Newsletter - 14 March 2024
- Principal's Highlights
- Student Voice
- NAPLAN
- Crazy Sock Day!
- Lisa Ford Seminar
- Primary Progress Reports
- Free Dress Day and Easter Egg Donations
- Grade 5 Excursion to Molesworth Environment Centre
- Election Day Stall
- Gratitude Tree in 5/6AH
- Harmony Day!
- Everyone is Welcome!
- School Uniform Update and Reminder
- Qkr! for Android Phones
- Celebration Assemblies
- Class Spotlight - Kinder Echidnas
- Smartwatches and Phones: Off and away all day!
- Student Achievements
- School Association Chairperson
- Canteen Update
- From the School Association
- Mixed Netball
- MNPS Soccer 2024
- Do you like numbers?
- School Calendar
Principal's Highlights
Students from Kinder to Grade 2 had the most wonderful Athletics Carnivals last week! The spirit of fun, excitement and collaboration was evident everywhere. Our students gained so much from these special events; it helps build their levels of persistence, courage and participation.
Thank you to the House Captains for their excellent leadership. Thank you to all staff who organised teams, sports leaders, equipment, printed the program and assisted on the day. I am sure that everyone joins me in saying an extra BIG thank you to Mr West for organising outstanding events.
I would also like to personally thank our wonderful parent volunteers, but we would be very appreciative if more families could hop online and complete the compulsory DECYP safeguarding training to help us with events like these. The training is compulsory under new laws before you work with any children this year, designed to better safeguard children and young people in Tasmania. It will help you understand what to do if you believe a child or young person is or may be being harmed, and to make sure you are doing all you can to prevent this from happening. Once completed, you will receive a certificate, which you can save but will also need to be emailed to the school Office – mount.nelson.primary@decyp.tas.gov.au
Just a reminder to also ensure you have a Register to Work with Vulnerable People (RWVP) card when volunteering in the school grounds or on excursions and entered into the Kiosk system when signing in at the school office. The card must also be shown to office staff and verified.
Thank you for volunteering to support our wonderful school community and in caring for our students and keeping them safe so that they can continue to flourish.
I hope you have kept Monday, 18 March 2024 to hear Clinical Psychologist, Lisa Ford, speak to our school community from 6.30 - 8 pm in the multi-purpose Hall about Understanding Anxiety in Children. Tickets are free but need to be booked on the Qkr! app or by email to mount.nelson.primary@decyp.tas.gov.au.
All students from K-6 as part of our whole school inquiry have been covering the big idea, “How can we create a class in which everyone feels valued and connected?”
This unit of Inquiry was a whole school focus, aimed to build students understanding of what it means to belong to a group, strategies to help students build positive relationships and to flourish as safe, active healthy citizens in our Mount Nelson Learning Community.
Come and have a look at our Inquiry foyer display about what we found out about “Collaboration.”
Catherine Grace
Principal
Inquiry Learning in Prep Fox
Student Voice
Hi, this is the 2024 School Executives.
Firstly, we would like to thank everyone who helped and participated in the Athletics Carnival last week, it was a gorgeous day, and we were very impressed with the sportsmanship and effort that everyone showed! Well done to Bass, on their victory!
Currently, there is NAPLAN for the Grade 3’s and 5’s and we hope that they all do well, if you don’t know what NAPLAN is, it is where on different days they do different subjects such as language conventions, maths and writing.
Now to the present, soon the oval will be completely done! We hope everyone is excited and enjoys being able to run around and play lots of sports on it. We were thrilled to return from the long weekend as see a magical transformation of our oval from a sandy desert to a lush, green oasis. I bet the local wallabies wish they could get through that fence!!
On Wednesday the 27th of March, we will be drawing the Easter Raffle winner we wish you all good luck, and thank you for supporting this fundraiser for our Canberra trip!
Ivy D, Joe M, Henry B and India W
2024 School Executive
NAPLAN
This week our students in Years 3 and 5 will be taking the NAPLAN tests. Our younger students in Prep will be undertaking the PAT tests. It is important that our students do their best, but also that they do not worry about these tests. We are testing our students’ knowledge and understanding all the time. These tests add to the information we have and give information to teachers about how best to teach each student. Please chat to your child’s teacher if you would like more information.
Crazy Sock Day!
On Friday, 12 April 2024, we will be holding a crazy sock day! We will be fundraising for the Australian Food Bank. We chose this cause because we feel that it is important for everyone to get the right amount of food for their growth and wellbeing. We invite everybody to come to school in crazy socks, please bring a gold coin (or more) donation.
