Cairns West State School eNewsletter

Principal's message

Hello Cairns West families

HR NEWS: Sadly, next week will be Mrs Mitchell’s last week at Cairns West. Megan has been successfully appointed to the Deputy Principal position at Whitfield State School and will commence there at the beginning of week six. This is obviously a huge loss for our school however a positive career opportunity for Megan and the right move for her family. After sixteen years of dedication and commitment at Cairns West State School I acknowledge the huge impact Megan’s work has had on building the strong learning culture that exists at our school and is the envy of many schools across our region and the state. I wish Megan every success in her new role and position and acknowledge how lucky Whitfield State School is to acquire the services of such a capable, hard working and committed leader. She will be dearly missed by the entire school community, especially me!

An open merit selection process has been run to fill the vacancy left by Megan’s departure. We had several high-level applications for the Deputy Principal position and yesterday I offered the position to the highest ranked applicant Mrs Maria Chatfield. Maria joins our team from Woree SHS and has significant experience in leadership roles in FNQ and NSW. She comes to us with extensive curriculum knowledge as well experience in school operations in previous Deputy Principal’s roles. We welcome Maria to our school and look forward to her contribution to our improvement journey.

In other HR news, we welcome a new social worker Ms Chelene Groube (Ms Shay) to our school. Ms Shay is already having a positive impact on our school and has been building relationship with students, staff and parents. Ms Shay will introduce herself in this newsletter.

THREE WAY INTERVIEWS: It was great to have so many parents at our three-way interviews last week. We are aware there were a few issues with the online booking platform, and we hope to resolve these before our next interviews. Overall though, everything ran relatively smoothly on the day and we had more parents conducting interviews than last year, which was a positive result. I thank our teachers for all their hard work preparing for the interviews and everyone who helped on the afternoon.

INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATES:

New Playground: Our early childhood children are super excited to get onto their new playground. Although a couple of weeks behind schedule, the playground is due to be signed off on Friday this week, ready for action on Monday (hopefully).
Classroom Removal: Over the Easter holidays two old demountable buildings (E&F blocks) were removed. This has created a large empty space behind the tuck-shop and students have been providing lots of bright ideas around how we might make use of the space. We look forward to seeing what the future holds here.
Go-For-Gold: Preliminary work has commenced with our multi-purpose sports facility to be built where the old tennis courts are. The contract for this $5.3 million project has been awarded to L&R Project Management and we look forward to this exciting infrastructure opportunity evolving at our school this year.

TUCKSHOP NEWS: We welcome Mr Mark Turner to the position of Tuckshop convenor. Mark is a qualified chef however this is his first job in a school. Parents are reminded Tuckshop orders can be placed online via the Flexi Schools app, or by writing order on bags at the Tuckshop before school. School uniforms will no longer be sold via the Tuckshop and will be available for sale at the Late Window in A block. For more information around uniforms, please enquire at the office.

FOOTWEAR: At the beginning of this year, we communicated to families that Crocs were no longer suitable footwear at Cairns West and were banned. We had a fantastic response from parents and no student were wearing Crocs to school. I notice this has started to change and I see some students starting to wear Crocs again. Unfortunately, Crocs are not suitable footwear for children to run & play and pose a health & safety risk in some school subjects. Parents are asked to ensure children wear enclosed footwear to school. Your support around this is sincerely appreciated.

Yours in Education, Jason Evert - Principal

Deputy Principal - Teaching & Learning

Hello CWSS community,

A very big and sincere thank you to teachers, carers and families who attended last week’s 3 Way Interview evening. We had just under 200 students’ families connect with teachers last week. This is outstanding and demonstrates to students the strong partnership between home and school. Please don’t ever hesitate to reach out to speak to school staff about your child’s development. Some important questions families can ask school staff include:

What are some things that my child does well at school?
How can my child improve in their learning?
What activities does my child enjoy doing the most in class and at school?
How does my child get along with others in class and in the playground?
How is the school supporting my child to be successful?
How can I best support my child at home so they can do better at school?

Teaching students to read is something that we are very passionate about at CWSS.

Our evidence-informed approach to reading includes systematic synthetic phonics and word study to strengthen students’ word reading skills.

We build students’ language comprehension by reading and discussing texts, as well as teaching background knowledge, vocabulary and other important skills.

Families and carers play an important role in supporting children to read by;

By building oral language opportunities in the home
Listening to your child read aloud to practise decoding words

Reading aloud to your child to build their understanding of language and literacy
Promoting the importance of reading and making it an enjoyable & special family time

This Friday CWSS is incredibly lucky to have acclaimed Australian author and Australian children’s Laureate, Sally Rippin and local author Lachlann Carter visit the year 2 students to share their passion for reading and writing. Sally believes all kids can be readers, something we strongly agree with at CWSS.

