2 March 2017

Newsletter Articles

Key Dates

Monday 6 March – School photos (Sheffield and Railton)
Tuesday 7 March – School photos make up day
Wednesday 8 March – Friday 10th March – Grade 7 Camp (Payton Park)
Tuesday 14 March – Moderation Day Years 11/12 (Student free)
Thursday 16 March – North West Primary School Sports Association (NWPSSA) Athletics Carnival
Thursday 16 March – Vaccinations (Gardasil) Grade 7
Friday 17 March – Cancer coin line fundraiser
Thursday 23 March – NWPPSSA Twilight Carnival
Saturday 1 April – Sunday 2 April – Relay for Life
Thursday 13 April = Moderation Day Years K – 10 (Student free)

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents,

Students have generally settled well into the year. My observations over the past two weeks have been of students focused and working hard on their learning programs across all areas of the curriculum.

Uniform

On the whole students have presented really well in their uniform to date. There are still a small number of particularly secondary students that are not in uniform on a regular basis. Parents please ensure students are wearing their uniform to school, this helps to strengthen that sense of community and connectedness to school. There is also an element of safety, in that staff are then able to easily identify within the school grounds anyone that is not a part of the student body due to their casual attire.

Swimming Carnival

Last Friday we held our annual swimming carnival at the Splash Aquatic Centre in Devonport. It was great to see many students participating and enjoying themselves on a beautiful summer’s day. An extended report and results are included in this newsletter. Thank you to those parents, family and friends who were able to attend and support their children. Finally a thank you to all staff, particularly Mr Hays, Mrs Oosthuizen De-Lange, Miss Howe and Mr Cowlard for the organisation of the carnival.

Student Representative Council

Late last year, students from grades 6, 7, 8 and 9 voted to decide on the composition of the 2017 grade 10 Student Representative Council. Students elected were Abbey Boutcher, Hanna Bryan, Jordan Burr, Charley Davies, Nathan Huett, Artyom Keddie, Balin Puccetti and Ebony Sims. Recently I met with the group to discuss the year ahead as well as the importance and influence of their position within our school community. The students made a commitment to adhere to the high expectations required of the role and signed the SRC pledge. Congratulations to all of these students and we look forward to the fantastic contribution each member will make to our school this year. See their report in this newsletter.

Tasmanian Junior Beef Expo

The inaugural Tasmanian Junior Beef Cattle Expo was held at the Deloraine Showgrounds over the weekend with a number of our past and present students taking part in this three day event. Participants had the opportunity to learn from mainland professionals working in the industry through a series of workshops including embryo flushing of stud cows, understanding Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs), grooming and preparing cattle for the show ring, and judging cattle. The organising committee had a strong contingent of past Sheffield school students. This dedicated group have worked tirelessly for over a year to plan, gain sponsorship, prepare and coordinate the first event of its kind in Tasmania. It is wonderful to see so many of our past students continuing to pursue their interest in the agricultural industry, this passion was in many cases initiated by participating in our school cattle handling program. Congratulations to the committee, volunteers and participants.

School Rowing

The school rowing team had their first school rowing regatta on the weekend, competing in singles, doubles and quad skull events. Abbey Boutcher, Ruby Skirving, Lillian Rockliff and Jessica Welsh performed well in their individual and team events. The previous weekend Abbey participated in the State Club Championships as a part of the Mersey Rowing Club, experiencing success in both the doubles and quad events. Congratulations on your efforts girls, rowing is a sport that requires a huge level of dedication and it is terrific for the Sheffield School to have representation in these events.

Ron Daly
Principal

Launching Into Learning (LiL)

Learning in Families Together (LiFT)

LIFT will provide opportunities for you to be actively involved in your child’s learning so you can give them the very best start in their education. Being actively engaged in your children’s learning can impact significantly on increasing the learning outcomes for your child.

Open Classroom Afternoon Tea

Thank you to all of the K-2 (Sheffield) and K-4 (Railton) families who came to our open classroom afternoon tea. Research tells us that the more engaged parents are with their children’s learning, the better they do at school. We understand that not all families can make it in to school. This link gives some great tips on some ways to become involved.

Thank you to our school catering team and Mrs Midson who did a fabulous job with the afternoon tea. Our lucky door prize winners for the day were Todd Padman (Sheffield) and Chloe Reed (Railton). We hope you both enjoy playing with your family prize packs! Our first LiFT event for the year was a great success and we look forward to working closely with you to continue to support your children’s learning.

How To Enjoy Home Reading

It was a full house at our Home Reading session! Parents and carers who attended are now skilled up on strategies to help their child on their reading journey. This video gives some great tips to make home reading an enjoyable experience for you and your child. Reading is a fantastic life skill to have so if you would like to know more, please see Susie Hinrichsen or Carly Sullivan.

Have You Got A Great Idea?

Tell us what activities or events you’d like to see happen in our school.

Eg; Circus skills, Lego afternoon, guest speaker, How to use Mathletics and Reading Eggs, cinema at school, Learning Expo, lunchbox cooking etc.

Write it down and place it the LiFT suggestion box in the Resource Room at Sheffield and the office at Railton, or you can email us.

We will have regular LiFT updates here in the Newsletter or you can email ideas and suggestions to: carly.sullivan@education.tas.gov.au

National History Challenge

If you love research into History, and enjoy a good creative challenge, the National History Challenge might be for you.

