Scotsburn News 

Important Dates

Fun in the Autumn Sun 

It is so wonderful to see all our amazing students outside at recess and lunch playing. Students have been enjoying the lovely autumn weather, building with tyres, playing in the sandpit and enjoying a number of different sports. Thank you Scotsburn students for showing our School Values inside and outside of the classroom. 

Mothers’ Day Breakfast

What another wonderful celebration our Mothers’ Day breakfast was! Scheduled over two days (due to SC2 excursion), our mums were able to pop into the old building for a bite to eat, a warm drink and some great company. The mornings had such a relaxed feel, and we thank all of our mums who made the time to come and celebrate with us. We hope that every mother and special person in the Scotsburn community had a wonderful day on Sunday. You all play such an important role in your child/ren’s lives, and we all appreciate everything that you do!

SC2 VSSEC EXCURSION

Last Thursday and Friday, SC2 students participated in their “Mission to Mars” excursion at the Victorian Space Science Education Centre in Melbourne. Students participated in a range of Space themed activities, developing skills in all areas of STEM. Everyone particularly loved being in “Mission Control”, even though they weren’t quite able to save everybody!

Parent Community Road Safety Meeting

Over the past 12 months, we have had a number of parents raise concerns about the safety of entering Platts Rd and the service road from the Midland Highway and then re-entering the Highway after leaving the service road, particularly during the busy drop off and pick up times. Concerns have also been raised about the speed limit on the Midland Hwy. 

A number of our parents have also contacted our local Member of Parliament, Michaela Settle to discuss concerns. This had led to us confirming a meeting at the campus to discuss all concerns, speed zone policies and risk mitigation strategies. In attendance will be Michaela Settle MP, Department of Transport & Planning representatives Michael Bailey (Executive Director – Barwon South West & Grampians) and Ben Anderson (Manager Movement & Safety), as well as a Council representative. 

For any possible action and improvements to take place, we would love as many parents to be in attendance as possible, to strengthen our safety concerns as a school community. Please put the following details in your diary, and if you can possibly make it, we would love to see you there.

What: Scotsburn Road Safety Meeting

When: Friday, 7th June

Time: 9:30am - 10am

Where: Scotsburn Campus - outside campus in front of the main gate.

A massive thank you to those parents who have raised concerns and continually have the safety of our families and community at heart. Let’s hope for a positive result from this meeting.

Specialist News

Well done to our SC1 students for completing their Juice Bar (ジュース　バー) unit in Japanese last week! All students had a great go at ordering their juice in Japanese and commenting on the taste. Many of our students were also able to use the word “to” (short “o” sound, meaning ‘and’) to request multiple juices and taste their very own juice mocktail 🙂

The phrase “o kudasai” can be used to politely request an item, and is a great one to practise at home. Sc1 students are also very good at saying “douzo” as they pass an item to the person who has requested it. 

Scotsburn Assembly this week

This Friday we will hold our next Scotsburn Assembly. This will be held in the shed at 3pm. Feel free to pop in earlier and grab a cuppa before coming in to see the assembly. We hope to see you there!

Yard Works

This week we have had Ian Rossiter back at the campus to continue developing the front corner of the campus as well as upgrade and replant some other garden beds around the grounds. On Monday, Ian worked with a small group of students to plant some indigenous plant varieties, to form a beautiful new garden bed in the front corner of the campus. Whilst planting, students also learnt a lot from Ian about plant varieties and effective planting techniques.

Keep an eye on this area over the coming months as the plants develop and grow. Thanks Ian!

Assessment Weeks

As you may be aware, over the next two weeks our students will be involved in a small range of assessment activities built into the weekly curriculum plans. These assessments will assist teachers with the upcoming reporting process. Our students always do a wonderful job during these periods of time, and we love to celebrate the amazing achievements of our students. We also remind our students that these assessments should not be a cause of any stress, with each assessment only being one piece of evidence, to complement the range of data and assessment practises a teacher collects across a semester. 

SAVE THE DATE - Parent Social Event

Lock in the date - Tuesday 4th June! After such a successful event last year, we are again going to organise a Scotsburn parent social evening. This was one of the highlights of the year on the parent calendar in 2023, so let's get as many there as we can this year to make it another wonderful event!

If you are coming, please RSVP HERE 

SC1 Robot Incursion

Next Monday, 20th May, SC1 will be participating in an incursion at the Buninyong Campus. Students will be bussed down to Buninyong at 1:30pm and we are asking for parents to please collect their child from the Buninyong Campus at 3:25pm, in the courtyard. Ballarat Tech School educators will be visiting with some of their Robots. Students will have the opportunity to interact with the robots as well as learn about design concepts and robots in the modern world. 

SC1 Learning Snapshot

We wanted to let parents know that Mrs Robinson will be finishing up on Friday 31st May for maternity leave. Her last day at Scotsburn will be on Wednesday 29th May. Leadership are in the process of finding her replacements and parents will be notified once this has been completed.  

Some wonderful learning opportunities this week in SC1. It was great to see the students putting lots of effort into their schoolwork. In Reading, we have continued to look at Fables, reading The Dog in the Manger. Students were able to discuss and understand the moral of the story, unpacking the meaning behind it - You should be nice and share, especially when someone needs something more than you. We have also been looking at punctuation in sentences, understanding what it means and how as readers we should read the sentence. Vocabulary remains a focus point as we delve into different/ interesting words from our texts. 

In Writing, we have started using the connective ‘but’ and ‘so’ - using these two words to explain a problem and then a solution. To do this, we offer students picture prompts and allow them to ‘turn and talk’ discussing a sentence with a partner before writing. Students have had great success with this and are adding more and more detail to their writing. 

In Integrated we have been learning about Robots. We watched an interesting video about the 3 things robots need;

1. A controller ‘brain’ which is run by a computer program
2. Mechanical parts that make the robot move
3. Sensors to tell the robot about its surroundings. Such as lights and cameras

As part of this unit, students will be designing and making a robot. We are seeking materials for students to use. Any small to medium cardboard boxes (tissue boxes, cereal boxes, etc), bottles, bottle caps, aluminium foil etc. Due to health and safety regulations, we can not accept any toilet rolls. Please send these in with your child/ren. Any donations will be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks,

Ana and Kirsty

SC2 Learning Snapshot

Over the past week in Maths, SC2 students have begun to look at fractions, using many different real world examples to develop our knowledge and skills. It has been wonderful to see everyone undertake this unit with such enthusiasm. Maybe it is because we have been talking a lot about pizza, making us all very hungry!

In Reading, students have been focussing on their individual reading goals as well as completing some whole class work on Summarising. We have been looking at the strategy of who, what, when, where, why, and then forming this into a short paragraph that flows. 

In Writing, we are beginning to publish our space information reports, spending a lot of time working on structure and describing our key facts and information. Setting the scene with a sizzling start has been a big success. We can’t wait to share these!

Well done to everyone also last week on the VSSEC excursion. All students did a wonderful job mixing in with some Buninyong classes and had an absolute ball.

Happy Mothers’ Day to all of our mums - we hope you got spoilt!

See you all during the week,

Jarrod and Liz

Staff Contacts

Mr Morgan: jarrod.morgan@education.vic.gov.au

Mrs Anderson: anastasia.anderson@education.vic.gov.au

Mrs Robinson: kirsty.bull@education.vic.gov.au

Mrs Morgan: elizabeth.morgan2@education.vic.gov.au

Ms Middlin: rachel.middlin@education.vic.gov.au

The Scotsburn Team