9 May 2025

From the Principal

There has been a lot going on these past 2 weeks! With this, we have a lot of people to thank!

Grade 4 Camp

Last week our Grade 4s all headed off to Spring Beach for our Grade 4 camp. Every student came back on Friday very excited and filled with joy… albeit also really tired. The two nights away offer a chance to bond as a group together and to stretch themselves by being away from home for two nights. There will be a lot of retelling over other articles and Assemblies soon, but for now, a VERY big thank you to all of our parents at home for packing and setting your children up so well for success.

An extra-special thank you to our parent volunteers for coming along: Andrew Lemm, Tameeka Willie, Leigh Martin, Mary Ruddick and Shecani Piscitelli. We could not do our camps without extra help and we are very grateful for parents making the time to come along.

And, of course, to our staff: Joe, Emma, Erin and Keegan – camps can not go ahead without staff support and attendance. We are forever thankful to you and your families for letting you go!

Mothers’ Day Stall

This year’s Stall is looking like being one of the best! A whopping $2812.40 was raised on Wednesday.  I know that all families appreciate being able to send their children to school with a few dollars and have a thoughtful present come home. Likewise, our students very much enjoy having the responsibility and opportunity to purchase something small, independently, for their mums.

All of our fundraising events like this are staffed, organised and delivered by parent volunteers. Giving up your time to help out at school, whether staffing the stall or providing some merchandise is sincerely appreciated. The Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day Stalls are a great tradition at our school.

This year, Amanda Burdon has taken on the role of organising. She is at pains to note that she doesn’t want to run them all on her own, yet she is kind enough to put in some work to make sure that they continue for us all. To be clear, without her work, they might not go ahead. THANK YOU, Amanda! If you’ve got some time, the Fundraising Group would love the help. Get in touch with the office and we can put you in touch with other parents.

Election Day BBQ

This year’s Election BBQ will have been the most successful in a long time! We will have raised around $1200. Matt Fenton drove this event and was involved all day long. It was a big effort. Thank you to Adrian Hunt, Paul Jackson, Brock Free and Angela Kerrison-Smith for being there, cooking, serving and cleaning up. Being able to share a Democracy Sausage for members of our community feels like a public service as much as a fundraising event. We thank you for your support!

Where does this Fundraising Money go?

The Stalls and the BBQ and some other Fundraising events throughout each year raise money to go towards reducing the cost of five programs at our school. The money is deposited and held in the School Association bank account. The money needs to have multiple authorisations and a motion at a School Association Meeting to be allocated and spent.

The monies raised help to fund things we do at our school that are impactful additions to the norm that our families value. Each year, the School Association provides $2000 for each of: Bush School, Grade 4 Camp, Grade 5 Camp, Band Program and Surfing. Additionally, the School Association help to fund items that benefit the whole school such as playground upgrades or things like improved speakers in the MPR for assemblies.

Like households, school budgets are tight, and the extra money via the School Association makes a lot of difference. Without it, we would not be able to do all we do or have all we have. So thank you to everyone for your continued support and contributions.

Grade 6 Camp?

Finally, we have a thought to put to our community. Much like all the programs listed above, we would like to consider a Grade 6 Camp. Finding locations and programs to do can be a challenge – there are limited opportunities available these days. For a long time we have had a desire to build and run a Grade 6 Camp.

With this, would come another cost to our families. And due to the current climate of tight budgets, it is important to us that we get your feedback and thoughts. The offering would be for no earlier than 2026, even next year might be too hard a timeline.

Our proposal would be to build on the resilience and growth of our Grade 4 and 5 camps and to have it be a larger event. Many schools across the country go to Canberra for a week and this is a very important endeavour. Depending on how it is run, this is a very

expensive event for Tasmanian schools. Our offering would be cheaper than going to Canberra, and a very different suite of activities.

