Welcome to Term 2 Newsletter!

Principal's Report

Dear Families,

Welcome to Term 2!  It's certainly been an unusual start, with short weeks making it feel like we're still finding our rhythm—but there are many exciting weeks ahead.  Our school calendar is available both on our website and through the SZapp.  We have been providing information about key events via email, but please also be sure to check the calendar for all of the latest updates and important dates. 

We’ve had an incredibly productive and positive start to the year, with a strong focus on our two key goals for this year.  These are:

• Improve learning outcomes (reading, writing and spelling) through Australian Curriculum (V9 English).
• Foster a positive learning environment where all learners feel a sense of belonging and are empowered to be successful.

Our progress towards these goals is positive. We’ve worked diligently throughout Term 1 to refine our literacy block and ensure the teaching that occurs responds directly to student data, and our English units are based on the new English Curriculum.  This term, teachers will commence professional learning communities in teams, where they will continue to monitor and track student progress and have focussed conversations on how we can best support the needs of our students.  Further, we have refined our school routines and reviewed our universal whole school processes around supporting student behaviour.  This was important to ensure that we have consistency across the school from Prep – Year 6.  Already, our students are entering classrooms more calmly, are continuing to develop skills to navigate conflict and show kindness.  We are excited to launch ‘The Burrow’ this week.  Check out Mrs Sullivan’s updates for more information. 

Gratitude

I often speak to staff and students about gratitude.  The research around the benefits of having and showing gratitude is significant.  As a staff we engage with this by sharing gratitude moments at the start of every meeting, and on assemblies we ask students to give ‘shout outs’ to others in our community.  These small actions support positive wellbeing in all members of our community, and we are now increasingly seeing students show gratitude and kindness throughout the week. We are very proud of the positive environment we are creating!

Communication

This year, one of our priorities is to streamline communication and make it more meaningful for families.  In Term 1, we trialled a shift from regular newsletters to more timely, relevant updates via SZapp.  SZapp is the app attached to the same platform we use to distribute and share newsletters.  For those without the app, this communication would have and will continue to come through as an email.  This trial came in response to feedback from families who shared how busy life can be—and the limited impressions on our previous longer newsletters.  Instead, we’ve been sharing concise updates, tailored to what matters most for your child’s class or year level.

We’d love to know what you think.  Would you prefer termly newsletters with more targeted communication through SZapp or more frequent newsletters (monthly) and less targeted communication?  Please take a moment to complete our short survey—we genuinely value your input.

If you haven’t yet signed up for SZapp, now’s the perfect time! Click the SCHOOLZINE APP link at the top of the newsletter for instructions to download.  Our school code is 4305.  The app makes it so easy to stay informed, with instant push notifications, access to the calendar, and all newsletters in one place.

We’re also asking all families to register for QParents, which allows us to send permission forms electronically.  This saves time, reduces paperwork, and supports our commitment to sustainability.  It also gives you quick access to report cards and a simple way to notify us of student absences.  If you need help setting up your account, our friendly office staff are here to support you.

Facilities Update

We’re thrilled to share that a number of exciting facility upgrades are either complete or very near completion:

• Our junior playground refurbishment is now finished and ready for fun!  The children report that they can now run much faster without the bark and are feeling quite pleased with themselves.
• The basketball court upgrade is on track to be completed and open for students in Week 2.
• New female staff and student amenities are now complete and in use.
• Work on our disability access ramps is still ongoing, and we look forward to their completion soon.

These upgrades represent significant improvements across our school, and our students are already reaping the benefits.  With the exception of the access ramps, all of these enhancements have been made possible through our partnership and willingness to collaborate with the Department as part of the ongoing building works at Ipswich West Special School.  While we may be temporarily working with a smaller oval space, we are incredibly grateful for the modern, functional, and inclusive facilities now available to our school community.

We also want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our entire community for your patience and understanding as parts of our school have been temporarily closed or redirected.  Delays, largely due to weather, have impacted timelines, and we truly appreciate the flexibility and resilience shown by students, staff, and families alike.  Your support has made all the difference as we work toward a better and brighter learning environment for everyone.

