Dear Queenscliff Parents and Carers,
‘Tis the Season of Giving
As the festive season is upon us, we are organising a special gift drive for Feed Me Bellarine. Families are invited to donate a wrapped gift for a child and place it under the Christmas tree in the foyer from the beginning of next week, Monday 25 November. Please ensure your gift is wrapped and labelled with the gender and age range that is suitable for the gift. If the gift is suitable for both genders, please write ‘neutral’. We will be delivering the donated gifts to Fed Me Bellarine on Friday 20 December.
Excellence Certificate Recipients
Congratulations to all of our Excellence Certificate recipients for their outstanding efforts, persistence and dedication to learning and our Schools’ values. The following students were presented with their Excellence Certificates at our assembly on Friday 15 November.
Prep - Harriet T
Year 1 - Edie G
Year 2 - Lachie F
3/4F - Macy M
3/4TH - Nienke M, Bahati L
3/4TA - Maeve T
5/6PH - Ravi P, Maya E
Bunnings BBQ Fundraiser
On Saturday 30th November, our school will be hosting a Bunnings BBQ at Leopold Bunnings from 8:00am until 4:00pm. All funds raised from the BBQ will go towards the Nature Play Space that will be constructed on our grounds in 2025. Thank you to the parents and families who have volunteered their time to support the barbecue or donated supplies for the event. All donated items can be dropped off at the school office over the coming weeks, before Saturday 30 November.
Our School Council member, Heidi Boyd is the key contact for the Bunnings Fundraiser. If you have any questions regarding the event, please message her on 0404 051 708.
Book and Stationery Packs and Voluntary Contributions 2025
Parents and families received information regarding the 2025 Parent Payments for stationery, curriculum and other contributions to our school. Notes were distributed and information was provided via a Compass notification, including a video presentation explaining how to access the WINC portal.
To access information regarding our School’s Parent Payments for 2025, families can visit our school website using the link below.
Parent Payment Information 2025
To review the video presentation explaining how to access the WINC portal please use the link below.
Parent Payment Video Presentation
Students will be required to bring their book and stationery supplies to school on the first day of school in 2025. Students may wish to label their books with their name and class. We ask that all stationery items are not to be labelled with individual student names. WINC are offering free delivery of your child’s stationery packs if orders are placed by 6 December 2024.
School Saving Bonus
Families will receive an email from for the School Saving Bonus between Tuesday 26 November, Wednesday 27 November and Thursday 28 November. The email will include the School Saving Bonus code that parents will require to access the online portal. If you have more than one child at our school, you will receive separate emails for each child over the course of the three days.
Families are encouraged to refer to the Parents and Carers Portal Guide. This guide provides step by step instructions on how to access the portal and how to allocate $400 to uniforms or school activities.
The $400 vouchers are a one-way nomination, so if the family allocated the full $400 towards an item, it cannot be undone. Any unspent voucher money will be transferred to the family’s account at our school after the 30 June 2025. If a family accidentally deletes the email, you will be required to call the helpdesk to have the email resent. The helpdesk phone number will be provided in the School Saving Bonus email and on the Department of Education’s website. All School Saving Bonus related concerns, questions or issues parents have are to be communicated through the SSB Helpdesk, not through our school directly.
I encourage all parents and carers to pay close attention between the 26-28 November to look out for the School Saving Bonus email in your inbox so that you can access this financial support provided by the government. This bonus should be of great assistance to our families in supporting school-related costs.
Eating Time and Rubbish
Recently we have seen a significant increase in the amount of rubbish and litter in our school playground. Students have been reminded by their teachers to place rubbish from their lunch and recess into the bins. Students are provided with 5 minutes eating time before recess, and 10 minutes eating time for lunch. Students who have not finished their lunch or recess following the designated eating time are to finish eating their food on the concrete areas up the top of the playground outside the Year 1 and Prep classrooms, or along the Year 5/6 verandah. Students will not be allowed to take food onto the ovals or grassy area. We encourage families where they can, pack ‘nude lunches’ which means to leave packaging for foods at home where possible when organising lunchboxes in the morning. This will reduce the amount of waste that is created at school.
In addition to this, a number of students have been playing whilst eating their recess/lunch which is highly unsafe as the risk of choking increases significantly. Also, we have had students taking their lunch/recess into the toilets during break times when visiting the toilet. Students have been reminded that this is highly unhygienic and they are expected to finish eating before visiting the toilets. We ask that families take time to reiterate this messaging to your child so that they understand the importance of these expectations regarding eating at school. Thank you for your support.
