Primary

                                                                   Mrs Leanne Schulz

Welcome Back to Term 4

We are all very excited to see the return of students back at school in a few weeks. It will be wonderful to see everyone on their allocated days and then all year levels from Friday 5 November.

From Monday 18 October (third week of Term 4)

• Prep (Monday to Wednesday)
• Year 1 and Year 2 (Thursday and Friday)

From Tuesday 26 October (fourth week of Term 4)

• Year 3 and Year 4 (Tuesday and Wednesday)
• Year 5 and Year 6 (Thursday and Friday)

From Friday 5 November

• All students are expected to return to onsite learning Monday to Friday.

When students return to onsite learning it is important that we focus on student wellbeing. Teachers intend to plan fun and engaging lessons for the students. We will be mindful to:

• Recognise each student will have different experiences and reactions
• Establish and maintain routines and a calm classroom
• Provide reassurance that school is a safe place to be
• Support social skills by including social and emotional learning in the classroom
• Build connectedness to school
• Talk about wellbeing and ways of taking care of ourselves and others
• Notice any changes in mood, behaviour and presentation.

In the lead up to the return to onsite learning, it is important that parents help their children prepare for a school routine, such as regular bed times, wake up times, preparing lunch boxes, getting school uniforms ready, and talking about the things they are looking forward to back at school.

Uniform Reminder

Just a reminder that on return to school the students are expected to wear either full summer or winter uniform. Hats must be worn when playing outside. As we have been in lockdown for quite a period of time and the uniform shop has not been open, if students have outgrown parts of their uniform and shoes, or misplaced their school hats, please let the Homeroom teacher know and some allowances will be made until the uniform shop is accessible. For a short term, if a school hat can not be found, please send any hat with your child as the UV rays at this time of the year are strong.

Staffing

We welcome Miss Fasiha Faizi to the College this term. Miss Faizi will be teaching Prep R, replacing Mrs Natasha Radley while on Long Service Leave. Mr James Miller has also joined our Primary staff for Term 4 as part of the Government funded tutoring program. Mr Miller will be working with small groups of students in Year 3 and Year 4. 

Prep News

Miss Gemma Jackson (Prep AHOS)

We are very excited to be heading back into the classroom this term for our final weeks of Prep before moving into Year 1. This week, we have begun our new Integrated Studies topic, ‘Our Natural and Man-made Environment’. The Preps have participated in an environment walk around their neighborhood and have been thinking of ways to look after their environment. In Literacy, we began our unit on fairy tales and narratives. The students have had fun completing character profiles and I am looking forward to seeing their narratives come to life in time. It is great to see the Preps being creative! 

Year 1 and 2 News

Mr Jevon Scandrett (Year 1/2 AHOS)

It is so exciting to return to learning this week with our roadmap to being back onsite together in the not-too-distant future. I hope that all families enjoyed some time together with the easing of some restrictions over the holiday break.

I would once again like to take this opportunity to thank all families for their support over these unusual times. I have said many times before that the relationship between teachers and families is so important in a child’s education and success in the classroom. I would also like to thank the teachers and staff who continue to work tirelessly to manage learning remotely.

We are all crossing our fingers that the roadmap to schools reopening can continue as planned. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Year 3 and 4 News

Mrs Anne Adams (Year 3/ 4 AHOS)

It was great to see smiling faces back on Zoom on Monday morning. Welcome back to everyone! A very special welcome to Mr James Miller who will be joining us to work with small reading groups this term. He will work with students in Year 3 and Year 4. We are very lucky to have him. A huge thank you to Mr Rees for looking after 4M while Mr Munro was away. A big welcome back to Mr Munro! We missed you! We also have Mrs Cathy Graham with us completing her student teaching rounds with 4A. 

This term, Year 3 students have begun to investigate and experimenting with solids, liquids and gases. This unit is fantastic as the Year 3 students become scientists. A great series to watch for science is the Full-Proof series on iView. Every episode features a science experiment conducted by a different child from anywhere in the world (CC rating).  https://iview.abc.net.au/show/full-proof

Year 4 students will be investigating, thinking critically and laterally in the sustainability unit. Perhaps even coming up with some solutions as to how we can live more sustainably! An interesting series to watch for waste and sustainability is War on Waste (PG rating).  https://iview.abc.net.au/show/war-on-waste/series/1 

Year 5 and 6 News

Mr Nigel Keegan (Year 5/ 6 AHOS)

We look forward to an exciting term of learning both at home and onsite in a few weeks. We are excited to welcome back all students very soon.

During Term 4, Year 5 students will be engaging in many interesting activities across the various subject areas, including: revisiting fractions and decimals and chance for Maths, poetry for writing, Readers’ Theatre, reading comprehension activities and skills, and working through Integrated topics on Animal Adaptations and the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.

In Year 6, students are working on persuasive texts for writing, short texts, and comprehension of the texts for Reading, BODMAS, Algebra, Chance, and describing probabilities using fractions, decimals and percentages for Maths, and reversible and irreversible change during Integrated Studies.

We look forward to students’ continued progress during the term.

Deities SpaceCRAFT 

By Rafael B - Year 6K

Over the holidays, I participated in the International SpaceCRAFT Exploration Challenge (more information can be found on their website: https://www.space-teams.com and https://onegiantleapaustralia.com). Our challenge involved participants from Australia, America and Egypt. The program ran for six days and essentially was a guide on how to inhabit another planet. Every day we would have a morning welcoming live stream at 10am, after this we would watch a series of well planned and exciting lessons, these lessons could be about physics, planet history, space travel, space crafts, the list goes on! After we watched these detailed lessons, we would watch a tutorial on the activity for that day and enter the specially programmed application for our activities. These activities could include scanning a planet for landing sites, building a spacecraft, landing your spacecraft, or even scanning for materials on the surface of the planet. My personal favourite activity was landing the space shuttle from space, take my word for it when I say it was not easy in the slightest. The space shuttle is often referred to as a flying brick, it is hard to control and is not aerodynamic at all. My group had fun with this activity and ended the day with a score of 99.75, which ironically was a better score than the people that actually made the platform! Once the day had ended, they finished it off with a guest speaker,  this guest speaker ranged from people involved in the Mars City Design Program, to Astronauts that have been to the ISS and have piloted a space shuttle themselves! After they had finished with giving their initial lecture, they would answer audience questions that I and many others really enjoyed listening to. All in all I really enjoyed this experience that I received a full scholarship to and would definitely do it again in the future if given the opportunity to. I would highly recommend anyone interested in Space, Engineering, STEM or even Astrophysics to check out this program.

Fairview Concert Update

Unfortunately, due to the length of the lockdown and the restrictions on Performing Arts activities, the Fairview Concert will not be going ahead this term. During Assembly on 29 November, a Performing Arts video with some Fairview highlights will be shown.