Term Dates

Professional Learning Days & Public Holidays

On Friday the Premier announced the exciting news that we would be returning to “normal” school for primary students from Monday 25^th of May. The Education Minister also announced that it is very important that, unless you cannot supervise or support your child to learn at home that you do not send your child to school until Monday 25^th of May, to support Public Health in the staged easing of restrictions. This is vital to keep our communities safe. I have included with this newsletter all of the advice that Education Department has provided for parents with regard to the timeline for reopening school sites. A letter from the Minister of Education and our DoE Secretary Tim Bullard explaining the plan has been mailed to all families and also included in today’s newsletter.

Thank you to everyone in our school community for your messages of support and solidarity in our first full week of remote and flexible learning. The changes we have implemented to enable the continuation of learning for our students have involved a huge amount of work by our staff and I am truly thankful for the commitment and professionalism our staff have shown. We really appreciate the feedback we have had so far from parents and carers with regard to our Learning at Home offerings. Where appropriate that advice has informed tweaks to what we do.

Our teachers have worked extremely hard and diligently to prepare our Learning at Home Work packs and our online  learning classes and videos. Last week was our first time going online. This was scary for our teachers but they have been heartened by the response to these sessions from students. They are very excited with the engagement of students with their learning and how well they are adapting to learning at home. Mrs Youd has included further information about our Online Learning offerings in this newsletter. Our teachers are also contacting families on a regular basis to check in on how you are going with the set work and offering assistance where possible. The final Learning from home pack will be available from 9:00 a.m Monday 18^th of May.

At the end of last term we sent out a notice to parents asking if you needed support with access to the internet. If you do not have access or need to borrow an ICT device for learning at home, please contact Mrs Youd. We are also requesting that if you need advice and support with any aspect of our online learning program to contact Mrs Youd during school hours or via email on debbie.youd@education.tas.gov.au.

Communications - Keeping parents informed.

A reminder that if you are no linked into our school’s Facebook page, I highly recommend checking it out. We are informing our community about our school and at home learning options via the Facebook page, and are posting information from us and the Department of Education on almost a daily basis.  Our Facebook page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/EastDevonportPrimary/  We will also when necessary send information home to families.

In line with DoE expectations with regard to adult physical distancing, we request that in the first instance, when you need to speak with myself, our teachers or other staff at our school, you do this via telephone on 64278932 or email. Our school email address can be found on our school web page and facebook page.

Getting children and young people used to the routine and structure of school while at home.

To support their ongoing learning, it is important that children have as much routine and certainty as possible in their day.

You can support your child or young person’s learning by:

• Involving your child in establishing a simple, consistent, and responsive daily routine
• Including times for eating, reading, talking, writing, playing and exercise.
• Displaying your daily routine so everyone in the family can see it.
• Creating a balance between more formal learning with time for reading books, exploring the outdoors and child initiated learning opportunities.
• Being prepared for things not going to plan and being flexible.

Creating a supportive learning space at home

It is a good idea to set up an ‘at home’ learning space where children have access to the things they need. A dedicated learning space separates work and play which supports children’s focus and concentration. This will allow you to organise and manage learning materials and assist where necessary.

Involve your child in creating their learning space.

Consider the age and independence of your child when deciding on the location of the learning space

Remember to use safe outdoor spaces for learning throughout the day.

Wellbeing

It is a challenging time for us all. The need to look after ourselves and others has never been more important! It is imperative if we are to do our roles as parent, student, teacher, friend, partner etc. that we monitor our health and the health of those around us. One of the best things we can do individually, as a couple, or families is to go for a walk. The wellbeing benefits of walking for just 20 minutes a day are well established. In this regard it is great to observe families getting out for exercise, walking the dog or just going for a regular stroll.

Adult Physical Distancing Expectations at EDPS

We are requesting that when parents/carers drop off students at school of a morning to follow the “KISS n Go” principle where kids are nicely but quickly dropped off at school. We request, parents/carers drop off students from the infant playground for ECE students, from the school gates for primary students, and from the Kinder playground for Mrs Portlock's class and Kinder. For children who had special requirements in place at the end of term 1, these are still in place. Staff will be in attendance at the start and end of day to if necessary to walk children to class and at the parent collection points.

Also, as best as we can, all adults on site will be expected to adhere to the 1.5 m distancing requirement. The 4m2 requirement for adults in our school buildings will also be applied. We therefore, request that parents do not congregate in groups whilst waiting to drop off and collect their children. We also ask them to complete this as quickly as possible. If you need to contact/speak with a member of staff, we request that this be via telephone or email where possible. All on site queries are to be made through our school office. A reminder that parents/carers are where possible, not to go into our school classrooms and corridors. For the exceptional circumstances where an adult / parent / carer does need to enter our school buildings, the DoE expects all adults to sanitise their hands on entry to our school buildings.

