For all upcoming events please see the Penguin District School Calendar

Sometimes we forget that we don’t always need to see the end result of a good deed or post it to social media, it’s not always about how it makes us feel to be doing something good but the importance of making someone else happy that matters.
I challenge you to do a good deed across next week; post a letter to your grandparents, make someone a cake, offer to walk with someone or play a game together, ask someone if they’d like to borrow something of yours. I assure you, it’ll make their day.
Mr Briggs was also delighted to meet Christine in the office who was a past student of his when he taught at Penguin many moons ago. You just never know when you’ll bump into an old teacher of yours (you can’t hide!)

The Year 3-6s enjoyed some excursions across last week visiting both the Questacon Science Exhibition in Burnie and the Production of Ratburger at the Paranaple Centre, Devonport. It was noted how well our students engaged and behaved while exploring the 19 STEM activities and watching the performance. We feel grateful to be able to offer these learning opportunities to students at PDS, showcasing talent across learning disciplines that both engage and motivate students across a range of ages. A shout out to the teachers and adults who took the time to plan, organise and implement experiences such as these.
Some Student Board members discussed their highlights:

Questacon
Will F – all the different activities
Matilda – Seeing a little penguin while walking along the boardwalk
Kirra – got to explore each station independently
Hudson – learning how to care for our environment and all the activities
Liffey – great weather conditions meant we could enjoy the day.

Ratburger
Rory – how respectful our students were entering and leaving the performance.
Marley – loved the dancing rat.
Heidi – the music was really good
Matilda – organised staff, very friendly

Staffing Update

Alison O’Donnell has made the challenging decision to resign. This decision was not made lightly, and Alison has expressed her gratitude for the time spent working with staff and students at PDS. While we will certainly miss Alison's contributions and presence, we respect her decision and wish Alison all the best in the next chapter.

Reminders

Walk safely to school day will be held on Friday 16 May. If you are interested in joining a fun group to walk to school with on this day, you can meet us at either Hiscuitt Park or Dyke’s reserve (opposite Berkshire Parade) at 8:00 am. This is a great event that promote a healthy lifestyle. We’ll enjoy some fruit back at school, served from the Breakfast Club window, kindly donated by The Penguin Pantry. We hope you can join us.

Cross country will take place next week on Tuesday. Students are encouraged to wear their house colours and cheer on their mates. Parents are able to come and watch and are welcome to park and spectate from the Dial Park car park. A full schedule can be found in the Newsletter or by clicking the event in the school calendar.

Seesaw

We are now well into being back in the world of Seesaw and it’s great to hear and see wonderful positive message, posts and interactions between families and classroom teachers. Thanks to the Seesaw analytics team, I can see that we have over 400 families connected to journals across Kinder to Year 7. If you are still having trouble with Seesaw connections, please contact office staff who will happily point you in the right direction towards someone who can help you connect.
This platform allows us to open the lines of communication between school and home which in turn, builds our partnership and helps us to work together.
With well over 550 student posts this year, I hope the; Parent - ‘what did you do at school today honey?’ Child - ‘I don’t know’ scenario is less likely to occur in your home.

Shout Outs

Ash P recently competed in the 2025 Australian Little Athletics Championships in Adelaide after receiving a $500 Individual Development Grant from Central Coast Council. He put in an incredible performance-finishing 8th fastest in the U13 400m final! Earlier this year, Ash also claimed 1st place in the 400m and 3rd in the 800m at the Tasmanian Little Athletics State Championships. Well done, Ash.

Here’s a shout out to the families that have begun changing their Reading at Home books in the Building 4 kitchen each morning. If you need some assistance with this, there will be an adult in this area to help. For the early years families, instructions for this can be found in your ‘Messages’ on Seesaw

Lexi P is once again chopping her locks and donating it for the Variety’s Hair with Heart charity. This shows courage, compassion empathy and we are proud to have students at PDS who are willing put other’s needs before their own. We can’t wait to see the new ‘do’ Lexi. If you’d like to help Lexi with a donation, follow this link: https://hairwithheart.variety.org.au/fundraisers/lexipascoe/hair-with-heart

Yours in Partnership,

Jessie Eberhardt
Advanced Skills Teacher (Tuesday-Thursday) - Assistant Principal (Friday)

Kinder A have settled back into school after our two week break. We've enjoyed exploring our new learning areas, including buying new kicks at the local Kinder Shoe Shop, exploring the fallen leaves and painting Autumn Masterpieces, playing with the farm animals in the mud & water and learning all about our names! We're excited for a fun term of learning and play in Kinder A. 

Kinder B have been a bit crazy about dragons lately! We have played with dragons, castles and princesses. We have read lots of dragon stories and watched Zog on the big screen. This week we have also been making fire breathing dragons! We had to make our dragons, draw a picture of them and then tell Mrs Bracken how we made them.

We have had such a settled start to term in Prep B!

