3 November 2022

Principals Report

The term continues in earnest with students happily engaged, teaching staff busily planning for and supporting the learning needs of all students, whilst also informing some decision making for the next school year. In particular, the placement of students into classes for 2023.  As I have mentioned the work of planning for the next year by schools can be challenging. However, the process also provides the opportunity to identify how the school best can support individuals and groups of students.

Although the term has continued to be impacted by weather, especially some large downfalls, due to very low COVID numbers in the community the school has very much returned to functioning as it had before the pandemic.  A stark example of the contrast of these improved times in schools was the attendance of parents at this year’s Athletics Carnival.  Although parents were allowed to attend this whole school event last year, COVID restrictions are now much less onerous, and it was a pleasure to see students catching up with their parents and other family members throughout the day.

NAPLAN and PAT and Student Wellbeing Survey

All students, Prep – Grade 6, need to be commended for the positive way that they have engaged in the schools PAT testing program conducted over the past two weeks.  Due to the preparation and organisation of Mr Chris Waugh and Mr Michael Hayen, the important assessment period has run very smoothly.  This standardised testing has become increasingly informative over the past five years and will continue to guide the school priorities that focus on improving student learning outcomes.

Late last term the school also received this year’s NAPLAN results.  Unfortunately, due to there being no national testing program in 2020, the reporting was less informative than in past years.  However, the school’s results remain strong and the highlights being, when comparing the mean scores Illawarra Primary is performing above like schools in Reading and Numeracy for both grades 3 and 5, and for grade 5 Grammar and Punctuation.

Another recent example of data provided to the school was the results of this year’s Student Wellbeing Survey.  This survey is participated in by grade 4, 5 and 6 students, and although there are some key findings that we as a school community need to continue to work on such as school climate, school belonging and emotional regulation, the following is a quick snapshot of the improved wellbeing of our students in the past year.

• Important adults at school – high wellbeing increased by 6% overall
• Connectedness to adults at school – high wellbeing increased by 8% overall
• Safe at school – medium wellbeing increased by 7% overall
• Academic self concept – high wellbeing increased by 8% overall
• Friendship intimacy – high wellbeing increased by 12% overall
• Peer belonging – high wellbeing increased by 12% overall

Schools Athletics Carnival

As mentioned above the school’s athletics carnival was a great success.   The students outstanding displays of sportsmanship and encouragement of their fellow house team members was a pleasure to witness.  Mr Warren Isles and Steve Sensai deserve great praise for all aspects of the event and special mention needs to be made of the Radio Taiso warm up exercises, an exercise program practiced for over 100 years in Japan, and the YMCA song/dance which for some of us more senior members of the school community brought back memories of our youth. In keeping with the Japanese culture theme of past years, the early childhood students again participated enthusiastically in the tabloid Undoukai activities.  The primary carnival concluded with age group running relays and tug a war that again epitomised the team event focus for the day.   

Have a great fortnight everyone.

Calender of Events

Assembly Roster - Term 4

ONYAS Grade 3 - 6

Monty F - Congratulations on your hard work, commitment, research skills and courage in successfully representing Illawarra Primary during the interschool debating roster in Term 3.

Flynn T - Congratulations on your hard work, commitment, research skills and courage in successfully representing Illawarra Primary during the interschool debating roster in Term 3.

Tilly H - Congratulations on your hard work, commitment, research skills and courage in successfully representing Illawarra Primary during the interschool debating roster in Term 3.

Fenella V - Congratulations on your hard work, commitment, research skills and courage in successfully representing Illawarra Primary during the interschool debating roster in Term 3.

Ruby F - Congratulations on your hard work, commitment, research skills and courage in successfully representing Illawarra Primary during the interschool debating roster in Term 3.

Cariad L - Congratulations on your hard work, commitment, research skills and courage in successfully representing Illawarra Primary during the interschool debating roster in Term 3.

Baz R - Congratulations on your hard work, commitment, research skills and courage in successfully representing Illawarra Primary during the interschool debating roster in Term 3.

Marlie C - For being a responsible upstander and calmly relaying important information to a teacher.

Deva C -  For becoming more assertive and becoming more involved in class discussions.

Baz R -  For seeking feedback about how he can get the most out of learning experiences.

Dylan I -  For the respect and consideration that he shows all members of the school community.

William L - For focussing on his work in maths and extending his understanding of mathematical concepts.

James R - For his insightful sharing in class discussions and for posing interesting questions.

