26 June 2019

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Dear families,

As this is the last newsletter for the term, I would like to thank our families for their continuing support of our school. Term 2 has been full of exciting learning opportunities including Cross Country, Swimming and Water Safety, Readers’ Cup, our Body and Mind Wellbeing Program, many excellent excursions and the beginning of the 5/6 Winter Sports Exchange. Term 3 is already looking busy with Launceston College Dance Fever, 5/6 Sports Days, Performances, and our annual Bed Time Stories Night. We are all looking forward to a productive Term 3.

Mid-Year Reporting

You will receive your child’s Mid-Year report this Friday 28 June. I would like to acknowledge the work that teachers have put into preparing reports and providing families with important information about their children’s learning progress. This report is the major report for the year and provides comprehensive information on how your child is progressing with their learning. When reading through the report, please pay attention to the comment written by your child’s teacher as this is a great way to start a conversation with your child about their learning progress. Always focus on the positives and draw attention to their improvements. Praise your child’s efforts rather than focus on their assessment and tell them how proud you are of them. Discuss how you might be able to help your child meet their future focus in each subject and encourage them to keep trying to improve. Attending our Parent/Student/Teacher Conversations during the last week of term is a great way to follow up on anything you are concerned about and work with your child’s teacher to ensure positive learning outcomes. I have included a link which you may find helpful in preparing for Parent/Student/Teacher Conversations:

If you have not yet booked your Parent/Student/Teacher Conversations on Tuesday, 2 July or Wednesday, 3 July, you can via this link below:

5/6 Sport and new sports uniform

Our 5/6 Sport exchange taster was held at Beaconsfield last Friday. Thank you to our parents who helped our School Association with fundraising to purchase new sports uniforms; netball dresses, hockey and soccer tops. Our students were very proud of the uniforms.

School Uniform

As winter sets in and the days get colder and wetter it is important that students wear warm clothes to school and have a spray jacket or raincoat for rainy days. Recently I have noticed some students wearing hoodies and non-uniform items. We do not allow the wearing of hoodies and expect that all students wear the appropriate school uniform every day. Wearing the school uniform shows respect for your school and engenders a sense of pride and belonging. Our uniform shop has a selection of school jumpers and jackets available for reasonable prices as well as some good second hand items to purchase. If you are experiencing difficulty in providing your child with a school uniform please let us know and we will endeavour to help. Currently there are a number of unclaimed jumpers and jackets in lost property ready for collection. I thank you for your cooperation with this.

Celebration Assembly Term 3

In week 3 of Term 3 we will be holding our annual Celebration Assembly. This Assembly recognises and celebrates the achievements of those students who have made outstanding progress in their learning by demonstrating a Growth Mindset or receiving an A in their Mid-Year Report. We will also acknowledge students who endeavour to be at school on time every day ready for learning. Students will be recognised with a Letter of Commendation and parents of those students will receive an invitation to the assembly in week 1 of Term 3.

Sewing Enterprise Group

Congratulations to Kayla and Noha who have been working with Mrs Parsell. They have now sewn their own bags. They look great!

I wish all our families an enjoyable term break and look forward to seeing everyone back refreshed and ready for a new term of learning.

Regards

Term Dates

2019 Term Dates

Term 2

Ends Friday 5 July

Term 3

Monday 22 July Professional Learning Day for Teachers (Student Free)
Tuesday 23 July (First Day for Students) to Friday 27 September

Term 4

Monday 14 October to Thursday 19 December (Last Day for Students)
Friday 20 December (Last Day for Staff)
Friday 1 November Professional Learning Day (Student Free)

2020 Term Dates

Term 1

Monday 3 February (Teachers commence)
Wednesday 5 February (Students commence) to Thursday 9 April

Easter Break

10 April-14 April

Term 2

Monday 27 April to Friday 3 July

Term 3

Monday July 20 to Friday 25 September

Term 4

Monday 12 October to Thursday 17 December (Last Day for Students)
Friday 18 December (Last Day for Teachers)

Assembly Awards

Growth Mindset Award

Recipients:

Hayden

Class Awards

We congratulate the following students:

Class in Focus

Prep Simpson

Arts

Esk Band

The Esk Music Program is in full swing at Exeter Primary. Every Tuesday 23 students join players from Beaconsfield Primary School to create wonderful music.

The beginning students are showing tremendous improvement in their instrumental skills. Most students are now comfortable with their finger positions and can play their first 5 notes. Favourite pieces for the beginner band include Hot Cross Buns, Power Rock and Bandroom Boogie.

The continuing players are refining their skills and are playing to a high standard. They are rehearsing a range of new songs including Atlantis, Mah-Na Mah- Na and Shake Rattle and Roll.

Literacy

Author Visit- Chrissie Perry

Author, Chrissie Perry, came to Exeter on Thursday 6 June to work with students in creative writing sessions and book talks. She worked with students across the Grade 3-6 classes during the day in two writing sessions. They looked at creating a main character and all the elements that are required for the character to come alive for a reader. After creating their own unique characters they spent time experimenting with dialogue to understand how their character would speak to others in a story. Students also participated in talk sessions that focussed on acting out the dialogue and shared some of the books Chrissie had written.

Readers Cup

Reader’s Cup proved to be another tight competition for 2019, with very minimal points separating the four teams. A huge congratulations to all students who participated in the program. It is a busy six weeks for the teams and they have all worked hard to understand the messages and stories of the six texts. Overall we had 23 participants this year with 17 girls and 6 boys taking part. We hope to increase these numbers in 2020 with even more boys joining in. As you can see from the results below, it was a very close contest, with not many points separating the final rankings.

Final outcomes for the teams:

Congratulations to Nup, Not Telling, who won our Intra-Primary Quiz and overall school competition. Flynn, Makayla, Ciara, Lakeesha, Cleveland and Olivia will represent Exeter Primary at the Inter-School competition at Summerdale Primary on Wednesday, 26 June at Summerdale Primary School.

A further congratulations to the Book Sisters, the only all Grade 5 team who were clear winners in the Creative Challenge with their representation and real world application of Help Around the House by Morris Gleitzman.

Community News