Principal's Message

Term 2 Week 1                                                                                                   24 April 2026

From the Principal

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to Term 2!  I hope you had a truly wonderful holiday.  Wasn’t the weather just magic?  It is hard not to feel like we live in paradise.  Nonetheless, here we go again and I hope you are all ready for a jam-packed, fun-filled term!

We had a very moving service this morning to commemorate ANZAC Day. A very big thank you to Mr Thomas Corbett who organised and oversaw this very special event. Thank you to all our special guests who attended and to all our families and friends who came; the size of the crowd is evidence of our community’s desire for lasting peace.  Our service was made very special because we had exemplary speakers in retired Lieutenant Colonel George Hulse and Sgt Dale Johnston, who spoke poignantly and inspiringly; they encapsulated both horror of war and the positives that can come from these terrible situations.  We also had stunning music provided by Mr Jordan Eaton who played the didgeridoo, Mr Lachlan McPhee from the Queensland Police Pipes and Drums Band of the Blue Member who played the bagpipes, Mr Harlin Smith, from Indooroopilly State High School who played the trumpet, our Senior Band and Chamber Strings who played the Australian and New Zealand National Anthem respectively, accompanied beautifully by the Senior Choir.  Thank you to all our music teachers for preparing the students so well for these moving performances. It was all just so special.  Our captains did an excellent job of helping to run the service and they spoke and presented the poems excellently.  The wreaths were so special, and the wreath layers did an excellent job. Thank you to our wonderful teachers who oversaw our classes creating these wreaths.  Thank you also to Ms Hannah Esser who put together a beautiful PowerPoint honouring so many of our family members who have served in conflicts.  

We will be at the Dawn Service tomorrow in Toowong, representing Ironside State School, for anyone who would like to join us. We are meeting at the Western Districts Rugby Football Club, at the Pitch and Fork Café at 5:45am and walking to the cenotaph together.  

Once again, thank you to everyone for appropriately honouring ANZAC Day.  

Lest we forget.

Sadly, on the last day of last term, one of our teachers Ms Tzigane Latter, let me know that she needed to end her contract for personal reasons.  I want to thank Mrs latter for everything she has done for Ironside in her short time her and wish her all the best. I know her class and team will miss her very much. We are now welcoming Mrs Natalie Moa to our team! Mrs Moa has joined with Ms Tsveta Krastanova-Santos (who is already one of our wonderful teachers here at Ironside) and they are teaching 2C.  Mrs Moa has moved over from New Zealand in the last year, and we are thrilled to have her!

I am also very excited to announce our new permanent Head of Special Education Services (HOSES), Mrs Miranda Sainsbury, who has joined our Leadership Team.  Mrs Sainsbury is a very experienced educator, who has worked across our state as both a teacher and in various leadership positions, in private and public schools. I'm very grateful to have Mrs Sainsbury joining our team and bringing her expertise to ironside state school.

Congratulations to all our P-3 Merit Certificate recipients for this week, we are very proud of you!

Our Year 2 Choir did an outstanding job of singing on assembly this week, a beautiful ANZAC Day themed song. It was very moving and a wonderful way to inspire our thinking to turn towards our brave ANZACs.  Thank you to them and Mrs Marianne Huxley. 

Next week, we have our Year 4 to 6 Merit Assembly, and we will have our Senior Strings entertaining us; I can't wait. Both the Senior Strings and our Chamber Strings have their Fanfare next Monday and Tuesday and so it will be great to have the senior string showcased on assembly. Thank you to Mrs Trudy Weekes, our strings instrumental music teacher.

School sport kicks off next Friday which is very exciting. Thank you so much to Mr Nathan Reardon for coordinating and organising this massive sporting event. Thank you also to all our staff who are taking children both at school and to games away. The kids just love it, and we are so grateful that you facilitate this. 

Still on sport, there are so many sporting trials taking place at the moment, rugby union, hockey, soccer and next week cross country. Good luck to all our children involved in these trials, all the very best of them!

The leadership team and I are going off-site next Thursday to spend a day together looking at the evidence around effective, best practice when it comes to pedagogy. I look forward to working with our team to develop the blueprint of exceptional teaching in our school. 

Thank you to Mr Brett Perrier, who will be the principle in my absence.

Our next P&C Meeting is next Tuesday night 28th of April, at 6:30 PM in the staff room.  This is not our Annual General Meeting, but just a regular P&C meeting. I actively encourage you to come along and get involved in your child's school. I am hoping that by the time we get to our AGM, there will be at least three people who want to be on our P&C Executive. We need a president, secretary and treasurer at the very least. I hope to see you there!

Just a reminder that the Back-to-School Boost is a government initiative to support parents to pay for school activities. Please read our section in the newsletter about Back-to-School Boost and contact the school to apply that money to one of your child’s fees.

I will finish by reminding you that excitingly, next Thursday night the 30th of April, we have our Writers Toolbox Parent Information session at 6:00 PM. If you intend to come along, can you please email me and RSVP to my email address at akell58@eq.edu.au 

This is going to be a really exciting and informative session and I know you will just love it!  Please come and join us.  😊

Have a wonderful week.

Servabo Fidem

Keep the Faith

Angie Kelly