Term 3 has proven to be very busy with multiple whole school events planned and many opportunities for students to deepen their learning in a range of subject areas. Some recent activities which have supported student engagement include; Red Cross First Aid with our Year 3/4's, dangers of smoking run by Aboriginal Centre for Year 5/6's, an author visit for our upper primary students and Mystery Readers across the school as part of our Book Week celebrations. 

Berry Street Professional Learning

This week some of our staff were involved in professional learning around supporting students with a trauma background or who need regulation around their emotions.

The Berry Street Model supports the following across our school;

• Understanding the benefits of trauma-informed teaching on child development and ability to learn
• Creating a supportive and trauma-informed positive education classroom
• Bolstering student-teacher relationships
• Applying positive relational classroom behaviour management strategies
• Instilling strengths-based practices across the school

Fire Drill

Last Thursday we supported our school community to undertake a fire drill. This process was well received by all involved and allowed us to test our systems in the case of an evacuation in the future.

DRILL Dance

On Friday last week a selection of Year 5/6 students presented their final dance as part of the DRILL Dance Company. Thank you to Montrose Bay High School for hosting the event.  It was amazing to be part of the audience and witness the teamwork and smiling faces. We were able to support some of our Year 5/6 teachers to attend the event which meant a lot to the students who were able to perform.

Book Week

In 2022 we have made this event very prominent across our classrooms and community. I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Mystery Reader and had the delight of reading to Kinder Johnston and 5/6 Perry. I was able to read to them my favourite children’s book and share the wonder of reading!

Events in Term 3

There are many exciting events planned this term so please keep up to date with our socials which include; Facebook, Class DoJo, School Newsletter and paper notices sent home. Some of these events will be Book Week (author visits, book parade, mystery readers and more) Swim and Water Safety for Year 3-6 students, Cricket Tas visit, Brave Hearts, Disco and more!

Do you have a child born in 2018?

Pre-Kinder sessions will commence in Term 4 for children eligible to attend Kindergarten in 2023 and reside in our in-take area.

Sessions will be held in the Early Learning Centre on Fridays and led by the Kinder teachers.

Please enrol your child/children today!

Enrolment forms for Kindergarten in 2023 are now available from:

• The school office
• Launching into Learning sessions

Please return your completed enrolment forms to the school office as soon as possible with the following information:

• Evidence of student identity - (birth certificate or passport)
• Evidence of parent/carer identity - (birth certificate, passport or driver licence)
• Evidence of student residential address - (eg. utility bill)
• Immunisation records

Please contact the school office for enquiries or assistance on 6275 7222

Dear Parent/Carer

Please note that new applications and reviews of eligibility for the Student Assistance Scheme (STAS) 2022 will not be accepted after Wednesday 7 September 2022.

If have not yet paid your school levies and feel you may be eligible for STAS please complete an application as soon as possible by collecting a form from the school office or completing the online form: Student Assistance Scheme (STAS) (education.tas.gov.au)

Book Week Parade

The Book Week Parade will be held on Thursday 18 August. Unfortunately parents/carers are unable to attend this year, however, students are strongly encouraged to dress up as their favourite book character in celebration of Book Week. 

Scholastic Book Fair 

The Scholastic Book Fair will be held in the Flexible Learning Space in Blue Pod from Monday 22 August to Friday 26 August. Students will visit the Book Fair on Monday and Tuesday with their class to create a wish-list. Items will be available for for purchase from Wednesday 24 August at the following session times:

• 8:30am -8:50am
• 11:05am -11:30am
• 1:00pm -1:30pm
• 2:30pm -3:00pm 

Parents are welcome to attend these Book Fair session times with their child.

The Swimming and Water Safety Program will be situated at The Hobart Aquatic Centre and will commence on Monday 22 August and conclude on Friday 2 September. Parents are allowed to attend but must follow guidelines that are put in place by The Hobart Aquatic Centre. Please consider attending later on in the program as the first few days are used to assess students swimming ability.

