Principal Chat

Half way through the year already. How on Earth did that happen in the blink of an eyelid?

A few highlights of the past few weeks would have to be the weather and the Small Schools High Potential Collective Virtual Artshow going live. We have had some pretty wet and cold days with even some decent snowfalls this week blanketing the ground. It is lovely to see some sunshine out today though. Hopefully it might dry out the playground a little over the holidays so we can play on the grass or actually just walk, without the very high chance of ending up covered in mud!!

This term we have been proud to be a part of the Small Schools High Potential Collective Virtual Artshow. It all began at the beginning of the term when we were given the topic of 'small' to create an artwork. The first step was to put on our thinking caps for some brainstorming and thinking about what the word small means to us, the feelings surrounding the idea and the connotations it evokes for each of us. 

The students then set to work creating their artworks - there were pencil drawings, mixed media and 3D sculptures created around this theme. Students then had to choose their favourite artwork and specific feedback was given to the students on their artwork to assist them in making it even better - a little shading here, some further detail there, some use of this colour here, some questioning and pondering over there!! The students took this feedback on with gusto and vigor and all worked hard to produce the artworks they did. 

The finished artworks were then uploaded onto the website along with the other students from Yarrowitch, Murrurundi and Upper Landsdowne.  Each student wrote a bio and a description of their artwork and we uploaded a video of each student discussing their artwork.

Then on Tuesday of this week, the website went live and we had a special opening with all the other schools and the 3 guest judges. It was wonderful to look through and see all of the student's artworks and their different perspectives on the theme 'small'.

The judges then gave feedback to the students against a marking criteria. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive for each and every student and each judge nominated a highly commended student from each school. The judges didn't know who each was awarding their commendation to, so it was testament to the quality of the works I think that the three commendations for Niangala went to three different students Aubree, Elise and Valerie. Well done to these students and congratulations on your achievements. I thought they were all wonderful and it was lovely to be able to showcase the student's work and share it with others and to see what is happening in other schools too.

So do yourself a favour and checkout the website on the link below and enjoy the virtual tour.  We look forward to further projects in the future with this network of schools, we will keep you posted. Enjoy the artgallery.

https://smallschoolscollective.my.canva.site/

Have a wonderful holiday everyone and look forward to some exciting times in Term 3.

Thank you everyone for a great semester 1.

Hannah Crawford

Principal

Niangala Public School