9 May 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Congratulations to the fantastic role models who won Principals Awards at our recent End of Term assembly. These students modelled our school values throughout the term and were worthy recipients. All the recipients are listed in the table at the end of my report.

Also, our whole school community is very proud of our students representing our Combined ENE/NE Athletics Team at the State Athletics Carnival in Launceston at St Leonards Sports Centre on Friday 11th May. Congratulations to Zali Taylor, Isak Oswald, Caleb Broughan, Forest Adams, Shae Lord, Stephen Omenka, Ruby Sparshott, Hallie Thompson and Ned Wolfe on being selected and we are sure you will do your best for both our school and our region.

Next week Grade 3 and Grade 5 NAPLAN assessments commence on Tuesday with Language Conventions and Writing, Wednesday with Reading and on Thursday Numeracy. We are confident all students will do their best and that parents will make every attempt to ensure students attend each day. If for some reason a student misses a test we have one opportunity to catch up the test on Friday.

Under the Tasmanian Government Education Act there are new attendance policies and processes in place. This term we will be sharing information in newsletters. Attending school every day has a definite positive correlation on student learning. Today we share what authorised absences are. The pdf is also available in the Forms and Documents section of the Schoolzine App.

Last Thursday our School Association held its AGM followed by a General Meeting. This was a highly productive and well attended meeting and there are exciting times ahead for our school community. Carrie has a meeting summary included in this newsletter. It’s great for our staff and students to have such a supportive and active group of parents driving school improvements at Bicheno primary School!

From Friday 11 May through to Wednesday 16 May I will be away on work related special leave and Matt Wooley will be the Responsible Officer during this time. Remember we have an open door policy at our school so don’t hesitate to contact class teachers, office staff or Matt Woolley if you have any concerns.

Have a great week and I look forward to catching up with everyone when I get back to school on Thursday 17 May.

Rob Presswell

End of term 1 School Value award recipients

School Association Update

So that’s Term 1 done & dusted & the BPS Assoc are pumped!!!

We kick started Term 2 with our AGM & I am excited to announce our newly elected team…..

• Chairperson: Carrie Wallis
• Vice Chairperson: Greg Patmore
• Secretary: Megan Coelho
• Treasurer: Lisa O’Neill

Committee Members; Caroline Marshell, Sonia Kubank, Scott Williams, Robert Presswell, BPS Staff Member

Community Members; Little Penguins, Earth Ocean Network

These members are representing all families and students of Bicheno Primary School. We are your voice. We encourage all expressions of interest & concerns to be shared with any of the above people.

It’s an exciting Term 2 with our students disco “Global” being held on June 28th. This Friday we will be holding our Mother’s Day Cake stall outside the IGA. In advance I would like to thank families for donations of cakes to ensure a successful fundraiser.

The School Assoc will be financially assisting further future landscaping around our school yard, introducing vegetable beds & installing more shade options for students at play times. Over the next few months we will be asking for volunteers to help with these projects.

It is a priority of the school association to provide sustainable, attractive & educational outdoor aesthetics to our primary school, but unfortunately vandalism of our school yard & buildings is becoming a common occurrence. We encourage after hour’s use of our school grounds, but we please ask that you report any unlawful behaviour to the local police straight away.

It’s going to be a busy Term 2 with after school sports activities, discos, cake stalls, canteen, gardening, footy tipping etc…. Please follow us on Facebook & newsletters for updates. If you are available to assist with any of these events please contact any of the above members of your school association.

Stay Warm!!

Carrie, BPS Assoc

School Association dates:

BPS Assoc meeting 7/6/2018, 4.30pm School Library
BPS Assoc Students Disco, 28/6/18

Grade 5/6

In English Grade 5/6 have been developing their skills in setting the scenes for our narratives. As a class we looked at this picture and used our five senses to place ourselves in the scene. We brainstormed what we would see, hear, feel, taste and smell. We also thought of what may have happened and when. We then used our ideas to collaboratively set the scene for a story.

What has happened here and how long ago?

• Zombie apocalypse, flood, chemical attack, earth quake, alien invasion, hurricane, war.
• 1 year, 20 years, 5 or 6 years

If we were standing in the middle of this scene, what would we see, hear, feel, taste and smell?

Collaborative Writing

The Last of Us; Silence of the City.

Six years have changed what was once a busy, bustling city. Rusty old cars sit where they were abandoned, rusted and broken. Over grown vegetation has reclaimed concrete streets and sidewalks. Silence, except for the flapping of worn and weathered banners and squeaking signs engulfs me. Loneliness overwhelms me, could I really be the only one? Am I the only one left, who can tell the story of what happened here?

We then used individual pictures and the five senses to inspire our own story settings. Here are some of our stories

Cottage in the hills

I stare at the soft, springy grass and tiny wooden cottage, isolated by the thick, evergreen wall of forest. My curiosity takes over, and I walk up to the front porch. It’s completely empty apart from the two thick, wooden poles holding up the roof. The door is uniquely shaped with an unusual knocker. The door has carvings of a dragon and a forest, not unlike the one behind me. I take a deep breath, put my hand on the strange door handle and turned the nob.

As the door slowly swings open, an unusual but calming scene meets my eyes. The inside of the cottage is square with, again, wooden boards covering the walls. On the far wall is a wood heater and a small pile of firewood. A tiny, round table against the left wall hold three pot of herbs in moist soil. A crystal, pale pink light illuminates the room in a pinkish glow. A small kitchen with a sink and five spacious cupboards is up against the corner closest to me. On the other wall is a rectangular table set for four. A cupboard, ceiling height stands next to the table, full of food. I decide to look around outside.

