This Friday we celebrate World Teachers' Day in Australia. This day is a great 
opportunity for us to recognise the wonderful work that teachers do on a daily basis in this vital and dynamic profession. I'm sure students will take a minute or two on Friday to tell their teachers how much they appreciate the lengths they go to in supporting them with their learning and achieving. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank the hardworking teachers at Mareeba State School for their tireless effort and commitment to ensuring 'everyday, in every classroom, every student is learning and achieving'.
Recently our school received our 2021 School Opinion Survey (SOS) results. It was incredibly pleasing to see the consistency in responses with parent/caregivers, students and staff all agreeing that our expectations remain high and consistent with regards to doing their best and that the expectations and rules are clear at our school. It was also encouraging to see both the Australian Curriculum and ICT reflected positively in our survey, a telltale sign of our commitment to providing a 21st century education and learning environment. As with historical SOS results, parents/caregivers have given us an insight into the improvement areas of student behaviour while staff have highlighted staff morale, two areas that will feature in our 2022 Annual Improvement Plan.
Student leadership takes many forms within our school: from peer supporters helping out in the playground, to Student Council Representatives helping inform a range of school decisions, to those who represent the school at academic, sporting and cultural events. Similarly, students who simply set a good example to others by making good choices in the classroom and playground can also be considered leaders - the scope of leadership is both broad and rewarding. However, at this time of the year we ask the Year 5 students to consider their aspirations towards formal leadership positions within the school and to nominate themselves as school leaders for 2022. Nomination booklets are available from the office and completed nominations are due back this Friday 29th October.
A big thank you to Ronnie Leporati for travelling to Cairns with our girls futsal team yesterday. This was the first competition the team has played in and won all 8 games including the finals. Good luck to our boys group competing tomorrow.
Finally, congratulations Mr & Mrs May who welcomed their little baby boy Harrison into the world yesterday. Both Mum and bub are doing amazingly and we look forward to baby pics soon.
- Hannah Simpson, Principal