Grade 6 News
This weeks Newsletter is brought to you by our Public Relations Leaders Roman, Jess and Kaylee
Important Reminders
Icy Poles will be sold on Monday and Tuesday at the Senior School at lunch.
Lysterfield Netball League
The LNL is well underway! The competition has 5 teams that will be competing in a round robin over the next 5 weeks. The winning team will play against the teachers in the final week of term.
Upcoming Dates
- 16th June - Hooptime
- 17th June - 6IF Life Education
- 19th June - 6H and 6AL Life Education
- 27th June - Whole School Disco
- 3rd July - Whole School Cultural Day
4th July - Last day of Term 2 (2.30pm finish)
Production dates:
- Tuesday 2nd September 2025
- Wednesday 3rd September 2025
Winter Round Robin
Football: By Rooke & Chase
Last Friday, the year five and six students went to the Winter Round Robin. Some of the boys in year 5 and 6 played nine on nine AFL. It's normal footy but there's 9 people instead of 18 on a team. There were two teams, 1 with all the year 6 boys that did footy and the other team was mixed boys and girls - some year 5s and a few year 6s. We both went really well and both won the championship. The year 6 team in A section went through to division. Some funny highlights were Bear's falcon, Chase missing too many goals, Jude taking on an entire team, Fin’s soreness on the top of his right foot and Wade's celebration after kicking a few snags. The games were all played in great spirit. Thanks to Mr Hicks and Mr Mac for coaching us on the day. We cannot wait for the division carnival to begin.
Soccer: By Roman & Alana
Soccer! What a couple of days! I played in the boys team and on day 1, we won 3 games, a little off the mark, but on day 2 we turned our luck around winning all our games and making it to the 3rd place final. Personally, I feel it may have been because Mr Hicks' rotations kept us fresh and firing. Speaking of fire, Archie and Nate were setting it alight down forward for us, kicking some unbelievable goals matched by the celebrations. Zac and Eddie were reliable down back setting us up moving the ball where they wanted to. Chase and myself were respectable in goals saving a fair few. Overall a great day, and cannot wait til Summer Round Robin.
The girls team were unbelievable throughout the carnival. We didn't lose one game, that is until the final! Coached and led by Adele's mum, we were organised and ready to fire each game. Charlie was a superstar as centre back and didn't lose a contest. Alex and Adele ran all day, creating opportunities and converting when we needed. Gabby and Paige cracked in all games and willed the ball forward. It was such a great couple of days competing against the other schools in our district. Our final had a little controversy, it came down to a final penalty shoot out. The umpire called a few goals that I thought went a little high but that's sport, we had to agree with their decision, and because of our awesome effort, we have progressed to the division competition.
Tee-Ball: By Evie
Two teams representing Lysterfield Primary headed to Kings Park on Friday to compete in the district carnival. The girls team won every game including the final, progressing to the division event. The boys team competed their best, but didn't make it through. A highlight was that the A team scored a triple on the last play to win - only just! All our players improved in fielding and catching. We hit some big bangers that scored all our runs.
Lawn Bowls: By Emma
On Friday the 23rd, the grade 5s and 6s travelled to the Basin Primary School for their annual lawn bowls tournament. The year levels split up into different teams for each game. The Basin Primary Gym was quite loud with all the music playing from the speakers. It was kind of hard to hear what people were saying but we managed. The gym teacher from the Basin announced the rules, and who was going up against who. The games were fun and fair. We didn’t end up winning any banners but luckily we didn’t get any wooden spoons either. Hopefully the grade 5s want to do lawn bowls next year.
Netball: By Lucy & Emma
On Friday, for Winter Round Robin, 11 girls from LPS went to netball at Knox Regional Netball Centre. The girls A team won 8/8 games and smashed every team by at least 20. There were a total of 8 schools there including The Basin, Wantirna Christian College, Knox Gardens, Templeton, Parkridge, Regency Oark, Lysterfield and Waverley CC.
The girls A team won all of their games by a lot, but when we played Templeton Primary School, we got a bit more of a challenge In the end, we still won by a lot. Templeton was definitely our biggest competition but we beat them twice, one in the normal game and the other in the grand final and now we are progressing to the next round (division)!
We hope to keep progressing all the way to regionals or maybe even state, but if we don't we are still very proud of ourselves!
Learning in Action
Literature:
Word Work:
In Word Work, we have continued to focus on pel/pulse and vide/vise words during the latin etymology section of our learning. We are still revising the 211 rule for adding suffixes to a variety of 2 syllable words to decide if a doubling of the last letter is required. We use a flow chart to assist with our decision making.
Writing
Sentence Level Writing
In grade 6, we’ve been doing lots of work to do with our writing. Specifically with simple, compound, and complex sentences. A simple sentence is a sentence with only one clause, for example: I walked my dog in the park. A compound sentence is a sentence with more than one subject, for example: I’m busy now, but we’ll talk later. A complex sentence is a sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause, for example: I called my friend after school because I was bored.
Whole Text Composition
We are now completing our factual recount on the 1967 referendum. Below is an example of a student’s writing about this event. It includes topic sentences and examples of compound and complex sentences.
US MOB
In grade 6, we’ve been reading Us Mob, a book all about a young Luritja girl called Ruby who is curious about why her and her teacher, Mr Duncan’s cultures are so at odds with each other. In the classroom we’ve been working hard with the work to do with this text. Ruby and her family, the mob, have their own language, Luritja, which they speak occasionally in the book. At the end of each lesson we do a booklet task where we learn about some vocabulary words that were in the book that we don't know.