On a personal note, this will be my final newsletter article for the year, as I am moving to a new school soon. It has been my absolute privilege to be a part of the school community at CWSS for 16 years and the people of the West will remain close to my heart forever. I wish both the students, families and staff all the very best for the future and look forward to hearing all the great things that are achieved at Cairns West.

Thank you for being a part of your child's learning journey

Megan Mitchell - Deputy Principal Teaching & Learning

**Thank you Mrs Mitchell for all your years of hard work and dedication, we will miss you!!**

Deputy Principal - Partnership Initiative

Hi all, and welcome to Week 4!

We’re almost halfway through the term, and there are lots of exciting things happening around the school. As we move through the term, please continue aiming for 5 days of attendance each week—every full or part-day away from school adds up over time and can impact learning.

Positive Behaviour

CWSS is absolutely kicking goals when it comes to positive behaviour! Over the past three weeks, we’ve had countless examples of students making great choices, as well as positive reports from both staff and members of the community. Well done, everyone—keep it up!

One area we can continue to work on is how we behave when our regular teachers are away. From time to time teachers take leave, and on those days it’s even more important to follow our school rules:
Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be a Learner.

Uniforms and Crocs

Our school uniforms look fantastic—and they look even better when everyone is wearing them properly. Recently, we’ve noticed a few senior students wearing non-uniform shorts and even a few pairs of Crocs. Just a reminder that our school uniform includes school shorts and closed-in shoes. Thanks for your support in keeping our school looking great.

Sports

Fingers crossed, it looks like the rain has finally moved on and the sunshine is here to stay! That’s great news for Mr. P, who will be out on the oval over the coming weeks teaching athletics in preparation for our Annual Interhouse Athletics Carnival in Week 8.

Don’t forget to bring your hat every day so you can participate safely in all outdoor activities.

Christian Gleave-Deputy Principal Partnership Initiative

Our school photos will be taken on Tuesday 27 May 2025 (week 6) If you wish to order photos the easiest way is to hover over the QR code with your phone like your going to take a photo and you will be taken to NQ Photography's web site where you can place your order and pay.

**When ordering your child's lunch the easiest and most convenient way to do it is through the Flexischools app. All orders are to be placed by 9:00am**

Life Education classes will run in week 9 Monday 16 June - Wednesday 18 June 2025. All year 5 and 6 students are expected to attend, however, there will be an Opt Out letter sent home in the coming weeks if you do not wish your child to participate.

TAI_new_module_flyer_Welcome_to_Puberty.pdf

TAI_new_module_flyer_Thriving_in_Puberty_2_.pdf

ROAD SAFETY around schools

News from HPE

TCC Cross Country

Well done to Kaskile Kisonga (2^nd) and Ezekiel Kalenga 7^th on their performance at the District Cross Country.

Both boys were selected in the TCC team. (Picture below)

AFL

Congratulations to Gabriella Talbot on her selection in Peninsula AFL team.

Athletics carnival

Wednesday 11 June 2025 - 800m (years 4-6) 1:30pm-2:30pm

Thursday 12 June 2025 – 100m & 200m sprints, field events, relays (Years 4-6) Novelty games and sprints (P-3)- Events will run all day.

Nomination day for Long Jump, Shot Put, and High Jump (Years 4-6) - Friday 6 June (11:15am- 2:30pm)

Students must attend if they wish to be considered for championship Shot Put, Long Jump or High Jump.

Athletics information letter will be out week 6.

