Dear Families 

I find it hard to believe that we are at the halfway point of the school year. This term has been full of learning opportunities and positive action for students and staff. There have been many great opportunities for students, including these transition activities that have occurred in the past two weeks.

• Grade 10 students have experienced open days at Newstead, Launceston and Hobart Colleges, as well as participating in White Card training.
• Miss Cook and Mr Emmerton spent Thursday morning at Bicheno Primary School with the Grade 5/6 class, getting to know those students who will be transitions to SMDS in the next year or two.
• Our Kindergarten class had the opportunity to work in the Primary block this week, and it was lovely to have the Kinder students, Robyn and Mrs Lee working alongside our other primary students and staff for the day. 

Book your time for your Parent-Student-Teacher Conversation! 

This year we are trialling a different model for these important conversations, with interview times starting earlier in the day, as a result of feedback we have received from families. Students are also invited and expected to attend these conversations, as we value-add to the discussions about learning progress and setting learning goals when students, parents/carers and teachers have these conversations together. These three way conversations provide a valuable opportunity to meet with teachers to discuss your child’s learning progress in greater detail. This can help answer questions, deepen understanding and enable parents/carers to support their child to establish some future focussed learning goals to improve their learning progress moving forward into the second half of the year.  

Primary Parent-Student-Teacher Conversations take place on the 22-24 July from 1.00pm to 4.30pm.

Secondary Parent-Student-Teacher Conversations take place on 29-31 July from 1.00pm to 4.30pm.

To book at time, please use the following link Parent-Teacher Booking  If these times are not suitable, contact the administration team on 63723 900 to make an alternate time that works for you.  

Staffing Update 

I am pleased to report that we continue to have strong stability in our staffing moving into Term 3.  This provides continuity, certainty and generally contributes positively to our school community. Miss Cook will be taking some well-earned long service leave during the first three weeks of term 3 with Ros Smith and Lynette Yodgee covering Miss Cook’s teaching and supporting the secondary team during this time. 

Thank you to students, staff, parents/carers and to the broader community, who have contributed positively to our school community during this term. Many of us would know the phrase, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and therefore everyone who contributes something to our school helps in the education of our young people. 

I wish all students and staff a restful, enjoyable and safe holiday.  I look forward to the return to school on Monday 21 July for both students and teaching staff. 

Regards 

Carolyn Watson 

Principal 

Students spent their time working through various fun activities designed to introduce them to different Ancient Civilisations. They had fun decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphics and building bridges out of Lego like the Romans. They wrote ‘wise words’ and made a scroll like the Chinese, sorted out the Greek gods and their powers as well as ordering major events from Ancient India. Students have each chosen a country they will be researching and presenting to the class, either as a PowerPoint or Poster in next Term. 

Well done to the SMDS Winter Sports football team on getting their first win on the board against Port Dalrymple. Wally F was excellent in the ruck and holding the fort across half back when needed.

Jaxon H was his usual ball magnet self and seemed to be everywhere.

Ryan G took some great marks up forward and was able to convert.

A great team effort and good to get rewarded with the win!

The Grade 3-12 Celebration Assembly was held to acknowledge the successes of students. Students have participated in visual and performing arts, academic and sporting opportunities. These included: excursions to the Campbell Town Show, Agfest and the Bay of Fires Youth Art Prize.

Students and staff participated in the Walk to School Day and the Annual Big Freeze event. We had the Cross Country Carnival for Kinder to Grade 10 with invitations for some students to attend the next level of competition at ENE or Inter High, and Winter Sports has commenced for 2025 with some outstanding results. Grade 5-6 participated enthusiastically in the STEM showdown and the Illuminate Challenge. The Australian Defence Force visited our school and Grade 10 students visited Launceston for a Careers Taster Day as well as the Newstead and Launceston Colleges open days. As recently as this week Grade 10 students completed their White Card Training. Staff are proud of students as they accept both challenges and risks in their endeavours across many learning areas.

Thank you to family and community members for supporting our students in this assembly. Keep an eye out for the next assembly scheduled in Term 3.

During the Grade 5/6 Fitness Development unit this term, Miss Bramich introduced a new game called "Moonball".

Miss Bramich created the game to accommodate skill levels of every student, which meant "inclusion" was a key factor in the success of the game.

The game was a hybrid invention incorporating elements of netball, basketball and simple keepings-off style of play. The game operated under simple rules to ensure player safety. The rules also easily promoted strategies for players to demonstrate a positive sports code of conduct. The game can easily be umpired by a teacher or student. Alternatively, the game was designed to be  self-umpired by the students who were actually playing. Disputes were solved by rock, paper and scissors!!

The ball was the inspiration for the name. The ball is a large 50cm size with a moon like colour with lots of little balls, ("planets"), rolling noisily around inside the large ball.

The students enjoyed the game in PE so much that they were excited when Miss Bramich offered an end of term Grade 5/6 World Champion Moon Ball Championship! All Grade 5/6 students were divided into five teams and participated in a ten game round robin.

Scoring was a little unusual. 10 points every time the ball touched the basketball hoop and 50 points if a student made the perfect shot to get the ball stuck in the basketball net!  The game was fun, fast and furious.

A new game with new teams was played every five minutes! After ten games, there was a tie between two teams. The decision has been made to have a tiebreaker game in early Term 3.

Miss Bramich, Ms. Cook and Mrs. Lee had a wonderful afternoon in the company of our energetic, engaged and exhausted group of students. Please enjoy these action Moon Ball pics! Miss Bramich.

We have been very busy in Kinder learning about the seasons, focussing on the changes in each season and also on vocabulary words we know relating to each one. We have been engaging in many art experiences which we have proudly displayed in our classroom. We have had a big focus on the alphabet, learning a letter each week and making our own alphabet book.  We are currently focussing on the letter ‘Ee’. We have also been practising writing our names and being able to recognise numbers.

As part of our LiL program last week we visited the School farm.  We had a wonderful turn out.

This was a fantastic learning opportunity for the children who were very excited and had a fantastic time feeding the sheep, cows and chooks.  They were also able to collect the eggs from the nesting boxes.

At the end of the session Craig gave the children a strawberry plant to plant in their garden at home. This also gave the pre-kinder children a snippet of what we do in Kinder.

A big thank you to Craig for showing the children and families around the farm and the wonderful hard work he does on the farm with and for the children.

If you have a child who is pre-kinder age we would love to see them at LiL.  LiL is every Thursday at SMDS from 9.15am until 10.30am.  A calendar is available.  Please let us know if you would like a copy.

These notices have been sent home to parents in the last fortnight.  If you did not receive one and would like to receive a copy of the notice, please contact the school office on 63 723 900.

PRIMARY

• Ditto's Keep Safe Adventure Show  -  Wednesday 23 July 2025  -  Kinder - Grade 2    11.30am