10 May 2018

Newsletter Articles

Dates to Remember

May

June

From the Principal

As you are no doubt aware, students in grade 3 and 5 will be undertaking NAPLAN testing next week. Below is some information regarding NAPLAN in 2018. I encourage all students in grade 3 and 5 to do their best next week!

In our last newsletter, our School Association Committee surveyed families regarding our school grounds. If you have not yet completed this survey, it is not too late. Please click on the link provided in today’s newsletter, to have your say.

It is always distressing when a member of our school community is unwell and in hospital. Issac Hutchins-Bester has had an accident and is currently in the Royal Hobart Hospital. Mylee has also gone to Hobart to be with her brother. As our Hilly Kids focus this week is Being Positive, let’s send Issac and his family lots of positive thoughts. We all wish Issac a quick recovery with his injuries.

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2018

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) commenced in Australian schools in 2008. Each year, all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in common national tests which assess:

• Reading
• Writing
• Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation)
• Numeracy.

The scheduled dates for the tests in 2018 are Tuesday 15 May, Wednesday 16 May and Thursday 17 May.

The benefits of participating in NAPLAN testing:

• NAPLAN tests the skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life such as reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy.
• NAPLAN results provide valuable information on how your child is progressing against national minimum standards of literacy and numeracy skills expected for each year level.
• The NAPLAN tests provide you as parents with an individual report that shows your child’s results and a comparison of your child’s performance against all other Australian students in their year level.
• Teachers use the NAPLAN results to determine your child’s areas of strength and where future focus is required and how best to provide support or extension activities.
• School teachers use the online NAPLAN Toolkit to analyse your child’s results. The Toolkit provides detailed information right down to the individual question with links to teaching strategies.
• Principals, senior staff and others use NAPLAN results to inform school planning and to allocate resources and support including informing decisions around targeted programs and initiatives for individuals and groups.

The best way you can assist your child is by helping them to feel comfortable about the nature and purpose of the tests, and assure them that the tests will give them an opportunity to show what they have learned in class.

For more information about the national tests, please visit the national NAPLAN website at the link below.

Going for Gold! – Canteen Accreditation

The Tasmanian School Canteen Association, or the TSCA for short, help all Tassie schools to have a canteen that sells delicious every day food and drinks.

At the TSCA, we award schools and their canteens the same way that athletes are awarded at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, that is, BRONZE, SILVER or GOLD.

I’m very pleased to let you know that Hillcrest Primary School has earned GOLD canteen accreditation.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the wonderful work that your Canteen Manager, Mrs Aherne, and your school community have done to earn this award – it is a fantastic achievement!

Three very important things were completed in order for your school to achieve GOLD canteen accreditation. These were:

1. Hillcrest Primary School created a set of guidelines and procedures about how your canteen is managed.
2. Your canteen meets your local council and the TSCA food safety requirements. This means that your canteen is a safe and hygienic place in which to store, prepare and sell food and drinks.
3. Mrs Aherne created a menu that includes lots of yummy, ‘everyday’ food and drinks, many of which were made from scratch in the canteen – the frittata and salad, corn quiche and salad and sweet chilli noodles with vegetables sound delicious!
4. Hillcrest Primary school submitted 3 activities that were carried out within your school community that promoted healthy eating.

I have to say that we were impressed with the activities that you shared with us, which were:

• Mrs Aherne’s regular Tuckerbox Tips in the school newsletter.
• The Better Takeaway Choices article in school newsletter.
• Being able to take your apple to the canteen for Mrs Aherne to put it through the curling machine.

Well done Mrs Aherne and the Hillcrest School community!

Maria Scanlon
TSCA Project Officer

Jerome Pape - Principal

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 still open and 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.

Oral Health Services

Students in Kinder, Prep and grades 1, 2 & 6 received information brochures/registration forms last week for the upcoming Fissure Sealant and Fluoride Varnish program which will be happening here at school June 4th -8th. Please return your registration form by Friday, May 18th if you wish your child to participate. Please find more information below.

Hilly Kids Are Friendly Kids

Our HKFK focus for this week has been ‘Being Positive’. Our focus topics for the next two weeks will be ‘Seeing it Through’ and ‘Having a Go’.

Seeing it Through

There are few more admired qualities in people than perseverance and that means seeing it through! So many great people have this quality and it is one we can all aim for. Seeing it through means sticking at something until it is finished, until the job is done. It means that, when things are difficult, you don’t give up and walk away. It means you might have to try a bit harder; it means you might have to get someone to help you; it means you might have to try things a different way; but, mostly, it means you stick with what you set out to do until you are happy with the result. Good luck!

Having a Go

Having a go is one of the best attitudes anyone can have. Having a go means trying something that you may not have tried before, or even trying something that you think you might not be too good at. There are all sorts of things we need to have a go at. It might be a new sport or a new game, or it could even be a new skill to learn at school. It might even be a new friend or a new group of people. Having a go works best if you really give something a good try and stick at it even if it does not work out the first time. But be careful. Having a go does not mean being reckless or careless. It does not mean you put yourself or anyone else in danger. Always have a think about what you are going to have a go at. If you think it is suitable for you, then go for it!

Our Hilly Kid of the Week for ‘Being Helpful/Give Way’ was Ciarra from 4-5K and for ‘Playing Fairly’ was Zane from 2-3P. Congratulations, Ciarra and Zane!

