We have embraced the cold snap with both the ECE and Primary Cross Country events being held on consecutive days this week. It was very wet underfoot, however we were lucky to have clear and sunny days for both carnivals. I am pleased to announce that this year’s House outcome was the closest ever with Tamar winning by just 3 points on 267pts to Esk 264pts. Well done to every child that participated in the Cross Country and had a go.

A big thank you to Mrs Bent for all her organisation of these events.  It was lovely to be able to have parents supporting.

LSSSA Cross Country will be held at the Windsor Precinct from 9:40am - 11:05am on Friday, 27^th May.  Students will be notified if they qualified for this event.

Walk Safely to School

Today we supported our families with a walk safely to school option.  A big thank you to Mrs Millen, Ms O’Donahue, Mrs Jones, Miss Shephard, Miss Stagoll and Taleah for helping the students walk safely to school.

PEDESTRIAN SAFETY MESSAGES

Children up to eight years old should hold an adult's hand on the footpath, in the car park, or when crossing the road.  Children up to ten years old should be actively supervised in the traffic environment and should hold an adult's hand when crossing the road

Key pedestrian safety messages for students include:

Stage 1

Hold a grown-up's hand when you're on the footpath

Hold a grown-up's hand when you're in the car park

Hold a grown-up's hand when you cross the road

Wait till the bus has gone, then use a safe place to cross the road

Stage 2

Hold a grown-up's hand when you cross the road

Use a safe place to cross the road

Wait till the bus has gone, then use a safe place to cross the road

Stage 3

Stop! Look! Listen! Think! Every time you cross the road

Use a safe place to cross the road

Wait till the bus has gone, then use a safe place to cross the road

COVID Update

During the first week of June the Education Department will be releasing its next 5-week plan on how schools are to manage COVID safe procedures.  At this stage, unfortunately, we are unable to welcome parents indoors for school events such as assemblies.  We are still expected to have windows and doors open to allow for air flow. Clearly it is getting colder for both staff and students, we are allowed to have our heaters on as long as we have enough airflow.  As the weather gets colder, we have been encouraging our students to wear their school jackets and polar fleece jackets inside.  We are however not permitting any oodies or free dress jackets to be worn.  If your child doesn’t have a suitable school jacket, we do have plenty of second-hand options available.

We continue to have a number of students and staff away with COVID.  Please remember the health advice is, if your child has cold or flu like symptoms, please do not send them to school. If you require any RAT test kits, please just call the office. Currently we are experiencing many problems when trying to find relief teachers, we try our upmost to find replacement teachers, however if there comes a time when we are unable to find a relief teacher for all classes, we will have no other option but to collapse classes and spread students into classes with lower numbers. As I mentioned this is our very last option to support the teaching of all our students.

Class assemblies and celebrating students

We have been really missing celebrating our student’s success and achievements and the presenting of certificates.  Our first classes for assembly are Prep Wilson, Prep Baker/Walkinshaw, 1 Millen and 1/2 Cameron. With Mrs Cameron’s and Mrs Millen’s class sharing work. Our Student Leadership Board will be hosting the assemblies.

Unfortunately, we are not permitted to have parents attend these assemblies. However, we will make every effort to share photos on our Facebook page, in the newsletter and via our class communications.

Reporting to Parents for 2022

This year the Education Department has a phased implementation of the new reporting requirements for all Tasmanian State Schools.

In Term 2, beginning 20^th June, parents will be invited to attend parent teacher meetings. A booking system will be opened soon where parents can book an appointment online, there will be one late night offered on the Tuesday.  At these meetings teachers will have a conversation focusing on learning progress, application to learning, well-being, and /or learning plan goals. Science, Music and P.E teachers will be available for parent teacher meetings on their workdays and welcome any appointments.

On Friday, 1^st July parents can expect to receive a summative report which will be sent home with students in Grade 1 through to Grade 6.  An achievement rating will be given for English, Maths and Science. This report will not contain any comments.

Music and P.E teachers will give and effort and behaviour rating for their subjects for Grade 1-6 students.

Prep teachers are not required to write a summative report until the end of the year in Term 4.  Prep teachers will however be meeting with parents for parent teacher meetings. 

NAPLAN

This week we saw the last of the NAPLAN testing completed.  There were many catch up days due to the large number of students away.  Overall, we were pleased that we were able to cover as many students as we did. A huge thank you to our students who completed these tests with enthusiasm and positivity and to Mrs Frerk who coordinated this process for our school.

Futsal Competition

We have two teams representing our school in the Northern Futsal competition on Tuesday, 24^th May at Elphin Sports Centre. We have a 5/6 team coached Zane Patmore and a 3/4 team coached by Tim Cassidy. Best of luck to all players and a huge thankyou to our coaches, team managers and organisers.

Enrolments for 2023

We are now taking Kindergarten enrolments for 2023, please let the school office know if you have a younger child at home that is ready for kindergarten.  Children need to be 4 years old by 1^st January 2023. 

If you know anyone who lives within our area and is looking for a school to enrol their child, please encourage them to contact our school office to arrange an appointment to tour our school.

Fundraising Committee

We would like to try and establish a fundraising committee at our school.  This committee would be responsible for leading and organising one-off events or regular annual fundraising events. If you would like to be a part of this committee, are interested in organising specific events or helping out in any way, please come along to our fundraising meetings.  We will be holding these meetings on the first FRIDAY of each month at 8.45am till 9.15am in our new Resource Room (new classroom on the basketball court).  Our first meeting will be on Friday, 3^rd June.

Hot Lunches

This week is National Volunteer Week, and I would like to take the time to thank Adele Davis and her helpers for making hot lunch days happen again this year. If it wasn’t for you, we would have many disappointed students.  They love hot lunch days.  Thank you.

