Victoria Park State School Newsletter - Week 6, Term 3, 2025
Principal's Report
As we approach the midpoint of Term 3, we are getting excited about a number of fantastic events on the horizon at Victoria Park State School. This newsletter contains information about Eisteddfod, Get Set for Prep, Book Week, the Bush Dance, the Student Free Day and Consent Manager. We are also excited to celebrate lots of our students' successes.
School Events
Term 3 includes a number of exciting events on our school calendar. If you're new to our school, you may not be familiar with all of them however many provide great opportunities for our families to connect with our school and members of our community.
After lots of practice and preparation, Eisteddfod is finally upon us. To commence our strong showing at this year's Eisteddfod, our choirs will perform at the MECC this Thursday August 14. Further information including schedules and how to purchase tickets can be found further towards the end of our newsletter and Week 5's rehearsal schedule has been published on SZApp. Good luck to our Vic Park musicians!
Book Week is an occasion that is fiercely celebrated at Victoria Park. Held this year from August 18-22 (Week 6), Book Week coincides with Book Fair which runs simultaneously in the library and allows students to expand their library of reading materials. The week aims to find lots of opportunities to engage students with reading and celebrate our love of literacy at Vic Park. Highlights include competitions to decorate classroom doors in book themes and our dress up day Friday August 22. All updates regarding our school events are shared on SZApp with major events registered as events on our Facebook Page as well.
Speaking of major events, just a week later on Friday August 29, our school will hold its biannual Bush Dance. This event occurs across the day and is one we greatly encourage our parents to attend. Keep an eye on SZApp for full details on when your child's class will perform closer to the date.
Week 7 will also be an exciting week for our prospective Prep students with our first Get Set for Prep session commencing on Wednesday August 27 at 9am. This marks the beginning of lots of opportunities offered at Vic Park for your family to engage with our school prior to the start of the 2026 school year. If you know of any families who are looking to enrol a student in Prep next year at Victoria Park, please encourage them to attend or to make contact with our Prep Transition Co-ordinator for further assistance.
We look forward to engaging with many of our community members over the next few event-filled weeks!
Student Free Day
Please note that Friday September 5 (week 8) is a designated Student Free Day for all Queensland State Schools. Accordingly, school will not be in session and Victoria Park State School will be closed inclusive of our administration office. Families will need to make other arrangements for their children on this day. School resumes as usual on Monday September 8.
School Consent Processes
Thank you to those parents who worked with us during Parent Teacher Interviews to register for QParents. In Term 3 we will commence using QParents for electronic consent as it represents the safest way to store the information provided in the process of giving consent. Our consistent platforms for communication moving forward will be;
- Schoolzine (or SZ app) for outward, school-wide communication (newsletters, notifications, student of the week text messages, newsflashes or bulk email messages).
- QParents for tasks linked to student record management such as recording absences, updating your child's details, accessing report cards, settling accounts and as of the end of this term, provision of consent for activities, excursions, online services access and use of photos and media.
- Email for reciprocal communication between our families and our staff members. All staff email addresses are included at the end of our newsletter.
If you haven't had a chance to sign up to QParents, our friendly admin staff are still available to help. This can be arranged by calling us on 4951 6333.
P&C Happenings
On Friday our P&C President, Laurie Madsen informed us of her difficult decision to resign from the position of President. I want to take this opportunity to offer my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Laurie for her dedication and commitment to our school, both as 2025's President and as a long-standing member of our P&C committee, executive and parent body. Laurie has become a familiar face to most members of our school community largely due to her extensive involvement in co-ordinating and facilitating school events and she leaves behind an impressive legacy having contributed immensely to our school via the P&C. The difference she has made to our students and our school community as a whole can't be understated.
Our P&C will look to elect a new President in their next meetings, with our first meeting of the term scheduled for this Thursday August 14 at 3:10pm in the admin building. It's not too late to join our amazing P&C!
Sarah Mutton
Principal
Date Claimers
Date Claimers for Term 3 can be found on our live school calendar here;
Celebrating Success
Eisteddfod - Choir 2025
Our choirs absolutely shone at Eisteddfod, bringing home:
Grade 2 Choir – Silver
Folk Group – Silver
Senior Choir – Gold
Grade 1 Choir – Gold + Trophy
Grade 3 Choir – Gold
A special shout-out to Mrs Milles, Mrs Dunkley, Ms Shan and Ms Nacev for your incredible work, you’ve truly gone above and beyond.
