Primary School

Foundation Day Celebrations: 27 Years of Pride and Passion 

Last Friday, our school community came together to celebrate a significant milestone—our school’s 27th birthday. It was a day filled with joy, reflection and unity as students, staff and families honoured the history and spirit of our school. 

The festivities began when a ceremonial tree was planted—symbolising growth, sustainability and our commitment to the future. It was a meaningful moment that connected past achievements with the promise of what lies ahead. 

During the whole-school assembly, the voices of students were shared with heartfelt reflections that spoke of pride, passion and love for our school. Their speeches reminded us of the deep sense of belonging we feel within these grounds, and the positive impact our school continues to make in the lives of so many. 

Of course, no birthday is complete without cake! Students and staff gathered to enjoy slices of a beautifully decorated cake, marking the occasion with a sweet celebration. 

The day concluded with the beloved tradition of the Running of the Flags. As the flags waved proudly in the wind, they represented our unity, shared values and enduring school spirit. Here's to 27 years—and many more to come! 

National Walk Safely to School Day 

Yesterday, over 100 students and families enjoyed a Walk to School Day along Oyster Harbour ending with a well-earned muffin and Milo. This was part of National Boarding Week as well as the 26th National Walk Safely to School Day (Friday 16 May). We walked a little earlier to include our Kindergarten students. We encourage you to enjoy the beautiful walk as often as possible, even parking at the Fish Traps and enjoying the footpath into school on foot or by bike.  

National Boarding Week 

On Tuesday, the whole school dressed up in the theme of Australian Outback/ Farmer for Boarding Week. National Boarding Week celebrates the unique experiences, diversity and community spirit of boarding school life. It’s a time to recognise the resilience, independence and friendships that students develop while living away from home. All proceeds were donated to The Darcy Effect.

Years Five and Six Orienteering Carnival  

The 2025 Primary School Orienteering Carnival, organised by our friends at the ADHOC Orienteering Club, could not have been held on a more idyllic day. Our team of eager, map-guided runners spent the morning in tight competition with other schools from across the Great Southern region, sprinting from marker to marker around the Centennial Oval sporting precinct. Individually, our highest-ranked runner was Fraser Lester, who came in second place among the Year Five boys. Combined with a strong Four-Five-Six finish from Appin Rivers, Sophie Mitrovski and Laily Wrobel, our Year Five combined team came first among all schools. In the Year Six competition, we had top ten finishes from Lachlan McGill and Finn Michael, helping us to a podium finish in that grade and a third-place finish overall for the day. 

Classroom News 

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

Kindergarten 

This week, our Kindergarten classes have begun an exciting inquiry into farming, guided by the big question: Where does our food come from, and how do farms help us grow it? As part of the “Tuning In” phase of the inquiry cycle, we’ve begun exploring the concept of farming and where food comes from using our Talk for Writing text of The Little Red Hen to guide us. The children shared their ideas through discussion and drawing pictures of their favourite characters, how they provide food and what else may be grown on farms. We sparked further curiosity by looking at images and videos of different types of farms. 

Pre-Primary 

Last week we loved having our special mums and grandmas visit our classroom. We made bracelets and decorated pots and photo frames. Our special visitors even got to sit on the throne and wear a tiara! This week, we have begun our inquiry into places that are special to us. We looked at a globe and a map of the world. We located Australia and some of the countries we have visited.  

Year One 

The Year Ones loved having their mums in for the Mother’s Day morning and they enjoyed making rings, bracelets and tiaras together. The Year Ones started their inquiry unit with a brainstorm on the question ‘What is a park?’ The discussion that evolved was amazing, with the children building on each other’s ideas and prompting them to create their own questions about the features and purposes of parks (and playgrounds). The class also enjoyed visiting the Wild Space to search for hidden gumnuts, the hook for our new Talk for Writing text The Gumleaf Thief. 

Year Two 

The Year Two class thoroughly enjoyed making lava lamps with their mums on Mother’s Day morning and have been looking at the science behind them this week in class. We have also begun to dive into our HASS subject by looking at the states and territories of Australia. In Mathematics, we have been looking at the mental strategies we can use to make subtraction simpler. We loved our visit to the Wild Space last Friday where we read a chapter of our class novel and answered some questions about the text in the beautiful sunshine.  

