15 December 2016

Newsletter Articles

Dates to Remember

December

January/February

From the Principal

There are a few busy days ahead of us, before we finish the term. Keep an eye out on the Facebook page as well as our newsletter to find out about everything happening at Hillcrest between now and the end of the year.

We will have a few staff changes going into 2017.

Welcome back to Nina Eberhardt and Anna Easther, who are both returning from a period of maternity leave. Nina will be team teaching on a P/1 class and Anna will teach Performing Arts. Welcome also, to the following new staff who have been assigned to Hillcrest. Kimberley Parker will be teaching on a Prep/1 class and Karen Thompson will be team teaching with Nina on the other Prep/1.

Tom Murray has accepted an Assistant Principal role at Reece High School for next year. I want to thank Tom for his leadership and support over this year and wish him all the best. Naomi Archer will be taking on the role of Raising the Bar Coach – Literacy for the first half of 2017. Ann-Maree Mulcaster will be filling in for Naomi as AST and LIFT co-ordinator during this time.

Wendy Cameron is retiring at the end of this year. Wendy has given many years of dedicated service to Hillcrest Primary School and the department. I wish Wendy all the best for her retirement and hope that she enjoys spending more time with her family. Prue Bezemer will be undertaking Wendy’s support teacher role and Carol Miller will be taking over her Launching into Learning role.

Ruth Marquis will be taking a period of long service leave for term 1 of 2017. Janmaree Peace will be filling in for Ruth, in her absence.

Jess Bellchambers will be leaving us at the end of this year. I wish Jess all the best for her teaching career and hope she has fond memories of Hillcrest.

Kate Priest will also be finishing at the end of this year. I hope Kate has enjoyed her time at Hillcrest and I wish her all the best for 2017.

Jarrod Minton-Connell will also be leaving us at the end of the year. Jarrod has been great with the students and has encouraged lots of musical exploration. I hope he has a great 2017 school year.

Rachel Butcher has been working with Wendy in the LiL classroom. Rachel will be finishing at Hillcrest at the end of this year. I want to thank Rachel for her great work and wish her all the best for 2017.

Finally, Brearne Banks will be finishing after a period of time at Hillcrest. I trust that Brearne has enjoyed her time here and hope she has a fantastic 2017. All the best!

Classes for term 1, 2017

Launching into Learning – Carol Miller
Kindergarten – Carol Miller
Prep/1 – Kimberley Parker
Prep/1 – Karen Thompson and Nina Eberhardt
1/2 – Janmaree Peace and Susan Broadby
2/3 – TBA
3/4 - Jaime-Lea Duff
4/5- Gaye Kelly
5/6 – Matt Hortle
5/6 – Steve Fenn
AST – Prue Bezemer
AST and LIFT coordinator – Ann-Maree Mulcaster
Raising the Bar Coach – Literacy – Naomi Archer
Principal – Jerome Pape

As this is the last newsletter for the year, I wish to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Hillcrest community for your ongoing support of our school. It has been a great year and many things have been achieved. I trust everyone has a well-deserved break over Christmas and has an opportunity to spend time with family and friends. Have a safe break and I look forward to catching up with you in the new year.

Thanks is Enough Awareness Campaign

The Integrity Commission is assisting the public sector in managing what public sector employees should do, when offered gifts. The campaign’s core message is that simple expressions of appreciation from the public and businesses are welcomed, but if that expression involves a gift then it presents risks to the employee and the public authority involved. Therefore, ‘thanks is enough’.

We appreciate your thanks and appreciate your kindness. That’s why we prefer you give us a card, a letter or an email – ‘thanks is enough’.

Assembly Friday – 1:15pm

On Friday 16th at our final Hilly Kids Assembly at 1:15pm we will be announcing our sports leaders and student councillors for 2017. We will also have our Hilly's Got Talent acts straight afterwards. All parents are invited to attend.

Hilly Kids Are Friendly Kids

Our HKFK student of the week for Respecting Property was Sophie Hynes from 5-6H and for Speaking Nicely was Samantha Naughton from 4-5K. Congratulations Sophie and Samantha!

Well done to our other class representatives for Respecting Property!

