5 March 2025

Mitchell State School Our school purpose for 2025

To lift the WELLBEING and engagement of our school community, through inclusive practices, so that every student achieves equity and excellence.

Principal News

Welcome to our first newsletter for 2025. A special welcome to our new students and families. This year we have had the good fortune to retain all our staff from last year, which has allowed us to start the year with solid routines and structures.

Gunggari language and SWIN

Gunggari language lessons have begun in Week 4 and Ninna from SWIN has had her first visit. Ninna will continue to visit the school to work with students on a program called Yarn Together which is a program Created with young people in mind, this workshop provides a welcoming space to share in cultural conversations and delve into life skills while practicing ‘Country as Teacher’. Ninna will work with small groups in the Primary School. Ninna will also travel to the school fortnightly to run a sport program at lunch. I would like to thank SWIN for their contribution to our breakfast club program.

150 Years Celebration

We have had our second community meeting for next year’s 150th celebration. The meeting was held Monday afternoon of Week 3. The date has been locked in for May 2nd 2026, which is a long weekend.  The committee is developing an agenda for the day, including connecting with community groups to provide activities across the week end.  Our next meeting is Monday 12th May 2025, 5pm. All are welcome, we would love to have as many contributions as possible.

Student Leaders

In Week 3 the Student Leaders had their first meeting. They discussed fund raising for camp and have organised with the P&C to hold Tuckshop Days and they will assist the planning and running of these days. A proposed trial to change eating times for high school was discussed with students voting to go ahead with the trial. Mr Heslop discussed Kilometre Club to happen before school in preparation for the Tryathlon. Student leaders agreed to run the club three mornings per week with the support of Mr Heslop and Mrs Jones. It was great to meet with the Student Leaders and have them contribute student voice to decisions within the school.

Annual Implementation Plan

Our Annual Implementation Plan has been set for 2025 and has been signed by P&C and our Supervising Principal Mr Ashley Roediger. You will see signs around the school highlighting our focus for the year.

1. Systematic Curriculum Delivery.
Focus on Pre and Post moderation including Cluster Schools.

2. A culture that promotes learning.
Focus on engaging students and community to showcase our school. (Open Days, Community Projects, MiGoal meetings, 150-year celebration and Contextual Wellbeing)

Kind regards,
 Diney Harty | A/Principal | Mitchell State School 

Deputy News

From the Deputy’s Desk

What a great start to 2025 we’ve had at Mitchell State School.  I can’t believe we are already halfway through Term 1.  It has been awesome to see all our students and staff return with great enthusiasm, ready to achieve their goals this year.

This year all students in Prep – Year 6 will be participating in the Rescue R000’s program, run by the Queensland Ambulance Service.  Miranda our local QAS paramedic, will deliver sessions across the year aimed at teaching basic first to our students.  Our first sessions will be run on Friday of Week 5.

Students and teachers are currently preparing for NAPLAN online.  The NAPLAN tests will be administered from the 12^th March and will see all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in online tests involving literacy and numeracy.  Students will have the opportunity to practice navigating the online environments in the lead up to the tests by participating in a series of practice tests.  All parents of students in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 will have received information around NAPLAN over the last few weeks.  If you have any questions regarding NAPLAN please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Over the past few years, an updated version of the Australian Curriculum has been rolled out across Queensland schools.  Last year and this year, Mitchell State School teachers have embedded V9 of the Australian Curriculum in the areas of English, Maths, Languages and HPE.  This year sees us familiarising ourselves with V9 Science and Technologies, ready to implement in 2026.  Mrs Hannah McCaskie and I attended curriculum training in Wallumbilla in Week 4 to ensure we are up to date with all current information.  I would like to thank Mrs McCaskie for all her hard work in leading this rollout in our school.

MiGoal meetings will occur in Week 10 of this term.  These meetings allow teachers to meet with parents/caregivers and students to set goals around their learning for the year.  Haylee will be in contact with all families in the coming weeks to schedule a time for MiGoal meetings.

Teachers at Mitchell State School regularly participate in Moderation processes to ensure consistency in marking and teacher judgement.  This term, teachers will engage in Moderation with the teachers from Injune State School in Week 9.  This will involve presenting student assessment from a given area and holding professional conversations about the mark that has been given. 

Looking forward to a productive and enjoyable year.

Mrs Jane Filan

Kind regards,
Jane

JANE FILAN | Deputy Principal | Mitchell State School

PREP/1 – Miss Fisher

YEAR 1/2 - Miss Field

I can’t believe how quickly the term is moving already! In English we are exploring different texts, the characters, and the settings of each. The students have enjoyed engaging in a variety of different narratives.  We have also discussed the difference between fact and opinion and begun identifying these within the texts we read.  In Maths the Year 1 students are learning new strategies to help them with following instructional directions.  The year 2 students are learning about maps and how to locate places on maps.

