Newsletter 28 July 2023

Principal's Highlights

Welcome back to school for the start of Term 3! 
It has been so wonderful to see staff and students back this term, refreshed and ready for a wonderful term of learning!

On Monday, 24 July, our staff worked together for a day of Professional Learning and it was a rich and valuable experience.  We discussed the vision and direction of the school for the rest of the year and how we can provide a creative, strengths-based, inclusive and Inquiry focused environment for our students.  We would love to collaborate with our students, School Association and families, so please follow the link later in the newsletter to answer the question,
‘What type of learning community do we want to be?’.

It has been a great first week of term!  As Principal, I try really hard to visit classrooms and talk to students about their learning.  It is so lovely to have students enthusiastically and proudly show me what they are working on and hear about what they are learning.  I am regularly amazed by our articulate, enthusiastic, confident and capable learners at Mount Nelson Primary.  Each day I see clear examples of Inquiry, student agency, voice and valuable learning experiences.  I am delighted to be part of such a dynamic community of learners.

I hope you can keep Wednesday, 2 August free for our Mount Nelson Primary School Event!  Clinical Psychologist and founder of the Resilience Co, Lisa Ford, will speak to our community from 7.00 pm until 8.30 pm in the Multi-Purpose School Hall.  This is part of a grant from the Australian Government’s ‘Student Wellbeing Boost’ for wellbeing activities.  Tickets are free but need to be booked on the Qkr! app or by email to mount.nelson.primary@decyp.tas.gov.au 

Kind regards
Catherine Grace
Principal

External School Review

As part of our continuous school improvement, we will be involved in an External School Review from Tuesday, 5 September to Wednesday, 6 September.

The purpose of External School Review is to support schools to raise achievement, sustain high performance and provide quality assurance to build public confidence in government schools.  A letter about the External School Review will be emailed to all families this week.  

Cybersafety – We Are In It Together!

As parents and carers, we are all concerned about the wellbeing and safety of our students.  While we realise the benefits of technology in our fast changing world, we must also be aware of the hazards.

As a school we teach our students protective behaviours to use online, including:  blocking people who are inappropriate,  engaging positively in social media, sharing all content and contacts with parents/carers and telling a trusted adult if feeling uncomfortable. We teach our students to avoid social media when they are upset, angry or have a problem.  This is when they are likely to write something they later regret and cannot retract – once something is on social media, it is out there and can be copied, passed on and shared without the author’s knowledge.

We just wanted to remind parents and carers to ensure their child is safe online. It is timely to remind parents that children signing up to most social network accounts need to be 13 years old.   If your child has access to social media, it is wise for parents/carers to have the passwords so that they can check what is being shared and accessed regularly. Some social media apps have safety functions, others allow our students to share their location publicly, so please ensure you are up to date with any apps your child is using.  It is also wise for parents to be regularly checking messages so that you can support your child if needed.

The following link has more information to help our children manage the online world.
https://www.esafety.gov.au/

Specific information regarding Tik Tok:
TikTok (formerly Musical.ly) | eSafety Commissioner

We appreciate your support with teaching our children how to protect themselves and others when online.

Attendance - Are you making every school day count?

It’s Term 3 already – welcome back for another term!

As we move through the school year, sometimes regular school attendance can be challenging.
It’s important your child keeps up good attendance habits!

Going to school every day means your child has every chance to learn, and be around their friends and teachers. Every day adds up, to benefit your child now and in the future.

If you’re having trouble getting your child to school, please talk to us.  We’ll listen to your situation, and help in any way we can.

If you’re looking for tips on how to create better attendance habits, visit the Anything can happen website.

Student Voice

Welcome back and we hope everyone had a good holiday.

All the best to everyone who is going to Learn to Swim.  We know you’ll try your best and learn some new skills.  Our whole school Inquiry this term is around the idea of ‘Place’.  Our whole school question is, ‘In what ways does our connection to place shape our identity, wellbeing and purpose?’

We look forward to sharing our learning with you at the end of Term 3!

Finn and Amber
Part of the 2023 School Executive

Before/After School Hours - Duty of Care

Mount Nelson Primary School staff have duty of care from 8.30 am with school finishing at 3.00 pm.

