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CSPS Newsletter 13/9/20234

Principal's News

Dear Families,

The DECYP ‘Lifting Literacy’ priority is binging some changes to the ways in which we support children in learning to read.

Home Reading at CSPS

Reading at home with your child sets them up for life.

Reading unlocks everything we do – learning, working, participating in society.

Supporting your child to read at home is one of the most powerful things you can do for them.

Encourage and celebrate all the reading your child does.

This includes reading recipes, instructions and websites – it doesn’t have to be a book. All reading is good reading!

Encourage your child to:

Read books they bring home from school.
Borrow books from your local library, Sora App or street library and read them.
Read books, newspapers, magazines you have at home, including those you might access online.

If they struggle to read or are reluctant readers, try to find reading material that taps into their interests. Is it gaming? Mountain biking? Roblox? Cooking? Music?

Offer to read books to your child even when they can read by themselves – this is still boosting their vocabulary and comprehension.

For more tips and ideas check out Let’s Talk (talk.tas.gov.au).

Prep – Year 2

In Prep to Year 2, school will send home short books designed to help your child practise the reading skills they are learning in class.

Many schools, including Campbell Street Primary School, have previously used a home reading program that ranks books by level of difficulty from 1 to 30 and beyond.

According to the latest research, these “levels” do not accurately measure a child’s ability to read. This year all Tasmanian schools are phasing out this levelling system, as required by the Department for Education, Children and Young People.

Decodable Readers

Your child may bring home “Decodable” readers, aong with a variety of interest based texts. These books are specially written to match the letter-sound relationships your child is learning in class. They may be printed/photocopied copies (permitted under copyright guidelines) while we build our stock of resources for instructional use at school.

Rather than being ranked in difficulty, these books are organised by the letters and sounds they focus on. They have been designed to build your child’s confidence in reading as they match what they are learning at school.

You can support your child to read these books by helping them sound out words.

When your child has mastered all the letter-sound relationships they need for reading, they will move on from decodable readers.

For some children this will happen in Year 2 or earlier. Other children may need to keep using decodable readers for longer. Decodable readers that have been written to appeal to older students are also available.

Years 3-6

In Years 3-6, your child will still bring home books to read from school. These books are likely to be related to their interests.

Encourage them to spend time reading every day. Even 10 minutes will support their learning.

If they are reluctant readers:

Try comic books or graphic novels.
Offer to read with them – you read one page, they read one page.
Offer to read to them.
Encourage them to listen to an audio book which they can borrow for free from your local library or Sora App.

For the end of Term 3, we will be collecting all home readers and resorting them into categories according to the complexity of the text for fluency. This means your child will be bringing home a variety of books from early Term 4, rather than a particular “level.” Overall, we encourage reading to, with and by children at home.

Staffing Term 4

As we head towards the end of Term 3, we are pleased to announce the appointment of two new staff members for Term 4.

New School Business Manager – Kristy Stapenell

Shaneen Voss will be leaving us at the end Term 3, following 33 years of dedication to Campbell Street Primary School in the role of School Business Manager. Or final newsletter for Term 3 (in week 10) will highlight Shaneen’s service to our school. Joining us from 30^th September is Kristy Stapenell, currently School Business Manager at Sandy Bay Infant School. Kristy brings a wealth of up-to-date knowledge and she is very excited to be joining our team. Kristy will be Acting in the SBM position until the end of Term 1, 2025, at which time the substantive position will be advertised.

Acting Advanced Skills Teacher Term 4 – Hayley Simpson

Emily Leaman (Advanced Skills Teacher) will be taking a very well deserved break for all of Term 4, returning to us at the start of Term 1, 2025. While Emily is on leave, we will be joined by Hayley Simpson, currently teaching at Mount Stuart Primary School. Hayley is looking forward to the challenges of being in a leadership role and she is keen to support students and families at CSPS.

We are also very happy to be welcoming back Annie Eastwood, who has been on a period of leave. Annie will return to teaching Mondays and Tuesdays on 3/4CE while Jess Thurstans will remain teaching on Wednesdays on 3/4MT.

Wishing everyone a great two weeks of learning before the holidays!

Susan Jeffery

Principal

Class News

Kindergarten

It has been a busy Term for Kinder Ferguson. Earlier in the term we had Science Week, Book Week and the Growing up Program. As part of Science Week, we had the family science afternoon, and we went on an excursion to the State Library, as part of our Book Week celebrations.

The theme for Science Week this year was ‘Species survival: More than just sustainability’. In Kinder Ferguson we looked at bees, what they do and how important they are. Here are some photos from Science Week and our explorations around bees.

Below are some photos of our excursion to the State Library. At the library we were read a number of the shortlisted books by the librarian, Julian. Then we were able to create our own wands, a craft activity linked to the theme of Book Week – ‘reading is magic!’

In numeracy this term, students have been continuing their work with number. Each student is on a different journey with their understanding of number; therefore, we have also had many different number activities going on. Some have been working on counting collections, recognising and ordering numerals up to 5, 10 or 20, or practising writing numbers. We have also been looking at two-dimensional (2D) shapes. We have been playing various shape games, making pictures and patterns with shapes and creating pizzas with shape toppings.

Year 3/4

On Friday the 6^th of September 3/4 CT and 3/4 MT travelled by bus on an excursion to Hobart City High. Moonah Primary came along, too.

We put our bags in the school library and were split into four groups to rotate around some amazing science activities. The first activity we did was make slime and sherbet. We used acids to make the sherbet. We also used eye contact solution to activate the slime. The sherbet tasted tangy, and it foamed in our mouths. The slime was very good at the start, then it became stiff and not stretchy.

Next, we looked at complicated machines and pullies. Two people were showing us easier forms of ways to lift weights (the weights were wooden blocks). We also looked at and made a balloon zipline. We blew them up to see which one went the furthest along the zipline.

We had recess and made some new friends with Moonah students and played with our slime. We were then able to use microscopes to look at tiny drawings we drew. Watching silver grow under the microscope was fascinating. The silver looked like ice on a piece of tissue paper.

Lastly, we had some high school children come to show us where the exit was and went on the bus back to school. We had a late lunch, but we didn’t mind. Now, we are really excited about our next excursion which is on Thursday. We are going to the Littlewood Farm in Richmond, where we will learn about how living things depend on each other, and the environment, to survive.

By Ella and Elsa

Art

Year 1/2

In the Year 1/2 classes we have been looking at composing layers in our Artwork. Firstly, by stippling (dabbing) a background with paint, then using crayon to colourfully create our collage layer of hot air balloons.

Emily

School Association News

We had our second meeting for the term on Tuesday Night.

Quiz night this weekend and individual tickets have now been made available for the night on Qkr!. There will also be a silent auction and don’t forget to BYO glass and supper.

Big thanks to the volunteers who made Sushi/toastie day possible and the soccer shack through out the soccer season.

We are looking at holding 1 maybe 2 snack shacks in term 4 but will need some volunteers to help so please reach out to the office or to cspsasecretary@gmail.com if you can lend a hand. It will only require a couple of hours on the day.

Plans are progressing for a colour fun run in Term 4 and Christmas raffle so watch this space.

Did you know each year group has a WhatsApp group to help with communication amongst parents? If not drop us a line and we can send you a link.

Our next meeting is Tuesday 22nd October 6pm. All welcome.