2025 Term 1 Week 2 Newsletter

Principal's News

A Fancy Dress Ball:  what a fabulous way for our P&C to start a new school year! 

Our school community is invited to attend a Fancy Dress Ball to be held at the Pittsworth Town Hall on Friday 21 February from 6pm - 10pm. 

Gather together your friends & family, find a fancy costume, come along and dance the night away with DJ Jazzy!  

The P&C is hosting this event FREE for YOU!!!  Connect with family & friends and create some great memories for the start of the 2025 school year.

Doors open at 6pm.  Gold Coin Donation ...AND.... a free glow stick for every child!

Prizes for best costume, best dressed family and more!  Dance & party games will be played!

Licenced bar, snacks, chocolates, chips & lollies for sale.

So…..what is “fancy dress” and what are some ideas?

• A Costume:  dress in a costume and pretend to be your favourite movie character or favourite book character!
  • Harry Potter, Spiderman, Anne of Green Gables, Cinderella
  • Wear last year’s Book Week dress up costume!
• PSS parents are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G with making costumes!!
• Dress yourself, your partner & kids as your “favourite famous family”
  • Toy Story, Despicable Me, Addams Family
• Special clothes that you wear for a party or a disco
  • Glitter, glitz & bling!  Bell bottoms, platform shoes, mini skirts, tutu & tiara, fave dance costume
• “Fancy clothes” that you would wear for a wedding (suit, tuxedo, tie, ballgown, cocktail dress) or a period costume (think “Bridgerton”)
• Make your own mask (masquerade)
• Wear a crazy hat (cowboy hat, tiara, sombrero)
• Jeans & boots (cowboy & cowgirl is always popular!)
• .....anything goes! 

Dress up & have fun at this family friendly, fabulous Friday Fancy Festive event!

2025 Staff

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Bus Transport in the Afternoons

If your child has set days they do not catch the bus home, please notify admin via email: admin@pittsworthss.eq.edu.au

Curriculum

Term 1 Curriculum

5CN Uniform Poem

As I get ready for school,
even if the weather is cool,
I remember my gold and blue
to be worn proud and true.

No coloured socks,
only gold or blue in my locks.
Now my school hat...
how great is that?!

Student Dress Code

As per our Student Dress Code, students are expected to wear the full school uniform every day.  We believe that by wearing a full school uniform, students are clearly identified as belonging to our school which develops a sense of pride in "who we are"!

As we begin a new school year, staff will pay particular attention to ensure that students wear the correct:

• school polo shirt, or, school dress
• navy bottoms (shorts, skort, skirt).  No leggings.
• sneakers (preferably black)
• socks (white, black, navy)
• minimal hair accessories (navy, gold or white, must fit under a school hat)broad brimmed blue school hat

Staff will also be ensuring that students have:

• tidy hair, long hair tied back (health & safety)
• short fingernails, no polish, no fake nails
• earrings - studs or sleepers only
• minimal to no jewellery (health & safety reasons)

Parents will be sent a SMS identifying if their child is not in appropriate school uniform and providing a friendly reminder to meet our student dress code.  Parents can also provide a message to admin or their child's teacher if there is an inability to meet the dress code on a particular day (eg wet shoes, ripped shorts).

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit each year. NAPLAN assesses the literacy and numeracy skills that students are learning through the school curriculum and allows parents/carers to see how their child is progressing against national proficiency standards. NAPLAN will commence on 12 March 2025, in Term 1. Visit nap.edu.au for more information.

Read With Me Club

Read With Me Club (RWMC) is a school wide initiative to encourage and promote reading. Students are encouraged to read daily and record this in a reading log that is sighted by the classroom teacher. As the students reach milestones of reading for a total of 25, 50, 75, 100 days/nights etc they are rewarded with a range of incentives including extra Gotchas, ice block vouchers, pick from the Gotcha Box and free books. Students are presented with these incentives on parade. Please see your class teacher if you require further information.

2025 Student Awards Criteria - Awards Ceremony

Click on the link below to review the eligibility criteria for student awards, pertaining to the 2025 Awards Ceremony.

Online Safety basics

Together families and our school community can help our children stay safe online.  The e-safety Commission have some basic steps to reduce online risks. 

The support and guidance we give our children to help them make safe decisions online and the confidence to ask for help when they need it is critical. 

Three key strategies:

1. Be engaged, open and supportive
2. Set some rules
3. Use safety features and settings

For further information and specific recommendations for age groups, visit the esafety Commission.

Carbal Hearing Screening: Tuesday 11 February

https://carbal.com.au/clinical-services/hearing-health/

Please click on the link above to register your child.  Screening will take place on Tuesday 11 February at the school.

Sporting News

Sporting events to mark on your calendar:

• Auskick Gala Day – 5-7 February
• Cross Country training starts in week 3, Tuesday and Friday mornings from 8:30am, with Ms Will on Bridgman Oval.
• Cricket Gala Day – 26-27 Feb
• Netball Gala Day – 7 March
• Hockey Gala Day – 19 March
• Cross Country - 27 March

2025 Inner Downs & Darling Downs School Sport

Please contact Ms Will for further information regarding these events. These events will be open to students that are interested and have experience in these sporting events. Nominations come out a few weeks prior to events so please let Ms Will know closer to the event if your child is interested.  Students will only be nominated for Swimming, Cross Country and Track & Field if they have made qualifying times.  Ms Will’s email: bwill641@eq.edu.au or 46198333

The Arts

Choir:  All students in year one to year six are invited to participate in school choir rehearsals every Wednesday in Bottle Tree Hall (starting at 8.00am).   