New Faces, New Roles

We're also delighted to share some exciting staffing updates:

• Mrs Winrow has officially stepped into the role of Head of Special Education.
• We warmly welcome:  Mrs Cindy Hamblin as our full-time Inclusion Teacher and Ms Meagan Babore who joins us to teach The Arts.
• On Fridays, Ms Brooke Graham will be supporting our team as we continue to help students better understand their brains and build skills in emotional regulation and wellbeing.
• Finally, we’re thrilled that Ms Carlotta, our much-loved Student Wellbeing Worker from ICYS, has also been appointed as our Youth Worker. Miss Carlotta continues to be a vital part of our support network, now working across both roles to provide consistent, caring support for students.

Thank you for your ongoing support.  We’re looking forward to a rich and rewarding Term 2.

- Karla Black

HOD - Student Services

As we kick off another exciting term, I want to take a moment to share how much I’ve loved the first term in my new role as Head of Department - Student Services. It has been such a pleasure working with our wonderful students, families, and staff—and I’m incredibly proud of the proactive support we have in place to help our students thrive and engage positively in all aspects of school life.

This term brings with it some exciting changes, starting with a revamp of a consistent Whole School Positive Rewards System!  Students from Prep to Year 6 will now be earning stamps and Wombies, our fun and affectionately named rewards link to our much-loved school Wombat mascot.  Students can collect Wombies and stamps for following our school expectations and showing kindness, integrity and resilience. Completed Stamp Charts will go towards Wombuck Stickers in their Wombuck Book that can be spent at The Burrow (our school prize shop), which will be open twice a week for some well-earned prize shopping!

A special thank you to Mrs Markert’s Year 5 students, who played a key role in this revamp as part of their Mathematics unit.  They surveyed students across the school to find out what kinds of prizes everyone would be excited to work towards; what a great example of student voice in action!  Our brand-new Wombie Books should be arriving this week, so keep an eye on our Facebook page for photos and updates!

We’re also thrilled to welcome Mrs Brooke Graham to our school community this term.  She’ll be supporting us in embedding Grow Your Mind, a fantastic program that uses neuroscience to teach students how to care for their mental health and wellbeing in age-appropriate and engaging ways.  We’re excited to roll this out and look forward to sharing more with families in the weeks ahead.

It’s a privilege to be working alongside such a supportive and passionate community.  I’m really looking forward to continuing this journey together—supporting students, staff, and families to foster an environment where everyone feels a strong sense of belonging and is empowered to be successful.

Ipswich ANZAC Day March

Thanks to those students who represented our school at the ANZAC Day March this year.  We proudly represented the Ipswich West Community as we marched alongside other schools and community groups, showing our respect to the many past and current service men and women who have served and continue to serve our country.

- Kaylee Sullivan

HOD - Curriculum

Hello and welcome to Term 2!

My name is Kristy Inwood, and I am thrilled to have joined the amazing Ipswich West team as the Head of Department – Curriculum for 2025. We have had a wonderful Term 1, and I am looking forward to sharing the exciting activities and learning opportunities that await us in the coming weeks.

Curriculum Update

The Department has released a staged implementation schedule for Prep to Year 6 schools to ensure a smooth transition to the updated Curriculum, with consideration for Teachers’ workloads.  In 2025, we are implementing English and Mathematics aligned to Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum.

Keep an eye out for the term curriculum overviews!

PLD - Structured Literacy Program

We are continuing to develop our whole-school approach to literacy learning through the Promoting Literacy Development (PLD) program.

PLD is an evidence-based approach to Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) designed for primary school educators.  Aligned with the Science of Reading, the PLD SSP approach spans from the junior primary years to the upper primary years, supporting a seamless whole-school implementation.

PLD is embedded in our daily teaching and learning.  Students are actively engaging with the program and enjoying the sense of achievement as they participate in daily activities.

Junior Cross Country (Prep to Year 2)

The Junior Cross Country will now be held onsite on Wednesday 7th May from 9:15am.  Further information will be emailed to families of Prep - Year 2 students.  After this, we will announce the winning house - Sturt or Mitchell!

Thank you for your continued support and flexibility—we look forward to seeing our students give it their all on race day!