Mount Nelson Primary School's hours are 8.30 am through to 3.00 pm.  It is important that parents/carers do not bring children to school before school hours because there is no supervision of students at that time.  Prior to 8.30 is also an important preparation time for our teachers.  Similarly, it is important parents/carers either collect their children at the end of the school day, arrange for them to catch the bus home or make other collection arrangements so students are not left unsupervised at the end of the school day. 

Unsupervised students may engage in dangerous play or put themselves in dangerous locations.  Parents/carers are responsible for their child outside school hours unless they have accessed school based child care during these times.

Sydney Dance Company Visit

Today, Mount Nelson Primary Year 5 students have been fortunate to receive a free creative contemporary workshop for dance, from dance professionals, of the Sydney Dance Company. 

Creative Contemporary Workshops are a unique opportunity to experience how the Company creates and performs new and original movement.  Students were guided through a contemporary technique warm up,  developed their dance technique, creative thinking and performance quality.

What an amazing opportunity we were given to start the term!

Start to talk about Child Safe Sport

Parents, carers and sport organisations are being encouraged to talk about how they can create child safe environments through the Start to Talk national child safe sport awareness campaign.

The campaign was developed by Play by the Rules in response to recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Reponses to Child Sexual Abuse which identified sport clubs as having an important role to play in the prevention and detection of abuse.

Play by the Rules provides information, resources, tools and free online training to increase the capacity and capability of administrators, coaches, officials, players, parents and spectators to assist them in preventing and dealing with discrimination, harassment, child safety, inclusion and integrity issues in sport.

Visit the campaign website for information and resources for sporting clubs and parents, for example,
A Parents/Carers Guide to Selecting a Safe Sporting Club.

Class Spotlight - Kinder Echidnas

Kinder Echidnas love to visit the school bushland on a regular basis. 
In the last week of Term 2, we collected many seed pods from the She Oak trees and created a nature artwork inspired by the aboriginal symbol representing campfire or meeting place.  It sits beautifully amongst the peaceful place we have named The Grove.  On our way back from the grove, we explored a beautiful wattle tree in full bloom.

2024 Kinder Enrolments - NOW OPEN!

We are now starting to look at enrolments for Kindergarten 2024 (born in 2019) from families within our school catchment area.

We encourage all families with children who will be starting Kindergarten in 2024 to fill in their details below!

WANTED - Kitchen Items for Kinder

Introducing Indonesian Poetry Recital Competition

This week, Year 3/4 and 5/6 classes have each been introduced to an Indonesian poem.

Students are encouraged to try to learn the poems off by heart with the correct pronunciation.  To assist with this, class teachers will email out a sound file of a native speaker reciting the poem.  Students who can demonstrate they’ve dedicated their own time to learning the poem can then audition during Indonesian classes on Tuesday, 15 August 2023, for the Statewide Indonesian poetry competition. The best 3 for each year group will be recorded and entered into the competition.

Bu Ingrid
Indonesian Teacher

Swimming and Water Safety Program

This week has been a busy time for our students in Years 3-6 participating in our Swimming and Water Safety Program.  Students have travelled each day to the St Michael’s Collegiate Pool to develop their water skills and practice survival swimming techniques.

From the School Association

Welcome back to school everyone!  It's already looking like a busy term for the school community and students. 

All parents and carers are invited to a workshop with the school on Thursday, 10 August, straight after school (classroom to be determined) to discuss how we can support the school with its literacy focus.  It would be great to hear how parents/carers would like to be involved by volunteering time, starting new projects, or donations to upgrade readers for our students. 

On Wednesday, 30 August, we will be selling fun socks and chocolates for students to purchase something special for the fathers and special people in their lives for Father's Day. 

Save the date - Saturday, 2 September, for a fun night for all parents and carers with live music, woodfired pizzas, yummy desserts, and a Mount Nelson Primary School Signature Cocktail!  We are looking for donations of 'Tasmanian products', pizza ingredients, and desserts.  More information and ways to donate will be provided shortly.  It's been a couple of years since we've been able to host a fun, fundraising night, we hope as many of you as possible can come along!

Cheers, Mary

Canteen News

NO CANTEEN NEXT WEEK, FRIDAY 4 AUGUST, 2023 

The next Canteen date will be the following Friday, 11 August 2023. 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Lisa Ford - Navigating Friendships Parent Seminar

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