NEWSLETTER

Dear Families,

Week 11 has arrived and there is no doubt that staff and student alike a ready for a well earned break. We have come to the end of a very busy term 1.

Yr 3 & 5 NAPLAN was successfully completed by the end of week 8. Students were motivated to try their best. As a result we had great attendance and required minimal ‘catch-up’ time before closing off the testing platform on Monday 25th March.

NAPLAN results are reported using measurement scales for each of the test aspects; reading, writing, spelling, and conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation).

The NAPLAN standards include 4 proficiency levels for each test aspect at each year level:

· Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.

· Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.

· Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.

· Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

Individual student NAPLAN results are sent to the school for distribution to families. We anticipate this will happen later next term.

Our pupil free day on Tuesday 12th March was led by a consultant from the Primary Mathematics Association. Our focus for the day was Building Number Sense:

· How do we build a powerful learning sequence in Number?

· How do we help children develop their number sense?

· What are the key steps in building a powerful understanding of the Base Ten system?

· What are the key steps in teaching Calculating?

· Recalling Facts – what does it mean? How do we help children build their fluency?

The learning from the day resulted in a number of actions, with the following being a priority:

· Document a whole school calculations policy to provide guidance and expectations for the consistent teaching of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division R-6.

· Consistent use of key language about Number R-6. Families can help with this too. We have included the Key Language chart in this newsletter.

We had great weather for Sports Day. Students enthusiastically (and loudly) participated in events, and it was great to see so many of our families visiting throughout the day to support their child and team.

Sports Day Shield

1st Kari-Karinya (Gold) – first win since 2010.

2nd Tarra-Angga (Green)

3rd Towitto (Blue)

4th Pat-Piari (Red)

Aspire Shield (Sportsmanship/ Values)

1st Towitto (Blue)

2nd Pat-Piari (Red)

3rd Kari-Karinya (Gold)

4th Tarra-Angga (Green)

Thank you to Mr Bradley and the Sports Day Committee. A lot of work goes into the planning and running of the day. Thank you to the many staff members who attended school extra early to set up the equipment for events, and to Mr Geyer for marking the oval. Thank you Donna Mitchell and Kylie Willshire for organizing lunches for students, staff and visitors.

We would also like to thank Ashton Hurn and Casey Miles for their attendance. The students certainly appreciated their words of motivation.

The Angaston Primary School annual general meeting was held on Tuesday week 7. Our Governing Council members for 2024 are Adam Forbes, Dan Killey, Carly Clarke, Kate Thorn, Kate Gabel, Kylie Willshire, Alina Gransbury, Rob Blythman, Skye Rudiger, Dayna Brassil, Amanda Fleet, and Paul Hampton.

Dan Killey has stepped down from his role as Governing Council Chairperson. I would like to thank Dan on behalf of the school community for his time, generosity, and commitment to our school. Dan is remaining on Governing Council as Deputy Chair.

I would also like to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge Leon Pendergast, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Leon was a much loved member of our Governing Council, and school community. As the Treasurer of the Governing Council, Leon was generous with his time, ideas, support, and donations for fundraising. Of particular note is the contributions Leon made to the APS Quiz Night which resulted in significant money raised for the school. Leon was a big personality, with a zest for life that motivated and inspired many. He will be sadly missed.

Year 3/4 Burne and Yr 1/2 Tempest/Hearnden ran the last whole school assembly. Unfortunately I was unable to attend but a ‘little birdy’ told me that the year 1/2 students presented If I had Wings poetry, and the year 3/4 students gave us an interactive grammar lesson. Glad the IT was working properly!

Congratulations to the following students who received an Encouragement Award at the last school assembly:

Holly Trappmann

Raewyn Winx

Tanner Anthony

Arya McGrath

Vincent Weight

Maalia Monto

Sonny Donahue

Raevyn Mackay

Victor McNamara

Poppy Wales

Mollie Harris

Dougie Kearon

Winnie Baker-Kain

Izzak Mullholland-Gill

Evelyn Braithwaite

Teddy Blythman

Aniie Killey

Seb Meyer

Aibhilin Richards

Bennet Mullins

Lucy Schultz

Lachlan Hale

Alice Jungfer

Wishing everyone a happy holidays.

“Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family.” Mother Teresa

Student Leadership Council (SLC)

Please join me in congratulating the following students who have been selected by their peers to represent them on Student Leadership Council:

Kim Gniel: Adaline Giles

Sheree Argent/ Heidi Shields: Willow Brook and Odette Fiegert (proxy)

Bri Tempest/ Del Hearnden: Liam Thorn and Walter Feist

Jen Irwin/ Del Hearnden: Eiva Polley and Seb Meyer

Faye Hale/ Del Hearnden: Riley Chapple and Chloe Dixon

Leonie Schultz/ Rhi Hall: Holly Trappmann

Matt Burne: Olive Lehmann (1st semester) and Sophie Schiller (2nd semester).

