Welcome to Week Two of Term One. Students are now engaging in their first units of work for the year.  The year has started off with great weather; this is now changing. Our school always considers student safety first.  We have had a few days where students have spent their eating and playtime indoors due to the weather conditions.  This week we will have our second assembly for the year at 9:15 am on Friday.  This is a time where the whole school assembles together in the hall to hear whole school messages, celebrate achievement and learn which classes are being recognised throughout the school for cleanliness, Cool Coins and attendance.  We also have our mystery person each week who selects the best class.  Last week it was Smiley.  All parents and caregivers are welcome to attend.

Equity and Excellence

• We are committed to supporting the learning of every child that comes into a Queensland State School.
• Equity and Excellence remains our state wide strategy – it brings us together as a system.
• A cohesive strategy is essential to focus our energy and resources on what matters most – coming together across the system to support every child to realise their potential.
• The children and community of Queensland all benefit from a world class state education system.
• High quality State Schools underpin the future of Queensland, and are essential to building a functional and thriving community.
• As we enter the third year of working with this strategy we can see how it has made a difference to our school.
• We can also see where we need to maintain the momentum and what are our next steps for of what matters most in supporting student learning, wellbeing and engagement, culture and inclusion.
• 2025 will be a year of clear focus.
• We will be asking ourselves what is the most important work?
• What can we stop doing, so that we can maximise the time we have to make a difference for all of our students in their learning?
• How do we make best use of the resources and people who are available to us in order to support our school community?
• The best schools have an effective relationship with their school community.
• They have an actively involved community.
• They work together to support the learning of every child.
• Working together means respecting each other, and recognising that we all have the best interests of every child at the centre of all we do.
• Student outcomes and experience of school every day are enriched when the staff and community combine to help every student to realise their potential.

 Gratitude

Gratitude is one of our Resilience Project themes.  When we focus on gratitude it can change the outlook.  Last week on assembly we had a technical issue and the National Anthem didn’t play correctly.  It was considerably frustrating.  However, I am extremely grateful for our amazing students and community.  They continued to sing both verses of the national anthem without the music and together our school community sounded amazing.  I am also grateful that parents and caregivers of our school community are ensuring that our students are in correct uniform daily.

NAPLAN

Our Year 3 and Year 5 students will be participating in NAPLAN this year. The dates at Calliope School will be from Wednesday 12 March until Tuesday 18 March. More information will be sent home to parents later in the term.

Parents wanting to assist in classrooms, work with students and assist with sporting teams must complete an annual mandatory training program. Calliope school will be holding face to face sessions on Thursday 13 February at 9.15 and repeated at 3.30pm. This will take about 30 minutes.

Parents and volunteers may also complete the training on their own and complete the declaration form and return this to the office.

Parent Information Sessions

Parent Information sessions will be held in Week 3. Each year level will hold a meeting for parents to discuss their classroom routines and expectations. Please see times below for each year level.

Prep – Tuesday 11 Feb 3.30pm

Year 1- Monday 10 Feb 8.15am

Year 2 – Monday 10 Feb 3.30pm

Year 3 – Wednesday 12 Feb 3.30pm

Year 4 – Tuesday 11 Feb 8.15am

Year 5A/B – Monday 10 Feb 4.00pm

Year 5/6CD – Tuesday 11 Feb 4.00pm

Year 6A/B – Tuesday 11 Feb 4.00pm

6B has boarded the bus to brilliance and is on their way to a successful year. We are on fire! 6 Brilliant are busy settling into working in our Kagen groups and working hard on our year 6 knowledge bank. So far we have tackled some difficult spelling words, learned about the reasons Australia needed to come together and federate, defining what is a natural disaster and how the Earth’s layers are constructed. We plan to create information reports and present them on natural disasters and how they effect the Earth’s surface, as well as constructing Excel spread sheets to tally footy results. We are in for a fantastic year in 6 Brilliant!

Hi Calliope community, 

After a fantastic 2024, the Songbirds (Calliope State School choir) will be building upon those amazing foundations to bring you the most outstanding, spectacular and heartwarming performances at parades and in the community over 2025. The Songbirds is open for anyone who likes to sing, dance and perform on stage. 

We follow the school policy of being safe, respectful and responsible and the Songbirds is a safe place, regardless of ability, if you want to get up on stage with us, you are more than welcome. 

Practice is twice a week, starting in Week 3. It is held on Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 8.15 to approximately 8.50am in the library. We get through a lot of songs and routines, and it is recommended to attend both days. 

There is a choir shirt which can be purchased from the uniform shop; however, this is not a necessity to be a member. Your desire to being amazing is!

Mr. S

Year 4 teacher, and Songbirds leader.

PBL Lesson this week

We are focusing on tier 1 supports. Tier 1 supports are supports that we carried out for every child at Calliope State School. These include classroom rules, stamp charts, cool coins etc. Students will be discussing their class processes why they look like, sound like, feel like. An activity at home could be to discuss what routines and processes they have in their classroom this year that are new to them.  

Gem Chat

What do you love about being a kid? Discuss this topic as a Gem Chat this week focusing on Gratitude.

