Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It is so pleasing to see the students settling back into a routine. I have been impressed with the adaptability of students and their strength of character to step up throughout this COVID-19 crisis time. Whilst Queensland has fared well in the crisis, what is evident is that complacency when it comes to following social distancing and hygiene recommendations is key to stopping the spread. 

Whilst we have welcomed back a number of activities and practices that were halted during the height of the lockdown, there are remaining restrictions that must be followed. I request that only visitors who have essential business be on-site. This means that walking students to classrooms is still not essential. We have staff on duty to assist in this regard; however, should you have to assist your child, you will need to follow the sign-in process and attach a ‘Visitor Pass’ sticker for each time you enter the school. The recent experience of the Logan school where a case of COVID-19 caused the school to close for a week, demonstrates the seriousness of contact tracing and our obligations under our COVID-19 Plan to ensure this occurs. Your assistance in this endeavour is very much appreciated.

Term 3 Activities – Some Modifications

We still have strict social distancing measures in place when we have an event that involves parents or guests to the school. When we invite parents and guests into the school, we are required to use the four square metre rule for all parents and students in that space. Whilst the social distancing rule does not apply to students in a class with their Advisor or another staff member, it is activated when parents or guests are invited into the school. As such, many activities scheduled for this term will be modified, recorded or designated as student-only events. In instances where we schedule parent events, we are required to carefully check our COVID-19 requirements.

Home Learning

Thank you to the many parents who completed the Home Learning Survey. We were thrilled with the results and the many wonderful comments that parents made about Silkwood’s approach to home learning. The results of our Home Learning Program were outstanding and indicate a 99% satisfaction with the School’s communication during the home learning period. There were over 110 individual comments made with more than 90 of these praising the efforts or being complimentary about the work of the Silkwood team. There were about 15 comments that related to the challenges of home learning for parents and families, mainly around the IT connectivity and there was a 95% satisfaction with the support by the Advisors. Once again, I thank every staff member who assisted to get this Home Learning Program up and running in such a short time and my heartfelt thanks to the parents who were so wonderful in supporting their children during the home learning lockdown period.

Our Learning Principles

Over the coming issues of our Newsletter, I will outline several aspects of our approach to delivering a transformative educational model. In this edition, I explain the Learning Principles on which our approach to learning is framed. These Learning Principles are used to guide and align our educational decisions. Our personalised learning approach is at the centre of learning and teaching. 

We inform our decision making around these principles and the below explanations are used as questions or positions that we would use to check that decisions are in line with our learning principles.     

• Student Centered: Each student works in partnership with their Advisor to design a personalised learning pathway around their interests, Essential and Core learning needs. 
• Developmentally Aligned: We match learning to young people’s developmental needs.    
• Learning How To Learn: We make the process of learning visible for students, so they can discover how to become better learners.
• Real-World Learning: We connect student learning to real-world experiences
• Exploring and Expanding Interests: We continuously engage students in learning experiences that grow their knowledge and skills and expand their interests.
• Making Moments that Matter: We create enduring memories for our students through festivals and by celebrating significant moments on their learning journey. 
• Working in Partnership: Learning is a partnership that involves our School Team, Students, Families and the wider community.
• Entrepreneurial Thinking: We encourage adventuring, seeking out new possibilities, thinking outside the square and considered risk taking.           

Lastly, I would like to share with you a quote by Paulo Freire (1921—1997), one of the most influential philosophers of education of the twentieth century. He worked wholeheartedly to help people both through his philosophy and his practice of critical pedagogy, contributing to transformative learning theory and knowledge. "What an educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves." Paulo Freire

We are very excited to launch our new school app within the next week!

The app has been developed with our community in mind. It will provide easy access and visibility to important and key information relating to Silkwood School.

In term 3 2020 you will have easy access to:

•  The school calendar
•  Absentee messaging
•  School bus information
•  Links to key information
•  The school newsletter
•  After school activities and much, much more!

What's coming in term 4 2020?

As a parent and carer, you will have the option to subscribe to the groups relevant to your child/ren, ie. Year level, Advisory, After school activities, Music groups etc, this will ensure you receive communication right in the palm of your hand!

You will hear from us regarding:

•  Whole school notices
•  After school activities
•  School Bus
•  Music Groups

With more to come in 2021!

• Year level notices
• Advisory level notices
• Class Carer (year level) messages

Look out for more information coming soon!

Silkwood School publishes formal school report cards every semester with a 1- 5 scale against subjects and attendance information. Silkwood is mandated as an accredited school to issue parents with a school report for their child/ren. 

These reports were published to the Parent Portal on Friday 24 July 2020.

