Better & Brighter Under 8’s Day 

Berserker Street State School will hold our annual Better & Brighter Under 8’s celebration on Tuesday 20th May from 9am-10:30am. This event is aimed at also capturing our wider community and families with younger children are strongly encouraged to come along and join in on the fun and to engage with our school. 

The Under 8’s event is for students in Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 and they will participate in activities to be held on the Top oval, Stadium and the Prep/Year 1 play area. Activities will include: Fun games, 3 legged/sack races, an obstacle course, sensory space, biscuit decorating and many other things to entertain the kids. There are several external agencies joining us on the day such as Emergency services – Fire Brigade, Ambulance, Police, SES, PCYC and many others. These services pending an emergency will show off their vehicles and equipment. We will also have our newly refurbished Prep classrooms open for viewing as part of an official opening of the classrooms to our wider community. 

There will also be a cake to celebrate Under 8’s Week and a free sausage sizzle provided by the Children Family Centre (Bidgerdii). All children will need access to a hat for the day. 

Eisteddfod  

Our Strings Ensemble came 2nd at the eisteddfod last week falling only 2 points behind first. Congratulations to Mrs Fenning, Matthias, Raylan, Jarred and Lucas on their performance. 

Year 5&6 Arts Excursion 

In preparation for their Term 3 Visual Arts Program “The Animal Within”, Year 5 and 6 are off to the Rockhampton Museum of Art.  They will be visiting the Museum on Wednesday 28th May 9am-1pm.   Students will be engaging in Darumbal Storytime as well as a staff led tour of the Museum and Art Gallery, this will hopefully spark inspiration for our learners for when they are creating their own art works.  Thanks to a grant from the Rockhampton Regional Council and Hayman’s Electrical, there is no cost for this excursion.  Notes have been handed out to students and they are due back on Friday 23rd May.  Students will be required to wear full school uniform on this day. 

National Road Safety Week - School Zone Drop off & pick up 

With school returning from holiday period, thank you for ensuring you a proactive in keeping our school zone safe for our students and families.  

• Drive slowly in school zones: stick to the 40km/h limit. 
• Stay alert: be mindful of pedestrians, bike riders and other motorists and look out for crossings. 
• Avoid U-turns, three-point turns, and other complex manoeuvrers as they disrupt the flow of traffic and can be dangerous.
• Park safely and be mindful of our neighbour’s driveway access.
• Encourage your child to use the school crossing on Berserker Street.
• Remind your child about walking/riding safely to school – wear a helmet!
• Fasten your seatbelt.

Attendance 

Attendance continues to be a strong focus at Berserker Street State School. We are closely monitoring all student attendance and we have sent communication directly to individual families and students not meeting our attendance targets as work towards engaging families to access supports. Below you will see our current attendance data. 

Our school attendance is currently sitting at 87.2% with a strong focus on reaching 90%. 

Current average daily attendance percentages: 

Remember - we are here to help and work with you. I encourage you to contact us today on 49 990 333 if you require further support or information about ensuring your child attends school on a regular basis. 

Our school offers multiple supports to help remove barriers to your child attending school which is inclusive of providing food, school supplies, connections with health services and uniform items to name a few. There are school staff available to support you with improving your child’s regular attendance and to also support your family. We can also refer you to external agencies if this is needed.  

Parents play an important role in supporting their children to attend every day and we encourage you to reinforce with your child that Every Day Counts and discuss that days missed means learning has been missed. 

Each parent of a child who is of compulsory school age (including Prep) has the legal obligation to ensure their child is enrolled and attends school on every school day for the educational program in which the child is enrolled, unless the parent has a reasonable excuse (communicated to the school). Parents may be prosecuted if they do not fulfil these legal obligations.  

We look forward to working with you to support your child’s regular school attendance! 

CCTV 

Working with Protective Services we have secured funding to install CCTV across the school setting. These security cameras are currently being installed and we anticipate this will be completed in the next few days. This resource is to promote further protection to our students, staff and our facilities. 

School Watch 

We thank you for your help in keeping our school safe. Please report any suspicious behaviour on school grounds directly to School Watch on 13 17 88. 

Have you liked our Facebook page? 

Remember to stay up to date with what is happening across our school then don’t forget to like our Facebook page – Berserker Street State School. 

Friday Afternoon Sport 

Friday afternoon sport commenced this week. Students in Year 5 & 6 have the opportunity to participate in inter-school sport with Netball and Rugby League competitions being held. This season will run into Term 3 and notes will be coming home soon for permission and payment for transport. 

P&C Meeting  

Our next P&C meeting will be held on Tuesday 20th May from 6pm in the Diverse Learning Hub located across from our Administration building on the corner of Berserker Street and Bedford Street. We look forward to another great turnout of parents and community members. We encourage new family members to come along in join our hard-working team of volunteers. 

