21 February 2025

Important Dates

Principal’s Report

Dear East Ayr State School,

Welcome to the middle of Term 1. The sun is out and the puddles are drying up, it’s time to get our teaching and learning back on track. This is our first year of implementing Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum and I’m happy to report a few subtle changes to our approach in Queensland that set us up well to cope with our recent disruptions. For this version of the curriculum we have less summative assessment tasks. This gives us longer periods of teaching before we check in on how the information is sticking and to make decisions about what needs to go on our student’s report cards.

In our teaching and learning sequences we repeat the really important teaching approximately every two weeks. We do this by sliding in a new text for our students to study. Given the disruptions of the first few weeks, some of our students may have missed sequence 1 and a bit of sequence 2. While it’s important to have everyone at school every day, this wasn’t possible due to the weather. We are confident we will catch everyone up in the next couple of teaching sequences and everyone will be able to demonstrate the thinking that the new curriculum is chasing. Thanks for working with our classrooms to ensure we are creating healthy and confident people in our community!

Ayr High Leadership Induction- Special Guests

I was honoured to accompany our school captains to Ayr State High School this week to attend the Leadership Induction Ceremony. This is always a special occasion for me and a proud moment, as I get to witness the ongoing leadership achievements of our past students. East Ayr State School is always well represented on stage at this event. I love seeing our former students accepting their badges and continuing their commitment to leading our community. Our school captains represented us with pride and got to have another High School experience. Congratulations to our former students and families that have been rewarded with leadership positions, I wish you all the best for a successful year.

Regards,
Chris Wicks- Principal

P & C News

Hi, we are still waiting to hear back from our uniform supplier about the minor modification to our jumper. Once it has been finalised an order form will be sent home. 

At the end of last year, the P&C held a raffle of a signed Cowboys Jersey, a signed Wallabies Jersey and a firepit with goodies. We are very pleased to share that a total profit of $3450 was raised. Congratulations to the Southern, Sutcliffe and Becke families on winning these awesome prizes.

The P&C will be holding fundraising events throughout the year. 

Our first social event for the year is a whole school disco on Thursday 6^th March, 6-8pm. A letter with information will be sent home next week. As always will require many helpers – chip cookers, bakers and parents to serve and prep food. If you are able to help, please text Corryn on 0417486733. 

Our next P&C meeting is late March, and this will be our Annual General Meeting. We know that many parents are not keen to take on executive positions, however we are asking families to consider becoming a member and taking on an executive role. Over the next 2 years the majority of our committee and execs will be ‘aging out’, they will no longer have students enrolled at our school. We are seeking new faces, new ideas and new energy to our committee. Without a P&C it will be incredibly hard for the school to offer services like the tuckshop and uniform shop, as well as the many social opportunities. This is the year to come along and learn the ropes before the current team move on. Being part of our P&C team really isn’t as scary as it may appear. It is a low key, social environment where parents to have a closer look at our school and is a great way to be involved in your children’s education. AGM is Monday 24 March, 7pm in the library. 

General News

MAST Parent Sessions

Each year, Parents/carers and family members wanting to volunteer in our school community are required to complete Mandatory All Staff Training (MAST). This covers important topics to ensure our school is a safe place. Below are some examples of volunteering roles that require MAST training:

• Tuckshop
• Class reading support
• Yr 5 & 6 Camp
• Excursion
• Inter-house carnivals (cross-country, athletics & swimming)
• Interschool sport

This training will take approximately 30 minutes. We have scheduled two dates in WEEK 6 to facilitate the training:

• Monday 3 March – 5.30-6.00pm in the library
• Tuesday 4 March – 5.30-6.00pm in the library

We invite anyone wishing to participate in the above events to attend one of the above sessions.  

Burdekin School Upcoming Trials

In week 6, there are scheduled trials for the below sports. Trial information and consent letters will be distributed in week 5 for interested students.

• Rugby League 11-12yrs (Born 2013 & 2014) - Mon 3 March (wk 6) & Thurs 6 March (wk 6)
• Netball 10-12 yrs (Born 2013, 2014, 2015) - Mon 3 March (Wk 6) Thurs 6 March (wk 6)
• Hockey 10 – 12 yrs (Born 2013, 2014, 2015) - Tues 4 March (wk 6) Wed 5 March (wk 6)

Wearable Technology

A reminder that our school policy states “Students must not bring valuable Personal Technology Devices (PTDs) like… wearable technology to school as there is a risk of damage or theft (NB: wearable technology that allows students to make calls, take photos, message others or connect to the internet must be not be worn unless prior school approval has been granted). We acknowledge that there are times when students need to contact parents in emergencies or to confirm a change of collection time after school. As per our policy, parents can leave a message for students between 8.45am and 2.45pm by phoning the office. Students in times of genuine emergency can contact parents by requesting to use the office phone.”

The above policy includes Smart watches, Apple watches and Space watches. Please note that this applies to watches that can be turned to ‘school’ or ‘safe’ mode. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Administration.

NAPLAN 

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program- Literacy and Numeracy) will be administered to Year 3 and 5 students online with the exception of Year 3 NAPLAN Writing test which is a paper-based test. NAPLAN starts on WEDNESDAY 12 March and will continue over a number of days. 

More information on the Year 3 and 5 NAPLAN tests will be sent home to parents /caregivers today. 

NAPLAN Practice Tests 

In preparation for NAPLAN, Year 3 and Year 5 will complete an Omnibus Test. This test has questions on numeracy, reading, grammar and spelling. There will be no data collected or student reports from these practice tests. 

Leadership Induction Ceremony

Our 2025 school leaders will be presented with their badges at a school parade on Wednesday 26 February. Our school captains, sporting house leaders and school leaders will be introduced to our school community. Also, at this parade all Year 6 students will receive their 2025 Senior badge.

Staff Briefing

East Ayr SS staff are dedicated to doing a great job for our community. To ensure we have a consistent whole-school messages and expectations, our staff will participate in fortnightly staff briefings between 8:30 – 8:50am. This will occur on even weeks and alternate between Wednesday and Thursday. On these days, classrooms will open at 8:50am. Students are asked to keep their bags with them or wait outside their classroom until their teacher arrives. There will be supervision provided during this time. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school on 47830222.

School Disco

Our first School Disco of 2025 is on Thursday 6 March. This will be a whole school disco from 6pm – 8pm held at the stage area and eating area under C Block. Food and drinks can be purchased from the Tuckshop windows. Lollies and glow products will be available from the Chook Pen. There will be 2 entry locations to the disco – one at the front of the stage near the stairs and the other at the back near the Tuckshop. There will be a $2 entry fee. Please note there is no theme for this disco.

Students of the Week

Class Awards

PE Awards

Science Awards

Wellbeing

At East Ayr SS our classrooms use the Australian Curriculum. A General Capability that is taught across our classrooms is the Personal and Social Capabilities. These capabilities outline age appropriate personal and social skills (https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/personal-and-social-capability?element=0&sub-element=PSCSEAA). There are 4 organising elements:

1. Self-awareness
2. Self-management
3. Social awareness
4. Social management

Below is an image that summaries the key stages for primary school students. This is a great guide to help parents/cares understand age appropriate personal and social abilities. If you feel your child is struggling to meet some of these benchmarks, please feel free to speak with your classroom teachers.

Our school learning and wellbeing framework is seen below. A video to explain the model is found here - https://youtu.be/O8pGhVYa5C0. We have embedded these skills in our below model as we feel that are essential to build healthy and confident people.

Notices