Industrial Action

Thank you to all of those who were able to manage the Industrial Action day on Tuesday by seeking other arrangements for their children. Thank you also for the kind words of support for our teachers and educational support members. We had a large number of our staff who undertook the protected industrial action and I was proud to join them in the CBD march. We hope that negotiations are fruitful very soon and there will be no more need for any further actions. 

Special SMILE Activity

This morning we had a special SMILE session. Gathering in the hall, all students were placed into cross age cohort groups with a range of teachers - so you had groups made up of students from Prep all the way to Year 6. The groups joined in on an activity making a collage reflecting the diversity of their group. We'll have more photos and info in the next edition!

Expo

A reminder that we will be running our Term 1 Whole School Expo during two times to cater for as many families as possible. The first will be after school on Monday, March 30th and run from 3.30pm to 4pm. The second will be the following morning, Tuesday March 31st between 8.30am and 9am. The Expo is a great opportunity for students to share their term's learning by inviting parents into the classrooms. Specialist classrooms will also be open for visits too!

Planning Week

Next week, as well as being the final week of term, is our Planning Week. Our teams of teachers get together to plan out the next term's units of work. This means that, for any given student, ALL of their specialist sessions will be on one day of the week and not spread out as usual. The Planning Days, (and therefor the Specialist days) for each year level are 

• Monday - Year 5 and 6
• Tuesday Prep, Year 3 and Year 4
• Wednesday - Years 1 and 2
• Thursday - Specialist team planning

End of Term

The final day of Term 1 is next Thursday, April 3rd. We will be concluding the term with an Assembly at 2pm in the hall before dismissal at 2.30pm. Term 2 starts on Monday, April 20th.

Parents / Carers, We need Your Help Supporting Positive and Safe Play at School

Dear Parents & Carers,

At Ashburton Primary, we regularly review our data, including student wellbeing and behaviour data, to ensure we are providing a safe, supportive, and positive environment for all students.

Our behaviour data continues to reveal that physical behaviours (such as play fighting, pushing, or rough play), is our top behaviour concern, particularly during recess and lunchtime. While many of these incidents are considered low to moderate, we know that these behaviours can escalate and impact students’ sense of safety and wellbeing.

We acknowledge that we can’t control every situation or every individual within the school environment. What we can do is put strong, proactive and preventative measures in place to support positive behaviour and respond effectively when issues arise. 

How families can support:

You can help reinforce these messages by talking with your child about:

• Playing safely and keeping hands and feet to themselves. This includes not engaging in play fighting and game plays such as tackling and wrestling. This is not weekend sport where some of these things would be allowed.
• Using words instead of actions to get a message across
• Safe actions vs unsafe actions
• What to do if a game becomes too rough (e.g. walk away or seek help)
• Being an upstander vs when not to get involved and to report to a teacher/seek help

As adults, it’s very powerful when we model these behaviours too, as actions often speak louder than words.

What we focus on at school:

• Explicitly teaching and revisiting safe play expectations from our Expected Behaviour Matrix (e.g. keeping hands and feet to ourselves)
  
   
• Teaching students to use positive strategies such as walking away, using words, replacement behaviours, emotional regulation strategies, or seeking help, which are also all explicitly taught.
  
   
• Increasing active supervision in key areas of the yard, guided by our behaviour data. 
  
   
• Providing more structured play opportunities during break times, such as Lunchtime Clubs, Ashy Community Team events, and opening the library for different year levels.
  
   
• Recognising and celebrating students who demonstrate kind, safe and respectful behaviour.

When safe play expectations are not adhered to:

• All staff follow the Behaviour Management Flowchart see below, and Physical Yard Behaviour Steps (see below). The bottom line is, students who are physically inappropriate or unsafe in the yard during recess or lunchtime will receive an appropriate consequence to allow all other students in the yards the right to continue to play safely in the yard. The same message extends to all areas across the school.
  
   

Working Together

Our goal is to ensure every child feels safe, supported, and able to enjoy their time at school. We appreciate your ongoing support as we continue to build a positive and inclusive school environment.

Stay tuned for our next issue, based on our behaviour data analysis which is ‘Minimising Disruption to Learning in the Classroom!’

