Principal's Message
Term 1 Week 9 28 March 2026
From the Principal
Hi Everyone,
If you had come into our school today, you would have thought you were on the set of a movie or TV show! Lots of children and staff got right into dressing up like their favourite movie or TV character. Massive thank you to our wonderful Student Council, who organised this and raised money to go towards the things that they will run throughout 2026. Thank you so much to our teachers who oversee the student council; Ms Sharon Pinkerton, Ms Annabella Eaton and Mr Declan Wenzell-Halls.
Mrs Tara Griffin, Mrs Gillian Bishop, Ms Georgia Perkins and I went to a Collaborative Learning Community this week, which was all about reading. It was an excellent day looking at the latest evidence around the effective teaching of reading in every year level. There have been times throughout my education career where there were arguments about the best approach to the teaching of reading, but the evidence is so compelling that Education Queensland has created a blueprint, The Reading Implementation Guide. Though our children are predominantly highly accomplished readers, we know that we do need to guarantee that we are teaching them as effectively as possible, to ensure they get the best education they can. We will be forming a Reading Team in our school with our leadership team and teachers, and will be leading this work together. Reading is a focus for all of Education Queensland now because the evidence has been so definitive for the first time. Though we will have our Reading Team, our Annual Implementation Plan’s predominant focus still remains on the rollout of version 9 Australian curriculum mathematics.
We have, unfortunately, had a few incidents of people parking illegally around our school. This has been at our busiest times, mostly at around 3:00 PM. This is not OK, and it is dangerous. It causes additional congestion and can lead to serious accidents. Counsellor Penny Wolff came to our last P&C meeting (amazingly, she pretty much comes to all of them) and encouraged people to simply call the council number if you see cars parked illegally. The largest issue we are facing is people parking in two-minute zones and walking away from their car. The number to call to report illegally parked cars is 3403 8888. What we really want is everyone following the road rules, whether they are a pedestrian, cyclist, or they drive a vehicle. Please let's work together to keep our children and each other safe.
We have agreed to help a group of university students who are studying air quality, specifically, they are going to look at the air quality of our classrooms. The team are coming in to install little boxes this afternoon and next week, and will monitor the air quality remotely over the next few days. I am very fascinated to hear about their findings. Down below, you can see some information I have put together for everyone to read.
In the last newsletter, I mentioned that an educator from the Writer’s Toolbox Team will be coming out in Term 2 to run an information session for parents. They have let me know they needed to change the date to the second week of school, and it will now be on Thursday, the 30th of April. When it gets closer to the time, I will ask people to let me know if they're coming so we can plan for what space we need to hold this in. I hope that lots of you can come.
We had our School Council meeting this week. It is the last one with our current committee, and again, I do want to thank all the departing members who have done an excellent job of supporting myself and our school. One of the things discussed was sunscreen and how important it is for everyone to be using it here under our hot, burning Queensland sun. We want to make putting on sunscreen the coolest thing to do for all our children and our adults!! Please encourage your children to wear sunscreen before going out to play. We have it there for them to apply; we just can't apply it for them. Remember if you want your child to use a different brand of sunscreen, please send it in their bag. If you are new to Australia and Queensland, you may not realise the dangers of our sun. The hot sun here can lead to Melanoma, commonly known as skin cancer. Let's keep our children and ourselves safe by going back to the old mantra, Slip, Slop, Slap. Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat.
Our School Council also raised hand washing before eating. We discussed ensuring our staff on duty ask all children to wash their hands before eating, and I also discussed making sure we have hand wash available in convenient locations to achieve this. These are important measures to keep our children following good hygiene habits.
Speaking of good habits, we've had a wonderful team out here to do an incursion with our Year 3 students, called ‘Say It with a Smile.’ The importance of what we eat and how we care for our teeth, our oral hygiene is so important. The team will be back to do this also with our Year 1 and Year 2 classes early next week. Thank you to our Year 1, 2 and 3 staff for organising these sessions.
Last week, I mentioned how wonderful the Cross Country was and how well our children did. Please make sure you check out the photos that I have now uploaded into the gallery section of our newsletter.
Congratulations to all our Year 4 to 6 Merit Certificate recipients for week 9! We are proud of you all.
