From The Acting Principal
Welcome to Term 4 2022! I hope all families were able to have an enjoyable, restful break from school.
Term 4 is traditionally an incredibly busy time for schools and Norwood Primary is no exception. Our staff team have and will continue to work hard to ensure all learning experiences and opportunities for our students are as streamlined as possible, with communication both within our school and to the wider school community being a focus for us.
There is so much to look forward to for the remainder of the school year. Some of these incredible opportunities include our upcoming Colour Run on Thursday 17th November and the Schools Triathlon Challenge on Thursday 24th November. The Triathlon in particular has generated a lot of interest, with the school looking to take a team of more than 35 students across Years 3-6 to the event. This level of participation in an unfamiliar event really displays the levels of Courage our students have, which has been a focus of the school this year.
Our class structure and placement procedure is well underway for 2023 and we are hoping to be in a position to share this with families as soon as possible. It is vital that families are aware that our class placement process is collaborative, thorough and respectful of all students. Please understand that some of these processes, in particular around providing timely information relating to staffing, are somewhat out of our control. We will endeavour to keep you as informed as we can.
Progressive Achievement Test (PAT)
Throughout weeks 2-4 all students across our school in Prep - Year 6 will be participating in the Progressive Achievement Test (PAT) in the areas of Reading, Mathematics and Vocabulary skills. These assessments provide teachers with another data point to measure student growth in learning and are also valuable for our School Improvement planning process.
Upcoming Professional Learning Day
Friday 4th November is a whole day of Professional Learning for all staff across the north of the state. This will mean that this is a student free day. Our staff at Norwood will be participating in learning based on the 3 following areas:
- Reading Comprehension
- Student Wellbeing and Engagement Survey – results and forward planning
- Digging deeper into Learning Data
Department for Education, Children and Young People
On 1 October 2022 the Department of Education joined with some functions from the Department of Communities to form a new Department. The new Department is called the Department for Education, Children and Young People (DECYP).
It is responsible for child and youth centred activities including:
- Tasmanian Government Schools
- Child Safety
- Youth Justice
- Out of Home Care
- Libraries Tasmania
- Child and Family Learning Centres
As we commence Term 4, schools will continue as normal and the priority is service continuity. You likely won’t notice any change. Over time you will notice a new email address and branding appearing on materials sent from school.
Why a new Department for Education, Children and Young People?
As reflected in its name, this is a new Department built entirely for children and young people. They are at the centre of everything this new Department will do. The unique opportunity to combine knowledge, experience, and ways of working is exciting. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that every Tasmanian child and young person is known, safe, well, and learning.
You can keep up-to-date on how this work is progressing by visiting the public website at https://www.education.tas.gov.au/new-department/
Kind regards,
Luke Padgett
A/Principal