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- Penguin District School Calendar
- Assistant Principal's Report
- Green Penguins
- Year 1 A - Penton
- Year 1 B - King
- Year 1 C - Gardam
- Year 2 A & B Green & Taylor
- Le Cambriolage
- Year 10 RYDA Excursion
- Primary Cross Country
- Secondary Cross Country Colour Run
- Reminder - YEAR 10 CELEBRATION JUMPER
- School Production Fundraiser
- Production Orders
- Parent Reading Information Session
- PDS Annual Bake Sale
- Safeguarding Training Session & Working With Vulnerable People Help
- Burnie Tennis Club
- Burnie Tennis Coaching
- School Calendar
Penguin District School Calendar
For all upcoming events please see the Penguin District School Calendar
Lifting Literacy – The Reading Priority
At PDS we know that reading is foundational to all other areas of learning and life in a broader sense. As a department, and as a school, we know that student reading success is a key indicator of success in the future. From 2024 all Tasmanian Government schools are beginning their journey in developing a new approach to the teaching of reading. This approach is effective for beginning, emerging and advanced readers.
Children aren’t born with natural skills in reading. It is a skill that needs to be taught systematically and explicitly. Reading is also something that can be broken down into lots of smaller individual skills.
As our staff develop their own understandings around current research in reading, you may hear some of the following terms come up in conversation with both your students and teachers.
The Big Six of Reading
This refers to the key foundational elements of reading:
- Oral language – Talking and listening.
- Phonological awareness – Being able to recognise individual sounds in speech.
- Phonics – Being able to recognise the relationship between letters and sounds.
- Vocabulary – Knowing the meaning of a word makes you more likely to be able to read it.
- Fluency – This is a key indicator of reading success, but it is not just about being able to read quickly, its about reading a way that shows you understand the meaning.
- Comprehension – Understanding what you read.
In our Early Years Oral language, phonological awareness are key components of our learning programs. As students move into the primary and secondary space, the focus shifts more into the teaching of vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. Skilled readers will be able to use all of the components interchangeably.
Intervention and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support.
What this means is that throughout the school there are 3 key ways that teaching instruction is used to make sure that.
In Tier 1, all students are taught reading in a quality evidence-based way.
In Tier 2, more intensive reading support is provided in small groups to need extra help with specific skills. Our Reading Groups are a great example of this.
In Tier 3, more intensive and more frequent tailored intervention is provided for students in a 1-1 or 1-2 setting. This intensive support is provided by our Literacy Intervention team. It’s like an extra dose of what is already happening in the classroom to reinforce key concepts. The aim of this type of teaching is to give students the skills they need so they no longer require this type of intervention.
Decodable Texts
This is a term you have probably heard already, but it’s worth a quick explanation. Decodable texts are used primarily during the early reading stage. They are sequenced texts that relate to the phonemes (sounds) that a student has already been taught. The aim of using these texts is to ensure students are learning to decode words rather than guessing. You may have already noticed an increase in the number of decodable texts available for home reading in the Early Years.
Staff Reading Professional Learning
All of our teaching staff are currently undertaking whole of Department Professional Learning through Qualiteach modules. This will continue across the year. We will also have a number of staff who begin to engage in spaced learning programs around word recognition and fluency later this year.
Reading at home
To support our families with “Reading at home,” we are extremely lucky to have Sheila Steele hosting a session on Friday 31st May from 9.00 – 10.0am. I know I am really excited about this session and would encourage as many parents/carers to come along as possible. Don’t forget to RSVP.
We will share more information around our reading journey as the year progresses.
Cross Country Carnivals
Looking ahead to next week we are excited to hold our Secondary (21 May) and Primary (23 May) Cross Country Carnivals. Hopefully, the weather can be a bit kinder to us this year!
Please note, to be compliant with our school’s Safeguarding Risk Management Plan, and to ensure the safety of all children, we ask that you:
- Only take photos of your own children
- If publishing photos of your own children on social media platforms, they do not contain images of others.
Thank you for your support in keeping our school community safe.
Yours in partnership
Adrian Beard (AP)
Staffing Update (from Mr Perry)
Mrs Angella McAulliffe spoke with me yesterday afternoon. I can inform you that she has made the somewhat difficult decision to extend her leave next term and return to PDS in Term 4. I would like to wish her all the best in continuing her time at home with Milly and her family as they share invaluable time together, creating lifelong memories. I will continue to lead the school during this time and Mr Adrian Beard will continue in the role of Primary AP alongside Geoff Davis as Secondary AP.
On Friday, 10 May, the year one classes took a wonder walk around the playground and down to the old school to learn about natural, constructed and managed places. After the walk, we drew pictures and wrote a recount of our experience. In 1A, we continued exploring these concepts by creating our own maps. Inspired by the Dreamtime story ‘The Rainbow Serpent,’ we used indigenous symbols to create maps. We then collaborated to map out our school and finally designed our own neighbourhood using a key. We found out that creating maps is so much fun!
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We have had an excellent start to term two in 1B! In math this term we are investigating measurement and have started by talking about length. We have collected interesting natural parts from the playground to compare and order and we have especially enjoyed exploring different ways to measure ourselves. We are continuing to expand our measurement vocabulary as we discover other attributes to measure and compare. Some other highlights from the start of term have included writing poems for Mother’s day, a Wonder Walk with 1A and 1C, and a whole class focus on celebrating learning goals together.
