Week 3 Term 1 2021

Principal's Report.

Week 3

Welcome to our new look newsletter. We are still learning to use this new way of communicating to our community but I think you will all agree that it looks great. A huge thank you to Tanya Lovell and Christine Turner in our office for spending many hours learning how to use the portal and problem solve the many issues that come up when you do something differently. I hope that you enjoy being able to read the newsletter digitally and also enjoy the photo galleries that we are able to include as a result. While I know you like to read about events at the school, I am aware that it is extra special when you can see your child taking part in their school activities. The newsletter will be available through the Schoolzine app and also via a link on our website. If you still wish to recieve the newsletter as a hard copy please let Christine and Tanya know your preference if you haven’t already. Please note, however, that unfortunately the hard copy format will not allow as many photo galleries as the digital version.  An advantage to going digital is that we can start to work on reducing our paper and printer usage in order to be more environmentally friendly and reduce expenses.

With the term well underway we are looking forward to our first assembly of the year, to be held next Wednesday at 2pm in the school gym. This will be followed by a Welcome BBQ and an opportunity to participate in a School Farm tour. All parents and community members are invited to attend. Come along and meet the teachers and see what developments are taking place on the farm. Sausages and drinks will be provided and children will have the opportunity to amuse themselves with some sporting equipment on the oval. We would love to see you.

Thank you to those parents and community members that attended last week’s School Association Meeting and Annual General Meeting. We have a number of new and returning people who have decided to come and be a part of this group. I know that the new Chairperson, Annie Ramsay has included a report in this newsletter along with a list of those that very generously committed to being a part of the Committee for the next year. Thank you for your commitment. A reminder that although the Committee has been decided for this year, any interested parties may still join us for the meetings. Dates will be advertised well in advance.

I was very lucky to be invited to speak at an exciting community event recently. The Sheep Station Cup Golf Day was held at Ratho Golf course on the first Friday of term and it was a huge success. Organised by an enthusiastic and dedicated team of men from the community the day saw approximately 140 golfers take to the course in order to raise money for Donate Life and our school! The organisers John Ramsay, Richard Ellis, Guy Ellis, Jamie Downie, Russell Fowler and Will Bignell did a spectacular job organising the event and the weather was incredibly kind considering the forecast was for huge rainfalls. Other than one downpour near the beginning, the event was able to proceed and only experienced some lighter passing showers. This is the second year that this event has taken place and you may remember me talking about the very generous donation in excess of $8000; raised at last year's event; that was made to the school last year. I was asked to speak to outline how the funds were used in support of the school and its learning programs. It was a truly fabulous day, even though I didn’t get to actually play! Words do not adequately express how appreciative we are as a school that the organisers choose to continue to organise and run this event in order to support the school and other community organisations; this year Donate Life. I would also like to thank those parents that helped the organisers with running barbeques and serving drinks on the day. We look froward to supporting this event in the future and I can admit that there has been considerable pressure to enter a staff and student team next year. 

Still on the golf theme. We are excited to have an addition to our options classes offerings this year. Thanks to the support of the Highlands Council, in the form of a grant, and volunteers from the Bothwell Golf Club and the Highlands Council, each Wednesday a group of eight students have begun taking golf lessons as an option class. As someone has to accompany the children, I politely offered to do that myself. Needless to say, we have been having a fabulous time. Students have been transported to and from the course thanks to the community bus; lessons provided; students have been signed up as an official member of the Bothwell Golf Club for a year; and they also received a bag of goodies with a hat, tees, drink bottle and other items. The initiative has been made possible thanks to Katrina Brazendale as a part of her community role with the Highlands Council which is focusing on exploring ways to get young people in the community more active. A sincere thanks to Jim Poore (Highlands Councillor and Golf Club Member), Adam Wilson (Highlands Council, Deputy General Manager and Golf Club Member) and Andrew Brazendale (Golf Club Member and parent) who have very generously offered their time each Wednesday to teach us. They have been all been wonderful, encouraging and patient. Hopefully we will be able to extend this activity into next term and beyond as there is a waiting list of keen participants waiting to become golfers.

