Term 2 Week 6 Newsletter

Principal's Report

Dear Stafford Heights Families,

Last Thursday we celebrated Under 8's Day. A big thank you to Mrs Jardine who organised the awesome day.  Also, thank you to Cr Tracy Davis, Jimmy Sullivan MP, State Emergency Services, Everton Park State High School, Norths Devils Rugby League Football Club, AFL QLD – Brisbane North, Stafford Heights OSHC, Old MacDonald Farms, Staff and Student Helpers from Stafford Heights State School.  It was such a memorable day for our youngest students.

Under 8's Day

Reconciliation Week

This week is Reconciliation Week. The National Reconciliation Week theme for 2025 is ‘Bridging Now to Next’. The theme artwork created by Kalkadoon woman Bree Buttenshaw, shows native plants, which are known for regenerating after fire and thriving through adversity and symbolise collective strength and the possibilities of renewal. Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about First Nation cultures, shared histories and achievements. Within the classrooms, teachers will have age-appropriate discussions about First Nation histories, cultures and achievements. Stafford Heights State School is a community that works to embed Indigenous perspectives within our everyday teaching and learning and recognises Reconciliation Week as an important week in the school calendar.

We are committed to establishing opportunities for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to be heard and consulted with on regular occasions and would like to begin this process with our ‘Coffee and Yarn’ event on Friday 30^th  May from 8am – 9am. Please come down to the school for a yarn and let us know what we can do to improve our practice to better suit our young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island students and their families. This is an open invite to all community members to come down and have a yarn.

School Review – 24, 25, 26 June

Every four years schools undertake a School Review. The last time Stafford Height completed a school review was in 2021. The school review will take place on the 24, 25 and 26 June. The reviews are an important part of how the department monitors and supports schools. The reviews are about providing schools with quality and independent feedback, tailored to the school’s context and needs. Reviews are undertaken by experienced educators trained in the use of the School Improvement Tool (SIT), a nationally recognised framework for reviewing teaching and learning practices. The review team will consist of three reviewers (Internal Reviewer, an External Reviewer and a current school Principal). Reviewers look closely at each school’s performance data and speak with a wide range of staff, students, parents and community members/organisations to get an accurate picture of the school. Unlike many other review systems, schools aren’t ranked or given a performance rating. Instead, the school is given a comprehensive report for consideration. The report outlines key findings and recommended improvement strategies to maximise student outcomes. Once the review is completed, I will share this information with staff and the school community. This information will help shape the school’s strategic direction, as we have a new four year Strategic Plan to develop during Term Three and Four of 2025

School Pick Up

At SHSS, school finishes each day at 3:00pm. Unsupervised children should not remain on our site to play games. As per the above information, parents supervising students should also be moving from our site by 3:15pm. To ensure the safety of all students our expectation would be that students move as quickly as possible to:

• Pick Up Zone
  • Please do not block the front entry gate, you may need to wait on Redwood Street for there to be room in the pick-up line. 
  • Please stay in your car and your child will be directed to the car 
  • Staff load the first 3 cars in the line
  • If your child is not there, we may ask you to move to a carpark 
  • Students should be seated in the seating area 
• Leave our school site if they are walking, riding or scootering home
• SHSS OSHC if they attend this service on any given afternoon

Sarah Abdy

Stafford Heights School Principal 

Head of Curriculum

Spotlight on Year 4 Humanities and Social Sciences

This semester in HASS students have been analysing Australia before, during and after European settlement.

To start the unit students learnt about the connection to Country for Aboriginal peoples’ and Place for Torres Strait Islander peoples’ and how life changed or stayed the same after contact with early traders from Macassar.  They then went on to learn about the early European navigators who mapped the Australian continent.  Students explored events and drew conclusions about the significance of contact experiences to the lives of Australia’s First Peoples. Students also examined how and why life changed for all aboard the First Fleet and what experiences they had on the journey and when they arrived.

In the Design and technology unit, ‘What’s for lunch?’ Year 4 students were investigating old and new technologies used in food production. The chosen focus was on bread specifically flour production. Through this study it is currently thought that Aboriginal peoples were first to grind seeds to make a bread like food to eat.  Students then looked at traditional damper made in an earth oven. Students will be making damper with this new learning in mind using new technologies.

