Welcome to Term 3

 

The many smiles of children and adults certainly greeted everyone back for a very positive start to Term 3. Thank you everyone for your patience in waiting for our first eNewsletter for Term 3 – it was very reassuring that some had noticed we’d had a delay in uploading our first issue for this term!  (Please be assured, our fortnightly issues will recommence as normal from today.)

Student Council – Koinz4Kidz Review

This year the Student Council chose to support Koinz4Kidz as their Term 3 Charity activity.

 

Our Student Leaders provided brief PA afternoon announcements about daily coin totals, the Class donating the most and the awarding of House Points to our yearly school board total.  

The overall school total collected was an enormous $411.70… and the generosity of everyone was amazing.  The Student Leaders then selected a design for the Student Councillors to create a ‘pop-up’ Coin Art Installation to visually share and showcase with everyone just how much we had raised.

“Thanks everyone for bringing along your spare change for our week-long challenge!

And please check on ClassDojo School Story to see our creation steps for our Coin Artwork.”

 

(TCPS Student Council)

 

Living the Values for Term 3

 

Monthly, we have a school-wide focus on our Department of Education Values – RESPECT, GROWTH, ASPIRATION & COURAGE linked to sub-values focus from ‘Values for Australian Schooling’.

Our first Values spotlight for Term 3 has focused on ‘RESPECT – being ‘Honest and Trustworthy’  and for the second half of this term we will focus on ASPIRATION – ‘Fair Go’. 

Nearly every week, it is a really difficult task for teachers in Grades 3 to 6 to select their class Values recipient as well as our Preps to Grade 2 teachers who meet and present forthrightly … from so many outstanding children displaying our values – keep up this great modelling of showing ‘Respect’ and ‘Aspiration’  everyone!

Book Weeks @ TCPS in 2023

Nationally, Book Week is celebrated from 19 to 25 August.  This year we have chosen to celebrate the ‘treasuredness’  of Book Week over two weeks.

Week 1: Book Fair (21 to 25 August)

Our annual Book Fair is a wonderful opportunity to purchase some new books for your home while raising funds for our school library. Students have the chance to browse at the fair during their library time and to write down an item they would like to recommend to their families. There is absolutely no pressure to purchase and class teachers remind all students that it is a decision for families to make at home.

Class Book Fair viewing will take place from the 21st-24th of August in normal school times. Book Fair purchasing starts on Friday 25 and families are welcome from 8:00-9:00am and from 2:45 to 3:15pm for purchasing.  Students will also be able to purchase during their allocated class time on the day.

Families visiting for our early purchasing session are reminded to wait outside classrooms for normal morning entry at 8:30 am.

Week 2 : In-School Book Week Celebrations (28 August to 1 September)

Our in-school Book Week 2 celebrations will include: each day there will be daily craft activities in the large multi, our grade six library leaders will read shortlisted books to younger grades and our dress up day will take place on Tuesday August 29 at 9am in the Gym.

Students are invited to dress up as their favourite character and bring the book along to share in class. Please remember, costumes do not have to be elaborate or expensive. It is wonderful to see creative, repurposed and recycled items reimagined into costumes. This year all classes have put together a collection of text responses to their reading of the CBCA shortlisted books which is on display in the library for students and families to browse.

 

Term 3 Staffing Update

 

• Welcome back to Mrs Emma Liefhebber this week… and thank you to Mrs Julie-Anne Elphinstone, Mr Keiron Burgess & Mr Kevin Hiscutt for teaching 5/6B class whilst she was on a period of LSL.
• Welcome back to Miss Fiona Sculthorpe who has taken over teaching 1/2B. Mrs Mandy Barlow completed her temporary appointment with us at the end of last term and we sincerely thank her for the great half of the year she provided for everyone in 1/2B. It was extremely timely for us that Miss Sculthorpe could seamlessly take on this role as she recommenced back at our school.
• Welcome to Mrs Erin Munro who was the successful applicant for our Leadership team’s Acting AST vacancy. Mrs Munro will also be teaching Visual Arts from Prep to 5/6 and this is a great way for her to quickly become familiar with all of our students and her new school community.
• We have had a number of Teacher Assistants team changes early in this term and sadly we have said ‘Farewell’ to Shantal Giddins who has a period of maternity leave approaching. We say thanks and also wish her a short restful time prior to the joy of a new little one joining her family.
• Welcome to new or increasing load TAs joining us for T3: Marlee Johnson, Sarah Short, Holly Hodgetts, Dawn Allen and Rachael Harvey.  We are really pleased to be able to support more learners after receiving additional funding from the Department.

 

School Association - Term 3 Wood Raffle

The Wood Raffle was advertised to be drawn at this week’s Assembly; however, there’s still time to return tickets and money as the draw will now take place at the School Association’s meeting next week on Tuesday 22 August. The winner will be contacted and shared via ClassDojo.

 

Teacher Assistant (Aide) Appreciation Week

 

At the end of this month we celebrate national Teacher Aide Week (28 August-1 September).  This is a formal chance to show our gratitude to our Teacher Assistants for all they do in our schools (I know that we do this as part of our everyday as we are so grateful for the invaluable support our TAs give our students).  Particularly during this week of recognition, I would encourage all members of our school community to share a personal ‘thank you’ to an awesome Teacher Assistant!

 

National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence 

 

The National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence (NDA) is Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative for schools, encouraging whole-school communities to work together to implement evidence-informed positive and proactive solutions to prevent and address bullying.

From this year, the NDA is permanently moving to the third Friday in August. In 2023, this will be Friday 18 August.

In 2022, 68% of Australian schools joined together to say Bullying. No Way! (…And importantly, Table Cape Primary is one of the schools annually involved).  The NDA is an opportunity to create a shared understanding of what is bullying, outline your bullying prevention policies and show support to students who may be experiencing bullying.

The NDA theme for 2023 is 'growing connections'. This theme supports research findings that strong school community connections and social skills are protective factors in the prevention of bullying and help enable positive, help-seeking behaviours in students.