Welcome to Term 3. It has been pleasing to see how students have settled into the term and the learning occurring across the school community from our early year’s programs to our Year 12 Trade Training Centre.  

Our commitment and focus this term is to continue the breath of work in ensuring all students have access to learning, can participate in a safe, supportive environment and continue to engage in learning provisions that are personalised and enjoyable. At the end of Term 2 students from grades 3-12 gave feedback about how they feel about school, shared their reasons as to why they feel successful and the aspects of our school community that impact on their learning. From a school communities’ perspective this gives us an important student voice into the improvements and focuses of our work this term. This week we will unpack the below data with students to gain a greater insight into attendance, school belonging and engagement. After meeting with students we will share back to parents our findings.

The data below shows:

• 87% of our students feel a high to medium sense of belonging to Port Dalrymple
• 78% of our student’s sense medium to high level of being treated with respect by staff and students
• 40% of our students feel students do not speak nicely with each other.

In the coming weeks our 5/6 Students will start their winter sports roster, competing against schools in the Tamar Valley. This opportunity allows our young people to build on teamwork skills, time management, positive play and connect with friends from other schools. Grade 5/6’s and Grade 9 classes will attend Launceston College Production – “Bring it on” at the Princess Theatre next week and invited 9-12 students will attend Newstead College Production- “Cinderella”.

Our Kinder class were very excited to have a visit from the George Town Police and Annabel Shegog and enjoyed learning about community safety and connections. Science week will see classes visit the George Town Library for the Young Science Program and our 9/10 Science Club under the guidance of Miss Jonson will provide many exciting science opportunities throughout the week. Grade ¾ are exploring the history of George Town and will be emersed in leaning at the Bass and Flinders Centre and enjoy lunch in the park.

We are grateful to our teachers and the learning they provide that insures increased outcomes, community connection and positive engagement.

Our Flexible Provisions continue to provide positive purpose and opportunities with a strong focus on building relationships, a commitment to learning and strengths based. We have a number of extension provisions in English, Maths and Science for our 7-10 students to increase their academic outcomes and ensure they have the skills and knowledge to pursue future educational pathways.

We have been disappointed our students are being impacted by people being onsite outside of school hours and during the night removing important tools and resources that ensure they have what they need to learn. In partnership with Police a number of trespass letters have been issued in order to protect our resources and to ensure that all our children have the quality resources they deserve. We thank community members who help monitor our site.

Crossing the Line

Did you know that principals, teachers and school staff are more likely to experience offensive behaviour at work than the general population?

Encouraging respectful behaviours in school settings is an action Port Dalrymple School takes very seriously. Our staff are very supportive and proactive in partnering with parents to support every child to be successful. Can we remind parents that open conversations at drop off or pick up, in community places and online impact on positive working relationships. Adults’ behaviour in and around schools impacts everyone. Everyone has the right to feel respected and safe at school, including school staff. From social media and emails to direct messaging within apps – Disrespecting school staff is crossing the line. Simple as that.

Help us eliminate instances of aggressive and offensive behaviour directed towards school staff and focus on a culture of respectful behaviour in our school. School leaders and teachers are open to conversations that are proactive in addressing concerns and issues. School staff want to work in partnership with parents, carers and other adults to make sure our learners get the best education possible. We invited parents to meet with Teachers at the end of last term. If you did not take this opportunity up and wish to meet with teachers please contact the school office. Please do not get frustrated if you arrive at the office requesting a meeting and staff are not available. Most likely they will be on class.

Pre Kinder Teacher and Kindergarten 

As many of you are aware Miss Salter is expecting her first child in early term 4, this is an exciting time for her, and we know that all of her students are enjoying celebrating this time also.

Port Dalrymple are fortunate to have Early Childhood teacher Brittany Wheldon as part of our staffing. Brittany will be taking over our Kindergarten class in Term 4 and has already started getting to know our wonderful Kinder students by visiting the class, as well as taking the class when Miss Salter has appointments. We know that developing relationships now will support the transition in Term 4 and set our students up for success.