Well done to our other class representatives:

Anzac Day

On the 25th of April it was Anzac Day. Gemma, Lily, Tahlia, Spencer, Breanna and Matilda, who are some of our Student Councillors, participated in the March and Commemoration Service in Devonport to show our respect to the soldiers. It was good to find out what the soldiers did for us. Each of the representatives got to lay a wreath when it was their turn.

P-1 Parker

In Prep/1 Parker we have been learning about the four seasons: Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. With our buddy class (4/5K), we read the story ‘Leaf Man’ by Lois Ehlert. We then collected natural items from around the school, such as sticks, leaves, flowers and gum nuts. With our buddy, we created some images using these resources. The students thoroughly enjoyed working with their buddy and they came up with some very creative pieces.

Lift News

Open Morning and Biggest Morning Tea

On Wednesday, May 23rd at 9:00 we are holding an open classroom morning and invite families to come along and join in their child’s learning. The Simultaneous Storytime book this year is ‘Hickory Dickory Dash’, so classes will be engaging in activities to do with ‘time’. Later in the day, Lee from Sea FM, will be reading the book to the students.

After the open classroom parents are invited to go to the area outside the canteen at 10:20 to enjoy a special morning tea to raise money for Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea. For a donation of $3 you will receive a hot drink and a plate of treats! Our Student Councillors are looking forward to running this and serving morning tea.

Keep an eye out for an invitation from your child next week!

Nina Eberhardt - LIFT Coordinator

Tuckerbox Tips

To make sandwiches more interesting, vary the breads and fillings. Try some of the following ideas:

• Use different types of breads. Try wholemeal, high fibre white, pita, bagels, sourdough or wraps
• Try crackers and crispbreads for a change
• Add different vegetables in different ways. Grated carrot, finely sliced cucumber, celery and different types of lettuce
• Use different protein fillings instead of ham and chicken. Try roast beef, sliced turkey and sliced egg
• Add different flavours. Try mustard, small amounts of vegemite, mayonnaise, chutney and hummus. You can also add herbs and spices such as chopped parsley, chives, or curry powder. Don’t add salt!

Lyn Aherne - Coordinator

Move Well Eat Well

The time children spend sitting and watching television or playing electronic games (known as ‘screen time’) is time children could spend being active.

Tips for parents to reduce children’s ‘small screen’ time:

• Set limits on your child’s TV watching and time spent playing electronic/computer games. Monitor how much ‘screen time’ your child engages in – you may be surprised at how many hours it actually is!
• Designate certain days of the week as ‘screen free’ days – it’s good for children to have one or more days during the week when no TV or computer games are allowed

• Leave the TV off – only have the TV on when it’s actually being watched; otherwise, turn it off and use music for background noise
• Eat at the table and leave the TV off – try to eat at the table as a family, not in front of the TV
• Be selective about what your child watches – most children will happily sit and watch whatever is on the screen for hours on end if allowed to do so. Be selective and use your child’s allocated screen time to watch quality children’s programs they enjoy
• Keep TVs and computers out of your child’s bedroom – keep these in a common area of the house so that you can monitor use.

MWEW Team

News from Our School Nurse

Recommended daily water drinks

4 – 8 years Female - 1000 – 1400 ml Male - 1000 – 1400 ml
9 – 13 years Female - 1200 – 2100 ml Male - 1400 – 2300 ml
14 – 18 years Female - 1400 – 2500 ml Male - 2100 – 3200ml

It is essential that children drink the recommended amount for their age

If a child does not drink enough their urine may become concentrated & their bladder may become irritated. If irritated, the bladder may need to be emptied more often, can be more difficult to control and may be too small to hold all the urine made over night.

Ensuring your child drinks the recommended amount for their age will help the bladder to stretch so it is big enough to hold all the urine overnight. Wetting may initially worsen after children start to increase their fluid intake as the bladder only stretches to hold approximately an extra 30mls of urine a month.

Drinks

6 drinks everyday helps the bladder to stretch.

• The drinks should be spaced evenly throughout the day.
• Ask school staff to encourage your child to have regular drinks
• Reward charts can be helpful to encourage drinks
• If your child can avoid ‘dark’ drinks, like blackcurrant and fruit juices which are more irritable to the bladder, it may help. Milk too close to bedtime is also to be avoided if possible.
• Children should have drunk most of their fluid intake before they come home from school (4 of their 6 drinks)
• Children have most successes if they avoid drinks 2 hours before bedtime

Constipation

Even a small amount of constipated stool can impact on a child’s bladder and its ability to fully fill. Children should be having their bowels open once per day and it should be a soft stool, with no straining required to pass it.

Treat constipation with diet and lifestyle changes such as:

• High fibre foods
• Five portions of fruit and vegetables every day
• Drinking the recommended amount of fluid
• 60 minutes of physical activity every day

Contact your GP if you are worried, your child is in pain or you think your child may be constipated. They may require medication if you see no improvement following the advice above.

Encourage a bedtime routine, e.g. bath, books, toilet, sleep. Having ‘2 wees at bedtime’ should be encouraged. Ensure there is some light if the child needs the toilet in the night, e.g. a night light.

Lifting your child does not promote a dry night; they need to learn to wake up. Consider practicalities if sharing a room or sleeping in a bunk bed.

Do not encourage children to try and ‘hold’ their wee. If they need to go, they need to go! Holding can cause or worsen irritability of the bladder which can increase wetting.

Tap water is the best

Kerry Jewell – School Health Nurse

Soccer Info

NetSetGo Info

East Devonport Community House

Coastrek Raffle