Student Leadership Board 2021

Congratulations to all students who applied for the 2021 Senior Student Leadership Board. The student leaders represent our school at many community events, assist with whole school and sector assemblies, fundraise for charities and also are the voice for the school community.  Last week the speeches were recorded and prior to voting students had the opportunity to view all speeches.  Below is the board for 2021.

This week the runner up for Sport Champion 2020 where awarded in the sector assemblies and student where also recognised for the participation in winter sport. 

Presentation Evening 2020

Presentation Evening will be held on Tuesday, 15^th December.

Please be aware that the venue density for the school gymnasium is 250 people including students.

This year the number of guests students can invite is reduced to one.  We understand this is not ideal but we need to comply with Public Health and venue density requirements.

Award recipients have recieved an invitation to Presentation Evening  and need to ensure they RSVP by Friday 11th December and collect their ticket.

Year 10 dinner information

Dear Parent/Guardian

Tasmania is in a good position in relation to COVID 19, however it is important we do not become complacent and that the school community comply with Department of Education and Public Health restrictions and advice.

In Term 4 we have a number of special events for our students in Kinder to Year 12.

Schools must follow Public Health requirements in relation to venue capacity, physical distancing, hygiene and contact tracing.

As a result, our Year 10 Dinner, Presentation Evening and end of year events will look a little different.

We can confirm the Year 10 Dinner will be held at the ‘Crazy Duck’ in George Town on Thursday, 10^th of December at 6.00pm. 

Student arrivals will be at Port Dalrymple School 5.00pm to 5.30pm in the car park at the front of the admin area. Students will be bused to the Crazy Duck.

Year 10 photos will be held in the Performing Art Centre 5.00pm to 5.45pm.

All adults and children wishing to watch the arrivals must do the following –

• Park near the school Library/Swimming Pool, in Agnes Street or at the Trade Training Centre. No one can park in the front car parks of the school Agnes Street side.
• All spectators including children must sign in and complete the COVID Health Screening Form. Stations will be located at the school main office, near the school Library and at the front of the school in the Kinder Car Park.
• All spectators must use the hand sanitiser provided at the sign in sites.
• All spectators must be ‘physical distancing’ except when in a family group.
• Year 10 students attending the dinner and arriving in a car do not need to complete the COVID Health Screening form as this will be completed in the Performing Art Centre.

On arrival all year 10 students will walk along the red carpet to enter the PAC.  Once in the PAC students will remain there for photos.

Christmas Parade 

On Friday 11th of December George Town will be hosting its annual Christmas Parade.

The theme this year is “A Tasmanian Christmas”. Students participating are invited to dress in either beach wear, their favourite Christmas attire or their school uniform.

We would love to see as many of our school families involved in the parade as we can!

This year, the parade will start at 5.30pm commencing from the Fire Station, then turn right into Macquarie Street, continue to Windmill Point turn and then return up Macquarie street returning to the Fire Station. Please ensure your child can walk this distance as they are not able to leave the parade until they have returned to the Fire Station.

Jayne Watts, Rachel Mowat and Rowena Allan will be the staff present.

Parent/guardians have duty of care at the end of the parade.

Students in Kinder and Prep are encouraged to have a guardian walk with them during the parade.

Parents/guardians please contact the school if you have questions.  Children are required to be picked up after the parade.

Course Selection 2021

Course guides have been sent home with students in years 7, 8 and 9 for students to select their elective classes for 2021.  Please encourage your child to speak to their class teacher if they have questions.  Students are encouraged to make their course selections based on their future career and educational pathways. This year we are offering several academic courses which directly link to years 11 and 12 and the courses offered in this sector. 

Reminder

A reminder that students shouldn’t be at school before 8.30am as this is the time teachers have duty of care.

2021 Planning

We have started planning and staffing for 2021. It is most important if your family circumstances are changing in 2021 and your child is not going to be attending Port Dalrymple School that you notify the office ASAP or an Assistant Principal. 

Enrolment appointments for 2021 are now being booked for students in Prep-10 who do not currently attend Port.  If you require an enrolment appointment, please contact the school.

STAS Eligibility Changes

The Tasmanian Government has announced the expansion of the Student Assistance Scheme (STAS), which waives the cost of Tasmanian Government levies for eligible students, for the 2021 school year onwards.

