27 March 2025

From the Principal –Karen Herburg

It is hard to believe the end of the term is near, and what a busy term it has been for students and teachers.

As Liam Hackwood is on leave for the final two weeks of the term, I have the pleasure of stepping into the Acting Principal role during this time. I would like to welcome Mrs Kellie Connell, who will be Acting Deputy Principal for Year 5 & 6 during this time.

Year 3 and 5 NAPLAN students

CONGRATULATIONS to all Year 5 and 6 students who recently completed their NAPLAN testing.  It was great to see many students working hard in this space and doing their absolute very best each day.  NAPLAN is now completed for another year.

Facilities and Improvement Projects:

Currently we have several improvement projects happening throughout the school.  The area between the two after school buildings has commenced with its landscaping and improvement, including a deck area which students will be able to access.  The outdoor area outside of the LEAP classrooms is being upgraded and should be completed by the start of Term 2.  Finally, we have a number of permanent Learning Walls going up in some of our classrooms, which will replace the current concertina doors.  This will enable teachers and students to have more space to support their teaching learning.

School Disco

Last Friday the P & C held their first school disco for the year.  I don’t think I have ever seen so many students and adults in attendance at this event.  Thank you to the P & C who work extremely hard in organising this event.  Moving forward, the P & C are in discussions about the possibility of having a P-2 and a 3-6 disco to support the many students in attendance.

Year 6 Camp

I had the pleasure of attending the Year 6 camp during the week, and I have to congratulate the students who not only embraced everything ‘camp’, but many students got out of their comfort zones and participated in all the activities that were on offer.  They certainly had something to talk about when they got home with a 1am wakeup call when the alarms inadvertently went off, and everyone had to vacate their cabins for a short while.  A big thank you to all the staff who attended camp and supported the students throughout.  Camp would not happen without our staff who give up their own family time, to ensure our students have a positive and memorable time.  It was great to see Mr Hackwood come for a visit.

Cyber bullying

It has recently come to my attention that there are a number of students who are engaging in inappropriate discussions on social media.  Cyber bullying includes sending or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else.  The most common places where cyberbullying occurs is through Instagram, Snapchat and Tik Tok. Please ensure that you are aware of what your child is sending or receiving on the devices they have access to.  Your children have a right to be free from this kind harm.

Curriculum, Teaching and Learning

As we head into the final two weeks of the term, many students are in the process of finalising their assessments.  Having spent time in classrooms, the students have been engaging in some great learning experiences throughout the entire term.  Well done to those students for being the best learners they can each and every day.

As this is the last newsletter for the term, I wish you all a safe and happy Easter Break, and we all look forward to seeing you ‘ready to go’ for Term 2.  Term 2 begins on Tuesday 22 April 2025.  Until then😊

Karen Herburg
Acting Principal

Deputy News Prep – Natalie Arthur

Term 1 is coming to an end.

Our Prep students have almost completed their first term of learning at ‘big school’ and have made so much progress.

Progress looks like:

• Feeling happy to say goodbye to parents in the morning.
• Smiling and greeting their friends
• Listening to and following instructions
• Showing independence with personal items and personal care
• Engaging in learning activities within the classroom
• Feeling confident to navigate the play areas and ask for help when needed.
• Learning their sounds and correctly forming their letters.

As I’ve been visiting our classrooms, I’ve been excited to see students learning to write their names, learning their sounds, starting to blend their sounds to make words and beginning to segment and write words. Students have been counting and sorting objects and learning to recognise their number names and numerals to ten. I’ve also enjoyed visiting classrooms and seeing the creative and colourful artworks and learning on display. 

Our whole Prep team is very proud of the progress our students have made this term.

Monday 31 March                                          Cross Country
Friday 4April                                                  Easter hat Parade in the Hall
School Holidays commence.

Prep 2026 Enrolments commence from Term 2

If you have a child born between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021 then they are eligible for Prep in 2026.

If you’d like to enrol, please contact our office staff, and request an enrolment pack. Our staff can also book you in for an enrolment interview. Details of our Prep 2026 Enrolment and Orientation Program are below.

Morayfield East Mini’s Playgroup

Come along to Playgroup on a Monday morning and enjoy some morning tea, while your child and younger siblings enjoy games, activities and playing with our outdoor obstacle course and tricycles. It’s a great way to meet new friends and support your child to feel safe and comfortable in our school community.

News from Prep C

In Prep C, we have been enjoying Fine motor rotations with Miss Courtney every Tuesday.  Today, the students enjoyed building patterns, shapes and manipulating building beads.

News from Prep F

Prep F have been using their five senses to observe and investigate the needs of living things and how these are met. 

Our bean plants all grew well and have been taken home to plant.  Hopefully, we will have some beans to eat soon! 

The ‘vets’ have been very busy in the class surgery ensuring the animals are well cared for too.  

