Mark it in your calendar - we are pleased to announce that the 2025 school musical will be...Madagascar Jr.!

The cast will consist of students in Years 4, 5 and 6.

For our Years 4-6 families, in the coming weeks you will receive an email to register interest for your child to audition for the musical and, if successful through that process, participate in the school musical, including after school rehearsals and performances.

We are sending out these details now, so families can consider the possibility of your child's commitment to the musical prior to the EOI being distributed. We are aware that many students already have outside of school commitments so we ask you to please carefully check the dates/times below, as it is expected that all cast members will attend all rehearsals and performances.

Audition dates (WSS Hall) - Auditions will be held on Wednesday 19th March OR Thursday 20th March in the afternoon after school from 3.00-4.15pm. Students will need to only attend one of these afternoons. Further information in regards to auditions will be sent out with the EOI. 

Rehearsal dates (WSS Hall) – every Wednesday and Thursday 3:00pm-4:30pm from Week 6, Term 2 (28th May) until Week 7, Term 3 (27th August). Please note there are some extended rehearsals with a finish time of 5.00pm. These are on the 20th, 21st and 27th of August.

Performance dates (WSS Hall) – Thursday evening 28^th August, Friday evening 29th August and Saturday evening 30th August. Each show will be performed at 6:30pm. Students will remain at school on the Thursday and Friday afternoons, to get dressed, hair and makeup and also to have a light dinner.

If your child is successful in the audition process, cast member families will be invoiced for $37.50. This cast levy is used to go towards the creation and/or purchase of props, costumes and cast t-shirts used across the entire cast. Parents may still be asked to contribute some simple items towards costumes, such as leggings/t-shirts etc.

If at any time you have any questions in regards to the musical, please email musicals@windsorss.eq.edu.au. Please do not direct these enquiries directly to your child's class teachers or individual staff emails. This central email address allows us to make sure the enquiry goes to the person responsible for that area of the musical. 

The Windsor Way & the revised Student Code of Conduct

In 2024, we reviewed our Student Code of Conduct, as is good practice and a requirement of the Department of Education at regular intervals.

The 2025-2028 Student Code of Conduct is available on our school website, here.

As part of the review, stakeholders helped re-define our ‘Windsor Way’ poster, which consolidates the core values, character traits, social-emotional keys to success and daily conduct that helps us set our students up for success. This is imaged below, and a printable copy, for families that wish to print one for the fridge at home is available here.

Working in line with advice of acclaimed psychologist, Karen Young (https://www.heysigmund.com/) who has spoken to our school community on numerous occasions over the years, alongside guidance from the work of William Glasser (Choice Theory), there have been some adjustments to our code of conduct in line with moving towards a connected approach to recognition. We will no longer have a public badge system for Gold and Silver or will you see charts in rooms with levels of behaviour on them.

However, we will still take numerous opportunities to celebrate students and provide positive acknowledgement of the values, character traits, keys to success and conduct that we wish to continue to strongly embed across our school.

The most notable and exciting update for 2025 is the commencement of a set of ‘5 Keys’ annual collector cards, which are pictured below.

Teachers will take opportunities throughout the year, to recognise students who are demonstrating the 5 keys to success by making a special presentation in class to students, recording their name on the back and enabling the student to take home their collector card to cherish.

We would love to share some images of families celebrating students bringing home a card during the year by making a photo collage of celebrations, however they may look in your household. If you would ever like to share an image of either one-card coming home, or a completed set, we would love to see them shared via the below email address!

5_Keys_Collector_Card_Celebrations@windsorss.eq.edu.au

What a wonderful start to the year we have had. All year levels have settled in well and teachers have been able to get up and running smoothly. The beginning of the year is tiring for all after such a long break, but Preppies really feel it, and so do their teachers! For this reason, things go a little more slowly in the first couple of weeks. Teachers need to take time to set up new routines and build the culture of their classrooms for the year ahead. Most other year levels tend to get going more quickly as so many of our routines are similar across the school.

From this week, you will begin to receive a Term Newsletter from your child/s Year Level Team/s. Please take the time to read through what they will be learning about this term and encourage their continued learning at home by reading texts or viewing related media to help build their background knowledge. When homework starts to come home, this will contain work that consolidates learning in class and/or allows students to practise the skills or solidify the knowledge required to achieve success in their year-level curriculum tasks.

Did you know…

the whole school will be delivering new English and Mathematics units this year to align with Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum? This is an exciting development as we study some new texts and align our lessons to further reflect our knowledge and understanding of evidence-informed best practice.

We will also be teaching and assessing using Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum for HaSS. HaSS was an area of the curriculum that received the most significant reductions in content as it was previously a very large learning area, particularly in the upper school. At this time, we have reduced the content in our current units to reflect those changes, but will continue to develop new and pedagogically aligned units of work over the next couple of years.

You can hear more about these exciting changes at the Meet the Teacher evenings coming up.

Author Visit – Dr Cameron Stelzer, The Story Doctor

On Monday 3 March, we have a special visit from Author and Illustrator Dr Cameron Stelzer. Dr Cameron is visiting Windsor State School to run workshops with our Year 3 and Year 5 students. Students will participate in workshops that will inspire them in their writing, and help prepare them for their own writing tasks. Students and teachers are looking forward to a great day!

