The end of Term 2 is fast approaching, students have done an amazing job transitioning back into on site learning.  As our class routines and structures begin to settle teachers have been able to undertake relevant testing requirements to support future teaching and learning practices and planning.  It is very important that students remain focussed right up until the end of Term 2 to ensure we are able to complete as much teaching and learning as possible.

School Association

Next week will see us hold our Annual General Meeting for 2020, this was postponed due to COVID-19 but with restrictions easing we are now able to hold the meeting next Tuesday 23 June at 6:00pm.  We encourage any community members to attend and join our association, it is a great way to become involved in the school and support decision making moving forward.

Term 2 Reporting

Due to COVID-19 and the impact on students DoE have made the decision to revise our general mid-year reporting process.  Between 15 June and 26 June all teachers will be contacting student’s families to arrange a short meeting.  This meeting can take place in several forms (phone, in person or video) and during these conversations teachers will report to parents on student wellbeing while also outlining progress in Numeracy and Literacy.  These conversations will be summarised by teachers and put on student files for future reference and reporting in 2020.  Thank you to those families who have already completed meetings with teachers this week.

Assemblies

Last Thursday saw us complete our first full online assembly through a Microsoft Teams video link.  Our staff and students did a fantastic job sharing their items remotely and listening/watching in classrooms.  Thank you to Mr Gatenby for organising and supporting the process.  At this stage we are unable to share the video as we had many students featuring in the video who do not have photo permissions.  We hope to modify the process a little further next week so we can share some parts of the assembly.

Professional Learning Day – Term 3

A reminder to our families that the 1^st Monday back of Term 3 – July 20 is a student free day. Teachers will use this day for professional learning and be on site undertaking relevant courses to build on teaching and learning practices.

After listening to the story ‘Chicken Divas’ for Simultaneous Storytime, we made our own funky chickens. We experimented with different patterns using black markers, and then added bright accessories.

Each year at Austins Ferry we dedicate two weeks of our learning to develop a deeper understanding of Aboriginal cultural awareness.  We are extremely lucky to have the ASK workers with us during this time.

On Monday we were excited to welcome our Aboriginal Educators from the ASK (Aboriginal Sharers of Knowledge) team to our school.  Kylie, Nindarra and Mandy worked with Year 5/6 and explored the Gumnuts to Buttons activity.

Following this session the ASK Educators worked with Grade 3/4 students learning about how Aboriginal storytelling has helped pass on culture, values and practice to help develop our cultural understandings.

The day finished with Year 2/3 where students were very excited to learn more around the development and history of tool making in the Aboriginal communities.

The gum nuts to buttons session is about trying to teach us kids about the Aboriginals in a sort of different way instead of sitting through a boring clip or documentary. They are teaching us about when the Europeans came to Tasmania and how they lived from there and what happened.  The gumnuts represented the Aboriginals, the buttons represented the Europeans, the flags represented where Aboriginals were allowed to go after the attack of the Europeans and the boats represented the boats that the Europeans travelled on to get to Tasmania.

By Emmi Stokman

Gumnuts to buttons was about the way the Aboriginals lived before the Europeans came and destroyed their way of life.  Three things that I found interesting were that they thought white people were spirits because of their pale skin.  Another thing was that the Aboriginals called the guns sticks because they didn’t have weapons like that.  The last thing is that the Europeans did horrible tests on Aboriginal people by taking their hair and skin for testing.

By Diego Luttrell

The Student Voice Team have planned a free dress day to be held on the last day of term, Friday 3 July. Students who choose to wear non-school uniform clothing will need to bring a gold coin donation. The SVT will also be organising a special food item to be available for purchase at lunchtime on the day. More information on this will be available in the next week.

All proceeds will be donated to The Smith Family. This charity was nominated by the SVT as they support students at our school to get the most out of their education and build positive futures for themselves.