This morning we enjoyed the beautiful pre-winter sun, as we embarked on the Duck Park for an early start to mark National Walk Safely to School Day. Special thanks to Constable Craig Vermey and the additional adults and pets who accompanied us. It was a splendid start to the day and got everyone feeling energised and inspired for a day of Cross Country. 

The 2023 SPS Cross Country Carnival was a huge success with all students showing grit and determination. Many of whom showed resilience and participated with pride in their house colours. It was so nice to see the high fives, smiles and cheering of their peers and contenders. Staff commended several students for outstanding comradery and resilience - Carlix, Rydae, Caleb, Roland, Chelea and Flora!  Well done everyone - I am very proud of you and special thanks to Miss Walch and our staff for their help in making the day such a success and congratulations to Swan House for a close win with 123 points over Oyster House 103.  Great job, everybody! 

Walk to school day:

It was great to see so many students participating in National Walk to School Day! This initiative aims to raise awareness of the health, road safety, transport and environmental benefits that regular walking can provide for the long-term well-being of students. Well done to all students that supported this initiative. Thank you to staff and parents that assisted on the day!

Swan vs Oyster Cross Country

Well done to all students in Kinder to Grade 6 that participated in the Swan vs Oyster Cross Country Carnival. All students should be commended on their exceptional efforts! It was great to see all students trying their best, cheering on their peers and having fun! Thank you to everyone that came along to support all runners.

The final results were:

1^st place Swan on 123 points

2^nd place Oyster on 103 points

On Friday 12th May, we invited the special ladies in our lives to attend a mindfulness afternoon to celebrate Mother's Day. We enjoyed mindfulness drawing and mindfulness meditation/yoga and a scrupmtious afternoon tea of scones and slice and of course a cuppa.  We hope all of the special women in our lives had a wonderful Mother's Day and were spoilt, just as they deserve. 

Learning News

Fire Safety

Abbey and Matilda:  "Fire Fighter Alison came to show us how to be safe with a fire."

Mother's Day Preparations

Molly:  "We were learning how to make Mother's Day Smelling Bags.  We chose our fabric, filled them up with lavender and then we learnt how to tie them up with ribbon…My mum liked it but my sister didn't because the lavender was too strong."

Eli:  "I liked scooping the lavender into the bag."

Maths

Emmett:  "We've been playing Zingo Bingo. It's a very fun learning game about numbers and you have to count the little squares and try to get the number and if you don't have the number then you have to get the machine and post it back." 

Elora:  "We've been playing 'Beat the Teacher'.  It is a fun Maths game that helps us with our place value learning!"

English

Lucas:  "I'm improving my writing in this photo."

Bella:   "I'm writing 'jill, hill, will, ill, spill' from the 'Jumping Jill Went Down the Hill' rhyming book."

Max:  "I'm learning to write words like 'jill and hill'."

Lincoln: "We've been learning about vowels and consonants...We learnt the vowel song to help us remember the order.  A digraph is two letters making one sound.  Another word for sound is phoneme."

Science

Peter: "We have been looking at the incubator and waiting for the eggs to hatch...this is the life cycle of a chicken" (please see photograph below).   

Olivia absent

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mums, Grandmums and Special ladies this week!

We did hint that we were working on some special things in the last newsletter, so as promised... here we go!

What a wonderful time we had this fortnight, creating our Mother's Day presents.  So much learning was achieved through these activities.

Science - we discussed the mixture of solids and liquids used to make the concrete, as well as the reasons behind why the cement mixture became solid.  We also wrote this activity up as a scientific experiment, including a hypothesis on the outcome prior to making the pots.

Maths - we measured our ingredients carefully as we made our cement mixture, ensuring the consistency was just right.

English - we are looking at procedural texts in our writing.  Using a variety of verbs to begin our steps in the method section of the write-up, as well as descriptive scientific terminology, we were able to think deeply about explaining the procedure of making a concrete pot.

Art - we let our creative juices flow as we painted our pots, choosing colours and patterns that we thought our Mums would like.  We completed painting our pots while listening to calming acoustic guitar music, allowing ourselves to fully focus our concentration on our art.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Mother's Day afternoon.  It was delightful to spend the time together enjoying yoga, drawing, reading and afternoon tea.

We hope all our Mums, Grandmums and Special ladies had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Until next fortnight...

5/6 have moved back into the classroom!

Exerpts from Walk to School Day and Cross Country recount writing....

Sophie: On the 19th of May Swansea Primary School went to the duck park for walk to school day. Most of our school went. It was cold.  Then when we got back to school we went to class, after we had our recess. When the bell went, we got our bags and we lined up at our line for cross country at Jubilee Beach. Kinder to grade 6 went.

Chelea: I could hear my heartbeat, I could feel the hard sand on my shoe, I could hear people say my name. I could hear Mrs Sparshott singing as I was going by - she was so  happy and so was I. It was the most magical thing today.

Caleb: I got a sausage and a Pepsi than my legs were hurting. I took a rest then I talked in the mic to every one and told a joke too.

Roland: I was nervous when we got there. I looked at the water and it was very calm and shiny and it made me feel very calm.

