Term 3 has been jam packed with learning and connection opportunities at Glenorchy Primary School. All staff are dedicated to our motto of ‘Every Minute Counts’ and we thank our families for helping your children to attend school every day!

Attendance Update

We know we have room to improve our attendance levels, but we have some great news. We are 4% up for the same time last year on students attending 9 out of 10 days of school. Every child who is learning more everyday matters to us, and this is a reason for our community to celebrate. We also know that the children who are being supported to attend school each day are doing much better with their learning. Thank you for your help.

Safety

We continue to give clear messaging about mobile phones. Our primary school aged children should not be on social media (Tik Tok, Facebook, unsupervised group chats) and should not be bringing phones to school. If phones are needed for safety issues before or after school, then we require them to be signed into the office. If this rule is broken, then parents will be called in to collect their children. 

Let children play and connect face to face…this is where they are at in their brain development, as responsible adults we need to help them do this.

We are seeing a connection between social media use and disengagement at school.

Connection

Building positive relationships and a sense of belonging is so important to The Glenorchy Way. We hope everyone feels warmly welcomed to our school each day and that you have been able to connect with us at one of our connection events this term:

• Book Week Celebration
• LIFT Night School Event
• Launching into Learning excursion to Simmons Park
• Family Conversations in week 9 Term 3
• Understanding Parental Controls Webinar and Cuppa with Mr Hunter - 2/9/25
• Staff visits to the Glenorchy Child and Family Centre
• Transitions meetings and student visits to Cosgrove and Montrose Bay High Schools.

You will also have noticed our new The Glenorchy Way values signs in our playground. This is helping us all to have the same positive language when supporting behaviour in the playground and in the classrooms.

Families School Satisfaction Survey 2025- Invitation

https://youtu.be/MPmJuqogLXg?si=G7SHvAznXFJFbkcL   A helpful video.

We want to hear from you, as input from families is very important to help us inform our school-planning and decision-making. Every year the Department for Education, Children and Young People conducts a School Satisfaction Survey to find out what your child(ren)'s school does well and where it may improve.

We would be grateful if you took part in our online survey about Glenorchy Primary School.

The survey is open from Monday 25 August 2025 until Friday 19 September 2025 and should take about 5 minutes to complete.

Each family should nominate one person to fill in this survey for their child(ren).

Take the online survey by clicking this Link.

The survey is carried out on a secure website and all responses are anonymous and confidential.

All families in this school receive the same survey link and no identifying information is collected. A summary of the survey results will be provided to schools.  Responses from individuals or small groups will NOT be disclosed to any Department for Education, Children and Young People staff.

Please contact your school if you require any assistance.

Thank you for taking the time to fill in this survey.

More magic moments…

Congratulations to our staff for inspiring our children to read and to love books! It was heartwarming to hear Steph Brown and Hannah Walters on ABC radio celebrating all that we know is fabulous about our school - innovation, connection, teamwork and a focus on learning.

The Book Week events culminated in the Book Week assembly where the focus on learning was highlighted. Seeing the connection to books from Kinder to Year 6 was amazing!

Our LIFT Night School Event was another great success and once again our staff rose to the occasion sharing activities with all our families. Sharing the tasty food prepared Dom and the kitchen elves was a great opportunity for staff to connect with their families. 

We then moved onto the activities around the school, grab-a-duck, glow in the dark tattoos, intricate henna designs, bracelet making, lanterns, face painting, instrument and music fun and STEM activities. Another successful night - thanks Miss Ali and Mrs Miles for your coordination of this event.

Let’s carry this spirit of collaboration and positivity on to the end of the term and beyond. Enjoy the everyday moments, stay connected and involved. 

Stay tuned next newsletter for some exciting updates re breakfast Club, school lunches and 24 Carrot Kitchen Garden.

In Week 9 I will also be running our termly Coffee and Cake Chat where we can hear your views on how we can do better at GPS.

Thank you for being part of our school community. Together, we are shaping a future full of promise.

Glenorchy Primary celebrated Book Week in many ways as we all looked for the adventures that can be found in a book.

Our classes were treated to an online interview with Andy Griffiths, the Australian author of funny books, including the Treehouse series.

Kinder Blue and Kinder Gold walked to the Glenorchy Library for an interactive reading of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' - what an adventure that was!

Prep-1 Morrisby and Walters shared a reading of 'My Grandma' with the author and illustrator! The book is about the many different names by which our grandmothers are known. After we shared the story we did some drawings of our our favourite parts of the book.

What a great day we all had last Wednesday. Our staff got into the spirit of book week sharing their favourite stories with children along with their favourite character from their chosen book. We had Spiro the Spider, Whitney and Britney - the Chicken Divas, there were giraffes, wizards, a cow laying eggs, Bottomley Pots, angel fish, cranky bears and so much more!

And then there was our assembly! Each class shared their interpretation of their chosen book. It was special to see the adventures each class went on as they explored the characters and storyline.

Our Kindergarten children discovered Dear Zoo and adventured with Scatter Cat. Prep Morrisby created the insects and bugs that may make up the meal for Spiro the Spider! Britney and Whitney were The Chicken Divas in Prep Walters. The Very Hungry Caterpillar ate it's way through 2-3 Crowley while 2-3 Little/Smith learnt How to Move a Zoo. Spiro made another appearance in 1 Boston and the sunflowers in 2-3-4 Reid Live in a Bus, Greaf the Leaf and One Fish Red Fish Blue Fish visited in 3-4-5 Watson, while 5-6 Berry discovered what could be found in The Garden of Broken Things.  5-6 Griffith discovered Holes and 5-6 Alexander lived through 400 Minutes of Danger.

As a wonderfully fitting conclusion to our Book Week celebrations we were all very excited when Mrs Brown and Miss Walters were interviewed on ABC radio due to the school's efforts for our students for Book Week. Not only were they interviewed but during that interview we discovered that Miss Walters Chicken Divas along with Glenorchy Primary had been chosen as the ABC's 'Book Week Boss'. The school has won a large book pack which will be presented by Ryk Goddard. What an exciting adventure that has been!

While we are on the subject of books - just a reminder to all our Prep to 2-3 families about your Home Reading Program. Dont forget each child should be reading the same book or passage from the book 3 to 5 times - this repeated reading really helps to develop fluency. After fifteen nights of reading children will be awarded a certificate.

Reading each night for all our children is a great way to spend time with family and relax before bed.

What another wonderfully successful connection event we shared on Wednesday night. Despite the elements trying very hard to put a damper on the evening earlier, the clouds realised we were serious and sped on their way! 

Our offering of cheesy pasta bake and sausages in bread went down a treat with families. The activities around the school kept everyone busy as we moved from Grabbing Ducks to Windmills and Glowsticks, onto face painting, henna art, bracelets lanterns and so much more.

Thank you to all our families, who despite the cold, came out and had fun and shared time with staff and other families.

In Art we read the ‘Farmyard Cat’.  We then did a symmetrical drawing of the farmyard cat.  We are very proud of our work.

Look at the texture and feathering in our drawings.

Celebrate Adults Learners Week

Celebrate Adult Learners Week 1–8 September by diving into learning a new skill or rekindling an old one at Libraries Tasmania.

During Adult Learners Week, adults of all ages and experiences can learn something new for free. You can choose from a huge variety of free activities.

Make sure to book on Eventbrite so you don’t miss out.

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