Daisy Evans: Poppy Feist

Joy Darmody: Skylar Gabel and Oona Belcher (proxy)

Kym Taylor: Drake Cannon and Kelly Mitchell (proxy)

Nicole Taylor: Pippa Brassil

Congratulations to the following Mentors who were selected based on an application and interview process:

Joy Darmody: Francesca Standing, Elsie Taylor, Adele Scragg, Edith Chaplin

Kym Taylor: Aleeya Fraser

Nicole Taylor: May Taylor, Sophia Giersch, Poppy Wales, Maddison Brown, Mollie Harris

The mentors will work with the SLC leaders in Reception – year 4 to support them with their ideas and bring their vision to life. We have already begun the work generating ideas that will support students to feel safe and included in the yard as well as whole school events for the year. At the last meeting, SLC voted to donate the money raised from Harmony Day to the Cancer Council.

‘Backyard’ Update

The garden has been supplying the community in abundance this term. It’s hard to believe that a few plants Mrs Linke and students placed in the ground at the end of 2023 could produce such a bumper harvest! Thank you all in our community who have been out

supporting the students as they sell the produce on the stalls. The skills students have learnt from cutting and displaying produce, money handling, as well as ‘sweet-talking’ persuasion has certainly grown through out the term. Levi and Chase who have been the main leaders of the produce stand appreciate your generosity and kind words when you visit the stall.

The money we have raised has allowed us to buy straw for the beds, put money towards the purchase of chickens for next term as well as saving towards the purchase of fruit trees to start our orchard. Garden Club have been working hard every Friday at lunch time to prepare more beds so that each class has their own garden bed to use. We are looking forward to planting our next crop so that we can harvest some winter vegetables at the end of next term.

On Thursday 4th April Week 10 the annual Barossa and Light Sapsasa District Athletics Carnival was held at Faith Lutheran College. It turned out to be a great day as we had 33 students represent our school extremely well. Students competed in various track and field events which saw over 300 students from 14 schools involved. A big thank you to the parents (Gibson’s, Killey’s, and Pevic’s) who helped out at the high jump and to Mrs Darmody and Miss Hadden for attending. Special shout outs to the following students for their achievements.

-Jacob Meyer finishing 3rd overall for his age in 200m.

-Lachlan Pendergast finishing 2nd overall for his age group in Discus.

-Olive Lehmann and Poppy Feist for making the 100m finals and then both finishing in 2nd and 4th places respectively. Olive also finished in 2nd place for the 200m in her age group.  With Poppy finishing in 3rd in the 800m for her age.

-Kelly Mitchell for winning her age groups discus event with a throw of 14.73m.

-Sonny Donohue for finishing in 4th place in the 100m finals and discus for his age.

-Maggie Gransbury for finishing 3rd in the 100m finals for her age.

-Caidy Rosenzweig for finishes in 3rd place for her age in the 200m, and shot put.

The following students have been selected to represent the Barossa and Light Sapsasa District team to compete at the State Championships in September at the SA Athletics Centre in the city.

-Olive Lehmann and Poppy Feist for the 4x100m relay team.

-Sonny Donohue for the 4x100m relay team.

-Maggie Gransbury for the 4x100m relay team.

-Kelly Mitchell for discus.

Well done to all our place getters, Barossa and Light District team reps and all our Angaston Primary team members on your efforts. Angaston ended up in 4th position overall out of the 14 schools in attendance which is a fantastic achievement.

Yours in Sport

Mr. Bradley

Barossa and Light Sapsasa Convenor

Health/PE Teacher

Zucchini has well and truly been a focus on the Kitchen menu these past few weeks. Mrs Schultz & Mrs Hall’s class have definitely stepped it up in the test kitchen with some yummy delights, Zucchini Brownies and Zucchini Chocolate Muffins.

Mr Burne’s class started their stint this week with a tasty Zucchini Cake recipe we borrowed from Mrs Darmody and it was loved by all. Lou gave it a big thumbs up.

Next term our budding chefs will test different recipes using Pumpkin. If anyone has any tried-and-true recipes they wish to share, please let us know. We are always on the look out for something new and exciting.

                              A big thank you to our Garden Leaders and Support Crew for supplying us with our ever abundant garden produce. 

Thank you to those families that have paid the Materials & Services charge of $337 for 2024. Please remember that the Government have once again given a $100 rebate to each student who pays their school fees, so when paying the amount due is $237 The Materials and Services charges are due by Friday 12th April 2024 and need to be paid to avoid debt recovery action by Department for Education.

Applications for School Card assistance are able to be made so please apply online at www.sa.gov.au under the heading Education, Skills and Learning. Please contact the Front Office if you require any assistance.

Payment can be made:

· via the school bank account BSB 105-021 Account number 104147940 - using your family code or invoice number as the reference.

· via Cash, Cheque, Eftpos or Credit Card at the Front Office between 8.30 – 9.30am and 2.30- 3.30pm.

· via Credit Card over the phone between 8.30-9.30 and 2.30-3.30pm.

If you are approved for school card the $100 rebate will no longer be available as it is only approved for students who pay their school fees.

Any current Direct Debit Payment Plans will continue.

Please contact Kim Oag on 85642215 if you require any further assistance.