Paul Pudovskis - HPE teacher

CWSS ADOPT-A-COP

🤩 Celebrating Student Achievements 😍

STUDENT OF THE WEEK PREP - YEAR 6
T1 WEEK 8 (P-6)	Matthew Merton-Polo, Shaylene Scott, Makita Driscoll, Rubysue Ganaia, Hana Suvin, Jo'Ziah Kris-Stallwood, Samson Ioaba-Eaton, Sende Sami, Akhil Adhikari, Noah DeBrincat, Jesse Wapau, Stella Gurung, Saina Gurung, Jezreel Wosomo, Sifa Baruani, Brendan Baira, Ashil Mangar, Jonah Roberts, Lui Nomoa, Carl Wosomo, Melisha Smith
T1 WEEK 9 (P-6)	Sicario Waia, Martina Rubamboo, Trevor Garland, James Mugisha, Naija Noak, Ayesha Addo, Elma Bosuen, Alia Donohue-Pitt, Keandra Cook-Kowat. Prisha Gurung, Briar-Rose Curry, Toni Scott, Amadeus Collins, Adanna Tabo, Casmir Temu, Sewani Gurung, Inder Rana, Richard Tapaitau, Cristelynne Kelly, Tamara Motton, Nikita Wigness
T1 WEEK 10 (P-6)	Gerald Bowie, Sheldon Sands-Wilson, Xavier Tapaitau, Lemeul Koffle, Orthence Balagizi, Reece Stuart-Bennet, John Grant, Amiah Mooka, Rosanna Gurung, Selasse Smith, Georgina Nona, Carlos Espinosa, Elijah Campbell, Fiona Ishimwe, Anushka Gurung, Edena Pearson, Lyse Mulamba, Prashik Khadka, Drew Dangar, Rona Dau
T2 WEEK 1 (P-6)	Mele Mataele, Tatyana Enosa, Sohpie Dooley, Jasmine Maloney, Kheelan Addo, Daniel Jean Pierre, Arian Basnet, Ky Murgha, Noah Rosas, Autumn-Blaze Elias, Jobi Desatge, Yoshua Kalenga, Karleena Jeremaih, Mary-anne Brown
T2 WEEK 2 (P-6)	George PaiPai-Gamia, George Delta, Makita Driscill, Aeshna Adhikari, Athima Panuel, Minerva Montifalcon, Jahron Ducasse, Hilda Murray-Fourmile, Joe Asiba, Chancelline Jean Pierre, Blaine Bani, Esme Basnett, Eliane Ishara, Josiah Sands, Irish Pascoe, Jean Zagabe Mastaki, Kiet Nguyen, Michael Balgizi, Alo Charlie, T'Kelah Sebasio, Patrick Byrne,
T2 WEEK 3 (P-6)	Victor Tabo, Eltika Solomon, Phillis Mimi, Prayer Nduhira, Bertha Gerard-Ndale, Tane Dawson, Bronson Deemal, Philemon Jackson, Richard Nona, Zahira Mau Raymond, Prashansa Mongar, Fiyet Shimwe, Nischan Tamang, Teuna Tereni Tau, Gabby Talbot, Gary Gibuma, Jaylah Hawkins, Safal Sanyasi, Pascal Pascaline
T2 WEEK 4 (P-6)	Arazi Ganaia, Mareko Soloman, Kymarni Rangi-Lawrence, Nevaeh Lewry, Destun Mulindwa, Ziah Waianga, Jack Nai, Alissa Kerry, Hanuliah Phillpa, Anna Scott, Francine Naomi, Shynola Maloney, Jiechris Daniel Montifalcom, Hunter Wilcox, Mila Gima, Clive Wainga
STAR STUDENTS	Gamaajarri Yanner-Tuinona, Minerva Montifalcon, Fay Tuia, Simmie Baira, Ra'shaya Sailor, Nirvana Gurung, Ethan Mucyo, Christopher Baguma, Ella-Ann Munnich, Olga Lukaba, Aita Waianga, Gary Jones, Gracey Vilaflor, Aayan Karki, Cristelynne Kelly, Jonah Ling, Fabiola Ishimwe
Digital Technologies	Quinn Osabel, Kiet Nguyen, Zan Zan Fourmile, Angelique Akarabo Keza, Joseph Temu, Charles Tabo, Elizabeth Miriam,
Science	Selina Jackson, Adrian Poyther-Clifton, Kyrell Paterson, Abigail Kimmins, Noama Fairweather, Nevaeh Lewry, Fabiola Ishimwe, Jobi Destage, Amyis Collins, Sabath Giri, Aleon , Zahabiya Khan

Term 2 - Week 1 & Week 2

Term 2 - Week 3

Term 2 - Week 4

TRYFOR5! Term 2

100% Attendance Reward Winner - ATTENDANCE STAR! - Each week 5 tickets will be drawn from the Try for 5! 100% Club Box to win TRYFOR5! prizes. Mid-term prizes to be drawn in week 5 and week 10 -3 X $50 Timezone vouchers and 3 x $50 Event Cinema vouchers

Term 2 Week 1

Term 2 - Week 2

Term 2 - Week 3

TRYFOR5! WINNERS - Each week the year level with the best attendance will be awarded with the Try For 5! attendance trophies.

WEEK 1	Year 6 - 78%
WEEK 2	Year 5- 78%
WEEK 3	Year 4 - 82%

Cairns Safer Streets Program- Term 2 2025

Cairns Safer Streets is a multi-agency, co-located group of State Government representatives delivering innovative projects through community and whole-of-government partnerships.

We have developed a place-based approach in Cairns West which enables the development and implementation of innovative strategies to address underlying causal factors of complex social issues.

See the timetable for term 1 activities below.......