April 2024

Welcome to our Newsletter

Principal's Report

Dear School Community, 

It has been a truly positive and happy start to our school year. All the wonderful sharing of information in this newsletter is just a snippet. We wish our families a lovely Term1 break and encourage everyone to have fun, be safe and read lots!  

Term 2 commences: Monday 29 April. 

Grade 6 School Captains Callum, Shani, Hunter, and Kate will be laying a wreath on behalf of the Margate Primary School community at the ANZAC Day Dawn Service (6am) on Thursday 25th April at Kingston Beach.

Students are invited to attend the dawn service with families in school uniform.

EdSmart: New school communication tool

The Department of Education, Children and Young People have resourced schools with a new platform for text messaging – Edsmart. A communication tool which has the capacity to generate automative text messages and provide you with links for easy access to important information and forms.  

Evidence of Learning Posts

Reporting assessment and learning progress to families has changed dramatically in recent years.    

Throughout the year teachers assess children’s work against the Australian Curriculum achievement standards to determine overall ratings for that learning area. Mid and End of Year reports are a transcript of your child’s overall assessment rating.

Evidence of Learning posts provide insightful information regarding your child’s learning progress on one of the many tasks which contribute to the overall rating. Evidence of Learning post include a sample of your child’s work, an explainer regarding the task and an assessment rubric.

Special request: Please engage with teachers online in response to Evidence of Learning posts, this is a wonderful opportunity for us to work in partnership to achieve great learning outcomes for your child.

Introducing our 2024 School Association

This term Annual General Meetings were held for the School Association and Parents and Friends Committee. Congratulations and thank you to our 2024 newly appointed committee members:

Immense gratitude to outgoing Parent and Friends Association committee members who have made significant contributions to our school community:  Felicity Haeusler (P& F Chairperson), Verity Ikin (P&F Treasurer) and Jenny Lockhart (Uniform Shop Co-ordinator).

Special acknowledgement to Jenny who has been a Uniform Shop volunteer for 8 years and Co-ordinator for the past 2. Jenny is currently mentoring our new Co-ordinator (Karen Driessen) whilst her youngest son Owen completes Grade 6.  

Bus drivers, parents and staff have raised concerns regarding the safety of children in our school carpark. Please, please, please ensure you follow signage provided, for safety reasons cars can only stop in the designated drop off area of a morning. Please insist children use the crossings and footpaths.

Knitting Club

Each Thursday children are very lucky to be offered the opportunity to participate in Knitting Club.

Knitting Club came about last year when in Eadie asked her grandmother if she would come to school so they could do knitting at lunchtimes. This beautiful idea has grown into a very special activity for many children and volunteering adults each week.

Children are taught the basics of knitting and provided challenges as their skills progress.

Children who attend regularly were very excited to receive a very cute, knitted Chicken for easter.

Thank you so much to our Knitting Club volunteers: Ruth Court, Cathy Franz, Jenny Hodder and Pam Powell.

Sensory Path - A path that encourages movement in Area 1

Have you seen the new addition to our school grounds?  A newly designed and installed sensory path that encourages movement in the school day, during play time or as a quick brain break used by students and classes during learning time.

The design for this path originally started back in 2022 when Mrs Lie obtained a grant for $3000 from Department of Health for TransformUs (a pilot and resource for teachers to encourage movement across the school day including incorporating learning with movement), $1700 was paid for by the school.

Wanting the design to speak of our Margate School Community the process involved many steps:

• Encouraging and gaining student voice: Finn from Prep at the time (now grade 2) came up with a wonderful design which incorporated the Margate Rivulet and the different types of trees on our school grounds.

Finn’s design and photo painting at Parents and Friends Working Bee.

• In 2023 Staff Inquiry, Wellbeing team consisting of: Mrs Munro, Mrs Halliday, Ms Psereckis, Miss Harbottle, Ms Langham, Miss Brough, Mrs Lie with input from our AEW Hayley McClure used Finn’s amazing design idea as the seed to brainstorm local flora and fauna from our area to incorporate into the design including the Margate Rivulet.
• Ms Harbottle then meticulously used her artistic and IT skills to design the sensory path resulting in the finished design that incorporates: Margate Rivulet and water hole (river and rocks), Pig face, Yellow Wattle Tree, Black Cockatoos, Wallaby foot prints and stars.
  

• Finally on the installation day by EduMarking, a big thanks goes to Siri and Jess T who helped move the pieces around like a large jigsaw puzzle to best fit the area.

Big thank you to all those who contributed to the sensory path vision, design and install. It has been particularly lovely watching children, and their grown-ups hop, skip and giggle using the path as they enter the school of a morning.

We are very excited to share that the Margate Kids Choir will commence in term 2.  If your child in grade 3 – 6 and is keen to commit to being a member of the choir, please confirm by completing registration. Link for more information and registration:

Choir Director: Amanda Hodder

Choir Assistants: Gabby Cousins and Jode Brewster

                                                     Funded by Premier’s Fund for Children and Young People 2023-2024

Ceramics in Art

This term 3 Magpies, 4/5 Ravens and 6 Emus thoroughly enjoyed participating in ceramic workshops with two local Artists Armie and Jenae. Students explored hand building techniques, making pinch pots with animal themed decorations. Students loved seeing the work of two amazing artists and working with them. The creations are now being glazed and fired to 1200 degrees. Fingers crossed for some amazing results. 

Sustainable Art

Early childhood Art classes created meaningful Artworks this term, recycling school paper waste and drawing endangered forest animals on their very own paper. Hayley our Aboriginal Education Worker assisted students in the shredding, pulping, blending, flattening, and drying process.

