Swimming and Water Safety Program

Our 3-6 students and 1/2 class have participated in our first week of swimming lessons.  Our students have been respectful and are really soaking in the Water Safety Program led by DECYP. A special shout out to our Swimming Instructors – Tony French (TIC), Melissa Crosswell and Allison Mullins who are providing our students with the skills to support competency in the water.

NWPSSA State Athletics Carnival

Congratulations to Ari Korpershoek who will represent Forest Primary School and CHSSSA at the State Athletics Carnival in Launceston.  We wish him all best and are so very proud of him for making the team.

School Improvement Plan

Our Forest Primary School Improvement Plan has been developed with staff and taken to School Association for feedback.  This plan identifies our schools’ priorities, key actions and monitoring tools that ensure we are closely analysing our DATA to ensure that we are ‘doing the right work at the right time.’

Forest Primary School’s priorities for 2025 include;

Priority 1 – Effective Pedagogical Practices

Priority 2 – Engagement for Learning

Whole School Assembly

On Thursday the 10^th of April at 9am we would like to see as many of you attend our assembly for the end of Term 1.  Students will be sending home personalised invitations. It is a great opportunity for you to share in your child’s learning journey and witness the wonderful teaching and learning happening here at Forest Primary School

Student of the Week

Students who have been awarded Student of the Week will celebrate a Hot Chip and Ice cream lunch in Week 10. It is wonderful to see so many  students demonstrating our school values everyday they are at school.  Each week, identified Students of the Week are acknowledged during our Friday morning meeting and receive a certificate and personalised pencil or pen and then have their photo taken which is displayed in our corridor.

School Association

We held our AGM and welcome our new and existing members! Thankyou to each of you for giving up your time to meet – it is very much appreciated!

Chairperson – Caitlin Pearce

Deputy Chairperson – Ben Korpershoek

Treasurer – Danielle Ollington (Acting Term 1 and Term 2)

Secretary – Rhiannon Murphy

Staff Member – Melissa Cox

Community Member – Annette Dawes

Parent Member – Adam Mullins

Principal – Megan Hills

SRC Easter Fun Day

SRC are holding an Easter Fun Day at lunch time in the MP room on the of 11^th of April with lots of fun activites. Looking forward to seeing all the Easter Dress-ups.

Cross Country

Our whole school Cross County will be held on the 9^th of April.

Megan Hills

There are lots of things you can do to set your child up for success:
Make sure your child goes to school, every day.
Going to school every day gives your child every chance to learn and grow, and connect with their mates and teachers. It’s where bright futures start and where they’ll benefit the most.
Get them excited for school
If you show a positive attitude and excitement towards school, your child will pick up on that. The most common thing we hear from students, of all ages, is that school is where they can:
» spend time with their friends and teachers
» create new and fun experiences
» find their interests
» learn new things
» open up their options – for whatever future they want (whether that’s their dream job or to travel around the world).
Share these positives with your child. Talk to your child about school. Open up a conversation with your child about what’s happening at school. It will help you to better support their interests and confidence in learning. If you show an interest in school, they’ll know that getting an education is important and valued.
Celebrate the milestones
Big and small! Celebrate milestones such as making it through the first day or week of school. And remember: all milestones look different. If it’s a big achievement for your child, it’s important to recognise it.
Set up a time to talk to your child’s teacher or principal if you’re struggling to get your child to school, help is available. Please talk to us at school about your situation. We’ll support you, in whatever way we can.
Know when to seek help
There is no weakness in admitting you need help. If your child has completely disengaged with school, and not attending at all, there is support to help you. In the first instance, talk to us at school. For more helpful tips, please check out the Anything can happen website.

