It has been lovely seeing groups of students taking the initiative to organise some ‘clubs’ for students to join over the winter months. Students have been busily organising Minecraft clubs, Pokemon and art clubs which we shall schedule into some lunchtime activities in coming weeks.

Respect, as a value covers many areas of our actions and behaviours at school; the way we speak, the words we choose, how we resolve conflict, the way we care for the environment and property. A focus in coming weeks is respect for property. School is a shared space, with shared equipment and it is vital that students recognise and take responsibility for the care of school equipment. School is a place of pride and belonging and our spaces around the school should be treated as such, a place for all to enjoy.

CHSSSA Cross Country

This year’s CHSSSA Cross Country will be held at Stanley, with 32 students from Forest Primary representing the school. The CHSSSA event, held on Friday 10^th June is based at the Stanley Recreation Grounds from 10:00am. Families are welcome to attend. From the CHSSSA event, a team of 16 students (2 per event) will be chosen, to have the opportunity to participate in the Primary All Schools Cross Country event held at Symmons Plains on Tuesday 21^st June. Schools will contact eligible students next week with relevant information.

Mid-year reports

A reminder to families that mid-year reports will be distributed later this term. Reports will be sent home on Friday 1^st July.

The new look report will show your child’s learning achievement differently from previous years. A new 9-point visual scale replaces A-E ratings for students in Years 1 to 10 (and for Prep students at the end of the year).

The 9-point scale will show more specifically where your child’s learning achievement is against the expected standard for their year level.

There will be no teacher comments on the report. You will however receive two annotated work samples, one for English and one for Maths which is annotated with teacher comments identifying the skills, knowledge and understanding your child has demonstrated in the sample. This term parent/teacher conferences will be offered in Week 10. These are a great opportunity to discuss how your child is progressing with their learning. Parent/teacher meetings will be held from Monday 4^th to Wednesday-6^th July. Meeting times can be booked on Schoolzine from the beginning of next week.

For more information about the changes to reports:

• School Reports FAQs
• Understanding the 9-point scale
• Visit the Department of Education’s website at: Reporting - The Department of Education Tasmania[1]

Fire Education Week

Next week, students will participate in Fire Education Week. The School Fire Education Program is an initiative of the Tasmania Fire Service. The program has been designed to teach children from Prep to Grade 6 about basic home fire safety. Lessons and resources are delivered in schools by specially trained firefighters of the Tasmania Fire Service. The key home fire safety messages are developed over the primary school years so that they are age-appropriate and engaging for students. Home fire safety resources are given out to children in class, and we encourage them to share the home fire safety messages with their family.

Early Literacy- Why talk, read and play every day?

• Right from birth, talking to your child is helping to build the connections in their brain to help them learn.
• Reading is a skill for life that begins when a baby first looks at a picture in a book.
• Active play helps children build skills in movement and learning.

The Department Website has excellent links to articles, videos and activities for parents to use in supporting young childrens’ early literacy skills.

https://www.education.tas.gov.au/parents-carers/early-years/bouncing-back-talk-and-read-project

5/6V students have been learning how to write newspaper articles in English. It has been a challenge to shift from descriptive story writing over to a bare-fact genre, but the articles are improving steadily across the class.

Our science studies have seen us looking into the adaptations of living things and the theory of evolution. Learning the way in which species develop and change to fit their environments has been fascinating.

This term 1/2W have been learning how to write information reports about koalas. We started with an information text and needed to highlight information that we thought was important. Then as a class we revised the same piece of text and talked about why/how parts were important and other parts were not. From here we began to plan our writing. We used a planning proforma, took out our highlighted words and placed them in the correct sections to help us write our information report. We have now been able to use our planning proforma to create an information report booklet explaining everything we know and have learnt about koalas. It was quite a process, but we were all able to engage in discussions and help each other to write these reports. We all enjoyed working as a team during the last few weeks.

On Tuesday the 31^st of May, we were fortunate enough to escape the rain and run our school Cross Country. The day wouldn’t have gone so smoothly if it wasn’t for the help from the wider school community. Thank you to all our marshals and recorders for braving the cold weather conditions. It was terrific to see students extremely excited and bursting with energy to compete. Students are to be congratulated on their efforts and participation on the day. The grade 3-6 place getters will be competing in the CHSSSA Cross Country Carnival at Stanley on the 10^th of June. We wish you all the best!

A special congratulations to the below students on their accomplishments on the day.

Kinder:

Prep:

Grade 1:

Grade 2:

Grade 3:

Grade 4:

Grade 5:

Grade 6:

Congratulations to our recently elected House Captains & Vice Captains for 2022.

Pascoe

Hillsbury

Norwood

Winter has officially started! These colder months are a time we’re more likely to catch viral infections (colds, influenza or COVID-19).  Did you know children can get between 5 and 10 colds a year, while adults can get 2 to 4 colds each year. This is such an important time to take extra care of ourselves and our families. Keeping our immune systems strong can help prevent catching colds and the flu. So what can we do to help our immune system?  Here are some suggestions:

Healthy Diet: eating a varied, nutritious diet is a great way to help our bodies stay well. Remember to include 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit. Broccoli, carrots and cauliflower are great winter vegetables, and oranges, mandarins, and kiwi fruit are in season over winter. These are all great natural sources of vitamin C!

Exercise: this can be admittedly harder during the winter months but is important to maintain our activity as best as we can! Get outside whenever you can (rug up well if it’s cold!) Be creative with indoor exercise – borrow exercise DVDs from your local library and try something new. Dance-offs are fun – get a little bit silly, get your heart rate up, and prepare to laugh a lot!  See if the kids have any new, original ideas for indoor exercise!

Managing stress: Find time to do activities you love and that helps you to relax. Try mindfulness meditations – Smiling Mind is a great app that has lots of meditations/mindfulness ideas to help reduce stress and worries, relax your mind, and improve your resilience.

Sleep: make sure you’re getting enough sleep, as lack of sleep can affect our immune systems.  Sticking to a regular sleep routine—even on weekends—maintains the timing of the body's internal clock and can help you fall asleep and wake up more easily.

Keep warm: Wear layers of clothing. (we all know how easy it is to get caught out in Tasmania!)  Keep curtains drawn and doors closed to block draughts. Have regular hot drinks and at least one hot meal a day. This is especially important for people with heart or respiratory problems such as asthma.

Hand washing: This is something that is so important to do, and to continue to teach our children to do. Hand washing is one of the BEST and EASIEST ways to avoid becoming sick.

Remember to wash your hands:

• if they’re visibly dirty
• before you eat or prepare food
• after going to the toilet, or changing a nappy
• after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing
• after handling or patting animals
• before and after taking care of someone who is sick
• when you enter and leave a healthcare facility

Keep well, and stay warm!