On Friday 10 December, every student from Prep to grade 6 will be given an envelope to take home containing their 2021 End of Year Report.  We ask that all students ensure these envelopes go home unopened. Importantly these contain this year’s Summary Statement End of Year Report and a new ‘2022 School Terms and Holiday Dates’ fridge magnet.  

I have included a letter inside each report envelope to further explain the summary report format and any additional folder contents. If for any reason your child is absent on Friday, then our school practice is to issue this information from their next day at school; or parents/carers are welcome to pick these up at the end of the school day on Friday 10 December.

Our Kindergarten students will receive their special ‘Celebration of Learning’ Report on Thursday 9 December along with their 2022 class information.  They will have a chance to meet their teacher and briefly visit their 2022 classroom during their last week of school.

2022 Class, teacher and levy information is also included in the reporting envelope.  Significant additional hours of work have gone into ensuring we have a ‘balance’ of friendships, learning needs and strengths in all classes, particularly when arranging same grade groupings.  The support of parents greatly assists us in this class placement process and I further encourage parents to be really positive with their child/ren as they find out their new class groups for 2022.  For many valid reasons, children need the opportunity to broaden their current friendships and further develop their independence and social skills. Please be positive with your child to support our educational decisions.

On Friday 10 December we have planned for students from grades Prep to 5 to briefly visit their new classrooms and meet their 2022 teacher/s.  A member of our Leadership Team will meet with class groups if the teacher is not available on the day.

So far, 2022 Class Teacher information includes:

Kinder A –  Kirsty Allen

Kinder B –  Nikki Dowling

Prep A –  Melissa Jones

Prep B –  Allison Wilson

1A –  Claire Thorp & Chantelle Thomas

2A –  Catherine Badcock (3 days)  & Allison Snare (2 days)

2B –  Jessica Fidler (3 days)  & Alice Sadler (2 days)

3A –  Ashleigh Laurendet

3B –  Cathy Broomhall (3 days) & TBC

4A –  Christina Schleich

4B –  Michelle Smitheram

5A –  Felicity Hookway (4 days)/TBC

5B –  Jane Nott (4 days)/TBC

6A –  Fiona Sculthorpe

6B –  Emma Liefhebber

Other 2022 program and staffing roles and responsibilities are being finalised.  This information will be shared with our School Community once it is known.

Staffing Information from 2021 to 2022

Significant for us next year will be:

1. FAREWELLS TO STAFF – this year again we have a few staff who will be finishing working with us and leaving our school

• Mr Brett Mullins has shown great courage in activating a transfer process to leave a school he loves. He is bravely looking forward to joining Somerset Primary School where he will have an opportunity to pursue teaching STEM.  ‘Head and heart’ thinking often influence decisions; and whilst you leave a large gap in our staff team at TCPS, we know sharing your talents with another school will be such an asset to their community.  Brett first commenced at TCPS in 2001 before taking on the Principal role at Waratah Primary from 2005 until 2008; he then returned to our school from 2009. Such a significant teaching appointment in one school community across the range of grades in the early and primary years. Your approachable manner is endearing to all who work with you and families have such strong connections with you, well beyond your class, the primary years and still within our local community.  We will really miss you and wish you every success in your new school!
• Mrs Carol Blake is currently away on a period of leave until the end of this term and then will be finishing in her teacher assistant role with our school. For such a long time, Carol has provided key support roles to our students, staff and families, both as a teacher assistant and a library technician.  She has promoted a love of books with everyone and developed a wonderful library collection that we all treasure and enjoy.  Carol has developed many strong and lasting relationships with families over the last 22 years at Table Cape and will definitely be missed.  Best wishes Carol.
• Mr Will Nichols is transferring to Yolla District School in 2022 after a period of 6 years teaching with us. Mr Nichols’ contributes strongly to a school community for an appointment period and has shared with me that he then looks to renew his career with new school opportunities – what a great outlook Will. Your dedication and commitment to teaching at TCPS will be missed, yet we will definitely miss you and wish you every success at your new school!
• Ms Leanne Wescombe has been successful in being appointed permanently in her current School Business Manager role at Havenview Primary School. Leanne has been an outstanding Administration Clerk for our school, as well as providing supportive First Aid care to so many for nearly 6 years with us.  It is great to see Leanne win this promotion but such a loss for our school community – she will definitely be missed!
• Kaye Linton has been an Education Support Specialist in our Preps this year and finishes in this position at the end of the term. Best wishes Kaye and we hope you may be able to do some relief with us in the future!
• Mr Stuart Snare will be taking a term’s period of Long Service Leave at the beginning of the new school year. We look forward to Stuart returning to school in Term 2 after a relaxing extended break!
• NB We also have a number of non-teaching staff (teacher assistant and admin) fixed term contracts ending and I am not yet able to confirm farewells or new/ongoing appointments for 2022. I am hoping to be able to share further information in our last newsletter.

As a staff group we say  ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ on the last Friday, but also traditionally I like to inform our school community so that families have an opportunity to say a personal goodbye before the end of the term. Also, our final Celebration Concert event, on Wednesday 15 December, will allow for the students to give a small posy or gift as a thank you to departing staff.