If you are having trouble viewing your child's report in the Parent Portal try the following:

1. 'Filter by academic Year'
2. Click the drop down box
3. Select 'Show All' from the drop down list

Semester 1 reports, and all future reports, will no longer include comments relating to your child’s ‘subject’ progress (Prep and Multiage excluded). At Silkwood, we place value in a strong partnership with our families, students and Advisors, and with providing families with relevant, ongoing and up to date information on progress.
 
The student’s P.L.P and Student-led Exhibitions are a more robust and holistic showcase of each students' progress and learning, as they provide a range of opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning and gain feedback. This is our main focus for assessment at Silkwood and we believe, the most empowering way to support and measure a student's progress.

To our Silkwood Families,

Everyone is aware of the resurgence of COVID-19 in Victoria and NSW and the Queensland government response to close our borders again. This has resulted in additional vigilance being required in managing our COVID–19 Safety Plan. For our school to remain open we must demonstrate we are following guidelines from the Queensland Health and Education departments and that our community is able to follow the requirements in our plan.

To help us all with our goal of keeping our community safe and our school open, we ask that our families minimise their visits to the school site to those that are critical to supporting their child’s learning.  

Following are the guidelines in our COVID Safety Plan that all community members need to strictly follow. Please take a few moments to read so that you can work with us on this goal:

All visitors to the school grounds MUST sign-in at one of our booths located at:

• Both High School entrances (top of each set of stairs)
• Outside Prep
• Outside the Primary School office

In addition to the above, we ask parents and carers to observe the following:

• sign in each time you visit the school;
• walk your child directly to class (if absolutely necessary) before leaving the school grounds;
• go directly to your pre-arranged meeting with a School Team member, then depart the school grounds straight afterwards;
• observe physical distancing measures and stay at least 1.5 metres away from others;
• follow the directions of our School Team.

The government has strict requirements for the running of after school activities. We want to keep offering these activities, to do this the following procedures need to be strictly followed:

After School Activities Pick-up Procedures – Important COVID Safety Plan Update

1. Parking and remaining in your vehicle until 5 mins before your child’s activity finish time. Parents may utilise parking in the High School and Primary School carpark. Strictly NO parking in the drive-through pickup zone.
2. 5 mins before the activity’s finish time, sign in and collect a visitor’s sticker from a designated booth before entering the school grounds, and walk directly to the activity area to wait to collect your child/ren.
3. Parents are NOT permitted to enter any other area of the school at this time.  
4. Walk directly back to your vehicle and exit the school property promptly, please.
5. No lingering in the school grounds or the carpark, please.

Uniform Shop

Until further notice, the uniform shop will now be available for online purchases only. Use the school’s online shop in the Qkr! Store or download the Qkr! App for your Android phone or iPhone to make purchases. Uniform orders will be delivered to your child’s class within 24 hrs or next business day (if placed on a weekend). Should an item need to be exchanged due to incorrect size, please send the unused item back to school with your child to return to the school office for a replacement size.

Our School Team

Thank you for working in partnership with us. We have loved seeing families back on site and know if we continue to work together for the greater good, we will continue to be able to keep our school open to both students and the community. Please if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask, we are here to help.

Kind regards

Valerie

Our School Photo Days for 2020 are on the 11th, 12th & 18th of August. Please click the button below for more information.

Photo envelopes will be delivered to students on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th August. Please ensure you check your child's bag on these days to receive the envelope. These envelopes MUST return to school with your child on their scheduled photo day.

If you have any questions, please contact MSP Photography on 5668 9110 or email us at reception@silkwood.qld.edu.au.

We have already seen some events and celebrations reintroduced under social-distancing conditions, and we would like to thank everyone for their cooperation and understanding throughout this time. In the interest of contact tracing and community safety, visitors will continue to be required to register at one of our sign-in booths when coming on-site. 

Our calendar of events will be updated regularly and can be accessed via the button below, and anytime on our website

The date for music photos has been set for Tuesday 18 August, please be aware this is not the same day as class photos. 

Luckily, students will already have their instruments with them as this is the same day as rehearsals. Students will need to bring their music uniforms, black shoes and socks on the day. 

All music uniforms were handed out this week, please try them on as soon as possible, check the sizing, and if they need adjusting, please bring them back next week.

Music photos will be taken in the Primary School, so we will not need to carry our instruments to the High School. We are looking forward to capturing our wonderful music groups for 2020!

Our annual Silkwood CD will be recorded this term with a recording day scheduled for Thursday 3 September. This is a wonderful opportunity for our music groups to come together in harmony and celebration of making beautiful music and the moments that matter along their Silkwood journey.

