MacGregor State School eNewsletter

From the Principal

Arriving at school

Students should arrive no earlier than 8.30am.

All students who arrive before 8.30am should go to the Harmony Place.

Classrooms open at 8.45am and children need to be in their rooms by 9.00am

Anyone arriving after this time will need to report to Student Services to get a late slip. Arriving on time allows your child to set themselves up for success for the day ahead.

School finishes at 3pm each day.

All students should be collected as soon as possible after this time.

Our administration office closes at 3.30pm each day. Playgrounds should not be used after school, even when being supervised by parents, as this encourages other children to play.

Third Party Consents

Our school uses tools and resources to support student learning, including third party (non-departmental) online services hosted and managed outside of the Department of Education network.

Online services, including websites, web applications, and mobile applications, are delivered over the internet or require internet connectivity. Examples may include interactive learning sites and games, online collaboration and communication tools, web-based publishing and design tools, learning management systems, and file storage and collaboration services.

You will receive an email next week via the Consent Management App, listing all of the programs that are used at school. You will need to scroll through and click on the ‘I give consent’ button for each app. This will then be recorded and cover the entire year.

At the very bottom of the page, remember to click on the final Consent and Agreement section

Phones and Smart Watches

We are seeing an increase in the number of students bringing phones and wearing smart watched to school.

It is a legislated non-negotiable requirement, that wearable devices (‘Smart Watches’) must be disabled during school hours and must not be used to make or receive calls, texts, take photographs or make recordings.

Mobile phones should be handed in at the office before school.

Parents will be contacted if incidents contravening this policy occur.

Prep to Year Two

Welcome back to another exciting school year! I would like to extend a warm welcome to our school community to all - parents/carers and your beautiful children. A special welcome to the families of our 170 new Preppies, who have embarked on their journey of formal schooling. Despite a few tears (both children and parents 😊), our little people are settling in well, making new friends and getting used to the school routines. It is also very pleasing to see the students' engagement in activities that foster positive classroom culture, relationships and routines. Every day, our little learners are becoming more confident and resilient.

I am equally thrilled to see our existing students return to school with enthusiasm, excitement and renewed energy. This smooth transition is a credit to our dedicated, hardworking and welcoming teams of teachers, teacher aides and support staff, who work collaboratively to provide consistency and safe and supportive environment across the school. They work tirelessly to ensure that every child feels safe, respected, included and encouraged to reach their full potential. I feel truly grateful and privileged to be working alongside such wonderful teams of educators and our supportive school community.

Educational Achievement

This year we will continue our work around ensuring Age-Appropriate Pedagogies are part of our daily practice. Our teaching approaches are carefully designed to engage the curious minds, foster critical and creative thinking skills, and ignite a love for learning. Through hands-on activities, interactive lessons and collaborative projects, we aim to create an enriching learning experience that promotes imagination and passion for knowledge. Below are the pictures from Prep E (with Mrs Wiggins and Mrs Wong) engaging with hands on learning that is age-appropriate and meaningful

The Third Teacher concept

Last week, learners in 1C, with Mrs Davey, were busy co-creating the “Third Teacher” space in their classroom – a physical environment that is engaging, empowering and respectful, inclusive and accessible, and encourages collaboration and investigation, ultimately enhancing the overall learning experiences. They have commenced the planning of the physical space and learning displays to get to know each other and make their classroom not just pretty, but pretty useful.

Wellbeing and Engagement

Equally important to us is wellbeing of our learners, recognising that a child’s emotional and mental health is fundamental to their overall success. We are committed to providing support, guidance and resources to ensure that each learner is equipped with the necessary skills to navigate the challenges they may encounter. A whole-school implementation of a social-emotional program - Second Steps - will support this agenda.

Learners from Prep F (with Mrs Skipage and Mrs Cameron) completed their first Second Steps lesson on being a good listener. They played a game of “Simon Says” where the children listened and followed instructions. They were visited by a silly puppy dog who did not know how to listen and the class had to teach him how to be a good listener. The puppy learned that to be a good listener, he needed to have his eyes watching, ears listening, voice quiet and his body still.

Once again, I extend a warm welcome to all the families and am very excited to embark on this educational journey with you and your children. I look forward to witnessing their growth and achievements throughout the year, and supporting you. Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Welcome to Week 2 of Term 1 at MacGregor State School.

I am thrilled to be working alongside the Year 2 team in 2025 at MacGregor State School – a team of dedicated, passionate and committed teachers and support staff. The year has started with all of our students settling well into their classes – parents thank you for your support each day.

Thank you to those parents who attended the Year 2 Parent Information Sessions earlier this week. It was lovely to meet you and I look forward to forging positive relationships with you this year to support your child’s learning journey.