Year 4C performed on assembly in Week 4. They created freeze frames to depict the cause and effect of events that happened in England that resulted in the settlement of Australia which included the impacts on Aboriginal peoples. 

My New Gallery

Celebration of learning

On Friday Week 9 SHSS will be holding our annual Celebration of learning where parents and carers are invited into classrooms for a visit.  After this there will be a short assembly to celebrate as a whole school. 

Before school there will be a coffee van on site and OSHC will be holding a bake sale from 8.15am.  See you there!

Majella Cooper

Head of Curriculum

Head of Inclusion

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD)

NCCD is an annual collection of information about Australian school students with disability. The NCCD enables greater understanding of the needs and how best to support students at school. All schools are required to make reasonable adjustments for students with a disability so they can access and participate at school on the same basis as their peers in line with the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005.  

Reasonable Adjustments (NCCD Portal, 2025)

An adjustment is reasonable if it:

• supports a student with disability to participate in education on the same basis as other students
• takes into account the student’s learning needs
• balances the interests, including safety, of all parties, such as the student with disability, staff members and other students.

We encourage families to have conversations surrounding any adjustments that are being accessed to support learning or wellbeing with the class teacher and inclusion teacher working with your child. Attached to the newsletter is a literacy and numeracy factsheet that has some helpful ideas of how to support your child in these areas of learning.

Belonging program update

Building personal and social skills is an important part of our student wellbeing focus at Stafford Heights. The learning of the skills needed to support healthy connection with others has been integrated through our Belonging program. The program incorporates the curriculum’s Personal and Social Capabilities within the Gardening, Art and Social projects. Recently, the Gardening project has seen the completion of one of the main gardens resulting in compost bins, flowers in bloom and growth of produce such as lettuce and tomatoes. We have established a further number of raised garden beds outside the library as we continue to build our school community garden this term.

 The students have enjoyed the opportunities of planting, tending to the weeds, pruning and watering. Being outdoors with their peers has proven to be enjoyable with the beautiful Autumn weather.  Creating opportunities to build upon social skills as the students plan and problem solve around the next steps. A small group of students have taken the project further this week with the Paddock to Plate concept that grew into an idea to use some of the produce to make pizzas. At Stafford Heights we appreciated the value in growing your own food and the success gained when the crop develops from all the effort. A big thank you to Mrs Tukuafu, Miss Kristy and Miss Emma for supporting this program and encouraging the students to have a voice in the process. A sense of accomplishment and pride was seen from the students who worked together on this Paddock to Plate outcome.  

Shelley Kemp

Head of Inclusion

Enrolments

What to Include in an Enrolment Application

• Proof of address and residency documents
• State School Consent and school permission forms
• original birth certificate for each child
• passport and visa for any children born overseas
• recent report card
• Any relevant medical information and health action plans.
• Any current court orders or custody details related to the enrolling child/ren
• Any other information that you consider important for us to know about your child/ren.
• For students with an international passport and an Australian visa the following are also required: 
• visa grant notice from the Department of Home Affairs. Please note, a VIVO check does not provide details necessary for school enrolment.
• passport photo page.
• An official, English translation of their birth certificate may be requested.
• An Authority to Enrol in a Queensland State School is required for all subclass TR500 visas and is arranged by contacting Education Queensland International External link External link.
• All temporary visa holders should refer to Education Queensland International  External link External link to determine if an Authority to Enrol is required for their visa subclass.

Once you have completed the necessary forms, please return them (along with the necessary documents) to admin@staffordheightsss.eq.edu.au or alternatively contact Sonia Yates our enrolments Officer directly.

Pre Prep News

PREP ENROLMENTS FOR 2026

Applications for Prep 2026 are now being accepted.

If you have a sibling that is due to start in 2026 please make sure you come and see us in the office to receive an enrolment pack.

Please visit our school website at: https://staffordheightsss.eq.edu.au/enrolments to download our enrolment forms or alternatively collect from administration.

Please note: Our school is now catchment managed therefore we require the following documents to be sent through with the enrolment forms and permission forms.

