16 May 2025

Acting Principal

Abi Hurdley

Dear Graceville Families and Friends,

Welcome to Week 4 of the term! It's hard to believe how quickly the weeks are flying by as students continue to settle into routines and engage in a wide range of learning activities. This week brings several exciting events and opportunities to connect as a school community, including celebrations for National Volunteer Week and P&C Day. We’re so grateful for the ongoing support of our families and volunteers. Thank you for all that you do to help make our school such a positive and vibrant place to learn and grow.

GRACEVILLE STATE SCHOOL STRATEGIC PLAN (2024 -2027)

Graceville State School’s Strategic priority focus areas are:

1. Innovative Teaching and Learning
2. Empowering and Nurturing Environment
3. Connected Community

This year we will have two priorities in our Annual Improvement Plan that will guide our work for each of these focus areas:

• Enhance and extend a whole school, inclusive approach to support student learning beginning in the classroom so that resources are most effectively used to lift student learning.
• Deepening personal empowerment and embedding a nurturing environment to maximise curiosity, positive engagement and success for all.

Our school is committed to a high quality literacy instruction based on The Simple View of Reading, identifying language comprehension and word recognition, as essential components for skilled reading. With the implementation of Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum you may notice some changes to the way reading is taught across our school, with a strengthened focus on teaching vital components for reading.  While there have been some changes across all year levels, these are examples of some of the significant changes in the early years:

• There is a strengthened focus on phonics which involves teaching the letter-sound relationships of English in a planned and logical order. English is a tricky language to learn, as we have 26 letters which are used to represent 44 speech sounds. Teaching letter-sound relationships to students helps them to decode, or read, written words. This is usually done in explicit lessons that are short and engaging. Students learn a group of letter-sound relationships, for example s, a, t and then immediately read and spell words that contain those sounds – for example, at, as and sat.
• The updated curriculum no longer asks students to use their visual memory to learn to read and spell words. This reflects research that tells us there are simply too many words in English for us to remember by memory. Instead, we teach letter-sound relationships so that students can decode all words.
• Beginning readers practise their word reading using decodable texts, which contain letter-sound relationships they already know. At the same time, they engage with rich authentic curriculum texts through shared reading and discussion, so their language skills are also being developed. Rich authentic texts include high-quality stories, information texts and other texts common in our environment.

To support this shift in practice, our staff are actively engaging in professional learning aligned with the Australian Curriculum. Our Prep and Year 1 teachers have completed training in ‘Sounds Write’—a structured, evidence-based phonics program designed to strengthen students’ reading and spelling skills. This program teaches children to break words into sounds (phonemes), blend them together, and apply this knowledge to reading and writing. With its systematic approach, ‘Sounds Write’ helps students build confidence and accuracy in decoding words, laying a strong foundation for fluent reading. Our Year 2 staff are scheduled to complete this training by the end of the term.

SPOTLIGHT IN THE CLASSROOMS

During my recent visits to our early years classrooms, I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside students during their reading lessons. It’s been wonderful to see how confidently our young learners are using their phonics knowledge—breaking words into sounds, blending them together, and reading with increasing fluency. Their enthusiasm and progress are a true reflection of the strong teaching practices and commitment of our staff.

COLOUR RUN 2025

Our Colour Run was a fantastic success once again, filled with energy, laughter, and lots of colour! A huge thank you to all the amazing volunteers who helped bring the event to life, our dedicated staff for their support, and of course, our enthusiastic students who made it such a fun-filled day. This annual event is one of my favourites—combining community spirit with running makes it a real highlight on the school calendar!

NATIONAL VOLUNTEER WEEK

Next week is National Volunteer Week, and it's the perfect opportunity for us to say a heartfelt thank you to all our amazing volunteers. Whether you lend a hand in the classroom, the tuckshop, at events, or behind the scenes, your time and support truly make a difference to our school community.

To show our appreciation, we invite all volunteers to a special morning tea on Friday 23 May at 9:00am in the school hall.
Please register your attendance using the link below so we can cater accordingly:
👉 Volunteer Morning Tea Registration

We hope you can join us as we celebrate and thank you for everything you do!