 

Liz O'Donahue - Principal

• 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. 

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

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. 

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.

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.entertainment.com.au/orderbooks/2406h04

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.

Everyone is welcome to attend our School Association meetings as it's a good way to learn about what is going on in the school. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, 27th July, comming at 7pm at school. 

School Association Meeting Dates

Wednesday , 27th July

Wednesday 19th October

Wednesday 30th November

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.

2022 Term Dates

• Term 1: Wednesday, 9^th February to Wednesday, 13^th April  

     (Tuesday, 8^th February & Thursday, 14^th April) – Student Free Days

• Easter: Friday, 15^th April to Tuesday, 19^th April

• Term 2: Monday, 2^nd May to Friday, 8^th July

• Term 3: Tuesday, 26^th July to Friday, 30^th September

                       (Monday, 25^th July - Student Free Day)

• Term 4: Monday, 17^th October to Wednesday, 21^st December

                      (Friday, 4^th November – Student Free Day)

Public Health has reviewed their advice about hay fever in the current COVID-19 environment.

Hay fever symptoms are similar to COVID-19 symptoms, so it’s important families know what they need to do if their child experiences hay fever symptoms.

If your child has hay fever symptoms, please keep them at home and test for COVID-19 using a rapid antigen test (RAT).

If your child tests negative on a RAT and symptoms continue, Public Health advises that you must do a second RAT 24 hours later, or seek a PCR test. 

If the second RAT or PCR remains negative, this is sufficient evidence for your child to return to school if they feel well.

If symptoms change or increase in severity, please see your treating medical practitioner for review.

Please know that Public Health advice can change at short notice and we appreciate your patience as we respond to these changes as quickly as possible.

If you have any questions, please contact the school office. For more information, please visit the Tasmanian Government Coronavirus website or contact the Tasmanian Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738, or Department of Education COVID Support Hotline at COVID19support@education.tas.gov.au or on 1800 816 057.

From 12.01am Saturday, 26 February 2022, people with COVID-19 are only required to quarantine for a single 7 day period – the 7 days will not be extended if subsequent people in the household test positive (as long as they are symptom free and return the required negative test result).

This advice applies to all COVID-19 cases i.e. anyone currently in quarantine and anyone who needs to quarantine from this point onwards. If a person is already part way through their quarantine period, then they will complete their 7 days from the time of the first positive diagnosis of COVID-19 in their household.

As long as the person completed the correct testing requirements, has returned negative results and does not have any symptoms they are free to leave quarantine at the same time as the primary case.

As an example: If a child is home because their parent/carer was positive, then their sibling tests positive after 5 days, does the quarantine still end after 7 days, not reset?

The quarantine period will still end 7 days after the diagnosis of the parent/carer – as long as the child is symptom free and returns a negative test on Day 6. Quarantine length does not reset due to the sibling’s positive test. If someone in a household has already tested positive and is isolating in the household, and subsequent household members test positive, close contacts in the household do not need to restart their quarantine period. Close contacts only need to complete 7 days from the date the first case in the household tests positive.

For more information, visit the Tasmanian Government Coronavirus website and refer to Public Health’s factsheet.

Changes to close contact requirements

Public Health has recently changed the rules for close contacts of COVID-19 cases so that they no longer need to isolate.

This means that if your child is a close contact – and importantly, symptom-free – they can attend school (except for support schools).

They would however need to pass a daily rapid antigen test before leaving home each day, for a seven-day period. Advice for close contacts is available on the Tasmanian Government Coronavirus website.

You will only need to let us know if your child is a close contact if they’re not attending school.

Close contacts should practise COVID-safe behaviours including good hand hygiene, physically distancing from others when they can and staying away from school if they have any symptoms.

While primary aged close contacts are not obliged to wear a mask in school, they can still choose to if it is practicable for them and they are happy to do so.

If your child is medically vulnerable and you have concerns with the changes to close contacts, then you may wish to work with your child’s medical practitioner to identify further options to reduce the risk of COVID-19 to them. If you have any concerns, please talk to us about alternative learning options.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our school office.

For more information about COVID-19, please visit the Tasmanian Government Coronavirus website or contact the Tasmanian Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738, or Department of Education COVID-19 Support Hotline at COVID19support@education.tas.gov.au or on 1800 816 057.

If you need support translating or interpreting this information, contact the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450.

Thank you to our entire school community for your cooperation this term by practising COVID-safe behaviours.

As you know, an important COVID-safe behaviour is to stay at home if you’re unwell and get tested for COVID-19 using a rapid antigen test.

Public Health tells us that the number of cases of COVID-19 in children is low, and they’re likely to have milder symptoms.

It’s a good reminder to be mindful of the symptoms of COVID-19 in children. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 in children are cough, fever, runny nose and gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

For more information, please visit the Tasmanian Government Coronavirus website or contact the Tasmanian Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738, or Department of Education COVID-19 Support Hotline at COVID19support@education.tas.gov.au or on 1800 816 057.

If you need support translating or interpreting this information, please contact the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450.

In Autumn the City of Launceston are planning a fuel reduction burn in the Punchbowl Reserve.

Notifications of tthe scheduled burns will be updated on the Council's website - www.launceston.tas.gov.au/works and the Tasmania Fire Service website - https://fire.tas.gov.au

People with medical conditions are advised to have a personal plan for avoiding smokefrom the burn. Advice is available from theDepartment ofHealth and Human Services website www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/peh/alerts/air/precautions

For more information please contact the Cityof Launceston on 6323 3000 or via email contactus@launceston.tas.gov.au