School Executive
Lisa Ford Seminar
Our continuing relationship with Lisa Ford is possible with a through a federally funded one-off payment to support our students’ mental health and wellbeing. This term, Lisa has worked with our Grade 4's on Navigating Friendships and our Grade 4/5/6s on Understanding Anxiety. Lisa also worked with all our staff before the school year began. As a result of this work, we have created 5 steps to solving conflict in groups. This gives us a whole school approach to enable us to support our students to solve problems when they arise. You may want to use it at home as well, helping to create a common language for our students.
We look forward to seeing you at Lisa Ford's next seminar on Understanding Anxiety in Children on Monday, 18 March at 6.30pm.
Primary Progress Reports
This week you will have received your child's Application to Learning Report as the first part in our Reporting and Communication commitments for 2024. These statements provide you with some information about how your child has settled into their new class. It has been designed by our MNPS staff and aligned to our MNPS values and assets. We encourage you to share these reports with your child.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the school office to organise a conversation with the class teacher and make a time to meet.
Free Dress Day and Easter Egg Donations
As a start to our Grade 6 fundraising for 2024 we will be having a free dress day on Tuesday, 19 March 2024 and asking children to bring along an easter egg or packet of eggs for the Easter Raffle. Please ask your child to give their donation to their teacher.
These donations will be used to make up Easter Baskets for the Raffle.
The Easter Raffle will be drawn on Wednesday, 27 March 2024.
Raffle books will go home for each family to sell, as well as the option to purchase tickets on Qkr!
We thank you for your support!
Grade 5 Excursion to Molesworth Environment Centre
"Yesterday we went to Molesworth Environment Centre to do team building and learned about the animals in the wild. Firstly, as we arrived, we went to a room where there are stuff animals, bugs, snakes, and even fur. Lani and Trish were our guides, Lani was teaching us how we should use fewer plastic products and some of our Tasmanian animals are about to be extinct soon. After all that learning we could explore the room, we couldn’t touch the items on the tables expect the fur chart (which was nice), but we could look at the items.
Lani also told us there is a nocturnal room, where it is dark, and you must bring a flashlight in with you. I had a turn on the last turns, which was lucky. I was with two other people and when I went in it was stinky and it was scary to me, there were stuff animals, trees and waterfall sounds which scared me. When it was time to get out, I was relieved but also wanted to stay in longer.
We had recess on the wooden benches and after recess it was time to go on the bridge. As we all arrived, I got to go first because I was holding the gate for everyone and the bridge was cool, it was made of tyres and ropes, but I wanted to go on the rope one, but it was closed. After the bridge Lani and Trish got to show our team building/ challenges today, some were hard, but some was easy, we also got into teams.
We had to choose our names for our team, but it was also hard to do it for 30 seconds. We were last to do our name, so we got the last option. Most of them were hard but some of them were easy too.
Our team did argue sometimes but we solved it at the end and we were having fun at the same time. I enjoyed when we got to play at there playground at the end, it was the best playground I have ever saw because, it had 3 slides, ping pong, and more! But it was great at the end, and I felt like going again."
Brianna, 4/5/6S Student
"Yesterday when I arrived at school I went into class, and I found all the year five student’s bags in our class. (4/5/6S) As soon as the music went the year fives quickly piled into the class. The bus had arrived! Christie told us to line up.
Then we one-by-one stepped into the bus. Me and Ariel sat next to each other in the front. My favourite part was seeing the swans. Seeing a goat was quite amusing too.
When we finally arrived, a lady called Lani told us to sit down onto the wooden benches. Me and Ariel sat next to each other again. When she told us to go into a room, I felt very excited. She also warned us not to touch the stuffed animals because they had things on their fur/feathers/scales that weren’t good for our skin. When she finally finished talking to us, she answered our questions and introduced us to someone else called Trish. They let us have a look around after they finished talking about what we were doing (Team building) and talking about how we liked to be spoken to.
When we went outside, we had our recess first. I was so hungry! When I finished Lani announced that we were walking to the team building site. Now I was excited!
When we arrived at the tire bridge, I was half scared that I would fall off and half excited that it looked fun. When we lined up and it was my turn my nerves jangled about but I ignored them, and it turned out to be fun! The only problem there were a lot of jack jumpers. When we arrived, I expected to see a grassy clean place but what I really saw was a lot of poo. After putting our bags somewhere shady Lani and Trish told us the obstacles and explained what to do.
I was in a team with Dora, Bronte, Louis C, Kai and Townes. We had to name our team and for some reason we were called the Doritos. Our first activity was the tire swing. It was where there were some tires and under it was pine bark and it was “supposed” to be lava. Dora went first I think, and she made it!!! Townes went next then Bronte then Kai. We had to use a rope to help them without touching the “lava”. Then Lani blew her whistle, and we were on the next activity.
