24 September 2025

From the Principal

The spring winds are here!

A huge thank you to our parent volunteers for helping at the swimming carnival last week. We had a fantastic carnival (Thanks Dudge!) and we always need parent help at our carnivals to make them a success.

Pre-Kinder has started up again for this year, and we have had a great first three sessions. Our Pre-Kinder program has consistently delivered a fantastic introduction to our school and our spaces. We love welcoming our newest families and students – I’m looking forward to seeing them all again tomorrow.

Redevelopment Update – Stage 2

Our next Meeting is tomorrow. We are currently agreeing on the scope of the works (how the money can best stretch to what we are after). We are drawing clarity on who the outside school hours users might be to best ensure that the design can satisfy their needs.

Our gym will not be a huge gym, but quite a substantial space. It will most likely enable Junior Basketball competitions/training but not a full indoor netball size. (Netball courts are larger due to the overrun.) Our outside hardcourt is envisaged to be a full netball size.

At present, Council are still working on what will be completed in this project in regard to the oval.

More information next term as the project progresses.

Reading – Our long-term efforts, our Driver Diagram

Throughout the term we have shared about the parts of successful reading: fluency (week 2), word recognition (week 4), language comprehension (week 6) and our screening, tracking and tiers of instruction (week 8). This week we will discuss our theory of improvement for our school and our Driver Diagram (week 10). There’s a lot to share.

Making change is hard, and yet if done in the right way, at the right time, it can be easy. Most important is to know where you are at and where you want to go. In schools, it’s not as easy as just telling and doing. There are large system barriers to change, and everyone is still working while trying to learn new ways of doing in schools. It’s not as easy as simply changing a machine part. School Improvement is more of a psychological and sociological endeavour than project management.

School Improvement work is a complex system. It’s like sailing; you need to know where you are starting and where you want to end up – but the winds, tides and swell can take you off any well plotted course. The challenge is to build an agile, responsive organisation that can get to where you want to go regardless of any challenges along the way.

You’re lucky, your child attends a school that has proof of doing just that! It’s hard work, but all the staff here are committed to it.

One way of anchoring our work is through a Driver Diagram. Our Driver Diagram comes from the world of medical science and the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation has spent a lot of money in the USA translating this research into practical solutions for schools. We’re lucky to have made contact with an improvement coach with skills in this area and she has been working with us. The below link explains a little more

Our Driver Diagram is a “theory of improvement” for us to work at overtime. We can’t do everything at once. We have drivers (what we think we need to shift to achieve our aim), the place where we do this work on the drivers, and then the actions that we take.

In our Driver Diagram, our aim is about moving more than 100 students a level or “band” in our end of year summative testing (PAT-Reading). This target is hard to move and so we have a few different levers that we think can move this. We expect all students to grow every year. This means that they stay in the same band and do not fall behind. Moving bands from below regions or at level regions to above is the challenge we are taking for 100 students (at least).

While it might seem easy, teaching reading is hard and having all students make year level growth is hard enough – we want to push even more.

A worked example of how we are using this is with our Book Interviews. We have sent some students who have sound skills (from our screening) but lower than expected achievement (from end of year PAT-R) to meet with Tina in the library to find a good fit book to get them reading more. We are seeing that most students who have done this are still reading a term later. We will now track their screening and PAT data to see if they are achieving more. For these students, our theory is that they simply need to read more and read more often.

For another group of our students, they have been identified as struggling with Word Recognition skills. To assist them, we have bought licenses to Reading Doctor. We bought over 40 licenses. After a year, we have about 14 students consistently using Reading Doctor (mostly at home). We have tracked these students and see all but 2 have significant growth in their screening data since Term 2 last year, after a year of consistent Reading Doctor. It is clear to us that if we can get students and families to stick with Reading Doctor, it works. (It might not be the most enjoyable thing in the world, but sometimes hard work is needed to get to a hard goal). We are also going to reduce the number of licenses we have as a school and redirect the money to alternative options.

We are using our Driver Diagram to anchor what we are doing and to test and measure the effectiveness of our interventions. We will also be responsive with our budgets and resources to make the most of what we have.

Reading the Driver Diagram can be an incomplete science as there is a lot of information in the background. Please feel free to come and ask me any questions you might have – I very much enjoy discussing and trying to communicate this important work.

As for now, we see that what we are doing is having green shoots of success. We will spend more time next term discussing how we know whether what we are doing is having an impact.

Enjoy your break coming up (please, please read a lot of books) and make sure you take the time to rest and relax, ready for an exciting Term 4.

Stay safe and see you soon – Courtney

School Association News

The dates of the Term 4 School Association meetings are Wednesday 29 October, 5.30-7.00pm and Wednesday 3 December, 5.30-7.00pm.

CPS Open Day – Tuesday 11 November

Do you know anyone who lives in the catchment area for Cambridge Primary School who maybe considering Cambridge for their child’s education?

Perhaps their child currently attends another school. However, if they are interested to see what’s on offer at their local school, please encourage them to book a tour on 11 November and they will be given a very warm welcome. They will be able to:

• View our new classrooms and our flexible learning spaces.
• 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.

They can call 6248 5168 or click on the link below to book a tour.

Footy Colours Day – Friday 26 September

Friday 26 September (the last day of term) will be Footy Colours Day! Come to school wearing your best team attire. No donation required.

Combined Primary Schools Annual Concert

Every School Day Matters

We love seeing your children at school, every day. Going to school every day gives your child every chance to learn, grow and connect with their friends and teachers. It gives our staff and students a chance to engage with your child.

We all play a part in helping our kids get to school every day. Please know that if you’re struggling to get your kids to school, help and support is available. Talk to us at school or visit:

Cambridge Primary Swimming Carnival 2025

Last week we held our Swimming Carnival at Hobart Aquatic Centre.  The students participated admirably and their behaviour in and around the pool was excellent.  The support shown by the Cambridge Primary parents and community members was fantastic.  There were many amazing performances by the grade 3 to 6 students and I’m really looking forward to seeing how our students go in the upcoming Interschool Swimming Carnival in Term 4.

A massive thank you to all the staff who supported the students in participating on the day and to Mr Josh Howard for joining us despite being on leave.  Finally, a huge thank you to all the parents who volunteered their time on the day to help with a range of jobs.  Your help was essential to the success of the event.

James Dudgeon, HPE teacher

Assemblies in Term 3

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

Friday 26 September (rescheduled from 12 Sept)

Let’s Celebrate!

Community Notice Board