Dear Families

Seesaw QR codes were sent home today for you to join your child’s class. If you have more than one child at school you will have more than one QR code to join your children's classes. Please read the letter that was sent home with your child’s QR code on the Departments expectations of how to use Seesaw. This has changed from 2024, so please make yourself aware of this change by reading the letters sent home.

Reminder to parents 3-6 Athletics carnival is at the domain tomorrow. Reminder to bring some extra water, pack a full lunch, hats and sunscreen also for students to wear their house colours – purple, green, or yellow this matches their hats. An outline of race times were sent to you on Tuesday 4 March via school zine.

Reminder to parents -  If you would like to be part of our South Hobart Primary School Association, nominations are now being collected and collated - South Hobart Primary Association Committee Nominations forms can be collected from the school office and need to be returned to Julieann Graham by March 13 March. If you need an electronic copy please contact the office, or use the link in the School Association News item.

Regards Bec Corney

NAPLAN 2025

Students will be sitting NAPLAN between 12 and 24 March 2025. 

The National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are already learning at school. On its own, NAPLAN is not a test that can be studied for, and students are not expected to do so. 

NAPLAN 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 progress with teachers. 

This is the third year NAPLAN has been 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. These can then be used to inform teaching and learning plans for the remainder of the year. 

Why NAPLAN is conducted online 

NAPLAN online provides a better assessment and more precise results. 

One of the main benefits of NAPLAN online is that it uses tailored (or adaptive) testing. The questions a student receives depends on their answers to previous questions. This means that students answer questions better suited to their abilities, so they can show what they know and can do. 

Online testing also allows us to provide a wide range of accessibility options to support students with disability to access NAPLAN. 

Feedback from students is that they find the online test more engaging. Please note that students in Year 3 complete the Writing Test on paper. 

Parent information brochures and other resources 

A parent information brochure and questions answered on NAPLAN and what it means for your child can be found at: NAPLAN information brochure for parents and carers 

The link will take you to the official National Assessment Program (NAP) website and covers a variety of topics such as the timing of the tests and how results from the assessments should be understood. 

It also allows access to a Public Demonstration Site which shows the types of questions students will answer and the functionalities that are available in NAPLAN tests. 

Please contact the school if you have any further queries. 

At the end of this term the School Association (SA) will have its AGM. At this time a new committee will be formed. All parents with children enrolled at South Hobart are part of the School Association. Eleven people make up the SA Committee. Nominations will open next week from members of the school community to be part of the School Association Committee. Nominations are for being on the committee, not for positions (Chair, Deputy Chair, Secretary and Treasurer).  

The AGM will be followed by the first meeting of the new committee. At the first meeting all positions (Chair, Deputy Chair, Secretary and Treasurer) are declared vacant, and nominations and voting is conducted to determine these roles. The principal chairs this part of the meeting until the positions have been filled. 

The committee is made of eight parents, two staff and the principal. The term for being on the committee is two years. At the end of every School Association year half the committee retire. This year there are four parent, and one staff position available.  

Timeline: 

• Nominations open on Thursday 6 March (week 5) 

• Nomination forms will be available from the office or can be requested via SZapp to be sent home with students. 

• Forms need to be seconded by another member of the School Association (any other parent) 

• A nomination box will be available at the office for completed nomination forms. 

• Nominations close on Thursday 13 March (week 6) 

• If elections are required (more nominations than positions) voting will open Thursday 20 March (week 7) 

• Voting will close Thursday 27 March (week 8) 

• Candidates notified on Friday 28 March (week 8) 

• AGM – Tuesday 1 April (week 9) 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start 

• First meeting of the new committee – immediately after the AGM 

The committee meets twice per term at 7:00pm. (6:30pm for nibbles and socialising) Being a part of the committee is a great way to connect with other parents and be involved in the school. Please consider nominating to be on the SA committee.  

The nomination forms are available on the link below:

Nomination_for_the_School_Association_Committee.pdf

Stranger Danger - Reminder

Just a reminder for our school community to work together to emphasise the importance of self-protective behaviour and personal safety messages, including avoiding approaches by strangers. We ask that families speak to their children and remind them to always be aware and alert and feel confident that they can report any issues whenever they feel unsafe. 

Book Club Issue #2 is coming home today!

A few orders from Issue #1 have arrived and are heading home today, but we’re still waiting on most of the orders to arrive. Trust that we will get them to you as soon as we can!

But in the meantime, have a browse at Issue #2 and see if anything catches your eye! Orders for Issue #2 close on March 26^th.

Did you know that every purchase you make on Book Club earns our school 15% of the order value in Scholastic Rewards? The school library uses these to purchase more books and educational resources for the school. It all helps!

