Dear Families, Students and Friends,

At the end of 2021, we farewell many fantastic staff.  I wish to thank each departing staff member for their commitment to the Longford Primary School community over past months and years.  I would like to begin by acknowledging the tremendous work of Mrs Melissa Biffin who will be moving to Perth Primary School in 2022.  Mrs Biffin has worked at Longford Primary School for 17 years.  She is an incredible operator and will be dearly missed by all who have learnt from, or worked alongside her.  Mel has incredible energy, drive and the tenacity to ensure no student is left behind. I wish Mel all the very best as she embarks on the next stage of her leadership journey at Perth Primary School.

I also thank and farewell: Mr Alex Payne, Ms Roxy Walls and Miss Bek Biggs – I am so proud to have worked alongside such an eager team of early career teachers.  I sincerely wish Alex, Roxy and Bek a very successful educational career.  Mr Payne has accepted a position at the Launceston Preparatory School, Miss Biggs a position at Scottsdale Primary School and Ms Walls will take leave to welcome a new baby to her family in the new year.

Mrs Cathy Parker will finish up with the DoE, following her two years of leave.  I wish Cathy and her family much love and happiness.  Mrs Katherine Moore has now retired.  We continue to think of Katherine and her family as she battles with the complexities of motor neurone disease.

Mrs Jane Archer will take leave in 2022 as she prepares to welcome her second child early in the new year.  

I thank Mrs Di Guilbert and Ms Patricia Brooke for supporting us in the second half of the year with our PE and Arts programs. 

Mrs Jo Brady will continue her leave into Term 1 of 2022.

I wish to thank and acknowledge the tremendous service provided by Mrs Jeanette Reader and Mrs Courtney Baker as they formally finish their work with the Department, come end of year.  It would be difficult to count the lives that have been touched by both of these strong and dedicated Teacher Assistants over many years of service to our school. 

Thank you to Mrs Jess Woods who has provided additional TA support for LPS in 2021.

Congratulations to Miss Jacinta Doran on her recent appointment as Assistant Principal at Perth Primary School.  Jacinta will be dearly missed from LPS and we wish her all the very best for a successful leadership journey in her new school.

A further thank you to the members of our support team who will be leaving us at the end of the year.  Paige, Steven and Chanelle – we wish you all the best with new babies, new schools, and new learnings!

I warmly welcome, Mrs Alison Taylor, Mrs Ruth Erwin and Mr Dan Ellis to our permanent teaching team from 2022.  I am also excited to offer a contract to Miss Renee Harvey, Miss Eerin Hardman, Miss Laura Wright and Miss Sarah Bovill.  We look forward to welcoming you all to our LPS team for 2022.

I extend a warm welcome to our support team for 2022: Alison Gardner (Speech and Language Pathologist), Alexandra Robinson (Social Worker) and Sarah Thompson (EAL Support Teacher).  Welcome back Alison Maloney as our School Psychologist in 2022.  We are pleased to have Bec Cameron remain as our School Chaplain in 2022.

2022 Classes

A sincere thank you to all families for your support and consideration as we have worked through the process of class placements for 2022.  Thank you for working with us to best support your child as they prepare for their transition into the new school year.  Please take some time to watch our staff videos (later in the newsletter) as an early introduction to our 2022 class teachers.

Introducing our Teaching and Leadership Teams for 2022

Our Teaching Team:
Mrs Jen Hayes, Mrs Amelia Crawford, Mrs Ruth Erwin, Mrs Rebecca Viney, Miss Laura Wright, Mrs Eerin Hardman, Mrs Shanley Freeman, Miss Sarah Bovill, Mrs Renee Oates (nee Harvey), Miss Ellie Kearns, Mr Chris Tantari and Mrs Deb Spangaro.

Our Specialist Team:
Mrs Sandra Seen, Mr Dan Ellis and Mrs Rachael Richardson.

