Newsletter 5 December

From the Principal

Celebrating Literacy Success at Springfield Gardens

Many of you would have heard about ‘Playberry’ this year. It is our whole school approach to structured literacy. Student data came back last week, and the evidence is overwhelmingly positive – structured literacy is making a big difference to student success in reading!

Some of the highlights include:

• students achieving below standard is lower than it has been in the last five years and is less than 1 in 6
• 1 in 5 students are now achieving well above the expected standard, at 20% this is significantly higher than it has been in over 5 years
• Half of all students are at the standard expected or higher
• A massive 43% of Year 5 students achieved high gain scores – or learnt more than is expected
• In Year 6, 10% less students are now below the expected level
• No students in Year 2 are below standard and only 13% are approaching while an enormous 42% are now WELL ABOVE STANDARD.

As a result of daily school wide practice, teachers have also noticed a great improvement in the time students can stay on task (work stamina), their handwriting and their knowledge of how the English language works.

Nadine Davey

2025 Levies

Levies support student learning by contributing towards the cost of essential items and services.

When setting school levies and charges the school:

• considers inclusive education, community expectations and family financial constraints
• sets levies at the lowest amount possible
• consults with the School Association of the school.

Levies are paid in Term One each year or can be paid in instalments using a payment plan. Payment plans are available for all families and may continue through to the end of the school year.

Families who are supported through the Student Assistance Scheme (STAS) do not need to pay levies. Parents holding a Health Care Card, Low Income Health Care Card, or Pensioner Concession Card are eligible for STAS for their children. Please complete the form online at https://stasonlinesubmission.education.tas.gov.au/ or collect one from the office.

LEVIES FOR 2025

CHARGES FOR 2025

Information for Parents

• Lost property should be collected by the end of the year. Any named property will be returned to students, and any unnamed property will be either donated to charity or added into the uniform shop. 
• Leavers' dinner payments are now due please pay ASAP.
• Free dress day- Thursday 5 Dec (tomorrow). Please bring a non-perishable donation for the Christmas raffle. 
• No canteen on the last day of term (Thursday 19 Dec).
  

Important Dates

• 6th December - Bounce excursion for 100 nights of reading
• 10th December - Leavers assembly 11:30am and leavers dinner 5pm
• 12th December - Prize assembly 9:15am
• 17th December - Whole school Christmas assembly 9:15am
• 18th December - Grade 3 - 6 Park and Pool excursion
• 19th December - Last day of term

K-Year 2 Athletics Carnival

On Tuesday we had our Kinder – Year 2 athletics carnival. Unfortunately, due to wet weather and the grounds being wet we had to have the carnival in the gym. All students did a fantastic job and the participation was excellent. Students participated in the egg and spoon race, sack race and some students participated in the three-legged race with family members. Well done everyone!

Launch into Learning

On Friday November 22^nd, Launching into Learning families enjoyed a beautiful morning in Collinsvale where they experienced a Free to be Bush Play session. There were lots of exciting learning experiences available including potion making, creating clay sculptures, painting bark, using hammers and sledding. It was lovely to see so many children working together and developing their collaboration skills. Our session concluded with a picnic and a beautiful story about nature.

We have been lucky enough to receive a 10% discount code for our Springfield Gardens Primary School families! If you would like to book a Free to be Bush Play session with Roxanne Wood for the summer holidays, visit www.freetobebushplay.com and use SG10 for a 10% discount.

Milkshake Fundraiser

Our recent milkshake fundraiser supporting Canteen Australia was a huge success. We were able to raise $158.70 to support such a worthy cause. Thank you to everyone for all of your efforts in supporting the fundraiser to make the day such a success. We hope to be able to organise this fundraiser again next year.

Friday Fun

Friday Fun Succulent Sanctuary. Students hard at work planting our new vertical garden beds they also sanded and painted. 

Succulent Sanctuary

Big Summer Read

Join Libraries Tasmania's Big Summer Read for a summer of reading fun!

Children and young people can win prizes and be part of a national reading club – registration is now open: libraries.tas.gov.au/BigSummerRead

The Big Summer Read is an interactive and fun way to encourage children and young people to keep reading over the summer school holidays, from 1 December to 2 February 2025.

After joining, children (aged between 0 and 18 years) can: 

• track the number of books they read, aiming to read at least ten books
• write book reviews
• complete a range of reading related challenges to win prizes. 

Become a member of your library to start your reading adventure and access free books and eBooks. Ask your parent or guardian to visit https://libraries.tas.gov.au/membership to join Libraries Tasmania. You can choose online membership or full membership