Hi everyone,

What incredible weather we have had this week, the sun was streaming through my window today and it made me reflect on some of the wonderful things that had happened across the last two weeks.

One of the real highlights was having the privilege to travel to Launceston with Miss Ella for the Tas Leaders: Leadership and Hope symposium. Throughout the two days we heard from wonderful guest speakers and participated in workshops designed to develop our understanding of how we can make a difference. A big takeaway was how Hope is a cognitive process that requires goals to be set, the development of pathways to achieve them and a willingness to do the hard work. This reflects in our reading focus at school. We know the goals we want to achieve where every student achieves growth and is able to read, we have the pathways and processes to achieve this, and we also have staff that are absolutely passionate and dedicated to do the work. We also know there are going to be setbacks and challenges but through a willingness to work through them together as a community we have the absolute hope we will achieve this goal.

A few reminders must also be issued this week, as the weather becomes warmer in September it also means the UV rises and students are required to have Hats on their heads. Otherwise, they will need to play in the shade to keep them safe. We also noticed that rubbish has been increasing in our playground, however, after speaking to classes and hearing them share how they felt about plastics going into our ocean, things have really turned around and we are proud of our student’s social conscience.  

Talking about social conscience, our SRC took part in a visit to the Salvation Army in Huonville where they worked closely with Roz and Chris to serve some food to our community, make food parcels for students and families and clean up after an amazing morning tea. The thing that they kept hearing and repeating was one word, OTHERS. Our SRC are an amazing group of leaders in our school and community, and we should be so proud of the work they have committed to in helping others. In week 10 they will be holding a food stall with help from our prep class so keep your eyes and ears on our socials and communications for more details.

As I said a lot has been happening in the school over the last two weeks, our grade 4 to 6 are participating in the Student Wellbeing Survey, our year one students have been completing the Year 1 phonics check, hopefully our parents have had a look at the parent satisfaction survey, our grade 5/6 students presented beautifully written pieces about being a convict in early Tasmanian life and our Kindies shared what a city means to them in our most recent assembly whilst our 3/4 class and 2/3 class went on amazing excursions respectively, to the Marine Discovery Centre and the Transport Museum.

We sure have an amazing school!

James Milne
Principal

(6237) Franklin Primary School

Communication to Families – School Satisfaction Survey 2023 - Reminder

The 2023 School Satisfaction Survey is open!

Every year the Department of Education 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 Franklin 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: https://ncv.microsoft.com/ws9dZzgAst

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 of Education staff.

Please contact your school if you require any assistance.

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

Gumnuts went to the Mount Nelson Sustainibliltly Centre this week for bush kinder. The children had a great time exploring and building.

Bryn

We are coming to the end of our city inquiry in kindergarten. We have had the best time exploring our ideas and wonderings.

We took a closer look at mapping, after exploring city road maps and bird’s eye view of our local towns.

On Thursday we looked at our school on Google Earth, and had fun pointing out the various landmarks. We took a tour of our school, taking photos in our brain. We even got to walk through the staffroom, which the children thought was outrageous!

We came back to our classroom and spoke about all of the different buildings and areas we would need to include, when making a map. They then proceeded to make a map of our playground using loos-parts.

We were so proud of the way they cooperated and engaged with the experience.

Prep have been diligently working away at our phonics groups and making great progress. Most recently we have been practicing mapping out our words (segmenting) and working on identifying the middle and final sounds in words. This is actually quite a tricky skill, and now we have strategies to help us.

During our play, some of the children were playing in the water tub, pretending to make and sell lemonade. The next day some other children decided to build upon this idea and set up a shop. They made ‘open’ and ‘closed’ signs, set up a cash register and filled the shelves. Then someone suggested we could actually make real lemonade and sell it at lunchtime. We could give the money we make to homeless people. So we put the word out to our families for any donations of lemons. This week we have washed and peeled the lemons in case we need the zest for our lemon syrup or we can use it in some other way. This allowed us to look at a lemon closely, examine the holes and oils in the zest, taste it and look at the pith.

Stay tuned for news around our lemonade stall in the next few weeks!

Last week, we travelled to the Tasmanian Transport Museum to extend our knowledge and understanding of how the heating of water and the pressure of steam makes the steam engine move (part of our research based on our Science Inquiry question “What is matter, and how does it change?”)

First up, “special treatment for the country kids" they said. They took us for a ride on the old Hobart diesel train, three times back and forth on the tracks. So much excitement!! Next, we split into two groups. Our group went into the steam engine shed first and Tony explained how the steam train firebox, boiler and engine worked by using a diagram and then showing us the real parts of an old steam engine.

We then moved on into a shed that houses some old buses, a diesel engine, some old carriages and a rail car as well as a highlight- a working model railway track. Looking inside some old transport vehicles, the first thing we noticed- no seatbelts! We saw and discussed the difference between 1st class and 2nd class carriages and learned that the old Bothwell bus used to do bus routes in the Huon Valley. We checked out the old tram shed. Wow! Big excitement for us to be able to go on and explore the old double decker tram!

