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- Launching into Learning Term1 calendar
- Safeguarding in Schools - Volunteer Requirements
- Read Sing Create!
- Tasmanian Native Bees
- Move & Play Every Day
- Tesselaar Fundraise with bulbs
- COMING SOON ..... Bicheno Oz Filmfest
- Auskick
- Superkick
Our Commitment: With courage we learn, connecting to people and place. Striving for excellence by being curious, creative and resilient.
Dear Bicheno Primary School Community,
What a positive and settled start we have had to the new school year! It has been a privilege to welcome our students back to school excited, happy, and energised, ready for learning. Our students have begun the year by ‘tuning in’ to our conceptual focus of belonging and school value focus of connection. These two values are at the heart of our school’s culture, as they are essential for creating a supportive, inclusive, and engaging environment for all students. Belonging means that every student feels valued, seen, heard and part of our community, while connection is about the relationships that are built between students, teachers, and the broader school community. When students feel connected and like they truly belong, they are more confident in engaging with their learning, building relationships, and becoming active participants in our school community. Our student leaders have eagerly begun their work on these focus areas, initiating friendship benches around the school to create spaces where students can connect and support one another.
I would like to officially welcome our new students: Stevie Campbell, Mac and Beatrix Cornelius, Amelie and Enael Heidsieck, Yana and Grace Pryor, Fred Wood and Jheriane Adriano, along with our new Kinders: Jack, Tyler, Johnny, Riv, Isla, Isabell, Tarkyn, Arlo, Oskar, Leven, Jackson, Ollie, and Dot. I’m extremely confident that over the next few weeks, you will form fantastic relationships with our friendly students and staff, feel safe, valued, and part of our learning community.
Our new curriculum focus on reading fluency has also begun, with all classes unpacking and practicing strategies to improve fluency. Reading fluency is the ability to read smoothly, accurately, and with appropriate expression. It involves not just decoding words but recognizing them quickly and effortlessly. Fluency is essential because it serves as the bridge to comprehension. When a reader struggles to decode words or reads slowly, their focus is divided between figuring out what the words are and understanding what they mean. This makes it difficult to grasp the overall meaning of the text. Fluency allows readers to shift their attention away from decoding and toward understanding the content. A fluent reader can effortlessly engage with the text, making connections and interpreting its deeper meaning. Teachers have begun sending communication to families on how to support your child in building reading fluency.
Duty of Care for students
A reminder to families, that teachers are on duty from 8:30am
Drop-Off and Pick-Up Area
Our staff carpark is a drop-off and pick-up area only. We ask that families do not park cars in this area and leave them unattended. This area needs to remain relatively clear for the safety of students. Please also ensure that you don’t park on marked yellow lines and that your children use the footpath rather than walking or riding behind the staff cars.
Bikes
It is wonderful to see so many of our students riding their bikes and scooters to and from school. A reminder for students to please hop off their bikes/scooters when crossing the road (not just at our school crossing) and walk them around the adjacent school boundary. Our students are also asked to walk their bikes within our school playground and along the footpath in front of the IGA.
Please ensure you keep up to date on SZAPP and our Facebook pages for school and learning information.
Kind regards,
Tom Spykers
PrincipalIt has been a wonderful start to Term One! In Kinder, the focus has been on creating some daily routines and forming connections with those around us. The students have been demonstrating the Learner Asset of being a Collaborator. This means, the students are being compassionate, kind and reliable. Some of the ways the students have been collaborators include sharing class resources, taking turns at different stations during investigation time, working together to complete a challenge and being a kind and caring friend.
The class Inquiry focus is exploring who are the people in our school community? We are in the tuning in phase of this inquiry, where we are exploring what it means to be curious and practicing questioning skills. The class has also been creating wonderings about what it means to belong in a community. Here are some of our thinking:
Some of the places we belong include:
“In my Home”.
“We belong in Bicheno”.
“I belong in Coles Bay”.
“I belong on the farm”.
“With my Mum”.
“Bicheno Primary School”
“I belong with my brother”.
“In Kinder”.
Another focus has been exploring what belonging looks like in our classroom. The students have created their faces out of different materials for our belonging wall. Families have also brought in family photos for the wall. This has been a wonderful experience and solidifies the important message of belonging in a community.
It has been wonderful getting to know each member of the class. Over the past two and a half weeks. There has been lots of investigations, learning, developing friendships, establishing routines and having so much fun.
Here are some photos of the past few weeks.
Welcome to Prep and Grade 1 for 2025. We have 23 students (14 Preps and 9 Grade 1s).
As SELF-MANAGERS our Preps are learning new routines and expectations such as:
- Finding our bag box and putting our bag away.
- Bringing their lunchbox, drink bottle and communication pouch into the classroom.
- Listening to the morning meeting to see what is happening for the day.
- Putting their workbooks into their school tub.
- Lining up after recess and lunch.
- Packing up their own bags
As SELF-MANAGERS our Grade 1s are learning new routines and expectations such as:
- Changing their own take home reading books each morning
- Working independently on a set task that is different from the Prep work
- Getting used to higher expectations for class task
- Looking after their own belongings (including a pencil case)
- Being leaders and modelling great classroom behaviours and reminding the Preps of new routines in a kind way.
Prep/Grade 1 Inquiry.
Our inquiry question for term 1 is:
How do our emotions, values and rules help us to understand what it means to belong to a community.
Our focus learner assets for term 1 are:
COLLABORATOR and SELF-MANAGER. Collaborators work together with kindness and respect. Self-Managers take responsibility for their behaviour and actions. They can talk about their emotions, challenge themselves to learn, make good choices, and have a positive mindset.
