4 June 2025

From the Principal

A huge well done to our School Cross Country Team yesterday at the interschool competition; plenty of perseverance, integrity, courage and concentrating on display. A special shout out to our Grade 5 Boys who won their division competition! Also, to Ed B (1^st place) and Eli H on their individual achievements.

The builders have left!

All three 1-2 classes are now in their new rooms. We have the old 1-2 rooms finishing their paint out today, for a move early next week.

Very soon, the top gate will re-open. As will the new bottom fort. We will have some class-based school tours happening to share with all of our students the places they can and can’t go and how they are to act in the new zones. It is exciting times! We won’t be commenting each Newsletter now on the Redevelopment, as we are finished. We have a lot of new furniture coming over the next 10 weeks (some already here). Some time in mid-term 3, we will have an open day for folks outside of our community to wander through.

If you’d like to look through at drop off or pick up, feel free to do so.

Stage 2 – the Gym and Carpark

In extremely exciting news, after over 20 years, we have Council support to lease a larger parcel of their land to build a Gym on, for both our own and community use. Council passed a motion (only one against) to lease the land to us on the 26^th of May.

After this, the Council advertised in Saturday’s paper (again this Saturday) a notice to dispose of the land (to lease it to us). Depending on how this process runs, we will have another 10 steps go to through before we have a lease and can start concept designs. It is a really exciting time and a really positive outcome by Council to support both our needs and their own. At the heart of this are improved facilities for our community. Council’s website will house their Cambridge Oval Master Plan – here you can see the final outcome. Our funding and part of this is the gym and most of the carparking and road works around the area.

Also important to note, is that in the recent budget, the Government has allocated an additional $2.9M to bring this project to fruition with Council. This will mean the total spend on Stage 2 will be $9.9M. We have some of this money in the next financial year for design work. The majority of this money will flow from the financial year starting, July 1, 2026. This is the projected start of building.

In a perfect world, the process to obtain a lease is met with minimal objections and we can have a lease on the land by the end of August, at which point, we can start the design work this year. We should be able to progress the design work this year and early next year, with a view to start building mid next year! We will keep you informed and up to date as we progress.

Year 6 Camp feedback

Last week, we built on the conversation from our week 2 Newsletter about offering a significant Year 6 Camp. If you haven’t read the articles from both Newsletters this term, please do so as it will enable you to follow on with this.

We set up a survey and have had many respondents. We will discuss the results when the survey closes in the next Newsletter. We will close the survey on Monday morning, enabling us time to process the information, conduct a few parent calls and then have a discussion at the School Association meeting in Week 8. If you haven’t done so already, please give us your feedback via the Survey:

Answers to questions from the Survey thus far (more answers in last Newsletter):

For this cost, can we explore going to Canberra? We have! It would be significantly more. Approximately $2000. This is why many Tasmanian Schools have abandoned Canberra trips.

Repeat - Can we fundraise? This will need to be explored further. In the past, specific year level fundraising has been challenging. Some families help out lots, some not at all. School staff end up doing a lot of the work – we can’t sustain this as a staff. Our School Association will make a general contribution to the camp (as they do for other camps). We can also look to further specific fundraising, we would potentially just need a purpose and a keen group of parents! I would suggest it would be on a yearly decision. It makes sense, and seems straightforward, we have just had different outcomes previously (unfortunately).

For this cost, maybe a different interstate trip? Any interstate trip would be more expensive due to the need to stay in accommodation while away and more expensive bus and daily options.

I’d love to see kids do an overnight camp (bushwalk) using light weight tents and cooking on stoves they carry in, in their packs? So would we! This is the sort of program that needs specialist outdoor education staff. It is commonly run in a High School and College setting. We also would run into issues of inclusion if students could not physically access in the program.  Due to these two reasons, we would not explore this for a school-based option at this stage. Hopefully, everyone gets to do this in their life!

It would be great to get more information about the aims of a Grade 6 Camp. We think a fellow parent has summed it up perfectly: I believe school camps are a valuable opportunity for students to develop independence from their parents. They also help social development, with communication, teamwork, and building trust with their peers. This social development is especially important as students in Year 6 prepare to transition into high school. The added interactions with nature and cultural understanding aligned with a place like Flinders Island would provide students with a memorable experience to look back on beyond the academic, social and emotional development that a program such as this will provide.

Love the Idea of a Grade 6 Camp, just probably not so far or expensive. Why not Bruny Island? We used to take our Grade 4s to Bruny. The idea was Bruny, Maria and maybe Flinders (how cool, in theory!). Unfortunately, the site we had on Bruny is not able to house us at present. It also didn’t work too well if we had inclement weather. We could explore Bruny again, however, the school there currently has space issues (not enough) so a simple yes is not on the cards at this stage. We would also want to ensure our camp was “bigger” and better than our Grade 5 camp.

Please take the time to fill in the survey and answer as much or as little as you like if you have not already done so.

