Debbie Spanner Principal principal@indooroopillyss.eq.edu.au

School House System – 2026

We are excited to announce that there will be some changes to our school house system next year. Part of the change is the addition of two more houses, and the opportunity for students to participate in house competitions outside of sporting events.

Spreading students across five houses rather than three means fewer students in each house, thus allowing students to be able to connect more meaningfully with their house peers. Giving the opportunity to participate in varied events recognises the vast array of strengths our students have and provides the chance for more students to actively contribute to their house

This has been a carefully considered move, taking into account the feedback from our parents, students and staff. The existing house names will be retired and farewelled at our Term 4 Values parade, with the swimming carnivals in Term 4 being the last events under our current house system and names. There will be celebratory events in Week 10 of Term 4 to introduce the new house names.

We look forward to sharing more information with you over the coming weeks, in readiness for this progressive and responsive transformation.

The Resilience Project Survey

Each year the Year 3-6 students participate in the Resilience Project survey, helping us monitor student well-being and make adjustments as appropriate. This week the results of the survey were shared with staff at the staff meeting. Some points to note:

• Our children are aligned with the national school participating in the Resilience Project Survey, in most measures.
• A majority children report having 8 hours sleep each night. It is noted that primary school students should be having 10-12 hours sleep. Lack of sleep has major impacts on wellbeing and healthy growing.
• 80% of older students report having an adult in their life they can talk to. This means 1 in 5 older students are saying they don’t have an adult they can talk to about things that upset them. Staff will be looking at the `helping hand’ activity, where children identify 5 adults, at home or school, who are safe adults for them to talk to about their concerns. I encourage you to talk to them at home and discuss something similar. Often children will not tell adults about their worries because they don’t want to disappoint or worry us. Actively encouraging them to discuss concerns with safe adults helps children feel more confident and safe.