Firefly Education

We’re thrilled to share that Firefly Education Directors – Ann Smales and Peter Stannard have been nominated for the 2025 Queensland Philanthropy Awards! 🎉

Their nomination, made by SunnyKids and announced during Queensland Philanthropy Week, recognises their pivotal role in launching the SunnyKids Transitional Housing Project—a life-changing initiative supporting families escaping domestic and family violence.

What started as a heartfelt conversation has grown into a project that will change lives—offering not just shelter, but hope, healing and a fresh start.
“We feel incredibly honoured to be nominated,” said Ann Smales. “This project has been a true labour of love for our team. While Firefly’s work in education has a broad impact nationally, this initiative has allowed us to do something deeply meaningful for our own community here on the Sunshine Coast.”

Thank you Ann and Peter for leading with compassion and action. Your community involvement sets a shining example of philanthropy in action 💛

Find out more about this incredible project and how you can get involved here: https://www.sunnykids.org.au/transitional-housing-project/
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We love hearing your feedback from the classroom! If you have stories to share about our Maths Trek program, DM us! 💫⁠
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��'Our teachers are absolutely loving the new Maths Trek program. They find the pages inviting and engaging for the students, the sequence of lessons are effective and they also find the resources and explanation of activities is well thought out.' – Ms. Benfer, Assistant Principal (QLD)

Are you interested in free handwriting resources? Of course you are!⁠
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Head to www.writingtimeonline.com.au to access a range of free interactive, projectable and printable resources to use in your handwriting lessons.

Ready to strengthen your students’ mental computation skills? Sign up for a free trial to discover how Think Mentals’ clever strategies break down maths problems into friendly, manageable chunks.�

– Learn about Think Mentals' friendly approach to mental computation
– Understand how mental computation strategies are explicitly taught throughout the program
– Explore the extremely useful features of Think Mentals Digital and learn how to use them effectively across the week.

Sign up today! ➡️ https://www.fireflyeducation.com.au/support/workshops/improving-mental-computation-outcomes-with-think-mentals'-explicit-teaching-strategies-4307

The message is clear – for schools aiming to improve their students’ literacy outcomes, using decodable readers as part of their systematic synthetic phonics instruction is vital.⁠
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This free virtual session is designed to provide educators with a comprehensive look at how students can build their word recognition and fluency by applying their phoneme–grapheme knowledge to Decodable Readers. ⁠
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Spaces are limited, sign-up today! ➡️ https://www.fireflyeducation.com.au/support/workshops/targeted-and-effective-early-years-reading-instruction-4297

Looking to improve your school’s maths outcomes with a whole-school, curriculum-aligned numeracy program? Discover how Maths Trek can transform numeracy outcomes with this practical workshop.

You’ll explore Maths Trek’s structured framework and intuitive resources designed to support explicit teaching and streamline your lessons. Using the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, Maths Trek supports student mastery of core maths skills, while the real-world contexts of Maths Trek investigations foster deeper understanding, fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills.

This workshop will provide valuable insights and recommendations on how your school can advance its maths outcomes with Maths Trek. Register today!
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➡️ https://www.fireflyeducation.com.au/support/workshops/delivering-impactful-numeracy-lessons-with-maths-trek-4295

Are you using Think Mentals Workbooks this year? Don't forget to sign up for Think Mentals Answers!⁠
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For each year level you will find:⁠
✔️a handy downloadable PDF containing all the answers
✔️projectable answer overlays of the Student Book pages ⁠
✔️projectable strategies.⁠
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Best of all, Think Mentals Answers is free! ⭐⁠
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Sign up now – www.thinkmentalsanswers.com.au

Book in your FREE PL for Term 1 💫⁠
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Has your school recently purchased any Sound Waves Literacy resources? Need advice on how to incorporate these into your literacy lessons? Do new staff need to be brought up to speed with Sound Waves so they are ready for the year ahead?

Request a free in-school PL with your local education consultant today! Our consultants have a wealth of teaching experience to help your school make the most of your Sound Waves resources.�
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Sign up today ➡️ https://fireflyeducation.com.au/support/workshops/

We love hearing your feedback from the classroom! If you have stories to share about our Sound Waves Literacy program, DM us! 💫��

‘If I am unsure how to teach a particular component of the program, I can easily refer to the explicit and detailed notes given. This makes my lessons succinct, relevant, and meaningful for my class.’⁠
– Mr. Goodfellow, Teacher ACT

All about isograms 💫⁠
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In a first-order isogram, no letters are repeated.⁠
In a second-order isogram, all letters are repeated twice.⁠
In a third-order isogram, all letters are repeated three times.⁠
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Can you think of any more examples?

Start a new adventure in handwriting! 🌏��'⁠
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Writing Time takes students on a captivating handwriting adventure to learn, consolidate and extend handwriting fluency. The beautifully illustrated student books are packed with engaging, meaningful and structured practice to get little hands moving in the right direction. ��Head to our website to learn more and check out the sample pages. ⁠
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➡️ www.fireflyeducation.com.au/writingtime

We love hearing your feedback from the classroom! If you have stories to share about our Sound Waves Literacy resources, send us a message! 💫⁠
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'It is a complete reading and writing program that is effective and fun to use in the classroom. It is well resourced and follows an excellent sequence that makes sense. I just love it.' – Ms Tuite, QLD