Kind regards,
Ashburton Primary School

The Year 1 students have been learning about the components of a narrative during Writing sessions. These include interesting characters, a vivid setting, an interesting problem and a logical solution. After very structured lessons around describing characters and settings, the students have been using mentor texts to learn about how authors write interesting problems for their characters and then make logical resolutions to these problems. 

The Year 1 students have begun to write their own short stories using picture prompts ensuring that they have an interesting problem and a solution that makes sense and resolves the problem. The students' writing has developed so much since the beginning of the year and they are always so excited to share their stories with others. 

Other learning experiences this past fortnight in 

Year One have been:

• Making two digit numbers with bundles and ones and representing two digit numbers in various ways. 
• Asking and answering questions to ensure we understand what we are reading. 
• Finalising their EXPO project, which showcases all their learning from their Connected unit on Identity this term. 

The Year 3 and 4 students have been making fantastic progress in STEM as they continue working on their bridge building projects. It has been wonderful to see their designs really starting to take shape as groups bring their ideas to life using a range of recycled materials. Students have been collaborating thoughtfully, problem solving when structures need strengthening, and showing great persistence as they refine their designs.

Many groups are now reaching the exciting stage where their bridges are almost complete, and students are eagerly looking forward to painting and decorating them. I am very proud of the creativity, teamwork, engineering and thinking the students have demonstrated throughout this project, and I can’t wait to see their finished bridges ready for testing!

The Year 5 and 6 students have been busy developing their Sphero Eats delivery service in STEM. Students have nearly completed their detailed town maps, carefully designing roads, houses, and restaurants to create a realistic delivery environment for their Spheros to navigate.

Groups have also begun writing their delivery task cards. These instructions challenge their Sphero to be coded to drive to a restaurant, change its LED screen to a picture of the food being collected, and then continue on to the final destination to deliver the order. This task combines creativity with coding and problem solving as students think carefully about sequencing and accuracy.

All groups have worked exceptionally well together and have added fantastic detail to their maps. It has been wonderful to see their collaboration, creativity, and coding skills develop as they bring their Sphero Eats towns to life!

Over the past two weeks, the Year 5 students have been busy with their learning across several areas of the curriculum. 

In Measurement, students have been focusing on length, mass and capacity. They have been estimating and measuring different objects and areas around the school, as well as converting between the appropriate units of measurement. One of the highlights was working with their Prep pals, where the Year 5 students showed fantastic leadership skills. They helped draw around each other on the concrete and measured their heights, then compared the differences between each other. This was a fun and engaging way to apply their learning and role model it to their prep pals. 

In Connected, students have been continuing their work on their Identity RAT. They began by creating a detailed mind map about themselves, which they then used as inspiration for their artwork. Students traced their side profile to create a border and have been carefully drawing images that represent their interests, personality, culture and experiences. It has been wonderful to see the creativity and effort students are putting into this task. We are looking forward to seeing the finished pieces soon, and we are excited for the Year 5 students to share their work at the upcoming Expo next week. 

It’s nearly the end of the term - that went by amazingly fast!

The year 3s have continued to work hard as the term wraps up.

In maths, we have been looking at additive thinking. This includes solving problems using the jump strategy, the split split strategy, counting forward and the compensation strategy. Students have also been learning to read and record time to the minute on analogue and digital clocks and working with probability, by describing outcomes and events as ‘likely’, or ‘unlikely’ and some events as ‘certain’ or ‘impossible’.

In reading, students continued building their reading comprehension by focusing on predictions and questioning. They practised asking literal, inferential and beginning evaluative questions to deepen their understanding of texts.

In writing,  students began exploring procedural writing, focusing on identifying the purpose, audience and structure of procedures. They applied this learning by beginning to draft instructions for their “Our Emotions” board game activity.

In spelling and word work, students have been practising graphemes, suffixes and plural forms, while also reviewing irregular past tense verbs and alphabetical order.

Students also completed their NAPLAN assessments. We are incredibly proud of the way they approached the assessments with focus, resilience and a positive attitude. They have worked hard and should feel proud of their efforts.

Miss Simone and Miss Goss