Learning Journey

 I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to all of you who joined us for our first Learning Journey of the year. It was truly a fantastic evening filled with a vibrant atmosphere and proud students showcasing their learning to their families, both immediate and extended. Your presence and support mean a great deal to us, and it was wonderful to see our community come together in celebration of our students' achievements.

I also want to express my gratitude to our incredible P&C for their outstanding efforts in organising the sausage sizzle and the mega second-hand uniform sale. Your hard work and dedication are truly appreciated, and your contributions added to the success of the event. Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to our school community.

Term 2 starts Tuesday 30^th April

As we approach the holidays, I want to take a moment to wish everyone in our Torrens Primary School community a safe and joyous break. May this time be filled with cherished moments spent with loved ones and opportunities for rest and rejuvenation. I look forward to welcoming each of you back to school on Tuesday, April 30th, refreshed and ready for the exciting learning adventures that await us in the new term. Until then, take care and enjoy the well-deserved time off.

Kind regards,

Rachel

Online forms available  

Use the forms below to let us know important information about your child at any time.

Torrens Swim Team 2024

The Tuggeranong Region Swimming Championships were held at Stromlo Leisure Centre on the 28th of March. Torrens was able to send 25 students to the event, which was a great result in itself. Even better considering how many students we had that made qualifying times at the Torrens PS carnival. All students turned up with a positive ready to go attitude, and it showed in the pool. There were many personal bests swum and many top placings were achieved. Towards the end of the Championships, the organisers announced the results for the winning school with the most points.... TORRENS PRIMARY SCHOOL!

 The school is very proud of our swim team and the effort they have put on representing themselves and the school and achieving such a great result.

Reminder – Monday 29 April 2024 is a Pupil Free Day

A friendly reminder to all parents and carers that there are 3 remaining student-free days for ACT public schools in 2024. These are the first day of each school term:

Term 2 – Monday 29 April 2024

Term 3 – Monday 22 July 2024

Term 4 – Monday 14 October 2024

Student-free days are for staff development, enabling teachers and schools to plan in a student-free environment. The increase in student-free planning days from 2024 is part of our Teaching Staff Enterprise Agreement, which prioritises better teacher workloads for educational leadership, teaching and learning.

Torrens PS Cross Country

On Tuesday the 2^nd of April, Torrens PS held its annual Cross Country Day. The weather managed to break for us, and the students were able to run in overcast and cooler conditions, with a bit of wind (near ideal weather for long runs). The course was in 'OK' condition, thanks to Hugo and Rio's father tidying up acorns on the senior loop, and Bill for continually tidying up the areas. The acorns have been terribly excessive this year, even after tidying, the wind brought down a whole bunch more during the day. However, this is a Cross Country Day, varied surfaces are quite typical for these events.

We started the day with a House War Chant competition. The competition awards bonus points to the house groups final Cross Country totals. House leaders had several weeks to organise and practise their performances leading into the competition on afternoons and during breaks. You could see how leadership has helped boost house performances too. The judges (Alicia (4HL), Charlee (3CC) and Sandi (6L)) had difficult decisions to make on who to awards the placings to. After much deliberation, they awarded the bonus house points to the following:

1. Clarke
2. Fraser 
3. Wenden
4. Devlin

Last year, Fraser won the war chant competition. This result managed to bump Devlin off 1^st place for the Cross Country competition, by 1 point! I'm sure there will be students wondering if there will be any bumps this time around...

For the races, first up, we ran the Year 1 and Kindergarten Cross Country loops. Year 1s ran 2 loops of the small junior playground circuit, and the Kindergarteners ran 1 loop of the same circuit. These juniors got to finish their races running past the Seniors spread out along the fence in House groups, cheering them on loudly for an exciting atmosphere. Following the juniors, the Years 2 to 6 started their cross country loops up around Torrens shops and back around the school. It is a difficult loop with a long uphill run for the first stage of the run. Many of the students were exhausted on their return. Well done to everyone who ran during the event.