P&C Day

This Friday, 23 May, we celebrate P&C Day—a chance to recognise and thank our amazing P&C members for their dedication and support of our school community. Our P&C plays a vital role in enhancing student experiences, organising fantastic fundraising events like the Colour Run, Trivia Night, School Fair, and Spellathon. Their hard work and commitment help provide valuable resources and opportunities for our students. Thank you to all our P&C members for everything you do!

COFFEE AND CONNECT SESSIONS: CONVERSATION WITH THE GSS LEADERSHIP TEAM

This term our Coffee and Connect session will be on Friday 20 June. The school leadership team will be providing information about the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD), an annual program that collects data about students with disabilities who receive adjustments. Coffee will be available for purchase from the coffee van from 8:15am, with the session starting at 8:45am. We look forward to seeing you there!

Abi Hurdley
Principal

Upcoming Events

Planned events are listed – we may have to postpone or cancel based on advice closer to the time.

Deputy Principal

Lisa McKeaten

Cybersafety messages

This week we had parent and student Cybersafety talks that were very engaging for our students and staff.

As parents and carers, I suggest you look at the safety website for helpful ideas to support yourselves as adults, and your children https://www.esafety.gov.au/

We can help our children safely navigate the online world by taking some basic steps to reduce the risks:

1. Be engaged, open & supportive – keep lines of communication open
2. Set some rules – work on theses together, consider a family tech agreement which includes everyone in the household
3. Use safety features and settings

Advice for parents and carers (from safety website)

• Keep the computer or device in an area of your home that can be supervised. Check in regularly with your child to see what they are viewing.
• Stay engaged with their online activity. Consider setting up your own accounts with the sites they use most, or simply browsing the content, so you can see how they work and understand the risks. Show good privacy habits by asking your child before sending them a 'friend' or follow request. If they say they don't want to connect with you online, it may be a good opportunity to talk about risks and rules.
• Explore the online world with them to help establish that you can share online activities as a family. You might want to play games with them or do a creative project together.
• Think about social media readiness. Most social media sites require users to be at least 13 years old before they can register, although some sites are created especially for children under 13. See are they old enough?
• Encourage respect and empathy. Teach your child to avoid sharing or posting things that may upset others. See good habits start young.
• Start building resilience. Explain to your child that there are ways they can deal with material that worries or frightens them. This includes immediately telling you or another trusted adult of any concerns or uncomfortable material. See good habits start young.
• Encourage them to learn about online safety by exploring the kids section of this site.

The most important message I took away from the presentations was the need to everyone to have human connection. No device provides people with that human connection!

Deputy Principal

Liam Bray

Our students continue to amaze us with their enthusiasm and resilience. Whether it's tackling challenging maths problems, exploring new ideas in science, crafting thoughtful writing pieces, or giving their all on the sports field, they show a willingness to try, to persevere, and to grow. Their achievements—big and small—are a reflection of the positive mindset we foster here at Graceville.

Cross Country

Just recently we have had a number of students competing in some cross-country events. Firstly, on Wednesday 30^th April we had 26 students competing for Graceville State School at the District Cross Country event held at C J McDonald Park at Richlands. All our students did us proud, with the following students gaining selection into Met West Regional Cross Country Event. Well done to these students and we wish them well for the next step in their representative journey.

Grace D
Seraphina R
Dante G
Aria M
Atticus Mc
Isabella Mc

We look forward to celebrating the success of all our participating students at our whole school assembly next week.

Also, on Saturday 10^th May, we had three students compete at the annual Qld All Schools State Championships for Cross Country. Well done to Grace, Isabella and Sophie on placing second in this event, receiving the silver medal! What a fantastic achievement!

Chess

We are very lucky at Graceville SS to partner with Gardiner Chess to offer our students a before school chess club every Wednesday morning in the Library. These sessions provide high quality coaching of chess to our students and gives them the opportunity to engage with other students. If you would like more information about our Chess Club, please contact us at the school.

Term 2 Junior Assembly Timetable

Please note that our Junior Assemblies will start at 2:05pm in the school hall.

Prep 2026 Enrolment information

It is hard to believe that we are already looking at 2026 Prep enrolments! Please visit the school website https://gracevilless.eq.edu.au/enrolments/prep for all the information about Prep 2026 including dates for Get Set for Prep sessions.

