Lower Primary

Term 1

Lower Primary students and staff have started on the right note with a happy and confident attitude that has made start to the 2017 school year a positive one. This shows in the way students have settled into their classrooms and have been engaged by their learning programs!

I would like to especially acknowledge our new little preps,  Marlise, Elwood, Rin, Jasleen, Piltenggi, Luke, Anthony, Christian, Joshua, Amaya, Jackson, Lucy, Kristie, James N, Jacob, Zan, Jake, James L and Mackenzie who have taken started their learning journey. These Preps are now at school full time. They have spent the last month learning about being at school and there is so much to learn for them! Welcome also to Jonah, Genevieve, Kellie, Jami, Oliver, Aaren, Ekin and Ali who join us from other schools.

It has been a pleasure getting to know all of our new students and their families. I am confident that they will enjoy much success within their school program. 

I would also like to welcome our new Educational Trainees Elizabeth, Emily, Deanna, Bree, and Janine. We are pleased to have them as part of the Lower Primary team, and know that they will enjoy working with our wonderful students.

At the start of the year students engage in a “Start Up” program which focuses on introducing students to their new class, routines and expectations, and in the case of the first year students, their new school. It also provides opportunities for students to learn about themselves, their family, what they like, who their friends are and their favourite activities.  At this time in particular, students are learning about how to be responsible, to be respectful, to be safe and to be a learner. There are high expectations for our students. 

It was fantastic to have parents supporting our Family BBQ where we had great parent attendance. Your children love to see you joining in and having fun alongside them at school. The BBQ is our way of welcoming our new families to Lower Primary and our “old” families back to the 2017 school year. The children had a wonderful time with their friends on the jumping castle and enjoyed the opportunity to have a tattoo or their hair coloured. Hank, Colin’s (Assistant Principal) dog also joined in the fun and had his fur sprayed pink! He is always a great hit with the children who took it in turns to walk him around the campus. Hank thoroughly enjoyed the attention that was lavished upon him!

Literacy and Numeracy programs that utilise streamed teaching groups have begun in all classes with the exception of the Prep, Prep/ 1 classes. Teachers have been happy with how students have responded to the streaming sessions. They are confident that this approach will continue to be successful in ensuring that skills, strategies and processes are taught effectively at the individual student’s point of need.

This semester’s integrated unit is “Our Community”. Students have begun to extend their knowledge and understanding about their community by investigating who lives in a community, the jobs they perform and how they can help us. Students are looking forward to the real life experiences of visiting the library, local shops and post office where they will explore these facilities and observe the jobs people do. Visits from the police and firemen along with an excursion to the fire station will be the highlights of term 2.

The best part of my job is that I able to visit the classrooms and have students come to my office to show me their work. I look forward to these visits. I am always impressed by the work that our students produce and the great effort they put into it. The work that I have already seen related to “Our Community” is excellent. Students have created community maps with roads, houses, schools and parks. Some classes were very excited to locate their own houses on “google earth” and to see the streets in which they live. As this is only the beginning of the unit there is much more learning and investigation to be done.

Swimming, everyone’s favourite activity has begun. The inside classes were the lucky ones to start the year and they are thoroughly enjoying the experience. There is always lots of prior learning that occurs before students get to the pool and into the water. Students learn about what are safe and unsafe behaviours around water and at the swimming pool. Discussion, role play, reading, writing and drawing activities have reinforced these safety rules. I am very happy that the start to 2017 has been a happy and productive one.

Kath Moore,

Assistant Principal - Watsonia Campus