Jamie R - For focussing and extending himself when working on multiplication and division problems.

Frankie S - For putting care and effort towards her spelling inquiry work each week.

Heidi W - For extending herself in multiplication and division by attempting challenging problems.

Ryder G - Ryder demonstrated the value of caring for his learning by listening well to a class discussion and creating an excellent poem about his dirt bike.

Emerson M - Emerson demonstrates the value of caring by being a thoughtful and considerate class member. Emerson regularly offers to assist around the classroom which demonstrates his caring nature and helps our   classroom to run smoothly.

Benny R - Benny is to be congratulated for consistently demonstrating that he cares about his learning. Benny is mature, motivated, and always eager to do his best in every area. Well done, Benny!

Henry J - Henry demonstrates the value of caring by always being a kind and considerate member of our classroom. His thoughtful nature is an asset to our learning community.

Layla F - For engaging respectfully in class discussions by listening to others and sharing her ideas about a range of topics.  

Flynn A - For sharing his thoughts and understandings during our science discussions about ‘heat’.

Isla C - For being an enthusiastic learner during maths groups and working hard to improve her understanding of maths concepts. 

Stella A - For being a kind, caring and friendly member of class, who gets along with everyone.

Grace B - For trying hard with all her learning and she is great at asking questions to clarify her understanding.

Daniel C - For being a keen and self-motivated learner, with an enthusiastic greeting in the morning.

Jaxon G - Works thoughtfully and steadily in all tasks and he strives to do his best.

Ivy P - For being friendly, positive student who rises to challenges and always gives her best.

Leuca W - For being an enthusiastic participant in all activities, with a great ability to recall stories read.

Jenson W - Jenson demonstrates wonderful determination by giving his all in everything he tries.

Silently stalking, determined study lion, pouncing on his tasks.

Imogen J - The ever cheerful Imogen has been showing excellent focus, determination and independence when working on her tasks in class.

Smiling and cheery, whirling limbs but still controlled, Immy starts her work.

Maya B - Maya works quietly but always gives her very best no matter what she tries

Noticing, looking, Always thinking and trying, Maya has begun.

Maddox D - Maddox has been producing imaginative work, and is really showing his true ability this term

Cogs whirring in brain, Thinking deeply about things, Finally solved  it!

Solly C – For being very engaged in our learning about continents and countries and sharing his excellent knowledge of the world with the class.

Finlay I - For always trying his best with his learning and having excellent focussing skills.

Archer J – For doing a great job of improving his reading skills. Great progress Archer!

Ruby F – For trying her best in every subject and being an excellent role model for others. 

Sam B – For his willingness to challenge himself in maths and persist even with trickier problems. 

Alice W – For excellent work in English.  Alice always listens carefully and takes on advice to improve her writing.

Josh S – For his willingness to share ideas in class discussions.  Josh often has really thoughtful and considered comments, particularly in English.

Zac C – For being an excellent guide and timer during the interschool debate at Illawarra Primary in Term 3.

Seth E – For being an excellent guide during the interschool debate at Illawarra Primary in Term 3.

Hugh R – For being an excellent chairperson during the interschool debate at Illawarra Primary in Term 3.

Isla A – For being an excellent guide and timer during the interschool debate at Illawarra Primary in Term 3.

Tyler H - For being an excellent chairperson during the interschool debate at Illawarra Primary in Term 3.

Pop Art - Grade 3/4

Street Art - Grade 4/5/6

2022 Japanese Grandmaster Challenge

The race is on in all grades in the Japanese Hiragana Grandmaster Challenge!  All students are invited to try to master hiragana in the coming weeks. To prepare we recently pivoted to using fun apps and online games to really hone our skills in reading and writing Japanese, all of which are available to download at home:

My recommendations for iOS are:

• “Kana Drill” (completely free on the app store with no in app purchases)
• “Learn Japanese!!”. This app is free but a $2.99 in app purchase will unlock all levels of hiragana and is slightly better for practicing writing the hiragana as well as reading.
• “Dr. Moku” is another that has handy mnemonics (associated pictures linked to the sound and shape of each hiragana – effective mnemonics are proven to strongly boost our brains’ ability to remember each hiragana). But this app is $12.99 on the app store and is only really worth the extra expense for students really struggling, the majority of students should be flying in no time with ‘Kana drill’.
• Kahoot.com – is an online platform on which if you search ‘hiragana’ a bunch of games appear for free and students can also play individually.

