Dear Families,

Reconciliation Week

27 May to 3 June is recognised as National Reconciliation Week.  Thanks to Kristie, our Aboriginal Education Worker, for her ongoing work with all students to explore connections.  Our newsletter today includes an update from Kristie about her work across our school.

Lifting Literacy Update

As part of DECYP’s Lifting Literacy commitment, staff have been able to take advantage of new training opportunities and resources. Staff have been completing Qualiteach modules which help to further develop their understanding of structured literacy teaching.  Staff have also had professional learning in UFLI, PLD or Word Origins programs.  All are evidenced-based programs that teach students foundational skills for proficient reading and spelling.  During Term 2 and Term 3, teaching staff will be involved in further professional learning to explore and trial strategies to check for student understanding during literacy instruction.

Professional Learning Day next Friday 6 June

Teaching staff will have a professional learning day next Friday to focus on assessment of learning tasks.  This will involve working with teachers from other schools to ensure that there is consistency in teacher judgement when making assessments using the Australian Curriculum Achievement Standards.  Students will not attend school on this day, however, Out of School Hours Care will be open.

Welcome to our Pre-Service Teachers

Pre-Service teachers are our future teachers in training gaining valuable on-the-job experiences.  Our school is very excited to welcome several Pre-Service teachers to our classrooms this term.  Pre-Service teachers are currently working in 4-5T, Kinder Lee, 2G and 1W.

We will have several more Pre-Service teachers join us over the next few weeks.  We hope that you enjoy many opportunities for learning while working with us.

Parent Teacher Learning Conversations and Booking Forms

Miss Griffiths- Lee will be on leave and away from 6GL for the last three weeks of this term.  Parent Teacher Learning Conversations for 6GL will happen in the week beginning 9 June.   Parent Teacher meetings for all other classes will be held in the week beginning 16 June. We look forward to seeing you at school to for these conversations.  We encourage you to bring your child to these check in conversations which will celebrate their learning progress and discuss their learning goals.

Please book a time to meet with your child’s teacher through this link:  

https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/abg4pTQ/links#:~:text=https%3A//www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/s3pt5

Inter-School Cross Country

Congratulations to the 96 students who have been named as members of the two teams to represent Brighton Primary at next week’s Inter-primary Cross Country events.  We hope you enjoy the challenge of the run and the excitement of the day.

Sonya Plunkett-Smith

Principal

This year’s theme is “Bridging Now to Next”

We celebrate this theme by our ongoing connection between past, present and future. We continue to embrace learning about shared histories, cultures and achievements. We do this every day, but Reconciliation Week is another special time to reflect, celebrate and explore.

I spent some time in a Kinder class this week reading them a beautiful Tasmanian story. We had some discussions around what Reconciliation Week means and students shared what they thought it was like to be kind and connected.

The past two weeks in Kitchen Garden we have been talking about Reconciliation Week and celebrating this with all things bush and connections to country. We have been continuing our First Nations culture with the land and plants, enjoying being outside cooking around the fire with students trying different bush foods and learning about their health benefits and other uses.

On Friday afternoons I have been meeting with some of our Aboriginal students to help support their learning around cultural practices. These students have been doing Art, recreating our school value symbols with sea glass. We have explored The ORB ( website that showcases Tasmanian Aboriginal people, culture and history). The students have also created some beautiful shell necklaces while learning about Sea Country. It’s been a busy term so far and we are looking forward to continuing to celebrate with NAIDOC Week in July!

Kristie Bennett

In our class, students have been working incredibly hard to demonstrate our five important school values in their daily learning and interactions. Their goal? To earn all five school values badges and become part of our special Brighton Star Squad! We’re so proud to share that 14 amazing students have already achieved this honour, showing true dedication, kindness, and perseverance. Keep up the great work, everyone — we can’t wait to see who joins the Star Squad next!

During HASS sessions with Mrs Strong and our teacher in Prep Chynoweth, we have started an inquiry to investigate and understand the importance of shelter, food, water and space in an animal's environment (habitat).  We have all chosen our own animal and we are exploring the needs of this animal. This inquiry encourages us to be critical thinkers and allows us to discover the interconnections between an animal and their environment.

Please have a look at some photos from our learning this week as we start to create our animal habitats from the information we have found out so far from our investigations and following the habitat plans we have drawn for our animal's habitat.  

We are excited about continuing to work on our habitats and share this inquiry into animal habitis with our peers and families in coming weeks.

Our class were very excited to join the rest of the school to compete in our Cross Country on Friday 16th May. The weather was perfect for running and all the children really enjoyed the opportunity to show their athleticism and willingness to accept the challenge. We would like to thank Mr Daft and everyone who helped organise this fun event.