We have reached the end of 2021! I can’t thank our staff and community enough for their support this year in another trying year impacted by COVID-19. Our community have come together once again to support each other and continue our journey of improvement and achievement. The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and celebrating student success. I was so pleased to attend our recent award assemblies and Kinder celebration. Last Friday we welcomed our 2022 Kinder’ s which is very exciting for new families to join our school and community.

On Wednesday night we held the Year 6 Leavers Dinner on site at AFPS and it was a huge success.  It was fantastic to see so many family and friends come along to celebrate and acknowledge our leavers as they take the next step into high school. Yesterday farewelled our leavers at their final assembly.

I would like to wish all of our community a safe and happy Christmas break and we look forward to 2022 with excitement for what lays ahead!

Staff farewells

This time of year, always comes with a tinge of sadness when we farewell staff who move on for various reasons. This year we have some staff movement for a variety of reasons. Below are staff that we will farewell and would like to thank officially for their impact on our school since joining AFPS and our community

Ruth Quinn 3/4 – Transfer to Lenah Valley Primary

Monika Pearce 3 – New role at St John’s Primary

Claire Huxtable teacher – New role at St Mary’s College

Anita Button Coach – Leadership opportunity at Molesworth Primary

Samuel Winckel Art– King Island District School (1 year)

Kelly Figgel office– eSchool (Term 1)

Kerrie Riewoldt Assistant Principal – Long Service Leave (Term 1+2)

Tayla Wagner Nurse – College

Sinead Payne Psych – DoE

Micaela Maui TA – Holy Rosary

2022 Staffing

We are now able to officially announce new staff who will be joining our school and community in 2022.  We are very excited to welcome these people who all come with a new skill set to support our goal of continuous improvement

Rachael Sayers – Assistant Principal

Ann-Marie Johnson – Quality Teaching Coach

Jordan West – 5/6

Brydie Pearce – 3/4

Amelia Clifford – 3

Stacey King – Prep/1

Rupan Singh – Prep

Gabby Gollogly – Art

Aleisha Howlett – Psych (return from maternity leave)

Emma Atkinson – Nurse (return from maternity leave)

Dear Parent/Carer

2022 School Levy Information

Levies are one of the many ways that families contribute to our school community.  Levies support student learning by contributing towards the cost of essential items and services.  After consultation with the School Association the following levies have been set for 2022:

Kindergarten             $170.00

Prep – Year 6             $235.00

This levy contributes to the cost of your child’s education program and includes learning materials, stationery, performances and excursions.

Levy invoices will be mailed to parents/carers in early February 2022.  There is an expectation that levy payments will be finalised by the end of Term 1 – Wednesday 13 April 2022.

Payment of levies and charges can be made by:

• Cash, cheque or credit card at the school office during office opening hours
• Bpay using the Biller Code and Reference on your invoice
• Service Tasmania by cash, cheque or credit card
• By mail - forward your cheque, money order or credit card details to the school, with the payment slip from your invoice attached
• Qkr!
• Using Centrepay – a service provided by Centrelink

Parents/carers are encouraged to discuss payment of levies and charges as early as possible if there is difficulty in affording any element of the levy or charge. Please make a time to speak with the School Business Manager, Rhonda Turner, by phone 6275 7222 or email: rhonda.turner@education.tas.gov.au.   A levy instalment plan including Centrepay is made available to parents/carers who are unable to make a full payment at the beginning of the new school year.

Instalment plans offer flexible, sensitively negotiated payment options to assist parents/carers to budget for this cost. Payments can be made weekly, fortnightly, monthly or at other agreed times after payment of an affordable deposit.  Please see the School Business Manager for assistance with this process.

Students will not be prevented from participating in any learning activities that are part of the curriculum if their levies have not been paid.

If your family has not paid their levies by the due date and has not organised to pay in instalments, the school will be in contact to remind you that payment is due and will check to see if your family requires support. If your levies remain unpaid after the school has sent two follow-up letters the matter will be forwarded to Finance and Budget Services within the Department of Education to be followed up.  Under no circumstances will the status of payment of levies or charges be discussed directly with students.

You are a valued member of our school community and we welcome your feedback on levies and charges at our school.

You can contact School Business Manager, Rhonda Turner if you have any questions or would like to talk about levies at our school. Personal information relating to levies will always be treated with total confidentiality.

The levies and charges we receive from families supports our school to deliver learning opportunities for all students. Thank you for your contribution.

If you have made a pre-order for Back to School uniform the school office will be open for uniform collection, payment and sales on:

• Thursday 3 February 2022 9:00am to 2:00pm & 4:00pm to 6:00pm
• Friday 4 February 2022 9:00am to 2.00pm

Families who were approved and received STAS in 2021 have been sent correspondence regarding STAS 2022 directly from the Department of Education and do not need to complete another STAS application.

STAS application forms for families who have not applied for, or been in receipt of STAS in 2021 including new enrolments who believe they meet the eligibility criteria are now available from the school office or families can apply on-line: https://stasonlinesubmission.education.tas.gov.au/

The eligibility criteria means that if a parent/carer holds a current concession card as listed below they are eligible to apply for STAS:

• Centrelink Health Care Card
• Pensioner Concession Card or
• Department of Veteran Affairs Concession Card

Please note: parents/carers cannot apply again online if they received STAS in 2021.  If a parent/carer wishes to add a newly enrolling student to their STAS file (ie: a Kindergarten student or sibling) they simply need to email their name and the student’s full name, date of birth, grade and school they will be attending in 2022 to: stas@education.tas.gov.au

Completed hard copy application forms can be returned to the school office or sent directly to the Department of Education by post, fax (6173 0315) or scanned and emailed to stas@education.tas.gov.au Please ensure that forms are signed and dated before submitting. 

It would be greatly appreciated if you would complete new applications prior to the end of the year to avoid invoices being sent in error early in 2022.

It has been a very busy few weeks for us in 3 – 4 Shearing. We enjoyed our last garden session for the term as students got to enjoy some sweet treats the cooking group made. We also got to visit the Pantomime where we watched the very funny “Grumbly Grouch”.

Afterwards, we went to Kingston playground and enjoyed an icy pole on a very hot summer day. The children had a great time with some students falling asleep on the bus ride home.

Last Thursday, we visited New Norfolk where students had the chance to swim, play tug of war against other classes and enjoyed a BBQ lunch.

We’ve had a busy and productive term in 3/4 Quinn.

Some highlights of our term have been our excursion to the pantomime and Kingston park, AFPS Christmas Carols, creating our 'I am' poems and working on some fun art projects.

Congratulations!!

The following students have reached the 200 Club

Ethan McKenzie