Assistant Principal News- Curriculum

ANZAC Memorial Garden

This week saw the installation of the garden bed for our new ANZAC Memorial Garden outside of the Indonesian room. Our current ANZAC Garden is located in the wedge of garden space between the Art room and the podium area. This area has become quite overgrown and unfortunately becomes a thoroughfare for student foot traffic so we have decided to relocate the memorial piece to a more appropriate location. 

Thank you to all of the members of garden club (and other keen student volunteers) who moved 3 cubic metres to soil to fill the garden bed in preparation of planting. 

Thanks must also go out to Jessica Deans for securing the funding for the project and Mark Gill and Luke Schubert for the construction of the garden bed. We look forward to planting the garden bed with an Aleppo Pine and Rosemary plants as a memorial of the battle of Gallipoli. We will also refurbish the existing plaque and install it within the garden. We look forward to involving our students in finalising these planting activities as part of our Remembrance Day commemorations. 

Referendum BBQ - Thank you

Thank you to everyone who organised, volunteered on the day or even just purchased breakfast/lunch at our recent Referendum BBQ. The BBQ was a great success with the Egg and Bacon rolls proving to be quite popular! Park Ridge Primary School is a popular and active polling location with over 1800 individuals casting their vote at our school. 

Although we receive funding from the Department of Education to support learning programs and conduct maintenance tasks, it does not cover the full amount needed to not only maintain our school but also to improve our programs and facilities. This is why the brilliant work of our Parents Association and all voluntary parental contributions are a major driving force in the recent upgrades and improvements made in our classrooms, playground and beyond.  Thanks again to all who are able to support these programs. 

Writing Moderation Task - ASTEROIDS AT PARK RIDGE! 

As I am sure you have heard, some strange rocks were discovered at Park Ridge Primary School on Tuesday morning. Dale, Carrie and I spent the morning at the "asteroid" site to engage with students under the guise of keeping it "safe". After visiting the site, all classes conducted a brainstorm about possible writing topics and then each student created their own writing piece about the prompt.

Students responded to this writing task with engagement and enthusiasm. Students were able to write about their experiences in a range of genres and styles. It was amazing hearing all of the creative ideas from our students who were keen to solve the mystery of the asteroids.

Pleasingly, most of our students also deduced that the rocks were not actually from out of space but rather planted by the creative minds of our Literacy Curriculum Team. Thank you to all of our teachers who turned a routine assessment task into a memorable and engaging experience for all of our students.