6 March 2025

From the Principal –Liam Hackwood

Yaama Ngulum (Hello everyone), our year is fully underway and have been impressed with our students across the school. Our Prep students are settling in on the whole and they are slowly learning what ‘big school’ is all about. At the other end, our Year 6 students have been doing a great job in setting the standard across the school. About 50 of our leaders travelled to the Halogen Young Leader’s Conference last Monday. Members of the public were incredibly impressed by our students on the train ride into the city and out of the city. Our staff are working incredibly hard each and every day to not only educate our students inside the classroom, but outside the classroom as well. I often think this is a great measure of the work that we are doing. Inside the school gates is certainly one measure, but outside the school gates, when in uniform, if our students can uphold the values that we as teachers and you as adults are teaching them, then the world is going to be a better place!

Truancy at Morayfield East State School

As parents and carers know, we have been working hard on reducing the truancy within our school. Our students are aware of truancy and know that while we have an incredible amount of supports for students inside and outside the classroom, students self-exiting or staying away from their learning area, no matter what the reason is, is not ok. In the first week of our crackdown on truancy, 43 incidents occurred where students left the classroom or were unsupervised without a legitimate reason. For these students, the consequence is spending a lunch break with members from the Leadership Team. We use this opportunity to talk to the students about the decision they have made, why they made it and what they could do next time. We are alerting parents and carers via text message if a student has been truant and again, we ask for your support at home to discuss the importance of students remaining in supervised by our staff during all learning times.

Furniture Donation for Papua New Guinea

Last week, we were able to work with the Rotary Australia Repurposing Equipment (RARE) Team to donate old furniture from our school. This included 296 chairs, 57 desks and 283 under-desk trays. It is my understanding that this equipment will be donated to Papua New Guinea. We will be providing a second truckload of furniture next week and this excites me that as a school, we are able to support others who are in need. I have included some photos that were provided by Phil Saxby. I am in awe of his voluntary work that he is conducting and am so pleased that this incredibly small gesture from our school will go a long way!

NAPLAN 2025

NAPLAN will be commencing next Wednesday in our school. Our students in Years 3&5 have been working hard, getting accustomed to the testing experience. To support our students, we have provided multiple opportunities to practice so that they do not feel too anxious about the conditions. Our staff have been working hard in this space and I thank them for all of their efforts. We will be conducting our testing starting on Wednesday 12 March through to Monday 17 March. For students who are absent, we will also conduct ‘catch-up’ tests for these students. Parents and carers can help at home. Please talk about NAPLAN with your child as a positive experience. We want our students to simply do their best. For our parents and carers, I would invite you to review this information about NAPLAN.

Flexispace - LEAP

Last week was a huge week for our school. The planned Flexispace that was planned to be implemented by the Department of Education got underway. Our three LEAP classes were sensational and I want to commend the staff and students who were involved. I know that Alistair Watt will be speaking about this more in his article. Already we have seen some huge successes for our students and through grit and hard work, I have no doubt that this will be an incredibly successful program within our school.

GP in Schools Program

I have been pleased to see the take-up of Dr Hemen, our GP on site who comes to the school every Tuesday. Appointments have been booking up quickly. Over the last three weeks, I believe we have had only a handful of spare appointments. A reminder to parents and carers that similar rules and regulations are implemented for appointment cancellations. I am so pleased to see many of our families are taking the opportunity to book their child in to see Dr Hemen every Tuesday. If you are keen to make an appointment for your child, please do so at gp@morayfieldeastss.eq.edu.au .

RED Dance Trials and Confirmation

On Friday of next week, we will commence our trials for RED Dance. Nearly 90 parents and carers responded to the survey to show their interest for the program. These trials days are being held on Friday 14 March and Friday 21 March. Sessions for students from Years 1-3 will commence at First Break in the Hall and students from Years 4-6 will be at Second Break. At this stage, I estimate each session to cost about $9 per student. The trials will free of charge to begin with. I invite parents and carers to then keep an eye out for more communication from RED Dance as I have no doubt that this program will be hugely successful in our school.

