December 2023

Welcome to our Newsletter

Principal's Report

Dear School Community,

We have had such a wonderful Term 4! Our school is an extraordinary community school which truly places the wellbeing and learning of every child at the centre.

Congratulations and well done to all of our children across the school who have worked hard, and achieved tremendous progress in their social, emotional, and academic learning.

Celebrating our Grade 6’s

It has been a big couple of weeks for our Grade 6 students, families, and teaching team. Students have enjoyed visiting their High Schools, performed at the Christmas Sing-along, attended their Grade 6 Leavers dinner at Brookfield, shared their work at the Grade 6 Celebration Assembly, and participated in the ‘Grade 6 Big Day out”.

The Grade 6 Celebration Assembly was outstanding. During the Assembly Grade 6 students shared the culmination of their yearlong Leadership Portfolio projects. Each Leadership Portfolio team worked collaboratively to achieve a positive outcome for the school, during the assembly they shared their learning and achievements. A notable and extremely popular Grade 6 Leadership project was the installation of the ‘GaGa pit”.

Big thank you to our wonderful P&F who presented our Grade 6 students with a massive Farewell and Best Wishes Cake.

Our Christmas Sing-along

Our annual Christmas Sing-along totally rocked! We are super grateful the weather behaved!

Well done to teachers and buddy classes who practiced their hearts out and dazzled us with their joyful performances. Our Music teacher Andrea Van Emmerick starred co-ordinating the smooth running of the event, as well as, launching our new School Choir.

A big thank you to our exceptional Parents and Friends Association who again pulled off an incredible organisational feat at this hectic time of year, co-ordinating external providers, a BBQ, and cake stall for the event.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank Lochie Court for supporting us with his expertise and amazing sound equipment from Hobart College and Richard Jupe who provided families with the opportunity for a Family Portrait raising money for the school.  

Our first Prep – Grade 2 Festive Feast

Big thank you to all our Prep – Grade 2 families who were able to come along to our very first Festive Feast on Wednesday 20 December. It was so lovely sharing all of the delicious food and coming together to celebrate the end of the school year.

2024 Margate Primary School Calendar

We are very excited to announce our 2024 Community Calendar is ready and was distributed to families on the last day of school! Big thank you to Liz Finlayson who has worked her magic to gather our 2024 dates, arrange the stunning student artworks and co-ordinate with the printers to have ready for sharing before the end of the school year.

Staffing 2024

There are minimal staff changes for 2024.

We wish Rebecca Psereckis (Taroona Primary School) and Meg Groves (Moonah Primary School) all the best for their new appointments and express our sincere gratitude for the considerable contribution they have made during their time at Margate Primary School.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank the following teachers who joined us on short term contracts during the second half of the year: Margie Hughes (Lil Music), Carmen Bell (Grade 3M), Emma Anderson (4/5A) and Sancia Poretta (Grade 1/2 A/M). 

Aaron Heier will be on leave for 2024, travelling South America with his family!

For 2024 we welcome the following teachers to Margate Primary School: Amy Grego (1/2), Anna Steinhauser (1/2), Adam Bowden (4/5), and Nanette Botha (Grade 3, Grade 4/5).

We also welcome University of Tasmania Teacher Intern Freya Richardson who will be working with Susan Munro (Grade 1/2) through the Teacher Intern Placement Program.

On behalf of everyone at Margate Primary School, I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and a safe and restful holiday!

We look forward to seeing you all on Thursday 8^th of February!

Pieta Langham

Principal

Bee Tickets

Congratulations to the following students, who got to choose something from the bee-hive:

Term 4 - Weeks 2 to 6

News from 4/5 Heier/Harland

We’ve been learning about climate change and what makes it bad.

We talked to a scientist from Curious Climates. It was very interesting. He discussed problems like how wolves are endangered. We learnt how to help stop climate change

We learnt some facts like how turtle eggs in some islands off Queensland are getting hotter, which meant the all the babies are being born females.

The factories and cars produce emissions which cause greenhouse gases.

Some things we can do are to ride a bike instead of driving and to plant trees.

Just because your small doesn’t mean you can’t do big things.

Stories under Kunanyi group

Last week our Stories Under Kunanyi group practiced their storytelling skills at Coningham Reserve. Together we listened, shared and created stories at the beach.

Student’s quotes:

“My story is about how I connect to my friends.”

“I can feel my ancestors in the Country.”

