Term 3 Week 8 Newsletter
- From the Principal - Mrs Walsh
- From the Deputy Principal - Mr Horridge
- From Head of Curriculum - Mrs Simpson
- News from 3A - Mrs Fisher
- News from 3B - Mrs N
- 3B Super Scientists Continued......
- News from Year 4 - Mrs Allen & Mr Lim
- News from Year 5A - Mr Gibson
- News from Mrs Sipos - 5B
- News from Mrs Harrower - 6B
- News from Chappy Sonia
- Brisbane Breaky Radio live from EMPSS
- News from the P&C
- School Calendar
- 2025 Uniform Shop Hours
- UMG Tennis Coaching
- News from Helping Hands - Upcoming School Holiday Schedule
From the Principal - Mrs Walsh
Child Safety Week: the power of everyday conversations
This Child Safety Week, we’re highlighting a simple but powerful protective factor: talking with children—early, often, and in everyday moments. Australia’s National Office for Child Safety puts it plainly: conversations with our kids have the power to prevent child sexual abuse—one talk at a time.
What to talk about with primary-aged children
- Body safety rules. Teach clear, age-appropriate rules like “my body belongs to me,” “I can say no,” and “tell a trusted adult if something feels wrong.” The Office’s Body Safety Cards and “My body safety rules” poster make this easy to practice at home.
- Early warning signs. Help children notice body clues (e.g., “tummy flutters,” sweaty palms) that signal feeling unsafe, and what to do next. The Office’s resources include a simple “early warning signs” visual.
- Who’s on your safety team? Build a small network of trusted adults children can turn to—and show them how to ask for help. (There’s a short guide created with the Daniel Morcombe Foundation on being a “safety helper.”)
How to make these chats simple and positive
- Start early, build gradually. Short, calm chats in everyday moments (school run, dinner, storytime) work best—and you can add detail as your child grows.
- Use ready-made tools. The Office’s Conversation Toolkit gives prompts and starters tailored to preschoolers, primary students and teens; there’s also an Easy Read version.
- Try stories, songs and activities. Free read-alouds from Little BIG Chats, a feel-good song with the Teeny Tiny Stevies, printable activity booklets and discussion cards all make tricky topics doable—and even fun.
- Keep the door open. Remind your child they can talk to you about anything—even if they’re unsure or worried—and that you’ll listen and help. (The Toolkit has age-specific examples and phrases you can use.)
Beyond home: questions to ask clubs and services
Children also spend time in sport, arts, OSHC and community groups. It’s okay to ask how those organisations keep kids safe. The Office provides practical conversation prompts—about Working With Children Checks, staff training, reporting processes, supervision, and how children’s voices are heard. There’s also a concise parent/carer guide and the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations if you want to go deeper.
If a child tells you something—or you’re worried
- Listen, believe, and reassure. Thank them for telling you. Avoid pressing for details; focus on safety and support.
- Act for safety. If anyone is in immediate danger, call Triple Zero (000). For concerns that need reporting, the Office’s site explains how to make a report and where to get help.
Where to start this week
Pick one small action:
- read a Little BIG Chats story together,
- practice one body-safety rule at dinner, or
- ask your child’s club one safety question.
Tiny talks add up—one talk at a time.
If you would like a printed copy of any of these resources, please stop by the office and ask!
Share Your Ideas with Us!
We value the voices of our parents, carers, and community. To make it easier for you to share feedback, suggestions, or ideas, we’ve launched an online suggestion box. This is a simple and convenient way for you to contribute your thoughts at any time. Whether it’s an idea to support learning, a way to strengthen our community, or feedback to help us improve, we’d love to hear from you.
Together, we can continue to make Eight Mile Plains State School the best place for our students to learn, grow, and thrive.
Mrs Tamara Walsh
Principal
From the Deputy Principal - Mr Horridge
Get Happier Project – Open Roads vs Dead-End Roads
Any statement we repeat to others or ourselves is an affirmation of what we believe. Our self-talk shapes our beliefs, and our beliefs shape our self-talk.
Imagine a child facing challenges with a positive “can do” attitude. Now imagine the same child facing life with a negative, “dead-end” mindset. Which child is more likely to find solutions, persist, and grow?
As part of the Get Happier Project, we teach students to manage their thinking and choose affirmations that build resilience and confidence.
Open Road Affirmations
Open Roads reflect a belief in our ability to take control of our own choices and actions. When children practise realistic, encouraging, and positive self-talk, they develop persistence and problem-solving skills.