Understanding Phonological Awareness

Within word recognition, phonological awareness is a crucial skill for young learners as it involves recognising and working with sounds in spoken language. This foundational ability helps children with reading and spelling by allowing them to hear, identify, and manipulate sounds. To support your child's phonological awareness at home, try these fun games:

1. I went to the shop and bought… This game is excellent for helping your child’s memory and it can be modified to use lots of Phonological awareness skills. First you say I went to the shop and bought x. Then the next person says I went to the shop and bought x and y.  With each turn you add a new item after remembering the previous items. This game could be played with rhyming words ( I bought a cat, mat and a hat), it can be played with beginning sounds (only buying items beginning with a /m/ moon, mouse and monkey) or final sounds (tree, bee and a knee). For your older children you could challenge them by only changing 1 sound for each item (e.g. I bought a mat, cat, cap, can, pan and a pin)
2. I spy… This classic car game is a great way to build your child’s phonological awareness. You can play in the below way:

Rhyme: I spy something that rhymes with…

Syllables: I spy something that is 3 syllables…

Beginning sound: I spy something beginning with…

Blending and segmenting words: I spy a d-o-g  - when your child is guessing they have to blend the sounds together when your child is giving the clues they have to segment the word into the sounds.

1. Can you…

Switch up giving instructions at home for a bit of fun by getting your child to using their phonological awareness skills. It is time to pack your b-a- g for S-ch-oo-l. It is time to get into something that rhymes with red. Can you put something that begins with /sh/ on your feet.

Melissa Cox

Instructional Specialist

Year 1-2 Term 1 2025

In Maths this term we have been learning about the place value system. We have been using lots of hands-on materials to group collections, model and partition numbers.

Thanks to the wonderful organisation from Mrs Hills and our school community helpers Sue-Ella Thorp and Colleen Ives, we have been getting outside in the gorgeous weather for a bit of gardening. With amazing help from Haylee and Teleeka, we have planted tomatoes in the hot-house and peas outside our classroom in the raised beds. We can’t wait to see how they grow!!

In HASS the Grade 6s have been exploring a unit “Migration Experiences”.

We watched a video of a lady, Cuc Lam, who was a Vietnamese refugee. She spoke about moving from her home and how she bought a red suitcase with her. This suitcase was very significant as it gave her something that she owned and could hold and also held precious things from her homeland and family. 

The Grade 6s thought about what they would take with them to remind them of home if they were to travel to the other side of the world and also what their suitcase would mean to them. 

We will have all our work displayed in the Multi-purpose room at the assembly, but in the meantime enjoy these amazing pieces of writing

Please find below an order form for our Tesselaar Fundraising with Bulbs Fundraiser. You can view the catalogue online at https://www.bulbfundraiser.com.au/FORESTPS and you will notice you can order online by the 11th April 2025 but we highly encourage saving yourself the postage money and submitting orders to the school office using the below order form. Parents and Friends Association will cover the freight cost if ordered through the supplied order form instead of online and contact you once your bulbs are ready for collection. If you choose to save on postage and order on the paper form we will require ALL ORDERS AND PAYMENT no later than Thursday 10th April 2025.  

Thank you, 

Lynne van Norden - President 

In 2024 we managed to run a few successful fundraisers. We did Sunrise Bakery, Slimefest, Cake Stall, Pop up Lunches, Christmas Raffle, Christmas Family BBQ & Catered for the Grade 6 Dinner. We raised in excess of $7,000. 

We contributed over $8,000 to the school by – sending the whole school to Frozen the musical, purchased new Instant shelters & mats, our annual $5,000 to the Grade 6 school trip & donated to each Forest Primary student representing at Country Gold.  

Although 2024 was not our biggest fundraising year we should all be very proud of our efforts. Any contribution we make benefits our kids and we should always keep this in mind.  

Thank  you to all the committee members for helping in anyway possible to support our P&F and our students. Nothing is possible without your support no matter how big or small you are able to contribute. Also a big thank you to the 2024 SRC who worked with us especially with the Xmas raffle, it is great to have the students themselves contributing.  

I look forward to seeing what is achievable this year and hopefully we have a few new faces join us on our journey with some fresh ideas. It is very rewarding to know the funds we raise go directly to resources or activities for all our students at Forest Primary. The more people we have involved the easier it is on everyone.  

Thank you. 

Lynne van Norden

President

2025 Election of Office Bearers:

President: Lynne van Norden

Vice President: Rhiannon Thorp

Secretary: Jessie Ollington

Treasurer: Rebekah Lardner