May 2024

Welcome to our Newsletter

Principal's Report

A warm welcome to this newsletter  (well, warm if you have a puffer jacket and the heater on). 

Some updates to keep you informed…

Staffing

Pieta Langham is on leave for approximately 6 weeks whilst she recovers from surgery on her ankle.  We wish her a speedy recovery.  In the meantime, I will be Acting Principal, Liz Finlayson will be Acting Assistant Principal and Janelle Manshanden will be extending her AST duties.  Ella Mainsbridge will be teaching Year 3 Magpies and continuing the high-quality program that Ms Manshanden and Ms Botha plan.  Adam Bowden, Su Douglas and Jess Gunn will be assisting the Leadership Team on occasional days (with John Pluck and Ben Gunn picking up extra teaching days).  Thank you to all the Leadership team for your flexibility and adaptability during this time.

Reporting

In keeping with the DECYP’s requirements Prep- Year 6 students will receive a Mid-Year Report.

Prep-Year 6: Mid-Year Reports- Sent Home Friday 21^st June

 Point Scale Rating- English, Maths & Science

• Year 1-6
• No Ratings for Prep

Application to Learning an Effort & Organisation Rating for English, Maths & Science

• Prep-Year 6

Kinder-Year 5: Family Conversations- Monday 24^th to Friday 28^th June

• 15-minute conversation sharing information about their wellbeing progress and application to learning and wellbeing
• Booking instructions will be shared in the next two weeks.

Disco

A huge thank you to our Parents and Friends Association, school community, staff and well-behaved children that made the disco a success!  Not only was this a successful fundraising event, but it  also demonstrated the strong value of connection we have as a school community.  Above all though, there were some killer dance moves in both the early childhood and  grade 3-6  disco.  Some impressive karaoke skills shown by the older children.

Uniform

A School Association agenda item on Monday (13^th May) was to seek clarification regarding black being worn as school uniform.

Unanimously, it was agreed that the school uniform will not change. It was acknowledged that it can be difficult to obtain green leggings and tights at a reasonable price.  However, due to the:

• Vast choice in the uniform shop
• Efforts to stock more cost-effective items
• Large numbers of 2^nd hand items
• Financial hardship supports available

Dark green will remain our predominant school uniform colour.  Please contact our School Administration team if you need support to achieve this.

To reduce the large number of lost property items, please ensure your child’s uniform is clearly labelled.

https://mpsuniformshop.square.site/s/shop

Sickness / Relief teachers

With lots of viruses circulating now and students and staff becoming unwell, we kindly ask families to keep children home when unwell and/or for 48 hours after gastro symptoms have eased.

We also remind students to have good hygiene of washing hands after going to the toilet, blowing their nose and before eating.

As we come into the ‘cold and flu’ season, finding relief teachers becomes increasingly difficult.  We do our very best to ensure to find relief teachers when class teachers are unwell and/or unable to be at school. On the occasion we are not able to obtain a relief teacher for the day, we have a few back up plans.  These include:

• Leadership Team or specialists’ teachers going on class if possible.
• If in Year 3-6, there is also the option of splitting the class.

In the case of where it is necessary to split a class, a Leadership Team member greets the children of the morning, explains the organisation of the day, and takes attendance.  Teachers have previously planned which classrooms children would work best in for the day.  Children collect work they need to continue from the classroom and/or collect their “split class” book which has consolidating activities (For example readings with comprehension questions, Numeracy challenges…), to complete in the classroom they have been assigned to.  If relevant, children may join in with the learning in the classroom they have been allocated.

Focus Teams

At Margate Primary School we have our priority focus areas of Reading and Wellbeing (Safeguarding and Values).  Whilst these are our ‘glass ball’ priorities we know this is not all we do and all we want to improve in. The teaching staff recently met in Focus Teams to support the development of

• Numeracy Action Plan
• Wellbeing Action Plan
• Play Action Plan
• Science of Learning (current research) professional development
• First Nations Action Plan

In these teams, teachers discussed the introduction of a new common assessment tool for numeracy, organising an Early Childhood Play day to demonstrate the importance of play and building connections, a wellbeing day for 3-6 to promote positive mental health strategies, professional learning on high leverage teaching practices for effective teaching and learning (knowing what we know about the science of learning), and continued planning from Reconciliation Week to NAIDOC week activities.

