24 May 2024

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents, Families, Carers and Community,

As the winter begins to close on, the skies grey, and we put our heads down to stay dry and warm, I wanted to make safety the focus of this week’s newsletter.

As you are no doubt aware, safety, alongside learning, is central to what we do at Snug Primary School (and is one of our five Snug CARES values). We thank you for working with us to keep our students free from harm.

Child Safety Processes

There has been significant work in the Department of Children and Young People in recent years to prioritise students’ safety and wellbeing. Part of our school’s responsibility in this is to ensure that all adults who are working in Snug Primary School have a Working With Vulnerable People card; that they complete mandatory reporting training; and that they also complete training around Child Sexual Abuse. This includes our on site volunteers. We accept that there is a little additional time involved in becoming a volunteer at Snug, but it is important that all adults understand their responsibilities towards our young people. That said, we love having volunteers here, so please don’t let that process stop you from putting your hand up – we have computers here at school, and are happy to get you logged on here to complete the training if it is something you are not confident doing it on your own.

Emergency Drills: Each year, we conduct emergency drills in the event of the unexpected. These include fire and lockdown practice. In the last year, we’ve tested our processes by making our practices a little less “expected”. What if we can’t meet on the oval? What happens if the alarm goes off at lunchtime? How do we communicate with each other? Rest assured, we work hard to ensure we all have an understanding of what to do if the unexpected happens.

Risk management: Before each out-of-school excursion, and each in-school incursion or community event, the school writes a risk management document to inform our planning and actions, when doing something that sits outside of our normal daily routine.

First aid: A number of staff, including our office staff, and many of our TA’s, have First Aid training, to respond in the event of injury or harm.

What you can do

Pick up and drop off: This is often a challenging time. Please drive in to our turning circle, or along Channel Highway, at a slow speed during school times. Children are unpredictable. Ask your child to exit the car on the school, not the road side. If you have a couple of kids in the car, ask them to shuffle across to the one door. Please do not park in the turning circle, and drive away as quickly as is practical.

PLEASE USE THE CROSSING. As you are no doubt aware, not all drivers drive to the conditions on the Channel Highway. Please use the crossing at the top of the school. We have had a number of near misses on this road. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Hygiene: This time of the year is a battle with illness. Please reinforce safe hygiene practices at home – handwashing, how to cough etc. We will follow up with consistency at school.

Stranger safety: Reinforce the importance of not talking to strangers and always informing a trusted adult if someone makes them feel uncomfortable – this might be Snug teachers or staff, or another familiar adult. If students on the school grounds are uncertain about anything, they can always come to the office for support.

Students cycling, scootering to school: Please chat to your child about the safest way to take a bike or scooter to school - where should they cross the road, how should they cross the road, what to be aware of etc. Again, there have been too many instances of close calls of students not looking when cycling or scootering – a particular problem is Tiers Road as it’s always busy, but sometimes underestimated by students.

Bus safety: If your child takes the bus, please remind them of the importance of staying in their seats, not walking around and not shouting or yelling.

Unsafe, aggressive, disrespectful behaviour on site: As discussed in previous newsletters, we have a challenge currently with local youth using our school inappropriately. There have also been instances of community members being verbally abused. If you have any concerns at all that youth on our school grounds are not doing the right thing, please call Kingston Police – they are aware of the problem – and then let us know too. We want Snug Primary to be a place where all children and adults can enjoy, and feel safe.

Student safety is a shared responsibility, and we appreciate your ongoing support and cooperation. By working together, we can create a secure environment where our children can learn, grow and thrive. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our safety procedures, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you for your continued commitment to the safety and well-being of our students.

Kind regards

Kath’s Spot

Has someone ever given you a big smile or helped you out, whether it was helping you up or given you something just when you needed it?  How did it feel?  Did you feel supported?

I had recently hurt my back and was pushing my trolley of shopping bags to my car. Someone I knew saw me and, having known that I had hurt my back, they came with me to my car and lifted the bags into the car for me.  I felt so blessed by this action.

During the week our students have been working on the habit of the mind of “Community”, in which we were encouraging them to look for ways to help others when they really needed support.  This can be done both in and out of the classroom, and in and out of school.  We have recently seen this with older students supporting younger students in the cross country, and often it is displayed in the playground when someone might fall over and someone else rushes over to help them back up.

We want to raise a world of people who will look for ways to support each other.  This will help make our world a better place and, in turn I imagine, we too will receive extra support.

Please help us in encouraging our students to look out for ways, and not shy away from, supporting others, especially when they need it most.

Class in Focus – 5-6A Heard

Story Dog ‘Monty’ starts at Snug!

Little Sprouts - Movers and Explorers

Qkr at Snug!

The Qkr online payment option is an option at Snug for Prep to Year 6 weekly lunch provisions.

Cash will continue to be accepted and paper order forms will still be sent home on Tuesday afternoons with students to be returned with cash (if this is your preference) by the end of the day on Thursday.

Kitchen-Garden News

Kitchen

Lunch Provision options for next Tuesday 28May:

Garden

Volunteers always welcome, classes start at 2.00pm.

REGISTRATION TO WORK WITH VULNERABLE PEOPLE (RWVP)

A reminder that volunteers will need a Registration to Work with Vulnerable People (RWVP). Details are here if you need to apply:

EdSmart Communication System

Our School will be receiving a new messaging platform for communicating with you. This will ‘go live’ for Snug Primary School during April/May. 

The new platform, called EdSmart is an Australian platform which is designed to improve communication in school communities by allowing electronic messaging i.e. SMS and emails. For now, it will be used to manage absences messages i.e. you will receive a SMS or email alert if your child is absent from school requesting a response.  It will also allow us to send a communication message to all parent/guardians.

The platform will, over time, be rolled out across all Tasmanian Government Schools and new features will be added. 

Further information is available on the Department’s website

Communicating with your child's school - Department for Education, Children and Young People (decyp.tas.gov.au)

Snug Primary School Website

If you haven’t already, please take the time to check out our website:

You will find many helpful links including:

“Our School Calendar” 

“How to Report an Absence”

“Newsletter Archive”

Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) information and enrolment forms, Early Learning (Little Sprouts Movers and Little Sprouts Explorers) term plans and contact forms, Health information and various enrolment forms and documents (Travel, Medical and Asthma forms, Uniform policy etc) and lots more!

Outside School Hours Care

2024 Information and Enrolment (Including Re-Enrolment)

Be You

Kingston Library

Coming Events 2024

For more information please see our school calendar by clicking the link below: https://snugps.schoolzineplus.com/calendar

Community Notices

Headlice Removal Service

The Cricket Hub