Dear Queenscliff Parents and Carers,

Book Week 2025 - ‘Book an Adventure’

This week our school celebrates Book Week. Book Week is a special opportunity for us to celebrate the richness books and good literature brings to our lives. Books can whisk us away on thrilling adventures, introduce us to unforgettable characters, and help us understand people whose lives are different from ours. Books spark our imagination, grow our empathy, and give us the courage to dream big.

We celebrate them because they shape who we are. Book Week is our chance to share the magic of reading, to honour the stories that inspire us, and to remind each other that between the covers of a book, anything is possible.

It was amazing to see our students, staff and parents dress up for our Book Week Parade on Monday. I was blown away by the creativity, imagination and effort our students and families went to create costumes for the parade. We have students dress up in a range of inspiring costumes from Harry Potter, the chocolate bar and golden ticket from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, Little Miss Sunshine, Matilda to Thelma the Unicorn, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Willy Wonka, Shrek and many more.

This Friday, our Year 5/6 students will have a writing workshop with children’s author, David Lawrence. Also, students and families are invited to visit our Book Fair hosted by the Queenscliff Bookshop from Monday 18 August until Wednesday 20 August from 3-4pm in the school office. Funds raised from the Book Fair will go towards purchasing new novel studies texts and books for our school library.

NAPLAN Results 2025

Earlier this term, our Year 3 and Year 5 families received their child’s Individual Student Report detailing their child’s NAPLAN results from 2025. The report shows how your child performed against national proficiency standards in literacy and numeracy. The report provides information on your child’s achievement in each assessment area (reading, writing, numeracy, spelling, and grammar and punctuation) and indicates whether their performance is ‘Exceeding’, ‘Strong’, ‘Developing’ or ‘Needs additional support’.

We are extremely proud to share that our recent NAPLAN results reflect the hard work, dedication and commitment of our entire school community. Our students have achieved outstanding outcomes across all areas, demonstrating their perseverance, growth and love of learning. These achievements are a credit to the tireless efforts of our teachers and education support staff, who consistently provide high-quality teaching and support, and to our families, who partner with us to nurture every child’s potential. Congratulations to our students, staff and community on this fantastic achievement. Our school’s results were amongst the highest level of achievement in the Geelong and Surf Coast region, reflecting strong growth in our students.

Queenscliff Market Parent Volunteer Roster

The Queenscliff Community Market season will commence on Sunday 28 September 2025. The Queenscliff Community Market is held once a month from September 2025 to May 2026. The Market is a key fundraiser for our school, with 75% of the profits from stallholder applications being donated to our school. From the 2024/2025 Market Season, we had over $15,000 donated to the school. These funds go towards specialist programs, learning and wellbeing resources and grounds and gardens projects.

This year, we have Fred Rhoads and Richard Fewster leading the Queenscliff Community Market organisation with the support of Lisa Golightly. Thank you to Fred, Richard and Lisa for your leadership and commitment to supporting our school and the market's success.

At each Market we require parents and carers to volunteer their time for 2 hours over the period of the Market season. Parent Volunteers play a pivotal role in supporting stallholders on the day and to ensure the market runs smoothly. We require every family to volunteer once throughout the Market season for 2 hours. The volunteer times include the following:

7-9am, 9-11am, 11-1pm and 1-3pm

Each family has been allocated a date and time on the attached roster. This ensures that we spread the load with families so that each family only needs to volunteer 2 hours of their time over the Market Season. Please see below for the Market Roster. Families have been listed on the Market Roster using surnames.

Queenscliff Market Parent Volunteer Roster

In the event that a family is unable to volunteer on their assigned day, we ask that you connect with another family to arrange a swap. Once confirmed, please email the school at queenscliff.ps@education.vic.gov.au or phone 03 5258 1696, so that we can keep the roster up to date and ensure the Market runs smoothly. If families wish to volunteer more than they have been rostered, they are welcome to contact the school via email or phone. When Parent Volunteers arrive at the Market for their allocated time, we ask that you check-in with the parent volunteers who have been rostered on prior to you.

