Specialists News

Sport/Phys Ed News

Grades 3-6 Swimming Sports 

Congratulations to all students from Grades 3 to 6 who competed at our Senior School Swimming Sports at the Bendigo East Pool last Monday. Perfect weather allowed for the sports to run smoothly as the students competed in a range events including; freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. Novelty games were also played in the intermediate pool. It was great to see so many children participating, giving their best efforts. Students were awarded House points for every event they chose to compete in. The final House standings will be announced at Assembly on Friday. 

The highlight of the day was the House Relay event, with ASHBY House leading all the way to secure victory.

Congratulations to the following students who will now go on to represent the school at the Sandhurst Division Swimming Championships at Bendigo East Pool on Friday 28th Feb. These students have been informed of their selection and will receive further information via Compass.

Thanks to all staff and parents for their assistance in making our swimming sports run so smoothly.

Art News

This Friday morning at 9am we will be meeting in the Hub for a Welcome To Country and Smoking Ceremony - as well as officially celebrating the completion of the Indigenous Inclusion Mosaic, which is located in the Grade 3/4 eating area.

This project was made possible with the generous funding from the Bendigo Art Gallery, who introduced us to Aunty Trina, a local First Nations Artist who helped us create all the tiles for the Mosaic. Every tile was carefully handmade by students and staff at Spring Gully Primary school, and depicts designs drawn by our students specific to our school and local area. This has truly been the most magnificent undertaking and one which I am extremely extremely proud of. 

Last week, we had Bunnings come and help our First Nations student replant low lying native plants in front of the Mosaic to freshen up the garden bed. 

I look forward to seeing you all on Friday to celebrate with us. Kind regards, Ms Leed.

Auslan News

Prep students have continued to develop their understanding of what Auslan stands for (Au = Australian, s = sign, lan = language) and what Auslan is. Students have been practising their Auslan Greetings song, learning how to sign: “Hello, how are you?” and “Nice to see you.” They have also practised signing: “Happy Birthday” in Auslan. 

All students from Grade 1-6 have been practising their fingerspelling, and revising simple greetings including: “Hello, my name what… [fingerspell name]” “How are you?” “I’m good/bad/okay.” It is really wonderful to have so many students eager to sign out the front for their peers to try to interpret their signing. This is a photo of 2 students with the same name signing in unison for the class, to demonstrate their Auslan skills. Their peers and I, loved seeing them sign their name together! 😊

Students in Grades 1-6 have also been engaged in discussions and are fascinated by Sign Names, which are an important part of Deaf Culture! Sign Names are gifted to others by Deaf people, as a way of welcoming you into the Deaf community. Sign Names make it easier for a person to not have to fingerspell their whole name. Sign Names can only be given to someone by a Deaf person. Hearing people cannot make up their own Sign Name or give their friends or family a Sign Name. 

Sign Names can be based on a range of different things such as: your personality, character traits, appearance, interests and hobbies, or occupation, and may even include the first letter of your first name, or your initials. It is an honour to receive a Sign Name from a Deaf person. It was lovely to hear of a couple of students at SGPS having been gifted a Sign Name by a Deaf person in the past, and to hear the stories from these students as to how they got their Sign Names, and what their Sign Name means in relation to their personality. Exciting!!

Mrs Riordan.