A huge thank you to all staff who took extra students into their classes, and to the wonderful teachers and teacher aides who supported our performers.
Our musicians ROCK
We are so very proud of you all!
Eisteddfod - Instrumental 2025
String Beginners Very Highly Commended
String Ensemble 3rd Place
Concert Band Very Highly Commended
Congratulations to all of our musicians and their fantastic instrumental teachers Mrs Mora and Mr Patti. Many thanks also to Miss Tammy who is an excellent roadie.
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Drumbeat
Celebrating our Drumbeat Stars!
Congratulations to our talented students receiving awards on parade.
Keep up the amazing rhythm!
Students of the Week
Student of the week - Week 4
Prep B | Alamein | For excellent effort and focus during reading groups |
Prep B | Cheyenne | For starting each day with a big smile and being ready to learn. |
Prep C | Jeni | For excellent behaviour while on excursion to see The Gruffalo Performance. |
Prep C | Sofia | For excellent behaviour while on excursion to see the Gruffalo performance. |
1C | Eliana | For using clever and convincing ideas to make her persuasive writing stand out. |
1C | Faith | For being kind and thoughtful and always giving her best in everything she does. |
1D | Alena | For approaching each day with enthusiasm and a readiness to learn! |
1D | Vihen | For always trying your best and participating in class discussions! |
3B | Daniela | For your great rhyming sentences in our poetry lessons. Keep it up! |
3B | Tarly | For always being a helpful friend. Thank you! |
4B | Tererei | Respectful behaviour always! You are a pleasure to have in our class Tererei! |
4B | Veronica | Excellent effort in Mathematics! |
4C | Ariya | Shows great attention to detail and produces neat, accurate work. |
4C | Caultin | For always being an enthusiastic and self-motivated learner in our class. |
5A | Kodie | We really appreciate your positive attitude and diligent work habits. Thank you! |
5A | Kooper | For your willingness to help others. You are a wonderful role model for your peers. |
5B | Bronik | For working really hard at understanding mathematical concepts. |
5B | Rinoa | Thank you for your helping me out and reading the last chapter of Storm Boy. I appreciate you. |
5/6M | Axl | Great work and effort in Maths. |
5/6S | Jerome | For going out of your way to include another student and check in if they were okay. |
5/6S | Toby | For being a good friend and showing empathy towards others. |
6B | Lilly | For always being incredibly kind and helpful to everyone around you! |
6C | Zachery | For showing initiative and being an engaged learner during English lessons. |
Congratulations to Week 4's Attendance Cup Winners
P-2 = Prep A 99.13%
3-4 = 3A 93.55%
5-6 = 5B 98.33%
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Student of the week - Week 5
Prep B | Elijah | For being a Maths Whiz when solving number problems. |
Prep B | Zarli | For wonderful effort and amazing writing skills. |
Prep C | Caleb | For a super effort when singing in Music and coming to school with a smile. |
Prep C | Nico | For working hard to listen to and follow instructions. |
1C | Chelsea | For being a motivated and independent student with a great love of learning. Well done Chels! |
1C | Norah | For approaching every day with enthusiasm and confidently sharing her creative ideas with the class. |
1D | Erin | For being a kind and compassionate classmate. You always treat others with kindness! |
1D | Matari | For working hard to complete your persuasive writing. You always have amazing new ideas! |
2A | Hunter | For being consistently respectful and polite. Keep up the great work, Hunter! |
2A | Phoenix | For always being kind and helpful to others. Well done, Phoenix! |
2B | Kohden | For making a strong effort to follow our class rules. |
2C | Dominic | Creative vocabulary retell for Little Miss Muffet, especially his choice of the word ‘menacingly’! |
2C | Jyxen | Your Show and Share speeches are always a highlight! You never fail to entertain the class. |
2C | Millie | Millie has made a wonderful start at her new school! She has settled in beautifully! |
2/3 | Aliyast | For putting in an amazing effort during science this week and engaging in our HASS lessons. |
2/3 | Olivia | Always giving her best effort in learning activities and being an example of our school rules. |
3A | Rahera | For beautiful reading during "Reading on the Same Page" with wonderful expression and fluency. |
3A | Regan | For being a superstar in her creative writing! Keep up the great work! |
3B | Dominic | For always being a helpful class member. Thank you! |
3B | Lacey | For always being a helpful class member. Thank you! |
3/4 | Ataska | Showing dedication to your learning and being a respectful class member. |
3/4 | Noah | For your high level of effort and enthusiasm for all things Mathematics. |
4A | Shannon | Comes to class every day ready and willing to learn. |
4A | Tessa | Is excited to tackle her task everyday |
4B | Kyden | For respecting and caring for the school grounds and nature by picking up rubbish. |
4C | Evie | Displays fantastic work habits. She is focused, organised and hard-working. |
4C | Lexi | Lexi has a happy and enthusiastic attitude towards completing her morning tasks. |
5B | Lucas | Being a great contributor to classroom activities and responsible for your individual learning. |
5B | Zayley | Being a great contributor to classroom activities and responsible for your individual learning. |
5/6M | Stevie | Outstanding achievement! Scoring 100% on the measurement maths assessment. |
5/6M | Tallin | Outstanding achievement! Scoring 100% on the measurement maths assessment. |
5/6S | Skyla | For an in-depth, detailed film review on The Wild Robot. Amazing work Skyla! |
6B | Ava | For always being a kind, respectful and hard-working part of our class! |
6C | Madison | For being a responsible and respectful student |
Congratulations to Week 5's Attendance Cup Winners
P-2 = 1D 94.54%
3-4 = 4B 95%
5-6 = 5A 90.4%
Attendance cup winners
Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)
PBL Goals of the Week
Below are our two PBL goals for this fortnight.
