Information for Parents - Chapel Hill State School

Home Reading

So how is home reading going in your family? Do you regularly read aloud to your children? It is a crucial part of every child’s development and a beautiful time to spend each day with each child. Renowned Australian author, Mem Fox, is an advocate for parents reading aloud to their children and has come up with Ten Commandments for reading aloud.

Mem Fox’s Ten Read Aloud Commandments

1. Spend at least ten wildly happy minutes every single day reading aloud.

2. Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read.

3. Read aloud with animation. Listen to your own voice and don’t be dull, or flat, or boring. Hang loose and be loud, have fun and laugh a lot.

4. Read with joy and enjoyment: real enjoyment for yourself and great joy for the listeners.

5. Read the stories that the kids love, over and over and over again, and always read in the same ‘tune’ for each book: i.e. with the same intonations on each page, each time.

6. Let children hear lots of language by talking to them constantly about the pictures, or anything else connected to the book; or sing any old song that you can remember; or say nursery rhymes in a bouncy way; or be noisy together doing clapping games.

7. Look for rhyme, rhythm or repetition in books for young children, and make sure the books are really short.

8. Play games with the things that you and the child can see on the page, such as letting kids finish rhymes, and finding the letters that start the child’s name and yours, remembering that it’s never work, it’s always a fabulous game.

9. Never ever teach reading, or get tense around books.

10. Please read aloud every day, mums and dads, because you just love being with your child, not because it’s the right thing to do.

For more great reading advice go to www.memfox.com

Information for Parents

This page has been set up to assist parents with issues that relate to their children in general.

Preparing your child for school tests

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests for 2009 will be held from Tuesday 12 May to Thursday 14 May. There are a number of ways you can help your child to prepare at home for tests:

• talk to your child about the purpose of the tests and how they will be given an opportunity to show what they have learnt in class

• discuss the format that test questions can take, such as multiple choice items, short response questions and writing tasks

• when you read together, ask your child questions about the story to make sure they understand what they are reading

• encourage your child to write descriptive stories about something they have seen, heard or read about – who are the main characters, what are they trying to do and why, where is the story set and how will it end

• maintain a positive attitude about the tests

• ensure your child gets plenty of sleep leading up to tests

• ensure your child exercises and eats healthy meals regularly, including breakfast.

If you have any questions about the types and formats of tests your child undertakes while at school please contact your child’s teacher. For more information about how you can help your child with literacy and numeracy visit www.education.qld.gov.au/parents/map

Learning about Volume and Capacity

In the classroom, your child will hear terms such as ‘volume’ and ‘capacity’.
Volume is the amount of space taken up by a container, a solid object or the contents of a container. The amount a container is capable of holding is its capacity. While your child does not need to know the difference between these terms in the early years of schooling, here are a few ways you can help improve your child’s understanding of volume and capacity:

• gather some empty containers, plastic if possible, of different shapes and sizes and give your child opportunities to pour water and sand into the containers
• ask questions to get your child talking about what they are doing and discovering. You can encourage this by asking questions such as ”which container will hold more?” and asking them to predict the outcome
• encourage your child to compare the volume of containers, using a variety of objects e.g. spoons, lids and cups. You can ask your child to estimate "how many cups it will take to fill this container” and "will it take more cups or more spoons to fill this container?”

Experimenting and talking about volume and capacity will help your child’s literacy and numeracy skills. For more information, visit: www.education.qld.gov.au/parents/map/

Using Language Creatively

Literacy involves using language to communicate effectively and to make meaning and sense of the world. Sometimes we are required to interpret and use language creatively, where words and phrases might be used in unexpected and unfamiliar ways.

There are many ideas you can try to encourage your child to use language creatively. These include:

• describing people, places, events and objects in unusual and unexpected ways, as is done in poetry, plays, cartoons and videos
• locating ways in which other speakers and writers use language in creative ways, for example, puns and word plays in TV and magazine advertisements, rhyming and repeated sounds in picture books and reading the by-lines and captions in newspapers
• discussing favourite sayings and creating new ones together
• sharing a love of language by talking about how language is used in different contexts and situations. Talk about your favourite poems, plays and stories and discuss with your child what you like about the author’s style

Estimating and Measuring Area

In the early years of school, your child will need to have an understanding of the concept of area. Here are a few tips to develop your child’s knowledge of this concept:

