5-8 Community News

​​Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It  has been pleasing to welcome students back to the College after some disruptions. There has already been plenty of discussions about students' holidays and it sounds like most used the time to get away!

This term is 10 weeks and with very few interruptions, it looks to be an enjoyable term!  As teachers, we will be pushing the theme of 'high expectations' again as we want to continue to build a culture of learning that promotes critical and higher-order thinking as well as developing student autonomy. 

Term 4 had a busy start with our Years 5 and 6 students heading to Canberra to undertake their parliament learning! 

The students visited Parliament House, the Mill, Australian War Musuem, Questacon and so many more. The food at the camp site was also a positive. The students ate like absolute kings. A buffet breakfast each morning followed by memorable dinners.

Camp was such a wonderful experience for our students. Not only were they well mannered, they were exceptionally respectful at all times. It was so pleasing to watch themselves enjoy their activities in such a manner.

You can read more about the trip in the report below.

We have continued to teach The Resilience Project and students have continued to respond exceptionally well to this learning. Students have further explored their own character strengths and were encouraged to see how many of these they might like to develop in order to set their term goals.  Our students were also encouraged to look at their Term 3 report as an opportunity to see where they can improve. Do check in with your children about their goals for the term. The template for their goal for Term 4 2022 is included.

During Weeks 4 and 5 for TA, the students had a choice of four films to watch. These films were dedicated to exploring some of the ethical issues that we know and see within society. It was up to the students to find alternatives and ways to either support or challenge these issues.

With lunchtime activities commencing, I strongly encourage you to have conversations with your children about attending, particularly if they are finding themselves bored and uninterested in the schoolyard.  We offer a lunchtime activity each day, catered to a variety of interests. Posters in our learning spaces show the activities on offer. There are a number of activities that provide exceptional opportunities, further developing positive relationships/friendships but also creating a very safe space for our children.

We look forward to starting our European handball competition amongst the community next Wednesday.

A few healthy reminders:

• Encourage students to seek help from adults, where needed. If there is a challenge in the classroom where your child is not sure of a learning task or a concern outside of the learning space, please get into contact with your child's TA, or even better, encourage the children to seek us out.
• Hats are compulsory.
• TA - Please remind students about the importance of getting to TA on time. As you will be aware, TA commences at 8:50am and concludes at 9:10am.  There is still an opportunity to book in a TA interview with your TA.
• Healthy diet - Plenty of fruit throughout the day and sandwiches packed with all kinds of salad, will ensure that our children are remaining healthy. What I notice at recess and lunchtime is that our students are very active. It's brilliant! Children need healthy food to ensure that they are restoring their depleted energy levels. 

Corey Carver and Anthony Poppa

5-8 Community Leaders

Years 5 and 6 Canberra Excursion

Whilst everyone else was working hard at school, the St Augustine’s 5/6 were having fun learning about democracy in Canberra. When we got to Canberra we dropped our stuff at our cabins and went straight to the Australian Institute of Sport. The tour guides were three athletes who played rugby, hockey and netball. They were extremely informative and went on to show us a really fun area where we could test out how good we were at different sports. Some of those activities included skeleton, wheelchair racing, rowing, basketball, reflex tests and soccer/football kicking.  

On Wednesday we visited the Old Parliament house first, as this is now an exhibit we had to wear gloves and be careful making sure not to touch anything of value. It was here that we learned about prime ministers such as Malcolm Turnbull who was a farmer before he became Prime Minister in 2015. We had lots of fun role playing different members of Parliament and learning about the role and history of the Governor General of Australia. We then went to Mount Ainslie. From the top of the mountain we could see the whole of Canberra and all of the interesting places we had visited such as the Old and New Parliament and the War Memorial.  In the afternoon we were lucky enough to participate in ten pin bowling. On the way to ten pin bowling we drove past the High Court of Australia which had each country's flag Australia had done trade with over time. 

Questacon was another highlight of our camp because we were constantly learning new things in a fun scientific way. We were lucky enough to experience Questacon at night having the place almost entirely to ourselves. Everyone loved watching each other on the drop slide. The most popular attractions were the drop slide, earthquake room, lightning cage and the science room. If you’re ever thinking of going to Canberra we definitely recommend Questacon. 

New Parliament House was outstanding. We had tour guides who showed us around the massive building. We got to sit in the viewing areas of the Senate and the House of Representatives. We also got to take part in a small re-enactment of passing a bill. We learnt about all the stages of passing a bill and how to make it official. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any major politicians or members of parliament. 

Throughout the whole week we learnt a lot about the history of Canberra, the Australian houses of parliament and elections. We would like to thank the Australian Government for contributing funding to each student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program. The camp would not be possible without this assistance. Everyone had a fantastic time!