Issue 3 – The Hall Happenings 10 March 2025

Principal’s Messages

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 7 of Term 1. I can’t believe it is already almost the end of term. You will be noticing exciting changes on the oval as our adventure playground begins to take shape. It is still on track to be in use for Term 2. We will be commencing some classroom refurbishments when the playground is finished.

As you may be aware, NAPLAN testing begins this week for students in Years 3 and 5. Please be aware that Friday’s assembly will be cancelled to ensure our students have a smooth and uninterrupted start to their NAPLAN session that day. We want to avoid any delays and ensure our students feel calm and prepared for the day ahead. Swimming lessons will be able to go ahead due to the time of the lessons not interrupting the Year 5s.

In other news, our teachers have been working hard to create purposeful learning walls in our classrooms to support the development of English skills. These walls are designed to help students access key learning materials, encouraging their independence and engagement in the learning process. We're excited to see how these will positively impact our students' learning! Please ask your students about them when you are in the classroom next.

A quick reminder about parking during drop-off and pick-up times – we kindly ask all families to park with respect to our neighbouring houses. There have been ongoing concerns about traffic congestion and inappropriate parking, which have caused difficulties for the surrounding community. Please take care to park legally and courteously to help us maintain good relations with our neighbours.

We’d like to thank all of the families who have supported our Breakfast Club this term. Your contributions are truly appreciated. If you’d like to get involved, we are always looking for volunteers to help cook toast or serve breakfast. Please let our admin team know if you're interested in lending a hand. Additionally, we welcome donations of spreads and butter to keep our Breakfast Club running smoothly.

Lastly, I hope you’ve all managed to stay cool during the recent heat. Please remember to encourage your child to stay hydrated and bring a hat to school.

Thank you for your ongoing support, and I wish you all a wonderful week ahead.

Kind regards,
Mrs Katie Bull
Principal

From The Deputy

Being Kind at The Hall State School

What Does Being Kind Mean? At The Hall State School, being kind means treating everyone with respect, helping others, and making sure everyone feels included and happy. It’s about doing things that make our school a friendly and welcoming place for everyone.

How Can You Be Kind at School?

• Including Others: When you’re playing games during lunchtime, make sure to invite others to join in. If you see someone standing alone, ask them to play with you.
• Using Kind Words: Always speak to your classmates, teachers, and staff with kind words. Compliment others when they do something well, and say "please" and "thank you" often.
• Helping Out: If you see a classmate struggling with their work, offer to help them. You can also help keep our school clean by picking up rubbish and taking care of school property.
• Listening: When someone is talking, listen carefully and show them you care about what they’re saying. It’s a simple way to be kind every day.
• Sharing: Share your time, books and supplies with others, especially if they don’t have what they need. Sharing is a great way to show kindness.

Why is Kindness Important at Our School?

• Makes Friends: When we are kind to each other, it’s easier to make and keep friends. Everyone enjoys being around kind people!
• Creates a Happy School: Kindness helps everyone feel safe and happy at school. When we are kind, our school is a better place to learn and have fun.
• Spreads Positivity: Kindness is contagious! When you do something kind, others are inspired to do the same, making our whole school a positive place.

Examples of Kindness at The Hall State School:

• Helping a new student find their way around the school.
• Saying “Good job!” when a classmate answers a question correctly.
• Holding the door open for a teacher or a friend.
• Helping to tidy up the classroom after a fun activity.

Let’s Make The Hall State School the Kindest School!

Every small act of kindness makes a big difference. Whether it’s smiling at someone or helping a friend with their school work, your kindness makes our school a better place for everyone. Let’s all work together to make The Hall State School a place where kindness shines every day!

Kind regards,
Mrs Tiffany Hunter
Acting Deputy Principal

Office Messages

Medication

If your child requires staff to administer medication to them at school, please contact the school office in the first instance to discuss your child’s requirements.

Office staff will ask you to complete and sign Section 1 of the Administration of Medication Consent form .