The top 5 finishers for each age from 8 to 12 year olds will be offered an opportunity to run at the Tuggeranong Regional Cross Country Championships in Stromlo during Term 2 week 4, Tuesday 21^st May. For the top 5 finishers, please keep an eye out for a note in the coming weeks. Congratulations to those students!

The following students were the top 10 finishers on the day:

Girls

 Boys

Well done to all the students the participants in today’s events, both as runners, performers and supporters!

Library News

What a great term in the Library this term! Some highlights have been:

• Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 classes playing musical stories to get to introduced to some new books
• Kindergarten and Year 1 classes sharing and talking about some fantastic stories and being so excited about reading and borrowing books!
• Year 2 writing about and creating their own monsters after reading “The Monster Game” by Philip Bunting and talking about how we can “learn through imagination” and “learn through information” when reading fiction and non fiction books
• Year 3 becoming “reading reporters” and interviewing each other about their reading interests and getting very excited about some new books through our book/author highlight activities and book raffles
• Year 4-6 student creating individual reading goals and regularly writing and reflecting on reading in their reading logs
• Year 4 and 5 students participating in the R.A Spratt Author Backpack project, learning all about this awesome author, getting to sample all of her books and create book reviews and fractured fairytales that will travel in the backpack to the next school to inspire other students! 
• Year 6 creating jamnboards and reflecting on what books can be - mirrors, windows, sliding doors, cosy blankets and more. And also creating their own “Reader Profiles and Avatar” displays about why they read
• Special shout out to Kindergarten and Year 1 classes returning and borrowing the highest number of books this term!

Some reminders for the holidays….

Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge

The Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge has begun at Torrens Primary School. Every year, tens of thousands of students across the ACT participate in the CMRC. The Challenge aspires to allow every young person in the ACT to discover the joy reading can bring. All Students in Year 3-6 are encouraged to complete the individual challenge of reading and recording 30 books read in Term 1 and Term 2 this year and this links directly to our school wide goal and priority this year of “improve outcomes in reading”.

Students in years preschool to Year 2 will complete a class challenge and read and record 30 books together, although a number of our K-2 students are keen to complete an individual challenge this year!
Any books read by or to a student can be listed including audiobooks and ebooks. 

Completing the challenge is a great way to celebrate reading. Every child that participates receives a CMRC certificate and those completing the individual challenge go on to our school “CMRC Wall of Fame” and will receive a ticket to our book raffle at the end. The school can also receive book vouchers to purchase new library books if a high enough percentage of students complete the challenge. The holiday break could be the perfect time to add some more books! Students have lists at school and many have taken lists home but you can also access an extra copy here.

Keep enjoying books in the holidays!

Storybox Library:

Do you know you can access our school subscription to Storybox Library at home?

This is a great screen time option to combat boredom in the holidays, full of high quality stories and resources.

A reminder of the sign in details and you can also see an instruction video from Mrs Byrne here.

ACT Public Libraries

Our ACT Public Libraries are wonderful places - there are always lots of things happening for children in the school holidays and they have special programs and resources at this Link.

Maybe head into one of the ACT Library branches this holidays and get your child their own library card! 

SORA

Torrens Primary students have access to SORA - an ebook platform with more than 8,000 e-book titles and 1,000 audiobooks available to borrow. Many of our students are already familiar with how to access this through their digital backpacks but you will find further instructions on how to access here.

Thanks for supporting our school library. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday break. See you in Term 2 for more exciting Library initiatives and events including the Author Pen Pal Program, a pre loved book sale, an upcoming Author Visit and National Simultaneous Storytime!

Happy reading and have a lovely break!

Amy Byrne 

To celebrate the end of the first term of preschool the Pearce Kookaburras bought their favourite teddy or soft toy to preschool. For morning tea they all enjoyed a ‘teddy bear’s picnic with yummy freshly made popcorn and some teddy bear biscuits. The weather was a tad wet and freezing cold so it became an indoor picnic.