Book Club - Help needed

Scholastics Book Club for the school is run by parent volunteers. There is only one of us left this year after previous families have reached high school. I’m in need of some help! Time required is only about 2-3 hours twice a term, when the book orders arrive at school and need sorting. And if there’s a few of us, the time will be even shorter.

If you’re interested, please contact the office and they’ll put us in touch.

Thanks, Simone

Next week students in 5-6 will be starting an options afternoon. The students have selected from 10 options, of the ones they would like to participate in during a 15 week period. We have been able to give them either their first preference or their second preference for this afternoon.

The options they had to choose from were – Film, Guitar, English -Theatre, Pattern making and sewing, Robotics, Three-Dimensional Art, Racquet ball skills, Knitting, Writing and Dance.

The teachers and the students are really looking forward to their first session on Wednesday 12 March. There will be more information about these option afternoons in up coming newsletters.

Dear Parents/Carers IMPORTANT REMINDER As we have had a lot of enquiries regarding School zine/subscribing - Could you please double check on your Schoolzine App (SZapp) that you have updated your 2025 child's class. Please go to the manage section to select classes and "All Year" for each child's year) See attached photo below....

This is to ensure you receive all important information for your child's class/year, school newsletter and other important information from the school. Please find information below if you need to re-install your SZAPP Installing SZapp - Schoolzine

Ride the Rivulet

Once again this fabulously fun event is happening on National Ride to School Day – Friday March 21^st. Join more than 350,000 students across the nation who will ride, walk, scoot or skate to school!!!

This is a wonderful and fun school community event for all children (and their parents) of any skill level from kinder- grade 6. The event will run from 3.30-5pm. With support of the School Association there will be a FREE afternoon tea of sushi, fruit and biscuits, fun activities, prizes and a ride/race for each grade should your child wish to participate. Be a part of the action (even if your superpower is cheering on your friends)!!

Drum roll please…..We may have a local riding legend dropping by! Keep an eye out for correspondence coming soon on how to register your child electronically or manually.

Volunteers make magic happen…. 

This event relies on the support of parent volunteers. There are lots of different ways you can help….please SIGN UP HERE TO VOLUNTEER .  

Dear soccer family,

We are super excited to reach out and let you know about the soccer Fun-day taking place on Sunday, 23 March 11 - 3pm at the school.

This will be an amazing day to celebrate the start of the 2025 Soccer Season. We will have lots of games for the children, lots of food, prizes, face painting, kit swap, and kit purchase.  We will also have a special guest who will join us to show the skills that have made them number 1 in Australia and number 9 across the world. 

In preparation for the day we need to get a rough idea for numbers.  If you would like to join your community for an amazing day, please indicate via this form: https://forms.gle/rksy31xZBG2wriBc8 

Update on soccer planning 

We are still taking expressions of interest to join South Hobart Primary School Soccer.  Expressions of Interest will close on the 30 March. We will be in touch nearer that time to let you know what the team situations look like.  If you have yet to complete the expression of interest form ?, follow the link here: https://forms.gle/2GpDmktisXGNTeFC8 

Football Australia Registration.

For the little one(s) to play with us, they will need to have a registered account through Football Australia, and that is where you pay the money for registration fee.  We will be in touch soon, to provide you with the information and links to register with Football Australia. 

Ticket To play

For those that might need a little more financial support, don't worry, cost will never be a barrier to play with our school Association. The state Government has a scheme called Ticket to Play, once you are registered with Ticket to Play, you can apply for two tickets to cover the cost, per child. Apply here: https://tickettoplay.tas.gov.au/ once you have the 'ticket' number, let us know and we will help you through the registration process. If you have any questions, concerns; please reach out, we will do everything we can to support children playing the beautiful game. 

Key Dates:

• Fun-day: 23 March.
• Expression of interests close: 30 March.
• Games begin: 3 May.
• SHPS Quiz night: 26 July. 
• Hobart Cup: 29 - 31 Aug, 5 - 7 Sep. 
• End of season Fun-day, 14 Sep.

We can't wait for the season to start and we can't wait to spend our time with you once again. 

In solidarity

South Hobart Primary School (SHPS)

Soccer Committee

Soccer gear donation request 

We’ll be having a soccer gear giveaway at the soccer fun day on Sunday 23rd March, participation by donation. Please bring any donations of both SHPS and Morton’s soccer clothing, boots or gloves to the fun day within an hour of the starting time, or you can leave donations at the office. Please spread the word! This is a fantastic way to fit your kids with the next size boots etc., but it relies on everyone remembering to donate their soccer gear first! 

https://www.decyp.tas.gov.au/learning/term-dates/