12 March 2025

From the Principal

We hope you enjoyed the long weekend - welcome to Autumn!

Our school has a special feel in the autumnal light soon to spread, it’s quite magical. This time for us signals a real move into some larger parts of our teaching and learning program after a busy start. The end of term 1 and the bulk of term 2 are real foundation periods for us to value add all through terms 3 and 4. You should be able to talk to your child about “what makes a good learner?”. Soon, wall and window displays will start to pop up around the school (some are up already). They are artefacts from the learning that we focus on at the start of the year. We really spend time thinking about “what makes a good learner?” to be able to set up the routines and processes that each class might need to be the most effective that they can be for the year ahead.

Redevelopment Update

The outside areas of the new build are coming along well. This weekend, all of the concrete should be poured for the verandahs and most of the exterior window frames have been installed. The face bricks are to be finished off next week and from there, we will be able to start landscaping with paths and earthmoving – ready to grow new lawn. The new playground is coming along well with natural edging and base preparation.

We are awaiting a rail for the path and some adjustments on the top garden around the new building before we can open the top gate. Thank you for your patience with this, it has certainly been longer than we at school anticipated, to get this access point back.

Inside, the redeveloped classrooms have some initial cabinetry installed and some painting is occurring. More internal fit out will continue for a few weeks, before a full re-carpeting of all rooms and the main corridor, just before handover. It will be exciting to see the rooms all back together and renovated! It will be a weird and enjoyable feeling to have spare classrooms again for the first time in nearly 8 years. We certainly are very appreciative of the build and all that this will bring us – especially the flexibility with space!

Stage 2, as shared recently, has taken a step forward. We at school now need to wait for Council to work with the Department’s Officers to progress planning. I’ll work to keep you informed as progress occurs. A gymnasium and a new full outdoor hardcourt for school and community use will be a fantastic asset for our community.

Seesaw

Seesaw should now be back up and running for all families. We hope you have reconnected. If you haven’t, please ask your class teacher or our office for support. Your “learning progress” reporting comments will be coming home via Seesaw as semi-regular posts across the year, so it will be important to be connected.

Home Reading

Lastly, and most importantly, we have learnt something really important in the past few weeks:

Knowing a good amount about a lot of things and understanding the meaning of a lot of different words, can overcome some reading difficulties when it comes to overall understanding of what you are trying to read.

In technical terms: Strong background knowledge and extensive vocabulary can compensate for word recognition issues in reading comprehension.

For example, competent readers skim across words, looking for patterns and chunks of familiarity, to be able to quickly and fluently read; they may skip over spelling differences or small errors. Competent readers look for overall meaning, they don’t concentrate on sounding out.

The implications for this link to previous Newsletters and each Newsletter this year we will continue to share our research and findings about reading to help you support your child more.

The implications for above are: Every child at our school should be read to – not only encouraged to read, at home.

Linking to this, here’s a fact for you, our oldest students LOVE a good class novel and being read to. They hang off the teachers reading, they are absolutely silent and they regularly ask for more.

Every child, whether they can read or not, benefits from reading WITH their parent.  It is so important that they get to hear and see words they cannot yet access.  You reading out words they don’t know and them asking about those words is building their background knowledge so that they can later read those words. Additionally, if they may struggle with reading, like our students diagnosed with reading difficulties, knowing a lot about a subject means that you can infer what the words most likely mean and from this make sense of the passage or book and work it all out. Even as an adult, if you’re reading something hard, you might not know all the words but your background knowledge can help you “work out the gist”. Pushing through decodable readers has value and so does reading and listening to really good books together. Your child needs you to read out words for them to later read. You are the key to help them access new words. Please never stop reading to and with your children. The challenge for us is going to be helping you find books you can read together. We’re up for it. It should be a book that you, as an adult, would like to read as well. There is a LOT of merit in reading classic books and authors. Some of the words will need explaining and some of the words might need a careful substitution from you (some words have stronger meanings in 2025) but therein lies the enjoyment and chat.

As an example, when my wife is on an evening or night shift, I can put both my kids (2.75yrs and 5.25yrs) in the one bed and read The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl. While her decodable books are important, they crave imagination and big words. We get a good bit through before they then want a few picture books (Cranky Bear and Pete the Cat are a favourite) right before sleeping. The decodable books at that time can be hard as it’s making my daughter work when she’s most tired, rather than relax. We know it can be super challenging to find the right time for your child to practise their reading. And we’ll work on this over time. If you’ve got older children, think about reading some classic books – Oliver Twist, Lords of the Rings, or an in-depth book about a specific topic (not a children’s version), ie whales, gardening, or their interests. You reading books aloud is what will hopefully encourage a joy of reading.

