23 July 2025

Principal’s Report

Yours in education,

Peter Davey
Principal

New Students

A special welcome is extended to Devika (3B) & Shenoa (5A) who joined the Kurwongbah School community recently.  We hope you enjoy your time at Kurwongbah and we look forward to parent support with P&C and class activities.

Student of the Week

TERM 2 WEEK 10

TERM 3 WEEK 1

Date Claimers

Due Dates for Payments

Staffing Update

• Congratulations to Mrs Jolly who has been appointed as the permanent Business Manager at Kurwongbah State School
• Mrs C (Music Teacher) is on leave for the first two weeks of Term 3 replaced by Mr Martin
• Mrs Cramb replaces Mrs McPherson as Class Teacher of 2A on a Thursday and Friday
• Mrs Cahill Rashada is on leave 24^th and 25^th There are no string lessons or ensemble in Week 2 of Term 3
• Mrs Ritchie (5C) returned from leave this week
• Miss Banks (2C) replaces Miss Waltisbuhl (Literacy Improvement Teacher) until 25^th Mr Koenig will teach 2B during this time.
• Mrs Stevenson replaces Mrs Tyson (Teacher Aide) after retiring at the end of Term 2

NAIDOC Week

Last week, we proudly celebrated NAIDOC Week at Kurwongbah State School. This was a time to recognise and honour the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

If you’ve walked past our Administration Block, you may have noticed the grassy hill filled with little people. Each student across the school has designed and decorated one to represent themselves, and together they show the strength, diversity, and unity of our school community.

STEM

Last term, 11 students from Years 5 and 6 attended a Drone, Microbit, and Makedo Immersion Day. The students had a fantastic time programming drones to complete a variety of activities and tasks, using coding and problem-solving, and using recycled materials and Makedo tools to build a design. Thank you, Mrs Rowley, for providing this amazing experience for these students!

Semester 1 Academic Reports

Semester 1 Reports were emailed to parents on Wednesday 16^th July. Please take the time to share the report with your child and celebrate their successes and achievements in the first half of the year as well as discussing some future goals that you would like your child to further develop.

If you have any questions regarding your child's report, please contact your child's class teacher, who will be able to assist.

If you haven't received the report via email, please check you "junk" email folder. After checking this, if you still haven't received it, please ring the school office on 3481 4333 and we will organise a follow up manual email of your child's report.

Academic awards for students from Years 3 to 6 will be presented on Parade on Friday 25^th July. A copy of Academic Awards Criteria for Semester One is below.

Year 3 & 5 NAPLAN Reports

2025 Individual Student NAPLAN Reports were sent home this week with students. NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment undertaken by students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It is the only national assessment that all Australian children undertake. Literacy and numeracy skills are the critical foundation for all learning and for the ability to participate effectively in society. NAPLAN questions assess content linked to the Australian Curriculum in English and Mathematics. NAPLAN tests are only one aspect of each school’s assessment and reporting process. As they are held once every 2 years for each student, they cannot replace the extensive, ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance. Your child’s teacher will have the best insight into your child’s educational progress. Along with other school assessment reports, NAPLAN individual student reports can also be used to discuss your child’s progress with their teacher.

Year 3 – 6 Pentathlon 2025

On the last Wednesday and Thursday of Term 2 our Year 3 – 6 students participated enthusiastically in the school Athletics Carnival. It was a wonderful two days of student sporting excellence with personal best being a key driver during the carnival. Thanks to the many parents and supporters who attended the carnivals, the Coffee Vans for providing food and drinks on the oval as well as our magnificent staff and the awesome Pine Rivers State High School Year 11 and 12 students who officiated during the events. 

A special thanks to Mr Wood for your organisation of the carnivals.  The Prep-Year 2 Sports Day will occur on Tuesday 12^th August.

Congratulations to the following students who were who were awarded age champions and runner ups. Medallions will be awarded on Parade this Friday 25^th July.