Our Leadership Team:
Principal:  Mrs Carolyn Sutton
Early Years AST: Mrs Alison Taylor
Middle Primary AST: Mrs Rhiannon Morrison
Upper Primary AST: Mrs Jen Copeland
School Business Manager: Mr John Collighan

Grade 6 Events

Our Grade 6 students have enjoyed two special events in celebration of their finish to Primary School.  Congratulations to our staff, members of the School Association and our Grade 6 parent body for working tirelessly to ensure our Grade 6 students had such memorable experiences over the past weeks.  Thank you to Cathy Cloudsdale for working with our leaving students to plant their ‘leavers sunflowers’.  These will bloom in 2022 to remind us of our 2021 school leavers.  These seeds were harvested earlier in the year form the sunflowers that were planted by the 2020 group.  This cycle continues each year.

Earlier this week we celebrated a fantastic leavers dinner with our Grade 6 students.  The event was just perfect!  Sincere thanks to the Grade 6 parents for helping to create such a memorable and special occasion for our Grade 6 leavers.  Thanks also to the staff that worked to make the night so special, including Mrs Copeland, Mrs Spangaro, Mr Tantari and Mr Collighan.

To our Grade 6 Students
'Remember to be aspirational with your dream and work hard!'

Celebration Assemblies

Congratulations to all who have contributed to our recent celebration assemblies.  To the teams of people that worked together to make these events so successful – I am so appreciative.  Congratulations to all award recipients for a year of fantastic learning and growth across all curriculum areas.  To our Care for People Award recipients – thank you for being outstanding citizens of our learning community.

Thank you to the very generous sponsors for their ongoing support of our student at Longford Primary School.

Fun Day

We had a fantastic fun day on Friday.  Every student participated and engaged in the incredible activities that were running on the day.  Thank you to all staff for your organisation and running of such an incredible evert.  We hope you enjoy the photos of our Fun Day!

School Association

Thank you to our Chair, Leith McEldowney and all members of the School Association for your support across the school year and for your willingness to warmly welcome new faces to our beautiful school community.  I look forward to continuing to work alongside you all into the new year.  Thank you to members, past, present and retiring.    

In addition, I would like to thank our fundraising committee for your hours of voluntary service to raise funds for our school. To our Chaplaincy subcommittee members for your coordination of the MATES program and our School Breakfast Club.  Your contributions are sincerely appreciated and valued.  Please consider joining our community in a volunteer capacity in 2022. 

Outdoor Classroom

Thank you to all who contributed to our new outdoor classroom table.  Thank you to Aiden for constructing our absolutely magnificent table, Timber World for donating the incredible table top, Tom Cloudsdale for sourcing the timber and Ian from Esk Ridge for the frame. Once again thank you Longford Rotary Club for their valuable  support of funds. We look forward to our years ahead of communal gatherings around our garden table and endless opportunities to work together in our beautiful garden space.

Launching into Learning – 2022

Our LiL brochure will be published on our school and LiL Facebook pages, early Term 1.  Our LiL days will be Monday and Tuesday.  Details of programs will be shared in the new year. 

Save the Date 2022

The school office is open on Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd February 9:00am-12:30pm for book collection and uniform purchases.

Last Day of Term

The final day for students this year is tomorrow, Thursday the 16th of December. School concludes at 2:50pm. If your child is catching the bus (departure for bus students in 2:10pm), please contact the office so we can have students ready for an early departure.  Students in Prep – 6 return to school on Wednesday the 9th of February, 2022.  Keep a look out for any Facebook updates regarding the new year that will come out early February.

Finally, I am proud to have led an incredible team of teaching and non-teaching staff this year who have lived our values every day.  I have no doubt that every individual in our school has every student at the heart of all decision making.  For their kindness, courage, willingness to learn, grow, adapt, and continually go above and beyond – I am beyond grateful.  Our children are exceeding goals because of the dedication of the team of people they have in their corner.

To our families - thank you for your commitment to our school.  I am sure I speak on behalf of all staff when I say, it is an absolute pleasure being a part of your child’s education and primary school journey.

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a safe, healthy and happy 2022!

