Term 2 Week 3 08 May 2026

From the Principal

Hi Everyone,

What a wonderful day we've had today, as so many volunteers came in and made the P&C Mother's Day stall happen! Now look, I won't lie, I do wish it was all the dads running this but nonetheless it happened 😊. This is a great opportunity to support children and families to get a little something for their mum to celebrate her. Of course, Mums do not expect gifts, a hug is enough, but it is nice to see children and families paying homage to mothers. I just cannot thank all the volunteers enough! I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day this Sunday!

It has been school photos this week and I want to thank everybody involved as it has been smooth. The children looked fantastic and wore their uniforms with pride. Thank you to Mr Corbett who organised this important keepsake.

I had the absolute privilege up being able to go and see our Chamber Strings perform at the Queensland Youth Music Awards on Wednesday night and they were utterly breathtaking. Congratulations to them and of course Mrs Trudy Weekes, their amazing teacher. Of course, you want to know how they went naturally and…… they came second!!!! This sets them up very well for Fanfare which is coming up soon. Congratulations again!

Next week to enhance their skills even further, is the Westside Strings workshops. Thank you to Mrs Trudy Weekes for organising this wonderful extension.

Interschool sport was rained out last week but not this week and so excited children in Year 5 and 6 are getting into their sport today. Of course they don't all play interschool sport; some sport is played right here at Ironside. Thank you again to Mr Nathan Reardon and all the teachers who make it happen.

There is so much sport going on now with a lot of Northern Eagles trials happening. This week and next the sports on are soccer, tennis and touch football. All the best to the kids trialling.

We also had children this week, excel academically by being involved in APSMO - the Australian Primary School Maths Olympiad. As the name suggests this is about mathematics and a select group of children got to showcase their mathematical minds in the Olympiad. Thank you to Mr Bryan Chow and Mrs Shelley Lee who have organised all of this. Well done to all the children involved.

It has been wonderful to be able to participate in some professional development this week. A little group of us went to the Reading Collaborative Learning Community. We are systematically working through looking at the evidence around the most effective way to teach reading in each year level. The research around this is now settled and we're being responsive to it. We know that it is different in certain ways, to how we have taught reading traditionally and overtime we will be running some sessions for parents, so that you can support your children around the teaching of reading at home. We know how important the partnership is between parents, children and school.

The other professional development opportunity I went to yesterday with our Head of Curriculum Mrs Shelley Lee and our Deputy Principal Mr Thomas Corbett was, Primary Curriculum Leaders Day. As part of our school’s Strategic Plan, we are rolling out Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum over the next three years. This year our focus is mathematics, as last year it was English. Again, it is very important for us to keep abreast of the latest evidence around curriculum delivery, as well as changes to the Australian Curriculum.

So, as you can see it's been a very busy week and a short week, as we had the Labour Day holiday on Monday. We have another busy week coming up next week too

On Monday, all of you parents and caregivers get to vote for the two new parent representatives who will be sitting on the Ironside State School Council. Please remember that you can come in to vote next Monday the 11th of May, between 7:00 AM an 9:00 AM and then 3:00 PM until 5:00 PM. The votes will then be counted, and the two new parent representatives will be announced. Once again, I thank all the candidates for volunteering to give up their time to be part of our school council.

On Monday afternoon starting at 2:10 PM, will be our Prep to Year 3 Merit Assembly. I'm very excited because our Year One Choir will be singing! You are all welcome to join us.

On Tuesday I am getting together with a working party from our school staff, and we are putting together a Collegial Engagement Framework for our school. This is where we are co-designing what collegial engagement looks like in our school. Collegial engagement is one of the areas of focus in our school strategic plan. In a school, when we talk about collegial engagement, we are referencing things like coaching teachers by observing them and giving feedback, teaches watching other teachers work, us coming together to moderate samples of children's work, members of the leadership team conducting purposeful walkthroughs of classrooms and other opportunities to engage collegially. This is important work, necessary work designed to keep all of our staff on our continuous improvement journey, which in turn, keeps our children on a continuous improvement journey.

Next Thursday I will be at Indooroopilly State School, as I'm participating in our Collaborative School Improvement Team. This is a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with neighbouring, similar demographic schools.

Next Thursday morning before school at a neighbouring church, I know that Chappy Roslyn is kicking off her Friends of Chaplaincy. Watch this space as it gains traction into the future. Chappy Ros is a wonderful fixture at Ironside State School and provides wonderful support to children, families and staff alike.

Our Year 5 and 6 children will have an incursion next Thursday called Money Talk. This is important learning around money management, which can be so confusing in a world where so often currency is not something that you hold in your hand. Thank you to Mrs Catherine Priday for organising this wonderful opportunity.

Make sure that you have this in your calendar Year 6 parents and caregivers please, because next Thursday night the 14th of May at 6:00 PM is the Canberra Camp Parent Information Night. I know you will want to hear all about it. Information will be sent out afterwards of course if you cannot make it.

I will be including some information here about the Safe Schools Precinct Survey. I think it would be wonderful if you found the time to complete this survey and ensure that we are getting feedback to our decision-makers around safe school precincts.

https://yoursay.brisbane.qld.gov.au/indooroopilly-safer-school-precinct

Our Celebration of Learning is coming up in the last week of school. Year 3’s is on Tuesday the 23rd of June at 2:30 PM and all the other year levels are on Thursday the 25th of June. The timetable is below. These are always wonderful days for your children, to have the opportunity to proudly show you what they have been doing at school and for you to connect with their teachers.

8:30am – 9am – Prep

10:00 - 10:30 - Year 6

11:30 - 12:00 - Year 4

12:30pm – 1pm – Year 5

2pm – 2:30pm – Year 2

2:30pm – 3pm – Year 1

Here is our new Lunchtime Activities Timetable. It is a great document for you to discuss over the dinner table for when your children tell you that they have nothing to do at lunchtime. Our teachers are in the habit also of telling their classes each day what's on in the coming lunch hour.

Finally, some very keen parents wanted to be able to do the Writer’s Toolbox program themselves and improve their own writing - how fantastic! I didn’t know this was possible, but it is and all the details are here if you want to be involved! 😊

Parents will need to register for a home account, which they can purchase via this link. They’ll also have the option to explore the tool risk-free for 30 days before committing, giving them ample time to become familiar with its features and see how it supports theirs and their child’s writing development.

Once logged into Toolbox, parents can navigate from the home page to access a comprehensive range of videos and resources. These are designed to guide users through the program clearly and sequentially, helping them start with confidence.

Have a wonderful week.

Servabo Fidem

Keep the Faith

Angie Kelly

Gallery

Strings Queensland Youth Music Awards