Primary Specialists

Visual Art 

Hello everyone and welcome to our first newsletter introducing the teachers and Primary Years Art program. My name is Ms Mancini and I am one of the three Art teachers for this year. Ms Nishani and Ms Fankhauser will also be teaching Art and together we are planning and running the Arts program across Foundation to Year Six.  

During the first couple of weeks, we have been developing the school’s Essential Agreement and unpacked the Learner Profile. We have focused on what it means to be Communicators, Carers, Thinkers, Risk takers and Reflectors within the Art room. 

Students have also been shown around each art room, discussing rules, routines and expectations within the Art space. Students have enjoyed being given Student agency while working on their first task which was to create their own front cover for their Art journal or choosing to colour an existing 'Art' cover template. 

In the coming weeks we are looking at the Trans Disciplinary theme of 'How we Express ourselves', focusing on the Aboriginal culture and their connection with country.

Physical Education

On behalf of the physical education team, we would like to officially welcome Saltwater College back to the 2023 school year. This year the physical education team consists of three new teachers; Todd Robinson, Simon Woods and Eden Norton.

At Saltwater College, all students will be provided with the opportunity to develop life-long participation in physical activity and sport, through the delivery of a variety of positive and enjoyable experiences, which are developmentally appropriate. To enable students to achieve this goal, they learn the fundamental skills of locomotion, ball control, throwing, catching, kicking and striking.

The Physical Education program at Saltwater College aims to support, foster and develop students to reach their full potential. The main aim of our physical education programme is to educate (by providing knowledge, skills, and values) and develop a progressive attitude towards a fit and healthy lifestyle, whilst adopting a holistic approach whereby students develop physically, socially and emotionally.

The first two weeks of our programme has seen the students across years prep-6 participate in minor games, whilst focusing on co-constructing our P.E essential agreements. This will be the main focus throughout term 1 as well as developing a number of athletics skills in preparation for the highly anticipated athletics carnival, which will be held at the beginning of term 2.

We look forward to an exciting year ahead in P.E.

Spanish

Bienvenidos al termino uno 2023 en Español!

¡Hola amigos! I am Javi, Saltwater’s newest Spanish teacher. You might know me as magic-man or that-guy-with-the-flying-sticks. I will be teaching every kid from prep to year 6 for 13 weeks. I was born in Spain, where I studied Spanish language and literature before I started to travel around the world. I have many passions that I bring to school to awaken wonder and delve into different cultures with my students, from circus skills to poetry, from exotic animals to video games. I am myself a language enthusiast who is continuously learning, so far, I have learned Spanish, English, French, German, Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and Indonesian (in order of fluency), but I surely need to practice them more since some are a bit rusty. If one of your kids speak any of these languages, I have probably already interacted with them in their second language and gave them some tips on how to use that knowledge to learn Spanish easier. 

I am looking forward to bringing my love for languages and cultures to our Saltwater community, inspiring proud learners with never-ending curiosity, vivid creativity, sharp critical thinking, and proactive agency.

Dear parents, carers, and families. Welcome to all, new and continuing students at Saltwater P-9 College. I hope you all had wonderful summer holidays and enjoyed some outdoor activities with your children. 

The Spanish program, which teaches about the Spanish world, language, and culture, is taught to students from Prep to Year 6. For those who are new to the school, my name is Señor Pastén (Mr Pastén), I was born in Latin America, in a country called Chile. I love travelling, music, dancing and I am very passionate about sharing the Spanish language and culture. 

The goal of the Spanish program at Saltwater P-9 College is to provide the tools to understand and communicate with others using basic Spanish vocabulary. The progress and assessment of students is mostly based on classroom performance, which includes class participation, effort, and behaviour. In our weekly lessons we will spend time perfecting the four skills necessary for learning a foreign language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing short sentences in Spanish.

Looking forwards to see you all in class or in the yard.

Don’t forget to say Hola..

Adios, 

Mr Pastén.

Music

Hi there! I’m Steve Saxton the Primary Years Music teacher at Saltwater P-9 this year.

 It’s been a great start to the year working with classes across Year Prep to Six. Our classes have begun the year creating Essential Agreements. These have helped us think about how we learn and choices we make that help us work together. In Prep to Year Two classes, we have focused on playing and singing together as whole groups to set us up to try new things in a happy supportive environment. In Years Three – Six we have also set our expectations for our time in Music as independent learners as well as identifying that we are a community of creative artists and performers. 

Dance

Dance in 2023 has started amazingly with over 220 students registering their names to audition for this years dance extension programs, and the Victorian State School Spectacular. We have also added an extra group to the program due to the ever growing number of students here at Saltwater. This years dance extension groups will be Junior Extension (Years 3 and 4)….Senior Extension (Years 5 and 6)…and Secondary Extension (Years 7 and 8). Each group will consist of 20 students representing both year levels for their extension program. All students did so well throughout the process, and everyone showed such improvement and growth not only individually but as a collective also!

Our VSSS auditions (Victorian State School Spectacular) saw a large group of students come in to compete, and sweat it out for the select small group of 16, who will represent our school on the big stage! Last year saw an amazing, hard working, and committed  group of students represent us all, our school, and the Saltwater Community so well. This pulled focus in a great way from the VSSS organiser’s and choreographers, using us as an example and benchmark of what’s expected from staff and students throughout the process.Choosing the final 16 has been a tough process ,as everyone worked so hard during the audition. Thank you to all that came through for all auditions and look forward to working with you all soon! 

Media

Hello, I am Mr. Howarth and welcome to Media! This specialist subject is in its second year at Saltwater College and is now offered to all Primary classes from Prep to Year Six. 

In Media, we learn how we can communicate messages and ideas through different media mediums, including photography, sound, filming, advertising, visual narratives, etc. Students also analyse and interpret media texts with cross-curricular connections made with Literacy, Numeracy, Language and the Arts. 

Our unit topics include migration, Indigenous history, our emotions, advertising, and Who We Are. 

I am looking forward to getting to know all students throughout the year.