In conjunction with the Author Visit, Windsor SS families have a special opportunity to purchase signed and personalised copies of Cameron’s books at special prices. Individual books are $10-$15 each and there are also exclusive book sets available. Students will receive an order form on the day of the workshops (payment is via the online payment portal listed on the form; no cash). Forms can be returned the following day, to the Library.

Welcome Back!

Welcome back students, parents and staff! It’s exciting to see classes heading back into the Library to borrow books. Did you know that everyone is welcome in the Library from 8:30am each morning? Please come along and enjoy reading some books with your children before their school day starts.

Library Captains

We are excited to have Fern and Joshua on board as our Library Captains for 2025. They have already made their presence felt with regular visits during break times. Keep an eye out for their book recommendations coming soon. We are looking forward to working with them this year.

Scholastic Book Club Orders

Scholastic Book Club is back for 2025. Families will have an opportunity once a term to order Book Club. This is an online process using the LOOP website. Please ensure you have updated your student’s year level and teacher for 2025 before ordering. Prep classes will appear as ‘Foundation’ when you are updating their year level. We don’t accept cash orders unfortunately. This term’s Book Club catalogue is open and ready for ordering. Please head to:

https://mybookclubs.scholastic.com.au/parent/login.aspx

If you are new to the school, you can also register above. Thank you for supporting Book Club. All money raised helps us to purchase new books for the Library.

Queensalnd School Library Week Competition

Next week is Queensland School Library Week. The primary competition has two categories, Prep - Year 2 and Year 3 - Year 6.  Students can win a $50 gift voucher and the school will receive a $100 voucher.

Prep - Year 2: What is your favourite story? Draw or paint a picture to illustrate this. Your picture should be on an A4 sheet. Add a caption if you like.

Year 3 - Year 6: The theme is Window to the World. Produce an artwork to reflect the theme Window to the World.

If your child is interested in participating, you will need to fill out an Authority to Publish form which needs to be attached to their entry form. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5524677ae4b0456be51cacd8/t/5db8013f8af28129ea489e18/1572340045627/Authority+to+publish.pdf  

As always, we welcome community members to join us on campus for school parades/ assemblies throughout the course of the term. Please see below for the “planned” parade/assembly schedule for Term 1 2025:

On Thursday 6 March, we will hold our first School Disco for 2025!

This evening, will coincide with a free Internet Safe Parent Education Evening, targeted at parents of students in Years 4-6 (part of our BYO iPad Programs). 

If you are a parent/carer of a child in Years 3-6 and wish to register to attend the free Internet Safe Parent Education Evening in our STEM Room (next door to the hall) whilst the Year 3-6 disco is taking place, please click here.  

Tickets for the disco will be available for purchase in the Quadrangle of a morning in the week leading up to the night. They will also be able to be purchased at the door with cash or card, but be mindful that long lines often form on the evening. Please have the correct amount of cash ready for your child's ticket purchase.  

On the evening of the disco, we also ask that you send your children with small denominations of coins or notes so they can purchase food easily.

The times for our discos are as follows: 

Prep- 2: 5:00pm - 6:00pm 
Years 3-6: 6:15pm - 7:15pm

Prep and Year 1 parents and carers are welcome to have a seat in the back of the hall during the Prep-Year 2 Disco. However, as we encourage increasing independence in our students, we ask that the parents and carers of other year levels please drop their student/s at the North-Eastern Corner of the hall, to be welcomed inside by staff. 

Parents are most welcome to drop their student/s in, leave the school grounds and then return at the end of the disco to collect them. 

At the end of each disco, students will be seated in class groups and parents/carers will be invited inside, to collect their student/s. Students will not be permitted to leave without a parent or carer there to collect them. 

Seawolves

Seawolves swim club is running again for term 1. We have welcomed 30 new members this term taking our current membership to 295 swimmers!

Seawolves events to add to your diary for this season include:

• Inter club carnival23rd February with Oakleigh and Ithaca clubs. Information will be emailed to Seawolves Families.
• End of season club carnival + Seawolves 30th anniversary celebrationon 29th March at the Windsor State School pool and hall. All attending participants will receive their Seawolves season medal! Details to follow. 

We are always open for new members so please join us for Friday night swim club. Registration and club information is available via out website https://windsorsspandc.com.au/activities/windsor-seawolves-swimming-club/

                      Windsor Seawolves 30 Year Celebration! 

The Windsor Seawolves are turning 30! Join us as we celebrate this milestone at our ‘End of Season Carnival’ on March 29th at 1 PM.

If you’ve been part of the mighty Seawolves over the years—or know someone who has—we’d love to hear from you!  

Share your photos and memories with us by emailing seawolves@windsorsspandc.com.au.

Let’s celebrate 30 years of Seawolves spirit together!

Please note, that if your child requires to have school staff administer medication for them whilst they are at school, you will be required to follow the processes embedded within the below hyperlink for each child and for each medication that requires administration:

Consent to Administer Medication Forms