FROM OUR PRINCIPAL MRS LEANNE SMITH

As we settle in to the term we continue to receive updates from the DoE who are following public health recommendations in regard to COVID-19. As has been shared via social media and the news, with the new variant, we are expecting case numbers to stay higher through August. We are continuing to follow all COVID safe guidelines using hand sanitiser and reminding student to wash their hands , wiping down high use areas regularly and supporting any one who chooses to wear a mask. Thank you to all parents for keeping their children home if they are displaying any cold/flu like symptoms. Please remember there are always RATs available through the office, if you require more. As part of the recommendations we are asked to minimise the number of large gatherings. We are hoping to have a whole school assembly this term but we are not yet setting a date until we see how August goes with case numbers. We will keep you updated via the newsletter. Keep checking in on Seesaw and there are always great stories from our classes in our newsletter each fortnight.

USING OUR SCHOOL GROUNDS OUT OF HOURS:

We have great outdoor facilities here at Molesworth Primary School and there are often people utilising these during the weekends and after school. The basketball court often has people both from the school and elsewhere enjoying a game. We are always happy to have our equipment used when it is looked after and used responsibly. Unfortunately over the last couple of months including during the holidays our groundsman has been picking up a lot of rubbish including takeaway bags and containers, empty stubbies and alcohol cans as well as cigarette butts. One Monday morning there were stubbies and lids scattered through our sand pit. Fortunately they were not broken. If you know of people using our grounds or see groups please ask them to care for our amazing school.

BUS TRAVEL AND MOBILE PHONES:

Last week it was reported to the school of an incident of very inappropriate behaviours by a group of students using mobile phones. Please talk with your child if they travel on the bus about responsible behaviour and that mobile phones are not to be used on the bus at all. If there is a change for pick up or a message needs to given please go through the office during school time and the messages will always be given to your child. As you know supervision during bus travel to and from school is a difficult one to monitor. Making sure our bus drivers are able to drive without distractions is of utmost importance.

SMILING MINDS:

Last term I completed a course on using Smiling Minds in schools. Smiling Minds is a wellbeing program for Primary Schools from Kinder through to Grade 6. Last week we began training of all staff. The program structure goes through understanding mindfulness and using meditation to support everyone with their mental health. Mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment with openness, curiosity and without judgement.

Mindfulness supports learning and wellbeing in several essential and interconnected ways.

As a program to support readiness for learning:

Supporting readiness to learn, isn’t to say that children aren’t naturally ready for learning. You are no doubt familiar with the strong evidence that children learn from birth. Mindfulness can support this innate readiness by helping to settle and focus children at the beginning of any activity.

As a practice that strengthens and develops important cognitive skills related to learning:

It improves attention, and improved attention means children are more able to focus.
It improves working memory, cognitive flexibility, reasoning, planning, goal-directed behaviour and self-regulation – essential skills for learning new information.

Mindfulness can also reduce emotional reactivity and behavioural issues supporting all with self-awareness, self-management, relationship skills and responsibility and decision making.

A component of the program is meditations followed by a debriefing discussion. Students will be introduced to the program in the coming weeks. If you are not aware of the Smiling Minds app it is a wonderful way to share meditation practices with your family. There are lots and lots of ideas and information on the app about the evidence based benefits. The app is available on both the App Store and via Google Play.

It is so great to see the variety of activities happening in the playground at recess and lunch. We have table tennis, soccer, tennis, basketball and netball all happening at once together with the usual swings and sand pit. Lots of chatter, exercise and smiling faces as they enjoy this time with their peers. In PE next week the classes will have a session with tennis coaches to continue to improve their skills. Almost 2 years ago we ordered new concrete paintings to add to our playground. As they are from the mainland with border closures since then they have not been able to come over to install them. They visited yesterday and hopefully in the next couple of weeks (if we get some sunshine to dry the concrete out) we will see a long counting snake, a target and a hopscotch added to our playground.