If you have any concerns or would like to provide us with feedback, please know I always welcome your contact via email – jbail154@eq.edu.au

Things are looking peachy in Year 2 this week!

Recognising the importance of me getting to know your children as quickly as possible, I have spent this week in every Year 2 classroom leading a visual literacy activity. Sharing the text, ‘The Last Peach’ (which the children absolutely LOVED!!), they were invited to predict what they thought would happen to this beautiful, delicious looking peach…or is it even a peach? Students practised visualising their ideas, before drawing them onto a piece of paper that would then evolve into an eye-catching whole class poster.

As educators, we can take away many observations that assist us in getting to know your learner from such a seemingly simple activity, including how they:

Listen to and engage with a text
Connect to a text relying on previous experience and knowledge
Follow instructions and organise equipment
Visualise and verbalise ideas
Share their ideas with their peers and their teacher.

It has been a privilege to spend time in every Year 2 class this week – the students were so proud of their finished products and we get to learn a little bit (or a lot!) about them in a safe, supportive and creative way. We hope you love the posters we created together! Ms Bailey forget to write 2C on their poster….oooops!

Introducing our 2025 Year 2 Teaching Team

We are extremely fortunate at MacGregor State School to have such a breadth of experience across our Year 2 teaching team. Your child’s teacher is the first point of contact should you have any concerns – if you are emailing, we do appreciate you allowing at least 24 hours for them to respond.

Keeping our kids safe online

Each fortnight I will continue to provide parents with ideas on how they can continue to support their child/ children at home with technology. As parents and educators, it is critical that we continue to keep conversations open about what safe choices are when online including how parents can confidently put in place boundaries for online/ internet use.

With national Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 11^th February, we invite you to visit the e-Commissioners website following the link provided https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents . We encourage you to take the time to navigate this website so that you can stay informed of how best to protect, keep safe and support your child if they are accessing the internet at home.

Year 2 Excursion – Toohey Forest Environmental Education Centre

Parent and carers, please keep an eye out for communication via QParents for our upcoming excursion to Toohey Forest! This will be an opportunity for students to connect to their science learning with a fun, interactive and engaging day out. This excursion is scheduled for Week 6 from Tuesday 4^th March. More information coming home soon!

Year Four to Six

Assemblies this term
Monday 17^th February – 9am Captain’s Badge Assembly
Monday 3^rd March
Monday 17^th March
A reminder that students must wear their formal uniform to assembly each week.

Special School Events
MSP School Photos will be taken on Monday 31^st March and Tuesday 1^st April
Music Camp will be held from Sunday 23 March to Wednesday 26^th March
Cross Country events will be held on Thursday 3^rd April
NAPLAN for Years 3 and 5 will be held from Wednesday 12^th March to Wednesday 19^th March

Incursions/Excursion
Friday 14^th February - Year 6 ASPIRE Leadership Day for all students

Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent Teacher Conferences are being held from Monday 17^th February to Friday 21^st February. Letters have been sent home with students, providing login details to the PTO website.

This is available opportunity or you to share important information about your child with their class teacher for this year. Sessions are 10 minutes in duration.

We look forward to seeing you at school during this week.

Swimming

An email has been sent home to all families, seeking consent for your child to participate in swimming. This is managed via the online consent management system.

Students in Years 1, 2 and 4 will be swimming in Term 1 and students from Prep, Years 1,3,5 & 6 will be swimming in Term 4. This consent will also cover participation in the swimming carnivals in Term 4.

Year 6 Senior Shirts

This week a note has been sent home to families in Year 6 with information about how to order our new Year 6 Senior Shirts. This year our senior shirts feature a design be indigenous artist Jenny Kent who also painted the mural near the Mac Snack Shack. We are pleased to see the new design and look forward to seeing the students wearing their new senior shirts to school.

Teaching and Learning
We have had a great start to the school year. Things are very settled and the children have launched themselves into their new classrooms and learning. It has been great to see their enthusiasm to be back at school and the way they are making new friends.

STREET SCIENCE
This week all classes attendance a presentation by Street Science in the Assembly Hall. This is part of a new strategic arrangement to allow students to engage with science. Students were able to watch and sometimes participate in hands on experiments showing how much fun learning can be.

STEM LAB
Our new STEM lab has been very popular with the students. Visiting the lab and trying out all the equipment that we have there, building, constructing, planning and programming a range of objects. Building their knowledge of coding and robotics has seen some amazing project constructed. We look forward to seeing the continued learning in this area and the establishment of our new lunch time STEM clubs.

This week on assembly we joined in the celebrations for the Lunar New Year. The teachers from our languages department worked with some of the students to deliver performances on the Middle Years assembly.

Congratulations to the teachers and the students for their amazing performances.

We wish all members of our community a happy and safe lunar new year.

