Dear Parents and Carers,

It is hard to believe that Term I is coming to an end. It has been a busy but rewarding term with many highlights and achievements to celebrate. We continue to have strong community investment from many partners to ensure our young people engage with role models who share their journey and life stories. We were fortunate to here from Scott Roth, our Jack Jumpers coach share his story and life’s learning with our year 8, 9 and 10 students. He shared his story of resilience, the need to work hard and to focus on achieving your goals. He discussed with students the importance and value of always believing in yourself, having self-respect and pride in where they come from, especially for their family and community connections. Scott spoke about gratitude, vulnerability, and empathy. That his success in basketball comes from understanding where others need support and building them up to be the best they can, from this we get gratitude from being a good human and surround ourselves with successful people.

We have seen this great community spirit over the past two days at our athletics carnival. Student participated and competed with and against each other, encouraging each other to be the best they can. School and house pride was on show with many wearing the colour of Norfolk and Paterson. Thank you to our many parents who volunteered their time and expertise to run events and to those who joined us showing support for all children. It was a highlight seeing all grades contributing to a wonderful carnival and event. Our Year 11 and 12 student supported with timing and recording and entered the staff verses student relay.

Next week students will bring home their progress report. This report provides valuable insight as to how your childs school year has started. The focus of the communication is to update you on your child or young person’s learning progress and their application to learning and wellbeing. Communicating your child or young person’s learning progress with their family is a key element in ensuring that Port Dalrymple School meets its commitment to inspire and support all learners to succeed as connected, resilient, creative, and curious thinkers. We are committed to regular sharing of feedback on evidence of learning with learners and families. As a positive partnership between families and schools promotes student learning and wellbeing. We encourage you to have regular contact with school.

We wish all families a safe and positive break and look forward to partnering in supporting our children and young people into term II and beyond.

In Term II we are introducing Hands on Learning to Port Dalrymple School. Hands on Learning is a practical school program that builds wellbeing, engagement, and attendance by creating opportunities for students to discover their talents and experience success through significant and authentic hands-on projects. Aligned with our school culture, the four fundamental elements of Hands on Learning build the wellbeing platform for young people to grow in confidence, engage and achieve at school. Students engage with their learning by feeling safe and connected, having a sense of belonging, feeling that what they are doing at school is purposeful, and believing they are developing meaningful skills to thrive at school, within their community, and into employment.

What it is Hands on Learning (HoL) is a practical program that builds personal and social skills, confidence and capacity. Students thrive when learning by doing – helping build connection, engagement, wellbeing, confidence and achievement.

How it works Ten students spend one day every week outside the classroom working collaboratively with two artisan-teachers employed by the school on authentic meaningful projects around the school and community. Evidence informed methodology Partner schools benefit from 23 years of experience and learnings.

Student in Years 4-8 can apply for a place in one of our provisions, Build or Café. These will run on a Monday or Wednesday for the remainder of the year. Already we have seen many students return their forms and show an interest. HoL will run from the area near the ¾ block, garden, kitchen and shed. In setting up Hands on Learning we already have community contributions. Liberty-Bell Bay, 3M Health and Safety, AMARE safety supplied personal protective equipment to ensure we have what we need to start Hands on Learning.

 

The Department’s Every school day matters campaign highlights the importance of regular school attendance. Going to school every day gives children every chance to learn and grow, and connect with their mates and teachers. This campaign encourages parents and carers that school is the best place for their children to be, as it will lead to bright futures.

We have set ourselves a goal to have our whole school attendance rate remain above 85%. To do this we need your support and giving your young people the message that EVERY DAY MATTERS.

Make sure your child goes to school, every day going to school every day gives your child every chance to learn and grow, and connect with their mates and teachers. It’s where bright futures start and where they’ll benefit the most. Get them excited for school If you show a positive attitude and excitement towards school, your child will pick up on that. The most common thing we hear from students of all ages, is that school is where they can:

» spend time with their friends and teachers

» create new and fun experiences

» find their interests

» learn new things

» open up their options – for whatever future they want (whether that’s their dream job or to travel around the world).

We encourage you to have conversations with your child about the positive experience of school and to seek support if needed.

School Uniform

With the colder weather approaching we would like to remind parents of our uniform policy and options. Trackpants, Jumpers, Jackets and Beanies are available at the office. Hoodies are not permitted on site for safety and visibility reasons.

Please support us by reminding your child of this.