Open to students from Years 2-12, both individually and in groups, the National History Challenge is an awesome way to explore the past. State and National prizes can be as high as $1500. This year's theme is "Making the world a better place", and there are a range of formats that entries can have, including museum displays, essays, performances, films and other multimedia presentations.

The National History Challenge is extremely competitive, so students will need to commit to extensive work outside of school to create a winning entry.

Help is available after school and during lunches. If you are interested, you can contact Mr Ashby in his office (by the 11-12 Classroom) by email bob.ashby@education.tas.gov.au, or phone the school for more information. The deadline is in Term 3, but contestants will want to get started early!

School Photos Timetable

Sheffield School Council Election 2017

Elections for School Council will be held on Tuesday, 21 March 2017.

Nominations are being called for one (1) community and four (4) parent vacancies. Nomination forms and an information brochure are available from the school office. Nominations must be to the Returning Officer, Sheree Lynch, by COB Monday 20 March, 2017.

For enquiries phone 6491 8222.

The School Council gives parents, community members, students and staff an opportunity to participate in setting future directions, making decisions and developing policies that have a direct effect on the way the school operates.

Parents and guardians of a student are automatically parent members and are entitled to nominate for a parent position and to vote, should an election be required.

Other members of the community interested in being a community member are required to apply to the School Council to be accepted as such. At this stage, only those who have been accepted can nominate for this vacancy. Interested members of the community are encouraged to place their names forward so that they can participate in future elections and possibly be members of the School Council.

The students in Grades 7-9 will elect among themselves the students who will fill the Student Member vacancies.

The values and purposes that underpin all that we do at the school are constantly reviewed. The School Council has revised its vision statement that takes into account our values and captures the uniqueness of our school and the wider community. A review of several key policies is currently underway.

Being a member of the School Council is a worthwhile and effective way to be involved in the school community and to ensure that we provide an education for our students that will foster in them a desire for life-long learning.

Enquiries should be directed to the Returning Officer, Sheree Lynch, at the school office.

Sheffield Student Representative Council (SRC)

During the first few busy weeks of term one, the 2017 SRC team have already had our first few meetings discussing some new and exciting ideas for Sheffield School for the year ahead.

Our main focus at the moment is combatting Bullying in our school. We have started by discussing with the other members of the secondary SRC some ways to put a stop to it and how to empower positive vibes and happy emotions around the school. So far we are overflowing with ideas to achieve our goals within the subject of getting the word out that bullying is not ok and that making others feel happy is the way to live.

We are also happy to announce that we will be having a team of secondary students representing Sheffield School at the annual Relay for Life at the Penguin Sports Complex on the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of April which raises money for all cancer services and research. We are also planning our first big fundraiser which will be raising money for the Relay for Life which will be a cancer coin line. Basically our cancer coin line fundraiser will be where all students of the school are encouraged to bring along all their loose change or their stash of 5 and 10 cent pieces, or bigger coins if you wish, to help us cover the word ‘CANCER’, which will be written nice and big, with the coins. This will be happening in the Canteen courtyard for all ages of the school on Friday 17th March. So please bring along any spare change and help us with this incredible fundraiser.

We have also begun our lunchtime play programme with the Early Childhood students which involves the SRC team going over and playing with the students at the Early Childhood campus in the sand pit, or playing dodgeball and even drawing and just having fun. We are finding it very enjoyable getting to know the little ones of the school and can’t wait for future interactions with them.

The team and Miss.Dudley are also super excited to work with the newest members of the Primary and Secondary SRC who we have had meetings with already, where they have contributed their ideas towards our focus of bullying. They are an incredible bunch of students. We are extremely eager to embark on this year and help out the school anywhere we can and to make our mark in 2017.

Abbey Boutcher

Swimming Carnival

The 2017 Sheffield School Swimming Carnival was held on an extremely sunny 24th February at the Devonport pool. Students from grade’s 7, 8, 9 and 10 started off the day with their respective 25 metre races, closely followed by the junior school participants in these distances. Primary students had the opportunity to participate in events such as small pool, boards, novelty events and the water slide. Senior students also had the opportunity to enjoy these activities as well as competing in the iron man competition, surf boards and the opportunity to represent the student body in the staff versus students’ race. The student’s ironman teams were still smarting after last year’s narrow loss. The teacher’s team boasted hardened athletes such as Mrs O, Mr Cowlard and Mr Williams and were quietly confident. After a very close first three legs the teachers nudged ahead on the final run and managed to win in a very close, competitive race. Well done to all who participated.

Participation is the key to winning the swimming carnival and this year Kentish displayed the highest participation rate and ultimately the highest amount of points.

Tony Hayes
HPE Teacher

The Voice of Youth Speech Competition

Fancy yourself a public speaker? Would you like to learn the fine art of oration?

The Rostrum Voice of Youth Speech Competition is on again in 2017. Contestants will write and memorize a speech, and also give an "off the cuff" speech.

This is open for students in Years 7-12.

Juniors (up to Year 9) will need to give a 6 minute prepared speech, and Seniors an 8 minute speech.

The regional competition will be held in Burnie on Thursday 4 May 2017.

If you are interested, you can contact Mr Ashby in his office (by the 11-12 Classroom) by email bob.ashby@education.tas.gov.au, or phone the school. Help is available to all students committed to entering the competition.

Community Notices