YEAR 3/4 - Mrs Ok

YEAR 5 – Mrs Tracy

YEAR 6 – Mrs Hamilton

BOOKCLUB

BOOKCLUB ORDERING

Book club catalogues will go home this week. Proceeds from Book club orders enables the school to update library books and purchase awards for Celebration Night.

 CREDIT CARD – Visit scholastic.com.au/LOOP or download LOOP app.

Your order will be electronically linked to the rest of your school’s order. You do not need to complete the order form.

 PLEASE DO NOT SEND CASH PAYMENTS

Mrs Jones

Bringing Stories to Life: Exploring History, Justice, and Ethics in English

This term, our Year 7–10 English students are immersing themselves in powerful stories that explore history, justice, and human experiences. Through engaging texts, they will develop critical thinking skills and creative responses that deepen their understanding of storytelling and its impact.

Year 7/8: Unpacking the Legend of Ned Kelly

Students will explore Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly, a novel that delves into one of Australia’s most infamous historical figures. They will examine how authors use text structures, language features, and literary devices to shape representations of time, place, and character. As they analyse different perspectives on Ned Kelly’s story, students will consider whether he was a hero or a villain and how history is told through literature.

Year 9/10: Judging Justice and Ethical Dilemmas

In 12 Angry Men, Year 9 and 10 students will step into the jury room of a tense courtroom drama that raises questions about justice, morality, and human behaviour. Through close analysis, they will explore how language, structure, and character interactions influence audience perspectives. As a culmination of their learning, students will apply these techniques to craft their own imaginative interview script, demonstrating their understanding of ethical issues and the power of persuasion.

Both units challenge students to think deeply about storytelling, perspective, and the values that shape society. We look forward to seeing their ideas and creativity shine throughout the term!

Let me know if there is anything else you require for this.

Kind regards,
Aislinn

Japanese

Year 5 students will learn to give a self-introduction in Japanese. They will be introduced to a number of strategies they can adopt to help learn a second language such as rhymes and pictures. Students will learn basic grammar and sentence patterns they can use to talk about themselves.

Year 6 will build on the language they learnt to give information about their days including their sports and hobbies. While exploring Japanese sentence patterns and grammar, Students will develop a better understanding of English.

Year 7 and 8 students will learn language and grammar to discuss their schooling. A major focus of the unit is to look at the values of Japanese society and how they underpin language and the routines of school life. Students will compare these values with Australian schooling to explain the differences between the 2 countries.

Food Tech / Hospitality

This term is the first time that the Year 7 students will study food technology. Students will be introduced to various safety practices by making lunch foods. Students will then use the design process to create their own nutritious food suitable for a school lunchbox.

This is the first time Hospitality has been offered at Mitchell State School. In term 1, Year 9 and 10 students will look at food safety practices when storing, preparing and serving food as well as the legislation for food safety. Ms Crump is currently completing further studies with the intention of offering a Cert II in Hospitality in the future.

Maths

Year 7 - This term, students will explore key mathematical concepts such as square numbers, prime numbers, integers, exponent notation, fractions, decimals, and percentages. They will practice performing calculations and solving problems involving these concepts. By the end of the unit, students will have a solid understanding of these topics and be able to use them effectively in various real-life situations.

Year 8 - Throughout the term, students will learn to recognize irrational numbers and apply exponent laws and the rules of operations to simplify and evaluate mathematical expressions involving integers and rational numbers. Students will gain the skills to perform operations and simplify expressions involving both rational and irrational numbers, while using exponent laws to make calculations more manageable.

Year 9 and 10 -In this unit, students will learn how to solve quadratic functions both graphically and algebraically. The unit will also explore how different variables affect the shape and position of the quadratic graph. By the end of this unit, students should be able to solve quadratic functions using multiple methods and understand how the values of the variables in a quadratic equation affect the graph and the solutions. Year 10s will build on this and work with linear equations to solve growth and decay problems. They will focus on using graphing software to make and test predictions, providing a hands-on approach to solving real world problems and improve mathematical reasoning.

SPORTS NEWS

Swimming has kicked off to a fantastic start for the 2025 year. Students in the primary school have been working on stroke techniques and water safety strategies and strokes whilst the high school have been developing water aerobics routines. In Outdoor Pursuits 9/10 students have been preparing for the Mitchell Tryathlon by creating a personal training plan to improve aerobic endurance each Monday. This includes cycling to the pool, running along the river walk and swimming laps of the pool.

Well done to the following students who have made R&D Rep teams so far this year!

