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Dear Families
Who can believe that we have already been back at school for over a week!
I would like to begin this week’s newsletter by acknowledging and thanking the staff in our wonderful school for the incredible job they have done in preparing for the school year, setting up classrooms and the school grounds and making the start of the year as welcoming and inviting as possible. With many people feeling quite uncertain about what the start of this year was going to bring, it has certainly created additional pressures.
We have a number of new staff joining us this year. Miss Kate Gray, our music teacher, continues to recover from an injury last year and whilst she is hopeful of returning to our school soon, she is not yet fully recovered. We therefore welcome Mrs Sarah Tollner into our school as our Music teacher for Term 1. Mrs Tollner comes to us with glowing recommendations from her previous school in Queensland. Attached to this newsletter is some more information about Mrs Tollner as well as some Parent homework…that’s right kids, this time it’s your parents getting homework instead of you! ?
We also welcome Rebecca Greeves to the library as our new library technician. Mrs Greeves will be working in our school on Tuesdays and we all look forward to getting to know her better over the coming weeks and months.
Mrs Katherine Dewhurst has joined our cleaning team and had done a marvellous job working alongside Mr Hooper in getting the school looking clean and tidy. She has proven to be an absolute whizz at cleaning and is also refreshing the flowers in the front foyer, which you will notice if you pop into the office for something. Thank you, Katherine, this is such a lovely way of freshening up our foyer and welcoming everyone into our school.
Mr Daryl Watson has also joined our cleaning team, supporting us with some of the additional COVID cleaning of frequently touched surfaces and toilets. Welcome Daryl.
Finally I would like to welcome our new Kindergarten students for 2022 as well as Kyrie, Emaly, Riley, Ethan and Marlena who have all joined the Glen Huon Primary School ‘family’ this year. It has been lovely welcoming you into our school.
Change of day for newsletters
You may be wondering why you are receiving a newsletter today rather than a Tuesday.
We are going to change the Newsletter Day to Thursdays this year.
Hard copies will continue to be sent home with the eldest student in each family.
If you would also like to receive the Newsletter via email, please contact the school office.
COVID-19 update
Thank you to everyone for helping us to follow COVID guidelines and keep each other safe. Please continue to help us keep everyone as safe as possible by following COVID safe behaviours and a reminder to all adults, particularly those collecting students after school, to please ensure physical distancing of 1.5m is maintained.
Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) – Attached to this Newsletter is some additional information regarding access to and administration of RATs. The Department of Education has also alerted us to some incorrect information included with the RATs you received in your COVID Care Packages. In the information pamphlet contained in your rapid antigen test, under section 6.0 there is an instruction stating ‘you must take a laboratory PCR test immediately’ if your RAT test is positive. Public Health assures us that school staff and students do not need to do a PCR test if their RAT test is positive. If you have any concerns, please contact the Tasmanian Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738.
Hay Fever and Asthma - There are some students in our school who may exhibit or display ongoing symptoms (for example due to hay fever or asthma). In these circumstances parent/carers are asked to seek a medical review and provide a medical certificate describing the symptoms to allow students to attend school. This information can be added to the student’s medical management plan.
If your child has symptoms other than those covered in the medical certificate, or their symptoms change, or there are other COVID-19 related concerns for your child, families should administer a rapid antigen test (RAT) prior to sending your child to school that day. If the RAT is negative (and only if your child is feeling well) they can attend school that day.
If throughout a school day a student’s condition changes, the school will communicate the changes to the family and ask the family to administer a RAT prior to return the following day.
This decision has been made in consultation with Public Health.
Swimming Carnival
The Department of Education’s recommendation for the time being is that sports carnivals be cancelled or postponed for at least the first 5 weeks of this Term. Due to this, our Swimming Carnival has been cancelled, as has the Huon and Channel Swimming Carnival. Due to pool bookings, at this stage it looks highly unlikely that this will be rescheduled.
Breakfast Club and Canteen
Our wonderful Breakfast Club and Canteen has also been put on hold for the time being whilst there continues to be caution exercised over COVID-19. I know that several students have been asking about Breakfast Club and we hope to be able to reinstate this as soon as it is deemed safe to do so.
Allergies reminder
A reminder that we have a number of students within our school who have anaphylactic reactions to nut products. Reminder letters have already been sent home with classes who have a student directly impacted by this, however we ask that the whole school is vigilant in avoiding sending students to school with nut products in their lunch boxes. If you have any further questions or concerns please contact your child’s teacher or Mrs Lees.
WANTED: Plastic Bottle Top Lids
Mrs Munson is collecting plastic bottle top lids. If you have any please drop them off to her classroom or the front office. Please also ensure they are well washed so that they do not get stinky, thank you.
Mrs Lees’ Weekly Wondering
As a way of fostering and encouraging our students to be curious and creative thinkers, Mrs Lees is going to be including a ‘Weekly Wondering’ in each newsletter.
This is a great opportunity for your family to also engage in ‘wonderings’, build oral language and questioning skills and to perhaps find ways of exploring and discovering the answers to some of your wonderings. We would also love to hear about what you are wondering and discovering!