On Monday the students enjoyed a performance by Terrapin puppets titled The Paper Escaper. They experienced how to effectively communicate a story and emotions without any dialogue. On Tuesday the grade 5/6 class created their own paper puppets without facial expressions and watched a video on how to bring their puppet to life with breathing actions and movements. They also looked at prosthetics and the variety available for specific purposes and then designed their own for Benny the paper pop up puppet from the performance. So many creative ideas were shared by the class.

On Thursday 28^th July the 5/6 class visited the Molesworth Environment Centre to participate in the wellbeing excursion. We built shelters, created artwork from the things around us and ate some beautiful damper.

Reflections from the 5/6 students include:

It was very fun and creative. – Finn

I really loved the shelter building. – Ethan

The Mr Felmingham damper was good. – Aisha

We survived the dirty water because our shelter was good. – Logan

I think everything was really good on a very nice day. It was my favourite MEC excursion. – Bryce

It was a very good experience and I was lucky to do it. – Chayse

We spoke about what well-being actually means and things that we could do to improve our overall wellness, including stopping and sitting down outside with our eyes closed, using our senses to focus on what was happening around us for a minute or two.

Back in class on Friday we reflected on this and created a timetable of things we do each day. We thought about what we do and whether there was anything we could do differently to achieve better health.

Our class also created some self-care wheels. On the wheels we put things that we could do to help ourselves, if we are feeling overwhelmed or anxious, sad or angry. These were things that we either did already or wanted to do to help our overall well-being. We have shared these below.

On Friday 8^th of July, Grades 2-3 and 5-6 Molesworth students had an entertaining choir experience to celebrate their last day of Term 2. The Young Voices of Melbourne performed a passionate, engaging, and interactive show using an unusual instrument called a ‘harmonic pipe’ or whirly tube. Both Mrs Gilbert and Miss Jacobson were extremely proud of Molesworth students who were an outstanding and respectful audience at all times throughout the performance. Thank you to Mrs Donna Cross, Ms Sharyn Chandler and Ms Jodie Goggins for joining us.

Here are some of the terrific comments students had to say about the experience:

Chayse – I liked most of the energy.

Lexi – I loved the synchronised voices.

Otis - I liked the metro song how they talked the public transport in a song.

Silas – I never knew that plastic tubes would make such an interesting noise.

Darcy – The songs they sung were really calm.

Esther – I liked how they sung altogether and none of the singers were out of tune.

Grace – I like at the end when audience joined in and we could sing together with the choir.

Emillia – I wonder how they didn’t get tired. My favourite song was one about stars.

Hugh – My favourite song was Monkey-Turtle.

Kobi – It was surprising to see how young the singers were with such beautiful voices.

Henry – I liked how they didn’t get tired, and I liked how different this music sounded to what I usually listen to.

Chelsea – I did not know that how high voices could be used in singing.

Last Wednesday Grade 4-5 went on their MEC Wellbeing Excursion. Here are some students recaps of their day.

4-5's MEC EXCURSION:

On Wednesday 27th of July Grade 4-5 set off on our MEC Excursion with Trish. Firstly we had an early recess at the MEC, then we walked inside the building and had a talk about what we were going to do. Then we started walking up to the shelter building and we got split up into two groups. After that we had lunch and then we did nature art using materials on the ground. Soon after that we had damper. I put butter and jam in to my damper, it was very interesting and enjoyable.

By Lana.

On the 27th of July the 4-5 Class went on a MEC Excursion up to the mountains and we were split into two teams and attempted to build a waterproof hut made out of logs and sticks. We also had to make sure everybody on the team fitted into the hut and someone had to make up a story on how they got into the hut. We also did nature art out of moss, rocks and sticks. We cooked damper and put butter, honey and jam in the middle of the damper. We made natural paint by putting rocks in water and scraping it on the ground to make a plain like mixture to use on our skin or other rocks. Finally, we meditated for two minutes to hear the sounds of nature. Personally I thought our excursion was wonderful.

