1 September 2021

Principal's Report

Dear families,

During the past fortnight there has been an amazing variety of activities for individual students, whole classes and the entire school to participate in, reinforcing that a diversity of learning experiences is important for student engagement and achievement.  Importantly, the delivery of class learning, intervention and extension programs, classes going on locally based excursion etc, has continued during this very busy time at Illawarra Primary School, as has the school’s focus on providing educational provision that meets the short and long term needs of all students.

The following examples highlight the additional opportunities that the school continues to provide:  

* Whole School Activities – Established over many years

Last week’s Book Week featured many wonderful experiences for the whole school, and a special thank you needs to be extended to Mrs Sietske Hunn and Mrs Wendy Anderson for organising the Book Swap activity.  The students who dressed up as book characters also need special mention as their efforts to surprise, enthral and promote the value of reading contributed so much to the success of this week.

The school’s Jump Rope Jump Off held last Friday was a fantastic way to complete a school week.  Thank you to Mrs Nanna Jansen Munday and Ms Charlotte Genford for the planning of this fundraising activity and to the Jumping Jacks team members for the wonderful leadership and support they provided all students

* In recent weeks a number of students have been great representatives of the school.

Elsa P, Blake P, Maddox D and Finlay W represented the school at the annual Maths Relay, held last Sunday 29^th August at Rosny College.  The team did very well but unfortunately were one of the schools provided with incorrect information for one of the questions.  Mr Hayen, who accompanied the team, said that Elsa, Blake, Maddox and Fin did themselves proud and were very sportsman like in the way they coped with this unfortunate situation. 

Many students also represented Huon and Channel Schools in the recent Southern Primary Schools’ Winter Carnival.  This year the school had very strong representation in both Soccer and Netball. 

Also, yesterday the majority of the school’s Grade 5/6 students attended a Come and Try Sports Day held at the Kingborough Sports Centre.  All students benefitted greatly from the opportunity to try new sporting activities and to again participate in the annual volleyball competition.

* Whole School Assembly and Whole School Meeting

In the past fortnight both a Whole School Assembly and a Whole School Meeting have been held. The assembly provided the unique opportunity for all classes, Early Childhood and Primary, to gather, celebrate and acknowledge the learning taking place throughout the school. Whereas at this week’s Whole School Meeting, the school’s Respectful Relationships priority was a focus.  Of significance was Grade 3/4 Shaw’s representation of the three ways people deal with a disagreement, either passively, aggressively or assertively.  I’m sure after this presentation we will all be trying to respond like the Giraffe.

The giraffe (Assertive): stands tall and stays calm and tries to sort out an argument with solutions where both people win; says sorry when wrong; asks for help to sort things out; says what it thinks or feels without getting angry.

* Visitors to the school

There have been several visitors to the school recently, either acknowledging the great teaching taking place or supporting the learning planned by class teachers.

Most notably, the kindergarten teaching team hosted the Department of Education Kindergarten National Quality Standards review officer.  As a result of this visit, I’m pleased to announce that the school has met all standards of the NQS.  Wonderful recognition for the outstanding kindergarten program provided by Ms Georgie, Mrs Kellie and Ms Shana. 

Other visitors to the school have been a UTAS Honour student conducting Spelling and Grammar assessments for her honour’s thesis, a First Aid in Schools presenter who worked with our primary classes last Thursday, and on Monday an RACT road safety educator spent time with the prep classes delivering the YIPPEE story time program, where students learn about the safe ways to travel in cars and cross the road.

I ask that everyone remain vigilant regarding public health COVID-19 requirements. I acknowledge the support and consideration all families continue to afford the school community.  In particular, adhering to the Public Health and Department of Education advice regarding whether students should attend school if they have flu-like symptoms or any other symptoms of infectious diseases such as fever, runny nose, cough, sore/itchy throat, shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting.  It is most important that students are not sent to school if they have any of these symptoms.  Nor should they return to school until cold/flu like symptoms have passed.  For further clarification please click on the following link.

