Student support and staff

There are many times throughout the school week where students will be working with staff other than their class or specialist teacher. Class teachers work strategically to utilise additional staff to help support students - with a wide variety of learning needs - and this is standard, good quality teaching practice which nearly all students will have some familiarity within their day-to-day school life.

In an earlier 2025 edition of Newsmundi, the 2025 Diverse Learning Team were introduced. On behalf of the Student Support Team (who meet each Wednesday morning) we thought we would share another overview of various staff that work to support student learning across the school.

Head of Special Education Services (HOSES): Kaitlyn Goodall

Among a long list of roles and jobs, including lead of the Diverse Learning Team, (DLT) Mrs Goodall oversees the implementation and review of support plans for students with disabilities (Personal Learning Plans/PLPs) and consultation with parents, helps coordinate specialist services for students with disabilities, and prepares our school's NCCD - which in turns helps determine our future years' resourcing. Our HOSES works more closely with students with extensive or substantial disabilities, while our DLT's work with teachers and students with supplementary and quality differentiated levels of support.

Our Diverse Learning Teachers (DLT):

Diverse Learning Teacher P – 2 - Mrs Louise Hobson

Diverse Learning Teacher 1 – 2 - Ms Alecia Staines

Diverse Learning Teacher 3- 4 - Mr Richard Davey

Diverse Learning Teacher 5 – 6 - Mrs Lynne Weston

Our DLT's -

• partner with classroom teachers and the Student Support Team to analyse and diagnose possible barriers to student learning, and help adapt resources, learning environments, and instructional strategies, ensuring that all students can participate and excel. We also co-teach with teachers to help refine teaching practices.
• work with students who may face challenges, whether academic, social, emotional or physical, to develop tailored strategies that promote growth and success. DLT's work with teachers to maintain student learning support plans and share with parents. DLT's also implement small group targeted intervention programs for identified students such as Mini-Lit and MacqLit.
• collaborate with families and external providers to better understand children’s needs and to share tools and resources that support their development at home and school. 
• support student transitions as they enter and exit our school.

The Student Support Team also includes –

- Guidance Officer – Louise Blanch

- Guidance Officer Wellbeing - Shelley Miller (currently on leave)

- Chappy Sam (Sutherland)

- Student Engagement Officer – Oli Wardle

- Speech Language Pathologist – currently Jill Alain (5/6 days per term)

- Deputy Principals (Ms McDonagh and Mr Kross); and Principal (Mr Jennings)

Our Teacher Aide team are vital to the ongoing success with supports developed for all students, and are generally allocated to particular year junctures. Our Teacher Aide team have an extensive range of knowledge and skills for supporting students, and an in depth knowledge of student needs in our school. From time to time we also have training Teacher Aides, and replacement Teacher Aides working with teachers.

Prep + Year 1 - Miss Regan, Miss Kim, Miss Lisa (J), Miss Lisa (H), Miss Amber

Year 2 - Miss Simone

Year 3 - Miss Vicki

Year 4 - Miss Petrina

Year 5 - Miss Kyra

Year 6 - Miss Prue

Our Student Engagement Officer (Oli Wardle) has also been a highly valued support member by both students and teachers, available to help support students to engage positively in a variety of ways throughout their learning or play.

Chappy Sam has been a long-term, also highly valued, part of our support team, providing ongoing wellbeing support for all members of our school community. Sam makes regular contact with students in their learning spaces, and opens the Wellbeing Hub at various lunch breaks for students. Sam also runs specialised wellbeing programs with class teachers such as 'Peaceful classrooms'.

Our Guidance Officer has extensive expertise in providing teachers and parents with more specialised support and advice for individual students, as well as support for referrals for external health professionals and external specialists. Guidance Officers, with parent permission, are able to assist us with diagnostic screeners and assessments of student learning behaviour, some classroom observations of learning and engagement for individual students with referrals, and possible individual student counselling and therapeutic sessions.

Class teachers are always the first point of contact for parents, if you have any concerns or questions about support for your child. Students who are referred to the Student Support Team will have a Personal Learning Plan, developed by class teachers and consulted with parents, already in place. Referrals to the team require parent permission. However, a member of the DLT or Support Team may also be in contact with you at different times throughout the year to help inform parents of supports in place and continue to support positive outcomes for students.

Sarah McDonagh

Year 3/5 NAPLAN results

Individual Student Reports for children who participated in NAPLAN were sent home last week. If for some reason you didn’t receive your child’s report, please contact the school at your convenience. 

School Photos

Unless you have been contacted, all school photos were sent home last week. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the school or MSP Photography on 3865 4291.

