14 February 2025

Acting Principal’s Report

Welcome back to another awesome school year! I hope everyone enjoyed their break and is excited for a year packed with learning, growth, and success, even if we did have a rough start because of the crazy weather.

I’m super excited to introduce some amazing new members of our team. Please give a warm welcome to our new staff members who are joining our school community. They come with lots of experience, energy, and a love for teaching, and I know they will make a great difference for our students and school.

Hi Hermit Park families! I am so excited to be joining such a wonderful school community. This is my seventh year of teaching, with my own 2 babies in between! I am passionate about literacy and evidence-based teaching practises, particularly in the early years 🙂. My favourite things in the world are my family, my morning coffee and spending too much money on clothes!

Hi everyone, I am very excited to be a part of the Hermit Park community this year, teaching Prep & Yr 1. Everyone has been so welcoming, and I am looking forward to meeting more people as the year goes on. I love spending my spare time with my fiancé and my dog Peri, and you can often find me supporting the Cowboys on the weekend. 

Hi, my name is Ayesha and I am teaching Year 1 at Hermit Park in 2025. I am looking forward to creating meaningful relationships with both the students and their families. When I'm not teaching, I enjoy spending quality time with my family and friends. I'm excited to be a part of the wonderful Hermit Park community. 

Wadda mooli everyone! I’m Sammy Brooks and I am one of the new Year 4 teachers at Hermit Park State School. I feel very lucky to be a part of such a warm and welcoming school community. I’ve been teaching for the past 8 years at Bohle State School and I am passionate about teaching the whole child and supporting them to grow and prosper. When I’m not at work, I love spending time with my family which varies from sporting commitments (basketball, soccer and triathlon) to hiking, fishing and sitting around the firepit on a Friday evening.

Hello I’m Emma! I am very excited to be joining the Hermit Park team this year to teach a Year 4 class. I am passionate about working with students and families to support each student’s success. When I’m not at school I am running around after my three children and our numerous pets, enjoying lots of outdoor activities such as cycling and camping.

Hello, my name is Matt Ward and I am teaching my first year at Hermit Park in Year 5. During week 0, I saw just how much staff here know most, if not nearly all, students’ strengths in learning. Learning about the programs and resources that reach all students abilities was a highlight of my introduction week. When I am not teaching, I am enjoying time with my family and coaching junior AFL. Come and say hello, I am the really tall one!!

Hello families! My name is Amy Cox and I am so excited to have joined the Hermit Park State School community. With 11 years of teaching experience in Brisbane, Mount Isa and Townsville, I’m passionate about supporting students to be successful and empowered learners! I am especially excited about introducing the new maths rich tasks and math mastery lessons, and to get our students excited about maths! Outside of school, I enjoy spending time painting and relaxing with my husband, our two children, and our three dogs. I look forward to getting to know the school community and working together for a fantastic year ahead!

Hi all, my name is Emily and I am new to the Hermit Park Community this year. You will see me on both campuses as I am a teacher aide in PYV and also a mum of 3 children, 2 of which are also new to HPSS. I am excited about this venture as I am early childhood trained and have 19yrs experience working in education. My family and I are incredibly excited to join the HPSS community and have already been made to feel welcome.

I’m sure this school year will be filled with achievements, creativity, and teamwork. I can’t wait to see all of our students, families, and staff coming together to make our school the best it can be.

Here’s to an incredible year ahead!

Sharon Pecchiar
Acting Principal

Early Years Deputy Principal’s Report

Welcome to 2025! Even though we have had a disrupted start with constant rain, I was very pleased to welcome our students back. Our staff were super excited to witness our new little preppies first days of school. Even though our start has been disjointed, our students have settled in well with their routines. This year we have welcomed some new staff on the Early Years Campus. I am sure our wonderful community will make them feel welcome.

These first few weeks can be emotional as some children may struggle with separation. Some tips to support your child through this:

• Arrive to school just before or on-time. Arriving late can sometimes make children a little more anxious.
• Help your child do their morning jobs and help them settle into an activity.
• One kiss, one hug and leave promptly. Prolonging the goodbye can make it worse.

