INFANTS

Our Infants classes have had a productive and busy start to Term 2 with lots of things happening around the school, many of which are highlighted in this newsletter. Please keep a close eye out on Compass and Facebook for upcoming events and reach out to class teachers if you have any questions.

A highlight for the start of Term 2 was our Cross Country Carnival. It was wonderful to see so many families and special friends join us. All Infants students participated in a fun run around the cricket and recreation ground, and we definitely have some middle distance runners in the making! All enjoyed cheering on siblings, buddies and older friends as they ran down the hill to the finishing line – fantastic to see such great school spirit.

Celebrating our Mums and special friends at our Mother’s Day Morning Tea was a lovely event, and it was really great to have so many come along for this. All students enjoyed having visitors in the classroom to have a look at terrific work, join in card games, reading, playdough and other activities. Despite the wet weather, our ‘picnic’ still took place in the Library, and this was a great opportunity to chat with other Mums and children and enjoy being together. Thank you to everyone who made this event possible!

Over the next few weeks, we begin our Kindergarten 2027 transition activities. We look forward to welcoming prospective Kindergarten students and their families on Tuesday 19 May for a ‘Play and Stay’ event. Our friends from the BEE Centre will also be visiting next Tuesday and Wednesday for a Teddy Bear’s Picnic and this will be a chance for preschoolers to visit our school, play with current Kindergarten students in the playground and begin familiarising themselves with ‘Big School’.

Kindergarten

Our Kindergarten students have enjoyed learning facts about insects, bugs and all things creepy crawly this past fortnight. We have been learning the difference between fact and fiction and discovered that some books have a bit of both in them, such as Eric Carle’s ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. We will continue this next week and take part in a ‘Bug Hunt’ in our playground, and are hoping to discover and uncover small animals in all sorts of different locations. We are building our reading and writing skills and are looking to make our own ‘Big Book of Bugs’ to share in the Library.

In Mathematics, students in Kindergarten have been counting, counting and counting. We are identifying patterns in our counting and discovering ways we can help to keep track our counting as we reach bigger and bigger numbers. We have also been focusing on ‘equivalence’ and are learning that there are so many ways that numbers and things can be equivalent, such as 6 can be made from 5 and 1, 4 and 2, 6 and 0, 3 and 3, etc.

In Science, we are exploring living things. As part of this, we have been growing beans and there has been great excitement watching the seeds germinate and grow so quickly! Hopefully we’ll be eating beans before too long.

Year 3/4

Mathematics Update – Maths Explorer

This term, our Stage 2 students have begun an exciting new initiative called Maths Explorer. The program is designed to build confidence, curiosity and strong problem-solving skills in mathematics.

During Maths Explorer sessions, students tackle rich problems that encourage deep thinking, clear explanations and the use of a range of strategies, such as drawing diagrams and working backwards. The focus is not just on finding the correct answer, but on understanding the process — how to approach a problem, justify thinking and respond to feedback.

Maths Explorer also develops important learning dispositions, including persistence, flexibility and collaboration.

We are already noticing students growing in confidence as mathematicians, taking risks and sharing their ideas with others.

We are looking forward to completing the first of four Maths Explorer contest papers this week.

PBL Update – Following Instructions First Time

In 3/4, we have been working hard on our PBL focus: following instructions the first time — and we’ve been having plenty of fun along the way!

Students have taken part in engaging role plays, acting out both helpful and unhelpful behaviours. There were lots of laughs as we spotted what not to do, and even more pride as students demonstrated what it looks like to follow the instructions straight away.

We’ve also been chatting about how following instructions quickly helps everyone learn more, keeps our classroom running smoothly and shows respect for others. Students have enjoyed reflecting on their own choices and celebrating improvements.

It has been fantastic to see so many students stepping up, staying focused and giving their best effort. We will continue to encourage and celebrate these positive habits as they become part of our everyday learning routine.

Primary

Term 2 has kicked off with plenty of sport and fun activities in the primary building. Our Stage 2 students travelled to Cowra to compete in the Verse Speaking Competition and came away with an impressive 1st place! Congratulations to all Stage 2 students for your dedication and outstanding achievement. A big thank you to Miss Groves and Ms Ewan for all their hard work and support.

We have continued our strong literacy focus this term, embedding solid literacy routines across all primary classes. Each morning begins with Heggerty, targeting phonological awareness and oral language skills. This is followed by explicit spelling and grammar sessions, where students explore new vocabulary and apply it to a range of sentence structures.

Our literacy block also includes daily fluency reads, featuring a weekly text. Students pull apart vocabulary, then assess their own fluency using a rubric, helping them build self-assessment strategies and improve peer feedback.

We are so proud of our literacy routine and even prouder of the growth our students have shown so far this year!

PSSA Knockout Cricket

Our Boys Cricket Team traveled to Bathurst yesterday to take on Bathurst Public School in Round 2 of the PSSA State Cricket Knockout (after having a Bye in Round 1). BCS won the toss and elected to field. Our boys started strong with 3 quick wickets before the Bathurst team settled in to score some good runs. Despite the strong and gusty cross winds, BCS took some more wickets over the full 25 overs, with the innings finishing 7/120. BCS opened the batting well but really settled in the mid-order for some strong batting and finished the game off 5/122.

The game was played in excellent spirits and this was noted by the other team as well. All of our team were part of the action and contributed to the win, and they are to be congratulated as for more than half the team, this was their first cricket match.

BCS now progresses to the next round and will come up against Eglington PS, date and location to be confirmed.

A big shout out to our parents who were able to come along on the day to assist and cheer our players on!

Do It For Dolly

Ruby and Kenzie ‘Do It For Dolly’

On Sunday and Monday, we ran a lemonade stall and also sold pepsi plus a lucky dip stand. We got Zac to help. We sat there and waited for two and a half hours or close to it.

We raised money for Do It for Dolly and made $167.05.

We made signs at the corner of our street. A can was $5, half a cup was $3 and the mini cups were $2. The lucky dip was $1 each dip in. It had bracelet gems, arts, 3D printed items and other bits and pieces.

This is a very important fundraiser and we are proud to have raised some money to help.

Ruby Bloxsome and Kenzie Kariatiana-Halls.