Today I had the pleasure of officially welcoming our 2024 Kindergarten parents to Penguin District School. For some families, this marks the beginning of their journey with us. Many of the children have participated in our pre-kindergarten program and have been involved with Mini Music Makers, Kinder Gym and Playgroup.  Rest assured, our little ones will be well-prepared and ready to dive into learning from day one next year. Each child received a book titled, “The Very Brave Bear” by Alex Bland. Quite a symbolic title as parents and children will need to be brave at the start of 2024 when they begin their schooling time at Penguin and trust that together we can support their children to be successful little people who love coming to school.

On Thursday our Year 6’s had their ‘official’ Orientation Day as part of their transition to Year 7 program. On the same day our Year 10’s headed off for their Hellyer College Orientation Day. Both significant transition points in children’s educational journey as they approach increasing levels of independence and responsibility. By all accounts both successful experiences for those involved.

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of joining Mrs Jenny Slater and Mr Brad Jordan at a celebration with the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Education, recognising them for 25 years of service within the Tasmanian Department of Education. Brad shared with me that he has probably worked close to 30 years at Penguin as one of our groundsman. An amazing achievement to with him seeing many changes across the school and improvements in the equipment and technology he has these days to help him with his role. Jenny has been with us at Penguin for 8 years beginning as a Year ½ teacher, before changing directions and currently teaching art and inspiring creativity in our early childhood children.  

Thankyou to the 98 families who responded to the recent survey. This information will certainly assist us with finetuning our communication strategy, with an overwhelming 90% of respondents (K-8) saying they would have either probably or definitely completed the survey if they had received the link by Seesaw and other comments indicating that the text was a positive way of sharing the information/survey link. “This text link is great to make sure it is seen!” “If you texted me like this, I would have done it – sorry.” The other real positive was the number of responses that suggested they would complete the survey in 2024. Other information provided will complement our original data to provide a more

Please keep an eye on the school calendar, either on Schoolzine or through the newsletter, to ensure you don’t miss any of the major events happening in the last few weeks. I managed to double book myself for a couple of upcoming events, so fully appreciate that it is easy to miss events or over commit yourself.  

Finally, a big congratulation to Miss Zoe King (1/2 teacher) who was recently successful in securing permanency through the Education Department’s Recruitment Process. We are really pleased and fortunate to have her joining us as a permanent staff member as a result of this process. To her credit, Zoe has managed to complete her university studies whilst teaching this year. A true reflection of her dedication and passion for teaching.

Yours in partnership

Matthew Perry