Newsletter 4, Term 4

4th December 2021

Dear Parents and Carers

The end of the school year is rapidly drawing to a close. It has been a very busy term, with so many things pushed back

during the year, and as a result everyone, staff and students, are very tired and looking forward to the holidays like no

other, I suspect.

It has also been a very successful year, and we have much to celebrate. At the start of the year, we ran some workshops

to identify the key focus areas, which were set out in the document “Castletown Keys – Key Actions 2020” (available

on our school’s website). We created five operational focus areas: Literacy, Numeracy, Health and Well-being,

Information and Communication Technologies and Sustainability. Our staff all joined one of these planning teams, and

a number of points were identified from the three-year business plan for this year.

I am very pleased to report that, despite the considerable interruptions of Covid, we have been able to achieve almost

all of these in full, or at least partially. A great deal of work and effort has gone into this achievement, and in some

cases the absence of the majority of students in April/May enabled us to carry out some professional learning and

organisation during that time.

Next year will be a year of consolidation of our Whole-School Approaches, with the aim to finish off the

implementation of those areas still in progress; and to embed the practices in our plan such as Talk For Writing,

Friendology, iMaths, the various Sustainability Education practices that have commenced, and the expansion of our

intervention and extension programs such as Mini-lit, Macqlit, Tournament of Minds and Reading extension.

This year has also seen a great deal of work done to improve the facilities in the school, much of which was initiated

by previous principal Colin Brand. Colin visited the school earlier this year and was very pleased to see these

improvements have been carried out. Well over a million dollars was spent on our school this year. This includes

improvement to drainage, new veranda roofing and surfacing, replacement of benches and bag hooks, ceiling refits,

toilet upgrades and painting. The painting of all of our brown brick has given the school a fresh look, and noticeably

lifted the spirits of us all.

Castle Points Redemption

This year we introduced the PBIS Rewards app, which we use to acknowledge

and promote desired behaviour in our school. This has been very successful, as

it enables us to clearly articulate and teach our behaviour expectations, and

recognise those children who do the right thing, on a random basis. Our

students are now having fun redeeming their “Castle Points”, as we call them,

for reward activities and privileges.

One event coming up next week is a Cinema Excursion, in which 80 lucky

students have won a free trip to the movies at Fenwick Cinema. This will

include bus transport, movie ticket, popcorn and drink. Some kids had over 100

points, and purchased multiple tickets. I am very much looking forward to leading this excursion!

End of Year Events

Next Friday December 11th at 11.30am, we are holding our Presentation Assembly. This will be in the old assembly

area, as we can accommodate more people in the open space. We will celebrate the year’s achievements, and

acknowledge those students who have performed exceptionally well.

In the last week, the Year 6 students will be acknowledged with their Graduation Ceremony at 11.30am on Monday

14th, and their dinner on Tuesday evening. I know they are very excited about this.

Following that, we will have a nice quiet cruise through to the end of the year on Thursday (we hope). Friday 18th is a

school development day, with our staff finishing at midday as we have traded off half of this day through additional

after hours professional learning.

Student Reports

These are in the pipeline now and will be ready for distribution in the final week. This time, students will receive grades,

unlike semester 1 when we were unable to grade due to the disruption of coronavirus. In some cases where students

have missed a lot of school through absenteeism, teachers may not be able to provide a fair and valid assessment. In

cases where students have missed most or all of a subject due to attending other programs (eg PEAC, Instrumental

Music, Macqlit or Minilit) they may receive a “Not Assessed” comment, as it has not been possible to give a fair and

valid assessment and grade.

Volunteers Morning Tea

On Wednesday we will hold a morning tea to thank the army of parents, grandparents and community members who

have assisted in our school over the year. One of the special features I have noticed about this school is the wonderful

support we enjoy from volunteers – it does make a big difference to the quality of learning experiences we can offer

our students. If you can’t make it to the event, please accept a sincere thank you from me on behalf of the school, for

your invaluable contribution.

P&C and School Board

Perhaps the greatest contribution parents can make to their children’s school is to serve on the P&C or School Board.

These roles involve time and energy, and are essential to the successful operation of a school.