2. WELCOMES TO STAFF – next year we extend a warm welcome to some new staff who will be joining our school, including:

• Mrs Wendy Crabtree is currently working with us – so technically not new - but it’s wonderful news to announce to all that she has been appointed as our permanent part-time Library Technician.
• Mrs Jessie Type-Farrell (from Somerset PS) has been successful in being appointed for 3 years as our School’s full-time Quality Teaching Coach.  Jessie has a wealth of teaching and AST team leadership experience to bring to our school’s overall improvement planning and expert teaching team.
• Mrs Christina Schleich (from Montello PS) is transferring to us and joining our middle primary collaborative team, and specially our Grade 4 teaching team. In her own words, “I am feeling very excited!” to become a member of our School community in 2022.
• Mr Paul Langerak will be supporting our Prep classes in a part-time Education Support Specialist role. Next year, Paul will continue to also work part-time at his current school, Cooee PS.

Our Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey Results

In Term 3, students in grades 4, 5 & 6 completed the 2021 Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey (SWES). 

The survey results provide valuable data on the wellbeing of our students and will inform our approaches to improve student wellbeing at our school and at state system level. 

Our Student Leaders and Student Councillors were also invited as a student voice focus group to provide further feedback to the Department  about our school’s survey data and their interpretation of the results.

Overall our results reinforce the high standard of educational and wellbeing provision for students and families at Table Cape Primary!

Student_Wellbeing_Infographic_Template_4_9_1_.pdf

2021 Celebration Concerts

Our exciting and important upcoming school end of year ‘Celebration Concert’ dates are fast approaching. We invite families to join us on both:

• Wed 8 Dec 1:30pm in our Gym where all ‘A’ classes – Grades Kinder to 6 will be performing an item and
• Wed 15 Dec 1:30pm in our Gym where all ‘B’ classes – Grades Kinder to 6 will be performing an item

ALL Kinder to 6 classes will be in our audience each week but only half of the school will be performing. Having two concerts allows for all classes to participate; yet more importantly, this allows for each concert to be of an appropriate length of time for children (as members of a ‘student audience’) and allow for every class to have a turn to perform. 

Please note down these dates so that you can come along to our special end of year ‘Celebration Concerts’!  All adult visitors are asked to check-in via the TAS App or complete a paper entry record.

TCPS Christmas Raffle

Raffle books will be sent home to families this week for our annual school raffle. This year we have 6 prizes including: 2 x Christmas Hampers, 2 x Gift Packs, a Garden Pack and a Eurotrike PlasmaCar. Prizes will be on display near the School office from Monday 6 Dec.

Please support this awesome raffle as all proceeds raised go towards essential needs and resources for the school.

Tickets are $1.00 each and will be drawn on Wednesday 15 December. More tickets are available from the School Office.

School Canteen Open until last student day, 16 December

Our School Canteen will remain open for all student days excluding Tuesday 7 December (Fun Day & Devonport Pool) until the end of this term.  A huge… ‘Thank you’ to our Canteen Operator, Ms Stacey Reeve, for continuing to provide a terrific service to our School community!

Wynyard Sports Precinct Proposal

Currently the precinct is out for community consultation and the Wynyard-Waratah Council would love to hear from families as they are proposing to close a small section of Austin St.

Here is the link to the consultation page and further information on their website: Wynyard Sports Precinct - Waratah-Wynyard Council (warwyn.tas.gov.au)

Word of the Week helps to build up your vocabulary. 

How do I play?

Each week Mrs Thomas chooses a word which she puts in the Table Cape Primary School Newsletter. 

If you can come up with a sentence that includes the word of the week and tell Mrs Thomas, your name will go in the draw to win a $10 Scholastic Book Voucher which is drawn at the end of each term!

So.. Can you use these words in a sentence?

For 90 years, our School Banking program has helped children learn about money, reinforced the importance of regular savings and provided structure for parents to support their children to save.

Support is strong from schools, principals and volunteers who choose to run the program, however you may be aware that in past months, a number of state and territory governments have announced bans on banks delivering programs in their schools, and the NSW Government announced a similar decision today, because of a report from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

We are disappointed with the position taken by ASIC and subsequent decisions by some state and territory governments to take the choice to participate away from individual schools and parents. Because of the ASIC review and these government decisions, we are unable to continue providing programs in schools and we have had to make a difficult decision to close our School Banking program nationally.

As a result, the CommBank School Banking program will not be returning to schools beyond 2021.

Our School Banking program was established in 1931 at a time when having a bank account was not commonplace, and since then we have helped more than 15 million Australians take their first financial steps.

This would not have been possible without the wonderful support we have had from the schools we partnered with over the journey, and for this we are deeply grateful.

Even though this is a sad time, School Banking has taught so many young Australians, past and present, the value of money and we believe this should be celebrated. We have created a place for you to share your stories, fondest memories and lessons learnt through the program. Share your story at commbank.com.au/sbstories

While our in-school program will close, we are committed to supporting financial wellbeing, and will always provide financial education to young Australians. We have launched a new CommBank Youth Hub, which brings together all our youth financial education resources for parents and teachers. This includes a range of free resources including lesson plans, videos and worksheets from our curriculum-aligned financial education program, Start Smart.

Thank you sincerely for your support of our program. It has been invaluable and has helped many Australian children learn the importance of saving.

Warm regards,

Veronica