Dear Parents, Caregivers, and Eumundi State School Community,

Welcome to the 2025 school year! I hope you have enjoyed the summer holiday break and are ready for the new year at Eumundi State School. The staff have worked hard preparing for the year and it was great to see 578 students arrive at school on the first day of the year, wearing their uniform with pride and ready for another school year.

To all new families joining our community, I extend a special welcome and hope that you immerse yourselves in the Eumundi school community. Our 2025 Prep students started their educational journey with great vigour and our Year 6 students who started their final year and were particularly excited.

Eumundi State School will be a place of learning and opportunity throughout 2025. Our school’s core purpose is to create inspiring, adaptable, caring and creative students that our community are proud of. Our school motto of ‘While We Live, We Grow’ inspires us to continue to seek opportunities to learn. We will use our community relationships to forge ahead to continue the legacy of Eumundi State School being the school of choice in our area. We will provide numerous opportunities for this to occur during the year and we encourage all of our community to be involved with our school.

It has been wonderful to see our students wearing our uniform correctly and following our regulations regarding jewellery, hair and other grooming matters. The way our students interact at play time demonstrates CARE, COURTESY, CO-OPERATION and the use of COMMON SENSE.

The construction of a new walkway between our buildings is partially completed at this stage, but we are able to continue to operate with minimum disruption.

Parent Teacher Meet and Greets Thank you to the families that have attended their 'Meet the Teacher' sessions this week. It's a pleasure to see so many engaged parents excited for the year ahead. Sessions continue throughout the next weeks, please check with your teacher if you are not sure of the date.

School Communication

I have an important request for every parent and carer: in all your interactions with, for, or about our school, please model our school expectations (Care, Courtesy, Co-operation and Common Sense) whether in the car park, at pick-up and drop-off, on school grounds, or in conversations about our school. Let’s ensure that the name of Eumundi State School is always upheld with pride.

For many aspects of communication, our newsletters, newsflashes, videos, emails, calendar, and website are sufficient.  However, for personal support including behavioural, social and emotional concerns, the direct personal approach often reaches a better outcome compared to an email.  Please review below for our whole school approach to communication for 2025.

School Newsletters: The school newsletter will be sent  (emailed to the parent addresses recorded with your enrolment forms or administration team) home in Week 3, 6 and 9 for Term 1.

School website, calendar and QParent/QSchools: There is a great deal of information about our school on our website including relevant policies, documents and enrolment forms.  Our calendar is kept up to date with all school events, parades and excursions.  QParents and QSchools are fantastic apps.  QSchools will provide you with up-to-date notifications to your phone whilst QParents will allow you to communicate back to our school with information such as attendance, permissions and finance.

Class Emails: Our class teachers will send home an email in Weeks 1, 5 and 7 of each term.  This will include information on the curriculum for the term so that you are aware what each class is learning.  The class email will also advise of events and excursions plus some celebrations that may happen in your child’s class.

Newsflash School Emails: Newsflash emails may be sent to the whole school or just the year level that the information is relevant to.  These will be used to assist throughout the term between the class emails and school newsletter and ensure the important information is not lost in a larger newsletter. Refer to school emails - sent from the office@eumundiss.eq.edu.au

P&C Emails: At times our P&C will need to communicate with the whole school community.  These include advising of meeting times or school events.  Our P&C is a wonderful association that works closely with our school to achieve fantastic outcomes.  Parental support is highly encouraged. The P&C contact is pandc@eumundiss.eq.edu.au?

As mentioned above, emails are not the best approach for behavioural or social and emotional concerns.  If you have any of these concerns throughout the year, please arrange a time to meet or speak directly with your child’s teacher.  Alternatively, please call or email our office to arrange a meeting time with your child’s teacher and our administration. The schools contact details are: PH:5472 6333; admin@eumundiss.eq.edu.au

Your class email provides another way for Eumundi State School parents to keep in contact with the class teachers with regard to general teaching, learning matters.  It must be noted that this email account may only be checked once or twice per week and therefore should not be used for urgent matters of concern.  If you have any concerns in relation to your child, and seeking class teacher feedback and support, you may utilise this email to assist in making a time for a meeting to discuss. For all urgent matters, please contact our school office (PH:5472 6333; admin@eumundiss.eq.edu.au).

