Victoria Park State School Newsletter - Week 4, Term 2, 2025
Principal's Report
As we reach the end of Week 4, it's time to set our sights on some important events scheduled for the end of the term. This newsletter includes date claimers for key Athletics events as well as information about the Department of Education's new 'Communicating with your Child's School' resources and a staffing update.
Date Claimers
We have some exciting events on the horizon, starting with Under 8's Day this Thursday May 22nd. Our Prep and Year 1 students will enjoy a morning full of exciting activities to celebrate this year's Under 8's Day theme, Unleashing Scientific Thinking through Play.
Last week we released date claimers for 2025's Athletics Events. Nominations will occur in Week 6 with students born in 2016 and 2017 participating in nominations on Wednesday May 28th and those born in 2013, 2014 and 2015 undertaking nominations on Thursday May 29th. Nominations set us up ready to go for our Athletics Carnivals which will occur in Week 8. Students who are absent for nominations need to see Mrs Armstrong.
Our Junior Fun Carnival for students in P-2 will run from 8:50am to 10:50am on Tuesday June 10th. Field Events for nominated students will then run from 11:40am to 2:45pm. Our Athletics Track Events will run on Wednesday June 11th for all students over on our senior oval. Athletics Presentations will occur at 2pm in the hall on Wednesday June 11th.
Don't forget, all events get uploaded to our live calendar which can be accessed at any time here.
Communicating with your Child's School
Last week the Department of Education released new resources around Communicating with your Child's School. Designed to provide clear, consistent expectations across all schools, they provide guidance on how parents/carers can engage with their child's school. The summarised expectations for communicating with your child's school are below.
Visitors in the Grounds
Our Workplace Health and Safety committee has identified increasing concerns when it comes to visitors within the school grounds. Whilst we welcome parents on site, we keep careful track of who is present within our grounds to ensure the safety of our students and to make sure learning experiences remain free from distraction. For this reason, we require all parents who enter the grounds prior to 2:30pm and remain in the grounds after 9:00am to sign in at the office with the exception of tuckshop volunteers who use their own processes to sign in and out. We additionally respectfully remind families that the grounds are off-limits to anyone except staff prior to 8:00am and after 3:10pm on weekdays and should not be accessed by anyone on the weekend. We request that parents waiting within the grounds prior to 9:00am and after 2:30pm refrain from interrupting lessons and keep interactions with students to a minimum. If you need to get a message to your child, this can be done by speaking with our friendly office staff. Thank you for your co-operation.
Staffing Update
Mrs Mutton will be absent on medical leave across the end of Term 2. Across this time, Mrs Whittington has been appointed as Victoria Park's Acting Principal. Applications are currently open for an Acting Deputy Principal to backfill Mrs Whittington's position.
Sarah Mutton,
Principal
Celebrating Success
Rugby League
Congratulations to Bedner on being selected for the Capricornia Rugby League team! Your dedication, hard work, and passion for the game have truly paid off. We’re so proud to see you representing our region at such a high level. Best of luck — we’ll be cheering you on all the way!
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Cross Country
Congratulations to these Cross Country superstars! They’ve qualified for the Capricornia Cross Country event, which will be held in Rockhampton on May 27.
Best of luck—run proud and strong!
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Southside Strings Festival
Born out of our combined rehearsing at the Mackay Eisteddfod, over 100 strings students from schools on the south side of the river came together last week for a day of musical collaboration, skill development and inspiration. Congratulations to our Strings students for their participation in the inaugural Southside Strings Fest! Thank you to Ms Mora, Mrs Milles, Ms Menzies, Mrs Brown, Ms Pengelly, Mrs Teong and Mr Carpenter - our music teachers from Victoria Park, Chelona, Mackay West and Mackay State High School respectively for facilitating this great event! How lucky we are to have such dedicated strings teachers and such talented students in our part of the world!
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Congratulations Mrs Petersen
This week we want to pass on a huge congratulations to Mrs Emily Petersen. Mrs Petersen attended her official graduation ceremony last Thursday - the culmination of her studies to earn her Education Degree. Attaining her degree whilst working hard as one of our Teacher Aides and then earning a position under the Department's Permission to Teach arrangement is an absolutely huge feat! We are very proud to have been able to witness Mrs Petersen grow and flourish as she has completed her studies and even more proud that she's achieved all of this whilst maintaining an integral role within our Vic Park family. Mrs Petersen is definitely a major success story for Vic Park - a school that is lucky to both host terrific teachers and grow great graduates! Congratulations on this amazing achievement, Mrs Petersen.
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1000 Gotchas
Congratulations to our first 5 students to reach 1000 Gotchas – all from Prep A!