Well done to our other class representatives for Speaking Nicely!

School Picnic – Reminder re forms

If you received the major consent and aquatic consent forms (yellow and blue sheets) for the school picnic please ensure that they are returned to school by Monday, December 19th. We need one per child. Please do not put more than one child on each form. If the forms are not received by Monday, your child will be unable to attend the school picnic at the Bluff on December 20th.

Grade 6 Day Out Forms & $$$ Due

If you have a child in grade 6, please remember to send back the yellow & blue excursion forms and the $20 by tomorrow or your child will not be able to participate in the Day Out as part of the Grade 6 celebrations.

These forms were sent home with the information sheet with all grade 6 students on December 2nd. The yellow and green forms will also apply to the end of year school picnic so please read them carefully.

2017 Calendar

Have you ordered your calendar(s) yet? All families were sent home an order form for a 2017 calendar featuring your child’s artwork. They would make great Christmas gifts for family members! To order, please fill out the form and return it to the school office by tomorrow.

Tuckerbox News

Tomorrow, Friday December 16th is the last canteen day for the year. To celebrate, we will be selling Jolly Jelly & Very Merry Little Cakes for 60¢ each. These will be available at recess and after lunch. A big thankyou to everyone who volunteered their time to help out at the canteen and make our special events run smoothly. A huge thankyou to Theresa Johns for her hard work throughout the year.

Lyn Aherne – Canteen

Brekky Club – Last Day

Next Wednesday, December 21st, will be the last Brekky Club for the year. We will be having a special pancake breakfast. Come along and have a fun breakfast of 3 pancakes, juice or Milo and fresh fruit. There will be no cereal or toast offered and we will be starting at 8am. Everyone is welcome.

We would like to thank everyone who has volunteered their time and donated food for the Brekky Club. A special thankyou to Mrs Hillier, Ms Johns and Mrs Jones for helping out.

Lyn Aherne – Coordinator

School Library Books

We seem to have a large number of books which have not been returned to the school library! The children have had their last day of borrowing from the library and all books should have been returned by now. If your child has any school library books at home, can you please, please, please send them back to school so that we can do a stocktake and ensure we have all our books available for students at the start of next year. Parents will be invoiced for any books not returned by the end of this school year.

Student Assistance Scheme 2017

Application forms for Student Assistance in 2017 are now available in the school office. If you received STAS in 2016, you do not need to re-apply as you will have been sent correspondence regarding STAS 2017 directly from the Department. You will be contacted by the Financial Assistance Unit either advising of your STAS approval, or requesting further information. Please make sure that you supply that information, and also notify them if you have a new child starting school in 2017. Failure to supply requested information may result in your approval being denied or delayed, in which case you will have to pay the 2017 levies. Please refer to the table below to determine your eligibility. Your income needs to be at or below these thresholds.

Devonport Christmas Parade

Once again, Hillcrest Primary was represented at the Devonport Christmas Parade on Friday, December 2nd. Our theme this year was ‘Santa’s Workshop’. Our Primary Choir ‘Worker Elves’ were very busy making and painting toys….but many of their toys had to be sent back to be re-done on our conveyor system! The Head Elf and Assistant Head Elf were very fussy! Interestingly, the Naughty and Nice list had some well-known names on it! We had a lot of fun…..and our efforts were rewarded when we won the ‘Mayors Choice Award for Best Float in the Parade’!!!!

This was a huge team effort from many people…too numerous to mention…..but thank you one and all! We couldn’t have done it without you!

Reminders

• There are a number of items in our lost and found basket in the office foyer. At the end of the year any school uniform left in the basket will be washed and put into our secondhand uniform cupboard for sale. Any other items will be donated to an op shop if not claimed by 4pm on Wednesday, December 21st.
• The school office will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, December 22nd and re-open on Monday, January 30th. Please do not come in to collect books, buy uniform items, etc until January 31st/February 1st.
• Book collection/uniform sales: January 31st and February 1st: 9am - 2pm. Please remember to bring your lavender stationery and levy sheet (in your child’s report) and emergency contact details with you. Allow enough time to check your information validation forms. You can pay your levies and uniform by cash, cheque or eftpos. Some secondhand uniform may be cash only.
• If you have any second-hand school uniform items in good shape that you won’t be needing, please consider either donating it to the school or bringing it in for us to sell on your behalf. We always have families looking for second-hand uniform items!
• Volunteering/Parent help: remember that you must have a Working with Vulnerable People registration in order to volunteer and do parent help at the school or as a sporting coach. Please apply as soon as possible if you have not already done so as it does take some time for this to be processed. After registering online, you will need to go to Service Tasmania to have your photo taken and to pay. Please remember to put the Department of Education as your ‘employer’ and then select Hillcrest Primary from the next drop down box. Also, you need to select ‘volunteer’ from one of the drop down menus as well.