Year Three 

This week, the Year Threes got into the spirit of Boarders Week with some sensational farmer costumes, the most impressive collection of cowboy hats in the school, and an epic duel of facial hair. Mr Hardey’s standard beard lost out to Master Prasad’s epic moustache. Our poetry has been developing as we have added rhyme to our growing arsenal of poetic devices. The class-developed poem about snakes from the perspective of the frogs was particularly exciting. We have further explored climate and its impact on cultures, with a particular focus on how the availability of ingredients impacts regional cuisines. We went gaga for gulab jamun. And in slightly older news, we had a lot of fun putting our own spin on our language-based Mother's Day artworks. 

Year Four 

In Science, the Year Four class is learning about how living things depend on each other and their environment to survive, including finding out about food chains and food webs. They are building upon their mental Mathematics subtraction strategies and revising their skills in doing multiplication using the area model. They are also really enjoying the fantasy novel Rowan of Rin! Everyone is wondering what will happen next! In Technologies we are learning the difference between food and fibres and we these are grown. We loved visiting Ms Thomas down at the market garden and bringing back some home-grown vegetables. Watch this space as we become master paddock to plate chefs.  

Year Five 

Over the last couple of weeks Year Five F has participated in two Science experiments on the properties of liquids and how they are affected by temperature change. They have written up both experiments, and tabulated and graphed their results. Students were able to make clear hypotheses and reflect on the success of their experiments. 

We also managed to get out to the Wild Space where we did some mental Mathematics and a mindfulness activity where the students sat present with their senses for five minutes. They were all able to notice and communicate the variety of sights, sounds, scents and feelings around them. Some even went as far as imagining the taste of the environment around them. 

In inquiry, we have been looking at how plastics are being overused in our world today. We watched a short clip from the documentary Blue the Film which was released back in 2016 and we were able to see the progress companies have made since banning plastic bags. The students can see that we still have a long way to go, and our Technology question is going to be Can one person make a difference?  

ECC Briefing  

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

Kindergarten H: Kaiyi Wong 

Kindergarten M: Shamiso Paradza 

Pre-Primary: Ermen Carter 

Year One: Harvey Lucas 

Year Two: Phoebe Weatherill 

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

Kindergarten H: Addison Jordan 

Kindergarten M: Oliver Shepherd 

Pre-Primary: Sylvia Lines 

Year One: Freya Standish 

Year Two: Agya Yeboah 

Integrity Awards 

Year Three: Harry Vesey 

Year Four: Ellie Murnane 

Year Five: Sadie Cameron and Juliet Jacobs 

Year Six: William Irving and Matthew MacKinnon 

We awarded an amazing number of PB awards for May Ten Minute Tables and welcomed four more superstars to the 120 club. Well done! 

Upcoming events 

Week Three 

• Friday 16 May, Year Six L Assembly, 8.55am in the Hall, all families welcome 
• Friday 16 May, Mount Barker Regional Roadshow Sundwoner, Galafrey Wines, 5.00pm to 7.00pm  

Week Four 

• Tuesday 20 May, Kindergarten to Year Twelve, Mokare Day Dress up - My Dream Job 
• Wednesday 21 May, Kindergarten to Year Six, National Event Simultaneous Storytime Library, 9.00am to 10.00am 
• Friday 23 May, Tour Afternoon, 2.00pm to 4.00pm for families who are interested in their children attending GSG 
• Friday 23 May, Team Games Practice Pre-Primary to Year Six (House Shirts please) and Year Three to Six Triple, High Jump and Long Jump for the Athletics Carnival. Parents welcome to come and watch.

Week Five 

• Monday 26 May, National Sorry Day 
• Tuesday 27 May to Friday 30 May, Reconciliation Week 
• Thursday 29 May, Pre-Primary to Year Six Grandparents’ Day, 9.00am to 10.30am 
• Friday 30 May, Whole School Interhouse Athletics Carnival at GSG, 9.00am to 3.00pm 

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms Leah Field | Head of Primary and

Mrs Hayley Ranger | Head of Early Childhood