Dear Families

We are now halfway through the term and winter is definitely settling in. Brisk mornings and sunny days are my favourites, and it is wonderful to see many of our students wearing their school beanies with pride. If you would like to purchase one, we have them for sale at the office for $16. We continue to ask for your support in ensuring all children are wearing our school uniform and ask that football shorts and hoodies are not worn at school.

Celebrations

We have much to celebrate this newsletter starting with our Readers’ Cup success. The Readers’ Cup is a competition that involves teams of grade 5/6 students reading five books over a period of time, then completing a quiz, a creative response to one of the books and an extra challenge. This year there were 18 schools participating and our Longford team of Charlotte, Rhylee, Indiana, Toby and Dex won! Thanks to Ms Kat Dent who supported the team throughout the competition.

Last week we also had a group of grade 5/6 students participate in the Illuminate Challenge, which was a week-long program to inspire local young people with confidence, creativity, and their potential to be the Tasmanian business leaders of the future. The team of Ruby-Jaye, Grace, River, Ella, Bibi and Maya won the award for ‘Best Pitch’. Thanks to Mrs Nicki Gleeson for her work supporting the students last week.

Upcoming Events

Thursday this week our Cross Country team will head to Deloraine for the Northern Midlands Cross Country. We wish them all the best for their races. Mr McCullagh and Ms Dent will support the team on the day.

Thursday June 19 we hope to welcome many of you to attend our annual Winter Solstice celebration. This event will provide an opportunity for you to be with your child to watch and learn about the stars! There will be a free sausage sizzle, as well as warm soup prepared by our 5/6 students on sale for $1 and soft drinks for $2 to purchase. We would love to see you all there.

Teachers are presently completing mid-year reports for sharing at parent/teacher learning conversations later this term. These reports will provide evidence of student growth, as well as future learning goals. Over the next few weeks you will receive more information about the reports. See link, further in newsletter, on how to book a time to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss their learning progress.

Mrs Burnett is continuing her Hardie Fellowship in America and is currently completing studies at Harvard University.

Values

We continue to focus on Respect in our classrooms and the playground. We strive to have all our students feel a sense of connection, where they develop and maintain positive relationships and a sense of belonging at our school.

Jen Copeland
Acting Principal

Congratulations to students for receiving a
Respect Certificate of Merit

Addison, Toby, Bill, James, Piper, Layla, Alexis and Ruby

On Thursday the 29th of May, the Longford Primary School Readers’ Cup Team (Charlotte, Toby, Indi, Rhylee and Dex) competed at the Inter School Final at Hagley Primary School.

We started with Extra Challenge based on the Truck Cat where we designed a carrier for the cat in the book called Tinka. After that we did the quiz with 55 extremely difficult questions that was based on the five books Silly Billy by Anthony Browne, Parvana by Deborah Ellis, Scar Town by Tristan Bancks, The Sugarcane Kids and the Red Bottomed Boat by Charlie Archbold and Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl. Then we performed our Creative Challenge which was based on the book Silly Billy and was a mime to music. 

Out of the top eighteen teams, we won! Our scores were 50.5 points for the quiz out of 55, 9.5 points out of ten for the Extra Challenge and 14.5 points out of 18 for the Creative Challenge. Our total was 74.5 points overall!

Sadly our 5th member of our team, Dex, couldn’t be with us on the night, but was an important part of our team.

It was exciting for our team members to win, and this is the first time Longford had ever won! Also a big thank you to our supervising teacher Mrs Dent and also to Alison for her support.

Last week grade 5/6 students went to an event called Illuminate. This is an education program delivered all across Australia. We were joined by Cressy, Perth, Bracknell, Campbell Town and Evandale schools for the whole week.

In groups we had to design a tourist attraction that encouraged people stay in the Northern Midlands area for at least one night. They had to think about finance, how much they will charge customers and where they will do their idea.

Groups were asked to write and perform a presentation in front of the judges, this is called a presentation pitch. Congratulations to Bibi, Maya, Ruby-Jaye, Grace, River and Ella for winning the best pitch award, and to all of our illuminate groups, they did a fantastic job.

Longford Primary groups ideas were: Wayata Wildlife Lodge, Northern Midlands Mountain Bike Track, Mill Dam Camping and Animal Adventures. Well done teams!!

Written by Chloe Armstrong and Phoebe Stroja

Science

Grade 3-4s have been learning about the stages of the Water Cycle and its importance. This experiment showed how water evaporates, rises as a gas, returns to liquid when reaching the cooler skies, which then falls as precipitation.

3D Printing

5-6s are enjoying their latest 3D print creations.

Hydro Tasmania Visit

For the past 2 weeks, Hydro Tasmania has been visiting to provide "Generation Hydro" lessons on science topics linked to forces, renewable energy and hydro power.

Grade K-2s engaged in ‘Fantastic Forces’, hands-on stations exploring different push and pull forces, and learning how water and wind push turbines.

Grade 3-4s enjoyed 'Forces and Magnetism', visual and hands-on activities, learning about forces and how they move water. Students were also introduced to the power of magnetism.

Grade 5-6s were invited to participate in an exciting engineering project, building a ball run using cardboard and plastic tool kits. Students were tasked with the challenge of controlling the speed of the ball in their design.

Learning conversations (Grades Prep-6) will occur on Tuesday 17th June 3:00-4:30pm, Tuesday 24th June 3:00-7:00pm and Thursday 26th June 3:00-4:30pm. We encourage students to attend 3-way conversations with their parent/guardian and teacher. Members of the leadership team and specialist teachers are also available for conversations via appointment during this time. All conversations will be held in the General Purpose Room.

Conversations can be booked via this website: https://longfordps.schoolzineplus.com/view-session/9
This site will be accessible from 4th-16th June. If you require any support in making an appointment, please contact the school office.

In preparation for these conversations, we ask families to consider speaking with their child about learning goals to help guide the conversation.

Leadership Staff

Support Staff