8 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

It’s that busy time of year where we all plan and cover off on the wide range of activities leading up to the Christmas and New Year period.

Learning programs are in full swing and we have been conducting a number of assessments to help us celebrate what the students know and also to identify areas of focus for re-teaching leading up to the end of year student reporting period

I would like to thank the parents and community volunteers who continue to help our students with their reading. Also, for those that came along to helped with duty of care and the Great Eastern Clean Up of the oval, the Lions Park and Waub’s Bay beach.

Below are a number of key points for students, parents and our broader school community’s information for this year and for 2019 planning:

1. As I mentioned before Matt Woolley was successful in gaining a transfer to Woodbridge School for 2019 and we now know that Sam Kelly has successfully gained a transfer from Winnaleah District High School to Bicheno Primary School.
2. We can also now confirm that we will have a 5 teacher model in 2019 incorporating the following classes: Kindergarten, Prep/1, Grade1/2, Grade 3/4 and Grade 5/6. Class sizes will be around 20 students in each class and we will also have additional class support tutors in classes. Once teachers look at the optimum class make-up of students we will then advise our school community as to which students are in which classes.
3. Due to ongoing negotiations between our Secretary of Education and the Australian Education Union, reports on student achievement will be slightly different this term. Students will be getting an A-E rating and also information on their effort, but there will not be a general comment statement.
4. On Saturday 17th November the Bicheno Food and Wine Festival is on between 10.30am and 5.00pm at the Bicheno Lions Park. The Bicheno Food and Wine Festival is one of the highlights of the year for locals, businesses, visitors, stallholders and presenters, with numbers growing every year. A festival like this cannot be successful without volunteers, a festival coordinator, and a strong committee focussed on making our festival better every year.

This year I have been fortunate to be a part of the Bicheno Food and Wine Festival organising committee and am coordinating student volunteers from St Marys and Bicheno schools. I will be volunteering the whole day 17th November 2018 and will be the key contact coordinating student volunteers and also any parents who would like to volunteer alongside their children. I am asking our student leaders in both schools to give a 2 hour period of time to support either the adult volunteers and the coordinator with the smooth running of the festival, and/or to conduct a survey of people entering the festival. Students will be working in pairs. Last year many students volunteered for the day so if anyone is keen to do more hours then please let me know? Once I know who is available and what time preferences volunteers are available for (with signed support of their parents) and also their preference for survey, front entrance support, merchandise tents or supporting Council with recycling and rubbish emptying, I will develop a roster for the day and distribute this to students and parents. Any parents who can also volunteer on the day are welcomed (please email me on robert.presswell@education.tas.gov.au if you can help)? As this is not a school event parents are responsible for dropping off and picking up students at the times scheduled. Some parents came along and worked with their younger children last year which was great.

I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys the warmer weather!

Rob Presswell

Remembrance Day 2018

Remembrance Day has a special significance in 2018.

Sunday 11th November 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War (1914-1918).

The Bicheno RSL will be holding a service at the Cenotaph, starting at 10.40am for a 10.45am start.

Our Principal, Rob Presswell will be attending this service, along with our Student Leaders, who will play a role in the service.

We encourage all our students and families to attend if possible, to show our continued support for our community on such an important occasion.

What’s happening in our classrooms?

Kinder

English:

• We are learning to answer questions about stories we hear
• We are learning to hear and say the x sound at the end of words

Maths:

• We are learning to identify 2D shapes and their properties
• We are learning positional words

Social:

• We are learning to take responsibility for our own things
• We are learning to show respect to others when they speak to us (eye contact, body still, facing the person). Kinder decided that we need to: “listen with our eyes and our ears” when someone is talking to them

Chicken Update

Our chickens continue to grow. We love looking after them

Prep/One

English

• What it means to have your own point of view or opinion and how this is expressed in different stories.
• Writing compound sentences

Maths

• Telling the time to the nearest half hour using both digital and analogue clocks
• Place value e.g. for the number 68 …. think 6 tens and 8 ones. Applying this knowledge to assist with adding two digit numbers

Social and emotional focus

• What can we do to help us keep our attention on one thing at a time and why is this important?

