Term 2 - Week 10 - 4th July, 2024

IMPORTANT DATES

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

School Holidays
I don’t know where this term has gone. We had quite a bit happening.

• Cross Country at Spreyton Primary School
• Student Wellbeing check-in for students in Grades 3-6.
• NW Combined Cross Country
• Visit from the new Education Minister
• Moderation Day
• Mid-year reports
• Cross Country at Symmons Plains
• Family/Teacher meetings
• Burnie Eisteddfod

There were also many other teaching and learning opportunities during the term. I wish everyone a safe and restful school holidays and we will see you back on Monday July 22.

Burnie Eisteddfod
It was a pleasure to take our Grade 3 - 6 choir to Burnie to compete in the Eisteddfod choir section. Our choir didn’t place; however, I was pleased with their effort and behaviour during the event. This year, our students were able to see other choirs live. This is a great learning experience. Thank you to Mr Georgiades and Mrs McClymont for their work with our choirs. Thanks to our parent help on the day. Without their help we may have had to cancel due to staff sickness. We appreciate our volunteers because they make these events possible. Thank you to Ms Davidson and Mr Barnett. Unfortunately, lunch at Burnie Park was not possible due to heavy rain however, our students easily adapted to this change.

North West Support School
The School Association discussed this proposal at the last meeting. The Devonport Mayor was in attendance and a representative from the Department of Education, Care and Young People joined the meeting online. Thanks to Mr Gratton for attending in my absence. The School Association were supportive of the NWSS being located near Spreyton Primary School. However, they did note that consideration would need to be given to traffic management and safety with increased traffic on Mersey Main Road which is already congested at school drop-off and pick-up times.

The Devonport Mayor indicated that the Council will be supporting the Don College site.

Home Reading
Reading at home with your child sets them up for life.
Reading unlocks everything we do – learning, working, participating in society. Supporting your child to read at home is one of the most powerful things you can do for them. Encourage and celebrate all the reading your child does.
This includes reading recipes, instructions, signs and websites – it doesn’t have to be a book. All reading is good reading!
Encourage your child to:

• Read books they bring home from school.
• Borrow books from your local library, Sora App or street library and read them.
• Read books, newspapers, magazines you have at home, including those you might access online.

If they struggle to read or are reluctant readers, try to find reading material that taps into their interests. Is it gaming? Mountain biking? Roblox? Cooking? Music?

Offer to read books to your child even when they can read by themselves – this is still boosting their vocabulary and comprehension.

For more tips and ideas check out Let’s Talk (talk.tas.gov.au).

Prep - Grade 2
In Prep to Grade 2, your teacher will send home short books designed to help your child practise the reading skills they are learning in class.

Some classes are using a home reading program that ranks books by level of difficulty from 1 to 30 and beyond. This year all Tasmanian schools are phasing out this levelling system and moving towards Decodable Books.

Your child may bring home “Decodable” readers. These books are specially written to match the letter-sound relationships your child is learning in class.

Rather than being ranked in difficulty, these books are organised by the letters and sounds they focus on. They have been designed to build your child’s confidence in reading as they match what they are learning at school.

You can support your child to read these books by helping them sound out words.

When your child has mastered all the letter-sound relationships they need for reading, they will move on from decodable readers.

For some children this will happen in Grade 2 or earlier. Other children may need to keep using decodable readers for longer.

Grades 3 - 6
In Grades 3 - 6, your child will still bring home books to read from school. These books are likely to be related to their interests.

Encourage them to spend time reading every day. Even 10 minutes will support their learning.

If they are reluctant readers:

• Try comic books or graphic novels.
• Offer to read with them – you read one page, they read one page.
• Offer to read to them.
• Encourage them to listen to an audio book which they can borrow for free from your local library or Sora App.

