Book Week

The effort from all to celebrate Book Week was exceptional! Thank you to parents for the constant support you provide your children to access books and growth in reading. The costumes were fantastic, it was impressive to see the array of books our students are accessing. I loved hearing from Logan and Lucy who shared why they enjoy books so much – both expressing the adventure books take them on, and the joy this brings them. By helping our children read, we open up the world for them, allowing them to be inspired by adventures or to access any learning they wish to explore. Every little bit of reading you do with your child makes a difference. I encourage you to talk with your children about what they are reading, ask them questions about characters or story lines, what they would do, or even hear about their predictions. Assisting them to read fluently and with expression is a goal, understanding and thinking about what they are reading is a key purpose.

Congratulations to those students that continue to achieve the different reading levels, keep up the great work!

STEM

We have had some of our Grade 5 and 6 students attend STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) lessons at Wynyard High School this year. These students are provided with extended learning opportunities to challenge their thinking and access expertise and resources in the High School setting. We thank Wynyard High for providing this opportunity to our students. These students entered science projects into the 2025 BIG Science Fair. Three of our students were recognised for their outstanding projects and were invited to attend the Awards Presentation at Burnie Arts Centre on Tuesday, 26th August.

Boat Harbour Primary School projects being recognised include:

• From Seed to Plant – Douglas Ingram & Darcy Murphy
• Hook, Yarn & Stretch – Sophie Mills

Congratulations Douglas, Darcy and Sophie, and thank you once again Wynyard High School for facilitating this opportunity and enhancing their learning.

Darwin Sport

Recently students in Grade 5 and 6 were able to nominate for selection in different sports to represent the Darwin region (Western side of the NW) to compete against Devon (Eastern side of the NW). Congratulations to the below students in making the teams, we wish you well in your chosen sports.

Netball: Ella Snare, Ellie McDonald and Abbie Brett.

Soccer: Ariana Cooper and Angel Gilliland, Toi Williams, Lachie Palmer and Malachy Russell.

Football: Mia Eiszele, Maci Reid, Stephanie Marijic, Tarik MacDonald, Lennie Forsyth and Ollie E.

In Science this term 1/2SE have had a focus on physical science. We have been learning about forces and in particular, push and pull forces. We have learned about friction using different materials to make ramps for toy cars to roll down. We loved making paper helicopters and exploring gravity. It was also fun experimenting and learning about buoyancy with some floating and sinking activities and trying to see if we could make a piece of foil sink or float by changing its shape.

Recently, all Grade 3/4 classes went on an excursion to Wings Wildlife Park. It was an integral part of students’ learning about biological sciences and environmental studies. We were very fortunate with the beautiful weather to enjoy our day’s outing.

Students were curious, asking many questions of our expert guides to gain understanding. As always, they were to be commended for their excellent behaviour. They were respectful towards the animals, their habitats, the guides, teachers and one another.

Back at school the following week, students used their knowledge about recount writing, and their experiences while on our excursion, to produce a recount. Ruth Everson is happy to share her wonderful text with us all, here it is.

Wonder Novel Study

In 6W we have been reading the novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Wonder follows the story of August, a young boy with a medical condition meaning he has many facial differences. Entering school for the first time, he faces many challenges. We have connected with the character of August and feel for him and the struggles he is facing. The book features the themes of kindness, friendship and empathy, reminding us to embrace our differences. We have been completing a novel study where we analyse the storyline, characters and vocabulary in detail. We also completed a fun task where we looked up song lyrics and made connections between the lyrics and different characters’ experiences in the book. Here are some of them:

Mean by Taylor Swift

“You’re picking on the weaker man” 

Julian was picking on August because he was an easy target because of his looks – Steffie

“I walk with my head down trying to block you out”

August always puts his head down, so other people don’t see his face – Kaylee

Don’t Laugh at Me by Mark Wills

“I’m the kid on every playground who always gets chosen last”

August always gets chosen last because he is different to everyone - Oliver

“Don’t laugh at me, don’t call me names”

August was upset when people pretended to have the plague around him– Rainah

Who Says by Selena Gomez

“I’m sure you’ve got some things you want to change about yourself”

August tries so hard to stand up for himself, this quote is something that he would say - Micah

As part of their Book Week activities, students from Grade 5E drew their favourite book cover to create colourful book bags.

Free Access to StoryBox Library for Tasmanian Families!

Tasmanian primary school students now have free access to StoryBox Library - a fun and educational digital library you can enjoy at home!

StoryBox Library is a subscription-based website and app featuring Australian storytellers reading hundreds of much-loved children’s books. It’s a fantastic way to nurture your child’s love of reading and support their literacy development.

With features like Read-Along, Closed Captions, Auslan stories, and engaging audio-visual content, StoryBox Library is designed to be inclusive and accessible for all children.

How to Access:

1. Visit www.storyboxhub.com or search “Story Box Library” on your device’s app store.
2. Click LOG IN at the top right of the homepage.
3. Enter the school username and password (provided below
4. Start exploring hundreds of stories - Anytime, anywhere!

School Login Details

Username: boat.harbour

Password: school

Please visit the DECYP website or StoryBox website for more information.

8 Students from our grade 5 and 6 classes have been travelling to Wynyard High School every Tuesday over Terms 2 and 3 for STEM.
On Wednesday 20th of August they were lucky enough to represent Boat Harbour Primary at the Science Fair in Burnie where they presented their STEM projects. 3 of our students went through to the second round of judging with their projects.
Cogratulations to all of the students on the amazing work they put into their projects.

8 Students from our grade 5 and 6 classes have been travelling to Wynyard High School every Tuesday over Terms 2 and 3 for STEM. On Wednesday last week they were lucky enough to represent Boat Harbour Primary at the Great Big Science Fair in Burnie where they presented their STEM projects.

 3 of our students went through to the second round of judging with their projects, and were presented awards at the 2025 BIG Science Fair Awards Ceremony on Tuesday evening at the Burnie Civic Centre.

Sophie was runner up in the Textiles section with her research on the differing strengths of crochet stitches. Doug and Darcy won the Grade 5/6 Plant Science award for their project testing the merits of different types of organic materials as compost.

Congratulations to all of the students on the amazing work they put into their projects.

EARLY BIRD ENTRY NOW OPEN FOR THE HARCOURTS BURNIE 321-GO KIDS’ RACE

For a quarter of a century the Harcourts Burnie 321-Go Kids’ Race has been offering children a chance to get healthy as well as having loads of fun.

This year’s event will be held at West Park on Sunday November 16.

Parents can take advantage of a special early bird registration fee of $15 per person up until Friday September 12. After that date the fee will be $18.

Families can register up to six children, as long as they all appear on the same Medicare card, but will only pay for the first three.

Races will be held in the categories of  7 and under, 10 and under and 13 and under for both boys and girls. There will also be an All-Abilities event which has an entry fee of $5, and children can be registered on the day for the free Lap for Littlies, for 4-year-olds.

 There will be some additional features too, including:

• A $500 sports equipment prize for the primary school with the highest participation rate.
• Lucky draws for new bikes for new bikes for each age group supported by Caterpillar Underground Mining.
• Medals for our 9th year runners.
• Heaps of giveaways on the day plus the usual food and entertainment.

You can register for the event by visiting www.321go.com.au and clicking on the register here tab in the top right corner of the home page.