20 December 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

Thanks to everyone in our school community for making our 2018 Presentation Assembly a great success! In particular, special thanks to Mrs Spykers for her aspirational focus on building our music skills and also her production director role at our presentation assembly. We also acknowledge the wonderful support from Nic Wardlaw, Pete Cornelius, Victoria Headlam, Bronti Cooke, Meg Guy, Ros Wharton, Sallie Brockman and St Mary’s District School in supporting our assembly and our music program. Thanks also to Sandra Silberberg’s leadership of our administration support team for your wrap around support in often, not visible yet highly important, organisation behind the scenes.

I would like to farewell our amazing 2018 Grade 6 leavers. Thank you all so much for your leadership, commitment to your learning, and for your outstanding achievements as students of Bicheno Primary School: Axel Bannister, Caleb Broughan, Bayli Casboult, Lola de Boer, Georgie Featherstone, Shae Lord, Isak Oswald, Maceo Schneiders, Olivia Taylor, Zali Taylor, Sunny Tonks and Tarrant Wynne. Their diverse talent and breadth of achievements was very evident at our presentation assembly. We will miss you all and for those families who do not have younger children in the school we say thanks for your support, and for those many hours you have given during your child’s primary school years supporting their sporting and academic pathways.

At a staffing level, we sadly farewell three extraordinary teachers from our school:

1. Matt Woolley commences his new teaching role at Woodbridge School and we will miss his sense of humour, his passion for teaching, his zest for swimming programs and outdoors education, and his love of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Not only do we lose an excellent teacher but also a wonderful family from our school community. We wish Matt, Hanna, Felix and Niamh all the best with their new journey!
2. Recently we found out that Emily McCormack has been successful in gaining an Early Years teaching position at St Helen’s District High School. Emily did not want to leave our school but needed to for compelling personal reasons which I fully supported. Emily has done an amazing job as teacher of our Prep/1 class over the last two years. She is an absolutely committed teacher who works extremely hard to ensure she knows where her students are at with their learning and also differentiating her teaching program to their learning needs. We wish her and her family well in 2019.
3. Although Meaghan Harvey has only been teaching on a contract with us for 6 months, she has demonstrated her depth of teaching knowledge, sound understanding of students learning needs and has an innate ability to develop powerful relationships with her students and engage them in connected learning experiences. She has also been a reliable and highly competent relief teacher over many years and, up to 2017, an active parent in our school community. We wish Meaghan, Phil, Elijah, Charlotte and Matilda all the best with their gradual transition to Hobart.

To our School Association we thank you for your support of our students’ learning and your significant 2018 fundraising and purchasing of school resources. You are a highly capable group of people who provided this support in amongst already very busy lives. Everything you do is focussed on making our school an even better school, and creating welcomed resources which enhance student learning and parental involvement. It is such a pleasure to work in partnership with you all!

To our staff, as usual you have worked hard all year and achieved wonderful outcomes with your students. I again feel very proud to work with such a professional, dedicated and capable team!

Below are our 2019 classes and the allocated teachers. Some decisions have been made quite late as we had to wait for transfers to be completed. I can assure everyone our placement of teachers and support staff is often complex as we maximise the matching of staff to the students’ needs in that class.

2019 Classes and Teaching Staff

Just a reminder to parents/guardians to pick up your childs’ end-of-year reports from the front office. If not picked up they will be mailed to your home address. There are class lists in with the reports that will identify which teacher/s your children have in 2019.

Finally we would like to thanks everyone for your support and partnership in making 2018 a highly successful year. Have a wonderful Christmas with your families and friends and have a safe and prosperous new year in 2019!

Best wishes

Rob Presswell

Grade 5/6 – HASS EXPO

This term Grade 5/6 have been researching a major European, Asian or North American country. They needed to decide whether to focus on a particular topic (industry, traditions etc.) or whether to do a general overview of their country. The students used the internet to learn about their chosen country, checking facts against different sources. They needed to include some data comparisons, and discuss where their country is in relation to Australia.

They then compiled their research into a variety of presentation forms which they proudly displayed and spoke about at our Mini HASS expo which was attended by families and friends. All the students spoke knowledgably of their country and thoroughly enjoyed sharing their work with our school community.

Grade 5/6

In the final two weeks of the 2018 school year Grade 5/6 have been editing and publishing their writing projects. They have compiled their HASS research into a variety of presentation forms which they proudly displayed and spoke about at our Mini HASS expo last week. All the students have been busy rehearsing and preparing for our end of year assembly. Excitement and anticipation is building amongst the Grade 6’s as the end of their Primary Schooling draws closer. We have all had a wonderful year in the Grade 5/6 classroom. I wish all families a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy summer holiday.

Jill (Mrs) Bosua.

Merry Xmas – love from Kinder

Grade 6 Leavers

School Association Update

Term 1 welcome BBQ

Date for your diary: 14 Feb 2019, 2.45pm

We invite everyone to our term 1 meet & greet BBQ. Please come along and enjoy the chance to meet new parents and students. It’s also a good time to chat to the School Association members or our Principal, Mr Presswell, in an informal setting.

KEON update

Field Officer Nick Graham from Parks and Wildlife visited our school recently and spoke to our students about the Little Penguins who live in the Bicheno area. Our children are now equipped with some basic knowledge and skills to help protect these special birds. Thank you Nick for taking the time to visit us.

Thank you to everyone, young and old, who supported the Little Blue Sports sessions throughout the year. The coaches are proud of the positive attitude from all involved and the willingness from everyone to give it a go. Thank you to the coaches for your motivation and support of the children.

We will provide an update on the 2019 season early next year.

Grants

We have been successful in obtaining a grant from Australia Post for sports equipment.

If you become aware of any grants available to community groups you can email any info you have to megan_coelho@hotmail.com and we will do the rest.

Thank you

The Bicheno Primary School Association members would like to thank the entire school community for your support throughout 2018. There have been a huge number of volunteers who have helped us throughout the year in a number of different ways. We wouldn't have been able to provide the support to the teachers and students without your help.

Congratulations to our year 6 students who have finished their Primary School education and now move into the exciting world of high school. We wish you all the very best in your future endeavours.

We wish you a safe summer holiday break and look forward to seeing you all again next year.

Dates for your diary:

Saffire Xmas Tree project

Students from Bicheno Primary School were invited to decorate Xmas ornaments to place in the Saffire Reception.

Break O’Day Holiday Program

Information for parents

THE SCHOOL OFFICE WILL BE OPEN FOR BOOK COLLECTION AND ENQUIRIES FROM WEDNESDAY 30 JANUARY.

Rob Presswell

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

School Calendar