Punchbowl Primary School eNewsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Thank you for all your patience with the COVID procedures that have been in place such as different pick-up points, signing in and wearing your masks when on school grounds. We have been incredibly fortunate at this stage to only experience minimal disruptions with COVID positive cases.

Please remember if you or your child/children feel unwell with any cold or flu like symptoms or just feel unwell, tired, or have even mild headaches they should be kept home and complete a Rapid Antigen Test before returning to school. We have more RAT supplies at school, and they can be requested by parents from the office whenever you have used your allocated amount. It is always good to keep two RATs on hand. Please remember to let the school know if your child or a family member has had a positive result or are isolating due to being a close contact so that we can support learning from home via the Departments Virtual Leaning Centre.

We still have some restrictions placed on school from the Health Department. One of these is the need to continue to wear face masks. Another is to limit the number of adults on the school grounds and cross class mixing where possible. We have been informed that we can hold our athletics carnival before the LSSSA carnival. However, sadly we are not permitted to have parents on site for the carnival. We are also to limit the number of cross year group mixing at the carnival and for this reason we have decided to hold a Grade 3-6 carnival only and will postpone the Kinder-Gr 2 Carnival to a later date. The Grade 3-6 carnival will be held on Thursday, 10^th March.

Grade 6 Leaders

Last week I was able to recognise our Grade 6 Leaders and the leadership roles they will be undertaking for the year. Sadly, due to COVID procedures we were not able to do this in front of our entire student population or their parents. We were able to take a photo of each student with their certificates and badge as we as celebrate their achievement with students from Grades 3-6. Congratulations to our leaders for 2022. A photo collage is enclosed with this newsletter.

Esk Band

Last week students from Grades 3-6 listened to an instrument demonstration from the Esk Band teachers. Students were then given a letter to take home advising of the Esk band opportunity and costs associated. The Esk band is a ‘fee for service’ program with small group tutoring offered during school time. We have been fortunate enough to been involved with Esk band for the last three years and have seen an incredible growth in our student’s skills ultimately leading to students competently playing in a combined school band. If you child is interested, please return the enrolment forms by Wednesday, 2^nd March.

School Photos – Thursday 31^st March

This year we have been able to secure an earlier time slot for school photos. These will be held on Thursday 31^st March. We ask that students wear full sports uniform on the day. Forms will go home next week.

Kitchen - Garden Program

We have been lucky to have Miss Johnstone working one day a week with a focus on a ‘kitchen garden’ program. She has been working with small groups of students in our two garden areas. They have been harvesting our tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs. Last week they made vegetable frittatas, which looked delicious. The students have also spent time mulching and weeding the gardens ready to plant some winter crops.

Car Parking and U turns

It is really important to remember there is limited parking outside of the school grounds. At the front of the school, it is a pickup and drop off zone only, parents are not allowed to leave their car to go in and collect children. Police regularly patrol school zones and have fined parents for illegal parking. The other concern is parents who are doing U turns across the white line near the crossing guard. It is incredibly dangerous for our students and the crossing guard when this occurs. The cross guard is able to record number plates for Police action. We have let the Police know our concerns and have asked for patrols. We thank you for your support with the safety of our students at these busy times.

School Association

It is our first School Association meeting next week on Wednesday, 2^nd March at 7pm. We will be holding this in 5/6 Frerk/Marshall. Any families are welcome to attend this meeting. At these meetings we discuss matters concerning the school and communicate information to members about the school improvement planning. Please make sure you wear your face mask to the meeting.

Before school and after school care

After a lot of parental requests, we have been able to secure onsite before and after school care. This is run by Lady Gowrie and is operating out of the multi-purpose room. The hours of operation are:

Before school – 7am – 8.30am.

After school – 3pm - 6.30pm.

If you would like to use this facility, please contact Lady Gowrie on oshcnorthmanager@gowrie-tas.com.au or phone 6331 5106.

Kind regards,

Liz O'Donahue - Principal

2022 Student Leadership Board

Back row:

Darcy, Olivia, Olive, Japhia & Alfie

Front Row:

Jedd, Sophie & Millie

2022 Leaders

If you wish to purchase any uniform items for your child, to limit the number of adults we have on site and congestion in the main corridor, we would greatly appreciate orders and payment via telephone. Clothing purchased and a copy of receipt will be sent home with your child. Office staff are happy to assist your child try on clothing if you are uncertain as to what size is required.