Before and after school procedures

Early Years Campus (Prep/Yr 1)

We have implemented a new safety system this year on the EYC to avoid loitering and running on verandas before school. Barriers will be placed across the stairs and near the piano every morning. Please do not enter until the barriers have been removed. The play bell rings at 8:30am and the children are allowed to play on Freddy Fire Engine playground as well as under the umbrellas/grassed area. There is always a staff member supervising. The children may leave their schoolbags on a chair under the buildings and collect when they go to class at the 8:50am bell. Parents are welcome to walk their children to their classrooms at 8:45am however we do encourage that you are building your child/ren’s independence and allowing them to complete their morning tasks by themselves.

Please meet your child’s class at their designated pick-up area. If your child’s teacher has to leave for a meeting etc they will bring them to wait under the umbrellas. If your child isn’t collected by 3:15pm they will be walked across to the office.

Senior Campus (Yr 2) – There will many new families entering the Year 2 space. Once the 8:30am bell has rung the children can take their school bag up to the veranda. They then need to get their hat and go back downstairs to play. We ask that no children/parents loiter on the verandas during this time. At 8:50, after the bell has rung, the children are required to line up in the undercover area and wait for their teachers.

Please ensure you have arranged a meeting point with your child for afternoon collection. The teachers will dismiss the children from their classroom to go downstairs and meet their parent/s.

Parking and school crossings

It is a very busy time of the year and the rain certainly doesn’t help. Please be mindful of parking in designated areas and using our wonderful crossing supervisors to cross the roads safely. The disabled park is designed for people who have the authorisation to use it, it is not a drop and go zone.

Toys and treasures

We don’t encourage students bringing in any toys or treasures as this can lead to heartbreak if they are lost or broken. Please don’t attach any keyrings or plush toys to school hats.

Townsville Bulletin Prep photos

Next Wednesday, 19^th February, the Townsville Bulletin will be sending a photographer to our school to take class photos of each prep class for their annual Prep lift out. The special edition is usually printed and published online around the end of March.

Playgroup

This Friday, 14^th February, Ms Cody and Mrs Goldburg will be holding our first playgroup of 2025.  They will be hosting it in the OSHC building. If you would like to attend, please phone the office to secure a spot.

Looking forward to a year filled with learning and growth.

Jody Ross
Deputy Principal Prep – Year 2

Sport Report

2025 Townsville School Sport Representative Trials

Hermit Park State School students born 2015, 2014, 2013 are eligible to trial for Townsville School Sport representative teams to follow the representative pathway that leads to the Northern Regional trials and then to Queensland State Trials.

All students wanting to trial must have a very good level of competency in and knowledge of the sport. Students do not have to be playing at a club to be eligible.

Students are to notify Mrs Stanieg, PE Teacher, of their wanting to trial. Teachers will conduct a selection session during school time before sending the appropriate forms home for those students who are successfully selected to represent Hermit Park SS. Parents are to complete and sign the given form to allow the student to compete at the Townsville selection trial.

If a student is successfully selected at the Townsville District Trial, they must be available to participate the Northern Regional Trials.  See dates below.

Northern Regional School Sport 10-12 Years Swimming Team 2025

If your child wishes to nominate for the upcoming Northern Regional School Sport 10-12 Years Swimming Team for 2025, please refer to the information notebelow.

Parents are required to submit nominations via the provided link, which will require you to include your child’s swimming times. For your reference, the attached time standards will give you an indication of the qualifying requirements.

We encourage all interested students to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity

Mrs Tracey Stanieg
PE Teacher

Music Notes

Welcome back everybody for another wonderful year in the Hermit Park State School music program!  As usual, we have plenty going on in our busy program.  Please download the SZapp and keep an eye on the music page for the latest information and dates relevant to our Hermit Park musicians.

