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FROM OUR PRINCIPAL MRS LEANNE SMITH
Welcome to December and a very busy next 2 and half weeks here at Molesworth Primary.
During this week and next there are many PE excursions organised to give our students opportunities to experience all the amazing sporting opportunities available in the local area. Students will experience lawn bowls, golf and gymnastics. Please check with your child as several permission slips have been sent home.
Last week we had our Prep to Grade 2 athletics carnival and our Grade 3 to 6 swimming carnival. On both days we were all so proud of how the students participated, supported and congratulated one another. Thanks to Miss Kathryn Gourlay for all the organisation beforehand and the running of both days and to all the family members who came along to share the events with their children.
A friendly reminder that the Department of Health and the Department of Education rules have not changed around bringing items from home, can we ask that children please not bring toys and other items in to school.
END OF YEAR EVENTS:
Wednesday 9th December: Individual end of year reports will be sent home. Teachers have been very busy making sure in each report they are sharing with you a summary of the year for your child. Please keep an eye out for these next Wednesday and enjoy reading them together. If you would like to meet with your child’s teacher after Wednesday to discuss the report, please message them via Seesaw.
Tuesday 15th December: Students will spend part of the morning session meeting their teacher and classmates for next year. I know this is an exciting and nervous time for many children and be assured that a great deal of thought and planning has gone into class structures for 2021. Thank you to the parents who sent in a letter with their preferences, which have all been taken into consideration.
Wednesday 16th December – 11:00 am. End of year assembly and presentation day: As has been explained in earlier newsletters, this year’s assembly will be a little different to previous years. The assembly will take place on the oval near the new fire tank. The area will be set up with space for either picnic rugs or camp chairs. Please bring either with you to sit on. There will be three musical/dance items as many classes have combined to guarantee the biggest impact in an outside venue. Mr Hay has done an amazing job preparing these items with the classes.
During this assembly we will be farewelling staff members who are finishing at Molesworth, our EFA Mr Rodney Brown who will be enjoying retirement after 23 years here, Mrs Kaye Bush who is also retiring and looking forward to plans as a retiree, Irene Hilly who has been sharing the 3/4 class with Mr David Hay and Miss Taylor Huddleston who has been sharing the Grade 5/6 class with Mrs Sharon Rime. On behalf of everyone at Molesworth we thank them very much for their contribution to this amazing school and wish them all the best for the years ahead.
The Grade six awards will also be presented during the assembly. The Grade 6 class are having a separate graduation morning tea as there are no facilities with the outdoor event to share the memories of the Grade 6 students slide show. Parents of the Grade 6 students have received a separate invitation for this event.
As part of our requirements all attendees will need to complete the contact tracing form. Please contact the office with numbers attending so we can send home forms prior to the day. As the event starts at 11:00 am we will be setting up and going through final practices prior to this so we ask visitors to not arrive any earlier than 10:30 am. There will be a sanitising and sign in station at the entrance to the oval.
Last Day – 17th December: With the year that we have had we thought it would be lovely to end with a celebration of the amazing students of Molesworth. As we are not allowed to have food bought from home to have classes share, the School Association have arranged for all Kinder students to be given and wrapped ice-cream (as their day finishes at 12:10 pm) and Prep-6 classes will each be given 4 large pizzas. These will be delivered to each classroom for lunch. Every child will be offered 2 pieces of pizza. As the pizza is prepared in a commercial facility they are allowed to be shared at school. After lunch we will join all the school together to take part in a fun colour run on the oval. If you are not sure what a colour run is check it out at Home - The Color Run™
The products used are made from corn flour and food colouring, they are non-toxic and non-flammable and will not stain hair or skin. If you would like more details about the product used please contact the office. During the afternoon children will have an obstacle style course to run around going through colour stations where teachers will throw the colour for the students to run through. It is recommended that children bring an old t-shirt to wear – white will show the best colour. It is going to be a fabulous fun way to celebrate the end of 2020.
Enjoy the final couple of weeks of this year with your children and I am sure 2021 is going to be even better.
Please be advised that there have been some changes to the Term 1 school holiday dates.
The end date for Term 1, 2021, has been brought forward to allow the school holiday period to commence immediately following Easter Tuesday.
This means that students will not have to return to school for three days between Easter break and Term 1 school holidays, which was previously the case.
The overarching reason behind this decision is to allow for greater learning continuity for students.
