Specialists
DISTRICT ATHLETICS
On Thursday 31st August, we had 50 students represent our school at the Ringwood Primary School Sports Association Athletics Carnival at Bill Sewart Athletics Track in Burwood East. All these students did extremely well and should be congratulated on their efforts. We now have many of our students winning their events or finishing second and progressing through to compete at a division level on Wednesday 4th of October. Once again we would like to congratulate all students on their efforts and wish those attending the division event all the very best in their endeavours for success. We know you will do everyone back at HEPS proud.
SUSTAINABILITY!
September marks the beginning of Poorneet (Tadpole) Season on the Wurundjeri calendar! Growling grass frogs mate and lay their eggs in foamy rafts along reedy banks, and they hatch into darting tadpoles. The ground begins to warm as pied currawongs fill the air with their pretty warbling song, joining magpies in their evening calling concerts. Joeys leave the pouch for daytime adventures in the sun. Poorneet Season is when temperatures rise, rain continues and the days and nights are of equal length.
HEPS Donation Drive
Level 3 organised and ran a successful, school wide donation drive to help those in need in our community. Our wonderful HEPS community collected hundreds of toys, food items and clothes, which were donated to Vinnies, Empower Australia, and The Salvation Army. Our Level 3 Green Thumbs were presented with a Certificate of Appreciation from Ian Hamilton (Lieutenant Colonel) of the Ringwood Salvation Army to acknowledge their incredible work and the generosity and kindness of our community.
The Kitchen Garden
As the weather warms up, we’re excited to get stuck back into our fabulous Kitchen Garden. Students have prepped the garden beds and planted out our new season’s crops. Flowers have begun to bloom and we’re seeing native birds digging around for grubs and worms and having a wash in our bird baths! The Garden Classroom is a great space for lessons outside on a beautiful day. Garden Club will start up again in Term 4! We encourage families to come along and get messy as we start preparing for our HEPS Harvest Market next term!
In The Sustainability Classroom
Level 1
Level 1s continue their investigation on the 8 Rs of waste. Students have made reusable bee’s wax wraps, sewn repurposed scrap material into bookmarks, made recycled paper and created labels for classroom compost bins. Students have designed tools to clean up the Pacific Garbage Patch and minimise the amount of rubbish we produce at HEPS.
Level 2
Students in Level 2 are learning about Biotic factors in ecosystems. Students are learning about photosynthesis, the parts of seeds and the germination process. They have also learned about pollination, animal classification and adaptation as well as food chains and food webs.
Level 4
Level 4 students are learning about the impact of Climate Change. Students have learned about Green House Gasses and made Molecules out of lollies and toothpicks. Students followed the scientific method to conduct experiments on the impact of increased carbon dioxide in the ocean. They have investigated types of renewable and non-renewable resources and mined for choc chips in cookies to see the irreversible impact mining has on the environment.
Level 5
Level 5 students are learning about the impact of natural disasters on the Biosphere, Society, and the Economy. Students investigate traditional aboriginal bushfire management practices as well as ways to make (jelly) earthquake proof structures. Level 5 students have created fabulous multimedia presentations about significant natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region.
International Students
What a positive experience it has been having our international students and their family’s part of our community here at HEPS this term!
I would like to take a moment to thank our wonderful HEPS students for their encouragement of and involvement in our international student program throughout this term, the impact the program has had on our students has definitely been one of improved sense of community, communication and experience.
The benefits I personally have witnessed across the school community have been broad and vast; in classrooms I have seen a lot of students willing to use their own cultural knowledge and language experiences to assist with international students understandings, I have seen English speaking students learning new languages in the playground at break times, I have also watched our community of other language speakers embrace these families, making strong connections and potentially life long friendships. Our English speaking HEPS students have had the opportunity to learn about differences including culture, schooling in China/Japan, foods, music and more. Our HEPS students have been given the opportunity to experience communication break downs and use their problem-solving skills to assist, many times using their body language and hand gestures to communicate, this skill is vital to our students giving them real world experiences preparing them to be our global citizens of the future. We are so lucky to be chosen by our international families and our classrooms, learning and community are stronger because of it. We look forward to watching this program grow and continue into the future.
School Holiday Activities at YOUR LIBRARY
Click on the image to find out more 😊
Click on the image to find out more 😊