11 April 2018

Newsletter Articles

Dates to Remember

April

May

From the Principal

The School Association Committee held an AGM last Thursday. We had a very good representation of families attending. Congratulations go to the following members of our community who will be on the committee this year:

Naomi Archer – Staff Member
Lyn Aherne – Fundraising Committee Chairperson
Teresa Bassett – Parent Member/Treasurer
Jaime-Lea Duff - Staff Member/Secretary
Tina Hawley - Parent Member/Deputy Chairperson
Jackie Langmaid – Parent Member
Kylie Lunson – Parent Member/Chairperson
Michelle McGuire - Parent Member
Jerome Pape - Principal/Committee Member
Sion Reid – Parent Member
Fiona Smith – Parent Member
Emma Willett – Parent Member

As always, if you have any questions regarding the committee or would like to get involved, please don’t hesitate to speak to one of our committee members or contact the office.

It is always nice to celebrate student achievement both in school and outside of school. A big congratulations go to the Peterson children who represented Devonport Judo in a state-wide competition recently. Well done to Myha for achieving a silver and Tyla a bronze in the competitions. They will obviously go on to great things – as this was after only 10 lessons!

As we move to the end of term, I want to thank families for the ongoing support of our school and community. I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and look forward to seeing what Term 2 will bring.

Jerome Pape - Principal

Moderation Day Tomorrow

Please remember that tomorrow, Friday April 13, is a Moderation Day for teachers; therefore, students do not attend school. See you all back on the first day of term two, Monday April 30.

HPS Master Plan Survey

In 2018 the Hillcrest Primary School Association would like to prepare a master plan for the school grounds & facilities.

We would love to hear from as many of our community members as possible. This survey is a chance to have your say. Your ideas will be taken on board and used to help us develop a plan about what is built/funded at the school over the next 5 years.

Hilly Kids Are Friendly Kids

Our HKFK focus for this week has been ‘Being Helpful/Give Way’? Our focus topics for the first two weeks of Term 2 will be ‘Playing Fairly’ and ‘Being Positive’.

Playing Fairly

Playing fairly means not just following the rules of the game, but following the spirit of the game. By all means try your hardest, use your best strategies and support your team mates, but always do this in a fair and reasonable way.

Start every game in a friendly manner. Make it obvious to everyone that you are here to enjoy yourself and are looking forward to the fun of playing, not just winning. Encourage those in your team and give them an opportunity to participate. Similarly, respect your opposition and all their hard work as well. Always respect the decision of the umpire, and if things don’t go your way, be prepared to put that behind you and get on with the game. When the game concludes you should always congratulate both the winners and losers on their efforts; they have all tried equally as hard. Be a modest winner and a grateful loser. Help pack up at the end if there is equipment involved, and look forward to the next challenge. You will earn so much more respect by being a fair player than you ever will by being a proud winner or bad loser. Playing fairly is a great challenge and one we should all take on.

At all times play fairly. Give others a go and stick to the spirit of the rules. In the end the game should be fun for all, win, lose or draw.

Being Positive

Almost every day at school there are ways to be helpful. In the classroom we can help our friends Being Positive is a great attitude to have. People enjoy being around positive people. Positive people do things. They take chances, they try their best, they don’t give up and they make the most of every situation. They enjoy most of what they do and help others have a good time as well. Certainly at times we need to look at the bad or the dangerous side of things and take them into consideration when making our decisions, but don’t get carried away with all the bad things. Enjoy the situations you are in and try to look at them positively, even when they are difficult. If nothing else a tough situation will help you learn about how well you cope with hard times, and you might be able to plan better for next time.

Our Hilly Kid of the Week for “Listening?” was Bentley from P-1D and for “Being Punctual” was Zack from 5-6HB. Congratulations, Bentley and Zack!

Well done to our other class representatives:

Coles Sports for Schools

Please remember to bring in any Sports for Schools vouchers that you have at home as we have a deadline for submitting them all by post. Thanks.

Soccer Info

The DJSI are running a little competition for our under 5 and under 6 players. A note about this went home with the players on Tuesday. They need to go to website at the link below and look for 12 little soccer ball men who have been named. The entry form is on the website and there will be more available at soccer on Saturday. The entry form box will be at the soccer canteen. First 5 winners drawn will get a size 3 ball and the next 10 will win a size 1 ball.

They are also running a girls only skills clinic each Saturday between 10.30am and 11.30am on ground 15. If girls are not playing a game they can just turn up and have some fun with two youth female Strikers players!

Each year, Devonport Junior Soccer welcomes players (U9/U10/U11/U12 age groups) to represent Devonport in the Devonport (9th/10thJune), Hobart (8th/9th September) and Launceston (22nd/23rd September) Cups. The Development Centre provides an opportunity for players to develop their skills & compete at a higher level. Training will be Wednesdays 4pm-5pm. Interested players should attend the information/expression of interest day on Sunday 6th May. There will be a sausage sizzle.

Times: Under 9 - 12.30pm; Under 10 - 1pm; Under 11 - 1.30pm; Under 12 - 2pm

The first training will be on Wednesday 9th May, 4pm. Players unable to attend the Sunday session should advise DJSI beforehand. devonportjuniorsoccer@gmail.com

David Carter – Phys Ed Teacher

Mother’s Day Stall

Our Mother’s Day stall will be early in Term 2, on Tuesday, May 8th. The purpose of the stall is to give each child an opportunity to buy a small gift for their mother or a special person for Mother’s Day. It is also a School Association fundraising event.

Parents are asked to buy or make a small gift to the value of $3 and send it to school by Monday, May 7th. Your child will place the present in the box in the classroom and tick their name on the list on the box. Every child who donates to the stall will go into the draw to win a gift for mum. PLEASE DO NOT WRAP GIFTS.

