Term 1 - 2025 Week 7 Newsletter

Principal's Message with Mr Ionn

Welcome Back

Seems odd to welcome everyone back twice in a first term, but it was great to welcome everyone back to school for our first “normal” open day on Wednesday after ex-cyclone Alfred.

I do hope this newsletter finds you all safe and well. As we reflect on the challenges brought on by, I would like to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for the incredible support, resilience, and kindness shown by everyone in our school community.

In such trying times, it’s heart-warming to witness how we come together, offering help and comfort to one another. From staff who went above and beyond to ensure the safety of our Warriors, to the parents and families who showed tremendous strength and cooperation, every act of kindness and support made a difference.

Although our school has sustained little damage, I am aware of families who continue to be challenged by recent events. We are here to be partners in your child’s learning, but we are also available to assist families in tough times. Please do not hesitate to reach out for how we can help. 

Rescheduling NAPLAN

In order to give our Year 3 and 5 Warriors the best environment to perform at their best, a decision was made to delay the start of NAPLAN, commencing now from Monday, 17 March. This was made possible after the Minister for Education, Mr John-Paul Langbroek announced that cyclone-impacted schools had the option to delay the start of NAPLAN. We want our warriors ready, and anxious free, to demonstrate what they know and can do. 

Keeping Our Children Safe: Why Unsupervised Park Visits After School Are Risky

At Wynnum State School, we prioritize the safety and well-being of our students both in and out of the classroom. Recently, there has been growing concern about children visiting the nearby park unsupervised after school. While outdoor play is essential for their physical and social development, unsupervised visits pose several risks that parents should be aware of.

Safety Concerns

1. Stranger Danger – Parks are public spaces, and while most visitors are harmless, the possibility of encountering strangers with bad intentions cannot be ignored. Young children may not always recognize dangerous situations or know how to respond.
2. Lack of Immediate Help – If a child gets injured while playing, there may not be an adult available to provide immediate assistance or call for help. Accidents such as falls from playground equipment, scooter or bicycle crashes can happen quickly.
3. Peer Pressure and Risky Behaviour – Without supervision, children may be more likely to engage in unsafe activities, such as climbing dangerous structures, wandering into unfamiliar areas, or even interacting with older kids who may not be the best influence.
4. Traffic Hazards – Many children must cross busy roads to reach the park, increasing the risk of accidents. Without an adult present, they may not always follow pedestrian safety rules.

What Can Parents Do?

• Supervise or Arrange for Supervision – If children want to visit the park, try to accompany them or arrange for another trusted adult to be present.
• Set Clear Rules – If older children are allowed to go, establish clear guidelines on where they can play, who they can be with, and what time they should return home.
• Encourage Safer Alternatives – Consider organizing playdates at home or in a controlled environment where children can interact safely.
• Teach Safety Awareness – Discuss with your child how to handle emergencies, avoid talking to strangers, and make smart choices when playing outdoors.

By working together as a community, we can ensure that our children enjoy their playtime while staying safe. Let’s encourage responsible outdoor activities and make safety a priority!

I’m looking forward to catching up at our upcoming Parent Teacher Interviews next week.

Parent-Teacher Interviews

There are four 'official' times a year when Queensland State Schools communicate your child's progress and achievement against the Learning Areas (English, Maths, HPE etc) of the Australian Curriculum. At the end of Semesters 1 and 2, this information is provided in the written form of a report card. In Terms 1 and 3, information is provided via a face-to-face Parent-Teacher interview. 

Term 1 Parent-Teacher interviews will be held for most classes on Wednesday 19 March, starting at 3.15pm in the school auditorium. PrepLH interviews will be held on Tuesday 18 March and 1MH interviews will be held on Thursday 27 March.

Bookings are open now via the link below and will close tomorrow Friday 14 March. The bookings need to close a few days before the sessions to give teachers time to prepare the information they are going to share.

https://eq.sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=70389

Please contact the school office if you have any questions, or if you have any issues making a booking. 

2026 Prep Enrolment's Open Now!

Coming up!

Updating Contact Information

Dear Parents and Guardians,

To ensure we can reach you in case of emergencies and keep you informed about important school updates, please take a moment to update your contact details. If you’ve recently changed your phone number, email, or home address, it’s important that we have the correct information on file.

You can update your details by emailing admin or calling the office on. 

Keeping your information up to date helps us communicate effectively and ensures your child’s safety.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Library Matters with Mrs Sutton & The Library Team

Future engineers perhaps…?

Our Library space over the last few weeks has been a setting for fun spaces filled with books, games and creating making activities for our students.  Have a look…

Oh and … Stem club on Monday afternoons looks like a whole lot of fun! Check out our budding coding engineers in action.

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Just keeping reading…

P-2 Science with Mrs Crowe

Junior Science hosted our annual Wynnum Warriors ‘Let’s Clean Up Australia’ Day last Friday, 28th February. There were 17 participating classes throughout the day. Year Three classes spent part of their weekly science lesson cleaning up different areas of the school and then came back to the science lab to watch the excellent story video “The Mess we Made” by Michelle Lord. Please spend time with your children watching on the link below: https://storylineonline.net/books/the-mess-that-we-made/

Throughout the day every warrior was determined to pick up every single piece of rubbish they could see in all nooks and crannies in our gardens and pathways. Just under 15kgs of rubbish was collected over the day this year!

