Dear School Community

Science Week is well underway and the school is a hive of activity.  The student research projects for the Science Expo have been displayed in the gymnasium and show the learnings and understandings of our amazing cohort of students.  A highlight this week has been the Skype session with Dr Karl and hearing the tricky questions that the students have provided to him for explanation.  On Sunday a group of 9  students from Grade 6 will be running a stall at the Burnie MakerX being held at the Burnie Arts & Function Centre.  There are presenters from all over the NW displaying technology, arts and innovations.  The MakerX runs from 11am to 3pm and is free entry.  A big thankyou to all of the students and staff who have worked tirelessly to make Science Week another success.  A massive thankyou to Mr Dome for all of the coordination and organisation.

Our student SRC has been holding weekly visits to Umina Park to spend time with the residents.  This has been a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn from people who have seen many changes in our community and are able to pass on much wisdom and understanding.  It has also been an opportunity for our students to teach the residents various activities including computer coding.  In turn our students have had experiences in activities such as line dancing and bocce.

I am constantly reminded by visitors to our school of the amazing cohort of students we have.  Visitors are always commenting on the polite manner in which they are spoken to, the exemplary behaviour displayed and the capacity of the students to hold meaningful conversations.  There was no better example of this than on Tuesday when a group of grade 13 Rosny College students were here filming.  These 18 year olds went out of their way to explain to me the amazing interactions they had with our students and even commented that they have worked in schools across the state and have never come across a group of kids as amazing as ours.  This is an enormous pat on the back to you the families.  Thank you for all the time and effort you place into the growth and development of your children.

Good luck to all students who are playing in grand-finals and finals this weekend and over the coming weeks in their chosen sport.  Remember that whether you win or lose you have done an exceptional job and respond to whatever happens with respect, humility and excitement.

Please remember that if you are wanting to meet with a teacher or senior staff member it is required that you contact the front office to schedule a meeting time.  We believe that communicating with parents and carers is very important and want to ensure that meetings are given the time and respect needed.  The start of a school day and the end of the school day is very busy for staff and it is very hard for a teacher to meet with a parent / carer at these times.  Also, it is not always possible for a senior staff member to meet a community member during the day without prior notice due to the various array of scheduled responsibilities.  Please ensure that you contact the front office to request a meeting and a suitable time will be organised.

Regards

Andrew Woodard

Principal (acting)

Grade 4 Camp   By Chas Powell

As all the grade 4s get on the bus for camp. I was feeling quite excited and a bit nervous for camp. Our first stop was Forest Primary School for a snack and a bit of a play. I was feeling quite hungry because we had travelled on the bus for at least an hour. As I get off the bus and head inside for a snack I take my snack out of my bag and start to eat it. As I finish my snack and run out side for a quick play. I had my play and it was time to get on the bus for our next stop to Arthur River which was about an hour and a half. 

As the bus stopped at Arthur River I was super excited for what was coming up next. We sat in this room with an aboriginal guy named Jye. He was telling us about these interesting aboriginal rock knives and abalone shells. It was quite interesting because I was learning about things I already knew but more about the subject. We were learning about big birds, oils, shells, rock knives and many more things. After our big talk we started making kelp baskets with shells. The kelp was really smelly and it had a weird sort of slimy texture to it. When I finished my kelp basket I was quite surprised how it turned out. 

When we arrived at our next stop it was like a big bush, in my head I was wondering if the bus driver had got us lost. Then I figured that we had to do a bit of a bush walk to get to our actual destination. When we stopped at this place at Kings Run there was a bit of a beach. We  split into 3 groups. One group was with Jye, second one was with Jarrod and the third one was with Mr Starick our Principal. My group was first up with Jye we went to look at the seal hides. Jye explained how the women would cover themselves in seal fat and hide in dips in the rocky ground. The seals wouldn’t smell the humans because they were covered in seal fat which smelt like every other seal. So when the seals came close to the women they had big woodies and the women would knock the seals out for good, and eat them later on. As I was exploring on the rocks I found some sort of a bone from a seal, it was pretty cool.

At Preminghana we looked over some cliff edges but luckily no-one got hurt. It was an amazing view. We saw the sunset that was an amazing sight. There was also a light house but we didn’t get to go in it. It was sad that we had to go to our camp-sight at River Bend. It was nearly 2 hours until we got back to camp. It got very dark so fast. When we got to River Bend I was very tired because we had done so many things in 1 day. 