For matters relating to student absences please follow the various absence notification processes - QParents; our school website online notification form; SMS or phone our school absences phone number 0427 269 529.  The class email should not be used for student absences.

Student Leaders

Congratulations! to our new 2025 Student Leader Team. Our new Leadership Team will be acknowledged at an investiture in Week 5 on Monday afternoon. A most deserving group of students, who have been selected to lead and represent their peers for the year ahead. Well, done!

Seedling

Our Seedling playgroup program commenced in 2023 and is extremely successful.  Many of our 2025 Prep students attended last year which made their transition to Prep easier and ready for learning along with making friends.  The playgroup is for all children in Eumundi and can commence from any age.  Activities are facilitated by our teaching staff with the assistance of staff from Helping Hands.  Seedlings also created another way for parents in our community to come together and socialise.  The first session has commenced and is run every Thursday morning (8.50 – 10:30am) in the Prep spare classroom.

All the best,

Rob

Settling in

Overall, students in Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 have had an extremely positive and productive start to the year, coming in well prepared and with positive mindsets. The classes have spent a lot of time during the first two weeks establishing class routines and school expectations - but also a lot of time - establishing new relationships and getting to know one another - particularly teachers getting to know each of their new students and supporting students to create new friendships.

Parent Information Sessions have been scheduled for all classes during weeks 2 - 3 and teachers have emailed parents their week 1 Class Bulletin including these dates.

These sessions are designed to help parents with an understanding of the class routines, programs, planning, events and expectations. We hope you are (or have been) able to join your child's teacher and other parents for this session. If you haven't been able to make it, please make contact with your teacher through the class email and request a copy of the presentation.

Every effort has been made by our teaching teams to ensure student records are up to date with their unique learning needs, and information shared by parents has been handed over to teachers. However, I couldn't emphasise enough how important it is to make contact with your child's teacher if you have any concerns about your child's learning or any individual needs that may influence the way that your child engages in daily school life as soon as your concern arises. We suggest you do this by requesting a time to meet via the class email account. Eumundi teachers are always open and ready for conversations that will ultimately benefit our students, and often members of leadership or support team are also helpful to join the conversation.

Wet weather 

Given the amount of wet weather we have been experiencing or possibly going to experience (?), we thought we might try and inform parents with regard to what happens at play times during wet weather? We do our best to provide several options for kids during wet play times to help keep them active and engaged.

A member of the leadership team checks the grounds before play breaks to determine if it is safe for children to play in the playgrounds, concrete areas, or which sections of the oval aren't too soggy. If it is decided it is too wet and concrete pathways are very wet as well, students remain in their classes supervised by teaching teams for their eating and then for some free/play time within the classroom. More often however, we release the kids to their usual eating areas undercover and allow undercover play. In the Prep, Year 1 - 2 areas we put out additional toys and play equipment for the kids.

Other activities and spaces are also available as optional play areas -

• Wellbeing activities with Mrs East/Chappy Sam
• Movie in the meeting room
• Bey Blades in the Maker Space
• Library as usual - games and quiet reading
• Usual ICT or GLEE club

Our aim is to give the kids plenty of play options, keep them active, and help balance the fatigue teaching teams might otherwise have in we are cooped up inside for too long.

Kind Regards

Sarah

School Arrival and Departure Times

A reminder to all parents of the school start and finishing times. Please see below:

Students should not be arriving at school prior to 8.00am each morning and should be collected from school at 2.50pm. It is very important that students arrive on time to learn at the beginning of the day. Your assistance in adhering to these times is appreciated.

Leadership Investiture

Our Student Leaders’ Investiture Ceremony is scheduled to take place on Monday 24 February at 2:00pm in the KOLA. During this ceremony, our elected School Leaders (School Captains, Sports House Captains, Class Representatives, Band Leaders, Enviro Leaders, Equestrian Leaders, Library Leaders, Peer Support Leaders and Performing Arts Leaders) will receive their leadership badges. We invite you to join us to celebrate this special event. Following the formal investiture ceremony, students and parents are invited to attend an afternoon tea in the KOLA.

NAPLAN TESTING - 12 to 24 March

Earlier in the week Year 3 and 5 parents were emailed some information about the upcoming NAPLAN testing - if for some reason you didn’t receive this information, please contact the school at your convenience.