Some great ways to reduce the amount of waste in our school environment is to send lunches with minimal plastic and packaging. Pre-cutting of the corners of any packets will definitely stop our birds and lizards inadvertently eating the small pieces of plastic that end up blowing into our gardens. Encourage your children to bring their packaging back home or to put it into the waste bins at school very carefully so it doesn’t blow into the school gardens and eventually down to the bay. Enjoy these photos of our warriors hard at work, and feeling proud, to clean up our school environment in 2025. It was a terrific day!

Sports Report with Mr Blair (PE teacher)

2025 District Sport Information:

 Please find information regarding the 2025 District and Regional Sporting Calendar.

 These teams are trialled out of school hours at varied venues and it is your own responsibility if you wish to attend.

 If you are interested in trialling for a district team the process is below:

• Mark in your calendar when your trial will take place (dates are subject to change)
• Check to see if you qualify for the criteria: students who have prior experience playing sport at a representative level- either through school and or through club (must be Division 1 or equivalent) and have demonstrated a high level of performance of a wide range of skills specific to the sport, they should be encouraged to apply for the district team.
• Inform Mr Blair your interest in attending and trialling.
• Understand school trials will need to occur pending on interested participants.
• Collect and return paperwork prior to your trial from Mr Blair/Ms Gibbons.

District Sport Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bayside-District-School-Sport-111228100234264

District Sport Website information: https://meteastschoolsport.eq.edu.au/district-sport/our-districts/bayside

Run Club

Get ready to lace up your sneakers and join Mr. Blair and our Year 6 House captains every Thursday at 8 AM for Run Club! This term, we’re gearing up for the cross-country event, and we invite everyone to participate. Whether you’re a seasoned runner or just starting, come and enjoy the fun and fitness! 

Year 5 Student-led Learning Underway!

The Year 5 cohort are well and truly underway in developing the year level community culture of being ‘Authors of our own learning’. The launch of our very first Wisdom Wednesday saw all of the Year 5 students working collaboratively to use a ‘scatter brainstorm’ strategy to consider the traits of active learners. Designing and creating a wire sculpture to represent ‘thinking’ became the culminating learning task at the close of the week 2.

Maths Moments became another exciting element of our Wisdom Wednesdays. During Term 1 in their Homerooms, students are building their capacity to track their learning and self-select from differentiated learning tasks that focus on a key mathematical concept. Open-ended problem solving, the use of concrete materials, games and working collaboratively, are the core elements of these Maths Moments sessions.

For the next 12 weeks, Art Pathways will see the Homeroom groups rotate through three sessions facilitated by each of our Yr 5 teaching team. Students will be engaging in the creation of cold wax batiks inspired by Indigenous art, clay ‘bioforms’ taking on the shapes of marine life, low relief plaster faces inspired by Pablo Picasso and beautifully patterned Zentangles using black ink. It’s fantastic to see creative minds at work!

Captain News - Harmony Week

Australia celebrates Harmony Week from 17- 23 March. The message of Harmony Day is ‘Everyone belongs’, the week aims to celebrate inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. From the traditional custodians of the land to those who have come from many countries around the world.

Harmony Week celebrates the fact that Australians come from all over the world. In fact, over half of Australians were born overseas, or have at least one parent who was born overseas. Australia is made up of people who all contribute different ideas, religions, languages and customs to our country. The diversity of people who live in Australia make it such an interesting and special place to live. It is celebrated around Australia each year to celebrate our multicultural society.

Wynnum State School embraces our cultural diversity and is proud to embed this belief into the heart of who we are. All Captains invite students to wear their traditional dress or something orange on Friday, 21 March, to celebrate diversity and inclusion.

Student absence process

Each parent of a child who is of compulsory school age has the legal obligation to ensure their child is enrolled and attends school every school day unless the parent has provided the school with a explanation for absence. 

If your child is going to be absent from school, please report to admin via one of the following options (remember to include student name, reason for absence and length of absence):

• Qparents (attendance tab)
• Text our absentee line - 0429 467 361
• Call and leave a message on our absentee line - 3893511 (press 1)

If your child is going to be absent for more than 10 consecutive days please ensure to make contact with the office staff to complete an exemption form.

Thank you for your cooperation with our student absence processes. 

ANZAC Ceremony 2025

NAPLAN Information

Qparents

Have you downloaded the Qparents app?

QParents is a secure, online portal that has been created to provide parents/carers of Queensland state school students with 24-hour access to their child's information.

Qparents allows you to securely access information about your child and communicate directly with your child's school.

Features of Qparents:

• attendance details
• report cards
• invoices
• payment history
• excursion permissions

Currently we have roughly 80 percent of parents/carers on Qparents. If you haven’t already made an account with Qparents, new invitation codes have been emailed home this week. 