Soccer Tournament

The school's leadership committee, comprised of the school captains and vice captains, has organized an exciting soccer tournament for the upper primary students (grades 3, 4, 5, and 6). After collecting names from all upper primary classes, a total of 105 students expressed interest in participating. The committee has efficiently sorted these students into 12 teams, with eight teams for grades 3/4 and four teams for grades 5/6. To announce the teams, the committee displayed the team names and members on the gym window for all to see. We are eagerly anticipating the tournament in Term 2 and wish all the teams the best of luck!

Kate and Callum

Huon and Channel Swimming Carnival

The excitement was palpable as students arrived at school with their swim bags and lunches, and as the bus pulled up at the pool, there were excited gasps and chatter, setting the tone for a memorable day. Despite the cold and wet weather, the Huon and Channel Swimming Carnival was a cheerful event, with everyone showing great spirit and encouragement towards all the swimmers. It was heartwarming to see families and students cheering each other on and celebrating every swimmer's effort. A huge thank you goes out to all the parents and staff who helped make the day possible. All schools got to enjoy the half time break with dancing from Mrs Finlayson and the Kingston High School helpers which we all joined in with. Laughter filled the air, and there were smiles all around as swimmers proudly received their ribbons. For those not in the water or marshalling, staying warm was a priority, with many wrapped up in towels or jumpers. Margate Primary should be proud of their swimmers as they had a successful carnival coming in 3^rd place behind St Aloysious and Illawarra.

Neave K

Cricket Program

During Term 1, in P.E. we ran a successful Cricket program with coaches from the Cricket Hub coming in to teach students from Prep to Year 6. The program focused on developing skills such as bowling, batting, and fielding, while also emphasizing the importance of enjoyment in the sport. Students enthusiastically participated in the program, eager to learn new skills and improve their cricketing abilities. Highlights of the program included the use of bowling machines, which added an exciting element to the practice sessions, and the challenges that were given along the way, keeping the students engaged and motivated. Additionally, Prep to Year 2 students were supported by the Year 6's in completing Cricket Tasmania's Captains challenge, fostering a sense of teamwork and camaraderie across different age groups.

Friday Afternoon Stalls

Year 6’s students hold regular Friday afternoon stalls to raise funds for their Margate Primary School Legacy Projects. These stalls are straight after school, and a great opportunity for the Year 6’s to engage with our school community and raise some money for their school improvement projects. There are cookies, baked by the Year 6s during their Kitchen sessions, as well as juice boxes, Zooper Doopers and various garden produce. Thanks to the Year 6s who were able to stay behind and help out.

A big thank you to the Margate community, for taking the time to bake for our Election Day Bake Stall. We are aware that friends, staff, families, parents, and students who are not in Year 6 helped to bake and support us. We thank you for your kindness. Your baked donations helped us raise over $500! What a major success! This money will help us to pay for our Year 6 camp and our Legacy Leadership projects around our lovely school and community, for everyone to enjoy.

Kind regards,

Isla, Bonnie and Neave, on behalf of the Year 6s. Thank You!

A massive thank you to the P&F Association, for running the Election Day BBQ and Bake Stall at Margate Primary. We really appreciate you setting everything up, selling the treats, then packing up afterwards. It was a massive effort and a great success!

We have been thinking of ideas of what we would like to do this year around the school, so this money will be put to good use. It will help us to pay for our amazing camp and the various legacy projects we will complete this year.

Thank you again for supporting us by running the bbq and bake stall. We really appreciate it.

From Patrick and Keanu, on behalf of all the Year 6s.

Congratulations to 2023 Grade 6 Students: State Athletics

We would like to acknowledge two of our 2023 graduates, Tyler and Bella, who have recently been selected for the State Athletics Team (U13). It's great to see their commitment and determination has paid off. Good luck at the upcoming Nationals!  

Pieta Langham
Principal

Golden Tickets

Congratulations to the following students who won the golden ticket draw on Monday. These students and many others have earned golden tickets by displaying our values of Connection, courage, growth, responsibilty and respect.

Gumnuts Early Learning

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

It has been a very busy term in the kitchen garden program for 4/5 Ravens, 4/5 Quolls, 6 Salties and 6 Emus!

Students have been eagerly harvesting our summer produce, preparing and planting out the garden beds for the next season’s vegetables. This has followed through into the kitchen where we have prepared tasty meals with our fresh produce as well as making lots of preserves. These preserves are now available to purchase – check out the cookie stall on Friday afternoons.

A big thank you to all of our volunteers who have joined us in the kitchen and garden this term. We really do appreciate you working with us – things run so much smoother with extra hands!

Have a safe and happy break!

Chris & Jackie

Safety of Van Morey Road

Van Morey Road is very busy around school times with buses and cars going everywhere.  This is why we had a school crossing installed.  For the safety of yourself and your children please only use the school crossing to cross Van Morey Road.

Booking of the Gym

Just a friendly reminder if you wish to use the gym after hours for training, please make sure you ring and speak to the office first to check that there are no other bookings.  Thank you.

Collecting your child from school within the school day

If you are collecting your child from school within the school day for an appointment or other early departure reason, please come by the office first.  The office will then assist in calling your child up to the office and you can sign your child out.

Attendance Notifications

Please contact the Office with attendance notifications no later than 9.30am to avoid receiving a phone call from our office staff.

If you are social distancing, please email margate.primary@decyp.tas.gov.au 

Facebook

Please follow us on our School Facebook page for infomation about upcoming school events and celebrations.

Lost Property

Please help us by coming along and looking through the lost property items. Named lost items will be returned to the student (where possible) and all un-named items will be passed on to the uniform shop at the end of term.

Community Notices