11 April 2017

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

What a fabulous Term 1 we have had. Our Exeter Primary students are committed learners and make the most of every opportunity to learn and challenge themselves. This term we have seen students strive to do their best and take on extra commitments in the form of student leadership, choir, Exeter’s got Talent, athletics participation and generally helping out around the school. It is heartening to see our students ‘having a go’, being prepared to make mistakes and displaying the courage to put themselves forward, even if they think they might not be successful. It is this type of commitment that personifies a Growth Mindset and one that will hold them in good stead for a successful future.

TPSSA

Congratulations to all students who participated in the recent TPSSA carnival at the Rocherlea Football Grounds. It was a pleasure to see our students compete, give their best and display commendable sportsmanship. A special thank you Mr Peter Habel for the major role he plays in the organisation of this combined schools event. Thank you also to the parents who continue to support our students at these events we really appreciate your efforts.

Festival of Voices Fundraising

As many of you would be aware our School Choir has been invited to participate in this year’s Festival of Voices in Hobart. To make this happen we are in the process of raising $2000 towards accommodation for our students. Last week Ms Jory, Mrs Mohr and the Student Leadership Team held a mammoth fundraiser in the form of a barbecue, morning tea treats and lunchtime ice creams. It was a great success and in one single day they raised an amazing $1239.00! This is a fantastic effort and we are truly grateful to all the families who supported this event. This week we have an Easter Raffle and are selling tickets for a basket of Easter goodies. Tickets are 3 for $1.00.

ANZAC Assembly and ANZAC Day Services

Commemorating ANZAC day is a significant Exeter Primary School tradition. As ANZAC Day falls in the school holidays we will be holding our school ANZAC Assembly on Wednesday April 13 at 10.25 in the Performing Arts Centre and we welcome parents and community members to attend. Our choir and student leaders will also be attending Exeter High School’s assembly immediately following ours.

On ANZAC Day our school choir will be performing at the Exeter RSL as it has done for many years and as a school we will be laying wreaths at both the Beaconsfield and Exeter 11 O’clock services. We look forward to seeing many of our families at these venues.

Exeter’s Got Talent

Over the last couple of weeks our talented Exeter Primary School students have been practicing and auditioning for our annual Exeter’s Got Talent show. This is a fantastic event which sees our students use their creative talents to produce a wide variety of entertaining performances. I have heard that this year’s line-up is even bigger and better than previous years and I am waiting in anticipation to see the finals, which will be held on Wednesday April 13 in the Performing Arts Centre at 1.45. A special thank you to Mrs Kate Emms for organising the event this year and running the many auditions. Congratulations to all the students who have auditioned and to those who have made it through to the finals.

NAPLAN

Next term our Year 3 and Year 5 students will participate in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2017. At Exeter we endeavour to prepare students for the testing procedure to ensure they are comfortable and not unnecessarily worried about NAPLAN testing. Please take the time to reassure your child that testing is a normal part of learning and all that is expected of them is that they do their best. Please see the following for more information:

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) commenced in Australian schools in 2008. Each year, all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in common national tests which assess, Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy.

The scheduled dates for the tests in 2017 are Tuesday 9 May, Wednesday 10 May and Thursday 11 May.

The benefits of participating in NAPLAN testing:

• NAPLAN tests the skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life such as reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy.
• NAPLAN results provide valuable information on how your child is progressing against national minimum standards of literacy and numeracy skills expected for each year level.
• The NAPLAN tests provide you as parents with an individual report that shows your child’s results and a comparison of your child’s performance against all other Australian students in their year level.
• Teachers use the NAPLAN results to determine your child’s areas of strength and where future focus is required and how best to provide support or extension activities.
• School teachers use the online NAPLAN Toolkit to analyse your child’s results. The Toolkit provides detailed information right down to the individual question with links to teaching strategies.
• Principals, senior staff and others use NAPLAN results to inform school planning and to allocate resources and support including informing decisions around targeted programs and initiatives for individuals and groups.