School photo day is Thursday, 31st March. Photo envelopes will be sent home next week with students. Sibling photo envelopes will be availabe from the school office.

STUDENT INDIVIDUAL PACK

SIBLING PHOTO PACK

1st March	Icypole Sales
2nd March	7.00pm - School Association Meeting
3rd March	Subway Lunch Day
8th March	Icypole Sales
10th March	Grade 3-6 Athletics Carnival Subway Lunch Day
11th March	Esk Band commences for continuing students

Are you ready to get out and about to enjoy the best things in life? Buy an Entertainment Membership to support our fundraising and your next adventure could be around the corner. Buy a Membership and Punchbowl Primary receives 20% of the purchase.

To order: https://www.en tertainment.com.au/orderbooks/2406h04

Unfortuantely due to the lack of numbers interested the tournament that was being held on Saturday, 5th & Sunday, 6th March has been postponed to a later date in the year & a letter will go home today for those students that were participating.

The Student Assistance Scheme (STAS) is now open for 2022. Applications for 2021 are now closed. Families who were approved for STAS last year will receive written notification regarding their eligibilty (approved or not approved) for 2022. Application forms for 2022 are available from the school office.

Mobile Phones are to be handed into the office at the beginning of each school day.
Please name your childs clothing as a lot of our lost property is not named.
Please remember to bring your water bottle to school each day.
If your residential address has changed or have a new telephone number, please contact the office to request a change of details form.

Please notify the office if your child test positive to COVID-19 or is a close contact to someone that has tested positive.

Students have the opportunity to purchase books via Scholastic Bookclub. Catalogues are sent home throughout the year.

Orders can be placed either via the school office or via the Scholastic website. If you wish to place an order via the office, please enclose named order and money in an envelope and hand to either the class teacher or to the office.

Closing dates for Bookclub orders will be stated in the newsletter.

IT IS AGAINST THE LAW FOR A PERSON TO WORK OR VOLUNTEER AT PUNCHBOWL UNLESS REGISTERED!

If you currently hold Volunteer Working with Vulnerable People Registration, please bring your card to the school office so we can record your registration. Teachers will also ask to see your registration prior to initially doing Parent Help, as it is a requirement to carry your card with you at all times.

If you nominated another organisation in which you volunteer when you registered, unfortunately at present we are unable to check you are registered. Please update your registration status via the below link to update and advise all organisations in which you volunteer.

If you wish to register, please complete the online application via the below link:

http://www.justice.tas.gov.au/working_with_children/application

The Australian Government will start its program in Tasmania to vaccinate residential aged care and disability care staff and residents at the same time as the Tasmania Government’s roll-out program commences.

I recognise that you may have questions about the vaccination program. I encourage you to visit www.coronavirus.tas.gov.au/vaccine for the latest information on the vaccination roll-out. Additionally, you can visit the Australian Government Health website for further information at www.health.gov.au.

Keeping yourself and others safe

We must all continue to play our part in being COVID safe. While the vaccine is an important measure in our response to COVID-19, it is part of a suite of things we need to do – including maintaining our COVID-safe behaviours:

Stay at least 1.5 metres away from others;
Wash your hands often with soap and warm water;
Stay at home if you are unwell;
Get tested for COVID-19 if you have any cold or flu-like symptoms; and
Be aware of, and follow, current gathering, business and travel restrictions.
Practise good hygiene, such as covering coughs and sneezes and washing hands
If you or your child do get sick, stay at home until symptoms have passed, even if a COVID test is negative

Remember, symptoms include fever, tiredness, cough, headache, sore throat, sniffling and sneezing.

To keep our school safe, we are still:

continuing with increased cleaning
making sure there is plenty of soap, sanitiser and tissues available
applying restrictions to large gatherings of adults and encouraging physical distancing

For the latest updates on the COVID-19 restrictions in Tasmania and across Australia, visit http://www.coronavirus.tas.gov.au.