I was lucky enough last week to attend the first day of our inaugural 2 night Grade 6 Leadership Camp. This opportunity was made possible by our wonderful staff who gave up their own time to support students overnight.  The camp was a great success with many amazing stories being told when students returned on Friday. We hope this will become a mainstay of our leadership program at AFPS and a stepping stone for other groups to also experience adventure activities outside of our own school setting.

Currently our Preps are undertaking one to one assessments with their teachers – these assessments known as PIPs (Performance Indicators in Primary Schools) give teachers an opportunity to check in on our student’s early literacy and numeracy development. During these assessments students will work one to one with their class teacher for 30 minutes.

Reporting 2019

During 2019 our staff will report on students’ progress at various times throughout the year.  Below is an outline of the reporting process

Prep – 6 reporting

Term 1 – Meet the teacher (week 2) + Primary progress report (week 10)

Term 2 – Midyear report (week 10)

Term 4 – End of year report (week 10)

Kindergarten reporting

Term 1 – Meet the teacher session + Parent interviews if required

Term 4 – End of year report (Celebration of Learning document)

I hope that all families received our new Positive Behaviour Support Policy in week 2. This policy outlines what we do as a school to support students to make positive decisions in regards to regulating their own behaviour and promotes positive outcomes throughout the school using a rewards system.

Thursday this week at 9.45am will also see us hold another snake information session for our new students and Kinders who have joined our school in 2019. Parents/Carers are also encouraged to attend this session if you would like to find out more information.

Regards

Tim Nicholas

Principal

I would like to bring road safety to the attention of our community. We have endeavoured to work closely with the Council in order to express concerns with traffic conditions around our school. The Council have put some strategies in place to support parking and traffic safety. We will continue to monitor entries and exits to our school and endeavour to communicate any concerns with the Council.

Please see below statement from our Respectful School Volunteer and Visitor Behaviour Policy in regards to road safety. This policy will be released in full in our next newsletter and on our website.

1.1         Roads on Austins Ferry Primary School campus

The control of traffic at a school campus is a school matter, and the principal has the right to instruct anyone operating a vehicle to follow the conditions under which vehicles may be driven, ridden, parked and removed from the school campus.

All drivers on campus are expected to observe the speed limit of 10 km per hour and abide by road traffic signs including parking conditions (time limited parking, no-parking zones, and staff parking).

All bicycles should be stored in designated areas.

If the rules are not observed, the school may withdraw permission to enter the school campus, remove a vehicle parked contrary to the signage at the owner’s expense or any other response the school deems necessary to maintain a safe and functional space for others at the school.

All Students in Kindergarten - Grade 2

Thursday, 7th March   

Thursday, 4th April   

All Students in Grades 3 - 6

Thursday, 14th March 

Thursday, 28th March 

Assemblies start at 2.00pm sharp in the GP Hall.

We are pleased to share that Austins Ferry Primary School is participating in the Department of Education’s Refocus Teaching and Learning in the Early Years initiative 2018 - 2021 (RTL)

This initiative will support schools and Child and Family Centre (CFCs) to deliver quality, evidence based teaching and learning from birth to eight years of age. The initiative is informed by the National Quality Standard (NQS) including The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) for Australia, the Australian Curriculum (AC) and relevant parts of the Tasmanian Education Act 2016.

As a school we value children as strong, capable, competent and resilient, rich with wonder and knowledge. We recognise that every child brings with them deep curiosity and potential and this innate curiosity drives their interest to understand their world and their place within it.  The RTL initiative involves our staff undertaking regular professional learning that is focussed on strengthening quality practice in the early years.

You may notice changes that include:

-           Re-organisation of classroom environments both inside and outside

-           New ways of sharing/recording your child’s learning

-           Play and inquiry approaches being embedded in practice to extend children’s learning experiences and achievements

-           Educators exploring new approaches to teaching and learning

We look forward to sharing with you our ongoing learnings and are excited about strengthening our knowledge of quality practice in the early years.   Please do not hesitate to talk with your child’s teacher for further information

Big W is giving away 12 free storybooks for the next 12 weeks – 1 storybook per week.  To find out more, click the link below.

https://www.bigw.com.au/free-books-for-kids?textInput=free%20books