A magnificent sunny week this week here at Molesworth.  As the weather warms up our MEC teachers have come across a number of snakes when out and about.  Now is a great time to discuss with your children about being snake aware and what to do if they come across one.

For the past 2 weeks we have seen lots of students improving their cricketing skills during the afterschool program on our oval and this week we start with mini roos on a Friday.  All information for enrolment is in this newsletter.

Yesterday our ECE classes enjoyed a wonderful production of Sleeping Beauty at the Playhouse and next week our Primary classes are off to the Botanical Gardens for Pinocchio.  As we head in to the final 4 and a half weeks of this year please keep checking in on the calendar of events in the newsletter and on our website as we are updating this regularly. This is the best way to make sure you don’t miss any of the wonderful events happening.

This Sunday is a major fundraiser for our School Association with a Bunnings BBQ at Glenorchy. Please let any of our School Association members know if you are able to help.

At Meet and Greet last week our new school choir performed for the first time.  Starting with the beautiful song "I am the Earth" by an Australian composer Glyn Lehmann and finishing with the popular Monkee's song made famous in the Shrek movies "I'm a Believer".  The students give up their lunch play time once a week to attend rehearsals as well as learning the lyrics in their own time.  We would like to thank Mr Warman for putting this wonderful group together. Keep an eye out for notification of their next performance!!

Time flies when you're having fun!

Prep-One students started the term off a little more quietly than usual as they paid careful attention to our feathery friends – birds. We mastered bird-watching skills such as curiosity, quietness, patience and being still with Molesworth Environment Centre to participate in the Aussie Bird Count. Students became bird experts at identifying a range of different species that live in our local area by noticing the movement, colouring and features of birds. It became clear that birds are far more important than we originally thought as they help control pests, pollinate our plants, clean up waste and act as seed spreaders.

In Week 4, our class enjoyed an informative visit from the RSPCA. It was a wonderful reminder that of safe behaviours around animals. Did you know they can feel a range of emotions like hungry, scared, surprised and happy? The most challenging part was negotiating on an appropriate name for the RSPCA mascots.

This term has been very “gooey and chewy” in our role play area, where students have been busy creating their own stews, following recipes and acting out their own versions of the much-loved book ‘Wombat Stew’ by Marcia K Vaughan. To finish off our unit of work, we followed a recipe to Frozen Fruit Cups using a range of delicious and refreshing fruit.

Our athletics practise is well and truly underway this term! Ben from Little Athletics Tasmania visited our classes yesterday for some technique and skills practise. Our Kinders have been coming down to PE this term and joined the P/1s for their athletics lesson with Ben. He was very impressed by all of our student’s abilities from Kinder to Year 6!

We discussed with Ben what events are involved in little athletics, played games that tested our listening skills and reaction times, practised our starting positions in a race, relay baton transitions jumping and moving our bodies in different directions and running.

Ben will be back with us one more time later this term, in preparation for our Kinder to Year 6 Whole School Athletics Carnival which will be held on Wednesday 13^th December at 10:30 am-12:30 pm. If you are available on this day it would be fantastic if you could come and cheer on our students! As we finalise this year’s program, keep an eye out for the different events you will see your child/children participate in.

We will be sitting in our house colours and students are encourage to wear an item/s of clothing in their house colour! As per our sun smart policy, if they are wearing a coloured top it must be covering their shoulders. If your child is unsure what house colour they are in please see their class teacher. A reminder of our 3 house colours; blue gum - blue, river mint - green and Waratah - red.

Below is the description of each colour and their special meaning for our school community:

Last Friday our Prep/1 class visited the Hobart Gymnastics Academy out at Bridgewater. This Friday our 1/2 class will be having their turn.

We practised many fundamental movement skills and movement sequences! We practised our safe landing positions and shapes on the big blue floor. We climbed ladders, climbing walls, over ramps, under beams, over beams, under mats and over mats. We jumped and hopped along, ninja windows, trampolines, and mats.

There was a lot of fun to be had at the Hobart Gymnastics Academy!

Thank you to the Hobart Gymnastics Academy coaches, Mel and Elanor, for ensuring our students were safe and knew the correct technique of moving through each activity.

Thank you to Mrs Browning and the parent and carer helpers who volunteered to assist in our excursion, your extra support for our students gave them the confidence they needed to take safe risks.

International Day of People with Disability is a United Nations (UN) day observed internationally. It aims to promote community awareness, understanding and acceptance of people with disability.

Making activities inclusive and catering to all abilities gives every student the opportunity to be active at school and is something I am passionate about. Adapting and modifying activities for students with a disability can increase engagement and enjoyment. Promoting awareness is also important, and can help start conversations about disability with students.

For further information about International Day of People with Disability here is a link to their website: International Day of People with Disability (idpwd.com.au)

To raise awareness, each class will be participating in an inclusive sport activity during the week of December 3^rd with Miss Gourlay!

Our staff play a key role in keeping students safe by proactively monitoring any risks.

The Department for Education, Children and Young People (DECYP) recently released new Safeguarding Risk Management resources for our schools to assist with this.

These resources are designed to help us continuously identify, prevent and reduce risks to students of child abuse and harm, and support our school to be a safe environment where every child and young person can thrive and grow.

During this term we will be developing a Safeguarding Risk Management plan for our school.   The plan sets out the risks that we can identify, and most importantly, how we can reduce them.

As parents and carers, you play an important role helping us to identify safeguarding risks in our school, and I’m sure you may also have ideas on how we can reduce these risks to keep students safe. 

If you or your child/children have any questions, concerns or wish to report any incidents relating to child abuse or harm, I encourage you to reach out to me or a trusted staff member. We welcome your views and any feedback.

The Tell Someone website is also another useful source of information if you are worried that a child may be at risk of harm or is being sexually abused or groomed. 

If you have any concerns, the website gives clear information about what to look for, how to make a report and who to speak to.

For further information on the work being done on safeguarding in our school, please visit DECYP's website.