What an amazing achievement! These superstar students from Mrs Daniel’s Prep A class are the very first to hit this milestone, showing incredible dedication to being safe, respectful, and responsible. To celebrate, they had a surprise visit from none other than Sid the Pig, who brought along a special treat for each of them!
Well done, legends – keep up the great work!
Students of the Week
Week 2
Prep B | Amelia | For outstanding effort and engagement in learning activities. |
Prep B | Sullivan | For being a kind and considerate classmate. |
Prep C | Eva | For being a fantastic speaker at the school Anzac Parade. |
Prep C | Sienna | For being an amazing listener in class and working hard to complete set tasks. |
1A | Harprabh | Harprabh is a hard working student who always tries her best. |
1A | Hastings | Hastings is a friendly and helpful student who has improved his concentration skills this term. |
1B | Tallin | For being a conscientious student at all times. |
1B | Vihaan | Putting consistent effort into all school tasks |
1C | Norah | For settling in beautifully, showing a positive attitude, and growing in confidence every day. |
1C | Oliver | For always trying his best, giving everything a go, and showing a great attitude every day! |
1C | Skylah | For always bringing a bright smile and a fantastic attitude to everything she does! |
1D | Erin | For working hard and always trying your best! Well done, Erin. |
1D | Rowan | For growing in confidence and always trying your best! Well done, Rowan! |
2A | Piper | For joining in classroom discussions with growing confidence and sharing some great ideas. |
2A | Ryan | For contributing thoughtfully and confidently to our class discussions. Well done, Ryan! |
2B | Matthias | For an amazing effort in Maths. |
2B | Kaleena | For contributing great ideas in learning time. |
2C | Ares | For showing a commendable start to Term 2, showing focus and enthusiasm to her learning. |
2C | Jaylen | For showing consistent commitment and engagement during mathematics lessons. |
2/3 | Lylah | For taking initiative in the classroom and being a helper towards her peers and teacher. |
2/3 | For enthusiastically contributing to class discussions and always having a go. Great work Noah! | |
3A | Aaliyah | For always having a positive attitude towards all tasks and completing to the best of her ability |
3A | Adele | For always having a positive attitude towards all tasks and completing to the best of her ability |
3B | Cobey | For your excellent effort in all learning tasks. Keep up the great work! |
3B | Macey | For your excellent effort in all learning tasks. Keep up the great work! |
3/4 | Ataska | Being a whiz at calculating time problems. Great work! |
3/4 | Eli | Working hard in the classroom and following your lunch-time plan. Well done! |
4A | Quorra | For being a happy, hardworking student. |
4A | Sonny | For being a responsible and trustworthy student. |
4C | Alyzah | For being a motivated and independent student with a great love of learning. |
4C | Malaya | For being positive, happy and motivated to take on new tasks and challenges. |
5A | Lily | For being an amazing role model and consistently trying your best! |
5A | Zack | For a great start to Term 2. Keep working hard! |
5B | Jahli | For taking ownership and responsibility of your learning. I'm impressed! |
5B | Lyla | For always being ready to learn and being a helpful and considerate class member. |
5/6M | Jurakai | Being an active participant in class discussions. |
5/6M | Zekotah | Consistently producing work to a high standard. |
5/6S | Toby | For a great effort identifying fractions and decimals on a number line. |
6A | Saoirse | For a great effort identifying fractions and decimals on a number line. |
6A | Vea | Staying focused and working hard in class. |
6B | Briar | For being a respectful and incredibly hard-working student! |
6C | Ruby | For being a kind and helpful class member |
Week 3
Prep A | Darius | For demonstrating enthusiasm, creativity and fabulous voice skills during drama. |
Prep A | Eden | For being helpful and considerate during our end of day pack up routine. |
Prep C | Jensen | For working very hard to cut pictures out carefully. |
Prep C | Shane | Following playground procedures and rules at lunchtime. |
1D | Geo | For being a kind and caring friend. Keep spreading kindness! Well done, Geo. |
1D | Olivia | For your hard work writing procedures. You always complete activities to the best of your ability! |
2A | Blake | For beginning to contribute to class discussions. Well done, Blake! |
2A | Kaylee | For being a fantastic class helper. Keep up the great work, Kaylee! |
2B | Kohden | For working hard to complete his schoolwork. |
2B | Levi | For always following our school rules. |
2C | Emmaleigh | Your excellent listening skills and consistent readiness to learn make you a wonderful role model |
2C | Fatima | Always ready to learn and listen carefully, creating a positive and focused learning environment. |
2/3 | Elowen | For working to the best of her ability and being a role model to her classmates. Amazing work! |
2/3 | Henry | For trying his best in HASS and Drama and being a help to his classmates. Great work Henry! |
3/4 | Amity | For being a kind and friendly class member. |
3/4 | Gwen | For being a helpful class member who always shows initiative. |
4A | Chad | For trying his best with all tasks and for being a responsible student. |
4A | Zeeny | For Approaching all activities with a smile and a ‘can do’ attitude. |
4B | Patrick | Excellent effort in Mathematics!!! |
4B | Tererei | Being a respectful learner at all times. |
5A | Clark | For thoughtfully placing your goods and services businesses on your Paradise Island. Well done! |
5B | Ashton | For being a great help setting up the Mother's Day activities! |
5B | Gabriel | For consistently trying his best at spelling! |
5/6M | Stevie | Outstanding effort, work and results on her writing assessment. |
5/6M | Thomas | Super work and effort on his maths assessment. |
5/6S | Klaus | For showing initiative during Maths lessons and asking lots of questions. |
5/6S | Reese | For a great effort on her maths assessment converting 12- and 24-hour time. |
Date Claimers
Don't forget that you can find key dates in our live calendar linked below in addition to our weekly 'what's happening' card on SZapp.
Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)
PBL Goals of the Week
Below are our two PBL goals for this fortnight;
- Keeping hands & feet to ourselves
- Following instructions
School Improvement
Our Strategic Plan 2023 - 2026
Our 2023-2026 strategic plan encourages us to R.I.S.E. to the challenge;
R – Responsive Curriculum. We want to ensure that our curriculum is relevant to our local kids, is responsive to modern educational trends and is interesting for our students.
I – Innovative Instruction. We want to capitalise on being Mackay’s first school with laptop classes to ensure that through the use of engaging teaching approaches and clever use of digital technology, every lesson is exciting and engaging for our students.
S – Strengthened Systems. Our 2022 school review revealed that there are strong systems in place with regards to how we operate at VPSS. In deference to the great work that has come before, we want to ensure that we strengthen these to continue our great progress.
E – Expert Educators. We want to ensure that our kids at Victoria Park are learning from the very best educators and have committed to facilitating this.
End of Semester Report Cards
In delivering a responsive curriculum, students undertake units of work across each term that culminate in summative assessment tasks that collectively inform the achievement results on end of semester report cards. Accordingly, what you see reflected on report cards is the product of lots of learning across the entire semester. Students receive an achievement and effort result for each learning area in addition to a result for behaviour. At Victoria Park State School, additional comments are provided for behaviour as well as one comment that reflects the general achievement of our learners. The scales used for report cards in Queensland State Schools are included below. Semester 1 report cards will be issued via email on Wednesday June 25th.
From the P&C
Victoria Park State School is lucky to have an incredible Parents and Citizens Association. Here you can find out all about what our committee is up to. We very much encourage anyone and everyone to get involved - many hands make light work!
P&C Meetings are held every 2nd Wednesday at 3pm or 6pm.
Mother's Day Stall - Thank you
Our P&C would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported our Mother's Day Stall this year.
Your contributions helped make it a special and successful event for our school community.
A very special thank you goes to Patricia McPhee for her generous donations - your kindness and support are deeply appreciated.
We'd also like to sincerely thank all the amazing volunteers who helped set up and run the stalls. We couldn't have done it without you.
Thank you all for helping make this event such a wonderful celebration.
Contact Us
Phase Leaders
To ensure we get to know each and every one of our students, each member of our school leadership team oversees a cohort of students. 'Phase Leaders' are the next step to resolving an issue after the classroom teacher has been contacted.
ECDP Phase Leader: Ms Roanna Capone - ecapo4@eq.edu.au
Prep Phase Leader: Mrs Kristi Elworthy - kelwo2@eq.edu.au
Year 1 Phase Leader: Ms Roanna Capone - ecapo4@eq.edu.au
Year 2 Phase Leader: Mrs Kristi Elworthy - kelwo2@eq.edu.au
Year 3 Phase Leader: Mrs Jenny Whittington - jwhit211@eq.edu.au
Year 4 Phase Leader: Mrs Jenny Whittington - jwhit211@eq.edu.au
Year 5 Phase Leader: Mrs Sarah Mutton - samut0@eq.edu.au
Year 6 Phase Leader: Mrs Sarah Mutton - samut0@eq.edu.au
Phone conversations or appointments to speak to Phase Leaders can be made by calling the office (4951 6333).
Staff List
Email addresses for all teaching staff can be found below. We ask that parents respect teachers' right to disconnect outside of work hours and be reminded that emails may not always be answered immediately - especially during the day when teachers are teaching. Urgent messages should instead be communicated to the office via a phone call (4951 6333).
Staff Contact List: https://victoriaparkss.schoolzineplus.com/staff-email-list
Victoria Park Community Noticeboard
