Principal's Message

Hi Everyone,

And just like that we are in week 10!  Today was the Student Council’s Dress Like a Superhero Day and it was so much fun!!!!  Gold coin donations were collected and funds raised for the truly wonderful charity Capes for Kids.  Thank you so much to our Student Council and Ms Sharyn Pinkerton and Mr Brett Perrier for bringing this month of being a SUPERHERO to Ironside!!

Thank you to our Year 1 staff for taking our Year 1 children to the beach last week -  they just loved it!!  A group of them were excitedly calling to me through my office window, telling me all about it and feeling sorry for me that I had to work!  Thank you also to our Year 3 staff for taking our Year 3 children to the Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens. As a complete lover of Gardening Australia, I am SO JEALOUS that they got to meet Costa and the team from GA!!  Both of these experiences are designed to enhance our children’s current learning and we are grateful to our teachers for providing these opportunities.

Last week we had our Strings and Choir Soiree and Band Soiree and what truly, truly special nights they were.  Congratulations to all of the children involved, we are so proud of you both individually and as teams. Mrs Trudy Weekes, Mrs Kellie Wilson and Mr Kukulies, we salute you!!  Where you lead our children is somewhere very special musically and we are so grateful.  Thank you to all of you wonderful families who support your children to be involved in a musical commitment. I must make mention of the ex-Ironside student, Oscar Borrego-Losada, who is now in year 9 at Brisbane SHS.  He played a violin solo with a pianist accompanying him.  It was a performance that would not be out of place on any stage in the world  -  it was flawless!  Thank you for returning and sharing your music Oscar!

Thank you also to the Small String Ensemble who entertained us on assembly last week too.  You have improved in leaps and bounds in a short space of time. 

Speaking of music, one of our students, Nora Yan in year 4 is leaving us to return to China.  Nora asked to perform a song on assembly but time doesn’t permit this, as we have many students come and go through our school and assembly is a full program.  I asked Nora to make a video of herself singing, oh my goodness me, I could not believe what I received!!!!  I am going to put it at the end of this newsletter; be prepared to be amazed!  Nora, all the best to you and your family and we might see you back here again one day when you are famous  -  we need to get Nora’s autograph while we can!  So much talent at Ironside!

Congratulations to all of the children who received those amazing STAR Awards on assembly last week.  You must be so proud of yourselves, as are we; thank you for making our school a better place.

We also got to congratulate our Peer Mediators on assembly too and we thank them for everything they do every day, making our school a better place to be!  THANK YOU PEER MEDIATORS and also thank you to Ms Hannah Ersser and Ms Billie Barker for supporting them.

Coming up this week:

• Under 8’s Day  -  Tuesday 24th June

• P&C Meeting  -  6:30pm Tuesday 24th June

• STEM Parent Breakfast  -  Wednesday 25th June

• Junior Athletics Carnival  -  Wednesday 25th June

• Celebrations of Learning  -  Thursday 26th June

• NAIDOC - National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebration - Friday 27th June

• Last Day of Term 2, Friday 27th June

We have a very, big and wonderful few days ahead of us!  Tomorrow we are celebrating our smallest people at Under 8’s Day!  Under 8’s Day puts a spotlight on the early years, as they are so precious and important.  This year’s theme is ‘Unleashing Scientific Thinking Through Play’  -  what a great theme!  I love Science and I believe that very young children and the way they approach the world; they are the original scientists!  It will be a wonderful morning and hopefully some of our Prep to Year 2 parents can join us.  Big thank you to Mrs Tara Griffin and the Prep to 2 staff for organising this great celebration of our little ones.

The very next day, our Year 1 and 2 classes are having their Junior Athletics Carnival.  This is going to be another really fun day.  It is important that the children are ready for the carnival with their hats, sunscreen, water, sport’s shirt and runners.  Thank you to Mr Bushnell and Mr Reardon for organising and running this wonderful event.

Mr Bryan Chow and Ms Marianne Huxley are welcoming the parents of our STEM team in on Wednesday for a breakfast.  No doubt they will be discussing all of the exciting events coming up next term.  Thank you for all you do Mr Chow and Mrs Huxley!

Learning Celebrations are on Thursday in some year levels and are a great opportunity for you to come into your child’s classroom and have a look through their books and spend some time talking to them about the learning they have done this term.  We are about to start to shift into an even stronger focus on bookwork at Ironside, so it is great if you can be with us on that journey.  The timetable of when classrooms are welcoming parents is below.

On our last day of school this term we are having our National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebration (NAIDOC) and we are very much looking forward to it.  We have a special NAIDOC Assembly in the morning at 9:15am and then throughout the day we have Be Skilled; Be Fit coming in to teach our children Indigenous Games which will be so fun (the cost of this is $5 per child). Classes will also be doing various activities back at classrooms as we delve into this year’s theme The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy.  As a school we are proud to be celebrating our First Nations People and thinking about the future we want as a nation. 

Report Cards are coming out on Thursday.  Please remember that staff are no longer making comments on report cards.  I have attached a sample report card here so you know what to expect.  With no comments, I strongly encourage you to come and have a progress meeting with your child’s classroom teacher when they are offered later on in term 3.

We are sadly saying goodbye to a number of staff at the end of this term.  I want to thank Mr Josh Coates and Mr Nic Jones, who have been helping us out enormously with our IT needs throughout the year.  We now have Mrs Leesa Behrens back 4 days a week and so she will be keeping our IT humming along; welcome back Mrs Behrens!  Mrs Kellie Wilson who has been one of our wonderful music teachers is finishing up due to family commitments and we are devastated.  Mrs Wilson has been such an integral part of our music team and will be enormously missed, thank you Mrs Wilson!  Ms Brielle Bignell is also breaking our hearts and is moving to the Gold Coast to be close to her Mum.  Ms Bignell is one of our year 4 teachers and is outstanding, I know her children, families and colleagues are so sad.  We will miss you so much Ms Bignell; thank you for everything and all the very best!  Mrs Terri Avis is one of our wonderful support teachers and has had to take extended family leave for the remainder of 2025.  We wish Mrs Avis all the very best during her leave and thank her for everything; we hope to see her back in 2026.  Finally and very sadly, Ms Maureen Dancer has decided to retire from teaching after 40 years.  Ms Dancer is currently our P-3 EAL/D (English as a Second Language/Dialect) teacher but has had many roles in education over the years and in many schools across the world.  Ms Dancer is known for her kindness and fun with children and colleagues alike and she will be missed enormously.  I want to thank Ms Dancer on behalf of Education Queensland, as well as Ironside State School; for her commitment to the education of countless children.  You have made the world a better place with your contribution Ms Dancer, please enjoy this next phase of your life knowing that you have changed lives for the better.

I want to finish by thanking the children, staff and families for a very positive term.  I do hope to see parents at tomorrow night’s P&C Meeting; that would be a great way to end the term!!  I am hoping you all have a fantastic holiday, where you get to be with your people, get things done, rest and have fun.  I look forward to seeing you all back here in Term 3.

Have a great week everyone!

Yours in Education,

Angie Kelly

Principal

P.S. I forgot to include my photos from the Athletics Carnival in last week’s newsletter, see those and also the Soiree photos in the gallery.