Choir    

We have started the year with a few weeks of ‘Come and Try’ sessions for both Junior and Senior Choir. During this time, students are welcome to come along and see what choir is all about and decide if they would like to join.  We welcome all new singers to come and try it out!  If your child has missed the try out sessions but is keen to have a go, please send them along as it’s not too late!

We are looking forward to a fantastic year, with many performance opportunities for our singers.  Singing in a choir helps children to make connections, develop collaborative and cooperative skills, and support overall health and wellbeing.  They will also develop fabulous musicianship skills, all while having fun!

In Week 4, choir contracts will be sent home with students who have expressed an interest in joining for 2025. 

Senior Choir Choral Festival

Our Senior Choir is very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in Townsville’s Primary Schools Choral Festival with students from state schools around Townsville.  Festival workshops will be held at Hermit Park State School in Week 10 this term, at which students will learn from Brisbane-based composer, conductor and educator Will Brown.  Singers from Belgian Gardens State School, Annandale State School, Kirwan Primary School, Willows State School and Cranbrook State School will join with our Senior choir for workshops from Monday to Wednesday, with a culminating performance at Pimlico State High School Denise Glasgow Performing Arts Centre on Wednesday evening 2^nd April.

Permission forms will be distributed to Senior Choir students at rehearsals over the coming weeks.

This is a very special opportunity for our students to learn and sing as part of a huge choir with up to 120 students – we can’t wait to hear them!

Instrumental Music Program

Thank you to everyone who has returned forms and paid fees for the Instrumental Music Program this year.  Our first weeks of learning have unfortunately been disrupted by weather; however, we look forward to weekly lessons for all instrumental music students commencing in Week 4. 

If enrolment and loan forms have been returned and instrumental invoices paid, students will be given their loan instrument to take home at their next lesson.  Timetables for Week 4 until end of term will be distributed to class teachers this week.

Communication with Instrumental Teacher

Email contact details for our instrumental teachers are included in the Music Program Handbook.  They are also listed below.  We strongly encourage families to keep in contact with your child’s instrumental teacher for feedback on their progress.  Our wonderful teachers will be happy to share your child’s successes and offer assistance and support where required to ensure our young musicians have a fantastic year.

Creating Daily Practice Habits

Regular home practice times should be scheduled throughout the week.  Daily practice, even if only for short sessions, has been proven to be much more effective than one long practice session at the end of the week!  Please encourage your child to play their instrument every day.

Band and Orchestra Groups

String Orchestra rehearsals have now commenced, and Senior Band rehearsals will commence in Week 4 due to Mr Rander’s absence this week.  A reminder that rehearsal sessions occur at the following times:

String orchestra (Conducted by Miss Carla Mulligan)                     Thursdays – 7:45am to 8:50am
Senior Concert Band (Conducted by Mr Mike Rander)                    Wednesdays – 7:50am to 8:50am

Students are required to attend their relevant ensemble rehearsal each week.  If your child cannot attend their rehearsal for any reason, please contact Miss Mulligan or Mr Rander to advise.  Our ensembles will be rehearsing for numerous performances throughout the year, so attendance at all rehearsals is vital.

Students who will be involved in Junior Band and Percussion Ensemble this year will be notified when rehearsals are due to commence.

We’re looking forward to a wonderful year of music making at Hermit Park!

Julie Sullivan
Music Teacher

French Report

Bienvenue!!!   From the French Desk

Welcome back for another fantastic year of learning the French language and culture. Another fantastic year is planned with all of the events from last year including French speech, poetry, song and art competitions, Bastille Day celebration, Tour de France viewing, Language ambassador excursion, French Club and maybe a few more special events.

