Dear Franklin PS Families,

What a lively few weeks it has been at our school! Our students have been out and about, engaging in some truly enriching excursions. Highlights include visits to Fanny Cochrane Smiths Church, where students explored local history and connection to country, and the South Hobart Recycling Centre, which sparked thoughtful conversations about sustainability and our role in caring for the environment. These experiences continue to deepen our students’ understanding of the world around them.

A huge congratulations to our Chess Team, who represented Franklin PS with skill, focus, and great sportsmanship. We’re incredibly proud of their achievements and the way they supported one another throughout the competition. Well done Mrs Witts, Matt and David on their successes.

As the weather warms up, we’re reminding all students about the importance of sun safety. Hats are now a must during outdoor play, and we appreciate families ensuring students come to school prepared with water bottles full and protective clothing.

This week, families will receive Evidence of Learning samples, showcasing the achievements of their children in different learning areas. We encourage you to take time to explore these with your child and celebrate their work.

Next week, we’ll be conducting Parent/Teacher phone calls to discuss student progress and goals. These conversations are a valuable opportunity to strengthen the partnership between home and school, and we look forward to connecting with you.

Thank you for your continued support and involvement in our school community.

Warm regards,
James Milne
Principal – Franklin Primary School

Our long-awaited excursion to Fanny Cochrane-Smith’s church finally happened! Thankyou to Sharyn Brett our Early Years Aboriginal Education Worker for organising this special moment for us. We have three descendants of Fanny Cochrane-Smith in our class that we are aware of, so coming to such a significant and special place of hers was a really wonderful way to honour her. We had Bella and Kate from SETAC who facilitated our visit to the church, threading of some gumnuts, a walk around the gardens to explore some of the bush tucker and medicine available, finished off by some dreamtime story-telling in a traditional hut. Although the weather was a little wet and windy we still enjoyed having this experience and knowledge shared with us.

Once we left the church we detoured to a small pebbly beach called Poverty Point at Lymington where we were able to fossick around in the small rocks and collect some small treasures to take home. Even the wind and rain didn’t deter us, but we did opt to return to school for our lunch rather than a picnic at the beach!

Thankyou to Mrs Witts and the 4/5 class who opted to share a bus with us and allow us to get there. Thanks again to Sharyn, Kate and Bella from SETAC, and our very own Ryan and Tom who also accompanied us.

This fortnight, Year 2/3 enjoyed the visit from the Jumping Jacks from Illawarra Primary School. We were so impressed by their display and many of us have been trying out their clever tricks at break times! 

We also loved having our Fathers, Grandfathers and other special people join us for the Father’s Day Breakfast. Thank you to everybody who came along, it was fabulous to have you in our classroom for the morning! 

During Week 7 and 8, we have been challenging ourselves to boost our sentence writing, using a range of conjunctions to make complex sentences. We have also started investigating the structure of an information report and the purpose of this text. The pictures below show us unpacking contractions and the role of the apostrophe - we did an amazing job of this! 

In maths, we opened our unit on fractions by thinking about how we could cut an apple to keep the ‘bigger half’ for ourselves (We were definitely a bit hungry!). We soon discovered this wasn’t possible because when we make fractions, the parts must be equal! We will keep exploring these ideas for the remainder of Term. 

One last thing, our dog portraits are looking absolutely amazing, and we can’t wait to share them with you! This is a photo of us adding all the details with paint! 

We’ve had a very busy and exciting week in 4/5 Witts!

Chess Tournament

On Monday, I had the privilege of taking a team to the chess tournament at Sacred Heart Primary School. Our students represented Franklin Primary with outstanding skill, sportsmanship and commitment. Their efforts were rewarded with five places in the State Tournament in Launceston this October. Congratulations to the team – we are very proud of you!

Cultural Experience

On Tuesday, we visited Fanny Cochrane Smith’s church, where we were able to engage with Aboriginal culture in our local area. A highlight was sitting in a humpy to hear a creation story. It was wonderful to watch the children sitting so quietly, listening in awe and showing deep respect.