We are proposing a 5-day camp, on Flinders Island. I have done a good bit of preparation and costings. We would stay at the school, camping. We would have access to their facilities and able to weather any storm! We would do a variety of outdoor activities, utilising the school’s Outdoor Ed staff and the buses there. We would also connect with our original camp focus – connection to country (this is why we started them on Bruny Island many years ago) with a large visit to Wyballena, learning about Indigenous perspectives to Tasmanian settlement. We would need to fly in and out of Launceston, so Monday and Friday would be mostly travel days. Five days would make the most of the flight costs.

I have had the privilege of spending a few weeks on Flinders; it is a magical place and I do think that it would be a ‘forever memory’ for our students. We can go into the workings in more Newsletters.

The camp would be as our other camps are – all costs inclusive of the fee (all meals, transport etc). I’m assuming parent volunteers won’t be a problem. The difference is that this would need to be offered as a charge in addition to your school levies, and not included in the school levies. The school would work with our families who are noted as receiving levy assistance in other situations to support students to attend. The difference would be if you don’t pay, you don’t go – this is the same for optional programs at other public schools. The cost would be around $1400 per student, hopefully slightly less. The exact cost varies on a few factors, but I’ve set up a pretty tight first draft spreadsheet of calculation on fixed and variable costs. We would offer a process whereby families could make a payment plan over time (ie pay an amount per fortnight/week leading up to the camp).

From here, we want to start a conversation with our community. What do you think? Do you see value in this, or do you not? Is it an okay thing to offer? Do you think this will be a very special thing to do?

All voices are valued, and we would love to hear from everyone. Importantly, please get your questions in so we can respond to them over the next few weeks (for example, we would look to publicly respond to your question but keep your details hidden).

If we are to do this, we need to consult with our community. We will have a more formal feedback process in the next Newsletter (a survey response). For now, feel free to send your thoughts into cambridge.primary@decyp.tas.gov.au Please make the subject: Grade 6 Camp.

We have floated this with the School Association for over two years and are in a position to try and work this through with our community. The School Association endorse us bringing this to you for discussion, as do our teaching staff. They all see value in the camp proposal. They also see the difficulty in the cost.

It’s always enjoyable talking about possibilities and opportunities – let’s start the ball rolling on this big one.

I look forward to seeing most of you over the next two weeks: Cross Country and Parent Teacher Meetings in week 4! See you soon and email us your thoughts!

Courtney

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 have been sent out by the Department. 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.

Volunteering at School

If you are volunteering in our classrooms and/or coming along on an excursion this year, you MUST obtain a Working with Vulnerable People Card and complete the Safeguarding training via this link.

When you have completed your training, please send your certificate via email to cambridge.primary@decyp.tas.gov.au and take a screenshot of your certificate and save it on your phone.

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. If you take your child after Assembly please sign them out at the office.

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

For enquiries about Outside School Hours Care please email Clarence City Council at the email address below:

OSHC@ccc.tas.gov.au

Or click on the link below for information regarding all care services Clarence City Council have to offer.

Term Dates 2024

Term 1:  Thursday 8 February to Friday 12 April (Easter Break Fri 29 March -Tue 2 April)
Term 2:  Monday 29 April to Friday 5 July (Student Free Day Friday 7 June)
Term 3:  Monday 22 July to Friday 27 September
Term 4:  Monday 14 October to Thursday 19 December (Student Free Day Friday 25 October)

Student Free Days 2024

Friday 7 June 2024
Friday 25 October 2024

Reminder: Every School Day Matters

As Term 2 kicks off, we wanted to share a timely reminder about the importance of school attendance.

We love seeing your child at school every day – it’s the best place for them to learn and grow. It’s a chance to be around their friends, learn new things (including life skills), spark their curiosity and have fun.

Term 2 is packed with exciting things your child won’t want to miss:

• Assemblies
• Lunchtime programs – Book Club, Garden Club, Crafting Club/Writers’ Café, Chess Club, Coding Collective, Choir, Marimba, Rock Band
• Cross Country Carnival
• Jon Madin Marimbas and Wacky Instruments workshops (Grs 4/5 and 5/6) and whole school performance
• Excursions
• Author visit to Kinder

For tips on creating positive attendance habits, visit the Anything can happen website.