• talk to your child about what measuring the area of something means. In simplest terms it means coverage of a surface
• encourage your child to estimate before they measure as this will help them to think logically
• many household items can be used to cover and measure surfaces – your child could experiment with items such as leaves, tiles, lids, envelopes, shoes, books. You can even try using your feet and hands
• talk about ‘covering surfaces’ when your child is involved in activities such as painting and colouring, playing with pattern blocks or jigsaw puzzles, matching lids to containers, making patterns or even covering a table with a table cloth or placemat
• ensure your child sorts everyday objects according to their area in everyday situations such as separating the larger plates from the smaller plates, making piles of similar-sized jigsaw pieces, or finding cloths that would cover a coffee table or kitchen table
• ask your child to lay out enough newspaper on the floor or table to protect the surface from spills before they use paint.

For more information, visit:
www.education.qld.gov.au/parents/map/

How you can help your child with reading?

As a parent, you are your child’s first teacher and it is important to encourage your child to read outside of the classroom. What a great idea if all parents helped their children to improve their reading skills. You can do this by:

• Visiting the local library – this is an economical way to provide access to different kinds of books and learning materials and allows children to borrow from a wide range.

Your library may also offer a reading program which makes reading an exciting experience and allows them to mix with other children

• Asking ‘why’ questions as you read a book or story together to help your child understand and asking them to think about alternate endings to make much-loved books even more interesting
• Reading to your child as often as you can and by trying to carry a book with you when away from home
• Letting your child hold the book and turn the pages when you are reading together – this lets your child join in and allows you to talk about the pictures
• Congratulating your child on their reading – this will encourage them to enjoy the reading experience
• Pointing out words as you read them, especially long or interesting words – this will create a word bank or a spelling list which will help your child with their writing
• Making a message board or space at home and encouraging your child to read and leave messages for other family members – this will also give them an important job in the household.

Learning about Length and Measurement

From an early age, your child is taught about length and measurement in the classroom. You can share experiences in your home to help improve their numeracy skills. Explain to your child that the length of something is the distance between two points. You and your child can measure the length of objects using different items as measuring units e.g. hands, fingers, feet,

straws, paperclips, ice cream sticks or even pencils. Here are a few ways you can explore length with your child:

• during daily activities, take the opportunity to ask your child to compare lengths of different objects, or line up objects, such as shoes, from longest to shortest
• remember to keep asking questions using language such as which object is shorter, longer, lower, wider or thicker?
• encourage your child to compare the heights of people in your family or objects in your home. You and your child could create a height chart and discuss your findings
• provide experiences and opportunities for your child to estimate length and get them to verify their estimations as your child learns about metres and other standard units of measuring such as centimetres, you can encourage discussion on estimating the lengths of various objects.

If you would like more information to assist your child visit www.education.qld.gov.au/parents/map/

More Homework Help

Children need consistency, so try setting a homework plan and sticking with it consistently over a long period of time. Have one place in the house where homework is done every day. This might include the kitchen table, the living room floor; wherever your child works best.

-- Show an interest in your child's homework assignments.

-- Be a role model -- take the opportunity to read a book or newspaper while your child studies. Reading together helps create a learning atmosphere.

-- Teach your child how to be organized. Be sure he or she keeps a homework assignment book.

-- Eliminate as many distractions as possible during study time.

-- Develop a strategy for dealing with homework. Find a plan that works for your family and stick with it.

By working together and creating a strong level of support and communication the opportunity to identify and solve problems early will be greatly increase.

How you can help your child with writing

Everyday tasks such as making a shopping list can help improve your child’s writing skills.

Our school encourages all parents to help their children with their writing at home. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Ask your child to make a greeting card for a special occasion
• Talk about the different ways we use writing (making lists, writing messages or notes)
• Make personalised scrap books with your child – glue a photo or picture your child chooses onto a page and ask them to write words or sentences about the picture
• Create a special place for your child to write. Providing writing materials, such as an easel or blackboard with scrap paper and pencils, makes a great environment to experiment with writing
• Set up some plastic letter tiles or magnets for your child to play with or a keyboard to spell out or type words.