Welcome to our new P&C

At the beginning of last week, our school conducted the AGM for our P&C Meeting along with our February General Meeting. I would like to welcome our new executive members for 2025.

President – Donna Miller
Vice-Presidents – Rebecca Favotto, Lynda Jacobson, Sarah Read and Sarah Northcott
Treasurer – Kaylene Cathcart
Secretary – Krystal West

This will be a big year for our P&C. We are still seeking parent feedback and you can complete this survey to have your say. The results from this survey will be discussed at the next P&C General Meeting on Monday 24 March. The meeting will commence at 3:30pm in our School Hall. Our Executive Team are very keen to see new parents and carers come aboard. It would be great to see you at the next meeting.

And Finally…

I will be accessing leave at the end of this term for Weeks 9&10. In my absence, Karen Herburg will be Acting Principal. I want to thank you all for an action-packed start to the year and your support as we continue to make our school a wonderful place to be!

Yours in learning, Liam

Deputy News Prep – Natalie Arthur

Welcome to Week 6

Our Prep students and teachers are buzzing along…

This week our Prep children will be completing their first PLD screener with support of teachers. This will give students an opportunity to demonstrate the sounds they have been learning and their beginning skills in blending and segmenting these sounds to make words. At the completion of the screening, students will be provided with group and/or individual work to target their next steps in learning. This is an exciting time for teachers, as we can see and celebrate this early progress.

Prep students have also been enjoying more opportunities to develop their gross motor skills, while learning about animals and the way they move. Our Animal Fun program is a fun and engaging way for young children to develop their static balance, fine and gross motor strength, which again supports engagement and academic success. If you’d like to find out more, please visit the Animal Fun website here.

Our OT Ms Courtney has continued her Fine Motor Program each Tuesday over the past few weeks, and students are thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to engage in hands-on fine motor activities. These activities build hand and finger strength, which then support our students to develop their writing skills in weeks to come.

Wonderful engagement, concentration, and the just the right amount of challenge!

Let’s minimise the mess at MESS!

“This year, Morayfield East State School has proudly joined Council’s School Waste Minimisation Program (SWMP) to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill. On Tuesday, February 18th, our student leaders took on the challenge of sorting a 240-litre sample of general waste into four categories: general waste, recyclables, 10c eligible containers, and compostable materials. Their findings were eye-opening—an incredible 50% of our school’s waste could be diverted from landfill simply by implementing recycling and composting!

Stay tuned as we roll out exciting initiatives throughout the year to make a real impact!”

In Prep E

We have been busy learning about living and non-living things. It is important that we know how to care for the living things by learning what they need. We planted our bean seeds in soil and have given them sunlight, water and fresh air. Any day now we should see our seedlings sprout.

We had a surprise visitor to our class, so we caught him and learnt about his needs as a living thing, observing him closely.  The lucky grasshopper will be released back into the wilds of the Prep playground.

In Prep E we have been learning how to use tallies in collecting data. This helped us choose our class mascot and how we decided upon his name. Some really liked the name Toucan Tom while others thought Toucan Tim had a nice ring to it.  Having a Toucan is great but we need to know how to look after him so we put on our Scientist hats and researched his needs. Prep E is proud to introduce Toucan Tim, who will be accompanying us on our learning journey.

Deputy News Years 3 & 4 – Sue Clifton

Dear Parents

We have had another busy few weeks across the school, with some great learning across year 3 & 4.

Students continue to work through their English assessment for the term and last week, members of the leadership team visited classrooms to talk to students about their learning, their focus on the next steps and how they use the learning wall to support their work. Our teachers’ have also been exploring last year’s English A-E data, and PLD data, with a focus on individual students and their area of need within engagement, inclusion, curriculum, and attendance.