In catchment enrolments

Parents can collect enrolment forms from the Administration Office. These enrolment forms can be handed into the office anytime from Term 2.

Out of catchment enrolments

We have made some changes to our process for out of catchment enrolments. Out of catchment enrolments will open on Tuesday 22^nd April at 9:00am. Parents are to complete the out of catchment form located on the school website. And send this via email to prepyear@gracevilless.eq.edu.au from 9:00am Tuesday 22^nd April.

Please visit https://gracevilless.eq.edu.au/enrolments/prep for all the information.

If you have any questions or concerns about 2026 enrolment, please contact the office.

Music Matters

Naomi Lindh

This week our Junior Choir had their first performance for the year at the Junior Assembly, on Thursday 15 May. Thank you to our students for their regular attendance at our rehearsals and families for supporting their involvement in the choir. I hope our Junior Choir students enjoyed the opportunity to share their songs with the school community!

This Saturday Mr Stewart and the Senior Concert Band students who are able to attend will be performing at the Corinda SHS Open Day, with their performance scheduled for 10am. Please check the Q Parents app re permission to attend this event and emails from Mr Stewart for further information. Unfortunately, as I will be attending a wedding in Northern NSW on Saturday I will not be able to attend this event. I will also be away on long service leave on Friday. I wish Mr Stewart and our Senior Concert Band well for this performance!

Our Beginner String students will be attending a one day workshop at Sherwood State School on Wednesday 28 May, with students from other local state schools, to further develop their skills and perform a short concert at the end of the day. Please check Q Parents to ensure permission has been given for this excursion. Parents are requested to drop students at Sherwood SS and collect them there for this special event. 

We appreciate the commitment from our students and families for attending their recent performances, as well as rehearsals, lessons and ensuring home instrumental practice happens regularly. Please contact your child's teacher if they are experiencing any issues with their instrument so they can support your child. At times, particular pieces/scales/notes can provide challenges which our IM teachers can help with if they are aware. 

Thank you for supporting your child's involvement in our music program!

Music Teacher Contact Details
Mr Alex Chin - Instrumental Music Teacher - Strings - Email: achin4@eq.edu.au
Mrs Naomi Lindh - Classroom Music Teacher/Choir Conductor - Email: nclos1@eq.edu.au
Mr Tom Stewart - Instrumental Music Teacher - Band Email: tstew97@eq.edu.au

Chappy News

John Erichsen

Chappy’s Chat

It was fantastic to see so many turn out to support the Active School Travel morning today. I am sure Brew Moon were blown away by the extra custom they received this morning. Thank you to all involved with planning these events and the families who can participate. We were even fortunate enough to stay dry. We may not be quite so lucky with that at school pick up time this afternoon.

Interschool sport, though cancelled today because grounds are too soggy, is halfway through the season. Students will develop skills in team sports, beyond the necessary motor skills involved with the sport. Teamwork and communication skills are important. Doing your best and supporting others are essential. Experiencing the joy of winning and the sting of defeat can be only the bounce of a ball away. Team sport can help build character. Accepting the referee decisions that don’t go the way we want, can be a challenge sometimes, when the passion is high. Sport can and should bring out the best in us. if it brings out the other stuff, we are missing the mark and doing it wrong. I love tennis and Wimbledon is one of my favourite sporting events each year. Above the door leading out onto centre court at the All-England Club are these words from Rudyard Kippling’s poem,

If at Interschool sport, our students can embrace the spirit in these words, no matter what the scoreline might be, they will always win. They will learn the lessons sport provides and pass every test that matters.

With Volunteers Week around the corner, we will start to see a focus on acknowledging and celebrating the tremendous work done by the army of volunteers at Graceville State School. Keep a watch out for more information.

Have a wonderful week!

John Erichsen
(Chappy)

P&C News

🚀 New P&C Executive Off to a Flying Start

The newly elected P&C executive team has hit the ground running and is full of energy for the year ahead! We’re looking forward to working closely with our wonderful parents and the broader community to support Graceville State School and make 2025 an exceptional year for our students.