John Hudson
PRINCIPAL

SPREYTON PRIMARY SCHOOL VALUES AWARD RECIPIENTS

PHYSICAL EDUCATION UPDATE

School Cross Country Champions

This year the carnival was run under grey and rainy skies. Students were put to the test and those that participated demonstrated the school value of Courage. From this event our top Grade 3-6 runners were selected to represent the school at the North-West Primary School Sports Association race, held at the Ulverstone Football ground.

As students complete each race points are earnt for participating, and more points awarded when in the top few positions. At the end of the day the final points were as follows.

• Maidstone - 2084
• Torquay - 2444
• Kelcey - 2546

A big congratulations to the Kelcey runners on their great team effort to combine and win the house points competition in Cross Country for 2024

School Cross Country

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Cross Country Champions

Primary Futsal Tournament - Friday 10th May
This year was the first time Spreyton has been represented at the North-West Primary Futsal Championships. Futsal is best described as indoor soccer; the ball is different to an outside soccer ball as are a few of the rules. It is a fast-paced game that keeps players very busy and gives them a chance to improve their ball control skills. We had 4 teams register to compete, with many students never playing a game before. It was held at the Devonport Basketball stadium, with schools from Our Lady of Lourdes, Devonport Christian School, Wilmot, Geneva and North-West Christian School. It was a very busy day, with most teams playing at least 4 games in the day. A big thank you to Mr Taylor for helping get all the teams to their games on time, run substitutions and manage any first aid issues that occurred. Well done to all students for displaying courage and trying something new.

Futsal Teams

NWPSSA Cross Country

On Tuesday 28^th May, 39 students participated in the North-West Cross Country, against 32 other schools. Spreyton competes in Division A which is determined by school size, placing us against Nixon Street, Burnie, Penguin, Latrobe, Ulverstone, Somerset and Circular Head. All our students displayed personal best efforts, enjoying the challenge of competing against the best runners from along the coast. All races had over 120 competitors, making the start both important and potentially dangerous. The organisers provided official positions and times for the first 50 competitors; these are listed below.

Well done to our Spreyton team, on the day we came 4^th overall, behind Ulverstone, Burnie and Penguin. A big thank you to Mr Taylor and Mrs Allen for helping on the day.

Symmons Plains All School Cross Country Championships
Following on from school and NW cross country, 29 runners challenged themselves to compete in this state event. This is held every year at the Symmons Plains Raceway and is open to every school age student in Tasmania. The event is run over a longer distance and the terrain is quite hilly and uneven. This presents a great challenge to all competitors, well done to all of them for entering and doing their very best on the day.

A big thank you to Mr Taylor, Mrs Kelly Grey and Mrs Ali Roughly for helping on the day. Students were often going to a race, coming back from a race, going to toilets, pinning on numbers, tying shoelaces etc, etc. Their help was greatly appreciated on the day.

School Association/Twilight Festival Sports Uniform Upgrade
A big thank you to the Twilight Festival committee and the School Association for again funding some new sports uniforms. The Under 10 Gold team were in desperate need of an upgrade, and don’t the new tops look great, with some happy campers out on the soccer pitch.

Derek Henry
Physical Education Teacher

READING

Reading - The Big Six" A Guide for Families
Research has shown that there are six key components that contribute to successful beginning reading. Because of the importance of these components, they have become known as ‘The Big Six’: oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. In the early years of schooling, literacy lessons will incorporate 'The Big Six'. Over the next few months there will be articles describing each key component. These articles have been taken from the following web site: https://www.literacyhub.edu.au/

Big 6 - Oral language

How does oral language contribute to reading success?
Oral language is the foundation of all literacy skills. If children experience rich oral language when young by talking with and listening to adults and other children, they will have a large ‘bank’ of spoken vocabulary, words they understand when used in spoken communication (see Vocabulary below). Children will have heard and joined in word play and rhyming and be aware of the sounds of English (see Phonological article in a few weeks).

They will be familiar with lots of different sentence types and understand how language can change in different situations (in Fluency article in a few weeks). They understand that words have meanings and that we use language to communicate information, ideas, feelings and thoughts (see Comprehension article in a few weeks).

