Dear Families

This term we are introducing students to the updated DECYP values. For the first part of term, we have been focusing on the value of Responsibility.  Students have been learning how to be ‘responsible’ learners. As I walk through classrooms, it is clear students know the importance of developing these skills. Students have demonstrated excellent organisation, listening and communication skills.  Congratulations to all students on their dedication to their studies at school.

Welcome BBQ

Thank you for attending our Welcome BBQ and open classrooms on Tuesday. It is always a great opportunity for us to informally connect and build positive relationships with staff, students and families. Our school community greatly appreciates and thanks the continued support of the Longford Fire Brigade, JBS Longford, Banjo's and JJ's Bakery.
Each term we will host a school community event and look forward to sharing these events with you in the future.

Athletics Carnival

Last Friday we held a very successful Athletics Carnival. Participation was outstanding and all students and staff really enjoyed the day. It was lovely to see families attend and join in on the day. We really appreciate the way you support our school events. Students should be commended on their sportsmanship and determination throughout the day. Thank you to Dan Ellis and Justin Nobes for coordinating the day, to the Cressy DHS students for their help and to all staff for their role in making the carnival a success.

School Priorities

This year our school priorities come under 2 focus areas: Reading and Wellbeing. Under the Reading focus we are building a positive reading culture and differentiation. You would have noticed that your child/ren have come home with a reading log. We encourage you to get involved in a family around sharing a love of books together. Under Wellbeing we will focus on Attendance, Safeguarding, Resilience and Respect. I will share more information around these focus areas throughout the term.

NAPLAN & PAT Early Years

Over the next few weeks students in Prep-1 will undertake the PAT Early Years assessment and students in Years 3 & 5 will sit NAPLAN. These assessments will help determine how students are progressing and what extra supports they may need with Literacy and Numeracy. If you have any questions about the assessments, please contact the school.

In partnership
Candice Burnett

This Terms value award is 'Responsilibilty'.
Congratulations to students for receiving a Certificate of Merit.

Charlotte, Callum, Olivia, Banjo, Deegan, William, Caleb, Ruby, Elliott, Heath and Elinore.

Evelyn, Jude, Phoebe, Wyatt, Dylan, Ruby, Hazel, Trystan, Lilly and Harrison.

Our School Association would like to welcome new and returning families to our school community.  
As a parent/guardian you are automatically a member of the School Association. The Association has a Committee of parents and staff that meet twice a Term. The School Association AGM is on Thursday 21st March. If you are interested in being on the School Association Committee as a parent representative, a nomination form is available from the school office.  

Our P&F are a group of parents willing to help when there are needs in our school, particularly around fundraising. We are looking forward to meeting and having parents involved in future events/fundraisers. In 2023 the Association donated $7000 to our School for various requirements eg funds for extra classroom supplies, blinds for our outdoor classroom, grade 6 students end of year book gift etc. As you can see our fundraising is an ongoing support for our School. 

During the year we have free BBQs at our Welcome Back BBQ, Dads' Night and Christmas Carols. This is organised by the P&F Group and funded by donations and the School Association. 

The upcoming government elections on Saturday the 23rd March is being held at Longford Primary and this is a great opportunity for our P&F Group to have a fundraising BBQ and raise a considerable amount. An event like this is a real boost to our fundraising and takes the pressure off us targeting school families as it is a public event. Once again, we need HELP for this to happen. Please contact the school office if you can spare some time to be on a BBQ roster for cooking or serving.  

Sharing your child’s milestones can be exciting. Many families mark these occasions by sharing their children’s pictures online. But there are some things to consider before hitting post, like who is this information being seen by?

If you’re sharing images of your kids online, consider these tips for keeping them safe while celebrating their milestones...

• Only share images of your child with people you know in-person and trust.
• Do not take or share images of other people’s children without permission.
• Make sure you are using strong privacy settings.
• Avoid posting your location or ‘checking in’.
• Periodically review your ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ and remove anyone you do not know.
• Be mindful of what your photo is telling others. Consider what's in background of photos or videos and avoid sharing images that give away your location or address. This also goes for identifying features, like images with school uniforms.

