Week 3 was filled with fun!  Since our first newsletter, our SRC and Sports Captains have been elected and I would like to congratulate and welcome Ava and Arcena to the Student Representative Council and Gabriel, Xearna, Lilly and Summa to their new roles of Sports Captain. This week has been our first full week and we have been busy with our first Launching into Learning session in the Kinder cottage, staff undertaking a range of Professional Learning including 'Trauma Kids', 'Quality Teaching' and 'InitiaLit' and our first collaborative school improvement planning session for the year ahead.

Our Kinder students bounced back through the gates after crashing last Friday and already, there has been a noticeable shift in their confidence during morning greetings at the gate and during playground interactions. The 456 class are to be commended on the way they are involving the younger children in games, from pushing them on the swings to making sure the new students can find a friend to play with and I thank them all for their care and respect towards the younger students.

As previous mentioned, our aspirational goal for 2021 is for all students to progress along their own individual learning journey in Number and we have made growth already.  ‘High expectations’ is the buzz phrase amongst the staff and, students and teachers alike are rising to the challenges they are faced with, which has been enlightening.  It was fun to be back in the 456 classroom on Wednesday where we played a probability game, gathered data, discussed new mathematical vocabulary and concepts like averages and according to many..."It was fun"-Alice, "Thanks Mrs. Hay"-Josh, "I love doing Maths with you!"-Xearna! Watching their resilience and courage to persist when they got it wrong, made me proud and, to be honest, made me miss being in the classroom!  This love of learning is the pure reason why we are all here.  I love learning and I love watching students raise their own bar and skills. 

Special thanks to Mrs Wells our Chaplain/P1 Teacher, Wayne and the 456 class for upgrading the ‘Aboriginal Food Garden’ near the rear entry to the Kinder Cottage.  It looks amazing and what a result after just a few hours of “Backyard Blitz”!

Watching attitudes change and confidence and patience blossom, has been the pleasure and highlight of my week!

Have a great fortnight,  

Kristy Hay

Principal

On 31st March we will be celebrating the School's 100th Birthday!  If you have any items you can donate to the school (to borrow) for a display, past uniform, school books, items of education from the past or if you have a quote from SPS over the past 100 years, can you please email it to: swansea.primary@education.tas.gov.au for our 1921-2021 Reflections Magazine.

Over the past few weeks more and more children have been presenting to school unwell. It only takes one family to pass on a bug and it is really important that in the current environment we are all well and take care of ourselves and others. Please keep your child at home if they are presenting any cold and flu like symptoms.

Summer school dresses have arrived!  

If you would like to purchase a new dress please contact the school office, all sizes are now available.

All parents are welcome to attend the Swansea Primary School Association AGM on Tuesday 24th February at 3.00pm, at the school.  For parents that cannot attend please join us online at the link below:

Melissa Quinn is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: My Meeting
Time: Feb 23, 2021 03:00 PM Hobart

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8252372662?wd=YldEM1QyUFBsVm4wbkgwazBVWUhiZz09 

Meeting ID: 825 237 2662
Passcode: 9sMBcy

As communicated on Wednesday through the Schoolzine App, Settling Interviews / Parent Teacher Meetings are being held in Week 6 this term. These sessions are a time to share the progress your child has made and their term or yearly goals.  These sessions will run for 10 minutes duration.  If these sessions/days are not suitable, or if you require more time to share information about your child, please contact your child's teacher to make a more suitable arrangement. All students require a settling interview, but a telephone conversation can be arranged if preferred.

This year, bookings will be made online or via the school office.  To access the online booking form please visit:

https://swanseaps.schoolzineplus.com/view-session/1

Select your child's class teacher and select the time most appropropriate for you, it is that easy! 

Kind regards,
Mrs Kristy Hay
Principal

P/1 have had a fantastic start to the school year. Students have been demonstrating so many of the school values I think we will run out of stickers soon. We have been focusing on bigger and smaller numbers in maths investigate what things we could find in our classroom that were bigger and smaller than our feet. P/1 did a fantastic job harvesting vegetables that we planted last year. We also planted our kinder prep garden with lots of herbs and vegetables which should be delicious. Some children chose to plant some flowers instead to make our outdoor learning are look beautiful. We compared the carrots to see which was the biggest and smallest before washing them and eating them for our recess.  

On Friday 19th March, SPS will participate in the 'National Ride 2 School Day'.

We will meet at the Swansea Football oval at 8:15am to depart for school at 8:30am.  All parents and friends are invited to join us.

Staff will be in attendance but children should not be dropped off unless they can ride independently and safely. All students will need to wear a helmet.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

SCHOOL LUNCH ON FRIDAYS

Every Friday a cooking group will work with Beth to prepare and serve lunch to the whole school. All students and staff will sit down and share lunch together.
Our Sustainable Learning "Community" project and food is subsidised by Bendigo Bank and as such, there will be no charge for the food offered. Please continue to pack your child some lunch for these days as they may still be hungry or may not be keen on the menu!
Gluten free and vegetarian options are available but will only be prepared if a student is going to eat the alternative. If your child is gluten free or vegetarian, please let us know in advance if there are any dietary requirements for the menu below. A whole terms notice would be terrific for our planning preparation and grocery order. Thank you for your support of this initiative.

Do you have any surplus of fresh fruit, vegetables or eggs we could use for our Sustainable Learning Cooking Program on Fridays?

Please contact Beth or the school office on 62578 126

Any items are greatly appreciated.

Special thanks to the Watts family for donating the beautiful fresh veggies for our lunch today!

Get involved in the School Banking program.

Swansea Primary School is excited to offer the Commonwealth Bank School Banking program to all students.

School Banking is a fun, interactive and engaging way to help teach your child the importance of saving. Children who deposit money into their Youthsaver account through School Banking will earn an exciting reward everytime they reach 10 deposits.

The rewards available during 2021 are:                            

School Banking is also a great fundraiser for our school. Our school receives a Regular Savers Contribution of $5 for every 10 deposits processed per student as well as an Annual Contribution which is based on the number of students who made at least one School Banking deposit in the prior year. For more information about contribution payments, visit www.commbank.com.au/sbinfo .

Getting involved in School Banking is easy!

All you need to get involved in the School Banking program is a Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account. You can open an account for your child in one of two ways: 

1. Online

Visit www.commbank.com.au/schoolbanking  and click on the link to open a Youthsaver account.

2. In branch

Visit a Commonwealth Bank branch with identification for yourself and your child, like a driver’s licence and birth certificate.

If your child has an existing Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account they can start banking straight away. They just need to bring their deposit in every week on School Banking day using their Dollarmites deposit wallet.

School Banking day is Wednesday. 

If you would like to know more about School Banking, please ask for a 2021 School Banking program parent guide from the school office or visit www.commbank.com.au/schoolbanking