Issue 14 – The Hall Happenings 4 September 2025

Student Free Day

Principal’s Messages

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) at The Hall State School

At The Hall State School, we are committed to ensuring every child has the support they need to succeed. This year, our staff have been working together to strengthen our whole-school student support framework through a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) approach. MTSS is a research-informed approach that helps us provide the right level of support to every student, across all areas of their school experience.

Our Student Support framework includes:

• Academics – delivered through Academic Case Management, where we track and respond to student progress to ensure each learner is moving forward in their learning areas with a particular focus on English.
• Attendance – supporting students and families to engage consistently in school, so that every child has the best opportunity to learn each day.
• Behaviour – guided by our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) framework, ensuring that expectations are clear, consistent, and supportive.
• Students with Disability – ensuring adjustments and supports are in place so that all students can access, engage, and achieve within the curriculum.

By layering supports in this way, we can respond early when students need extra help, and we can extend learning for those ready to take the next step. MTSS is about prevention, intervention, and collaboration—working together as staff, students, and families to build a calm, engaging, and supportive learning environment.

P&C Association

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our P&C Association for their preparation and dedication in planning the upcoming Environmental Festival. Just as MTSS relies on many layers of support, our P&C provides another vital layer by funding projects and initiatives that directly benefit students. We hope that all families will support the festival through their attendance and participation, helping to make it a success for our students. It is never too late to join the P&C -all are welcome and encouraged to join!

Teacher Aide Appreciation Week

This week also marks Teacher Aide Appreciation Week. Teacher aides are an essential part of our school team—supporting classroom learning, assisting with student health needs, helping students regulate and engage, and ensuring every learner feels supported and safe in their learning journey. Their work behind the scenes and alongside teachers makes a remarkable difference every single day. On behalf of our whole school community, we express our sincere gratitude and thanks to our wonderful teacher aides for the care, skill, professionalism and dedication they bring to The Hall State School.

Looking forward to catching up with many families at the Environmental Festival in Week 9.

Kind regards,
Mrs Katie Bull
Principal

Head of Curriculum

🌸 Floral Friday – Free Dress Day (Week 9) 🌸

We are excited to announce that Friday of Week 9 will be a Free Dress Day! Students are invited to come dressed in floral-themed clothing in celebration of Floral Friday.

Floral Friday is more than just a colourful dress-up day – it connects to Torres Strait Islander culture, where flowers are often worn as a sign of respect, celebration, and community connection. Wearing floral clothing on this day is a way of honouring and acknowledging this rich cultural tradition.

To take part, students are asked to bring along a gold coin donation. Funds raised will go to the Student Council to support school initiatives and programs that benefit our students.

We encourage everyone to get involved and look forward to seeing our school filled with vibrant colours as we come together to learn, celebrate, and show respect for culture and community. 🌺

School Priority 1 – Improvement in English C and Above

Curriculum Update – Term Progress

As the term draws to a close, students are completing their summative assessments in Speaking and Listening. These tasks provide valuable evidence of student learning and achievement in alignment with curriculum standards.

In Week Nine, teachers will engage in After Moderation. This important process enables staff to calibrate their professional judgements, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and fairness in the assessment of student work across year levels.  This will be our third moderation for the term so far.  Staff professionally engage in the After Moderation in Weeks Four and Seven Staff Meetings.  During these sessions we moderate formative tasks to see how students are tracking and adjust the teaching and learning sequence as required.

Looking ahead to Week Ten, staff will participate in Before Moderation, collaborating within their year-level cohorts to plan for the Term Four English units. These units will focus on both reading and writing, with particular attention given to the teaching of narratives. During this time, teachers will also collect baseline data to establish students’ current knowledge and skills. This evidence will inform the design of an intentional and targeted sequence of teaching and learning to best support student progress in the term ahead.

These processes directly align with the Annual Improvement Plan’s (AIP) School Priority 1: Improvement in English – C and Above. By maintaining consistency in teacher judgement, carefully planning future units, and using baseline data to inform instruction, we are ensuring that every student is supported to achieve success in English.

We encourage families to support their child’s learning by engaging in reading and storytelling at home, discussing characters and events, and encouraging children to express their ideas verbally and in writing. These simple strategies reinforce classroom learning and help students build the skills needed to achieve at or above the expected standard in English.

School Priority 2 – Access and Engagement

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) – Term Three Focus

As we progress through the final weeks of Term Three, our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) program will focus on key social and learning skills to support student growth and engagement. Data analysis, alongside staff feedback and suggestions, has guided the selection of the final three foci for the term.

