Dear Parents, Guardians and Community Members

As we approach the middle of the term, our staff and students are engaged in a variety of exciting and challenging learning activities. Science Week activities across the school have involved our Year 4-6 students engaging in a number of ‘in school’ activities including webinars involving natural science, creative writing and engineering. Year 5 and 6 students attended QVMAG for a ‘powering future industries exhibition’. Our Prep students have undertaken natural chemistry experiments soaking eggs in vinegar. Mrs Unsworth described their efforts as egg-cellent. (Yes, she really went there.)

We are very excited to be launching a communication app called CANVAS across our Primary sector.  Each Primary class will have its own page to enable two way communication and updates of learning. Mrs Unsworth will be circulating more information to families this week around this.

Our 4-6 Camp was an outstanding success. Students and staff have described the experience as an outstanding highlight of their year. Mr Coombe described his admiration for the enthusiasm, resilience, teamwork and gratitude displayed by the students.

Our staff professional learning continues to focus on the DECYP priority of reading. Teaching methods, assessments and supports are being made consistent across the school in line with current research and best practice.

Our Year 2/3's held an open afternoon last week to showcase their new classrooms and their learning. Thanks to all parents and family members who attended and supported our students. An early heads up that we are holding parent/teacher conferences for Prep to Grade 10 in Week 9 of this term. We really value conversations and collaboration with parents in regard to student learning. Please feel free to contact us at any time to discuss your child’s learning and wellbeing

Kind regards

Mike

As part of Science Week Grade 4/5 students participated in a webinar titled Poem Forest. Students were captivated as it engaged them, to plan and write a poem from the viewpoint of a ‘character’. This character could be from the perspective of a tree, a Koala, or even Global Warming. The webinar explored literary devices such personification, simile and line breaks. They were presented with a range of images of trees to provide different platforms to assist with their creative writing. Connecting with nature can help to create the most vivid writing.

Jason Coombe

Teacher

On Wednesday 9th August students from Grades 7-10 attended an information session on vaping. We were lucky enough to have the expertise of our School Health Nurse, Lou Hawkins, on hand to run the session. Students watched a video presented by Paul Dillion, a nationally recognised Drug Educator, on the harms of vaping. The aim of the session was to inform students so should they ever consider vaping, they have the facts and information about it, to make an informed and educated decision. A big thank you to Lou Hawkins for organising.

Julie Howard

AST

On the 10th of August Secondary students and accompanying teachers went on an excursion to the Princess Theatre where we watched the Launceston College production of the Broadway musical ‘Be More Chill’.  A sci-fi musical about growing up, high school, and overcoming fears and social popularity.  The main character Jeremy Heere, the average American teenager, stumbles his way through high school as a sad loser pining after his long-time crush Christine Canigula. But his luck changed when he discovered "The Squip," a minuscule supercomputer from Japan that promises to bring him everything he desires most. It was a great production with top notch singing, dancing and set design. After that we had lunch at McDonalds and began the trip back home. We all had a wonderful time as a secondary group and would like to thank Ms Howard for organising this fantastic experience.

Eden

Year 9 student

On Friday 4th August WorkSafe Tasmania visited our school to give a presentation during our 9/10 Work Studies class.  We learnt about the rights that we as workers have.  This included what our bosses can and cannot do and say.  We learnt about reporting issues and ways we can safely avoid hazards.  Thanks to Sara from WorkSafe Tasmania, we know the boundaries in a working environment and how we can keep our co-workers safe.

Liam

Year 10 student

In Biology students have been investigating the transport systems of plants and animals. We were lucky to have access to pig hearts and a pluck from Scottsdale Pork. Daniel & Madison manipulated the hose attached to a bike pump so we could pump the lungs full of air and see the difference in the expansion of the lung tissue. Hearts were also dissected with students examining the four chambers, the stringy valves and the differences in the muscle walls.

With plants a transpiration experiment was conducted to look at the effects of wind, light and humidity on transpiration rates. Lots of maths was involved as students worked out the surface area of leaves and measured the lost ml of moisture. The results were not as expected, and this would be a good experiment to repeat with different plants.

Jill Bennett

Teacher