7 April 2022

Principal's Report

Dear families,

Although the persistent numbers of students and staff testing positive or needing to isolate due to being close contacts continues to cause considerable challenges, particularly for the teaching staff to ensure continuity of learning across the school, many aspects of term 1 have been successful.  Over the past fortnight I have had the opportunity of visiting all classes and even though there are significant numbers of students missing each day the teaching staff remain committed to providing high quality learning opportunities.  The learning I have witnessed ranges from activities focussed on the enjoyment of learning with students being given multiple opportunities to develop their understanding, to targeted teaching where specific learning needs are being met, to students completing individual tasks such as constructing persuasive texts to be used for moderation purposes.

Over this term there have also been many examples of where the teaching staff have demonstrated great innovation, ensuring that the diverse learning needs of students are addressed.  A particular example of this is the use of robots supplied through the Missing’s Schools Project.  The availability of these robots has supported a family of students, ensuring that they remain connected and supported in their learning.  With the assistance of the DoEs Inclusion and Diversity unit as well as the determination and hard work of the school’s Support Teacher Mrs Kerry Baker, the school has been provided with 3 robots.  The robots, as Kerry simply explains, look like a stick on wheels that hold a tablet which enables the students to interact with their classmates and engage with much of the learning of their class.  The robots can be manipulated remotely by the students and to some degree represent their presence in the classroom.  It has been wonderful that through the partnership with Missing’s Schools that the school has been able to support these students. We also need to applaud the foresight of Kerry and the open-mindedness and flexibility of the class teachers who have accommodated and planned for the presence of the robots/devices in their classrooms.

As we head towards the end of the term, I would again like to express our thanks as a staff for the great support we have received from the school’s families.  Covid, has challenged all of us but it has been very gratifying as a staff that whenever we have had to inform or remind a member of the school community of new Public Health and DoE restrictions, we have received a positive and quick response.   The following link provides the DoEs Covid Plan for term 2. COVID-19 planning - The Department of Education Tasmania

Last night the School Association Annual General meeting was held, and a quorum of parents have very generously agreed to either continue as members of the Association or become new members. I’m also pleased to announce that Lisa Nisbett has taken on the role of Chairperson and Chloe Bibari and Rachael Lewis renominated for their Treasurer and Secretary roles.  Congratulations to Lisa, Chloe and Rachael and thank you for being prepared to take on the responsibilities and on behalf of the school community I wish them well for the year ahead.  I would also like to acknowledge the members who will be leaving the association and thank them for their contributions over the past year. The Association still has the Deputy Chairperson role to fill.

Although Yen Chamberlain and Kate Huntington have stepped down from their executive roles they will continue as general members of the School Association. Both deserve a great deal of thanks for the commitment, expertise and time they have afforded the school community over many years. Unfortunately, Yen, due to her Chairpersonship aligning with COVID, experienced the most challenging of years.  However, among the many great contributions Yen made in the role, she deserves great credit for her determination and commitment to maintaining IPSA’s connection to the school and Illawarra families during the pandemic. Kate has been a very important constant on the executive for a number of years and although her calming presence, common sense approach and good humour will not be lost to the Association, it is important we recognise that her contributions to the Association as Deputy Chair have been very significant.

Have a great end of the term everyone and I remind everyone that the term ends for students on Wednesday 13^th April.

Nick Donnelly

Principal

Calendar of Events

School Walkathon

The Illawarra Primary School Walkathon is being held on Wednesday, 13 April. Our walkathon will be held at Blackmans Bay Beach, where all participants will walk/run loops along the beach, returning to a starting point at the middle of the beach.  Each loop will be approximately 2kms. 

We are working towards having our sandpit reconstructed, so I would encourage all students to bring a gold coin donation to go towards this.

Depart 9.15am (Grades 3-6) - Ready for a 9:45am start at the beach

Depart 9.30am (K-2) – Ready for a 10.00am start at the beach

All Students Finish Walking - 11.45am for return to school by 12.30pm

ALTHOUGH THE WALKATHON IS A FREE DRESS DAY

STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO WEAR THEIR RED SCHOOL HAT

All walkers will be able to pre-purchase a "gourmet" lunch, prepared by our renowned barbecue chefs.  Orders will only be accepted by  Quickcliq  www.quickcliq.com.au (closing Monday 11 April at 11am). There will be no cash sales.

