For all upcoming events please see the Penguin District School Calendar

It’s been a wonderful start to Term 3, and I am proud to share some exciting updates from around our school.

Science Week

This week, we are preparing for Science Week, and the energy across Penguin DS is electric! Students and staff are buzzing with ideas as they prepare for our Science Fair. It is fantastic to see so much creativity and curiosity in action. We can’t wait to share the amazing work with you.

Values

One of our school values is courage, and we’ve seen it in action this week. Courage means having a go, even when something feels tricky or new.

NAPLAN

We’re also proud to share some great news from our recent NAPLAN results. Penguin students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 performed strongly, with most results above the Tasmanian average. This reflects the hard work of our students, the dedication of our staff, and the support of our families. Well done, everyone!

 Shout Outs

• Congratulations to the Year 7/8 football team on wining the premiership, to Jack for his Best on Ground Performance and Logan for his coaching.
• To our Educational Facility Attendants who work tirelessly to ensure clean and safe learning environments. Thank you we know the wet weather makes your job more challenging.

Safe at school survey

This week, students in Year 3-12 have been completing our annual ‘Safe at School Survey’. This information is helpful for us to understand how students are feeling at school and whether there are any actions we can take as adults to make our school a safer place to be.

At first glance, there is some positive data to celebrate. This includes an average rating of 4/5 for how safe students feel at school (1 being ‘not very safe’ and 5 being ‘very safe’) and over 90% of students indicating that there is an adult in our school that they can ask for help if they need to.

There is always room for improvement and our students have shared information about toilet facilities, the amount of duty staff, and other students that allow us to review and action strategies to demonstrate how valued the student voice is.

Staffing Update

Congratulations and welcome to Vicki White from Ulverstone Primary School. Vicki is the successful applicant for our Instructional Specialist. We are looking forward to Vicki joining our leadership team and the experience and knowledge that she will bring.

A big thank you to Nicky Green who has been acting in the Instructional Specialist position. We have valued her knowledge, support, and leadership. Nicky will be picking up 0.2 on 1/2E Friday’s and the K-6 AST backfill.

Mr Geoff Davis is currently on leave and has made the decision to relinquish his Assistant Principal 7-12 position. Mr Davis has made a huge impact in our school community through his leadership, supportive approach and empathy. We thank Mr Davis for his leadership and commitment to the PDS community over a number of years. We are fortunate Mr Davis will return to PDS in 2026 as a member of our teaching team.  

Mrs Christine Lusted is taking long service leave for the remainder of the term. In her absence we welcome Miss Tahanee Bennell who will be teaching Primary Drama. Mrs Olivia Bracken will be stepping in to take LiL Music on Mondays.

Yours in partnership

Angela McAuliffe

This Monday we held our first meeting for Term 3, and it was great to have Casey Hiscutt join us as an observer. 

 The Penguin Palooza 

We are excited to host a school and community celebration as part of the Penguin 150 calendar. It will be held after school on Friday 14th November. All classes are encouraged to plan and hold their own stalls, and they will be able to decide how the funds they raise will be spent. Each Primary class will need a commitment of at least 3 parents to go ahead. We will also need lots of help on the day to make sure the event runs smoothly, such as manning stalls, ticket booths, coordinating events, setting up the music and entertainment area etc. Please contact the school or Elisha Franks if you can help in any way - we would love to see lots of people offering an hour so that we can share the load. Thank you to the group of volunteers that have already started to make it a reality. 

Fundraising

The election barbeque and bake sale raised $635. The Student Board and House Captains are now tasked with planning how they can spend this money wisely on sports equipment for recess.

The Sensory Garden

It was great to start planting with the Grade 5s and 6s this week. Every class will have an opportunity to be involved if they choose to. The Committee approved payment for a mature crab apple tree to be the seasonal feature tree in this space, so we will all be able to enjoy the blossoms soon with Spring around the corner. I am so grateful to so many local businesses and parents for their contributions - the thank you posters will keep coming! There is still a lot of work to do, so please get involved if you can.  

Association Grants

Watch this space for an easier application process to apply for small grants and funds from the School Association. We would like students and staff to consider how best we can help them, and to help us by exploring the costs and benefits involved. 

The Old School Site

As a committee we are not satisfied with the Education Minster's decision that the former primary school is surplus to need. We are continuing to advocate for this, to ensure that the school and wider community does not lose vital resources such as Out of Hours School Care, the Community Learning Centre, and our surrounding green space. Central Coast Council has been given the opportunity to lease and manage this land, which they are currently considering. 

Volunteering at PDS

In order to volunteer at any of our school events, parent help, excursions etc you need to have a Working With Vulnerable People Card. This currently costs $22.92 for volunteers and can take 6 weeks to arrive. Please consider getting a card if you don't have one: it gives you the chance to be involved and helps to keep our children safe.  You will also need to complete Safeguarding Training (a short 10 min video). You can access this training via the Department for Education, Children and Young People www.decyp.tas.gov.au/safe-children/safeguarding-children/safeguarding-training/ You will need to provide a certificate of completion to school prior to volunteering.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 1st September at 5:15pm in Meeting Room 1. Everyone is welcome!

Sheila (Association Chair)

On Tuesday 29 July we celebrated 100 days of the school year.

We created a fun craft showing what we think we might look like at 100 years old. We wrote about what colour our hair might be, how many grandchildren we might have, what games we might play and even what we might enjoy eating at that age.

To keep the celebrations going, we held a Roll to 100 tournament. After some friendly competition, Frankie was crowned our champion.

We can not believe we’ve already passed 100 days of learning together this year.

In Maths, 1/2B have been exploring measurement in a variety of ways. Student identified that they could measure the size of something, the weight, how long something takes and how much something can hold. Now they are building their vocabulary around how to describe/name these measurements and strategies for measuring and comparing objects.

In 1/2C, we are currently undertaking a geography inquiry as part of our HASS programme.  This afternoon, the students worked in small groups to discuss how we can best look after a range of important places.

Here are some of our highlights from the beginning of term three:

• "PE with Miss Rush" - Charlie, Scout, Savannah, Isaac, Joseph and Ashton
• "Learning new sounds in UFLI like oy and oi" Zoe, Koa and Aaliyah
• "When we did the inquiry science investigations" Max Y
• "In inquiry where we've been learning about Australia, states and maps" Aydah, Joey and Alby
• "Writing, and doing our 15 minute quick writes" Austin, Zara, Jack and Esther
• "Art" Dom
• "Playdough " Oaklen
• "In maths we have played maths games and learnt new things" Mikilah, Kellin, Dexter, Ashton, Max O, and Safiri 
• "Music with Mrs Lusted" Mia
• "Learning about nutrition in health and talking about description words, actions, thoughts and feelings" Reuben
• "Choir" Zara and Esther
• "Making our time posters" Zara, Esther, Amarni, Maggie, Henry and Harvey
• "Reading during read to self" Ashton
• "The great pencil challenge" Lenny and Owen

Students from Year 7 have completed their sliding lidded containers. This project introduced students to basic hand skills in the workshop, from marking out to construction. They also used 3 D modelling software to personalise a 3 D Print design that acted as a pull on their lid. Marking out from a template, constructing a basic housing joint and screwing the project together were skills learnt with the second smaller project, a wooden plane.

Students have completed their Macrocarpa tables with resin inlay. This project used four different joining processes for timber and developed skills in software use for C N C routers. The students are now working on a major project of their own choice, to showcase the skills they have developed in this class.

Please note update change of dates due to staff sickness.