21 Dec 2023

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21 Dec 2023

As we finish this year together, I reflect over the enormously challenging year we have had and foremost, I want to acknowledge and commend my Staff on their flexibility, adaptability and never-wavering supportiveness of each other. And ultimately, this has ensured ongoing, positive learning for all children, no matter any interruption to staffing changes or absences from unplanned sickness that have constantly needed managing throughout the year.

I am so grateful to have the tremendous support and expertise of my Leadership Team – Michael van der Ploeg, Chantelle Thomas, Jessie-Type-Farrell, Monique Moore, Erin Munro, Alison Willcox and Andrea Miller - who have also collectively taken on additional roles and responsibilities. All of these efforts have ensured a successful 2023 for our school community. We have all earned a well-deserved holiday break to enjoy quality time with family and friends!

2024 Class Information

All children have now had a chance to meet in their new class groupings and participate in some early team building activities, especially sharing their prepared ‘Personal Flags’ with new teachers as a key way to get to know each other.

At the start of this term class teachers met with members of our Leadership team to create the most equitable classes possible by balancing a range of needs, including both learning ability and social connections.

Whilst parents have one child to consider (in a given class), we have approximately 350 children to consider, so educational decisions have been made to cater for all needs. We have worked very hard to ensure that every child has a friend, and we ask for you to support our placements and reassure children that ‘new’ groupings bring many ‘new opportunities’ for them in 2024.

Over the break, continue to encourage every child to embrace the many new opportunities planned for 2024… actively reflecting one of our key school values of ‘Courage’. For some children, we will be sending home a personalised story today, and this is to further capture some of the key information for them and family members as a support for transitioning to a new class or new teacher in 2024.

We have formed 15 class groupings for 2023 and so far, our known staffing is:

Kinder A – Anna Davis, Kinder B – Emma Lohrey, Prep A – Kirsty Allen, Prep B – Jennifer Golledge, 1A – Claire Thorp, 1B – Cathy Broomhall & Alice Wade, 2/3A – Catherine Badcock & Holly Mainsbridge, 2/3B – Fiona Sculthorpe, 2/3C – Leanne Bugg, 4A – Teegan Townsend, 4B – Michelle Smitheram, 5A – Felicity Hookway 5B – Kelli-anne Gillam, 6A – Pippa Mills & Laura Willcox and 6B – Emma Liefhebber.

We are committed to the provision of quality learning opportunities for the growth and development of the ‘whole child’ and our Specialist Program Staffing includes Georgie Smedley – teaching Visual Arts; George Hills – teaching Health and Physical Education, Michael van der Ploeg teaching STEM, Sharon Neilson – teaching Music and Visual Arts. Jacinta Craighead will be supporting our Literacy and Reading initiatives; Catherine Badcock and Alice Wade will be coordinating our Birth to 4 Programs including, Movers and Groovers, Pre-Kinder and Playgroup.

2024 Uniform Sales, Stationary Packs and Levy Days

Levy payments, collection of books and uniforms can be made on:

Friday 2 February: 8:30 – 11:30am Families with Surnames: A – C

12:00 – 3:00pm Families with Surnames: D – H

Monday 5 February: 8:30 – 11:30am Families with Surnames: I – Q

12:00 – 3:00pm Families with Surnames: R – Z

Please note due to Covid restrictions there may be a slight delay on these days due to the number of adults permitted in our building. Adults are asked to keep 1.5m distance from others both inside and outside at school.

EFTPOS facilities are available for both levy and uniform payments.

Office hours from Monday 29 January until Monday 5 February will be 8:30am – 3:00pm.

PLEASE NOTE:

Parents/Carers unable to make the levy payment during this period should contact our School Business Manager, Emma Green (Andrea Miller will be on leave for the first part of Term 1) on 6442 3377, to make alternative arrangements.

Please note that there are no credit arrangements on uniform sales.

Office staff will be able to accept any new enrolments and to assist parents with any queries from Monday 29 January. Office staff will also make appointments for parents who wish to discuss any matter with the principal and/or members of the Leadership Team.

CLASS PLACEMENT LEVY SHEET:

This sheet gives details of the class placement for your child in 2024 and the levy fee. It is included in your child’s 2023 End of Year reporting envelope.

PLEASE BRING THE LEVY SHEET WITH YOU WHEN YOU COME IN TO MAKE YOUR PAYMENT or collect Stationary packs if approved for STAS.

STATIONERY ITEMS:

Some stationery items for students will be issued upon payment of levies. The balance will be issued to children by teachers as required. The cost of these items is covered by your school levy payment.

Update of 2024 Medical Plans for Students

If you child requires a medical plan for anaphylaxis, allergies, asthma, epilepsy or a specific medical condition, then we ask that you have the most accurate and updated plans ready for us to copy when you come in for your allocated ‘Levy and Book Sales’ Day prior to school starting. This will ensure we are fully prepared to take on this extremely important duty of care for your child/ren.

STUDENT FIRST DAY OF TERM 1 IN 2024 IS THURSDAY 8 FEBRUARY

2023 Grade 6 End of Year Presentation Assembly

On Monday this week we had a great event in celebration of this year’s Grade 6 Leavers at our annual Presentation Assembly – a wonderful show of support from our parents and school community for all of our finishing year 6 students. We are extremely proud of all of our students and especially this week of our departing Grade 6s. Most importantly, a special event such as this, helps to remind us of what really matters most in what has been another extraordinary year for everyone!