The best way you can assist your child is by helping them to feel comfortable about the nature and purpose of the tests, and assure them that the tests will give them an opportunity to show what they have learned in class.

For more information about the national tests, please visit the national NAPLAN website below:

Happy Easter

I wish all our families and friends a very Happy Easter and hope that the break affords you some special time with your loved ones. I look forward to seeing students back at school on Monday May 1 ready for a productive Term 2

Kind regards

Lift

Steve Biddulph Community Evening

We are pleased to advise tickets are now available for Steve Biddulph’s last parenting evening at Exeter Primary for the year. As Steve is winding down for his retirement this may be your last opportunity to hear him speak in person. The topic of this talk will be The Secret of Happy Children. It will be held in our Performing Arts Centre on Thursday June 8 at 7-30 pm. Tickets are $20-00 each (or $10-00 for our Exeter Primary School & Exeter Child Care families which are subsidised by our LIFT Program). Please contact our school office or follow the link below to purchase your tickets.

Steve Biddulph supporting our families

Copies of Steve Biddulph’s books are for sale through our school office. These include the titles Raising Girls, Raising Boys and Steve’s latest book 10 Things Girls Need Most. Copies are $20-00 each.

Respectful School

Growth Mindset

Do you want your child to have a Growth Mindset? You don't need to wonder any more what to say, how to praise or what questions to ask, everything you need to know about how to foster a Growth Mindset with your child is in this free one-page printable guide for parents:

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT IN THE PRE-K and K YEARS

The following excerpt from the book, Teaching and Learning in the Kindergarten Year, by Dominic Gullo describes brain development in the early years.

During pre-school and Kindergarten, the brain grows steadily, increasing from seventy percent to ninety percent of its eventual adult weight. In addition to gains in size, the brain undergoes considerable reshaping and refining. Among these modifications are profound changes in the frontal lobes-areas of the brain devoted to regulating thought and action. The frontal lobes govern the inhibition of impulse, orderly memory, and the integration of information-capacities that facilitate reasoning and problem solving. All these skills improve considerably in kindergarten children.

Throughout the preschool years, the brain overproduces connections between neurons. At about age four and five children have nearly double the number of synapses in some brain areas, such as the frontal lobes, that adults have. This overabundance of communication channels supports the brain's plasticity or high capacity for learning. It helps ensure that a child will be able to acquire basic human abilities even if some brain areas happen to be damaged.

The first five to seven years of life are a sensitive period for brain development. During this time, the brain is especially responsive to stimulation, which prompts this massive wiring of neurons and sculpting of brain regions. The brain is more malleable than it will be later, making pre-school and kindergarten the optimal time for learning and effective intervention with all children. The brain lays down its basic organisation in 2 phases: the preschool and K years and then in the regular school years. Neuroscientists and child development researchers refer to the first phase (pre-K and K) as experience-expectant brain growth, underscoring that young children need a wide variety of ordinary experiences during this phase-opportunities to see and touch objects, hear language and other sounds, and move about and explore the environment. The brain expects to encounter these experiences and if it does, it will grow normally. A second phase, called experience-dependent brain growth, becomes increasingly dominant during the school years. It involves the refinement of established brain structures as a result of specific activities, which vary widely across individuals and cultures. Learning to read and write very well, play computer games, weave an intricate rug, tend a garden, play the violin are examples of such activities. The author goes on to say that you don't want to push the second phase too early. Instead of rushing through the first phase, we need to just do that first phase really well.

Later chapters in the book describe how the kindergarten year requires a nuanced balance: plenty of play, choice, verbal interaction, and learning of foundational skills. Classrooms also should be rich in engaging activities that are adaptable to children's varying readiness for experience-dependent learning. Kindergartners learn best under conditions in which adults guide and support their active efforts, with gradual and measured introduction of more formal lessons.