If you’re stuck for time, or you’ve got several children to get to sleep, please try and read books with rich language that can develop their vocabulary and background knowledge. If you don’t feel that you have the right books at home, then that’s what our library is for! Please get in touch with your classroom teacher and work with Tina to get the right books home for you. If you feel conscious about your own reading skills, then please get in touch privately with any staff member you feel most comfortable talking to. We can also help with this. We know that this is a concern for some.

We’re not advocating that just reading to children will help them learn to read. That’s not the full truth. We are following a systematic and structured approach to reading at our school. We will continue to communicate every Newsletter about this. AND reading great books to and with your child is a fantastic thing to do, for your relationship and for their development.

All the best with reading, see you soon – Courtney

School Association News

School Association AGM – Wednesday 26 March 2025 at 5:30pm

We hereby give notice that the Annual General Meeting of the Cambridge Primary School, School Association will be held on Wednesday 26 March 2025 at 5:30pm.

Nominations for parent members must be received by the Returning Officer, Shelley Spong, in the office, by close of business on Friday 21 March 2025.

Mothers’ Day Stall

Hi parents, the fundraising team is looking a little small at the moment. We had some wonderful organisers finish their Cambridge Primary school journeys last year and although they are big shoes to fill, we will give it our best try!

We would love some helpers to get ready for the Mothers’ Day stall which will be held early in Term 2. Calling all crafters, sewers, artists, plant people and anyone that can tie a ribbon! It has always been a fun team, and any amount of help is much appreciated. We will also need stall workers on the day of the stall!

If you would like to be involved but are unable to join, we would also love donations for the stall! Any amount helps!

Chocolates
Plants
Hand-made items (sewing, knitting, crafts)
Beaded bracelets
Balloons with sticks
Teacups

Craft supplies:
Mini pots
Ribbons
Mini jars
Plain items that can have decals added
Cellophane

We have been very lucky to have beautiful flowers donated by Forage Flowers every year!

If you would like to join, please email Amanda at amburdon88@gmail.com. Could current members please also email to be added to the new group chat.

Thank you! CPS fundraising team

School Athletics Carnival and Division B Interschool Athletics Carnival

Our school Athletics Carnival took place on Wednesday 26 February in beautiful, sunny conditions. Our students had a fantastic day showcasing their impressive skills in a variety of track, field, and novelty events in front of an extremely packed and supportive crowd. It was so pleasing to see all the smiling faces and hear the genuine joy our students had for one another as they cheered others on towards the finish line. I’d like to say a big thank you to all our wonderful volunteers on the day, as events like these can’t happen without significant assistance from our students’ amazing families and support networks. 

On Tuesday 1 April, Cambridge Primary School will be competing in the Division B SPSSA Athletics Carnival at the Domain Athletics Centre. Students who have qualified for our interschool team will be notified later in the week and a detailed info letter and program will be sent to relevant families via Schoolzine. We will again be looking for volunteers to assist, so if you are interested in helping to judge, time or record at the Division B SPSSA Athletics Carnival, please provide your name to the school office or to me, James Dudgeon, Health and Physical Education Teacher.

Cambridge Primary Open Day – Tuesday 25 March

Do you know of any parents who live in our catchment area and who might be considering Cambridge Primary for their child’s education?

Please forward the link to the booking form below or pass on our phone details – 6248 5168, and they will be given a very warm welcome. They will be able to:

• See the school in action.
• View our classrooms and our flexible learning spaces. Come and find out more about our new school build.
• Understand how our Early Years Literacy Support works.
• Find out about Bush School.
• Hear about the whole school Cooked Lunch Program.
• Visit our school garden.
• Chat with staff about questions they may have.

Free Home Internet for School Students and their Families

The nbn is implementing this Australian Government program offering 30,000 families and carers who look after school age children and are struggling to pay bills free home internet.

If there is a school age student at your home and you don’t have an nbn connection, you could qualify for free home internet until 30 June 2028.

Please click on the link below for more information.

Assemblies in Term 1

Assemblies are held in the MPR and start at 1.40pm. All are welcome to attend. This term’s remaining Assemblies will be on:

Friday 21 March
Friday 4 April

Let’s Celebrate!

Community Notice Board