Term 2 is off to a fabulous start in 1C with a big focus on setting personal goals for our learning. We are displaying these as leaves on a plant to grow a class garden of goals. We have been using a variety of strategies to build our skills to achieve our goals, including checking our own work, listening to feedback and asking questions to develop strategies to grow further. In literacy this looks like us sharing our journal writing with a buddy to check for meaning and double checking our sentence boundary punctuation.
Handwriting
Handwriting is an important skill that takes lots of practise to get right. In grade 2 we talk a lot about how to hold our pencils with the correct grip and why this is important. We watched this clip to learn a trick…
How to HOLD A PENCIL!! - (Easy for Kids!) - with Ally the Alligator - YouTube
Charts up on the wall in our learning space show us the correct starting place for each letter and we practise regularly in our handwriting book.
Did you know that no letter starts from the bottom and that the letters, a, d, g, o, and q all start like a c?
Here are some examples of our handwriting…
On Monday, 15 students across Year 7, 8 and 9 participated in an escape room hosted by the University of Melbourne, titled ‘Le Cambriolage,’ meaning ‘The Burglary’ in English. Students worked in small groups to uncover clues written in French and to determine what was hidden in the stolen safe. Students were challenged with their little to no knowledge of French but persevered to solve the heist using their decoding skills, problem solving and a basic vocabulary sheet. Some of the clues we were given included listening to something said in French, translating it, then entering it into a lock. Other clues we had to crack involved finding a key or a certain object hidden on or around the suitcase of clues we were given, this then had us scouring the place, looking in every nook and cranny. In the end all teams joined together, combining their found clues and knowledge to crack open the renowned safe. A big thank you to Sarah and Bianca, our hosts, and Alana, Miss Lutwyche and Ms Woodward for helping with this event.
Maddy Beattie
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On the 15th of May, the year 10’s took a trip to Camp Clayton, having the privilege to experience the Rotary club’s Youth Driver Awareness Program. Learning how your personality affects your driving and the consequences of risk taking, things that may seem little can cause you to think about what might happen if you find yourself in certain situations. From learning stats on deaths in Australia through road crashes, to realising just how much your reaction time can be a life changing matter for someone, whether it be yourself, your passenger or simply a pedestrian going about their day. Listening to some confronting horror experiences made it very apparent that most young drivers can be reckless and that no one gets a second chance. The motto on the wristbands we were given ‘My Life My Choices’ is a good reminder of how dangerous driving can actually be. We thank the school and the Rotary Clubs of Devonport North and Ulverstone for making this opportunity possible.
Gracelyn
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Secondary Cross Country Colour Run
This year for our Secondary Cross Country on Tuesday 21st May, we are asking students to change into a white/light coloured school appropriate tshirt in the hope they would like some colour sprayed in their direction from our teachers around the course. The coloured powder we will use is made of high-quality cornstarch with permitted food-safe colours making it safe for eyes and skin. The powder is non-toxic safe, but also biodegradable and environmentally friendly. After the colour run, students will need to bring a bag to put their coloured clothes and maybe shoes in as they will be getting changed back into their school clothes for their afternoon classes.
Reminder - YEAR 10 CELEBRATION JUMPER
Dear Families,
The school association has approved the request for a Year 10 jumper to be made available again in 2024. The students will be able to wear them as part of their school uniform. The jumper is made available to Year 10s as part of the celebration of, what is most often, their last year at Penguin District School.
Our provider this year is Donna Miller ‘Red Rogue Promotions’ and she has assisted in the development of the style and design.
- Each garment will cost $60 and we will be placing the final order during May.
- We will require a commitment from students with payment by Friday May 24 (Week 4, Term 2):
- VISA or MasterCard payments via school office
- Cash – with the appropriate money in a PDS payment envelope (with your name)
- Via Qkr App
We have been provided with sample sizes which will be available for students to try prior to the order being finalised. An example of the jumper can be seen below:
If you have any questions, or wish to talk about payment options, please do not hesitate to phone me at the school on 6434 2222, or email – jade.hughes@decyp.tas.gov.au
We are excited about presenting our production ‘Beauty and the Beast – A Bloomin’ Good Tale’ at the Ulverstone theatre in Term 4 2024.
Our next order for production t-shirts and hoodies for staff and students will be placed when we have recieved at least 30 orders. The shirts will be black and hoodies will be black or blue with the production logo on the front and the option of first name, surname or character name on the back. The cost of the t-shirt is $27. The cost of the hoodies is $60 or $65 with name.
T-shirts and hoodies can be worn to rehearsals, casual clothes days and outside of school.
Band members, backstage crew and ushers are encouraged, where possible, to wear the production t-shirt as part of their outfit for shows (plain black clothing is required if this t-shirt is not purchased).
Orders can be made via the Qkr.
Hotshots
Tuesday & Thursday
4 to 6 year olds
Wednesday & Thursday
7 to 11 year olds
Yellow Ball
10 to 16 year olds
Junior Comp Squads
Junior Private Lessons
FREE TRIAL JUNIOR GROUP LESSON
For Bookings or Enquires please contact Grant on 0417528502