We are at the TUNING IN phase of our inquiry. We have discussed the things that we, as learners, like to have in a classroom. These will be our rules (or the things that we value) for the classroom and we will probably add new things if we think of any.
We have also begun discussing the meaning of some words that give us a deeper understanding of our inquiry question. We will also probably add new words as they arise.
Prep/Grade 1 Investigation time.
We will try to do investigation time 3 times each week. Our first investigation areas are aimed at building computer skills for the preps by using QR codes and taking photos. The Grade 1s will also build on their skills and will be trying to log in independently. Investigation time is a mixture of learning and building on classroom routines. There’s lots of creativity, problem solving, working alone or with someone, researching and building. We are working on creating the routines of choosing one activity for the whole time, using the Ipads appropriately and sharing our learning with our peers.
Prep/Grade 1 mornings using phonics
Each morning the Preps and Grade 1s will work separately for a phonics program (UFLI).
The preps will work with Ms Calder and the grade 1s will join with the grade 1 from the classroom next door, and go into the library with Mrs Cusick. It is a 30 minute focus on phonics that will support each grade. After this we will work on fluency. It will be a year long focus where we read books that are a bit easy, so that we can read smoothly and with expression. Next students will have a short piece of writing that comes from our fluency reading.
Learning Question:
What does it mean to belong?
Inquiry Unit Driving Question: How do our emotions, values, and rules help us understand what it means to belong to a community?What are we learning?
This term, Grade 3/4 students are inquiring into the concept of belonging, starting by reflecting on what belonging means to them. They were then challenged to create a symbol using pipe cleaners that represents ‘belonging’.
To develop a sense of belonging, we first need to understand ourselves and who we are. We have started exploring our emotions with the book Ups and Downs by Karen Young. This book delves into the Polyvagal Theory and its impact on our emotional and physical well-being. It explains how our autonomic nervous system, particularly the vagus nerve, influences how we respond to stress, safety, and connection. This book will assist us in understanding these concepts and in managing our emotions and responses more effectively.How are we learning it?
I am a collaborator
- I contribute my own ideas and actively listen to and consider others
- I encourage my parttner to contribue and I value their thoughts and ideas
- I am flexible and make compromises when necessary
Links to Curriculum:
Health: By the end of Year 4, students will identify influences that strengthen their identities and describe strategies to manage emotions, changes, and transitions. They will apply skills and strategies to interact respectfully with others.
Outcome: Explain how and why emotional responses can vary and practise strategies to manage emotions.
In 5/6 we have been inquiring into our identity – what makes us who we are and what values we hold dear. We have been thinking about how this can help us make our classroom a place where we can feel connected and learn. These are some of the visuals we have been creating to share our identity and values with each other.
Australian native bees come in a whole spectrum of colours and sizes.
Unlike the iconic (and introduced) European honeybee that most of us are familiar with, our native bees are mostly solitary and in some cases stingless!
While in Tasmania we have over 100 species of native bees, some common ones are Reed bees, Leafcutter bees, and Resin bees.
Last week, students completed their first workshop on native bees, where they lerned how to identify different species and explore their behaviours. Today they have been making bee homes across the primary sector, using materials from our school yard and materials brough from students gardens.
This is part of our involvement in the Native Bee Guardians programs, which aims to engage students and the community in supporting lutruwita's native bees. The program includes hands-on learning about local bees, habitat restoriation, and fostering a connnection to biodiversity and environmental stewardship. As part of this program, we will also be connecting with Bicheno Landcare to plant native vegetation to support habitat restoration, helping us develop our Contributor learner asset.
What are some things I can do to encourage native bees into my garden?
Everyone knows that bees need flowers!
Aim for a mix of native plants so that you have something blooming all year round.
Research has shown that native bees are more drawn to flowers that are blue, white and yellow, rather than the brighter colours such as red.
Here are a few suggestions for your garden!
Everlasting Daisies, Grevilleas, Wattle, Purple Coral Pea
Some species of native bees aren’t picky when it comes to where they get their pollen!
Here are a few suggestions for non-native plants that can be grown in the garden:
- Lavender
- Camellias
- Delilahs
- Many vegetables and herbs when left to flower, such as cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, and mustard!
BICHENO OZ FILMFEST
A showcase of some of the best recent Australian feature films
Bicheno Memorial Hall
23 February – 23 March 2025
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The Bicheno Oz Filmfest is a celebration of Australian films - comedy, family, animation, horror and drama - something for everyone! From Oscar nominee, Memoir of A Snail, an animation for grown-ups by Adam Elliott - to the hilarious family hit film, Runt about a clever little dog |
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that has delighted audiences across Australia, it's Bicheno's chance to see the best, the funniest, the scariest and the most thought-provoking recent Oz films on the big screen.
Programmed by filmmaker Sue Maslin (The Dressmaker) who is based in Bicheno, the season will be a combination of night-time and matinee screenings.
“Just because we are living on the East Coast shouldn’t mean that we miss out on the fun of seeing great Aussie movies on the big screen with an audience. The Bicheno Memorial Hall has upgraded its screening facilities and I am delighted that I can now share some of the most exciting to have been released over the past twelve months”.
Screenings include Runt, Memoir of A Snail, The Way My Way, Talk To Me, Blueback, The Magic Beach, Late Night With The Devil and The Dry 2 – Force Of Nature
Program details and advance ticket sales available here https://bicheno-oz-filmfest.eventbrite.com.au/
All proceeds from the screening of Blueback on Saturday 15th will go to the Bicheno Landcare Group to help them continue their amazing work protecting our foreshore environment and beyond.
For further information, please contact info@filmartmedia.com |
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