QPARENTS
QParents is a great App that all parents can download to assist in a range of services whilst your child is at our school.

The main purpose of using QParents is to grant permission for your child to participate in excursions, activities, camps and extracurricular events.

If you choose not to register for QParents, you will need to complete a hard copy of the form at the school office each time a permission where it is required for your child/ren.

QParents is a user-friendly portal accessible via app or web browser, providing parents with secure online access to information about their child's state schooling.

QParents allows you to access and manage information online about your child including:

online permission forms
report cards
attendance records and absences
invoices with online payments.

The benefits of using QParents include

access anytime, anywhere via a smart phone, tablet or computer
access to the latest information in one central place
improved administration efficiencies with fewer individual emails, central secure record of parent responses and more effective communication
elimination of issues with junk email and spam for excursions and invoices.

How do I register for QParents?

Parents who are yet to register will receive an invitation code via email.

This code is needed to create a QParents account.

If your child has already attended another state school and you have an existing QParents account, you will not need to register again.

Your child's details will move across in QParents to MacGregor SS once they have commenced at the school.

When creating an account, you will be asked to verify your identity by giving the document numbers of your government issued identity documents.

If you do not wish to do this, you may instead do a low doc application online, and bring your documents to the school office to be sighted.

Once your QParents account is completed and approved by the school, you can add individual students using their Student Identification number.

Please contact the school office on 3323 4333 if you experience any issues during the registration process.

Behaviour

In our school, we encourage children to be safe, responsible and respectful learners who own their behaviour.

All students follow the Student Code of Conduct, which outlines our school positive behaviour expectations. This can be found on the school website.

We use the following language and strategies in our school:

“High Five” behaviour strategy and Whole Body Listening

Uniform Expectations

Students at our school wear their uniform with pride and this is frequently recognised by members of our community.

Each Monday ALL students should wear their formal uniform to school. This uniform can also be worn on other days throughout the week.

The sport uniform can be worn Tuesday to Friday.

Our uniform shop is open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8am.

It is also essential that the students have a hat tow ear at school each day. They are required to wear this at morning tea and lunch time and also during PE activities.

Hats should be clearly named with your child’s first name and class, so if they are misplaced, they can be returned promptly.

If you have any second-hand uniforms that you no longer require, we would be happy to have these in the office as spares. Uniforms need to be freshly laundered and in relatively good condition. They will be kept in the office and used as back up should a student have an accident whilst at school.

Health & Wellbeing

When your child is feeling unwell, please keep them at home to rest and recover. The health and safety of all of our students and staff is paramount. Students who have been vomiting should stay away from school for 24 hours after the vomiting stops to help stop the spread.

Gluten-free cheesy corn & capsicum muffins

Ingredients (11)

500ml (2 cups) milk
170g (1 cup) instant polenta
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 red capsicum, deseeded, finely chopped
130g (1 cup) gluten-free self-raising flour
2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
2 tsp gluten-free smoky seasoning
2 eggs, lightly whisked
300g can corn kernels, drained
120g cheddar, coarsely grated
2 green shallots, thinly sliced, plus extra to serve

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Line 12 80ml (1/3 cup) muffin tins with muffin cases
Place 375ml (1 1/2 cups) of the milkin a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the polenta and stir for 1 minute. Set aside, stirring occasionally, to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, heat oilin a small frying pan over medium heat. Add capsicum and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until softened. Transfer to a bowl. Add corn and shallot and toss until well combined.
Whisk flour, baking powderand seasoning in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle. Add eggs, polenta mixture and remaining milk. Season and stir to combine. Stir through half the capsicum, corn, cheese and green shallot.
Divide mixture among prepared holes. Scatter with remaining capsicum mixture. Bake for 17 minutes or until golden and set. Allow to cool and sprinkle with extra shallots before serving.

Inclusion Team Update

As we start the 2025 school year, it is time to review your child’s routine or emergency medication requirements. In preparation for 2025, we request all parents/carers to drop off in person any

health plans or medical certificates etc
medications
Consent to Administer Medication Form
Record of medication administration (‘as-needed’ medication) for EpiPen & medications to be administered when required – complete annually and
2025 Record of medication administration (routine medication) for regular medications such as tablets for Autism Spectrum Disorder or regular asthma attacks
Please find the relevant form/s attached to this email

Please refer to following information for your child.

Administering medication at school

If you require staff to administer medication to your child they will only do so for medication that:

has been prescribed by a qualified health practitioner (e.g. doctor, dentist)
is in its original container
has an attached pharmacy label
has NOT EXPIRED.

Please complete, sign and return the attached Consent to Administer Medication Form for Parents (required annually).

N.B. If your child requires more than one medication, you will need to complete a form for each medication.

