1 July 2021

Newsletter Articles

Dates to Remember

July

August

From the Principal

3-Way Conferences

It has been great to see so many families attending 3-way conferences this week. These meetings are an important way to provide feedback regarding your child. As always, if you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher. Thanks to everyone who has participated.

Souper Night

As part of Move Well Eat Well and LIFT, our ‘Souper Night’ went very successfully. It was great to see members of our school community enjoying a cup of soup and taking the opportunity to check out our amazing Art Gallery set up in the hall. Thanks go to everyone who helped make this event a success.

Staff Changes

We have minimal staff changes going into Term 3. Beck Melhuish has been at Hillcrest Primary School since the start of this year. Beck will be taking Maternity Leave at the end of this week. We wish Beck and her family all the best for their new arrival and look forward to meeting the newest member of our Hillcrest community. Jayden Wicks will be taking on the role of HPE teacher, starting in Term 3. Welcome, Jayden!

As we come to the end of another term, I hope that everyone has a happy and safe holiday. I look forward to catching up in Term 3! Don’t forget that Monday 19th July is a Professional Learning day for staff, students do not attend on this day. Happy holidays!

Hilly Kids Are Friendly Kids

Our current Hilly Kids focus topic is Resilience. Our first focus topic for term 3 will be Smile!

Smile

As we welcome everyone back for the new term, smiling is such a wonderful friendly thing to do. It’s fun and contagious and you can’t say that about too many things! And did you know according to Timmy Rogers it (smiling) takes less muscles than to frown! So, plenty of smiles all around, hey!

Our Hilly Kid for the ‘Collaboration’ topic was Tyla from 3-4B. Congratulations, Tyla!

Well done to our other class representatives:

School Photos

School photos are on Tuesday morning, August 17th. Order forms were sent home with all students on Tuesday.

• Please ensure that you have returned your photo envelopes to the school, EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT ORDERING PHOTOS.

• DO NOT LOSE the envelopes as each one has that child’s unique barcode on it which is needed on photo day!

Kinder Children

Kinder children will have their photos taken in the FIRST time slot so they should come in the morning at 8:55am sharp. If you are late, you may not make the class group photo. Please ask Miss Miller if you have any questions about this arrangement.

Sibling Photos

Please collect an envelope from the school office if you would like a sibling photo. These can be ordered with cash in the envelope returned to school or online with card or Paypal. All children in the sibling photo must attend this school.

Late Fee

There may be a late fee for all orders received after photo day. Photos will not be printed for any orders received without payment until payment is received. The school does not deal with any late orders. They must be directed to MSP Photography.

General Information

• Complete the information on all envelopes and return it to school ASAP with payment before photo day. Please return the envelopes even if you are not ordering photos.
• Please ask at the office if you require a duplicate envelope for the second parent or a sibling photo envelope.
• Do not seal envelopes inside each other - you can pay for all your children in one envelope or by online ordering; however, each child needs to have their own separate envelope on photo day. If you wish to order photos, tick the required box on each child’s envelope, even if the payment is in another envelope.
• Please enclose correct money as NO change will be given. The school office will NOT make change. Only cash is accepted in the envelopes – no cheques. Credit cards can only be used for online order payments. Make sure you tear the order form at the perforation and then seal the envelope if enclosing money.
• All children will have their photo taken on the day, whether parents intend to purchase any or not, so all students need to wear full school uniform, including a school jumper. Teachers will encourage students to comb their hair and ensure their clothing is neat.
• There is a very generous discount on all orders placed online that total over $100. This discount is ONLY available for online orders and cannot be claimed AFTER photo day.
• Students will still need to return their envelope even if you place your order online.

REMEMBER: ALL ENVELOPES MUST BE RETURNED TO SCHOOL BEFORE PHOTO DAY, EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT ORDERING PHOTOS!

School Fair

Plans for the School Fair are well underway! We have some great things planned for the event on Saturday, October 16th.

We need donations for our craft stall so get busy and finish those UFOs (UnFinished Objects) and, if you find yourself tidying closets over the holidays, we can use kids’ puzzles, books and games in good condition.

If you have a green thumb, we hope you have been potting up some plants for our plant stall. All donations of established plants will be greatly appreciated!

Donations of new items suitable as lucky dips and smaller items for the luck jars would be very helpful, too.

Fair Committee

Mary Poppins

What an opportunity!!!!!

Last Wednesday our students, from Prep to Grade 6, went along to the Don College Production ‘Mary Poppin’s. It was so lovely to see the excitement on our children’s faces when they walked into the theatre - such a unique experience for them!

Congratulations to Dayna Dennison and the rest of the cast and crew of Mary Poppins! Such a high-quality production! It was so inspiring to see our Hilly Kids who were in the production - Maddison, Heath, Billie and Bentley - showing so much courage and pushing themselves outside their comfort zone. What a polished performance! We are so pleased they were given the opportunity to participate and to shine brightly. Thank you to the staff who organised and supported our students to attend.

Jaime-Lea Duff – AST

Lift Family Challenge

How about having some holiday family fun and taking part in our family challenge?! Please see poster below for details.

Jess Bellchambers – Lift Coordinator

Student Council Updates……Term 2

Hilly’s Got Talent!

