Junior School

Year 1

The Year 1 classroom is always buzzing with curiosity, laughter, and learning! Our class is full of creative thinkers and enthusiastic learners, and it’s been such a joy to watch them grow in confidence and use their God-given gifts each day. 

Recently, the children have enjoyed our hands-on sessions with play-doh and clay, shaping all sorts of amazing creations. Another class favourite has been listening to stories from our cosy “under-the-table” reading spots - little hideaways where imaginations can run wild. We also have many eager bookworms who find it hard to put a book down, which is such a delight to see!

The year is quickly disappearing, but we are enjoying this special season as we come together to rehearse for our upcoming Presentation Evening.

Kerry Snook

Year 1 Teacher

Year 2

Year 2 were superstars as they performed their Superstar dance at our Junior School Assembly last Friday! It was so much fun to see them all smiling and enjoying themselves up on the stage.

To wrap up the year, we've been revising different maths concepts - one of which being multiplication. Students used mini Pokemon figurines to make equal groups and write the related repeated addition and multiplication number sentences.

As we've been exploring technology over time this term, students compared toys then and now to see how technology has made life different or easier. The Year 2s interviewed family members to find out what their favourite leisure activities and toys were, then looked even further into the past at older toys and activities. To conclude the lesson, students made their own cup and ball toy (which provided much entertainment in the afternoon).

We've had some fun this week looking at procedural writing. Students wrote wonderful procedures on how to make a jam sandwich. To test how accurate and detailed their procedures were, I followed some of their steps and ended up with some interesting variations of jam sandwiches!

Alissa Griffin

Year 2 Teacher

Year 3

Year 3 visited The Volcanoes Discovery Centre in Penshurst last week for an excursion to wrap up our unit on rocks and soil. We had a great time and learnt some fantastic things about how volcanoes are formed and the different rocks that we commonly find around Penshurst. We are so grateful for Mr Griffin giving up his time to drive us there on the bus and also to Emma Renouf, Emma Smith, Nadia Toprak and Mrs Wiggett for coming along with us to support us and take care of us.

One of our final experiments during this unit, was to make crystals and some were absolutely fantastic!

Our Year 3 girls had a special night with their Mums this week to spend some time together to talk about the changes that they are starting to experience as they get older. We had a beautiful night with lots of discussion, lots of yummy food and some special treats for the girls.

Ang Hales

Year 3 Teacher

Year 4

This term, our Year 4 students have been deepening their understanding of the water cycle through a series of engaging, hands-on investigations. With the support of Wannon Water, students had the exciting opportunity to test the turbidity levels of water sourced from the Ballinger and Newton farms. This real-world testing helped students see firsthand how particles and sediments affect water quality.

Students then designed and created their own water filters, applying their knowledge of materials and processes. After filtering the samples, they re-tested the turbidity to see how effective their designs were. An important takeaway from this inquiry was that even if water appears “drinkable,” it is not necessarily safe - highlighting the importance of proper water treatment.

To build on their learning, students also measured the chlorine levels in both the farm water samples and our school’s tap water. This provided valuable insight into how water is cleaned and made safe before it reaches our homes.

Christie Stephen

Year 4 Teacher

Year 6

On Wednesday this week, Year 6 left at 7am on the bus to go to Scienceworks. After a 3 hour trip that everyone coped with really well, we arrived to be greeted by our guide. After dropping off our bags, we enjoyed an hours free time exploring all the hands on and fun activities in the Think Ahead and Sports Science rooms. We made skeletons ride bikes,  played a laser harp, designed eco friendly cars, raced Cathy Freeman, tested our reflexes and much much more. We had so much fun.

Next we went to see the Electricity and Light Show. This was the main reason we made this long trip, as we are studying Circuits and Switches in Science at the moment. A lot of us got to volunteer to help with the experiments that taught us about positive and negative charges, static electricity, and how and why pickled Onions and humans are wonderful conductors of electricity. We also saw lightning inside a Faraday cage strike people, planes, cars and trees, and learnt that we all have a Faraday cage in our home. If you want to know where, ask any Year 6 student where it is.

After lunch we had a bit more free time to visit the souvenir shop and investigate the Sports Science area again where we tested how high we could jump, had wheel chair races, messaged the speed we could throw a ball, and rode a hoverboard before we went to our STEM workshop.

This was such a fun activity as we all got to design a rollercoaster using tracks, balls, giant Lego bricks, stools and tunnels. We all meet the first challenge of designing a track that worked five times in a row, with the ball stopping at the end so no one died on our design.  Our second challenge was to design a track that had a minimum of two loops in it. Our third challenge was to see how many loops we could include.

We had such a wonderful day and all really enjoyed ourselves. We arrived back at school safely just after 5pm.

Coral Robertson

Year 6 Teacher