Choir Camp: Year three to year six students who attend Wednesday choir rehearsals are invited to participate in this year’s seventh Pittsworth Choir Camp. Choir Camp will be held at the Pittsworth Town Hall from Wednesday 19 March to Friday 21 March (week eight). Participating students will spend three days rehearsing fifteen songs in a Massed Choir of 80-100 students from local schools. A spectacular concert on the Friday night will showcase our talented singers, dancers and drummers. Our wonderful P & C will once again be supporting this incredible event and will finalise all details at their upcoming meeting. Official Choir Camp paperwork will then be sent home to parents. Extra rehearsals will be held in the Art Room every Thursday (11.00am – 11.40am) in the lead up to Choir Camp. These rehearsals are only for year three to year six students attending Choir Camp.

Visual Arts:  During term one every child in every class will be creating an acrylic painting. Please check the attached information for details about class paintings that are being prepared for our Art Exhibition on Friday 2 May.

Art Club:  Students in year four, five and six who are keen to spend extra time creating individual and group artworks for our exhibition are invited to attend Art Club. The Art Room will be open for Art Club every Friday during term one: 8.30am - 8.50am and 11.00am – 11.40am.

CGEN 2025:  Thank you for nominating your child for this year’s exciting CGEN experience! Rehearsals will begin when the CGEN team sends out this year’s music. Parents will be notified of our rehearsal commencement date.  Thank you to Mrs Dillmann for once again rehearsing with our Pittsworth Cluster Massed Choir singers!

Date Claimer:          

18-21 March - Choir Camp

Friday 02 May - ‘Where the Forest Meets the Sea’ Art Exhibition

16-19 July - CGEN 2025

P&C Patch

Annual General Meeting
6pm - Thursday 13 February
Pittsworth Function Centre
General Meeting to follow

Welcome back for 2025!  We hope you all had a fantastic break and are ready for another busy year.  It was great to see some new and old faces at our Welcome Morning Tea on the first day of school.  Thanks to all that came and to the P&C mums that helped put together the morning tea and the tissue packages for our Prep parents and carers.

There is a lot on the calendar already for our P&C in 2025 and we need your help!  Being a member of the school P&C is one of the best ways to contribute to our school community.  We understand that life is busy and as a member of the P&C, you would not be expected to take on a major role or attend every meeting.  What we would like from you is your ideas, opinions and extra hands to assist with events such as:

• Mother’s Day stalls
• Father’s Day breakfast
• Home baking for fundraising events
• Carnival canteens
• Fancy Dress Ball

Yellow P&C Membership forms will be sent home this week with the eldest child in each family.  They were also emailed to all families last week.  Please return these to the school office or to the P&C Secretary, Morgan Pearce, via email psssecretary@outlook.com.  Spare forms are available from the office.

Please note that all P&C Memberships from last year lapse so everyone who wishes to be a part of the 2025 committee will need to complete a new form. 

All positions will be declared vacant. Nominations for executive positions must be in writing and returned to the school office by Wednesday 13 February.  P&C Executive Officer Nomination forms were also emailed to all families last week.

TUCKSHOP

Tuckshop is back up and running on Wednesdays and Fridays.  Orders can be placed through the Qkr! app and close at 8.30am.  Class lists have now been updated for 2025.

We are again very short on Tuckshop helpers this term.  On Fridays, we need two volunteers to help Karla, our Tuckshop convenor.  Thank you to the people that have already put their name down.  If you think you could possibly spare a few hours on a Friday morning, please contact Karla in the Tuckshop or email psssecretary@outlook.com

What volunteering in the tuckshop looks like…

2.5 hrs of your time

9:00am – 11:30am (or longer if you wish)

• Printing and sticking on labels for online orders
• Burger/sandwich/wrap prep
• Pack orders with pre-prepared food items (muffins, milo balls, sumo cookies)
• Pack hot foods/drinks into order bags
• Wash and clean up
• Serve ice cream and ice blocks

It is that easy and the time will fly!

Unfortunately, we will have to reduce our menu options if we aren’t able to get Friday volunteers.

Fancy Dress Ball

We are very excited for our first major event of the year!  We look forward to seeing your costumes at our Fancy Dress ball on Friday 21 February.  Keep an eye out for more details.

VOLUNTEERS – MANDATORY TRAINING

There is a small amount of mandatory training that must be completed in order to volunteer at school.   It is quite quick to complete (10-15 minutes). Link below.

Mandatory Volunteers Training 

P&C Bank Account Details

Download the Qkr! App to order tuckshop

Tuckshop open Wednesdays and Fridays

SRC News/Eco Club News

School Management

Community News

Dental Van:  Oral Health Care for Prep and New Students

Forms have been sent home to all our new Preps and new students in Years 1-6. Please complete and return the Registration Form at your earliest convenience.

Cost of Living Support

Families and individuals are encouraged to check their eligibility for concessions and other support by visiting:  https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/