“I connect with nature through being with my friends.”

“I feel happy.”

Thankyou to Hayley, our Aboriginal Education Worker, staff and all the parents who were able to attend our final celebration of the program for 2023.

Kinder 2024

Gumnuts Early Learning

Oral Language has been one of the main focuses for Launching into Learning this year. And what better way for children to develop their oral language skills and vocabulary knowledge than singing Nursery Rhymes. Each month we have had a focus Nursery Rhyme that we have incorporated into our Gumnuts Play and Explore program. 

Last Friday, we held our Nursery Rhyme Celebration Event at Gumnuts. Around the school oval were carefully placed pictures from our 8 focus rhymes. Armed with a clipboard, pen and recording sheet, the children, with the support of their parent/carer, set off to find the pictures and tick them off once found. 

The children were then presented with a certificate and some magnets to put on the fridge at home. 

Thank you to those families who participated. It was lots of fun. 

Claire Grave - Lil Co-ordinator

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

For Term 4 we have welcomed our Grade 3’s into the kitchen garden program. For most of them, it has been their first time discovering and using the kitchen and garden spaces. Keen with enthusiasm, we have worked hard to pull out all of the holiday weeds and mulch down the garden beds.

In the kitchen we’ve learnt so many skills – knife safety, kneading, mixing, garden foraging, recipe reading, table setting and dishwashing! We’ve cooked a variety of different foods already. We’ve enjoyed garden salads, Broad Bean Bruschetta, Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls, Damper, Red Lentil Soup, ANZAC biscuits, Cauliflower and Kale Linguine and Pumpkin and Fetta Couscous Salad. Students have worked well with their new skills and have been eager to taste new things – and finding that it is delicious!

It’s been wonderful to work along side many volunteers – thank you to each one who has taken time out of their days to help out. If you have any time or any excess garden produce (including seedlings) to donate, we would be most appreciative.

Jackie, Chris & Lisa

SAKG Team

Parents and Friends News

 What a HUGE success our first Margate Primary working bee was! It was so nice to see our amazing community come together and watch our courtyard go from drab to FAB! And we know the chickens just love their updated fencing and pro feeder! Thank you to everyone who wielded a brush or tool to make it happen. Special thanks to Justin Roberts for heading up the crew and knowing just what to do. And to Katie and Gerry Ruscoe and Jess Greener for being the top of the flock down at the chicken coop area. We look forward to more working bees next year! 

Congratulations Tyler

On Saturday the 21^st of October Tyler Daun from grade 6 participated in the All-Schools State Athletics championships in Launceston. He participated in the 100 metres and long jump events. Tyler ran a blistering 13.70 seconds in the 100m to take 3^rd place, while in the Long jump he jumped an amazing 4.63 metres to come 2^nd .  Congratulations on an amazing effort Tyler.

Congratulations Isla

Saturday 18th November 

GKR Karate National Championship in Brisbane QLD.

Isla's hardwork, dedication and passion for karate has paid off. Months and months of training 3-4 days a week, with plenty of sacrifices along the way set her up nicely for her first crack at Nationals. 

We were lucky enough to see Isla's skills (and scariness)  at MGT last term.

After being knocked out (not literally) in her first round of Kata, she had to recompose and prepare for competing in Kumite. Her training and focus saw her win round after round and edge closer to the gold medal match. 

A huge group of girls (30) in her division (10-11yr old girls, 4th to 6th Kyu) made for a much bigger competition than she's experienced in Tassie tournaments. 

She nailed the last fight (3.0 to 0) and walked away with a gold medal for Tassie.🥇🎉🙌

Congratulations Isla and everyone involved in the Tassie Dragons GKR State Team.

The Workshop - Items needed

We are planning on setting up a workshop space at school. 

Using a wide range of materials and techniques to get creative and make, build repair and recycle. 

If anyone has any spare workshop tools, clean timber offcuts, or any curious things to spark our imaginations, we would love to collect them. We are also interested in nuts, bolts, nails etc.

Please bring any items to the school office. 

Thank you

Can you Help?

If you are having a clean out or have some old kitchen supplies you no longer need, our early childhood students will be able to make great use of these in our playground. We are requesting any pots, pans, utensils or baking trays to add to our mud kitchen supplies in Area 1. If you can help out, please drop off at the Office (please no glass lids or sharp items). 

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

Our lost property is overflowing. 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