Wow! What a fun few weeks with our Hilly’s Got Talent auditions and finals! We are so proud of the courage shown by our talented students! We would like to congratulate the following students for making it to the finals:

Millie, Myha, Chloe, Miranda, Faith, Stella, Harper, Yazmin, Kilarni, Aaliyah, Zailey, Shakiyah, Evie, Baylee, Hayley, Taylah, Jakson, Taj, Lawi, Lily, Charlotte, Pyper, Tahlia, Tyla, Laylah, William, Kai, Declean, Lucas, Alexis, Veronica and Jalailah.

A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS goes to Lawi and Lily for winning our 2021 Hilly’s Got Talent Final!

The whole school were so excited to watch the performances and I know we have some very aspirational goals for 2022!

Jaime-Lea Duff – Student Council Coordinator

From the Quality Teaching Coach

Letters and Sounds

Our Kinder to grade 2 classes have been using the Letters and Sounds phonics resource to develop their phonic knowledge and skills. This systematic programme consists of six overlapping phases. The phases involve the teaching of letters and sounds and how the alphabet works to support reading and spelling. Here are some students from Prep/1 Parker using the resources in their spelling time.

Professional Learning Teams (PLT) in Action

Every week teachers collaborate in teams to complete cycles of inquiry into student learning. The Early Childhood Team consists of Mrs Naomi Lawes, Mrs Kimberley Parker and Miss Charlotte Shephard. The team has been focusing on using Fairy Tales to develop oral language, vocabulary and story structure. They celebrated the end of their inquiry by awarding certificates to one another for the great work that was achieved in the classroom.

Naomi Archer AST/Quality Teaching Coach

Mathletics Report

During Terms 1 and 2 students have worked hard to practise their mathematical skills using Mathletics. Students have achieved a total of 83 bronze certificates, 18 silver certificates and 3 gold certificates.

William, Kai and Josh have been aspirational in their efforts and are to be congratulated on achieving a gold certificate.

Congratulations to the following students who have achieved a silver certificate:

Naomi Archer AST/Quality Teaching Coach

5¢ Coin Challenge

Tomorrow is the last day for our 5¢ coin drive. Well done to everyone who dragged those pesky little pieces up the hill to fill the class jars! We’ll get them tallied up over the holidays and announce our winner next term. Will we beat the 17,923 coins count from 2019?

Fundraising Committee

Sunrise Bakery Pie Drive

Our Pie Drive was a great success once again this year. Thank you to all who went out of your way to get orders and contributed to this wonderful fundraising effort.

Also, a huge THANKYOU to the bunch of volunteers who, after a very patient, lengthy wait caused by the delivery being a tad late, did an awesome job of packing the orders. Thanks Jackie & Kim Langmaid, Tenille & Shaun Bolton, Helen & Jason Stonehouse, Alice Marshall, Teresa Harrison, Donna Glover, Gabriel Clarke, Georga Flood and Eleisha Casey!

We will report the total amount raised in a later newsletter.

Lyn Aherne – Fundraising

Chaplain’s Chat

Do you know that your child can receive a free hot or cold Milo and toast every school day at our breakfast club in the canteen? Breakfast club opens at 8.25am Monday to Friday.

Do you know that all our breakfast club supplies - milk, bread, margarine, milo, spreads, fruit & muffins are delivered to our school absolutely free of charge every week by volunteers from Loaves and Fishes?

Loaves and Fishes Tasmania is the social enterprise arm of Devonport Chaplaincy. They have a purpose-built kitchen in Eveline Avenue (behind Tafe) that produces up to 10, 000 meals each week. These meals are distributed along with non-perishable foods from our warehouse on Don Road to 240 community agencies throughout Tasmania each week.

Yesterday, our parliamentarians Michael Ferguson, Michelle O’Byrne and Janie Finlay and as well as Loaves and Fishes CEO Andrew Hillier and approximately 48 other volunteers took part in a winter solstice swim at Green’s Beach in order to raise funds for Loaves and Fishes. Approximately $32,000 was raised which will contribute towards all Loaves and Fishes programs, including food for our school breakfast program.

Here at HPS we are all so thankful for our staff and parent volunteers who help us prepare breakfast every school day. Providing breakfast each day means our students can start the day in a most advantageous way, which goes a long way to support student focus and learning.

If anyone would like to know more about Devonport Chaplaincy or LFT or make a donation, please go to the link or second link below:

Hoping everyone has a wonderful, safe and happy holiday.

Alison Hillier - Chaplain

Tuckerbox Tips

Easy and interesting fruit & vegetable lunchbox hints:

• Go for a range – different colours & textures and shop by season for better taste and price
• Keep it simple – choose a whole piece of fruit or vegetable like a mandarin, apple, celery sticks, grapes, etc
• Get organised – pre-chop fruit and vegetables, store in a container in the fridge, ready to pack into lunches
• Make it easy – pack a fork for pre-chopped fruit and veg to avoid sticky fingers

Lyn Aherne – Canteen Supervisor

Move Well Eat Well

Nature Play

So much to explore! Take up the ‘Winter Challenge’ with your family during the school holidays:

• Make a bird feeder & put it in a tree
• Go on a picnic with a thermos of soup
• Visit the beach & collect shells
• Make leaf boats & float them in a creek or puddle
• Go rock collecting
• Sketch a tree without leaves
• Search for birds’ nests
• Go for a walk in the rain

MWEW Team

Slipstream Circus Holiday Workshops

Basketball Clinics in School Holidays

LIFT Session – All Welcome to Attend

How to help you child thrive with literacy learning

Free session for all parents, grandparents and carers in the Devonport area on August 3rd at Miandetta Primary School. Details below.