Learning at Home Packs

On Monday 18 May our week 3 Learning at Home packs will be delivered. A big thank you to our staff for doing these deliveries. It is a mammoth task with so many families and homes. Please return your packs to school when they have been completed and they will be marked by your child's teacher. Teachers have made videos to explain how to use the packs, so if you need assistance, please don't hesitate to watch them. They are available on our Vimeo channel. Should you need any further assistance please don't hesitate to contact your child's teacher.

Learning Support Online

This term we have set up a Vimeo channel so staff can share extra learning support for students learning at home. The link is https://vimeo.com/channels/1579700

Join the staff of East Devonport Primary School as they share information and teaching strategies and offer support to students with their learning at home. Click on Follow to get automatic notifications when new videos are uploaded.

Online Learning in Term 2 Using Skype

For the first few weeks this term, our teachers will be supporting learning at home through the use of Skype, a free Microsoft online video conferencing tool that can be downloaded onto computers, ipads and phones. This will enable teachers to communicate with students, provide teacher directed lessons with students and answer questions online. It will also enable students to see their teacher and interact with them online. For help in how to use Skype click on http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-use-skype/ Should you require extra support, please don’t hesitate to contact Debbie Youd during school hours or on email debbie.youd@education.tas.gov.au

Times for Online Skype Learning Sessions

Please check Facebook for any additional offerings or changes as information regarding sessions will be updated regularly.

Learning Resources

EDPS also provides a range of online learning resources we would like your child to access from home throughout the year. These include:

https://www.mathsonline.com.au/  All students have a username and password to access this.  Teachers will set maths work for all students each week. Please contact Mrs. Youd, your child’s teacher or the school if you do not know your child’s username and password.

https://www.lexiacore5.com/register  Lexia Core 5 is our core reading program. Go to this link, put in Mrs Youd’s email address, debbie.youd@education.tas.gov.au, it will then take you to your child’s login page.  All students have a username and password to access this.  Teachers will set maths work for all students each week. Please contact your, Mrs. Youd, child’s teacher or the school if you do not know your child’s username and password.

https://www.ziptales.com/student/index.php  Ziptales is another of our school reading apps. It provides a library of books for students to read as well as lots of reading activities. Password and username are both EDhome. Please contact your, Mrs. Youd, child’s teacher or the school if you have any problems.

I hope parents and children are enjoying the activities and play ideas in the learning pack. Our focus for the first 2 weeks of school is Nursery Rhymes. Week 1's rhyme is Jack and Jill and Week 2 is Hey Diddle Diddle.

The class will be having their Skype sessions for those children learning from home on Mondays (Literacy), Tuesdays (Numeracy), Wednesdays (Story focus) and Thursdays (Oral language focus)  at 12.00pm. 

Emails have been sent with the link for parents to download Skype. Invites will be sent to join the daily Skype sessions in the mornings starting next week.

Enjoying learning in the classroom

P-1 M Learning at School

First week back and we have been very busy in P-1M. This week we have been working on our learning at home packs and organising a special Mother’s Day gift.

This is a snap shot of our week in P-1M

Mother’s day art and craft task

Building a Tower with cups

Experimenting with paints

James was excited to do a painting on Monday. He was very fascinated how the colours changed and decided to do some experiments. The below photo shows James problem solving with different colours.

Learning at home with Skype

If you have not yet supplied your email address to me please ring the school to provide it and I can send you instructions on how to download skype or you may use the link below.

Miss Morice would like to chat to you on Skype. It’s free!

https://join.skype.com/WsPYgDpneIRe

Session times will be daily (they will be live online literacy sessions). You will receive a meeting invite via skype, I will initiate the call daily.  Please note I will send invites out each afternoon for the next daily session, start times may vary from time to time. Please feel free to chat to me via your personal skype account or via email rather than the group chat, however you may chat through the group chat while we are online.

Once you have downloaded skype and added me as a contact there will be a group chat I will add you to, otherwise join the above link.

Keep up the great learning at home and I look forward to seeing you in class soon.

Take care and stay safe!

Miss Morice

It has been a very strange start the term indeed!

We have completed our first skype session and it went really well. If I do not have your email address please ring the school to provide it and I can send you instructions on how to download skype or you may use the link below.

