Term 2 Week 10 Newsletter

Principal's Report

Dear Stafford Heights Families,

We have (almost) made it! There have been several wonderful celebrations since the last newsletter. All year levels opened their classrooms to parents and caregivers for our Celebrations of Learning, a fantastic opportunity for students to connect with you and proudly share their learning from the term.

We also held our Celebration of Learning Assembly, where students showcased their achievements and talents at Stafford Heights State School.

A heartfelt thank you to our talented Instrumental Teacher, Ms Rachel Andrews, and our instrumental music students for hosting our very first Instrumental Music Concert at Stafford Heights. The evening was a celebration of the learning and dedication that has gone into music lessons this semester.

All students had a fantastic time at our senior and junior sports days, cheering each other on and celebrating the winners. Thank you to Mrs Jardine for all of her work in the lead up, and to all staff for their support on the day.

Finally, report cards were sent home on Wednesday. If you did not receive it via email, please email the office and they will send it through to you. A sincere thank you to our dedicated teachers for the time and care put into each report.

Thank you to all of our families for your ongoing support throughout the term. I wish you all a safe and relaxing two week break.

We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on the first day of Term 3, Monday 14 July.

Head of Curriculum

Celebration of Learning

Last Friday, our Celebration of Learning was a beautiful morning that celebrated all things learning in classrooms.  It was incredible to see so many parents attend.  Students absolutely loved showing their work and doing activities with their special people. 

The performance by choir and dance troupe really showcased the talent and commitment of students.  I would like to thank Mrs Kelleher, Ms Mel and Mrs Dingle for the tireless work they do in providing students with opportunities to showcase their talents. I would also like to thank the teachers who opened up their classrooms and welcomed visitors in for this special time.

Home Reading

With holidays here, be sure to continue with reading everyday.  A reminder to sign the blue Home Reading card every day that a book is read or listened to. Bring the card to school after the holidays for the teacher to check.

Majella Cooper

Head of Curriculum

Head of Inclusion

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD)

Last week, Ms Grace had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the local network cluster moderation for NCCD. This meeting involved many schools within the Metropolitan North region. This was an opportunity to review and reflect upon the process of NCCD and the implementation of reasonable adjustments for school students with a disability. Participating in key events such as this strengthens and broadens our school knowledge around the scope of practice in which supports may be provided to address access and participation. This was a valuable process to engage with and to reflect upon professional practice. Information shared will support the school team to complete the Validation phase of the NCCD process.

Online Safety

Access to and use of digital devices is becoming a part of daily life for many families. There are many benefits to connecting to devices, but there are also potential harms that children may not yet understand. It is helpful to build your child’s digital intelligence to help them navigate the online space. It is important to monitor the access of online experiences so that they are age appropriate, safe and support your child’s development. There are many resources to help support conversations around online safety with your child. One resource is the Mighty Heroes Program. This series comprises of short videos showcasing four heroes and their online safety superpowers. The videos are helpful conversation starters to discuss the safety message that lies within each superpower of respect, responsibility, investigation and trust of one’s feelings.  This may be a resource you may like to explore. 

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/resources/mighty-heroes

Auslan Club

Auslan Club occurs in the HIVE every Thursday morning at first break. This term the students have been involved in fun interactive learning activities around several topics. These have included the alphabet, Australian animals, family, food, numbers and weather. The club welcomes new members to join next term. The program allows flexibility in when students are able to attend, acknowledging that some students may not be able to attend each week. The activities are organised to build on understanding in a supportive way through fun games. Come and enjoy the fun in Term 3!

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

Staffie Celebration - Friday 27th June

Jeans for Genes Day - Thursday 7th August

General School Information

Term 2  Calendar of Events

Term 3 Calendar of Events

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.

2025 Premier's Reading Challenge

Parents/Carers please keep motivating your children to read. More forms can be collected from their teacher or the office. Once completed please return to the classroom teacher or to the office.

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 8

Respect Award - Week 8

PBL News - "Use your manners"

This week's PBL focus is to 'Use your manners'. This falls under Respect for Self and under the Staffie Life Skill of Resilience.

Initially, you might think that we would find this focus under Respect for Others but at Stafford Heights, we look deeper than that. This week we can really teach the students that having and using good manners isn't something they should 'put on' for other people to get what you want but it is about having a high personal standard for how they interact with others, even at the end of term.  

This week is a really great opportunity to discuss feelings that may occur when students are trying to use their manners and where they may need to draw upon their inner resilience in response to their emotions. There may be times when our students are trying to use their manners, but the end result didn’t match their expectations (asking really politely to stay up late or for those extra lollies) which results in disappointment, sadness or anger. In these situations, we can discuss with the students how we can ‘bounce back’ from these emotions by using strategies such as taking 5 deep breaths or talking to someone about how they feel.