Our wonderful Wednesday morning Pre-Kinder students will be taught by Early Childhood teacher Karen Vandenberg. Karen is an existing Port Dalrymple staff member who teaches Year 1/2. Karen has previous experience as a Lil and Kindergarten teacher, we know her wealth of knowledge and experience will be an asset to this space. Karen has visited the Pre-Kinder groups and taught them once already in Term 2, she will work beside Miss Salter to commence the transition during mid Term 3.

As we approach the start of another enriching term at Port Dalrymple School, it's a perfect time to reflect on the amazing achievements and memorable moments that have defined the second half of term 2.

Throughout the term, our 5-8 sector has continued to come together for our fortnightly reward assemblies to recognise students who exemplify our department-wide values of Respect, Courage, Growth, Responsibility, and Connection. These assemblies have been a highlight for students hoping to win a prize for their Values Ticket, which is changed each assembly with an engaging game-style delivery (think wheel of fortune or dice rolls, we’ve even had pluck-a-duck!). We hope to see those Values Tickets boxes packed to the brim again each assembly and are keen to recognise individual student success with many more Merit certificates from individual teachers.

A highlight for our sector was the incredible newsletter handed out at the end of the term which was carefully created by 5/6b as a collaborative effort in Miss Griffeon’s class. The budding young authors worked together to interview a variety of staff members and produced engaging headlines and spiels to share their new-found information. This was then expertly curated by Miss Griffieon to have similar graphic design and visual features as a real newspaper! Congratulations on this amazing piece of work 5/6B, what a wonderful memento to treasure.

Beyond academics and extracurriculars, our Year 8 worked together to create a winning classroom door display for Dinosaur Day. Congratulations to both classes for their awesome design, we hope you enjoyed the pizza lunch!

Looking ahead, we're excited for our 5/6 students to participate in the TPSSA 5/6 sport roster this term. Students have spent many weeks during term 2 trialling, selecting and practicing in their chosen football, soccer, hockey or netball teams. The roster runs fortnightly for this term with opportunities for our students to be selected for Country Gold representation later in the season. Thankyou to our 5/6 Teachers – Miss Walters, Miss Griffieon and Miss Crawford, and to Mrs Fish for your coaching of these teams.

Thank you to all our students, teachers, and staff for making term 2 a resounding success. I hope everyone has had a restful and rejuvenating break. Here's to another fantastic term ahead!

Prue Leslies class doing reading rotations.

Years 9-12 Sector Report

Welcome to Term 3! Where there will be many more opportunities and experiences for students to participate, learn, make further personal progress and become more confident, resilient and mature young people in our community.

But…. let’s reflect and celebrate on the very busy, productive and engaging Term 2 that we recently had.

As well as writing essays, calculating equations, researching historical facts and conducting scientific experiments, students were presented with many extra-curricular activities and off-campus experiences to compliment their learning in core subjects.

Some of these events included:

• Whole School Assembly to recognise achievements in attendance
• Tree Planting in George Town
• National Walk Safely to School Day
• Timberlink Site Tour
• School Cross Country
• NHSSA Cross Country (well done to our Year 10 Girls Division 2 Champions!)
• UTAS Health Taster Day
• Dinosaur Day
• Science and Engineering Challenge at UTAS
• Year 9/10 Port Sport Leaders Hollybank Tree Tops Excursion
• Year 9 Mental Health First Aid Sessions
• Write A Book In A Day
• Girls in Construction Program
• Year 10 College Open Days at Launceston and Newstead Colleges
• Year 11/12 Career and Life Planning – weekly visits to the George Town Library
• Year 9 and 10 students participating in programs at Studentworks in Art, Metal, Construction and Catering
• SLB Donut Drive to raise funds to subsidise Year 10 Leavers’ Jumpers
• NAIDOC Week Activities and Smoking Ceremony
• Year 9B Reward Lunch for having the highest attendance rates in our sector

Thank you to Mr Pete Sullivan from TasTafe, who has been a wonderful teacher in our Year 11/12 Sector. His calm, professional and friendly manner will be missed by all. All the best for the future Pete.

