19 September 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Well done to all our students on a great Term 3. The school has been a buzz of activity and students have demonstrated their enthusiasm for learning and determination to succeed. They have challenged themselves with new learning and have worked hard to use the Zones of Regulation to help them regulate their emotions, make better decisions and contribute to our calm and orderly learning environment. Thank you to all our families who have supported us in this. It is a pleasure to walk around our classrooms and see such focused and self-directed learning.

As we head quickly towards the end of the term there are some important reminders for Term 4. If your child is in Prep, Grade 1 or Grade 2 they will have the opportunity to participate in our Optional Swimming Program. Forms will be sent home early in Term 4. Please ensure you return them to school so that your child can participate. For students in Grades 3 to 6 our School Swimming Carnival will take place November 9. We also have our annual Halloween Social on Thursday November 1.

To finish Term 3 our students will be participating in our Arts Afternoon, Singfest, Hurricanes Cricket visit, Footy Colours Day, Country Gold carnivals and 3/4 Gala Day.

I am really pleased to be able to share with you I have been appointed Principal of Exeter Primary until the end of Term 1, 2019. At this time the position will be advertised as a substantive position. I am looking forward to a positive and productive end to our school year and being able to continue our current work into 2019.

Class Placements 2019

It is the time of year when we begin planning for the 2019 school year and part of this process is to consider student class placements. If you would like to have input into this process by providing me with information that may help in your child’s class placement for 2019, please contact me via email on, helen.peart@education.tas.gov.au or in writing via the school office. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss any aspect of this process.

To further assist us with planning for 2019 could you please let us know if you are not planning to be with us next year or if you are aware of any families that maybe intending to join us, we would like them to make contact with us as soon as possible.

If you have a child or know of any children in the area who were born in 2014, please be aware they are eligible for kindergarten in 2019. If you have not already done so, please collect an enrolment form from the school office and register your little one for kinder in 2019.

2019 NAPLAN Results

NAPLAN results have now been shared with us. These results are a useful tool for monitoring our school-wide progress and informing our future decision making. Our task now is to analyse the data alongside our school based data, in readiness to update our School Improvement Plan for the new school year. It is timely to congratulate all Grade 3 and 5 students and teachers for their commitment during NAPLAN testing. We want every child to be proud of their efforts and commend their positive approach to the testing process. Some highlights for us this year were our continued strong results in Year 5 Numeracy, Grammar and Punctuation, Spelling and Reading, in which we are performing above Tasmanian and Australian schools, and in Numeracy we continue to perform above Australian schools for the second year in a row. Our Year 3 results were mixed. This year we are performing above Tasmanian and Australian schools with Writing. Reading and Grammar and Punctuation continue to be a major focus area for us to work on. Individual Student Reports have been sent home.

Baptcare Support

I am pleased to introduce you to Louise Young from Integrated Family Support Service (IFSS), a subsidiary of Baptcare. Louise will be working from Exeter Primary School on Friday afternoons fortnightly, to offer support for families. She is available by appointment and her role is to provide support and resources for families and individuals within the West Tamar community. This is a free service that works to improve the safety, wellbeing and health of children from birth to 18 years and their families. IFSS also assists families with unborn children to obtain support, prior to the birth of a child. Should you wish to access this free support service, please call our school office on 6394 4700. All the best to Bec Hayes as she moves to a new position.

UTAS Pre-Service Students

Exeter Primary enjoys a strong relationship with the University of Tasmania and provides Pre-service teachers with the opportunity to increase their familiarity with the school context and to further develop their understanding of teaching practice in relation to the Australian Standards and managing a busy learning environment. Pre-service teachers are able to observe and then build their understanding and knowledge of student learning with the support of an experienced colleague teacher to guide and support them.

This term we will be supporting several pre-service students in their final year’s practicums, they will have completed a week in classes this term and complete their final 5 weeks from the beginning of Term 4. We welcome Jacob Hill in 3/4 Wheatley, Alexandra Garwood in 3/4 Massey and Madeline Walker in 3/4 Duncan.

Staffing

It is with sadness I advise Jenny Johns will be officially retiring at the end of Term 3. Jenny has been at Exeter Primary School for 10 years and undertaken many roles including class teacher, literacy support teacher and senior staff. Jenny has been an educator for over 40 years and we wish her all the best for her future.

We welcome Cindy Dunn to our staff as she undertakes a teaching role with us until the end of the year.

We will also be saying goodbye to Rachel Wilkes, our Speech and Language Pathologist at the end of this term. Rachel is expecting her first baby and we wish her all the best as she prepares for this joyous event.

Wishing our students and families a happy, restful and safe holiday, ready for a busy Term 4.

Regards,
Helen

Assembly Awards

Growth Mindset Award

Recipients:

Class Awards

We congratulate the following students:

Arts

Wednesday 26th September 2018 in the Performing Arts Centre (PAC). Starting at 1:45pm.

State Mathletics Relays (North) 2018

It was fantastic to see Exeter Primary School represented again this year in the Grade 5/6 State Mathematics Relay Team, as well has having a Grade 3/4 team enter for the first time.

At Scotch Oakburn College, on Sunday 16 September, the Grade 5/6 team, consisting of Ben, Tara, Lakeesha and Levi had 45 minutes to answer as many questions as possible. As the relay progressed the questions became more difficult. There were 34 other Grade 5/6 teams competing in this division.

