Dear parents, families, students and community members, 

4/5/6 Canberra Trip

What a phenomenal trip Canberra was! After many hours spent planning the trip, we were all excited to head over last week. I cannot speak highly enough of our students, their behaviour and engagement was exemplary. A big thank you to Chris, Janine and Leah who attended the camp with myself, it would not have been able to go ahead without the staff attending. Below is a photo of our visit to Government House. Definitely one of the many highlights of the trip was meeting with The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, Her Excellency the Honorable Sam Mostyn AC. An incredibly personable and humble leader, Her Excellency spoke to the students about AFL and what it was like to be asked to be the Governor-General of Australia. 

School Surveys

We will be undertaking 3 different school surveys from the 25th August - 19th September. These include the Parent/Carer School Satisfaction Survey, a Staff Satisfaction Survey and the Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey for students from Grades 4-6. These surveys collect important data for us at Swansea Primary School and it is important to try to get as many responses from families as possible (one survey response per family). Please complete the survey by following this link: https://nam.dcv.ms/nmW82ua8Cu Further information about the Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey will be sent out to Gr 4/5/6 families in the coming weeks.

Attendance

Our current attendance rate is 87.3%. This is 0.8 of a percentage point below our target of 88.1% for the year. Our students are doing an amazing job of getting to school and we are hopeful that we can achieve our target. A reminder to families that at our end of term assembly, we will be handing out awards to students who have increased their attendance rate from the end of Term 2 to the end of Term 3.

Kind regards, 

Anna Knowles
Principal

Learning News, Highlights and Reflections

By KP1

Eowyn: Yesterday and last week on Wednesday, I got lots of stickers for doing my learning and being kind.

Grace: I liked playing with the parachute…we are learning about cooperation.

Olivia:  I am proud of myself for getting a Connection certificate at the Assembly. 

Wyatt: I like reading with Mrs.Gadd in UFLI.  We have been practising ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘put’ and ‘ch’.

Ellie: My favourite thing about school has been participating in my UFLI group.  This week we have been learning about trigraphs ‘tch’ and ‘dge’.  Our tricky words were ‘woman’, ‘women’ and ‘move’. 

Arlo: I really enjoyed reading the Tooth Fairy book and making my own tooth fairy house out of cardboard…We read it because we have been reading all the shortlisted books from Book Week. 

Lucy: Seeing my friends at school on Monday.

Daisy: I am proud of my learning about the world in Science.  This week we learnt about the solar system and planets. 

Hazel: I am proud of my drawing and sticking with glue.

Indiana:  In Music we have been learning about a song called Samarai ‘ducka ducka duck duck duck duck…Sa-mu-rai!’

Maggie: I liked doing things with Beth...making my bee! 

Caleb: I am proud of my ‘C’ for Caleb. 

Amelia:  In Maths we have been learning about measurement.  This week we measured time with clocks. 

George: I liked finding Wally in the Library.

Llewyn: I am proud of my reading.  We have been reading our own little books together in UFLI.   

Jaxon - absent

What an incredible fortnight of adventures we've had!

We've celebrated UFLI Lesson 100 with a fantastic beach afternoon.

We've enjoyed a wonderful Bookweek celebration and morning tea with May Shaw residents.

We've travelled to Hobart to visit the Festival of Bright Ideas.

We're strolled to the East Coast Heritage museum to research Swansea School and Morris's Store.

Annnnddd... of course we're working hard in the classroom!

I'll let the photos speak for themselves this fortnight :-)

Sunshine and smiles, 

Mrs Sparshott

Canberra, Canberra, Canberra!!!! We just loved it and we hope that you enjoy some of our 456 student photos and comments.

Inside the AIS there is this room called Sportex with games in it. I went on one of the bicycles, which were connected to a screen but unfortunately it was out of order. There was also a skiing game, a snowboarding game, and lots of other fun games. The AIS was the best!-Melody

As soon as I entered the AIS building, I was stunned! There was so much gym equipment. It was enormous! I will definitely be coming back.- Lachlan

The Australian Institute of Sport was awesome! Lots of us went on the snowboards. We swerved left and right, trying not to crash into objects! You had to lean forward to start, back to stop and left and right to steer. It was easy to crash into the sides of the track, but it was a great challenge!-Ella

While in the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) there were many different sport activities and simulations to try. Rowing was one that thoroughly intrigued me!-Will

When we went to Government House we went to the garage and saw a Rolls Royce. That was the special car for the Governor General Sam Mostyn. This great car is only used twice a month. The Governor General is not allowed to go behind the steering wheel.-Zephyr

