Dear parents, families, students and community members, 

Swimming and Water Safety

I have been lucky enough to see some of our Swimming and Water Safety Program this week. I am always amazed by how much progress a child can gain from a week of Learn to Swim. Our Grade 3, 4 and 5 students are currently taking part in the Government mandated program for their ages and their Grade 2 and 6 classmates have also been provided with the opportunity to swim at multiple times throughout the week. This is our first block of Swimming and Water Safety for the year, we will also provide swimming lessons for the Kinder/Prep/One class, and Squad Training for our older grades, in Term 4. There are many benefits in providing Learn to Swim for our youngest children in December rather than February, including teaching children to swim coming into, rather than out of, summer. As always, we are incredibly grateful for the generosity of Camilla and Andrew for allowing us to use their pool, thank you! 

Canberra 

We are very excited to announce that this year, our 4/5/6 class will be travelling to Canberra! An expression of interest form has been sent home with families today, please contact us through the school office if a form did not make it home. Further information about the Canberra trip will be provided over the next couple of months. 

NAPLAN

This year's NAPLAN dates are from the 11th March - 24th March and students in Grades 3 and 5 will sit the test on these dates. NAPLAN is not a test that should be studied for and it is just one aspect of our school's assessment and reporting schedule. We encourage our students to do their best with NAPLAN and the best way that you can support them is to make sure that they get a good night's rest the night before the tests and have something to eat at breakfast time. Further below is some more information about the 2025 NAPLAN tests.

School Driveway

I would like to take this time to ask families to be careful when exiting the school driveway onto the main road and to pay particular attention to cars coming in and out of Turvey Street. There have been a couple of near misses over the past couple of weeks and student and community safety is paramount. Please also remind your child to ride their bikes or walk up the path to the school, not through the school driveway.

Attendance 

One of our Target's on this year's School Improvement Plan is to keep Swansea's attendance rate above 88%. Our current attendance rate for the year is 91%. Well done to everyone for getting to school! Every school day matters. 

Uniform

It is fantastic to see so many students in uniform! We would like to remind families that there is lots of free pre-loved uniform available through our school office. 

Arrival Time

Just a reminder that our duty of care begins at 8:30am. We have had some students arrive earlier than this over the past couple of weeks. Please make sure that your child is arriving to school after 8:30am. 

Gaga Ball Pit

We have a Gaga Ball Pit! I would like to say a huge thank you to Wayne Castle, who has built our Gaga Ball Pit over the last week. This was a big job, and I know that all students are very excited to use the Pit. The Gaga Ball Pit is part of a project driven by our School Association and is the beginning of some other outside play areas that you will see constructed over the next couple of months. I have included a photo below of students enjoying the Pit this morning. 

Kind regards, 

Anna Knowles
Principal

Well done to everyone for a fantastic first four weeks of school!  Our Lower Primary Learners have been working very hard on learning the new routines and expectations of their classroom.  We are so proud of the amazing levels of courage and resilience our students have been showing!  Below are some learning highlights and special moments you might enjoy speaking with our wonderful students about. 

Oh goodness! we blinked and it's almost Week 5!

This fortnight, our 2/3 class really has thrived.

In maths we're discussing hundreds, tens and ones,

Drawing on carpet with chalk is such fun!

We'll move onto thousands, ten thousands and more!

You should read our narratives, they're starting to soar!

Preparing for NAPLAN, learning to log on,

We'll remember our passwords before too long.

In PE, we sent shot puts flying up through the air,

Then came the discus and playing games, being fair.

Our art skills are on point with negative space, 

using black and white patterns to create sculptures with grace.

Lifecycles in Science, maps in HASS too,

We're so glad to share some of these photos with you.

We are kind and respectful, treat each other with care,

We'll see you next fortnight, with more learning to share.

Lots of great learning has been happening in Grade 4/5/6. We’ve been busy creating artistic pieces that share our favourite things about us. 4/5/6 have had fun completing Science experiments, playing Maths games and getting outdoors for some physical activities. Best of all we’ve been having lots of fun while we’ve been learning!

Yesterday, Thursday 27th Februrary, our Grade 6 Student Leaders travelled to Hobart to take part in a b kinder Leading with Compassion conference. This year, all of our Grade 6's are Student Leaders and will have lots of opportunities to lead initiatives within the school. Our 2025 Student Leaders are Archie, Occy, Ryder, Ruby, Will, Bella, Pepper, Evie L, Cooper, Zephyr and Lachlan.

The conference focused on how we can be kind at school and to encourage others to be kind. It was engaging and relevant, and our students provided positive feedback about the experience. Students had the opportunity to talk to students from other schools and were encouraged to share their ideas with the group. After the conference, we visited McDonald's before having a play at the Bellerive Park. We even managed to find Mrs Kirkham-Phillips and Mrs Sparshott who were busy learning at a Literacy Professional Development at Ninja Stadium! It was a fantastic day for the Grade 6 students to connect with their peers and they were a credit to our school community. 

Last week, students also voted for Sports Captains from our group of Student Leaders. Sports Captains will run our Daily PE program this year. Well done to Occy, Ruby, Will, Evie L, Pepper and Cooper for being voted as our 2025 Sports Captains. 

We have had a great first week of Swimming and Water Safety! 

Next week's swimmers are: 

• Monday 3^rd March – Grade 2, 3, 4 and 5 at Grove’s Pool
• Wednesday 5^th March – Grade 3, 4, 5 and 6 at Grove’s Pool
• Friday 7^th March – Kinder – Grade 6 at the Oatlands Pool