Principal's Message
Term 3 Week 5 14 August 2026
From the Principal
Hi Everyone,
Congratulations to our Chamber strings and Trudy Weekes, they were just incredible at the Fanfare State Finals for 2026! They did not take our first place, but the adjudicators took a long time deliberating and I just know it was because they were agonising over who would win - our Chamber Strings really are a world-class act! None of this happens without enormous hard work, dedication and a commitment to the team! Thank you for being incredible ambassadors for our school and for taking your music to everyone. Thank you to the Chamber Strings students, Mrs Trudy Weekes, Mr Thomas Corbett who overseas Instrumental Music and to all the parents of instrumental music students. We know it is a massive effort on everybody's behalf. I am so unbelievably proud and elated!
I was so overwhelmed on Friday as it was Principal's Day. This is not something that I've had a big awareness about clearly. So many of our children wrote the most beautiful messages to me in cards they had made, supported by their teachers who also gave me a beautiful cards and gifts. All of this is very unnecessary but very uplifting and I am so grateful to the children and their teachers. I think from my perspective, I find it very hard to think about ‘thank you’ coming in my direction because even though I'm the leader of the school, I feel our wonderful staff are the ones enact my thinking. Nonetheless thank you so much to the children and staff. I am the very proud Principal of Ironside State School.
I now have some graphs that I can share with you around our whole school NAPLAN results. Underneath my newsletter piece, I have put all the graphs with the Year 3 and Year 5 results across our school. You can see that our Year 3 results have gone up in every domain and we are ecstatic about this. You can see that in Year 5 our Writing has improved, whereas other areas have gone down unfortunately. We will also be analysing our results against the Nation, State and our Region to see any areas where we have gone against the trend. We also will be analysing individual student results from Year 3 to Year 5 because in terms of data analysis, that is when you can truly reflect on specific improvement within every child's learning. We also have achieved for the first time since I came to Ironside, something called Inter-assessment Agreement. This is where our A-E Report Card data and our NAPLAN data is closely aligned. This is very good news as it is evidence that the moderation processes, we've been enacting as we have collaborated each week in teams, has been successful. It means that when we are attributing an A-E result to our students, the process we are taking to get to these results is accurate. We will be closely analysing the student's results where this is not the case and reflecting further. Our immediate reflection is that what we have been doing across our school over the last year and a half, has led to improvements, especially in our lower school. Writer’s Toolbox has definitely contributed to a lift right across our school, in terms of our children's ability to write on demand (so to speak). We will be putting together some in-depth data to present to our School Council, as well as our P&C at the next meetings. What I can say, with complete confidence, is that we are very pleased with our NAPLAN results in 2026 and where our school is heading to in the future. I would like to congratulate all the teachers in our school, as well as all staff, for the work that they are doing around improving student learning outcomes at Ironside State School.
Mr Corbett and Mrs Griffin have been conducting Writer’s Toolbox Diagnostic testing right across our school this week and will continue next week as well. They will only be doing this with the children whose parents have given permission for them to be involved in Writer’s Toolbox, which is just about everyone. These are not stressful tests at all. It is just an opportunity for children to do some writing. The analysis of these samples has been so important, as it has helped us as a school, determine where we need to nourish our teaching of writing. What this year's testing will also do, is show us what improvements have been made by the students who provided writing samples 12 months ago in the same process. I look forward to the analysis when the information comes to me about mid-term 4.
Even though we do not have a finalised framework for coaching to be occurring rigorously in our school for our staff, occasionally teachers ask me to come in and observe their lessons and take them through a coaching process. I'm always so grateful to teachers who request this of me and are very vulnerable in having somebody in their classroom watching them teach. It has been such an important process for not only giving feedback to any teacher who asked me to do this but also to get insider-knowledge of any challenges that they are facing every day. This is vital, so that I can oversee setting up systems that support our teachers to teach in the most effective way possible. It also allows me to get to know the children even better as learners and to connect with them in this way. Thank you so much to those teachers who've been inviting me in.
Thank you to the Student Council, Ms Annabella Eaton and Mr Declan Wenzel-Halls for putting on the Winter Wonderland Silent Disco! My son was graduating from university and so I had to miss it unfortunately, but I hear it was a great bunch of fun! None of this would happen without all the teachers who give up their time to help support at an event such as this. So, thank you again to the student council and to our wonderful staff for making this happen. These types of events are very important to help have a positive culture in our school, as well as it being just an event for our children to let their hair down and have some fun.
Congratulations to our Year 4-6 Merit Award recipients this week! We are very proud of you.
We all were able to hear why our Chamber Strings are world-class at our very own assembly, as they performed for us, which was extraordinary! This performance again was undertaken with no conductor; they do it themselves!!!!! On Monday 17th August, it will be the Prep to Year 3 Merit Assembly, and the Junior Strings will be playing.
At assembly, there was also lots of presentations around amazing things happening in the library, in sport and in instrumental music. Please make sure you see those sections in our newsletter to read all about the different achievements and various activities going on in these departments.
There are lots of things coming up in the next week. Please make sure you always check our calendar to know what is going on. Next week alone, our Chess Teams are participating in a competition, we've got instrumental music students going to a District Music Camp at Toowong State School, Prep are having an incursion with Renata James, Year 1 is having an incursion around fire safety, our first Debating Competition is happening and of course there is Inter School sport. Don't our teachers do an incredible job providing all these opportunities for our children? Good luck to everybody involved in these various activities.
Another thing happening next week is the Year 4 Camp. We are heading up to the Sunshine Coast, and I am lucky enough to be joining them. This is happening from Monday until Wednesday and Mrs Tara Griffin is going to be the principal in my absence. I know she will do an outstanding job. I also know that I will have a wonderful time on the Year 4 Camp! Thank you, Mrs Griffin!
When I return, on Thursday we are having Toowong State School and a few different members from regional office, joining us for what is called a Learning Walk and Talk here at Ironside State School. This is part of the work we have been doing in our Reading Collaborative Learning Community. This is vital work, where we have been looking at the evidence around the teaching of reading, in conjunction with many other schools across our region. It is this work that will help us to improve where we can, in our teaching of our children, with a focus on reading.
It has been wonderful to have a group of enthusiastic undergraduate teachers at our school over the last couple of weeks. This is the last practical experience for most of these undergraduates, and it is wonderful that they are getting to work with our experienced teachers here at Ironside State School. I'm excited that they have chosen our profession and that Ironside is helping to mould them into future teachers.
I will finish this week by giving one last plead about the School Opinion Survey! Please fill it in. We love to get feedback, it is a gift and helps you to improve, where and when it is possible. Thank you so much to all the parents who have already filled these in, we are so grateful. Please if you need any assistance completing it because you don't have access to technology or need something explained, please do not hesitate to contact us
Have a truly fantastic weekend and week ahead.
Servabo Fidem
Keep the Faith
Angie Kelly
