Time sure does fly when you’re having fun! We have had a very busy past week at SPS with the first five days of our Swimming and Water Safety Program running like clockwork to ensure all students are able to participate in this valuable program. We are extremely lucky to be able to use a local pool to provide these life lessons to our students. I have had the privilege of seeing every student in the water this week and congratulate them on their enthusiasm, respect and perseverance as well as their organisation. We are all looking forward to our whole school swimming day on Friday next week at the Oatlands Aquatic Centre. It has also been wonderful to be able to offer water orientation to our Launching into Learning families, with a great turn out to both sessions this week.

As mentioned at the Welcome BBQ, we are looking for more families to join our School Association. This could be in a formal role or as a parent representative. The School Association is a way for us to work together in learning, growth and best outcomes while ensuring that our families and communities play a vital role in the decision making within our school. Meetings occur each term and only take a short amount of your time. Please get in contact with the office for more information or if you would like to jump on board. We will be holding our AGM this month and will share the details of this with you very soon.

Our grade six leaders have officially started in their roles, and I would like to congratulate Hattie, Emily, Harry and Georgia who were selected as our SRC with Xavier, Jack, Sophie, Chelea and Roly selected at our Sports Captains. They have been wearing their badges with pride and really taking responsibility in our space. The grade six leaders are responsible for assisting with the Friday lunch program and have regular meetings to determine their goals and actions. The SRC held their first meeting last week and have decided that the first fundraiser for the year is our Easter Raffle. They are asking for donations of eggs, chocolate, baskets and easter themed goodies to help create the prizes and ensure this is a successful event. Raffle tickets will be coming home shortly.

At SPS, and within the DECYP, we have many policies we must adhere to, ensuring we are upholding our duty of care to all and that all students are safe. One of these is about the collection of students after school. If there has been a change to the students’ normal collection person (eg. not the parent or guardian) or students are no longer travelling on the bus, our office must be informed prior to the end of the day. If you are collecting a student after school as a last-minute change and their name is on the bus list, please speak directly to one of the staff on duty.

Thanks for your continued support,

Kendal

Principal

Swansea Primary School would like to introduce our new school social worker Lauren Berry.  Social workers in schools help address social, emotional and behavioural concerns for students and families that can impact on school engagement, attendance and learning.

 Some of the things that school social workers can support students and families with are social and emotional matters, metal health, trauma, family issues, housing, school attendance, relationships, financial support and access to other services.

 Lauren can provide one to one counselling and support to students, case management and group work.  You can request social work support for your child through (whatever schools preferred referral pathway is).  Lauren will be at Swansea Primary School every second Wednesday.

Hello, Swansea Primary School and Community

My name is Anna Wright and I am lucky enough to be your School Health Nurse for 2024.

I live in Bicheno with my family, enjoy all sorts of things outdoors, however my favourite thing is spending time at the beach with my children, exploring, swimming or collecting shells.  I absolutely love the Tasmanian East Coast community and am very much looking forward to another year at Swansea Primary School as the health nurse.  I will be working at Swansea Primary every alternate Thursday.

The School Health Nurse provides and facilitates health education and health promotion for students and the school community. As the School Health Nurse, I also work collaboratively with other Professional Support Staff to support the wellbeing of students.  

Along with health assessments for the kindergarten students, I aim to engage all grades in lessons and group activities surrounding health and wellbeing.  Some of these lessons and activities may include education around oral care, personal hygiene, growth and development, cyber safety, positive mental health, body esteem, and mindfulness.  I also organise external education sessions with in the school, such as St johns First Aid in Schools. 

Vision and hearing screens for all primary students are available on request if there is a specific need passed on via parent, teacher or senior staff. 

Please reach out or say hello next time you see me

Prep has been having a terrific time at the pool for the Swimming and Water Safety Program.

Look at the pictures that everyone has created after their very first time at the pool this year.