For more information and ideas on how you can support your child’s writing visitwww.education.qld.gov.au/parents/map/

What I Know About Reading

From time to time, some elements of the media publish inflammatory and inaccurate articles about the teaching of reading in schools. They falsely paint a picture of teachers using an ‘either or’ approach to reading, claiming that teachers either teach ‘phonics’ or they teach ‘whole language’. In actual fact a teacher who adopts a one size fits all approach to such a complex skill as reading would be like a doctor who writes a script for antibiotics for every patient who presents with a runny nose - not very professional. Like a good doctor who probes for more information about symptoms before recommending a course of action, a good teacher finds out all they can about the individual child and then adapts their teaching to provide the experiences that will best suit that particular child at that particular stage of their reading development. That is why teachers work on developing all the reading skills children need and why you will find them using a mixture of approaches.

One of the most beneficial things parents and carers can do to give children the best start as readers is to read aloud to them often – just for fun – no questions or tests given – just a warm happy time spent together with a good book. My children and I loved my bed for this and I read to them into their high school years.

Another very beneficial thing parents and teachers can do for children as they become readers in the early years is to resist the temptation to have the child read aloud with absolute accuracy and absolute fluency. This is even more unhelpful if it is coupled with a belief that children’s books and reading must be levelled. It appears that there are two things common in the criteria struggling readers use to judge themselves. One is that they falsely think that reading is something they can do when they can read aloud books of a certain ‘level’. Through unintentional messages from adults, they come to believe that reading is about making your way through the levels. The second criterion that struggling readers use to judge themselves is that of performance. As Dr Kaye

Lowe says, “…they are convinced that good reading sounds good – has lots of expression and is fluent. They use performance criteria to judge what is good and bad, and are often unaware that reading is about making meaning.”

Children who develop these unhelpful beliefs about reading, acquire them through the messages adults send. In the Early Years it is absolutely normal for there to be vast differences in the speed at which reading is acquired. If children remain confident that they will become a reader during these years – that is exactly what will happen in almost every case. The messages we as adults send to children about what a ‘good’ reader can do can make the difference.

DR Kaye Lowe 2002 “What’s the Story? Making Meaning in Primary Classrooms” PETA

The Best Australian Books for Kids

Sometimes as a parent you may have trouble choosing a children’s book. One way to find the perfect book is to learn about what kinds of stories your child is interested in.

For younger children, there are a variety of audio books available to borrow at libraries and purchase at book stores. Your child can listen to the story as they learn to read.

This will not only keep them interested, but help them recognise important words and letters.

Here are some titles of Australian classics to share with your child:

• Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall
• I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall
• The Muddleheaded Wombat and Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park
• Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs.

Our school suggests the following stories and picture books for younger readers:

• The Tashi series by Anna Fienberg
• Cool Bananas by Christine Harris and Bettina Guthridge
• Are You Hungry? by Tina Burke
• No Room for a Mouse by Kyle Mewburn and Freya Blackwood
• Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr
• One Blue Sock by Emily Ballou and Stephen Michael King.

For older children:

• Daughter of the Regiment by Jackie French
• Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein
• Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman
• Pigs Might Fly   by Emily Rodda
• Lockie Leonard Human Torpedo by Tim Winton.

Remember to talk to your child to discover if he or she likes mystery or adventure stories or humorous books. This will not only make choosing a book easier, it will also make reading more enjoyable.

WHAT IS ANXIETY?

Anxiety is a normal response to the expectation of threat (whether real or imagined).  Everybody (regardless of whether they are a child or an adult) experiences anxiety from time to time.  As already noted, it is normal and can indeed be helpful or adaptive in many circumstances.

Anxiety becomes problematic when either:  1) it causes significant distress (either for the child or for his or her family);  or 2) it interferes with the child’s functioning (for instance, when the anxiety prevents the child from being able to do what he or she wants to do;  or importantly, when the anxiety prevents the child from doing things that he or she does not necessarily want to do, but that are developmentally appropriate).

Things to do with an anxious child

Listen to them

Model calm, firm behaviours

Lead them through slow breathing

Encourage them to self-monitor anxiety

Prevent avoidance

Prompt them to cope constructively

Have children externalise anxiety through visual imagery

Reinforce success (praise their ‘attempts’ to cope)

Things not to do with an anxious child

Provide excessive reassurance

Tell the child what to do

Provide too much empathy

Talk excessively about your own anxiety

Permit or encourage avoidance

Ignore the child’s anxiety

Become impatient

(Kerry Gair, STLD)

ALERT NOTICE!!!