Our literacy learning is wowing everyone, we are starting to make connections between the sounds taught and have been working hard making, reading and writing lots of new words.

In numeracy we are learning about 5’s frames and 10’s frames and subitising (recognising a collection of items without counting). We have been playing lots of dice games to practise this skill.

The exciting new additions to our classroom are Graham and Gertie, who get to go home with our class VIPs every week – we can’t wait to see what adventures they get up to!

Students will begin term 2 with preparation for our school cross country carnival, being held on Tuesday 13 May. Classes will walk the course during PE, with an opportunity to have a practice run in the week leading up to the carnival (weather permitting). Students are encouraged to bring a spare pair of socks and (if possible) shoes to run in, in the event of wet weather, and may wear their house colours on the day. 3-6 students will be vying for a place in our school team taking part in the NWPSSA Cross Country Carnival on May 27.

Other happenings in Term 2 PE include lesson visits from Peter Webster (Target Golf) and the Port Sorell Table Tennis Club, as well as the All Schools Athletics Carnival in Launceston and the All Schools Cross Country carnival being held at Symmons Plains.

Students should be congratulated on the way they have resumed their learning after the holidays, and for continuing to do their personal best in lessons.

Mr. Baldock - Primary PE Teacher

In Year 1-2 Health, students are developing their understanding about the benefits of physical activity and the impacts on their bodies. We have explored how our hearts react to exercise as well as other parts of our body.

In Year 3-4 Health, we are unpacking what it means to be “healthy”. We are developing our knowledge that being healthy doesn’t just solely mean we are physically healthy. We have begun exploring goal setting and challenging ourselves to see if we can achieve our goal later this term.   

Mr de Ruyter - HPE Teacher

During this term, the secondary students have embarked on their training for the upcoming Cross Country Event on Tuesday, 13 May. Students are currently participating in interval training helping them build their cardiovascular fitness which requires pushing their personal limits. The Inter-high Cross Country will be held on Thursday, 12June and the top 5 students in each age group will represent our school at this. We hope to see as many students as possible giving their personal best effort in our cross country in helping their house win the overall points.

For the remainder of the term, students will participate in a net and wall unit, which focuses on different sports which incorporate this.  This may include games like volleyball, badminton, tennis, squash, racquetball and pickleball.

Health in the secondary campus for term 2,  sees the grade 7 and 8 students working on relationships, Year 9's working on drug education and the Year 10's working on road safety which will align with a day out at RYDA (Rotary Youth Driver Awareness) on the 23 May at Camp Clayton in Ulverstone.

Mrs Popowski - HPE Teacher

Students have started the Term with the first of four fishing excursions to the Leven River in Ulverstone. Unfortunately, the fish missed the memo about beautiful weather and a high tide. Hopefully, over the next 3 sessions students will have the chance to land a fish and practice some catch and release techniques. Towards the latter half of the term, students will have the opportunity to participate in some mountain biking in our local bike park and surrounds before the winter weather sets in.

Sport and Recreation

This small, committed group has continued to enjoy a range of sports and minor games before moving into a teams roster for the rest of the term. Students will organise the gear and equipment required, manage umpiring and score keeping through a range of sports and games.

Sports Science  (Year 10)

This term students will continue learning around the cardiovascular system and responses to exercise, before moving into how the different energy systems fuel the body. Practical activities have included a series of different movement activities at the athletics track and inside the school weights room whilst monitoring heart rate and respiratory rate responses. Students have learned to graph and analyse the data collected.

Mr Taylor - HPE Teacher

The upcoming Secondary Communicating with Families meetings will take place in Week 3. These meetings are a great opportunity to support your child to reflect on their learning across the first part of the year, celebrate successes, and set goals for future growth.  

We encourage all families to book an appointment and bring their child along to meetings with teachers. Alternatively, you can book a phone call.

Please see below for the dates/times and the booking link.

Monday, May 12 -3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Tuesday, May 13 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Wednesday, May 14 - 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm

https://penguinds.schoolzineplus.com/view-session/49

Our annual Primary Cross Country Carnival will be held on Tuesday 13 May on the school oval and surrounding areas.

The Kinder – Year 2 carnival will run from 9:20 – 10:30am and the 3-6 carnival will run from 11:20am – 12:40pm. Please note that event times are approximate, depending on event duration.

Students are encouraged to dress in their house colours and bring a change of socks and (if possible) shoes in the event of a wet course.

Races will be a staggered start format, with a few minutes separating girls and boys races for each event. Kinder classes will complete a lap of the oval prior to recess.

The spectator viewing area will be located on the Dial Park side of the school oval. Parents/carers must remain in this area for the duration of the carnivals.

Don't Miss The Bus!

Crash Team Racing

Nitro Fueled

Tasmanian Championship

This is a great opportunity for our young people to earn some money in an entry level role and could potentially lead into something more.   Ages 12 plus.   Kristy is also happy to come to you school and run coaching classes in umpiring.