If you have any questions regarding the Queenscliff Market season for 2025/2026 or the Parent Volunteer Roster, please do not hesitate to email queenscliff.ps@education.vic.gov.au or phone the school on 03 5258 1696.

Thank you for your support for the Queenscliff Community Market. It is a key fundraiser for our school to support our students' learning and wellbeing, and we are grateful for your contribution as a volunteer.

Year 4-6 Athletics

Congratulations to our Year 4 to 6 students who competed at District Athletics on Monday 11 August at Landy Field. Students competed in a range of events including 100 metre and 200 metre sprints, 800 metres, relays as well as field events including shot put, discuss, long jump and high jump. Throughout the day, it was wonderful to see the enthusiasm and determination shown by our students in their events. Students not only encouraged each other, but demonstrated strong sportsmanship by shaking hands of students from competing schools and cheering them on in events. A special thank you to our parent volunteers who assisted on the day with the Long Jump event and in supporting the success of the day.

Congratulations to the following students in qualifying for Division Athletics held on Tuesday 9 September.

OSHC - TheirCare in Term 4

TheirCare will commence OSHC service at our school in Term 4 from Monday 6 October. TheirCare is hosting a Parent Information Webinar on Wednesday 27 August from 6.30-7.30pm. Please see below registration details.

TheirCare staff will be attending our school assemblies on Friday 29 August and Friday 19 September. This will be a wonderful opportunity for families and students to meet TheirCare staff and learn more about their OSHC program.

Assembly

Our next assembly will be held on Friday 29 August in Week 6. Parents, carers and community members are invited to join us for this special celebration whereby we will have Prep, 3/4T, 5/6H and First Nations Specialist showcasing their learning.

School Council

Our next School Council meeting is scheduled for Monday 8 September. I look forward to meeting with our School Council members to discuss school operations, financial planning and our school’s strategic plan. The School Council will host a special meeting on Thursday 21 August to discuss additions to the school uniform, focusing on a winter tunic and skort for girls and a navy blue vest option to be added. Further updates will be provided to families in the coming week.

If you have correspondence or feedback you would like to provide to the School Council, parents and carers are invited to email our School Council President, Daniela Sayegh at daniela.sayegh@education.vic.gov.au .

Nyatne baa Gobata

(Thank you and take care)

Mat McRae

Principal

5/6T News

Grade 5/6s had an unforgettable adventure at BioLAB, the Victoria-based STEM learning centre at Belmont High School. We tried two great programs: The Science of Cheating and Beat That that took science and sports to a whole new level!

The Science of Cheating
Students became scientific sleuths investigating how athletes have historically tried to gain an unfair edge. We explored strange and clever (and sometimes sneaky!) tactics from high-tech shoes to doping and learned how to spot them using STEM tools.

Beat That
In this exciting journey through the cardiovascular system, students used heart-rate monitors and iPads to collect their own data during rest and exercise. We graphed our heart rates, interpreted our results, and learned why our hearts beat faster when we move. It was hands-on and tech-savvy and our math skills got a great workout too as we analysed line graphs and discussed mean, minimum, and maximum values!

This tied in perfectly with our last Maths unit on Location and Transformation, where we have worked with coordinates on a Cartesian plane. Just like in class, we plotted and analysed data, saw patterns, and used graphs to make sense of the information we collected at BioLAB.

Thank you to our amazing Science Teacher Mrs Vistarini for organising this for us!

Check out the action below:

3/4T News

Novel Study – Yirra and Her Deadly Dog, Demon by Anita Heiss

We’ve been reading Yirra and Her Deadly Dog, Demon by Anita Heiss. It’s all about Yirra, a young Aboriginal girl, and her naughty dog, Demon, who’s always getting into trouble – stealing Pop’s fish, knocking over the neighbours, and even taking undies off the clothesline! Yirra is determined to keep Demon, so she’s on the hunt for someone who can train him. The story is funny, warm, and gives us a glimpse into the everyday life of an Indigenous family in Sydney, while also exploring responsibility, love, and second chances.

This week, students are writing a short summary of the story so far. The challenge is to include one simple sentence, one compound sentence, and one complex sentence. It’s a way to practise different sentence types and make their writing more interesting.