Primary

                                                                   Mrs Leanne Schulz

2022 Primary School Theme

What has been happening in the Primary School?  

Welcome back to Term 3 and the winter weather! A warm welcome to Mrs Francis Scuderi and Miss Hannah Petterson who have replaced Mrs Gemma Jones in 4J. We are very lucky to have such experienced teachers in Year 4. Mrs Jones’ last day with us before commencing parental leave will be on Friday 29 July. We thank Gemma for her ongoing commitment and dedication to the students and the College, and wish her all the best with this exciting phase in her life. 

Prep News

Mrs Natasha Radley (Prep AHOS)

Welcome back to school! I hope the school holidays were a great break from the day-to-day rush of school. Term 3 in Prep is off to a flying start. The students have begun learning about rhyming and alliteration. The most fun was when a rhyme crime took place and the Prep students had to solve all of the rhymes to get back objects that were stolen from their classrooms. They worked together with the VCE Legal Studies students to solve the rhymes and did so with much enthusiasm. The students have also begun to learn about materials and textures. They made telescopes to look around them and find different types of materials, both natural and man-made.  

Prep students have assembly on Monday 25 July. We hope to see you there.

Year 1 and 2 News

Mr Jevon Scandrett (Year 1/2 AHOS)

There are many exciting events and learning opportunities to look forward to in Term 3!

Families are once again able to join us for assemblies live in the Chapel and Performing Arts Centre. Each Year 1 and Year 2 class will have the opportunity to present at assembly this term. The assembly presentations are a wonderful opportunity for students to experience speaking and/or performing in front of a live audience. We love to see parents there if you can make it! 

Bastille Day Celebration

How very fortunate the Year 1 and Year 2 students were to celebrate Bastille Day as part of their French classes this week! A very big thank you to Madame Mona Harsan for organising hot chocolate, croissants and fun activities to mark the occasion. Students were taught about the significance of Bastille Day and there were lots of berets and colours of the French flag worn. Many interesting drawings of the Eiffel Tower were created and lots of fun was had by all! 

Halo S - 1R 

Today was a very special day because we celebrated Bastille Day. We got to have croissants with hot chocolate. We dressed up and we even danced, we had so much fun. I felt overjoyed. 

Siddharth K - 1R 

The best part of Bastille Day was when I did the AMAZING colouring competition!  I wore a blue French hat and a moustache. I drank hot chocolate and ate a croissant. I was overjoyed to see my best friend Zachary, he wore a black French hat. Zachary and I both wore stripey shirts. I liked the croissants as well as the hot chocolate. 

Darcey M - 1R 

Today was a very special day because we celebrated Bastille Day. I liked when we went in a circle and did a little dance together. I also liked when we drank the hot chocolate and ate croissants. When we did all the things everyone was in their French costumes. There were all the Year 1 students. We had so much fun, I was so tired. We listened to some music too.

Life Saving Victoria

As part of their Life Skills unit on Safety, Year 2 students participated in an incursion with Nikki from Life Saving Victoria. The focus was on Water Safety, particularly as the Year 2 students will be attending swimming lessons at Splash for 4 weeks in August. 

Some of the messages were: 

• Always swim between the flags
• Look before you leap
• Never swim alone
• Always be an arm’s distance away from someone under 5 if around any water
• Always close the gate surrounding a pool at someone’s house. 

Nikki also discussed the 6 "S’s" for being safe in the sun. They are: 

• Slip-on a long-sleeve t-shirt 
• Slop-on sunscreen and reapply every 2 hours unless you have been swimming 
• Slap-on a wide brimmed hat 
• Seek-shade 
• Slide-on sunglasses to protect your eyes 
• Sip-water to stay hydrated.

Year 3 and 4 News

Mrs Anne Adams (Year 3/4 AHOS)

Students and teachers are well underway with teaching and learning experiences. Both Year 3 and Year 4 students are now working on multiplication, and History and Geography in their Integrated Studies topics. In Year 3, students are researching Australia and its Neighbours and are currently looking at landmarks that are natural and man-made. In Year 4, students are learning about the indigenous history of Australia with a Unit titled 'First Contact'. This covers the period before and after European settlement, a very interesting and topical unit. Here’s what the students have to say about their learning:

Saige R - 3T

We have been looking for facts in non-fiction books. This is to help us write non-fiction paragraphs. We wrote down facts about water.

Florence M - 3T  

In Integrated Studies we have been learning about Australian landmarks. I researched the Great Barrier Reef, the Twelve Apostles and Kangaroo Island. 

Ashmik S - 3T

We have been working on multiplication. We worked on repeated addition and renaming. Mine was 6 x 12 = 72. 

Ashen N - 3T

Multiplication is like grouping numbers. I figured out the chocolate box task. Mine was 8 x 9 = 72.