Finally, in classes we have been working hard on introducing our new Values; Aspiration, Respect, Courage and Growth. There is a lovely new display at the front door and students have been engaging in activities specifically focusing on Respect. Respect will continue to be a focus throughout this term.

In closing, I hope you enjoy our new newsletter format and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible for next Wednesday’s Assembly, Welcome BBQ and Farm Tour.

Until next fortnight.

Janelle Reeves

Cooking with Brigette week one.

This week in cooking our students learnt how to make Butterfly Cakes .

They look very nice.  The students have done a good job with these.

Recipe below.

BUTTERFLY CAKES

Ingredients

125gms Butter                                                            2/3 cups Sugar

1tsp Vanilla Essence                                                  2 Eggs

1 & 3/4 cups S R Flour                                              1/2 cup Milk

300 ml bottle Cream whipped                             1 pkt Raspberry Jelly

      METHOD

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C .
2. Line 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases.
3. Make jelly using packet instructions. Place in fridge to set.
4. In a large bowl glass or plastic, using an electric beater, cream butter, sugar & vanilla until light and fluffy and has changed colour.
5. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Slowly add flour alternately with milk, beginning with the flour.
7. Spoon mixture into paper cases until 2/3 full.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked when tested, cool for 5 minutes,
9. Transfer to a cake cooler cool completely.
10. Using a sharp knife cut a circle from the top of each cake, slice circle in half to make wings.
11. Whip cream with a little vanilla essence and 2 tbls icing sugar, fill cavities with cream place wings on top decorate with jelly or jam, dust with a little icing sugar.

Launch into Learning Calendar

Central Hawks Football Club

School Farm report

BDHS Farm

We have arrived at 2021, and so to have the weeds. The end of last year was a massive rush with our students helping to plant down the Oriental Lilliums and Crocus sativus (saffron corms). With 1200 lilliums over 3 beds and approximately 1200 saffron corms over two beds, the virgin soil was ripe for weed germination, however, those pesky weeds are no match for the BDHS Ag studies students. The liliums are standing tall and proud, while the saffron corms should not surface until April giving us easy access to pull the weeds. Well done to each student for their efforts, even though I’ve heard it mumbled once or twice that weeding is all we ever seem to do. Toughen up flowerpot. 😊

Farm report continued...

Some of the German potatoes have been dug and the reports back from students who took home the ‘samples’ suggests they are a very tasty potato. Students’ reported “beautiful roasted”, “lovely mashed”, “tasted just like any spud to me, but (family) said they’re a nice potato”. We will begin digging them proper in a couple of weeks and packs will be available if anyone is interested in purchasing some. So too will the liliums be available to purchase once budded and ready for cutting. All monies raised will be re-invested back into our school farm for more student lead crop enterprises.

More on the farm...

Our hazel tress are looking good with almost every tree carrying hazelnuts. Considering this is their first year, that is really impressive. The catkins are beginning to form and readying themselves for flowering which will happen in the next few months. Students have monitored and graded each tree’s growth and we have identified a small number that haven’t taken as good as others and if they fail to flower will need to be replaced. We will continue to nurture.

                                                                                                        At least someone knows what they’re doing!

MDT Class with Mr Cross

Class Two students working on a new project in MDT with Mr Cross.

For some of our students this is the first time they have been able to do woodwork.  The students look very happy learning new things.  Learning to measure and use clamps plus sanding the edges of their projects.  Really great to see our younger students having a go at woodwork.

Launching into Learning

Launching into Learning had a very nice first day.  We played with foam and paints. We had a shop

and made collages with rainbows and patty pans.

Cooking Week Two

In Cooking this week the students made Mini egg and Bacon Pies plus Chicken Pockets.