• Sausages (Gluten Free) and Bread (Gluten Free Bread Available) $2.00ea
• Vegetarian Sausages and Bread (Gluten Free Bread Available) $2.00ea
• Chicken Burger with Baby Spinach $5.00ea
• Veggie Burger with Baby Spinach $5.00ea
• Zooper Doopers (assorted flavours) $1.00ea
• Apple Juice $1.50ea
• Orange Juice $1.50ea
• Chocolate Milk $2.00ea
• Strawberry Milk $2.00ea

Funds raised from our gourmet barbeque will be added to the sandpit upgrade project. Thank you for your continued support of IPSA fundraising events, it's appreciated.

If you can help with the BBQ, please contact Lisa Nisbett on 0491 815 953 or lisa.nisbett@gmail.com. Still a couple of 1hour spots to fill. 

It’s sure to be an enjoyable day.

News from the classrooms

Prep Jordan

In Prep Platypus we have been learning about the science of Living Things. We started our inquiry with a discussion about trees and what we know about them.  The children were able to share so much knowledge with each other such as “They help us breathe, they make the air” and “trees grow coffee beans, that’s for coffee so people can stay awake”.  We are now discussing what defines a something as a living thing.

Prep Oldmeadow

In Prep O our science inquiry focus has been on the needs of living things. We have recently explored our favourite pets and had Colin, a golden retriever come and spend the day with us at school. Early next term we are heading out to Sorell to visit a farm school for a very hands on animal experience. We are very excited about this excursion.

1 Williams/Oettle

Year 1 have been exploring the ‘power of yet’ and using a growth mindset to approach their learning. The children have made a representation of their brain out of clay to remind them that they can shape and grow their brains by trying new things and remembering that mistakes are ok as they help them learn!

1/2 Barker

Here are some of the maths tasks that 1/2 Barker have been working on this term.

Have a go at them at home and share your thinking with Ms Barker when you see her in the playground!

1/2 Coombes

Biology Inqury - We are learning about how:

• Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves
• recognising that living things have predictable characteristics at different stages of development
• Meet our stick insects- Cinnamon and Sugar

1/2 Graney/King

This term in Gd 1/2  G K the students enjoyed listening to the story ‘The Paper bag Princess’ which celebrated 40 years since its first publication!

The story is about a Princess called Eizabeth who was meant to marry a Prince called Ronald BUT a dragon burnt down the castle and kidnapped Ronald.

All that Elizabeth could find to wear was a brown paper bag.

After reading the story the students did various writing tasks, retelling the story and writing a blurb. They also wrote their own story

‘What happened after the castle was burnt down?” The famous line is “Ronald I will not marry you because you are a toad!”

Then they each made three puppets of Elizabeth, Ronald and the dragon. The students all had a turn retelling the play using the puppets and the mini stage!

Here are some photos of our work and showing the fun the students had retelling the story. There were some great story tellers with great expression!!

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We've also been learning about oviparous animals in science. These are animals which lay eggs. We read a great book called “Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones” and then we researched some information about different oviparous animals from the book. Using the facts we learnt we wrote some clues about our chosen animal and we created this fun guessing game using our research. Can you guess what the animals are?

3/4 Shaw

It has been a busy start to the year in 3/4 Shaw. We have many of our class routines established and are building lovely friendships in our wonderful class. In Maths, we have spent most of the term learning about Place Value, and recently have focussed on symmetry and angles, both in the environment and in our names (see below). In English, we have spent much of the term learning to write persuasive texts, including the structure and devices they require. Students have designed creative new products (see below) and used these to learn about and create persuasive devices for their products. These devices include rhetorical questions, exaggeration, emotive language, and groups of three. In Science, we have been learning about the life cycles of living things. The class have delighted in the success of our resident class tomato, affectionately name “Bob,” who has recently started to fruit (see below). Our weekly coding session is enjoyed by students, as is the use of Mathletics to reinforce our knowledge. We have also produced some beautiful artworks this term as we got to know one another and our interests, including our letter art and cube art (see below).

4/5 Whenman/Hayen

4/5W-H have being having a great term of learning. We have been focussing on Sustainability in Geography and English. Students have chosen a topic of interest and have been writing letters to people in the community to convince them to choose sustainable practices. Pippa R chose to write to Mr Donnelly to persuade him why the school community should reduce their use of plastics. Leo X chose to write a letter to Mr Gutwein to convince him to support sustainable forestry practices. Other students wrote about reducing power, using renewable energy sources and minimising pollution. In maths, students have been exploring number and place value, and grade 5s have been learning strategies to solve multiplication and division problems involving larger numbers. Students having enjoyed gaining confidence to work with ‘big’ numbers!