Upcoming Key Dates: 

Tuesday 20th May: Under 8’s Day  

Wednesday 28th May: Year 5&6 Excursion to Rockhampton Museum of Art 

Thursday 5th June: Tuckshop’s 50th Birthday Celebration – Red Food Day and Cake. 

Thursday 12th June: Rockhampton Show Day – Public Holiday 

Monday 16th June: Athletics Field Events (9–12-year-old) 

Tuesday 17th June: Athletics (all students) Track events & ball games  

Wednesday 18th June: State of Origin Game 2 Wear your colours 

Thursday 19th June: P&C Disco 5pm-7pm – Winter wonderland 

Friday 20th June: PBL Celebration Day 

Monday 23rd June - Friday 27th June: Year 6 School Camp 

Friday 27th June: Last Day of Term 2. 

I hope you have a better & brighter day! 

Ryan Gilmour 

Principal 

Berserker Street SS will continue to be a PBL school in 2025. This will allow us to continue to explicitly teach and reward positive behaviour for learning with a whole school approach. Each week our students are taught a school wide lesson on a particular focus.

Our school expectations are:

• We are safe

• We are respectful

• We are responsible

• We are learners.

Week 3 & 4: I use school talk

I use School talk with staff and students

I am friendly – greet others

I use my manners

I use respectful language – inappropriate language stays outside of the school grounds.

I give compliments to others

I use the Berserker 5

Week 5: I arrive and depart school safely

At Berserker Street State School, we are safe - I arrive and depart school safely.

This in support of this week being National Road safety week.

• I know how to enter the school safely

• I know how to depart safely.

• I am safe on a bike/scooter and in the car.

• I cross the road with caution or use the crossing.

• I arrive at school between 8:15-8:45am.

Berserker Bucks

Students are rewarded for positive behaviour choices with our whole school universal rewards known as Berserker Bucks. Each term students have the opportunity to reach Berserker Bucks milestones with incentives on our rewards day for those who reach our Gold benchmark. Berserker Bucks will change colour each term and this year we have raised the bar with our students blowing expectations out of the water last year. Each Term students who receive their gold award will be eligible to participate in a better and brighter event. Term 2 collection is well under way!

Term 2 PBL Better & Brighter Day – Circus Spectacular

Term 2 Gold reward – Daylight Disco and Pizza!

Bronze – 100 Berserker Bucks

Silver – 150 Berserker Bucks

Gold – 200 Berserker Bucks

A platinum award is presented to students at the end of Term 4 for those students who have received their Gold award in every term of the school year. This year our Platinum award will consist of an excursion to the movies with the cost covered by the school.

Children can also earn extra Berserker Bucks by using our school wide focus word of the week on Wednesday and Friday with school staff.

To promote further incentive the highest earning student in each cohort will be invited to a pizza party with the principal.

Week 3  

 Week 4 

On Thursday, 8th May, four members of the BSSS strings program competed at the Rockhampton Eisteddfod.  In a section of 12 competitors from both state and private schools BSSS were awarded 2nd place!  I could not be prouder of these four boys.  They had to do a lot of waiting around backstage, as the competition was running behind schedule.  However, when it was our time to perform, the boys really put on a show!  Their piece was titled “Cowboy Lane”, hence the cowboy hats.

The boys performed from memory, meaning they had no music in front of them, and they played without a conductor!  They were the only group to do this. 

Thank you to parents/grandparents/friends who provided transport to and from the theatre and stayed to watch the performance.  Your support is greatly appreciated and absolutely contributed to this fine result.

Congratulations Cowboys!  I’m very proud of your hard work in preparing for this competition and for this incredible achievement.

Yvette Fenning,

Strings Teacher

Liz Hills and Harold will be coming to visit our school again in Weeks 9 and 10 for Life Education. Parent information and consent forms will be sent home in the coming weeks outlining the modules for each year level. We can't wait to see Liz and Harold again! The Life Education Van is widely enjoyed by all our students!

Our school Tuckshop is celebrating 50 years of service to Berserker this year.

• Cash with return of letter to the office
• Flexischool App

Are you interested in a scholarship, free educational programs, digital access, and support with improving your child’s educational outcomes?

The Smith Family will be at Berserker Street State School every Friday morning this term. If you are interested in finding out more about a Learning for Life Scholarship for your child, or you are an existing family already on Scholarship, please feel to meet with us.

When: Fridays

Time: 8.30am to 9.30am

Where: Parade and Admin Office

We look forward to meeting you. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact:

Karen Mulligan, Family Partnership Coordinator, The Smith Family 0481 905 240 karen.mulligan@thesmithfamily.com.au

Berserker PCYC invites any new or current families to come and see us in A Block for any Before and After School Care needs for your children. If you would like to enrol, Natalie can be contacted on 0418 116 481 or by email at berserkerstsac@pcyc.org.au. We are open school days 6:30 – 8:30am and 2:45-6:00pm. You can also find us at the Breakfast club most mornings for a chat. At Berserker PCYC we offer children the opportunity to engage in different thing such as outdoor play, team games, cooking, craft and much more.