Attendance Update

Every school day matters for your child’s education. Absences are only authorised for reasons such as being unwell or experiencing a significant event which impacts on your child’s ability to attend school. It is important to communicate to your child’s school about the length and reason for any absences. Your child’s school may request further evidence or information in some circumstances.

If your child needs to be away from school, it is important to tell the school as soon as possible. You can:

• Send a note or email to the school through Schoolzine.
• Telephone the school office.
• Visit the school.

In alignment with DECYP attendance policy, we ask families to be aware of the following information we require to ensure we are supporting student attendance.

After your child has been absent for a total of more than 5 days in a school year families will be contacted by either the classroom teacher, member of the leadership team or our Admin staff and request a doctors certificate or to complete a Statutory Declaration (Stat Dec), to explain the nature of the absence. The Stat Dec. can be accessed by the following link or be collected from the school office https://www.justice.tas.gov.au/justice-system/statutory-declarations/statutory-declaration-form.

If there are barriers or extenuating circumstances which are affecting student attendance, please contact the office to make an appointment to meet with a member of the Leadership Team or Principal, we are more than happy to work with families to support students attend school more often.

Breakfast Club – Volunteers

We are seeking volunteers to support our Breakfast Club Program of a Monday and Tuesday. Each day of the week we provide breakfast for up to 35 students, toast, and a milo. We require a volunteer to support the program between 8:15am – 9.00am. If you are available, please contact the school office for more details. Volunteers will be required to have a current Working with Vulnerable Peoples Card and undertake a short Mandatory Reporting Module (15 minutes). More information regarding our Safeguarding requirements can be found with the following link.

Safeguarding checks for workers (including Registration to Work with Vulnerable People) - Department for Education, Children and Young People

Student Medication

If your child requires medication while they are at school, you must meet with your child’s teacher and/or principal to ensure that the school staff know how to give your child their medicine.

Medication should only be prescribed during school hours when necessary.

You and/or a doctor may authorise self-administration of some medication. This must be stated in the medical action and management plan.

You will be required to:

• Complete a written request to the school to administer the medication. You can download and print the Authorisation for Administration of Student Medication form (PDF, 207KB).
• Provide signed authorisation from your medical practitioner/pharmacist or practice nurse. This should give specific instructions for the administration of the medication.
• Transfer the medication safely to the school and hand it to the office staff to sign in.
• Provide the medication in the originally prescribed containers only.
• Help prepare a Medical Action Plan and a Medical Management Plan for your child if they need ongoing medication.
• Ensure to fill regular scripts on time and the school does not run out of medication.

NAPLAN

Distribution of NAPLAN Individual Student Reports for Students in Grades 3 and 5 (ISRs)

The National Assessment Program – Literacy & Numeracy (NAPLAN) reports for students in Grade 3 & 5 who sat the online test (paper-based writing test for Grade 3) this year will be sent this week. Your child’s report will show national information including how your child performed in relation to other students across Australia in their particular year group for each of the Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar, and punctuation) and Numeracy tests. Please contact your child’s teacher if you would like to discuss any aspect of the report. At Exeter Primary we use a range of assessments to find out how students are going with learning, and to guide learning programs. NAPLAN, which is an Australian-wide test, is one assessment that helps guide individual, school, and department planning.

2025 Athletics Tasmania/Little Athletics Tasmania State Cross Country Championship

Last week we had two students represent Exeter Primary School in the State Cross Country Championships and performed exceptionally well. I would like to congratulate both Asha and Molly on their excellent results.

Molly came first in the Under 8 Girls 1000m event. She managed to overcome all the Under 8 Boys as well and ran a very fast 4.22 min which was 17 seconds faster than last year’s winner.

Asha came 4^th in the Under 10 Girls 2000m in a quality field which included many of the top girls from the Primary Schools State event at Symmons Plains in June. Asha's result was remarkable in that she overcame a recent bout of illness to perform at a high level.