Primary School
Our term is moving quickly, and this week is a wonderful example of the fantastic opportunities and learning experiences our dedicated teachers craft each day.
On Monday, at the whole school assembly, Pippa King (Year Six) and Pippa Hancock (Year Two) were awarded Highly Commended certificates for their work displayed at the Albany Townhall as part of our ongoing school Rhythms Art exhibition.
William Irving (Year Five) and Ava Archdale (Year One) were awarded certificates of excellence for their artworks.
Our Year Three cohort has also been extremely busy marketing icy treats and exploring the Porongurup's.
A reminder for all families that due to the Albany Show Weekend, there is no school on Friday 8 November. We would love to see you drop in and say hello at our GSG stall if you are visiting the exhibitions over the weekend.
Year Six Camp - Rottnest Island
Last week, the Year Six cohort left for Rottnest Island. We sailed across the sea on the ferry and cycled around the island. The weather was perfect and much warmer than Albany.
We saw many quokkas, including one who we fondly nicknamed Ferral, whose main motivation was eating our bakery lunches. We learnt about shipwrecks, swam and rode our bikes every day and even encountered a large dugite at Little Salmon Bay.
Camp was so much fun, and we didn’t want to come back to school.
Thank you, Mr Berryman, Mrs Gordon, Miss Nichols, Lachie, Paige and Mia, for sharing the week with us.
Mia Palmer and Henry Levett | Year Six students
Read on to discover what has been happening in each classroom over the last week…
Primary School: Year level Information and News
Djinda
This week the Friday Djinda class will be absent due to the Pupil Free Day. Monday’s Djinda class had a fun day. Firstly, we had our class and individual photos taken. We all practiced our “cheeeeeeeeese” smiles and worked the camera hard. We can’t wait to see our happy snaps! We also read the story the “Wonky Donkey”. It was a very funny story, and the class loved participating with a loud ‘Hee Haw’! After the story, the children made some wacky Wonky Donkey face masks which was lots of fun. They also created some beautiful paintings to take home. It was another fun day in our class!
Kindergarten
We have been busy learning about turtles through Aboriginal dreamtime stories. We made a collaborative turtle painting using colours that represent the earth, soil and nature. We read the story ‘Down the Road Little Bee’ and used Bee Bots for the first time. Programming the Bee Bots helped us to learn directions as well as our left and right. Last we looked at what happens when you combine ingredients in Science and made our own volcanos.
Pre-Primary
Pre-Primary has been filled with Billy Goats and Trolls galore as students perfect their oral narrative retells of this familiar tale. Even Mrs Ramsell was getting into the spirit acting as a goat which made the children very pleased! The students have impressed me with their mathematics and literacy skills working through their end of year assessments. In HASS it was evident that Christmas is a top favourite celebration and it won’t be long before the craft and festive fun begins. Yes, there will be a new song filling the Pre-primary houses all around Albany as we begin to practice for the end of year concert! We will also be learning about how Australians commemorate Remberance Day and students will be given the opportunity to create an artwork to show their respects.
Year One
The Year Ones had some surprise visitors in the classroom today! Thank you to Amaia and her dad, Mr Scott, for bringing in these beautiful new chicks. We all had a cuddle and were amazed to learn that the chicks were adopted by the mum and not actually her babies (the little black chick was found abandoned and Amaia’s family popped it in an incubator and it still hatched!) After this excitement, we got back to our 3D shape work, designing helmets for bike safety and – the most important task of all – to use our newly learnt letter writing skills to pen a polite letter to Santa (we hope he replies to us!)
Year Two
It has been such an exciting couple of weeks in Year Two as we have introduced our caterpillars to the class. We have been watching and observing the changes in their body as they move from caterpillar to chrysalis to emerging butterfly. The excitement levels were through the roof as we saw these changes happen first- hand, right in front of our eyes. The butterflies were named Jayden and Jeffery (as the caterpillars hang in a J shape before becoming a chrysalis) and were released into the wild once they were strong enough to fly. This fits in well with our science topic of lifecycles and part of our inquiry will now be to investigate a different animals lifecycle and present it to the class.
Year Three
We have a big week coming up for Year Three and the excitement and enthusiasm has been so wonderful. Wednesday we will hold our ‘Icy Treat Stall’ where we will sell ice-cream with toppings, icy poles and slushies. We have been working towards this all term while learning about how heating and cooling can affect solids liquids and gases.
On Thursday the Year Three group embark on an adventure to climb Castle Rock with Miss Nichols and Mr Berryman. Upon their return we will have an awesome afternoon and evening at school then sleep over in the primary building.
Year Four
We are now halfway through term four! Can you believe it! Our Year Four students have been buzzing with activity and I enjoy seeing their love for learning. Here are some highlights of my time in Year Four on my Teaching Practicum so far:
- Joining the classes for spelling as they tackle challenging dictation passages with 100% participation from all students
- Diving into mathematics where the students take on the role as the teacher and work with each other as they discover there is more than one way to solve a problem
- A spark of curiosity in Science as students delve into investigations on the different properties of materials
- Getting lost in the world of Captain James Cook through The Goat Who Sailed the World
- Researching the fascinating history of explorers and how they navigated the world before technology led them where they needed to go
They are a fantastic cohort of students, and I have enjoyed my time with them and looking forward to the remaining weeks.
Year Five
Year Fives have been very busy preparing for some upcoming assessments this week. It started with area and perimeter and we will finish the week with a Science assessment on Light and a fun chance and data assessment using smarties. Last week we enjoyed a fun Science lesson where we test the reflection of light off mirrors. I set the class a challenge for some extra play time to bounce the light off four mirrors around the classroom – the delight when they succeeded was deafening.
ECC Briefing
Star Awards
The following superstars have created some awesome work and received a Star Award for their efforts.
Kindergarten: Harry Downham
Pre-Primary: Ally Buxton
Year One: Tawana Paradza
Year Two: Harry Vessey
Upcoming Events
Thursday 7 November – Friday 8 November, Year Three Camp, Primary School and Castle Rock
Friday 8 November - Albany Show Day, Whole School Closed
Week Six
Monday 11 November - Remembrance Day Service, 10.35am
Tuesday 12 November - Primary School Interschool Athletics Field Events, St Joseph's College, 9.00am to 12.20pm
Thursday 14 November - Primary School Interschool Athletics Track Events, North Road Ovals, 9.00am to 3.00pm
Friday 15 November - Primary School Orientation Day, 9.00am to 11.15am, for students who will be in Kindergarten to Year Six in 2025
Friday 15 November - Year Two Fundraising Cake and Book Stall at Recess
Friday 15 November - House Activities
Week Seven
Monday 18 November – Friday 22 November, Primary School Swimming Lessons
Thursday 21 November - ECC End of Year Disco, 9.00am to 10.45am
Friday 22 November - Japan Tour Departs
Have a wonderful weekend
Mrs Hayley Ranger and Miss Carys Nichols | Acting Heads of Primary