The next activity for us was the “Death walk”. It was basically an obstacle course. The first one was like a very wobbly plank. I made it and so did Townes, Bronte and Kai. Dora and Louis C struggled but we helped them, and they made it! When Lani blew her whistle again, we moved to the left right walk thingy. We split up into two different teams. A boy team and a girl team. The boy team won because well… we weren’t the best at moving at the SAME time. Then once again the whistle blew, and we moved to the next activity.
The next one was where there was a toxic kid (Kai) and we had to get balls into a bucket without stepping into a circle or knocking it over. Since Kai was the “toxic boy” he could step into the circle. Our team got all except for ONE ball in. Then Lani blew the whistle.
We moved to the next activity. It was where there is this kind of net thing with big holes. Then Trish blindfolded Bronte and told us we had to guide her through a hole without letting her touch the net or she will get electrocuted. Bronte slid under and she made it! Then Townes made it. Kai was just going to try when Lani blew the whistle AGAIN.
This time was a challenge that my team found very challenging. It was where you had to get multiple balls through a limited number of pipes into a basket without letting it touch the floor. My team got none in though. Then Lani blew the whistle, and we were allowed to have lunch. When everyone finished lunch, we went back. Then we were permitted to go back and play in the playground. After a while we went onto the bus and drove back to school."
Yashi, 4/5/6S Student
Election Day Stall
Hi there, voters and future voters!
Exciting news! The Tasmanian general election for the House of Assembly is coming up on Saturday, 23 March 2024. It's a chance for everyone to have their say in how our state is run and support the school.
Join us at the Mount Nelson Primary School Hall to cast your vote. The grade 6’s will be running the BBQ to fund their school camp, and the Mount Nelson Primary School Association will oversee a delicious cake stall!
We're asking parents/carers to bake something yummy for the cake, muffin, biscuit stall and provide an ingredients list. Get creative with your election-themed treats like "Jacqui Lambie Lamingtons" or "Bob Brownies" and deliver them to the office the day before or early that morning.
While you're voting, make sure to stop by the cake stall for some delicious goodies that will make your taste buds dance with delight.
We're also looking for volunteers to help make this event a success. Please register your interest to help on SZapp (link below) or email Amanda, avens.amanda@gmail.com
Let's make this election day one to remember!
Gratitude Tree in 5/6AH
In 5/6AH we have created a gratitude tree. Each week we write something that we are grateful for on a leaf. Lisa Ford told us about how to express what we are grateful for and the benefits. We practice this by writing it on a leaf that we then we put on the tree for others to read.
Harmony Day!
On Thursday, 21 March 2024, Mount Nelson Primary School students are celebrating Harmony Day!
We are inviting our students to dress in orange or the national dress, or colours, of their native country to celebrate the fantastic diversity we enjoy here at Mount Nelson Primary School.
Everyone is Welcome!
New to the school or been here a while?
All contributions to the life of the school are welcomed and valued.
Nominate now for the Mount Nelson Primary School Association Committee.
School Uniform Update and Reminder
At Mount Nelson Primary, we have a very flexible, practical and identifiable school uniform. We encourage all our students to wear uniform so that they are dressed safely and appropriately for school activities. Wearing a uniform helps our students have a sense of belonging and take pride in being part of our school.
In the photo below, you can see the range of clothing that can be worn to school. There are specific school leggings with the school colours and shorts, skorts or dresses for when the weather is warmer. There are tracksuit pants and polo tops along with warmer fleece jackets. Our bucket hats have a great brim and elastic to keep them in place.
We appreciate your help in encouraging your child to wear their school uniform to school.
The Uniform Shop is open every Tuesday from 2.45 pm - 3.15 pm and orders placed on Qkr! are delivered to students on that day.
We are out of some items which are reflected on Qkr! The stock will be updated when available so keep checking back in!
Qkr! for Android Phones
The Android Phone issue has now been resolved, parents/users can now download the App from the Google Play Store.
Celebration Assemblies
Our next Celebration Assemblies will be held on Monday 8 April (Group A) and Tuesday 9 April (Group B)! ⭐
Class Spotlight - Kinder Echidnas
Fine Motor Fun in Kinder!
Smartwatches and Phones: Off and away all day!
Families are reminded that all Department for Education, Children and Young People (DECYP) students are expected to have mobile devices “Off and away all day.”
This means that mobile phones should be turned off between 9 am and 3 pm and kept in student bags. Smartwatches should be either turned off or put on aeroplane mode for the whole day.