Book Club

Students will be given the latest issue of the Scholastic Book Club to bring home.  Book Club gives students the opportunity to build their personal library but also helps to fund books purchased for our school library.  Book Club is ordered using the online ordering system.  The cut off for orders with this issue is Monday 12 May 2025.

- Kristy Inwood

Head of Special Education

Inclusive Education

Ipswich West State School staff aim to support all students to access and fully participate in learning, alongside their similar-aged peers, supported by reasonable adjustments and teaching strategies tailored to meet their individual needs.  Some students may also require support from a range of other specialist staff such as a Guidance Officer, Speech Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist and Physiotherapist.  These specialists can support classroom teachers to provide tailored strategies including reasonable adjustments if required. 

If you have any concerns about your child, please contact your child’s class teacher as they can refer to the school Student Support Services team, so they can access specialist supports and staff if appropriate.

This term, we are very excited to welcome Cindy Hamblin to our school as a fulltime Inclusion Teacher.  Cindy is an experienced early year's teacher who will work alongside staff and students from Prep - Year 2 to support and empower them to be successful across all areas of school.

As a school, we are absolutely committed to working with families as they seek support from allied health professionals to support the health, wellbeing and engagement of their children.  Schools often provide a letter of observations or complete a range of questionnaires to support a thorough review of the child.  If you require a letter or questionnaires completed, we ask that you provide the school notice of at least 4 weeks.  These tasks are completed in a thorough manner by our school staff, with many staff members often involved in the preparation and review of these documents. 

- Yvette Winrow

Japanese

About the Japanese writing system

Did you know that Japanese people write using four different types of writing systems?  We just have to master the English alphabet, but Japanese people can use that and their writing which comprises hiragana (46 symbols), katakana (another 46 symbols) and kanji (from Chinese writing originally and there are thousands of these with many different ways to read them).  All of these symbols have a specific stroke order and look more correct if that order is followed.

In Prep to Year 6, we will be trying to write using these four systems this term and they are not easy.  Not only are the symbols difficult to master and learn but Japanese sentence patterns are also different to ours: for example, they have the verb at the end of the sentence and use things called particles.

In Year 5 and 6, we will be using jisho.org to look up the vocab we want to use in our essays.  This is difficult because if you can’t spell the word properly in English, you won’t find it in the dictionary.  It’s also difficult because there are so many meanings and ways to use words.  Did you know that the word “set” has the most different ways it can be used, at about 20?  Think of “set the table” and “game, set and match”.  Therefore, students need to know if they are looking for a noun, an adjective or a verb before they go hunting.  In this way, we are learning about English while we study Japanese.  Foreign language learning is a great way to learn more about your own language.

- Tamasine Collins

Administration

School Photo Day

School Photo Day is on Thursday 8^th May 2025.

Just your friendly reminder to keep sending in your Individual and Sibling Family Photo Order Envelopes to the office please.

Payment options:  Order Online or enclose cash in your envelope (sorry, no change can be given).

Reminder:  Sibling photos commence at 8:00am in the library.  Individual & Class Photos will be taken during the morning.

P&C

An update from the Principal

Following our 2025 Annual General Meeting, I’d like to take a moment to sincerely thank our outgoing P&C executive for their commitment and contribution to our school community throughout 2024.  A heartfelt thank you to Katie (President), Tasha (Treasurer), and Nikki (Secretary) for their time, energy, and dedication.  Your efforts have made a meaningful difference, and we are truly grateful.

At our recent AGM, Denver Lacey was nominated and appointed as the incoming President of the P&C at Ipswich West for 2025.  We are looking forward to working with Denver and continuing to strengthen the connection between school and families. 

Unfortunately, only the role of President was filled.  To form a functioning P&C, two executive roles must be filled.  Our P&C is therefore now officially in caretaker mode. This means the school has oversight of all P&C businesses.  In essence, this means that the school is currently running the Uniform Shop and the P&C is unable to provide fundraising events for the school such as Mother’s and Father’s Day Stalls, or donate funds back to the school community.

