It has been a fabulous conclusion to our Swimming and Water Safety Program, with all students and staff fully enjoying the day out at the Oatlands Aquatic Centre. It was wonderful to see the grade 3-6 students in a larger pool being able to demonstrate their skills effectively under the close watch of Dylis and Miss Walch. Our K-2 students thoroughly enjoyed their time in both the splash pool and outdoor area playing games. I must give a huge thank you to Miss Walch, Dylis and Melissa for all the organisation behind the scenes, all the staff for their flexibility in accommodating all students with this wonderful opportunity,  our students for their energetic participation and respectful behaviour, our families for helping our young people be so organised and prepared, and finally, the Groves for allowing us to once again use their amazing pool.

This week we have begun our NAPLAN assessments and I have been in awe of the way our grade 3 and 5 students have taken on the challenge with nothing but positivity. Each student in grades 3 and 5 will complete four assessments. Writing and Reading have been completed this week and we will complete Conventions of Language and Numeracy next week. The NAPLAN assessments are very valuable as they allow families and educators to see student progression over time, both individually, as a part of our school community and against national standards. They help us to support our young people further and provide them with suitable learning programs.

Our School Hot Lunch Program has started with a bang! We thank Steve and Linda for their assistance and volunteering their time to run this program. They are being helped by our grade 6 leaders each week and filling our student up with delicious, healthy food.

The School Association AGM has been booked for Tuesday 26^th March starting at 4pm at school. This will be followed directly by our first general meeting. We invite all our families to attend – it’s not too late to nominate for a position either!  We look forward to seeing many faces on the 26^th.

I would just like to remind our families that any student who arrives after 8:50am is considered late to school and must go directly to the office and sign in. This ensures that our attendance is accurate, and all staff are aware of who is onsite or absent. In the case of an emergency, this is vital information, and we must follow processes. Our teachers are now completing their attendance online which links directly to the new EdSmart program that generates the absentee messages, so we must ensure that we are accurate at all times and keeping our young people safe. I also need to inform you that the DECYP does not recognise family holidays (some exclusions apply) as explained absences. These are classified and recorded as unauthorised. We understand that some holidays cannot occur out of school time and can work with you, given enough notice, to ensure your child does not miss vital learning.

Thanks for your continued support,

Kendal King

Principal

Get behind the Tasmanian Jack Jumpers as they head to the NBL GF play offs!

Reminder to all families to please sign up to our SchoolZine APP as this is the main platform of communication with our families.  Notices, reminders and class information.

If you are yet to sign up to the app please download from the app store or google play store.  The picture of the app is as follows:

8:50am - first bell, school starts, student daily attendance is completed

10:10am - Learning Break including fruit/veg/water time

11:00am - Recess break (until 11:30am)

1:05pm - Lunch eating time

1:15pm - Lunch break (until 1:45pm)

2:45pm - final bell, end of school day

Please note that the 5 minute change in our start time does not affect bus timetables.

Reminder if students arrive after 8.50 they will need to sign in at the Kiosk at the school office.

What an amazing two weeks we have had with double sessions for Splash & Play as a part of the Swimming and Water Safety Program! Our littlest people sure do love the water and in just four short sessions it was fabulous to see the confidence of each person improve. 

If you have not yet returned enrolment forms, please do so as soon as possible. 

Next week we will meet outside the hall and walk down to the beach for a picnic and a play. Remember to bring your hats and sunscreen. We will have some beach toys to take, but you're welcome to bring your own too. Water play is optional for those with parents in attendance to supervise.

See you there!

Apples, Apples, Apples!

We have had so much fun exploring apples this week. We picked apples from the school orchard with Mr Green. Wyatt and Jaxon made a fantastic Apple Factory from construction materials and shared it with our class. Kinder Prep counted our apples, put them in order from biggest to smallest, cut them into parts and even counted and compared the number of seeds. Today Mrs Walsh and our Grade 4 buddies came over to out classroom and we had fun turning our apples into apple pies. Everyone got a turn to design, make and taste their very own apple pie. Thank you, Indi, for the great suggestion.

Frantic Fractions!

Have you ever heard a whole class frantically sorting fractions?  It's quite the sight to see!  Grade 3/4/5 have bee working very hard on learning how to identify and order fractions in a variety of formats:

• decimal fraction - 2.8
• mixed number - 2 8/10
• word fraction - two and 8 tenths
• percentage - 280%
• improper fraction 28/10
• diagram

We have also been ordering our fractions into ascending and descending order.

Amazing Artists

Mrs Wood spent some time with us to create some beautiful pastel/watercolour art pieces in the lead uo to Anzac Day.  Our poppies shine brightly against a striking watercolour sky and we can't wait to display them.

Scientific Investigation

Grade 5/6 students spent a morning outdoors locating and investigating tree species within our school grounds. They took photos of specific trees and then used ‘image search’ to identify each species. Once they learnt the name of their tree they researched whether their tree was native or introduced to Tasmania, edible or non-edible, and key information regarding their leaves. 

Students are continuing their research through a modelled experiment using cloths to simulate leaves to examine how trees breathe, how they adapt to different climates and why certain species are better suited to survive in the desert.

School Lunch Project Food Allergen Update                                                              

It is wonderful seeing the School Lunch Project in action again at Swansea Primary School after a successful year of serving hot lunches in 2023.

The project is run by School Food Matters in partnership with Loaves and Fishes Tasmania.

 This year, Swansea Primary is  no longer preparing the lunches from scratch, we will be delivering pre-prepared meals to Swansea Primary from the Loaves and Fishes central kitchen.

During term 1 we are also running a pilot project to produce and supply meals that have been modified to cater for food allergies and intolerances.  There are 6 schools (of the 30 schools in the School Lunch Project) who are involved in this pilot.

The pilot is developing processes, protocols, and training to provide lunch for as many students as possible in the future. Our aim is to be able to provide all children with a school lunch.

Swansea Primary is not involved in this pilot, therefore the school will continue to receive the regular School Lunch Project meals only.  We would like to remind all families that unfortunately at this stage School Food Matters are not able to cater for ANY child with a food allergy or intolerance. Students who have an identified allergy or intolerance cannot eat the food prepared by the School Lunch Project.  

Thank you for your support and for helping us to keep students safe and well.

Julie Dunbabin

School Lunch Project – Manager

School Food Matters

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.

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.

Tasmania Reads Week is curated by Libraries Tasmania and runs from 17 to 23 March. In 2024, we are inviting Tasmanians to Try something new with reading – try a new genre, a new author, or a new way of reading.

Program highlights include Read it, Grow it, Pick it, Cook it, Eat it! at Harvest Launceston Farmers’ Community Market, the Hobart Farmgate Market popup library, TasWriters Celebrates Tasmania Reads in Hobart, a living library at Launceston Library and the launch of the We Love Country StoryWalk at Dru Point Park in Margate.

Craigie Knowe Vineyard is once again holding an Easter egg hunt Saturday 30^th March 2024.  This is a free event for children under the age of 12.  We also have 3 live music acts including Monique Brumby performing. Adults are $20.00 each. We will have food, refreshements also available and it will be a great day.

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