2025, Term 3, Week 4, Kilcoy State School Newsletter

11.8.2025

Acknowledgment of Country: This newsletter comes to you from Jinibara Land. In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples today. We are thankful to be able to work, learn and play on Jinibara land.

Vision & Values: "We believe that all members of the Kilcoy State School community have the right to work, learn and play in a safe and inclusive environment."   Our STAR values are SAFETY - Taking Responsibility - Active Learning - Respect

2025 Annual Improvement Plan

• AIP Focus area 1: The quality enactment of Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum, leading to measurable improvement in student academic achievement.
• AIP Focus area 2: The development of a school culture which underpins a rich, engaging and consistent learning environment, prioritising excellence in curriculum, teaching and learning, resulting in enhanced staff and student learning and wellbeing. 

News from Mrs Nash - Principal

Dear Parents and Carers

This week, we commence the National Week of Action against Bullying (you can read more about it below) and also begin our Science Week Expo!  Parents and Carers are all invited to attend our Science Week Expo on Wednesday afternoon to participate in your child's wider education. Events like this create interest in science and can be a spark that lights the fire in a child's mind about how the world works. We'd love to see you join us. 

This week, Kilcoy State School has invited other principals from the surrounding schools (Mt Kilcoy, Woodford, Mt Mee, Peachester) to join us in our Learning Walks and Talks. In this time, we look at how Kilcoy State School students are engaging in their English units and see how they are able to talk about this in their own words. Seeing our intended curriculum come to life and be enacted successfully is a delight. It also helps us find any gaps and think about ways we might be able to improve. Our teachers work very hard every term to make sure they pull each unit apart and align it with our students' needs.  We appreciate the time and effort given by our fellow principals and know that they too will take learning form this, making better Education Queensland schools all over. 

On Thursday, eight groups of our Year 4-6 students will represent our school attending the Speed Soccer GALA Day. We wish them well and look forward to hearing of their successes. 

We are due to review our existing Kilcoy State School Student Code of Conduct and this work is underway. I have shared the draft with our Parents and Citizens Association (P&C) and will keep them up to date with the policy as it is finalised. This document underpins the behavioural expectations for all students at our school, put in place to ensure each child has access to a quality education. Prior to publishing, you are welcome to view a draft at the office, of come to a P&C meeting to discuss. 

Yellow Day & Crazy Hair Day!

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Attendance Check: Our current whole school attendance rate is 90%. Our goal is 95%. If your child is reluctant to attend or you would like assistance in this area, please make contact with the office on 5422 3333 to make an appointment. 

Kind regards, Mrs Belinda Nash. 

Bullying No Way: National week of action

Bullying No Way Week is Australia's key bullying prevention initiative for schools. It provides an opportunity for schools to create a shared understanding about bullying behaviours and share their bullying prevention policies and strategies. The theme for 2025 is 'Be bold. Be kind. Speak up.'

It takes courage to spark change! Bullying is everyone's responsibility. It takes a community to be brave and address bullying behaviours, within and beyond the school gate.

Students can be bold, kind and take a stand to support others being bullied while parents and teachers are there to support children and young people learn how to behave in a positive way.

In our community and in our school, we want a place where everyone can belong, a place that celebrates everyone, and where bullying is never accepted. This Bullying No Way Week, we're asking students, schools, families and communities to be bold and say something, be kind and support someone, and be proud to take a stand against bullying.

Connecting with community

News from Miss Carlile - Deputy Principal

The Kilcoy Show was a Blast!

 The Year 3-6 students had a total blast at the Kilcoy Show last week. They got to explore all of the pavilions and took pleasure in recognising either their own entries or those of others. It was very exciting to see Kilcoy State School so well represented and we even won a Junior Champion in the Arts! Well done, Axel.

As we walked around the show in smaller groups were so proud of our students’ ability to both enjoy the show and demonstrate exemplary behaviour. We were able to visit the dogs, the cattle, and we even watched a Queensland champion do some speed chain sawing.

All of the Show Society people had worked so hard to ensure that there was plenty for us to see and enjoy. As if the pavilions and demonstrations were not enough, we were also thoroughly entertained by a puppet show from Professor Wallace and Lolly Pop the Clown learnt new things from the ladies at The Marine Show. Everything was topped off with the most delicious FREE ice-cream cone!

 Thank you to everyone who was involved. It was a wonderful community day.

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NAIDOC
On Thursday of Week 4 our school participated in a wonderful parade to mark NAIDOC Week. The theme for this year’s NAIDOC Week was The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy. With this theme we celebrated the achievements of the past and look forward to a bright future led by our young people. What a great theme for us all at Kilcoy State School! 