Cherie Portlock would like to chat with you on Skype. It’s free!

https://join.skype.com/invite/Wyhs9yhqCxxW

Session times will be daily at 9.30 – 10.30 (they will be live online literacy sessions). You will receive a meeting invite via skype; I will initiate the call daily.  Please note I will send invites out each afternoon for the next daily session, start times may vary from time to time. Please feel free to chat to me via your personal skype account or via email rather than the group chat, however you may chat through the group chat while we are online.

Once you have downloaded skype and added me as a contact there will be a group chat I will add you to, otherwise the link to join is below.

Prep/1 Portlock would like to chat with you on Skype. It’s free!

https://join.skype.com/XaDTinhKdlhm

Happy learning at home and I look forward to seeing you on skype.

Cherie Portlock

Hello everyone, what a different type of start to term two! In 2-3 Howard we have had some students working with Miss Howard in the classroom and some students working online. Our main focus over the past week in class and online has been making sure we are keeping up with our Literacy and Numeracy work. We have been getting our LSCWCH, spelling jobs and word sort completed every morning.

In class we have been doing some research and writing about Dolphins and the students working at the school have found some very interesting facts! Did you know that Dolphins breathe air and have lungs just like us? We were very confused as to how they manage to stay underwater for so long! I hope everyone is staying safe and I can’t wait to see all your faces back in 2-3H soon!

In year 2-3 Moore we have been doing some artwork using masking tape and oil pastels. First we used masking tape to separate our page into sections. Then we coloured the sections using oil pastels. Lastly, we removed the tape.

Welcome back to Term 2!

The beginning of this term has been very different for 3-4 Simmonds. We have completed our first few Skype sessions and students who are learning from home have made a great start on this. During this time we have been focusing on sentence combining, which is a regular routine in our classroom. The students were asked to join 2 simple sentences together to create compound sentences. They were asked to share these via our skype session and we typed them up.

Have a look at their learning below.

4-5 Thow have been investigating the difference between a country and a continent and being able to label the oceans and the continents correctly.

In 5-6D literacy we have started looking at three reasons why people write- to inform, to entertain and to persuade.

We’ve started looking at advertising in its many forms. 

Pictures  - Gideon, Bella and Jackson doing their word sorts. 

Gideon analysing some printed advertisements

Students from 5/6 Welling have been practicing their reading fluency by participating in Readers Theatre. They even had the opportunity to perform their scripts for Mr and Mrs Youd as well as 2/3 Moore. 

Managing Asthma During Winter

Have an Asthma Action Plan

Winter brings cold weather and keeps us inside where indoor triggers such as dust mites, pet allergens, smoke and viruses can worsen asthma symptoms. Cold, dry air may cause airways to tighten, making breathing more difficult.

Winter is also the season for colds and influenza. As many as 8 out of 10 asthma attacks in children and 4 out of 10 in adults are triggered by viral infections, which is even more reason to have a written asthma action plan. If you do not have a written Asthma Action Plan please discuss this with your doctor next time you visit. As with any other time of year, it is very important to keep your asthma under control. This includes having regular reviews with your doctor, taking the proper medication regularly as indicated on your Asthma Action Plan and avoiding your asthma triggers.

Managing winter triggers

• As cold air can trigger asthma, you could try wearing a scarf around your mouth, and try to breathe through your nose, which warms and humidifies the air.
• Avoid smoke from tobacco, fireplaces and wood stoves as this can trigger asthma symptoms.
• Gas fireplaces and stoves should be flued, and should be checked and serviced regularly to prevent gas leaks.
• Make sure you use the kitchen vent when cooking.
• If asthma limits your physical activity, then it is likely that your asthma is not under control – see your doctor if you have regular symptoms during or after exercising.
• Asthma shouldn’t stop you from exercising outside in the winter.
• Take your preventer medications regularly, protect yourself from the cold, and warm up and cool down properly.
• Exercise is important for everyone and can be done indoors on very cold days (e.g. in a gym, your home, or a heated swimming pool).

Zara Charles

School Health Nurse

Sugar in Foods and Drinks

Message from Commonwealth Bank 

The health, safety and wellbeing of our communities and our people remains our highest priority. Due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding coronavirus, the School Banking program will remain on hold. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed with any updates including how we will be managing Dollarmite tokens for students. 

In the meantime, here are some handy online resources for parents who wish to maintain momentum with their child’s financial education: 

• Start Smart: these resources have been created to improve children’s money management skills, and is aligned to the Australian Curriculum and the National Consumer Financial Literacy Framework. 
• The Beanstalk: offers videos and fun activities for children to learn about money.