During our assembly, we had our first performance from our band, and they were amazing. They really lifted the roof! You can see their performance at the end of this video. Congratulations to all of them and, of course, the very wonderful Mr Kukulies. Next Monday, 30th March, at 2:10 PM, we will be having our whole school STAR assembly. Our Chamber Strings will be performing, and I am very excited to listen to our 2026 Chamber Strings for the first time!
Continuing in all things music, on Tuesday, members of the Intermediate Band will be involved in the Ironside Band Day. I know they will have a wonderful day!
The last week of all our terms is always big and are filled with many wonderful events, and this one is no different. On Tuesday, the 31st of March, we will be having our Year 1 and Year 2 Swimming Carnivals. Please ensure your little ones have everything they need to get in the pool and swim. Families are, of course, welcome to come and cheer their little ones on.
That very same day, there is the 10 to 12-year-old girls' Football Trials from 12:30 to 3:30, and we wish all girls who are trying out the very best.
On Tuesday night we have our P&C Annual General Meeting at 6:30 PM in our staff room. I encourage you to come along and join our P&C and even consider nominating for an executive position. This is a wonderful way to be involved in your child's schooling. Even if you don't take up an executive position, being part of the meetings and volunteering is also really great way to support your child’s school. I hope to see you there.
On Wednesday the 1st of April, we will be having our Prep to Year 3 Easter bonnet Parade! There is no need to go out and buy anything special, whatever children create will be just wonderful. It is just about coming together and having some fun.
Of course, the last day of school on Thursday the 2nd of April, is our Harmony Day celebration. The day will kick off with our P&C International Breakfast which will be amazing! I will pop down here again all the important things you need to know for this day.
Children can wear their own traditional costumes from their own country or a little bit of orange on their clothing to represent harmony.
There will be a shared lunch at first break, but don't feel that you need to make a lot of food or anything at all. This is only about tasting a little bit. For example, if you were Italian and want to share a pizza with the class for shared lunch you just take your pizza and cut it up into little pieces so that there was enough there for everybody to try a little piece and that would be wonderful.
We are also having our Harmony Day International Talent Show. Children need to see their class teacher about being in it and their teacher will email me or they can tell their parents, and you can email me - akell58@eq.edu.au
For quite some time now myself and the team have been gathering all the resources we have in our school into a centralised space. Resources are important to support teachers to successfully teach and to help children learn. The place where we have put them all Is slowly being organised into what we are calling the Resource Room. We have been advertising for a person to design an organisational system for this room and then to be the person who oversees its management. If you are interested in applying for this position, please contact us at 3258 3111.
I will finish now with some staff news. Sadly, we are farewelling Ms Billie Barker, one of our wonderful Year 4 teachers, for the rest of the year. Ms Barker has had an opportunity presented to her where she can travel and do some work overseas; how very lucky and exciting for her! All the children of course, are devastated, and I have no doubt their families are too. We will miss you, Ms Barker! Thank you for everything, and have a safe and wonderful time That also means we are welcoming someone and, in this case, we are welcoming back Mr Gary Lake. Mr Lake is a teacher who has worked at Ironside for quite some time, but has been on leave the entire time I have been the principal here, so I have never met him. I have, however heard wonderful things about his connections to our families and look forward to welcoming him back to Ironside to teach Year 4.
Have a truly wonderful week!
Yours in Education
Angie Kelly
Supporting healthier classrooms through air quality research
Dear Parents,
We are pleased to share that our school will participate in an important research project to improve indoor air quality (IAQ) in classrooms. This initiative reflects our ongoing commitment to supporting the health, well-being, and learning outcomes of all students by ensuring that our classrooms are as safe and supportive as possible.
This study is being carried out in partnership with the Queensland Department of Education, and by a team of researchers led by Dr Enoch Adotey and Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska from THRIVE at QUT (https://thriveiaq.com/). The study will measure general air quality conditions, including carbon dioxide and fine airborne particles less than 2.5 microns. Measurements will not impact classes or learning. Participation in this project provides our school with a valuable opportunity to gain an understanding of IAQ in our classroom environments.
If you have any questions or would like further information about this project, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thank you for your continued support.