Grade 1/2

Students in Grade 1/2 have been exploring the ways Aboriginal people maintain special connections to place. We have been "shell stringing" on the rocks by the ocean and trying to understand the special connection, through exploring a different culture, to our local place. Vanessa kindly came to class and showed us a beautiful Aboriginal shell necklace made of rice shells that had been gifted to her. It inspired the students to respectfully create their own necklaces. Many thanks to Vanessa and also to Jessie for sharing some of her special shells.

In Grade 1/2 we have been learning about prefixes and how they change the meaning of the base word (for example, happy-unhappy).

We have been developing our understandings around multiplication as repeated addition by making arrays and putting objects into equal groups.

In Science we made paper helicopters to identify the push of air and the pull of gravity acting on a falling object. We discussed how we could make a test fair, and changed the wing size of one of our helicopters, but kept the paper and height of the drop the same.

Grade 3/4

In English we are working on re-reading and editing our texts for meaning, appropriate structure and punctuation.

In Maths we are showing money in various ways and solving simple purchasing problems.

In HASS we are learning about the importance of Country/Place to Aboriginal people who belong to a local area.

Halloween

In Grade 3/4 we are learning about celebrations and commemorations in places around the world. We are also working on re-reading and editing our texts for meaning appropriate structure and punctuation.

The students created a piece of writing and some art work based on Halloween. The students are also all across the history of Halloween too, so feel free to ask the Grade 3/4's for all the hot Halloween info!

Grade 5/6

In Maths Grade 5/6 have been learning about area, perimeter and volume and capacity. Using mathematical formulas, we learnt how to solve these forms of measurement in irregular and 3D shapes. We also learnt how to use appropriate units of measurement for each of these.

In Maths we have also been learning about division. We learnt about strategies such as; partitioning, fact families and repeated subtraction and the meaning of the word ‘divisible’. We also learnt about the names of parts in a division number sentence and what a remainder looked like.

In English we have been looking at subjective and objective language and the language features that help us ‘temper’ our bare assertions in persuasive texts.

In HASS we have been learning about the evolution of democracy and Magna Carta. We have been examining the importance of democracy in Australia and what this looks like compared to absolute power and the reign of King John in 1215.

In Science we have been learning the difference between chemical and physical changes to materials by conducting experiments using a range of materials. We have consolidated our thinking by comparing and analysing the characteristics of both physical and chemical changes in a table.

Welcome to our Pre- Kinder Students

Welcome to our new Pre-Kinder students. We are very excited to have these wonderful students and their families join our school community.

Beach to Bush

Prep/1 and Grade 1/2 had a visit from the Beach to Bush program on Monday afternoon run by Surf Lifesaving Tasmania. We learnt all about how to be safe at the beach and in the ocean, just in time for Summer!

Combined Choir 2018

Recently our choir travelled to St Marys and Scotch Oakburn College to take part in our annual Coastal Combined Choir. We learnt two songs which were recorded on the second day. One song was written by Rueben Koops and the other was part of the Count Me In Too music initiative.

Coastal Clean Up

Our school was very proud to be part of the first ever 2018 Great Eastern Clean Up organised by the Glamorgan Spring Bay Council. EVERYBODY in Glamorgan Spring Bay, from Bicheno to Buckland, gave a couple of hours of their time, cleaning up our beaches and our beautiful parks and reserves!

Our school community did us proud collecting a huge amount of rubbish helping to create a cleaner environment for our birds, fish and animals will be saved. Imagine how beautiful our will look and how much safer they’ll be. Imagine how great you will feel because you were part of it!

The litter was collected and put it into one big shed and Council are sorting it, and counting it and recording where it came from so in the future we can stop it even becoming litter!

Our students, staff and parents did us proud and I would like to particularly thank the Bicheno Earth Ocean Network (EON) and the Glamorgan Spring Bay Council for their support and provision of clean-up resources. Well done everyone!

Launching into Learning

Building blocks

Little Blue Sports Sessions

Important dates

Information for parents

A friendly reminder that the school has a duty of care for student from 8:15am, extending to 3:15pm. Students on the school grounds outside of these operating hours must be under parental supervision. The school toilets and classrooms are closed at 2:45pm. There are public toilets located next to Little Penguins Child Centre.

Rob Presswell

School Information

Phone: 6375 1222
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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