- - Week 6 = Keeping our school clean
- - Week 7 = Making every day count
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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.
School Opinion Survey
It's not too late to complete 2025's School Opinion Survey The survey is confidential with all results consolidated and reported back to the school at its conclusion. The survey should take under five minutes and will be open until Friday August 22, 2025. Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback.
Health & Safety
Road Safety Around Schools – A Shared Responsibility
As we move through our busy school terms, it’s important to pause and remember the role we all play in keeping our children safe on the roads around our school.
Each day, hundreds of students are walking, riding bikes, and now increasingly, using electric scooters to travel to and from school.
For motorists and parents:
Please drive slowly and with extra caution around school zones, especially during drop-off and pick-up times.
Keep a close eye on children crossing driveways and footpaths – they can be unpredictable and may not always look before stepping out.
Avoid distractions, such as using mobile phones, while driving near the school.
For students walking or riding:
- Avoid distractions, such as using mobile phones, whilst walking with children especially when crossing busy driveways.
Always use footpaths and designated crossings where available.
Stop, look, and listen before crossing any driveway or road.
When riding a bike or scooter (electric or manual), it is the law, and for their safety, that children wear a helmet at all times.
For families:
Please take a moment to talk to your children about safe travel habits, whether they are walking, cycling, or scootering. A quick reminder at home can make a big difference on the road.
Together, by being alert, responsible, and safety-conscious, we can make sure all our children get to and from school safely each day.
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.
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Christmas Fair Sponsors & Donations Request
Dear Families of Vic Park,
It’s that time of year again, the P&C is now seeking sponsorship and donations for this year’s Christmas Fair.
Attached are two letters we’ve prepared for local businesses inviting their support. If you own a business or know someone who might be interested in sponsoring or donating towards the 2025 Christmas Fair, we’d love to hear from you!
Your support helps us make the Christmas Fair a truly special event for our school community.
Thank you for helping us bring the magic to life!
Old style sports shirts further price reduction 
Order on Flexischools today or pop into the uniform shop Monday mornings or Wednesday afternoons.
$10 - while stock lasts
(Please note new design shirt prices will be at regular price of $35 each and in first wave will be limited to 1 shirt per child).
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
GALLERY
Book Week
NAIDOC Artwork
Victoria Park Community Noticeboard
Mackay Cricket - August Colouring in competition
Mackay Cricket’s August Colouring-In Competition!
Time to get those pencils, crayons, and creativity out! For the month of August, we’re running a fun Colouring-In Competition for all our young cricket fans.
How to enter:
1️⃣ Print off our colouring mural
2️⃣ Colour it in with your brightest ideas
3️⃣ Drop it into the entry box at Harrup Park Reception any time during August🏆 At the end of the month, we’ll pick one winner from each age group:
- Kindy (Under 5)
- Lower Primary (Prep – Year 3)
- Upper Primary (Year 4 – 6)
Each winner will receive a cricket prize pack and have their masterpiece proudly displayed at Harrup Park! Let’s see your cricket-themed creativity shine!
Download the mural https://bit.ly/gbra-colouring-competition and get colouring today.
#MackayCricket #ColouringInComp #JuniorCricket #CreativeKids #HarrupPark #CricketFun #InspireGreatness
School Holiday Cartoon Camp
Run for MI Life
