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- Dates to Remember
- Principal's Report
- Pie Drive
- Year 5-6 Sports Day
- Thumbs up House Points
- Hot Lunch Program
- Attendance
- Jazz
- Art
- Kinder Smith
- Prep-1 Clinton
- 5 Crossin/Willis
- Pre-Kinder Program
- Science Week - Innovation!!!
- Children's University
- Prep Melville
- Choir - Christmas in July
- WISP
- School Nurse
- Dental Health Week
- Winter Wellness
- Reece High School Parent Information Evening
- Have your say on current feeder school arrangements
- Karen Young - Strengthening Children and Teens Against Anxiety
- Girls Auskick
- Devonport Scouts
Upcoming Events
August | |
Thurs 17 | RHS - Parent Info Evening for 2024 Year 7s (6-7.30pm) |
Fri 18 | National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence |
Tues 22 | Book Week Parade (9.30am Gym) (Theme: Read, Grow, Inspire) |
Fri 25 | Young Tassie Scientists Visit |
Mon 28 | 3M Eisteddfod |
Tues 29 | School Association Meeting 5.30pm |
Wed 30 | 3-4S Eisteddfod |
Wed 30 | Year 6 RHS Challenge Day - Devonport Recreation Centre |
Wed 30 - Thurs 31 | Fathers Day Stall |
September | |
Fri 1 | P-6 Performance (GP Hall) |
Mon 4 | Choir Eisteddfod |
Thurs 7 | R U Ok Day - Wear Yellow for a gold coin (SRC Fundraiser) |
Mon 25 - Wed 27 | Parent Teacher |
Fri 29 | Footy Colours Day (SRC Fundraiser) |
Fri 29 | Rotary BBQ (TBC) |
October | |
Fri 27 | Day for Daniel - wear Red for a gold coin (SRC Fundraiser) |
Mon 30 | Terrapin - The Riddle of Washpool Gully |
November | |
Fri 3 | Professional Learning Day - no school for students |
Mon 6 | Recreation Day - Public Holiday |
Fri 10 | Devonport Readers Cup (at Devonport Christian School) |
Mon 13 - Wed 15 | NWPSSA Sports Expo (our day TBC) |
Wed 29 | 2024 Kinder Orientation (TBC) |
Thurs 30 | Volunteers Morning Tea 10.30am |
December | |
Fri 1 | Devonport Show Day |
Fri 8 | RHS Year 6 Orientation Day (TBC) |
Fri 15 | Year 6 Big Day Out |
Tues 19 | Year 6 Presentation Assembly. 11.30am start |
2023 Term Dates
Term 3 | Tuesday July 25 - Friday September 29 |
Term 4 | Monday October 16 - Thursday December 21 |
National Science Week - Innovation
Look up and about and see the insect catchers displayed in trees. This is part of National Science Week and the special activities that Mrs Karen Whish-Wilson and Mrs Chris Killick are working with students throughout this week. Tomorrow, they will host a science activity in the Pre-Kinder session (1:30 – 2:30). Next Friday the Young Tassie Scientist will be at East Devonport Primary School from 9:30 – 10:40. They will present – looking at seaweeds (Marine scientist), all about genetics (geneticist) and the science of the brain (neuroscientist). Please refer to the article in this newsletter for photos of the National Science week activities completed so far.
Swimming and Water Safety program
I would like to congratulate the students who have participated in this year’s swimming program. This is a huge fortnightly commitment for students in Years 3-5 (and some Year 6 students) and a weekly activity for students in Prep to Year 2, with students travelling via bus to and from the Ulverstone Community Swimming Centre and partaking in approximately 45 minutes swimming lessons (25 minutes for younger students). I would like to acknowledge the Sports Leaders who have supported our younger students by getting in the pool and being a role model, following the swimming instructor’s instructions. Thank you to Mallakye, Laylah, Destiny, Jonah, Hayley and Shelby.
I would like to thank the five swimming instructors from the SWSP program - Greg Hales, Belinda Murdoch, Nyree Elliott, Stephen Dome and our own Tegan Sharman. I have noticed a significant increase in the skill level of our students over the last couple of years.