Congratulations to Kooringa House for winning the 2025 Pentathlon. The final results for the House Champions are below:

Kooringa: 1043
Wyalla: 1040
Mundi: 986
Aroona: 753

2026 iPad Program Information Session – Wednesday 30th July

2026 Prep Enrolments

We are now taking names of Prep students for 2026. Children who were born between 1^st July 2020 and 30^th June 2021 are eligible to commence Prep in 2026. Parents are invited to contact the school office (Ph: 3481 4333) if they are intending to enrol their child at Kurwongbah for Prep in 2026. Enrolment forms can then be completed, and student interview times booked. Our next school tours are scheduled for Thursday 24^th July and Thursday 14^th August at 3.30pm. Please contact the school for further information.

Show Holiday

A reminder that Monday 11^th August is the Brisbane Exhibition Show Holiday for the Moreton Bay Region, and the school is closed on this day.

Student Free Day

A reminder that Friday 5^th September is a designated Student Free Day with the school being closed to students on that day.

Uploading Photos

Please be aware that if you take any photographs of a school activity they CANNOT be uploaded or shared with others. We do not want to prevent you taking photos of your child; however, we need to be mindful of privacy issues and the safety of individuals.

School Uniform Days

This is a reminder to parents and students that we encourage the wearing of Sports House shirts each Tuesday. We also ask that students wear their formal check uniforms each Friday.

Our School Values

These are the values that are important in our School Community, and which are actively taught at Kurwongbah during our PBL (Positive Behaviour Lessons) lessons each week.

Caring

• Being compassionate and helpful
• Looking after each other
• Treating others with kindness

Honesty

• Being honest, truthful, sincere, fair and just
• Taking responsibility for yourself and your actions even when there could be consequences
• Being true to yourself

Respect

• Treating others as you would like to be treated
• Showing others courtesy and consideration
• Valuing yourself, other people, rules and property

Resilience

• Not giving up when things get difficult
• Sticking to something no matter how long it takes
• Bouncing back after disappointment
• Staying focussed on your goals

Excellence

• Striving to do your best
• Going higher than you’ve gone before
• Expecting that you will achieve quality in your work and relationships
• Reaching for the stars!
• Celebrate and take pride in your own achievements and successes

School Attendance

We are well and truly three quarters of the way through Term 2 and the weeks are flying by. Remember that everyday counts, and consistent daily attendance improves student learning outcomes significantly. Please support us by ensuring your child is at school every day unless they are unwell. Your attention to this important matter is appreciated

Parade Presentations 2025

Whole school Parades are held each Friday morning from 8.55am in our school hall. Parents are most welcome to attend. During the year each class or year level will present a Parade Presentation.

Below are the 2025 Parade Presentations:

Bell Times

Parents are reminded of the bell times.  If you are planning to collect your child during the break times, please ensure you contact the office to advise, so we can have your child waiting at the office.  We can’t otherwise guarantee to locate your child until they transition back to their classroom.

Student Safety

The safety of students and staff is very important. Members of the school community are asked to observe the following:

• Students are required to have their Kurwongbah school hats at school EVERY day and students must wear hats during both play breaks regardless of where they are playing
• Students who bring scooters to school must secure them in the bike area. Scooters are NOT to be stored in class areas
• Parents and carers are also asked to use the school crossings (Eacham Street and Eucumbene Drive) when bringing their children to and from school. This teaches our children the correct road safety rules. Thank you for your support with these safety precautions
• Parents and carers are permitted to photograph their own child at school events and activities but are requested to refrain from taking photos of other children or posting school material online (including Facebook)

Absences

State schools are required to notify parents on the same day any student is absent from school without explanation.  Rolls are marked at 8:50am and 2:10pm each day. An SMS message will be sent to any parent of a student with an unexplained absence by 11am.  Students who are not in their class at 8:50am will be marked absent and MUST collect a late slip from the office. Parents collecting their children early must sign them from the office before collecting from the classroom.

Absence Notification Process

Please remember to contact the school early in the morning if your child is going to be away or late for school so your child’s absence can be recorded correctly. The preferred method of reporting an absence is via the SMS number 0429 919 560. Otherwise, you can contact the school absence line on 3481 4366 or the main school admin line on 3481 4333.