These measures have been in place in all DECYP schools since 2019 and aim to reduce distraction and potential bullying and improve student wellbeing and attention. The decision followed significant consultation with educators, students, and their families, and brought Tasmania in line with other states which have moved to impose restrictions on mobile phones.
If your child has a mobile device please talk to them about these expectations, and refrain from sending them messages during the school day. If you need to contact your child during school hours, we ask that you do this through the school office, who can deliver messages to children when needed.
Student Achievements
Siu has earned his Taekwondo black belt! Well done, Siu 🥋⭐😀
Also, a huge congratulations to Amber T and Will K who were each awarded the June Flood award from the Taroona Cub Scout group at the end of last year.
This award is given to a Cub who has given their all during the year, enthusiastically participating in all activities, and showing excellent leadership in helping and encouraging younger Cubs.
Both Amber and Will impressed the adult leaders with their enthusiastic participation and have showed good leadership in planning and running activities throughout the year.
What an amazing achievement Amber and Will! ⭐⭐
Student Achievements - Let us Know!
If your child has been selected to be part of a representative team, has won a prize in performing arts, has a part in a major stage production or any other significant achievement outside of school, let us know via the webform below so that we can share the news and celebrate the achievement in our school newsletter. Let's Celebrate!!
School Association Chairperson
Our School Association is hosting it's AGM on Thursday, 2 May and we are looking for new Association members.
We are particularly looking for a Treasurer and Chairperson.
Many of you will have seen Mary, our current Chairperson, at events and helping out at things. While this is part of the role, a new Chair doesn't have to do this. The role of the Chair is to facilitate the Association work as a group, encourage broader parents and community members to participate, and support the Principal with ideas and initiatives coming from the school staff. We are looking for a Chair with new ideas and skills.
If you'd like to find out more about the role or being a part of the Association, please call or email Mary on 0423 365 988 or mnpsassociation@gmail.com.
Canteen Update
A HUGE thank you to Lihini and Sarah who have offered to run the school canteen this year. It will look a little different this year with canteen alternating between Wednesday and Friday.
Our first canteen for 2024 will be Friday 22 March and then Wednesday 27 March and ongoing from there. Each week we will be looking for a parent to help out, so please fill in the volunteer form on SZapp to help out at canteen.
From the School Association
Nominations open for the 2024-25 School Association Committee
The School Association is an important part of the school, working with the Principal to achieve shared outcomes for learners attending the school and for the benefit of the whole school community. Membership of the School Association provides a forum for the sharing of knowledge and skills.
Nominations are now open, and we invite all parents, carers, and community members to consider nominating.
Not sure how it all works? Want to learn more? Join us for the next Association Committee Meeting Wednesday 20 March, 2 - 3pm in the School Staffroom. Please feel welcome to bring your preschool age children if that helps with availability.
Update on the School Oval
We hope you've all seen a brush of green across the oval! We're hoping the oval will be open for students next term. The Association will be hosting an official opening event and would love school community members to be involved. If you'd like to be a part of this event please email mnpsassociation@gmail.com
So many different ways to get involved!
The School Association supports a whole range of activities for the school, including extracurricular activities and sports, fundraising and school community events. These activities would not be possible without you, our amazing parent community.
If you’d like to offer an hour or two, or perhaps make a longer investment, just complete the short Volunteer at Mt Nelson Primary School form available on Qkr! and a member of the school association committee will be in touch.
Remember that all volunteers need a Working with Vulnerable People Card and completion of an online DECYP safeguarding training module.
Mixed Netball
Mixed Netball starts next Monday, 18 March 2024!
We now have enough players for both the 3/4 Eagles team and a 5/6 Panthers teams, and we are looking forward to a great season for both teams!
Congratulations on the skill acquisition over the past few weeks at trainings. We have been learning about some of the rules and practising good technique drills that form the foundation of the sport: footwork, pivoting, passing in front, dodging, shooting, defending and teamwork!
Great work, and a special thanks to our grade 5 and 6 players who have been really encouraging, kind and patient when helping new and younger players learn these essential skills. It is beautiful to see this peer learning and the lovely school culture in action on our netball court.
This Autumn Netball Season runs until 17th June. There is also a Spring season in term 3 & early term 4.
Any netball questions, please message Karrie on 0409 625 486
MNPS Soccer 2024
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW OPEN!!
Do you like numbers?
Our School Association Committee is seeking a new Treasurer. Just like our outgoing Treasurer, Gemma, you’ll meet more of the school community, learn about what’s happening at the school, and help us keep track of the finances that support the great work of the School.
