14 February 2024

From the Principal

Welcome!

We’ve had wonderful start to the 2024 school year at CPS and welcomed over sixty new students from Kinder-Year 6 which has been an absolute pleasure.

During the student free days in Week 1 (Mon, Tues, Wed), all staff engaged in whole school professional learning. Teaching Teams and TA’s completed safeguarding modules and learnt more about our new literacy initiative - DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), a response to DECYP’s Reading Priority and the Tasmanian Government’s commitment to achieving a target that all Year 7 students will meet an expected reading standard, above the national minimum, by no later than 2030. DIBELS is a series of short assessment tasks designed to measure fundamental literacy skills in phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. The aim of these assessments is to provide teachers with an early indication of students who may require additional support. Special thanks to our Quality Teaching Coach, Mrs Stevens, for leading this learning and supporting teachers to administer these assessments across the school. 

Building Update

We appreciate the support of our families utilising the 'drop and go' zone during the redevelopment. Please stop, drop and go in this area to ensure smooth flowing traffic. Your co-operation and continued support during this phase are greatly appreciated.

I’ll look forward to seeing you all at the CPS Athletics Carnival to be held on Wednesday 28 February or at our first assembly on Friday 1 March.

Kind regards,
Kristy Hay, Principal

Start of Term Reminders

We are a Nut and Egg Aware School

A reminder to families that we are a ‘nut and egg aware school’. There are several students within our school community that are highly allergic to nuts as well as students highly allergic to eggs.

Please do not send nuts, or foods containing nuts in your child’s lunch box.

Please do not send egg sandwiches, or hard-boiled eggs in your child’s lunch box.

SunSmart Program

Children are required to wear hats when outside at all times from September to April.  Digger, Legionnaire or “Bucket” hats are the only hats to be worn at school and children without a SunSmart hat will be required to remain under the shaded area.  Sunscreen will also be available to students and this will be located in classroom areas and at the office.  Application of school sunscreen is your child’s responsibility so please ensure they can confidently apply this to themselves.  Please also feel free to apply sunscreen at home in the morning prior to the school day. This is in line with the SunSmart Program sponsored by the Cancer Council.  Hats are available for purchase from the School office for $10.

Validation and Other Permission Forms

We would like to thank those parents who have already returned the validation and other permission forms. If you have not yet returned your child’s forms please return them to the office as soon as possible, preferably in the original envelope.

Levies

Invoices will be posted by the Department later in February. Please pay promptly. Contact the office if you wish to discuss payment options.

Contact Details

Has your phone number, email or address changed? Please inform the office of any changes as they occur.

Lost Property

Lost property is located at the MPR end of the main corridor. Please clearly name items of clothing, drink bottles and lunch boxes. If students are recycling second-hand clothes, please delete the old name. Any un-named items that are left at the end of each term will be disposed of.

Car Park Safety

Please drive slowly and with care in the carpark. Do not park in the bays allocated to buses, even for a short time.

Disabled Car Park

We have two disabled carparks near the school gate. We also have several families who either have disabled children or carers. These families need the car parks. We understand that the carpark can get full at times, but please, do not park in the signed spots unless you have a valid disabled parking sign.  

School Gates

As we all know, manners are very important, but we ask that when opening the school gates, please only let out the child that is in your care.

Office Hours

8.10am – 3.30pm

Uniform Shop

Opening hours 8.10am – 3.30pm. Alternatively, uniform can be paid for via Qkr. Items can be collected from the office or handed to students. See side panel of newsletter for Qkr instructions. 

Class Times

School commences 8.40am
School concludes 2.40pm

Duty of Care

It is important to note, before 8:10am and after 2:40pm, your children need to be supervised by an adult (unless they are at after school care or waiting for a bus to go home). To be clear, please do not drop your child off before 8:10am and please collect them at 2:40pm, as our duty of care is not before 8:10am or after 2:40pm. We appreciate your support in keeping everyone safe with supervision.

Student Absences

Please notify the school office by 8.40am each day your child is absent from school. There is a link to an absentee form on the sidebar of the Schoolzine newsletter.