Pre-Kinder

In term 2 in Pre-Kinder we have had a great time making new friendships, practising new routines and learning new skills! One particular experience that was a highlight was when we explored mark making with finger paint! We are looking forward to a fun filled term 3! 

Remember if you or anyone you know has a child turning 4 this year please encourage them to come along to a Pre-Kinder session! 

K to 4

Our sector has had a beautiful start to the term, this is largely attributed to calm classrooms, well planned and resourced lessons, as well as the strong relationships that exist between teachers and students. 

It is delightful to see our students wearing their unifroms with pride, playing positively with others in the yard and welcoming new students. 

Students have participated in an Olympic Opening Ceremony and are all looking forward to Olympic activities on Tuesday 6th August. These opportunities help strengthen our value of Connection and promote positive relationships and wellbeing. 

We would like to remind families that our fortnightly sector assemblies are held in the PAC on a Thursday morning at 9am. The next assembly is on Thursday 8th August and the one following on 22nd August. 

Over the last few weeks of Term 3, Scott from Volleyball Tasmania has come in to work with students from year 7/8. Students have worked on skills which have included digging, setting and spiking. They then have tested these skills out in team games. Students enjoyed it so much that volleyball has become a regular request during HPE lessons. Thankyou Scott for imparting your knowledge and assisting us in developing our enthusiasm towards the sport.volleyball

        
     

Here’s a short review of our teams’ performances over the past few weeks during the NHSSA sport.

Over the past few weeks, a large proportion of our students from 7-10 have continued participating in NHSSA sport. Students have been able to demonstrate individual and team success while representing our school in a positive way. Examples of this include:

• Mixed Soccer currently sitting on top of the ladder.
• Our netballers winning multiple games with only 6 players.

Round 6 Results:

Mixed Soccer Div 2 PDS 3 – SOTS 2

Netball Div 2 PDS 10 – PHS 15

Netball Div 3B PDS 15 – PHS 10

Netball Div 4 PDS 3 – KMHS 18

Boys Football Div 2 PDS 2.0 12  - BHS 22.17 149

Girls Football Div 2 0.3 – DHS 14.8 92

NHSSA sport will continue for at least another 6 weeks during Term 3. A reminder that students who have selected to play in a team need to continue to commit to playing in this team, wear Port Dalrymple sport uniform and return it to their coach at the end of each game.

NAIDOC Week – 

Our vibrant school community come together to celebrate NAIDOC Week during the final week of Term 2. NAIDOC week is celebrated each year to provide opportunities for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. The theme this year was ‘Keep the fire burning: Blak, loud and proud’.

Students participated in a variety of activities throughout the week. Across the school we saw many amazing lessons and activities respectfully curated by classroom teachers.

As a whole school, each student created a handprint to contribute to a wreath. This activity had students trace their own handprint and decorate it with the things they are proud of and/or that keep their fire burning. Our Junior Leadership Board then worked together to assemble the hundreds of handprints into a wreath. How wonderful it is to see the creativity and to read about the things our students are proud of.

Our whole school smoking ceremony was a beautiful and moving event to recognise the importance of NAIDOC Week. We are so proud of the efforts of all involved to make this a special occasion – a special thankyou to the following students for their roles on the day: Hailie, Alan and Sophie who all volunteered to speak and lead the ceremony, our flag raisers Flynn and Imajen, Oliver for handing out leaves to students and staff, and to Sarah, Kobi, Kai, Kalani, Jordan, Jedd, Aeleyah and Cody for their performance with the clapping sticks throughout the duration of the ceremony.

It was wonderful to have key community members who support our school in many ways present for the smoking ceremony; Chris and Teagan from meenah neenah who lead our Cultural Arts program each week, Susan our Aboriginal Early Years Education Worker and Andy our Youth Project Coordinator. Thank you all for taking time out of your day to be there with us.