All orchestras and choirs will be recorded in the music room over three sessions, at this stage, the day will run as follows:

• Morning Session: ALL Choirs
• Middle Session: Intermediate Orchestra and Senior Orchestra
• Afternoon Session: Year 3 Strings Orchestra

Please keep an eye out for the exact schedule and more information which will be sent out closer to the day.

Our Primary School back playground is looking for household items to use in play activities: 

• Non-treated wood offcuts
• PVC piping
• Kitchen items such as pots and pans. 

If you have any of these materials that are no longer needed and would like to donate them to the Primary School, please contact Lauren Weston, Prep-Year 2 Learning Community Leader, via the button below.

We had a very exciting afternoon when we were visited by Year 4 for our Community Connections Project. The Year 4 ‘experts’ along with their Advisors, Sandra and Lucy, will be taking turns to work with us each Monday afternoon to help us build on our foundation skills in lots of areas including literacy, numeracy, art and HPE. As the weeks progress, our ‘experts’ will be planning activities and making resources to help us gain mastery.

Community Projects such as these are such an important part of The Silkwood Way as they help to demonstrate the connection between people and groups in our community. Our Prep friends will be building relationships and developing a sense of where they fit within this place. For me, as an Advisor, I felt so proud to see some of my ex-Moonlight students teaching my current Moonlight students the skills that they had learned when they were in Prep. 

Fairy Houses

We were recently fortunate enough to have Nicola come to Silkwood and share her beautiful fairy houses! The children were in awe with the tiny details. Every time they looked, they found something new. Nicola explained that each of her fairy houses took her a little over two years to create and requires a lot of persistence. This was a great example of a personal project and what is possible when you put your mind to it. 

Class Play

This term, we have been working interdependently to come up with ideas for a Year 1 class play! We have enjoyed brainstorming between one another, using different props and telling our own imaginative stories to the group. At the end of each session, we add a little bit more to our class play. Our ideas are beginning to come together, and we hope to perform this at the end of the term.

Our Discoveries

This term, we have been learning about healthy food and bodies. We discovered that food gives us energy, and that this affects different parts of our bodies. Our morning provocations are helping to stimulate ideas, initiatives and imaginations!  

Your budding artists and athletes have started the term with a bang! In Experiential we have had four exciting art rotations:

• One point perspective;
• Lino prints;
• Indigenous art;
• Block crayon demonstrations.

Our Advisory spaces have been splashed with immense colour and creativity, with students immersing in and being open to the continuous learning opportunities on offer.

In HPE, students have enjoyed running between three rotations, developing their athletic techniques and skills:

• High jump;
• Long jump; 
• Sprints.

Their smiling faces, keen attitudes and personal bests see our students striving for accuracy and applying persistence.

Mentoring

As a year level, the Year 4 students are increasing their sphere of influence in the community by developing strong mentoring skills working with their little friends in the early years, learning to think interdependently and communicating with clarity and precision.

An exciting start to Term 3!

Our Ancient Rome Integrated Unit culminated in immersing ourselves in Roman life with the historians from Living History. On this incursion, we learnt about life during Roman times, wore armour and clothes, handled artefacts and became gladiators by concluding the day with Roman games and gladiatorial battles. We finished by presenting our inquiry project about Rome and engaging in Roman plays. 

Drum Making Workshop

As is Silkwood tradition, the skilful craftsmen at Three Worlds returned to run a drum making workshop with us! We learnt about and created our very own Djembe drums, and spent the day using different techniques to lace the rope on our drums and learning about percussion. Following on from this, the children will use their beautifully crafted drums during weekly drumming lessons. 

Nest Boxes for Wildlife Community Project

In week two, a dedicated group of Year 11 students worked with Numinbah Valley Environmental Education Centre, Jacobs Well Environmental Education Centre and Land for Wildlife, to build nest boxes as part of a trial community project to support local wildlife organisations, and to gain an understanding of monitoring wildlife here at Silkwood.

The Environmental Education Centre staff facilitated a workshop with the students about the importance of providing habitat for wildlife, taking a customised camera and viewers to identify nest boxes already in use throughout Silkwood’s grounds. A highlight was seeing the nest boxes in action where we witnessed two sugar gliders and a very healthy possum sleeping! With current drought conditions, bushfire activity, and other environmental factors, there is a need for nest boxes to be built for displaced animals who have lost their habitats. 

Students worked together to construct and paint 20 nestboxes, with Oxenford Bunnings and the Oxenford Men's Shed assisting with timber and hardware resources. An arborist has installed some of the nest boxes throughout Silkwood's native habitat, with the remainder distributed to local Land for Wildlife properties. 

To kick start the term we invited several Silkwood Alumni to share their learning journeys with current students.