This evening we will host a reception to thank the board members and P&C executive.

Board members:

Staff Reps: Ashley Weckert, Madi Wickstein, Michelle Holthouse, David McLaren.

Parent Reps: Tania Wright (Chair), Marnie Fels, Ian Richardson, Michael Drake-Brockman, Anna Bonney, Janet Durrant,

Clara Graham.

Tim Baker (Principal), Tania Barnes (Exec Officer)

Special thanks to Marnie Fels who steps down after six years on our School Council/Board and 11 years of association

with our school: and to Clara Graham who will step down next year due to her term expiring.

P&C: Sandra Prosser (President), Fiona Ryan (VP), Jen Sage (Secretary), Emma Green (Treasurer), and Executive

Members Addie Timms, Larissa Bower, Janet Durrant, Hazel Burgess, Kristy Roper, Terri Coates, Kylee Gould, Katie

Witt.

Best Wishes

Tim Baker

Principal

Deputy’s Desk - Curriculum

2021 Student Leaders

On Wednesday, our 16 shortlisted student leaders

presented a short 2 minute speech to the students

in Years 4-6 about themselves and why they would

be a good student leader.

The 16 students were:

James Butcher Emelia Ashman

Lachlan Davies Ruby Heather

Riley Davies Everlee Major

Ryan Gilmore Kianna Manu

Benji Lear Lucy Pechar

Anaya Ramalepa Isla Powell

Nick Terrell Olivia Stephen

Jarryd Timms Ellie-Rose Weckert

The students and staff then voted and the

successful students will be announced at next

Friday’s Presentation Assembly. Parents of

successful students will be informed prior to the

assembly.

Reports

Just a reminder that the school requires your current email address for the school reports. We anticipate sending

them out in Week 10. We will send a text message once the reports have been sent out to remind parents to check

their inbox. One common issue parents have is that the reports sometimes end up in the Junk email folder, due to

the emails being sent out in bulk, so we recommend parents check there first, prior to contacting the school. We

also would like to remind parents to download the report from the link, as the link expires after 4 weeks.

Julie Fetherston Deputy Principal

Deputy’s Desk – Student Services

Congratulations to our Movie excursion winners. These lucky kids will be attending an excursion to the movies with

popcorn and a drink. What a treat!!

There were over 1000 raffle entries which equates to 20 000 Castle Points. That means there were 20 000 times that

our Castletown kids have been caught being great kids and following our expectations!

Great work kids!!

David McLaren Deputy Principal

Junior Movie Excursion Raffle Winners

Senior Movie Excursion Raffle Winners

Amelia Hooper Charlie Wood Seth Patton

Nathan Forrester

Charlie Tabinor Izzabella Scott Jai Wood Ashlee Smith

Spencer Bower

Harlow Weckert Zane Maloney

Annabelle Drummond Lilly Blacker Marcus Miller

Emelia Ashman

Savhannah Lewis-Hoey

Eva Richardson Peter Burgess Luca Abram

Thomas Balsdon Holly Young Doreen Evans

Charlie Wooldridge Jai Desmond

Bentley Lawrence Polly Gilchrist

Olivia Beardsmore Braxton Miller

Cooper McMullen Aaron Prosser Jack Witt Jake Powell

Mary Pugh Amaya Nankivell

Kristian Wright

William Wright Rhys Muir

Savanah Durrant Quinn Libo-on Kianna Manu

Isla Peterson Cody Henderson Oskar Graham Kash Edmonds Tayah Woort

Daniel Chitarra Chloe Sinagra

Rory Giorgiante

Brock Coates Carter Manu Rose Harrison Isabelle Stratton Remy Schmidt Van Haberley

Lucas Nankivell

Isabelle Crawley

Dakota Lay Kai Coleman Theo Nelson Chelsea Richardson

Bronte Hennessy

Cooper Weckert

Charlotte Beardsmore

Graciella Burgess

Charnique Owen James Boast

Braxton Gilbert

Mitchell Whiting Arlie Cox Lara Smallman Jayden Arnold Ainn Permito

Harrison Arnold Khloe Charles

Imogen Hindley

Adelayde Humphrys Katie Bourne

Jack MacKenzie Hamish Linden

Sheridan Spencer

Room 1 and 3 Assembly

Today’s Christmas themed assembly was led by the wonderful students in Rooms 1 and 3. The students spoke

clearly and confidently over the microphone impressing everyone.