Please note, school staff will only administer medication that:

• has been prescribed by a qualified health practitioner (e.g. Doctor, Dentist)
• is in its original container
• has an attached pharmacy label.

Update Details

It is really important to keep your child/children’s information up-to-date including any allergies or medical conditions. This also includes parent contact details, emergency contact details and new address details.

Have your details changed over the holiday break? Are your contact details up-to-date? Have you changed jobs, address, internet provider or have a new phone number?

Please contact the school office for a form to change these details.

Head Lice

You can help stop the spread of head lice!!!

Head lice are common in children (particularly between the ages of 3 and 11 years) and have nothing to do with personal hygiene or cleanliness. While head lice don’t carry disease, their bites can cause itching and skin irritation. To reduce you child’s risk of getting head lice, you can ensure long hair is tied up, discourage the sharing of brushes, combs and hats and minimise head-to-head contact with others. Please notify the school office if your child is affected by head lice.

Treatment

Treatment should only be applied when live lice are found on the head. If more than one person in your family has been infested, treatment should be applied at the same time to break the cycle.

There are two methods of treatment:

1. Conditioner and combing technique (non-insecticidal treatment)

Conditioner stuns lice and blocks their breathing pores. This, together with the slippery effect of the conditioner, makes it easier to mechanically remove the lice. This treatment method is equally as effective as insecticidal or other chemical treatments but genrerally requires longer treatment times. However, it may be preferred as a cheaper alternative to insecticidal or other chemical treatments.

Step 1: Generously apply conditioner to dry hair to cover the scalp and the full length of the hair.

Step 2. Untangle the hair with a wide-toothed comb.

Step 3. Place a fine-toothed headlice comb flat against the scalp and draw the comb through each section of hair from the roots to the ends.

Step 4. Wipe the comb after each stroke onto a tissue or paper towel, checking each time for head lice or nits.

Step 5. Comb each section of hair at least five times.

Step 6. Wash the hair as normal.

Step 7. Scrub both combs with an old toothbrush to remove any eggs or lice that may be present.

Repeat the conditioner and combing method every second day to remove young lice as they hatch. Continue for ten or so consecutive days until no lice are found.

1. Treatment with synthetic or natural insecticides or other chemicals

There are different forms of treatment of which you can get from the chemist without prescription. All preparations must be applied strictly according to the manufacturer's instructions and none of them should be used on children under two years of age, except on medical advice. If a product doesn't seem to work, speak with your chemist about a product with a different active ingredient.

• No chemical treatment kills all the eggs.
• A second treatment should be applied 7-10 days after the initial treatment to kill the young lice that have hatched from the eggs remaining from the first treatment.
• Do not apply the treatment more than once per week as more frequent applications could lead to scalp problems and have little or no effect.

Nits are the most difficult to kill. The most effective way to remove eggs is to actually pull them off the hair using your fingernails.



Student of the Week

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

All about Chinese New Year from 6B

Chinese New Year is one of the most important dates around the world. The celebration lasts 15 days, and starts on January 29^th. The Chinese people hand out mandarins for good luck, get new hairstyles for a fresh look for the new year and they also hand out red envelopes with money in them. If you ever go to sushi hyo, you can impress them with Chinese just by saying ni hao or ni hao ma, which means hello and how are you. We guarantee you they will be impressed, so try it out.

What the Chinese people most fear is the monster that came thousands of years ago. His name was nian, it was a scary beast that was big and had teeth like a lion and a tail like a snake and a mane like a lion as well. The way they protected themselves was putting up red because it hurts nians eyes and setting off loud noises because it frightened him and threaten him with fire. They also put-up lanterns but the reason they found out to do this was because of an old wise man, he told them to do all of that to protect themselves.

Written by Henre’  with ideas by Summer

Nurture & Thrive Psychology Rockhampton

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Nurture & Thrive Psychology Rockhampton

Port Curtis Road 150th