20 June 2024

Dates to Remember

June

July

A Message from Our Principal

As we head quickly towards the end of Term 2 and the middle of the year there has certainly been a chill in the air. The Winter season has arrived, a reminder to please ensure your child/children are dressed warmly in school uniform for their day at school. Our school has very high expectations with our school uniform and many visitors to our school give extremely positive feedback about how smart and unified our students look. We ask that any long sleeves under polo tops are gold or navy blue to keep with our school colours. We ask that students please wear navy blue or grey trackpants/trousers or shorts, rather than denim.

A reminder that our Hillcrest Primary School soft shell jackets are great for an extra layer over a school jumper. Uniform items can be purchased at the main office or through our Qkr! app, with items being delivered to students in their classes within a day.
 A new item that we are offering is our Winter dress, seen here being modelled by Regan. These dresses are available for order from Tasmanian Clothing Company in Spreyton, and cost $73.00.  They are made to order, and take approximately 3-4 weeks. If we have demand, we will consider adding these to our school supply ready for next Winter.

Mid-Year Reporting – Communicating Learning Progress to Families

Strong partnerships between families and schools create a supportive environment to better understand your child’s strengths and areas for support and development. When families and schools work together, students are more likely to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally, setting a solid foundation for their future success.

Please note that whilst Communicating with Families Meetings are a regular ‘event’ on our school calendar, I encourage you to stay connected with your class teacher either by reaching out through Seesaw, calling, or arranging a meeting at a mutually agreed time. Regular communication between families and teachers ensures that parents are aware of their child's progress, challenges, and achievements. This partnership allows for early intervention when issues arise.

It has been rewarding to hear the stories from staff, students and family members as to the significant growth that many have made to this point in the year. Our conferences provided an opportunity to develop some shared goals, discuss next steps and suggest ways to support your child’s learning at home. If you have not yet met with your child’s teacher, please make contact with them to arrange a time.

Prep- Year 6 students will receive Mid-Year reports in Week 10 of this term.

We are interested to hear your feedback about our conferences. Whilst many families have completed the survey, if you have not could you please assist us by doing so by following the link below. On average the survey will take you a couple of minutes and will provide us with valuable feedback to support us to continue to improve. I look forward to sharing the feedback with staff and our School Association Committee next week.

After School Student Collection

We are seeing an increase in the number of children who, for many reasons, may not be collected at 2:45pm, the end of the school day. We understand that at times parents/carers are sometimes running late and this is unavoidable.
To ensure we can provide suitable and safe duty of care for students who may need to wait a few minutes extra, they will now join the bus duty group. This group of students are supervised by staff who support students catching the bus. Students can move to the bus line up area outside the library and will then move to the circular seating area at the front of the school. Parents/carers can collect children from here when they arrive.

Cross Country

Congratulations to Mr Forward and his team of helpers – Mr Woods, Reece High Students and HPS staff - who ran an extremely successful 2024 Cross County event.
I was SO impressed with the effort and participation of all students, and as I said to so many – we don’t expect everyone to be the fastest or best, but we wanted to see everyone do their best, and we did! A big well done to all students who participated on the day. Thank you to families and friends who came and supported our event.

Staffing update

This week we welcome Mrs Dear back at school to teach Visual Art, after some time off travelling in Europe. Welcome back Mrs Dear!

Ms Renee Pardoe, our School Business Manager has been on leave for most of this term and has informed me that she will resign from her position. Ms Pardoe has worked at Hillcrest for nearly 2 and a half years, and we thank her for the wonderful contribution she has made to our whole school community. Particularly in physical environment improvements and how she has made many positive changes to communication, procedures and processes to improve our services. We wish Ms Pardoe all the best for her future endeavours! The School Business Manager position has been advertised and I hope to have information regarding the successful applicant in coming weeks.

In partnership,
Georgia

Reporting – Communicating Learning Progress

Thank you to the families who attended our 3-Way Conferences. The conferences are part of our reporting process and are a great opportunity to discuss how your child is progressing with their learning.

A reminder to our families that mid-year reports will be sent home with children on Thursday 4 July.

The report will show your child’s learning achievement on a 9-point visual scale for students in Years 1 to 6 (and for Prep students at the end of the year). The 9-point scale shows where your child’s learning achievement is against the expected standard for their year level. There will be no teacher comments in the report.

In addition to the mid-year report, families with children in Grade 3-6 will receive a Health and Physical Education evidence of learning (work sample). An attendance summary for each student in term 1 and 2, will also be included.

For more information about reports:

• School Reports FAQs
• Understanding the 9-point scale

Visit the Department’s website at: Reporting - The Department for Education, Children and Young People Tasmania (decyp.tas.gov.au)

Hilly Kids Are Friendly Kids

Our Hilly Kid Winner for Reflection in week 5 & 6

Rights are our current fortnightly focus

This term our Hilly Kids are Friendly Kids fortnightly focus links to responsibility.

What’s been happening in P-1 Lawes

In Prep/1L we have been working on an inquiry about ‘Living Things’.  We have learnt about the needs of living things, characteristics, habitats and some baby animal names.  We have each chosen an animal to research (using books from our school library) and used the facts we have learnt to write an ‘Information Report'.  We have also made a model of our animal from boxes.  On Thursday 20^th June we have invited Mrs. Perry and our adults to come and visit our classroom in the afternoon, to showcase our great work.

2025 Kinder Enrolments & Pre-Kinder

Hilly Staff

All about me

Abbie Bonney

My Role – P-1 Teacher
Worked at Hillcrest – This is my 2^nd year
What do you like most about our school – Hilly Kids, the staff and the students
Pets – 2 dogs called Duke & Joey
Sporting Team I follow – Essendon Football Club
Hobby in my spare time – Family camping trips, weekends away, and gardening
Fun Fact about me – I love indoor plants
Favourite Meal or type of food – Thai food
Hidden skill/talent – I’m still pretty good at doing a cartwheel, even at 33!

Would you rather…………….

Beach OR Pool - Beach
Tea OR Coffee – Coffee
Books OR Movies – Books
Summer OR Winter – Summer
Morning Person OR Night Owl – Morning Person
Cats OR Dogs – Dogs
Theme Park OR Museum – Theme Park

Denise Chettle

My Role – Literacy Support
Worked at Hillcrest – 2.5 years
What do you like most about our school – Wonderful kids
Pets – 2 dogs (my fur babies)
Sporting Team I follow – Collingwood, and the Matildas
Hobby in my spare time – Sewing, walking my dogs
Fun fact about me – I have flown over central Australia in a hot air balloon
Favourite Meal or type of food – Mexican

Would you rather…………….

Beach OR Pool – Beach
Tea OR Coffee – Coffee
Books OR Movies – Books
Summer OR Winter – Winter
Morning Person OR Night Owl – Night Owl
Cats OR Dogs – Dogs
Theme Park OR Museum – Museum

Prepare, Plan, Protect – Winter Wellness Guide

The Children’s Book Council of Australia

School Holidays Sports Programs

Opera Australia – Children’s Choir

There’s Still Time

Family Fun

Celebrating NAIDOC Week