In weeks 3 and 4, the 1-2 class have been revising maths concepts such as place value for single and two digit numbers, even and odd numbers and more. We have thought about the answers to questions such as: 'What does the 1 mean in the number 14?' and 'What does the 5 mean in the number 15?' and 'If I add one more to the number 12, which number changes and why?' Being able to 'talk maths' in this way is an important opportunity to practise using and understanding fundamental maths concepts and vocabulary. We played a barrier game with partners and made the game a little more complex each day. Also in maths, we have made a birthday chart which forms the beginning of a focus on data collection, representation and interpretation this term.

Part of our Literacy programme in the last fortnight, has included each child putting and bringining a bag containing four items from home. They have used these to give a short 'All About Me' presentation, and taken three questions from the class. We will use this experience and their chosen items as a focus for further literacy activities. 

Drama, Maths, Narrative Writing, Science, HASS... you name it, we've done it!

Drama

Mrs Wilson has unlocked some fabulous moves in our students in drama this week.  Can you and your group become a fun machine?  Or perhaps a chocolate machine is more your thing?  Unleash those inhibitions and become a unique character for a while, and see just what it's like!

Narrative Writing

A few years ago, Lucy and her parents moved into a new, but old and creaky house in the cobbled streets of London...

The father fell back in utter horror!  He got back up, trembling...

There was a groany, haunted noise coming from the stable.  It swayed in the delicate breeze...

These are just some great examples of vocabulary that our students are using in their narrative writing.  We have worked hard on finding synonyms for common words to make our writing really shine!

Science

We can't really say too much about what we've been doing in Science (Mums and special people will have a lovely surprise soon), but what we can share is that we've been looking at Producers, Consumers and Decomposers and how they fit into the food chain. Producers create their own food by turning light energy into glucose in a process called Photosynthesis.  Consumers can consume other consumers, and decomposers break down matter for the producers to use.

That's all from us in grade 3/4/5 this week.  See you next fortnight!

Mrs Sparshott

Spooky Stories

In our grade 5/6 class, students have been writing short stories to enter into an upcoming youth writing competition. Here are some short samples of student work. 

With many excursions coming up and permissions required, please complete these as soon as possible and return them to either the class teacher or the office.  

Emergency contacts are not printed each year on your form.  If you do not have any changes to your emergency contacts, please leave them blank.

Please ensure you check through the permissions and sign the back page.

Please ensure the school has the most current action plan, medication forms and most importantly in date medication.

If your child hasn't had a medical action plan in the past and this is a new plan for your child in 2024 please make contact with the school office.

Reminder no student can carry any prescription on non-prescription medication in their school bags.

Please ensure all forms for the 2024 lunch program have been returned to school as the lunch program has started.

Given the lunch program meals are  provided to Swansea Primary School for 2024 at this stage unless the program changes the only dietary meal than can be provided is a vegeterian option.

 Dear Families,

We are going to be having an Easter raffle to raise money for SRC projects. We are asking all families to donate chocolate or Easter themed items to make up the raffle prizes.

 Raffle tickets are going to be sent home with your child soon. Individual raffle tickets are $2 each, or you can purchase 3 tickets for $5.

 Chocolate donations are being accepted by the office from now until the 26^th of March.

 The Easter raffle will be drawn on the 28^th of March at school, with raffle books and money due back before this.

 Yours sincerely,

 Hattie, Emily, Harry and Georgia

SRC members for 2024

Talking to children and young people about COVID-19

Training in the form of an animated video is available for our volunteers and service providers. They must complete this before working with any children or young people this year.

The training for volunteers and service providers can be found at Safeguarding Training on the DECYP website.

Open - Wednesday to Sunday 10.30 – 3pm (including Public Holidays)
Venue - Community Hall (former Council Chambers Building) Vicary St. Triabunna. All proceeds
are donated to community organisations and activities.
Enquiries: Chris 0458560753; Beth 0407571181; Margaret 0438606446; Caroline
0411895067
www.facebook.com/PopUpBookStall; email popupbookstall@hotmail.com