On the day of the stall please send your child to school with $3 to purchase a gift for Mum. If you do not want your child to participate, please tell him/her beforehand and also mention it to the class teacher. Donations of wrapping paper are also appreciated as the children are given paper to wrap their gifts.

Please leave your name at the school office if you can help out on the stall between 9-10am on the day.

Lyn Aherne – Fundraising

Entertainment Books Coming Soon!

The new 2018/2019 Entertainment Book will soon be launched. It features many of the Northwest’s best restaurants, cafes, hotel accommodation, attractions and activities and is packed with hundreds of up to 50% off and 2-for-1 offers that your family can enjoy until June 2019! Our school receives $13 for every book sold, so please let your family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues know that we are fundraising as, the more we sell, the more funds we raise!

The Entertainment Books are available as a book or as a digital membership that puts all the offers on your smartphone to redeem at the touch of a button.

Lyn Aherne - Fundraising

P-1 Duff

Prep/ One Duff have been learning to ‘bump up’ their writing.

It has been exciting to watch the students engaging with our class ‘bump it up’ wall to set learning goals to improve their writing.

Our success criteria are:

• I have used full stops correctly.
• I can read my own writing.
• I have used fingers spaces.
• I have used capital letters correctly.
• I have written using complete sentences.

Each place on the ‘bump it up’ wall has the student focus on achieving the next success criteria. Ask you child this week some of these questions:

Where are you sitting on the ‘bump it up’ wall?
What do you need to achieve to move up to the next level?
What is your writing goal this week?

Lift News

Tag Reading Parent Workshop

Would you like to become a reading tutor? Or find out what happens in our TAG Reading program? We will be running a session on Wednesday, May 9th in the school library from 9:00 until 10:30am. If you are interested in attending, please see Mrs Mulcaster or Mrs Eberhardt.

LINC News

The Devonport LINC has three groups for school age children that meet regularly: Young Writers, TechCred Club and Book Club. Please see below for info! You can also follow LINC on Facebook for updates and events.

School Library

Don’t forget that the school library is open before and after school on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Children are encouraged to come along and change their home readers. They can also be changed during class library time.

By the end of this week, each student will go home with their own dice game. Hopefully you will have time during the school holidays to enjoy playing as a family!

Save The Date

On Wednesday 23rd May we will be opening our classrooms to families and enjoying The Biggest Morning Tea! More information to come next term.

Parent Help/Registration for a Working with Vulnerable People Card

Families who do not have their Working with Vulnerable People registration – Please come to the library and use our facilities to register online and I will be there to support you. Remember, if you wish to attend class excursions with your children or do any parent help at all at any school, you are required to have a Working with Vulnerable People card. The library is open to parents on Wednesday mornings from 8:30 until 9:30 if you would like support in going through this process. If that time does not suit please contact me to schedule an alternative time and day.

Nina Eberhardt - LIFT Coordinator

Tuckerbox Tips

Children have small stomachs and need snacks between meals to help meet their growth and energy needs. This makes recess an important part of the day’s food, not just something extra or a ‘treat’. Use foods from the five food groups (breads & cereals, fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat & meat alternatives) to pack healthy lunchbox snacks.

Try some of the following ideas:

• Small bag of plain popcorn, dried fruit & breakfast cereal
• A piece of fresh fruit in season
• Rice crackers or wholemeal crackers with cheese
• Fruit bun or fruit bread
• Tub of low fat yoghurt
• Container with cheese cubes & vegetable sticks

Lyn Aherne - Coordinator

Move Well Eat Well

Nature Play

So much to explore! Take up the “Autumn Challenge” with your family during the school holidays:

• Collect different types of leaves
• Paint and decorate pine cones and acorns
• Splash in a puddle and make mud pies
• Collect some bugs in a clear container and draw them
• Visit a park you have never been to
• Plant bulbs or some winter veggies
• Dig for dinosaur bones

MWEW Team

News From Our School Nurse

Focus on Vision

This month’s school nurse newsletter focuses on vision. According to Bausch (2011), one out of five children has some kind of vision problem. Although students with vision problems are often identified in school screenings, traditionally there has been a lack of follow-up (Bausch 2011). Because vision can affect learning, it is important for students who have difficulty with the school vision screening to follow-up with the eye doctor.

There are some challenges for families when it comes to vision care. Parent’s scheduling conflicts can make it difficult to get an appointment. Other barriers include students’ refusal to wear glasses, and forgetting or misplacing glasses. Since untreated vision problems are associated with learning deficits, we need to work together to ensure that students who need glasses receive them and, most of all, wear them in school when needed (Ethan 2010).

What is Myopia Anyway?

Myopia is a fancy word for nearsightedness. A nearsighted person can see clearly up close, but distant objects seem blurry. Myopia is the most common eye problem of the teen years according to Dr. Harold P. Koller. The eye ball may grow too long from front to back during the growth spurt. The image converges just short of the retina making things far away seem blurry. Some symptoms that may suggest a visit to the eye doctor is needed include:

• Recurrent headaches
• Frequent eye rubbing
• Squinting
• Unexplained drop in school performance

Let us know if your child develops any of these symptoms during the school year. We would be happy to do a vision screening as needed.

Nutrition for Eye Health

Everyone knows that carrots are good for our vision, but other foods also help protect us from vision problems such cataracts, glaucoma and dry eyes. Eating foods with vitamins A,C,D,E and zinc, as well as omega 3 fatty acids and flavonoids are great for your eyes. Not sure what foods to eat? Check out the chart below and enjoy!

Kerry Jewell – School Health Nurse

Bass Strait Maritime Centre – D’port

Check out what is happening at the Bass Strait Maritime Centre, Gloucester Avenue, Devonport over the school holidays!

Movie Night – April 13th