Dear Families

Students have been eager to start the term, to get back into learning and to be at school with friends.  With many learning opportunities throughout Term 3 we are gearing up to be very busy.  Over the next eight weeks there will be many occasions where parents can come in and celebrate learning with their child.  Coming along to school and participating alongside your child helps build their connection to learning.  We look forward to seeing you at school soon.

Welcome to new staff

Our school welcomes Ms Kallia Gonianaki who will be teaching Prep – Year 2 Physical Education and Year 3-4 Health.  Ms Gonianaki will be familiar to many families, having taught 1C and PC for some time last term.  

We also welcome our School Chaplain Allie.  Allie spent some time with us towards the end of last term to get to know her way around school and is now with us regularly for two days a week.  As our School Chaplain, Allie provides social and emotional support to students and fosters a positive school environment.  She is a listening ear for students and works to foster  wellbeing.  She can provide support for students in times of grief or crisis and assist them to cope with difficult situations.  She will also support through running small group sessions and wellbeing programs.

Assemblies

On Wednesday, our Year 1-2 students held our first assembly for the term and it certainly celebrated learning in a unique way, including 1M’s very creative zipline presentation.  Our assemblies support students to share and build on their classroom learning while continuing to recognise and celebrate students living out our school values and recognising student achievement.

Assemblies are held in our School Hall and begin at 9:10am.  Assemblies for the rest of this term will be:

Wednesday 6 August - 3-4 classes

Wednesday 3  September – 4-5 and 6 classes

Wednesday 17  September - Kinder and Prep classes

Celebrating reading through Book Week

Developing students’ foundational reading skills is a key priority for our school. We develop this daily through explicit classroom teaching of reading.  We also seek opportunities to promote and support student participation and engagement in reading across all learning areas and through school events.

Our annual Book Week Parade is a much-anticipated event and gives students an opportunity to dress up as their favourite book character, celebrate reading, share stories and let their imagination run wild while developing their reading skills.  This year’s theme is Book an Adventure and we are looking forward to seeing how our school library will become a whole world of adventure for Book Week.  Our Book Week Parade will be held on Wednesday 20 August and more details about what this event will look like will be sent home soon.    

Sports News

Over the next week or so some of our senior students will attend sports selection trials for teams that will be part of the Southern Primary School Sports Association’s 2025 Winter Carnival.  It’s great to see our students attending these trials and working in alongside students from other schools.

Senior students will also have the opportunity to participate in the Winter Sports Roster that we share with East Derwent Primary, New Norfolk Primary and Fairview Primary.  The roster will involve home and away games and occur every Friday from 8 August to 12 September.  Mr Daft will be co-ordinating sports roster teams.

Reminders

As we start the term, it’s a good time to remind again about some safety measures:

• Students are asked to take their mobile phone to the School Office on arrival so that it can be safely stored for the day. Phones are stored in individual bags for collection at the end of the day.
• Students are discouraged from bringing valuable items to school. Valuables can be lost or broken and school is not responsible for replacing/repairing personal items.
• Please observe disability parking and no parking areas at pick up and drop off.
• School supervision begins at 8.30am and ends at 2.50pm. Please ensure students arrive after 8.30am to ensure they are supervised.

NAIDOC Week

Huge thanks to Kristie, our Aboriginal Education Worker, for the experiences she organised for our students for NAIDOC Week.  Our students were so keen to participate and to learn more about First Nations culture and history.  The theme of this year’s NAIDOC Week was ‘The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy' and was great to see some of our students really step up and take on leadership roles with confidence, helping Kristie out when activities were being offered. Look out for the NAIDOC Week article in today’s newsletter for more details.

School Association Meeting

The next General Meeting of our School Association will be held on Monday 11 August at 4pm in our Admin building. 

Sonya Plunkett-Smith

Principal