13 September 2023

From the Principal

Spring has sprung! The weather has really turned a positive corner and the Council is renewing the oval as they do – as such we are again running our annual Mini-Wimbledon competition. A huge thank you to Mr Mac for organising. Our students will play off in the finals either later this term or next term, depending on the pace of matches being played. There are some coveted names on the trophies, who will win in 2023?!

Redevelopment Update

Attached is a photo-realistic concept image of our current planned build! This really brings the project to life and starts to showcase the scope of the new works that will be constructed. A note of caution: the image is a render of the current concept with final works to still be agreed upon, particularly noting that we have a final cost estimate to work through. The significantly increasing cost of commercial building has impacted on the build scope of works. We have and will continue to work through this.

Stage 2, which includes a gym, is still in negotiation with Council and we are, still, awaiting to hear back from them to plan for the works on this part of the project. We will be attempting to gain more clarity on this Stage 2 over the coming weeks as we know that our community really wants a gym and so do our students!

EAGLES – Our Cambridge Capabilities

This week we will be testing our first visual idea with a number of students and the School Association. Our student voice will be the most important feedback of the process, as it has been the whole way along thus far. We need to make sure that the EAGLES framework has good “stickability” and is simple and clear for our students. It is exciting times! We will be sharing with our community either later this term or early next term some initial imagery. Later this year and early next year we will be forming a LOT of additional imagery and resources to help with the communication of our framework.

Building on from last week, it is important to give some background to why EAGLES are important to our school. A few years ago now, when they spent every Prep Friday in the Bush, a year group at our school became highly engrossed in seeing the Wedge-tailed Eagles flying over our school and the bush. After some investigating, we found out that above our school is the boundary of two breeding pairs of Wedge-tailed Eagles. One living on Mount Rumney and the other living in Dulcot area. As such, we often see either pair flying above the school! The year group became fascinated with the birds and we found out a lot about them. Learning about the eagles has only further helped us to understand the truly unique setting that our school is situated in.

As such, EAGLES is the title of the framework that will scaffold the individual Cambridge Capabilities.

E = Explore (creative thinking)
A = Analyse (analytical thinking)
G = Grit (growing grit in each student)
L = Love (emotional intelligence of self)
E = Engage (engage others for social intelligence)
S = Students, who this is all about

The acronym of EAGLES will be the foundation of the dispositional learning framework that we are building and we will be both excited to start sharing visual imagery with you and getting your idea on what we can proved to support the learning at home from school.

Our School Garden – Desley to Depart

Desley comes in every Tuesday (and a number of days in the holidays) to help run and maintain our school veggie garden. The majority of the food from the garden goes to our Kinder Cooked Lunch Program, with surplus to the overall Cooked Lunch Program. Things like pumpkins and cherry tomatoes are a favourite! For the last 7 years, Desley has been the mainstay of our garden. Her guidance, patience, service, and warmth has driven our wonderful little garden. Now though, Desley has let us know that her hobby card is becoming quite full, and she would like to wind up her time with us to have more time on her other pursuits.

Desley’s service to our community has been wonderful - especially considering she does not have any family attending school (she does have me here, she’s my mother-in-law).  Desley has always provided seedings, pruning advice, consultant planting advice and other help. We really cannot thank her enough.

Most importantly, Desley has provided a safe space for a number of our students who like the garden for their play time. It is a space for all and one that Desley has very much shaped and helped to flourish.

If anyone is keen to take on the volunteer role of school veggie gardener, or knows of someone who is, please contact the Office and let them know. We would very much appreciate the assistance!

See you all soon – Courtney.

School Satisfaction Survey 2023 - Reminder

Every year the Department for Education, Children and Young People conducts a School Satisfaction Survey to find out what your child(ren)'s school does well and where it may improve. Your feedback is very important to help us inform our school improvement planning and decision-making.

If you have not had the opportunity to complete the survey about Cambridge Primary School yet, it is open until Friday 22 September 2023 and should take about 5 minutes of your time.

Each family should nominate one person to fill in this survey for their child(ren).

Take the online survey by clicking this Link. or pasting it in your browser: 

The survey is carried out on a secure website and all responses are anonymous and confidential.

All families in this school received the same survey link and no identifying information is collected. A summary of the survey results will be provided to schools. Responses from individuals or small groups will NOT be disclosed to any Department for Education, Children and Young People staff.

Thank you for taking the time to fill in this survey.

2023 School Swimming Carnival

The School Swimming Carnival will be held on Thursday 21 September at the Hobart Aquatic Centre from 10.00am – 2.00pm.  All able students in Grades 3-6 are expected to participate, where possible, and should come to school with bathers on under clothes to save time. 

Students will be leaving school at 9.30am and returning after 2.00pm in time for the buses.

Parents and friends are welcome to come along and support our students. We ask you to please sit away from the school groups and find an appropriate place to watch.

Parents are welcome to volunteer as an official to help at the carnival. These jobs will include judging, time keeping, marshalling, general or students support. Please leave your name at the office. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Students must bring lunch as they will not be allowed to use the canteen.

It will be great to see our students put their aquatic skills to the test in a fun, competitive environment. A school team will be selected to compete at the SPSSA Division B Carnival on Thursday 2  November.

Ryan Thomas, Physical Education Teacher.

2023 Combined Primary Schools Annual Concert Tickets

2023 Tasmanian Schools Triathlon Challenge

The 2023 Tasmanian School Triathlon Challenge for students in Grades 3-6 will be held on Friday 1 December at Bellerive Beach. Entry forms are available from the Office. Completed forms should be returned to the Office with payment before the end of this term.  Cash payments only. Please do not return forms without payment. Parents/carers are responsible for transporting students to and from the event.

2023 School Basketball Tournament

Year 5/6 school basketball championships Will be on the weekend of 28^th-29^th Oct 2023.

For any boys in this grade that would like to try out and play for the school, try outs will take place next Monday 18^th September from 4pm -4.45pm. at the school basketball court.

The team will consist of around 8 boys.

Eva Schulze has volunteered to coach the boys again this year and will make the selections.

Assembly Certificates

In Term 4 we will be using SchoolZIne to notify Parents/Carers when their child will be presented with an Achievement Award. The SchoolZine message will be sent out on the Monday before the Assembly on the Friday, and it will be titled Achievement Award. You may need to right click and hold to download the picture and text.

Australian Childhood Anxiety Treatment Study 2023

The Tasmanian Department of Education has approved an Australian wide anxiety treatment study for 7 – 12 year old children which is being undertaken by Griffith University, Queensland. Does your child become very afraid of certain situations or objects, worry about a lot of things, get very distressed, or try to avoid things they fear? Click on the document below for more information about this study.

Assemblies in Term 3

Assemblies are held in the MPR and start at 1.40pm. All are welcome to attend. This term’s remaining Assembly will be on:

Friday 15 September

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Riley O in Gr 4/5 who has been selected to represent Tasmania as the goalkeeper in the Under 11 Premier Invitationals Soccer on the Gold Coast at the end of September, along with 11 other children from the Hobart area. Lucas A in Gr 5/6 will be representing the Under 12s as goalkeeper. Well done Riley and Lucas.

Let’s Celebrate!

Community Notice Board