Governing Council

Please enjoy reading about the learning that is happening across the school that was shared at our recent Governing Council meeting.


Pre School	Our exploration of sharks has been an ongoing interest in the preschool this term! We have explored picture books and watched videos of sharks in the ocean. Our wonderful SSO Caterina had a small preserved shark we put into our “Curiosity Corner” in an old fish tank for the children to draw still life from. We now have a preserved puffer fish Caterina has been kind enough to share with us. It has opened up so many discussions about life cycles, and different ways we can use and reuse things. Our making table is also extremely popular! Our preschoolers have been drawing plans and using their problem solving skills to try and create the ideas they have recorded. Through our child protection curriculum lessons, we have been talking about risks and what a safe risk looks like. We were very lucky last holidays because Mrs Slater purchased us some brand new climbing equipment! The children have conducted risks assessments on our new equipment with us, helping decide how many children can climb at once, how to determine if it is a safe risk to take, and what to do if you start climbing, then feel stuck and need help.
Early Years - Rooms 4, 6,7 and 8	Rm 4 We have made good progress into our first term of school. All children have settled well into the routines of classroom learning. We are big on learning and practicing school PBL values of being Kind, Safe and Resilient. Literacy - completed the first 6 lessons of phonological awareness and now moving on to developing phonemic awareness of identifying initial, final and medial sounds in words. Numeracy - learning focus is on counting number 1-20 (we are up 100 at the moment), subitising, recognising and writing numbers. Room 6 have finished their learning about the Great Barrier Reef and are now beginning to explore Uluru. In Mathematics, they are focusing on grouping and sharing. The class is also looking forward to attending a performance of Alice in Wonderland in Week 10. Room 7 We have been exploring the States and territories of Australia. We are now more familiar with the names of each Australian state and territory and also the capital cities. In mathematics we have been working on fractions. Halves quarters and eighths. The students were very excited about purchasing gifts at the Father’s Day Stall. It was a great opportunity for them to use real money to purchase goods. Thanks so much to all the Parents for organising this for the students. Room 8 - We have finished looking at fractions and students seemed to have grasped the concept very well. In English, we have been looking at Information Reports and students have started creating their own reports on an Australian animal. Finally, students have been enjoying doing some experiments exploring different types of matter in science, including making Play-Doh and Ooblek.
Primary Years (Rooms 9, 11, 12	Room 9 This term, we have been focussing on learning about fractions and decimals. In writing, students have collected information on a chosen animal and have created their own report that has been presented to peers. Room 11 &12 This term we have been focussing on our Narnia unit where students learn about sentence and paragraphing structure. In maths we have been learning about fractions, decimals, percentages and how this links to data and information.
Primary Special Class	Students are benefiting from their sessions with Marisa, our ACEO, every Tuesday. They engage in learning about Aboriginal history and culture. The students have created art inspired by Aboriginal techniques and read dreaming stories, delving into themes and cultural significance while discovering the role of language in storytelling. They are eagerly anticipating the opportunity to present their learning at the school assembly in week 9.
Specialists	PE In the last couple of weeks we have been focussing on gymnastics where students learned different ways to travel, position and move their bodies. A project the UP classes worked on was creating a gymnastics routine with 9 different moves. Students enjoyed attending SAPSASA Athletics and Soccer.
	STEM All students R-6 have learned about algorithms and how they relate to everyday life and digital systems. R-4 students have experimented with coding Bee Bots, Dash and Sphero Robots. We are creating mazes and obstacle courses for the robots to navigate and beginning to test and improve our prototypes and debug code. The 5/6 students have been exploring coding using Scratch and have solved several small challenges including creating a mini game. They are about to begin their final assessment designing their own video game.
	Japanese Rooms 6 and 7 have continued to expand their animal vocabulary through the use of Yoga positions. We have made connections between some of the animal words in Japanese written katakana that have been borrowed from English. Students have also learnt the words to ‘breathe in’ and ‘breathe out’ in Japanese. Rooms 8 and 9 have been doing some writing practice of their school bag vocabulary, using a combination of all three alphabets of hiragana, katakana and kanji. They are preparing to create their own book using the vocab with the sentence pattern we have been learning, describing what is in their school bag. Rooms 11 and 12 have been finishing off their scripts and presenting their oral introductions of their chosen person/character, featuring their chosen person/character’s name, age, family and hobbies. Students in Rooms 8, 9, 11 and 12 have also been practising reading and writing hiragana. All students practise greeting each other in Japanese every lesson.
Special Events	Treasure Hunt Book Week Performance Principal’s Day Hirigana Competition Open Afternoon Festival of Music Choir - offsite rehearsal Bookweek celebration Science Week SSO Week Book Fair Parent Connection meetings for Mid Year reception (All 16 students’ parent(s) attend(ed) and Preschool parents Pupil Free Day - professional learning for staff Father’s Day Stall Indigenous Literacy Day Early Childhood Educators Day