PRIMARY (F-6)

School Leader Report - Kara

Week 6! 

We are aware PAM is still down. We appreciate the frustration this might be causing but assure you the people that can, are working on restoring PAM for use. It is not just a St Anne’s challenge at the moment but appreciate your patience. In the meantime, major events and information will be here in the newsletter – see the calendar of events. Any permission forms for activities are being sent home as hard copies, to be signed and returned, so if your child has something coming up they will still receive information to bring home to you. 

The end of the term is fast approaching and there are a number of events coming up; permissions will be sent home with students in hard copy form while PAM is not accessible. 

• Dec 2: Yr 6 Rites of Passage Day (offsite)
• Dec 3-5: Yr 5/6 CYC Camp, Melbourne 
• Dec 9: Statewide Transition Day and Christmas Concert 
• Dec 10: Primary School Fun Day (colour run – wear a white t-shirt on this day) 
• Dec 11: Year 6 Graduation 
• Dec 12: Students' Last Day 

Primary Assembly

Congratulations to Darsh and Harnoor who received Commended certificates in the Australian Bush Poets Association's Betty Olle Poetry Award.

Class Reports

Foundation

The Foundation students have been engaged in our author study unit. They have enjoyed reading fairytales and then re-writing them. The students have also enjoyed acting out the book Wombat Stew and making a stew that had lots of insects which they made from magiclay.

In Maths the children are working with numbers to 100 and identifying the number of tens and ones in two-digit numbers. Next week we will learn about money. It would be great if you could talk with your child about the different coins and notes, asking ‘which coin am I?", and talking about their colour, size, shape, images and numbers.

Every week the Foundation students visit our fantastic library. They enjoy choosing a new book to take home and having time to read books of their choice in a comfortable and relaxing space.

Next week we start our 2026 transition program. We will welcome our new Foundation students and show them around our amazing College

Year 1 

This week, we attended a special Remembrance Day liturgy where we reflected on the importance of remembering those who have served our country. 

In Religion, our Year 1/2 students have begun exploring the theme ‘Preparing for Jesus’. We observed the Godly Play story together and then recreated the scene as part of our learning and reflection. 

In Inquiry, students had lots of fun creating their zoo trioramas, designing a habitat for their chosen animal and showing what they’ve learned about how animals live and survive. 

In Maths, we have wrapped up our learning about time and are now beginning to explore 2D shapes, identifying their features and using them to create pictures and patterns.

Year 2

Wow! What a huge two weeks we have had in Year 2!  

In Spelling this past fortnight, we covered many new sounds and spellings. We learnt about <ch> and <tch>, ‘-tion’ (as in action) and the graphemes <or> and <ore> making the /or/ sound (as in sport). 

During Reading Comprehension, we continued developing our seventh comprehension strategy, ’Monitoring Understanding’, by continuing to follow the steps, READ, STOP, RETELL, CHECK, FIX. 

In Maths, we have begun wrapping up our Multiplication and Division unit. Students solved multiplicative worded problems by identifying key information and using arrays to represent and find answers. 

This week, Year 2 students also completed Literacy and Maths assessments in preparation for end-of-year reports. They should be commended for their persistence, hard work and the respect they showed to each other during this time. 

Year 3/4 

It is hard to believe that we are not far away from the end of the school year. The Year 3/4 students have been working hard to complete their explorer research in our inquiry time.  Many students have learned lots of amazing facts about important people and their contributions to discovering; countries, space, flight and even Tutankhamun’s tomb!

In Religious Education students have been listening to scripture stories from the Bible about those who were waiting for the Birth of Jesus. The Jesse Tree represents Jesus’ family tree from Creation to His birth. Students have started to create baubles to represent the members of Jesus’ family and will place them onto their own Jesse Tree that they have made.

In Literacy we have started to read a new novel called The One and Only Ivan. It tells of the life of a mountain gorilla named Ivan who has lived in a cage for most of his life. The students are enjoying reading about his situation and that of circus animals.

In Mathematics the students have been learning the features of 3D shapes; faces, edges and vertices as well as the many types of 3D shapes; triangle-based pyramid, cube and rectangular prism.

Year 5

The Year 5 students had a busy fortnight completing their ‘Creation and Responsibility’ projects for R.E which were showcased at an expo last Friday attended by parents/carers, family and the Primary School. Students were tasked with how they could turn their passions into outcomes that could have a better result for the environment. The end products were very impressive such as educating people on safer beauty and hair products that are better for the environment, why we need to dispose of rubbish correctly so it doesn’t have the impact on our oceans, redistributing used sporting equipment so that it doesn’t significantly add to landfill and many more.  

Our class novel The Last Bear has been completed with mixed reactions to the ending, some liked it and others would have preferred an alternative. The students have been doing a lot of narrative writing, creating longer pieces of writing that include descriptive language. They have also been developing their editing skills, by editing a peer's writing and having their own writing edited by a peer. Learning to take feedback and see if the ideas were something they would use or may not.  