More Information and Resources

For more information and support with online safety, visit www.esafety.gov.au. They have a huge range of resources available for parents and carers, teachers and educators, as well as children and young people.

Also make sure to watch the ACCE (Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation) ’s reel on safely sharing images online.

Bee-bots

In STEM for week 2, classes extended their ability to program our school Bee-bots. These robots accept a sequence of commands, and then follow them. Students were challenged to have their Bee-bot move through a sequence of squares to tell a fairy tale, move from one country of an African map to another, and 'bring' a fruit/vegetable to an African animal.

ICT

Preps and some Gr1-2 classes have got to grips with signing in on the laptops and navigating to websites. Students enjoyed maths, reading and puzzle games on the Toy Theatre website.

Microscopes

Last year, the school acquired some digital Microscopes. Grade 5-6s have been experimenting to capture close-ups of interesting things, including skin, hair, materials, clothing, nature and some synthetic materials. In small groups, they are now working to create a 'Guess the close-up' PowerPoint slideshow in which their audience are invited to guess the material being shown in the close-up photo, before revealing a 'normal' zoomed photo of the object or material. Some of the photos are fascinating. If you have a child or sibling in Grade 5-6, you may like to ask to see their PowerPoint game once they have finished it. We are also learning about Sharing documents in Office 365 so that we can collaborate with our peers and teachers.

Challenges

In week 3, some classes gathered in small teams to complete a series of STEM challenges: Peg towers, cup stacking, shape-making with straws and pipe-cleaners, and bridge making with paddle-pop sticks and clips. A few classes also got involved in the 'paper strip ripping' challenge: Tearing an A4 scrap piece of paper into a single continuous strip as long a length as you can make it. Caleb's team from 3/4 C managed to set the record with a strip as long as 240cm. You could challenge your family to beat this length. A time limit of 4 minutes might help increase the difficulty; this is the duration each team had to complete this challenge.

A BIG thank you to the School Association and Longford Rotary who went 50/50 in purchasing the blinds for our outdoor classroom. The blinds are now in and have been put to good use during garden class! Pulling the blinds down created instant shelter from the wind last Wednesday. The class shared their zucchini parcels in relative tranquility despite difficult weather. 

During lessons the 5/6 students have been developing garden superpowers. If you don't know what flux fingers, memory matrix making or time hopping powers are, please ask a 5/6 student to find out. Last Wednesday we told stories about how our senses help trigger memories whilst smelling lavender flowers. We'll check back in 20 years time to see if we created some new multisensory memories in garden class!

Here are the recipes we have been sharing over the past two weeks. Thanks to the incredible volunteers who make this program possible. 

_N_c_Ch_m_Chay_Vegan_Vietnamese_Dipping_Sauce.docx.pdf

_N_c_Ch_m_Chay_Vegan_Vietnamese_Dipping_Sauce _docx _pdf 109.17 KB

_zucchini_parcels_with_GF_V_option.pdf

_zucchini_parcels_with_GF_V_option _pdf 159.74 KB

Basic_egg.docx.pdf

Basic_egg _docx _pdf 99.04 KB

Vietnamese_rice_paper_rolls.docx.pdf

Vietnamese_rice_paper_rolls _docx _pdf 104.18 KB

Students enjoyed sampling our garden harvest shared at the Welcome Back BBQ.

Library Book Sale
Friends of the Library, Launceston’s Annual Library Book Fair will be held on Saturday 2 March, 9:00am–1:00pm at St Ailbe’s Hall, 46 Margaret Street, Launceston. This is Launceston’s best book sale with a wide range of good quality donated secondhand books – crime, thrillers, science fiction, romance, children’s, cooking, health, travel, crafts, gardening, sports, war, DVDs, collectables and Tasmaniana – all at rock bottom prices. 
The children’s books are particularly good this year!

Longford Newsagency Easter Colouring Competition
The colouring in entries are available from the school office and need be submitted to the Longford Newsagency by 25th March.

Leadership Staff

Support Staff