Students and our whole Burnie Primary School community never cease to amaze me when it comes time to think of others! One of our General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum is ‘Personal and Social’ capabilities. The curriculum describes these capabilities as “involving students in a range of practices including recognising and regulating emotions, developing empathy for others and understanding relationships, establishing and building positive relationships, making responsible decisions, working effectively in teams, handling challenging situations constructively and developing leadership skills.”  The efforts of our Student Representative Council in organising the recent collaboration with St. Vincent de Paul (Vinnies) to raise awareness, and the collection of food and care packs for the homeless in and around Burnie, and then on Monday night, to help disseminate these packs was a huge evidence of understanding from these young leaders. Check out the photos in today’s newsletter to get an idea of how much was donated, and then bagged up and delivered to the Vinnies Food Van for distribution to those in need. We could have just had the traditional gold coin donation, but the SRC wanted the experience to be more practical than that, and so the donation of non-perishable food, toiletries, and even sleeping bags provided them with the opportunity to take their leadership that extra step forward, and brought our school community together behind a worthy cause.

I am excited to be learning alongside the Grade 4s next Wednesday, in one of the oldest ‘classrooms’ in the world! We will be travelling to the Arthur River, ‘Kings Run’ and preminghana (Mount Cameron West) to experience, learn and celebrate one of the oldest living cultures in the world in our Tasmanian Aboriginal culture. We will be joined by Aboriginal Rangers who will help us enrich this experience! This valuable educational experience that is somewhat unique to Burnie Primary School, especially for students in Grade 4. We will continue this learning as a follow up to our recent excursion to pinmatik (Rocky Cape) two weeks ago with National Parks Discovery Ranger Jye Croswell. This on country experience is a real celebration and a high-quality learning experience for all, and again goes to demonstrate the rich learning we are able to provide to the students of Burnie Primary School. If you would like an idea of the experience, check out the short documentary produced by ABC Northern Tasmania journalist Rick Eaves, about the experience we provide for our Grade 4 students last year,learning from the ‘oldest classroom in the world’. It has been recognised by ABC National and has been shown Australia wide and through Facebook and ABC news channels! https://www.facebook.com/abc/videos/455253798535200/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDUwMTk1NjQxMzozMDA5MTg4NDkyNDQxMTg2/?notif_id=1568513898000390&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic_tagged

Cyber Safety
We like to provide parents with information and facts to assist them in choosing appropriate Apps and content for their children to access online and the age restrictions that apply by law. Please take the time to chat with your child/ren this week about being safe online and ensure that you are monitoring your child's/children's online presence.