20 June 2025

PRINCIPAL’S NEWS

Term 2, Week 9

DEPUTY NEWS

I am pleased to announce, that after eighteen months acting in the Upper Deputy position, Simone Hansen has been permanently appointed to the position. 

We are so pleased for our students and families that Simone is now here with us for the ‘long haul’ as she has built great relationships with everyone in her time here.  Thank you, Simone and congratulations, on the well-deserved permanent position at our school.

We are fortunate to have a strong and passionate leadership team at our school who all want to do what is best for our students every day!

REPORTING

In line with the Queensland Curriculum and Reporting Framework, we have updated our report card approach from Semester 1 this year.  Our new policy and guidelines were approved through our P and C association earlier in the year. 

Whilst most of the key areas remain the same as previous years, our behaviour and effort ratings now align to the new departmental approach.  Please see the tables below that explain the levels we are using.

Our academic results continue to be assessed against set criteria, that ensures consistency across the school, region and state.  Our school year level teams meet together regularly to ensure there is a consistent approach to marking student work, and our Head of Curriculum also works with other schools, to ensure we are utilising the same standards beyond our school.

Report cards will be emailed home next week.  

SCHOOL REVIEW

We know that many of you have been answering surveys, engaging in forums and participating in school events where you have been asked questions.  We thank you for your participation and feedback as we are working through our school led review.  We are currently compiling our data, and the range of information we have received from staff, students and parents to complete our review report.  We will have reviewers at the school later in Term 3 to validate our report which will then give us the necessary information to plan for the next four years.  The review team will be keen to talk to parents, staff and students whilst they are here. 

From the current information we have received, it is great to see that our current focus areas are making a big difference for our students.  We continue to work towards a:

‘MODERN SCHOOL FOR MODERN LEARNERS.’

Our pillars are:

Literacy and Numeracy in Focus
Positive Culture for Learning
21^st Century Curriculum
Diversity – We all belong
Digital Futures

How great is our explicit improvement agenda - READING

Please let us know if you are keen to chat to the review team about our great school and our future direction.

UNIFORM CONSISTENCY

With the recent cool weather, we have noticed a number of children wearing jumpers and other clothing and footwear that are not a part of the school uniform.  Remember it is a maroon jumper without slogans, and black shoes. 

Please also review any jewellery your child is wearing as we have had a spate of accidents and losses over the term. 

I have included a copy of the school’s approved dress code for you.

Please take time over the holidays to ensure your child is in full school uniform for the start of Term 3. 

BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL GROUNDS USE

Please note a range of groups hire our grounds before and after school each day.  Our Outside School Hours Care team are licenced to use many parts of our grounds including the courts, and all playgrounds.  Local teams also hire our ovals for practice and we have groups who run alternate programs several times per week.  Please ensure you do not interfere with the rights of these groups to utilise the spaces.

No children, even whilst under parent supervision, should be using our playgrounds before or after school.

Children should not be at school prior to 8:20am as there is no supervision prior to this time.  The only reason for a child to be early, is if they have formal sports training or music rehearsals/lessons. 

We are finding a higher number of students arriving as early as 7:45 and an increased number of behaviour incidents occurring as a result of children arriving early whilst there is no supervision available.  Please help us set your child up for a great day by ensuring they arrive whilst staff are on duty.

COMMUNICATION

We are always keen to communicate with parents and families, and try to use a range of strategies to keep you up to date.  We use email, facebook, QParents, texting, our school sign and notes home to assist in letting you know what events are coming up and anything that may involve your students. 

We are always happy to find more and better ways to communicate, so if you have any ideas of ‘how’ or ‘what’ you would like to know more about please do not hesitate to reach out.

We are aware that our website is currently ‘clunky’ and are working behind the scenes, with some frustration to update it.

Please remember if you email or phone our staff, we do not expect anyone to respond outside work hours and unless the issue is an urgent one it can take time for staff to respond.  It certainly does not mean that we don’t care, so please be patient with us.  If you have not had a response within 2 business days, please let us know so that we can pursue a response for you.

ARTS AND SPORTS SHINE

This term has certainly seen our school shine with both our Arts and Sports programs.  The school musical was of course a highlight of the term for our Arts team.  The hours that staff, students and families put into this spectacular event is beyond measure. 

Congratulations to Jenny Aitken, the large team of support staff, the student cast and crew on outstanding performances that left the audience amazed by the talents of our children.  I believe well over 200 children were involved!