To form a P&C, we are seeking nominations from our community to fill the position of Treasurer and Secretary.  A copy of the role descriptions is below.  I welcome anyone who may be interested in taking on one of these roles to reach out to me for a meeting with any queries that you may have.  Further, if you are interested in nominating for one of these executive positions so that we can then form a P&C, please use the survey form at the bottom of the newsletter to do so.  Once nominations have been received, a meeting will be called to accept and motion the nominations and then form a P&C.

In the meantime, Mrs Cera will operate the Uniform Shop on behalf of the school, with updated trading hours.  The Uniform Shop will now be open on:

Wednesday mornings from 8:30am – 9:00am and

Thursdays from 2:45pm – 3:15pm.

Mother's Day Stall

As a school team, we don’t want students missing out on the opportunity to purchase something special for their mum or special person in their life.  Mrs Sullivan and Mrs Winrow together with the Student Council will still be running a Mother’s Day Stall.  The stall will take place on Thursday 8^th May, with a sell-out of remaining stock to take place before school on Friday 9^th May.  Families are welcome to visit the stall before school on Thursday (8:15am to 8:50am).  Each class will then visit the stall during the day to make purchases. We are so thankful to and for our committed staff for making this happen! 

Thank you for your continued support and involvement in our school community.

Student Wellbeing Worker

As the Student Wellbeing Worker and Youth Worker, I work collaboratively with local support organisations to help bring community, school and families together and to help break down any barriers to education.  Having previously worked in the local area of Ipswich, I have extensive knowledge of community providers and organisations, giving me the opportunity to offer a comprehensive referral service to those requiring assistance and support.  I enjoy working closely with people to offer advocacy and support with housing; financial; emotional and social wellbeing.

I’m based at Ipswich West on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  If you would like to schedule a meeting, please email me at: cgrah197@eq.edu.au.  All meetings are free, confidential and in a safe, non-judgmental environment.

Parenting tips for positive childcare and school drop-offs – TRIPLE P

Let’s face it, childcare or school goodbyes can be tough, both on our kids and us.  Your child may cling to you at the gate, tugging at your legs and emotional heartstrings as you try to leave.

If this has been your experience, it is common.  Some level of separation anxiety is developmentally normal in young children.  It can happen when they start care or school for the first time, change centre or school, or move up a level.  They could also have a more shy or nervous temperament and need extra support to separate from you.

Our latest article has some practical ideas that parents and carers can try to help children cope and settle well, keeping in mind that you know best what might make goodbyes easier.

Strategies include having a special ‘goodbye ritual’ before leaving, comforting and communicating to ease fears, as well as practical ways to maintain a positive attitude, like games and role play.

The Triple P – Positive Parenting Program can help families with raising confident kids, to find out more, visit Triple P Online.  If your child is aged six and up, you can help them build resilience through Fear-Less Triple P Online. 

Ipswich Support Organisations

There are some wonderful local organisations who can help with food relief, vouchers, housing advocacy and so much more.  I have generated an updated 2025 flyer, so please let me know if you would like a copy (hard copy or digital).  If I can assist you in any way, please do not hesitate to email me to make an appointment: cgrah197@eq.edu.au

ICYS – Ipswich Community Youth Service – Get Set For Work Program – FREE for 16-19 years

👩🏻‍🍳 Want to find out what it would be like to be a chef?

🧑🏽‍🍳 Want to know if you can handle the heat in the kitchen?

👨🏼‍🍳 Want to meet new friends and impress your peeps with your fine cooking skills?

🙌🏽 We are here to help you do all that AND gain a qualification AND land an awesome job.

Contact Andrew @ ICYS to find out more  📲 38121050

As in previous years, they will be running three cohorts throughout 2025, coinciding with school terms (Terms 2, 3, and 4).  The program will take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 8.45am to 3.00pm.

There will be occasional compulsory Wednesdays featuring external activities, such as business visits, employment workshops, resume writing, cover letter preparation, job searches, or opportunities for some students to participate in the GSFW Radio Show at USQ.

The program is open to young people aged 16-19, and each cohort will run for 10 weeks.

This hands-on, practical course is designed to equip participants with essential employability skills, boost their confidence, and provide life skills.  It also offers valuable networking opportunities with peers of similar age.

The GSFW Program is a safe, inclusive environment where they aim to ensure every young person can enjoy the experience and grow both personally and professionally.

- Carlotta Graham