🎨 Colour Explosion Fun Run – A Blast of Success!

Last week’s Colour Explosion Fun Run was a brilliant burst of colour, energy, and laughter! A huge thank you to all the incredible volunteers and staff who made the day run so smoothly. Special shoutout to Lauren Poon, our event manager extraordinaire, whose hard work ensured the students had an unforgettable experience.

Thank you also to all the families who generously donated. Every dollar raised brings us closer to our exciting goal — a brand-new oval playground for the kids to enjoy!

Please don’t forget to order your prizes by this Sunday 18th May. To do this login to your profile page at www.myprofilepage.com.au and scroll down the page to the Order My Prizes section. Once there, click the Order Prizes button and order away! Prizes to be delivered within the next few weeks! 

Thanks again for all the support!

🎡 Mark Your Calendars: Graceville State School Fair – August 2, 2025

We’re thrilled to announce that the Graceville State School Fair is officially locked in for Saturday, August 2nd, 2025. This much-loved community event is shaping up to be another unforgettable day — and we can’t wait to bring everyone together for the fun.

We’re especially excited to welcome Veronica Lake as this year’s Fair Convener! Veronica, along with our fantastic subcommittee, has already been hard at work behind the scenes dreaming up a spectacular day for the whole community.

📣 Want to get involved? Whether you can lend a hand on the day, help with prep, or spare an hour to pack up — we’d love to have you on board. This is a great chance to meet other families, especially if you’re new to the school! To make it easy, we’ll soon be launching a dedicated Fair website where you’ll find everything you need — from volunteering opportunities to donation wish lists. Stay tuned and keep an eye out for updates as we get closer to the big day!

🎤 Trivia Night – Date Coming Soon

Our Trivia Night subcommittee has been busy working behind the scenes to lock in a new date for this popular evening. Watch this space — we’ll be announcing details very soon!

🎾 Get your Tennis rackets out! - GSS Tennis Court Hire

It’s so easy to play Tennis at Graceville State School! We encourage you to book a court, grab a racquet and have a hit with your family and friends!

When you book a court online, we'll send you a PIN to access the court/s you have booked.

Please note: Your booking PIN code will take 30 minutes to activate after you have made your booking online. Please book at least 30 minutes prior to the time you want to access the courts.

All funds raised for the tennis court hire go back to the Graceville P&C Association who, alongside the school help to both run and maintain our newly refurbished courts!

🗓️ Save the Date: Next P&C General Meeting

Our next P&C General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, 11 June 2025, at 6:30 PM in the Waratah Room and online. We encourage all members to attend, and we warmly welcome any new faces. It’s a great way to stay informed, have your say, and connect with our school community.

Junior Rotary Award News

The Year 6 students undertaking Rotary are very busy undertaking a range of activities to demonstrate their commitment to the community and developing new skills. Bella, in 6H, shares some of her experiences.

Here are some photos of me doing my part for the Community Service, part of the Junior Community Rotary Award working with volunteers at the Graceville Community Garden. At the Garden I have so far, met the people I will be working with, planned what my work will be and have started on the work. I'm working with Violet to help the community garden group to improve their gardens, and they have assigned us our own garden bed on which to work. The garden bed was covered in weeds to begin with. We pulled all of the weeds out and planted more plants such as beans, snow peas, nasturtiums, basil, and cherry tomatoes which I bought from the Brookfield Nursery. In the coming weeks we will look after this garden and help the community group with the rest of their site.

Bella M
Participant of the Junior Rotary Award
Mrs. Anne Hornstra
Year 6 Teacher
(Rotary Co-ordinator)

Tuckshop

Our homemade butter chicken with rice is back on the menu this week! Together with the chilli con carne and rice meals, it is part of a range of items that we make right here in the tuckshop, including our ANZAC slice biscuits, cloud biscuits, apple-cinnamon oat muffins, banana bread and mini pizzas.

If you’re interested in how the tuckshop runs and how you can help, please join the Tuckshop volunteers WhatsApp group using the link below or QR code to keep in touch:

Join the GSS Tuckshop Volunteers WhatsApp group

We begin morning preparation in the tuckshop from 8am each day and students from each class come to collect lunches at the beginning of first break at 10:45am. At 11am the tuckshop counter is open for students to collect pre-ordered frozen treats and buy snacks over the counter (they always love to see you there!). Even if you just have 15mins after drop-off, all help is very welcome during the morning food preparation time.