Representing the Grade 3/4 team, and up against 23 different schools from around the north, Alex demonstrated great courage and resilience throughout the entire competition to individually score a total of 70 points. This placed Exeter Primary School equal third in the Grade 3/4 division.

Congratulations to all students for their teamwork and problem solving on the day. This was a fantastic opportunity to further enjoy the love of mathematics.

Singfest 2018

If you have a child participating in Singfest and to avoid long queues when entering the Albert Hall, please pre-purchase your tickets as advised in the advertisement below.

Sport

Girls Footy

AFL Women’s Gala Day

On Friday 7 September Exeter had 5 representatives for the Tamar Association in the first AFL Women’s Gala Day. Held at Youngtown Oval, Tamar played round robin games against teams from Northern Midlands, North East, East North East and Launceston. The day was used also as an identification opportunity to select girls in a WAFL Country Gold Squad that will receive further development.

Congratulations to our 5 girls on your participation and selection in the WAFL Country Gold Squad. Exeter’s representatives were Sienna, Laurel-Lee, Danielle, Shani and Shania.

WAFL Gala Day Results 2018

Roster Matches

NM 5.3 33 def. NE/ENE 1.3 9
LSSSA 8.6 54 def Tamar 2.4 16
NM 4.10 34 def Tamar 5.2 32
LSSSA 10.7 67 def NE/ENE 0.0 0
LSSSA 9.3 57 def NM 3.3 21
Tamar 12.5 77 def NE/ENE 8.4 52

Peter Habel

Students Selected for Country Gold Carnival

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected in these Country Gold Teams:

The Country Gold Carnival is to be held on Thursday, 20 September and Friday, 21 September in Launceston against 5 other regional associations in Northern Tasmania.

Good luck to all students, Peter Habel

Parents

Parent Direct Toy Catalogue

A reminder to anyone wishing to place an order for Parent Direct Toy Catalogue. The closing date is Wednesday September 26. All orders need to be placed by that time to avoid disappointment and guaranteed delivery.

What’s Happening in Our Classrooms?

Prep and Prep/1 visit to QVMAG for Science Week

As part of Science Week Prep/1 Simpson and Prep Upson visited the QVMAG – Inveresk Site.

We visited the exciting Spider Exhibition and enjoyed all the hands on activities that were available. We found out that not all spiders make webs and some spiders live in burrows.

During the Crazy Scientist Show we learnt how to make Magic Snow by adding water to polymer. We also learnt about air currents, forces and motion.

In the planetarium we discovered that on dusk the planets of Jupiter, Mars and Venus are all visible in the night sky. We were excited to see a rocket launch.

We appreciated the volunteers who helped us with a range of science activities including making structures from plasticine and sticks, learning about skeletons and x-rays, exploring with magnets and how to filter water.

We hope you enjoy looking at some of our photo memories from the day.

Class in Focus 1/2 Doyle-Purtell

In 1/2 Doyle-Purtell we have been looking at time. We have already discovered:

• There are lots of instruments to help tell the time.
• We use some of these instruments to tell the time every day without realising it!
• When you look at a clock the face can be different on analogue clocks and digital clocks.
• The hands tell us the hours, minutes and seconds.
• Clocks have moving parts.
• Clocks can be found in many different places like on computers, phones, watches and on the oven at home.

We have completed some interesting artwork using different mediums, including paint, pencil and collage. We have gained inspiration for our work from spring flowers, as well as using our writing to create a picture and draw an image of what we see.

German Poster Competition

For the first weeks of this term all German classes worked on posters for the annual “Goethe Poster Competition” which is open to all Grade 3-6 students in Tasmania learning German. This year’s topic was “Sport”. A small selection of posters was entered from each class and we waited with fingers tightly crossed. Results were announced last week and I am delighted to advise Exeter Primary students were amongst the winners again this year. In their year groups, Dustin (Grade 5) and Emma (Grade 4) received Honorary Mentions, Keira (Grade 5) and Zoe (Grade 3) won third prizes and Stella (Grade 3) won first prize…! Wir gratulieren herzlich…! Congratulations.

Sigrid Nelson

Operation Christmas Child

This year 5/6 Wivell Habel will again be packing boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Each class will be allocated a box and children are encouraged to bring along an item to help fill their class box. We will packing boxes during the last week of term three, so we only have a short time to collect items.

Gift suggestions

Something to wear – t-shirt, thongs, cap, beanie, sandals etc
Something to love – teddy bear, doll, soft toy etc
Something special – carry bag, sunglasses, stickers, craft kit, wind up torch etc
Something for school – exercise book, pencil case, pens, pencils, sharpener, eraser, chalk etc
Something to play with – tennis ball, cars, skipping rope, marbles, musical instrument, yo-yo, puppets etc
Something for personal hygiene – soap and face washer, toothbrush, hairbrush, comb, scrunchies etc.

A reminder that all items should be new and not second hand.

As each box needs to be accompanied by $10 to cover postage, cash donations are also most welcome.

Jill Wivell

Canteen

Canteen Specials

Thursday 27 September - $5.00 you will be able purchase

Orders can now be placed on the Qkr app or to school by no later than 26 September.

Enrolment

Community News

The Australian Junior Motocross Championships are coming to Penguin, Tasmania. Australia's best motocross riders will race over 7 days for the Australian Championship!

Practice and qualifying starts on Sunday 30th September and finals will conclude on Saturday 6th October. This is a free event for spectators, full canteen facilities every day and merchandise will be available. There will be a full day of racing from 8.30am each day.