From the Assistant Principal
BE INVOLVED, BE CONNECTED
FIRST NATIONS GARDEN
I am excited to share the hard work from our Year 1s and Year 3s this semester, which have resulted in a beautiful First Nations Garden with Indigenous plants from our local area and tile artwork with some SMPPS symbols inspired by storytelling from our First Nations Peoples. Our Year 6 have also worked with Westgate Biodiversity: Bili Nursery & Landcare – to add some legacy plants to our garden making this space a community effort. Big thank you to Alicia Carson and Michael Grech who already look after our green spaces and have volunteered to help ensure our new plants are watered over the summer.
SMPPS' AREPA FACTORY
Our very own Senor Toni alongside our Requena Moreno family recently featured in an SBS Espanol podcast about how Senor Toni has expanded awareness of Spanish culture here at SMPPS through the LOTE program and especially how the Requeno Moreno family, alongside Senor Toni, hosted an Arepa Factory for us at SMPPS this year. They discuss how the Arepa Factory was able to make more than 400 arepas for us in one day and expand our students’ understanding of the history of the arepa with each class in approximately five minutes per class. The result was a deeper engagement and interest in Spanish culture from our students witnessed by Senor Toni in classes. Mia (in Year 5B) goes on to explain the difference between Colombian and Venezuelan arepas. If you are interested, here is the link to listen in Spanish:
YEAR 6 UNIFORMS
To any of our graduates who will no longer have use of their uniforms, we are happy for uniforms that are still in good condition. Feel free to drop your ex-uniforms off at the office at the start of next year as they will definitely find a good new home.
SOUTHEAST PARENT ZONE
SouthEast Parent Zone has some upcoming parenting session topics for 2025, such as Creating Calm Amidst Chaos: Managing Tantrums and Meltdowns, Building Better Behaviour, and Emotion-Focused Parenting. Most of these are Zoom meetings over a series for about 6 sessions. Please see the link to find out more.
SKINNERS ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND SCHOOL HOLIDAYS PROGRAM
Skinners Adventure Playground are planning lots of wonderful activities to entertain the kids over the school holidays. Please see the attached flier for more information on this local opportunity.
I wish you all a restful and safe holiday break and look forward to seeing everyone in 2025.
Regards,
Sam Smrekar Thompson
Assistant Principal
P-2 Welfare and Wellbeing