From the desk of James Milne, Principal

Welcome Back to Term 4!

We’re thrilled to see our students return with energy and enthusiasm. Term 4 promises to be full of learning, connection, and celebration.

Our school vision, “Embracing community, growing together,” is alive in our classrooms and playgrounds. Staff and students are working collaboratively, showing care and curiosity every day.

Sea Country Excursion – Monday!

Students will soon embark on a special excursion to explore Sea Country at Roaring Beach Southport, deepening their understanding of local and Aboriginal culture and environment. We thank Sharyn Brett, Ryan Clark, Ella Heather, Tom Davidson for organising and facilitating this amazing learning experience.

Swimming Carnival – Get Ready to Splash!

Our annual Swimming Carnival is just around the corner, occurring this coming Friday 31 October at Huonville Pool. It’s a highlight of Term 4, bringing together fun, fitness, and friendly competition. Who will win this years carnival River Blue or Mountain Yellow??? We also welcome back Mr Mitchell for the carnival and thank Ms Roz K for her amazing work at Franklin!

Progressive Achievement Testing (PAT)

PAT assessments are underway, helping us track student progress and tailor learning experiences. Thank you for supporting your children during this time. To know more please reach out to Mr D or your child’s class teacher.

Swimming & Water Safety Program

This vital program begins soon, equipping students in grades 4 and 5 with essential skills for safe water activities. Please ensure permission slips are returned promptly.

On the Water Program – Grade 5 Launches This Week

Grade 5 students begin their exciting On the Water program this week. It’s a fantastic opportunity to build confidence and teamwork. Thank you to Mike and the Living Boat Trust for all their hard work in putting together this program and supporting our students learning.

End of Term Celebration Events

Finally, this term is one we deem our Celebration Term. All of our staff are busy planning, organising and facilitating joyful events to wrap up the year, including performances, awards, and community gatherings. Stay tuned for dates and details!

Welcome to Term 4 LiL families! If you haven’t already, please check our Facebook page for updates and information.

So far this term we have explored spring, and insects and bugs. Our mornings have been so busy with so many families it has been wonderful! Unfortunately I haven’t managed to get many photos to share. If you have any you have taken of your children at LiL and you are willing to share them for use in the newsletter or media please send them to us.

This week’s session will be attached to our whole school excursion “Sea to Country”. Again, details are available on our Facebook page or please message us for more information. Another exciting school community event we are included in in the Swimming Carnival next Friday 31^st October. LiL families are invited to come and use the pool for FREE from 1:30 – 2:30pm after all the students events have been completed.

Other sessions planned include:

• Indigenous Connections with Sharyn Brett
• Excursion – TBC
• Messy Play
• Healthy Strong and Well
• End of Year Celebration

LiL sessions will finish on December 1^st to allow for end of year activities across the school to happen.

To assist with planning and including your voice I would love your input for LiL please. There is a short survey open that also includes intended attendance at the excursion that I would really love you to complete please: Lil Survey

Thankyou for your overwhelming support and attendance, it has been wonderful to meet you all.

Ms Bec

This fortnight, we eased into our favourite time of the week - craft time!. The room was filled with chatter, colour, and creativity as everyone got busy cutting, pasting, painting, and colouring in.

Some of us built our own ice-creams, choosing our favourite flavours and toppings, while others got creative, building a spring daisy flower. Others added some crazy hair to a fun face template using coloured string, paint or through drawing - that had everyone giggling.

Issy and Michelle

Spring in the garden is a busy time – beds to top up and turn over, seeds to germinate, compost to maintain and who could forget the WEEDS! The never-ending weeds.

Our broad beans have really taken off; bursting through their net. Annoyingly the net must stay on so that our beautiful plants don’t turn into possum food!

This week classes planted out some potatoes, beetroot, lettuce, coriander and silverbeet. The peas that the 1/2s planted last term are starting to poke their heads through the soil which is exciting.