The eligibility for STAS will move to using the Health Care Card or equivalent as the assessment mechanism, replacing previous income thresholds that applied.

A set of Frequently Asked Questions has been developed to assist with any questions you may have and this has been sent home to students. 

Further questions about STAS or Levies and Charges in general can be sent to the Department of Education’s Financial Services Unit at stas@education.tas.gov.au or by calling 1800 827 055.

Dates for the calendar

Thursday 10^th December Year 10 Dinner

Tuesday 15^th December Presentation Evening

Thursday 17^th December Last Day for Students

The 2021 Student Leadership Board has been finalised. Year 9 students applied for the process by submitting a written response and recording a campaign video. Staff and Year 7-9 students were then invited to vote for who they thought should represent the school. The 2021 leadership team then elected the Executive Board that includes; President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary.

The successful 10 students are:

Aspen - Secretary

Brock

Ellie - President

Heath

Jorja

Libby – Vice President

Mckayla-Jade

Molli - Treasurer

Rebekah

Tallis

Students in Year 9/10 Pre-VET Construction have constructed planter boxes for the George Town Community Hub. Libraries Tasmania have funded the materials needed for the planter boxes through the Literacy Skills Development Projects. The idea of the planter boxes extends from an earlier Libraries Tas funded project, ‘Garden to Plate’. The group had a vision to keep the momentum for the garden continuing by having raised garden beds situated around the exterior grounds of the Library. ‘The Garden to Plate Group’ will plant and maintain the garden beds as a sustainable community project.

Last Friday the group, led by teacher Bob Webb and Teacher Assistant Jade, Mr Austin and Barb Parker visited the Hub to place the planter boxes. They worked hard and were extremely proud of their efforts and the finished product.

Firefighter Aaron visited students in Prep to Year 6 to teach them about fire safety. Students have learnt about the importance of smoke alarms, how to stop, drop, rock ‘n’ roll and what to do in the event of a fire. Students got the opportunity to develop a fire safety evacuation plan for their home and some students even got to try on firefighter Aarons protective gear.

Students in Years K-5 will have the opportunity to visit their 2021 Year Level classroom three times prior to the end of the year.  The initial visits will be to their newspace/classrooms, for example Kinder students will visit the Prep space.  The schedule for these will be;

Visit 1 -Week 8 Thursday December 3 

Visit 2- Week 9 Thursday December 10 

Visit 3-Week 10 Wednesday December 16 

At the beginning of next week students will transition to the playground space for 2021.  

On Wednesday 18^th November, the NHSSA Division 2 athletics carnival was conducted at the St Leonards Athletics Centre. With a Port Dalrymple School team comprising of approximately 50 Year 7-10 students we departed school early to compete against other athlete students from Brooks, Lilydale, St Helens and Cressy in a range of track and field events.

In beautiful, sunny conditions our students performed very well, with many improving their times and distances from the Port Dalrymple athletics carnival four weeks prior. We were able to celebrate some excellent individual performances, with Brielle and Ella winning the majority of the running and field events between them; Jack and Bradley winning field events in the Year 8 boys; Ellie performing strongly across all her Year 9 girl’s events, Tallis, Billy and Jack all recording wins in the Year 9 boy’s events. Our Year 10 girls and boys all led the way with their effort, leadership and encouragement for our students. We also saw Ellie break the Year 9 girl’s NHSSA Division 2 high jump record, matching her jump from our school’s carnival with a leap of 1.47 metres.

Many of our students showed great resilience to overcome some fear and trepidation about competing against other schools. I look forward to watching these students feel more confident and comfortable next year being in the similar position. We didn't come home with a shield this year, we finished a close third behind the winner, Brooks, and the second place school, Cressy.

A special thank you to Trudi Digney for coming along to be the field official and to the parents who came along to support our students.

The Year 9/10 Foods classes ended the term making, constructing and decorating gingerbread houses. Students used their food skills learnt throughout the year to create wonderful structures.

What a challenging year 2020 has been. As a collective impact initiative, Collective ed. has again been focussed on building the foundations for success for our young people in the broader George Town community. This has included creating close connections between the school and key business and community partners, creating opportunities for School Based Apprenticeships and building the necessary structures here at Port Dalrymple School to support our students.

