FROM OUR PRINCIPAL MRS LEANNE SMITH

A very busy week this week as each day we have a class off on a MEC excursion. Keep an eye out on Seesaw as I’m sure all classes will share their day via there. A reminder to all parents that Seesaw is a great way to send a quick message to your child’s teachers as this is always checked every day. Also log in a check out your child’s journal and chat with them about their learning.

Thank you to all parents that have embraced our online permission forms, each form we have sent out within a few minutes we will have had our first replies. This makes it so much easier for everyone involved as paper notes don’t have to be found scrunched up in the bottom of bags or lost on the way home.

Our new Website is now live. Please check it out and if you have any thoughts on what you would like to see as part of our website please email the office. This is a live document that we have full rights to alter. We are currently adding all the information for the MEC classes so schools interested in visiting can start there.

Site link is Molesworth Primary School (education.tas.edu.au)

Last night at our School Association meeting we had a discussion about the Growing Up program. As it was the first week of term we understand the notice for the parent information session was only sent out at the start of that week. This is such a valuable program for all classes and if you would like any more information please log in to their webpage where there is information about the program with Q & As and ideas on how to have conversations with your children.

Site link is The Growing Up Program (GUP) for Parents/Carers - Family Planning Tasmania (fpt.org.au)

This year the Primary Schools Basketball weekend is being offered again on the 16^th and 17th October. As this is an out of school event it requires parent involvement for it to happen. If you are interested in finding what is involved in registering, organising training and team management etc for this event, please contact the school office.

We didn’t need to watch the Suncorp Super Netball competition on TV because we had our very own Netball focus here at Molesworth this term!

During our PE sessions we have been lucky to have Felicity who is a coach from Netball Tasmania join us! She put our netball knowledge to the test! Felicity went through the rules of netball with us, some modified games, shooting techniques, footwork and various activities and games all around our netball skills.

Here are some thoughts about our netball sessions:

Lacie – I liked when we bounce passed it to our partner. I enjoyed the tunnel ball too.
Ella – I liked everything in the netball lesson!
Ziva – I enjoyed practicing passing with my partner!
Brontee – I liked playing and walking in teams.
Darci W – I have never played netball before but I enjoyed playing pressure. It is like basketball which I’m used to playing but without backboard.
Gabe – I liked working as a team and that no one was left out. Everyone has to be involved in netball!
Darcy O – it was good! Everyone was being active!

We would like to pass on a big thank you to Felicity for coming out to Molesworth and running her sessions with us!

This year our Health & Physical Education (HPE) Day celebrations were a little different to previous years because our new house colours and house names were revealed!

The details about the selected names were posted to Schoolzine, make sure to have a read!

Let us hear from some students from each house about their house colour and name or what their favourite part of our HPE day celebrations were:

Red – WARATAH

Billy: My favourite game was probably the throwing in cricket with Mr Rogers
Cody: I liked that my house is called Waratah.
Breeah: I enjoyed the soccer activities.

Blue – BLUE GUM

Ryder B: I liked that my house is blue and called blue gum. My favourite colour is blue!
Addison: I enjoyed the activities in the netball court with Mrs Smith.
Meghan: I enjoyed aiming to knock the bowling pins down!

Green – RIVER MINT

Sonny F: I liked the aiming games!
Jett: I like the name river mint.
Ruby C: I like my house colour green!

How does a snowman get to school? By icicle of course! How do our kids get to school? Well, unfortunately there aren’t a lot of safe options on bikes for our kids to travel to our school of a morning or home of an afternoon, but it is still important for them to learn about bike safety awareness and road rules!

At the start of Term 4 our focus in PE will be on bike safety; how to safely adjust and wear your helmet safely, how to complete bike checks, how to ensure your bike is right for you, how to safely ride a bike and the road rules we should know when riding our bikes. We will be having Shane from the Bicycle Network visiting us again!

