Welcome back to Term 2, we have had a fabulous start to the term with lots of excited people ready to settle back into school routines and learning. As I stated in the last newsletter I will be continuing as acting principal until the end of term 2 or until further notice. As always you are always welcome to have a chat or make a time to discuss your child’s learning and wellbeing needs or share feedback and suggestions for our school.

We are focussing on our PURR and DECYP values of Respect and Responsibility this term. We will be explicitly teaching students about these values and presenting merit certificates to students that have been consistently displaying these values or trying to improve the way they display these values around our school.

We will hold our first assembly in Week 4 as P-2 students will be on excursion in Week 3. We look forward to hearing all about their farm adventure at Hagley. The following assemblies are still scheduled for Week 6 and 9 this term.

We have updated emergency procedures, aligned to DECYP policies. We will practice some of our procedures with students including lockdown and evacuation drills. We will do these drills as calmly as possible to minimise student’s stress and anxiety.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

Help us better understand any barriers that may be in the way, and what supports are needed to help with getting to school.

The Department for Education, Children and Young People is doing statewide consultation on school attendance. 3P Advisory is independently running the consultation. Your answers are confidential, and you won’t be identified.

We want to hear from you. You can take part in an online survey, share or vote for suggestions, or join an online drop-in session via the 3P website. The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.

You can also share your thoughts about what you like or don’t like about our Every school day matters campaign.

As a parent or carer, please have your say. Please encourage your child/ren, too. Every piece of feedback counts. Thanks for helping shape future DECYP initiatives, school-based engagement strategies and public awareness campaigns.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Asher from Tool Skool will be working with each class on Monday to guide the creation of a woodwork piece. Students will use purpose-built tool benches and real tools; it will be a lot of fun and hopefully inspire some buddy builders!

SPORT CARNIVALS

WELCOME

We welcome Mrs Chantelle Smith-Brain and Mrs Cherie Smith as they complete their 100 hours of placement with us this term, as they are working towards their qualification as a teacher assistant (TA). Mrs Smith-Brain will be attending on Tuesdays, she has previous qualifications as a social worker and has completed part of an education degree. Mrs Smith is employed as a relief TA with us and is a valued member of our school community, she will be completing her placement on Wednesdays. We appreciate the effort that they will put into supporting our students whilst they gain valuable experience in a school environment.

RACT ROAD SAFETY PROGRAM

We enjoyed having RACT Road Safety program on Tuesday with Sarah. Next Thursday students are welcome to wear a splash of yellow to raise awareness of road safety. (Please see student report in this newsletter)

CANTEEN 

Staff and students really enjoyed their lunch orders yesterday! Thanks to Kristy for successfully carrying out our first day. You may have heard that the lunch orders were a little late and there were a few teething problems but otherwise there were many happy customers, we are looking forward to yummy Wednesday canteen lunches throughout the term! If you have any feedback or suggestions, please let our friendly office admin staff know.

SCHOOL UNIFORM REMINDER

Please ensure that your child is wearing our Evandale Primary School uniform to school and appropriate school attire. Please see photos as an example. Really short tight shorts are not appropriate attire for school. We have a good stock of school uniform in the office for purchase, including some second-hand items. If you require assistance with purchasing uniform garments, please talk to Mrs Brooke Sims –SBM or myself and we can discuss options for supporting the purchase of uniforms. 

PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE 2024

Mrs McLean, the SLC and the library monitors will be leading the challenge this year.

Please see more information in this newsletter!

BREAK TIME ACTIVITIES

During our colder months it is nice to have some inside options for playtime.

• On Monday 1:00-2:00 we are lucky enough to have the support of the Launceston Chess Club running in school chess club in the old reg room. We have some keen chess players and I’m sure they will be excited for this opportunity.
• On Tuesday 1:20-1:40 Mrs Stanton and our lovely library monitors Brooke and Atlas will open the library for Reading Club.
• On Wednesday 1:20-1:40 Mrs Stephens will run Chess Club & Lego Club.
• On Thursday 1:20-1:40 Mrs Mitchell will run Art & Craft Club.

We hope that this sparks the interest of many of our students and gives them an alternative structured lunchtime activity. In addition, as a proactive measure this term, we have a TA scheduled to support students to engage in structured outdoor play activities at the beginning of nearly every recess. They will help students choose equipment or begin games and help students engage appropriately and practice social skills.

SCHOOL ASSOCITATION (SA) FUNDRAISING UPDATE

The Fundraising Committee are planning a working bee to prune the orchard and tidy up vegie gardens around the school. We will send out more information as days and times are decided. The group hope to meet this Friday to make some final decisions!  They are also planning and community raffle too. We very much appreciate the time and effort of our school community throughout the year.

Mrs Naomi Shelton has kindly offered to volunteer her time and occasionally facilitate some cooking with students. We hope that soon we will be able to use produce from our garden to cook with again. We know that this is also goal of some of our parent representatives on our school association too.