Please note this program is an integral part of our school’s Health & Physical Education curriculum and it is assumed your child will attend for the full period. If circumstances arise that they are unable to attend, a medical certificate must be provided. If students do not attend they will be unable to attend the Triathlon or participate in water based activities on Grade 6 camp.

The timetable for this event is as follows:

Our class have settled back well into routines this term and are working collaboratively as a group. In English we have started a unit on Poetry, looking at the poet’s purpose and have started writing our own haiku poems. These have a structure of 3 lines, 17 syllables. We have been very selective with choosing descriptive words and hope you enjoy them.

In Numeracy we are focussing on fractions and are undertaking some hands-on activities to help our understanding. During HASS we have been mapping the Commonwealth countries and started our unit on Sustainable Living, focusing on the Breaking Boundaries documentary.

This term our class have been doing an inquiry unit on sustainability. With the help of our buddy class 5/6 Lewinski, we made posters with messages for social change/action. These messages including trying to persuade people to recycle and to stop littering and polluting our oceans.

The class are very passionate about making change and looking after the environment. We will continue to work on this topic and come up with ways we can make our school a more environmentally friendly place.

We have been discovering numeracy all around. We have been shape finding inside our room…what a lot of circles we found. We then discovered cylinders and spirals. We have played dominoes and learnt how to match the dots to numbers. And… we created beautiful butterflies.  We ‘wondered’ and ‘noticed’ what we saw in them, “they are the same on both sides”, symmetry. Numbers are a big part of Kinder…they are everywhere! 

Dear Parent/Carer

A reminder to please place your Qkr! canteen orders by 8:30am

Free flu shots extended until 31 August

It’s not too late to get your flu shot this winter!

Flu may have taken a back seat recently, but it can be serious and it’s back. Some people are at greater risk of becoming severely unwell if they get the flu. Flu vaccines are recommended for everyone over six months of age.

Until the end of August, all Tasmanians can get a free flu vaccine at:

• GPs and state-run community clinics for all people aged six months and over
• participating pharmacies for all people aged 10 years and over.

Speak with your GP, healthcare provider or local pharmacist to book an appointment. Normal Medicare arrangements apply for GP consultations.

To book a free flu vaccine at a state-run clinic, call the Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738 or visit 

www.flu.tas.gov.au.

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

Useful COVID-19 information for families

If you’re looking for practical advice and information about COVID-19 in Tasmania, Public Health has released their COVID-19 winter update (see as below). 

For more information about COVID-19, 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, contact the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450.

Students in Years 3 and 4 participated in a disaster resilience education program run by Australian Red Cross, called the Pillowcase Program.

Designed to help children prepare for, cope with and respond to an emergency, the workshop included a discussion about the importance of being prepared, as well as interactive activities to help students prepare their minds for an emergency and consider what to pack in an emergency kit. Each student was given a pillowcase to decorate and take home, to start their own personal emergency kit.

Whether your child participated in the program or not, Red Cross would encourage all of us to get prepared for the emergencies that life throws at us. They have also stressed how important it is to not only make an emergency plan but to discuss and practise that plan with children. 

Getting your household prepared:

Red Cross have provided a checklist of actions to prepare our households and children for emergencies. I encourage you, if you haven’t already, to complete these as a household. 

• All the children in our house know what an emergency is (a serious, dangerous and scary situation where help might be needed)
• All the children in our house know how to stay calm by ‘breathing with colour’ (slowly breathing in their favourite colour and then slowly exhaling their least favourite colour to regulate their breathing)
• All the children in our house know how and when to call for help (For guidance visit triplezero.gov.au)
• We have a safe meeting place outside our house and have practised how to get there
• We know who to call if we can’t find each other
• We have an emergency kit packed ready to go if we have to leave our house quickly.

For further guidance or to create a household emergency plan you can download Australian Red Cross’ Get Prepared app or visit  redcross.org.au/prepare.