Online recommendations for Android are: Obenkyo (android only).  

Japanese Club is Mondays lunchtime in the Japanese/Art room, and additional Tuesday lunchtime drop-in for anyone wanting the extra practice via some fun kahoots and apps. 

And there’s oldskool! In the olden days, pre-internet, I learnt hiragana by making little cards for myself – the hiragana on one side and the sound for it in the alphabet on the reverse. Its free, mobile, private, fun and easy to make, and is even a social media of sorts in that siblings and friends can join in and test you with the cards.

Educationally, according to the latest research learning a foreign language also improves literacy skills in English, including from the very basics of learning to read. For students struggling to learn to read in English, fear not! Japanese has none of those hidden mysteries that trip up young readers (especially those with dyslexia). Unlike reading and spelling English words each hiragana is written exactly as it sounds, and all words are pronounced exactly how they are written regardless of the combination or order of each hiragana, making it a transparent writing system. Officially this makes reading Japanese (like written Italian) much easier to learn to read than English or French. Research also shows that specific learning difficulties (SLDs) in English do not present the same challenges in learning Japanese. Therefore, many children with dyslexia should not encounter the same difficulties in learning Japanese as they do in English. If you’d like to discuss your child’s learning needs in Japanese please do not hesitate to contact me directly at steve.clowry@education.tas.gov.au or via their classroom teacher and we can line up a time to talk.

Next week we have a special announcement about the outstanding achievements of three of our students this year….more to come.

Talent Show

Next Thursday and Friday, the SRC will assist in the running of the Illawarra Primary Talent Show for 2022. Close to 50 students across the Prep-6 classes have nominated themselves to sing, dance or perform a range of different routines in front of their peers and teacher judges. With performers given one minute to display their skills, we are anticipating lots of excitement and enthusiasm amongst our performers and audience members on the day. To support the fantastic work of Dogs Home of Tasmania and Ten Lives, we will be asking for a gold coin donation for students that wish to attend the talent show on both Thursday and Friday at lunch time. Students can start bringing in their money to their classroom teachers next week to reserve their spot in the audience!

A schedule of performances will be shared in the courtyard at recess time this Friday. Please ensure that your child has all the equipment and props they need to perform their act if they have registered themselves. We hope to share some of the student talent with our school community at the IPSA Drinks, Disco and Dinnerfest on Friday 18^th November

Dinner, Drinks & Disco Fest

Canteen - Week 4

Combined Primary School Annual Concert

School Bus Fares

All students catching school buses need to pay a fare – either by purchasing a bus ticket - $15.20 for a sheet of 10 tickets or $1.90 for a single ticket or by showing a free pass greencard.

We are having increasing difficulty getting students to show their bus passes to the driver.  Students seem to think they don’t have to pay and can just walk past the bus driver.

Under the Dept State Growth regulations, the fares must be paid to the bus company.

NAPLAN 2023

Students will be sitting NAPLAN between 15 and 27 March 2023.

The National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are already learning at school. On its own, NAPLAN is not a test that can be studied for, and students are not expected to do so.

NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process – it does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance; however, students and parents may use individual results to discuss progress with teachers.

This is the first year NAPLAN will be held in March, having previously taken place in May. This change was made so school systems would have access to results earlier in the school year, so they can be used to inform teaching and learning plans for the remainder of the year.

Why NAPLAN is conducted online

NAPLAN online provides a better assessment and more precise results.

One of the main benefits of NAPLAN online is that it uses tailored (or adaptive) testing. This means that students receive questions better suited to their abilities, so they can show what they know and can do.

Online testing also allows us to provide a wide range of accessibility options to support students with disability to access NAPLAN.

Feedback from students is that they find the online test more engaging.

Please note that students in Year 3 complete the Writing Test on paper.

Parent information brochures and other resources

Your questions answered on NAPLAN and what it means for your child:

NAPLAN information brochure for parents and carers

The link will take you to the official National Assessment Program (NAP) website.

Please contact the school if you have any further queries.

Out of Area Enrolment Survey

Survey for Families: Out-of-Area Enrolments.

The Department for Education, Children and Young People is reviewing the procedure for out-of-area enrolments at Tasmanian Government schools. We are interested to learn more about your perspectives on the benefits of attending your local government school, and the reasons families seek enrolment at a school outside their local intake area. You are invited to have your say using an online survey at https://forms.office.com/r/CX6hgsUvcX.

Community Notices