Enjoy your holidays!

LIFT

Lift logo.jpg (float left) By the end of this week each family will receive a list of 50 activities to do over the summer break. I hope you get to do some of them together! I hope to do some myself.

Next year we will have a whole range of games and activities for families to borrow from the school library, such as Game of Life, Zingo, Yatzee, Tapple, Skip-Bo, Connect 4 and a whole heap more.

Ann-Maree Mulcaster - LIFT School Co-ordinator

Walk-a-thon

Over $1900 was raised by our walk-a-thon. What a great effort! All students who raised money and returned their sponsorship forms went into a draw to win a prize pack. The Early Childhood winner was Ava Bonney from P-1B and the Primary winner was Adele Pedder from 5-6H. Well done everyone!

Lyn Aherne – Fundraising

School Fair

Preparations for our school fair for 2017 are well under way. We’ve set the date for Friday, March 3rd, 2017. At this stage we would really appreciate your assistance, if possible, in the coming months.

• If you can sew, knit, make jewellery, cards or get creative for us it would help make our craft stall an amazing array of wonderful handcrafts
• Now’s the time to get potting, striking and sowing for our plant and produce stall
• If you are a whiz at pickles, preserves, jams and sauces don’t forget to do a few extra jars for our stall, too.
• Keep us in mind over the holidays as you clean out the cupboards for donations to our secondhand stall: books, kids’ puzzles, toys, games, dvds etc stall. (please note: no white elephant except those listed above.)
• Lucky dips - we are also looking for items for lucky dips, such as small new novelties and toys, wrapped lollies, hair accessories, trinkets, stationery, stickers, etc.

Items (except plants) can be dropped into the school office before the end of the school year as well as at the start of the new school year.

HPSCA Fair Committee

Kids Hope Report

Kids’ Hope has been very successful this year and students at Hillcrest have had the benefit of mentors who volunteer their time to be with others. Many thanks to Lisa-Jane Goss who co-ordinates this program. Thank you very much to our mentors Matt Atkins, Tim Squire, Simona Piscioneri and Megan Bajtek for their time, care and kindness in mentoring our students. We appreciate you all immensely.

Prue Bezemer - AST

The Living City Expo

During the term students in Grade 2/3 Mulcaster/Archer have been working on a Geography unit about their community. The class began by going on an excursion to the Council Chambers to learn about the plans for The Living City. They were challenged to come up with ideas to improve their local community.

On Friday night the children shared their visions when they invited their parents along to an Expo. During the night the students presented their Educational Research Projects to their families and to special guests, the Mayor and Mayoress of Devonport and Mr and Mrs Pape. Following their presentations, the children and guests celebrated with a burger and chips.

Term 4 in 4-5 Kelly

In 4/5 K we have been writing about our achievements that we have completed this year. Here are some things we have individually accomplished:

Jacob said that one of his goals was to be an independent reader and now he is.

Harry moved up in Mentals to Book D.

Zoe has stopped sitting in the walkway because Mrs Kelly almost tripped over her.

Trinity has learnt all her 12 times tables.

Ethan made new friends at a new school.

Kiara used the THINK strategy when there was a problem.

Hannah said that she was getting faster at doing her work like LSCWC spelling and Mental Maths.

Tyler said, “I have moved up from Book B to C in Mental Maths.”

Blair said that he has put his head down and focused on his school work.

Jordan said that he had not got any Chill Outs or Blue Cards for 8 weeks!

Elizabeth said that she had become neater with her handwriting.

