Tamworth West Public School

Principal's Report

It's hard to believe that we are approaching the end of Term 1! The past ten weeks have been filled with numerous activities. Our kindergarten students have fully embraced their transition to 'big school' and are thriving in the classroom environment. Students in Year 3 and Year 5 demonstrated remarkable persistence and determination during NAPLAN. Our staff have worked diligently to organise various events, including Harmony Week, Wellbeing Week, the Science and Engineering Challenge, the swimming carnival, and a PLP barbecue.

In Week 10, we will have school photos and a visit from our Real Schools restorative practice expert facilitator, Daniel Vella, who will provide in-class support for both our staff and students. Week 11 promises to be equally busy, with Years 3-6 attending the Olympics Unleashed event in the hall to hear from Australian Triathlete Tilly Offord, as well as our ANZAC Service, Easter Hat Parade, and Cross Country event to conclude the week!

Parents and Citizens Association

At the recent P&C meeting, a new executive team was elected. Congratulations to:

• Deb Buchan - President

• Laura Jahnke - Vice President

• Kelly Cattle - Vice President

• Emily Crompton - Treasurer

• Vacant – Secretary

I encourage all parents to get involved with the P&C. On May 9th next term, we will host a Mother’s Day stall, and any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated—many hands make light work! P&C meetings are held on the second Monday of each month at 5:30 PM in the staffroom, and you can also join via Zoom if you can't attend in person. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 12th.

Quality Teaching at Tamworth West Public School

This year we have commenced Thriving Schools, a three-year partnership between our school and the University of Newcastle which aims to enhance teaching quality, support teacher well-being, lift student academic outcomes and strengthen school culture.  We are focusing on the quality of teaching, regardless of the instructional approach. Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR) is a form of professional development through which our teachers engage collegially to enhance the quality of teaching school wide. This involves teachers working in small groups to observe and discuss one another’s teaching using the Quality Teaching Model. We are excited to continue this focus to ensure we are providing the highest level of quality teaching to our students. 

Term 2

Term 2 commences for staff on Monday 28 April for the first of two staff development days. The first day is statewide focus on High Performance and Gifted Education (HPGE). The second will be teacher planning and preparation time. Students return on Wednesday 30 April.

Mrs. Kay will remain in the role of Relieving Director of Educational Leadership for Term 2. As a result, I will continue to serve as the relieving principal, with Jo Sheedy continuing in her role as deputy principal. 

A newsletter will be released on May 1, detailing the upcoming events for Term 2. For those celebrating Easter, I wish you a joyful time with family and friends. We hope everyone enjoys the holiday break and we look forward to welcoming you back on April 30.

Sara Spinks

Relieving Principal

Attendance

As term 1 comes to an end, the evidence is clear that consistent attendance is the essential first step for your child to have a positive experience at school. 

Every day matters for your child’s learning. Missing school for students means missing assignments, time with friends, an important math lesson or getting picked for a sports team. With days missed, years are lost. 

Students are required to attend school every day, whether it’s the first or last day of the term, Mondays, Fridays or days dedicated to sports carnivals, school excursions and incursions. 

Help us make sure your child is achieving their best and stays ahead in their learning with regular school attendance. The more time your child attends school, the greater their opportunity to learn, make new friends and improve their wellbeing. Together, let’s build positive attendance habits for a lifetime. 

If your child is absent from school, please let us know why as soon as possible, even if it’s just a few minutes at the start or end of the school day. Of course, there will be times when your child is unable to be at school (when they are unwell for example). Medical appointments should take place outside school hours where possible and family holidays should be taken in term breaks.

If your child is feeling anxious about coming to school and you need support, please reach out to your child’s teacher or our executive. Our staff are here to work with you and your child to help them attend school each and every day

Thank you again for working with our teachers and support staff to make sure your child is at school, on time, every day. We all want to see our students learn, grow and belong in our equitable and outstanding education system.