HEAD LICE AT CHSS!!!

Head lice have been detected in the school.  It is extremely important for you to check your child’s head for head lice TODAY.  Please keep checking every two days until there are no head lice found for at least ten consecutive days.

CONDITIONER & COMBING – a technique for the detection and/or treatment of head lice.

Ø       Conditioner and combing is the most effective way of finding and treating head lice.

Ø       Apply hair conditioner to DRY HAIR.  Use enough conditioner to thoroughly cover the whole scalp and all hair from the roots to tips.

Ø       The conditioner stuns the lice for some minutes so they can be easily removed.

Ø       Conditioner and combing is cheap.  It also avoids the use of head lice chemicals (insecticides).

Ø       Conditioner and combing is easy for older children to learn to do for themselves.

Ø       Using conditioner and combing every two days removes young lice as they hatch from the eggs.  No insecticide will kill the eggs.

MOST IMPORTANT…..

CHOOSING A HEAD LICE COMB

Plastic Combs

Ø       Cost approx $2.

Ø       Safe and gentle for people of all ages to use.

Ø       When used with conditioner, they remove most head lice and some eggs.

Ø       Easily cleaned with an old toothbrush.

Metal Combs – cylindrical teeth

Ø       Cost approx $20

Ø       Gentle on scalp and hair.

Ø       When used with conditioner, they remove most head lice and most eggs.

Ø       Dental floss will remove the eggs and hair debris which may clog the base of the comb.

Ø       Are long lasting.

Metal Combs – flat teeth

Ø       Cost approx $8

Ø       Can scratch the scalp and tangle long hair.

Ø       When used with conditioner, they remove some head lice and few eggs.

Ø       Can be cleaned with dental floss.

Ø      Are long lasting.

LET THEM EAT VITAMINS

FROM JUNK TO JAIL?

A balanced diet will never be a cure-all for crime, but it can’t do any harm.

Governments and the scientists who advise them seem happy to let doctors prescribe powerful drugs for hyperactive children.  So why are they reluctant to act on research suggesting that vitamins can improve the behaviour of young offenders?

A group of British researchers now claim that a huge amount of antisocial behaviour is simply down to poor nutrition.  Their research suggests that a daily dose of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids could stem the tidal wave of crime that threatens to swamp the prison system, and perhaps society at large.

The research was funded and organised by Natural Justice, a charity that researches the causes of criminal behaviour.  Its director is Bernard Gesch, a senior researcher in the physiology department at Oxford University.  “People assume that antisocial behaviour is entirely a problem of personality”, he explains.  “But there is a whole substratum of physiological factors that can be measured scientifically.”  He believes many prisoners are suffering from “subclinical malnutrition” – not bad enough to bring on physical symptoms such as scurvy, but enough to cause a range of antisocial behaviours.

The latest Natural Justice study was carried out over nine months at a young offenders institution in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. It followed the behaviour of 231 inmates – about 75% of the prison’s total population over that period – by monitoring the number of official reports of bad behaviour they received from prison staff.  Half the prisoners took daily nutrient supplements containing 28 vitamins, minerals and fatty acids, while the rest were given placebo pills.  The researchers used all the methods of a rigorous medical study to ensure the results were reliable.  For example, the trial was “double blind” so that neither prisoners nor guards knew who got the real pills and who got the dummies.  And it was randomised, so that the prisoners on the real pills were scattered throughout the prison, not just grouped in one wing.  About 60 prisoners dropped out of the trial, mostly because they were transferred or released, but statistical analysis weeded out any anomalies that this might have caused.

The results were startling.  Prisoners taking the nutrient pills committed 37% fewer serious or violent offences than the placebo group.  When the trial finished, levels of violence quickly returned to normal.

Vitamins often help to speed up chemical reactions in the brain. “Our diet supplies the brain with its energy and the building blocks of all the neurotransmitters it uses,” says Gesch.  He argues that if someone’s diet is poor, then their brain is not going to work properly.  One plausible outcome is antisocial behaviour.

“If this works in prisons, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work in schools too” Gesch says. (Kerry Gair, Learning Support Teacher) 

ANAPHYLAXIS

Food allergies occur when the immune system overacts to an ordinary, harmless food.  Although many people think that they are allergic to food, only 2-7% of children and 1-2% of adults are.  Much more common is food intolerance.