Health & Physical Education

Another term has flown past and there have been a lot of activities in the Sport and Health and PE space.

Gala Sport:

What a great afternoon for our Finale Game at school between Stafford Heights 1 and Stafford Heights 2.  Students demonstrated just how far they had come on their journey in playing AFL during this game.  Thanks to Mr Cullen for stepping up and Umpiring the Game at the last minute.

Athletics

We held our Track and Field Carnivals in week 9 with some varying weather conditions. 

Senior Carnival – Years 3-6

Field Day on Monday 16^th served us up some great sunshine and almost spring like conditions.  Students showed some great skills and determination while participating in all the various events.

Track Day on Tuesday 17^th couldn’t have been more the opposite, overcast and cold proving we were truly outside doing a winter event.  Again students showed exceptional efforts many stepping up to try distance races – if only to make sure they got a point for their house.

Congratulations to our Age Champions at the carnival.

* 9 year Boys – 3 way tie to – Henry B, Theo and Dorian

* 9 year Girls - Annie

* 10 year Boys - Chuka

* 10 year Girls - Mary

* 11 year Boys – Alex L

* 11 year Girls – Stacey

* 12 year Boys - Xiankyne

* 12 year Girls.  – Tala’Shae

Finally:  Well done to our winning House Norman who lead convincingly from beginning to end!

Junior Carnival – Prep – Year 2

Another day of what could only be considered perfect weather.  Our Junior School had a great time participating in the tabloid events before moving to the track where they were all able to show their families just how fast they can run.  Lots of smiles and fun for the morning. 

Thank you to the year 6 students who helped out with various activities.

Term 3 – 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.

Volleyball Cup

Our year 5 & 6 Students are being invited to express their interest in participating in the Annual Volleyball Cup at Craigslea High School.  Notes with more information will be sent home with those students expressing interest early in Term 3 so we can lock in our teams.

Ausbike

Our year 3-6 students had the opportunity in Week 8 to participate in a free Ausbike Session during health lessons.  Thanks to Nathan and Kellie who work with Auscycle for running the sessions. They were informative and fun. 

The sessions included learning some basic safety for riding bikes including:

• A, B, C safety checks. A – check air in tyres, B – check breaks work, C – check chain is on properly and also greased so it runs smoothly. 
• Checking our handles to make sure that the end caps are on. Handlebars without end caps can cause significant injuries in an accident or fall if they land the wrong way.
• Making sure our seat and bike is adjusted correctly to our height.
• Checking our helmets fit us correctly and are done up correctly. A correctly fitting helmet can be a lifesaver!
  • Check it fits on our head properly. Place two fingers across our eyebrows and make sure when we put the helmet on our head it comes down over our forehead and sits comfortably on the fingers, if not we might be in need of a new one.
  • Tighten the adjustment dial at the back to ensure it sits nicely on our head.
  • Check that two fingers fit between our chin strap and our chin, if more tighten, if less loosen.
  • Check that the v section at the side of the straps fits comfortably just below our ears. If its on our ears - readjust, of its near our chin – readjust.

Taking just a few seconds to make these checks each in every time we get on a bike can have the potential to save us from serious harm if we crash.

For some of us it was a time to find our pedals – we learnt to glide on a gentle slope, using our brakes to control our movements. When we felt confident, we used our feet to find our pedals to transition from gliding to riding.  The whole time we need to make sure we are looking up and sitting tall.

For those of us more confident on our bikes we learnt better control and manoeuvrability while on our bikes completing obstacle courses which also including throwing beanbags at a target while moving and still controlling our bikes.  Great fun!

Holiday Time

Wishing all our families a safe and enjoyable break over the holidays as we recharge for another busy and activity packed Term 3.

All the best.

Mrs Jardine

HPE Teacher.

Senior Track and Field Carnival

Junior Track and Field Carnival

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Ausbike

Arts News (Dance, Drama, Music)

Last week, in week 9, we had our celebration of learning assembly. Dance Troupe and Choir did a spectacular job and put on two outstanding performances.  Both groups worked hard over the semester and should be extremely proud of the way they confidently performed on the stage.  Check out the photos below.

Celebration of Learning Assembly

This week, students in year 3 to 6 took part in the drumming and dance incursion. Nathaniel from Rhythm Culture taught students how to play the gimbal drum, a traditional drum from Ghana.  We learnt two different beats, base and tonal, to play simple west African celebration rhythms.  During this workshop they also did some dance and movement activities with jumping and chanting. It was fantastic to see how many of the students picked up rhythm so quickly and really got into the spirit of it. See a small selection of photos below. There will be more shared on assembly next term.