-Jo Sheedy

Deputy Principal

P&C AGM

Earlier in the month we held our Annual General Meeting. Congratulations to the following members who were elected in the executive roles:

President: Deborah Buchan

Vice Presidents: Kelly Cattle & Laura Jahnke

Secretary: Position remains open

Treasurer: Emily Crompton

The position of Secretary remains open and nominations will be taken at the next general meeting on the 12th of May.

Thank you to the outgoing executive - Catherine Te Au, Rachel Mountain, and Renae Mumford.  Your contribution to our school is greatly appreciated.

Mother’s Day Stall

The P&C will hold a Mother’s Day Stall on Friday 9 May.  Gifts will range from $1 to $7.  We will send out a reminder early in Term 2.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Monday 12 May at 5:30pm in the staff room and via Zoom for those who are unable to attend in person. New members are always welcome and appreciated. The P&C works to support our school and contribute to the school community. We would love to see some new faces at our next meeting to help support the P&C.

-Laura Jahnke

P&C Vice President

Canteen Menu - SUMMER 2024/25 [Download]

Yaama Maliyaa

What a great few weeks we have had. Teachers are working with our First Nations students to complete their Personal Learning Pathways, and I have loved hearing some of their goals.

PLP Get Together

It was great to see the parents at the Personalised Learning Pathways (PLP) BBQ last week. It was lovely to be able to sit with parents and discuss their child’s goals for the future. If you were unable to make it to the BBQ, please feel free to contact the office and they will get a message to your child’s teacher that you would like to discuss your child’s PLP goals. Thank you to Mr James who cooked the BBQ for us.

Boys Didgeridoo

A big thank you to Mr Lyon who will be starting up a Boys Didgeridoo on a Thursday at recess. At this point it will be open to year 5/6 students and then move to the younger students. If you child has their own didgeridoo, they are welcome to bring it and store it in Mr Lyon’s room on Thursdays. 

Clean Up Australia

On Friday 7 March TWPS participated in Clean Up Australia Day. Every student was given a glove, and each stage had an are to clean. Staff and students went out and cleaned our school environment and contributed to this community event. Well done Tamworth West.

Please remember if you would like to have a voice within the First Nations Team, please contact myself or Dykota and have a chat. We love hearing from our families especially if it is about how we can better assist with the education of all students.

Have a safe Easter break.

Mrs Courtney Lyon- Coordinator Miss Dykota Hammond- AEO

Tamworth West Public School is a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) school. PBL is a whole school program that encourages positive behaviour and allows students to become responsible for their own actions. Students and teachers work together to create a positive learning environment within our school using consistent procedures, language and expectations.

We have three expectations that underpin teaching and learning at Tamworth West Public School.

These are:

RESPECT

RESILIENCE

RESPONSIBILITY

We encourage students to uphold these expectations to a high standard. Our PBL motto is:

EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, EVERY TIME

Positive Rewards

We have a school wide behaviour system that recognises and encourages positive behaviour. Students receive raffle tickets for displaying the correct behaviour. 

RESPECT

• We keep our areas tidy

• We use our manners

• We speak nicely to others

• We keep our hands and feet to ourselves

RESILIENCE

• We accept our consequences

• We use also inclusive

• We seek help when needed

• We solve problems peacefully

RESPONSIBILITY

• We look after our things

• We wear our school uniform

• We are honest

• We stay in the right areas

Wow, Term 1 is flying by! Our busy little Kindys have been working hard and learning so much this term. Our children have enjoyed reading and sharing their thoughts on our focus books, including "Edward the Emu" and "Pig the Pug." They've been learning to blend sounds to make words and are even starting to write simple sentences!

Harmony Week

We had so much fun learning our dance for Harmony Week, and the children loved performing it for the rest of the school.

Maths

In maths, we’ve been measuring and pouring different amounts into containers and using balance scales to check the weight of objects. Some of our favourite activities have been playing with playdough and enjoying maths bingo!

Easter Hat Parade + Cross County

We’re looking forward to seeing the amazing Easter hat creations for our parade in Week 11. We’ll also be participating in the school Cross Country on the last day of term.

Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday! A big thank you to all the parents for your support this term. It’s wonderful to see how much your child has learned and grown this term.

-Melinda Wilson, Jordana Cooper, Alle Wirth

Kindergarten Teachers

This term, our Year 1 and 2 students have been enjoying some fantastic events! Recently, they visited the AELEC to experience the Tamworth Show. The students displayed outstanding behaviour, and it was a joy to see their smiles as they interacted with a variety of adorable animals. They also had a lovely lunch while watching the thrilling showjumping in the main arena! 

Clean Up Australia

We participated in Clean Up Australia Day. The students took pride in tidying up our playground and they recognised the need to be responsible for the waste in our play areas.

Reading

Year 1 continues to work on phonemes (sounds) in classrooms. Students are making spectacular progress by blending sounds together well. Others are working hard on improving their fluency to read words and texts. 

Maths

In mathematics, our students are continuing to develop their number sense through activities such as skip counting forwards and backwards, as well as identifying numbers that come before and after. They also explored the concept of measurement, using informal units to measure length, area, capacity, and volume. These hands-on experiences are enhancing their understanding of mathematical concepts! 

Writing

Over the past few weeks, Year 2 has been diving into the fascinating world of the Antarctic through their writing activities. They enjoyed reading the wonderful book Sophie Scott Goes South, which is based on a real-life adventure. Students learned about the various animals that inhabit this icy region and the different types of icebergs found there. They also discovered the role of the icebreaker, the Aurora Australis, which travels to deliver people and supplies. Through research, note-taking, and writing informative paragraphs, the students practiced using the present tense to share their knowledge! 

Maths

Our mathematics activities over the last few weeks were lots of fun. We became pirates, determining and measuring the area of different sized pirate flags. We walked the plank and measured the length of our jump. We threw cannon balls and chose the treasure chest that could hold the most treasure. Learning to estimate and then accurately measure using scales and a meter ruler were two of the skills we practiced during the unit.  

-Kirrily Milton, Sam Deaves, Kathleen Harris, Chris Lyon

Stage 1 Teachers

Reading

The past few weeks we have been focusing on informative texts. The year 4 students have been reading the books Deadly Science- Solar System. Year 3 have been reading Icebergs and Earth's Incredible Oceans. We are having lots of fun learning new vocabulary and facts and hope to share them with you soon. 

NAPLAN

Earlier this term our Year 3 students completed NAPLAN. The teachers involved were so proud of how resilient our students were to complete their tests. Well done to our students in Year 3.

Cross Country

We are looking forward to our cross country which is coming up in Week 11 (Friday). Good luck Stage 2! We are hoping for a dry and warm day to have fun!

Representative Sport

It has been great to see some of our Stage 2 students representing the school at different sporting trials and events recently. Some of these have been selected into the Tamworth Team for swimming and the North West team for tennis and girls softball. We are very proud of the amazing efforts of all our students!

Stage 2 Sydney Excursion

Sydney excursion Expression of Interest notes are due Friday 4th April. If you would like you child to attend please complete the EOI and pay the deposit by then. We will be having a parent information session later in the year closer to the excursion. 

Upcoming Events

Next week we have a busy week!

Olympics Unleashed - Tuesday 8 April

ANZAC Day assembly - Wednesday 9 April  

Easter Hat - Thursday 10 April

Cross Country - Friday 11 April

Friday 11 April is also the last day of the school term and school starts back for Term 2 on the Wednesday 30 April.

As always, thank you to our families for the fabulous support they give our staff. Thank you also to our amazing staff for the work they do each day.  We wish all our students and their families a happy and safe Easter and Term 1 holiday. 

-Felicity Bagshaw, Jonathan Willis, Hannah Roworth, Courtney Lyon

Stage 2 Teachers

South Korea Pen Pal Zooom

At the start of April, 5R will be starting pen-pal zoom meetings with the South Korean school, Mokpo Hangdo Elementary School. During these meetings, occurring once a month, Year 5 will be learning about each other's school culture, traditional foods and holidays, national sports and costumes. 5R are very excited to be involved in this experience and can’t wait to start their meetings.  

