Term 2 – Week 5– Tuesday 20th May 2025

Principal News

School Uniform

Parents are reminded that Kin Kora State School is a uniform wearing school. Jumpers are to be plain black, and not hoodies. Students who wear incorrect uniform items will be asked to remove them. Please do not wait for the cold weather to be upon us to look for jumpers – get in before they sell out. If you would prefer to get a KKSS jumper or jacket, there are plenty available in the Uniform Shop. You may have seen the recent posts on Facebook showing off our new winter stock!

Attendance Counts!

Students achieve more when they are at school every day learning. Our school goal for attendance is 95%. In the last 2 weeks we have had a bit of a sluggish start to the term – only 82.7% attendance. While I suspect that families may have enjoyed a long weekends, parents are asked to remember – Every day is a learning day at Kin Kora. Let’s see if we can have marked improvement in the coming weeks. Sickness aside, we can do better than this.

Every Day Counts Website is a helpful too:  

Get Set for Prep Next Year

Enrolments are open for Prep 2026. Children born between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021 are eligible to enrol now for next year. If you have a child or know someone with a child ready to start Prep next year, please come along and/or contact the office for enrolment information. Another great way to help is to point prospective parents to our school Facebook page. The link is here.  Keep watching our newsletters and socials for the “Get Set for Prep” events, to orientate and on-board our Prep students for next year.

Parents and Carers – Do we have your latest contact details?

There are times when we may need to get in touch with you. Do we have your most up-to-date details - including your name, address, phone numbers, email address and emergency contact details?

If not, please contact the school on (07) 4971 5111 or email us on admin@kinkorass.eq.edu.au so we can update our records.

Please remember to let the school know when any of these details change.

Parents and Social Media

Our school is excited to use social media as a tool to engage with new families and provide a glimpse into our community. The best way you can support our schools is to Like, Share and Tag friends in our posts to help us reach more families and make their transition to our school as smooth as possible. Your support and engagement are greatly appreciated!

QParents

QParents  is a secure, online portal that has been created by the Department of Education to provide parents of Queensland State School students with 24-hour access to their child's information. The portal allows you to securely access information about your child and communicate directly with your child's school.

QParents provides secure, online access to student information such as:

• attendance details
• consent forms
• payment of invoices
• payment history
• behaviour
• report cards and assessment dates
• upcoming events
• timetables
• student photo

In addition to the information provided, it's important to note that the QParents portal only sends invoices to the parent/carer who is listed first. This means that if there are multiple parents or carers who share responsibility for payments, only one of them will receive the invoice through the portal. It is important for parents and carers to communicate and coordinate payment arrangements if they are sharing the responsibility for fees. 

The reality is that any family not connected on QParents runs the risk of not getting information as required.

We encourage you to register for QParents. To do this, simply express your interest by emailing nkenn81@eq.edu.au or by phoning (07) 4971 5111 and Mrs Kenny will email you an invitation to register (which includes your log-in code) and your child’s unique EQID number.

Goal: 90% of families signed up to QParents.
Current: 70.31% families signed up to QParents.

Current Percentages by Year Level

Jorgen Neilson
Principal

Deputy Principal (Year 3 to Year 6)

Under 8’s Day 2025 – Scientific Play

Get ready for a morning of curiosity and discovery! This year’s Under 8’s Day theme is Scientific Play – a celebration of wonder, exploration and hands-on learning. Our Prep to Year 2 students will dive into fun, science-themed activities that spark imagination and encourage questioning minds.

We are excited to have our Under 8’s day this week!

Mitchell Taylor
3-6 Deputy Principal

Deputy Principal (Prep to Year 2)

National Walk Safely to School Day

Friday 16 May was National Walk Safely to School Day

This was a time to reinforce with our children how to be safe when out and about in the community and especially when walking to and from school.

We thank parents for using this as an opportunity to discuss and reinforce safety matters: how to walk safely to and from school, help make plans for if something is not right, what to do if children get lost or separated, asking for help and sticking with others.

Under 8s Day will be on Wednesday 21 May.

Students will enjoy hands on activities under the trees, including science themed learning and Yarning Circle.

The schedule is as follows:-
9:00-10:00 Prep (and playgroup (kindy))
10:00-11:;00 Year 1 and Year 2
12:00 National Simultaneous Storytime in the classrooms

Book Fair

This year's Book Fair begins on Monday 19th of May and runs until the Wednesday 28th of May.

Parents and caregivers are welcome to attend with their child/children before school each day from 8:15–8:45am or after school from 3:00–3:30pm. Students are also welcome to come to the library at first break only to purchase books. 

Every student who purchases a book will go into the draw to win 1 of 6 $10 vouchers to spend at the Book Fair. Every book purchased helps our school to buy more books for our amazing library.

There will be no borrowing in week 5, (due to Book Fair) only returning of books.

Leanne Burke
Prep-2 Acting Deputy Principal

Library News

The Premier’s Reading Challenge has started!

Every student who completes the challenge and returns their reading record sheet to Miss Nadina in the library will receive a certificate.

To complete the challenge:

• Prep to Year 2 must read or experience at least 20 books
• Years 3 and 4 must read at least 20 books
• Years 5 and 6 must read at least 15 books.