Marlon G - 4S

We had two dice and we rolled them. If the numbers were 5 x 3 and we made an array. You can swap it around to 3 x 5 too. This is called the commutative property. 

Melissa E - 4S

We are comparing and contrasting, finding similarities and differences between welcome to country and acknowledgement of country. The similarity is that they both greet people at ceremonies. The main difference is when someone says the Welcome to Country, they must be indigenous and from that part of the land. When someone says an Acknowledgement of Country, it means they are not indigenous but are on indigenous land. 

Eshveen S - 4S

In class, we are reading ‘The Burnt Stick’ by Anthony Hill. It is about a character named John Jagamara, who is part of the stolen generation. He spent time on the missions and tells us what it was like.

Year 5 and 6 News

Mr Nigel Keegan (Year 5/6 AHOS)

Welcome back to all our students. We are excited to see what will be achieved during Semester Two.  

During the coming weeks, Year 5 students will be engaged with many topics including measurement, informative text writing, reading comprehension activities and skills based on the novel ‘Detention’, and working through Integrated Studies topics on Migration and the Kitchen Garden Program. Check out the photos of the practical measurement activity our Year 5 students completed recently. 

In Year 6, students are working on informative texts, reading comprehension skills, and justifying ideas and opinions, angles, fractions, decimals, and percentages for Maths. Students are also about to commence ‘Earthcraft’ during Integrated Studies which promises to be a fun and engaging problem-solving topic!

Ms Megan Williams (Deputy Head of Primary)

Year 5 students help their Year 1 buddies to talk with a robot!  

In Term 2, Year 5 students used their coding skills when they wrote programs for the Dash robots to talk to their Year 1 buddies. The Year 1 students asked Dash questions and were delighted when Dash answered their questions, often doing a little dance or flashing their lights if they were really passionate about their answers! The Year 1 students loved talking with the robots, and it was great for the Year 5 students to have an authentic audience to enjoy their programming.  

Year 6 Peer Support students continue working with the Prep students

Our Primary School Peer Support Program has three more weeks to run. Our Year 6 students have been busily reading up on the tasks and preparing the activities that they will lead the Prep students through over the coming weeks. I know the Year 6 students are excited to be working with the Preps again, and I am sure they will be surprised how much the Prep students will have grown over the break! 

Cross Country 

Mia P and Jasmina M from Year 5 did an outstanding job representing Aitken College at the State Cross Country event at Yarra Glen. It was an incredible achievement to make it to such an elite level and complete the course competitively. It takes an incredible amount of perseverance and dedication to train for such an event. Huge congratulations to both Mia and Jasmina!

Mia P - 5M 

Today I present to you all my experiences representing Aitken College through all the Cross Country events organised through School Sports Victoria. 

Way back in March all Cumberland students took part in the 2-3km Cross Country race at the College. The fastest students were then taken through to the District level.   

At District students are categorised in groups based on their age. District was held at the West Meadows Reserve. District is where a number of local schools come together to race and the top 10 fastest students were then taken to the next round which was Division. Division was held at Bundoora Park. At Division, a broader range of schools come together to race. This included schools from the greater Hume area.  The top 12 students were taken to Regional. Regional was again held at Bundoora Park. At Regional, schools from different northern Metro regions come together to race.  The top 12 students were taken through to State Championships. State Championship was held at the Yarra Glen race track which is an hour drive from Greenvale. This race is where the fastest students in the whole of Victoria come together to race each other.  I had 100 girls in my race. I am proud to say that I am the 72nd fastest 11 year old girl in the state of Victoria. 

Jasmina and I were the only two primary students from Aitken College to reach State Championships.   

As you can see each stage becomes harder, more challenging and more nerve racking. In each race you are up against faster girls as they eliminate competitors at each stage. To get to State Championships, you are up against elite students. With training, I will strive to better my time at each stage. 

This experience has encouraged me to prepare, train and focus to better myself in up-coming sporting events. 

Thank you

Life Education and a visit from Healthy Harold 

From 1 to 9 August, Healthy Harold is visiting the Primary classrooms as part of our Life Skills Program. It is always an engaging program that is enjoyed by the students. We look forward to their visit! Life Education educators will be teaching each Primary classroom for a session on the following topics:  

Term 3 Assembly Roster 

It is always lovely to see parents and grandparents at Chapel and Assembly on Mondays. On Monday we had the pleasure of a sneak preview of a performance by members of the We Will Rock You cast. The Primary students were entertained and inspired!

Here is the Assembly roster for the term where classes have an opportunity to share their learning with Fairview or Cumberland.  

Uniform Reminders

A gentle reminder that it is a College expectation for blazers to be worn to and from school. Hair must be tied up fully in the Primary school for health and safety reasons and it also prevents the spread of head lice. There should be no jewellery, with the exception of one stud or sleeper in each ear and a watch. Nail polish is not to be worn. Thank you for supporting the College uniform expectations.