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- Penguin District School Calendar
- Principal's Report
- eSmart Accreditation
- Information From Our School Health Nurse
- Pre Kinder
- Kinder B Book Week Dress Up Day
- Reading at Home
- Science and Engineering Investigation Awards Finals
- Brush with Fame
- A Visit to Coroneagh Park - $20 Boss Project
- Australian Defence Force Visiting Year 9 & 10 Students
- All Schools Road Cycling Championships
- Secondary School Girls Football
- Photography Competition
- School Arts Expo
- Family Engagement Survey
- Lost Property
- Primary Schools Touch Football Roster
- Ulverstone Junior Softball
- School Calendar
Penguin District School Calendar
For all upcoming events please see the Penguin District School Calendar
Schools are typically places of great consistency for the young people and adults that are part of a school community. Consistency and predictability of routine, expectations and in the relationships between students and staff are key elements for a young person’s success. This week one of our most familiar and consistent faces, Mr Adam Conkie, will be taking some well earned long service leave for the remainder of the year. Mr Conkie started at Penguin High in 2010, after an invitation to formally start his teaching career at Penguin following a successful teacher placement in his final yar of university. Mr Conkie quickly emerged as a teacher that students warmed to with his balance of humour, care and genuinely wanting to see students giving themselves the best opportunity to shine. Quite often in his own time he can be found mixing with students sharing some pointers on the basketball court, football oval, or in common areas sharing his wisdom and further strengthening the connections that he has with our students. Whilst Mr Conkie remains as a member of our team, we thought it was timely to acknowledge and thank him for his contributions as he heads off on some well earned extended leave to enjoy time with family and working on some home renovations.
Teacher Shortages
Tasmanian schools in general are experiencing a shortage in relief and contract teachers statewide, with the situation more apparent during the winter months. This is a matter that the Department of Education and all stakeholders are actively doing their best to address, whilst recognising that consistency is key for our students. Our relief co-ordinators Mr Lane and Mr Maywald do a tremendous job to manage the relief arrangements across our school. Please understand that there may be occasions where despite our best efforts, that your children’s class may be collapsed for a day and shared across other classes. This still provides key adults that know our students, and understand our school expectations and routines. There have been recent occasions where Mr Lane and Mr Maywald have made more that 40 phone calls to secure relief staff. Teaching is and continues to be an immensely rewarding career and we hope to see even more young people consider this as a pathway beyond year 12.
Sicknesses
Please remember that the same expectations are in place regarding illnesses and cold/flu like symptoms as from last year. If your child appears unwell, it is essential that you seek advice, either through a pharmacy or your local GP and follow the direction that you have been given. Notifying our school administration of when your child is unwell is still an important process. It may be that families are asked to provide a medical certificate for when your child has had a number of days away from school across the year, or a number of consecutive days unwell. A great way of addressing this is to request a certificate any time that you are seeking medical advice if your child is unfit/unwell for school.
Mat Grining - Principal
Email: mathew.grining@education.tas.gov.au
There is one Pre Kinder session left this term (Friday September 17).
Pre Kinder will begin again in November, running on the 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th and an orientation session/parent information session on December 3.
We can’t wait to see you all then.
Jessie Eberhardt
Early Years Coordinator
A reminder that children and families are welcome to continue to borrow levelled readers from the library for reading at home before school or in their library time.
Please speak to your child’s teacher about the most appropriate level for children to borrow.
Science and Engineering Investigation Awards Finals
We decided to do an experiment about the amount of bacteria that is hidden around our school and if garlic has an effect on the growth of it. We put the experiment into 8 containers and placed it in the fridge. Soon after we realised that the coldness of the fridge was affecting the growth of the bacteria, so we took it out and left it under the art table at room temperature.
After a couple of days, we thought it hadn’t grown still but it wasn’t the case because it had grown a lot, especially the library book cover and the hall door handle that didn’t contain garlic.
We had lots of fun during the experiment whether it’s when we were swabbing parts around the school or gluing our information on to our board. If we were to complete this experiment again, we would use agar plates to show the bacteria growth. Next time we complete a scientific investigation we would like to try and make hand sanitiser.