A4 Infosheet - Template - DoE - Support and Development (education.tas.gov.au)

To conclude this newsletter, I would like to acknowledge the wonderful career of Mrs Monika Glover.  Mon will soon commence long service leave with the intention of retiring from teaching at the end of the school year. Mon has had a long association with the school both as a parent and staff member, transferring to Illawarra Primary School in 1997.  During these years, Mon fulfilled many differing teaching roles with distinction, always demonstrating an outstanding commitment to improving individual student outcomes, with a special emphasis on literacy achievement.  For many years Mon was the school’s Reading Recovery teacher and has continued to support early childhood classes in her Flying Start Literacy Support role.  Mon has completed her time at Illawarra as an Advanced Skills Teacher, recognition of the high level of professionalism and expertise she continued to demonstrate throughout her career.  It is with sadness we will say goodbye to Mon as she has not only been a most supportive colleague, but also a great friend. Her presence will be greatly missed at Illawarra.

Nick Donnelly

Principal

Calendar of Events

Onyas

Tilly H for always having a positive attitude towards her learning. She enjoys extending herself by putting in her best effort when undertaking challenging tasks. Finlay C for enthusiastically participating in class discussions. Finlay always enjoys sharing his thoughts on the topics that we discuss as a class. Pippa R for showing an inclusive attitude towards everyone in the class. Pippa always treats others in a kind and caring manner. Matilda B demonstrated the value of learning. Matilda has made an excellent effort in her maths group with Mr Hayen and is to be commended on her engagement. Well done Matilda! Dan W demonstrated the value of learning. Dan is to be congratulated for catching up on learning before school that he missed the previous day. He has demonstrated a mature approach to his learning. Well done, Dan! Liam S-G demonstrated the value of caring. Liam demonstrates the value of care by always being a kind and caring member of our classroom. His warm nature is an asset to our community. Sam J for an improvement in his concentration and application to tasks across the curriculum. Seamus R for helping a younger student to stay focused and concentrating during a presentation in Buddies. Seth E for applying himself to his Science work and accepting feedback from his teachers. Imogen J for challenging herself in Maths, taking on board feedback from teachers and applying feedback to improve. Ellis B for always having a can do attitude towards any learning task and throwing himself into any learning challenges. Juliette R for implementing all we’ve learnt about in class to improve her informative writing. Josh P for being an incredibly helpful member of our class.  He is very kind with Poppy and makes a special effort to communicate with her and cheer her up when she is feeling sad.  Thanks for being so inclusive Josh! Tyler H for his excellent work during writing.  He listens carefully to advice on how to improve his writing and really reflects and uses that to improve his writing.  He has written an amazing quest story, which I am really enjoying reading. Mai J for challenging herself in maths and really focusing on what she needs to do to improve.  I have been impressed with how she tackles problem solving and is always determined to find the answer. Henry M for being curious and taking a mathematical approach to our taxicab investigation. There were some great conjectures made. Elliott McC for being curious and taking a mathematical approach to our taxicab investigation. There were some great conjectures made. Millie R for being a risk-taker by allowing the class to workshop her writing so that they could improve their own writing skills. Felix O for taking a mature approach to providing feedback during myth creation. Luke D for taking a mature approach to providing feedback during myth creation. Jarrod W for having a mature approach to learning, supporting others and taking increasing amounts of care with the presentation of his work, especially in Science. Lachlan C for setting a goal for his learning and working hard to achieve it.

News from Grade 3/4 & 4/5

3/4 Dwyer

We are learning about informative writing. To start with, we all had a go at writing a text about flamingos, without any discussion on how to set out our information or what language to use. After we did a lot of work learning about the structure and language features of informative writing, we wrote a new improved version of our flamingos informative texts together.

3/4 Genford

Over the past few weeks, 3/4 Genford have been looking at interpreting and creating maps. We all drew maps of our classroom which included grid coordinates, a key and a scale. After creating the maps, we then used the grid references to give directions around our classroom based on our morning routine. For example, from the front door to our bag locker; from the bag locker to our tub; from our tub to our desk, etc.

