From the Assistant Principal's Desk (Heights Campus)

Highlights from Heights Campus

This week Springvale Rise has been celebrating Book Week; this year’s theme, ‘Reading is Magic’  sparked our students imaginations and helped staff ensure the week was filled with activities that inspired the joy of reading, creativity, and a love for stories. 

As part of our celebrations the school was full of colour as each class competed in the annual ‘Door Decoration Competition!’  Teachers and students were challenged to decorate their classroom door in the theme of a picture book from the annual Children's Book Council of Australia’s (CBCA) 2024 Book of the Year short list. The results were outstanding!! 

Throughout this special week, students in every class participated in a variety of activities designed to celebrate books and the importance of reading. Our classrooms were buzzing with excitement as students celebrated their favourite books and explored new ones. Foundation students who read the CBCA short listed book ‘Fantastica Gymnastica’ made text to world connections by linking the book to their knowledge about the gymnastics they had seen at the Olympics. The class also created a fun display in which they, and some SRPS staff featured as gymnasts from the book.

{photo of Mrs Cottier & Mrs Orme as gymnasts) 

After reading a book in which the main character explores different environments, students in our Junior Learning Centre (JLC) made connections with their local environment. They used Google maps to identify and locate  key features of our community such as Springvale Library and Springvale Community Hub. 

Our Middle Learning Centre students read the book  “Raised by Moths” from the 2024 CBCA shortlist.  They were then challenged to choose a different animal that the main character could have been raised by and write some of the activities the character might have  done with their animals as part of their story. Finally, students developed their graphic design skills by creating a book cover for their fictional book. 

The highlight of Book Week every year is our annual Book Week Parade!  This is always a fun and colorful event,  it was wonderful to see the creativity and enthusiasm of our students as they brought their favourite characters to life.  Once again our wonderful SRPS staff rose to the occasion, joining the parade with a multitude of characters from stories they loved as children and some new favourites.

After the parade families were invited into the classroom to complete a selection of reading activities with their children. 

In addition to the parade, we celebrated by setting up a free book stall at school pick up time. Students were encouraged to take a book home to read with their family and friends. Finally on Thursday the whole school enjoyed the ‘Drop Everything and Read’ session. The school fell silent except for the sound of pages turning, as every students and staff member put down their pencils and picked up a book! 

Book Week is a fantastic opportunity for our school community to come together and celebrate the power of reading. Thank you for your continued support in fostering a love of reading at home and at school.

Mrs Sarah Orme  Assistant Principal

(Heights Campus)