Parents who are considering withdrawing their child from one or more of the tests are encouraged to contact the school between 17-21 February (we do not receive the Withdrawal forms until this date) - this way they don’t have to sit the Practice Tests.

Final student withdrawals are due no later than Friday 07 March.

School Parades

Parades will continue to take place in the KOLA every Monday afternoon from 2:00pm. Term 1 parades are scheduled as follows:

10-12 Years Noosa District Swimming Trials 2025

The Noosa District Swim Carnival for students born 2013, 2014 and 2015 was held on Wednesday 12 February at the Noosa Aquatic Centre. The following students were selected to attended this carnival where they have competed against other schools within the Noosa District:

Bonnie C, Hazel M, Florence N, Emma M, Ivanka H, Sophie W, Aurora J, Rose S, George F, Cooper D, Harper T, Oliver B, Atticus D, Cooper B, Oliver N and Jack C. Well done everyone!

Results from this event will also be published in the next edition of the school newsletter. 

2025 Noosa District Sport Trials

Information relating to Noosa 10-12 Years Noosa District Sport Trials has recently been emailed to families. Please refer to this for more in depth detail about the process around Noosa District Sport trials and how students at Eumundi can nominate as a majority of these District Trials are occurring in Term One. In a nutshell, students in years 4, 5 & 6 (born in the years 2013, 2014 or 2015) have opportunities to trial for Noosa District Teams. Please note, students must first qualify at the school level before being nominated to attend the Noosa District Trials. The teachers in charge of each sport will inform students when ‘school based trials’ are scheduled. It is suggested that if your child is still interested in trying out at school level for a sport, they will need to see Mr Brinkworth urgently, as lots of trials will be taking place in the next month or so.

2025 Eumundi State School Sporting Dates

Friday 28 March (Term 1, Week 9) - Yr 3-6 Cross Country (8.50am to 10.50am)

Thursday 12 June (Term 2, Week 8 TBC) - P-2 Jnr Sports Day (9.30am to 12.50pm). 

Wednesday 18 June (Term 2, Week 9) - Yr 3-6 800m events (middle/afternoon sessions 12.10 to 2.30pm)

Friday 20 June (Term 2, Week 9) - Yr 3-6 Athletics Carnival (all day). Term 4, DATE TBC) - Yr 3-6 Swimming Carnival (all day).

Up and Coming Events for Term 1 2025

10 February: Noosa District 10-12yrs Girls Netball Trials (for selected students)

11 February: Noosa District 10-11yrs Girls Netball Trials (for selected students)

12 February: Noosa District 10-12yrs Swimming Trials (for selected students)

20 February: Noosa District 10-12yrs Boys AFL Trials (for selected students)

24 February: Noosa District 10-12yrs Girls AFL Trials (for selected students)

03 March: Noosa District 11-12yrs Rugby League Trials (for selected students)

04 March: Noosa District 10-11yrs Boys Rugby League Trials (for selected students)

04 March: DIRECT TO REGION 10-12 YRS BOYS NETBALL TRIALS (for selected students)

06 March: Noosa District 10-12yrs Boys and Girls Basketball Trials (for selected students)

14 March: Noosa District 10-12yrs Boys Soccer Trials (for selected students)

17 March: Noosa District 10-12yrs Girls Soccer Trials (for selected students)

25 March: Noosa District 10-12yrs Boys and Girls Softball Trials (for selected students)

25 March: DIRECT TO REGION 10-12YRS GOLF TRIALS (for selected students)

26 March: Noosa District 11-12yrs Rugby Union Trials (for selected students)

26 March: DIRECT TO REGION 10-12YRS BOYS HOCKEY TRIALS (for selected students)

27 March: DIRECT TO REGION 10-12YRS GIRLS HOCKEY TRIALS (for selected students)

28 March: DIRECT TO REGION 10-12YRS SQUASH TRIALS (for selected students)

28 March: Eumundi SS Years 3-6 Interhouse Cross Country (for all years 3-6 students)

Yours in sport

Adam Brinkworth

Physical Education Teacher

Eumundi State School has a reputation of being a prominent force in the IQ Interschool Equestrian Competition. We are the current State Champion Primary Interschool Equestrian School for 2024 and also the 2024 QLD Champion IQ Interschool Show Horse team. This competition is for all State and Private Schools’ Students.

