Dear Queenscliff Parents and Carers,
It was wonderful to see so many families at our Week 3 Assembly on Friday. It was a spectacular celebration of the exciting and engaging learning that has been happening in classrooms over the past three weeks and an opportunity to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of our students in earning Excellence Certificates. Congratulations to all of our Excellence Certificate recipients, who have achieved ten Excellence Stamps in their diaries over the course of Term 1 and Term 2.
ANZAC Day
I was immensely proud of our School Leaders, Elli Smith, Charlie High and Sol Eldridge, who represented our school at the Borough of Queenscliffe’s ANZAC March and Service on Thursday 25 April. I marched with our School Leaders down Hesse Street to Fort Queenscliff, whereby they participated in the service by reading the poem ‘Why We Wear Their Medals’ and laid a wreath to pay our respects.
In addition to this, our school hosted a special ANZAC Day ceremony on Friday 26 April led by our House Leaders, Aike Martino, Jemma Sheridan, Ravi Patel, Winter Boyd and Anouk Ulph. Our House Leaders shared the history around the significance of ANZAC Day, read aloud readings of the poems, ‘For the Fallen’ by Lauren Binyon and ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae and led the school in one minute of silence following the playing of the ‘Last Post’ on the bugle. Jemma shared the history of her great grandfather’s war medals and their meaning. It was a very special ceremony, encouraging our students to reflect on those individuals who have gone to war for our country and who continue to do so today.
Lightning Premiership Soccer
On Wednesday 24 April, our Year 5/6 students represented our school at the Lightning Premiership Soccer competition at the Shell Road Reserve in Ocean Grove. We had three teams compete against other schools in the Bellarine, including St Aloysius, St Leonards, Point Lonsdale, Port Arlington, Wallington and Drysdale primary schools. Overall, our three teams came out on top and were crowned champions for both the girls and boys divisions. Our students represented our school with pride, sportsmanship and respect both on and off the field. We are so proud of their achievement! We will now have two teams go on to compete in the District Lightning Premiership Soccer competition in the coming weeks, whereby they will compete against schools in Geelong.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Leigh Churchill, Mrs. Hannah Petrie and Mrs. Melissa Fitzgerald for all of their leadership and coordination of this event. Both Mr. Churchill and Mrs. Petrie ran coaching clinics and training sessions in the lead up to the Lightning Premiership competition, ensuring our students were prepared with the necessary skills and understanding of the game to participate to the best of their ability.
IDAHOBIT Day
We are excited to invite you to join us in celebrating IDAHOBIT Day on May 17 2024. This day is dedicated to raising awareness about the discrimination faced by the LGBTQIA+ community and promoting acceptance and equality.
In early childhood and primary school settings, IDAHOBIT provides an opportunity to encourage children to reflect, share, and discuss the diversity that they already engage in within their school, families, and the broader community. In addition to this, celebrating IDAHOBIT Day aims to promote greater acceptance, understanding, and respect among our students toward the LGBTQIA+ community.
To show our support, we encourage all students, staff, and families to wear rainbow colours on Friday 17 May 2024. Rainbow colours are a symbol of diversity, inclusivity, and support for the LGBTQIA+ community. Students and families can get creative with their outfits by wearing rainbow shirts, socks, hats, or even accessories like rainbow bracelets, scarves, or clothing items that make up a rainbow (red top, blue pants, pink hat).
We are asking for a gold coin donation on the day. All proceeds will go to QHub Geelong, an organisation that provides a safe and supportive space for the LGBTQIA+ community to access information and services aimed at improving health and wellbeing. Your donation can make a real difference in supporting their important work. I look forward to seeing our QPS community coming together to show our support for inclusivity, acceptance, and love.
Year 6 Grip Leadership Forum
On Monday 29 April, our School Leaders, Elli Smith, Charlie High and Sol Eldridge attended the GRIP Student Leadership Forum at Geelong West Town Hall. Our student leaders engaged in workshops focused on developing their leadership skills, including problem solving, creativity, empathy and critical thinking. As part of the day’s events, they had opportunities to collaborate with other student leaders from the Geelong area.
