5/6 News

It’s no surprise that we’re saying this again, but the past fortnight at TPS has been nothing short of action-packed again! As we say all the time, our students are incredibly fortunate when it comes to extra-curricular opportunities. Alongside all the wonderful highlights they’ve written about below, we also celebrated Book Week 2025 with our much-loved annual parade and a week full of library activities. To top it off, our students represented TPS with great pride and enthusiasm at the Waranga Athletics.

Now, you may be wondering: How do we manage to fit all of this in alongside the curriculum? The answer is simple! We weave learning into everything we do. Book Week texts become our reading focus, Maths comes alive when we add a dash of Science, and Inquiry becomes even more exciting with hands-on experiments. Before you know it—curriculum covered, curiosity sparked, and lots of learning (and laughter) along the way!

Boys To The Boys

On Tuesday, Spencer, Lachie, Lucas, Jed, Aiden, Chase, Alby, Nugget, Spencer W and I went to the Gunbower Cod Farm. We caught heaps of fat Murray Cod. We then sorted them so they could be sold and shipped off. After that we had lunch with snags and burgers. We went back to fishing and then left. On the way back Ben the leader of the group asked us questions and we got them right so he bought us all a slushie. We finished off by going to the park at Echuca East.

Written by Ollie C

On Tuesday the 19th of August, our group of the 5/6 boys went to their final Boys to the Bush. We got picked up at 9 o’clock to have the best day ever! First we went to the park that is down the street in the Port area of Echuca. There we got to kick the footy and after half an hour we hopped on a paddle steamer. It was so cool to see the scenery and river from the boat. Our cruise went for one hour. After that was over, we went to Rich River Golf Club to have lunch. It was so delicious, (I need to go back there), and when we were finished we were all so full we could barely move. Then we went to Gravity Shack, we were excited and felt good, not as full, and we were ready to play!

Written by Lachie B and Jed B

Science Week - Ky-P12 visit

On Monday the 11th of August, all of the 5/6s went to Ky-P12. When we got there we walked to the science room and sat down. KJ gave us a quick chat about what will happen and then we met Mr A who was our teacher for the session. We learnt about light and circuits and the electrical system. Then we had a play with the power boxes and wires for about 15 minutes. When we were done we did a word search, then we said goodbye. We put our stuff away and got a pack of lollies. We walked back to the bus and headed back to school.

Written by Cailey P

Somers Camp

Nine of our Grade 5/6 students were lucky and brave enough to go on the nine day Somers Camp with many other students from other schools all around our region. They showed resilience to try new activities, to build new friendships and be guided by new teachers, and be away from their families for a substantial amount of time. Below we have included a mix of their memories from this great experience.

I woke up too excited to be tired. I was super pumped that I decided to get up out of bed to get ready for my last breakfast at the farm. When I left home I knew that somedays I would feel terribly homesick. When I arrived at Girgarre, all of the Tonny kids started to arrive with me followed by the Girgarre kids. We waited for about 30+ minutes before the bus finally arrived and on the bus I sat next to Tippi.

By Lana R

The nocturnal feeding was one of my favourite activities because we walked around in a group, in the dark until we got to the barn. In the barn were massive enclosures with bandicoots, sugar gliders and a male ring-tailed possum named Gumnuts. We then walked up a flight of stairs and through two gates onto a stable platform. When we got in we were told to stay quiet. ED our instructor gave us some corn so we were able to put corn on the branches of beautiful green trees. Towards the end of the nocturnal feeding session, I was able to pat a sugar glider on her head and she put her ears down. How adorable!

By Scarlett R

The activities were the best. I mean, like I could stay there forever to do the activities but by far my favourites were the boating, giant swing and nocturnal feeding. The boating was fun and I could use both oars. It was one of the activities I was horrified of and to make it worse there were EELS, but I pushed through ( they were not electric eels thank god).

OMG! I can’t say how much I loved giant swing. I even got to do it TWICE because I got a GOLDEN TICKET which let you pick any activity to do again. The giant swing was 18 metres tall and I went all the way both times! It felt like I could fly and you could see the ocean which was spectacular! And finally it was nocturnal activity where we saw a sugar glider, some bandicoots and ring tailed possum but my favourite was the sugar glider because THEY'RE JUST SO CUTE! One of the fat sugar gliders ate my corn and came straight at me and I saw its tenderness and adorable face.

By Anika H

Biking was my absolutely favourite activity. It was so much fun. We first started off by getting our bikes and helmets before going through the rules, like do not overtake, no

no handers or wheelies and then we set of to the pump track. It was such and amazing experience.

The camp felt really good but the biggest challenge was not seeing my parents or friends for such a long amount of time but the new friends I made, made me a part of them which put a spark in me and made me think, “Hey, I can do this. I've got my friends by my side,” and what made it even better, I got to see my parents on Sunday and show them around the camp.

By Luca H

Girls Empowered

Today was our first Girls Empowered session with Mrs.Pearce, it was a shorter session than normal. We started by making our own mood board of what we want to achieve in life. We then watched a few videos giving us tips and strategies on how to deal with different situations of being bullied.

We made bracelets - we had to include words that empowered us and reminded us to be kind. Then we had morning tea, that was from the bakery. We look forward to our self defence class next week.

Written by Hanna, Flo and Ava

Girls Soccer Swan Hill

On Tuesday the girls soccer team went to Swan Hill to compete in the Regionals. Our first game we played against one of the best teams in Bendigo, we lost 3-0. Our next game was against Castlemaine, we played a great defensive game and kept them scoreless in the last half, we also lost this game only by 1 point. We fueled up in the break with food from the canteen and got our energy up ready to take on Swan Hill. We had an awesome win, we won 5-0.

On the way home Mrs.Pridham and Brayden took us to Maccas, we got a McFlurry, thanks to Mr Hogan, and then headed home. We got home at 4.30. Thank you Mrs P for driving us, Brayden and John for coaching us and to our parents who came to support us.

Written by Hanna, Flo and Ava

Hands on Learning

Today at Hands on Learning, Ollie didn't show up so Spencer took his place. Once we got down there we thought we were done with sanding the filler but turns out Josh didn't have enough time to do it so it was our job. We also tried to fix the whipper snipper by finding out where a weird noise was coming from. We put all the bits and pieces back on and figured out that the noise was coming from the shaft. We ended up having a spare bolt left and couldn’t figure out where it came from. We then ended up having to sand the filler for a while. Lucas and I were cooking chicken drumsticks and chicken wings to marinade with smokey BBQ sauce and olive oil. Lucas and I first cooked the drum sticks on the barbie and then put them in a pot after coating them in the marinade. We then put the wings in a pot and put some sauce on them. We ate, had a little chat, packed up then thanked Josh and Brett for an amazing day.

On Thursday the 21st of August, Brett's Hands-On Learning group got to work quickly fixing up all of the plant protectors we put in last week and then moved heaps of mulch. For lunch we cooked chicken drumsticks for lunch and called them lollipops. We also had chicken wings. Lunch was yummo! Something that was hard was moving the mulch again. Something that was easy was watering the plants. We had an awesome day down in the garden. A big thanks to Brett.

Upcoming events

3rd September - House Athletics Sports

5th September - Father's Day afternoon from 2pm

- Father's Day Stall

19th September - Footy Colours Day

- Hot Dog Day

- End of Term 3- Finish at 1:30

Smurfs Movie