For all upcoming events please see the Penguin District School Calendar

Term 3 Summary

As we approach the end of another busy term at PDS, our teaching staff are naturally looking forward to a well-deserved break. As we reflect on the highlights of Term 3, one thing that does stand out is the vast array of events/activities across our school site offered this term:

The Maths Competition, Mount Hotham Ski Trip, School Football, The Science Fair,  Badminton & Soccer Gala Days, Firefighter Craig, Book Week, Young Tassie Scientists, a Japanese restaurant excursion, PCYC Resilience Programs, Write a Book in a Day, the Year 7 Information Evening, Primary Swimming Program, Kinder nature excursions, Burnie High School Production, High School Netball Championships, Pre-Kinder sessions, The Maths Relay, Sports Colours Day, and the Year 6 Canberra Trip.

Thank you to our staff for your continued commitment to everyday learning in the classroom as well as extra-curricular activities.

We hope that students have a safe and enjoyable school holidays and look forward to seeing you all re-charged and ready for learning in Term 4. We will continue to work towards our school attendance goal of 90% (currently 89%) and making sure that every child is known, safe and well. End of year assemblies also provide an important opportunity for us to recognise students who have excelled at school in 2025.

A moment of appreciation too for our non-teaching staff who may, or may not, be still at work over the school holiday period. The school site is a large and dynamic place, and a lot happens behind the scenes to make sure that the school site is ready for learning every day.

Focus Value – Courage

In recent weeks we have recognised 130 students across K-12 that have consistently demonstrated courage in Term 3. Courage can look very different for each student, and it is great to see students who were recognised proudly wearing their badge at school.

Next term our focus value will be Responsibility.

Introducing Nurse Alex 

Hi! My name is Alex Clark, and I am the School Health Nurse at Penguin District School. 

• I work with students (Pre-Kinder to Year 12), their families and school staff.
• I promote good health and wellbeing at school through health education and health promotion. This often looks like classroom visits or small group session on topics like emotional regulation, puberty, friendships, oral health, mental health and sun safety. 
• I offer Kindergarten Health checks and free vision and hearing screening.
• Support families and schools in managing complex health conditions.
• During lunch times, I often hold drop-in clinics for secondary students to ensure they have a safe, non-judgemental adult to speak to about their health choices.
• My workdays are Tuesdays and Fridays. 
• If you're needing support in relation to your child's health and wellbeing, I'm always happy to help! You can contact me via the school office. 

Evidence of Learning

Students in the following year levels will receive an envelope with work samples for the subjects listed. Please take the opportunity to view the work samples and talk to your child about their learning.

Shout Out / Thank You

• Ms Rush & Mr Duff who joined our HPE teaching team this term whilst Mr Baldock was on leave. Thank you for your contribution and all the best with future University studies.
• The Canberra team (Mrs Van Essen, Mr Rabe, Ms King, Mrs Enright, Mr Beattie). Thank you for your time and effort to ensure a safe and enjoyable trip away this week. We look forward to hearing about your travels.
• Families who attended Communicating with Families Meetings (in person or via phone & email). We appreciated the opportunity to connect and discuss your child’s progress and learning.
• Mrs McAuliffe who is representing Tasmania at the Hockey Australia Masters Women’s Championships in Hobart next week. Good luck.

Yours in partnership,

Jade Hughes - Assistant Principal (Year 7-12)

Term 3 sees STEM wrapping up our Hydraulics and Pneumatics unit. The students first learnt about the forces and compression of oxygen and water in order to make push and pull forces stronger. They were tasked with creating a machine, of their own design, that could lift and transport a load of at least 100g. All faced challenges in the conception of their designs which built resilience. All students were able to solve problems to be successful or communicate a way to be successful in the future.

A selection of secondary students enjoyed a well-deserved celebration lunch this week to close out Term 3 on a high. 

The Enterprise Groups are made up of interchanging students who assist our wonderful TA's with a variety of tasks around the school, including baking, creating, decorating, packaging, and selling items for school events.  Through hands-on activities like these, students build strong, flexible, and creative minds while learning valuable entrepreneurial skills that prepare them for real-world challenges. 

Looking ahead to Term 4! 

The students will be busy Bee's, baking and creating goods and items in preparation for both the Penguin Palooza and Christmas celebrations! We can't wait to see (and taste!) their amazing creations!

In term 3 many Year 7 students have been busy applying fine motor skills to making insulated potholders using cross-stitch and blanket stitch. They have finally had a start in the kitchen and, along with learning about safety in the kitchen, have so far made a fruit smoothie and French toast.

Year 8 students have made a variety of foods this term including butterscotch scrolls and pasta carbonara which was a huge favourite. They have also been learning definitions of kitchen related terms which they are becoming more familiar with. Their skills in the kitchen are definitely improving.

The Year 9/10 Hospitality class was set a challenge where they had to find a recipe that incorporated a type of pastry. They were judged on technical difficulty, taste and presentation and there were some amazing results from chocolate eclairs with a student made choux pastry to several variations of both sweet and savoury treats. Well done to all the students.

The 9/10 Foods have been continuing their culinary journey around the world, including stopping off in Italy for some pizza and a calzone, over to the US for some Mac and Cheese with spinach, ham and tomato, into France for some Chicken cordon blue and, of course, back home for some Anzac sandwich biscuits. It’s certainly been an interesting journey so far.

Winners of the Sport Ed championship and Most Valuable Players's 

Konnichiwa! (Hello!)

Last week in Year 8 Japanese we had some very special guests come all the way from Japan. Our classmate Senan had his parents, and their family friend visit us and cook for us. The Fletchers brought all the ingredients to cook some very oishii (yummy) yakisoba, with the option of butaniku (pork) or toriniku (chicken). While they visited, we’d completed a worksheet, extending our vocabulary of verbs used in cooking along with the vocabulary of nouns we’d recently learnt from our recent ‘food’ unit. Overall, everyone had a great time and learnt something new that day, we were so lucky to have them come. Thank you to the Fletchers for visiting! Arigatou gozaimashita! (Thank you!)

Starting a new ‘school’ unit, we’d put ourselves into groups to compete for points in our new unit. We’d come together as groups to pick our team name based on what we’d learnt in our previous unit. The teams’ names we’d come up with were, amai (sweet), suppai (sour), karai (spicy) and finally, kusai (smelly).

We’d also set up a new system on Education Perfect recently as a way of being able to practice our vocab, sentence structures and knowledge at school, and at home! With this, we can advance our learning even further and expand our growth.

We can do all of this thanks to our amazing sensei (teacher), Miss Lutwyche and her amazing help, knowledge and experience about Japanese language and culture.

Arahni S

PDS entered the national spelling bee in both the secondary and primary divisions. We had 11 secondary students enter in the 7/8 category, with 9 students being successful in making it through to the state finals. Those students are: Ethan, Milly, Arahni, Erin, Jake, Lauren, Elvie, Liam and Scarlet. 

72 students in Years 3-6 participated in the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee with 13 students making it through to the State finals.  Those students are:

Well done for showing our focus value of courage, a great effort! 

Miss Lutwyche & Mrs Blair

In week 8, 31 students from across Year 7-10 took part in our “Write a Book in a Day” challenge. With just nine hours on the clock, teams worked together to plan, write, and illustrate original stories from start to finish.

The day was a huge success. Students showed impressive focus, creativity, and collaboration and the final products were a testament to their effort. It was a great opportunity for literacy lovers to dive into storytelling and experience the full writing process under pressure. We’re very proud of everyone who took part—and students and staff are already looking forward to next year.