Primary School

What a fun week of athletics and resilience workshops! We hope you enjoy reading about what our classes have been up to this week.  

Djinda 

It was so wonderful to watch the Djindas stride back in after the break; the teaching staff were teary reflecting upon each child's incredible growth this year. Every child has developed greater connections and formed strong bonds with peers, and become more outwardly confident in themselves and as part of the Djinda community. They know what they like; they can communicate using BIG sentences and are curious, asking wondrous questions about the world around us. This week the Djinda children reminded us that the joy of education is the child. When doing magic painting with Mrs Le Roux the delightful comments that organically came out in the moment brought magic to the whole room. 

Kindergarten

We had a very exciting week. We started the week learning about the letter 'Oo' and made an 'old orange octopus'. We enjoyed learning our new Talk for Writing story, Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle. It has fun actions! On Tuesday, we had a visit from the Police! Sergeant Clifford sure is a funny guy. That was certainly a highlight of the year! We learnt so much about their special job. We also had our very first school Athletics Carnival. We loved participating in the events, trying our best and having fun with our friends! It certainly was a fun-filled week!

Pre-Primary

Our Pre-Primary students participated in the Athletics Carnival, and what an exciting day it was! We are incredibly proud of every child for the wonderful enthusiasm, participation and determination they showed throughout the day. Whether they were running races, cheering on their friends or taking part in team activities, each student gave their best effort and embraced the spirit of the carnival. After the event, we reflected on our experiences through writing and shared our favourite parts of the day. The students had many different highlights, with responses ranging from the excitement of the tug-of-war to the sense of achievement they felt when reaching the finish line in their races. It was wonderful to hear about the moments that made the day so special for them. Back in the classroom, Pre-Primary B has been busy developing our literacy skills. We have been exploring the key elements of stories, including characters, setting and plot, helping us to better understand and discuss the books we read together. We have also begun learning to write CVCC and CCVC words and are enjoying the challenge of stretching out sounds and building longer words independently.

Year One 

This week is National Water Week and the theme this year is Water Heroes: Make Every Drop Count.

The children started their water inquiry by naming all the uses of water they could think of. Their answers were amazing, ranging from drinking and washing our hands to rehydrating our bodies and building machines and dams. The class then went on a walk around the school to see if they could find any sources of water. They found so many natural and man-made sources, noticing water hydrants, toilets, a fish tank and the garden reticulation system!

The Water Corporation of WA has lent us some of its resources, and the water cycle has been explored this week.

Year Two 

This week we were extremely excited to find a new arrival of caterpillars in our classrooms. We watched with intrigue as they munched away hungrily on the milkweed leaves. We learnt the difference between a cocoon and a chrysalis and learnt about metamorphosis! We were so lucky to see a caterpillar complete this change on their first day in the classroom. It happened quite quickly and was amazing to watch. It is funny to think that these things happen around us in nature all the time and we are not even aware of it! We look forward to keeping our eyes on these over the next few weeks to see other changes that occur. 

We have begun learning about money in Mathematics and were surprised to see the number of different ways you can make $1. We are getting pretty good at counting small amounts of money and have enjoyed using our already-learnt skip-counting skills in 2s, 5s and 10s to assist with this. We enjoyed our visit to the Wild Space, where we showed how to express division using natural materials and identified living and non-living things in the environment. 

Year Three 

The class has started Term Four strongly, with students demonstrating enthusiasm, resilience and a positive attitude towards their learning.

In Science, we have been busy investigating and observing a range of materials changing state and reflecting on the physical and chemical changes that occur. Students have enjoyed engaging in hands-on experiments, making observations and discussing how different substances respond to changes in temperature and other conditions. It has been wonderful to see their curiosity and scientific thinking develop as they explore these concepts.

Our students have also embraced the opportunity to develop as athletes through their participation in the Athletics Carnival. Across a range of events, students demonstrated perseverance, sportsmanship and enthusiasm. It was particularly pleasing to see them encourage one another, celebrate each other's achievements and show a growth mindset when faced with new or challenging events.

Year Four

Students have been working hard in the lead-up to our upcoming camp! They have been monitoring the growth and progress of their plants, making observations and reflecting on the needs of living things.

In English, we have continued to develop our information reports, with a particular focus on incorporating technical vocabulary and descriptive language to communicate information clearly and effectively.

The students were also absolute superstars at the Athletics Carnival. They approached each event with enthusiasm, gave their best effort and consistently encouraged and supported their classmates. Their positive attitudes, teamwork and sportsmanship were wonderful to see and we are incredibly proud of the way they represented their Houses throughout the day.

Year Five 

As part of our Economics unit, we have been looking at persuasive devices and brand marketing. In the same way many an adult has stood at a tasting bar, swirled wine around a glass, swilled it back and forth, and inhaled its aroma with suspiciously closed eyes before announcing they knew nothing about sauvignon blanc, our students did something similar.

Each was given two widely known brands of soft drink and one home-brand product. There was an element of science as students blind taste-tested each product and rated their preference. Interestingly enough, several students' palates were spot on, ranking all products against their respective brands based on taste alone.

The learning is that we often have an association with a brand, both visually and through taste. Much of this is driven by effective marketing, which reinforces a reputation.

We will continue to look at other angles used in commerce over the next couple of weeks as we learn to craft our market stalls for Week Six.

Year Six 

This week has been a rather busy one, with a two-day Athletics Carnival in the middle of the week and Valedictory tomorrow. This did not distract us, however, and we have been working on chance and data using bottle flips, tessellations, and area and perimeter.

We have also enjoyed reading Wonder, our class novel.

On Monday, we joined Year Five for the Zero to Hero Resilience workshop in the Hall.

Primary School Briefing

Congratulations to our students who have shown the School value of Respect this week. 

Year Three: Alexandra Schaefer

Year Four: Callum Jeffery and Pippa Hancock

Year Five: Aila Michael and Evie Ford

Year Six: Edward Yeboah and Charlotte Owenell

Ten-Minute Tables

Well done to our new 120 Club members: Noah McPhee, Agya Yeboah and Billy Sapstead

Have a wonderful weekend.  

Ms Leah Field | Head of Primary and

Mrs Hayley Ranger | Head of Early Childhood