Please be sure you indicate the following when reporting the absence:

• Name of child (especially if there is more than one child in your family)
• Absence reason – Please indicate if your child is sick or at an appointment etc. Indicating that your child is not coming to school, does not give a true reason for the absence
• Late Arrival – If your child will be late due to an appointment, please indicate an approximate time of arrival
• Dates of absences, if longer than 1 day

Contact Details

It is important that the school have the correct contact details.  This is especially important in emergency situations or if your child presents as unwell during the school day. If you have changed your mobile phone number, address or email address, complete the attached form and forward to the office.  Please be also aware if you have a change in emergency contacts. If parents are registered through QParents they can update details through this app.

Mobile Phones Away for the Day 2025

Student Use of Mobile Devices

If students choose to bring their phone to school, they must switch it off and hand in at the office for safe keeping during school hours.  Phones should not be left in school-bags.

Smartwatches and other devices can be worn; however, notifications must be switched off.

This includes during lessons and break times, as well as during other school activities. 

Students not complying with this policy will be referred to school leadership and parents contacted.

Why is This Happening?

This approach is being implemented in all Queensland state schools to:

• Reduce distractions in the classroom
• Increase face-to-face interactions between students
• Promote student health and wellbeing
• Reduce the potential for student exposure to negative impacts of the digital world, such as cyberbullying

More Information

Guidelines and supporting documents have been developed in consultation with school leaders and key stakeholders.

Scan the QR code to visit the phones away for the day online hub, for parent/carer and student resources.

School Parking Programme

Moreton Bay Regional Council (MBRC) Local Laws Unit undertakes a School Parking Patrol Program where officers complete scheduled school patrols, both in the morning and afternoon, to ensure that vehicles are parked in a safe and lawful manner. The primary aim of the program is to ensure that students and family members/caregivers are able to safely move around the school area as part of dropping off or picking up students from the school.

The Moreton Bay Regional Council Local Law No.5 (Parking) 2011 and Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 control parking or stopping of vehicles on footpaths, bicycle paths, marked yellow lines, shared paths, dividing strips and nature strips, along with vehicles parking across resident’s driveways and within ‘No Stopping’, ‘No Parking’, and ‘Bus Zones’ and Pick-up / Drop -off zones. Council is legally required to enforce these areas and the School Parking Patrol Program forms part of this process. Drivers are reminded that footpaths and nature strips are in place to promote pedestrian movement in a safe manner along roadsides and that drivers and residents must not stop on a bicycle path, shared path, dividing strip or nature strip. Please also note that vehicles that are parked with two wheels up and two wheels down is not considered as a lawful parking practice.

Local Laws officers conduct enforcement through the issuance of Penalty Infringement Notices as part of each School Parking Patrol. Please be aware that Council officers may take photographic evidence of vehicles stopping or parking illegally with Penalty Infringement Notices to be issued via mail at a later date to the offending vehicle’s owner.

Visit www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/parking for further guidance on parking restrictions.

For any further information, members of the school community are welcome to contact Moreton Bay Regional Council on 3205 0555.

Kurwongbah Kids Playgroup

Inclusion News

National Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• Year of schooling
• Category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• Level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

• Formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
• Consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
• Develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact the school.

Beth Kent
Head of Inclusion

STEM & Enrichment Education News

Makerspace Lunchtime Timetable

Buy $mart

Year 5 enrichment students are participating in a financial literacy competition this term creating projects for their peers to teach them about safe shopping, online scams and budgeting tips. The Office of Fair Trading runs the Buy Smart competition and there are great cash prizes to be won! Kurwongbah has participated in this for many years. Some winning entries have been safe shopping tips presented on a calendar, a video with a song about how to shop around and spend wisely and placemats about budgeting. Entries need to be submitted for judging by Week 9 of Term 3. If you would like to participate on your own, please come to library for a competition form.

Minecraft Education Immersion Day

Selected Year 4 students have been invited to will be partake in the Minecraft Education immersion day at Bellmere State School this week. The aim is to allow students to create a digital scene for a chosen story using Minecraft EDU.  Students will work in teams to justify how their chosen scene meets the needs of their selected character using a pre-made build plate. At the conclusion of the event teams will present their build and justify their design choices according to criteria including ethics, social values and sustainability.

Year 6 Digital Technology Curriculum

Students in Year 6 are studying the components of digital systems and explaining how digital systems connect to form a network as part of their Technology Curriculum. They have looked inside a computer to view the working components and are learning about hardware and software as well as input and output devices. Students will explore robots and link their learning to create a program of a sumo wrestling robot with sensors to compete against their peers.