What can parents do at home to encourage oral language?
Parents can support children in their oral language development by providing a variety of opportunities for children to listen and talk for different purposes. Here are some of the best ways parents can encourage oral language:

• Talk to your child and listen responsively. Ask and answer questions.
• Read aloud to your child at least once a day. Good books expose children to vocabulary and sentence structures that they won’t hear in everyday situations. Research has shown that reading aloud to children is a major factor in their success in learning to read at school.
• Talk about the books you read aloud with your child. Ask your child about the characters, plot or setting; the themes and ideas raised by the book; topics they’d like to read or learn more about as a result of reading aloud.

You’ll find more suggestions for things parents can do to support oral language development in the, For Families section on the Literacy Hub, https://www.literacyhub.edu.au/

Barrie McClymont
AST

CHOIR

The Year 3-6 Choir performed at the Burnie Eisteddfod on Wednesday, June 26. The Year 3-6 Choir performed “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Shot Gun.” Our students looked great, performed well and were great ambassadors for our school.

The Year 1-2 Choir have performed “Back of a Crocodile” and “Do Re Me” in a sharing assembly in week 5 and have been practising their songs in readiness for a performance at the Devonport Eisteddfod in September. Some of the songs they have been practising are “Happy as Larry”, “Wombat on a Surfboard” and “If all the Little Raindrops”.

Peter Georgiades / Angela McClymont
MUSIC TEACHERS

LAUNCHING INTO LEARNING

On Friday 5^th July from 9:30am – 10:30am a visit has been organised to the East Devonport Primary School Gym (Thomas St, East Devonport) to attend the “Kangaroo Kids” session as part of the East Devonport CFLC. Children will need to wear their sports shoes and appropriate clothing for motor activities.

Hope to see you there.

Judy Roberts
LIL CO-ORDINATOR

JUNIOR LANDCARE

Our Junior Landcare team braved the Friday afternoon weather last week to continue working on beautifying our school garden beds.  They planted Winter Bell bulbs in the garden beds around the outdoor stage area.

Barrie McClymont
AST

Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant
Our Junior Landcare team has once again been successful in obtaining a Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant. We have received $1000 to continue to enhance our school garden patch. Recently we purchased soil and timber to fill the garden boxes Mr Pinner has been making. Seedlings and seeds for new plantings will occur when the weather becomes suitable for growing. We have been harvesting spinach and our red onions are just popping up. The broccoli and cauliflower is looking very healthy and should be ready in another month.

The aim of our project is to reestablish the market garden that was demolished due to buildings being moved. The children will be involved in rebuilding the infrastructure, planting vegetables, maintaining and harvesting of our garden. The expected (environmental and educational) outcomes of the project include children becoming aware of the process in establishing a site for food production and its ongoing maintenance.

Barrie McClymont
AST

FEATHERS - TERRAPIN PUPPET THEATRE

Today we were entertained by the internationally renowned Terrapin Puppet theatre. They presented the show Feathers. A story about a feather tail ferret looking for it’s flock. On its journey Feathers meets characters who provide ‘advice’ about who Feathers is and how Feathers should act. In the end Feathers makes the decision about this.

Barrie McClymont
AST

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MIDFORD SCHOOL UNIFORMS

NAIDOC WEEK 2024

PYJAMA DAY 5th July

Tomorrow, 5th July is Pyjama Day!
This is a Student Representative Council initiative to raise money for a new playground area. Could all participating students please bring a gold coin contribution.
Students are encouraged to wear, Pyjamas, dressing gowns, onesies, oodies, slippers, beanies etc. Should your child wish to wear slippers please ensure they also have shoes to enable them to play at recess and lunchtime.
This is not a casual clothes day, if students choose not to wear any of the items listed above then they should wear their normal school uniform please.

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Slipstream Circus

Chocolate Winterfest

Rowing

Hive

InsideOut

Teeny Tiny

AFL