Good afternoon families, 

New Flagpole 

Last Friday our students engaged in an Indigenous Cultural Day building a deeper understanding of Australia’s rich history, promoting respect for diverse perspectives, and helping build connections with the land, traditions, and communities that have shaped our country. 

This morning, we had a special ceremony to raise the Aboriginal flag on our brand-new flagpole. Matilda shared the ‘Welcome to Country’ and Reggie raised the flag for the first time behalf of our school community. A big thankyou to Mr Steve Henderson for installing our new flagpole so that each day we can raise the Aboriginal flag alongside the Australian flag.  

Grade 6  

Yesterday, our Year 6 students had the exciting opportunity to attend Orientation Day at Kings Meadows High School and Scotch Oakburn. As they begin the important transition from primary to high school, these experiences help them feel more confident and prepared for the changes ahead. They couldn’t wait to share their experiences with us today! 

Ryan and Aiden had a great time making muffin pizzas, which turned out to be delicious.  Aiden and Seb were fascinated by the Science lesson, where they watched an engaging static electricity demonstration and then created wind turbines to generate power. Bonnie and Ruby enjoyed making new friends and visiting the canteen.   

We know the Evandale values of respect, responsibility, courage, connection and growth will hold them in good steady as they transition to Year 7.  

Communicating Learning Progress 

Kinder 

In week 8, Ms Rachelle Smith will be offering families an opportunity to meet, share and discuss your child’s Kinder Development Check, and progress on their 2024 goals. There are timeslots available Tuesday 3rd, Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th of December in the afternoon from 3:20 until 5pm.  A note will come home, please respond with a suitable time.  

Prep to Year 6 

Students Prep to Year 6 will receive a written report on Thursday the 12th of December. Students will be assigned a rating for English, Maths, Science, HASS and PE. 

Kinder 2025 

It was a pleasure meeting so many of our new families at the 2025 Kindergarten information session on Monday morning, as well as current families who have a younger sibling starting Kindergarten. Kindergarten is such a special year, and it builds upon the rich learning experiences children gain at home, in their community, and through other early childhood services. Building strong relationships and forming genuine partnerships with families, we value the role of families in their child’s learning journey and work collaboratively to support each child’s individual needs. We hope these sessions will provide valuable information to help support your child to begin school and give all families a deeper understanding of the supportive and engaging environment at Evandale Primary School. 

I’m excited to confirm that in 2025, Kindergarten days will be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and our Kinder teacher will be Ms. Rachelle Smith. We look forward to partnering with you to support your child as they embark on their primary school journey. 

Session 2 – Monday 25th November 

• Brooke Sims SBM - Enrolment, Levies, STAS, Attendance, Schoolzine App, school uniforms. Parents will have the opportunity to purchase or order uniform items if they would like.  

• Bella Mitchell- AST 

Session 3 – Monday 2nd December 

• Rachelle Smith - Introduction and transition to Kinder, KDC, Kinder booklets, lunch boxes  

• Abby Woodland - School Social Worker (TBC) 

• Jocelyn McLean (QTC) - DECYP Lifting Literacy, phonics and fun ways to read 

Session 4 – Monday 9th December 

• Maree Duggan (Principal) and Bella Mitchell (AST) - Extra-curricular opportunities, specialist lessons and additional information  
• Tour of the school with SLC 

Book Fair 

Just a reminder about our special One Day Book Fair on Tuesday, December 3rd, in our school library! This exciting event features a ‘Buy One, Donate One’ initiative, where for every book purchased, another will be donated to help expand our school library collection. 

The Book Fair will be open for purchases on Tuesday, December 3rd from 8:30–9:15 AM and 2:30–3:15 PM, as well as on Wednesday, December 4th from 8:30–9:15 AM. 

Grade 5 Leadership News 

Yesterday I touched base with our Year 5 students and shared the leadership process for 2024. We will host a Leadership Preparation Day on Thursday, November 28th (while the Year 6 students are on their celebration day out) which includes a BBQ lunch and icy pole. Students will participate in two YMCA led Leadership workshops, designed to enhance students' social and emotional skills as outlined in the Australian Curriculum with a focus on building confidence, collaboration, and a sense of connection with others—key qualities for future leaders.  

