4 September 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

There is no doubt schools are busy places! Over the last fortnight our students have participated in many learning opportunities. Our 5/6 classes enjoyed their Options day at the High School experiencing a variety of classes and options, becoming familiar with the setup of the school and learning to navigate their way around. Marcel, the Tasmanian Regional Officer for Aspirations and Attainment UTAS, launched our new Children’s University Program. Kinder to Grade 2 students loved celebrating book week by dressing up as their favourite book character. They shared their costumes at our assembly and Kinder Freeman enjoyed visiting the LINC library to make pirate hats and listen to book week stories. Students from 5/6 again participated in Remade at Inveresk, their creations were amazing and you can see them in the gallery below. We celebrated our annual Bed Time Stories night and enjoyed stories shared by our special readers, finishing with milo and biscuits with our students and their fathers, grandads, uncles, brothers and special family members. Students enjoyed purchasing a gift for their dad at our P & F Father’s Day stall on Friday. Thanks to Yvette, Donna, Susan and their helpers and our families who donated and created gifts for the stall. We hope all our Father’s had a great day with their families last Sunday.

Staffing

Welcome to Mrs Julie Breadmore who is teaching on our newly created 1/2 class. We have experienced unexpected enrolments in Prep and Grade 2 and this class was created to cater for our needs. Julie has enjoyed getting to know her students and families over the last week.

Ladies Night

Congratulations to our Parents and Friends on another successful Ladies Night. Ladies were treated to shopping from a PAC full of stores where they could view and purchase a range of quality items. There were lucky balloons, raffle prizes and nibbles provided throughout the evening. Thanks to our dedicated team of Sarah, Amanda, Susan and Cindy who ensured the evening ran smoothly and was a great success. A special thanks to our other parents, friends and community members who helped out and made generous donations.

School Satisfaction Survey

Thank you to our families who completed our School Satisfaction Survey. We look forward to sharing these results in the coming months and will use this information to plan for the future development of Exeter Primary.

Fund Raising

Congratulations to our Student Leadership Team who organised the Dress like a Farmer day last Thursday. At recess the SLT sold cupcakes and raised $1138-15 to be donated to the Hay and Hampers for Hope appeal. Thanks to our students, families and bus drivers who contributed to this amazing amount. Please see our photo gallery below.

Regards,
Helen

Intake Area Review

The Department of Education (DoE) is seeking your views as part of a review of intake areas for Tasmanian government primary and combined (district) schools from 2021 onwards.

To start the initial stage of the community consultation process, DoE has developed suggested intake areas for each government primary and combined school. We are seeking feedback on the maps from student families and the community.

There will be a second consultation process to refine any adjustments to the intake areas based on the feedback received.

Parents will still be able to apply to their school of choice, if capacity allows.

Any adjustment to intake areas would only apply to new enrolments in Tasmanian government primary and combined schools from 2021 onwards, so will not affect any current students at our school or their siblings.

For information about how to provide your feedback, and to view the maps for consultation, see ‘School Intake Area Maps’ on the DoE website at

You are invited to provide your feedback by Friday 26 October 2018, keeping in mind that:

• Parents will still be able to apply to their school of choice, if capacity allows.
• The review will not change the way schools enrol students who live outside their intake area.
• The review will not affect students who are already enrolled in a school before 2021, or which high school students are entitled to attend.
• If a child has a sibling already attending a school outside their intake area, then the child can enrol at the same school as their sibling.

Please see current and proposed map below.

Naplan Online

NAPLAN ONLINE - TRIAL OF THE NEW ONLINE ASSESSMENT PLATFORM

You may have heard that NAPLAN Online is being introduced across Australia over three years from 2018. Tasmanian schools will be administering NAPLAN online from 2019.

NAPLAN Online will provide better assessment, more precise results and faster turnaround of information.

Our school will trial the new assessment platform (the computer system the test will be taken on) and assess our readiness to participate in NAPLAN Online from 2019. This trial is called the School Readiness Test (SRT).

The SRT is not a test of student achievement and results will not form part of a student’s overall assessment.

Participating in this trial is important as it will help us ensure we have adequate internet connectivity, and whether students have access to sufficient number of devices for NAPLAN testing. During the trial, our school will have the opportunity to practice managing the classroom logistics for an online assessment and the new test administration processes.

Feedback from schools participating in the trial will inform transition to the online assessment as well as provide valuable feedback to shape the final development of the NAPLAN Online platform.

The SRT has not been constructed to assess curriculum knowledge, but rather to provide students an opportunity to experience the types of questions that will be included in the new online assessment.

During September 2018, all students in Years 2, 4 and 6 will participate in the trial of the assessment platform, by undertaking one online test for Year 2 and two online tests for Year 4 and 6 that include examples of the new NAPLAN Online questions. Each test will take approximately 45 minutes to complete.

Participation in this trial is a key step to ensuring a successful NAPLAN Online experience.

If you have further questions, please contact Amy Sims at the school.