Every adult influences a child’s idea of what is right and wrong – whether we’re parents, family members, teachers, coaches, employers, community leaders or other role models. Young people pick up on simple things like our gestures, reactions and the words we choose. They might take our words at face value and sometimes might interpret them in ways we didn’t intend or see it as an excuse or permission to behave in a certain way. But the good news is we can all come together and make a positive change. Small moments and small steps will move us closer to a culture and community that is supportive and successful.  We can all play a role in encouraging respectful attitudes in the next generation. At Port Dalrymple School an important aspect of the learning is supporting our young people to develop all the skills to be successful in life. It is imperative that all people are respectful of others, accepting of differences and show kindness and gratitude. To ensure all students feel safe and supported, we are committed to creating a strong respectful, positive school climate with high expectations.  We aim to help break the cycle of inappropriate behaviour by encouraging adults to reflect on their attitudes and have conversations about respect with young people. Our role is to explicitly teach the appropriate social skills for todays society.

We ask parents and family members of children and young people to give consistent messages about respectful relationships, language and behaviour and to work in partnership with teachers, coaches, community leaders and employers of young people.

Since young people’s attitudes and behaviours are shaped by those around them, it’s important to expose them to positive influences where they live, work, learn and socialise. As adults, we need to recognise and reconcile our role as important influencers of the younger generation.

 

We had our Athletics Carnival, on the 29^th and 30^th of March. Day 1 of the Carnival was postponed from the 28^th to the 29^th of March, due to weather conditions.

The first day of the carnival was a very warm and sunny day, while the second day was cool and cloudy. Students maintained their excitement throughout both days and attempted all events with the Port Dalrymple spirit on full display.

The Athletics Carnival is a great day where students from 3-10 spend two whole days participating in sporting events. Classes in Year 3 to 10 had events 9:10am – 2:50pm on both days and K-2 classes had their own mini carnival on day 2 that runs from 9:10-10:25am. They participated in a range of events including novelty events such as Egg and Spoon race, Tug of War, Vortex, Sack Races, and field events including 70m sprint and relay races.

Participation was great from all grades with a lot of excited and energetic students attending and showing the values of Courage, Aspiration, Growth and Respect. We had members of our school community including parents and guardians help across the two days. We even had a former student (Rory Banks) and our 11/12 students helping with events!

All students are split into two teams and win points for their team by participating in and winning events, many students came to school in their team colours which are white for Paterson and blue for Norfolk. We saw a sea of blue and white glitter, tutus, and face paint! Older students also helped support the younger grades to participate. It isn’t aways about winning but having a go and trying your best.

By the end of the carnival Norfolk had 73,690 points and Paterson had 63,120 points, meaning Norfolk won the carnival by 10,570 points. Year 7 Norfolk girls collected the most points out of all groups participating! Congratulations and thanks to everyone who supported our Athletics Carnival and helped make it a fantastic event.  Thank you to teachers and parents who supported different class groups, recorded times, facilitated events, managed equipment and cheered for their team. A huge thank you to our HPE team led by the Carnival Director Adam Sanders at Port Dalrymple who dedicate their time to planning our carnival and ensure that it is a fun and inclusive day for all students.

1981 Yr.7 girls Javelin record broken:

Keeley Trudgeon broke the record on day two (30^th of March), she broke the record by 4.43m, the previous record was established in 1981 and was held by L. Westergreen.

*2023 saw the introduction of new javelin weights aligned to NHSSA and State Athletics. All old PDS javelin records that are affected by different weights will be archived.

written by Kaden Sipthorp.

Construction Site Tour

Thursday 23^rd March, Year 10 and 11 students had the opportunity to visit some construction sites as a part of the ‘Get into Construction’ skill set. The site tours were conducted at a new subdivision in Legana, Riverbend Park in Launceston, and Newnham Drive. Students were given an overview on what is required for new building developments such as retaining walls, stormwater pipework, access tracks and building compliance.

Thanks to Civil Contractors Federation Tasmania for organising the site tour, Link Resources-RTO and Keystone Tasmania for the funding of the ‘Get into Construction’ skill set.

What an exciting and busy start to the year we have had! Our Kinders have settled in beautifully to school routines and are enjoying the new soft fall in the playground and brand new furniture that was purchased over the holidays. They have been learning our school routines and looking at families. Our Prep to Year 2 students have been focussing on retells and using fairy tales to practice their written and oral skills. The 3/4s have been consolidating their knowledge of number and using a variety of addition strategies to solve problems. The Swimming and Water Safety Program was a huge success and it was fantastic to see so many students gaining confidence in the water and improving their swimming skills. Read and Play has been in full swing and it has been wonderful to see some new faces. Read and Play runs Friday afternoons in the Kinder space. If you have a young person who isn’t at school yet and you would like some more information, please contact the office or Miss Knowles.