By Ellis.

On Wednesday Grade 4-5 set off to the MEC Excursion. Firstly we had an early recess then walked up and had a chat about what we were going to do then were put into a group of 10 and we started to make the shelter then Trish poured water on the shelter to see how waterproof and protective we had made it.

By Laurie.

On Wednesday 27th of July Grade 4-5 set off to the MEC to do a Wellbeing session. We started walking up to the shelter building and split up into 2 groups. After that we had lunch and then we did nature art and used moss and sticks. Trish got the fire for the damper ready and we had 2 each.

By Charlotte.

Yesterday in PE, we were visited by Damian from St Johns Ambulance. Damian spent the day with us running The St John First Aid in Schools Program. The program is designed to equip students with confidence and vital skills to help in an emergency. Through this program St John Ambulance Tasmania is reaching its goal of making first aid part of every Tasmanian’s life. The program has 5 modules across primary and secondary schools. The knowledge and skills gained in yesterday’s sessions developed our first aid awareness!

Our early childhood students discussed what first aid is, checking for danger, who can help, calling an ambulance, how to assist someone with a nosebleed and burns, action plan DRS, and putting on roller and triangular bandages. They were also given roller and triangular bandages to take home.
Our upper primary students discussed the action plan DRSABCD, who can help, calling an ambulance, managing an unconscious patient, CPR, defibrillation (AED) demonstration, managing open wounds and choking, how to apply bandages and use a face shield. They were given a face shield to take home!

I feel confident that our students would be able to assist someone in need, so if you ever need help at Molesworth we have some very knowledgeable students who will be able to assist you!

We thank Damian for sharing his knowledge and experiences with us and for the bandages and face shields we were able to take home with us.

On Friday 8^th July 4 Grade 6 students represented Molesworth Primary School at the official flag raising ceremony in New Norfolk. It was a very significant flag raising event that took place during NAIDOC week and included a Welcome to Country and Tasmanian Aboriginal smoking ceremony. As you drive past the New Norfolk Council Chambers you will now see the three flag poles with the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island flags together.

Welcome back to school for the start of Term 3!

The health and safety of students and staff has, and always will be, our top priority. Our Term 3 approach to manage COVID-19 is outlined in our COVID-safe schools operational plan. The Plan builds on everything we’ve learnt since the start of the pandemic.

The Department of Education (DoE) has worked closely with Public Health to ensure schools continue to be safe places for learners. Many COVID-safe measures that you are familiar with continue to be in place to limit the impact of COVID-19 in our schools.

With increased COVID-19 cases in our community leading into Term 3, our staff and visitors are strongly recommended to wear face masks when indoors, or if they are unable to physically distance. Wearing a face mask is not a requirement for students, however it is strongly recommended by Public Health indoors as well as when they cannot physically distance. Students will be supported to wear masks by their school when they choose to.

Face masks and rapid antigen tests continue to be readily available for students and staff at all Tasmanian Government schools.

It is common to see increased illness at this time of year, so it remains important that we all continue to practise our COVID safe behaviours, stay at home if unwell and get tested.

As always, when your child is well, the best place for them to be is at school learning with their friends and teachers.

We will need to continue to be flexible as some elements of our plan may change during the Term. We will continually monitor the situation, make changes as necessary and keep school communities informed.

Update - New Feature.

Seesaw now has Messages for communication between families and your child’s teacher. Where communication used to be through Notifications you will now see a messages button at the top of the page. Through this, teachers can send out messages to the whole class or to groups or individuals. Messages to groups can be replied to and the whole group will see the replies.

To initiate a conversation with the teacher you simply start a new message, and it will be set up as a private conversation.

For messages:

To reply privately to announcements -

Click on the … on the right-hand side of the announcement and you will see the option to Privately reply to the sender. Click on this option and a new private message will be opened that only the teacher you are sending it to will see.

If you have any questions please chat to you child’s teacher.