• Week 8 – Be Responsible: What is the Size of the Problem?
  Students will develop strategies to assess situations, make informed decisions, and take responsibility for their actions in a range of contexts.
• Week 9 – Be a Learner: Building a Growth Mindset
  This focus encourages students to embrace challenges, learn from mistakes, and adopt a positive mindset that supports ongoing learning and resilience.
• Week 10 – Bee Successful: Celebrating Positive Behaviours
  In the final week of the term, students will recognise and celebrate peers who have demonstrated positive behaviours throughout the term, reinforcing a supportive and respectful school community.

Looking ahead to Term Four, various members of staff will work alongside the Regional PBL Coach to further refine our Tier 2 processes and supports. This ongoing professional collaboration ensures that our PBL framework continues to effectively support all students, particularly those requiring additional guidance to demonstrate expected behaviours.  The Tier 1 Executive Team will continue to meet regularly to ensure our school’s PBL processes keep on track.

Through these initiatives, our school remains committed to fostering a positive, responsible, and growth-oriented learning environment for every student.

An Approach that Supports our Students and Both School Priorities

Using Visuals to Support Student Learning and Assessment

At our school, we are committed to ensuring every student can access learning and demonstrate their understanding with confidence. One key strategy supporting this goal is the consistent use of visuals in both teaching and assessment.

Visuals – such as diagrams, icons, graphic organisers, charts and anchor images – provide a powerful way for students to connect with new content, recall prior learning, and organise their thinking. When used consistently across classrooms, these supports reduce cognitive load by removing unnecessary barriers and helping students focus on what matters most: the learning itself.

Importantly, visuals are not just for teaching. They also play a vital role in assessment (in the task instructions and planning/drafting templates), ensuring that students can demonstrate what they know and can do without being held back by unnecessary complexity in the task presentation. When learning and assessment tasks use familiar and consistent visuals, students experience a sense of predictability and clarity, which in turn supports their confidence and success.

This practice directly aligns with our 2025 Annual Implementation Plan priorities.

• School Priority 1: Improvement in English C and Above – Visuals support students in unpacking texts, planning writing, understanding comprehension questions, and scaffolding responses, leading to improved outcomes in English.
• School Priority 2: Access and Engagement – Consistent use of visuals ensures all learners, including those requiring additional support, can engage meaningfully with curriculum content and demonstrate their learning.

By continuing to embed visuals across all curriculum areas, our staff are supporting equity, consistency, and clarity for every student. Together, these strategies help us build confident learners who are equipped to succeed.

Kind regards,
Ms Tracey Vine
HODC 

Student of the Week

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

Beach Day Out

Beach Day Out is an annual all-ages, all-accessible beach party in Emu Park to celebrate people with disability and their roles in our community. There are beach games, stalls, entertainment, free activities, and everyone is included and welcome!

Capacity with 3D

3D is currently learning about capacity. Students had lots of fun estimating and measuring the capacity of containers found in our classroom!

Choral Festival

Netball Review

The senior girls had an amazing season finishing the regular season undefeated. The girls finished second in their division which meant they were placed against RGGS in the semi-final elimination round. The girls played excellent, and the game see-sawed the entire 40 minutes. Unfortunately, our team went down 11-8. I would like to thank all the girls for their efforts throughout the season and commitment to training. A huge thanks also must be given to the netball teachers Mrs Bickey, Mrs Shultz and Mrs Thomas for all their hard work during the season.  

Cheer Championships

Georgia V competed in the Pan Pacific International Aussie Gold Cheer Championship Competition in the Gold Coast. Her team in the “youth” division placed third.

Camp Australia will be offering care for our families on the Student Free Day this Friday 5th September 2025

Camp Australia – Student Free Day

Camp Australia will be offering care for our families on the Student Free Day this Friday 5th September 2025.

Young Engineers Central Queensland STEM Workshop

Register before September 12th for an early bird discount (applied automatically)!

Fitzroy Frogs Triathlon

Fitzroy Frogs Triathlon Club is a community sporting organisation, encouraging outdoor activity for all ages and abilities. Kids aged up to 12 years can swim, ride and run in a non-competitive environment, with distances appropriate to their age. 

Athletic Development Camps

Vector Health is running Athletic Development Camps during the upcoming school holidays, designed to help students improve their fitness, coordination, and confidence through fun, age-appropriate training sessions.

We believe these camps could be a valuable opportunity for your students and would love to ask if it would be possible to include our flyer in your school’s newsletter or parent communication channels.

Please find the flyer attached for your review. We’d be happy to answer any questions or provide further details if needed.

Thank you for considering our request. We really appreciate your time and support.

Pet Expo