Vocabulary
In Us Mob, we’ve been learning about new words that are in the book. Some of the words are: assortment, startled, thrilling, retaliation, meditation and gnarly. We learn and then review these words, looking for opportunities to use them when we write or speak.
Preview:
We will be focusing on and analysing the characters in the story using a DIAL. This includes D for description, I for illustration, A for action and L for language. We will use evidence from the text to support our writing.
Mathematics:
In grade 6 we have a focus on division. The students are working on individual goals to improve their division skills. Each week there will also be dedicated lessons focused on various strategies to solve division problems.
1967 Referendum written by George C. 6AL
In 1967, a referendum was held for the inclusion of Indigenous Australians in the Australian census. This would mean they would be counted as part of the population. Before this, Indigenous Australians weren’t legally considered people and didn’t have the same rights as others. In the 1960s, there were many acts of activism to raise awareness for how Indigenous Australians were discriminated against. This generated overwhelming support for the referendum, which eventually passed with a 90.77% majority in favour.
Before the referendum, First Nations Australians were often discriminated against. They weren't recognised in the Australian Census, an event that happens every five years to count the number of people in Australia. However, in the 1960s, a huge societal change was coming due to the activism about women’s rights and the Vietnam war. Some activists questioned how Indigenous people were treated and how people were extremely discriminatory towards them. There were even government programs known as “assimilation” which tried to force Aboriginal people into European culture, which ran from 1937 well into the 1960s.
Fire sparked among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples during the 1960s about how they were treated and discriminated against. Significant events during this era of revolution molded a path for a referendum. In 1956, famous activist Jesse Street urged Aboriginal women Pearl Gibbs and Faith Bandler to make the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship, a community that forged a way for Aboriginal rights. On the 21st of May 1962, Aboriginals were granted voting rights by the Australian Parliament. This was the first of many changes to improve the quality of life for Indigenous peoples in Australia, and people continued to fight for more indigenous rights. A year later, in 1963, the Yolngu peoples protested against the Australian government for mining on their land. The petitions were special as they were written on traditional bark canvases, and they stated that over 500 people lived on the destroyed land and that they were given no notice that their home was going to be destroyed. In 1965, a group of university students organised a bus journey through NSW called the Freedom Rides. This was to protest against the segregation of First Nations Australians. It brought light to the disgusting conditions Aboriginal people had to live in at the time, and the horrible racism in NSW country towns. The leader of the Freedom Rides, Charles Perkins, stated: “The Freedom Ride was probably the most exciting event I have ever been a part of.” The 1960s was a revolutionary time for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and it is still talked about today.
The 1967 referendum is a substantial moment in the history of First Nations Australians' rights. The referendum, which passed with over 90.77% of the vote, was key to making an Australia that everyone can be a part of. It forged a path to recognise First Nations ownership of the land and culture, and provided hope to future generations on how their cultures would be treated. Although it didn’t fix all inequality, it was a significant step towards how First Nations Australians were treated. It was definitely a turning point for people all over the country, even if the effects were delayed.
This change to the constitution means that Aboriginal people are considered part of the Australian population, and have the same laws as everyone else. It improved First Nations Australians' lives, and is still significant today. It is the highest passing referendum to date, with almost 91% of the voters saying yes. It blazed a trail for Indigenous recognition and empowerment, and the referendum is still talked about today.
From the Grade 6 Teachers
Mel Adams, Lex Fisher, Caillin Ibbotson, Michelle Findlay and Nathan Hicks
Updates from around the school
Green Team News:
Under the guidance of Mrs Stokol and Mrs Alexander, the Green Team met for the first time this week. What a meeting it was! All up across years 3-5 we have close to 50 very excited and passionate students wanting to do their part. Whether it’s helping to keep the school free of rubbish, looking after and developing the plants gardens, educating the school community about sustainability, there was a buzz in the air as students shared their ideas and signed up for roles. A new initiative we’ve introduced this term is the collection of 10c containers. The special lunch day during last term raised $21. We look forward to saving these containers on a daily basis from going to landfill and turning them into cash. Money raised will be invested back into Green Team initiatives.
Involvement in the Green Team is all inclusive. It’s not too late for your child to get involved should they wish.
Maths Opportunity
https://ms.unimelb.edu.au/engage/outreach/micro-mathematicians
Green Team
The enthusiastic Green Team members from grades 3-6 continue to meet with Mrs Alexander and Mrs Stokol Wednesday lunchtimes. After checking in re how the yard cleaning roster is going, they share which areas of the yard are the cleanest as well as those that have more rubbish, and then make suggestions for improvements. Whether it’s helping to keep the school free of rubbish, looking after and developing the plants gardens, educating the school community about sustainability is high on the agenda and everyone has fabulous ideas.
The new initiative we’d recently introduced for the collection of 10c containers is doing well and we have raised over $30 in a few weeks! This involves the Green Team manning the collection bin out front of the canteen every lunch order day, as well as going to each classroom at the end of the week to gather those that have been put aside in specially labelled tubs. With everyone saving these containers on a daily basis, we are helping them from going to landfill and turning them into cash for the Green Team initiatives. Look out for the Sustainability display in the gym over the next few weeks.
Did you know that you can nominate LPS as your donation partner? Just download the app or follow this link Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme | Learn How To Donate
It’s planting season, and what’s better than free plants?
Free plants can be gained by playing a game. Did you know that the Knox Environment Society (KES) provides prizes through a Nature Discover Passport ? Wouldn’t it be great if these were donated to our school for the Green Team to plant?
Head to one of the many reserves in Knox on the weekend to explore your local ecology. Find stamps, and collect prizes. And who says the fun is only for the kids? Head to the above hyperlinks to learn more.
Thank you, every little bit helps.
Mrs Stokol and Mrs Alexander