Wellbeing Survey

Attention: Parents and Carers of students in Year 4 and 5.

Child and Student Wellbeing Survey

The wellbeing of our students is important to us.

To get an understanding of how students across Tasmania feel about their own wellbeing, students in Year 4 and 5 at Exeter Primary School will be taking part in a wellbeing survey.

The survey is one of four surveys being trialed across 29 schools, as part of the Department of Education’s Child and Student Wellbeing Strategy.

The details for the survey in our school are:

A letter with more information has been sent home with all Year 4 and 5 students, including Frequently Asked Questions and a form to sign and return to the school if you do not want your child to participate in the survey.

If you would like further information, please contact Helen Peart, Principal.

Thank you for supporting us to ensure that all our learners are safe, feel supported and are able to flourish, so they can engage in learning.

Assembly Awards

Growth Mindset Award

Recipient: Levi

Class Awards

We congratulate the following students:

ArtStart Certificates

Bed Time Stories

What a great night we had last Thursday when our families joined together in the Performing Arts Centre for our annual Bed Time Stories night. Families enjoyed reading together, listening to our guest readers Mr Clark, Mr Habel, Mr Hull and Mr Duncan, and finished the evening with a milo and biscuits.

Arts

Arts Afternoon

It is nearly that time of the year again, the annual Afternoon of Arts at Exeter Primary. Every year we celebrate the wonderful range of Art programmes that are offered at Exeter. This year we will be celebrating on September 26, beginning at 1:45pm in the Performing Arts Centre. We will be showcasing Dance Fever, Esk Band, Sing Fest Choir, Piano, ReMADE Fashion and much more. Following the performance the 2018 Art Gallery will be opened and families invited to stroll through our Arts Trail into the Gallery. Families of all students performing and displaying artwork will be personally invited over the next few weeks and other families and friends are welcome to mark the date in their calendars. We look forward to celebrating the Arts at Exeter Primary with you soon.

5/6 Sports Exchange

A reminder that on Friday 7th September our 5/6 students have a sport exchange against Port Dalrymple and South George Town at SGT Primary. Matches will begin approximately at 10.20am and finish at 2pm. Remember to bring sports clothes, a cut lunch, warm clothing and mouthguards for hockey and football. This is our last planned winter exchange for the year.

Peter Habel

ReMADE

Book Club Issue 6

Issue 6 of book club has been sent home. All orders need to be returned to the office by Monday September 10. Please write your child’s name and class on the front of the envelope.

Schools Triathlon Challenge

Schools Triathlon Challenge for 2018, November 29th to be held at Devonport Bluff

Entries forms are now available, please collect your form from the office, details are available on the STC website

Students can participate as an individual, in a team or both. (Students only pay $20 regardless of how many events they are entered in).

Exeter Primary School would like all entries back before the school holidays, therefore entries close at our school on 28th September.

Children’s University

Exeter Primary School is now a
Children’s University Tasmania Member

On Thursday 23rd August, Exeter Primary officially became a Member of the Children’s University Tasmania. It was fantastic to see Marcel, (Regional Officer - Aspirations and Attainment from UTAS) Mrs Peart and Mr Clark join 26 Exeter Primary students at our Celebration Launch which saw students receive their Passport to Learning. Students keep track of the hours of learning they do outside of classroom learning, with the aim of graduating when they reach 30 hours.

We look forward to seeing some of our Exeter students graduate in 2018!

What’s Happening in Our Classrooms?

1/2 Radford - Gee

During book week we listened to many of the shortlisted picture books. One of our favourites was Mopoke by Phillip Bunting. ‘Mopoke’ is a nickname for the Southern Boobook Owl because of the sound it makes. In this funny book, the author plays with the word ‘mopoke’ by replacing the ‘mo’ with words such as ‘blow’, ‘glow’, ‘slow’ and ‘snow’. We also liked his simple illustrations. We had a go at making our own owl collages using his style.

5/6 Alcock

Poetry by 5/6 Alcock

A Haiku by Reiss
Camped at the front porch
The frozen man sat waiting.
Let him in, quickly

Bullying by Levi
It slaps you in the face
It makes you get physical
It will follow you

You will never forget
You will carry it through childhood
It’s unreasonable

Bullying can be lots of words but these are NOT those words
Carin Kind
Meaningful Nice

Bullying can be lots of words and these ARE those words
Mean Annoying
Uncaring Troublemakers

Choose kind not mean

Kind makes your heart sing
It makes you feel alive
Kind makes you soar high
Kindness will come back to you

Haiku by Shania
From high above a
Tree-top throne in budding bloom
Vibrant spring presides

Butterfly’s flying
Birds are singing there happy song
Spring is almost here

Cinquain
Flowers
Colours, fragrant
Swaying, growing, blooming
Makes the world happy
Blossoms

Rain
Moist, cool
Splashing, falling, pattering
Plants relying on rain
peaceful

Singfest 2018

Enrolment

School Association

Community News