24 October 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Welcome to Term 4!

We have had a fantastic start to the school term with students returning to school refreshed and ready for learning. As always Term 4 is a very busy term with many special events happening. Some of these include Dance Fever, Esk Band Extravaganza, Optional Swimming, and our annual Swimming Carnival. We have had work completed in some classrooms and would like to thank our attendants and groundsman for always keeping our school looking its best and ready for student learning.

Zones of Regulation

At Exeter Primary we work with The Zones of Regulation Program. This program is designed to teach children to understand more about their own emotions and help them to build strategies with which to recognise and manage their own emotional responses. It has been really pleasing to see our classrooms so calm and settled after the holiday break and we are now seeing the results of this program every day. Students are able to use appropriate words to describe how they are feeling, use tools to manage themselves and teachers have a broader range of strategies with which to support students; students have greater responsibility for themselves and their behaviour and there is less demand on senior staff managing difficult behaviour. Most of our students are able to articulate which Zone they are in, how they feel and can identify at least 2 strategies in their tool box to help them self-regulate.

NAPLAN Congratulations

Congratulations to Max who achieved Top Student at Exeter Primary in this year’s National Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Program. Max and his family have received a formal invitation to attend the Learning Services Northern Region Awards Ceremony in November. Well done Max!

Class Placements 2019

Thank you to the families who have contacted me with information to support 2019 class placements. If you would like to have input into this process please contact me via email: 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. Information will be taken until Tuesday 6 November.

Kindergarten 2019

To support with our planning for 2019 please let us know if you have a child eligible for Kindergarten next year, if your child was born in 2014 they will be eligible for Kinder next year. If you have not yet completed your enrolment forms it is important that you do so by Tuesday 6 November so our Kindergarten classes can be organised. If you know of any friends or family with children who are eligible for kinder, please ask them to contact us as soon as possible.

Pre-kinder

It was great to see so many of our Pre-kinder parents enjoying morning tea together and catching up with our Kinder teachers last Friday as their children began their first Pre-kinder session on their own. Our school nurse, Juanita has been talking with parents on a number of topics of interest and support in helping parents transition their children to kindergarten. This is always an exciting time of the year and we look forward to seeing these young children grow and develop as they continue their journey to formal schooling.

Halloween Social

Don’t forget our annual Halloween Social next Thursday 1 November. Please see the flyer in this Newsletter for more information.

Uniforms

Uniforms give students a sense of belonging and create an identity for the school in the community. A uniform also means students do not have to worry about peer pressure when it comes to their clothes. When everyone is dressed the same, worrying about what you look like is not so important. At Exeter Primary we take pride in how our students look and feel about our school. If you need support with your child’s uniform please contact me to discuss your family’s eligibility for support or assistance in the purchase of school uniform items. Hats are also a part of our uniform and need to be worn during Term 4.

Parking outside School

Exeter Primary is serviced by 17 buses each morning and afternoon. As you can imagine this creates a very busy space at the front of our school each morning and afternoon. We ask parents not to drop their children off at the very front of the school of a morning, where the buses deliver our students, but to move to either end of the school to ensure we are providing a safe delivery of all students each morning. The no parking area is marked with a white line on the footpath. Thank you for your support with this matter.

Wellbeing Survey

Our Wellbeing trial survey, Tell Them From Me was conducted last term and ran very smoothly. I will be sharing some of the information we have learned from it when I have received our data in the next week.

Singfest

Once again our choir performed beautifully and made EPS very proud when they participated in the Singfest event in the last week of Term 3. Thanks to our families for supporting their children to be a part of this amazing program and to Mrs Emms for working with our choir.

Footy Colours Day

Congratulations to our students and school community raised the sum of $296-15 for our annual Footy Colours Day last term. These funds will be helping to fight cancer.

Important Dates

Sport

Country Gold Report

Congratulations to all the students who competed in the Country Gold Carnival last term. I hope you gained a lot of experience from trainings, competition and enjoyed using the quality venues.

The netballers finished 4th and 5th respectively in Divisions 1 & 2.

The Tamar Football team won all of their 5 round robin matches to top the table and go in hot favourites for the final against Northern Midlands West eventually winning 13:6 84 to 4:2 26. Congratulations to Matthew and Lachlan on being selected in the All Stars team.

The boys and girls soccer teams won both their finals in a dominant display.

In hockey, Tamar finished a close 2nd in Division 1, while our Div. 2 team finished 3rd.

Representatives:

Peter Habel

Optional Swimming 2018

Prep - 2 classes will all be participating in our Optional Swimming program from Monday 12 November to Friday 7 December.

