Hello Parents and Carers,

We had an incredible day at our fantastic school yesterday. It was amazing to come together as a community to celebrate our local AFL Team, the Brisbane Lions. The students really made the day buzz with pride and celebration. We were so thrilled to hold the AFL Premiership Cup, and we’ll have lots of fun photos to remember this day. Thank you to our Student Council for organising the Gold Coin Donation which went to the Lions Legacy. What wonderful memories for all of us and a big shoutout to Mrs O’Hara for organising this event!

After that, on Thursday evening, our P&C association hosted its Annual General Meeting (AGM). We had 68 attendees, either online or in person. That’s a lot for an AGM, and it shows how much our community loves our school. At the AGM, the following members were elected to the 2025 Executive Committee: 

Ray Robertson - President

Sonya Hutchines - Vice President

Max Lambourne - Vice President

Jonathan Levey - Vice President

Alissa Gordon - Secretary

Kylie Ryan - Treasurer

Thanks to Ray, Sonya, Max, Jonathan, Alissa and Kylie for taking on these important positions. I’m looking forward  to working with the new Executive and the P&C Association in 2025. They have some exciting fundraising events planned. I also want to thank the outgoing 2024 Executive members for their hard work and dedication to our school and the students. Special mention goes to Ian Dorey for his many years of service as president. He’s left a great legacy.

In the classroom, we’ve been super busy collecting our first round of Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) reading assessments. These assessments give teachers lots of info about how well students can decode text and understand what they’re reading. We use this to make sure our instruction is tailored to each student’s needs in reading. If you want to learn more about DIBELS, check out https://dibels.uoregon.edu/. In a few weeks, the Year 3 and 5 students will take the 2025 NAPLAN tests. These tests give the school and teachers more info about how students are doing in Numeracy and Literacy. You can find more info about NAPLAN here https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan.

Congrats to all our swimmers who participated in the District Competition recently! Wilston has a strong swimming culture, so it’s no surprise that our students do so well in these events.

Overall, the first 4 weeks of Term 1 have been super successful at school. Our preps have settled in really well, and the students as a whole have got into routines of learning and school. Thanks to all our community, parents, and carers for your ongoing support of our school.

On a personal note, you might have noticed I wasn’t around much in Week 4. I hurt my ankle, so I had to take some time off. I’m expected to be back for the whole week in Week 5. 

That’s all for now. I might leave you with a message we received this morning from the great Jamie Charman (Lions 2001 – 2011). Take care, Wilston. 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sfxbkz1JJik

Michael Sawbridge

Principal