At school at present we do have a couple of students who suffer with Anaphylaxis – which is a severe systemic reaction that can be life threatening to peanuts and to sesame seeds.  These children cannot eat these items nor can they come into contact with these food substances.

To this end, the tuckshop will no longer be serving peanut butter on sandwiches and the rolls from the baker will no longer have sesame seeds on them.

Also it is asked that parents reconsider giving their children peanut butter on sandwiches for lunch and avoid sesame seeds on rolls (school days only).  This is fairly dramatic for some children/parents, but when you consider that this allergy can be life threatening, I am sure that you will understand the concern.

TELEVISION

Violence on TV has been accused of contributing to violent behaviour in real life.  Many parents believe that their children are terrified because they were exposed to a violent TV program while at a friend’s house.  While the movie/show they saw will bring nightmares and some heightened fears, if it is a one-off event, then its impact will not be long term.

Researchers are discovering that the real problem with TV is not the show itself, but the fact that children are spending huge amounts of their waking time watching TV.  Research conducted by Stanford University in the US has shown that reducing children’s TV viewing times, along with their use of electronic games, can reduce aggressiveness.  Researchers compared more than 100 children at one school who reduced their exposure to TV for six months with children who did not.  They found the first group were involved in half as many incidents of aggressive behaviour and were less likely to tease, bully or act aggressively towards another student.

This research suggests that children who watch a lot of TV are missing the opportunities to learn how to communicate and play with other children.  A vicious cycle is set up, whereby the child who is less likely to relate with other children will want to spend more time on their own watching TV.

It is important to make sure what children watch is not too advanced for their age, but it’s equally important to reduce their amount of TV viewing.  You will find they learn a whole lot of new ways to occupy their time.  It is easier to just let them sit silently in front of the TV, but in the long term you will be doing them a disservice.

Watching others live their lives on TV should never be a substitute for having a real life, or even more importantly, a real childhood.

CHILDREN FIRST PROGRAM

The Children First Program is conducted at Centacare and offers support for children who have experienced the breakdown of their families through separation or divorce.

Last year this program was recognised in a world research review, funded by the Attorney-General’s Department, as one of the worlds twelve best programs assisting families to cope with the trauma of separation and divorce.

What is unique about the Children First program is the fact that whilst the children are participating in their groups, we also conduct a group for their parents.  In this group the parents are challenged and supported to explore the dynamics of their relationships with their children and learn to take responsibility for their part in any problematic behaviour.  In both the children’s and the parents’ groups there is an emphasis on learning how to communicate more effectively and how to resolve conflict in more appropriate ways.  Both the parents and the children are encouraged to explore their feelings and to process their difficulties in ways that are not detrimental to their continuing relationship with each other.

For information on the program, its content, cost, course dates and times for 2003, please contact Kerry Gair (STLD Teacher) on 3871 4888.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEENAGE BRAIN

I never asked to be born, life’s so unfair!

Familiar words to most parents with teenage children, usually followed by the loud slamming of a door.  But now scientists believe that they found a cause of adolescent angst.  Nerve activity in the teenaged brain is too intense they find it hard to process basic information, rendering them emotionally and socially inept.

Robert McGivern and his team of neuroscientists at San Diego State University found that as children enter puberty, their ability to quickly recognise other people’s emotions nosedives.  What’s more, this ability does not return to normal until they are around 18 years old.  McGivern reckons this goes some way towards explaining why teenagers tend to find life so unfair, because they cannot read social situations as efficiently as others.  Previous studies have shown that puberty is marked by sudden increases  in the connectivity of nerves in parts of the brain.  In particular, there is a lot of nerve activity in the prefrontal cortex.  This plays an important role in the assessment of social relationships, as well as planning and control of our social behaviour, says McGivern.

He and his team devised a study specifically to see whether the prefrontal cortex’s ability to function altered with age.  Nearly 300 people aged between 10 & 22 were shown images containing faces or words, or a combination of the two.  The researchers asked them to describe the emotion expressed, such as angry, happy, sad or neutral.  The team found the speed at which people could identify emotions dropped by up to 20% at the age of 11.  Reaction time gradually improved for each subsequent year, but only returned to normal at 18.

