From the classrooms

Year 9/10 English

Stage 5 English has been exploring the theme of 'Conflict' this term. They have been investigating gangs and have been analysing short stories. They will be working on Romeo & Juliet in the coming weeks with a focus on recognising and analysing conflict in a variety of forms.

Year 11 Modern History

Students in Year 11 Modern History have started their preliminary HSC course with a deep dive into the Holocaust. The class have been experiencing primary and secondary sources from the 1940s, expanding their knowledge and understanding of the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi government. Students will be focusing on 'perspectives' in this unit, aiming to develop critical evaluation skills of how we piece the past together from stories and accounts of key events.

Year 11 Standard English

Students in Year 11 Standard English have started Term 1 off with the development of key literacy skills - primarily, constructing effective paragraphs (ask them about TEXAS!) and spelling, punctuation and grammar. The class is also working on reading and analysing the Orwell classic 'Animal Farm. This allegory of the extended Russian Revolution period will test students and allow them to flex their English muscles!

Mr Rhett Eldred

Head Teacher - English/HSIE/Hub

Primary Department

We've had a whirlwind start to our learning here in the Primary classrooms. We've welcomed our new Year 4/5 Teacher Mr Rowley and the students are thoroughly enjoying being members of his classroom. We have also welcomed some new students into our classrooms, and they have hit the ground running, making lots of friends and showing their skills across the curriculum. We had a fantastic time at the Swimming Carnival on Friday 11 February, where many records were broken and a great list of Age Champions was achieved. Please read the sport page for all the results and photos from the day.

We also had Bonny Bromham break school records in 11Y Girls Breaststroke, Butterfly and 200m Freestyle. Well done Bonny. The District Swimming Carnival is in Cowra on Tuesday 22 February 2022. Good luck to all who made the team.

As always, we continue to focus on learning times tables across all year levels. Mathematics becomes significantly easier if children are confident with the times tables. Home revision of times tables is essential for success for all primary students.

Please contact me if you require resources or assistance for your child.

Jason Stuart

Assistant Principal Primary (Relieving)

Year 4/5

We have started learning the grammar rap, which teaches you all about nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. We have been listening to Georges Marvellous Medicine and working hard on comprehensions skills. The class has worked hard on building up their reading stamina and has recently hit our goal of 20 minutes a few times. Students are encouraged to bring in something they enjoy reading for our 'read to self' time. It can be a novel, picture book, magazine, newspaper, anything they like to read. I am trying to foster a love of reading as well as building our confidence. We are writing sentences every day and are working on adding more detail to our writing. 

In mathematics, we have looked at whole numbers, expanded notation, addition, multiples, and times tables. I have asked the students to read and practice times tables for homework. Reading for 10 minutes at night and taking 5 minutes to work on times tables will have a big impact on student reading and numeracy fluency. We have practised our times tables in many ways. I have introduced the students to times table championships, where the students say their times tables (not multiples) as quickly as possible e.g. 3x1=3, 3x2=6, 3x3=9 etc. 

Current Times table champions

X1 Champion Charlie Carney 8.9 seconds

X2 Champion Mr Rowley 9.83 seconds

X10 Champion Mason Howell 17.44 seconds 

In creative arts, the students showed off their artistic abilities with some amazing self-portraits using watercolour and pastels. They also created class shields, with words that represent 4/5 class values. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be working on our display for the Boorowa show. The theme is 'reflections of our landscape from the arts using the drought, fires and floods of 2019 - 2021'. I am excited to see what the students create. We are hoping to show off our art and writing skills. 

The first few weeks have been productive. I have enjoyed getting to know the students and look forward to them achieving excellence through respect, responsibility and participation throughout the year.

Matthew Rowley - Classroom teacher

Year 5/6

In the 5/6 class, we have begun an English unit on 'The Invisible Kingdom' by Rob Ryan. The book forms part of a trilogy and is about a young Prince who does not want to be King and spends his time dreaming about life outside the walls of the kingdom. We will be writing, reading and speaking about a range of activities linked to this book.

In mathematics, we have started on basic skills of place value and whole numbers. We need to practise our times tables daily, as this will help us to do all aspects of mathematics in the classroom. Mathletics and Studyladder can be accessed at home too for additional activities.

In creative arts, we have been decorating our classroom with artworks using paints and pencil, and our '9 lines name art' is taking shape.

We have begun a unit in STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) with Mrs Bridge about problem-solving how to use a 'pulley/hydraulic' system to lift a roof up a cliff and onto the top of a house. This is all happening in the Innovation Centre, what a great time we are having over there.

Jason Stuart - 5/6 Class Teacher

Infants Department

The highlight for the fortnight in Infants would have to be our Swimming Carnival last Friday, 11 February. Everyone had lots of fun splashing and playing games, relay racing and whirlpooling and picnicking on the grass during the morning. Once we'd trekked back to school, the water fun continued with dam digging, engineering and building (and re-filling) with water in the sandpit. It was a lovely relaxed afternoon for our Kindergarten and Year 1 students to finish the first full week of school!

K/1

Our K/1 class is off to a flying start for 2022. We have welcomed three new Year 1 students to our class – Alayah, Peyton and Scarlett – we look forward to having them as part of our class and school community. Our learning in the classroom has focused on reading and writing readiness activities, and it's fantastic to watch our students gaining enjoyment from these early literacy skills. In maths, we have been showing off our clever counting skills and starting to explore shapes. We also loved our first cooking lesson with Mrs Golden where we made spinach and feta triangles which smelt amazing and tasted even better, so I'm told. Such busy learners already!

Kindergarten students have almost completed their Best Start Assessments, and feedback regarding this will go out to families shortly. 

Ms Mem Brougham 

Kindergarten Teacher

Assistant Principal - Infants (Relieving)

Year 1/2

Each week, Year 1 / 2 collectively brainstorms words that relate to our sound of the week. This week, Year 1 / 2 is learning about the phoneme 'a.' As a class, we have recognised the importance of the sound 'a', and how they can be found in most words, such as our names and the places we visit. Students find this time important as it allows them to activate their prior knowledge while exploring their skills in spelling. 

Our 'Yarning circle' is an essential time in the Year 1 / 2 classroom, as it allows us to collaborate and build on our knowledge as a whole class. 

Miss Paris Corcoran - Class Teacher

Year 2/3

Such an exciting start to the year for Year 2/3. We have hit the ground running with our reading, writing and number work. In personal development and health (PDH), we have spent some time getting to know each other and working in groups to complete a scavenger hunt in our first gardening lesson. We had to design and build a crane type device in our first STEM class. In geography, we are investigating where we are in the world and what is around us. 

During our first sports session, we had lots of fun participating in animal relays and we discovered that running like a rabbit on all fours is not that easy. 

We are all excited that cooking is back on our timetable and we got to make spinach and feta triangles, with spinach from our school garden. On Friday last week, we enjoyed participating in the annual swimming carnival. We are all looking forward to a fun and productive first term at school together.

Miss Natalie Downey - Class Teacher