Principal's Message 

Julie Crawford 

What a proud moment it was last Thursday to gather under our beautiful oak tree with our wonderful community to celebrate an amazing term of learning around the Big Idea of Country. Throughout the term our students have been so engaged learning more deeply about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and the importance of Country. They discovered some of the important things we can learn from First Nations people such as the way they looked after country, their seasons, how they used indigenous plants for food, shelter and medicine, their songlines, engineering feats, their games, their art, their languages, and their ceremonies. Students have developed greater respect for the rich First Nations culture and learnt about the significance of Country in our local area. After all this learning students have then enjoyed taking action in many different ways in order to share with others their new knowledge and understandings. The reconciliation journey in action!

What a wonderful time our Preps had with their parent helpers and Grade 6 buddies, transforming the prep imagination garden into their ‘Welcome Garden’ with painted stones, native plants, and decorated planter boxes filled with a wonderful assortment of sensory plants!  The preps did such a great job designing how they wanted their garden to be and contributed items to make it come to life! A special thank you to Mr Read who made the beautiful Welcome Garden arch, fire pit, stools, lizard tunnel and bird feeder that the preps had included on their ‘wishlist’!  It will be a very special place to play and learn! 

Our Grade 1/2s have explored how First Nations people cared for Country and how they can continue to care for Country now. They enjoyed making their Deadly Doors and loved travelling around the school completing their Country Passport!

The Grade 3/4s have researched notable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, have learnt about the Stolen Generation and have all contributed to a beautiful collaborative Deadly Wall and decorated yarning mats.  

The Grade 5/6s did much of their work actually on Country at our local Clifford Park. They explored how indigenous plants were used for many purposes, the significance of the seven seasons and the importance of Songlines and Aboriginal language.  Students chose an area of particular interest to dive into more deeply and the open afternoon was an opportunity to see this learning in action with signs in Aboriginal language, seven seasons calendars, artwork with symbols and totems, medicine, tea and cake made with indigenous plants, songlines to describe special places in our school and instructions and videos to explain games that our First Nations People played.

There was so much wonderful work and learning about Country also done throughout the term in Visual Art with Mrs Salisbury, in Performing Arts with Tim and in STEM with Miss Sampson, Mr Percy and Mrs Broadhurst helping students to make even deeper connections.

It was wonderful to have our Regional Koorie Educator, Kira Peters, join us to officially open the Wominjeka Garden. Every student contributed a colourful clay stone to bring to life the Rainbow Snake that meanders through the garden, with Bunjil the eagle sculpture watching from above.  It is a favourite place to play for many, especially those who are attracted to the water that flows along the Rainbow Snake!

Thank you Community Bank Warrandyte

Another special part of our assembly was to say a huge thank you to Community Bank Warrandyte for their generous donation of $45,000 towards the construction of the Creative Play and Learning space. It was lovely to welcome Jaime Noye, who is the Community Liaison officer and Jo Kontogiorgis, the new branch manager to officially open our new space.  The Community Bank Warrandyte has supported our projects at our school over many years including the basketball roof, the Wominjeka Garden, the SAKG gardens, and the upcoming replacement of the top playground.  So many projects simply could not have gone ahead without their amazing support. 

A huge thank you also to the families who donated to our 'Greening Up Our New Creative Play and Learning Space'.  Your contributions helped us purchase the beautiful trees and plants that completed this amazing space.  

A special thank you to Clare Colson, our talented parent who gave so much of her time and expertise to design and project manage this beautiful space.  We are so grateful for Clare's generosity to create a space that will bring so much joy to so many children and families!

Working Bee

Thank you to all of the parents, grandparents, students, siblings and staff who attended the recent working bee and transformed so many of our garden and playground spaces, planting hundreds of beautiful native plants and trees in the new creative play space and in garden beds around the school, spreading mulch, weeding, sweeping and starting the transformation of the SAKG garden area down near our chooks. A special thank you to Jonah Read and Clare Colson for overseeing the purchasing and planting of our new space and other garden areas! 

Everyone's hard work has helped make our school look spectacular!

Wishing everyone a safe and relaxing holiday.  Hoping you have lots of fun family time and stay warm!  

Regards,

Julie :)