Dear Franklin Families,

The return to learning at school has certainly been calm with students settling quickly and enjoying catching up with classmates and friends. It has been a pleasure to see many happy faces around the school once again.

Thank you to all parents and carers for supporting the ‘Stop Drop and Go’ organisation in place for student arrivals and pickups from school at the end of the day.  We appreciate that this may have caused some anxiety on the first day but it is clear that everyone understands the need for physical distancing measures to be in place at the moment. Hopefully in the coming weeks some restrictions will be lifted. However, until this happens we will continue to follow the physical distancing and hygiene requirements in line with advice from the Department of Education.

This term whole school meetings have also been adapted to meet the current requirements and last Monday we held our first Microsoft Teams virtual whole school meeting. Led by our Year 5/6 students and Mrs Leaman, each class contributed an item using the video conferencing system and then viewed a reading of the picture book I’m not Just a Scribble. by Diane Alber. Student art created as a result of this shared experience is included in this newsletter. We were encouraged by the success of this virtual collaboration and plan to continue using it for Term 2.        

Progress with the construction of our new classrooms has moved quickly and is ahead of schedule. Students and teachers of the Year 4/5 and Year 5/6 classes are excited about the possibility of being able to move in Term 3. In the meantime we have had to make adjustments to several of our specialist class programs with both music and library continuing in individual classrooms. Both Mrs Howard and Mrs Stals are to be congratulated for being prepared to adapt their individual programs so that students can continue to be engaged. 

Have a great week.                                                                                                              

Linda Heerey

Dear Parents and Carers

Here are Franklin Primary School we as staff have been having conversations about how we as Teachers can embed Aboriginal culture into our school. My name is Cynthia Howard and I recently started working at Franklin Primary School. I am lucky enough to be the Music Teacher here at Franklin Primary and as I am getting to know everyone we have already engaged in many fun activities.

I also teach at Huonville and Illawarra Primary Schools and in both schools we have engaged in what Country means in Tasmania or the Aboriginal name ‘lutrawita’. We have written songs, and films and I would like to develop this idea at Franklin Primary School also.

Last year at the Derwent Entertainment Centre Southern Primary School Choirs sang the ‘Welcome To Country Song’ in palawi kani, that is in Tasmanian Aboriginal Language and as a custodian of the song which was passed down to me by Dewayne Everettsmith, we would like to teach this song to our Aboriginal Students and then pass the song onto the whole school community.

We are hoping to use this song at Assemblies as a regular part of what we do here at Franklin Primary School. Our Aboriginal students will take a leadership role to passing this song onto all students at Franklin Primary School. We would like to start learning this song within the next few weeks in lead up to Naidoc Week 5^th – 12^th of July. Naidoc week is during our School Holidays, however we will plan around this.

Please note that no student has to participate in learning this song if they don’t want to.

We would really like your support in encouraging your child to be part of this exciting initiative.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact myself or the office.

Yours in Music

Cynthia Howard - Music Teacher

Franklin Primary School

I acknowledge and pay respect to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Community as the traditional owners of lutrawita/trowunna (Tasmania).

It has been a lovely settled start for the Kinder children returning to school. They have loved spending time together and reconnecting with their friends and teachers. Whilst home learning the children started to explore birds and went on many bird watching adventures with their families. They painted, drew and made birds. They showed a particular interest in owls. So, we decided to look at them a little closer. We had a class discussion about what they already knew about owls and then I recorded some of their wonderings. We are in the middle of making clay owls which we will use to enhance our story telling skills in the coming weeks.

Well done Kinders and Families on such a positive return to school.

Our first week with everyone back was busy and exciting. We spent time connecting with our friends again, talking and playing. We explored how we felt about coming back to school, and discovered it was possible to feel lots of emotions at once, including excitement, nervousness, sadness, happiness and everything in between. We have been able to connect this to our previous learning about the Zones of Regulation and are checking in each day with which zone we are in.

On Wednesday we paired up and went into the playground to take a photo of something we found interesting. These photos turned out really well and will be a focal point for us to begin our Inquiry at school this term. Here are some of the pictures we took. Is there anything you find interesting or makes you wonder?

Mr. Holmstrom's year 5/6 class have created some beautiful artworks. They were created to celebrate Reconciliation Week and Sorry Day.

Last week our year 6 students were very excited  to receive their leavers hoodies. 

A reminder that lunch orders are back on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. You can order though the QKR app. 

ARE YOU ELIGIBLE FOR FREE TRAVEL?

Eligible students can receive free travel to and from school with Tasmanian bus services. To see if you are eligible, apply for a student bus pass for free travel, or renew your expired free travel entitlement, visit https://www.transport.tas.gov.au/passenger/passengers/student_travel

Apply before 6 January 2020 and, if approved, you will receive your student bus pass for free travel before the start of school.

If you already have a student bus pass for free travel and you’re still eligible for free travel in 2020, you will be able to access your free travel entitlement with your existing card.

TELL ME MORE!

For more information on student fares and free travel, visit https://www.transport.tas.gov.au/passenger/passengers/student_travel