This term sees the introduction of lunch time tasting plates. Cross grade groups get the opportunity to cook on a Tuesday and share their creation on the deck with others. Last week the children made good old crunchy noodle salad. Always a crowd pleaser. The cups didn’t last long.

Our last term of Kinder has arrived, and this term is all about preparing for the transition to the ‘big school’. Going to school 5 days a week, and being in the big playground is a huge transition for kids. Small changes will add up over the course of the term. We will have some different faces on duty in Kinder, we will visit the big playground sometimes at lunchtime for our play and right at the end of the term we will visit the room we will be moving to for Prep.

Our second Kindergarten Developmental Check is almost complete, and our final Evidence of Learning is underway. Our main learning in Term 4 will be about consolidating the early literacy and numeracy skills we have gained over the year, and really beginning to work as a team, to look outside of ourselves and our needs and think of others.

The birds nest outside our window now has some fledglings in it, if you are lucky you will be able to see them on your way past. We have begun to think about spring, and all that it brings. We noticed some of the blossoms around and painted them using a few different techniques.  As a result we are exploring the bugs and insects that are busy in the garden in spring. We have done some sorting of insects and bugs and used our team skills to work in small groups to do so.

Here are some of the ideas we have had about what the insects do in the garden:

Coral – Butterflies and ladybugs come around and the start to collect pollenade.

Grayson – Honey bees eat honey. They make honey and they eat it.

Ragnar – Butterflies eat so many leaves and they turn into butterflies and they get on flowers.

Wallace – When the sun comes out butterflies come and get pollen and lay their eggs and their babies make a cocoon and the babies turn into another butterfly.

Samira – Butterflies fly around.

Aria – They put in the seeds and wait until they grow. They make flowers with some water and they make a big hole for it.

Joey – Grasshoppers hop around and caterpillars turn into cocoons by eating lots of leaves an then they turn into butterflies. Honey-eaters show honey bees where the honey is and they both get honey. Honey-eaters need pollen so that they can fly otherwise they fall out of the sky.

Emily – Caterpillars turn into butterflies.

Iluka – Bees collect pollen from flowers. Snails eat plants.

Stella – The bees get honey.

Following this we have been lucky enough to have Kylie bring in a tray from her bee hive, some honeycomb and some honey for us to taste!

In 1/2 we have been doing informal and formal measurement in maths.

As part of HaSS we looked at morse code and tried spelling our names with it.

With this busy and varied term, it is nice to still have our consistent routines and classes. One such class is Word Origins.

Word Origins is taught daily across the upper primary classrooms.  Students are introduced to a new word daily and break it into it’s morphemes (units of meaning), phonemes (units of sound) and syllables. 

We investigate entomological origins, meanings and connections.  We also share stories, make connections and have a laugh.

Subscription

sub –under

script – to write

ion – an action

So, subscription literally means to write under.  Students were excited about subscribing to videos and the like, but it wasn’t until we heard the Latin origin that we realised once upon a time people signed their name under an agreement or document.

We chatted about all the possible subscriptions from the old stamp club magazines, online clips and even toilet paper……

Mrs Bec Witts

It’s been a very busy start to Term 4, and it shows no signs of slowing down!

In English, we’ve jumped back into our novel study of Dirrarn. Students are exploring a new chapter in the main character’s life and continuing to analyse the author’s use of figurative language, character development, and author’s intent. We’ve also begun unpacking symbolism within the illustrations — discussing why the illustrator chose certain images and how they contribute to the story’s deeper meaning.

In Mathematics, we’ve begun our new unit on Angles, which we’ll continue to explore over the next few weeks. With a few exciting excursions and school events on the horizon, we’ll take our time consolidating this learning. Students will be identifying, measuring, and constructing angles and linking this to 2D shapes, symmetry, tessellations, and transformations. These concepts help build spatial reasoning and pattern awareness — important in areas such as art, design, and even digital modelling.

It’s shaping up to be a jam-packed and exciting end to the year, with plenty more hands-on learning and creative projects to come!