Welcome to 2023!  As a staff we have been reflecting on our well-being and the exciting opportunities 2023 will bring with the new year. During our first two non student days we welcomed new staff and we took a deep dive into the DECYP system focus, and our School Improvement Plan (SIP) priority, Reading. All teaching staff, began a collaborative inquiry into reading and we worked together to build a shared understanding of the 'why' behind this prime lens. We explored in depth, three instructional approaches to improve teaching in reading instruction: Modelled Reading, Shared Reading and Guided Reading.  Each class have timetabled these into our weekly programs. As a school, we warmly invite you to join us – to STOP AND READ any morning or afternoon. Please speak to your child’s class teacher to arrange a time that suits you or just pick up a book and read to or with a child - it doesn't have to be yours!

MANDATORY REPORTING

This week all staff have completed a mandatory reporting training module.  At SPS and all around the state, DECYP employees, together, are focused on putting the child and young person at the centre of everything we do, and we are continuing our work to become a leading child-safe organisation.  Every single DECYP employee – whether they work in Child and Family Learning Centres, Child Safety, Youth Justice, a school, library or corporate team – has a legal obligation to report any concerns for the safety and wellbeing of a child or young person to our Strong Families Safe Kids Advice and Referral Line (ARL) on 1800 000 123. This service is also available to you to seek help or parenting advice.

NAPLAN

In Week 6 of Term 1, NAPLAN will be administered at Swansea Primary School in accordance with every other school across Australia. The NAPLAN assessment window will now start on Thursday 16^th March and finishes on Friday 24 March 2023 due to staff attending professional learning on Wednesday. For more information and the timetable please click on the link NAPLAN_Letter_for_parents_2023.pdf

YEAR 6 LEADERS

Courageously, the Year 6 students delivered some aspirational leadership speeches today.  In a bid to gather votes and student voice, they shared their commitment to representing the students in 2023 as a member of the student leadership team. The audience (Year 1-6 students and staff) were respectful and attentively listened. I am thrilled to welcome and announce Tia, Jaxon and Jorja as our 2023 Sports Captains and Ivy and Chloe as our Student Representative Council (SRC).  Congratulations team, and I will look forward to working with you all this year.

Kristy Hay

Principal

Welcome to the 2023 school year. It is very exciting to see and hear the students enjoying being back at school. There have been many happy faces and new and rekindled friendships made this week. All staff spent Monday and Tuesday busily preparing for our students return and attended two days of Professional Learning around Collaborative Inquiry, the DECYP Values of Courage, Apiration, Growth and Respect and the DECYP Strategic Plan priority of Reading.

Welcome to New Staff/Staffing Changes

There has been a buzz in the classrooms and as we warmly welcome many new students and families to SPS. I would like to also take this opporunity to welcome many new staff. Mr. Andrew Street is our new Education Facilities Attendant (EFA) - Grounds, sharing the role with Mrs Michelle Santos who is largely responsible for the cleaning aspect of the EFA position. We also welcome Mrs Elize Brozgul, our new German/KP Music/56 Choir Teacher across the school; Miss Anna Heath to the KP and Miss Emily Van Galen to the 56. Miss Van Galen shared some exciting news with the students this week and announced she is expecting a baby in August!  We are very excited for her and wishe her and her family all the very best. Mrs Elise Wells will continue on as our School Chaplain and also teach specialist Science/Technology across the school this year. Mrs Jo McLean has taken on the role of Literacy Coach and Literacy Support this year and Mrs Wilson has assumed an exciting Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) leadership position. We congratulate all new staff and welcome them aboard or into their new roles at SPS!

Family Welcome Back BBQ – Save the Date

We would like to invite you to a Welcome Back BBQ to celebrate the new school year, where you will have the opporunity to inofmrally meet your child’s teacher/s and help us to christen our new BBQ area on Wednesday 22^nd February from 5.00pm-6.30pm. This will be an opportunity for you to browse the classrooms and hear more about the curriculum and expectations of the new class your child attending. Each class teacher will prepare a short spiel and we hope to see as many of you there as possible. Times below are approximate:

Kinder / Prep with Miss Heath and Mrs Wood 5:15pm

1 / 2 with Miss Pearce 5:30pm

3 / 4 with Mrs Sparshott 5:45pm

5 / 6 with Miss Van Galen and Mrs Wilson at 6pm

Lets put our hands together for our Year 6 leaders.

Student Representative Council for 2023

Ivy Hay & Chloe Watts

Sports Captains for 2023

Tia Nicol, Jorja Wighton & Jaxon Wallner

The team of Year 6 leaders have already hit the ground running with their first leaders meeting with Steve Miller from East Coast Salvo's.  Together they brainstormed ways to support our East Coast Community and how to be more active in our community as the next generation of leaders.

Watch this space our Year 6 leaders will be out and about serving our community and volunteering will be a strong driver of support throughout 2023.

Thankyou to all families that have returned their forms, please make sure to check all information address and phone numbers.  This ensures encase of an emergency we have up to date information.

School dresses have arrived at Swansea Primary School, still waiting for the girls leggings to arrive, ample stock available for families needing extra uniform.

Thanks to families that are contacting the school office on 6278126, emailing swansea.primary@decyp.tas.gov.au or uploading absentee notifications to Schoolzine this is great keep up the good work!

Don't forget to download the Schoolzine app as this is the hub of communication for Swansea Primary School, please don't rely on information being on facebook.

Swansea Primary School warmly welcomes aboard Mrs Michelle Santos and Mr Andrew Street to the team at Swansea Primary.

Michelle and Andrew are job sharing the position.  Michelle everyone would have seen last year at Swansea Primary in a relief capacity as part of the Covid cleaning team.

Andrew has come from Moonah Primary with over 15 years of experience.

Stuart Fox is still with us and is onsite of a morning checking the grounds and opening all areas for the day to start.

Bus Arrangements

Swansea Primary School is pleased to see so many students using the bus service. However, with increased enrolments (64 students), there have been some slight hiccups this week regarding the bus, resulting in students who are entitled to catch the bus home to their residential address missing out as we are over capacity. Unfortunately, from Week 2, the bus will be limited to students who are travelling to their home address or enrolled in Lady Gowrie Child Care Centre for After School Care. In consultation with East Coast Coaches, we can no longer provide transport for students visiting another address, whether it be for alternate after school care arrangements/work location or a playdate. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We hope you can appreciate our need to be considerate and accommodate those students who are heading home to their residential address as per our contract with State Growth. If this causes significant concern for you, please make a time to speak with me or Alison Pyke at East Coach Coaches.

All students that require medication prescribed or non prescribed along with medical action plans, please make contact with the school office to organise the correct paper work for these plans and medication.  

At anytime your child has a medical review of their medication or plans at a doctor's appointment please update the schools records also.

All staff are trained in first aid and cpr.  Along with having booked for term 1 extensive training in Asthma and Anphylaxis.

Our first days of Kinder/Prep have been spent making connections, wondering, collaborating, learning to be self-managers and having fun. Look at these curious, courageous, capable, creative learners!

What a wonderful start to our learning we've had in grade 3/4!  We've hit the ground running with many different inquiries this fortnight, across a variety of  curriculum areas.  In Maths, we are investigating capacity and how to read volume measuring vessels in millilitres and litres.  We've used a variety of technologies and hands-on materials to support our learning.  In Science, we have used various materials to achieve outcomes in STEAM, and have also spent time harvesting seeds for our next exciting garden project.  Grade 4's will commence woodwork next week, creating a new project for our classroom.  Watch this space!