At River Bend all the Grade 4s were asked to sit in a room so that the teachers could tell us the people who were in our cabins. I was in a cabin with Lily, Sana, Addison, Olivia, Ruby, Lilyanne, Maddie and Indee. After we were told who our cabin partners were we went to our room and set up our beds. After we had set up our beds we had our tea. I had spaghetti bolognese, carrot, corn, peas and garlic bread. After tea we sat down for a while and had some dessert. I had mousse and ice cream. We all then went to play in the games room. I didn’t go play in the games because I was practicing for our talent show. After the play we went to sit in the room to do our talent show. First up were the teachers Miss. Jacobson Mr. Johnston and Mrs. Hill. They did a Lego song and were mouth syncing. Next was Lily and I, we were preforming a comedian act, I got so embarrassed that I stepped on stage and started laughing. Later through the act I was talking. The next performance was Reena with her magic show with her cards. She asked for an assistant so she chose Ruby. Next was Ruby with her string trick. It was quite interesting because she was getting tangled but she untied herself so easily. Jake, Ryan and Tobias were up next, they were doing the lemonade stand. It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. Second last was Lilyanne with her magic trick with cars. It was cool because she got someone's card right. Last was my second group doing card tricks. I was first but sadly I didn’t quite get it right. Second was Sana she got hers right last was Parisa she also got hers right. It was time to go to bed I was super tired we had a long day. 

It was our last trip until we had to travel back to school. At Rocky Cape we had 3 groups. I was first with Jarrod, our group was looking at aboriginal caves. It was cool how you could see where the aboriginals had lit their fire to have warmth or to cook their food. Our second group was with Mr Starick at the beach. Amarli and I were walking from one side of the beach to the other side of the beach on the rocks. It was time to swap for our last group which was with Jye. We went to go look at some plants. Jye also showed us some bush tucker. I tried some the taste was ok but is wasn’t the best at the same time. Our last walk was to a cave. We couldn’t exactly go really close to the cave. Our boundaries was sort of a bit like a wooden deck. After we had done that it was time to head back to school. But first we had a toilet break. 

We had arrived back at school. We sat our suit-cases down on the ground and we all raced to the playgrounds. I raced to the swings. As I got higher I closed my eyes and it felt like I was going to fall off or hit my head on the top of the bar that holds the swing chains. I then went to go and get a ball out of the class room. As I got to the basketball I started yelling, “WHO WANTS TO PLAY ELIMINATION” so everybody came to play. The home bell went I was super keen to go home and have a rest!

On Wednesday 14^th and Thursday 15^th of August, Burnie Primary School participated in the Science Expo for Science Week, with their projects and models. On Wednesday the Kinders and Preps were shown some awesome science projects by Caroline Smith from the University of Tasmania. The grade 3s had their shadow science experiment posters up, the grade 1s shared their knowledge about the five senses, the grade 4s had some very pretty flower art learning about the parts of a flower and Grade 5 and 6 shared their posters and models with parents, teachers and other peers.

In the afternoon the whole school participated in a skype session with Dr Karl.  All of the classes had questions to ask him. He answered all our questions and was really interesting. 

On Thursday the grade 5s and 6s were questioned about their experiments by Burnie High School students, Burnie High teachers and the University of Tasmania teachers. We were asked some very important questions. Overall Science week has been lots of fun with everyone learning new things.

Annual School Satisfaction Surveys for parents and staff are being conducted during August 2019 across Tasmanian government schools. Starting next week, all schools and colleges will be undertaking the Student Wellbeing Survey for students in            Years 4 –6

The surveys provide an opportunity for parents and staff to give important feedback on what the school does well and where we can improve. Questions cover a range of topics about our school.

All responses are secure and anonymous.

Parents and staff are invited to participate.

Parents selected to participate in the parent survey will receive a letter in coming days.

We encourage you to complete the survey to give our school a clear direction for future programs and services for students.

IMPORTANT: In 2019 all students in Years 4-6 will be undertaking a Wellbeing Survey that will incorporate elements of the Satisfaction Survey.

Please contact the office if you wish to use a school computer to complete the survey.

Congratulations to all 24 students who participated in the Australian Mathematics Competition.

 Students opted in to this event and were presented with 30 challenging problems to solve in one hour.

 An example from the grade 3-4 competition paper:

1. A pencil costs 25c and a ruler costs 80c. with $5 I bought one ruler and as many pencils as I could afford. What change did I get?
   1. 25c        b. 20c    c. 15c    d. 10c    e. 5c

 Keep an eye out for results, to be released nationwide in September