A huge focus for 7-8C this year has been improving our reading skills and reading for pleasure. We know that reading for pleasure is associated with numerous benefits — from improvements in reading achievement and comprehension, writing, vocabulary, and general knowledge to improved empathy, understanding of self and others, and wellbeing.

Students have been participating in a reading program, undergoing regular testing to see areas we need to improve on and of course reading for fun. 7-8 students have also been sharing their reading strategies with those in the primary school. We have been seeing great success not only with their reading but also their writing in every curriculum area. Well done!

This term in Kinder we have been involved in an inquiry unit about the Commonwealth Games. We have learned about the different sports that people play in the Commonwealth Games, and the medals that are awarded to the athletes. As part of this learning, we made our own medals out of salt dough and paint. We have also looked at the different colours that the athletes wear, as well as some of the participating countries’ flags. Some children followed this line of inquiry to create their own flags. We also talked about the values of good sportsmanship and what that means.

We finished off this unit of learning by joining together with Prep Vincent to hold our very own Lilydale Commonwealth Games. We started off with a Baton Relay around the Bike Track to officially open the games, before children from Kinder and Prep participated in a variety of events (Sandpit Long Jump, Land-based swimming, Balance Bike cycling, and Lawn Bowls). It was wonderful to hear the children cheering each other on while they were waiting for their turn to compete. After the events, we celebrated everyone’s participation with a medal ceremony.

Prep children presented the Kinders with medals that they had made, and then Kinder children presented the Preps with medals that they had made. It was very heart-warming to watch, and as Miss Vincent stated afterwards it was “the best day!” Thank you to Miss Vincent, Mrs Street, Ms Howell, and Mr Wise for assisting with organising and facilitating the event – we all had a great time!

My Day at Hagley Farm School

First, we went to class and Ms A asked if anyone needed gumboots. Lots of people went with Ms A to the Ag room then when the people who went with Ms A came back we all went on the bus.

I sat next to Daisy on the bus on the way to Hagley Farm and the way back.

When we got there Mr Watson showed us the way to the shoe bath and then introduced him, Mr Tyson and Darcey. They showed us around and then we had morning tea.

After we had morning tea Mr Tyson and the class went on a tractor ride to look at all the cool things then we all went into two groups.

Grade sixes went with Darcey and grade fives went with Mr Tyson. With Darcey we did tree measuring, it was fun and then we switched groups. With Mr Tyson we did biodiversity. Daisy was running fast while writing and drawing. It was fun.

It started to rain so we got a tractor ride back to the second group and they were already gone. They had to walk back. Then we had lunch inside for a bit and then we did Forest in a Box.

Then we got the bus back to school the bell went like five minutes after we got back to school then we all went home.

Charlee

Hagley Farm Excursion

First, I went to class and we did attendance. Then we got on a bus and I sat by myself and talked to people behind me. We were on the bus for fifty minutes until we finally got to Hagley.

When we got to Hagley a man walked up to us and introduced himself as Mr Watson who showed us where to sit our bags and then took us into a large classroom where we met Mr Tyson. They both worked at Hagley and would be with us for the entire day. We started to talk about national tree day and what we would be doing that day. Halfway through the conversation we met Darcey who worked for the Forestry. He had come from Hobart that morning.

Then we went on a tractor ride around the farm and then put into two groups. The first group was a grade five group and the other group was for grade sixes.

The first activity that the grade fives did was a sort of scavenger hunt where we had to find different plants that had either a red, green, blue or pink marker on it then we had to draw a leaf and write an interesting fact about it.

Then the grade fives had to swap with the grade sixes and while the grade sixes did the scavenger hunt the grade fives had to learn how to measure the size of trees. We also learnt that the shelter belt protected about sixty-eight meters of the paddock. Then it started raining so we met up with the other group in the classroom and we had lunch.

After lunch it was still raining so we went into the museum to do Forest in a Box. Forest in a Box is where we got a bunch of wooden materials and we had to create something that would belong on a farm, for example a shelter belt.

Then we got our bags and hopped on the bus to go back to school.