Children’s Book Week - ‘read Grow Inspire’
A reminder that Book Week is next week, with our Book Week parade on Tuesday 22nd August at 9:30 in the gym. The theme is ‘read, grow, inspire’. We will have the cat walk parade in classes, including LIL, Pre-kinder and the CFLC. For parents the door will open at 9:15 and we request that you sit on the wooden bench seats. Please remember, this is a fun part of our school events and we love when students (and parents) are creative and make/put together their own costume. We encourage cheap and creative as it doesn't have to cost much/anything.
Year 6 Fundraiser – Pie Drive
The annual Year 6 fundraiser forms went home last week with eldest in the family. The monies raised help reduce the cost of the Year 6 Big Day Out event – travel to Launceston to Airtime 360, Riverbend Park, Ten Pin Bowling and lunch at Hog’s Breath. Each student will incur a cost to attend based on the cost of the day and how much money has been raised. Additional order forms are available from the office.
School Association meeting
The East Devonport School Association will meet on Tuesday 29th of August. We welcome feedback and if you have positive statements or suggestions please contact/talk to your parent representatives – Anna Cullis, Prue Marshall, Ashleigh Hall, Kate Oliver, Fran Peel and Dannielle Weeks.
Eisteddfod
3M, 3-4S and our Choir will be performing various pieces at the Devonport Eisteddfod. Parents can book via the following:
3M (Lifeway Church): www.eventbrite.com.au
3-4S & Choir (Town Hall): www.paranapleartscentre.com.au/town-hall-theatre/
We would like to wish all classes the best of luck and look forward to sharing their experience. (Watch our Facebook Page)
Last Tuesday our Year 6 students travelled with Mrs Piper and Ms Horton to participate in Basketball as part of the Year 5-6 Sports Day at Devonport Primary. It was good to see the sportsmanship shown by our students.
Last term Spirit enjoyed the house acknowledgement afternoon for gaining the most points for the term. Last Friday we had our first thumbs up draw with the following house points:
- Spirit - 320
- Empress - 236
- Tasman - 320
We have two more thumbs up draws before deciding the house winner for the term. Keep collecting your thumbs up cards earned by displaying our school values.
Our students have been enjoying a range of dishes as part of our Hot Lunch Program.
Here are some of the recipes used in the Monday dishes:
Whole school attendance is currently at 85%. We aim to run at a daily attendance rate of 90% or more. Well done to Mr Dolbey’s, Miss Scott’s, Miss Welling’s and Mrs Crossin’s who have celebrated 100% attendance on more than one occasion this term! Well done!
On Friday of the first week of term students were treated to a performance by the Cope Street Band. It was a fantastic performance.
Congratulations to our music teacher Tessa Lee for conducting the Devonport Band at the recent Jazz Festival. She is certainly multi -talented.
Well done Bella on your performance as part of the Crescendo Choir.
In our art classes the students have been learning about basic elements – line ,colour tone, shape and texture through a series of lessons designed to develop skills in picture making and design. The students are encouraged to develop their own creative talents using their knowledge of language and experiences in techniques and skills associated with visual arts.
In Kinder we have been making the most of the sunshine and have been doing some of our learning outside. We practiced sorting and talked about different ways of sorting the same objects. We also have some new chalk and practiced drawing people which is one of our KDC markers. When children are playing with chalk they are experimenting with ways to express their ideas and developing their fine motor skills.
Prep 1/C has had two super star home reader students. Lincoln reaching an astounding 200 books and Isabella with an amazing 100 books. Well done to these students. We look forward to sharing our new super star readers.
At the end of term 2 Year 5CW had a class birthday party where we celebrated everyone’s birthday. We started off playing minute to win it games with a favourite being the cup stacking challenge. After the games we decided as a class to use all the cups to make a huge tower – which thankfully did not fall down until Logan, Lachlan and Saxon got to run through the tower. To finish the morning we played a game of birthday present thief followed by a cupcake each.
Recently we have had the chance to check out the new swings in the early years playground and we now want some for the upper primary playground.
Saxon has completed the new Star Wars jigsaw and he managed to lift it up all on one piece to show how his jigsaw expertise.
This term in reading we are learning about the Titanic. Students are working hard to put together a 3D puzzle of that majestic ship. The puzzle is really difficult and is taking a lot of patience to complete.