Whilst this was happening, we also had a number of students representing us in a range of sports, including softball, rugby league, netball, touch football, soccer, and cross country just to name a few.  We even hosted some 20 schools at our school for the district cross country.  It was certainly a challenging course through the mud for the competitors. 

Congratulations to all who represented our school across a range of sports and to those who have gone on to represent our district or region at events.  We are so proud of our sporting students, for not only their efforts and skills but also for the sportsmanship they have shown.  Many other schools have been in touch to commend our students for their behaviour and attitude.

YEAR 4 RECYCLING RANGERS

This term our Year 4 students have been working on a unit of work, all about recycling and reducing waste.  As a part of this program they asked for and organised for ‘10c’ bins to be placed at the school.  As a challenge I told the students that if they could raise $100 from these bins this term I would offer a Pizza Party to the year level… well not only did they meet the challenge, they smashed it.  It was great to see their enthusiasm and commitment, and yes they loved the pizza party too.

They have elected to keep the bins and the money raised will go to our student council for projects that the children continue to work towards.  Student council have provided tables and chairs, and cold water taps for students in recent times.

Congratulations Year 4.  We are so proud of your efforts.

With the holidays drawing near, I would like to say thank you for yet another amazing term of hard work and let you know just how much we appreciate the outstanding support we receive from our parents and community.  Have a great break with your children and we look forward to seeing everyone back safely on Monday 14 July for Term 3.

Kind regards,

Mon Pfingst
Principal

DEPUTY PRINCIPALS’ NEWS

Full School End of Term Parade - June

Please join us to celebrate our students!

We invite you to join us for our end of term Spirit of Bli Bli assembly next Thursday 26 June from 2:10pm for a 2.15pm start in the Hall.

Sports Days – July

Senior Sports Days are on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 July.

Life Education Visits our School - August

Between Monday 4 August and Tuesday 12 August, Year 5 and Year 6 students have the opportunity to participate in the visiting Life Education program.

Each class was scheduled to undertake two lessons specifically designed to unpack topics linked to Puberty and Friendships, within Health Education learning from the Australian Curriculum.

Year 5: ‘Welcome to Puberty’ and ‘Evolving Friendships’

Year 6: ‘Thriving in Puberty’ and ‘Navigating Relationships’

Founded in 1979, Life Education Queensland is at the forefront of child health and wellbeing. They are Queensland’s largest health promotion charity, providing age-appropriate health and safety education to students from prep to high school.

By placing preventive education at the core of our work, Life Education Queensland tries to instil in children the confidence to make safer and healthier choices now and in the future.

All ‘Talk About It’ session content is aligned with the Health and Physical Education and Respectful Relationship Australian Curriculum. The age-appropriate content was delivered in a classroom setting with their classroom teacher present.

More information can be found at www.lifeeducationqld.org.au. There will be a parent information session held via online Zoom meeting on Wednesday night 23 July organised by Life Education. 

Trevor Durbidge and Simone Hansen
Deputy Principals

OFFICE NEWS

Sign up for News!

Ensure you get all the latest news by following our facebook pages:

• Bli Bli State School
• Bli Bli State School P&C
• Bli Bli State School Tuckshop 

Stay well this Winter!

Please note exclusion periods for common illnesses on flyer, link below.

Winter Uniforms

Reminder of Winter Items endorsed by our school’s P&C Student Dress Code:

• Plain maroon jacket or jumper
• Maroon or plain white skivvy (worn under a school uniform shirt)
• Maroon, white or black full length tights (worn under a school uniform skirt/shorts/skort)
• Maroon track pants / boot legs

P&C NEWS

Happy Half Year BBSS!!

2025 has been a BUSY year already… with our School Musical being a HUGE success, Mother’s Day Stall, Democracy BBQ, to name a few. With our very exciting Fundraising Team’s P&C Disco coming up on Friday 25 July 2025.

A special shout out to our Executive Committee Jeremy Foster (President), Jaro Bauleka (Treasurer) and Kerry Stanley-Hunt (Secretary). We are still on the lookout for a Vice-President (please contact Donna if you are keen to help).

Our Tuckshop Team of Dee, Tracey, Annie, Susan, Lisa, and Toni, continue to be busy bees. Onwards and upwards for our very busy Terms 3 and 4.

OSHC – it has been very busy Terms 1 and 2.  Let’s go for Terms 3 and 4.  Thank you to Tracey and Tarsh (and your amazing team). Keep an eye out for all the excitement around the school holiday program.