Looking forward to 2021, Collective ed. will be a key player in providing scope for more young people to enter a positive post-school pathway, including by completed year 12 (or equivalent); as well as to support young people to have a voice and actively participate in local decision-making processes. As in 2020, there will be lots of opportunities for staff, students and members of the school community to get involved in this work. Port Dalrymple School are looking to foster the collaboration and shared responsibility that will be required for us to help all young people in George Town to thrive; as well as to bring the voices of young people and other community members into the centre of our decision-making. Our sincere thanks to the staff, school leaders, students, parents and community stakeholders who have assisted with Collective ed. this year. We are excited about the potential projects and activities that will emerge as we move into the new year.

We are writing to advise composite levy charges for 2021, as outlined in the table below.  School levies are determined in consultation with School Association and reflect the Department of Education’s School Levy Policy and local circumstances.

School Levies form an essential proportion of school income.  Levies help fund items such as student stationery, excursion costs and the Swimming and Water Safety Program.  See below for a more detailed outline.

For our Kindergarten to Year 6 classes, we will be distributing a basic stationery pack to these classes prior to start of school.  Class Teachers will distribute rulers, pens, pencils and coloured pencils on the first day of the school term to junior students.

For 2021, levy charges for Kindergarten and new students K-6 will include the supply of a sun safety hat.  Kindergarten students will also be supplied a Library bag.

2021 Levy Charges

 The levy charge will cover the following compulsory and non-compulsory programs:

• Purchase of core stationery and school requisites
• Cost of resource materials for ALL subjects
• Cost of consumable items for ALL subjects including elective subjects, for example, MDT, Outdoor Education, Foods and Art.
• Costs associated with supply of photocopied materials
• Cost of Library resources
• Cost of participation in cultural activities – visiting performers and theatre visits
• Cost of excursions – bus fare, registration for events, entry fees etc
• Cost of Physical Education Programs and Sport – pool entry fees, bus fares
• Costs associated with school sport team registrations where the sport is played in school hours. This includes school affiliation and team registration charges for TPSSA

Payment Options

Management of school debts is undertaken by the Department of Education, Accounting Operation Unit within Central Office.  A statement of levies will be posted to families in the New Year and will include information about the payment methods available to families on the invoice.  Please contact the school if you have any problems with payment.  We are only too happy to set up a payment plan for you.

Options include:

• BPay
  BPay is an electronic bill payment service offered to registered users by many financial institutions as a feature of Internet and phone banking.
• Centrepay - Centrepay is a free direct bill-paying service offered to Centrelink customers receiving payments from Centrelink.  The service allows their clients to nominate an amount to be deducted and forwarded to specific organisations including schools.  Please contact the school office if you wish to use this service.

• Service Tasmania

Payments may be made at Service Tasmania shops throughout the state.  Only invoiced amounts can be receipted through Service Tasmania.

Families may elect to pay levies in the following ways:

1. Payment in full prior to school commencing
2. Four equal payments to be made at the start of each term by negotiation with the School Business Manager
3. Monthly or fortnightly payments by negotiation with the School Business Manager 

The School Office will be open for payment of levies, collection of stationery and uniforms for two days on:

• Wednesday 27^th January, 9:00am – 2:30pm
• Thursday 28^th January, 9:00am – 2:30pm

Levies and uniform items can be paid by cash, cheque, EFTPOS or credit card to the school.

Start of the School Year 2021

School resumes for our students on Wednesday, 3^rd February 2021

We are more than happy to discuss these arrangements should you have any questions in relation to student levies for 2021.

Congratulations to the following students who received Merit Certificates in our assembly

Please be advised that there have been some changes to the Term 1 school holiday dates.

The end date for Term 1 2021, has been brought forward to allow the school holiday period to commence immediately following Easter Tuesday.

This means that students will not have to return to school for three days between Easter break and Term 1 school holidays, which was previously the case.

The overarching reason behind this decision is to allow for greater learning continuity for students.

The new arrangements are as follows:

With the school holidays falling directly after Easter, it will be an ideal time for your family to take advantage of the extended holiday period!

All Term dates for 2021 can be found on the Department of Education website at www.education.tas.gov.au/about-us/term-dates/term-dates-2021/