Sincerely,

Leah Waugh

Acting Principal.

Donation of Piano

THANK YOU ERIN BOWERING

This week,  our school took delivery of a BEAUTIFUL piano, which has been donated to us. This very generous donation comes from a teacher within DECYP who has had to make a speedy settlement on her newly sold Kingston home before moving interstate. After trying to sell it and realising the cost of moving it, she made the heartbreakingly difficult decision to put it up for adoption!

Amanda (mum to Sophia and Lily), found the offer on Facebook and we quickly collaborated to accept. 

The piano looks very much at home on the stage in the PAC , and now the room feels much more like a Music room to me! 

Thank you to Donna for helping to facilitate the move. Thanks also goes out to Verity, Scott, Jess and Matthew Ives for agreeing to move the piano from Kingston to Margate after hours and for little more than a song! 

Welcome to your new home at Margate Primary School, our lovely little piano!

Andrea van Emmerik

Golden Tickets

Congratulations to the following students who won the golden ticket draw on Monday. These students and many others have earned golden tickets by displaying our values of Connection, Courage, Growth, Responsibilty and Respect.

Student Wellbeing Officer

Hello Families,

Many of you will recognise me from my involvement with the school as an Early Years teacher here at Margate between 2018 and 2021 and again this year on Fridays with the 1/2 Wedge-Tailed Eagles. This Term, I have also been employed by Hobart City Mission as a ‘Student Wellbeing Officer’ due to Margate Primary being allocated funding from the Federal Government’s National Student Wellbeing Program.  I will be working in this role most weeks on a Thursday.

The purpose of this role is to support student wellbeing at school, for example, to help students dealing with social or friendship concerns, difficulties with school attendance, or to help with strategies to engage in learning. Sometimes this might involve in-class support, structured out-of-class alternative learning activities, group projects, organised games at play times, and other opportunities for social and emotional learning or brain breaks, depending on the needs that arise.

The scope of the role will evolve over time, and I will work in collaboration with the school’s Student Wellbeing and Support Team, classroom teachers, and of course students themselves, to determine the most effective ways to support student wellbeing at Margate Primary.

In coming weeks, I will be taking time to visit classrooms and introduce myself and this role to students and look forward to forming positive relationships within the school community.

Throughout the year, you may receive communication from myself with resources or suggestions for ways we can all support student wellbeing in the school, and I also welcome questions or suggestions that you may have. Please contact me via email at amy.grego@decyp.tas.gov.au or say hello if you see me at school.

Amy Grego

Reports

School Photos coming soon!

Gumnuts Early Learning

2025 Kinder

Uniform Shop

Uniform shop opening dates are as follows:

21st June - 3-3.30

26th July -  3 - 3.30

23rd August - 3 -3.30

20th September 3 -3.30

18th October 3- 3.30

https://mpsuniformshop.square.site/s/shop

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

Safety of Van Morey Road

Van Morey Road is very busy around school times with buses and cars going everywhere.  This is why we had a school crossing installed.  For the safety of yourself and your children please only use the school crossing to cross Van Morey Road.

Booking of the Gym

Just a friendly reminder if you wish to use the gym after hours for training, please make sure you ring and speak to the office first to check that there are no other bookings.  Thank you.

Collecting your child from school within the school day

If you are collecting your child from school within the school day for an appointment or other early departure reason, please come by the office first.  The office will then assist in calling your child up to the office and you can sign your child out.

Attendance Notifications

Please contact the Office with attendance notifications no later than 9.30am to avoid receiving a phone call from our office staff.

If you are social distancing, please email margate.primary@decyp.tas.gov.au 

Facebook

Please follow us on our School Facebook page for infomation about upcoming school events and celebrations.

Lost Property

Please help us by coming along and looking through the lost property items. Named lost items will be returned to the student (where possible) and all un-named items will be passed on to the uniform shop at the end of term.

Community Notices