The Imperfects Podcast

Follow the link to watch The Imperfects Podcast on The Resilience Project Website -  https://theresilienceproject.com.au/at-home/podcasts/ 

Previously, we have heard from Poh Ling Yeow who talks about When the Relationship Ends. Have you ever made a really bad decision? Made a call that you couldn’t undo? It’s a fear for many, and for others, living with the reality of a ‘roll of the dice’ gone wrong, is cause for great sadness, and discomfort. But there is wisdom in mistakes. And for Poh Ling Yeow, learning to own her bad decisions, meant she could move forward with empathy and acceptance. A skill she’s honed through a life of ‘magooing’ to her way onto our screens through Master Chef, into our kitchens through cookbooks, and very much into our hearts. (Ref. Mr. Magoo).

https://theresilienceproject.com.au/at-home/podcasts/season-6-episode-34-poh-ling-yeow/

PBL Positive Behaviour Data

If your child is wanting a Calliope State School Senior shirt orders have been reopened and will only be available to be ordered through the QKR app.  Senior shirts are only available to the Year 6 students.  Orders will close at 3pm the 21^st February 2025 so get in quick.  PLEASE NOTE…NO FURTHER SENIOR SHIRT ORDERS WILL BE PLACED THIS YEAR.

Hi everyone! We hope everyone is easing into the school year nicely. Don’t forget to update your QKR profiles to reflect your children’s 2025 classes. Have you checked out some of the new tuckshop items on the summer menu? Our Tuckshop team have worked hard to provide some yummy options that can keep everyone cool through the summer months. We have some wonderful parents who volunteer in the tuckshop on a regular basis and other wonderful parents who just pop in when they can. And we appreciate them all! You would be amazed how big of a help it is to have a parent volunteer to spend 30-60 minutes in the tuckshop helping the team. You certainly don’t have to make a full day commitment to help out. Here are some tasks that need to be completed through the stated times of the day. If you could spare any of these times on a Tuesday through to Friday (Friday is definitely our busiest day), please reach out as we would love to have you!

• 8:35-9:00am Breakfast Club; making cups of cereal & milk, pouring juice, cutting up fruit.
• 9:00-9:30am Sticking order labels onto brown paper bags
• 9:00-10:00am Basic food prep; cutting fruit and vegetables
• 10:00-11:00am Making up Snack and Custard Cups
• 10:30-11:00am Packing lunches into class tubs
• 11:15-Noon  Washing dishes

You can put your name down for just one task at the time and day that suits you; then you’re out the door. All tasks are under the supervision of our wonderful Tuckshop Convenor, Lisa, so you won’t ever be thrown in the deep end without direction. We really do have such a great team, who are very welcoming and are always up for a laugh.

If food isn’t your thing; we would also love to hear from you if are interested in volunteering in our uniform shop, just once or twice per month! Some regular members of our team have moved onto high school and there are some spaces to fill in our monthly roster. Our Uniform shop will not be open before parades  at this stage due to lack of volunteers to be able to man it.  Our Tuckshop convenor will endevour to fill orders placed through out the week and will be taking these to your child's classroom to bring home.  Please note; sales are via QKR only.

Our P&C meetings are usually held on the second Tuesday of each month through school terms. Our first meeting for the year will be held on Tuesday 11^th February in the Admin building at 5pm. We wish to invite everyone along and we would love to see you there. If you can’t make it but would like an opportunity to share your thoughts or ideas; please do not hesitate to reach out.

We welcome you to contact us at any time! You can email us on; for our Communication Officer or pandc@calliopess.eq.edu.au for our Executive team.

Warm regards,

P&C Committee

Student absences can be advised via:

1. QParents

2. Phoning the Absentee Line – 07 4975 8366

3. Send an email - absences@calliopess.eq.edu.au  

4. Website - https://calliopess.eq.edu.au/

5. Phoning the Office – 07 49758333

6. Send a note to school with your child.

QParents

QParents  is a secure, online portal that is free for all Queensland state schools to use and provides parents with quick, easy access to their student information including:

• student and parent contact details
• attendance details
• report cards – all report cards (past & present) are available to view and upload
• invoices and payment history
• Online consent management

The student information displayed in QParents is surfacing information that is already recorded and managed in One School. The benefits of using QParents for schools and parents include:

• a faster, more efficient way to communicate with parents regarding student information
• a secure, convenient and automated process for parents to pay school invoices
• significant time and effort savings for both your school and parent community
• an innovative online communication tool that’s free of charge for both schools and parents to use.

How do I register for QParents?

You will be sent an email inviting you to register for QParents. You will then be able to register via the secure QParents website: qparents.qld.edu.au using the unique invitation code contained in the email. You will require each child’s unique EQ ID and you must verify your identity by providing 100 points of identification. If you cannot verify your identity online, you should contact your child’s school for assistance. The school will review your registration and approve your account. You will then be able to access the QParents app.

Please note: if you have not received the QParents invitation email, please send correspondence through to admin@calliopess.eq.edu.au with your full name, student/s full name & DOB to request your QParents invitation.