Hello Everyone,

Leadership Induction – Congratulations to Our School Captains and Student Executive!

We are pleased to announce the leadership team for this school year. Please join us in congratulating our newly appointed leaders:

• School Captains: Quinn D and Hannah A
• Vice Captains: Eden H and Lani M
• Student Executive Members: Ada A, Evelyn B, Mylo R, Skye B

We are confident that this team will guide our school with responsibility, dedication, and passion. We look forward to the positive impact they will have on our community!

I would also like to extend a thank you to the Student Leaders from Cairns State High School - Melina and Sydney and Redlynch State College Mitchell and Zoe for attending our ceremony.  As past leaders of our school you are an inspiration for our current leaders to aspire to.

Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be a Learner

We encourage all students to embrace the core values that make our school a welcoming and positive environment for everyone. Whether you're in the classroom, on the playground, or engaging with others, remember to stay safe, be respectful, and always strive to be a learner.

Driver Awareness and Parking

A quick reminder to all parents and students: please drive safely and park in designated areas. We want to ensure the safety of everyone within the school vicinity, especially at peak drop-off and pick-up times. Kindly observe all parking regulations to help keep traffic flowing smoothly and to reduce congestion around the school.

Thank you for your attention to these matters, and we look forward to a successful year ahead!

Yours Sincerely,

The past fortnight has been incredibly busy with students now almost at the halfway mark for Term 1 (where has the time gone)! I have enjoyed visiting classrooms across Prep through to Year 3 to see the great work students are producing across all the learning areas. Students are beginning to adjust to their new year levels and Prep students have finally gotten to enjoy the nature playground with the weather easing up with less wet weather play.

Our lunch time clubs have been very popular with many students attending Dance Fit with Mrs Miller, Chess Club with Ms Glaspy, Robotics with Mrs Buttenshaw, Basketball Club with Mr Tan, and Japanese Club with Mrs Fulwood and Mrs Thimios to name a few. We also have a new club on offer this term with Mrs Davis introducing an Art Club. I look forward to sharing some artwork from this Club in the coming weeks as students have an opportunity to get creative during the breaks.

Thank you to our families who were able to attend our Meet and Greet sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. It was such a wonderful opportunity for families and carers to re-connect and meet their child’s teacher to listen to a presentation about classroom routines and curriculum expectations. It also provides an opportunity to ask questions and network with other parents.

Finally, we are very close to handing out our first set of prizes to children in Year 1 to Year 3 who have been diligently reading every night and recording their reading mileage in their reading diary. Ms Glaspy and I cannot wait to see who will attend the library first with their reading diary in hand to share they have hit the first milestone of 25 nights of reading. Check out some of the awesome books and prizes we have ready to hand out to those students. Prep students will commence this reading diary later in the semester when they begin taking home their homework folder.

Kind regards,

Holloways Beach Environment Education Centre

Open Times

Our office is open on school days from 8.15am and closes at 3.30pm. Prior to 8.15am our team are busy getting everything ready for the day. Our office does close at 3.30pm. If you are experiencing any difficulty collecting your child prior to 3.10pm on a regular basis, please keep in mind our OSHC does have some availability. OSHC Administration general inquiries:

OSHC Office Mobile: 0491 202 342 (9:15am - 3:15pm)

After Hours Mobile: 0400 905 502 (6am - 6pm)

Email: oshcbooking@freshwaterpandc.com.au

Student Resource Scheme 

A friendly reminder to pay any outstanding invoices, our preferred payment method is BPOINT. There are still a large number of unpaid Student Resource Scheme Fees, invoiced at the start of the year. Instrumental Music will be invoiced this week.

If you would like to set up a payment plan, contact our office on 4058 9222 or send an email to principal@freshwaterss.eq.edu.au

Collecting your child 

If you need to collect your child early, or during the school day, inform the teacher and office prior. Keep in mind that the class may not always be in their classroom, which can make it hard to locate, if prior notice is not given.

Please try and inform your child where they will be collected prior to school, this minimises disrupting learning time. 

Absences

If your child is going to be away from school please text or email with the following information:

• Student's Name
• Student's Year Level/Class
• Reason for Absence (Illness, Family Reasons, Appointment etc)
• Period of the absence

Text: 0426 305 960

Email: absences@freshwaterss.eq.edu.au

Medication

All students who require medication administered during school hours need a Consent to Administer Medication Form, completed and returned. This includes all long term, short term, as needed medication, anaphylaxis and asthma.

Any child that has Asthma and/or Anaphylactic, the school also needs an Asthma/Anaphylactic (In Colour) Action Plan completed from their GP. 

Please be reminded any medication that is handed in needs a pharmacutical label, this includes over the counter ie. Panadol/Paracetamol.

Date Saver: School Photos

Administration Team 

Abby, Lexie, Natasha and Sam  

School Zone Parking and Pick-up

School zones are areas around schools where, during certain times, reduced speed limits apply. Speed limits and drop-off, pick-up and parking rules exist to keep children, parents and carers safe and to minimise speed and traffic jams around schools. 

Reminder about Driver Responsibilities at School Crossings

• A driver must not stop (or queue) on a pedestrian crossing
• A driver must stop as near as practicable, but before reaching, the stop line at the crossing when a hand-held stop sign is displayed at the crossing.
• driver must not proceed until there is no pedestrian or bicycle on or entering the crossing (this includes the crossing supervisor).