Quinn Kenafake: Swimming, Touch football & Rugby League
Ruby Baker: Netball
Chance Wortley: Rugby League
Jed Mackay: Rugby League

Upcoming sports dates this term.

Friday 28^th March – Combined School X country
Friday 4^th April – Mitchell Tryathlon.

Guidance Officer

150-year planning meeting

Ag News

In Agriculture all students in years 5-10 have been exploring farm safety, risk assessing and managing hazards in the work place. The 5/6s have the garden looking in tip top condition and have recently enjoyed harvesting a large haul of cucumbers as well as Champaign watermelons which have been enjoyed by students in breakfast club.

The 7-10s have been getting back into the swing of things with the cattle at the Ag block. They have been recording weight gains from the summer break, started haltering the show cattle and 9/10 have also been working towards getting their tractor licence to drive the school tractor.

In week 4 we had stock agent Seamus Filan conduct an assessment on our school cattle and we sold two of our stock the lighten the load and make way for this year’s calves. We were very happy with the sale results with baron heifer ‘MSS Hermione’ (age 24 months and 430kg) making $1220.  And steer, ‘Rusty’ (age 12 months and 320kg) Making $1150.

We are looking forward all the upcoming events in Ag this year including the showing season and preparing our cattle.

Mr Jeremy Heslop
Agriculture & HPE

School Based Nurse

I would like to introduce myself to those of you who are not familiar with the School Based Youth Health Nurse service or myself. I’m Emma (this is also what I ask the students to call me) and I have been a SBYHN for the two years, albeit a lot of my time has involved me being deployed with the Roma Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. The SBYHN service is available to all secondary students in state schools and supports social and emotional wellbeing. The SBYHN is a Registered Nurse employed by Queensland Health and provides whole of school health promotion, classroom education and individual student consultations that are confidential and voluntary within school hours. Students can self-refer, be referred by peers, school staff and parents. I can also provide resources and education to parents as requested. I have a Post Graduate Certificate in Paediatric, Child and Youth Health and am very passionate about encouraging adolescents and young adults within our communities to live happy, healthy lives. A new inclusion to the SBYHN service this year is the introduction of a virtual clinic. The process for referrals remains the same, but it gives students and staff greater access to the service and negates the challenges of travel. For more information about the virtual clinic, or any questions about the SBYHN service please contact SBYHN_Roma@health.qld.gov.au or ask school staff. If you have concerns or feel there is an issue within schools that requires attention, please let school staff or myself know.

Mitchell P&C

P & C News

Uniform Shop hours are only on ** Friday 8.30am-9am **

We would love to see new parents at our next meeting – to stay up to date or contact the P&C please follow us on our Facebook page.

MSS P&C Uniform Shop and Events

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Pick up & drop off

A friendly reminder to all parents, carers and students that the main Warrego highway entry is not a drop off and pick up zone. Students are expected to arrive and depart from school using the Ann Street and Oxford Street entries ONLY. Students arriving and leaving on bikes and scooters must not use the main entry.

Office Notes

Update your contact details.

Does the office have your most current contact details? Please update your contact details with the admin staff, we’d hate to not be able to contact you in an emergency or to give you a call to tell you how wonderful your child is.

Signing in at the office.

Please ensure that if you are visiting our school that you have signed in at the office.

Please make sure if you are dropping lunch off for your child/children that this is done through the front office.

No entry to school before 8am

Please ensure NO students are on the grounds before 8 am. Children are encouraged to attend reading in the library from 8am however, accompanied or not, children are not to be in on school grounds before 8am.

Play equipment out of bounds before and after school.

Parents please do not linger around or on the play equipment before, after and during school as this is a Workplace Health and Safety concern.

If you have any concerns about this please contact our Principal, Cass Ahern.

PARKING/KINDY GATE

When entering the school grounds please ensure the gates from Kindy to the school are SHUT. It is very important these stay shut at all times.

School Uniforms

Students must be in uniform – school shirt and Royal BLUE shorts everyday – Please come to the office if you are unable to provide the correct uniform for your child.

School uniforms!
lease check that your child's uniforms, especially hats, are named!
Also, please check if your child's uniforms say M.S.S please give them back to the school as these are spares.

Uniform Shop

The uniform shop has now moved to the old tuckshop building/playgroup room under B Block.

From now on you can ONLY buy uniforms on Friday 8:30 – 9am.

UNIFORMS WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE AT THE SCHOOOL OFFICE OR OUTSIDE OF THESE HOURS.

Thanks For Using DIRECT DEBIT to PAY For Uniforms.  

P and C Direct Debit Information
Account Name:  Mss p and c Association
BSB:  084 822
Account Number:  508856555
Include your SURNAME as the reference.

P&Cs Qld:  http://www.pandcsqld.com.au/

2025 Calendar of Events

Communication