On Wednesday 2nd August 5CW visited the Devonport Lapidary Society. Volunteers of the society assisted us in polishing rocks, creating gem trees, making faces (faceting) on stones, polishing stones and even panning for some gold and semi-precious stones. As you can tell from the pictures everyone had a great time.
Come and join us for our Pre-Kinder Program Wednesday 1:30 to 2:30 in the LIL Early Learning Room @ East Devonport Primary
- Meet other families!
- Get to know our school staff
- Get ready for school by learning through play
When attending pre-Kinder, please pack a small bag for your child with a water bottle, hat and a piece of fruit. This will help your child to become familiar with some school routines and help to build some important self-help skills.
Upcoming Pre-Kinder Activities Term 3
- 16th August – National Science Week with Special Guests Mrs Killick & Mrs Whish-Wilson
- Tuesday 22nd August – Come along to our Book Week Parade at East Devonport Primary (more info to come)
- 23rd August – Book Week celebrations continue at Pre-Kinder
- 30th August – Father’s Day
At the conclusion of our Pre-Kinder sessions, please feel free to wander down to the CFLC for Stories on the Lawn at 2:30pm.
Enrolment Forms: Every child who attends Pre-Kinder is required to have an enrolment form. Please ask staff about a form if you have not filled one out.
Science specialist teachers Mrs Killick and Mrs Whish have been enjoying sharing the love of Science with classes this week with extra special tasks promoting the theme “innovation.” Classes have been buddied up to be innovative in designing an insect trap which are hanging off the trees around our grounds. The rumour was that there was an “new” insect which we needed to “trap” because it caused incessant laughing when students were bitten and of course we can’t have laughing at school. In recognition of Science Week, classes are going to enjoy a visit from Young Scientists next week.
Wonder Weekly
The Wonder Weekly for August is all about Science fun! National Science week runs from 12-20 August. This year the theme is "Innovation: Powering Future Industries"
CU Challenge: Think of examples of the use of AI (not Hey Siri or Okay Google). It can be examples of things you encounter in your life, or other ways AI will impact our daily lives in the future. Do some research and make a list. You might also like to research what's good about AI and how it can help people, and what might be bad about the increased use of AI.
CU Challenge: Sunny survival experiment. You can find the instructions for the experiment in the Wonder Weekly at the following link: The-Wonder-Weekly-August-2023.pdf (utas.edu.au)
CU Hours: You can receive 1 hour in your pasport for engaging in past episodes of UCTV which is available at the following link: UCTV Alive for Kids | Children's University | University of Tasmania (utas.edu.au)
Children's University update
On Monday 28th August Staff of the Peter Underwood Centre will be working at East Devonport Primary School with some of our CU students. Consent forms will be sent out in the next couple of days to our older students so they can participate in this exciting event.
The paintings from the CU students were received at Government House and they received excellent review from the official secretary David Owens saying:
"They're fabulous! A brilliant mix of styles and colours and you can see the dedication and concentration in them."
Lastly, our CU coordinator Jesse Brenan will be visiting us next Friday at 1.30. He would like all CU students to bring their passports. Here is his message:
- We are now counting student hours. Please ensure your child hands in their passport and any completed work to Mrs Whish. As the passport/hours deadline is Monday 25 September, we want to support students in building hours. For students aiming to graduate, they need to add 30+ hours for this year. More details on the attachment.
- CU Invite – BRAG 19.08.2023 – There is a free CU event this Saturday 19 August@ Burnie Regional Art Gallery. I will be there from 10am – 12pm to stamp passports. Attending families and students will get 3 hours credit in their passports. More details on the attachment.
The EDPS CU Team and I want to support students to build their hours and reach their goals. Thank you for your attention to this message. If you have any queries, you are very welcome to contact Mrs Whish or myself to discuss.
Prep M have had a great start back for term 3! We have been having a go at using the sounds and words that we know to write about what we did in the holidays and did a painting to match. Lots of the students were practising their reading through the holidays and it looks like we will soon have a classroom full of star readers! We also added the word persevere to our word wall and learnt what it means. We brainstormed times when we have had to persevere and why it is important to keep on trying even if you don’t get something right the first time. Most importantly we learnt that our mistakes can help us learn!
