Primary School News

Founders' Day

During the Olympics there are always inspirational stories that capture the world’s attention. I am reminded that the privilege and joy of working with young people in our school is that we get to see these inspirational and uplifting stories, albeit on a different scale, quite often. From gestures of kindness, to taking action to make our school and wider community a better place, there are often times we see the best of our young people. Founders' Day, swimming lessons, Anglicare Sleepout, Chapel Services, Speakers’ Challenge, Clubs and our day to day teaching and learning programme all afford students the opportunity to grow, develop and demonstrate their best. The Wrap this fortnight will recap some highlights.

Next Friday we have our annual Book Week celebrations. Here at JWACS we love to dress up and share the joy that books have brought us over the years. For more details, please refer to communication from Mr Teape in your SEQTA messages.

I look forward to seeing many parents and friends at the Quiz Night on Saturday!

Take care.

Tracey Rogers

Head of Primary

Reminder - Nut Minimisation

At JWACS we have many students who are allergic to nuts (including anaphylaxis). It is important that our community works together to minimise the risk in our environment. Our Nut Minimisation Policy, available on the School website, helps by outlining the strategies parents, guardians and students can take to minimise the risk.

These include:

Do not send nuts or peanuts to school.
Do not send foods containing nuts or peanuts to school. Peanut butter, hazelnut spread (Nutella), muesli bars, chocolate bars and biscuits containing nuts all add to the risk.
No nut oils.
Avoid nuts and peanuts in birthday cakes and treats that may be brought to school.
Encourage thorough washing of hands and face if children have eaten these foods before coming to school.
Provide drink containers and lunch boxes which are clearly labelled with the name of the child for whom they are intended.
Discourage any trading or sharing of food.
Continue vigilance when there is a change from usual routines including events such as excursions, family picnic days at school and sports carnivals.

Your ongoing support with implementing these strategies is appreciated.

Founders' Day

Founders' Day

The day started with the Founders’ Day Service. It was so fun when Chaplain Justine had the primary sing together. After a few prayers, blessings and acknowledgements the Service was over, and the classes hurried outside not knowing who would win the Wollaston Dash.

Beep! The most exciting race of the year began. Ramsden was winning! Nooooo. The crowd was cheering as loud as possible. It was all a blur as the racers ran as fast as they could. Then suddenly they went around the back of the gym. They were gone. Hale was in the lead with Charter right behind them! It was so nerve wracking to see who would win. Then out of the blue came Scott, who took the lead zooming down the hill! Yaaaayy! Ramsden was catching up, but Scott went speeding across the finish line taking first place! It was Scott’s fourth win in a row.

The market stalls and House Games were so fun getting to do activities, hang out with friends and eating yummy snacks. It was an amazing day!

Chloe McDavitt and Jaiden Jayaraj

Year 6 Students

Year 5/6 Speakers Challenge

On Thursday 8 August the School's Year 5/6 Speaker’s Challenge final was held in the Chapel. Speaker’s Challenge is where you can express your interest or passion in a speech that can be entertaining, persuading, or informative. There were 12 finalists with the top 2 speakers from each class.

“This was a fun experience for us all,” said Jorden. “Everyone was nervous,” stated Tao.

All the next contestants gave us funny and entertaining speeches about friends, animals, space, recycling, Japan, Super Mario Kart, TV shows and more.

Haddie reported that before she spoke, “I started to feel the pressure and the weight in my tummy. When I was up on the stage, I just went for it”.

Mr Teape and Mrs Zecca judged. The judges said choosing a Top 3 was a close call. Keira Dunn came 3rd with a speech about being a shopaholic. Erlyn Dube came 2nd with her speech about being proactive and Violet Blanchard came 1st with her technical speech about orcas. The Top 2 present their speech at the IPSHA Speaker’s Challenge at St Mary’s Anglican School on Thursday 5 September.

We all agreed that we did amazing!

Jorden Thomas, Haddie Bell and Tao Pavlinovich

Years 5 and 6 Students

Year 5/6 Speakers Challenge

Year 3/4 Speakers Challenge

Last Tuesday Kaliah Squillace and I participated in the Year 3/4 IPSHA Speakers Challenge for 2024 at Wesley College.

Both of our families drove us to Wesley College and we had to find the Year 3-4 rooms. We were all put in different rooms to do our speeches. I wasn’t in the same room as Kaliah. Altogether there were 8 speeches. I was 5th and this made me so nervous. My favourite speech was on the black cockatoos. My speech was on Dr Masuro Emoto, who found out that saying kind words can change the structure of water. Kaliah’s speech was on Cheer. Mrs Rogers, Mr Teape and Mrs Zecca came to watch us with our families.

Afterwards we had a light supper in an auditorium where there was nice music playing and I had some sushi and cookies. Then they announced who got into the final round. Kaliah and I got a bronze medal. I’m happy for the child who won and next year I’m going to try my best to win next year. I’d love to go again!

Dhilan Abeyratne

Year 4 Student

Year 5: Sharing the Planet Unit of Inquiry

The Year 5s have completed their Unit of Inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme Sharing the Planet. They investigated case studies of various conflicts, such as the Pinjarra Massacre, the Gaza-Israel conflict and the Stolen Generation, as well as personal conflicts that can occur between friends. Throughout the unit, students collated a concept bank of big ideas that each case study has in common. To wrap up the unit, students were involved in a generalising process where they articulate their understanding of the connection between different concepts.

First, students worked in collaborative teams to sort the concepts from broad to specific ideas. Then, they drew lines to identify connections between the ideas.

The final step is to write sentences to articulate their understanding of the concepts studied during the unit. Some of their generalisations include:

We should respect each other’s perspectives because of the judgements people make which can lead to people thinking about different things. (Yash, Alan, Declan, Skylar)

Conflict can be caused by misunderstanding when people have different perspectives. (Anwen, Ronith, Drew, Gursirat)

Conflict can be avoided by being respectful and using your power to help others. (Ella, Will T, Devansh, Isabelle)

It’s most people’s responsibility to show empathy, fairness and respect to other people’s opinions. (Will C, Jania, Hope, Jaswin)

Kate Hewson

Year 5 Teacher