Term 1, Week 1 2025

Acknowledgement of Country

Welcome to Term 1, Week 1 2025

Hi Everyone,   

Welcome to 2025!  I hope you've had a wonderful holiday and that you are a fresh and ready for another school year.  We have been busily together here as a staff, getting ready for a great 2025 and we are really looking forward to it. There have been some changes that have had to occur due to our numbers changing across the Christmas period and this has a flow on effect to our organisation. I appreciate your support in these early weeks, as we iron out any complications that have arisen due to unexpected changes.

A huge SPECIAL WELCOME to all new families to Ironside State School, we hope you have settled into our area well and feel ready to start the school year!

We have already communicated with the school community, but I want to reiterate that we've increased our enrolments over the break and have now created a multi-age Prep/1 class and an additional year 6 class.  Thank you to Mrs Robynne McLachlan for taking our Prep/1 multi-age class.  Mrs McLachlan is a very experienced, much-loved educator at Ironside State School and is excited about her multi-age class.  Please note that we communicated as early as we could about all class and teacher changes. We have received a lot of enrolments over the holidays, as well as having some families depart unexpectedly and all of this means we have had to reform classes.

Over the holidays we have had a couple of our wonderful staff have things arise and sadly they are not returning to Ironside State School.  Farewell to Mrs Alex McGarry, who is absolutely adored by children, families and the staff and will be sadly missed!  Thank you so much for everything you have done for Ironside State School and all the very best!  Also, Mr Dan Churstain is finishing with us.  Mr Churstain started with Ironside last year and was quickly adored by the children in his class and their families.  As a school we will miss Mr Churstain and wish him all the best.  We are also farewelling Mr Jordan Edwards, one of our long-term cleaners.  Thank you for everything Mr Edwards and all the best with your future university plans.

With that, there are some new staff to welcome which is always exciting.  Welcome to Mrs Tara Griffin, our new deputy principal for the Prep to Year 3 area of the school.  Mrs Griffin is an experienced deputy principal, and educator and we are very excited to have her here with us at Ironside State School.  Welcome to Ms Zoe Teys, who did her final practice in year one with us last year. Ms Teys will be moving into teaching in year three, placing Mrs Burt.  Welcome also, to Ms Rosa Alexis.  Ms Alexis is coming to us from Brisbane Central State School and is very experienced.  Ms Alexis will be teaching a year five class, filling Ms Julie short's position in her absence.  Welcome to Ms Catherine Priday, who will be taking over from Mr Dan Churstain and will be teaching a year six class. Ms Priday is a very experienced teacher and is coming to us from Ferny Grove State School.  I would like to welcome Ms Katie Paterson to the team.  Ms Paterson’s experience has been in the UK and is taking our additional Year 6 class. Welcome to Ms Vanda Nocon, who is our new Business Manager replacing Mrs Carla Trueman.  Ms Nocon is joining us from Ithaca Creek State School and is thankfully very experienced in business management in schools.  We are also welcoming a new Education Support Officer, Mr Sam Tooth.  Mr Tooth worked with us in the last couple of weeks of 2024 and is well aware of our children and processes. 

I always talk about being school ready and to be school ready, in my mind there are 5 things.

 - Full School Uniform (children need full school uniform including white socks and black shoes, no coloured nail polish and no extra jewellery, long hair neatly tied back with blue ribbons etc to match Ironside State School uniform colours)

 - Broad brimmed hat and sunscreen

 - Healthy lunchbox (minimal packaging)  -  for those choosing to give your children Tuckshop, please make sure you have put your child’s order in via the QKR app.

 - Well rested and organised with expected schools tasks completed

 - Be at school every day possible and on time.

To be on time though, you need to know the bell times.  This is what they are currently:

     8:55am - Getting ready for class

9:00am - First session begins

10:50am - Eating time

11:00am - Play time

11:25am - Getting ready for middle session

11:30am - Middle session begins

1:30pm - Eating time

1:40pm - Play time

1:55pm - Getting ready for afternoon session

2:00pm - Afternoon session begins

3:00pm - End of school day

It is vital that every parent and caregiver remember that our gates are locked until 8:30am each morning, which is when staff commence duty to supervise the children in undercover areas.  We need to be very strict with this for the children's safety, so please do not send them to school before this.  I know many of the children here are accessing the wonderful services of Outside Hours School Care (OHSC).  If your children need to be at school before 8:30am, please be sure to contact OSHC to enrol them, so they can enjoy the activities and care provided. 

At 8:30am onwards our school supervises different areas.  Our Preppies can be down in their own area and Year 1 to Year 3 can safely play under G Block or on the front grassy patch.  For our children in Year 4 to Year 6, they can be on the oval or under the library basement. No matter what year level you are in, I believe you can head to the library and enjoy reading a book!

At the end of the day, is to remember that for safety reasons, it is important for children to go home as soon as possible after 3pm, unless they are enrolled in OHSC or are part of an after-school activity being run on the grounds here at Ironside State School.  Thank you for supporting us to keep all of our children safe.

Each year I remind everyone that all of our funding is tied into the Day 8 Enrolment Return.  If you have friends who you know are intending to enrol their children, get them to contact us immediately please!  Ironside is not like other schools; we have so many students come and go all the time, so our funding is even more crucial - please, please, please spread the word!! 

If children are enrolled after Thursday the 6th of February, we do not receive funding for them for 2025.

Coming up this week:

• Our first Whole School Assembly is this Friday 31 January 9:15am, we always love seeing families there!

This morning, it was lovely touching base with all of our Prep parents who could make it to the Brikie Coffee Shop after they had dropped their little ones off for their very first day of school. It was great catching up with other parents there as well too! On the holidays, the very wonderful new Prep to Year 3 Deputy Principal, Mrs Tara Griffin, organised a catch up and play in the park for our new Prep's and their families, we had an absolute ball playing together! Thank you to everybody who managed to make it and of course to Mrs Griffin. We are looking forward to a great year with our Preps!  Check out a couple of snaps I took lower down in the eNewsletter.

There are some things that are incredibly important to me as the principal of the school.  I shared them last year and want to reiterate them again.

• I am a huge believer in clear communication, so that we all know what is happening. Please note my email address is akell58@eq.edu.au if you need to give me some specific feedback.
• Positive relationships are paramount - children, staff, parents, families, the wider community.  Everyone is welcome at Ironside State School.  Every child, family, volunteer and staff member is valued.  I am huge believer in welcoming volunteers, they are very rare in the busyness of 21st century and we applaud and want to welcome them.
• I believe we should love learning and being challenged - both children and staff.  An outstanding education is one where you reach just beyond your grasp and that you are supported with the next steps to improve. 
• Every child should have at least one friend at school and feel they belong and are safe. Schools should be a place of joy and kindness
• I know the importance of the natural and physical environment. We need to strive to have excellent facilities that are beautiful and maintained - rubbish put into bins and belongings named and cared for and school equipment treasured.  We are custodians of our planet. 
• Lunchtimes are an incredibly important time for children, they need to be fun, safe and a variety of activities available.

We are looking forward to a great year here in Ironside State School. I have a lot more messages to impart but feel I've said enough for now. :)  We hope you are as excited about 2025 as we are.

Yours in Education

Angie Kelly

Important Term 1 Dates

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For all advertising enquiries please email: communications@ironsidess.eq.edu.au 

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