Dear Herdsmans Cove Primary School Community,

We hope this message finds you well and ready for an exciting term ahead. Welcome back to Term 4, a season of growth, learning, and fun at Herdsmans Cove Primary School. In this edition of our newsletter, we have some fantastic updates to share with you.

Swimming Carnival:

Our annual Swimming Carnival was held last Wednesday, and we couldn't be more thrilled. It was wonderful to see so many students and families attending. Participation was fantastic and our students represented their families, school, and community with pride. We look forward to announcing our interschool team soon for the carnival in week 4.

Learn to Swim:

In addition to the Swimming Carnival, this term, we will be emphasising the importance of water safety and swimming skills. With Tasmania's beautiful beaches, rivers, and pools, it's crucial that our students are confident swimmers. In week 4, students in years 3-5 and some selected 6’s will have the opportunity to participate in learn to swim lessons, ensuring that they gain the knowledge and skills necessary for a safe and enjoyable experience in the water.

We would like to extend our gratitude to the dedicated instructors and our supportive parent community, who make these lessons possible. Learning to swim is a valuable life skill, and we are excited to see our students grow in their aquatic abilities.

We look forward to a wonderful term ahead, filled with learning, achievements, and cherished memories. Together, we'll make Term 4 at Herdsmans Cove Primary School one to remember.

Kindergarten 2024:

This is a reminder to families that if you have a child at home who is turning 5 next year that they need to enrol in kinder for 2024. Please drop into the office for a quick chat so we can get the ball rolling.

Thank you for being an essential part of our school community. Here's to a fantastic term!

Warm regards,

Tobin McColl, A/Principal

On Wednesday 25^th October, we hosted our annual Splash Carnival at the Clarence Aquatic Centre. It was fabulous to see the students do their best and display such great sportsmanship. On the day the Red team came out on top, however, all students were amazing.

We would like to extend a BIG thank you to Woolworths, Greenpoint for their continued support of our school.

Our students look forward to receiving fruit, prepared and served to class by our volunteer student helpers and Teacher Assistant, Mrs Clark.

We are so grateful for all the extra goodies that Woolworths kindly donate to keep our students fed at school.

Just a reminder that the Swimming and Water Safety program for 2023 will be running from the 6th to 10th of November. The program will be at Oceana Swim Centre. Children will need their bathers and towels.

For the next few weeks students will be looking at Aboriginal symbols and petroglyphs.

We have mixed ochre and white paint together for students to paint some symbols and petroglyphs. We have also been creating our own stories using the mainland symbols while introducing petroglyphs. Students have enjoyed learning the significance of ochre and how/why it was used and representation of each colour.

The school lunch project started on Wednesday 25 October for students in kindergarten to grade 2.  Everyone enjoyed a serve of meatloaf with a delicious cous cous salad.  Next week cottage pie will be on the menu, with Moroccan chicken and lasagne to follow through to week 8 of this term.

Parent/Caregiver Survey

As part of the School Lunch Project, children are receiving free cooked lunches every Wednesday. To help better understand the benefits and challenges of providing cooked school lunches, researchers from the University of Tasmania are interested in hearing feedback from parents and caregivers in Term 3. You are invited to complete a short survey. Every parent who completes a survey will go in the draw to win a $20 Visa/Mastercard voucher.

If you would like to participate, please follow this link:

https://redcap.utas.edu.au/surveys/?s=Y9MJNCE3JWNKN8DL

We thank you in advance for your participation!

On Tuesday and Thursday last week some staff from school were invited to visit Government House.  The current Governor, the Honourable Barbara Baker is patron to various Tasmanian Community organisations.  Governor Baker encouraged the creation of a space within the grounds of Government House where fresh, health, home grown produce can be cultivated and donated to support local communities, including School Food Matters (our school lunch project), Loaves and Fishes and Eat Well Tasmania.  The garden is producing vegetables that are being directly supplied to the School Food Matters' School Lunch Project.

Our BGH Breakers netball team enjoyed a fantastic night at the Australian Diamonds versus South Africa Spar Proteas on Tuesday 31 October, in the last game of the tri series clash held at the Derwent Entertainment Centre.

It was a fantastic opportunity for the girls to see a live world class netball game with an electric atmosphere at the DEC.  The Diamonds went on to win 77-50 in the third game, with a clean sweep, winning the series 3-0.  A great time was had by all!

A BIG THANK YOU to the BGH Breakers and Mr Howard for donating tickets to the girls and their families.

Congratulations to our Champions Carnival representatives, Zahley, Scarlett, Braxton and Shaylah at the recent event held at the Domain Athletic Centre on Monday 16 October.  Thank you to parents for their support and well done to Scarlett for finishing 2nd in the 400 m race.

Pre-Kinder resumes this Tuesday 31 October at 2.00 p.m. in the kindergarten classroom.  All children and their parents starting kindergarten next year are invited to come along.  We look forward to seeing you there.