The class have been spending Wednesday afternoons exploring connections between our learning in class and places and spaces that will be explored on the Year 5/6 Camp later this term.  

Year 6

The Year 6 students have been reading the book Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend as their class novel this term. They have been learning about the structure of narratives and elements of fantasy stories and have begun writing their own fantasy narratives including writing skills learnt in class such as varying sentence openings, ‘showing, not telling’ sensory language, triples, metaphors, similes and personification.

"My narrative is about a sorcerer who has a potion shop but for some odd reason never shows his face. But one day a giant portal opens in the sky and monsters come from the portal and his town struggles to fend off so he's forced to put on his retired armour and has to use his ultimate fire staff. He sprints out of his house and fights and helps his town after a hard fight and many brawls he slowly takes off his helmet revealing he is the prince, Theabsolem the great."

-Jett Chisholm, Year 6

"My narrative is about 2 young characters named Abdullah and Raj, who one day dream to become professional soccer players, but they decide that they want to stay home instead of going to school to explore a dusty old cave that no one has ever dared to step foot in. Abdullah doesn’t think it’s the right decision, but Raj is keen to explore the cave instead of going to school. Once Raj steps foot into the cave he can sense the aroma of a shiny ominous gem in the distance what he doesn’t know is that later when the cave crumbles the gem opens up into a portal and they get teleported into a new dimension."

-Gianluca Steri, Year 6

Specialist

Children have been exploring how 3D printers and CAD (Computer-Aided Design) programs work. They have been learning about how digital designs are transformed into real objects using coding and technology. Each child is now designing their own personalised bag tag, which will be sent to the 3D printer to be created! 

Learning Mentor Ellie 

Last Friday, our Year 5/6 students held an inspiring Expo to showcase the projects they completed as part of their R.E. unit ‘Creation and Responsibility’.

Students explored how they could turn their passions into practical actions that have a positive impact on the environment. The results were impressive, from educating others about eco-friendly beauty and hair products, to promoting correct waste disposal to protect our oceans, finding ways to redistribute used sporting equipment to reduce landfill along with so much more.

Our young change-makers showed great creativity, compassion, and commitment to caring for our world. 

Reminders:

The Opening The Doors Foundation (OTDF) invites eligible families to apply for a 2026 student grant. Grant applications are currently open and close on 2 April 2026. 

The Foundation prioritises students with the highest financial need to ensure fair access to support. Applicants with a Health Care Card or Pension Card will be processed first. Other applications are still welcome however processing may be slightly delayed.

• Please attach a copy of your Health Care or Pension Card to your online application.
• Missing documents will delay processing.

All applications must be submitted online via the OTDF Grant Portal.

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🎒 Items you can apply for from OTDF:

• School books & stationery
• School uniforms
• One pair of shoes (school or sport shoes)
• IT equipment (laptops, calculators, etc.)
• VCAL/VET levies 
• School camp costs

⚠️ Funding is up to the OTDF grant limit and up to OTDF Trustee discretion. You may not receive the full amount requested.

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🚫 What We Don’t Fund

• Independent school fees (families are responsible for paying private school fees and levies)
• Applications where OTDF funds are used for school fees may affect future eligibility.

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⚖️ Other Funding

If the student is already receiving support from:

• Traditional Owner education grants
• First Nations scholarships
• Other charities
• School financial assistance

The application may not be successful. Final decisions are made by OTDF Trustees.

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✅ Eligibility

To apply, the student must:

✔️ Be of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent

✔️ Provide a Confirmation of Aboriginality

✔️ Be enrolled in a Catholic or Independent school in Victoria (Prep–Year 12)

❌ OTDF does not support students attending government schools

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🎟️ How Grants Are Provided

• Grants are mostly provided as vouchers from approved suppliers
• Vouchers must be used by 31 May 2026
• For camp levies, school uniforms, or school IT items, funds may be sent directly to the school if the school supplies these items​

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📅 Key Dates

* Applications Open - 10 November 2025

* Applications Close - 2 April 2026 (strict deadline)

* ALL Vouchers expire on - 31 May 2026

Apply here!

Parents/carers are reminded there is a very important process to follow if your student must leave the college at any time throughout school hours. Please ensure you follow these steps:

Parents/carers MUST provide a note to the front office, at the start of the school day, stating the following:

- Student Name

- Date of leave required

- The time the student must present to reception to take their leave

- If they will return to the college the same day, and if so what time they will return

- The reason for the leave being requested

- The parent/carer’s name and signature

Please note, students will only be permitted to be collected by their parent/carer unexpectedly and without a note if it is an emergency.

We remind all that the college opens at 8:30am. This enables educators time to prepare for their day ahead. We appreciate your support in helping our educators be successful. Yard duty staff begin at 8:30am to monitor play spaces before the school day begins at 8:55am.

Upcoming Dates

Please refer to the calendar on PAM for upcoming dates for activities and events.