Barkly Highway State School - Term 2 Week 3

Principal's Welcome

Welcome to Term 2!

IMPROVING COMMUNICATION BASED ON YOUR FEEDBACK!

We recently asked for your thoughts on school communication through our Communication Survey and we are so grateful for the positive response and valuable insights! Your comments and documented preferences for communication platforms have been instrumental in helping us refine our approach.

It is clear that Class Dojo is a preferred platform for most families and we will continue to utilise it effectively. We also heard that you value our other communication avenues – Facebook, newsletters, and classroom term overviews – and these will remain important parts of our communication plan.

We want to specifically thank the many families who included comprehensive feedback. We are actively reviewing all your suggestions and are already implementing some changes based on your input to better meet your needs.

You'll see the impact of your feedback in our newsletter, starting with these updates:

• Changed Schedule: Newsletters will now be released in Week 3 and Week 8 of this term
• Showcasing Student Success in Future newsletters: A new student section will highlight the wonderful work happening in our classrooms.
• Easy Planning: A highlighted calendar of events will help you easily see what's coming up in the weeks ahead.

Your feedback is vital to us, and we are committed to continuous improvement in how we communicate with our school community. Thank you for your partnership!

READING FUNDING

Recently, we received additional funding which is allocated to reading implementation and capability development. This has been introduced to support the school to access on-demand professional learning and to lead the building of a shared understanding of evidence-based reading instruction aligned with the Australian Curriculum Version 9. This funding will support the implementation of Annual Implementation Plan’s School Priority 1 “Investigate and implement evidence-based reading strategies to improve and enhance Year 3-6 English”.

Kind regards,

Fiona Kropp

K-2 Deputy News

Prep 2026

The transition from Kindy to Prep can seem a little a daunting but at Barkly Highway we would like to support our students and families to ensure the process is as smooth as possible.

To do this we aim to know 100% of our incoming Prep students by the end of Semester One in their year before school, that’s the end of this term!

If you have a child turning 5 from 1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026 they are eligible to begin Prep in 2026. Make sure you have your child on our list so that we can keep you up to date with all of the upcoming transition activities! We are now taking enrolments for our 2026 Prep cohort of students. 

Contact the school office on 4437 3633 or come in and see us and we can make a time to talk about how our school can support you and your child with the transition from Kindergarten to Prep 2025-2026.

Under 8s Celebrations

The theme for Under Eights Week 2025 is ‘Unleashing Scientific Thinking through Play’. This is an exciting theme, as it will support and encourage children to observe, make predictions, explore, test theories, and uncover scientific concepts through play.

Our Barkly Highway State School Under 8s Day Celebrations are fast approaching! There is still time to volunteer - if you have an interest in or skills related to science, we'd love to hear from you—please reach out and let us know!

All of our Prep-Year 2 families are welcome to join us for the morning on Thursday 22 May 8:30-10:00. If you know families who don’t have children at Barkly Highway yet, but plan on joining us in the near future please also welcome them along to our event!

The Mount Isa Early Years Network will also be hosting a community Under 8s event on Friday 23 May from 3:00-5:00. I invite all of our Barkly Highway State School families along to this great event to celebrate the little people in our lives.

Please find flyers for both of these events attached below.

Mrs Roberts' Report

Everyday Counts

We believe that every day counts when it comes to education. Attending school regularly is one of the most important factors in a child’s learning and long-term success. Daily attendance supports consistency in learning, helps build strong routines, and allows students to develop lasting friendships and a sense of belonging.

We appreciate the role parents and carers play in encouraging attendance and supporting learning at home. When students are at school, they have the best opportunity to achieve their full potential.

Over the first 2 weeks of the term, our attendance percentage for the current year has dropped to 88.7% , 1.2% from the end of term 1. As a result of this classroom introduction to this term’s unit of work, has been impacted.

When we realised we had 88 students absent on Friday, students attending on the day were offered an ice block or zooper dooper to acknowledge their attendance for the day. This was greatly received on the day.

As of this term, we have an enrolment of 271 students. While we’ve farewelled a few families who have relocated — to Collinsville, Mackay and Brisbane — we’ve welcomed several new students from a variety of places. These include:

• 2 students from Cairns
• 2 from Rainbow Beach
• 2 from Cloncurry
• 2 from the Northern Territory
• 1 from New Zealand

We’re thrilled to welcome these new families to our school and community. Thank you to all families for your ongoing support in ensuring our students are here, learning, and thriving every day.

Kind regards,

Kamrynn Roberts

Supporting Success in English – Years 3 to 6

This year, I’ve had the exciting opportunity to step beyond my usual Prep classroom to work closely with our dedicated Years 3–6 teaching team. My focus has been on embedding high-impact P–2 teaching practices into upper primary classrooms, particularly to support students in their English learning.

Each week, our classroom teachers come together for a focused one-hour session to collaborate and reflect on teaching and learning across our school. These sessions are a valuable opportunity to plan next steps, co-create engaging resources, and closely monitor student progress to ensure every child is reaching their full potential. This process is called Academic Case Management.

We are also working towards strengthening our transition processes between year levels and into high school. By building continuity in teaching practices and shared understanding of student needs, we aim to make these transitions as smooth and supportive as possible for all learners.

A strong focus of our work is ensuring that the learning in our classrooms is accessible to every student. This means designing and delivering lessons that support a diverse range of learning needs, so that every child can fully engage and succeed.