English 

Year 5 completed the reading of their novel The Wild Robot, where students have been exploring science fiction narratives. At the end of the unit, Year 5 students completed a writing assessment, in which they created some engaging and creative writing pieces. 

Moving into the next 5-week unit, students will learn about genres and explore texts that cross genres, for example, informative texts that entertain, persuade, and inform. Year 5 will use the mentor text, Bright New World, and the supporting text, Dry to Dry, as a stimulus for writing informative and entertaining texts. Students will enhance their written texts by selecting appropriate multimodal features, including illustrations, maps, graphs, and audio. 

Year 6 have also completed their Storm Boy unit, where they explored narrative writing features. At the end of the unit, for a written assessment, students had to write a sequel to Storm Boy, which saw students embrace their creativity and imagination, while also staying within the context of the original Storm Boy perspective. 

Year 6 has now begun its next 5-week unit, where students will explore how a significant historical event can be portrayed through different genres. Students will engage with various texts that describe the Wave Hill Walk-Off under the leadership of Vincent Lingiari. Students will draw on this knowledge to create their own hybrid text about a significant Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person.  

Maths

During mathematics, Stage 3 has been exploring length/perimeter, time (e.g. elapsed time, ZOOM strategy, and 24-hour time conversions), and working with fractions. Students have been enjoying hands-on activities, using digital technology (e.g. stopwatches and PolyPad) and sharing their reasoning to consolidate learning and explore different approaches and strategies to questions. 

Stage 3 Canberra Excursion

Thank you to all parents/carers for the fantastic response to our Stage 3 major excursion to Canberra this year. EOIs and deposits are currently being collated, with further information and payment plan notes due to be sent out via SchoolBytes within the coming weeks. 

Upcoming Events

Tuesday 8 April – Olympics Unleashed Visit

Wednesday 9 April – ANZAC Day assembly

Thursday 10 April – Easter Hat Parade 

Friday 11 April – School Cross Country Carnival 

Friday 11 April - Last Day of Term 1 

Have a safe and happy school holiday break, and we will see you all in Term 2!

-Kahla May, Grace Firth-Panetta, Emily Roworth, Dee Burns

Stage 3 Teachers

Come & Try Athletics Day 

We had a fantastic day at the athletics track in Tamworth for the Come & Try Athletics Day! This event is designed to provide students with disabilities the chance to engage in athletics and enhance their skills in a supportive, non-competitive environment, with adaptations to ensure everyone can participate. It was heartwarming to see so many of our students giving their all and building friendships with peers from other schools. Throughout the day, all students displayed respect, responsibility, and resilience. A special thank you to Tamworth High School for generously lending us their school bus for the excursion! 

K1N has enjoyed a variety of engaging learning experiences this term! In English, we’ve been exploring the concept of ‘Context,’ where students have had fun discovering similarities and differences both in our classroom and around the world. In Mathematics, we’ve focused on sorting and classifying items by their attributes, leading us on exciting explorations throughout the classroom to see how we can categorise our belongings.

This month, kindergarten participated in the Bus Safety Program, where we had a great time travelling around town and learning important safety tips for bus travel!

Our sports program has been keeping us busy as well. We’ve wrapped up our modified tennis sessions and are now gearing up for cross-country practice. We’ve been working hard on building our running stamina and learning to follow cones and lines while we run. We can’t wait to see everyone who can join us to cheer on our efforts!

Warm regards, 

Dear Families, 

I would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Jessie Pollock, and I will be teaching 2-6P on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I have thoroughly enjoyed the past few weeks getting to know the students in 2-6P as we begin our learning journey together. In term 2, Mr Andrew Jones will teach the class on Wednesdays. Mr Jones has extensive experience teaching inclusive education and we are very fortunate to have him join our class. 

In English, we have been exploring narratives, with a particular focus on the importance of characters and setting, and how the language used in a text helps us visualise images. 