At Morayfield East State School, we are strong in our belief that student behaviour improves when the expected behaviour is explicitly taught and our behavioural expectations and communicate these clearly to our students. We have 3 behavioural expectations that we require all students to meet; these being, Be a Learner, Be Respectful, Be Safe and Responsible.

These expectations are explicitly taught to our students daily, and students are acknowledged through a range of modes when the expectations are met. To support us on our journey, I would encourage all families to have a conversation with their child/ren about the expectations and see if your child can explain the meaning of each and provide you with examples.

Year 3

In English, 3B have been working on creating persuasive paragraphs based on the texts they are reading in class. They have been working in pairs as well as independently, using the 3rd teacher to support their writing.

In Maths, 3B have just finished learning all about data. During this activity, students were given a random bag of M&M's. They had to collect, with tally marks, how many they had of each flavour and then display their results as a picture graph.

The year 3 Diverse Learning Team have been supporting students with developing their letter sound knowledge through PLD.  Students have also been busy asking questions and collecting data to create graphs to learn what flavour donuts people prefer.

As the term has progressed, students have been building some lovely relationships with the year 3 Teacher Aides, Miss Keily, Miss Ash and Mrs Garbellini, as well as Mrs Bayley, the Diverse Learning Teacher. These relationships have been built by working alongside students, with some fun, fine motor activities where students have been making shapes with playdough, solving puzzles and lunchtime picnics.

Year 4

Students in Ms Cooke’s class have been enjoying the sun out on the oval after working hard in their classroom. They were building their sports abilities by playing a fun game of dodge ball. Practising their aiming, throwing, dodging, and running were some of the skills.

Have a great week everyone.

Mrs Clifton

Deputy News Years 5 & 6 – Karen Herburg

Year 6 Leadership Induction Ceremony

This week, we held our Leadership Induction Ceremony.  I am so proud of all the students who received their badges, and a huge shout out to my School Captains, Macy Cruse, Mitchell Hibbs, Maira Avasthy and Skylar Jones, who did an outstanding job, in supporting me with the Ceremony.  I am looking forward to working closely with all these amazing Seniors Leaders this year.  Congratulations to all Senior Leaders, Captains and Student Councillors; you should all be so proud of how hard you have worked for your badges and stepping up in a student leadership role.  All Senior Leaders have been given the orange vests, and to see them out and about helping younger students is just fantastic!

Senior Leaders for 2026

Our current Year 5 students will be embarking on the leadership process this year for 2026.  Teachers have already started conversations with them about what a student leader looks like and the importance of leading by example from the beginning of the year, the school’s expectations, Be a Learner, Be Respectful and Be Safe and Responsible. We will continue to have further conversations with the students and during the term, and then provide some information regarding the Leadership Program.

Year 6 Camp

Year 6 Camp at the Gold Coast Recreation Centre is fast approaching, and the Year 6 teachers have been finalising the planning and student cabin allocations for this event.  Students are getting very excited, with many fantastic activities that have been organised.  It is such a great time for students to build connections with each other, with teachers, and how they can work together as a team.  Camp dates are 17^th to 19^th March.  Please ensure you let your child’s teacher know if they are not attending camp.  Final payment is due by 7 March 2025.

PCL (Positive Culture for Learning)

Teachers spend time in class talking with students about our school expectations Be a Learner, Be Respectful, Be Safe and Responsible. Every student should know exactly what our school expectations are, and how to conduct himself or herself in the classroom and in the playground. This is talked about often in class and teachers work with students around strategies when problems arise.

Unfortunately, there are a small number of students who are not following the schools’ expectations.  I would like to remind all students that it is unacceptable to walk out of a classroom during learning time, and to swear inappropriately at any teacher or staff member at this school. It is unacceptable to punch a student at this school and this behaviour will not be tolerated under any circumstances. There is ZERO tolerance to punching and the school will act accordingly with the appropriate consequences.

Students in the Spotlight!