Students will have time to reflect on their leadership aspirations in the afternoon by considering the opportunities for roles and responsibilities through a leadership application.  We will encourage them to share their ideas with you and return their application form by Monday the 2nd of December. Students will then share their ideas through a speech to our year 2 to 5 students the following week. 

Infant Fun Day  

Today our Prep-Grade 2 students travelled to Longford Primary for the Infant Fun Day joining other young students from schools in our area to have a great day of outside fun and activities.  A wonderful day was had by all! 

Country Gold Sporting Success

Congratulations to Bonnie and Mia who played in the AFLW Gala Day last Friday. The Northern Midlands team was undefeated and went through to the finals to beat the LSSSA team 48 to 0.  

A Country Gold Squad was selected on the day as selected by AFL TAS talent staff. Bonnie was selected as part of this team, and she will receive an opportunity to attend talent ID and coaching sessions.  

Congratulations to Ryan who was selected to play in the Country Gold cricket at Windsor Monday and Tuesday of this week. It was great to hear Ryan got 4 wickets and made 25 runs. 

Goodluck to our students that are participating in the Devonport Triathlon tomorrow – Bonnie, Lacey, and Charlotte.  

Don't forget our cake raffle tomorrow! Tickets are $1.00 each. Good Luck!!

Thank you to Rachel for last week's cake and congratulations to the winner, Emily. 

If these dates do not suit, please let Naomi know.

We had a fabulous week with our Indonesian Teachers through the Australia - Indonesia Building Relationships through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement (BRIDGE) School Partnerships Program. It is a flagship program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and delivered by the Asia Education Foundation at the University of Melbourne.   

We met Miss Anisa and Mr Fuadi at the airport and within a few minutes of driving towards Evandale Miss Anisa exclaimed “What’s That?!” She had never seen cows grazing in a field. We had many delightful moments over the week as they enjoyed our beautiful environments, enormous school space and lovely animals. They tried many Australian foods, worked with students in their classrooms and were welcomed with enthusiasm and joy from everyone in our school and community. A number of students received letters from Indonesian students and have written back to them. Everyone was so excited. 

Thank you so much to the Booth and Briede families for hosting our teachers, providing delicious meals and further enriching experiences. We feel we have made friends for life, and Mrs Mitchell and I can't wait to continue our connections between our schools including a visit to Cirebon, Java at Easter next year. Thank you for embracing this Partnership program that we hope to continue for many years to come. Please enjoy a few photos. 

Sincerely 

Ms Harlow

Refurbished iPads for sale 

We are currently updating our fleet of devices for student use and have a number of refurbished Generation 6 iPads for sale. They will be completely wiped, IT checked and sold in “as is” condition for $150.00 each. Please note that they will not come with a charger but these are easy to come by if you don’t have some apple chargers at home already. These iPads have absolutely nothing wrong with them, they are just over 5 years old now and DECYP has a policy that learners will have access to devices that are current and no more than 5 years old.  

We are unable to hold devices and would prefer you come in person to the office to pay for and collect the iPads rather than sending them home with students. Payments can be made by eftpos or cash. At this time it looks like we have around 14 devices to sell. 

As the students did such an outstanding job on collecting plastic bottles for our wasp control program, we'd like to give them the opportunity to do it again for term 4. 

This time we're after containers that don't allow any light in - NO MORE BOTTLES

For example: 

• Butter and margarine containers. 
• large plastic yoghurt containers. 

Diemen's Ridge will pay $1.00 per container. 

The containers need to be rinsed, have lids and not be squashed.

Looking for Christmas present ideas? Join us for a special One Day Book Fair on Tuesday, December 3rd, in our school library! This exciting event features a ‘Buy One, Donate One’ initiative, where for every book purchased, another will be donated to help expand our school library collection. 

The Book Fair will be open for purchases on Tuesday, December 3rd from 8:30–9:15 AM and 2:30–3:15 PM, as well as on Wednesday, December 4th from 8:30–9:15 AM. 

A big thank you to Mrs. Sandra Becker and Mrs. Jan Stanton for generously donating their time to organise this wonderful opportunity. We look forward to seeing you there and helping to grow our library resources for all students to enjoy!