The right age for Prep 2026 is for all children born between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021. Our Prep program is planned and designed to cater for all children at all levels of development who are born in this 12 month period

General School Information

Office Reminders

• Office Hours – 8.15am-3.15pm

• No Hat No Play Outside

* Student Birthday’s

If your child is celebrating a birthday and would like to bring cake to school to celebrate with the class please make sure that you contact the teacher or the office to ask how many students are in the class. We ask that you bring in something that can be easily given out to students for eg: cupcakes, freddo frogs and zooper doopers. (Please note: no full sized cakes as classrooms do not have the facilities to cut up slices to hand out)

• Students with Long Hair - All students with long hair should tie their hair back with a blue hair tie while at school (as 
per the Stafford Heights SS Student Dress Code)

• Early Pick Up of Students - If you need to pick up your child early throughout the day please come up to the 
office and sign your child out on the IPad.

• Medication at School - If your child requires medication at school, please bring the medication in the original 
packaging with a label from the chemist along with a letter from the Doctor stating the child’s name, medication, dosage and time to administer. You will then be required to fill out forms to give us permission to administer this medication during school hours.
Please note: where the dosage of a medication requires tables to be halved, we have to request that parents/carers supply a pill cutter, labelled with your child’s name.

• Family Holiday’s during School Term – if your family is going on a holiday during the school term, please email the office to inform them of the dates so that we know why your child will be absent from school. If the time away from school 10 school days or more the office will require you to fill out a specific form.

• Students Late to School – if your child is late to school (arrive after 9am), please make sure you come to the office first to receive a late slip to hand to their teacher. 

• Animals on School Premises – Please note that no animals are to enter school grounds at all as per the signs on each of our school fences.

• Student Absences – please remember to advise the office when your child is away from school. Please note: all Unexplained 
absences are noted in a child’s Report card.

1. Leave a message on 3621 2333 OR
2. SMS: 0426 305 697 OR
3. QParents App – Submit Absence OR
4. Email: admin@staffordheightsss.eq.edu.au

Even though absences may result in missed learning opportunities, the main reason we ask that you notify us when your child is away is so we are made aware that your child is SAFE.

School Photo Day - Wednesday 18th June

Envelopes will be coming home with your child in the next couple of weeks so keep a look out in their bags (see details below)

Sibling Photos

If you have more than one child at this school, you will be given an envelope with the option to purchase a sibling photo. ALL Sibling photos are taken BEFORE school at 8:15am in the Hall. We ask that parents ensure that they take their children to the hall at this time to wait for the sibling photo to be done.

QParents

We’re streamlining our office processes by making the most of QParents and encourage all parents to create an account. It’s a user-friendly portal which provides secure online access to information about your child’s schooling including attendance, report cards, invoices and payment history. QParents also provides ease of viewing and updating your child’s details (including address and medical conditions) and helps both schools and parents through improved administration efficiencies and reduced printing and mail-outs. Please see the QParents Fact Sheet below for details about how to sign up.

Student Awards

Student of the Week - Week 4

Respect Award - Week 4

PBL News - Be in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.

Week 6

This week our behaviour focus will be Be in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing which falls under Respect for Self and will look at using the Staffie Life Skill of Responsible Decision Making. 

This week we will use this focus closely on lunchtimes and we will be reminding students why we have designated play areas and why we insist on them staying in them. We will remind our students that they need to make responsible decisions and stay where there is an adult to supervise them, being on hand should they need help and being a safe space to play - concrete leading to many accidents etc.

This focus is one that you can easily use and remind your students of at home. You can encourage your students to make responsible choices which might help time management. For example, right place, right time might look like doing homework away from the TV to minimise distractions or as simple as going to bed on time.

Health & Physical Education

Gala Sport:

Well done to all the students who participated in round 1 of Gala Sport last week.  Lots of improvement during the games and some great teamwork overall.

Term 2 – Before School Activity.

We will continue with skipping on Monday Mornings at 8.30 and running on Wednesday Mornings at 8.30 this term weather permitting.  For those who like to run on a Wednesday – it might be a good idea to pack a spare pair of running shoes and a plastic bag if you have them, the morning dew is getting heavier with the colder mornings and shoes are getting very damp.

