PRIMARY (F-6)

School Leaders Report - Kara

Happy Campers!

The feedback from the Year 3/4 camp in Alexandra was “great!” “loved it!” and that was just Lauren! Although feeling the cold at times, there were many wonderful stories told about experiences, overcoming challenges, the collaboration and teamwork and the overall good fun that was had while in Alexandra.

I would like to thank Amy for all her hard work, time and attention to detail in planning and organising the trip for our Year 3/4 children as well as Jacqui, Darren, Jackson, Stacey and Lauren for their participation and support while away. I’m sure there were some tired bodies on Wednesday night.

School Hours

A little bit like a broken record, I remind all families again to please be mindful of staff’s preparation time and work hours. They all work hard to be the best they can be, often arriving at school early to get everything planned, discussed, organised and sorted. Children should not be arriving at the college prior to 8:30am. The one exemption are the few children on the early school bus - who’s arrival time is out of their control. 

We are ready to begin the school day with yard duty staff clocking on at 8:30am.

Thank you for being mindful of our college staff and respecting our work hours.

General News

The Primary School students gathered for assembly this morning where there was plenty of news to share.

As always, the assembly was very professionally run by a selection of Year 6 students – well done students!

This week’s value to be highlighted was ‘Helping Others Succeed’ and Grade 1 student Xavier providing a great example of how he demonstrates this value: by using encouraging words to his peers and using good sportsmanship when playing down ball as well as being inclusive to make sure everyone has fun. 

The Social Justice Team also provided an update, encouraging students to take part in their drawing competition (students will receive entry forms from their teachers).

Class Reports

Foundation

Foundations have begun making their inquiry projects for Term 2! We have been learning all about the process different products go through before we buy or consume them.

The Foundations picked their favourite topic they learnt about this Term and what kind of project they wanted to make to present their learning. Most students chose to create a diorama to display the process of their chosen topic. 

First students have designed a plan, and this week have started creating their project.

Parents/carers are invited to join us for our upcoming Inquiry expo:

Last week FNG learnt about the process wheat goes through before it is turned into flour. We learnt about the harvesting process and discussed all of the different things we can make and cook that involve flour. To conclude our learning we made pizza together knowing that pizza doughs main ingredient is flour, which comes from wheat!

Year 1 and 2

Religious Education

In Week 8 the Year 1/2 children visited St Mel's Church, where Fr Ruel spoke to them about the sacrament of Baptism. 

Fr Ruel explained what each symbol represented and answered many questions posed by the children. 

Year 2

Inquiry

This week, students continued exploring their Inquiry topic, How We Express Ourselves, with a special focus on music and dance as powerful forms of expression. They listened to a variety of music pieces designed to evoke different emotions such as happiness, sadness, excitement, relaxation, and a sense of being frightened, and connected these feelings to their own personal experiences. Students also explored how energy and movement can be used in dance to express ideas, culminating in a creative movement activity where they each performed a gesture to convey the meaning of their favourite food.

Literacy

As part of our literacy program, we have been learning about noun groups and transferring our understanding into story writing. Our spelling focus has included ou as in house, ow as in cow, and the ch sound as in chemist. We have also explored the comprehension strategy of asking questions before, during, and after reading to help deepen our understanding of texts.

Maths

We have recently completed a unit on informal measurement in maths and have been working on assessment tasks, while also revisiting areas that require further teaching and support.

Year 3/4

Alexandra Adventure Camp

Our Year 3/4 students had an incredible time at Alexandra Adventure Camp, where they spent two nights building friendships, confidence, and resilience. Highlights of the camp included exciting activities such as the giant swing, rock climbing, and the flying fox—each one pushing students to challenge themselves and have fun in the great outdoors!

Nora Bellette - Rock climbing was really hard, I had to use lots of muscles to pull myself up. On the rock climbing wall, I managed to get half way up. 

Japnaz Sandhu - On the giant swing, I could choose where I wanted to be dropped from. I chose from the top, it was really scary and I got butterflies. The lady gives you a surprise so you do not know when you will be dropped. I would go on it again. 

Jude Quinn - I like camp even though I was a bit nervous as it was my first time away from my mum and dad. My favourite activity was archery because I got a bullseye twice. The food was really good too. Having pancakes and hash browns for breakfast was a big treat. 