Resource Centre News

Book Week – Book and Adventure

Book Week Parade

Book Week Parade will be held on Friday 22^nd August, so start getting ready and organise your Book Week costume!

Book Week Author Visit – 19^th and 20^th August

Celebrated Author Michelle Worthington is coming to Kurwongbah State School on Tuesday 19^th and Wednesday 20^th August.

Book Week Competitions

Write short poem or a song/jingle about how books can take you on an adventure. You may add a picture, and you can do this as a group of no more than 5. Start bringing your entries from Week 3 to Week 6 and you will be able to come to the library to perform your poem/song. Students will have a choice of being filmed. Chosen entries will get to work with Mrs Turnbull, to perform their entry using a green screen. Some of these entries will be recorded and shown on Parade.

Bring your entries to the library. If you want to perform your poem/song, see Mrs Turner and make a time. Entries close Monday 25^th August.

Book Week Scavenger Hunt

Many thanks and Happy Reading,
Your friendly Library Crew

Book Club News

How Book Club Helps Your Child’s School

Every time you place a Scholastic order, your School is being rewarded!  For example, for every Book Club order you place, Scholastic receives 20% of your total order spend to your school as Scholastic Rewards.  This allows the school to purchase books and resources for your child’s classroom and the library, helping students reach their highest potential.

How To Order

The Book Club LOOP platform for parents allows you to pay by credit card.  Your child’s order is submitted directly to school and the books will be delivered to your child’s class.  You can place your child’s order at http://scholastic.com.au/LOOP or using the LOOP app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

Cash orders can be handed into the library.  Simply fill out the order form on the back of the catalogue, place the form and the exact cash amount into an envelope or clip seal bag and drop off to the LIBRARY ONLY!

Julie Collins
Book Club Coordinator 

P&C News

P&C Meeting

Our next P&C meeting will Wednesday 13^th August at 6.30pm in the Staffroom. Come along and hear about what is happening in our school community.

Become a P&C Member

Our P&C association is a friendly and welcoming group and the meetings are a good way of finding out what is happening at our school. Each year members work together to grow community spirit and work towards the benefit of all children at the school. Members may choose to volunteer in the classroom, library, tuckshop, uniform shop, fete, at sporting events and organised activities/working bees. P&C membership also allows members to have a say in what should be done to help the school community, and how best to fundraise to work towards important goals throughout the year.

Drop your membership form into the school office or email it to: secretary@ksspca.qld.edu.au. Membership forms are also available at the Uniform Shop.

Tuckshop News

Ordering

The preferred method of ordering is online via the QKR app, as all details of in stock items are available.  We also accept over the phone orders and cash orders over the counter.

Cash

Tuckshop is once again accepting cash sales via the bag system and for over the counter items in break times.

Phone Orders

Parents can place a phone order, by phoning the tuckshop directly on 3481 4337 and paying by credit card.  Cut off for phone orders is 9:00am.

Online Ordering

Parents can order via the online QKR app.  Cut off for online ordering is 8:00am.  Please ensure you have your child’s correct class, so your child’s meal is prepared and ready in the correct collection place.

Allergies

We currently cater for many students with allergies.  If you have any concerns, please feel free to contact our team and we will be able to give you up to date information regarding our products.

Tuckshop Hours

Tuckshop Convenors 
3481 4337
tuckshop@ksspca.qld.edu.au

Uniform Shop

Uniform Fittings

If you need a uniform fitting, you do not need to arrange an appointment. Simply come to the Uniform Shop during opening times.

Qkr! Online orders are delivered to class during Uniform Shop hours.

School Backpacks

School backpacks are available for $62.00. These backpacks are chiropractic approved and have a guarantee for the full time your child is at school.

Second-Hand Uniforms

If you have uniforms that you no longer require, please bring them into the Uniform Shop. We urgently need all sizes.

You can either sell them through the shop or donate them.  If you can’t get into the Uniform Shop to drop off your second-hand uniforms you can leave them at the Office with Uniform Shop written on the bag. 

Ordering Through Uniform Shop    

Uniform Shop Hours

Thank you 
Michelle & Kimmy
3481 4338
uniformshop@ksspca.qld.edu.au 

Containers for Change