Can you believe we are halfway through the 2023 school year?

It has been lovely to see many families visiting classrooms this fortnight for Parent Teacher conversations. Reports will be sent home today. If you haven’t booked a Parent Teacher Meeting this term, it’s not too late, please pop by the office and make a time for early next term– I know the teachers would love to see you.

As you know, improving literacy skills has been a DECYP priority over the last 18 months when the Premier made a commitment that all Year 7 students will reach an expected reading standard above the national minimum by 2030. We are making significant gains here at Swansea Primary School and I wanted to share some data with you.

90% of students in P-6 have demonstrated medium or high cognitive engagement, 5% higher than students attending a similar Government School in Tasmania.
The percentage of students achieving a C rating or above is just over 85% at Swansea Primary School, compared to the state average of 78%. SPS is 7% higher than the state average and 5% higher than like schools.

We are also excited to share that 90% of Swansea Primary students have demonstrated medium to high expected annual growth in literacy and 85% in numeracy. 10 percentage points higher than government state-wide progress and 10% higher than students in similar schools in Tasmania, which is a wonderful achievement.

Another area we measure and take very seriously is staff and student wellbeing. The percentage of students reporting medium or high wellbeing is 90%, 20% higher than the state average.

I have been working with several schools over this year including Sandy Bay Infant School – where I visited last week for Instructional Rounds to view their teachers in action and provide recommendations for their future work in teaching mathematics and Cambridge Primary School principal, diving deeper into Student Agency and how they are championing this work in the South. My time has been extremely valuable, and I look forward to continuing to build these connections with similar schools.

Speaking of building connections and working with like schools, we are very excited to be hosting the East Coast Cluster staff here with guest speakers from Melbourne from the Australian Childhood Foundation for some Trauma Informed Professional Learning. We will also be hearing from our Community Liaison Officers from Strong Families Safe Kids Advice and Referral Line around mandatory reporting on the first day of Term 3. Please be mindful this is a student free day.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our School Association for all of the work they are doing behind the scenes to support and create two exciting community events as part of our annual fundraiser. Last night we held our first event - Frida's Sip and Paint and it was a huge sucess raising over $2000 for the Art Space! What a wonderful acheivement.

Happy holidays, everyone!