During adolescence, social interactions become the dominant influence on our behaviour, says McGivern.  But at just the time teenagers are being exposed to a greater variety of social situations, their brains are going through a temporary remodelling.  As a result, they can find emotional situations more confusing, leading to the petulant, huffy behaviour adolescents are notorious for.  But this may only be true for Western cultures.  Adolescents often play a less significant role in these societies, and many have priorities very different from their parents, leading to antagonism between them.  This creates more opportunity for confusion.  One would expect to observe a great deal more emotional turmoil in such kids, he says.  (from New Scientist 19^th Oct 2002)  (Kerry Gair, STLD

OCD IN CHILDREN

It used to be believed that OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) was an adult-onset disease.

Children who refused to cooperate with adults because of compulsions and obsessions were usually thought of as naughty, and punished for their ‘stubbornness’.

We now understand that about 2% of all school children suffer with this disorder.  The average age of onset is 10 years.

People with OCD suffer from obsessions or compulsions or both.  Obsessions are defined as intrusive thoughts that cause distress.  Thoughts about catching diseases or imaging harm coming to family members are common examples of obsessions.  These thoughts are totally involuntary and unwelcome and have no basis in reality.

Compulsions are acts that are repeated again and again (just as the obsessive thoughts repeat) and involve great anxiety unless they are carried out.

Some common compulsions are hand washing, touching surfaces and counting.

For OCD to be diagnosed the obsessions and compulsions must take up at least one hour of each day, and disrupt normal functioning.

OCD can strike children as young as two.  Boys are more likely to be diagnosed before puberty, but after puberty girls ‘catch up’.

Treatment involves taking SSRI’s (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) such as Prozac, and cognitive behavioural therapy.

Contact Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services in your area for further information.

WHAT KIND OF ADHD IS IT?

In his 1998 book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, (Times Books) Daniel Amen suggests that there are six distinct types of ADD, each with its own treatment options.  Used by themselves, standard treatments such as Ritalin can actually make four of these types worse.

When people with ADD try to concentrate there is decreased activity (rather than the usual increase) in the part of the brain that helps with sustained attention, short-term memory and forethought.  In theory, stimulants increase brain activity in this region.

But Dr Amen found different brain patterns in his ADHD patients.  Those who departed from the norm were the ones for whom traditional ADD treatment did not work.

Dr Amen classified six distinct types.

Type 1:  Classic ADHD.  Distractibility and disorganisation with hyperactivity, restlessness and impulsivity.  This type is usually recognised early and can best be treated with stimulant medications such as Ritalin.

Type 2:  Inattentive ADHD. Distractibility and disorganisation with low energy and motivation.  Type 2 is diagnosed later in life, if at all.  It is more common in females.  People with this condition are often labelled lazy or spacey.  Like Type 1, it responds well to stimulant medication.

Type 3:  Over-focussed ADHD.  Distractibility and disorganisation with cognitive inflexibility and difficulty with shifting attention.  Sufferers often display negative thoughts and behaviours.  They worry, bear grudges and are argumentative.  By themselves, stimulants usually make this type worse.

Type 4:  Temporal-lobe ADHD.  Distractibility and disorganisation with a short fuse, periods of anxiety, memory problems and difficulty reading.  Taken alone, stimulants usually make these people more irritable.

Type 5:  Limbic ADHD.  Distractibility and disorganisation with mild sadness, low energy, low self-esteem, irritability, social isolation and poor appetite and sleep patterns.  Stimulants alone often exacerbate the moodiness and irritability.

Type 6:  “Ring of fire” ADHD.  This features distractibility and disorganisation with extreme moodiness, anger out-bursts, inflexibility, fast thoughts and excessive talking.  Patients tend to be sensitive to sounds and lights.

(Kerry Gair, STLD)

Psst! …………. DID YOU KNOW?

ADHD TREATMENT AGREED ON

New treatment guidelines for ADHD have been issued by the American Academy of Paediatrics.  They are intended for doctors to manage ADHD in school-age children.

The guidelines, which emphasise the appropriateness of stimulant medication and/or behavioural therapy, as well as the importance of involving the educational system in treatment, are the Academy’s first attempt at evidence-based practice guidelines for ADHD.

In an interview with The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behaviour Letter, Martin T Stein, M.D., a Professor of Paediatrics at the University of California and co-chair of the ADHD guidelines subcommittee, said, “The treatment guidelines are a first attempt at an evidence-based practice guideline for a behavioural condition such as ADHD.”

