Principals Report

Our teaching staff have been busy over the past week or so striving for improvement and attending various professional learning opportunities which has meant some relief teachers have supported classes. Our teachers have recently attended courses which include Feedback Culture, Differentiated Problems Solving, STEM Conference, Literacy Learning in Prep, Big Ideas in Number and Kindergarten Development Check.

I was also privileged to attend the first two days of Year 6 Camp last week, student behaviour was outstanding and their willingness to try new activities and challenges was amazing! The experience was a snapshot of our school values in action. Students experienced the picturesque Spring Beach and participated in activities which included bike riding, zip lines, feeding animals, bush walks, swimming, obstacle course and more!

Term 1 Reporting

After a review of our reporting structures and the impact of COVID-19 last year we have a new initiative to support communicating student progress with parents/carers. Previously Term 1 saw teachers send home a 1 page document with tick boxes and a short comment after feedback we believe that parents/carers prefer a conversation with class teachers outlining student progress. Beginning Monday 15 March until the end of Term 1 class teachers will make contact with all parent’s/carers via phone/in person/video to have a conversation on student progress.

Easter Raffle + Free Clothes Day

Our fantastic School Association team are supporting an Easter Raffle again in 2021, raffle books have already been sent home with students so please contact the office if you did not receive one or would like more. To support this raffle our Student Voice Team have organised a free dress day on Thursday 25 March for Kinder students and Friday 26 March for Prep-6 students.

AFPS Values and Hook

Our Values focus for the second half of Term 1 is “Safe Play = Great Day” staff will promote this throughout our school and students will complete work with a focus on this hook during meet and greets and values lessons.

Canteen menu

2021 has seen our canteen shift priorities to support our whole school healthy eating plan. For our school to retain our gold accreditation we have to follow the healthy eating guide which impacts our menu. The Tasmanian Canteen Association classify foods into 3 categories: Green, Amber and Red. As part of gold accreditation, we are not allowed to have red foods on our menu and 60% or greater of menu must be green foods with 40% or less amber foods. Below is a diagram outlining the categories of food which will hopefully support our community to understand the process we follow.

School Association

As we continue to build our team, we encourage more community members to attend our School Association meetings and have input into our school. Our next meeting is Tuesday 16 March at 6:10pm. This meeting will also see us hold our AGM which is a great opportunity to meet new members. During the meeting we will provide supper and drinks.

Staffing update

I would like to welcome Amelia Kenny to our team who replaces Malcolm McArthur who was successful in his application for an Advanced Skills teaching position at Springfield Gardens Primary. We also welcome Naomi Marantelli who will be covering Lauren Sackley for final 3 weeks of this term as she heads off on maternity leave a little earlier.

KISS & DROP

Welcome back to school for Term 1.  We will continue our Home Reading Program and ALL students are encouraged to participate (Kinder in Term 3). Home Reading is a wonderful opportunity to share and practice new skills that are learned during reading sessions at school. Home Reading helps students develop confidence and fluency when reading.

Students will bring home books that have been pre read during class sessions and it is an opportunity to have fun and enjoy reading with the family.

Parents will record the book read and sign your child’s Reading Booklet each night. We are aiming for 3-5 reads every week. After students have reached the first 25 book milestone they will receive a certificate. Following on students will reach milestones at 25 book intervals and these will be celebrated by presentation of certificates during assembly times.

Please encourage your child to join CLUB 25.

Easter Raffle

By Zoe Alexander & Ebony Nugent

This year for the Year 6 Leadership Camp, we went to Gumleaves. On the way to Gumleaves we stopped at Spring Beach and had a swim as well as walking along the beach up to the rock pools. Some of us saw a starfish with twelve legs!

After a swim we all got back on the bus and drove to Gumleaves. When we arrived, we got our bags off the bus and were called over to Mr Gatenby to find out what cabins we were in and who we were sharing a cabin with. All the cabins had names, here are some of them: White gum, Red gum Blue gum, Ghost gum, Bog gum (toilet), Squiggly gum (meeting area), Candle Bark and Tuan Gum (kitchen / dining). We packed our lunch only for the first day. We also explored the whole area where we could go. There were flying foxes, a little play net, a tyre swing, a seesaw and we also grabbed some bikes from our school to take there. We played around for a couple hours until it was time for tea. We had sausages in bread then we got time to hang out and play with our friends. But then it was time for bed and we all brushed our teeth and went to bed.

The next day we all went for a walk with Mr Lewinski before breakfast. We had a fun day doing lots of different activities like kayaking and an obstacle course. We had Mexican for dinner before performing items for Austins Ferry’s Got Talent!

The next day, we packed up our things then had a picnic lunch at Orford. We were very tired when we got back to school.