Book Week

What an absolutely fun-filled and exciting week! This year our staff, students and families have totally outdone themselves with their commitment to celebrating Book Week 2019. Our parade on Wednesday was such a wonderful display of the love of reading we foster here at LPS, and I would like to say a big thank you for all the adults at home who made it possible for around 95% of our students to turn up as their favourite characters. Having three children at home to organise, I can personally relate to how much time and effort is gone into each costume and I can honestly say that this year has been the best I have been a part of. The joy on each students face when I was able to guess who they were dressed as was worth every minute of your time. Mrs Sheehan and Mrs Rookie also held some wonderful activities and competitions throughout the week and it was great to see the levels of excitement and participation in these over the course of the week.

Professional Learning News

Last week our staff presented our findings for the four Action Research teams that have been active over the past two terms. You may remember from an earlier newsletter, that this is where small groups of staff meet regularly to identify targeted areas/identified school priorities and research best practice. They then make recommendations about how to address issues, provide ideas and solutions and make suggestions about how to resource them. This year our focus groups were in the areas of: 

1. Home/school communication tools
2. Playground environment/kitchen garden
3. Behaviour Management policy
4. Refocusing Teaching and Learning (play based learning)

Over the next couple newsletters I will talk about what each group has presented, the recommendations made and how this will impact on our school community. 

Home/school communication:

This group researched the best method of communication from the classroom level to parents and families. The groups subsidiary questions were: What are we looking for with these communication programs/apps? What do each of the programs/apps offer in relation to student electronic journaling, assessment opportunities, communication between teacher, parent and students. The group conducted independent research and found that the most user friendly and appropriate tool was an app called ‘Seesaw’. Many of you are already familiar with the app, as some of our staff have been using it for the past three years. This group made recommendations about how it is currently being used in our school, how user friendly it is for families, teachers and students, as well as how we can resource professional learning for all of our staff to adopt this app by 2020.  Over the next few months individual classes who are not already using the app will be trialling certain aspects of it and we will be providing professional learning in Term 4, with the aim  that all classes will be using it in 2020. All parents will be sent home information and instructions and there will be strict protocols involved in the sharing of information. 

Playground environment/kitchen garden:

This group researched some ways to improve our outdoor play spaces, in particular the area outside the Music building, including the garden and loose parts play pod. The group have submitted some designs and requests for equipment that reflect our intention to introduce inquiry and play based learning spaces that ‘outdoor classrooms’ to utilise during investigations and inquiries as well as a proposed ‘Outdoor Music Walk’ which leads up and around the current school garden. The proposal also included some ideas and recommendations related to different kitchen garden programs and how we could potentially resource these here in 2020. This proposal has been shared with our grounds staff and is now being submitted for the Student Representative Council to have a look at and gain some student voice. After this process it will be presented to the School Association to request assistance towards funding the proposal. 

These action research groups are integral to identifying areas within our school that we can improve on. At this point, it is important to note that this process happens regularly across the school in leadership team meetings, support staff meetings, as well as grade team meetings to ensure that the systems and processes at LPS are up to date and relative to our current school priorities, context and student cohort. Through this newsletter, our aim is to keep parents and families informed as regularly as we can of these updates, and where possible, consulted. Our School Association is also a great way of staying up to date with these reviews and processes. As an example, at a recent School Association meeting a parent brought up the courtyard and why we didn’t go ahead with the proposed upgrades. I was able to explain and answer questions on this topic and speak in detail about why this did not occur. If you have any issues, concerns or ideas I would welcome you to attend the next meeting or contact the school via phone or email.

Warm regards,

Kel Innis

Principal

Thank you to everyone who came along to the School Association Movie Night last week. We had a fantastic turn out and hope you all enjoyed the evening!

Order forms for next Friday's Father's Day Breakfast are now due back. If you haven't dropped yours in yet, please do so on Monday. Spares are available in the office, or you can print at home using the link below:

Next meeting: The next meeting of the Association will be on Wednesday September 11th at 7pm in the Library.