The program runs for two weeks (10 days) per class, with students swimming daily for a 40 minute lesson with our trained swimming teacher, Mrs Margaret Armour.

The program costs $40-00 and invoices will be sent home shortly. We also require helpers to assist each class to be organised for their lesson and changing afterwards. If you would like to volunteer you will require a Working With Vulnerable People Card, which is available from Service Tasmania:

This is free to any parent or carer with a child in K-2. Please follow the link to register for your card today. When you go to pay for your card please say, “I am a LIFT parent from Exeter Primary School”, and you should not be charged for this service.

Singfest

S.L.T

Halloween Social

The Student Leadership Team cannot wait to see you at the Halloween Social this year.

Entry is by $2 donation, with all money raised going to the Second Stage Development of the BBQ area. Fruit and water will be provided throughout the evening.

Children will be supervised by staff during the social and parents are reminded students need to be collected by an adult from the PAC at 6:00pm (K-2) and 7:30pm (3-6).

Parents will be invited into the PAC at the end of the K-2 social, for pick up.

Due to the changeover times, our 3-6 students will enter at the Stage Door. This will facilitate an easier transition for K-2 students to be collected.

We look forward to seeing you all at the social, come dressed in your best costumes or free clothes. Certificates will be awarded for Most Creative Costumes and Best Dancers.

Arts Afternoon

Our annual Exeter Primary School Arts Afternoon was a fantastic display of drama, art and music. We enjoyed music from the Esk Band, Rock Band and specialist tutor groups which included both guitar and keyboard. The performances throughout the afternoon involved students from Grade 3 to 6 and were filled with many memorable moments. We enjoyed singing from the 3-6 Choir, a skit from Exeter’s Got Talent winners Cake and dance from our 3/4 Tasdance dance team and 5/6 Dance Fever Events. After the inspirational display of creativity and courage, members of the school community were welcomed by Kynan Bonnice, who opened our event to view the 2018 Art Gallery. We have over 150 student’s work displayed in the main school foyer. Congratulations to all who participated in this uplifting and motivational event celebrating the Arts at Exeter Primary

Art Gallery

Parents

Hats for Term 4

Term 4 will see Exeter Primary students and staff wearing hats and being Sunsafe for all outside activities. If your child does not have a hat, a new one can be purchased from the Office or Uniform Shop which is open on Tuesdays from 8-30 am until 10:00 am or Thursdays from 2-30 pm until 3-30 pm. Hats cost $9-00.

All students wear hats when outside and are provided with one if they do not have one on a specific day. Suncreen is provided to all classrooms and for all major outisde events.

Scholastic Bookclub

What’s Happening in Our Classrooms?

3/4 Duncan in Focus

Over the last few weeks of Term 3 Grade 3/4 Duncan completed their posters for the Launceston Historical Society Primary History Prize. We had to pose a complex historical question and then through research answer the question. This annual event culminates with a presentation ceremony at the historic Launceston Town Hall hosted by the Mayor. Here are some of our entries.

Members of 3/4 Duncan have been trying to create a new game to play at recess and lunchtime. It started with Skyball, but this seemed to have a few complications with players, so Coby and Flynn put a few ideas together and have developed the game Ground Ball. Here are the rules and a short video of how it is played.

Please follow the link below to view the video:

Prep Simpson and Prep Upson in Focus

During term 3 our Prep classes have been learning about the materials things are made from, if they can be recycled or go to landfill and what we can do in Prep to help reduce landfill.

Mary and Ken visited us from Rethink Waste Tasmania and talked about recycling. We learnt more about items that can be put into our recycling bins and those that have to go to landfill. We had fun sorting lots of things into the correct bins. We saw a brick that was made in Tasmania that had bits of recycled glass in it. We found out that 7 plastic bottles were recycled and used to make a cap.

We visited the Exeter Waste Transfer Station and saw all the different places you can put your recyclable objects you do not want anymore. They have places to sort items made from lots of different materials. You can leave oil, old windows, polystyrene, steel, timber, computers, bikes, garden things and lots more. Our maps show lots of different sorting areas.

At school we are looking at items we have in our lunchboxes or in the classroom. Each fortnight we put out our recycling bin with our cleaned hard plastics and cardboard objects. We collect our food scraps to give to our hens. We are trying not to waste so much paper by using both sides before putting it into the recycling bin. We are collecting our soft plastic things to be recycled instead of putting them into landfill.

We hope you enjoy looking at some of our photos about our work.

Community News