3/4 Shaw

In 3/4 Shaw we have been learning about our family history and how long our families have been connected to the Kingborough Area. We surveyed our parents and grandparents to see how long our families have lived in this area, why they first moved here, and why they first moved to Kingborough. The longest connection to Kingborough in our classroom is Maisy’s family, which dates to 1820! We discovered many families moved to this area in between 2010 and 2012. We have now shifted our inquiry to exploring the history of Illawarra Primary School. We have been investigating a range of primary sources to discover the rich history of our school community.

4/5 Cooke/Hayen

On the 30th of August, 4/5 Cooke-Hayen went to the Kingborough Council offices as part of our class focus about the different levels of government and what each is responsible for. We split into two groups - one group listened to Scott, who talked to us about enforcements, the difference between rules and regulations and how penalties are handed out; and the other group went to the Council Chambers to see where meetings amongst the council members are held and to ask questions about council in general. The groups then swapped over. We then went to the new Kingston Park for lunch and a play.

We would like to extend a big thank you to Scott Basham, the compliance officer for the council, Mayor Paula Wriedt and Deputy Mayor Jo Westwood for giving up their time to talk to us; Valeska Winter and Raelene Parks for accompanying us on the excursion, and finally to the Reid family for kindly donating some icy poles from The Coffee Hole. A great time was had by all and we definitely learnt a lot about our local government.

 By Cariad L

School Satisfaction Survey

Each year the Department of Education conducts School Satisfaction Surveys in Tasmanian Government schools, to gain feedback on what you think our schools do well and where you think we may improve.

We encourage you to complete the survey about Illawarra Primary School. Your feedback is very important to help us inform our school planning and decision-making.

You can complete the online survey at any time until Friday 17 September 2021.

Survey link: https://ncv.microsoft.com/mH1IL5gf2P

All responses are anonymous and confidential with the survey carried out on a secure website.

Feedback is only accessible to the school principal and teachers and relevant Department of Education staff, in online summary report formats with no individuals or families identifiable.

For any assistance please contact Education Performance and Review by emailing: schoolsurveys@education.tas.gov.au.

Thank you for taking the time to fill in this survey. 

Winter Netball Carnival

Last Tuesday some of our 5/6 students took part in the Netball Winter Carnival at the STNA courts. All the students involved, including our two representatives Lily S and Ruby F, played their hearts out and showed a great attitude and excellent sportsmanship. Our Huon and Channel Hawks came fourth in Division 2 and third in Division 3 – well done teams!

School Disco

SAVE THE DATE!!!

We will be holding a School Disco on Friday the 17th September in the GP Room. Kinder - Prep classes will be held from 5.00pm to 5.45pm. Grade 1 & 2 classes are between 6.00pm to 7.00pm. Grade 3-6 are from 7.15pm to 8.30pm.

Cost will be covered by Illawarra Primary School Association (IPSA). If anyone would like to volunteer to help on the night, please contact Fiona Jordan-Coad on 0435 043 459. 

Canteen Menu - Week 8

Kids Matter Day

We are running box work for Kids Matter Day and require some small boxes. If anyone has any  CLEAN boxes (no bigger than cereal size) can you please drop them off at the Office or to Prep O/E classroom.

Thank you!

Mrs Oldmeadow and Mrs Glover

Jump Rope For Heart - Jumping Jacks

Congratulations, we raised over $3500!
The Jumping Jacks, on behalf of the Jump Rope for Heart, would like to thank our school community for their generosity in raising funds well beyond our school target. The funds raised will go to heart research, patient support and programs that help save lives.

Later this week, the Jumping Jacks will announce which class has raised the most money and will receive their 'surprise' for the movie afternoon. Also, the three students who will be joining the Jumping Jacks for the Bucket Challenge will be announced. This event will take place in term four.

The Jump Rope for Heart program has inspired many students to skip, learn new tricks, and work together.

Launch into Learning (Pademelons) - Term 3

Student Assistance Scheme (STAS)

Applications for the Student Assistance Scheme will close on the 7th of September 2021. If you have any queries, please email stas@education.tas.gov.au 

Kindergarten 2022

Covid Check-In information

School Zine App

Adventure Patch Vacation Care Program

Community Notices