Dead-End Road Affirmations
Dead-End Roads reflect a belief that we can only control others, or that we are helpless victims. When children rely on negative or unrealistic self-talk, they are more likely to give up or try to control others when facing challenges.
By helping children practise Open Road affirmations, we give them the mindset and skills to navigate life’s challenges with confidence, creativity, and optimism.
Newsletter Term 3 Week 8
In Week 8 and Week 9, year one students will be undertaking a Phonics checklist. This Education Queensland initiative is a great way to assess the students’ decoding skills across words of increasing complexity. The results from the Phonics Check help plan instruction for students in an informed way.
What is the Year 1 Phonics Check?
In Year 1 your child’s teacher is able to use the quick and easy Phonics Check to better understand the phonics knowledge of their students. The Check looks at how well your child can 'decode' written words. The teacher will listen to how the child sounds out the letter and letter groups and how they blend these sounds together from left to right to make words.
The Phonics Check helps your child's teacher and the school to confirm whether your child is making their expected progress in reading. Teachers and schools can then use this information to inform their teaching program.
How does the Phonics Check work?
- Your child will sit with a teacher they know and be asked to read up to 40 words aloud.
- These words are a mix of real words and made-up words (sometimes called 'pseudo words', 'non-words' or 'nonsense words').
- Your child may have read some of the words before, while others, like the made-up words will be completely new.
- The Phonics Check normally takes just a few minutes to complete and is carefully designed not to be stressful. There is no set time limit for it and if your child is struggling, the teacher will stop.
What words are in the Phonics Check?
The Phonics Check includes a mix of real words and non-words. The teacher will tell your child before the Phonics Check that there will be made-up words that they will not have seen before. Children might be familiar with this because many schools already use non-words when they teach phonics.
Non-words are important to include because words such as ‘vap' or ‘jound' are new to all children. Children cannot read the pseudo words by using their memory or vocabulary; they have to use their decoding skills. This is a fair way to assess their ability to decode.
After the Phonics Check
Your child's teacher can tell you about your child's progress in phonics and their results from the Phonics Check. If your child has found the check difficult, the teacher should also tell you what support has been put in place to help them improve. The check ensures that teachers understand which children need extra help with phonic decoding.
Remember that all children are individuals and develop at different rates. You can find some great ideas for supporting your child to read through phonics in our resources to support reading at home.
Supporting the Phonics Check at home
Here is a list of words similar to the ones used in the school Phonics Check. You can practice these words at home with your child. To help you, here is a guide to how your child should pronounce the words. Make any comments or any questions you have on the pronunciation guide as your child reads the words. You can then discuss your observations with your child’s teacher.
Let your child know that some of the words are real and some are made-up words. The made-up words are the names of the friendly monsters pictured next to the made-up words.
Try to choose a time when your child is feeling happy and relaxed. It is important that your child feels good about their efforts in reading the words to you.
From Head of Curriculum - Mrs Simpson
Literacy and Numeracy at Home
As we move through the school year, we would like to take a moment to talk about two of the most important ways you can support your child’s learning at home: reading together and building numeracy skills. You don’t need to be a teacher to make a big difference – your time, encouragement, and everyday conversations can go a long way!
Reading with your child – even just 10 minutes a day – helps them in so many ways:
- Builds vocabulary and imagination
- Improves focus and listening skills
- Boosts confidence when they read aloud
- Encourages a lifelong love of books
It is important to remember that numeracy is more than just numbers – it's about thinking, solving problems, and understanding patterns. You can help your child feel confident with maths by weaving it into everyday life.
Attached are some fact sheets about Literacy and Numeracy in Year 3 – Year 6 with activities and further information for your reference. If you have any questions about your child’s literacy or numeracy development, please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s teacher.
It is important that we continue to work together to support and foster your child’s learning journey.
News from 3A - Mrs Fisher
3A News
Science: Perhaps the most awesome, amazing, best-ever, brilliant thing was able to occur twice on Tuesday this week. We were able to do a Science experiment! We left the classroom, used the sun and some chalk and observed our shadows! We made predictions, observations, changes (because the clouds came over) and recorded our learning. The next best thing to happen is our excursion next week. We are beyond excited for that. Thanks Mrs N for organising.
Maths: We also completed some problem-solving tasks. Sharing, dividing and grouping resulted in some pretty awesome solutions.
Thank you to our amazing teacher aides. We are extremely lucky to have all the support we do from the best teacher aides. Ms Jo is awesome, and we are especially grateful for everything that she does for us every single day.
3A News
3A Experiments
More experiments
News from 3B - Mrs N
National Science Week 2025 at Eight Mile Plains State School
Hello chemists, physicists, astronomers and biologists! Thank you for participating in National Science Week 2025 in Week 5. We had many budding scientists having a great time working on three exciting experiments.