For any additional questions, feel free to contact the school office at 3893 5111 or visit our administrative team in person, who will be happy to assist you with the setup.

Swimming Program Term 1

P&C News

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Wynnum State School P&C Association’s Annual General Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 20 March 2025, commencing at 6:30pm. This year the AGM will be held in the Wynnum State School admin block staffroom and online options are available. 

The following documents will be circulated via email (provided to the P&C secretary) prior to the AGM:

• 2025 AGM Agenda

• 2024 AGM Draft Minutes (to be ratified at the 2025 AGM) 

• P&C Membership form and Code of Conduct

• P&C Executive Nomination Form

• 2025 Student Protection Risk Management Strategy (SPRMS)
• 2025 Model Constitution 

We encourage all parents to join our P&C – as they say, many hand make light work!

Feel free to either complete the online version P&C Membership 2025 or to return the hard copy attached. Printed copies can be available from the office administration, on request. To nominate for an executive or non-executive position please compete the P&C Nomination Form[/]

At the AGM all Executive positions will be declared vacant, and nominations for the 2025 Executive Committee will be tabled for election. These positions are:

• President - provides leadership and is the accountable officer of the P&C. Their role is to act as the public representative of the P&C, encourage communication between the P&C, school, and community, and encourage participation to support the P&C. The President chairs all meetings and is educated on all P&C rules and guidelines, including P&C Constitution, Accounting Manual, and all other documents governing P&C operations. The President is the Accountable officer for all employment for Tuckshop services.

• Vice President - provides essential support for the President and possibly other members of the Executive Committee. They will Chair those meetings from which the President is absent and carry out any duties that have been delegated by the President. They should also be familiar with all P&C rules and guidelines, including P&C Constitution and other documents governing P&C operations.

• Treasurer - has the overall responsibility for the financial management of the P&C, including all subcommittee accounts. In their role they must comply with the Accounting Manual in all respects. They prepare an annual budget and annual operational plan for the Association in consultation with other members of the P&Cs Executive Committee. It is the Treasurer's responsibility to manage and keep accurate accounts of receipts and expenditure. 

• Secretary - has overall responsibility to prepare all documents for all meetings, such as agenda, minutes, and other necessary reports (including subcommittee reports) and assists the President in preparing an agenda for each meeting. They present minutes of the P&Cs meetings, record and deal with correspondence in/out as directed and generally organise, record, and maintain information pertaining to the activities of the P&C.

All P&C Executives are responsible for any urgent decisions required outside of P&C meetings and are the official employers of all P&C staff. The P&C Executive Committee are responsible for the overseeing of Mega-Bite Cafeteria, the uniform shop and support the operations of the Wynnum Wahoos amateur swim club.

Along with these Executive roles, the P&C is also hoping to fill the following additional roles for election at the AGM 

• Social Media Manager

• Tuckshop Liaison

• Volunteer Coordinator

• Business Liaison

• P&C Year level Representative

Key membership information:

• Being a P&C member does not mean that you must attend all meetings. We understand families have busy schedules and sometimes it is physically impossible to commit to attending. We just ask for you to volunteer when and where you can.

• You do not need to attend a meeting to become a member of the P&C. Simply complete the membership form and either return it to the office or email a copy to wynnumss.pandc@gmail.com.

• Parents are not required to hold a volunteer blue card in order to volunteer at their child’s school. Any other family member that is not a parent is required to hold a volunteer blue card, in which the P&C are happy to assist with applications.

• All volunteers of the school (including P&C) are required to complete the mandatory volunteer induction training as per Department of Education requirements. This is to ensure that all volunteers are covered under the P&Cs Personal Accident Insurance Policy. This training is conducted at the start of the year by the school and is also available at school administration. This takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.

• Remember, the P&C is made up of parents.....just like you! The primary goal of the P&C is to enhance the educational opportunities for the students at our school. But along with that, it is also a great platform to –

• Build lifelong friendships with other like-minded parents.

• Enhance your skill set.

• Become more informed on important school matters and policies and provide parent input.

• Give back to our wonderful school community.

• And most importantly, have fun!

If there any questions regarding our upcoming AGM or how to become involved with our P&C, please don't hesitate to contact us at wynnumss.pandc@gmail.com. 

Please note: after the AGM we will have a short General Meeting to discuss some pressing matters. We look forward to seeing you all at the AGM!

School Facebook Page

Please visit the page via this link https://www.facebook.com/WynnumStateSchool  and click Like!

Absentee Line

To notify the school of your child's absence, please text your child's name and reason for absence to 0429 467 361.

School Bus Services

Reminder that we have a bus service that runs from Wynnum State School. Below is a link to both services.

https://jp.translink.com.au/plan-your-journey/timetables/bus/T/815

https://jp.translink.com.au/plan-your-journey/timetables/bus/t/819/outbound/2022-05-31

A Go Card will need to be purchased to be able to utilise this Translink bus service. The following link lists retail outlets of where to purchase a Go card https://translink.com.au/tickets-and-fares/go-card/locations 

Community News