Congratulations Mrs. Petrie
I would like to congratulate our Leader of Wellbeing, Disability and Inclusion, Mrs. Hannah Petrie, on being awarded a scholarship through the Department of Education to study a Masters of Inclusive Education. As these scholarships are difficult to attain, I am tremendously proud of Hannah and her achievement in being accepted into the program. The Masters of Inclusive Education will continue to build upon Hannah’s outstanding knowledge and expertise in this area and our school is incredibly grateful and proud to have a staff member who is so eager and dedicated to improving their practice. I know Hannah will be able to apply her new understanding, knowledge and skills attained from her studies into her role as Leader of Wellbeing, Disability and Inclusion to improve the wellbeing of all our students and families at QPS.
VHAP Mathematics Champions
Congratulations to Lily Golightly and Charlie High completed the Victorian Higher Ability Program for Mathematics in Term 1. Both Charlie and Lily engaged in weekly lessons and completed challenging problem solving tasks throughout the program. Their submissions were high quality, with their VHAP Teacher, Elena Sieminski, commenting that they ‘applied outstanding effort in every VHAP lesson’. Well done Lily and Charlie!
Kids Messenger App
In recent weeks, it has become apparent that there have been some challenges with our students using the Kids Messenger app outside of school. Kids Messenger app is an app for children to assist them in connecting with their peers and family and was an effective tool used during Covid lockdowns. However, I encourage parents and carers to carefully monitor and supervise communication your child has when using the app. We have become aware that there has been disrespectful communication occurring between students online using this app, and communication has been occurring at inappropriate times of the day (e.g. 5:00am or 10:30pm). If you permit your child to use this app, I encourage you to engage in a discussion with your child about the expectations and protocols for communicating with their peers and to reiterate the importance of respectful and kind online communication. In addition to this, monitor and supervise the communication your child is having whilst using the Kids Messenger app. Parents are encouraged to review information and guidelines provided by the eSafety Commissioner about strategies you can put in place at home to ensure your child engages online in a safe and respectful manner. The eSafety Commissioner provides explicit guidance and advice on:
Online Safety Basics - Online safety basics | eSafety Commissioner
How to setup healthy online habits - Good habits start young | eSafety Commissioner
Parent Controls - Parental controls | How to keep your child safe (esafety.gov.au)
Screen Time - Parental controls | How to keep your child safe (esafety.gov.au)
Having hard conversations on difficult topics - The hard-to-have conversations | eSafety Commissioner
Are they old enough for a Smartphone - Are they old enough? | eSafety Commissioner
Year 5/6 Camp - Camp Adekate
I look forward to joining the Year 5/6 students this week at Camp Adekate, near Ballarat. I will be joined by Mrs. Hannah Petrie, Mr. Leigh Churchill, Mrs. Morgan-Lee Hickey and Mrs. Cherry Wake on Camp. Camp provides our students with a rich learning experience to connect with their peers and teachers in an outdoor setting and further develop skills in communication, problem solving, independence and responsibility. They will participate in a range of outdoor activities including flying fox zipline, orienteering and archery. I am also looking forward to dressing up in a disco-themed outfit for our tenpin bowling adventure! Thank you to Mrs. Hannah Petrie for her outstanding organisation and leadership in coordinating this special learning experience for our students.
Swimming
Our two week ‘Learn to Swim’ swimming program for our Prep to Year 4 students was a success. Our students participated in daily swimming lessons at the Bellarine Aquatic and Sports Centre in Ocean Grove. Thank you to all of the parent volunteers who assisted throughout the program. It was wonderful to see the development of our students over the two weeks with increased skills and confidence. Swim teachers reported that our students were very respectful, engaged and enthusiastic during their participation in the program.
Werribee Zoo Excursion
On Thursday 16 May 2024, our Prep to Year 2 classes will be heading to Werribee Zoo for a day excursion to align their Integrated Studies and Science topics for Term 2. Thank you to the parent volunteers who have offered their support for the day. I am looking forward to hearing about the exciting adventures and learning our students can gain from the visit to the zoo.