On Thursday 27th July, the school Choir caught the bus to The Argosy in order to perform for the Probus Club of Devonport's Christmas in July function. Singing to an audience of approximately 80 people, their songs were met with rapturous applause. Unfortunately a strange character who was dressed as Santa (!) who seemed to know the students quite well (!), embarrassed each and every one of them with a gift of a beanie. After a delicious lunch, everyone had a play in the indoor play area and all too soon we hopped back on the bus to go back to school.
We would like to thank Palmer's Plumbing and The Argosy for shouting our lunch, and a big thankyou to Geneva Christian College for donating the use of their bus. Thanks to the Probus Club of Devonport for inviting us to sing!
Each Thursday our students, and students from Devonport Primary School participate in the WISP Program. How awesome is this team who finished their project of a kart. They researched, designed, measured, cut, assembled and painted this kart to use to sell their crops from the hydroponic hot house. We finished with a party at the end.
Hi, I’m Lisa the new School Health Nurse.
A little bit about me, I live on the NW coast and have worked as a nurse with families’ & children for a long time. As you can see, I have a dog called Flo, she is a border collie with lots of energy and she loves the beach.
If I can be of any assistance, please email me at Lisa.hutchin@decyp.tas.gov.au and I will get back to you at my earliest convenience.
Last week was Dental Health Week. Here are 4 things to do to keep your smile for life!
- Brush your teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste.
- Clean between your teeth daily using floss or interdental brushed.
- Eat a healthy, balanced diet and limit added sugar intake.
- Visit the dentist regularly for check-ups and preventative care.
Did you know Oral Health Services Tasmania welcomes all children under 18 years of age, including pre-schoolers, for dental care?
Services available include:
- dental check-up
- any necessary treatment as determined by the check-up
When you present your Medicare card, Oral Health Services Tasmania will bulk bill all dental care for children through the Medicare Child Dental Benefits Schedule.
Almost all dental care will be FREE if bulk billed.
Nurse Lisa
School Health Nurse
These colder months are still with us and are a time we’re more likely to catch viral infections (colds, influenza or COVID19). Did you know that children can get between 5 and 10 colds a year, while adults can get 2 to 4 colds each year. This is such an important time to take extra care of ourselves and our families.
Keeping our immune systems strong can help prevent catching colds and the flu. So, what can we do to help our immune system? Here are some suggestions:
- Healthy Diet: Eating a varied, nutritious diet is a great way to help our bodies stay well. Remember to include 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit. Broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower are great winter vegetables, and oranges, mandarins, and kiwi fruit are in season over winter. These are all great natural sources of vitamin C!
- Exercise: this can be admittedly harder during the winter months but is important to maintain our activity as best as we can! Get outside whenever you can (rug up well if it’s cold!) Be creative with indoor exercise – borrow exercise DVDs from your local library and try something new. Dance-offs are fun – get a little bit silly, get your heart rate up, and prepare to laugh a lot! See if the kids have any new, original ideas for indoor exercise!
- Managing stress: Find time to do activities you love and that helps you to relax. Try mindfulness meditations – Smiling Mind is a great app that has lots of meditations/mindfulness ideas to help reduce stress and worries, relax your mind, and improve your resilience.
- Sleep: make sure you’re getting enough sleep, as lack of sleep can affect our immune systems. Sticking to a regular sleep routine—even on weekends—maintains the timing of the body's internal clock and can help you fall asleep and wake up more easily.
- Keep warm: Wear layers of clothing. (We all know how easy it is to get caught out in Tasmania!) Keep curtains drawn and doors closed to block draughts. Have regular hot drinks and at least one hot meal a day. This is especially important for people with heart or respiratory problems such as asthma.
- Hand washing: This is something that is so important to do, and to continue to teach our children to do. Hand washing is one of the BEST and EASIEST ways to avoid becoming sick.
Keep well, and stay warm!
Nurse Lisa
Have your say on current feeder school arrangements
The Department for Education Children and Young People is seeking feedback from families on current feeder school arrangements. These arrangements have been in place for many years and are currently under review. The current feeder school arrangements have been published and can be found on the Department’s Find Your Local High School webpage. Feedback on these current arrangements can be provided via on online survey at https://forms.office.com/r/q6SrdMne2i. Your feedback will be a valuable input into the review process.