If you would like to try any of the experiments at home, you can with parent permission. See Scientific Procedures below, from Professor N! 🙂
3B Super Scientists Continued......
3B Super Scientists
This term 3B have been learning about the Earth, Sun and Moon and their relation to Day and Night. Students conducted a shadow investigation to see if the length and direction of a shadow changed throughout the day and also investigated how the Sun and Moon looks the same size in the sky even though one is much, much larger! Most of all, we are very excited to be going on an excursion to the Planetarium in Week 9 to solidify our science knowledge.
3B Super Scientists
News from Year 4 - Mrs Allen & Mr Lim
News from Year 5A - Mr Gibson
Year 5A dressing up in their Book Week costumes.
There are only a two weeks to go until the end of Term 3. Please remember the follow important messages.
- It is important to arrive at school on time. Everyday counts!
- Over the next few weeks, we will be completing summative assessment tasks in Mathematics, English, HASS and Science.
- We also will be baking chocolate chip cookies, watching movies, making periscopes and investigating shadows. All of these are necessary for learning.
- We will also begin our visual arts unit, ‘What Makes Me.’
Please remember, homework is outlined in the curriculum newsletter which was emailed out at the beginning of this term.
News from Mrs Sipos - 5B
Happy Teacher Aide week! Thank you to all of the wonderful teacher aides who help us every day. We appreciate you!
Assessments! Here we come! What a fast term this has been. We are extremely busy getting all of our assessments completed in time for the holidays. The students have been working hard towards their learning goals and the growth we have seen this term is amazing!
We are in the middle of learning about fractions, decimals and percentage. With mathematical concepts becoming increasingly difficult, it is vital that students know their basic multiplication facts. Adding, subtracting and simplifying fractions is a lot easier if the children don't have to work out their times tables. If you have time, please help your child in building a stronger understanding of basic multiplication and division facts.
Late arrivals: a lot of students in 5B are consistently late. Being just 5 minutes late every day, adds up to approximately 16 hours of lateness over the year!
Please try to get your child to school by the bell (at 8:25am). We commence learning first thing every morning and your child is missing out on prime learning every time they're late.
Finally, we wish all of our Dads and special lads a Happy Father's Day this Sunday! A big thank you to the P&C for providing us with the opportunity to shop at the Father's Day Stall.
News from Mrs Harrower - 6B
News from Chappy Sonia
Eight Mile Plains State School
Term 3, 2025
What’s been happening
Term 3 is disappearing very fast as we soon approach the September holidays
Upcoming Events
Speaking of holidays, I will be a part of an exciting new “day camp” that will be running in the first week of the holidays. It’s called” Loop Spring” and will be three days of fun from 9am to 3pm. (Day camp means you still get to sleep in your own bed each night-Cool)
We will be discovering the JOY that comes from God, competing in all-in games, challenges and each day choose some amazing electives like soccer skills, cooking muffins, playing a Ukuleles and lots more. Bring your friends and make some new ones!
Families are also invited to join us for a special showcase afternoon from 3pm on the Friday.
Who can come? Years 3-6
When: Wednesday, 24th Sept to Friday,26th Sept.
Time: 9am to 3pm
Cost: $60 per child.
Where: New Heart Baptist Church,
199 Rochedale Road, Rochedale.
I hope you can join me. There are only spaces for 40 students, so register soon
At the link below or collect a flyer from chappy Sonia at school.
Another Upcoming Event!!!
We will be having the Brisbane radio station coming to our school to broadcast their Breakky program!!!!
Ken and Nicky will be interviewing our Principal Mrs Walsh, the school captains and myself as well as having two of our students getting to read the weather live on radio. And not only that, it will be an opportunity for our families to come and enjoy the fun. Ginger sports will be having an inflatable soccer game, free fruit, buy a “breaky” sausage on bread, something from the Bake Stall, free fruit with the Kerrageous Coffee van as well as “Guess how many Lollies are in the Jar” Raffle. See below……
Brisbane Breaky Radio live from EMPSS
Join us on Friday 12 September for a live broadcast of 96Five FM's Brisbane Breaky radio show!
* Coffee van for the adults
* Cake stall (cash and EFTPOS accepted)
* Come out and listen live!
News from the P&C
School Calendar
2025 Uniform Shop Hours
Uniform shop hours are every Thursday from 8am - 9am for all of your school uniform needs.
UMG Tennis Coaching
News from Helping Hands - Upcoming School Holiday Schedule