Special Days/Events Parent Survey
As there are many important special days over a school year that can be celebrated, ranging from Earth Day to Reconciliation Week, and R U OK Day to World Oceans Day. All of these days are important and have equal value and importance in shaping the minds and understandings of our students. However, unfortunately, we cannot celebrate every special event at our school as it would simply disrupt core teaching and learning as well as school operations too frequently.
As a result, I am seeking feedback from our QPS parent community to determine what you value and what you think is important that we celebrate at our school to help inform our decision making on school events in the future. I encourage families to consider, ‘what is it that we value for our children?’ ‘What key messages and understandings of the world do we want them to gain?’. I would like to see that our school celebrates a range of different special days that highlight what we value and that there is alignment with our School’s vision, including our priorities of sustainability and care for our environment, respect for First Nations People and culture, celebration of diversity and inclusion, and actions to promote positive health and wellbeing for our students and school community.
I invite parents/carers to complete the survey by clicking the link below, identifying 5 key special days/events from the list provided. Please complete the survey by Friday 17 May 2024. If there are other special days/events that are not listed in the survey, please add in the ‘other’ category.
Our Vegetable Garden
Over the past two weeks, our students have been busy preparing and planting in our vegetable garden. During Science lessons, students have been learning about the life cycles of plants and planted seedlings in our garden. A special thank you to our amazing parent volunteer, Sally Caldwell, and our gardener, Liz Graham, and our Science Teacher, Mrs. Melanie Vistarini who have dedicated many hours in preparing our gardens for our students to enjoy. I encourage families to take time to check our vegetable gardens and admire the work of our school community.
Year 2 Parent Teacher Interviews
Year 2 Parent Teacher Interviews will be held at the end of this term, due to Mrs. Laura Atkins commencing her parental leave in Term 3. The Year 2 Parent Teacher Interviews will be held on Monday 17 June and Tuesday 18 June 2024. Bookings for Parent Teacher Interviews will open via Compass on Monday 13 May 2024. A reminder will be sent out to Year 2 families prior to bookings opening online. Mrs. Morgan-Lee Hickey will also be part of these interviews, providing families the opportunity to meet with her in person before she commences her appointment at Year 2 Classroom Teacher in Term 3.
Parent Class Representatives
Mrs. Melissa Fitzgerald and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with our Class Representatives on Wednesday 24 April at the Wharf Street Pantry. It was a wonderful opportunity to get together and discuss all things school related. Our Class Representatives will be setting up WhatsApp groups for parents/carers for each class. Parents will receive an email from their Class Representative in the coming weeks, and parents will have the opportunity to opt into being part of a Class WhatsApp group to increase communication and connection within our community. Thank you to Alex Wyatt (Prep), Elise Kerney and Laura Clarke (Year 1), Kelly Clifford and Elisa Brent (Year 2), Naomi Stacey (Year 3/4TH), Guy Le Page (3/4F), Michelle Grainger (3/4TA) and Daniela Sayegh (5/6C) for being our Class Representatives for 2024. I encourage parents and carers to connect with their class’s Class Representative if you have any questions, feedback or ideas for our school.
Labelling Winter School Uniform
As we head into the cooler months and students are coming to school wearing jumpers and jackets, I encourage families to ensure all their child’s school uniform is labelled with their child’s name. This will ensure items can be returned to your child if lost in the yard. Thank you for your support.
School Council
I am looking forward to meeting with our School Council for our next scheduled meeting on Monday 13 May 2024.
As the days get shorter, and the temperatures decline slowly heading into Winter, Autumn is a beautiful season where we can take time to notice the small and big changes in our environment. I have loved seeing the leaves in the streets of Queenscliff change from dark green, to dusty yellow and to burnt orange. It is a season that invites us all to slow down, savour the beauty of our changing landscape and spend time with our loved ones enjoying the things we love.
Nyatne baa Gobata
(Thank you and take care)
Mat McRae
Principal