AIM

All classes are underway with the AIM program alligned with the National Curriculum being rolled out across all year levels from Year 1 to 6. AIM – (The Accelerated Integrated Methodology) Is an innovative language teacher methodology whereby teachers use gesture to rapidly develop critical fluency. Students will be working closely with a familiar story in French and interacting with activities that increase their vocabulary, speech fluency, listening, comprehension, reading, writing and grammatical understanding of the language. Stories for each year level are:

Year 1 –                La poule Maboule (Chicken Little)
Year 2 –                Le petit chat cherche une famille (The little cat seeks a family)
Year 3 –                Les trois petit cochons (Three little pigs)
Year 4 –                Boucles Violettes et les trois ours (Goldilocks and the three bears)
Year 5 –                Comment y aller? (How do we get there?)
Year 6 -                 Louis la grenouille(Louis the frog)

Club Français

In Term 1 and 3, I will invite 25 students (each term) from years 4, 5 and 6 to participate in French Club after school on Wednesdays from 3pm to 4pm. Students will have some input into what they would like to learn about during French Club. A note will be sent out soon but be quick to return them as the two groups of 25 filled up fast in 2024.

Au revoir
Monsieur Vandommele
French Teacher

Inclusion Support Team

We would like to warmly welcome Ms Storm Cody and Mrs Kimberley Morris to our Student Inclusion Teaching team this year. Both will be familiar faces to many of our families and we are so excited to have them on board.

This year we are extremely fortunate to have an incredible team of Wonder Women in the Student Inclusion services. We have:

Prep – Mrs Nikki Otto
Year 1 & 2 – Ms Storm Cody
Year 3 – Mrs Kylie Dagge
Year 4 – Mrs Debbie Clarke
Year 5 – Mrs Kimberley Morris
Year 6 – Mrs Marnie Lehmann

And our 2 amazing Student Inclusion Teacher Aides – Ms Lisa Hay and Mrs Paula Edwards, who are worth their weight in gold!

If you have any concerns about your child’s development or needs – please speak with your class teacher, who will approach our Student Inclusion Team.

The beginning of each school year is a great time to have your child’s hearing and eyesight periodically checked. We strongly recommend students in the younger years have this completed before starting Prep. As your child grows and develops – their hearing and eyesight can fluctuate as well. If you have any wonderings – please book in with your local audiologist and/or optometrist for a check-up today.

Yours in Inclusion
Mrs Anita McDonald

P&C Report

I hope you’re all settling back into the school routine…it’s been quite the start to the year! I am sure we’ll all be glad to see the back of this rain and I hope that everyone who has been impacted in the last week is doing ok.

Big shout out to all the staff who were in last week sorting out the school following all that rain. We are very lucky to have such dedicated staff and are grateful for all your hard work. 

To our new Prep families, I hope you’re feeling welcomed into our school community. I know it will have been a whirlwind first few weeks so well done for hanging on in there! I am sure that you’ve found Hermit Park to be a warm and friendly place, we’re excited to have you as part of our community. 

Would it be a newsletter if I didn’t mention the opportunities to come along to one of our meetings or even join the team!?

The first meeting will be Tuesday 25 February 6pm and is held in the staff room at the school office. 

Whether you’d like to add your voice and have a say in some of the activities around the school or find out more about the inner workings of the school, we’d love to see you.

If you’d like to chat about this more, or anything really, then you can usually find me at the Year 3 classrooms around pick up time, or you can email PandC@hermitparkss.eq.edu.au

Thanks
Al

P&C Uniform Shop

Music Polo

The HPSS Music polo is an optional uniform item for students participating in any of the school music programs including Choir, Junior and Senior Band, and Orchestra. The polo will not replace the formal performance shirts but can be worn for less formal events such as performances at the school, interschool music events and morning melodies. This is an optional extra and is not required for participation in the music program.

Please see order form below

2025 Year 6 Senior Names Printed Polo

Each year the P&C arranges a special-order senior polo shirt, with the complete class list for the year printed on the back. This is the only opportunity to purchase a PRINTED Senior Polo. Unprinted Senior Polo’s will still be available for purchase during the year from the Uniform Shop. As Printed polos are special order, please ensure you confirm the correct size in the uniform shop as exchanges will not be possible. Please see order form below