable for the rest of this term.
Week | Class |
Five | Year 1/2 |
Six | Year 3 |
Seven | Year 4 |
Eight | 5/6H |
Nine | 5/6P |
Ten | Year 1 |
Multipurpose Court
Our multipurpose court will be resurfaced towards the end of this term. Based on advice, we have decided to go with blue as the new surface colour. As long as there are no delays, the court will be ready for the start of Term 4.
Cosmic Kids
Our Cosmic Kids program run through the observatory will be starting again this term. The dates set for this year are:
Tuesday the 30th of August at 6:00pm
Thursday the 27th of October at 6:30pm.
Numbers will be limited. Further details will be sent through our Schoolzine app.
Tree work
Mapleton State School has beautiful grounds with some fantastic trees. Sadly, over time, some of our trees can develop faults or grow in a way that is no longer safe. We are working with the local council and the education department on a tree management plan and have identified some trees or branches that are a risk. Over the coming months, we will be taking the necessary steps to remove or where possible, prune some of our trees to ensure that our grounds and carparks are safe.
Parent/Teacher Interview
Parent/teacher interviews will be held at the end of this term. Further details will be sent through our Schoolzine app.
Welcome Chappy Shaz
Our Chaplain Vicky is currently enjoying a well-deserved break. We are fortunate to welcome Sharon Husar- Chappy Shaz to Mapleton for term 3. Chappy Shaz will be Mapleton every Monday.
Prep News
Congratulations to our Preppies who celebrated their 100th day at Prep on Friday 29 July 2022. This is an important milestone for our Preppies, reaching halfway through their first school year. They are growing in skills and confidence. We discussed in Maths, what 100 looks like and made a display with bags of 100 things.
This term in Prep the children are learning all about rhyme. We are reading lots of fun stories and finding the rhyming words in them. We made ‘rhyming dust bunnies’ from our first story. The children are enjoying learning interesting vocabulary from the stories we read to; such as stroll, sped, astounding and feast from “The Gruffalo”.
In Science we are investigating The Weather. We will discuss the different kinds of weather we experience, how and why people check the weather and what our favourite kinds of weather are.
Year 3 News
Super Scientists in Year 3
Our Science Unit is called ‘Hot Stuff’ and we have enjoyed conducting experiments to observe heat.
It was interesting to observe what happened to food colouring when we added it to cold, room temperature and warm water.
We enjoyed using thermometers to record the temperature of ice cold, room temperature and warm water.
Enjoying the sunshine while reading our class text “Kumiko and the Dragon’ by Briony Stewart.
Super Scientistis at Work
Year 4 News
It has been a wonderful start to Term 3. We are working diligently with equivalent, proper, mixed and improper fractions. I am incredibly impressed with the growth mindsets of all students as they learn these new concepts. Many “Ah ha!” moments throughout lessons and many clarifying questions are being posed – what more can we ever ask for 😊
We are also thoroughly enjoying reading Rowan of Rin. Our current quest is to extract the important events, character traits and new vocabulary words from each chapter. Have a look at our Learning Walls already full of interesting and exciting information!
Curriculum News
Since 2010, Australia has been moving toward a national framework for schooling aimed at raising education standards and achieving nationally consistent curriculum, assessment and reporting.
The Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) developed the Australian Curriculum. All schools were required to implement the Australian Curriculum by the end of 2020.
At Mapleton, we have a clear ‘Whole School Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Plan’ which outlines how we implement the Australian curriculum in all of the 8 key learning areas.
Curriculum into the Classroom
To support schools with the implementation of the Australian Curriculum, the Queensland Government developed the Curriculum into the Classroom (C2C) resources. These are a set of example planning resources to help teachers implement the Australian Curriculum.
At Mapleton, we use these materials to provide a starting point for curriculum planning. Teachers are encouraged to adopt or adapt them to meet individual student learning needs and local contexts.
To enhance our curriculum even further, our school also offers:
- Opportunities to enhance social-emotional learning, through explicit teaching and links to ‘The Mapleton Way’- ‘Care for self’, ‘Care for Others’ and ‘Care for our Learning’
- Curriculum related excursions, incursions and camps
- Sustainability and environmental science and links to our Mapleton Way- 'Care for our Environment'.
- Arts enhancement activities including our 'Instrumental Music' program, school choir and concerts.
- Sporting programs including athletics and swimming and inter-school sport activities with neighbouring schools.
- Science enhancement through the Cosmic Kids Club utilising our Mapleton State School Observatory and excursions/incursions.
- Under 8s Day to enhance early learning opportunities
- Opportunities to develop critical and creative thinking and collaborative learning e.g. 'STEAM' Week
- Focused and/or intensive support to develop literacy and numeracy skills
- Student Council and leadership opportunities.
Decodable Readers
Learning to Read with ‘Decodable Readers’
Recently we invested in even more decodable readers for our students. We have purchased additional sets of group readers for use in the classroom and more readers to send home.
Decodable readers are a great resource to support students who are learning to read. Decodable readers are specially constructed to allow students to practise their decoding skills. They are made up of words that students can decode and a small number of high frequency words that students have been taught. These are fantastic resources that we found are making a huge difference for our students who are learning to read.
Guidance Officer News
I am thrilled to be the new Guidance Officer for your beautiful school. I will be at Mapleton every Wednesday supporting students and families and I look forward to meeting you all.
A little about me:
I have worked at Palmwoods State School for 9 years in many different roles (teacher, pedagogy coach, Guidance Officer and Head of Curriculum) and have worked at schools in the Lockyer Valley and Cunnamulla. I am a mum of two very active children.
My own childhood experiences led me to the career choice of Guidance Officer. Providing the right support to help children be successful is my biggest passion.
Rebekah Brown
Guidance Officer
Swimming 2022
We are currently finalising details for Learn to Swim lessons for 2022. The program is due to start later this term, and run through the start of Term 4. We are expecting there to be an increase in transport costs from previous years. Below is an estimated cost to give families an indication of what to expect:
Prep to Year 3 - 6 lessons - $80.00
Year 4 - 6 lessons plus swimming carnival - $90.00
Year 5 and Year 6 – 4 swimming lessons plus swimming carnival - $65.00.
We are also reviewing the timetabling of the swimming program offered at Mapleton, to see if there are alternate options for 2023 and beyond.
Book Week 2022
Each year since 1945 the Children’s Book Council of Australia, (CBCA) has brought children and books together across Australia through CBCA Book Week. During this time schools and public libraries spend one glorious week celebrating books and Australian children's authors and illustrators. Classroom teachers, teacher librarians and public librarians create colourful displays, develop activities, run competitions and tell stories relating to a theme to highlight the importance of reading. You will often see parades with students dressed as their favourite book character.
Mapleton State School will be celebrating Book Week on Friday the 26th of August, with a free dress day. This year's theme is "Dreaming with Eyes Open". Come dressed as your favourite character. Looking forward to seeing all the wonderful costumes.
Prep Open Morning Invitation
Maleny SHS Open Day
Book Club
Thank you to all the Families for supporting our Book Club because this allows Sheila to order some great books for our Library . A big THANK YOU!
