Principal's Message

Hi Everyone,  

We are out of our pyjamas and back into regular clothes today but wasn’t it fun on Friday?!  We got to wear our pyjamas and we raised money for The Pyjama Foundation who help provide support to kids in care. Thank you to Ms Sophie Morrison, Mrs Sharyn Pinkerton and the Student Council for organising!  Thank you to our tuckshop for supporting it too.  What a great community! 

Last week was so big and there were many highlights but our Strings groups playing at the Redlands Eisteddfod was just so special! Our different strings groups almost competed solely against each other and so they took out first, second and third many times over.  In most of the performances the small ensembles played with no conductor, it was just extraordinary to witness.  Mrs Weekes talked me through what it musically does for the children to be separated into these small groups and work together and then come back together as one bigger group. We are so lucky to have such an outstanding strings teacher here at Ironside - thank you Mrs Weekes and congratulations to all of our dedicated, amazing strings players; you are extraordinary.

The very next day, our band and chamber strings performed for the year 1 and year 3 classes, so that those children could think about whether they would like to try to learn an instrument.  You should have heard them, the calibre of their playing was so impressive.  I have no doubt the little kids were inspired to try out to get into instrumental music!  Thank you to all of the children who played and Mr Kukulies and Mrs Weekes. 

We hosted an information night for the Queensland Academy of Creative Industries last week and goodness me, was it impressive!  Big thank you to the students from QACI who came out and talked to us, as well as the principal Shannon Carter and her team. It was a wonderful night and one of the students, Abby, thrilled us with incredible singing.  She was the lead in their recent production of the musical Mama Mia and was amazing!  Thanks again QACI!

I am longing for the day when I have the time to attend all of our wonderful excursions across the year levels just once.  Hoodwinked for Year 5 at the Pullenvale Environmental Education Centre sounds amazing and I have never been.  I believe our children were great ambassadors for our school whilst there.  Thank you to Mr Corbett and our Year 5 team for everything you have done to make this great experience happen for our children. 

Congratulations to all of our Year 4-6 Merit Certificate recipients for Week 4; we are proud of you! 

The performance by our Senior Strings was outstanding.  Thank you to them and Mrs Weekes for entertaining us.  This week we will delight in the Chamber Strings performing at our whole school STAR assembly. 

On assembly were also able to acknowledge the work and dedication of our library monitors, we congratulate and thank them!

Thank you to our Peer Mediators, they are another group who are dedicating their time and energy to making our school a better place and we are so grateful.

Coming up this week:

· Year 5 Hoodwinked Excursion  -  Pullenvale Environmental Education Centre  -  Monday 11th August & Tuesday 12th August

· EKKA Show Holiday  -  Wednesday 13th August  -  NO SCHOOL

· 2026 Preps, Parent Information Night  -  Thursday 14th August, 5:30pm

· Year 5 Camp Parent Information Night  -  Thursday 14th August, 6pm

· Whole School STAR Assembly  -  Friday 15th August 9:15am  -  Chamber Strings performing

· Religious Instruction Friday 15th August

· Interschool & Intraschool Sport  -  Friday 15th August

We look forward to welcoming the 2026 prep parents to our school on Thursday night at 5:30pm.  If you know of anyone who is wanting their child to start Prep at Ironside in 2026, please mention this night to them.  This will be such a beneficial session to attend.

Our Year 5 camp parent information night is also this Thursday at 6pm in the hall, please come along to find out all of the details about this camp in person.

Interschool and Intraschool Sport kicks off this Friday!  This is such a massive piece of organisation, thank you for doing this Mr Reardon!  Thank you also to all of our teachers who take our children for Friday afternoon sport; this is a wonderful experience you are providing. 

Two jobs for you to do for me PLEASE! 

· Please give your consent for Writer’s Toolbox if you want your child to be able to access it (this is for year 3,4, 5 & 6)

· Please complete your Parent School Opinion Survey!  If you haven’t done so, it is so important. 

Don’t forget this Wednesday 13th August is the EKKA show holiday, please do not send your children to school as we will not be here; we might see you at the EKKA!

Have a wonderful week.

Yours in Education,

Angie Kelly

Principal

P.S. Shout-Out to St Ignatius School who donated us 10 bales of sugar cane mulch - we very much need it and are very grateful!  Huge thank you to Councillor Penny Wolff who connected our two schools together.