For the first 3 weeks of term, we have taken this special opportunity to learn about and engage with the oldest continuous living cultures on Earth. Each class had a slightly different focus and during our parade were able to explain what they had learnt. We had a glorious display of class artwork in the hall, and we are happy to say that we will have a mini display of this in the office foyer if you would like to have a look.

We were very proud of our First Nations School Leader- Darlow Dorreboom as he led our parade with confidence and grace. Darlow shared knowledge of the Bunya Nut Festivals and his family member- Bunda Darlow who lived in the Dalby region for 1871-1991. Darlow is already building his legacy as a First Nations leader.
Our students showed curiosity and respect throughout their learning and our parade. It was a wonderful way to show that at Kilcoy State School, as our National Anthem says: We are one.

-Miss Pam Carlile, Deputy Principal. 

What are we Learning?

In our classrooms, it looks like we are getting into the nitty gritty of teaching our students how to persuade and argue for a point of view! The students are continuing to learn about how to structure and argument with precise vocabular and reasons to support their argument. In Year 1 they are working on other ways to say something was fun. Instead of saying that making potato people is fun, we looked for examples of why it was fun.

 Our sentences started out like this:

"You should all have a go at making potato people because it is fun."

They ended up like this: "You should all make potato people because each one is so cute that they will make you smile." or "You should make potato people because you will enjoy cutting and sticking googly eyes on to make them funny!"

Learning to write sentences like this is also a wonderful way to develop reading comprehension skills as our students are asking to think more careful about what they want to say as writers and what other authors mean when they write.

3/ 4 B Newsletter – Week 5 Science, Design Technology & PBL in Action!

This week in 3 / 4 B, students immersed themselves in a variety of hands-on experiences to explore the forces at work in our world. From testing Newton’s Third Law — for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction — in our Balloon Zipline challenge, to experimenting with friction, gravity, and push-and-pull forces in their game designs, students strengthened both their science knowledge and problem-solving skills.

They also demonstrated our PBL focus of courage and resilience in action. Many had to troubleshoot, adapt, and completely redesign their games when original ideas didn’t work as planned. This meant experimenting with new materials, rethinking designs, and challenging themselves to try unfamiliar tools and techniques. Harper and Christopher showed great perseverance during our Science Week class activity, testing a range of materials and methods to make the Balloon Zipline work — celebrating each success along the way.

In the coming weeks, students will present persuasive speeches on why their game is the best. Pictured here is William with his game, Blaze Courts, made from recycled and repurposed materials. Still under construction, William’s design is set to grow with plenty of creative ideas yet to come. Other students are in the planning and construction phase and their classmates are offering encouragement and praise which is a very important part of our strong class culture.

We celebrated many wins in our classroom activities this week and look forward to sharing more soon. Parents are warmly invited to see the final games and meet our designers at Open Classrooms in Week 9.

P&C News

Our last meeting was held this week, on Thursday afternoon.

At the meeting, we discussed the new draft Student Code of Conduct, about to be implemented at Kilcoy State School. The Student Code of Conduct details the expectations for students, parents and the school, with regard to how we all work together to make sure our school is a safe and respectful place to learn and work.

We also received an update on the new works happening around the school, like the new playground, the new shed, the new basketball 1/2 court and upgrades to the Year 1 and Year 2 block. 

Our next P&C Meeting will be held on Thursday 4th September at 3.30pm in the Resource Centre. Please come along and contribute to our school. All community are welcome and encouraged to attend. 

-The P&C Team

Support Teacher Literacy and Numeracy (STLaN) Update - Mrs Burton.

Year 1 Spud-tacular Speaking Stars!  

This term, our clever Year 1 students have been growing their speaking and listening skills — and what better way to get started than by making their very own Potato People! 

First, they each chose a potato with personality — some were tall, some were bumpy, some were round and chubby! Then came the fun part: designing and decorating! With googly eyes, fabric capes, toothpick arms and woolly hair. The classroom soon filled with all kinds of Potato People – each one unique just like their creators. 

Now that the Potato People are complete, students are using their creations to help them prepare for their upcoming speaking assessment. They’ll be learning how to give a clear, step-by-step recount of how they made their little buddies to an audience, using words like first, then, next, after that, and finally.  

We can’t wait to see them proudly present how they brought their Potato Person to life — building confidence, using strong speaking voices, and having fun along the way!  

Well done, Year 1 — your work is truly spud-tacular!  

~Mrs Karen Burton, Support Teacher of Literacy and Numeracy and EAL/D teacher

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Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to engage in your child's school life further by reading this newsletter. We appreciate you staying informed. If you have any newsletter suggestions, please email them to admin@kilcoyss.eq.edu.au.