Podcast to listen to

Like any suggestion, it might work for some and not others. However, our staff will be listening to this in staff meeting next term and another podcast from this series. The Happiness Lab is running a series on parenting and I really connected to this podcast. Maybe it’s because I have a toddler at home who gets frustrated and hits his sister, maybe because I ask his sister 10 times for something before she will listen, but most of all because I sincerely believe that every child is good and is rooted in good, sometimes their behaviour is tricky for the setting they are in.

Either way, I thoroughly suggest getting onboard with this series. Below is a link to a specific podcast, from there you should be able to find the series and the links. The specific title doesn’t do justice to the overall theme and content of the podcast, in my opinion. I hope you get something out of it.

See you soon – Courtney

From the SRC

Shorts Day (no money needed) on Friday June 20^th – More Info out soon!

Pyjama Day (Bring 5 Coins) on Friday June 27^th   - Raising money for Archie Bear’s 100  (Archie Green and the Royal Hobart Hospital)

We are trying to change the way we “pay” for fundraisers at school on Free Dress Days. We would like families to think about “bringing 5 coins” instead of just a gold coin donation. For some families that feel a bigger connection to our fundraiser and would like to give more, you can. For everyone else, you can just bring what you have in 5 coins.

Cambridge Primary Young Archie’s Winners 2025

I am very pleased to announce this year’s Young Archie’s Winners.

Our panel of judges found it very difficult to choose the winners this year as there were so many amazing portraits to choose from.

Each year, our budding young artists really bump up their portraiture skills. We are all very proud of the expertise our students are developing, but also the care and pride they all take in their work. Everyone should feel very gratified with their portraits this year.

Our Young Archie’s Winners for 2025 are:

Kindergarten to Prep - Harrison D, Jacob R, Sadie H, Freya C

Grade 1-2 - Ruby C, Aria T, Aylah A, Alice M

Grade 3-4 - Cash S, June M, Victoria MT, Flossy L

Grade 5-6 - Hugh M, Oliver F, Farzeen R, Hazel H

Congratulations!

Cambridge Primary School entries will be submitted to the Department FOR Education, Children and Young People late July. The winning portraits will be displayed at the UTAS School of Creative Arts and Media, Hobart for two weeks in August/September. Following this, a touring exhibition of the 2025 Young Archies Awards Prize Recipients will visit Launceston and the Northwest.

Online galleries of all entries will be available to view on the Young Archies Awards page on the DECYP website from Monday 25 August.

Congratulations to every child in our school for showing the Cambridge Capabilities of Noticing, Experimenting, Accepting and Persevering to create their portraits. What a wonderful display your work makes around the school.

Sally Sari, Art and Music teacher

Rose Bay High School Information Evening

TSO Family Concert – June 19

Bring the whole family along to Australia: One Land, Many Stories!

A musical storytelling concert featuring The Kookaburra Who Laughed at the Moon with narrator Gina Rose and other Australian inspired music. All backed by the full Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra! Adults $35 | kids under 17 $15

Thursday June 19, 6pm

Buy tickets and find out more: https://www.tso.com.au/concerts/australia-one-land-many-stories/

2025 All Schools Cross Country – Primary 17 June

Entries for the 2025 All Schools Cross Country events are closing soon.

You don't need to qualify in a local competition to be a part of it, any school participants are welcome!

Students and families will need to make their own arrangements to get to and from Symmons Plains Raceway.

Primary entries close Thursday 12th June

Enter here: https://www.tasathletics.org.au/events/294585

Don't miss out, get your entries in today!

Cambridge Fire Brigade Volunteers Needed

Reminder – Student Free Day this Friday

A reminder that there will be a Student Free Day this Friday, 6 June.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Lucy C who recently competed at the State Primary Schools Athletics Carnival in Launceston, representing the South, where the best athletes around the state where on display. Lucy came 2nd in the 400m, 2nd in the 200m and 4th in the 100m finals. Lucy's relay team came 2nd. Well done, Lucy!

Congratulations also to Oliver P and Amos H who, for the second year running, have been selected for the SEBA Representative team in the Tasmanian Jack Jumpers Junior League.

Congratulations to Artie and Ed B for competing in the Hobart Eisteddfod on 26 May. Artie earned himself a Merit Award in the pre-preliminary level for his performance of 12 Bar Blues on the piano. Special commendation goes to Ed for achieving First Place for his preliminary level performance of Jumping Frogs on piano by Miriam Hyde.

Let’s Celebrate!

Term Dates 2025

Term 1:  Thursday 6 February to Friday 11 April

Term 2:  Monday 28 April to Friday 4 July (Student Free Day Friday 6 June, Public Holiday - Monday 9 June)

Term 3:  Monday 21 July to Friday 26 September

Term 4:  Monday 13 October to Thursday 18 December (Show Day Public Holiday – Thursday 23 October, Student Free Day Friday 24 October)