The guidelines tell doctors that:  ADHD is a common behavioural condition for which there are clear diagnostic criteria;  the disorder coexists with other behavioural conditions in almost a third of children diagnosed with ADHD;  and there is a strong evidence supporting the appropriateness of combined stimulant/behavioural therapy as a treatment for ADHD.  (Kerry Gair, STLD)

Psss! ………… DID YOU KNOW?

HOPELESS CASES MAKE (VERY!) GOOD

Consider the following four dead-end kids.

One was spanked by his teachers for bad grades and a poor attitude.  He dropped out of school at 16.  Another failed remedial English and came perilously close to flunking out of college.  The third feared he’d never make it through school – and might not have without a tutor.  The last finally learned to read in third grade, devouring Marvel comics, whose pictures provided clues to help him untangle the words. 

These four losers are, respectively, Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, John Chambers & David Boies.  Billionaire Branson developed one of Britain’s top brands with Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways.  Schwab virtually created the discount brokerage business.  Chambers is CEO of Cisco.  Boies is a celebrated trial attorney, best known as the guy who beat Microsoft.

In one of the stranger bits of business trivia, they have something in common:  They are all dyslexic.

So is billionaire Craig McCaw, who pioneered the cellular industry;  John Reed, who led Citibank to the top of banking;  Donald Winkler, who until recently headed Ford Financial;  Gaston Caperton, former governor of West Virginia and now head of the College Board;  Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinko’s;  Diane Swonk, chief economist of Bank One.  (Kerry Gair, STLD)

CHAPEL HILL LITERACY STRATEGY

Presently the school, along with every other State School throughout Qld, is refocussing our resources on the core business of teaching and learning literacy across P-7.

We have begun a review process aimed at acknowledging, documenting and consolidating effective approaches to developing the literacy of our students.

At Chapel Hill we are therefore focused on building literacy education in ways that maintain our commitment of the traditional standards of mastery with reading, writing, speaking and viewing and to blend these with standards of mastery of new technologies, new literacies and new ways to expression and interpretation needed for the 21^st century

In information-based economies and mass media cultures our young people’s capacity to produce, read and interpret spoken language, print and multimedia will become their central means of livelihood, the survival skills needed for work and leisure, for citizenship and community participation and for personal growth and cultural expression.

We are very aware that our review process will involve close partnerships with our parent community, as we take into account the linguistic resources and cultural background knowledge’s of the families at Chapel Hill as well as the educational aspirations of our students.

We will need to develop with our parents a shared vision of the repertoire of literacy practices – basic and advanced, low tech and high tech that will best enhance students’ life chances in new economies and future communities. 

SEEING, BUT NOT BELIEVING

How our brains respond to different environmental stimuli is largely influenced by our type of personality, according to a new study that examined brain activity by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).This study, published by the American Psychological Association in the February issue of Behavioural Neuroscience, suggests that depending on a person’s personality, his or her brain will amplify different experiences over others.

Turhan Canli, PhD, a psychologist from Stanford University, and colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the relation between brain responses to emotional stimuli, i.e., pictures.Depending on personality traits, people’s brains seem to amplify some aspects of their experience over others.

All of the participants were shown very positive and very negative scenes, but people’s reactions were very different.  One group saw ‘the cup’ as being very full while the other group saw it as very empty.

These results show that individual differences in brain re-activity to emotional stimuli are associated with specific personality traits, which also supports earlier MRI studies of extraverted and depressed people.

Extraverts were found to have elevated frontal blood flow even at rest compared with introverts, and depressed patients were found to have reduced blood flow in that same region of the brain.

The researchers hope that future studies will begin to lay out a road map of how personality plays into our emotional processing in specific domains of functioning, such as attention, experience, memory and perception. 

WHO ARE THE

GIFTED AND TALENTED?

“Giftedness” is conceptualised as outstanding ability in a number of domains and “talent” as exceptional performance in various domain-related fields (Gagne, 1985).

This definition reflects the distinction between ability and performance by acknowledging the importance of innate ability while also recognising the important influence of the environment and other factors on the development of ability.

Giftedness refers to a student’s outstanding ability in one or more domains (e.g. intellectual, creative, socioemotional or sensorimotor) and talent refers to outstanding performance in one or more fields within these domains (e.g. Mathematics, science and technology, astronomy, sculpture, athletics, languages):  that is,  talent emerges from ability as a consequence of the student’s learning experiences.