EGG & BACON PIE

4 Eggs                                                          1/4 Onion  finely  diced

1/2  cup Tasty Cheese                           1/2 Milk

4 rashers of Bacon                                 Salt & Pepper to taste

3 sheets of Puff Pastry

METHOD

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
2. Lightly grease small muffin or pies trays.
3. Dice onion & bacon.
4. Wisk lightly eggs & milk, add bacon, onion & cheese lightly mix together.
5. Other ingredients you could add, diced tomato, parsley, chives.
6. Lightly spray tins, cut pastry with a scone cutter to fit, gently push into tins.
7. Fill pastry with egg mixture until 3/4 filled.
8. Place in oven until the pies are light golden on top, remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes in the tray before removing from tin.

Girls' Shed.

Pool day.

All our students had a really great time at the first Pool day.

A big thank you to Miss Griggs for organising this event.

Assembly and Welcome Barbecue.

Kinder Prep news.

Kinder/Prep read The Gingerbread Man this week. We crafted our own gingerbread men, sequenced the pictures from the story and drew our favourite part. 

School Association Report.

The Bothwell School Association Annual General Meeting was held last week, and I would like to introduce the 2021 committee structure.

Chairperson - Annie Ramsay

Secretary - Susan Webb

Treasurer- Katrina Brazendale

Parent representatives - Mikaela Wilton, Kristy-Lee Worker-Mayne, Fiona Ellis and Natasha Lewis

Staff representatives Jessie Byers and Bruce O’Toole

Community representatives - Betty Branch (CWA).

Welcome to the new members and thank you to the continuing members. I look forward to working with you all this year.

The school association is open to any member of the school community and I warmly invite you to attend a future meeting if you are able.

Recently the Bothwell Sheep Station Cup was held. The school association would like to thank and congratulate the organizers of the Bothwell Sheep Station Cup. The event was a huge success. We are very grateful to the men who put this event together and raise vital funds for our school. Thank you also to the parents and community members who helped out on the day. The event saw a significant amount of money raised. We are pleased to be sharing the funds with the very worthy cause of Donate Life. If you are wondering how you could help, please consider going to donatelife.com.au and registering to become an organ donor. A free way to possibly make a huge contribution to someone else’s life.

I am looking forward to a wonderful 2021 year with the school community. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Kind regards

Annie Ramsay

Chairperson

Bothwell Golf our Students enjoying Golf.

Our students having fun over at the Bothwell Golf Course.  The students go and play golf every Wednesday.

We would like to thank Central Highlands Council, Bothwell School Association, Katrina and Andrew Brazendale, Jim Poore and Adam Wilson plus Ms Reeves for organising this fun event.

Health Nurse.

Hello Bothwell District School. My name is Lydia and I am the new school health nurse for Bothwell. I am new to the School Health Nurse Program, as I have recently transferred from my position as a Paediatric Nurse at the Royal Hobart Hospital. The School Health Nurse program is designed to support students, families and the whole school community to achieve better health and wellbeing. I am passionate about helping every individual in their mental and physical health journey and I am always here for a chat. I have access to many resources and can help work through health-related queries. I will conduct hearing and vision assessment for Kindergarten students and provide hand hygiene education. I can help provide information and support regarding oral health, nutrition, sun smart, positive mental health, female health, contraception, gender diversity, healthy relationships, sleep hygiene, mindfulness and stress techniques etc. I look forward to meeting and working with everyone and I am very excited to start working at the Bothwell District School. Please contact me through my email, lydia.newton@education.tas.gov.au.

Science Class grade 6 - 8.

Grades 6, 7 and 8 are studying States of Matter in Science. In this class they were learning about and seeing how temperature affects gases.  

Car Boot Sale.

The Great Bushy Park Food Truck Muster.

Free Kits for Kids Statewide.

Bothwell Library

Bothwell School Values

Important Information.