Dear Families

Student Leaders

Last week our student leadership group attended the GRIP Leadership Conference. Here, they learnt about leadership skills and attributes and discussed ways they could make a positive difference to their school community. The students were outstanding ambassadors for our school and have already put some of their learnings into place for future school projects.

Reading

As mentioned previously, one of our school priorities is reading.  Last week students in Years 1-4 began across class differentiated reading groups.  These groups support students with their individual reading goals and helps them continue to develop their reading skills.  Teachers have utilised multiple data sets to develop the reading goals and activities for students. Another strategy we are implementing school wide is our home reading challenge. It has been encouraging to see so many students already reach the 20-night milestone. To celebrate the milestone, students were able to choose a reading buddy toy to take home. We hope you can continue to support our reading at home program throughout the year.

NAPLAN

This week students in Years 3 and 5 will undertake NAPLAN assessments in Literacy and Numeracy. These assessments provide valuable information for our school, in how we can best support students with their Literacy and Numeracy learning. We encourage all students to have a go and do their best, so that the data we receive is most accurate. If you have any questions about NAPLAN, please contact the school.

In partnership
Candice Burnett

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

Jasper, Henry, Milla, Summer, Frankie, Mia, Bronty, Lacey B, Ruby, Lockie, Ella,
Piper W and Lachlan

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.  

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.  Profits from this BBQ are going towards our Kindergarten playground upgrade.

On Friday a group of students represented Longford Primary school in the Northern Midlands Primary Athletics Carnival. Mr Ellis reported that students really stepped up on the day, with many students volunteering to participate in extra events at the last minute. Students displayed grit, resilience and excellent sportsmanship. Thank you to our parent volunteers, Mr Ellis and Mrs Copeland for assisting the students on the day.

The Student Leadership Team would like to let you know that this Friday, 15th March we will be having a Free Dress Day. If you would like to wear free dress, then please bring an Easter Chocolate – whether it be an egg or a rabbit or something similar.

These chocolates will then be gathered together ready for an Easter raffle. Tickets will be $1 and at our final assembly before Easter we will draw the winners from different year levels. Raffle tickets will be sent home next week. If you do not wish to purchase/sell your tickets please return them to the school office.

Please talk to one of our Student Leadership Team if you have any questions.

We look forward to seeing you in Free Dress with your chocolate on Friday.  

Last year, we borrowed some 'MakeyMakey' kits from Norwood Primary School. We now have our very own kits to use. The grade 1-2 classes have worked in small teams to create buttons from metal objects, fruit and play-doh to play an online piano. They also created a game controller with their MakeyMakey kit to play a simple soccer game.

This week, 34A and 34B extended their knowledge of Google Earth. Students found interesting satellite pictures, found their house or school and saw what it looked like from above. Some students figured out the 'Street view' feature and were able to explore the streets of Longford and beyond. One of the most popular activities was to find the houses of people they knew or their own house, or a house they used to live in. We recognised that some of the 'Street view' photos were out of date or sometimes updated. Some interesting finds were an aeroplane 'graveyard' full of retired planes, and the world's largest swimming pool, which is located in Chile.

Our School has switched over to a new messaging platform for communicating with you to manage absences i.e. you will receive a SMS or email alert if your child is absent from school requesting a response. It will also allow us to send a communication message to all parent/guardians.

The new platform, called EdSmart is an Australian platform which is designed to improve communication in school communities by allowing electronic messaging i.e. SMS and emails. The platform will, over time, be rolled out across all Tasmanian Government Schools and new features will be added. 

Note, the text message sender will be a shortened version of our school’s name - Please keep an eye out for it!

Further information is available on the Department’s website
Communicating with your child's school - Department for Education, Children and Young People (decyp.tas.gov.au)

Leadership Staff

Support Staff