Finally, we had a class photo in front of a steam engine just before we hopped on the bus back to school. We are proud of the students for the way in which they conducted themselves during interesting talks by the enthusiastic gentlemen running the museum. Thank you to the Museum guides, our parent helpers and to TA Michele for helping the visit to run safely and smoothly.

As a culmination of our Inquiry on ‘How do living things survive in the depths of the Mariana Trench?’, we went on an excursion to the Marine Discovery Centre in Woodbridge.

This excursion re-enforced and extended our knowledge on energy transfer in the food cycle and further fuelled our interest and curiosity about sea life.

At the Marine Discovery Centre we got to handle the crabs, starfish, sea cucumbers, sea anemones, sea urchins and hermit crabs.  It was fascinating watching how they move and the speed they can travel as well as seeing them close up using the magnifying camera.

Students’ got opportunities to pat, feed, draw and observe the sea life.  Then we got to travel round the ocean using virtual reality, drive an underwater drone and watch wild-life cameras.

It was no wonder we have a few students sleep on the bus on the way back to school!

Thanks to our parent helpers and Marine Discovery Centre teacher Andrew, for making it all possible!

The Children's University Passports need to be handed in next Thursday 21 September.

Thanks Bryn

FRANKLIN PRIMARY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION UPDATE

I don’t know about everyone else, but Term 3 has flown by in a flash! And what a wonderful and exciting term the students have had. I would like to express my thanks to members of the Association and the parents and friends who have helped out at events that have been held over the term. Without the Association and volunteers, the events that the parents and students have come to enjoy and look forward too are not possible.

Below is an update on the things the Association has been doing in front of and behind the scenes.

If you think of something that the school or students need, have an idea or suggestion, no matter how big or small, please reach out to myself of another committee member and it can be raised at the next meeting. Because at the end of the day it is your ideas that make the difference.

FATHERS DAY BREAKFAST AND GIFT

From the looks of the smiles on the students faces, and the amount of egg and bacon rolls the Association cooked, it sure was a successful Father’s Day breakfast. The Father’s Day breakfast and the wonderful magnets that the students made for their special person, were paid for by the Association, thanks to the school community.

A CUP OF THANKS

As I posted on Facebook, the staff of Franklin Primary School were treated to a coffee made by the wonderful Que Sera Sera, as a show of appreciation from the school community. The idea was raised by a parent and was considered and approved by the Association without hesitation. Sonn from Que Sera Sera sent me a message saying “they were like kids on Christmas morning” with their coffee! A simple and inexpensive idea that brought smiles to the wonderful people that care for our children.

Keep the ideas coming on how we can show thanks in term 4!

THERMOMIX RAFFLE WINNER

Congratulations to LISA JONES who was the winner of the recent Thermomix raffle!

DISCO

Well parents and students put on their glad rags and danced up a storm at the annual disco! Students were glowing with glow sticks from head to toe, all whilst enjoying a snag and a fizzy drink.

A huge shout out of thanks to the Association, Ella, Mr Page and Mr Milne, as well as parents for helping on the night. Without your physical assistance, events like this would not be made possible.

NEW MEMBERS

Everyone knows what an amazing job the Association and volunteers do for our school, but the reality is without them the things like BBQs, disco, fundraising would just not happen.

The Association desperately needs more people to join the team. All parents of students of the school are automatically members of the Association, however we need people to actually attend meetings and volunteer for the events.

Meetings are held on average every 6 weeks and you can bring your children along. Please have a think about how you can make a difference by simply volunteering a few hours of your time, trust me the children will thank you for it.

ENTERTAINMENT BOOK

The Franklin Primary School Association is fundraising with the Entertainment Book!

Our school receives 20% of every membership sold - which is a great fundraiser!

There are loads of discounts available with the membership - including 4% off Woolworths gift cards (so you can save on everyday grocery shopping!), Big W, JB-Hi Fi, Wish Cards, Rebel Sports, Supercheap Auto. There are also heaps of discounts on activities and dining/take away places including Village Cinemas, Banjos Bakery and lots more!

You can see offers available on this link https://www.entertainment.com.au/offers#offers. 

Memberships can also be purchased for interstate areas - so why not buy one for your family or friends, or send them the link to support our school :) 

To order your membership just click this link; 

https://au.entdigital.net/orderbooks/2s40418?fbclid=IwAR2d3lLiolPb3MRx6MWK9prIJdpe1CJu-ni0d8J7aRhqfLh7SIWynNKYVfs

which will take you to the join now page. Select Franklin Primary School membership page. 

FACEBOOK

For those that are new to the school or social media, the School Association operates a Facebook Page titled: “FRANKLIN PRIMARY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION”.  

Please ensure you answer the group questions upon your request to join the page, so we keep the page to school parents and guardians.

I encourage all parents and guardians to join as it’s a great place to see updates, information and news regarding Franklin Primary School. Please note that this page will not print personal information pertaining to students, and does not override information provided by the Department of Education, the School or a student’s teacher.

If you have any questions or concerns prior to the next meeting then please do not hesitate to contact me or one of the other committee members.

Jessica Watson – jess_watson82@yahoo.com.au or 0407 880 287

Thanks Jess