Term 4, Week 4 Newsletter
Acknowledgement of Country
Ironside State School acknowledges the traditional custodians of this land and pay our respects to the Elders past, present, and emerging for they hold the traditions, culture, memories and hopes of Indigenous Australia. The Turrbal Aboriginal Nation, who spoke the Jagera Language, roamed these lands.
Principal's Message Term 4, Week 4
Hi Everyone,
I want to start by saying SPRING FAIR! Saturday the 2nd November is getting closer!! Thank you so much to everyone who is already hard at it helping to prepare things for Spring Fair and are busily helping our amazing committee!
Music Fest was all last week, including the weekend. The highlight for me was the Strings Solos in the library on Friday, they were simply moving, and the standard was extraordinary! I had a family commitment and couldn’t get to listen on the weekend but listen to how they went:
Junior Band: Gold!
Senior band: Gold!
Junior Strings: Platinum!
Intermediate Strings: Silver!
Senior Strings: Gold!
Chamber Strings: Platinum!
How incredible!!!! Congratulations to all of the children involved in Music Fest and our magic instrumental music teachers - Mrs Trudy Weekes and Mr James Kukulies. Thank you to all of the parents involved and also, thank you Mr Thomas Corbett for providing non-stop support over the weekend!
Congratulations to all of the children who received a P-2 Merit Certificate at Friday’s assembly!
The mini-band was our entertainment, and they were making some impressive, toe-tapping music. Thank you band and they even performed with no conductor!! This Friday (25 October) is our Year 3-6 STAR assembly starting at 9:15am and our entertainment will be our Year 4 choir, and I know they will be amazing.
I have had some inquiries around NAPLAN, wondering how we have gone as a school. NAPLAN has now moved to being an online test and it is different in its delivery, therefore you cannot compare any data with any tests completed up to 2022. NAPLAN is a point-in-time test that gives us information, but we are not at the stage of being really able to compare anything as it is two separate groups of children. Ironside results are exceptionally high like every other year. Congratulations to our wonderful learners and of course, our wonderful teachers!
Coming up this week we have our Year 5 and 6 children who have undertaken a Rotary Project, giving their presentations on Wednesday at 6pm. I am so proud of all of these children who have worked so diligently to complete these with enthusiasm. Thank you so much to Rotary and Mrs Katie Bailey who has been overseeing this fantastic leadership initiative!
Please don’t forget that it is important to reach out to anyone wanting to enrol in our school in 2025 and get them to contact us, please also let us know if you are leaving. This helps us so much if we know early.
Let’s talk about the Spring Fair again shall we!
Saturday 2nd November 2-7pm! This week I want to highlight the talent section!
Enter the Cake Competition – enter on Qkr NOW. There are prizes for best tasting and best decorated as well as Best in Show. These will be announced at the fair and all entries will be on display (and can be purchased on the day). See the entry details on Qkr or grab an entry form at the office.
And
Entertainment and Music – if you have a talent and would like to showcase it on stage, right here on this stage in our hall…..the Fair organisers would love to hear from you. See your teacher or myself and we can put you in touch with Phoebe who’s putting the Entertainment schedule together.
We love to showcase all this talent we have here at Ironside so this is our chance…..
The Spring Fair will be so much fun!
I will finish by saying Happy World Teacher’s Day to our teachers for this Friday!! Teachers make the world of difference in a child and family’s life and we are so grateful to them. Have a wonderful day and thank you to our P&C, who have given every teacher breakfast or a cash card to spend at the Spring Fair, what a great idea!
Have a wonderful week everyone!
Yours in Education
Angie Kelly
Important Term 4 Dates
News from Mr Weston-Murdoch
Dear parents and caregivers,
School Values and Expectations: Weeks 3 & 4
Our focus for this fortnight is: Treasure Diversity
REVISION: Bridge Builders – Skill of the week Skill of the week (Week 3): How to get help
Knowing how to ask for help can be life-saving for a child experiencing challenging relationships. The experience of conflict or bullying can separate children from others, severing ties. Children need to be encouraged to know that they are not alone, and that support and help is available.
Five steps to getting help:
- Calm down. Whether a child is red-faced, their body shaking with anger, or is pale and bent over, racked with tears, or somewhere in between, often adults are distracted by the emotion.
- Show respect. Use the person’s name and ask if now is a good time.
- Say what happened. Just being able to describe what happened, and put it into words, is helpful to a child’s thinking processes.
- Say what you tried. When we got to others for help, it is far more powerful and effective if we can describe what we have tried ourselves first to resolve the problem.
- Ask for ideas. Children commonly want to throw a problem at an adult with the expectation of, You fix it.” This expectation leaves children passive in the process of resolution, because they are relying on the adults to clean up the mess and giving adults the responsibility of resolving issues and making decisions.