Being a Grade Six Leader really does have some great benefits! In Canberra, one of them was being able to sign Swansea Primary School into Government House! -Pepper

Canberra is all about Government, Parliament House, the Prime Minister and an incredible art gallery. At the art gallery there was this costume. It was black with flowers all over it. Our guide Grace asked us what we would name this model, and we all said Diva. Later we found out that lady Gaga had worn this to one of her concerts and had sang in it the whole time. -Flora

The Art Gallery was AMAZING! There was a big mural art work and the girls took a photo near it to remember our fantastic visit here. -Evie H

Blue Poles is a jaw dropping piece of artwork created by Jackson Pollock. It was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in 1973 amid lots of controversy. We were lucky enough to get a picture in front of it. It is valued at $500 000 000. -Holly

Canberra was great, Questacon was my favourite venue. The emus and the koala on the wall was very cool, but at the same time extremely scary. The idea of the wall was for the eyes to follow you wherever you moved. -Tarragon

Overall Canberra was super fun, but the best thing of all was the wind generator at Questacon. It made me feel like I was in a hurricane. -Cooper

At Parliament House there are two main rooms, they are the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Senate is a special ochre coloured red room which reflects our Australian landscape. The House of Representative was designed in a significant shade of eucalypt green. -Elora

The zoo in Canberra is an amazing place! There are 151 different types of animals to see! It was a great place to visit but not when you are the map guide!!! -Archie

The war memorial was the place I liked the most because it had so many stories about soldiers and the war. In the middle of the tour some military soldiers were practising a drill, which was super cool. -Evie L

While everyone else was shopping in the gift shop Mrs Phillips, Zephyr, Cooper and I went over to the incredible old bonsai trees at the Canberra Arboretum. It was insane! Some of the trees were even from the 1800’s. -Occy

The painting in Parliament House was worth a lot of money and it's the biggest painting I've ever seen.  I had a wonderful time on our Canberra trip. - Ryder

Everywhere we went in Canberra we kept coming across different buildings and shops that were named ‘Hudson’.  Then when we were leaving the Canberra airport we discovered an amazing military air force called Hudson too. Canberra was great but it shouldn’t be called Canberra it should be called, the Hudson only town. -Hudson

Each person in our class was given a 50-dollar gift card to spend on our trip to Canberra. Lots of people bought stuff for their families, including me. I bought my brother things because it was his birthday on the 19th of August. As a class we would like to thank all of the people who assisted us to go to Canberra. We are really grateful for this opportunity and for being given this gift voucher that enabled us to buy incredible souvenirs. - Ruby

Canberra was amazing but by the time we got to the airport to come back home, it was time to chill! -Georgie

Trivia Night – What a Great Evening!

Thank you to everyone who came along and made our Trivia Night such an enjoyable and memorable evening. It’s truly wonderful to be part of a community that is so generous and supportive of Swansea Primary School.

Our trivia knowledge was definitely put to the test by our fantastic host, Alcuin. A huge thank you to Alcuin for the time, effort, and energy that went into making the night so entertaining.

We kicked things off with some delicious curries, thanks to Alimento, which were perfectly complemented by an impressive selection of East Coast beer, wine, and spirits. Thank you to Splendid Gin, Springvale, Milton, and Devils Corner for the wine, and to The Barkmill and Absolute Viticulture for the beer.

Congratulations to the winners of our auction — there were some incredible items up for grabs! We’re very grateful for the generous donations from Freycinet Air, Tasman Sea Salt, Peimont, Movenpick, A Tale Among the Vines, Milton Winery, and Bicheno Berries and Blooms.

The night was packed with fun games and prizes to be won. Heads and Tails was generously supported by Swansea Beach Chalets, the Lucky Door prize was donated by Mayfield, and the Lucky Chair prize came from Swansea Pharmacy — thank you all!

A big congratulations to our trivia champions, the Triabunna Teachers!

Special thanks go to Melissa, Anna, Lisa, Alice, Kristen, Ellie, Vanessa and Leah — your help made the night the success it was.

We’re thrilled to share that we exceeded our expectations and raised just over $8,000! These funds will help ensure that the Grade 4/5/6 students have the most amazing trip to Canberra next week.

Thank you again to everyone who contributed — whether by donating, volunteering, attending, or simply cheering us on.

Josie Dunbabin

Chair Swansea Primary School Association

Hi, as the Safeguarding Lead for our school this year, part of my job is to help make sure children in our school community are safe, secure and supported. Part of doing this is making adults aware of what they can do to help. Safeguarding children is everyone’s job! Click the link to find out more.  Tell Someone

Anna Heath