8 August 2025

Date Claimers

Principal’s Report

Our School Priorities are:

• Teaching Reading Through the Australian Curriculum V9 – focus signposts Vocabulary and Fluency
• Developing Effective Pedagogies when Implementing the Australian Curriculum V9 Mathematics
  

Announcing my Retirement Plans

After thirteen unforgettable years as Principal of our incredible school, I am writing to share that I will be transitioning to retirement at the end of this term.

My wife Nicola and I will be travelling to England, Ireland and Scotland in Term 4. I will then transition to retirement by extending my accrued long service leave into 2026.

While this has been an extremely difficult decision to make, I am convinced the time is right. The school is in a great place and the timing of our school review makes it the ideal time for a new principal to be appointed and lead the school strategically over the next four years with as little disruption as possible.

I will save my final words for a later date but wanted to inform everyone as early as possible of these future changes for myself and our school.

I have loved my 13 years at Maleny State School and look forward to continuing to serve our school and community over the remaining six weeks of this term.

Fantastic school NAPLAN results

Our students have performed exceptionally well in this year’s NAPLAN testing and have done so for quite some time. Often, we hear in the media how poorly Queensland rates in comparison to other states in key NAPLAN areas. There are of course many factors between schools and States that make comparisons difficult to compare on an equal basis. I have included a snapshot below of the Mean Scale Scores results of our preliminary data in all key NAPLAN areas tested from our Year three and five students. Our students have performed well above the State and Region in all ten areas tested and above the Nation in nine out of ten areas.

School Led Review

Our school Review team have now completed the evaluation stage of the school led review process. In the next stage we will have three external reviewers come to our school on Thursday 14 and Friday 15 to validate our findings and conclude with a report that will guide our strategic planning for the next three years.

National Tree Day

On Friday 25 July, we celebrated National Schools Tree Day by heading to the rainforest and planting a range of beautiful rainforest trees. The mewar were spotted close by swimming in the Obi Obi  while many of the class worked at this year's chosen patch to plant their class tree.  We are very grateful to Barung Landcare Native Plant Nursery for donating the trees. We'll continue to visit our trees to care for them into maturity, when they'll provide great shelter and food for our wildlife.  

Book Week – Thursday 21 August

As one of our priorities this year is reading, participating in Book Week is a great motivator to engage students in reading. We encourage all students on Thursday 21 August to dress up as one of their favourite book characters.  Costumes do not need to be fancy; half the fun is involving students in making their own costume.

Explaining Reason for Required Absence Notification on a Strike Day

The reason we still require parents to notify us of if their children are absence on a Strike Day is to ensure your children are safe. If something untoward was to occur to a student (between home and school) and they never arrived at school, and no one would realise until they did not arrive home in the afternoon. This would be too late and may not have a very good outcome. Any child that did not attend school on the Teacher Strike day will not have this recorded as an absence as attendance was not required.

This Friday - Comedy for a Cause – Have a great time while supporting your children.

Enjoy a Night Out at “Comedy for a Cause” – Child-minding available!

Join us for a night of laughter, food, and community spirit at Comedy for a Cause, proudly presented by the Maleny State School P&C.

This fantastic event will showcase some of the top comedians from the Sydney and Melbourne International Comedy Festivals – all in support of our school.

Event Details:
Date: Friday, 8th August 2025
Venue: Maleny State School Hall
Doors Open: 6:00pm
Show Starts: 7:00pm
Runtime: Approximately 2 hours

Tickets:
– General Admission: $45 per person
Book your tickets now – seats are limited!

Food and Drinks:
A food and bar service will be available from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, and again during intermission.

Child-Minding Available:
We know how tricky it can be to plan a night out, so we’re offering a child-minding service in the OSHC building for primary school-aged children (5–13 years) of parents/carers attending the event.  1 child: $30, 2 children: $50, 3 children: $70. Places are limited – book early to avoid disappointment.

Please note: Comedy for a Cause is an 18+ event and may contain some low-level coarse language.

This is a great opportunity to relax, enjoy a professionally run comedy show, and support our school community.

We’d love to see you there!

Next P&C Meeting Wednesday 13 August – We need You!

New parents are welcome and encouraged to attend our next general meeting on Wednesday the 13 August at 6:00pm. This meeting will be held in the Library where parents can attend face to face or can tune in from their own home using Teams online.

Our P&C is achieving some wonderful outcomes and welcomes all newcomers to ensure that our P&C is truly representative of our whole school parent body. It was great to see some new faces at our last meeting.

Have a Magic Week in Maleny.  
John 

Contact Details – Do we have your most up to date contact details?

There are times when we may need to contact parents and carers. Do we have your most up to date contact details?  If not, please contact the school on 5499 8333 so we can update our records. These details include parent/carers’ name, address, phone numbers, email address and emergency contact details. Please remember to contact the school if any of these details change.

PBL (Positive Behaviour Learning)

Be Rule – Be a Learner

Buzz Phrase – Bounce Back

What a wonderful Buzz Phrase to focus on this fortnight - “Bounce Back”. This helps our students learn resilience.  Building resilience is the ability to adapt well to adversity, trauma, tragedy and sources of stress. We strive to teach our students how to manage stress and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty.

This means:

• Take some time out to cool down.
• Use positive talk - I will be ok, I am ok, I will bounce back.
• Talk to someone (friend, teacher).
• Identify and manage my emotions.
• Be a problem solver – talk, negotiate, scissors/paper/rock, seek teacher help.
• Use your support network to bounce back.
• Recognise feelings in myself and others, be compassionate.
• Learn to label and track the physical signs of different emotions within myself.
• Use a range of self-management strategies to act in an appropriate way.