Tuckshop Ordering

Ordering for Tuckshop is all done through the online platform Qkr!, either using the web portal, or the Qkr! App on your mobile device. If you haven’t used it before, you need to create a new account and add the details for each of your children before you can make purchases. Please have a look at the how-to guides below for details. 

Click here to download the QKR How To flyer

• Orders must be placed by 8am. Classes collect the tuckshop at 10:45am and take it to the class eating areas.
• To collect frozen treats, the students need to bring their tuckshop bag showing their order to the tuckshop counter during the play period of bread after 11am, except for the Prep students who will receive frozen treats in their tuckshop bags.
• Year 1-6 students and staff can also purchase a range of snacks and drinks from the tuckshop counter with cash or card during the play period, 11:00 - 11:20am. Please note that it is school policy that students can not make purchases for friends, only for themselves or siblings.
• The Emergency Menu is available until 11:30am daily for cases of lost or forgotten lunches or other unforeseen circumstances.
• If your child is absent, you can cancel your order before 8am using the Qkr! app. After that time please call us as soon as possible and we may still be able to cancel or postpone the order (we won’t necessarily have a chance to check emails during the morning).

Please feel free to get in touch and let us know of any dietary allergies or sensitivities that your child might have so we can do our best to accommodate them.

Team Tuckshop
tuckshop@gracevillepandc.org.au
Ph. 37162777 (main school office and ask for the tuckshop)

Uniform Shop

Michelle Fanning

Hi all, welcome to Week 4

Here we are, almost halfway through the term and heading into our cooler months. I for one enjoy our winters and it's especially nice to not have the two fans blasting for a change!

PREP AND YEAR 1 

Just a reminder for all families with children in Prep and Year 1, please pack an extra back up uniform in their backpack in case of accidents etc. 

I supply 2nd hand stock to the office so they're able to help with extra uniforms when needed for emergencies, but we are running low on small sizes, particularly in shorts.  Your help is greatly appreciated. 

WINTER GEAR 

We have an extensive range of winter items to keep your children comfy cosy throughout the winter months.

Our range includes –

• Polar Fleece Jacket - super soft and super warm, front zip style and pockets
• Sports Jacket - lighter weight quick dry fabric, front zip style and pockets
• Rugby Jersey - long-sleeved polo shirt style in a thicker jersey fabric
• Long Sleeve Gold Polo - the same fabric as our short sleeve polo
• Track Pants - fully lined, quick dry fabric with pockets, elastic/draw string waist and zip at the ankle
• Leisure Pants - straight leg, thick stretch fabric with elasticised waist and zip pockets

We encourage you to wear our winter range and perhaps find a bargain on our second-hand racks that are currently well stocked. Don’t delay in browsing as they always sell fast!

The link for the online store to view all our uniform items is below - 

REP SHIRTS

A reminder to all who have children in year 5 and 6 who do Friday sport, that they can wear our Rep Polo Shirts. They look like our gold polos but have a royal blue collar and royal blue sections under each arm, down the side of the shirt. 

2nd HAND STOCK

Why not look at our 2nd hand rack. Items start at just $5 and are always marked at 50% off or less! Pop by the store on a Tuesday or Thursday morning for a look or send me an email with what you’re after so I can help.

RETURNS/REFUNDS

Please be advised that refunds will only be given if you have your receipt which will be sent to you via email or text message. Items should be in perfect condition so should not have been worn or washed and any original tags should still be attached. You have 60 days for returns and refunds.

DONATIONS

We are always grateful for donations of 2nd hand uniforms that are freshly washed, in saleable condition with no tears or holes. We also ask that donations are our SCHOOL BRANDED ITEMS ONLY, so no items from any outside stores. Please do not leave donations at the uniform shop when it is closed. Thank you for your generosity and understanding.

Email address for school uniform store is
uniformshop@gracevillepandc.org.au

Thanks everyone!
Michelle

Community Notices