With the number of family and community members attending our first Whole School End of Term Assembly it was evidenced that there are many who feel a strong sense of belonging to Havenview Primary School – and that is incredibly important to us, and to the Department as a whole. In fact, with the rebranding of our DECYP Values, Connection has become one of our Values and we have unpacked it to mean building positive relationships and a sense of belonging. How apt then that a strong focus at HPS this term has been building belonging.

My heart sung recently the other day when some of our older students stated that the reason they feel a sense of belonging to our school is because they’ve been here since Kinder, they’ve grown up here, they know the school well, and are well known by others. Younger students stated that their sense of belonging is related to safety and that is how they know they belong at Havenview Primary School – because they feel safe here.

If we then consider that the HOW of the DECYP Strategic Plan for 2024-2030 is that every student will be KNOWN, SAFE, WELL and LEARNING – Havenview Primary School Community be proud – we are nailing it. Our students have spoken, they themselves believe that they are known, they state they are safe; and the evidence for their learning was obvious in the sharing of their learning that was presented at our assembly; in Evidences of Learning sent home earlier this term; and simply when you wander the school during class time. Of course, we know there is always room for improvement. And clearly DECYP have it correct, for it is by putting our VALUES into action that we will achieve greater success.

Our staff and students aspire to learn and improve, even when it is tough – we aim for GROWTH.

We show COURAGE to accept challenges and embrace opportunities.

We take RESPONSIBILITY and step up to do what is right.

We maintain  RESPECT for ourselves, each other and the environment.

And we know we cannot achieve this without making CONNECTIONS – by building positive relationships and a sense of belonging.

Now being a bit of a word nerd, I needed to unpack the word <belonging> and discovered that the <long> base of <belonging> has its origins in the verb to long, to yearn, to want something badly. Which is then intensified by the <be-> prefix as <be-> here is simply intended to add emphasis. And that definitely works for us as we are emphasising our yearning to increase belonging to best support all our students to live a BRIGHT LIFE and step forwards into a POSITIVE FUTURE! Go Havenview.

A final Principal Report’s (even one coming from the Acting Principal) for the term always makes mention of the successes of the term. So, I’m going to list a few and expand on a few others. 

The List of AWESOMENESS is as follows:

• Our fabulous new staff members, who definitely BELONG at HPS now – Mrs Simone McCoy, Mrs Bronte Byard, Mrs Jess Blackwell, Mr Luke Baker, Mrs Nicki Clifford, Ms Pietta Nicholls, Miss Mel Carpenter, Miss Nat Heap and our impressive intern – Georgia Sherlock.
• Our Meet and Greet BBW and We All Belong Hands – they are now displayed on the windows of the hall, and not only do they look fabulous, but a few parents have already been ‘caught’ seeking out their own hands. If you have not yet completed a hand, please see Mrs Jo Walsh for your hand to colour and return to her so you too can join our We All Belong display.
• Our Athletics Carnival and Inter-Primary Carnivals – congratulations again to our speedy Nicholas, who we look forward to hearing from after he participates in the State Carnival.
• PizzaREADia – a great effort from our SRC
• NAPLAN and Early Years PAT
• Orange Day and Disco – again kudos to our SRC – they certainly are a dedicated team of young people and I feel blessed every day to be able to work with them.
• Higher Education Visit for the Year 5 students. Mr Patrick Grieve, who took one of the Art activities our students were involved in at Hellyer College, emailed me yesterday to share that he, and the Music teacher, enjoyed having them at Hellyer College, was disappointed he would be retired by the time they would be attending and found our students to be ‘polite, happy and a very keen group of young people.’ Year 5 – you are a credit to yourselves, your family, our school and community.
• New signage to help us protect our school environment by letting everyone know that there are no bikes, skateboards, scooters etc allowed in the undercover area, on the Deck and in the newly finished Outdoor Learning Area
• PlayGym sessions at Zodiacs for our littlest LiL learners

Our focus on Reading and Phonics has continued this year and it has involved teachers Professional Learning in the way of Reading Modules developed by DECYP that all Tasmanian teacher will complete. A continuance of our small Reading Groups and the inclusion of a dedicated phonic program, run daily, for identified students in Years 3 – 6. And please know, a quick peruse of our Early Years PAT data has identified that we are making a difference.

Attendance has also been a focus and we introduced Random Rewards that have created great excitement and some students do not like to miss them. As of today, the Attendance goals that our teachers set for their classes 4 out of 7 classes achieved success. One was 0.3% away from reaching their target and the other 2 set the bar so very high. Great effort students, parents and teachers. We know every day matters – so attendance will remain of import to us throughout the year.

Through the newsletter this term, Mr Murfet has been sharing our Whole School Agreed Inclusive Practices. He has shared our routines and ways of celebrating success, the Zones of Regulation and how we support our students to regulate to help them be ready to learn. We intend to continue sharing with our community our ways of working in this space; and a LiFT session focused on the Zones of Regulation is currently being planned for Term 2.

Undoubtedly, a busy and productive term – Havenview Primary School – stand proud! You are awesome and are certainly deserving of a break where you can spend your days doing all your favourite things. For me, that means spending time with River (my grandson), walking my doggos, gardening and laying on my new sofa that hopefully Clancy dog does not eat. Happy holidays everyone!