If your child already owns a horse and is currently competing at pony club or EQ events then we would love them to join our amazing team. Please come and see me in the Performing Arts room or call the office for further details.

Last weekend our Year Five team member Bonnie C competed at the Stuarthome Dressage competition and scored a personal best and also was awarded Reserve Champion. Big Congratulations to Bonnie.

We have some big competitions coming up. The Wide Bay Regional Championships are being held in Maryborough on 21-23 February and then on March 9 we have a Show Horse competition at Park Ridge and Dressage at Southport. Best you download the 2025 IQ Calendar from the website to find what’s relevant for your school rider.

Here’s to another successful year of riding, competing and demonstrating the Eumundi Spirit.

Giddy Up

Kym Stewart

School Equestrian Coordinator

LATE ARRIVAL

Students ARRIVING LATE need to sign in at the office and obtain a late slip.  All students should be in class by 8:40am for roll marking.  Students who arrive after this time are considered late.  This is prime learning time for all the children so please try and give your child/ren every opportunity to maximise their learning by arriving to school on time.

EARLY DEPARTURES and/or CHANGES TO TRAVEL/COLLECTION ARRANGEMENTS.       

Parents are requested to make appropriate arrangements with their children relating to getting home from school in the morning before they leave home. Please feel free to send a note to school for the teacher if arrangements differ to other days.  Telephone messages received during the day are difficult to pass on without distrupting not only your child's learning, but the learning of others too.  Messages received after 12:00pm can not be guaranteed to be able to be passed onto the student.

Parents are advised that if they are unable to pick-up their child/ren at 2.50pm, the first option should always be for casual registration with OSHC. Helping Hands OSHC is an amazing service that offers regular or casual bookings for before and after school.  Once registered you can book in at the last minute when unexpected delays crop up

Afternoon Program – Stay and Play where kids can dive into more fun activities and build friendships.

Urgent attention to all Parents/Caregivers

The Staff Carpark on Caplick Way is NOT TO BE USED AS A DROP-OFF/PICK-UP AREA OR PARKING AREA FOR PARENTS WAITING TO COLLECT THEIR CHILD.  This action creates issues with on site contractors, deliveries and staff having access to the carparks and is potentially dangerous for students. 

The parallel car parks at the front of the school (near the Wellbeing Hub) are now 10 minute between 7.00am – 9.00am & 2.00pm – 4.00pm so they can be utilised as a Drop Off/Pick Up Area.

Students should not be advised by parents to meet them in the Carpark area.  The exit route for the students should be through the middle area of the school and then through the single gates.

Cybersafety refers to online behaviour that is safe, appropriate and responsible. To help prevent cybersafety incidents, students are taught how to:

• use technology appropriately and responsibly
• behave in ways to enhance their own safety.

Mr Midgley is conducting cyber safety lessons as part of his Digital Technology lessons with students from PREP to Year 4. As parents it is also important that you take the time to speak with your child about what it means to be cyber safe, and what you as a parent can do to ensure that your child is cyber safe. To assist with these conversations please refer to the information below and useful links.

Information for parents

Remember, you already possess the skills to supervise. Apply these skills to technology and the online world.

To help keep your child safe when they are online, you can:

• put computers in open spaces within your home
• remind your child that content can be posted instantaneously, the downfall is that they can potentially post something without thinking about the ramifications.
• educate your child about appropriate online behaviour and the need for respectful communication with other internet users
• keep an eye on what your child is doing online (both in the home and on any mobile devices they may have access to e.g. phones, music devices and tablets)
• set clear rules about what sites and activities they are allowed to access
• install software to limit their use and monitor/restrict the sites they visit
• discuss a plan with your child about how to address any cybersafety issues that may arise (make sure they know you will be supportive if they mention anything and that they will not get in trouble)
• encourage them to find someone they feel safe talking to, such as yourself, a relative, a teacher or a trusted adult.

Social media tips

Social media applications (such as Facebook) are extremely popular with young people and the usage of these sites is only likely to increase.