Ruby Sparshott

Castle on the hill

As the young boy approached the huge, wooden doors, he shuddered. The castle was so tall, and terrifying it looked like it was going to open up and swallow him. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door, with the letter in his hand. He was about to knock again when the door swung open, by itself. As it opened some bells chimed and the smell of mint drifted out the door. He had not realized it before, but some of the bricks were crumbling away. He knew he should go inside, but he was mesmerised. The windows had odd patterns on them. As he stepped inside, the door slammed shut. This was it, this would decide his future.

Zali Taylor

My Birthday in Patricks Square!

She fell out of her tree along Patricks Square. She was laying on the ground, with a yelp she’d realised her family had left her behind. The trees rustled and Lily finally stood up from the ground, she was lost. She felt scared she wanted to find them. She looked around but could only see a deserted pathway, with beautiful smells. She walked forward and realised that they were going out for dinner. She began to look at all sorts of restaurants: some were closed, some were open. Some busy, some . She thought she had no idea where her parents were. She had been playing with her little brother James. He had said something about MERRY MERRY DAY. She was confused.

Lola de Boer

My Farm

As I slipped the cold, smooth, new CD into my computer, a beautiful, green farm appeared. Paddocks of horses, cows and goats. Fields of trees, shrubs, fruit and veggies lighting up my eyes. Then words, hundreds of words layered the fields and paddocks guiding the way. I settled down in my pillowed desk chair, grabbed the mouse and pressed start.

Lola de Boer

Photo Day: May 21

Yoga flyer

Volunteer needed

Grade 5/6 have some class novels that require to be covered in contact. If you are able to help (you can take the books home with you if you wish to) – please see Mrs Bosua

What’s happening in our classrooms?

Prep/1

English

G1’s – Expressing our opinions in our writing (persuasive writing). Revising how to use ‘wow’ words to make our writing more interesting to the reader.

Preps – What is a sentence and how can we write a sentence?

Maths

• Explaining what strategies we are using for addition and subtraction problems
• Recognising Australian coins

Social focus

What can we do when we feel frustrated to get back in control e.g. breathing techniques, positive mantras.

Grade 1/2

In English we are learning about opinion writing.

In Maths we are learning number bonds or ways to make numbers by breaking them in to two or more parts.

In Science we have started a unit on Light and Sound.

Our Social Focus has been exploring what activities make us feel calm or relaxed. We have been wearing a ‘magic dot’ (similar to a mood ring) to monitor how we are feeling and taking notice of what activities we were doing when our dot changed colour. When we listened to a story the whole class’s dot changed colour!

Grade 3/4

In Literacy we are learning how to effectively edit both our own writing and helping others edit theirs. We are learning how to use adjectives and adverbs to make our narratives more interesting.

In Numeracy we are learning different methods of multiplying 2 digit numbers. We found if we make the numbers smaller, it becomes a lot easier to work out.

In Science we are continuing to look at life cycles and food webs in Antarctica. We are also investigating the characteristics of living and non-living things. One inquiry question were are researching is about fire and how it shares many of the characteristics of living things.

In HASS (Humanities and social sciences) we are learning about early Antarctic explorers. We currently have an ‘ice box’ from the TMAG, full of objects actually from past expeditions down to Antarctica.

Our Social focus this week is to respect other people’s space and property.

Grade 5/6

In maths, we have been learning about mental strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems and how to use rounding and estimation to check and predict answers to problems.

In English we have been learning how to improve our orientations when writing a narrative and have used our five senses to help paint an image (with our words) to set the scene of a story.

In preparation for our Term 2 class Novel we have researched some Mythological creatures and investigated some people from history, and the meanings of words that will be prominent in the story. We have begun to read; The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nickolas Flamel by Michael Scott.

In History and Social Sciences we have finalised our research on a North-American or European country (Grade 5) or an Asian country (Grade 6) that competed in the Commonwealth Games. We will be presenting to projects to the class this week.

In Art we have started working with Vanessa, developing our drawing skills before beginning to work with water colour.

Indonesian

Kinder will be continuing with the ELLA program with the first apps focusing on colours, numbers and introductions.

Prep/1, 1/2 and 3/4 will be reading an Indonesian text with a number focus. They will be asking, "Ada berapa?" (How many?) and providing an answer.

Year 5/6 will be reading and translating an Indonesian text about a young girl from Halmahera in Indonesia.

Art with Vanessa

This week, Grade 5/6 worked with Vanessa on developing their drawing skills in preparation for their unit on Watercolour.

Vanessa from Waub’s Bay Gallery has kindly supplied each of the students with a drawing kit and will work with our class for the first half of the Term.

Thankyou Vanessa for your generosity in supplying the kits, your time and your expertise

Getting Chilly?

There are some softshell jackets in various sizes available from the school office $55.00

School Association Footy tipping margins update

Footy tipping Round 4 winner was Sheryl O’Neill.

Round 5 winner was Patrea Lambert.

Sonia Kubank was Round 6 winner.

Important dates

School Information

Phone: 63751222
Email: bicheno.primary@education.tas.gov.au
Principal: Robert Presswell
School Business Manager: Sandra Silberberg

Teachers

Kinder and LiL: Eliza Spykers
Prep/One: Emily McCormack and Jen Sliskovic
Grade 1/2: Bron Pierce and Ali Jones
Grade 3/4: Matt Woolley
Grade 5/6: Jill Bosua
Support Teacher: Robert Presswell

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