We are fortunate to have the ongoing support of Mrs Kropp and Beth Bailey, our EQ Speech-Language Pathologist, who work alongside us to enrich student learning outcomes. A special acknowledgment goes to Miss Duncan, Miss Sodhi, Miss Ruddy, Miss Wall, Mrs Campbell, and Mrs Tanielu-Smith for their incredible dedication and commitment to this collaborative process. Their openness to innovation and their passion for student success have made a real impact in their classrooms.

Together, we’re building consistent, inclusive, and effective teaching practices that empower all students to thrive—in English, across year levels, and beyond.

Kind regards,

Bec Samios

Wellbeing Guidance Officer

Dear Families,

You may have noticed a new face in the Guidance Officer’s room this term — that’s Mr. Tom, who has taken over my previous role as the school’s Guidance Officer. While I’m no longer in that position, I’m still here at Barkly Highway in a new role as the Wellbeing Guidance Officer.

In this role, my primary focus is providing counselling support to students. I work specifically with those experiencing mild to moderate mental health concerns, aiming to offer early intervention and wellbeing support.

My office is now located upstairs in D Block, and I am available on Tuesday and Wednesday.

If you have concerns about your child’s mental health, please reach out to their classroom teacher. Counselling referrals are reviewed and discussed during our regular Student Services meetings.

Alternatively, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me via the school office.

Warm regards,
Miss Lana.

Guidance Officer

Hi Barkly Highway SS Community,

I am Mr Tom the new Guidance Officer and am based at Barkly Highway on Monday and Tuesday each week. I also service Healy SS and Mount Isa School of the Air. Miss Lana has moved into the wellbeing workforce and is still based here at Barkly Highway.

I moved out to Mount Isa from Cardwell with my young family at the beginning of the year. I immediately noticed how well kept our school is and surprised the oval has more grass than Cardwell! I look forward to being a part of this wonderful school community and you can contact me at the school on 4437 3633 or tpfer0@eq.edu.au should you have any questions.

District Cross Country

Last Wednesday, a number of our students proudly represented Barkly Highway State School at the District Cross Country Carnival, held at the Mount Isa Golf Club. Each student demonstrated exceptional effort, sportsmanship, and school spirit throughout the event. We are incredibly proud of all who participated and gave their best on the day.

Congratulations to the following students

1st place

2015 Boys – Mitchell Grubb

2nd place

2013 Boys – Toby Grummitt

This Week in 5/6 Gold

Informative Texts in 1/2 Red

This term 1/2 red have been learning all about informative texts and how they are structured. Last week, students worked in small groups to practice putting together an informative text using a deconstructed example from earlier lessons. They explored the key features of an informative text, including titles, headings, pictures and facts. It was wonderful to see the students collaborating so well and applying their learning in such a hands-on way!

Green Parenting Survey

A research team from the School of Psychology and Wellbeing at the University of Southern Queensland, is conducting research with researchers from The University of Queensland.

They are looking for parents with children aged 0-12 years old to participate in a survey of their study investigating parents’ attitudes and behaviours towards the environment and how they promote their children’s environmental behaviours. Access survey via QR code on the attached flyer if you are interested.

Parentline service supporting parents and carers

Parentline is a free, confidential counselling service available for all Queensland parents and carers.

If you need support navigating challenging situations, Parentline offers qualified counsellors who can help with expert advice, emotional support and referrals when needed.

Parentline’s services include: · practical parenting resources on their website

• live webchat with professional counsellors
• phone support for immediate assistance (1300 30 1300)
• the option to pre-book ongoing sessions with the same counsellor
• online counsellor-facilitated parenting forums for shared support
• referrals to other family support services when additional help is needed.

Visit their website (parentline.com.au) for more information today, or give them a call on 1300 30 1300.

Looking ahead..

WEEK 4

This week will be very busy with a number of staff absent due to various reasons.

• Kamrynn Roberts will be Acting Principal (Officer-in-Charge) as Mrs Kropp will be on long service leave for the week.
• Mount Isa Eisteddfod – school participation of our Instrumental Ensembles
• School Gala Day – Soccer for year 5/6 students
• Healthy Harold Life Education – various class groups
• Future Leaders Program – professional learning for 3 staff (Nicole Liu, Isabella Morgan and Rebecca Samios

WEEK 5

• Under 8s Day
• Whole School Celebration - Comfy Clothes Day

WEEK 6

Yvette Candy will be Officer-in-Charge Monday-Thursday morning, while Mrs Kropp travels to Townsville on Monday for the Principal Business Days. Kamrynn Roberts will attend on Wednesday and will both return early Thursday morning.

These Principal Business Days which are being held in Townsville are valuable opportunities for Principals and school leaders to come together, reflect on our progress and strengthen how we can continue to work together so all students succeed.

Our Director-General, Sharon Schimming is scheduled to attend each region’s conference and will use some of this time to discuss the feedback received about ways to reduce “red tape” work, a current focus of the department.

Backing on to the Principal Business Day, is Term 2 Lead the Learning, which will be based on Term 1 feedback collaboration day. School teams will have a differentiated focus on the leadership of this challenge, for the identified priority cohort in supporting students to achieve their potential.

The remainder of the day will offer differentiated learning in three key focus areas:

• Differentiated teaching and learning
• Reading through the Australian Curriculum
• Engagement of First Nations students through the Australian Curriculum

WEEK 7

33 year 5 students 4 teachers 5 volunteer parents will attend Daradgee Environmental Educational School Camp.

Events & Flyers

Want to know what's happening within the school? Check out our School Calendar to keep up to date.

https://barklyhighwayss.schoolzineplus.com/calendar/1

Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/barklyhighwaystateschool

** Missing Instrument - One of our students has misplaced their Flute. If your child has accidentally taken home a little black case with another child's name on it please return it to the office asap.