Victoria Park State School Newsletter - Week 2, Term 4, 2024

Principal's Report

Welcome to our new and improved newsletter! Our newsletter will be released at the end of every even week as a way to wrap up the fortnight's events and keep our families informed. It should have been emailed directly the address the school has on file for your child. If this isn't the case, please check your junk folder or contact our office staff to update your details on our system. 

Welcome + Attendance!

Firstly, I'd like to issue a warm welcome to several new families who have joined us this term. We're very glad to have you join us at Victoria Park. Families new and old are reminded to reach out to us if we can be of any assistance as we transition to a new term of learning. In considering the beginning of term, our school community is to be congratulated on its commendable start to the term in terms of school attendance. Remember, every day counts, and it is important that your child is in attendance for as many lessons as possible. If you require support when it comes to attendance, do not hesitate to contact your child's class teacher or their cohort's phase leader. Contact details can be found below.

Swimming

The weather has perfectly matched a terrific start to our school swimming lessons. Families should have all received communication about swimming times, routines and requirements. If you're still not sure about swimming, don't hesitate to contact us. I'd like to give a special shout out to the many volunteers who have already attended to support our school swimming lessons. The support we've received has been amazing! Without our parent helpers our swimming programme would not be a success. If you haven't joined your child's class yet but would like to, we are always on the lookout for volunteers. Thank you in advance for your continued support of school swimming at Victoria Park!

Get Set for Prep + Enrolments for 2025

Get Set for Prep has recommenced for Term 4 - we look forward to reconnecting with our future prep students as the term progresses. If you know of someone who is hoping to enrol their child at Victoria Park next year, please encourage them to make contact with our friendly office staff as soon as possible. Very soon, our usual survey regarding enrolment intentions for 2025 will be sent to families. This form is the best way to communicate requests regarding the 2025 school year. Until then, any questions related to enrolment can be directed to the office. 

Optiminds Final + Mackay Orchestras and Bands

This week is a big one for Victoria Park State School with many of our students competing in academic and cultural competitions. Firstly, I'd like to wish the best of luck to Olivia, Mia, Kiri, Zekotah, Jess and Emma whose Optiminds team competes in the finals competition this weekend in Brisbane having won their division in Mackay's local competition last term. Best of luck everyone! Big thanks to Mrs Elworthy for co-ordinating our team's participation in the finals and to all of our community members who supported fundraising efforts to facilitate our team's attendance. 

Also competing this weekend are our instrumental music students who will compete at Mackay Orchestras and Bands (MOB) held at Mackay Christian College, The Mackay Orchestra and Bands Festival (MOB) is a music performance event that is open to all school and community ensembles across the Greater Mackay Region. We wish our competing musicians the very best of luck! 

Queensland Track and Field Championships

Congratulations to Year 4 student Blaise B and Year 5 student Elias B who represented Capricornia at the Queensland State Track & Field Championships this week in Brisbane. Blaise ran in the 100m event and made it to the semi-final - a fantastic achievement at this level! Elias was busy and competed in the 100m, 200m and long jump events. He finished 13th, another fantastic achievement especially competing in the pouring rain. Well Done Blaise & Elias!

Buildings

As we await our temporary buildings, some exciting infrastructure projects have commenced over the holidays. D block has had automatic doors installed all the way along the building as one step in a larger plan to facilitate inclusive access for all. In further support of these works, temporary fencing in our tuckshop area indicates areas in which a ramp will be installed to bridge our concrete walkways. Eventually, a lift will be installed to allow full access to D block for all. It is an exciting time in terms of infrastructure at Vic Park - we'll continue to keep you updated as works progress.  

Sarah Mutton,
Principal

Celebrating Success

Each fortnight, we hope to use this column to celebrate particular successes of our students and school community and include our favourite photos to showcase the great things that are happening at Victoria Park. 

Arts Night

This week, we'd like to showcase the hugely successful event that was our Arts Showcase at the end of Term 3 and reiterate our thanks to all teachers and students who contributed to our amazing displays of music, visual arts, dance, drama and media arts and thank the huge number of families and community members who attended to support our students. 

Photos of the Week

Date Claimers

Our new newsletter provides more ways than ever to keep up to date with key events throughout the school term. Below, you'll find a link to our new live calendar (note this is still being confirmed in terms of end of term events). You'll be able to use the Year level filters to select the grades applicable to your family. These dates also populate in a list down the left-hand side of this newsletter. Beyond school events, a helpful printout of the Department of Education's 2024 and 2025 school calendars (including term dates and school holidays) can be found here.

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)

Here you'll find our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) goals for the fortnight. PBL is a cornerstone of our school and promotes a culture that promotes learning through the explicit teaching of our expectations for student behaviour. Our PBL committee analyses behaviour data to determine upcoming goals and corresponding lessons. 

School Improvement

Our Strategic Plan 2023 - 2026

Our 2023-2026 strategic plan challenges 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.

Responsive Curriculum: Implementing a new Curriculum

October's Student Free Day saw all of our staff spend time planning new and exciting units that align to the newest version of the Australian Curriculum. We are proud to be leading the charge towards implementing our new curriculum with English planning overhauled this year and a re-design of our Maths units planned for 2025. 

Attendance Awards

Each week we celebrate the classes with the highest attendance. Classes compete to win our coveted Attendance Trophies and Sid the Pig mascots. Congratulations to our winning classes for Weeks 1 and 2!

Students of the Week

Week 1 

From the Student Council

Did you know that a major goal of our Student Council last term was to increase the environmental awareness of our school community? Several new initiatives were introduced including;

• Compost buckets for every classroom
• Designated bins to prompt recycling of poppers in our eating areas
• The launch of Nude Food Fridays

Stay tuned to this segment of our newsletter to keep up to date with more great initiatives from our student council representatives. 

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! 

Upcoming Events

Tuckshop News

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 Sally-Anne Rolfe - srolf6@eq.edu.au 

Year 2 Phase Leader: Ms Sally-Anne Rolfe - srolf6@eq.edu.au 

Year 3 Phase Leader: Mrs Jenny Whittington - jwhit211@eq.edu.au 

Year 4 Phase Leader: Mrs Sarah Mutton - samut0@eq.edu.au 

Year 5 Phase Leader: Mrs Sarah Mutton - samut0@eq.edu.au 

Year 6 Phase Leader: Mrs Jenny Whittington - jwhit211@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).

Victoria Park Community Noticeboard