The brain is growing rapidly during the pre-K and Kindergarten years. In Kindergarten, the child needs a balance of experience-expectant brain growth activities and the start of experience-dependent brain growth activities.

REFERENCE:
Gulo, D. F. (2006). Teaching and Learning in the Kindergarten Year. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
http://www.puffinschool.org/index.php/articles/item/brain-development-in-the-pre-k-and-k-years.html

Exeter Primary School remains committed to providing a bully free school and this year all our students committed to standing by our anti bullying slogan “Be a hero every day, tell the bullies NO WAY!” To show their commitment students made prints of their hands around our school slogan and these are now on display in our courtyard.

During our Zones Assembly last week we talked about strategies that helped us self-regulate and return to the Green Zone. Our Yellow Zones Track is one of these strategies and here are some of our students explaining why they chose to use the track and how they felt when they had completed the Zones Track.

Prep Upson also shared how using Bubble Blowing helped them to calm themselves and get back into the Green Zone.

Canteen

Launching into Learning

Assembly

Exeter Primary School will be commemorating ANZAC Day on Wednesday April 12 at an assembly in the Performing Arts Centre commencing at 10-25 am. This will replace the original assembly date of Thursday April 13

At this assembly we will also be presenting our Student Leadership Team for 2017.

Brixhibition

CONGRATULATIONS to our School winners for 2017!

Our Early Childhood Runner Up was a draw between Asha Blyth and Aaron Atkinsons and Isabella Swain was our Early Childhood Winner.

The Primary Section Runner Up was Fergus Simpson and Aidan Woods was the Primary Winner.

Our Overall School Winner was Niall Swain. Well done to you all!

Niall’s winning Lego model of The Penny Royal Complex will now be on display at the Brixhibiton Launceston Competition at the Hotel Grand Chancellor on Saturday 22 April and Sunday. If you are interested in seeing all the other winning Lego models it would be a great family activity to do during the holidays.

Support Services

Washing Hands

Washing our hands properly every time is one of the best ways to keep ourselves healthy. Encourage hand washing after using the toilet, before eating, before cooking, after patting animals, when they look dirty, after blowing nose (or picking nose!), and when arriving home from being out, such as after school.

It would be great if families could practice hand washing at home, just to make sure our hands are clean and our bodies stay healthy, especially coming into the colder months.

Step 1. Wet your hands first, before soap. Soap needs wet hands to make enough bubbles to clean.
Step 2. Soap time.
Step 3. Rub the soap all over your hands, don’t forget your thumbs and wrists! It takes 20 seconds at step 3, sing happy birthday or the alphabet song!
Step 4. If your hands are totally covered in bubbles, rinse well with water. Don’t leave any bubbles behind!
Step 5. Dry well on a paper towel, or a clean hand towel.

I like to encourage children to actually look at their hands once finished washing, make sure they are clean and smell nice.

Happy washing!
Juanita Du Vergier,

Sport

Athletic Carnivals

K-2 Athletic Carnival

The K-2 Athletic Carnival was very successful with the children enjoying a range of activities in good conditions. In just over an hour and a half students gave their best in 9 activities often competing many times at each station. It was good to see so many spectators able to follow their children around the oval.

A big thankyou goes out to the students on their performance, teachers on their organisation of classes and the Grade 6 students-Katie, Ella, Holly, Ellie, Daizi, Will, Maddison, Lauchie, Eve, Harry, Jesse, Linkon, Reece, Natasha, Niall, Sam, Cameron and Daniel for assistance at stations.

3-6 Athletic Carnival

Congratulations to Dalrymple on winning the Grades 3-6 Athletic Carnival on Friday in ideal conditions. Batman and Brady tried to provide a close Carnival with lots of exciting races but Dalrymple slowly extended their lead finally winning with a total of 1118 points to Batman 808 and Brady 778. This was the 7th Athletics Carnival in a row for Dalrymple. It was a pleasure to see the participation of nearly every student and the friendly rivalry and camaraderie amongst Houses. The cheering and barracking was a highlight with Miss Jory encouraging support on the microphone and the sportsmanship from all competitors was fantastic.