Xavier: I was encourageing my friends and trying my hardest! We kind of did it like Swan vs Oyster because a team won. Swan won. Im really happy for them. I came 2nd last but I'm still very happy and I know I tried my hardest.

Henry: We took off with our feet thumping on the sand. Around Beth and to Mrs Walch then up the stairs. Down the hill as the Swan people screamed "Go swan! Go Henry!".

Harry: ...it was the grade 5's turn - that was my class. We ran 2.6 kms it was so hard. We ran on the beach, the park and the driveway and back along the driveway and through the park to the finish line. I came 4th place, but it was still fun. 

Ivy: When service got a bit quieter and not many people were wanting sausages, I decided to get myself one and a drink too. I got my food and went and sat up on the grass. The grass was a bit wet, but it was okay. I looked up from my sausage and admired the pretty beach, park scenery. I saw the trees swaying and heard people laughing and talking. 

Tia: The waves were so small I couldn’t even hear them. I felt cold and hot, and I could barely breath my heart was pounding as I ran across the track. I felt the breeze tickle my ears it was so cold! I am so glad I got to make this memory with all my friends I will never forget it! 

Emily: It was Friday the 19th of May. It was sunny but cold. We were at the beach doing cross country. Part of the course was on the beach. At 11:20 we arrive at the beach and started the grade 6s went first and ran 2.6 kilometres. Then the grade 5s. 

Hattie: Our race was 2nd, and I was so nervous. My heart was racing, and I already felt hot and sweaty. “Good luck!” I said to Georgia. Then... GO!! I heard my heart thumping in my chest. I saw the pretty, blue ocean smoothly crashing on the sand. I started running, people were high fiving me and saying “Good job!” as they ran past.

Chloe: I ran up the stairs and down the steep slope, I slowed down at the slope, I didn’t want trip and fall. Running past all the younger students screaming and urging me on, gave me a boost of energy. But I still had half to go. Running towards the finish line I felt exhausted. My mouth was dry, and I was coming 2nd!

Jorja:Cross Country. Friday 19th of May. I ran as fast as I can and I did a good job.

Georgia: As soon as miss Walch said "Go!" we all started running, it was so squishy at the start but about 1 minute in everyone was spit up. When we got to near Beth, who is one of our teachers from our school, there were things written in the sand like “you can do this” and “you are great” that encouraged me to keep on running. 

Grade 6 out and about in our local community!  Saltshaker was the place to be last week with students making amazing pizza's.  Thankyou to the team at Saltshaker and a very big thankyou to Steve and Linda our East Coast Salvo's.

The Commissioner for Children and Young People is excited to announce that our YEP! program iPrograms officially launching on 9 May 2023. Your Engagement Place (YEP!) is a place where children and young people under the age of 18 can find ways to engage with CCYP and other organisations around Tasmania to have a voice on things that matter to them. Any child and young person aged under 18 who registers before 9 June enters the membership draw for a chance to win an iPad. Children and young people can register here. T&Cs apply.

You can check out our YEP! hub now by visiting our new CCYP website. If you are an adult and would like to keep up to date with current engagement opportunities available to children and young people in Tasmania, fill out our adult subscription form.

Should you have any questions at all about the new program or wish to promote an ethical engagement opportunity open to young Tasmanians, please do not hesitate to email us at childcomm@childcomm.tas.gov.au or call us on (03) 6166 1366

Reporting Absences

All absences must be reported to the front office via one of the following methods:

 * SchoolZine App

* email swansea.primary@decyp.tas.gov.au

* or 03 6257 8126

Classes Commence @ 8.55am

To give your child the best start possible for the school day we ask that your child arrives to school before 8.55am.

We understand that this isn't always manageable.

Thank you.

SchoolZine App Information: are you having difficulty at the moment the below information will hopefully assist with this.

There is a new version of SZapp available for Android and IOS Devices. Please ensure that you have updated to this version to assure you receive communications from the school.

If you are using an Android Device, you will need to uninstall the old app and install the new version.

IOS Devices (iPhones) will be able to update without requiring a re-install.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we are confident that the improvements in the new version will make it worth it.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.schoolzine

An online guide on how to install and register/login to SZapp is available on the Schoolzine Website here:

Click here to view the Installation Instructions https://www.schoolzine.com/szapp-installation

If you experience any difficulties with completing this process, please reach out to Schoolzine using support@schoolzine.com. To assist with your query, they ask that you provide a description of the issue you are facing, the email address you are using when facing this issue and a screenshot of the issue.

Are you interested in being in a video for a bowel cancer research study?

Swansea community members and health providers have been working with the Centre for Rural Health, University of Tasmania to create an education strategy to raise awareness about bowel cancer and encourage rural Tasmanians to participate in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.

We are looking for 3 to 5 community members who have a lived experience of bowel cancer (survivor, family member, friend, carer) to be interviewed for a video. Are you interested or do you know any community members who may be interested in being in the video?

If you or someone you know may be interested, please get in touch with the research team via the details below by Friday 26^th of May. All participants will receive a gift voucher for their time.

We would love to hear from you! 

Nicola Gadd, PhD Candidate: Nicola.Gadd@utas.edu.au