Some tips to help your child stay safe while using social media include:

• make sure they never reveal their home address, phone number, email address and passwords
• review the age suitability for any sites and apps your child joins or installs
• look at who their contacts and followers are—this will help reduce the risk of them encountering inappropriate people and content
• educate yourself on the issues that children face
• establish an open relationship with your child so they trust you to view their profiles
• reinforce the need for them to keep passwords private and to update them regularly
• ensure your child understands the implications of posting images and content on the internet.

Consider creating an account on the social media application your child uses and request to become friends or follow their account. Your child may resist this but it may still be a good idea to open an account to increase your understanding of the site or app they are using.

Sourced from: Cybersafety in Queensland state schools (https://www.qld.gov.au/education/schools/health/cybersafety/cybersafety-qss)

USEFUL LINKS

https://esafety.gov.au/parents

Thank you

Mr Midgley

QPARENTS

The office has sent out emails inviting parents or guardians to become a QParents Account Owner (QPAO) for their student. QPAOs will be able to register for QParents to access and manage the student’s information online, view the student’s information, and submit requests to update some of the student’s details.

Student information includes:

• Attendance and absence details, as well as the ability to notify the school of an absence
• Positive behaviour information
• Academic report cards
• Viewing unpaid invoice details, payment history, and making payments online
• Viewing and updating personal student details, including medical conditions and address
• Enrolment details
• Upcoming events list showing school events and excursions.
• Consent Management including Online Services and Excursion permission.

When you receive your invitation email or letter, simply follow the instructions to register your QParents account. The process should take less than 10 minutes to complete. Initial registration and addition of students to your account must be done on a desktop or laptop computer. Once registered, you will then be able to access QParents using your mobile device (via web browser or by downloading the iPhone or Android App). Invitations sent by email will only ever come from no.reply@qparents.qld.edu.au. You will not be invited to register from any other email address or organisation.

If you do no not want to register you can just ignore the invitation and your child’s student information will not be available to anyone through Qparents.

You will also need to have your child’s EQ ID (their Education Queensland identification number) in order to complete your QParents registration. You will find your child’s EQ ID on the most recent invoice sent from the school last week.

Paul Midgley

Writing Co-Teacher/Digital Technologies Specialist Teacher/ICT Co-ordinator

The Student Council is kicking of the year with our first Fundraiser 

Story Dogs

When: Friday March 7^th (Week 6)

Wear: Orange or a dog costume

Bring: Gold Coin Donation

EXPERIENCE SEEDLINGS PLAYGROUP

Eumundi State School is continuing to host Seedlings Playgroup every Thursday morning. This is a great opportunity for our 0 to 5 year olds to play, grow and connect in a safe and stimulating environment. It's coordinated by experienced educators and encourages both indoor activities in a well-equipped classroom and outdoor fun in our Prep playground. This community initiative not only enriches young minds, offers parents a chance to mingle but also supports a seamless transition to Prep at ESS. We are holding our first session for the year  Thursday 13 February.

Louise Hobson

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Noosa District State High School is inviting students in Year 5 or 6 who have a keen interest in Musical Theatre to audition for a role in the 2025 Noosa District SHS musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  To gain a position in the Musical Theatre Excellence Program in 2025, students must attend an audition at Noosa High (Cooroy Campus) in the Drama Room (03) on Tuesday 1 April from 3.30 – 5.30pm.

For the audition students will be required to perform a 1-minute musical theatre piece of their own choice from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This piece must include dance but could also include song and dance. Students are welcome to wear costumes for their audition however this is not essential. We will be looking for students who are well prepared, enthusiastic, energised and skilful.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will be staged at the Cooroy Campus on August 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Students will be required to attend Tuesday afternoon rehearsals in week 8, 9 and 10 of Term 2 and then Monday afternoon rehearsals from week 1 – 4 Term 3. Some weekend rehearsals will also be required, and an overnight camp will occur early in Term 3. 

Please note the cost of the program for successful participants will be $150, this will cover costs for costumes, hair, make-up, musical t-shirt and camp.

Please email Ms Louize Lyle (llyle1@eq.edu.au) to register for your audition by week 6 – Monday 3 March.

We are so excited to have the opportunity to invite primary school students into this unique experience. Our Musical Theatre Excellence Program has been hugely successful for many years and highly rewarding to all involved. We encourage you to support your students in auditioning for this program.

Kind Regards

Louize Lyle                                          

Musical Producer / Director