Please talk to us if you’re having trouble getting your child to school. We’re here to help and support is available.

Term 2 Parent Teacher Meetings 19 – 23 May

Parent Teacher Meetings will be held in week 4 of Term 2. Once again, we are using the Schoolzine Session Keeper booking system for parents/carers to book a meeting with a teacher and below is the link to make your booking. If your child has two teachers, please only make one booking.

You will be able to access the booking system from 4pm Friday 11 April, until 11pm on Sunday 11 May. If you need to change your appointment after bookings have been closed off, please contact your child’s teacher.

Here is a link to a booking guide for parents.

If you have any problems, please don’t hesitate to contact Tina Mason on 6248 5168 or at tina.mason@decyp.tas.gov.au , or talk to one of the class teachers.

Rose Bay High School Information Evening

Click on the link below to read the first edition of Rose Bay’s Scoop, showcasing all things Rose Bay High School.

Cambridge Primary Cross Country - Tuesday 20 May

Our Cambridge Cross Country Carnival, for all students from Prep to Grade 6, will be held on Tuesday 20 May on the school oval. The carnival promises to be a fun day where students can showcase their endurance and determination to achieve their very best.

During our HPE classes, we have been frequently referring to the Cambridge Capabilities of courage, persisting, recovering and adapting as characteristics that can help us succeed during the Cross Country Carnival.

All students understand that the expectation of them at the carnival is to try their hardest and participate to the best of their ability. If they are unable to participate for any medical reason, a supporting note from home will be required.

Classes will only come out when it is their time to race and not be out watching the whole event.

Approximate starting times for each event:

Could students please make sure they bring plenty of water and appropriate running gear.

Parents are welcome as spectators around the oval at times when their children are running.

The top 6 boy and girl runners from grades 3-6 will be invited to represent Cambridge Primary School at the SPSSA Cross Country Carnival at Bayview Secondary College on Tuesday 3 June.

Champions Athletics Carnival

On Friday 11 April, 12 students from Cambridge Primary competed against the best junior athletes in southern Tasmania at the SPSSA Champions Athletics Carnival. To gain an invitation to compete at this carnival, our students first needed to have finished 1^st or 2^nd in a division 1 event at the SPSSA Division B Athletics Carnival that took place a few weeks earlier.

It was so pleasing to see our students compete on the biggest of stages and represent our school in such a wonderful manner. Everyone displayed excellent sportsmanship skills and a strong competitive desire to achieve their very best. A big congratulations to Ashton A, Ed J, Grayson M, Jack Mc, Harry T, Caleb W, Ed B, Amelia B, Lucy C, Grace C, Eli H, Amely W and Mila A who was selected but unable to participate.

Further congratulations need to be given to Lucy C and Eli H, who came 1^st in their respective races and are off to the State Athletics Carnival in Launceston this Friday! Congratulations and good luck to Lucy and Eli!

James Dudgeon, HPE Teacher

Jon Madin – Marimba and Wacky Instruments Workshop

On Monday 26 May, famous Australian music educator and composer, Jon Madin will spend the day at Cambridge Primary conducting workshops with the 4/5 and 5/6 classes. Students will have the opportunity to play on the marimbas and a variety of his wacky instruments including musical bikes!

The highlight of the day will be a concert in the afternoon commencing at 1.40pm in the MPR. Parents are welcome to attend.

Sally Sari, Music and Art teacher

Donations needed

Kinder are in need of a bread maker. If you have one at home that you are not using and are happy to donate, please let the office know on 6248 5168.

Kinder and Prep are also looking for donations of blankets for our mindfulness time during bush school.  Please can you bring your donations to the school office. Thank you

School Photos – Second Chance to Order

Congratulations

Congratulations to Ethan S and Ed B who finished equal first in the Primary division of the Southern Schools Autumn twilight Orienteering series. Along with James and Rob F the boys also managed to secure second place overall for Cambridge Primary!

Let’s Celebrate!

Community Notice Board