My name is Luke Fitzpatrick and I am excited to be joining Austins Ferry Primary School as your new Assistant Principal during 2025. This week, I have really enjoyed visiting classes and getting to know students and staff.  I have previously been working at Blackmans Bay Primary School as an AST for the past six years. I have been a teacher for over twenty years and I have had experience teaching in Queenstown, London and at a number of other schools around Hobart in both Catholic and Government schools.  I have a son and a daughter who are in Year 8 and Year 7 at school. I enjoy spending time with my family, trying to stay fit, sports, music, reading and travel. I am passionate about education and looking forward to working with families, staff and students. You may see me in the playground or around the school in coming weeks. Feel free to make yourself known. I look forward to meeting you all and getting to know our school community.

Austins Ferry Primary School has introduced a new approach to behaviour focusing on three values: Ready, Respectful and Safe.

This term every year level has been learning about these values and why they are important to our school and community. It has been wonderful to see students and staff use this language to support our students to make great choices for their learning.

We interviewed students recently about this new approach and they were able to tell us some very insightful things about what these values look like:

“It’s about helping people - if someone is sad, you can ask them if they need help”

“Being kind to other students, your community, and teacher”

“Respect means we treat each other fairly”

Students in our pods have been recognised for being fantastic leaders around these values – if you are in our Green and Red pod please have a look at our recognition walls where we put the spotlight on our amazing students and their great choices.

This Term, all Red Pod classes have been working collaboratively in a Science Inquiry surrounding living things. The 3/4 classes have engaged in learning tasks and hands-on activities about root and shoot systems, life cycles of a plant, worm anatomy and their benefits to plant growth/soil quality, living and non-living things and their features. Each class is following their own independent line of inquiry within the unit and presenting their learning to their peers in a Pod Meeting once a week. We have been documenting our learning in the Red Pod foyer.

We have adopted the garden beds near Red Pod playground as a space to transform over the period of our learning. We have weeded the area while learning about roots. Our future plans include aerating the soil, fertilising the soil, introducing worms to the soil and growing our own plants from seeds. 

Congratulations to our House Captains and Vice Captains for 2025 who were voted by our grade 3-6 students. They have been doing a great job supporting our students and being good role models.

February 25^th, the 3/4 athletics carnival was conducted followed by the 5/6 athletics carnival on the 26^th February. The two days of athletics provided fantastic excitement and achievements with students competing in various track and field events. It was wonderful to see the enthusiasm and effort of all our students, as they certainly put their best foot forward.  After the first day Emerald house was leading followed by Sapphire and Ruby. At the conclusion of the second day of competition Ruby was the winning House followed by Emerald and Sapphire.

K-2 Athletic Carnival  

Thursday 27^th February our K-2 students participated in their athletics carnival. This was a fun afternoon full of different activities for students to experience. Great sportsmanship, encouragement and willingness to participate were on display. 

National Ride2School Day

On Friday 21^st March we participated in the National Ride2School Day. It was great to see lots of students riding, scootering or skating to school and participating in activities during their allocated time slot. It was great to observe all students having fun and big smiles on their faces.

School Basketball

On the 29^th and 30^th March two grade 5/6 teams competed in a School Basketball tournament against other schools. We are extremely proud of all our players who represented our school. All players played their hearts out, showed great sportsmanship and teamwork both on and off the field.

Friday 28th March our selected grade 3-6 students proudly represented Austins Ferry at the Division D SPSSA Inter-School Athletics Carnival. It was a stunning day for athletes and competitors gave it their all across a range of track and field events throughout the day. It was fantastic to observe the wonderful efforts of all our students, their encouragement of each other and participating to the best of their ability. We finished the carnival in third position and the performances of some students rewarded them with the opportunity to compete at the Champions Athletics Carnival in April.

Please donate any unwanted uniform to the school office. We would appreciate any and all donations to provide to students when in need. Thank you 

Date: Tuesday May 6

Time: From 5:30pm 

Location : Kitchen Garden 

Soft shell jackets are now avalible to order via the office along with ordering forms if your child did not receive one.
Orders need to be in to the office by Friday April 11 along with payment via cash or card. 

Term 1 concludes - Friday April 11 

Term 2 commences - Monday April 28