Spotlight on Learning

Stage 1

As we approach the end of another wonderful year across our K-2 classes, it's heartening to witness the joy and enthusiasm that our youngest learners bring to each day. The holiday season has truly enveloped our school, with the spirit of Christmas radiating in classrooms. Our Kindergarten students have been busy, composing heartfelt letters to Santa Claus, and to their sheer delight, they've received replies all the way from the North Pole! Meanwhile, our imaginative Year 1 students have been channelling their creativity into crafting Christmas-themed masterpieces using beads and sand. We must express our immense pride of all our students’ efforts and academic progress throughout the year. The dedication and enthusiasm demonstrated by each student has truly contributed to a positive and vibrant learning environment for us all. May the holiday season bring joy, laughter, and cherished moments to all our school families. 

K-2 Teachers  

Stage 2

In 3J we have been creating travel brochures as part of our writing unit. We learnt that a brochure is a hybrid text, meaning that it can be both informative and persuasive. Students were able to choose any city across the world to research! They loved learning about somewhere new and excitedly used Canva to create their brochures. Students included information about the location, activities, foods, where to stay and useful tips. We are looking forward to a great last week of learning together to end a fantastic 2023! 

Miss Jacob - 3J Classroom Teacher

3S students sharpened their narrative writing with the STEAL technique, using the acronym STEAL (Speak, Thoughts, Effects of others, Actions, Looks). This week, they introduced Princess Jasmine to readers in descriptive paragraphs. The collaborative effort extended to Padlet, where students appreciated each other's work. 

Mr So - 3S Classroom Teacher

As we near the end of the year, 4B have been busy researching and creating informative travel brochures. As a class, we learned about the Blue Mountains with Mrs Khastgir, exploring its geographical location, flora, fauna, history, and places to visit. Students created their own brochures promoting the Blue Mountains before presenting them to the class. Afterwards, students were able to choose a city of their choice and investigate it, producing their brochures using Canva. 4B students thoroughly enjoyed this unit of work, using digital technologies to research and create their brochures. 

Ms Betty - 4B Classroom Teacher

What an ‘eggciting’ way to end our Year 4 STEAM unit! Both classes joined together to create and test their sustainably made product against certain success criteria. The aim was to build a prototype ‘Mars Rover’, which would protect a little creature (‘the egg’) as it was dropped from above. In addition, the ‘Rover’ needed to land on an exact landing spot (Mars). 

It was great to hear the students using language such as ‘absorption’ and ‘resistance’ to explain their reasoning as they watched the ‘eggs’ drop. Lots of maths was involved, as students needed to consider the weight of the materials which they used to make their ‘Rover’ as light as possible. Luckily, all creatures made a safe landing, well protected in their student-made ‘Rovers’. Whilst only one ‘Rover’ and ‘creature’ landed exactly on ‘Mars’, many were pretty close. Students in 4F used the Book Creator program to publish an informative book about their STEAM project.  

Please note - to fit with our sustainable theme, real eggs were not used in this experiment.

Ms Fairgrieve - 4F Classroom Teacher

Stage 3

Year 6 have enjoyed participating in high school transition activities in Weeks 8 and 9 with many students showing a genuine and keen interest in all subjects taught. Thank you to Mr Love, Mr Yu, Mrs Janssen and the teachers who have supported this program and provided our Year 6 students with the opportunity to experience high school lessons. These activities included:

• High school transition activities including interpreting a high school map and timetable
• Commerce lessons 
• Digital Technology
• Food Technology
• Lino squares in Visual Arts
• PE

During the past two weeks, Year 5 students have been outstanding learners at Peer Support training, developing their leadership and mentoring skills in preparation for next year’s Peer Support program on ‘Anti-Bullying – Stronger Together’. The sessions allowed students to actively build their own leadership capabilities through meaningful and engaging learning experiences. Team building activities were designed to target:

• Communication skills
• Decision-making
• Goal setting
• Problem-solving skills
• Student voice
• Understanding of leadership and the qualities of a good leader

The Year 5 students who nominated for leadership this term did a fantastic job presenting their speech to Years 2-6. I am proud of their efforts and they are all to be commended for their willingness to run for a school leadership position. 

5C have been learning about poetry this term with a focus on using the elements of poetry to express their creativity. Students have written haikus, shape poems, limericks and ballads. Here are some examples of the poems they have written. 

Thank you Stage 3 parents and carers, for your wonderful support of student learning, school programs and events in 2023. By having all of you work so well together with our wonderful team of Stage 3 teachers and support staff, we have had a fantastic year with pleasing academic results, many  extra-curricular opportunities for our students to shine and all students engaged in their learning. The teachers and students have loved every moment, whether it be at Great Aussie Bush Camp, debating, Footsteps dance, Ultimate Frisbee or sport carnivals. I am very proud of their achievements and efforts, well done Stage 3! 

Mr Chong - Stage 3 Assistant Principal