3 August 2023

From the Acting School Principal – Kate Larcombe

Welcome back to all of our UPS students and families for Term 3 and a big welcome to new students and their families joining our school community this term. We hope you had a wonderful holiday period and took the opportunity to have a break from the school routines and spend time with family and friends. This Term we welcome Miss Lily Maynard and Ms Heather Polden to our teaching team, they will be co-teaching on 1/2D replacing Miss Jemma Dobson who has gone on maternity leave.

This Term we have lots of exciting events and activities on the calendar including: 5/6 Sports Day, Book Week Celebrations and Fire Safety Education Program. We also have an Open Classroom afternoon scheduled for 28 August from 2:15pm - 3:00pm. Families will be invited to come along and view the amazing learning happening in our classrooms.

Please remember to keep an eye on Seesaw to stay up to date with the learning happening in classrooms and important information about upcoming events. Seesaw is also a great way to make contact with your child’s teacher, however, please be aware teachers will not respond during the school day or after 4:30pm so for anything urgent throughout the day please contact the school office.

This week families of our Grade 3 and Grade 5 student received their NAPLAN individual results. Teachers will be looking at our NAPLAN data over the coming week alongside other data sets to celebrate areas of growth and identify future teaching and learning focuses and interventions. If you have any questions regarding your child’s NAPLAN results, please make contact with their class teacher.

Thank you to all our families for ensuring students are wearing their full school uniform. This helps create a strong sense of community for all students. If any families require support with uniform, please make contact with a member of staff.

Kate

Are you making every school day count?

It’s Term 3 already – welcome back for another term!

As we move through the school year, sometimes regular school attendance can be challenging. It’s important your child keeps up good attendance habits though. Going to school every day means your child has every chance to learn, and be around their friends and teachers. Every day adds up to benefit your child now and in the future.

If you’re having trouble getting your child to school, please talk to us. We will listen to your situation and help in any way we can. If you’re looking for tips on how to create better attendance habits, visit the Anything can happen website.

Class News – 1/2D

This term in 1/2D we have started learning about natural, managed and constructed features of local places and their location, how places change and how they can be cared for by different groups including First Nations Australians.

So far, we have looked at natural, managed and constructed features in our school environment. We went for a walk around our school and took photos of some natural, managed and constructed features.

Can you work out which feature is natural, managed and constructed?

Class news – 3/4E

3/4E have started the term of by learning about 3D shapes! We have had fun exploring the names and features of 3D shapes, as well as exploring our environment to see what 3D shapes we can find in the real world.

Did you know that drink bottles are shaped like a cylinder because it is more comfortable to hold than if it was a rectangular prism?

Baby News

Congratulations to Miss Jemma Dobson on the birth of her perfect baby boy! We wish Jemma and her family every happiness at this special time and hope we get an opportunity to meet baby Parker soon.

SRC Dodgeball

Primary students have enjoyed dodgeball activities organised by the SRC this week.  It’s been great to see so many students participate!

UPS Portrait Competition and the Young Archies Awards

We had a fantastic response to the UPS Portrait Competition with 37 entries! We had two enthusiastic art experts (Jan and Jen) volunteer their time to judge the pieces and we are very grateful for their time and expertise. The judges commented on the impressive quality of all entries, with the detailed expressions giving a real sense of character and personality.

The following students were selected to have their artwork submitted to the Statewide Young Archies Awards, being judged in Hobart later this month:

Kinder/Prep: Alfred M
Grade 1/2: Zoe L, Thomas S, Fern E and Harper C
Grade 3/4: Arwen B, Sarah L, Evie V and Shyrah A
Grade 5/6: Hayley N, Finn V, Harlow S-B and Lilly E

We wish them the best of luck!

Emily Rataj | Advanced Skills Teacher

BREAKFAST CLUB

Breakfast Club is run by our wonderful Teacher Assistants and Breakfast Club Leaders, five mornings a week, in our school hall and is well attended by students.

We are seeking donations from our school community to support this valuable program. Donations of long-life milk, jam and Milo would be greatly appreciated and can be dropped off at our school office.

School Health Nurse

Talk Soon, Talk Often

I am about to begin Growth and Development lessons with Grades 5 and 6, and I would like to encourage you to have your own age-appropriate discussions at home.

Talk soon, Talk often provides tips on creating easy conversations about bodies, relationships, health, and sexuality, as part of routine communication with children of all ages.

Most parents and carers worry about discussing sex with their child, that they end up saying nothing at all. Physical development will happen whether we talk with our child about it or not. You might be relieved to know that helping your child towards a happy, healthy sexuality does not come from any one big talk that is perfectly scripted. You might also be glad to know that talking with your children about it will not make them go out and do it. In fact, talking about it with young people has the opposite effect.

It’s not one big talk, but lots of little conversations. Repeated.

If you would like more information or want to discuss ways that we can support you with your child’s health and wellbeing please feel free to email me anytime at kayz.parsons@education.tas.gov.au.

Book Club

Blue Gum Child and Early Learning Centre – West Ulverstone

Blue Gum Child and Family Learning Centre is nearing completion. We are hoping to open sometime in October and we will keep you posted.

Some staffing appointments have been made and are as follows:

Meagan Smith – Centre Leader
Stacey Mitchell – Centre Administration
Leanne Jopson – Community Inclusion Worker (job share)
Felicity Harris – Community Inclusion Worker (job share)
Jayne Freshney – Social Worker
Katie Davis – Speech Pathologist
Hellen Gower – Aboriginal Early Years Education Worker

The Local Enabling Group is meeting again on Tuesday 8^th August at 9.30 am at West Ulverstone Primary School and everyone is welcome to attend this meeting.  Please RSVP to the Centre number 0499 873 869, via teams or email BlueGum.cflc@decyp.tas.gov.au we would love to see you.

A reminder that you can become involved in early learning with your family in many ways including:

1. Come along to your local Launching into Learning Playgroup (check with your School for day and time)
2. Come along to the playgroup at the Ulverstone Neighbourhood House on Monday from 11am – 1pm 

Here are some photos taken recently!

Community Notices