Congratulations to all students on your performances and behaviour. Thanks to parents, friends, staff and students for their support of the Carnival and to the parents who helped officiate. Thank you to Mr Chesshire and Mr Sheehan on the preparation of the oval for both Carnivals.

In Division 1 events the standout performers were:

Grade 3: Keona Hayes, Grace Jones, Jack Porteus, Lucas Retallick
Grade 4: Claire Beams, Jessica Butler, Avery Thomas, Damon White, Quinn Barker
Grade 5: Chloe White, Shania Templar, Shani Templar, Lachlan Berwick, Callum Penney, Matthew Clark
Grade 6: Phoebe Burling, Emily Franks, Summer Retallick, Will Radford, Niall Swain, Jesse Kerkham

Tamar Athletic Carnival

Last Friday Mrs Jory and Mrs Penney accompanied the Exeter Team for this event. We took a squad of 49 athletes from grades 3-6 to Rocherlea Recreation Centre in perfect weather to compete against representatives from Beaconsfield, Lilydale, South George Town, Port Dalrymple and Star or the Sea.

We were impressed with our team’s organisation, behaviour and determination to do their best and support one another. Exeter children were very competitive with most of our team returning with some success. With St. Leonards being resurfaced, the venue proved a huge success with plenty of cheering from spectators and school teams.

A special thankyou to Tamieka Greenhalf for officiating on Exeter’s behalf and all the other parents for supporting on the day.

There were so many outstanding performances with these students earning selection in the State Carnival to be held at St. Leonards on Friday 12th May.

Jack Porteus 100m Relay
Keona Hayes 100m Relay 200m 400m
Lucy Clarke 100m Relay
Grace Jones 100m Relay
Shannon Dunn 800m

Avery Thomas 100m Relay Long Jump
Claire Beams 100m Relay Long Jump
Lakeesha Geale 100m Relay
Jessica Butler 400m
Damon White 800m

Lachlan Berwick 100m Relay 200m
Matthew Clark 100m Relay
Shania Templar 100m Relay
Shani Templar 100m Relay
Chloe White 400m 800m 1500m
Kayla Reed 200m
Ben Hockey 1500m
Callum Penney 1500m
Sienna Smith 1500m
Logan Jones Shot Putt
Danielle Beadle Shot Putt

Will Radford 100m Relay
Jesse Kerkham 1500m
Emily Franks 1500m Shot Putt
Leo Von See Long Jump
Daniel Jordan Shot Putt

Other successful competitors in Division 1 Events at the Tamar Carnival were:

Jack Porteus-Grade 3 Long Jump
Ciara Williams-Grade 4 Vortex
Avery Thomas-Grade 4 Vortex
Logan Jones-Grade 5 Vortex
Daniel Jordan-Grade 6 Vortex

Peter Habel

Birthdays

We wish the following students a very happy birthday.

School Association

Exeter Primary School Parents & Friends

A letter with an envelope was distributed earlier this term. You still have time if you would like to make a donation of $5 per child, or $10 per family for the 2017 academic year.

This money has been an important part of our annual fundraising budget, so we want to give you an opportunity to make this donation should you wish.

Entertainment Books

Great Mother’s Day gift!

To order a book and collect your early bird vouchers please log on to

Pre-purchase orders who wish to receive early bird needs to be placed by May 3rd 2017.

Community News

WEST TAMAR COUNCIL TERM 1 SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAM

West Tamar Council has just released its school holiday program for the upcoming term 1 holidays. Activities available this holiday period include: Village Cinemas (Lego Batman Movie), Launceston Lanes Ten Pin Bowling, Zone 3 Laser, and Tassie tiger Mini Golf. All activities are subsidised by Council, with free transport available for West Tamar residents. To book please visit the link below and download a booking form or email: stewart.bell@wtc.tas.gov.au