Experiencing books can include shared reading, listening to stories, or reading picture books. The aim for the 2025 challenge is to encourage students to make time to read. Last year saw more than 216,000 children from around the state participate.

The Challenge runs until 22^nd August. Happy Reading!

2025 KKSS Book Fair

Welcome to the Kin Kora Arts Department

Instrumental Music

Ms Rackemann is teaching every Thursday afternoon and all-day Friday.

Mr Allen teaches all day Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons.

Beginner and Continuing Instrumental Music Lessons:

Our lesson timetables are now displayed outside the Instrumental Music classroom. Students should also have a timetable attached to their desk, and their classroom teachers have also displayed a copy in their rooms.

Band and Orchestra:

Junior Orchestra (for all 2025 recruits) will begin in Week 5 (27^th February) at the beginning of Second Break.

Senior Orchestra (Continuing strings students) rehearse Friday morning

Concert Band (students in their 2^nd and 3^rd years) rehearse every Tuesday morning.

Morning rehearsals commence @ 7:45, so please arrive in time to set up and be ready!

IMPORTANT DATE ALERT: Week 6 and 7

As Mr Allen and Ms Rackemann will be on band tour with the High School students, there will be no lessons, Orchestra, or Band on Friday 30 May and Tuesday 3 June.

2025 Choir Times

All choirs rehearse FIRST BREAK from 11.00am to 11.40am. All students are welcome to bring their lunches to the Music Room.

Tuesday: 1 & 2 choir

Wednesday: 5 & 6 choir
Thursday: 3 & 4 choir

DID YOU KNOW?

Between the ages of 8-14, the brain is completing 2 main tasks: developing executive function (“grown-up skills,” independence, emotional regulation), and pruning “unnecessary” information. During this pruning stage, you may notice that your child plateaus a little in their learning, and is the reason why adults retain so few memories prior to age 7. Neurologists have discovered that for young music learners, this pruning lasts for around 6 months, as opposed to 18 months for students who have not been exposed to regular music learning! This helps students’ brains get back to processing learning at full capacity sooner, putting them ahead of their peers in their development!

QSO Concert – Term 2, 2025

Kin Kora Instrumental students will be invited to this concert held at the GECC later on in the Term. Look out for permission notes which will be sent out in Week 8.

Maree Maitland
Music Specialist

P&C Operations

P&C would like to thank Side by Side for their continued partnership with our daily Breakfast Club in 2025. Their support helps us in providing access for our whole school to start the day on a full stomach and ready to learn. 

Happy National Volunteers Week and P&C Day on Friday May 23^rd. Thank you to all our tireless helpers, committee and executive members for everything you do each and everyday.

A huge thank you to everyone for a very successful School Fun Run. We raised over $27,000!

Over the weekend we also supported the QRSSRL Sate Championship Carnival that was held in Gladstone. Over 3 days 12 incredible helpers washed, dried and folded 72 sets of jerseys!

Sports Day is fast approaching with our Upper School being held Thursday June 5^th and Lower School Friday June 6^th. If you would like to help us set up the afternoon of Wednesday 4^th or to help out at the stall for any duration over the 2 days please email pandc@kinkorass.eq.edu.au

Our regular Term 2 meetings are next held Tuesday May 20^th and June 17^th from 4:30pm in the Resource Centre (Library)

Larissa Mylonas
President

Tuckshop:

The Tuckshop is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for lunches and Tuesday 2nd Break for Iceblocks only. Flexischools can be used to order for both Breaks. Cut off is 8:40am on the day it is ordered for.

Sports day lunch orders are available to pre order through Flexischools from Monday 19th May till Saturday 31st May. This is our preferred method of ordering.

Please select the correct sports day for your child.

Cash order forms will be handed out to students this week and ALL CASH and FORMS must be returned to the office by Friday 30th May. No orders for Sports Day will be available after these dates.

Full Menu still available for cohorts not participating in sports day.

Uniform Shop:

Uniform Shop Open TUESDAY’S 8:30am – 10:00am             Cash / Eftpos / Flexischools available

(Please allow for 1 week turn-around on all Flexischool orders).

Email  uniformshop@kinkorass.eq.edu.au with any uniform shop related queries.

Nadia Horsten
Tuckshop/Uniform Coordinator
P & C Association

School Calendar – Term 2 – 2025

Community Events & Notices

Darkness to Daylight Charity Walk

On behalf of the Gladstone Women’s Health Centre, we are honoured to extend a formal invitation to you to walk alongside us at the upcoming Domestic and Family Violence Darkness to Daylight Charity Walk. This is an important event dedicated to raising awareness about Domestic and Family Violence prevention and standing in solidarity with those who have or are affected by Domestic and Family Violence.

Event Details:

Date: Friday, 30 May 2025

Arrival Time: 5.15am

Walk Commences: 5.30am

Location: Auckland House, Gladstone

Dress Code: A purple shirt

The walk symbolises the journey many people have faced from darkness to light in the context of Domestic and Family Violence.

Following the walk, you can join us for a warm beverage at Auckland House where we'll continue the conversation about putting an end to Family and Domestic Violence in our community.

We would be honoured by your presence at this event.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, 21 May 2025 by emailing lydia.s@gladstonewomenshealth.org.au.

Shop For Schools

Financial Resilience Service