In Mathematics, we have been learning about fractions. While fractions have presented a bit of a challenge for some students, we are excited for the hands-on activities to come that will help reinforce our understanding. 

We have also been spending time tuning into our feelings and emotions and developing a toolkit of strategies that we can draw upon when we need help returning to the green zone, where we are ready to learn. 

We are looking forward to what is ahead in our learning journey. I am excited to collaborate with you to ensure your child experiences the best possible learning opportunities. 

Warm regards,

3/6C has been hard at work this term, engaging in a variety of activities! In Maths, we’ve taken our lessons outdoors under the COLA, allowing us to incorporate environmental aspects into our learning and make our questions more relatable. One of our projects involved exploring tessellating patterns with blocks, where we envisioned tiling an area for a customer and calculated the costs of each tile and the total project cost.

We’ve also had fun measuring distances! We started with millimetres on the ruler and then measured objects in centimetres. Taking our learning outside, we used trundle wheels to measure the perimeter of the COLA, imagining we needed to lay carpet and calculating how much we would require. The differing measurements we arrived at added to the excitement!

In creative arts, we’ve been exploring dragons. Students watched a YouTube tutorial on drawing a dragon’s head and used lead pencils to create detailed effects. They also experimented with moulding playdough into dragon models in preparation for working with clay.

In English, we’ve been examining the different elements of narratives. Students described familiar characters like Bluey and Spiderman, then created Picasso-style self-portraits to feature in their narrative writing. Using oil pastels to add colour, the results have been fantastic!

Our class has been quite busy with numerous school events, including excursions to the Tamworth Show and the Sports Dome for athletics, Clean Up Australia Day, Harmony Week, Wellbeing Week, the Swimming Carnival, and NAPLAN. It’s been a whirlwind of a term for everyone!

Looking ahead, we have the Easter Hat Parade, Olympics Unleashed, ANZAC Service, and Cross Country on the horizon. We have some busy weeks ahead, but there’s so much to look forward to!

Warm Regards,

North West Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to all 9 swimmers who attended the Regional Swimming Trials in Armidale on the 24th of March. Our students had to be patient as the original carnival was postponed due to the cyclone a few weeks ago. 

Our Junior Boys relay team took 11 seconds off their time at the Zone Carnival. Our Senior Boys team came third in their heat. Both teams were proud of their efforts.

Jaxon Murray competed in the 50m Backstroke and Nate Morely competed in the 50m Butterfly.  

North West Cricket

Hamish Blackman recently attended the State Cricket trials in Maitland. This was Hamish’s second time representing the North West Team. He captained the team during the week and was the top scorer for his team. The boys managed a win against Sydney South West and finished 12th overall. Hamish enjoyed his week away with the Boys Cricket team. 

Cricket Report

A big thank you to our Tamworth West cricket team for representing us so well! We kicked off with training, and all students were committed, showing up every day with enthusiasm. Along the way, they learned new skills and worked hard to improve, making the whole experience even more rewarding. We were excited to compete against Tamworth Public School. While they won, we had a fantastic time. Hamish Blackman was spectacular as our all-rounder, with some magnificent batting and bowling. All the other players were amazing too, and we couldn’t have had such a great sporting event without their effort and enthusiasm. Well done, dream team!

North West PSSA Representation

Congratulations to the following students who made it through Zone trials and have been selected at the Regional Trials to represent the North West in their respective sports. It is so pleasing to see so many of our students getting the opportunity to attend the State Carnivals. 

Taylor Cattle – North West Tennis

Madeline Ayres – North West Basketball

Carter Radford – North West Basketball

Max Staines – North West Basketball (Reserve)

Hamish Blackman – North West Hockey

Emily Vesey – North West Softball

Charlotte Vesey – North West Softball

Teaching and Learning Focus: 

ANCIENT MATHS GAMES THAT CAN BE PLAYED TODAY!

Need some new and easy games for the school holidays? Here are some ancient Maths games from other cultures.