6B

This week the class of 6B continued our BOOK CLUB focus in English and have been deconstructing different texts from various authors to explore and analyse theme, language devices and features, and text structure for a purpose. We have been immersing ourselves in Dr Suess classics such as The LORAX, toe-tapping to tunes such as Katy Perry’s Fireworks, exploring environmental themes in poetry such as the haunting “Cry of the Forest,” and have even revisited childhood favourites such as “Room on the Broom” by Julie Donaldson to discuss author’s technique to engage and maintain the interests of young audiences. This work will soon branch into exploring texts by indigenous authors, vivid characterisation in Roald Dahl and will ultimately culminate in an end of term speaking and listening assessment about a chosen piece of literature. Students are engaging in the work, building their learning wall and, through weekly writing tasks, are developing their competency in writing well-sequenced paragraphs.

5B

Being Our Best Selves!

As a class, we engaged in a special learning activity centred around Being Kind, being safe and responsible, and being a learner. As part of this, we made friendship bracelets while discussing the many ways we can show kindness and respect to others. 

Through this activity, we explored what it means to be a good friend and a positive member of our school community. We talked about speaking nicely, being polite, and using our manners. We reflected on how small actions—like giving a helping hand, smiling at someone, or offering words of encouragement—can make a big difference in someone’s day.

The friendship bracelets we created symbolize the connections we build when we show care and thoughtfulness toward others. Just like each bead adds to the beauty of the bracelet, each act of kindness adds to the warmth and positivity in our classroom and beyond.

An important lesson we learned is that when we are kind to others and to ourselves, we are actually feeding our Emotional Brain! Kindness helps us feel good, strengthens our friendships, and creates a safe and welcoming environment for everyone. By practicing respect, responsibility, and empathy, we make our classroom a place where everyone feels valued and supported.

We are so proud of our students for embracing these values and for working together to create a culture of kindness. Let’s continue Being our best selves every day!

Thank you! 🙂

5C

Students in 5C are learning, through a Cycle of Improvement, to justify their opinions by critiquing Classic Australian Poems; Mulga Bill’s Bicycle and My Country, by using examples to explain and expand on their ideas.

5E

5E have been busy working on our Podcast scripts to share our ideas and opinions about Mulga Bill's Bicycle as a great text for year 5.  Working alongside our fabulous support staff (thank you Ms Jackson). 

We have also been busy studying animal adaptations and how they help animals survive in different habitats. Today we researched Emperor Penguins.  Who knew they have a hook on their beak to stop the fish from slipping out of their mouth!  And lastly, we have been using technology to listen and complete our spelling dictation.  Some of those words just got a whole lot harder to remember to spell in dictation!!

Have a wonderful 3 weeks!

Karen Herburg
Deputy Principal

Date Claimers

Student Engagement – Alistair Watt

LEAP Update

Learning Engagement Alternate Program (LEAP) commenced at Morayfield East SS at the start of week 5. The first week has been about creating a sense of belonging for the students and establishing the rules and processes of their new classroom. Credit must go to the students who have transitioned to their new class fantastically. The students have stayed in their classroom, developed new friendships and completed lots of hands-on learning experiences. There are so many individual student success stories from the week across all three classes.

LEAP is an innovative program designed to support student engagement, learning and achieving at school. Students will engage in a unique and flexible learning environment that offers them the opportunity to explore a broad range of subjects, all designed to help students grow and succeed. LEAP is designed with flexibility and creativity in mind. Learning will be dynamic and interactive, allowing students an opportunity to explore topics in ways that match interests and strengths. We encourage them to be curious, ask questions, and fully engage in their learning experience. Most importantly, we prioritise student wellbeing, making sure they feel supported and valued throughout the journey.

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Walking Club Update

Walking club is on every morning starting 8:15am on the oval. As we reach the halfway point of the term the leaderboard is hotly contested.