Those students interested in pursuing a trade after school enjoyed a very entertaining and informative session with Flynn Dempsey who is currently completing a carpentry apprenticeship with Hutchinson Builders. Flynn provided invaluable advice on how to pursue an LTI - Learning Through Internship either through family connections or by cold calling organisations, for shadow days that allow you to gain experience and knowledge in the field. He also highlighted the importance of connecting the students' personal projects to their learning explorations in order to gain a deeper understanding of the area studied.

This week, we were delighted to have Joella Ekert present. Joella is currently studying Education at Griffith University, whilst also volunteering at Silkwood. She shared insights into the expectations and value of university taster courses while studying at school, the demands of tertiary education, and her successful studying strategies.

Computers & IT 

Year 11 student Hamish has a passion for computers. Pursuing this pathway further, he has just been accepted to join Bryan Bilowol at Techcity Media Productions as an intern for the rest of the term. During his shadow day on Friday, Hamish impressed Bryan with his savvy IT knowledge by building three computers from scratch! Hamish has already assisted several families in the school community with computer and IT related jobs, and looks forward to deepening his understanding of these areas through his new internship.

Equestrian & Agistment

Following in her passions, Indiana from Year 9 loves horses and has just completed a shadow day with Michelle Stevens at Oakleigh Equestrian and Agistment Centre. Her duties included a wide range of tasks such as assisting with feeding, unrugging the horses, stable cleaning and refilling, helping medicate a very sick horse, preparing feeds, and interacting with the vet. 

By working across several areas of the stable Indiana gained a valuable real-world, hands-on understanding of the responsibilities and requirements of working with these animals. 

She did an incredible job and as a result, Indiana will continue her internship experience working with Michelle for the remainder of Term 3!

If you are interested in joining our community of mentors, please contact Real-World Learning Coordinator, Tai Hood via email: rwlc@silkwood.qld.edu.au 

Welcome to another term with Helping Hands! As school began for Term 3, numbers were low with Covid-19 continuing to affect our service. However, this has meant the children and teachers have been able to build strong relationships and learn more about one another. 

In the morning, the dynamics have been relaxed, allowing the children to express a wacky side of themselves they may not normally show in larger groups. We have seen them grow in their confidence as they feel comfortable being wonderfully wacky with one another and the Helping Hands teachers, engaging in spontaneous singing, making funny noises and sharing in their humour and enjoyment! 

Moovosity

We have begun exploring a sport and fitness app, Moovosity, which introduces the children to new and exciting outdoor activities. One of their favourite games so far has been 'Dance Mirror Tag', a fun twist on the favoured game 'Tag'. In this version, the children who have been tagged must perform a dance action. To be able to help their friends become "unstuck", they must copy this dance move three times to release them. This game has helped the children look after their physical health whilst bringing them closer together as they demonstrate confidence and humour in their dancing. These new games are being introduced to the children on our new 'Workout Wednesday’s'.

Themed Activity Days

Over the next month, the children and teachers will be exploring a great mix of themed activity days that they have discussed and chosen themselves!

On Monday’s the children will be getting creative and exploring their inner artist as they express themselves through paints and more with arts and crafts. 

On Tuesday’s the children will explore the wonderful world of science, making hypothesis, problem-solving and experimenting.

On Wednesday’s the children will continue to explore the fun new games that Moovosity has to offer. 

On Thursday’s we are re-introducing cooking classes and learning basic kitchen skills with Miss Megan, ensuring all involved follow COVID-19 hygiene requirements.

Friday's will be full of fun, wrapping up the week with Funday Friday to celebrate the end of another amazing week with Helping Hands as the children move freely through dance, music and exploring different dress-ups.

We are very excited to explore these activity days throughout Term 3!

Following the state government announcement that the ‘Gold Coast Show Holiday’ is moving from Friday 28 August to Friday 14 August, Silkwood has moved its student-free day and there will be no school or Helping Hands service on Friday 14 August. 

We hope you enjoy this chance to reconnect, relax and take a well-deserved break!

On behalf of Volleyball Australia, we would like to share a volleyball training opportunity for students and the wider community. Please click the 'Read More' button below to find out more. 

Further information and questions can be directed to Nikki Fields via Nikki.Fields@silkwood.qld.edu.au.

We love to see our community carpool as it helps many students safely get to and from school, and it helps reduce congestion around the school during drop-off and pick-up time. We encourage you to join our carpooling page if you're after help getting your child/ren to and from school, or if you are available to assist other families with carpooling.

We have seen such great community spirit through this page and thank all families for their dedication to the carpooling initiative. 

Our Tuckshop is here to help ease the weekly lunch menu for families with a great selection of wholesome lunch and snack options to choose from. Available Monday to Friday, orders are to be placed before 8.30 am.