Issue 2 – The Hall Happenings 24 February 2025

Principal’s Messages

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As we continue to prioritize the safety and well-being of our students, I’d like to take a moment to address a matter that requires all of our attention: road safety around our school, especially during pick-up and drop-off times.

It’s wonderful to see so many families actively engaged in ensuring their children arrive at school safely each day. However, I’ve noticed a growing concern regarding parking in the streets surrounding the school, particularly with cars blocking driveways of local residents.

While it may seem like a minor issue, this can cause significant inconvenience and, more importantly, it creates a potential safety risk for our children and local community members.

When driveways are blocked, residents may not be able to safely enter or exit their homes, and this often leads to frustration or unsafe driving behaviour. Additionally, it’s essential to consider that emergency vehicles, in particular, may struggle to navigate these areas when access is obstructed. We all need to be mindful of how our actions can impact others, especially during the busy school run times.

To ensure the safety of our students and respect for our neighbours, I ask all families to please:

1. Park legally and respectfully – Avoid parking across driveways or in no-parking zones. Always look for available spaces and remember that residents rely on easy access to their properties.
2. Use designated drop-off and pick-up zones – These areas are marked for the safety and convenience of everyone. They help keep traffic flowing and allow for smooth transitions for students.
3. Drive slowly and cautiously – Be vigilant of students who may be crossing the road, particularly near intersections and school entrances.

By making small adjustments to our daily routines, we can collectively create a safer environment for our students and show consideration for our local community.

Thank you for your ongoing cooperation and commitment to keeping our school environment safe. If you have any concerns or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to the school office or the Department of Transport.

Kind regards,
Mrs Katie Bull
Principal

Head of Diverse Learning Team

Regards
Mrs Norelle Kasberger
HOSES
Diverse Learning Team

Head of Curriculum

School Priority 1 - Improvement in English – C and Above. 

Focus on literacy skills

This year at The Hall SS, we will be continuing our strong focus on English, literacy and our morning routines.  To ensure a low variance, tight process for literacy we are implementing various MultiLit programs in the lower and middle years. 

InitiaLit-F

InitiaLit-F is InitiaLit-Foundation.  Foundation refers to the Prep year level.  This is the literacy program for Prep.

InitiaLit-F is a comprehensive whole-class beginning reading and spelling program for all children in their first year of schooling.  It includes an explicit and systematic synthetic phonics program as well as a literature component to enrich oral language, listening comprehension and vocabulary.

InitiaLit-1

InitiaL-1 is a literacy program for all childern in their second year of school – Year 1.  It teaches children how to read and spell through daily lessons, using research-based teaching methods.  Like InitiaLit-F and -1, InitiaL-2 also uses a range of engaging storybooks.  In Year 2 these storybooks are used to develop children’s vocabulary, oral language and writing.

InitiaLit-2

InitiaL-2 is a literacy program for all childern in their third year of school – Year 2.  It teaches children how to read and spell through daily lessons, using research-based teaching methods.  InitiaL-1 also uses a range of engaging storybooks to develop children’s vocabulary and oral language.

InitiaLit

All three InitiaLit programs are aligned to the Australian Curriculum V9 and are implemented daily in our dedicated literacy time.

Parent Concerns

Some students do struggle to learn to read.  Please talk to your child’s teacher if you are worried about their reading or spelling.  It is important that we address any difficulties as early as possible so extra support can be put in place.

School Priority 2 – Access and Engagement in Learning 

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)

Weekly Focus

Each week there will is a focus for an explicit PBL lesson.  Accompanying each lesson are visuals for students and staff to use and refer to.  Buzz tickets are handed out for demonstrating the weekly focus.  In Weeks 4 and 5 students will receive Buzz Tickets for:

• Week 4 – Be Safe - Using the high five strategy
• Week 5 – Be Learner - understanding myself as a learner

Whole School Routines

Our Safety Lines are now in full implementation and students know where they are to sit without any confusion.  Our classes are demonstrating respectful and responsible behaviours as they move about our school as a class in their safety lines.  Safety Lines for part of our work aligned to Teach Like a Champion.

Teach Like a Champion (TLaC)

Teach Like a Champion is a teaching methodology developed by Doug Lemov that provides us with a set of techniques and a framework for effective teaching.  These techniques are designed to improve instructional delivery and student engagement.  The work we are doing with Teach Like a Champion sits within both School Priority 1 and School Priority 2.