At Chapel Hill  we believe it is the role of the school to recognise ability and implement programs to meet the educational needs of all students including the gifted and talented.

Because we believe that what is good for our gifted and talented students is good for all students, the school is committed to –

  Establishing classrooms that are supportive, challenging and catering for individual needs.O

Our Thinkfest on Thursday 7^th November will be a culmination of a whole school effort to engage further with –   

The explicit teaching of thinking skills across the curriculum.

At the same time we are further developing individual or small group learning experiences where our gifted and talented students are provided with extension and enrichment programs.

Come to the P & C meeting TONIGHT to hear more about what we are trying to achieve for this cohort of our students who have very special needs. (Lorne Willadsen, Deputy Principal)

Pssst! ………. DID YOU KNOW?

Memory and Learning

The memory system functions somewhat like a computer screen.  First, input must get on the screen or on the mind of the person through sensory memory.  Then as it is used the first time, the item stays on the desktop.  It now goes into the short-term, working memory of the person using it.  As the item is used over time, it may be relegated on the computer screen to the drop-down menu for on-going use.  In the mind, this is still a version of short-term memory.  Eventually, this item is stored in the hard drive in a “telling file” for easy retrieval.  In the mind, the item is chunked or connected to something in long-term memory for recall when needed.

Girls, Boys & Reading

Each sex has a specific advantage in Preschool and Kindergarten that they bring to learning to read.

This result was found by researchers in a recent investigation of brain activity and reading achievement, Gender and Differing Rates of Brain Activity Influence the Level of Reading and Language Skills for Boys and Girls.

Boys’ brains favour the vocabulary skills needed for comprehension, while girls favour fluency and the phonic skills needed for the mechanics of reading.

A balanced language program should include phonics instruction as well as more challenging materials read by adults.

Brain growth rates for specific sub-skills differ, but by Yr 3 both sexes have the neural networks for mastery of reading.

The rest of this somewhat technical but short article can be read at http://ipn.intelihealth.com/ipn/ihtIPNNeuro?c=337247&t=11141 

Food Allergies & ADHD

Children with ADHD are seven times more likely to have food allergies than children in the general population, according to the results of a small preliminary study. 

Dr Bellanti, Director of the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Immunology at Georgetown University USA, presented the findings at the 59^th annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

In general, previous research has indicated that ADHD is not caused by food allergies.  But there may be children who have certain symptoms and behaviours that happen in reaction to a food or other environmental factors. 

Anti-Bullying Policy

CHSS is committed to providing a safe and caring environment, which fosters respect for others.  This school will not tolerate bullying.  We are committed to helping both the victim and the bully to arrive at permanent solutions.

BULLYING MYTHS

It is part of growing up

It is not.  Being given a hard time or being teased occasionally is part of growing up but bullying is not.

But we can’t do anything

Teachers in schools can do more than anyone else to deal with bullying.

It doesn’t happen in this school

Bullying is endemic in most schools that don’t have an established approach to dealing with it.  Most bullying and harassment is unobserved or ignored by teachers.

The victim asks for it

Although a victim might be a pain, this is no justification for nasty, systematic harassment.

Sticks and stones will break their bones but names will never hurt them

The damage from name-calling is very serious in terms of a student’s self-esteem, psychological well-being and academic performance.

Nobody likes a wimp, what can he expect?

No one can deal effectively with bullying on their own when it is carried out by several students, or in some cases by whole school populations.  Unassertive students deserve an opportunity to be taught skills for how to stand up for themselves.  Teachers are the best people to teach these skills.

Information for Parents – Social Intelligence

Last week, we mentioned Emotional Intelligence. It is important that children develop competencies to prepare for their role in shaping a changing world and become life long learners. Another of the Intelligences that we nurture at Chapel Hill School is ‘Social Intelligence’.
At Chapel Hill State School we encourage children to actively participate in and contribute to their own learning, and to exercise ‘voice’ and agency in making responsible choices.
We nurture social intelligence by developing understanding through our Social Learning Program and focusing on:

§          Social Knowledge / Skills

§          Perspective Taking

§          Problem Solving

§          Social Perception

The school structures learning experiences where children progressively gain knowledge and skills to be resilient and self-reliant, to develop empathy and work as a team, and to think critically and to solve problems creatively.