Students are to wait in the blue area on both mornings to be collected by the relevant staff member.  Remember, you must have a hat and be wearing it to participate.

Well done to everyone and congratulations to those who were selected into teams.

Athletics

Planning is currently underway for our Athletics Carnivals.  With our increasing numbers we are revising the whole program.  Details of the program will be released in the coming weeks.

• Prep to Year 2 – Junior Carnival will be on Thursday 19^th June
• Year 3 -6 Carnival- will be on Monday 16^th and Tuesday 17^th

Gala Sport

Arts News (Dance, Drama, Music)

Over the past fortnight the Arts room has been busy with students completing their performing assessments.  Drama, dance and music performances have graced the stage and performance space. It has been wonderful to watch. Check out the gallery of photos below of a range of students from across the school.

Upcoming events

On Friday 20th of June, Friday week 9 we will have our celebration of learning parade. This will be an extra special parade as both Choir and Dance Troupe will be performing. Both groups have been working extremely hard to prepare and can’t wait to showcase their performances. We hope to see you there.

Also a reminder to all Parents and Carers with students in Year 3-6 we have our incursion with Rhythm culture drum and dance on Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th of June, week 10.  Thank you to all who have returned their forms and made payment. If you have misplaced your form please see the office. 

Arts learning Week 5 and 6

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Student Council

Stafford Heights Student Council: Working Together to Make a Difference!

Our latest School Council meeting was full of great ideas and positive energy as we continued working toward improving our school grounds. Although we recently heard back from the Beachmere community group—who sadly can't support us due to our distance—we’re staying optimistic and now focusing on finding organisations closer to home. The Council is exploring local partnerships, with suggestions like McDonald's and Bendigo Bank already on the list. We’re calling on all classes to brainstorm more businesses or community groups we can approach for support!

We also discussed some fun and creative fundraising ideas that could really bring the school community together—think pyjama days, readathons, car washes, and even a talent show! A big thank you to Bella and Wilfred for their outstanding work presenting these plans at assembly. Your enthusiasm really inspired the rest of us! There’s even the possibility of teaming up with a circus company or reaching out to a local oil and gas business—how exciting!

Moving forward, the P&C will be invited to an upcoming meeting, so we can work together to make our fundraising efforts even more successful. Student Council reps are encouraged to bring class ideas to the next meeting—every voice matters.

Together, we can achieve amazing things for Stafford Heights State School!

Instrumental News

Instrumental Lessons are well underway for the year, and beginner instrumental students are working hard on learning their first few notes! Instrumental Music students are reported on twice per year (once per Semester).

Fees

Please ensure payment has now been made for Instrument hire and levy fees. Thank you!

ECDP (Early Childhood Development Program)

Library News

Rules for Borrowing:

* You must always have a Library Bag with you to borrow a book from the library (no exceptions)

* You may borrow one (1) book for the week (prep to Year 3)

* Remember always keep your book safe by placing the book back into your Library bag when not reading it.

* Always bring your returning Library Book and bag back to school on borrowing day.

* If you misplace your library book, or the book has been damaged beyond repair, the school's policy requires replacement or reimbursement for that resource.

P&C

Next event will be our THE LORAX Movie Night - Friday 13th of June from 4:30pm. As well as the film, there will be activities, face paint, a visit from emergency services, a sausage sizzle, and hopefully food trucks for more options! If you have any Food Truck connections that are available for this event please let us know. Ideally we would have a dessert option and a vegetarian/halal option. Please note that the Redwood Street driveways will be closed from 4pm for safety and secure access as the event is set up and held. For OSHC pick-up after 4pm, please use the Finch Street access point.

Tuckshop & Uniform Shop



Community News

APPLY NOW for QACI Brilliant Futures  - a two-year selective-entry preparation program for student participation in Year 7 and Year 8. Current Year 6 students are welcome to APPLY NOW. QACI Brilliant Futures provides impactful, collaborative extra-curricular learning experiences aligned with the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile, including inquiry, critical thinking and reflection.