Welcome to our latest newsletter for term 3.

As we enter the last week of Term 3, it has been wonderful to reflect on and celebrate a solid term of learning! We were able to share this as a whole school through our assembly last Friday. We had children sharing their learning on words, parts of words and their meanings through our explicit reading program, learning around data in mathematics and how families celebrate significant events in their lives, not forgetting to mention our students who will be entering a Japanese Public speaking competition as a culmination of their learning in Japanese throughout the first part of the year. We wish Rahni, Ashia, Mesandi and Matilda the best of luck and acknowledge their courage to participate in this event.

Thank you…

A big thankyou to all families who came along or connected to teachers over the phone over the past week to collaborate in our Learning Conversations. These conversations seek to celebrate learning, identify areas to focus for the remainder of the year and share Evidence of Learning work samples which give a snapshot of your child’s learning throughout the term. Thank you to teachers and other staff who were involved in preparing for the meetings.

Thank you also to our families who participated in the School Satisfaction Survey. We were very close to reaching our goal and tripled the amount of families who participated in last year’s survey. This survey will give us data about areas that we are doing well, and what we can improve to support children and families here at Goodwood Primary School. I look forward to sharing the survey with our School Association and families when the results are made available.

Whole School lunch and LiFT event

We were delighted to share our Whole School Lunch today with students, staff and our school community. A big thank you to Hugo Luttmer, Laura Stops and all their helpers for a wonderful lunch.

Following our lunch, classes were opened up for some fun LIFT activities with families and children to participate in.  

As this is the final newsletter for Term 3, we wish all families a safe and fun two weeks break. School will re-commence on Monday 14th October for Term 4.

Jaime Allen

Principal

In 5/6, to work towards showing our school value of Responsibility we have began writing learning goals for ourselves. We have a literacy, math and overall school goal which we will keep on our desks to keep ourselves accountable for our actions and learning at school. We will work on these goals for the rest of this term and give ourselves a rating out of 10 of how well we think we achieved them. Here are some examples of the goals we have written for ourselves. 

Sea Country Excursion

We thoroughly enjoyed our Sea Country excursion on Thursday the 19^th of September! We walked the length of Blackmans Bay Beach, stopping for shelter at the park for a minor sun shower before continuing our adventure!

We found some great collections of shells; some of us made patterns in the sand, some of us even made the first letter of our name! We talked about how we can acknowledge all Tasmanian Aboriginal people and recognise their continuing interconnections between country, culture, identity and community. Our excursion on this day was about experiencing, understanding and respecting Sea Country.

While on the beach we were respectful of leaving what we found, where it belongs so we didn’t bring any of our treasures home with us but we have many photos to share and talk about our experiences.

Unfortunately the weather turned on our way to the park so we didn’t get to play! But we still had the best time exploring together outside our classroom environment!

EYLF outcome 2: children are connected with and contribute to their world, 2.4 children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment.

Sense of Identity

In kinder we read the story “All the ways to be smart” by Davina Bell. This story celebrates the unique qualities that each of us have and the different things that make us special in our own way. We drew a self portrait and then discussed what we think makes us special and unique. 

Learning outcome 1: children have a strong sense of identity. 

KDC; critical marker 3: draws a person with a head (including 2 or 3 facial features) arms and legs. 

Prep/1 have been working very hard with their literacy this term. Students have developed their sound and word knowledge through literacy games and activities each day. Everyone should be very proud of their growth and achievements.

On Thursday the 19th of September, the early childhood classes, Kinder, Prep/1 and 1/2 , adventured down to Blackmans Bay beach to Explore our Sea Country. Students had the opportunity to experience, understand and respect Aboriginal People and their connection to Sea Country. Students also gained a better understanding of the continuous practice of shell necklace making. Students collected their favourite shells to remember this adventure by.

Levies 2024

A reminder that school levies are now overdue and payable at the school office. Flexible payment arrangements for families may be organised with the School Business Manager if required.

Families who are supported through the Student Assistance Scheme (STAS) do not need to pay levies. Applications for the Student Assistance Scheme may be made online, or paper forms can be provided at the school office. 

Late arrivals

If your child arrives at school after 8:50am unaccompanied by a parent/guardian, the office will be marking attendance as unexplained other.  The procedure for late arrivals will be as is for unexplained absences in that office staff will be calling the parent/guardian to clarify the reason the student was late arriving to school.

A reminder that if your child is absent from school for any reason that you notify the school office by 9:30 am of that day.  You can either contact the school office on 6272 9100 or email goodwood.primary@decyp.tas.gov.au

Did you know if your child has 10 days off school per year, that by Grade 4 they are 1 year behind?

The best thing for your child's future is to come to school every day.

Student Medication

Please advise office staff and your child’s class teacher if your child needs to take medication during school hours so arrangements can be made for the medication to be administered.

It is a Department of Education requirement that the following forms must be completed and signed before the commencement of dispensing medication to students: ‘Administration of Routine Medication Authorisation Form for Parent/ Guardian’; and ‘Administration of Prescribed Medication Authorisation Form for Doctors’. The administration of medication to students is undertaken by Admin staff who will ensure it is taken correctly, details (e.g. date, time, dose etc) entered on the student’s personal medication sheet, and signed by a staff member and witness.

Medication is kept locked in the school safe or safe room. Students should not have any types of medication in their school bags.

Please remember that school hats are required to be worn now and in Term 4. 

Hats can be purchased from the school office for $9.00. 

(Don't forget to put your child's name on it)

Congratulations to the following students who received Class Awards at the Assembly held last term on Friday 13 September 2024:-

Please find below the new Launching into Learning Schedule for Term 4:-

If you would like to follow our progress in the garden, please scan the QR code below to check out our photos on Goodwood Primary Kitchen Garden Instagram page.

We wish to inform our school and broader community that we are having quite significant damage caused by the rabbit's infestation throughout our school grounds. 

Can all visitors to our school site to be advised to watch for uneven surfaces and holes.

We are working with DECYP Facilities for advice to find a solution.

At our Meet and Greet Assemblies we celebrate the students who have been caught following our Goodwood Primary School Values. If an adult or student observes someone doing something that is Safe, Caring or shows that they are Learning they fill out a Positive Detective slip. The student is shown the slip as immediate feedback and positive reinforcement. The slip is then placed into a big bucket and we draw names out of the bucket like a raffle and then whoever gets drawn out wins a small prize.

Some of our recent Positive Detective Winners!

• Harper - for displaying the value of We Learn by working hard with her spelling.
• Zara - for displaying the value of We Care by going out of her way to help a younger student.
• Mesandi - for displaying the value of We Learn and We Care by helping other students to understand a new maths concept.
• Jake - for displaying the value of We Learn by trying hard to understand a new concept in maths.
• Lilah - for displaying the value of We Care.
• Ava G - for displaying the value of We Learn for coming in ready to learn.
• Elijah - for displaying the value of We Learn for doing an awesome job with his literacy program.
• Ruby B - for displaying the value of We Learn by working very hard with fraction work.
• Tobi - for displaying the value of We Learn for having a great go at his handwriting.
• Ava  - for displaying the value of We Care by tidying up after other people.

Enrolments are now being accepted for students commencing in Kindergarten in 2025. If you have a child that was born in 2020 who will be commencing at  Goodwood Primary next year, please collect an enrolment form from the office.