Have a wonderful fortnight 😊

The PBL Team

Jinibara language Word of the Week

We have previously learnt the meaning of some local place names in the Jinibara language. Gympie is named after the word gimbi which is said to be the most painful stinging plant in Australia, and possibly the world. 

Today we will learn the meaning of Beerwah, which of course is a place near Maleny and the home of Mount Beerwah. Beerwah is named after the Dungidau word birwa, meaning sharp point.

Birwa appears in many different Jinibara stories told by Uncle Willie McKenzie. There are three versions of the Crooked Neck Mountain story.  In one birwa is male and part of the Glasshouse Mountain tribe who tells a small boy to bend his neck to avoid a boomerang. The boy then turned to stone and became Crooked Neck Mountain.

In another perhaps more well-known version from the Nalbo group, birwa is the pregnant mother of the family of Glass House mountains. Her son Coonoorin abandoned her when the oceans began rising. Tibrogargon, the father mountain, was so angry with him that broke Coonoorin’s neck, making it crooked.

Next time you look at birwa, the tallest of the twelve Glasshouse mountains at 556 metres, consider if it looks like a sharp point.

Yunundai

P & C News

Next P&C Meeting – Wednesday 13 August @ 6.00pm in Library

Mewar Café (Tuckshop)

Opening Hours

Mewar Café will be open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday:

• 8:30am to 12:00pm (first meal break only)

My School Connect

Orders can be made on the online ordering system My School Connect.

• Online orders close at 8:30am each morning.
• Snacks, drinks and frozen items can be purchased over the counter.

When ordering, please ensure that you see the GREEN THUMB screen and receive an order confirmation email.  This notes that your order has been successfully submitted and will be sent to our service.

Several times each week, we still have upset children turning up at the final bell for 1st Break looking for their 'missing' orders.  We need all of the preparation time from 8:30am to 11:00am (when the first bell for 1st Break rings) to have every order ready for collection.  It is not possible to prepare fresh or cooked meals during 1^st Break.

Please ensure there are sufficient credits in your child's account so that they can purchase items from our Counter Menu in the event that their online order was not successfully completed or that they have forgotten to bring their lunch to school.  We don't want to see any child go hungry!

Our current menu is available on the P&C website. 

Thank you for your support and any casual or recurrent volunteering will make a big difference to our committed Team!

Volunteers - If you can help please contact Mewar Café

For instructions, support and to learn more, visit Mewar Café.

Feedback is welcome to improve our service and menu items.  You are welcome to visit the Mewar Café to talk to one of our team or send an email to:  tuckshop@malenyss.eq.edu.au

Uniform Shop

The Uniform Shop's regular hours are Friday mornings between 8.30am and 9.00am. Payment options are EFTPOS or cash at the uniform shop only. Alternatively, orders can be placed online via the link below by 5pm Wednesday for Friday pickup or class delivery.

If you have one hour per month that you may be able to help us out in the Uniform Shop please contact the office on 5499 8333.  Open from 8:30-9:00am on Fridays, bring along a friend and be part of our happy team J

Chappy News

Bye-bye winter

I am a cold frog!  You will find me on cold Maleny mornings at school with a beanie, scarf and at least two shirts and a jacket.  I am looking forward to the end of the cold but am grateful that we live in such a beautiful area with weather that is not too extreme. 

I will have the privilege of going on our Year 4 and Year 5 camps, both at the end of winter.  I will be packing all my layers don’t you worry.  I love going on school camps as it gives me a chance to get to know our students and staff better and gives me an opportunity to see our students excel in different areas that are not necessarily academic.  If you have children going on these camps, know that they will have a great time, be fed well and will have the opportunity to thrive and grow as they learn new skills. 

School chaplains are employed by an external organisation called Scripture Union.  They work in partnership with the schools to help meet the social, emotional and spiritual needs of the school community. The Chaplaincy program is partially funded by the Government which is wonderful.  However, there is a shortfall of funding that Chaplains and their supporters need to raise to ensure that the Chaplaincy program continues to operate.  Speaking of this, on Saturday August 9 we will be having a combined fundraiser at the Maleny Historical Village grounds.  This will be raising money for the Chaplaincy services of Maleny state and high schools, Conondale and Kenilworth state schools.  There will be free entry the event, lots of free activities for the children, however will also be cheap food and drinks to buy to help raise the much-needed funds.  I hope to see you there and thank you for your ongoing support of School Chaplaincy.

**PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT HAS NOW BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO FORECASTED WEATHER CONDITIONS**

Chappy’s quote for the week: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Helen Keller

Chappy Chris

From the Office

Payments

Payments can be made by any of the following methods.

1. Directly into our bank account noting the invoice number, initial and surname of the student for whom you are paying. 
2. Credit card using the bPoint reference number that is located on the bottom left hand side of your invoice. Credit card payments can also be made in person at the office.
3. Cash and cheque can be made by placing the cheque/correct change in a payment envelope and depositing it into the drop-safe in the office. Please ensure that the envelope is sealed so the cash does not fall out.  Please write the student’s name, class, amount enclosed and what the payment is for, clearly on the envelope. 

Office hours are 8:00am to 4:00pm on Monday - Friday.

Community News

Please see the link below to the Maleny Sports and Rec Maleny Events Calendar

https://malenysportandrec.org.au/events-calendar/

You can keep updated with Maleny Community News and the Maleny Local Shopper at the  NEW link: https://issuu.com/Maleny-Grapevine-Community-News

P&C’s Qld - Click through to view their most recent editions of Parent Talk - https://pandcsqld.com.au/members/publications/parent-talk/