Melbourne Zoo STEM Showcase
Last Friday 15 November, Mrs Vistarini was invited to bring a group of students to the 'Fighting Extinction Zoo Showcase Day' at Melbourne Zoo. This invitation came after grades 3/4 and 5/6 students had participated in a STEM Enrichment Design project during Terms 1 and 2 during Science. The students used the design thinking process (connecting- tuning in and empathising, understanding- researching, defining, ideating and acting- prototype, test, refine, evaluate) to research their chosen zoo animal (from the short-beaked echidna, alpine dingo, african lion or little penguin), design, create and present an enrichment prototype. These presentations were recorded and some sent to Zoos Victoria. Students then voted for the presentation they liked most and those students came along to the showcase day.
After having time to observe some of the animals (and their enrichment) at the zoo, students were able to see how other schools around Melbourne were using science and STEM to help fight animal extinction. It was a fantastic way to celebrate the learning students had accomplished and they were extremely grateful to have the opportunity to be there.
Celebrating Diversity Through Music at QPS
A few weeks ago, during our wellbeing sessions, our Year 3-6 students took time to reflect on the year that has passed. Together, they discussed hurtful words or phrases they may have heard in our school or community that don’t align with our values. This led to meaningful conversations about the importance of diversity and how, at QPS, we are committed to accepting everyone—regardless of race, colour, religion, disability, gender, or any other difference.
Inspired by these discussions, the students created vibrant posters filled with positive words and phrases they want to see embraced at our school.
Building on this, a small group of talented musicians from Years 3 and 4 came together to write a song using the messages from these posters. Yesterday, these students had an exciting opportunity to spend the day in a recording studio, bringing their song to life! They are now eagerly working on creating a music video to accompany their song, which will be shared with our school and wider community. This creative project will serve as a powerful learning resource to promote diversity and inclusion.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to Nick Huggins for generously giving his time to record the song with our students. How fortunate we are to have such talented and supportive families contributing to our QPS community!
Queenscliff Music Festival - Freeza Workshops
This Friday 22 November, our Year 5/6 students will have the opportunity to participate in Freeza workshops at the Queenscliff Town Hall, part of the Queenscliff Music Festival. The students will engage in a collaborative workshop from Playable Streets, using their Playable Plants. It will be a unique, hands-on learning experience linked to music and nature.
End of Year Picnic
Our school is hosting an End of Year Picnic and Concert on Friday 6 December from 5pm until 7pm on the school oval. Families are invited to attend and bring along a rug and picnic supplies, including food/snacks and beverages to enjoy the evening. Throughout the afternoon, students will be performing musical and dance numbers to celebrate the end of a fantastic school year. We hope to see you there.
Tree Maintenance
Last Friday, we had maintenance conducted on trees in our school playground. A recent arborist assessment conducted by the Department of Education identified several trees as being unhealthy, dead or a significant hazard to the safety of students. As a result, works were completed to trim and remove several trees in the school playground. In the coming weeks, our school will replace the trees that were removed with indigenous trees and plants to ensure the playground continues to provide areas of shade, healthy soil and a home to native wildlife.
Grade 3-4 Integrated Studies - Thank you Fleur!
A huge thank you to Fleur Hewitt, a former Borough of Queenscliffe councillor and Deputy Mayor for visiting our Grade 3/4 students to speak about local government. Fleur’s engaging presentation, complete with slides and pictures, captured the attention of both students and staff, sparking great discussions and new learning.
Her visit has inspired our students as they now embark on their integrated studies rich assessment tasks, where they will design and propose their own community projects. We can not wait to see the creative and thoughtful ideas that come out of this work to enrich our community.
House Spelling Bee
This Friday 22 November, the SRC are organising an inter-house Spelling Bee competition. Houses will compete against each other to be crowned Spelling Bee champions. Students will have the opportunity to compete by spelling words appropriate for their year/age level in Houses and then will be able to volunteer themselves to compete individually against their peers. We look forward to ‘letting the games begin!’.
Final Assembly for 2024
Parents, carers and friends are invited to attend our final assembly for 2024 on Friday 13 December. At this assembly, special awards will be presented to students from each class including an Excellence Award, Endeavour Award and Citizenship Award. In addition to this, we will farewell our Year 6 students and they will be presented with bursaries and awards for their contributions to our school. The Final Assembly will be an opportunity for our school to farewell families who are concluding their learning journey with us in 2024, as their youngest graduates from Year 6. Our School Leaders and House Leaders for 2025 will be announced at the assembly. The Final Assembly will commence at 9:00am on the basketball courts. .
School Council
Our final School Council meeting for 2024 will be held on Wednesday 4 December 2024. I look forward to meeting with our School Council members to finalise end of year operations and planning for 2025, and to celebrate their contributions and support in 2024.
Assembly
Our next assembly will be held in Week 9 on Friday 6 December at 9:00am. Parents, carers and friends are invited to join us for this celebration.
Nyatne baa Gobata
(Thank you and take care)
Mat McRae
Principal