Rhythm culture

Class News - Years 2A & 2B

Term 2 has been an exciting time in Year 2, with many highlights to share!

In English, we have been learning to write information reports about some of our favourite animals. It has been wonderful to see our amazing Year 2 writers grow in confidence and skill. We have also been working hard to become more fluent readers.  We’ve focused on place value, reading clocks, and using calendars in Mathematics and enjoyed using our knowledge to solve addition and subtraction problems.  In Design and Technology, we had lots of fun designing and making our very own spinning toys.

We also had a blast celebrating Under 8’s Day and participating in the Athletics Carnival! What a fantastic term it has been — we can’t wait to see what Term 3 will bring!

Year 2A and 2B

Term 2 in Year 2

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Student Council

Student Council Update – Making Our Voices Heard!

It’s been an exciting and productive year so far for our Student Council, with students stepping up to lead, inspire and take action to improve our school community.

We’ve hit the ground running with some fantastic initiatives already underway. Every class has been busy sharing ideas, setting goals, and getting involved with school-wide planning. We’ve connected with the P&C and have presented at Whole School Assemblies to share our projects and progress.

You may have seen our new Student Council Information Board proudly displayed in the Library. It’s where we’ll keep everyone up to date with our activities, upcoming events, and ideas from across the school.

A big focus this term has been our School Grounds Improvement Project. We’ve reached out to twelve different organisations for support, including:
Carbon Creative, Courier-Mail, Micah Projects, Community First Development, Brisbane Broncos Charities Fund, Kurbingui Youth & Family Development Seed Mob, and Denison Gas. Fingers crossed for some generous partnerships ahead!

We’re also excited to announce a fun Pyjama Day to raise spirits and maybe even some funds!

We would love your feedback and support on some of the following ideas for Term 3:
 - Could we launch a “Wrapper Free Tuesday” each week to reduce litter and help the environment?
 - How about a Student Council Day – with a Free Dress Day or even a “Talk-Free Tuesday” to raise awareness and funds?
 -  Could we swap ovals for a day to shake things up and build community between classes?
 -  We’re dreaming big – a Story Club, a whole-school mural, or even glow sticks for the School Disco!

And of course, we’re always brainstorming new fundraising ideas. If you or your child have suggestions, we’d love to hear them!

Together, we’re building a more connected, creative and student-led school. Watch this space!

— Mrs Duke and the Student Council Team

Instrumental News

Thank you to all parents/carers that attended our very first Performing Arts Celebration concert on Monday night, it was such a lovely night for the Instrumental Students to showcase their talents to their families. 

We will be having an Instrumental Music Information afternoon on 8th September 5pm-6pm if any students currently in Years 2 to 5 who would like to learn an instrument to come along to this afternoon to find out more information.

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

Movie Night

The P&C Assoc. hosted our first ever Stafford Heights community movie night on SHSS school grounds, Friday 13^th June.

Although a chilly night, it was a great success. So many families from our community and beyond came along to watch the Lorax and snuggled down with some popcorn and a hot chocolate.

Big thanks to our local supporters: MP Jimmy Sullivan, Rode Fresh market, Rode Meats, Enoggera Grow Centre, Castella Boutique, and Cr Tracy Davis. The event was made possible thanks to the Lord Mayor’s Community Grant Fund.

Thank you to our many incredible volunteers that helped set up, the BBQ team, Popcorn and Hot Drinks team, Face Paint team, Art and Craft Team, roaming security, and our local communities that made the afternoon and evening so much fun!

"That was the best night of my life" Lara, Prep A

P&C Association Logo Design Competition

Congratulations to Phoebe Chamberlain from 5/6C!

We'll soon have a graphic designer to create a digital version for us to use for P&C branding. Thank you to all students for submitting an entry - your creativity and design skills made it very difficult to select the winning entry. 

P&C Updates

As we farewell Lachy, Mitch, Erik, Connor and Callum, we continue to recruit for our OSHC Coordinator in preparation for Term 3. Please reach out to the exec at staffordheightspandc@gmail.com if you have any questions regarding access to external Vacation Care.

Our next P&C Meeting will be Tuesday 29th of July in the Library at 6:30pm.

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.

"Sharks Camp 2025 - July. GET IN QUICK LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE!! Sharks Camp is a four-day volleyball camp designed to cater to athletes of all skill levels. With elite development opportunities available and pathways into club and state-level volleyball, this camp has something for everyone!

The Dates:

8th July | 9th July | 10th July | 11th July

We usually hit capacity pretty quickly, so if you're interested sign up today to secure your spot!!

YEAHHHH SHARKS!!