School News, Birthdays & Awards

                  Wishing the following children a very                       Happy Birthday

Hip Hip Hooray!

Congratulations to the following students for receiving an award this week.

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation Competition

The Art of Kitchen Gardening: 

We know getting hands-on in the kitchen and garden is great for our mental health, fitness and wellbeing. Show us a kitchen or garden activity that has improved the wellbeing of children. Does your garden offer a space to reflect and connect? Do you gather around a table to share delicious, inclusive meals and conversation? 

At St Anne's this year, we have transformed a small, neglected space in our kitchen garden into a sensory, aromatic haven: a tea garden. Students channelled their energy and creativity into clearing the plot, designing and planting herbs to brew herbal teas, and creating an artistic installation complete with teacups, teapots and a mosaic water feature. 

Inspired by the sights, smells, and textures of nature, students deliberately selected and arranged a vibrant array of aromatic plants - including apple mint, lemon balm, pineapple sage, lemon verbena, stevia and classic mints. To bring this peaceful space to life, children collaborated on a mosaic water feature crafted from tiles and broken pieces of fine China. This centrepiece grounds a space where their imaginations can run wild: leaves and flowers can be crushed, sniffed, and nibbled; water can be poured; and tea can be brewed and steeped. 

This project allowed students to use nature as their medium, turning a patch of weeds and rubble into a living installation. The tea garden is not only a functional source of produce, but a proud exhibition of our students' creativity, proving that when children connect with the soil, their imagination truly blossoms. 

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation Competition 

Wellbeing Champions 

We know getting hands-on in the kitchen and garden is great for our mental health, fitness and wellbeing. Show us a kitchen or garden activity that has improved the wellbeing of children. Does your garden offer a space to reflect and connect? Do you gather around a table to share delicious, inclusive meals and conversation? 

At St Anne's, our daily lunchtime garden club has become a vital sanctuary for student wellbeing. The garden offers a peaceful space for children to reflect and connect, especially for those needing a break from the busy playground. Students across all year levels come together and build friendships while patting a chook, watering plants, or channelling their energy into turning compost and shovelling gravel for fresh new pathways. 

Our hands-on projects have fostered a deeply connected community. Through teamwork, we have designed a sensory tea garden, planting herbs to be picked, smelled, tasted, and brewed. We have also spent rewarding lunchtimes harvesting and 

storing giant pumpkins, which we later transformed into a massive batch of pumpkin soup for the whole school. 

Gathering around the table to create and share this delicious meal sparked wonderful conversations and filled our garden club students with immense pride. Knowing they grew exactly what we ate was incredibly empowering. By engaging with the earth, our students aren't just improving their fitness and mental wellbeing; they are building an inclusive environment where every child has a place to belong. 

Mrs Briggs

Tree Planting Day

What a tree-rific time we had on Friday!

We were blessed with wonderful weather and were able to plant a tree and have a cup of tea with our freshly grown herbs from our tea garden here at school. A huge thank you to everyone involved, especially Mrs Briggs, Mr Brooking and our Grade 6 Sustainability Leaders.  Well done to all the students who showed great co-operation and great listening skills to successfully plant a tree. 

Mr Sullivan

Crazy Sock Day

Fire Carrier news:

Thank you to students and families for their support on Crazy Sock Day: Walk In Their Shoes, where we raised an amazing $287 for Opening The Doors Foundation.  

This money goes directly to First Nations children from Yr F-12, enabling them to participate fully and equally in education.

We loved seeing the array of crazy and creative footwear!  Our FIRE Carrier Leaders organised lunchtime activities of indoor sock-er, scavenger hunt, colouring competition and guessing the spots on the socks.  Students from all year levels were eager to participate in the fun.

Mrs Briggs