The safety of students and others using the crossing is paramount. Please remember that Corkill Street and Old Smithfield Rd are a signed 40kph zone from 7:30am-9:00am in the morning and 2:30pm-3:30pm in the afternoon.

Double parking is not permitted and creates a danger when children are running in between parked vehicles and creates congestion when legally parked vehicles are trying to exit.

Please be mindful and remember to not block drive-ways so that our neighbours can access their homes. Do not use the No Standing zones as pick up points, these are used for emergency vehicles only. Parking in these zones makes it hard for our crossing supervisors to see oncoming traffic.We appreciate your assistance in helping to ensure the safety of the students entering and leaving Freshwater State School.

For more information please visit https://www.qld.gov.au/transport/safety/rules/schools/school-zone-parking-and-pick-up

Music Group Photos

If your child is a member of our School Choir, Senior Concert Band or Strings Ensemble, then they will be having a group photo taken in Week 6 on the following days and times: 

Thursday 6^th March

FSS Concert Band –   8:10am  (Please go to the band rehearsal first in the music room)

FSS Junior and Senior Choirs  -   8:45am (meet Mrs Howell at 8:30am at the canopy)

Friday 7^th March

FSS Strings Ensemble  -  8:10am (meet at the canopy at 8:00am)

Students in the Junior and Senior Choirs will need to wear their music performance uniform, consisting of the music polo shirt, green shorts/skorts, white socks and enclosed black dress shoes.  Students in the Concert Band and Strings Ensemble will need to wear their music polo shirt, long black pants with black socks or knee length to long black skirt with black stockings and enclosed black dress shoes. Music polo shirts are available for sale at our school shop and there are 5 shirts available to loan.   Students will also need to bring their instruments for the photo.

Years 3-4 Beginning Strings students enjoyed their first lesson and lunch time rehearsal today. They are sounding fantastic.

Please visit the link below: 

https://www.facebook.com/FreshwaterSchool/videos/517157941393750

Yours in music,

Sora our eLibrary

All students have access to their very own eLibrary, Sora! No matter the time or day, there is always a good book waiting. See below for easy how-to instructions. 

Reading for Enjoyment

When learning any new skill, enjoyment is a huge motivator. That’s why it is important to have time set aside each day for your student/s to read purely for pleasure. 

‘I have no special talents.

I am only passionately curious.’

-Albert Einstein-

Yours in literary adventures,

Amanda Glaspy

Library Officer

Last week in Japanese Club some creative students made cards for Valentine's Day.

Were you lucky to receive one of them?

The Year 1 English unit is a retell of an imaginative story. Students in 1HB have been reading ‘Sam’s Bush Journey’ and these drawings represent their interpretations of the Australian bush.

This term in Year 3, students are investigating observable features of living things and classifying them accordingly. 3GW took a field walk to document all the living things at Freshwater State School. We found various insects including grasshoppers and beetles and amphibians like frogs and tadpoles.

Freshwater State School supported the Jane McGrath Foundation by wearing pink accessories and playing a teachers vs sports captains match of cricket, on Friday 14th February.

Thank you to everyone who wore pink, we raised approximately $220.00 in gold coin donation. 

As I am on leave,  Mr Craig will be coordinating all the handing out of TCN forms and information to interested students. Students born in 2013, 2014 and 2015 who are interested in trialing for the TCN teams will need to go to Mr Craig’s classroom to receive the forms and information.

Thank you very much for helping out Mr Craig!

Thank you,

Thanks to the community for a terrific turn out at our first P&C meeting for 2025. I look forward to seeing you at the AGM on March 17th. At our meeting, we pledged to fund a range of great initiatives to support our students. The P&C members voted to donate $20,000 to the purchasing of musical instruments for our music department. Many thanks for Ms Fengler and Mr Coxon for organising this worthy project. The P&C also donated funds to send our Preps on an excursion to the Cairns Tanks to see "Pevan and Sarah in Concert".  We had also pledged to fund the Year 4 cohort to attend "The Twits" however this was postponed due to the floods. 

At the meeting, we discussed the pros and cons of removing the Melaleuca tree in the car park. Karryn highlighted potential hazards to children, teachers and cars parking in the vicinity of the tree. We discussed whether the school had permission to remove the tree and it has been provided. The community members voted to have the tree removed and to support school plans to mitigate the loss by planting 2 or 3 extra trees in its place. The discussion was respectful and lively, I would like to thank the members involved for taking their time to participate. 

Well done to our school leaders who earned their badges today. I had the privilege of shaking hands with many young and impressive leaders. Remember, anyone can be a leader, it takes quiet strength and courage to go the distance! 

Warm regards,

Suzannah Jackson

President

Freshwater State School P&C Association

E: president@freshwaterpandc.com.au

P: 0410083952

Sushi Day  

Back by popular demand! Sushi will be available to order through School24 (or in person) from Friday, cut-off is 3pm on Monday.

On Tuesday there will be a limited amount available to purchase, please order in advance.  

School24

Thank you for your understanding as we transition over to our new ordering system School24. Please remember all orders are required by 9am on the day, this assists us to prepare for the day.

Please see below or alternatively visit our website for further details: 

 https://freshwaterss.eq.edu.au/facilities/tuckshop

Please be advised due to stock availability there may be items on the menu that are unavailable, this will be displayed on School24. 

If you require any assistance please email tuckshop@freshwaterpandc.com.au