P&C Fundraising Team

• Our P&C Fundraising Team are doing an amazing job, Chaired by Marie MacKenzie.
• Key events for the Fundraising Team for Terms 3 & 4 are:
  • Term 3, 2025 – Night Time Disco, and Father’s Day Stall
  • Term 4, 2025 - Family Photo Day

General P&C Events

• Our Fundraising Team are looking for volunteers to help at the Night Time Disco on Friday 25 July.
• Volunteers to help our Fundraising Team – please go to Bli Bli State School Fundraising & Events page on facebook.
  

If you are keen to help us organise any events, please contact us by emailing bliblipc@bigpond.com.

Uniform Shop Opening Hours

8.30am - Tuesdays

8.30am - Thursdays

OUR Polar Fleece jackets are still on sale for $15 – we have plenty of Size 4, 10, 12 & 14 left.

NEW Light Fleecy Jackets are available in all sizes for $25.

ALL UNIFORMS to be ordered via School Shop Online (below) and COLLECTED from the Uniform Shop. https://schoolshoponline.net.au/blibliss/index.aspx

Busy Bee Café Update

BUSY BEE CAFÉ HOURS for coffee/cake are 8.00am to 9.00am Monday to Friday.

Keep an eye out for our Winter Special (Sausage Rolls) and our Weekly Specials.

NO LUNCH ORDERS are to be taken over the counter (for Teachers or Students). ALL orders must be completed online via School Shop Online at https://schoolshoponline.net.au/blibliss/index.aspx

LATE LUNCH Orders to be placed by no later than 10am and consist of a Sandwich (Vegemite or Ham or Cheese) / Lucky Dip Muffin / Piece of seasonal fruit for $6.50. No other orders will be taken after 10am.

Follow the Tuckshop online at www.facebook.com/BliBliStateSchoolTuckshop.

OSHC Update

OSHC – bookings for the school holiday program (below) are now open for bookings via OWNA.

If you have any questions about the P&C and what we do, please feel free to get in contact via email bliblipc@bigpond.com or follow us on facebook www.facebook.com/BliBliSSPandC.

Donna Nacewa
Operations Manager
Bli Bli State School P&C

CLASSROOM NEWS

6A

This term has been a very busy term as we have finished all of our assessment.

In English your children submitted their Vlog Assessment. Students have worked very hard to include language features and use high modality language. I am very proud of everything that your children have achieved.

This term students investigated angles and practiced using the order of operations. Maths was interesting as your children had the opportunity to revise decimals and integers. We continue to work on our Maths Mentals booklets which give your children the opportunity to practice key maths skills they will need for high school.

In Science we finished our States of Matter assessment. Students did very well to apply their scientific language and justification to their assessment. A big thank you to everyone who studied at home in preparation for their assessment this term.

I would like to thank Ms B and Mrs Merritt for the incredible effort they put into helping your children. I would also like to thank Mrs Kelly and Ms Green for teaching your children HASS and Health respectively.

Thank you to all families for your support this semester.

Have a lovely holiday,

Nathan Capps
6A Teacher

SPORTS NEWS

Bli Bli State School Cross Country 2025

We were lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny day at our postponed event where our wonderful students participated in the BBSS Cross Country.

All the students did a wonderful job with their resilience and tenacity.

The Top 5 placegetters from the 2013, 2014 and 2015 age groups represented BBSS at the Nambour District Trials (article below). Well done students!

House Championships:

1^st – Cook
2^nd – Russell
3^rd – Petrie
4^th - Kabi

Nambour District Cross Country 2025

Congratulations to all our BBSS representatives who competed at the recent District Cross Country trials held here at Bli Bli.

*Nambour District team selection:

• Mila M
• Evie D
• Sophie B
• Nate Williams
• Millie B

Kris Kearney
PE Teacher

DIVERSITY NEWS

CHAPPY NEWS

A Big Thankyou to Everyone!

Finally, after 2 postponements, our Colour Explosion happened.

The Chaplaincy Team cannot thank you all enough for your belief and support in our Chaplaincy Program at the school.

This year we were able to raise approximately $10,000 towards having both Emily and Tony continue to provide support to students, families, and staff in times of need. It ended up being a great afternoon of laughter and fun.

Tony Gibson and Emily Eichmann
School Chaplains

COMMUNITY NEWS

SportsX

Aerial Catz

Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary Project

Girls Workshops