This year Shane will be again supplying helmets and bicycles for us to use and is encouraging students who already own a helmet and bicycle (no motorised bikes) to bring them in for our PE sessions in Week 2 and 3 of Term 4. When we do safety checks on helmets and bicycles, if students bring their own personal helmet and bicycle to school, they will be able to perform the check on their equipment. Students who do not bring a helmet or bicycle will still perform the safety checks on the helmets and bicycles Shane will bring in.

If you would like to bring your bike to school for these PE sessions, you will be able to leave it safely up in the hall during Weeks 2 and 3 of Term 4 and they will strictly only be accessed during your PE lesson.

2-3 FOREST INQUIRY CONTINUES WITH MOLESWORTH ENVIRONMENT CENTRE

Earlier this Term, 2-3 Jacobson were lucky enough to welcome a familiar face to Molesworth Primary; Forester Trent or more commonly known as Jack and Archie Saunders’ Dad. Forester Trent gave students an insight into his job and the importance of caring for trees and forests in Fire Management. After learning about some of the different types of seedlings, students got their hands dirty by planting over 30 seedlings at the back of our school oval with the help from Forest Trent and Mr Rogers. We discovered in Tasmania there are a grand total of 1.825 billion trees or approximately 3,373 trees per person!

Just like our seedlings, our interest in the use and importance of forests grew and what better way to celebrate the first day of spring than to enjoy an outdoor learning experience! On Wednesday the 1^st of September, students from 2-3 Jacobson set off on an adventure to experience a rainforest only 25 minutes from our school, Myrtle Forest.

We spent the day investigating and learning about the layers of a healthy forest – canopy, understorey and forest floor which included identifying a diversity of plant, animal and fungi using scat, tree and fungi flips. The highlight of the day was enjoying a short walk through the cool and luscious rainforest to view a magnificent waterfall. Before concluding our excursion, students participated in a mindfulness moment of silence to stop, listen, focus and appreciate the peaceful sounds around them. A special mention to our Insect Inspector Billy, who remained calm and acted quickly to remove any slippery little leeches.

A huge thank you to all our enthusiastic parents who joined us on our wild adventure: Damian and Rebecca Ferris, Nicole Stokman and Laura Clements.

As always, thank you to our MEC Team: Trish MacGregor and Eileen Breaden for your expertise and preparation towards our terrific learning experience.

On Monday, 30^th August, the 4/5 and 5/6 classess were fortunate to experience a visit from Menzies Institute for Medical Research Scientist, Dr Andy Flies.

Dr Flies is working to produce a vaccine to protect Tasmanian devils from the facial tumour disease. He spoke to us about his research and explained how the immune system reacts to cancer cells and viruses and made connections between his research and Covid-19 which helped deepen our understanding. Whilst Dr Flies’ work centres on gene splicing phosporescent gene fragments into proteins so that they can be identified, the take-home message from his visit was focused on resillience and gratitude.

We were read the book ‘Oh The Places You Will Go’ and Dr Flies drew parallels with the narrative and his own life experiences, including his adventures in Kenya. Some notable quotes include:

“Things can change a lot as you grow up, so just be open-minded about things”.

“Whether you like something or not, do it well”.

“Keep working hard, one foot infront of another, and you will get out of your rutt”.

These words of wisdom align closely with our school values of ‘nature, nurture, knowledge’ and we feel grateful for the opportunity to broaden our global perspectives and further our growth as a learning community.

On Sunday the 29^th of August Iestyn, Conor, Alexia and I departed to Rosny College to participate in the M.A.T mathematics relay for 2021. This relay consists of 4 players standing by their tables awaiting a note of paper containing the first question. With forty-five minutes on the clock almost one hundred and twenty students set to work on completing the twenty worded questions that were set for them. As a group we completed 17 of the 20 questions which, given it was our first time, isn’t that bad. We left with our heads held high and a smile on our faces. What a day!

By Hamish