Primary School

Harmony Day: A World of Fun and Learning!

Our Harmony Day House activities were filled with exciting rotations of activities for students from Pre-Primary to Year Six, celebrating cultural diversity and unity! Each group had the chance to participate in a variety of hands-on experiences, bringing the world closer together.

Students got moving with sports from around the globe; creativity flowed as participants made personalised badges designed to represent harmony and inclusion. They also explored traditional weaving techniques and crafted yarning sticks, which are used in many cultures for storytelling, encouraging connection, and sharing of personal stories. Circus skills like juggling added a touch of fun, while craft stations allowed the children to create artistic items inspired by cultures from around the world. It was an unforgettable day of creativity, learning, and celebration!

Year Six da Vinci Decathlon

Well done to our Year Six team, which represented the School at the da Vinci Decathlon on Wednesday. A big thank you to Ms Suzanne Youens for her guidance before and during the trip. GSG came third overall! More to follow next week.

Easter Hat Parade 

Get ready for one of the most exciting events on our school calendar: the Early Childhood Easter Hat Parade! This fun and festive celebration is exclusively for Kindergarten to Year Two students. It is the perfect chance for your child to get creative at home and design a colourful, one-of-a-kind Easter hat. Then, they will have the thrill of showing it off in a lively parade in front of their Early Childhood peers!

This is a fantastic opportunity for parents to join in the fun and work with their child to create the ultimate Easter hat masterpiece. We encourage parents to be hands-on, from the initial design to the final touches.

This year’s parade will take place in Week Ten on Wednesday 9 April. Students will head to the Hall at 8.50am, and the parade will happen shortly after, wrapping up around 9.30am. We would love for parents, family members, and friends to come along and cheer on the students as they strut their stuff in their fabulous Easter hats! It will be an unforgettable experience full of creativity and joy!

Running Club

We are excited to introduce a Year Three to Year Six Running Club for the remainder of Term One to support training for the Interhouse Cross Country competition on the last day of term. Running Club will take place from 3.30pm to 4.30pm on a Monday afternoon and 3.30pm to 4.00pm on a Wednesday afternoon. To sign up for this, please completehere.

Classroom News

We hope you enjoy reading the news from our Primary classes. 

Kindergarten: The Kindergarten children have continued to explore our inquiry, All About Me. Over the past week, we have been learning more about feelings. This week, we read The Colour Monster. In the story, the Colour Monster is all mixed up and learns about his emotions by separating his feelings into different coloured jars. We discussed the various colours and how the Colour Monster felt when he experienced each one. We are learning to identify our own emotions and recognise the feelings of others. As part of this, the children painted their own Colour Monsters while practising pre-writing patterns, such as tall and short lines.

Year One: The Year Ones have been sharing their History of Me boxes this week, with many cute photographs and interesting items to help them show their chronological history from pre-birth to their hopes for the future. Much discussion and collaboration around the past, present, and future has filled the room. The Year Fives even popped by to share the excitement! 

Year Two: This week, we have been completing our speaking and listening assessment by presenting our old and new toys to the class, discussing where they are from and what we like about them, the materials they are made from, and how they show push and pull forces. Although speaking in front of an audience can be intimidating, the students did a fabulous job of speaking clearly and confidently. We also went outside to the playground to investigate the benefits of a pulley system in Science. 

Year Four: The Year Four class has been enjoying Science Week, learning about the western ringtail possum from our expert visitors and learning about other endangered Australian native animals during reading, viewing and Science activities. We have compared the lifecycle of the western ringtail possum with the lifecycle of the numbat, Western Australia’s mammal emblem, and found that they are very similar, although western ringtail possum are arboreal (they spend most of their time in trees) and numbats live on the ground. Last Week, Year Four performed their assembly item – Captain Cook’s Secret Mission with a side of Harmony Day and Simple Machines. It was a wonderful way to showcase our inquiry learning for this term. 

Year Five: With NAPLAN a distant memory, the Year Five students have thoroughly enjoyed Science Week activities with a particular interest in Dr Mitrovski’s talk on native animals. We have also designed native animal traps as part of the week. Our class novel is getting exciting, and we are eager to find out how the relationship between Boone and Little Bull pans out. 

Year Six: The Year Six students are diving into the power of reading with expression and enthusiasm! They are engaging in lively reading fluency pair activities in class, mastering how to read with passion and emphasis. They have then taken all their awesome skills to Kindergarten, where they get to read exciting stories to their little buddies, spreading the joy of reading everywhere!

ECC Briefing 

The following superstars have worked beautifully and received a Star Award for their efforts. 

Kindergarten H: Eddie Mactaggart

Kindergarten M: Oliver Shepherd

Pre-Primary: Noah Derrick

Year One: Freya Standish

Year Two: Maria Grosshans 

The following students have stood out for their ability to show courage. 

Kindergarten H: Madison Edwards

Kindergarten M: Amber Gill

Pre-Primary: Rosie Pearce

Year One: Ralph Bennett

Year Two: Tawana Paradza

Upcoming events

Week Nine

Thursday 3 April, School Photos, Multi-Purpose Sport Complex, 7.30am to 3.30pm

Thursday 3 April, Primary School Parent Teacher Interviews 

Friday 4 April, School Photos, Multi-Purpose Sport Complex, 7.30 am to 3.30pm

Sunday 6 April, P&F Afternoon Tea on the Knoll, 2.00pm to 5.00pm

Week Ten

Monday 7 April, Easter Service, Multi-Purpose Sport Complex, 10.15am

Wednesday 9 April, Kindergarten to Year Two Easter Hat Parade, in the hall, 8.50am to 9.30am

Thursday 10 April, Year Three to Year Six Primary Interschool Swimming Carnival, ALAC 9.00am to 2.30pm

Thursday 10 April, School Community Tree Planting and Sausage Sizzle at the Boarding House, 3:30pm

Friday 11 April, Whole School Interhouse Cross Country Carnival, 9:30am to 1.00pm

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms Leah Field | Head of Primary and

Mrs Hayley Ranger | Head of Early Childhood

Backyard Possum Encounter and Science Week

Primary and ECC students have been learning much about possums during Science Week, even going on Spotlight walks at Mt Clarence and Whale World. On Tuesday evening, we saw a Boobook owl, micro bats, three ringtail possums, one brushtail possum, and many large orb spiders. 

It was magical to see the lights of Albany at night and enter the world of the possum! Students proved adept at spotting with their torches. 

There are only a few days left to submit stories about ringtail possums. We have had some wonderful ones submitted, and they will be very significant in shaping our puppet play. 

We look forward to receiving your stories.

Ms Rachel Mordy | Head of the Arts