The new arrangements are as follows:
|
Date/s |
Event |
|
Wednesday 31 March |
End of Term 1 (K-10) |
|
Thursday 1 April |
Statewide Moderation Day |
|
Friday 2 April – Tues 6 April |
Easter break |
|
Wed 7 April – Tues 20 April |
Term 1 holidays (2 weeks) |
|
Wed 21 April |
Term 2 commences |
With the school holidays falling directly after Easter, it will be an ideal time for your family to take advantage of the extended holiday period!
All Term dates for 2021 can be found on the Department of Education website at www.education.tas.gov.au/about-us/term-dates/term-dates-2021/
Term 1 2021
Schools 3 February – 31 March
Colleges 3 February – 1 April
Break 2 April – 20 April (note: 1 April is a Student Free Day for students in Kindergarten to Year 10)
Term 2 2021
Schools 21 April – 2 July
Colleges 21 April – 2 July
Break 3 July – 19 July
Term 3 2021
Schools 20 July – 24 September
Colleges 19 July – 24 September
Break 25 September – 10 October
Term 4 2021
Schools 11 October – 16 December
Colleges 11 October – Check with your college for student finish date
| TERM 4 DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR | |
| DECEMBER |
|
| WEEK 9 & 10 | |
| Thursday 3 |
|
| Friday 4 |
|
| Tuesday 8 |
|
| Wednesday 9 |
|
| Thursday 10 |
|
| Friday 11 |
|
| Monday 14 |
|
| Wednesday 16 |
|
On Thursday 26th of November we had our Athletics Gala Morning! It was such a fantastic morning with our lower primary students demonstrating their amazing athletics skills. There were lots of different events; the sprints, sack races, the chicken chuck, egg and spoon races, 3-legged races and bean bag races. Participation was at a high and there were lots of smiles and laughter which was good to see!
And, WOW what a turnout of spectators we had!! Thank you to all our community members who came to cheer on and encourage our students in each event. We also had our upper primary classes join us to cheer on not only their siblings but everyone as well!
I would also like to pass on a huge thank you to the staff who assisted with the set up of the gear, to Mrs Smith and the 3 very helpful New Norfolk Leaders who assisted with ribbons, Mrs Hills our photographer, Mrs Wiseman who marshalled our kids to their events and to all of our supervising staff! A wonderful carnival doesn’t happen without lots of wonderful helpers!
On Friday November 27th 35 swimmers put on their bathers and torpedoed through the New Norfolk Swimming Pool putting their swimming skills to the test in our Swimming Trials for 2020! We had a glorious day weather wise for our long-awaited trials.
A tremendous congratulations to all our swimmers! One of my favourite parts of the afternoon was hearing our students and school community cheer and encourage each other. I was so impressed by not only the efforts by all competitors but also their creativity in our noodle race!
We would like to thank our school community for coming along to cheer, Tai and Molly from the New Norfolk Pool, Mrs Smith and our 3 New Norfolk High Helpers for organising placings and ribbons at the finish line and to Mrs Stacey Hills who was kept very busy recording our results!
This term, our class has been investigating energy, economics and business, and different types of art. In Science, we have worked in pairs to investigate energy, how it works, and its impacts. We have made boards using paint and cardboard to display our projects. We will share our learning with other classes this week. With HASS, we are designing a product to sell in 30 years. It could be anything, but it has to benefit the Derwent Valley and be good for the environment. Finally, we have imagined what we would see if we looked through a keyhole. We took these thoughts to create a very special and attractive piece of artwork.
The Department of Education recently announced expanding the Student Assistance Scheme for 2021.
Parents who have a current concession card as listed below can apply for dependent students for assistance under the STAS:
- Services Australia - Centrelink Health Care Card
- Services Australia - Centrelink Low Income Health Care Card
- Services Australia - Pensoner Concession Card or
- Department of Veteran Affairs - Pensioner Concession Card.
Please note that if you are already receiving student assistance you do not need to complete a form.
A new on-line form has been developed to assist with processing applications for new applicants.
The online form can be completed here: https://stasonlinesubmission.education.tas.gov.au/.
Once a validated form is completed the Department of Education will confirm the outcome of your application in writing, this process takes approximately 14 days.
We understand this online option may not be possible for all families, so if you require a hard copy form please contact the School Office or the Financial Assistance Unit on stas@education.tas.gov.au or 1800 827 077.