Religious Education

Children explored the sacrament of Baptism through a Godly Play session, where they listened respectfully and reflected on the key symbols and meaning of the sacrament. They then used a variety of materials—such as fabric, figurines, blocks, and natural elements—to create their own interpretations of Baptism. These creations demonstrated their understanding of Baptism as a celebration of belonging, new life, and being welcomed into God’s family.

Year 5

Inquiry with Year 6

Each week on Wednesday and Thursday, we have joined the Year 6’s, Ryleigh, Ivy and Connor to collaborate on our Inquiry. This term we have had a chemical science focus.

The last few weeks we have looked at and explored experiments, focusing on Scientific Investigations. We have looked at the purpose of experiments, as well as making valid detailed predictions, and being able to explain results using our noticings and prior knowledge.

This week we have put the learning from previous weeks into practice. The ‘Coke and Mentos’ experiment was demonstrated by Ryleigh, Ivy and Connor last week. In small groups students have the task of adjusting the experiment to improve the result - a higher ‘foam’ reaction. The challenge is higher than 45cm!

Students today have collaborated; discussing ideas, making plans, drawing diagrams, and testing parts of their experiment to ensure they are on task to beat the teachers!

Year 6

Lions Club Public Speaking Competition

Is technology moving too fast for humankind? That is the topic our Year 6 students spoke to when they took part in the Lions Club Public Speaking Competition this week. Five brave Year 6 students took to the stage to present their arguments – each receiving a 5/5 from the judges on how well-researched their presentations were.

A big congratulations to Charlotte, Jemma, Heli, Lara and Eleina for demonstrating incredible confidence and representing St Anne’s College is such a fantastic way.

We are very excited for the competition winner Charlotte as well as runners-up Jemma and Heli! 

A huge thank you to the Lions Club for giving the students this opportunity as well as your generosity for allowing our students to take home some free books and enjoy some sandwiches, party pies and sausage rolls.

Student Achievement

Charlotte has been busily kicking goals, also being awarded a special achievement at her Girl Guides. She was recently awarded her Junior Baden Powell award which is the peak award for her age group of Girl Guides. Well done Charlotte!

Mathematics - Probability

During the Year 6 maths topic of probability, we have been learning to describe and estimate probabilities on a numerical scale as well as applying them to real life situations. We have also been using our new ‘Maths worksheet textbook’ to get hands on and look at theoretical and relative probability of rolling a die and tallying results. 

Tech Support Team

Hello everyone! Tech Club is back and we’re excited to announce that all students from Year 1 to Year 6 can join us. We meet on Tuesdays during recess and lunch depending on your year level to explore coding with Scratch, create digital art and make animations. It's a great chance to develop your creativity and learn new tech skills. Every few weeks, we play a Kahoot about what we have been learning about tech. It will be a fun game where you can win and earn yourself some free time while practicing technology skills! You can also program robots like Ozobots and Dash. It’s amazing to see your code come to life as the robots move and follow your instructions.

By Ekamjot Singh and Jack Stammers

Peer Support Team

Throughout this semester, the Peer Support Group has been organising buddy sessions. We have buddy sessions each fortnight and during this time the peer support team work hard to make fun and productive sessions for both our Foundations and Year 6s.

We also helped set up and pack up the enrolment discovery play for the kindergarten kids. There were things that the younger kids could play with and discover, like water play, slime, oobleck painting, an obstacle course and a few other things too. We also helped with a few smaller jobs while the kindergarten kids discovered what was set up. 

This week it was our turn to help out with running the primary assembly. 

By Josie Lelliott and Sydney Almond

Social Justice Team

Recently the Year 6 Social Justice Team has been gathering ideas to fundraise and raise  awareness about the problems happening around the world. Raising awareness has been our main focus this term and we have been brainstorming ideas that could help show our younger students the positive results of raising awareness about social justice issues. We have been pondering what to do and together we decided to make a drawing competition which is open now and closes on the 8th of August. There will be three age groups that will compete against people in the same group. There are prizes to be won that have been proudly donated to us from Collin’s bookstore. They will present the books to the winners of each year level groups with a certificate at the Week 6 assembly next term. Each winner would be fairly judged by the Year 6 Social Justice Team. The Social Justice Team has also been looking at different ideas and fundraisers for the future. We will keep you updated. 

By Henry

Reminders:

We remind all that the college opens at 8:30am. This enables educators time to prepare for their day ahead. We appreciate your support in helping our educators be successful. Yard duty staff begin at 8:30am to monitor play spaces before the school day begins at 8:55am.

Upcoming Dates

Please refer to the calendar on PAM for upcoming dates for activities and events.