Fossicking Adventure

Afterwards, we travelled to Poverty Point for a fossicking adventure. Although the wind was icy, the students’ enthusiasm never wavered. They searched, chatted, compared and discussed their discoveries with great curiosity – and made some amazing finds!

Hi everyone,

It’s hard to believe how quickly the last two weeks have flown by! We’ve had a jam-packed fortnight full of learning, kindness, and some pretty cool hands-on experiences.

Salvation Army Visit

We had a wonderful visit from the Salvation Army, where students learned that they do so much more than run op shops. The team shared all the behind-the-scenes work they do to support people in need, and our class got to help out by packing food hampers. It was a really meaningful experience, and it sparked some great conversations about compassion and community.

Kindness All Around

Kindness has been a big theme in our classroom lately. I’ve seen so many students stepping up to help others—not because they were asked, but because they genuinely wanted to. Whether it’s jumping in to support a classmate or quietly lending a hand, it’s been lovely to see how thoughtful and caring our 5/6 crew can be.

Maths: Units of Conversion

We’ve kicked off our new maths unit on units of conversion, and things got a little wild in the kitchen! Students had to convert some very mixed-up measurements to metric units to make a recipe for cooked playdough work. It was messy, fun, and a great way to put their maths skills to the test.

Digging into Characters in English

In English, we’ve been diving into our novel study and learning how to really understand the characters we’re reading about. To help us do that, we’ve been using two helpful tools—STEAL and DIAL—which guide us to think about what characters say, think, do, and how they interact with others. It’s been great to see students using these strategies to look beyond the surface and explore what makes each character unique. Alongside our reading, we’ve been building up our writing skills bit by bit. We’ve started with sentence structure, looked at how to avoid fragments, and explored ways to connect ideas using words like because, but, and so. We’ve also been working on expanding our sentences, writing clear topic and concluding sentences, and planning our ideas using a single paragraph outline.

This will continue to be our focus for the rest of the term, as we work towards writing thoughtful character analysis paragraphs. It’s been exciting to see the students grow in confidence and start thinking more deeply about the stories they’re reading and the characters within them.

Time with Kindy

This week, a few of our students chose to spend time with the Kindy class instead of heading out to sport. They helped build, create, and play alongside the younger kids and it was such a joy to watch. It’s moments like these that really show the heart of our class.

Did someone say, curry in a hurry?

That’s what the 5/6s created on Thursday. Using the beautiful chard from the garden the children made a delicious chard, potato and pea curry. Along with a plate of chapati to go with it. Not a scrap was left, with a room full of happy smiles and full tummies.

The 1/2s used the herbs from the garden to make a pizza sauce to go on top of the focaccia they made. Again, I am so impressed with those children who have been a little apprehensive with trying new foods but are giving things a go. Our kitchen skills are improving throughout the school, meaning we can create more complex recipes which is fun and tasty!

Brixhibition Update 

All entries are in for this year's Brixhibition, and what an amazing effort from everyone involved! A huge thank you to all students who participated, as well as the staff, families, and helpers who supported the competition.

We wrapped things up with a whole school vote, and the enthusiasm and creativity on display made it a tough competition.

Congratulations to our winners:

Overall Winner: William A (Yr 6)

Division Winners: Lawson B (Prep), Marcus R (Yr 2), Noah O (Yr 4)

Well done to everyone who took part - keep building, designing, and letting your imagination lead the way! Prizes will be presented at our next assembly.

Issy 

Craft Club

This fortnight, we got crafty with origami cups and created heartfelt Father's Day cards just in time for the big day.  A big thank you to Jack in grade 6 for sharing his origami skills and teaching us how to fold our own paper cups - what a great job he did!

We also celebrated the start of spring by making bright daffodils and daisies, using our cutting and pasting skills to add some cheerful colour to our space.

Issy and Michelle 

Thank you to everyone who supported our recent Scholastic Book Fair!!

With our commission we were able to purchase a total of $800.00 worth of

new books for our library. (Pictured above)