Requirements for students at risk of anaphylaxis

If your child is at risk of anaphylaxis, it is important to provide the school with your child’s emergency medication and their ASCIA Anaphylaxis Action Plan, completed by your doctor. This Anaphylaxis Action Plan provides the instructions for the school to administer your child’s medication in an emergency, which is specific to respond to their health condition.

Please complete, sign and return the attached Record of medication administration (‘as-needed’ medication) Sheet.

If you have any concerns about your child’s health condition, please contact Jessica KANOWSKI Head of Inclusion Email: jkano6@eq.edu.au

Requirements for students at risk of asthma

If your child has asthma and requires assistance to administer their medication, it is important for you to provide the school with your child’s emergency medication and their Asthma Action Plan, completed by your doctor. An Asthma Action Plan provides specific instructions for the school to administer your child’s medication.

We recognise that some students are capable of managing their asthma without adult assistance. If you are confident that your child can confidently, competently and safely self-administer their asthma medication, let the school administration know. The school will record your decision and will not require your child’s Asthma Action Plan. Please note that if your child requires assistance in an asthma emergency, staff will provide Asthma First Aid.

If you have any concerns about your child’s asthma, please contact Jessica KANOWSKI Head of Special Education Services Email: jkano6@eq.edu.au

If there are any other conditions the school should be aware of could you please provide :-
Name of condition
symptoms and management for our records
Medications & a ‘Consent to administer medication’ for each medication

All plans, forms and medication need to be handed in to the Office at the office at your earliest convenience.

Providing medication to the school

Before you provide the school with your child’s medication, check the expiry date to ensure it is in-date and there is enough for the agreed time period. It is also a good idea to take a note of the expiry date so that you can replace the medication before it expires.

Please note, school staff will not administer medication that you can buy over-the-counter at chemists and supermarkets (e.g. paracetamol, eye drops, cough syrup) unless it has been prescribed by your child’s qualified health practitioner. For example, the school would administer paracetamol to a student only if it has been prescribed by their dentist to be taken for a short time after dental treatment.

School staff are bound by these regulations and we hope that all parents will acknowledge and cooperate with these rules.

It is safer for all students if you can provide medication to the school in person. If you can’t please contact the school to determine the easiest and safest approach for the school to receive the medication.

If you believe your child is capable of self-administering their own medication at school, please contact the Administration Office to discuss, as this requires approval.

When your child’s medication is no longer required to be kept at school, please collect all unused medication.

Thank you for assisting the school in keeping our students safe and healthy.

Sports Updates

Video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXchnkg8q_Q
Important information:
$80 for a 6-week program including a new glove and a ball
Starting next Wednesday afternoon 12^th February
Register from the flyer in school newsletter and on social media

Performing Arts Update

EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Next week a note will be sent home offering a range of extra-curricular activities that the students can sign up for. There is a cost to participate in these activities. This will be highlighted in this note and invoices will be sent home after students have signed up.

I am searching for someone who may be qualified to teach one our Chinese Cultural dance group. If you know of someone who may be interested, please let me know. They would need to have availability during the lunch breaks to come in and work with the students.

Finance

We have implemented QParents for payment and consent for SRS, excursions, incursions, camps and extra-curricular activities.

A consent will be loaded to Parent QParents account with a specific due date. If you do not have QParents, it is parent responsibility to contact administration to obtain a paper copy and complete/return.
Parent will be notified of the SRS/excursion/incursion/camp/extra-curricular activity via email.
On the consent due date, an invoice will be generated to Parent who has completed the consent, this will be sent via email.

Payment amount will also be loaded to QParents. If a consent is not received by due date, children will not be able to participate in the SRS/excursion/incursion/camp/extra-curricular activity and will not be invoiced.

Payment will be due by a specific date which will be specified again on the invoice.
If payment is not received by the due date, despite signing a consent, children will not be able to participate in the SRS/excursion/incursion/camp/extra-curricular activity.
As a courtesy, generic reminders will be emailed to Parent prior to the due date.

If you are experiencing financial difficulty, please do not hesitate to contact the Finance office.

Mac Shack News

Exciting New Daily Specials and Ice blocks at the Mac Snack Shack!

We’re kicking off Term 1, 2025 with some new items at the Mac Snack Shack! Our new range of ice blocks come in a variety of flavours that are sure to keep everyone refreshed this summer!

In addition to our new ice block range, the full Term 1 menu is now available and includes plenty of tasty options to fuel students throughout the day. From healthy snacks to satisfying meals, we’ve got something for everyone.

Be sure to check out the full menu and remember that the Mac Snack Shack (MSS School Tuckshop) is proudly owned and operated by the MSS P&C Association. All profits from this service are reinvested into our school to support and benefit our community.

MacGregor State School Newsletter 2025 - Edition 1