By Emilie, Taleah, Hudson and George.
This afternoon during our Year 9/10 Work Studies course, we were fortunate to listen via Zoom to former Tasmanian Bart Welch. He now resides in Sydney and is an actor, voice over specialist, and reader of audiobooks. He has had a unique pathway graduating from Newstead College in Launceston and then being accepted into the very prestigious Victorian College of the Arts. He spoke of his journey into acting and appearing in multiple film and tv roles. His main feature roles came in Channel Ten’s Offspring and Neighbours, cameos in Foxtel’s Wentworth, and finally Channel 7’s Home & Away and the mini-series Molly. It was a fantastic opportunity for students to engage with someone in the entertainment industry and hear first-hand the trials and tribulations of trying to make it. His parting advice was to make your journey be unique, say yes to any opportunity you can to improve yourself, and stay true to your passion.
A Visit to Coroneagh Park - $20 Boss Project
Cohan, Bailey and Noah visited Coroneagh Park this week to visit with the knitting group. The bonus provided the group with some wool late last term as a part of their $20 Boss project. To continue raising awareness for homelessness on the North-West coast, the boys asked the residents to knit scarves and beanies to sell/donate. The knitting group enjoyed helping the boys out and were excited to hand over the finished product.
All Schools Road Cycling Championships
Last Saturday we represented Penguin District School in the All Schools Road Cycling Championships. It was held at Symmons Plains Raceway and was open to Year 6-12. We competed in the 10km Under 13 event where Mitchell finished in 2nd winning the silver medal and Lenny in 5th place. Both of us had a lot of fun and would like to see more Penguin kids ride in the event next year.
Mitchell & Lenny
Secondary School Girls Football
Recently we had the opportunity for our 7/8 and 9/10 girls to represent the school in the inaugural Girls Gala Days. The 7/8 Girls travelled over to Devonport and defeated Latrobe High, Sheffield District and Ulverstone Secondary College in the preliminary matches and won their way to the Grand Final against Latrobe. Although it wasn’t the result they were after, it was very rewarding to see more than half the side playing football for the first time and the skill development throughout the day.
The 9/10’s competed at Marist College and defeated Burnie High and Smithton High in our first two games before coming up against Marist where we lost by 5 goals. Due to other results the girl’s games, we qualified for the Grand Final against Marist again. At half time, only 2 points separated the teams before Marist ran out eventual winners by 23 points.
AFL Tasmania’s Emma Humphries was very impressed by the talented Penguin players and how they conducted themselves over the course of the day. We look forward to more opportunities to play in 2022.
Thank you to everyone who entered a photo in our ‘Warmth’ photography competition. Our photos will now sit with Sarah Cox for judging and winners will be announced in our assembly on September 16.
Year 11-12 ONLY Moderation (Student Free) Day
All day |
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Good Friday
All day |
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Easter Sunday
All day |
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Easter Monday
All day |
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Easter Tuesday
All day |
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Nature Kinder A
All day Recurring event |
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Launching into Learning Playgym
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Recurring event |
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Launching into Learning Playgroup
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Recurring event |
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Year 1 Inquiry Excursion
9:00 AM - 2:30 PM |
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Year 1 Inquiry Excursion - Back up day
9:00 AM - 2:50 PM |
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Launching into Learning Music
9:00 AM - 9:45 AM Recurring event |
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School Photos Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 April
9:00 AM - 2:30 PM |
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School Association AGM
5:00 PM - 5:30 PM |
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Launching into Learning Playgym
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Recurring event |
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Primary Assembly Featuring - 5B French/Brown, 3-4C Rattray and 2B Taylor
1:30 PM - 2:50 PM |
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Last Day Term 1
All day |
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Launching into Learning Playgroup
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Recurring event |
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Prep - Year 10 Progress Reports sent home
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM |
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School Holidays
13 Apr 2024 - 28 Apr 2024 |
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ANZAC Day
All day |