Dear Families,

We have certainly hit the ground running in 2024 and the next fortnight shapes as a busy time for the Goulburn Street Community.

NAPLAN testing begins for our Year 3 and Year 5 students this week. NAPLAN is a series of assessments that all students in Australia undertake each year. All students are assessed in the areas of; Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar and Punctation and Numeracy. Whilst NAPLAN provides our school with great information regarding our student performance over time, and comparisons to students across Australia, it is not a part of any school-based assessment processes. We simply encourage our students to have a go and do their best.

We will be celebrating Harmony Week throughout next week with all classes undertaking a range of activities, culminating in a Harmony Day Assembly on Friday 22^nd March. On this day students will be encouraged to wear orange or cultural dress and parents and families will be invited to share lunch on the oval after the Assembly.

This year we are also creating a Harmony Day piece of Art that will be proudly displayed outside the office. All students will be given a coloured tile, that they will design and paint a ‘self-portrait’ on. These tiles will be then configured onto a wall into a ‘mystery’ design. I wonder what it might be…?

Our Year 6 Camp will be on from Monday 18^th to Wednesday 20^th of March at Orana Scout Camp – Roches Beach. Our Year 6 camp has become a great tradition and I know the students, staff and supporting parents will have a wonderful time.

Finally, the Term 1 Interim Report will go home with all students from Prep to Year 6 this Friday. The interim report is a simple communication with families that provides an update on your child’s social, emotional and academic progress. Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher to discuss any aspects of the report.

Warm Regards

Michael

All book club orders need to be returned to the office by Friday the 22nd of March unless you are ordering online. 

On our 5/6 Brelis’ & Tymms’ excursion to the cenotaph we went on a graffiti and a history walk. First, we looked at an alleyway with some very detailed graffiti art and some vandalism graffiti. I thought some of it was very impressive and some was complete vandalism!

We then walked further into a bigger and wider alleyway near Centre Point car park, featuring a huge two-story building covered with colourful murals with very realistic art on them.

Further along the walk we strode over the memorial bridge and we saw a Navy ship called the HMAS Hobart that sailed from Sydney.

We had some class member tour guides who shared their research about various landmarks such as the Tasman bridge, the HMAS Hobart, and Fanklin Square and we had a great morning! We had a wonderful learning experience.

By Madison

CHARACTER TRAITS REFLECTION

In 5/6 B we have looked at character traits and have chosen 3 traits that we valued in ourselves or others like humor, zest, leadership and kindness. Mine happened to be creativity, humour & zest. The ones that we valued the most in common, suprisingly are creativity & humour. We hope you enjoy our photo frames out-side our classroom come and see them anytime! 

By Amandine

NAPLAN 2024

Students in Year 3 and Year 5 will be sitting NAPLAN between 13th and 25th March 2024.

The National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are already learning at school. On its own, NAPLAN is not a test that can be studied for, and students are not expected to do so.

NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process – it does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance; however, students and parents may use individual results to discuss progress with teachers.

Further information can be found on the official National Assessment Program (NAP) website, and a parent information brochure has also been attached.

Please speak with your child’s teacher or Mrs Chante Ellerton if you have any concerns.

Thank you to the families that have already sent in an easter goodie that will go into making up many small prizes for our Easter Raffle draw on Wednesday the 27th of March. If you havent already done so you can until Friday the 22nd of March and all sold and unsold raffle tickets must be returned by then also. Thank you.

Due to staffing changes our Launching into Learning Program will now run on Friday mornings from 9-10:30am upstairs in the Early Childhood building (next to Prep/1E).

Mrs Chante Ellerton is excited to be working with our youngest students and their families during these sessions, which will begin on Friday 23^rd March!

Our timetable will be released early next week, so look out for it in the newsletter, on the school noticeboard and on our Facebook page!

The impending Federal Election on Saturday 23rd March will bring many people from the broader community to our school. An effective fundraiser for this day is to have a sausage sizzle outside in the Rose Garden and to have a stall with homemade treats on sale in the corridor outside the office. The School Association are asking for your suppport by contributing to the stall with a delicious cake or plate of biscuits / slices, jar of jam, bottle of sauce or similar will be greatly appreciated. Plates will be coming home with your child today. It is prefered that cakes etc are delivered to the office the day before (Friday the 22nd of March), however they can also be dropped on the Saturday morning.

If you can help on the day please contact the office. Thank you.

We all have a role to play in keeping children and young people safe.  

This year, there is important training that anyone who works with children or young people must complete. This includes all our parent volunteers and service providers.

The training is compulsory under new laws designed to better safeguard children and young people in Tasmania.

It will help you understand what to do if you believe a child or young person is or may be being harmed, and to make sure you are doing all you can to prevent this from happening. The training will also tell you what you must report under the new laws.  

This simple, online training must be done as soon as possible, and you will need to complete it before you work with any children and young people this year.   

Once completed, you will receive a certificate, which you can save. Please email a copy of the certificate to louise.anders@decyp.tas.gov.au

To complete your training, simply visit Safeguarding Training. 

Thank you for leading the way in caring for our children and young people safe so that they can focus on living bright lives with positive futures.  

Louise Anders

Safeguarding Lead