Carolyn Sutton
Principal

Grade 6 Award Recipients 2021

Thank you to the following Members of Parliament and
Local Government, community organisations and patrons
for their continued support and sponsorship of our
Grade 6 and Class Awards.

 Anglican Christ Church
Brian Mitchell MP
Guy Barnett MP
Jeff Carins
Jen Butler MP
Jock Bryan
John Tucker MP
Link Technologies Tasmania
Lions Club of Perth
Longford Over 55s Friendship Group
Longford Primary School Association
Masonic Lodge Longford
Minister for Education - Hon Sarah Courtney MP
Mark Shelton MP
Northern Midlands Council
Northern Midlands Councillor - Dick Adams
Northern Midlands Councillor - Janet Lambert
Northern Midlands Councillor - Mayor Mary Knowles
Northern Midlands RSL Sub Branch
Probus Mens Club of Longford
PSST/NMPSSA
Rebecca White MP
Roberts Real Estate
Rotary Club of Longford
Senator Claire Chandler
Tania Rattray MLC

THANK YOU ROTARY CLUB OF LONGFORD

All Kindergarten students were fortunate to have a visit from members of Longford Rotary last week. Each student was presented with a quality book to take home and spent time enjoying reading with the Rotarians.

Kinder A - Mrs Amelia Crawford

Kinder B - Mrs Jen Hayes

Prep/1A - Mrs Bec Viney / Mrs Ruth Erwin

Prep/1B - Miss Laura Wright

Prep/1C - Mrs Eerin Hardman

2/3A - Mrs Shanley Freeman

2/3B - Miss Sarah Bovill

2/3C - Miss Renee Harvey

4A - Miss Ellie Kearns

4/5A - Mr Chris Tantari

5/6A - Mrs Deb Spangaro

PE - Mr Dan Ellis

Kinder Support - Mrs Rachael Richardson

• Play some board games with friends and family members—Snakes and Ladders, Uno and Yahtzee are great ones for learning about numbers, but any turn taking games are fun.
• Play some card games such as Snap, Fish and Old Maid. For older children games like Solitaire or 500 are good to learn. Instructions can be googled.
• Watch a movie together and talk about your favourite parts of the movie and what happened during the movie. You might find a book that is the same as the movie that you can read and compare the two.
• Do some cooking together - help to write a shopping list, prepare items needed, measure the ingredients and follow the recipe.
• Read a book together and draw and discuss your favourite part of the story.
• Make some playdough - use it for making all sorts of interesting things.  A great recipe is on the container of cream of tartar - found in the supermarket. 
• Go on a hunt in the garden and collect some things you could use to print into the playdough - eg leaves, flowers, rocks.
• Go for a walk or to the park and do a treasure hunt - see who can be the first to find a list of pre-organised things such as a feather, a red flower, a seagull, etc.
• Make a movie on an phone or laptop - write out the script and choose the actors. Find the props needed, learn lines.  Find a person to film and watch it back together later.
• Do a large puzzle together - taking note of the shapes and picture parts of the puzzle that fit together.
• Write a letter to a friend or family member you have not seen over the holidays. Include a drawing or something you have made to make it special.  

Bookings are now open for children aged 5 to 11 to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Special vaccine clinics will run exclusively for children aged 5 to 11 across Tasmania from 10 January 2022.|
Clinics will be held at community locations across the state to give every primary school aged child the opportunity to get at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine before they return to school in February.
Vaccinations are not mandatory to attend school, but we would encourage parents to get their children vaccinated to protect their children, their families, and our school community.
Last week a smaller paediatric dose of the Pfizer vaccine was approved as safe and effective for children aged 5 to 11 by Australia’s top medical experts.
Children will get two doses, eight weeks apart – but they will only be available in special children’s clinics and GPs.
Bookings are essential for children’s clinics and children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

To find out more, including how to book, visit the Tasmanian Government’s coronavirus website

• CONTACT: Public Health Hotline - 1800 671 738.
  

2021

2022

Leadership Staff

Support Staff