Welcome to 2023! 

Congratulations to all students and staff at Boat Harbour Primary School for ensuring the start to the 2023 school year has been focussed and settled, with learning shining from day one.  Students returned to school ready for learning and teachers have worked tirelessly to be prepared for the needs of every student.  Students quickly adapted to routines and expectations – a massive highlight has been seeing their smiles as they learn together while approaching challenges in a positive manner.

Mrs Alicia Alford

It was with sadness that we started the school year with the passing of Mrs Alicia Alford.  This sudden loss of such a respected and valued member of staff has affected us all. Alicia has been a part of Boat Harbour Primary School for more than 17 years.  We will ensure that Alicia’s love of books and support for students continues to shine at our school.  Over many, many years, Alicia impacted the lives of hundreds of students.  She proactively and passionately created a library that made it easy for children to improve their reading, access books and celebrate achievements. We are creating a special reading nook in the library that will forever reflect Alicia’s commitment to this space and encourage the same love of reading in others that she always had.  Mrs Alford was incredibly proud of her children, being a mum filled her with overwhelming pride.  She was forever boasting about their achievements and the love she had for her family – it was impossible for her to hide her massive smile whenever she talked about them. We will present an award at the end of each year to a student that has demonstrated a love of reading.  A student will be presented with the Mrs Alicia Alford reading award, allowing us to continually celebrate Alicia and her passion for reading.  If your child needs any support in coping with the loss of Mrs Alford, please contact me or your child’s teacher.  Our thoughts continue to be with Alicia’s family and friends, we were extremely fortunate to have her as a part of our school for so long.

Athletics

The Boat Harbour Primary School Athletics carnival is a wonderful day on the school calendar, bring so many from our school community together.  The carnival is designed to encourage participation, with every student trying their best and having fun.  Congratulations to those students that achieved places in Grades 3 – 6 allowing you to be selected in the Boat Harbour Athletics team to represent our school at the North West carnival.  It was wonderful to have so many parents and friends attend the carnival, students love having your support.  The combination of running events and novelties certainly allowed individuals and teams to shine, while there was plenty of laughter and determination across many events.

NAPLAN

This week students in grade 3 and 5 are participating in NAPLAN. This is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process- it does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance, however, students and parents may use individual results to discuss with your child’s classroom teacher.

This is the first year NAPLAN is held in March, having previously taken place in May. This change was made so school systems would have access to results earlier in the school year, so they can be used to inform teaching and learning plans for the remainder of the year.

Congratulations to our Grade 6 students who have won leadership roles this year. 

House Leaders 

Coolangatta

Brianna, Sommer, Indy and Mia

Imbru

Cayla, Maija, Ari and Bryce

Illawarra

Ashley, Samantha, Sam and Harry

SRC Executives

Well done Samantha, Brianna, Charlotte, Harry, Zack, Ashley, Frances, Ruby, River, Archer, William and Frankie. 

The P&F will be meeting on Monday, 27^th March at 3:15pm to discuss upcoming fundraising opportunities. We look forward to meeting with existing P&F members and welcome anyone in our school community who would like to join us. This is a fantastic opportunity to meet new people and be involved in the school. The level of your involvement is up to you and there is no expectation that you attend all events/meetings. We appreciate any level of involvement and are grateful for your time.

Our Preps have made a wonderful start to the year and are enjoying many opportunities to develop their fine motor skills by strengthening the muscles in their hands. This supports children to perform important tasks such as self-care, hand-eye coordination, and communication skills (talking, writing and drawing).

This term our Grade 1/2s have been learning about living things and their habitats. We have been investigating the five basic needs of living things; food, water, air, shelter and a space to raise its young. As part of our inquiry we explored our school playground, as well as invited our local Parks and Wildlife rangers to the school to discuss the native animals that inhabit the Sisters Beach to Rocky Cape area.

In 3-4 G we have been building paper towers as part of a STEM challenge. Students were broken up into small groups and were given some newspaper, masking tape and scissors.

Each group then had to think of a design and discuss the best way to make the tallest tower they could. Students were given twenty minutes to build their towers. There were some successes and some failures. We then discussed as a class group the most successful elements of construction.

5-6EW students have created farmyard dioramas, made from a mixture of things from nature, Lego and clay. Look out for them at the Wynyard Show this weekend.