Deputy News Years 3 & 4 – Sue Clifton

Welcome to the final newsletter for Term 1. What a busy, yet eventful term it has been. There has still been lots of learning happening across our year 3 and 4 classrooms and parents should be very proud of the resilience and perseverance that students have show throughout the past 10 weeks.

Incursion – Starlab

On Monday this week, year 3 students visited the Starlab dome for their incursion “Earths Wild Ride”. Students learnt how the Earth’s surface changes over time as a result of natural processes and human activity. They engaged with our Earth’s history from asteroid impacts, dinosaurs, volcanoes, and raging rivers that are eroding the landscape. The story was told by an astronaut to his grandchildren whilst observing the Earth from the Moon.

Close the Gap Day

On Thursday 20 March, our school acknowledged National Close the Gap Day. Facilitators from Deadly Choices ran Traditional Aboriginal games with students in year 2, 3, 4 & 6. Each game comes with its own set of rules and cultural context, highlighting the rich tapestry of Indigenous traditions. By participating in these traditional activities, students are not just playing a game but also preserving and celebrating a crucial part of Aboriginal heritage and storytelling. First Nations students each chose a non- Indigenous friend to join them in this activity to further build upon our continuing path of reconciliation within our school.

Year 1 First Nations students participated in the Traditional Aboriginal Games program this term. The program relies heavily on showing how the ways of the past can successfully frame contemporary health choices, while providing cultural and contextual learning. Students completed their Deadly Choices activity scrapbook and engaged in Traditional outdoor games.

Year 5 First Nations students participated in the Junior Tobacco program this term. Education and entertainment are the focus to ensure key preventative health messages are delivered. ‘Smokey Joe – highlights numerous aspects of smoking, including related social, emotional and physical consequences.

Year 2 & 4 First Nations students will be invited to participate in term 2. 

Murri Club provides students with a weekly opportunity to build upon their knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture and traditional practices through play-based learning. Murri Club is a culturally safe space for students, staff and visitors to frequent and feel connected to culture.

This term students have enjoyed sensory based play with modelling dough, free play activities and colouring fun. Murri Club can now be found in D block and is open Tuesday second break and Wednesday and Thursday both breaks.

Year 3

In Maths, 3C have been exploring top view perspectives by designing their own playground, classroom, and bedrooms. They have been learning how to represent spaces from a bird’s-eye view and think about how things are arranged. Using maps, students have located symbols and uncovered their meanings, while also practising directional language such as left, right, towards, in between to describe positions and give direction.

The students of 3D are also doing an outstanding job in their mapping unit, demonstrating a strong understanding of both 3D perspective drawing, and map interpretation. They are highly engaged in their work, showing great enthusiasm as they create detailed maps with depth and accuracy. Students’ ability to identify key features on a map has improved significantly, with students confidently recognising and labelling various landmarks and terrain elements. Their progress is evident as they work towards their assessment, displaying growing confidence and skill in applying mapping concepts. It has been fantastic to see their dedication and enthusiasm shining through in each lesson!

Year 4

In 4C, students have been accessing our laptops to use a program called ‘Reading Coach’. This has allowed them to create new and authentic short stories using Artificial Intelligence (AI). They then read their stories aloud and Reading Coach gives them a score for their pronunciation. As they progress, they can unlock new characters and settings to use in their stories. This forms part of our Literacy Block, which is a dedicated daily time in which students practice their reading, writing and language skills.

Our 4D students have been on an exciting learning adventure this term, exploring "The Learning Pit" in their classroom. Students are discovering that feeling challenged is a good thing!  When they face a difficult problem, they are learning to say, "I can't do this yet", instead of giving up. They have had wonderful discussions about how their best learning happens when they work through confusion to find understanding.

English sessions have been filled with creativity and new skills. The students have been strengthening their spelling foundations through our PLD program, learning patterns and rules that help them tackle unfamiliar words. They have become enthusiastic movie critics too!  Each student is learning to craft engaging movie reviews with strong introductions that hook the reader, detailed paragraphs that explain their opinions, and conclusions that leave a lasting impression. Their writing is becoming more structured and thoughtful.

Mathematics has also come alive in 4D as students have explored data and location. They have collected information from real-life situations, learned to organise it, and discovered how to make sense of numbers in practical ways. Students have become skilled at using grid references and navigating coordinates like young explorers. These skills have connected to our everyday world as students realise how often we use these concepts in daily life.  Here are some great examples below of student work.

Mrs Croft, our Diverse Learning Teacher, has done a wonderful job supporting students with their English and Maths.

In English, students have been building their noun groups by adding amazing adjectives and astounding adverbs to their writing. Look at how these superstar students spiced up their sentences.

In math, Mrs Croft is helping her students with their number knowledge experimenting with place value and having fun with their rainbow counters.

It was wonderful to be part of 4E during one of their maths activities around graphing. Students had lollies, which they had to firstly sort into colours, then tally the amount of each colour before creating a bar graph to represent their data. Students even got to enjoy their lollies at the end of the lesson.