Here is what Amber, Aneeka, Imogen, Sam, Seche and Toby said:

We have all worked so hard this year and have achieved so much!

Term 4 in 5-6 Fenn

This a beautiful view of The Nut from Highfield House. You can also see some grassland. I can understand why Edward Curr wanted to build a house here. Kozzy

This was a wax seal they used for posting letters to England. By Ashley

This is the flowered wallpaper in the sitting room. The wallpaper used to be painted with lead paint back in England. The children who painted this ended up getting brain damage from lead poisoning. The wallpaper has been changed to safer, water-based flowered wallpaper. By Mark

In this photo there is a screen. Ladies sitting in this room would put it up near their face because they wore wax-based make up in those days, and they did not want it to melt off their face. Talia

Here are the shutters. They were built to stop the Aboriginal attacks and to stop the cold from getting in. By Jye

This map is from the 1830s. It describes what the north coast of Tasmania was like back then. Truly fascinating. Todd.

In this photo, there is a map and, if you look closely, you might be able see Devonport. Brylee

Here is the dining room at Highfield House where only the parents, Edward and Elizabeth Curr, had dinner. It was only on special occasions that the children came to eat with them, for example: Christmas, birthdays, Easter and New Year. The children usually had their dinner in the nursery and, if they were six or over, they ate in their own rooms. Fletcher

This is the cellar at High Field House where they kept their cheese, milk and other foods. By Liam

This is the classroom at Highfield House. When the boys were being naughty they would get the cane on the back of their hand. The girls would get the cane on the back of their legs. The older kids went to the back of the classroom and the younger kids would go to the front. By Jorja

This is the chapel at Highfield House. People still get married there today (so I'm told). A couple still get married every weekend at one of Tasmania's famous monuments, Highfield House. By Sarah

This is the Portrait Gallery with pictures of all the members of the Curr family. By Andrew

This is a picture of Edward Curr from the mid-1800s.) By Kozzy

This is us having recess in a nearby park. Highfield House is behind us. By Mark

This is a picture of Highfield House from a distance away. It looks like a lovely house, doesn’t it? Talia

In this picture you can see that all the Grade Six girls are having lunch and a bit of a gossip before their big climb up the nut. Bianca

This is the grade six girls having a selfie taken before they climb the Nut where it's windy and their hair gets messed up. Bianca.

Here we all are about to climb the Nut. I heard the view is amazing at the top. Jake

In this photo we are walking up the steepest part of the nut. By Emily T

Here is a photo looking towards Smithton from the top of the Nut at Stanley. In my opinion the view looks great even though the day we went to Stanley was wet and overcast and raining on and off. Toby

Grade 3-4 Netta Team

Back L-R: Seche, Jasmine, Sarita, Tahlia

Front L-R: Maya, Gemma, Amber, Lily

Well done to our 3/4 Nettas who played their final game at Spreyton last week. Hope to see you all out there next year enjoying your netball. Thank you to the parents who came and supported the girls throughout the year and a special thanks to Mr Carter who came and umpired the girls’ last game. Andrea Collins

DCC Summer Holiday Activities

Latrobe & Districts Softball Association

"If Softball was easy, it would be called Baseball."

Panthers, Bears, Legends & All Stars invite new players to join our teams! It is a great opportunity to make new friends, get fit and play with the whole family! We have players both new and experienced and cater for all fitness levels! All players welcome from age 8 to 99!

Juniors: 7-13yrs Adults: 13+

Where - Picton Grange Softball Ground, Gilbert St (behind the Latrobe Football Grandstands).
Competitive Games - Every Saturday - games start at 10am
Skills Training / Relaxed games - Every Monday at 3:45pm
What to bring - sandshoes, hat, drink, friends

ALL EQUIPMENT SUPPLIED, NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY

We are also looking for new coaches! If you think you have what it takes to lead and form a team, please contact us! All coaches must have completed Working with Children checks.

For more information phone Dale 0487 258 393 or Shelley 0439 361 804

Hillcrest After School Care

The Devonport Child Care Centres, Inc. summer school holiday program is available at the school office with a booking sheet.

Riverbend Summer Camps

Registration forms are available in the school office.

The Big Big House