This Week’s Weekly Wondering:
Almost every day I walk past this happy sunflower outside our new Kinder Storage Shed there is a bumble bee busily visiting the flower.
I WONDER where they go after that and where they sleep at night???
Accompanying your hard copy of this week's newsletter is an A4 envelope containg three forms. It is important that these forms be filled out signed and dated and returned to the school as soon as possible.
Please return the Validation form signed and dated even if there are no changes to be made.
Lynette
Admin Clerk
The Newsletter is sent home with the eldest child in the family every week. An eNewsletter is available via your mobile phone and a link to the Newsletter is also posted on the school Facebook page.
Parents are able to access the eNewsletter on their phone by downloading the Schoolzine app 'SZapp' and follow the prompts.
こんにちは KONNICHIWA - Hello
もしもし MOSHIMOSHI - Hello (when answering phone)
おげんきですか OGENKI DESUKA - How are you?
Sam Ryan
Japanese Teacher
Families make the difference to a child’s reading journey. Parents and carers who read aloud with children in a secure, safe and comfortable context motivate their children to read. The joy and love of sharing a good book on a nightly basis sets the foundation for your child’s reading success and ensures that reading is given the priority it deserves.
This week, children from Grade 1 to 6 have brought their red home reading folders home. They contain information about reading at home with your children, as well as a recording sheet. The recording sheet is different to last year. It is based on a monthly calendar. All you need to do is record on the calendar if your child has read that day. There is no need to write what they have read or how many books. The important thing is that they are reading every day. When you need new books, bring the folder back to swap your books, or you can read books from the school, home or public library. For children who are learning to read, you can read to them and record that as a day of reading.
At the end of the month, bring the record sheet back and if your child has read for one night out of the month, they will get a flag to add to our reading bunting in the office area. Depending on the amount of days in the month, if your child has read for most of the days, they will get an extra flag.
It would be great to see pictures of you reading at home. Send them to sarah.webb@education.tas.gov.au and I will put them in next week’s newsletter.
Emma likes to read Roald Dahl books.
These children like to read The Wings of Fire series.
Sarah Webb
AST/Learning Support
Dear families, welcome to 2022, we hope you’ve enjoyed your summer!
Due to Covid-19 safety considerations, the Tasmanian Department of Education has advised that all Launching into Learning (LiL) programs for families with children ages 0-5 will be on hold for the first 5 weeks of Term 1. We are really looking forward to seeing you in person when we’re able, but in the meantime we will be connecting with you through phone calls, mail and online. We will be sharing a range of online resources that the Department is creating for LiL families, and providing community links to in person activities in the Huon Valley that are available outside of school premises.
Last time LiL was on hold Annette and I created fine motor skill packs and delivered them to all our families. This time we are working to create a gross motor skill package, and we look forward to sharing them with you in the coming weeks.
If you have any questions or concerns, or you wish to connect with us, we are always happy to hear from you - the school’s number is 62666240, and my email is jessica.black2@education.tas.gov.au
Take care,
Jess Black and Annette Carson
Name change!
The school felt that it was time for a new name for our Launching into Learning program, Smarties – one that fits with the feel of the new, natural, apple shed themed Kinder building.
Over the past year we have gathered your ideas and feedback, and by popular choice we would like to announce that our new name is... “Seedlings”
We have created a lovely logo and are working to update all our digital and physical resources.
We hope you like it!
wayraparattee
As part of our commitment to connect you with some of the excellent activities available in the Huon valley, we’d like to share the Wayraparattee child and family centre page with you:
https://www.facebook.com/wayraparatteeCFCGeeveston
wayraparattee is a wonderful space in Geeveston, providing a great range of programs free, for families with children aged 0-5.
They currently have regular playgroups which everyone is welcome to attend, run in a Covid-safe manner with a focus on outdoor play, but they are also open daily from 9-4 for families to drop in and play.
They also have a free toy library, a tiny bubs pram-walking group and host a range of important services such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, CHaPs nurse sessions, social workers and paediatricians. Some sessions need to be booked and some are walk-in.
You can contact Wayraparattee on 6297 0052 or margie.nolan@education.tas.gov.au
If you would like to join our Seedlings Facebook page to be kept up to date and access the resources we share, you can find us by searching Seedlings GHPS or typing in the following shortened link:
Expressions of interest from children from year two onward interested in joining our drama group this year please text a message to Cheryle on 0427660232 leaving name and contact number please.
Thank you
Cheryle
Grade 5/6 have had a busy start to the year. We’ve been doing a lot of setting up and getting to know each other so we can head into 2022 organised and ready to learn. Part of the fun we will participate in this year is a Pen Pal Program run through the Monash University. The university has collected some data on our interests and knowledge of science and scientists. With that information they have matched each child in our class up with a real life scientist to exchange letters across the year. This will give us a great opportunity to get to know what is involved in becoming and working as a scientist in any number of fields. Some of us hope to be matched with a space scientist or a biologist. Others think it would be great to write to a scatologist or a coprologist (you’ll have to look that one up). One of the first activities we have done is to draw what we perceive a scientist looks like at work. It will be interesting to compare this drawing to one we will do at the end of the year to see if perceptions have changed or stayed the same.
Tamara Tucker
Grade 5/6