There are 5 guiding principles to this work:

1. Understanding human cognitive structure means building long-term memory and managing working memory.
2. Habits accelerate learning.
3. What students attend to is what they will learn about.
4. Motivation is social.
5. Teaching well is relationship building.

The work we have been doing with the Safety Lines is part of the TLaC work as well as our work in PBL.

Our next focus is going to be Turn and Talk.  Turn and Talk is technique 43.  It encourages students to better formulate their thoughts by including short, contained pair discussions.  These are intentional discussions based on the work.   From Prep to Year 6 this is a highly effective strategy that can easily be implemented across the school.

Kind regards,
Ms Tracey Vine
HODC 

Office Messages

Medication at School

Is your child required to take medication at school? If so, please see the office to obtain the necessary authorisation forms so we can administer this medication to your child at the office. All medication, including over the counter medicines, need to have a doctor’s label attached with your child’s name and clear instructions for dosage. Students should not have medication in their bags or self-administer medicine during the day. This includes pain relief medicines.

Time Out Poster

The Time Out Poster contains information on the recommended minimum exclusion periods from school for infectious conditions.

Electronic Devices at School

Phones and other electronic devices must be handed into the office before school and collected at home time. Students are not to have these in their bags during the day. Parents, please remind your children to do this every day.

Early Arrivals

Students should not be arriving at school before 8:15am. From 8:15am to 8:30am students are to wait quietly outside the office. Supervision commences at 8:30am. Year 1 to 6 then go to the MPC, Prep students go straight to classrooms. At 8:50am Class teachers will collect their classes from the MPC. No students are to be within the school buildings during this time, even if they have a parent with them. Band and Strings students are the only exception, due to before school rehearsals.

Parking

Please do not park in the staff car park located near Administration off Bapaume Street. This is a staff only car park. There is no pedestrian access to the staff carpark either. Please do not walk your students through the carpark.

Early Departures

Students must be collected from the office if departing early or attending appointments during the day. Parents please do not go directly to classrooms to collect your child. Please send a note to school for the classroom teacher, email the classroom teacher or phone ahead to the office well in advance so we can notify the classroom. If possible, please phone or email our admin team on 49248222 or admin@thehallss.eq.edu.au BEFORE SCHOOL so we can pass messages on before school commences to avoid disruptions to classes. Please note that messages received between 2pm -3pm may not reach your child in time.

Late Arrivals

Students arriving after 9:00am will need to receive a late slip from the school office prior to going to class.

Absences

If your child is absent from school, please let us know the reason for their absence. You can do this in a number of ways:

1. Phone the office on 4924 8222 or leave a message for later attention on the absence line 4924 8266.
2. Email our admin team at: admin@thehallss.eq.edu.au
3. Send a text message to IDAttend
4. Use QParents

Families of students who have an unexplained absence will receive a text message from the school. You can reply to this text message to let us know the reason your child is away.

Student of the Week

Congratulations to the following students who received Student of the Week awards.

PM Rotations

PM Superstars!

WOW – what a wonderful 4 weeks it has been getting to see the growth and learning happening within the PM classroom. You would think that these Preps had been in school longer when you see how they have mastered their rotations.

Here they are hard at work during their literacy rotations.

P & C News

Parents and Citizens Associations are a vital part of Queensland State Schools. Schools rely on their community to help with, and support, decision making in areas like uniforms and behaviour, and to help with funding and supporting school events, like our Environmental Fair. We are passionate at The Hall State School about involving our school community in the students’ school-lives and value the strong connection between home and school that comes with involvement in such opportunities like the P&C. I strongly urge all parents and caregivers to attend our AGM on Wednesday, 19th March at 5:00pm in the library. All are welcome and P & C will be supplying pizza.

P & C Date claimers

P & C AGM     Wednesday 19th March 5:00pm in Library

Environmental Festival - Term 3 – 12^th September 2025

Port Curtis Road State School 150th Celebration

Local kids need local foster carers

We are looking for people who are able to provide a secure, nurturing environment and are willing to take on a challenging yet immensely rewarding role. Foster carers can be people of all ages, cultural backgrounds and walks of life.

It doesn’t matter if you are single, a couple, or a family with children of your own. You might live in a regional centre or in a small community, not working or working part-time or fulltime.

Scan the QR code for more information.