Harmony Day

Thank you to everyone for participating in this year's Harmony Day school installation.

The detail, words and the colours of the 'bubbles' we had the pleasure of including in this year's Harmony Day school collaboration were just amazing!

It has also been wonderful to share all the various languages in our school community through the morning Harmony Greetings.

Thank you, Dankje, Danke, Gracias, 감사합니다, whakawhetai koe, and Nayri nina-tu.

egards,

Sietske, Terri-Ann and Nanna

Launch into Learning (Pademelons) - Term 2

Covid-19 symptoms to look out for

Thank you to our entire school community for your cooperation this term by practising COVID-safe behaviours.

As you know, an important COVID-safe behaviour is to stay at home if you’re unwell and get tested for COVID-19 using a rapid antigen test.

Public Health tells us that the number of cases of COVID-19 in children is low, and they’re likely to have milder symptoms.

It’s a good reminder to be mindful of the symptoms of COVID-19 in children. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 in children are cough, fever, runny nose and gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

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.

Vaccination clinics in school holidays

A number of state-run COVID-19 vaccination clinics will be held during the school holidays.

This is a great opportunity for families to get their kids vaccinated, if they haven’t already, before colder months hit.

State-run clinics, selected GPs and pharmacies are offering free COVID-19 vaccination for all age groups. This means children aged 5–11 years can get the paediatric dose, 12+ years can get the adult dose, and 16+ years can get their booster shots.

Get your free Pfizer vaccine over the school holidays at the following state-run clinics:

All ages – 5+ years

• Clarence High School – 29–30 April
• Glenorchy Main Road – 17–18 April
• Montrose Bay High School – 21–24, 26–30 April, 1 May
• Hobart Collins Street – 16 April
• Hobart PW1 – 17, 19, 21–24, 26–30 April
• Kingston Kingborough Community Hub – 18–21 April
• Launceston Transit Centre – 16-17, 19, 21–22, 28–30 April.

5–11 years only

• Burnie Arts & Function Centre – 10, 19, 24, 29 April
• Devonport Don Centre – 18, 23, 28 April
• Glenorchy Main Road– 20 April
• Hobart Collins Street – 20 April
• Huonville Baden Powell Scout 7 Guide Hall – 30 April
• Launceston Transit Centre – 24 April
• Scottsdale Squash Centre – 30 April
• Sorell School – 1 May.

Walk-ins are accepted at all state-run clinics, or to book go to www.coronavirus.tas.gov.au or call the Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738.

If you prefer to get vaccinated with a participating family doctor or pharmacy, you can book directly with them too.

Make sure the whole family is protected, ready for Term 2.

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

Let's Talk Campaign

Share your views on the Let’s Talk Campaign and win one of 10 $50 Giftcards

Have you seen the Let’s Talk TV ad? Maybe you heard the radio ad in the car?

Even if you haven’t heard of Let’s Talk, we want to hear from you!

If you are a parent or carer, please fill in this 5 minute feedback form and tell us what you think of the Let’s Talk Campaign so far.

You will go into the running for one of 10 $50 giftcards that can be used at a range of shops and supermarkets.

Are you getting some tricky questions at home about COVID-19? Watch this video with senior school psychologist Janet Coad. She shares tips on talking to kids about Covid.

If you want to take your mind off COVID-19, you can find lots of fun ideas for chatting with your kids at the Let’s talk website www.talk.tas.gov.au

Stay up to date with Let’s Talk by signing up for our newsletter here:

Feedback link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=xzq-qWAMHkmLO6Mvj0auyPLINLVjDlpPulU2eNavEFdUMTFNNzROUFBITUNUNEM0N1RUNVNKSFdWVi4u

Tasmanian Premier's Reading Challenge

10 Books in 10 Weeks!

Are you up for the challenge?

When: Term 2

Who: Anyone who loves reading!

National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

Just a reminder to parents of our Grade 3 and Grade 5 students, that we have NAPLAN in the second and third weeks of next term.  Class teachers will ensure that their students understand the test format prior to this, and that they have had exposure to the types of questions that are asked.

Where students are away on a testing day we will do our best to catch them up in the testing window.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Mr Hayen.

Grade 3-6 Cross Country

Adventure Patch - Vacation Care program

School Zine App

Please click on the link below for instructions on how to access the Newsletter via the School Zine app. Contact the Office if you have any issues downloading the app.

https://www.schoolzine.com/szapp-installation 

Community Notices