Leaderboard

Prep

1^st Isobel – 72 laps
2^nd Willow – 33 laps
3^rd Mason – 30 laps

Year 1

1^st Hunter – 42 laps
2^nd Jasmine – 33 laps
3^rd Luca – 30 laps

Year 2

1^st Chris & Maggie – 85 laps
2^nd Hailo – 60 laps
3^rd Olivia – 49 laps

Year 3

1^st Kyson – 157 laps
2^nd Hudson – 145 laps
3^rd Harley – 123 laps

Year 4

1^st Jordana – 106 laps
2^nd Layla – 96 laps
3^rd Evie – 90 laps

Year 5

1^st Claire & Deep – 182 laps
2^nd Samantha – 94 laps
3^rd Riley – 44 laps

Year 6

1^st Diezyl & Sonny – 242 laps
2^nd Jonathan – 206 laps
3^rd – Kiahn – 108 laps

P&C News

Hello, Morayfield East Families and Friends!

Welcome back to another year at MESS and welcome to any new families joining us this year. Can you believe the first term is halfway done.

On Monday 17 February we held our AGM where we voted in our new executive committee.

Let me take the time to introduce you to our executives.

President:                    Donna Miller
Secretary:                    Krystal West
Treasurer:                    Kaylene Cathcart
Vice Presidents:          Rebecca Favotto
                                    Sarah Read
                                    Lynda Jacobson
                                    Sarah Northcott

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Bridget Arnold and Belinda Pearson for their time on the executive committee and wish them luck wherever their future takes them.

We send a warm welcome to our new members and are always happy to except more members. Just fill in an application form and attend one of our meetings and we will happily welcome you.

Our first event for the year will be our disco on Friday 21 March. Tickets can be purchase from the tuckshop or on QKR. We look forward to seeing the many different Cowboy/Cowgirl or Princess/Princes on the night. If you can help on the night, please let us know.

Please keep an eye out on Facebook for other events that we will hold throughout the year.

We are always looking for volunteers in our tuckshop or at any of our P&C events. If you would like to volunteer, please see Katie in the tuckshop or one of our P&C members. Talking about Tuckshop, did you know it was run by our P & C and not the school. 

We are searching for grants to help our fundraising efforts. If you have experience with grant writing and would like to help, please get in touch!

Our next meeting will be on Monday 24 March 3:15pm in the conference room in the school hall. All are welcome to attend and please bring your kids along we will have snacks for them. If you can’t attend, please reach out to any of your P&C members with any concerns you may have, we are happy to help. These meetings are a good chance to see just what is happening within the school.

If you would like to get in touch with us feel free to come to the next meeting or email  pandc@morayfieldeastss.eq.edu.au.

Meetings are open to all parents, caregivers and staff at MESS

From the MESS P & C.

News from the Health Room

SUN SAFETY @ M.E.S.S

Year-round sun protection is important for all children and young people in Queensland as research demonstrates that high ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure in childhood and adolescence significantly increases the risk of developing skin cancer.

Our school recognises the importance of wearing hats when outdoors, wearing a hat while at play is one of our Golden Rules. Our school uniform hat is a bucket hat- burgundy one side, relevant Sports House colour on the reverse side and are available to purchase year-round from the Tuck Shop. Students who do not have hats will play in the shade or an area protected from the sun.        No Hat, No Play!

Our school aims to educate our students about being sun safe in order to develop important, life-long, healthy habits, and acknowledges the important role adults play during and outside school hours to reinforce sun safety with children and young people.

Think UV, not heat - UV radiation is an invisible danger because we can’t see or feel it. Overexposure to UV rays, either from the sun or solarium, causes permanent damage to your skin that builds up over time. UV radiation can be high even on cool and overcast days, which means you can’t rely on clear skies or high temperatures to determine when you need to protect yourself from the sun. To combat this, Cancer Council Queensland have developed a SunSmart app, which lets you know when the UV level is 3 or above and sun protection is needed – in Queensland, this will be almost every day. 

Sports News from Mr Mac & Mrs Clyne

Community News