Satisfaction Surveys

I would like to thank those parents that were able to recently complete Parent Satisfaction Surveys. We recently received and closely reviewed the data from these during our Professional Learning Day on the 1^st November, with this information assisting us with planning into 2025 and helping form school priorities moving forward. Many positives were highlighted, with our data at Boat Harbour Primary from families indicating stronger overall ratings compared with the state average for Tasmania and our overall family satisfaction ratings trending upwards this year from 2023. The results from our staff data were similar, with upwards trends and higher than state average indicators. This data reinforces how incredibly fortunate we all are to be a part of our wonderful school. Despite this, we are determined to never be complacent and to always be looking for ways to improve. Parent surveys highlighted that supporting parents with opportunities to be informed around Literacy and Numeracy practices at home, is something we could improve on. At the last assembly, parents were provided with surveys to clarify this further, allowing us to be informed about how this could be achieved. We are eager to know what barriers parents face and how we can best support you. I invite you to discuss this with me or any other aspects of our school. I am eager to hear your thoughts. I look forward to the new school year and working with families to enable growth in this space.

Reading at BHPS

Here at BHPS we love hearing that our students are reading at home. Decodables readers which are sent home in the early years, help your child practise the phonics they are learning in class. Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds. We encourage you to watch the video Decodables for some tips on how you can help your child read a decodable reader at home. We hope that you continue to support your child’s teacher who teaches them to read at school, with at home practice, as we see such amazing progress when students practice their reading at home. Thank-you all for your continued support with our home reading program!

End of Year Assembly

The Boat Harbour Primary School End of Year Assembly will be held in our school hall on Tuesday 17^th December at 9:10am. We have extra seating available this year and hope to see as many from our school community as possible come and celebrate the school year and every single student. I look forward to seeing you there.

Water Orientation, Safety and Swimming Programs

It is that busy time of year where students are accessing swimming programs either at school or at the Burnie Pool. It is critical that our students learn to be safe around water, the repercussions if they don’t could be devastating. Given the environment that we live, surrounded by waterways in every context, it is particularly important for our children to learn these important skills. While these swimming programs can be tiring for students, they are also great fun, and it is wonderful to see them all having fun and learning.

3D has been working hard on assessment tasks on SeeSaw. Students have been learning about the features of SeeSaw to present their understanding in English, Maths and HASS. We have been drawing, typing and recording our responses to questions. We’ve shown lots of perseverance and courage when trialling these new features on the computer. We look forward to sharing our work with our families.

Cows Create Careers Program and Presentation

In term 3, our school was buzzing with excitement as students took part in the Cows Create Careers program. This engaging initiative provided hands-on learning opportunities for every class, fostering curiosity and understanding about dairy farming and the hard work it entails. 

Each class had the chance to feed our adorable calves, Lillie and Luna. Originally planned as a three-week program, the experience was so rewarding that we extended it to four weeks! Many classes worked to ensure as many students as possible could participate in feeding the calves, learning valuable lessons about the dedication and commitment required to succeed in dairy farming. This hands-on experience deepened our students' understanding of where dairy products come from and the vital role farmers play in our community. 

The program concluded with a lively and educational Presentation Day. Students were immersed in fun activities and challenges, such as answering trivia about the dairy industry, designing and labelling their own milk products with nutritional information, and playing an exciting round of Dairy Bingo. Points were earned for correct answers, teamwork, and creativity, culminating in prizes for the top-performing group. 

A huge congratulations to our winning school team—Felix Hartley, Sophia Mills, Cameron Loring, and Jack Leary—who excelled in completing the Cows Create Careers lessons and tasks! 

This program would not have been possible without the support and dedication of our incredible community. Special thanks to our wonderful Teacher Assistants; Mrs. Maine, Mrs. Beswick, and Mrs. Wilson, who guided students in preparing milk for the calves every morning and afternoon. A heartfelt thank you goes to the Main and Hartley families for their commitment to feeding the calves on weekends. 

We are also grateful to our partners—the University of Tasmania, Jaydee Events, and MaxCare—for their support in making this program a resounding success. The teamwork and enthusiasm of everyone involved have left a lasting impression on our students, equipping them with knowledge and memories they will cherish for years to come.

What a busy Term 4 this has been. Thanks to Mrs Evetts and Mrs Medwin for looking after the class for me while I was recuperating. It is great to be back and I’m looking forward to finishing off a terrific year.

We have been out and about on the bus a lot, with the 3/4 Sports Expo at Table Cape Primary and now swimming in Burnie everyday for two weeks. The 3-4 Expo was a great day. We tried our hand at four different sports and learned a lot of new skills. Swimming has been fun as well. All the students are doing themselves and Boat Harbour proud by listening and doing their best.

Grade 2 students have been exploring stars in science, and how we identify patterns in the position of the stars, as we know them, constellations. We discussed how First Nations Peoples of Australia use these patterns to inform their daily lives. Students explored the constellation of Baidam and learnt how First Nations Peoples use the shape formed by the darkness between the stars as a way of knowing when to do things. We looked at the symbols used to write a story, attempting our own for either Baidam or the Emu. We had a lot of fun designing our own constellation by using paper and poking holes where a star would be, attaching to the cardboard tube and shining the torch through, we’d see a pattern projected.

In 3SH we have been studying Geology in Science. We have learned about different types of rocks, how they are formed and how they can change over time through the rock cycle. We have been looking at the features of rocks to sort them into groups and to think about what type of rock they are.

In Art we practised our drawing skills by learning to draw poppies for Remembrance Day. We drew different shapes to create the poppies and made them different heights and sizes on the page. We used sharpies to outline, oil pastels for the red poppy colour and pearlescent watercolours for the blue background. We are really proud of our artwork!

In Maths we have been working on a digital task in Seesaw to demonstrate our knowledge of Maths problems. We have shown how we can create detailed number sentences using different mathematical operations and have been challenged to explain our thinking and the mathematical strategies we are using to solve problems.

A big congratulations to all our students who showed our school values of courage, growth and connection and competed in the All Schools Triathon in Devonport today. The biggest well done to our grade 3 students, many of whom had not done a triathlon before! Most age categories had well over 100 students from schools along the coast and we achieved some great results on the day for our school. We hope that you all enjoyed the sport and are keen to join in again next year on the day!