Pick up and drop off

Thank you for the care and consideration that parents and students are demonstrating for each other with the current arrangements.

We understand that whilst it is a busy time of the school day around the outside of the school, many families have found that it has been a great opportunity to extend independence and responsibility for their child to meet parents in an agreed area.

Kerger’s Coaches have indicated that the bus bay at the primary campus can be used by parents of a morning with care, as buses generally won’t use this area until 8:35am. This may help ease some congestion on Ironcliffe Road. If parents need to assist children with getting out of the car, we suggest using the car park outside Kinder or driving up the internal laneway towards the Community Learning Centre.

Where possible, we ask that vehicles when leaving the primary campus turn left, back up Ironcliffe Road to keep traffic flowing smoothly. We have contacted State Growth and asked them to come out to the school to review the current traffic flow and provide any possible recommendations/signage.

Tasmania Roadmap to Recovery

The early easing of Stage 2 restrictions from Friday at 3pm won’t provide many changes for us as a school at this point in time. We are unable to undertake large class excursions into the community or have volunteers in the school and the current arrangements for parents waiting outside of the school still stands. Interstate excursions ie Canberra, won’t be part of Tasmanian school planning for 2020, however, we will begin exploring opportunities within our state later in the year. We will continue to provide updates to our community as these conditions are eased – we have one eye very closely on the further easing of restrictions and the implications for our school production.

Reporting Progress to Parents

Tasmanian schools will provide a progress update to parents for the middle of the year that reflects the changes to schooling since March that we have all been experiencing and embracing.

Please note, that the format will look different to previous years as there will be no A to E assessment. Kinder reporting will occur early in term 3 and we are considering term 3 for possible parent/teacher/student conferences for all grades. The progress updates will go out to families on the last day of term, Friday 3 July.

Students from Prep to Year 6 will have

• Indicator of progress for English & Mathematics where the teacher/student has sufficient evidence
• Indicator of work habits in these areas
• Dot points for future focus in these areas
• Brief comment from the class teacher in relation to our school values of personal best, safe, and being respectful
• Prep parents will also receive the BASE assessment results (previously known as PIPS)

Students from Year 7 to 10 will have

• Indicator of progress for English & Mathematics, Science, Humanities & Social Science, where the teacher/student has sufficient evidence
• Indicator of work habits in English & Mathematics, Science, Humanities & Social Science, Health, Physical Education
• Indicator of work habits for Full Year and Half Year Applied Learnings - taking into account the optional nature of these during learning@home

Uniform Policy

Having our students back at school, feeling well and engaging in their learning is always our priority. On return to school, the consistency of uniform items like jackets, socks and shoes hasn’t been at the level that it was prior to the holidays. Our uniform and school identity is something that we are very proud of, and forms part of our school uniform policy and dress code as developed by our School Association. We have attached a link below to our uniform policy so parents can re-familiarise themselves. If you have any suggestions around our school uniform, please don’t hesitate to contact the school and this can be tabled at our Association meetings. Many of the positive changes to uniform have been a result of parent and student feedback.

https://penguindistrict.education.tas.edu.au/forms-documents/uniform