Their first item

was the song “I

still call Australia

Home” with the

students

surrounding the

undercover area

and singing very

well to their

audience.

They also sang

“Aussie Jingle

Bells” and “Santa

Bring me a

Dinosaur” with

lively enthusiasm,

cute little dance

moves and a few

students bopping

along to the song.

Well done Rooms

1 and 3 on such a

polished and

entertaining

assembly.

Mr Baker also provided some entertainment with his “nit kit” where he suggested his treatment of eradicating nits.

Mrs Fetherston was very relieved that he didn’t carry out his demonstration at the assembly! Students, were of

course, reminded that this was definitely a joke and to not try out at home!!!

Certificates of Outstanding Achievement

Congratulations to these students for receiving the Certificate of Outstanding Achievement at today’s

assembly.

Class Year Students

EC 3 PP Lexi Weckert, Emmalee Barrett

EC 5 PP Sarah Macalpine, Lincoln Brenssell

EC 6 PP Luca Watchorn, Levi Pratt

Room 1 1/2 Heidi Hurrell, Miley Lear

Room 2 1 Lacey Browning, Flynn Sylva

Room 3 1 Emily Riggs, Jack Kenny

Room 4 2 Maxwell Macalpine, William Yexley

Room 5 2 Phoenix McMullen, Leah Robbins

Room 6 2/3 Kyle Durrant, Mikaylah Stephen

Room 7 3 Amelia Hooper, Beau Sylva

Room 8 3 Thomas Scullin, Seth Patton

Room 21 3 Micheal Nguyen, Addison Drake-Brockman

Room 13 4 Quinn Libo-on, Bronte Hennessy

Room 14 4 Lola-Rose Ridgway, Alyssia Bain

Room 9 5 Olivia Stephen, Nick Terrell

Room 10 5 Zaidee Maloney, Jazmin Humphrys

Room 11 6 Demi Hunter, Aaron Prosser

Room 12 6 Jessie Hennessy, Allira Bratten

Specialist LOTE Ted Graham, Amaya Nankivell, Sadie Witt, Ellie-Rose Weckert

Phys Ed Chelsea Richardson, Druce Blythman

Art Emily Riggs, Lola-Rose Ridgway, Ellie-Rose Weckert

Music Remy Schmidt, Jayden Arnold, Isabelle Crawley, Kasey Walsh

Ribit - 100, 200 and 300 Night Readers

Congratulations to the following RIBIT readers:

Rooms 100 Nights 200 Nights 300 Nights

EC 3 Ted Graham, Jaxon Freeman Saoirse Loffler, Ila Meredith, Oscar Tabinor

Rm1 Carter Watt, Asha Vermey

Rm2 Emily Riggs, Matthew Gellatly Polly Gilchrist, Theo Nelson, Zavier Oliver

Rm 4 Ruby Riggs

Rm 6 Harlow Weckert Coby Guest, Sadie Witt

Rm 8 Kaylee Vermey, Macy McLaren

Rm 9 Savannah Durrant, Izzabella Scott, Rory Giorgiante

Scarlett Hawke, Charlotte Beardsmore

Rm 14 Savhannah Lewis- Hoey

Dates to Remember

Monday 7th December Week 2 Swimming Lessons for PP, Yr 2 and Room 3

Tuesday 8th December Cinema Trip for Raffle Winners at 1.00pm – PP, Yr1, Yr2 & Yr3

Wednesday 9th December Cinema Trip for Raffle Winners at 1.00pm – Yr4, Yr5 & Yr6

Thursday 10th December Junior and Senior Choir Movie night at 5.30pm

Friday 11th December Presentation Assembly at 11.30am

Monday 14th December Graduation Assembly for Yr 6 at 11.30am

Tuesday 15th December Yr 6 Graduation Dinner

Thursday 17th December Last Day of Term 4

Community News