Our school and community are doing a tremendous job navigating through Term 1! Many classes are beginning to venture out on excursions and it is fantastic to see students engaging in activities outside of their comfort zone.

COVID-19 update

I would like to thank our community for their continued support and diligence in testing and watching out for symptoms. Our school is experiencing some positive tests across classes however we have only had 1 class cluster (5 positive cases) which has now ceased so we continue to be in a good position managing the outbreak. Staff are being vigilant managing their health and following public health guidelines if they feel they have any symptoms.

I would like to thank our staff for their continued flexibility to ensure learning programs continue with minimal interruptions while still supporting isolating students through the Virtual Learning Centre (VLC). Parents/carers please remember that RAT tests are available at the office during business hours and we encourage you to collect and use if anyone in your family is showing symptoms.

Reporting

Families would have received a letter home outlining reporting structure for students recently, we will also post this information on class DoJo. Parents/carers can expect a primary progress report for all Prep to Year 6 students to be sent home on Friday 1 April. This report will outline student progress in regard to their learning disposition through a series of tick boxes. Kinder parents will have more informal talks with class teachers over the coming weeks to discuss student progress.

Year 3-6 Inter-School Athletics Carnival

Friday 18 March 2022 saw the Austins Ferry Athletics team attend the Division D SPSSA Athletics Carnival. Students participated in a variety of track and field events throughout the day. All students displayed courage, but a special mention to several students who were asked to compete on the morning of the carnival, due to illness of other students. We finished the carnival in second position behind an extremely strong New Town Primary School team.

Bullying No Way

Friday 18 March 2022 was also the 12th National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. The theme for 2022 was “Kindness Culture”. By building Kindness Culture together, we can promote inclusion, respect and community belonging for all students in our school. You can watch the Be Kind Online animation with your child to learn more about how to block content, report content and support others if you see or experience cyberbullying.

Harmony Week

Austins Ferry’s cultural diversity is one of our greatest strengths and is at the heart of who we are. It makes our community a great place to live and our school a great place to learn. That’s why this year we’re celebrating Harmony Week Monday 21 March – Friday 25 March 2022. Harmony Week is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background. Australia is a vibrant and multicultural country — from the oldest continuous culture of our first Australians to the cultures of our newest arrivals from around the world. Each Pod will be undertaking activities exploring the theme Everyone Belongs!

Berry Street Education Model

Our school continues to foster a relationship with Berry Street, an organisation who provide strategies for teaching and learning that enables teachers to increase engagement of students with complex, unmet learning needs and to successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, relationships, wellbeing, growth and academic achievement. This week, 7 of our staff will participate in a 2 day workshop to undertake further learning in this area, it is an exciting opportunity for our staff moving forward.

Our school has many COVID-19 safety measures in place, but vaccination is the best way to protect your child from COVID-19.

As per Public Health advice, vaccination is safe and helps to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Your child will need two doses (eight weeks apart) to be fully vaccinated.

If you haven’t already, please book your child aged 5+ years in for their initial vaccination or second dose vaccination. It’s easy to book your appointment online. Alternatively, call the Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738.

Please know that all children, regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated or not, are welcome to attend school.

For more information, please visit the Tasmanian Government Coronavirus website or contact the Tasmanian Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738, or Department of Education COVID-19 Support Hotline at COVID19support@education.tas.gov.au or on 1800 816 057.

If you need support translating or interpreting this information, please contact the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450.

We have had a very busy start to the year! We’ve enjoyed settling into our new class, making new friends as well as seeing old ones, and have been learning lots! We are also very excited for our excursion to the Domain in a few weeks where we will get to play some games on the oval and use the woodfired pizza oven to make pizzas.

Here are some of our favourite moments so far

“I like doing Maths” – Mason

“I like when we do guided drawing in free time” – Ruby

“I like handwriting the best” – Mahaliah

“Playing Maths games” – Nawa

“Art with Mrs Bailey” – Jaxon

“Reading a level 25!” – Rylan

In 3/4 N we have been loving our Science unit ‘Among the Gum Trees’. We have used Euca flips to identify the Eucalypts that grow nearby.

We have compared gumnuts from different trees to find the characteristics they share, and sketched our observations.

We have learned that gumnuts are actually a fruit, and explored why that is. We have also collected seeds from ripe gumnuts and are trying to germinate them.

Our class have settled very well into routines this year and are working collaboratively as a group. In English we are undertaking a spelling inquiry into morphemes and the origin of words. We are also looking at persuasive writing and are in the process of writing a class one. This is coming along nicely.

Our class novel is called “Fish in a Tree”, and it is about a girl named Ally who has dyslexia and the problems she faces because of it. We designed some new cover pages as well as writing a blurb.

In Numeracy we are focussing on place value and addition, as well as problem solving activities.

During HASS we have be researching animal adaptations and presenting this to the class.

Our first Values hook for the year was “best foot forward” and we made some posters to show how this might look for us!

Easter Raffle

1st Prize - Easter Basket

Runner-up Prizes - Easter Goodies 

Tickets $1.00 each

Raffle will be drawn on Monday 11 April 2022.

Raffle books will be sent home to families in the next week.  If you are able to sell more books please pick some up from the school office.

Please return your book, either sold or unsold, to the school office no later then Friday 8 April 2022.

A special thank you to Elise Archer MP for her generous donation of a Easter goodie basket.

Annual General Meeting

The School Association AGM will be held on Tuesday 5 April 2022 at 6:10pm in the ELC Kitchen/Garden.

Please note that School Association meetings are to go ahead with COVID-safe measures in place.  Members are considered volunteers and must be vaccinated to attend meetings on DoE sites.

There will be a FREE dress day on THURSDAY 31 MARCH 2022 to support the Easter Raffle.

Students are asked to contribute a gold coin donation please.

A big thank you to the families that have made part payment or payment in full for the 2022 Levy.  We appreciate your contribution.

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.  

A reminder that there is an expectation for levy payments to be finalised by the end of Term 1 – Wednesday 13 April 2022.

Kindergarten             $170.00

Prep – Year 6             $235.00

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

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.

Dear Parent/Carer

It is a requirement of the DoE for students to have an updated annual validation form.

Student validation forms are important for updating your childs' records including emergency contacts, medical details and permissions.

Please return your childs' signed validation form asap. The permission section will allow students to attend ALL minor excursions during 2022.  All classes are scheduled to attend an excursion during Term 1.

We thank the many families that have returned their completed forms.

Dear Parent/Carer

Did you miss out on ordering individual student photos prior to last weeks' photo shoot?

It's not too late to place your order online:

• Go to www.leadingimage.com.au
• Click on Order Your School Photos
• Select your State
• Enter the special unique Access Key - XRB6H6DU

Please ensure to place your order no later than this Friday 25 March 2022.

Alternatively, when the photographs are returned to school students who have not placed an order will receive a bookmark with ordering details.  Please be aware that these orders will be posted direct to your home address and will incur a postage charge.