Newsletter Term 1 Week 5 2025

Principal's Message

Dear Mabel Park State School Community,

Talofa Lava,

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank our wonderful students for their hard work and dedication over the past fortnight. Your enthusiasm for learning and commitment to our school values make Mabel Park a fantastic place to be. Keep up the great work!

A friendly reminder to parents to ensure that your child brings a hat for outside play. As we know, "No hat, no play" is in place to keep our students sun-safe while they enjoy their break times and outdoor learning activities.

Interschool Sports begins next week! Good luck to our Soccer and Rugby League teams as they represent Mabel Park, competing against other schools. We are proud of your efforts and sportsmanship!

Mark your calendars—our school Cross Country is happening on Tuesday, 11th March. This is a fantastic event that encourages our students to challenge themselves while having fun. We look forward to seeing everyone give it their best effort!

For our Year 3 and Year 5 students, NAPLAN testing begins on Wednesday, 12th March. This is an important assessment, and we encourage students to do their best while remembering that these tests are just one part of their learning journey.

Lastly, we are excited about one of the biggest events on our school calendar—Harmony Day on Friday, 21st March. This special day is all about celebrating inclusivity, respect, and the rich diversity of our school community. We can’t wait to see the wonderful activities and performances that bring us together!

Thank you for your ongoing support, and I look forward to another great fortnight ahead at Mabel Park State School.

Kind regards,

Masina Taule’alo
Principal

Junior Campus Deputy Principal

Halfway through the term already!

Hello! It’s been wonderful to see how smoothly our Junior Campus students have settled into their learning as we enter Week 5 of the term. A warm welcome to all our new families— we hope your child has had a positive start to their school year.

At Mabel Park, we value strong communication between home and school, and we encourage you to stay connected with your child’s teacher. Our first round of parent-teacher interviews will take place in Week 9 (Tuesday, March 25th), so keep an eye on our Facebook page for more details. If you need to reach out to me, please feel free to email me at abell41@eq.edu.au.

Little Mabel Jarjums

We’re excited to share that the Little Mabel Jarjums playgroup has now had two successful sessions, and we’d love to see even more families join us! The playgroup meets every Tuesday from 8:45 to 10:00 am. It’s open to parents, grandparents, carers, and their children, from babies to 4 years old. Led by Aunty Julie and Aunty Rita, it's a wonderful chance for both parents and children to learn and play together in a supportive environment.

We invite all Mabel Park families to come along, share ideas about what they’d like to see in future sessions, and get involved in the activities. The more, the merrier, and we can’t wait to see lots of our littlest Mabel family members at playgroup soon!

Prep Learning in Term 1

I have been asking some of our Preps what they like about school so far. Here are some of their responses:

Skylah (P.2) – “I like doing my A, B, Cs.”

George (P.4) – “I like going in the playground with my friends.”

Malaynie (P.2) “I am learning the alphabet. And I like it when my mum and dad pick me up.”

Samuel (P.1) “I like learning about letters and numbers.”

Zadie (P.4) “I like my new class and I like my brain food.”

Dustin (P.2) “My favourite is going on the playground, playing with the ball, and going home.”

Ares (P.2) “I can do numbers. I can count all the numbers!”

Sammy (P.3) “I like PE because I’m on Arya’s team and we are in red. That’s my favourite colour!”

Calyla (P.3) “I can do my whole entire name now!”

Arya (P.3) “I like doing fun activities and learning. It is definitely fun!”

Temperance (P.1) “My favourite thing is painting.”

Kora (P.1) “I like learning and playing with my friends at school.”

Jacob (P.4) “I like doing sticking things and the playground.”

This term, our Prep students are learning lots of new things to help them grow in reading, writing, and understanding time. They are practicing how to order the days of the week and different times of the day, like morning, lunchtime, afternoon, and night, and connecting them to events they know.

In literacy, they are working on recognising the letters they’ve learned, saying the sounds that match the letters, and writing those letters. They can also write their own names and use what they know about sounds and letters to sound out and create words. Students are also learning to tell the difference between print (writing) and pictures, and they are practicing talking with people they know.

Our Prep students are also getting better at telling stories. They can retell familiar stories using the "Responding to a Story" hand, which helps them remember key details. They can recognise and write their own names too, which is a big step in their learning journey.

It’s an exciting time for our young learners as they develop important skills for their future!

Alexis Bell

Middle Campus Deputy Principal

As we approach the mid-point of the term, it’s a great time to reflect on the fantastic progress our school has made. There’s plenty of excitement and activity to look forward to as we move into the second half of the term.

Interschool Sport

Next week marks the beginning of our interschool sports program, and our students are excited to represent the school and compete against other local schools. This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to demonstrate teamwork, sportsmanship, and school spirit. We look forward to seeing our athletes give their best efforts and support each other throughout the competition.

House Captain Badges

We recently had the privilege of presenting our House Captain badges during our school parade. It was a proud moment as we officially recognised the leadership roles of these students. Our new House Captains are eager to lead their teams and inspire their peers, and we have no doubt that they will carry out their responsibilities with enthusiasm and dedication.

Settled Classes and Deep Learning

Classrooms are very settled, and it’s exciting to see how deeply our students are engaging with their learning. Teachers have been working hard to create enriching and challenging learning environments, and students are responding with increased focus and enthusiasm. Deep learning is happening across all year levels, and we are seeing great progress in both academic and personal development.

Thank you for your continued support as we move through the term. It’s shaping up to be a fantastic and busy second half, with plenty of opportunities for students to grow, learn, and shine!

Sonya Wright

Teaching and Learning at Mabel

How can you support your child’s learning at home?

In the last newsletter we talked about ways you can help your student improve their reading. Today, the focus is on Maths.

I know a lot of parents have a fear of Maths or don’t like Maths. Did you know that sharing this fear or dislike sets up your child to feel the same way when they go to school?

Here are some ideas to help you help your student to feel more confident with Maths:

Maree Martin
Head of Department Curriculum

Student Services at Mabel

It’s been great to see students learning and achieving in classrooms from the start of the year. Make every day count in 2025. Research shows that students who have good patterns of attendance are more likely to achieve at school. If students aren’t at school, they are missing valuable lessons.  It is critical that student attendance remains a priority to support the teaching and learning that is taking place. We encourage everyone in the school community to promote regular school attendance.

Learning starts at 8:40am every day. As part of our school policy, you are required to notify the school on the same day that your child is away and let the school know the reason for their absence. If we do not hear from you on the day your child is away, the school will send a text notification in the morning. It is important you keep us updated with any new home address, mobile number and email addresses. As a parent, your obligation is to reply to the text notification with your child’s name, class and reason for absence.

Mabel Park State School will:

• Send a notification in the morning if your child is recorded as absent.
• Monitor student attendance.
• Follow-up any unexplained absences.
• Use effective teaching strategies to engage your child in learning.
• Help you with strategies to encourage your child to go to school.
• Provide support for families.

For the safety of our students, all playground equipment is out of bounds before and after school. Students are to sit in their designated area before school.

Bikes and scooters are to be walked throughout school grounds.

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)

What is Hi 5?

• It is an effective strategy to develop problem-solving strategies for our students.
• It is a 5-step problem solving strategy that can be used in the classroom, in the playground and for perceived bullying incidents.

Do the Hi 5:

• Ignore
• Talk Friendly
• Walk Away
• Talk Firmly
• Report

Teresa Radicke, Sarah Williamson and Karen Gardyne
Head of Department Student Services