2025 School Camps

Year 4 to Apex Youth Camp Sunshine Coast (Twin Waters) - 25 and 26 August (2 days, 0 nights). Cost is $165.00. If you haven’t received information about the camp, please contact the office at your convenience. Payment and return of the Consent Form is due no later than Friday 08 August - money and forms will not be accepted after this date.

Year 5 to Noosa North Shore Retreat - 02 to 04 September (3 days, 2 nights). Cost is $390.00. Information was sent out on Wednesday 30 July.

School Parades

Parades will continue to take place in the KOLA every Monday afternoon from 2:00pm.

Term 3 parades are scheduled as follows:

BUNYA WINS YEAR THREE TO SIX INTER-HOUSE ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

The annual Eumundi State School Year 3-6 Inter House Athletics Carnival was held on Friday 20 June (with the 800m events run on Wednesday 12 June). With some great weather on the day, students gathered in house colours ready to demonstrate their best abilities in either ‘Championship’ or ‘Standards’ carnival events. Participation was high, with students from all house groups giving their best and cheering each other on from the sidelines.

Again, THANK YOU to all the staff members who supervised, measured, marshalled, judged, timed, recorded and encouraged!

After a full day of action during the track and field rotations, Bunya house managed a hard earned victory, to finish as overall champions for in 2025. The total points results were:

1^ST       Bunya = 638

2^ND       Banksia = 619

3^RD       Cedar = 487

4^TH       Wattle = 460

Highlights of the day included new records that were set in the following events:

8yrs Boys High Jump – Jack L (Banksia) with a new height of 0.99m breaking previous record of 0.98m set in 2024

8yrs Girls Shot Put – Freya W (Banksia) with a new distance of 5.79m breaking previous record of 5.31m set in 2017

8yrs Girls 200m – Freya W (Banksia) with a new time of 36.37 seconds breaking previous record of 36.87 seconds set in 2015

10yrs Girls Long Jump – Zoey B (Bunya) tied with the current record of 3.75m set in 2023

2025 YEAR 3-6 INTER HOUSE ATHLETICS RESULTS

2025 YEAR THREE TO SIX ATHLETICS AGE CHAMPIONS

The Eumundi State School 2025 Age Championship places are as follows:

8 Years girls –  Freya W                                   8 Years boys – Jack L

9 Years girls –  Maggie S                                  9 Years boys – Lucas W

10 Years girls – Zoey B                                    10 Years boys – Cooper D

11 Years girls – Marley R                                  11 Years boys – Atticus D

12 Years girls – Violette H                                12 Years boys –  Aston D

Up and Coming Events for 2024

29 August: Noosa District Schools Cricket Cup Gala Day (for selected students)

4 September: Billy Moore Shield Rugby League Gala Day (for Year 5 & 6 students)

Yours in sport

Adam Brinkworth

Physical Education Teacher

Year 4 Students Buzzing with Bee Knowledge

In Weeks 1 and 2 of this term, all four Year 4 classes took part in a hands-on project exploring native bees and pollination, supported by a successful grant from the Queensland Government’s Growing Global Competence fund.

As part of their Enviro Days program, students heard from native beekeepers Ian Driver (A Green Soul) and Peter Velensky (Pete's Native Bees Cooroy), who shared their expertise on solitary and stingless bees. Students helped install a new native beehive and a ‘bee village’ with multiple nesting options, and created a pollinator garden full of flowering native plants and other bee-attracting species.

The project also included:

• A guided garden walk to spot pollinator activity
• Making personal bee hotels to take home
• Creating clay nesting blocks for blue-banded bees
• Cooking from the garden
• Designing ways to teach others about native bees

The project also funded four new iPads for the Enviro Centre, which students will use to monitor bee activity and contribute real data to the iNaturalist website as citizen scientists.

Student engagement was high, with many students nominating to be school bee-champions, supporting other children to learn about native pollinators. The project will continue throughout the year.

In Week 10 of Term 2, we proudly celebrated NAIDOC Week at our school, embracing this year’s powerful theme: "The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy."

Our celebrations began with a special visit from Lyndon Davis and the Gubbi Gubbi Dance Group, who delivered a captivating didgeridoo and dance performance on the oval. Lyndon also spoke to the students about the meaning behind this year’s theme, highlighting the importance of honouring past achievements while looking forward to a strong and hopeful future.

A heartfelt thank you to Lyndon Davis and the Gubbi Gubbi Dance Group for sharing their culture and making the day such an inspiring and memorable experience for our whole school community.