Or call, or leave a message, on 6248 5168.

Student Late Arrival or Early Departure

Students must be signed in/out by a parent/carer using the Kiosk electronic sign in/out at the office, if they arrive late or are leaving school early.

Qkr App

The Qkr phone app gives parents the opportunity to pay for uniform, canteen orders and the Cooked Lunch Programs on smart phones and other devices. Instructions are on the side panel of the newsletter.

Clarence Children’s Services

Please see link below for information regarding all care services Clarence City Council have to offer.

Student Free Days this Year

Friday 7 June 2024

Friday 25 October 2024

Welcome back! Let’s make every day count.

Here we go, another exciting school year ahead! We hope you enjoyed your holidays.

By showing up to school every day, your child will have the best opportunity at a bright future. It gives them every chance to be around friends, learn new things, and find interests.

Good attendance habits can sometimes be hard to stick. But creating a solid routine, from the start of Term 1, can set your child up for success for the year ahead.

If you’re looking for tips on how to create better attendance habits, visit the Anything can happen website.

Please always talk to us if you’re having trouble getting your child to school. We’re here to help.

Safeguarding Lead Appointed

Alison Cato, as part of her portfolio of Assistant Principal - Wellbeing and Support will continue as Cambridge Primary School’s Safeguarding Lead.

Safeguarding Leads have been appointed in all Tasmanian state schools to help ensure all children and young people in Tasmania are known, safe, well and learning.

Alison will continue to support the wellbeing of all our students and help us all understand that keeping children and young people safe is everyone’s responsibility.

Please reach out to Alison if you have any concerns regarding the safety of children and young people in our school community or for further information on Safeguarding in Schools please click here.

If you have any concerns about the safety of a young person in the community, please click on the link below.

Bike Rack

Our Bike Rack has been moved to the entrance gate area, outside the shed. (see photos) We will use a chain and lock them up during the day. You may wish to consider purchasing a bike chain with a combination lock.

Mid-Morning Break

During the first morning learning session here at CPS, classes have a mid-morning fruit/veggie break. Please pack some fruit or a small amount of vegetables each day for your child.

Canteen News

Reminder on canteen days (Thursdays and Fridays) to please pack recess for your child. Canteen orders are delivered to classrooms at lunch time only. The canteen is open at recess and lunch for students to also purchase food.

We desperately need some volunteers to help out in the Canteen on Thursdays and Fridays, either Thursday 9-11am or Friday 9-11, or 11-1pm, or all day.  The children love seeing a family member helping out! If you are interested, leave your name and number at the office and Julie will contact you. 

Cambridge Soccer Club

It’s almost that time of year again!  Soccer Season!  Registrations will be opening soon.

This year the soccer season will run from Saturday 4 May until Saturday 28 ^August. 

Cambridge Soccer Club field mixed teams of both girls and boys from under 5's (Prep and Kinder) through to under 12's (Grade 6). In 2024 the Eastern Region Junior Soccer Association is looking at trialing a girls only league in Under 8’s and Under 9’s.  There will be an option to select this at the time of registration should your daughter be interested.  More information on this can be found on the Eastern Region Facebook page.

Most of our players go to Cambridge Primary School but we welcome players attending other schools.  Under 5,6 and 7 teams play small 4 a-side soccer.  This structure is designed to promote participation and enjoyment by all with no emphasis on winning or losing, backed up by no score keeping, ladders or finals.

New players are most welcome and encouraged!  Soccer is a great physical activity and promotes teamwork and long-lasting friendships.  Games are held on Saturdays and a training session occurs after school on the Cambridge Oval on a weekday (generally Wednesday-Friday).

We will provide more information in the coming weeks, noting this year will be a shortened registration period.  In the meantime, please like our Facebook page and if you wish to coach a team, please let us know. 

Contact Andrew McBride (President) on 0422 572 434 or Hayley Mason (Secretary) on 0418 141 067 or at Cambridgesoccersocial@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

Assemblies in Term 1

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

Friday 1 March
Friday 22 March
Friday 5 April

Let’s Celebrate!

Community Notice Board