The Growing Up program is Tasmania’s leading relationships, sexuality, and protective behaviours program for students K-6. The program is age-appropriate and sequential and addresses personal health, protective behaviours, self-esteem and creating and maintaining meaningful relationships. Classes from K-6 will participate in sessions commencing on Tuesday 27^th August and finishing on Friday 30^th August. The program will be run in classrooms by specially trained educators and will be supported by classroom teachers. 

A parent/carer information session is provided on Tuesday 27^th August from 8:30-9:00am. This covers the program content and the ways in which parents can support their child’s learning. The parent session will be run in our school library and all parents are encouraged to come along and take part to learn more about the program. If there are any questions or concerns that I can address in advance, please feel free to contact me via the school phone number or through email.

Kind regards,

Sophie Sheehan

62 439 232

Sophie.sheehan@education.tas.gov.au

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/s 4-6 at  Lindisfarne Primary School will be taking part in a wellbeing survey.

The Student Wellbeing Survey is part of the Department of Education’s Child and Student Wellbeing Strategy.

The details for the survey are:

When:                                          Monday 26^th Of August

Who:                                            All Grade 4-6 students.

What do I need to do:                You and your child don’t need to do anything. The survey will be done in class time and will not require your child to prepare in    any way.

A letter with more information has been sent home with all Year 4-6 students, including a link to the Frequently Asked Questions site 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 Ms. Innis.

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.

Book Week 2019 has been a great success. It has been fantastic to see so many students showing off their love of reading and the connections they make with the characters in the books they read. 

Thank you for the effort that went into tracking down or creating costumes, and supporting your child to read every day.

Special thanks go to Mrs Sheehan and Mrs Roocke for turning their genuine love for books into a fun-fulled week of activities for our students!

Both Kinder Possums and Kinder Wombats will be visiting Frank restaurant in Salamanca this Wednesday 28th August. This is going to be an exciting and culinary experience for our Kinders as they will experience a commercial restaurant in action, watch the preparation and cooking of food and experience some fine dining.

Please make sure we are aware of any allergies and all medical action plans are up to date (please see classroom teacher if unaware).

2A & 2B are off on an excursion to the Mt Nelson Sustainability Centre Thursday 5th September. 

The next assembly will be held this Friday 30th August and will be hosted by 1B, with items from 5/6A and 3B. 

Kinder enrolments for 2020 are now open for children born in 2015. If you are intending to enrol with LPS please complete and return an Enrolment Form at your earliest convenience. Email lindisfarne.primary@education.tas.gov.au to request to have forms emailed out to you. 

The Winter Carnival is this coming Tuesday 27th August for selected students.   Participating students should have received all relevant information for the tournament from their coach. 

Good luck to all competing! Well done to all students who tried out for the various sports on offer. 

This year the Swimming Carnival will be held on Wednesday 18th September. All students  from Grade 3-6 will be at the Clarence Aquatic Centre from 9:30 until 12:30pm. 

Parents/carers are welcome to come along to watch and cheer. Volunteers are always appreciated. If you hold a current RWVP card and would like to help out on the day, please let the school office staff know. 

LPS students Bonnie and Olive Smith recently represented Tasmania in the School Sports Australia Swimming Championships. The event was held over 2 days in Melbourne.

Both girls had a wonderful time away, gaining huge personal bests in their races and making new friendships. Olive made it through to the the finals in the Girl's 10yrs 100m Breaststroke, and finishing 8th in Australia! Both Bonnie and Olive were in a relay together for Tasmania, in the 4 x 50m handicap relay, where they took out the Bronze medal for Tassie!

This event was an amazing opportunity for Bonnie and Olive to be able to race against some of Australia's best swimmers.

Congratulations, girls! You are sure to inpsire many with your dedication and passion for your chosen sport.

Please add the following dates to your calendar if you have a child in Grade 6:

Grade 6 Camp: November 6th-8th

Leavers Assembly: December 17th

Leavers Dinner: December 17th

Camp payment can be made via the Bpay details on the DoE invoice that was posted out, or at the school office.

Veggie burgers are now available from the school canteen for $4.50. They can be ordered with salad or just cheese and mayo.

Nippy's Milk is back! $2.50, chocolate and strawberry available. 

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