Term 1, week 2 - 15th February, 2024
Principals Report
It has been a very settled and positive start to the school year for our students and our staff. We thank our parents in supporting students to be in full school uniform and ready and prepared for learning. There were many first week smiles and the students were eager to be reunited with their classmates and meet their 2024 teachers.
Some snapshots captured from the first week:
Staff Professional Learning
As part of our pupil free days, our staff participated in a staff wellbeing professional learning session with Mick Walsh from NSW which was made possible through our inclusion in the Derwent Valley Collective Schools.
During the session we focused on the positive qualities and attributes and how we aim to model these through our daily interactions with students. We also worked together as a team to establish our key expectations and routines for the year, including outlining our two key school priorities for 2024 of Reading and Wellbeing and Engagement.
2024 School Priorities
Our staff will continue to participate in professional learning targeting these priorities throughout the year.
Our families and non-teaching staff all play a key role in supporting our teachers with these key priorities and we look forward to regularly sharing updates on how we are meeting these priorities this year.
New Staff
We welcome Mr Leigh Nichols to teaching Year 5/6 and Physical Education and to Mrs Helen Doyle, teaching 7-10 English and Humanities subjects. Two of our senior students conducted interviews with Mr Nichols and Mrs Doyle, and you can learn more about our new staff further in our next newsletter.
Meet and Greet Assembly
In our ‘Meet and Greet’ assembly we welcomed our new kindergarten students to the School, and they were presented with a book gift from two of Year 10 students who have been at the school since they too were in Kindergarten too (Jai and Brodie). We hope to make this an on-going tradition.
To complement our existing School Values Awards and Prizes awarded at the Whole School Celebration Assemblies (twice per term), we have implemented a daily reward system. Students can earn values tokens for their commitment to our values. Each week in the Meet and Greet assembly we will then draw out some students to receive a values voucher. For Week One the voucher is for an ice cream. Students to present their voucher to be exchanged for an ice cream.
Student Leadership Process
Soon we will be communicating a process for students to nominate to become School Leaders. We are aiming to have Sports Captains from upper primary and senior grades as well as Student Council Representatives. The aim is for our student leaders to be actively involved in leading school initiatives and they will also be school representatives in community events.
Update on our School Art Installations
We have been receiving ‘work in progress’ updates from the Arts Council of Tasmania as the Gravelly Beach Metalworks have been creating the new works to be displayed outside of our new Agricultural Studies Building. We look forward to seeing the artworks installed and an invitation will be extended to our community to attend the official launch and opening of the Ag Studies Building once the work is completed.
We are getting chickens!
There is a buzz in the air as we await the arrival of our new addition to the School Farm – chickens.
It has been wonderful to meet many of our school families during drop off and pick up, together with the initial Family Meet & Greet. I know that our teachers have connected with families through the SeeSaw app and have started to share some images and messages about our learners. I hope to see many families attend our first Whole School Assembly on Tuesday 27th of February. The assembly will be followed by our Open Classrooms Event.
In the meantime, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or concerns about your young person and their start to the school year.
Kind regards,
Erika Boas
Principal
School Association Quiz Night
Free Internet Access for Students
The School Student Broadband Initiative (SSBI) offers free broadband access for eligible families.
With the recent program extensions, this means:
- New families have until 31 December 2024 to take up the SSBI offer.
- If families sign up now, you'll have access to almost 2 school years of free internet until 31 December 2025.
- For families who have already connected, your free internet will automatically be rolled over until 31 December 2025.
Learn more and check if you're eligible here - www.decyp.tas.gov.au/for-families/technology-support/australian-government-school-student-broadband
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Musical Instruments
To Students and Parents
Can you check if there are any Musical instruments anywhere at home, that may have been borrowed from school in the last couple of years.
We are trying to find some of our Musical instruments as we are short of some items like Clarinets etc.
If you have any, can you please drop them off to the School Office.
Mr Ives
Music teacher
Bothwell Library