Table Cape Primary is a great school focused on quality teaching and high expectations for learning achievement; balanced with elements of fun and enjoyment. I am sure that our Grade 6 Leavers will treasure their wealth of memories from Primary School and be able to look back one day and remember how great it was to be at Table Cape!

Our Leaver’s Presentation Assembly provides us with an opportunity to recognise, reward and celebrate some individual award recipients along with all of our Grade 6 leavers. Congratulations to all of our 2023 Award recipients (listed below). It has personally been an absolute privilege to share in each child’s last 8 years at primary school. Parents and families should be very proud of this wonderful year group!

Grade 5 Award Presentation: *Respectful Student Award – Sage D

Sponsored by Roger Jaensch, Minister for Education, Children and Youth

Grade 6 Individual Award Presentations

*Achievement in Health & Physical Education Award – Parker K

Grades 3 to 6 Class Kindness Award

At our final Student Grades 3 to 6 Afternoon Meeting last week, Class Teachers announced their ‘Class Kindness Award’ – for a child who consistently displays all Values and Kindness to everyone, all of the time!

Teachers had an extremely difficult task of selecting one student who has displayed the following Criteria in their class for all of the year:

Certificate Description - in recognition for:

Choosing to engage in random acts of kindness to others without seeking anything in return
Always saying and spreading happiness to others by being kind e.g. – giving compliments or just providing a listening ear to a friend in need
Your acts of kindness inspiring others to be kind as well
Making our class and school a better and happier place everyday

Your small acts of kindness are able to inspire others, who will then spread those actions to their friends and family. This snowball will continue to grow, and can eventually have a big impact on the world (with or without your awareness of it)

Congratulation to our … ‘2023 Class Kindness Award’ recipients:

3A – Macy C

3B – Jack L

4A – Amelia S

4B – April C

5/6A – Chelsea H

5/6B – Kiera S

5/6C – Levi B

5/6D – Seamus F

Classes 3 to 6 – 100+ Home Readers Draw

Our one whole school ‘homework’ priority is Home Reading! Developing strong and independent Reading skills significantly supports all learners in every area of their learning and schooling. Each class has a lucky $20 Book Voucher draw for children who have achieved 100+ Reading turns.

Congratulations to:

3A – Noah

3B – Eve

4A – Sienna

4B – Evelyn

5/6A – Jaylan

5/6B – Sage

5/6C – Claire

5/6D – Seamus

School Association Christmas Raffle Results:

Thank you to everyone who supported this term’s fundraising, and the winners were:

1^st Prize: Jan Grant, 2^nd Prize: Alivia P, 3^rd Prize: Tom W, 4^th Prize: Ted Blyth, 5^thPrize: Dan Fisher, 6^th Prize: Emma Lohrey, 7^th Prize: Stella C & 8^thPrize: Lenne Cullen

Update #2: Staffing Information 2023 – 2024

FAREWELL TO STAFF – this year again we have a few staff who will finish working with us and leaving our school. As a staff group, we say our ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ on Friday this week, but also traditionally, I like to share staffing news with our school community and significant for us next year will be:

Through an eligible transfer process this includes:

Ms Jane Nott - who is transferring to the Burnie Primary School from 2024 onwards. Jane has worked for over 2 decades as an essential member of our school staff and community. And unfortunately is away this term on an extended period of leave and unable to be present with us today. Please know that we have a gift to pass on to her. Jane is an exemplary Primary educator, teaching a range of grades and programs over a number of years in our school. Her commitment to the wellbeing and learning needs of every child is to be commended. We wish her every success at her new school.
Mrs Shelley Carpenter is transferring to Somerset Primary School. Shelley has belonged to our staff for 15 years at TCPS and in that time, has certainly made immeasurable positive impacts on the lives of so many children and families. We wish her every success at her new school.
A new announcement for our school community, is that Mrs Monique Moore has been successful in winning a permanent AST Leadership position at Romaine Park Primary School in Burnie from the start of 2024. Monique joined TCPS in her 2nd year of starting her teaching career and has provided many children with a really supported and positive year of learning and growth over the past 9 years. Best wishes Monique, as you extend your leadership experience in a new school – we will miss you.
Michael Johnstone – started at the same time as I did at TCPS and has resigned with 1 term less than 10 years. He always had a smile and a kind word for everyone, and we know as a public figure in the local community, we’re sure to see him often. We thank him for his efforts in our EFA team to always ensure a safe and well-maintained school environment for us all to enjoy daily.

Staff completion of Fixed-Term Teacher Contracts include Mrs ‘Tor Cochrane and Mrs Jan Radford. I remember that I was farewelling both at this time last year and then each did accept part-time positions with us for 2023. Our students have really benefited from their expertise and consistency of learning provision. A huge thank you to each… and we hope you can continue to be a part of our school community through 2024 relief opportunities.

Alison Willcox – part-time – 1-day pr week School Business Manager throughout the year and also more frequently during our SBM’s absence this term. Alison is a trusted and respected financial professional and it has been an absolute pleasure to work so closely with her, to ensure sound management of our school’s resource package. Thank you to Alison for the huge job she has taken on in this important role in our school.
We also have a number of non-teaching staff (teacher assistant and admin) fixed term contracts ending and I not yet able to confirm farewells or new/ongoing appointments for 2024 – however we thank each for their dedicated efforts during 2023.

And finally today, ‘Tis the season to wish one another joy, love, happiness and peace. These are my wishes for all members of our School Community! Merry Christmas everyone and also hoping everyone has a memorable and safe holiday with family and friends.

Kind regards, Lynette