Primary School

Interhouse Athletics Carnival 

What an incredible day at this year's Primary School Interhouse Athletics Carnival, filled with fun, laughter, and outstanding athletic ability! House spirit was in full force, bringing energy and enthusiasm to every event.

Our Early Childhood Centre (ECC) team excitedly kicked off the day as they took to the track, surrounded by families whose cheering and laughter filled the atmosphere, especially during the lively team games.

The Primary students arrived bright and early for the self-nominated 800m race, showcasing impressive competitive spirit. With high participation levels, it was fantastic to see so many students earning valuable points for their House.

Throughout the day, numerous events kept everyone captivated. Highlights included the Top 8 finalists for the Long Jump and Turbo Jump, with students from Years Three to Six competing head-to-head before their peers and families. The Tug o' War brought out incredible strength and determination. At the same time, the 4 x 100m relays served as an exhilarating finale, with each House’s fastest runners working as a team to claim victory.

A heartfelt thank you to our staff and parent volunteers, whose efforts kept the day running smoothly despite a few technical glitches. Thanks to their dedication, it was an action-packed, seamless day.

Congratulations to all the placegetters and to the House of Camfield for breaking Mokare’s winning streak and taking home the Athletics trophy this year!

Mr Stephen Berryman | Primary Sports Coordinator

Champion Boy and Girl Records 

Champion Shield                                                    House Spirit Award                                        

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 in Djinda we made the most of the beautiful weather and adventured to the Wild Space. However, we weren’t the only ones enjoying the sunshine. A snake decided to occupy our favourite place, so we went off to find a new and exciting part of the Wild Space. We love looking for schools of fish in the shallow water. Climbing trees is always fun and requires lots of navigating to get around the twisted branches. Our Story of the week is “Jungle Drums”. Making our own drums in class is a creative way to link to the story, as well as painted mixed-up animals from the story. 

Kindergarten: Kindergarten has made the most of the beautiful weather and our amazing surroundings. We visited the bridge to make nature crowns and took our Wild Space kit to learn to whittle. We love being outside and it helps us with our inquiry ‘We can learn so much from nature’. 

Pre-Primary: Congratulations to the Pre-Primary students for demonstrating commitment, compassion, respect and integrity during their assembly presentation last week. I am incredibly proud of each student's confidence when speaking and singing to the whole Primary school community. All that practicing certainly paid off! I was equally impressed with the participation, behaviour, and peer support that I witnessed from this cohort on the oval during the inter-house athletics carnival last week — well done. 

This week, we have enjoyed an uncluttered calendar of events at school, giving students ample opportunities in the classroom to participate in imaginative role-play and explore the traditional story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. Weather permitting, we will also visit the Wild Space before the end of the week. 

With the end of the year fast approaching, the classroom will also be abuzz with a range of final assessment tasks and activities across all learning areas. We will also continue consistent learning routines to cover the last few Pre-Primary skills and knowledge. I am also looking forward to integrating some Christmas-themed activities into our last few weeks and would love some donations of clean egg cartons, please.

Year One: The Year Ones were excited to participate in the Athletics Carnival last week. They also enjoyed looking at sources of light in the daytime and compared this to sources of light that are around at night. This week, the class has started to learn about Diwali, the festival of lights. We are looking forward to a fun afternoon on Thursday, decorating diyas, tasting Indian sweet treats, and creating rangoli patterns with Uday’s mum (thank you, Jasleen!) Thank you also to Athena’s mum, Carr Carr, who will be helping us to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival next!

Year Two: This week, the Year Two class was confused and baffled when they found that all the red pencils had disappeared! Ms Diletti was beside herself about having to allow the students to rule up and mark in green pencil instead of RED! 

Later in the week, we received a letter from the red pencils stating that they had walked off the job due to poor conditions – apparently, the students aren’t taking care of them, and they are never sharp! They wrote a persuasive letter to the students to convince them they should be cared for better. This is great as it can now form part of our Talk 4 Writing Program, where we have been busily planning arguments for these text types. 

Year Three: In Year Three we have been looking at how heat can change the state of matter. We watched hot water evaporate into a gas, then reform into condensation, and finally fall again as water. The observations throughout this were exciting, and the students were fascinated by the process. This week, we will watch liquid solidify by reducing temperature with ice, salted ice, and in the freezer.  We have started in class speeches on topics of choice, and I am so proud of how everyone has been able to organise themselves, talk confidently in front of peers, and choose exciting individual topics. Sleepover is creeping up, and excitement is building. Please get in touch with either Mr Stephen Berryman or myself with any questions.

Year Four: In Chemical Sciences, Year Four has explored how natural and processed materials have various physical properties that impact their uses. They have engaged with scientific vocabulary such as "translucent," "reactive," "rigid," and "flammable" and conducted investigations to test these properties, including an absorbency experiment. Students have also reflected on what makes a fair test and practiced accurate measurement using graduated cylinders, focusing on avoiding the parallax effect.

Year Five: We have completed our investigation and found some discrepancies in the size of the squares outside the Year Six classroom, but we felt this would not impact the game much. We have continued with our fluency each morning, and the passage we are reading this week is called ‘The Dinner Party,’ which also covers the spelling sound for the week: ch as sh and c as sh. Some of our class got a taste of what it is like to be a Primary School leader in the absence of the Year Six students who are enjoying time away on camp. 

Horizons Lego Club: During Week One, this talented group constructed marble runs of various sizes and complexities. During Week Two, they designed cars to race using balloon power. In week three, these engineers looked at friction and gravity to create the best carriages to transport their Lego figures along ziplines.

ECC Briefing 

Star Awards 

The following superstars have created some awesome work and received a Star Award for their efforts. 

Kindergarten: Samson Parker 

Pre-Primary: Ava Ray

Year One: Lucie McCutcheon

Year Two: Bhivan Gauri

Primary School Briefing

Thank you to Year Five students Emily Leov, Elora Moodie, Samuel Forgus, Oliver McCutcheon, Jessica Lee, and William Irving, who ran the Primary School briefing while the Year Six leaders were on camp. 

We recognise the following students for their commitment to displaying integrity in our school. 

Integrity Awards

Year Three: Hannah Fergie

Year Four K: Brodie Pyle 

Year Five: Lola Ravenhill

Upcoming Events

Week Four 

Friday 1 November, No House activities

Week Five 

Monday 4 November, Year Three to Twelve Assembly

Wednesday 6 November, Year Three Icy Treats Stall

Thursday 7 November to 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, 10.15am

Tuesday 12 November, Primary School Interschool Athletics Field Events, North Road Ovals, 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 

Friday 15 November, House Activities

Have a wonderful weekend 

Mrs Hayley Ranger and Miss Carys Nichols | Acting Heads of Primary