Principal's Message

Term 2 Week 6 29 May 2026
From the Principal
Hi Everyone,
What a big week we have had with so many things on! If you have seen me getting around, you will have noticed that I am wearing a special shoe. This is because I had to have ankle and foot surgery. It is no big deal, just something that had to get done. Nonetheless, the show has gone on.
So, the results are in from Fanfare and our children were amazing! The Senior Band received gold, the Intermediate Strings received platinum, the Senior Strings received platinum, and the Chamber Strings received platinum!! How extraordinary! Mrs Weekes and Mr Kukulies must be so thrilled. We are so proud of all of these children and their teachers!! Now we are waiting to see if and who gets through to the next round of Fanfare. Watch this space!
Congratulations to all our STAR Award recipients at assembly this week, we are so proud of you.
Ann Antony was also overwhelmed at assembly, as she was presented with a certificate from the Australian Army and a Queensland University Regiment Challenge Coin. This was to acknowledge her reading of a poem at the ANZAC Day Dawn Service. Ann did an outstanding job, but her paper blew away, and she simply closed her eyes and started reciting the rest of the poem from memory. It was a very special moment to witness and clearly, everyone noticed Ann’s composure and brilliance. See the letter she received right down the bottom of this page. Congratulations Ann and thank you; you are an Ironside STAR!
The Intermediate Strings did a beautiful job with their assembly performance and we thank them. Coming up on Monday, we've got the Prep to Year 3 Merit Assembly, and our wonderful Year 2 choir will be performing.
It was wonderful to have our first School Council meeting for this term with our many new members. I look forward to working with our team as we continue to progress and improve Ironside State School heading into the future. Mrs Jacq Romero is our Chairperson and Mr Rabiul Alam is our Secretary. We thank them for taking on these integral roles.
Our P&C Meeting was cancelled but it is great news that our P&C AGM date has been set for Tuesday 9th June at 6:30pm. This means you can elect a new President, Secretary, and Treasurer. I sincerely hope you are considering it. This week many of our staff received professional development in the Writer’s Toolbox Sentence Trains which was fantastic. A working party of our staff also came together with Amy Green. That working party are forming our Ironside State School Wellbeing Framework. Both initiatives have been funded and supported by our wonderful P&C. Please consider joining our P&C and being an executive member. The P&C makes a huge difference to our school!
Our Preps got to go on their very first excursion this week to Lone Pine and they just loved it! They returned just beaming about what their favourite animal and moment from the day was. The staff at Lone Pine also commented on what great ambassadors our Preppies were for Ironside State School! Thank you to our Prep Staff for organising this wonderful learning opportunity for our children.
They are not the only ones getting to have excursions or incursions, as coming up next week our Year 5 students are getting to have a session with the author Kiah Thomas who wrote the book that they all have read for their English unit of work. Our Year 1’s are getting to go to Nudgee Beach. It is so fantastic to have these opportunities to enhance the learning that is going on in the units of work being taught. Thank you so much to our wonderful teachers.
Hot off the press, we also might have some Olympians visiting us next Thursday, watch this space……. :)
Talking about our wonderful teachers, I also want to give shout-outs because there's so many things that go on behind the scenes to make a school not only function but also continuously improve. We have staff right across the school giving up their time to be part of working groups that are often outside of their working hours, like our Reading Team, our Student Engagement Team, and our Beginning Teacher/Early Career Mentor Team but to mention a few. I am so grateful to our staff for giving up their time to make Ironside State School the best place it can be.
Well, Interschool Sport happened last week I guess, so that was something! This week was always looking doubtful. It is so hard with the weather. Nonetheless thank you to Mr Nathan Reardon who organised all of this and to all the staff who supported him and the children. We have also meant to have some trials this week and next, cricket, basketball and believe it or not surfing! If your child has signed up for a trial, you will always be informed if they are cancelled due to weather.
Simultaneous Storytime was a lot of fun this week. That is where around Australia on one day, one book is selected to read to children in all sorts of places - kindergartens, schools, libraries etc. Luna Roo was selected this year, and I had the privilege of reading it, with the added visual of a kangaroo onesie on my person. We had a lot of fun. Thank you so much to Mrs Annika Sauvage for organising this great experience for our children and for the many people who helped too!
One of our wonderful cleaners, Mr Pipin Prasetyono, is leaving us to return to Indonesia. I would like to thank him for everything he has done every day here at Ironside State School. He has continuously worked hard and is cheerful to everybody he comes across. All the very best to Mr Prasetyono and his family, we hope to see you all again soon!
Our Student Council has been advertising on assembly regularly now and so I hope your children have given you the message that next Friday the 5th of June is our Student Council House War Cry Day! We are encouraging all our children to turn up in their sports house colours, either red, blue, green, or yellow with a gold coin donation that will go towards our Student Council. At lunch times our Sports Captains will be leading the children in their house War Crys, to get ready for the Athletics Carnivals. How very exciting!
Have a wonderful week.
Servabo Fidem
Keep the Faith
Angie Kelly