Wishing you all a safe holiday and happy Easter. I look forward to seeing you all again next term and sharing more wonderful learning from our students.

Sue Clifton

Deputy News Years 5 & 6 – Kellie Connell

Acting Deputy Principal Years 5 and 6 Welcome

I am thrilled to step into the role of Acting Deputy Principal for Years 5 and 6 until the end of term 1. With extensive experience teaching upper primary and working in leadership and curriculum roles, I am passionate about supporting both students and teachers in their learning journey. It is an absolute privilege to join the leadership team and contribute to the incredible work of our dedicated Year 5 and 6 teachers. The students' excitement about this transition has been truly heartwarming, and I look forward to giving back as much as I can to this wonderful school community.

Year 6: Finishing the Term Strong!

Our Year 6 students are returning to the classroom after an incredible first camp experience! With some very committed (but exhausted!) teachers, the students showed resilience, teamwork, and leadership throughout their time away. It’s wonderful to see them already applying these skills to their learning as they tackle their end-of-term assessments. In English, students are diving into their book club reviews, showcasing their analytical thinking and writing skills. Meanwhile, in Maths, they are exploring data and statistics, interpreting graphs and drawing insightful conclusions. Speaking of leadership, I am absolutely blown away by the service and dedication of 6A.  Not only did they give up their precious time, they did it at VERY short notice to clean up our oval in time for Cross Country.  Thank you to the outstanding leadership of Mark Cope and the wonderful waste warriors of 6A.  We thank you for your contribution to keeping our school clean. We wish our Year 6 students the best of luck in their final weeks—keep up the great work!

Year 5

A Fantastic End to the Term! What an incredible effort from our Year 5 students! After an exhausting four days of NAPLAN, they have shown resilience and determination, bouncing back with enthusiasm to now start their end-of-term assessments. In English, students have embraced the challenge of creating their own podcasts, developing a brand-new skill for both staff and students alike. Meanwhile, in science, they have been exploring adaptations for survival, with 5C particularly captivated by Venus flytraps and their unique ability to catch prey. Their annotated drawings are outstanding—detailed, scientific, and beautifully labelled! Over in 5D Miss Kelly has the students reflecting on their strengths developing a positive self-esteem.  Students have cracked out the watercolours to create vibrant art with a self-love quote in the middle.  So cute.  Well done, Year 5! Keep up the hard work as we finish the term strong!

Date Claimers

Student Engagement – Alistair Watt

LEAP Update

The students have continued to thrive in the Learning Engagement Alternate Program (LEAP) classrooms over the past few weeks. Across the three classes there has been a significant increase in their attendance with students regularly attended school.

The students have also displayed an improvement with their engagement with their learning. They are completing their PLD daily whilst also engaging with English and Maths. As well as learning in the classroom the students have enjoyed the interactive learning in STEM and music.

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 – 89 laps
2^nd Mason – 44 laps
3^rd Willow – 39 laps

Year 1

1^st Jasmine – 57 laps
2^nd Hunter – 51 laps
3^rd Luca – 32 laps

Year 2

1^st Chris & Maggie – 106 laps
2^nd James – 71 laps
3^rd Olivia – 69 laps

Year 3

1^st Kyson – 194 laps
2^nd Hudson – 181 laps
3^rd Harley – 141 laps

Year 4

1^st Jordana – 126 laps
2^nd Layla – 105 laps
3^rd Evie – 100 laps

Year 5

1^st Deep – 223 laps
2^nd Claire – 216 laps
3^rd Samantha – 105 laps

Year 6

1^st Diezyl & Sonny – 290 laps
2^nd Jonathan – 242 laps
3^rd – Kiahn – 139 laps

News from the Health Room

What is Asthma

Asthma is a medical condition that affects the airways (the breathing tubes that carry air into our lungs). From time to time, people with asthma find it harder to breathe in and out, because the airways in their lungs become narrower – like trying to breathe through a thin straw. At other times their breathing is normal. There is no cure for asthma, but it can usually be well controlled.

For more information on Asthma Symptoms please visit Asthma Australia.

For good control of asthma you need:

• medicines – taken the right way, at the right time
• regular medical visits for check-ups and to learn more about living with asthma
• an action plan, so you know exactly what to do when symptoms happen.

Managing Asthma while at school:

If your student requires treatment for Asthma while at school, please stop in and see the Health Room staff.

You will need;

• Asthma Action Plan (In-date and completed by a GP)
• Inhaler (In-date and pharmacy labelled)
• Spacer – for more information on how a spacer significantly improves medication distribution click here
• Consent to administer medication documents - completed by parent/carer available from the Health Room.

The Asthma Action Plan, Inhaler and Spacer are placed into a small bag and kept in the classroom for easy access. This bag will also follow students to all specialist lessons.

Please contact the Health Room for more information on how we can assist your student with their Asthma management while at school.

Community News