REVISION: Bridge Builders – Skill of the week (Week 4): Let it go
One of life’s hardest and most painful lessons is learning to forgive someone who has hurt you. Forgiving someone means letting go of negative feelings like anger, frustration or sadness that arise due to a conflict situation. It means accepting an apology and not staying upset at the person for what they did.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean that you suddenly are no longer hurt, it means that you don’t want to be chained to the problem and hold a grudge that makes you a bitter person. To forgive is a ‘doing’ word and the act is one that takes a lot of effort and commitment. The process relies on the constant checking and reframing of a child’s thinking and the releasing of the physical hurt that these thoughts create. It can be quick or it can take a long time.
A child learning the value of forgiveness and what is involved not only reduces their stress and the negative impacts on their mental and physical health, but also increases the possibility of healthier relationships in the future and their ability to move on in life with success.
“Empowered for Life”; Jocelyne Chirnside
Around the classrooms - Prep
In Prep this term, we are exploring how things move and why they move that way. We used playdough to make a shape that would roll and then squashed it flat and talked about why it doesn’t roll anymore. We learnt about curved surfaces and flat surfaces. We explored items in our classroom and sorted them into things that roll and things that slide using a ramp.
Around the classrooms - Year 1
Year 1 students are exploring skip counting in patterns of 2s, 5s and 10s by counting both forwards and backwards. This skill allows us to quickly count collections and solve addition and subtraction problems. 1D has enjoyed applying our skip counting knowledge to count many things in our room including our collection of reading buddies and our Duplo basket!
Around the classrooms – Year 2
Year 2 students have further developed their understanding of poetry and have begun to create list poems. To create engaging list poems, they have been looking at rhyming and rhythmic patterns as well as making careful vocabulary choices. Look at how much progress they have made in the last two weeks!
Kind regards,
Scott Weston-Murdoch
Deputy Principal P-2
and the P-2 Team
News from Mr Corbett
Dear Parents,
Here's a small update from some of our year 3 & 4 students.
Hope you have a great rest of the week!
Kind regards,
Thomas Corbett
Deputy Principal (Years 3 & 4)
3C Takes Action for Australia’s Endangered Animals
The students of 3C have been delving into the fascinating – and often challenging – world of Australia’s endangered animals. Their research has focused on understanding how human activities, such as habitat destruction and pollution, affect native wildlife. They’ve also explored meaningful ways we can all contribute to protecting these species as ‘active citizens'.
The students identified the threats facing our wildlife and discovered that small, everyday actions can make a real difference. From supporting conservation organisations to reducing waste and planting native flora, they’ve learned that everyone has a role to play in safeguarding our environment.
4B Explores the World of Mapping and Geography
This term, 4B is learning about mapping and geography! Students are using atlases to locate significant natural features such as mountains, rivers, and deserts. Through this hands-on approach, they are developing essential skills in reading coordinates and identifying landmarks.
To take their learning further, the students are creating their own maps—representing key features with symbols, labels, and legends.
Spring Fair News
Ironside Spring Fair - Nov 2nd 2-7pm. JOIN IN THE FUN!!
Only 2 weeks to go!
Cash Cards and Ride Bands NOW selling via Qkr! Closes Oct 25th
Your Fair Needs You - please donate your pre-loved items, plants, baked goods, preserves/jams, your time on the day. We look forward to a day of FUN!!
Uniform Shop News
Advertising
For all advertising enquiries please email: communications@ironsidess.eq.edu.au
NEW MUSICAL THEATRE CLASSES AT IRONSIDE STATE SCHOOL!
Speak Up Students love drama, poems, songs and are excited about performing! In this program students will develop their confidence, grow their communication skills and unleash their creativity.
Teachers create a supportive and nurturing classroom that balances the bold performers with the quieter achievers, ensuring everyone has a chance to learn & grow.
Join us for Term 4 as we jump straight into our Annual Concert season, where we'll work on musical theatre skills and drama technique through, improvisation, poetry,
and scenes from musicals!
For ages Prep - 2 and 3 - 6. ENROL NOW
Dear Ironside Families,
We're excited to announce a new class in term 4. Please head to our website or click the link below for more information.
Class Type: Coding
Day: Tuesdays
Dates: 8th October to 3rd December
Times: 3:15pm to 4:30pm
Please find the booking link HERE
Our choir and Junior Strings teacher, Mrs Kellie Wilson, is performing in the Supercalifragelisticexpialidocious production of Mary Poppins, with Queensland Musical Theatre. Mrs Wilson is playing the role of the cantankerous housekeeper, Mrs Brill.
Her two young children are also performing in the show, at Twelfth Night Theatre, in November.
Should you be interested in attending, bookings can be made here:
https://premier.ticketek.com.au/Shows/Show.aspx?sh=POPPMARY24