Sophie

Our students have enjoyed numerous excursions across the last two weeks. We are proud of the way that they have represented the school and know that these opportunities contribute to a rich learning experience. Each of our Year 5-6 classes enjoyed a great day at Hagley Farm school investigating aspects of forestry and tree planting, which we also did here at school to ensure we will have shade in our playground moving forwards. Our Year 3-4s are off to Low Head today and we had a group of students from 7-11 go to watch Launceston College’s production of Rent.

We have also had incursions here at school with the Police Recruiters visiting to talk about employment opportunities across the Department and the TACC (Tasmanian Automotive Chamber of Commerce) are visiting a group of senior students to talk about automotive apprenticeships today. We have a number of guest speakers from a diverse range of industries coming to visit throughout the rest of the year to ensure that students have as much information and understanding of not only the jobs available but also get tips and tricks about finding and applying for these jobs to give them the maximum opportunity to be successful in their chosen field.

We have also negotiated to run two courses at the end of the Year for our Year 9-10 students to assist them with their future pathways.  We will have First Aid and Responsible Serving of Alcohol courses run by St Johns and TasTAFE respectively.  Students will have to pay some of the course costs however we are subsidising this to ensure that this is available to all.

Thank you to those people who have made the time to come and have a conversation regarding either concerns or issues or to celebrate successes either with class teachers, senior staff or myself. Spending time in our Milo Morning yesterday was a real affirmation of just one of the positive things we are doing as a school. To have students, staff and volunteers working together to create a collaborative and support environment for students to start the week in was uplifting.

Whenever significant events or incidents occur, we work as quickly as possible to understand the situation, respond to it and put the necessary supports in place to minimise the impact that this has on a student, a group or the school. If required, we engage other people or groups to provide specific support to ensure that we achieve the best possible outcomes. Where possible we do this proactively and a lot of this work occurs behind the scenes. While the negatives often get more “airtime” it is important that we continue to celebrate successes and be proud of them.  Being able to have our first full school assembly last week to celebrate student’s achievement through our Principal’s Awards was another great event.  Our Kinders were awesome with their courage to get up on stage and perform in front of our whole school in their first formal assembly.

We had 13 Year 6 students selected to represent the Tamar Valley in the upcoming Country Gold championships. Congratulations to all who were courageous enough to trial and do their best.

We have the annual Student Wellbeing and Engagement survey happening in the second half of this term where students from Year 4 -11 will have the opportunity to share their views and feedback. We will be sending home letters explaining the process and helping to give more information to families.  We believe that feedback is important and we look forward to being able to use this data in combination with our other data sets to continue to inform our decision making moving forward.

Colin Pearson – Principal

School Association Meeting

At the recent AGM, Janet Sims was re-elected as the chair
and Jackie Dickson as the Secretary.

The next meeting will be on
Monday, 5 September at 7:30pm.

A big thank you to all our members for their work
as part of this group during 2021/2022.

Fairbrother 2023 Apprentice Intake

Fairbrother 2023 Apprentice Intake 411.58 KB

Later this year, we are offering two accredited certificates, First Aid and Responsible Serving of Alcohol. Year 9-10 have been given the opportunity to express their interest in participating in either (or both) courses to ensure that they are going ahead. Successful applicants will be notified this week and will be required to pay $25 per course and attain their Unique Student Identifier by the end of the month to secure their spot. As we hope to also run the courses next year, year 10 students will be given priority, but if spaces are available, they will be filled with year 9 students. Student who missed out on round one, are still encouraged to return applications to the office in case another spot opens up.

To celebrate the 2022 Children's Book Council of Australia Book Week Libraries Tasmania is running a Book Week Bookmark Competition. Children are being asked to design a bookmark that explores this year’s theme, “Dreaming with eyes open…”  

The competition will open on Monday 25 July and close on Friday 26 August 2022.  It is open to all school age children and young people in Tasmania.

The winner in each of the five age categories will have their design professionally printed and made available at all our libraries.   

Children can enter the competition using the attached A3 entry form.  It is also available from all Libraries Tasmania sites or the Libraries Tasmania website.  Schools can return their students’ completed entries to their local library.  Alternatively, students can return their individual entry forms. 

Each Libraries Tasmania site will select one finalist in each age category. The finalists will be judged, and one winner selected from each age group.

The winner in each age group will be contacted by Friday 2 September 2022.