The Anchor

Primary School

Congratulations to Cooper Lucas (Year Six) who has qualified to represent the Western Australia team at the Australian Interschool Equestrian Championships, held in New South Wales at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre from Thursday 25 September to Sunday 28 September. This national competition is held each year and attracts over 2000 competitors. Cooper qualified through his performance at the Western Australia Interschool Championships this year, where he represented the GSG Interschool Equestrian team. He is competing in the 70cm Show Jumping and Combined Training. Cooper will be riding a loan pony called Orbit, who belongs to Australian Olympic Equestrian Shane Rose. This is an awesome opportunity for Cooper, and he is really excited to be competing at this level and representing Western Australia. Good luck, Cooper!

Classroom News

We hope you enjoy reading the classroom news from each week of term in our Early Childhood and Primary School classes.

 

Kindergarten

As we near the end of the term, we are busy wrapping up our learning and bringing together all the wonderful ideas and discoveries from our inquiry. Our recent visit to the Fish Traps sparked so much curiosity and it was a joy to see the children drawing on this experience during our Wild Space walk yesterday. Many took great delight in creating their own fish traps along the shore, using natural materials and their growing knowledge. The rich conversations that emerged were truly inspiring! Over the coming days, we will be working on our final inquiry task and beginning to think about how we would like to display and share our learning with others.

 

Pre-Primary

This week, Pre-Primary has been learning how to make and write teen numbers in Mathematics. Did you know that a teen number is 10 and some more? For example, 13 is 10 and 3 more. To help us learn how teen numbers are made, we have been playing a game called Build a Tower. We roll the dice and collect the number of blocks shown. When we get ten blocks, we can build a tower of ten. After four rolls, we have to write the number of blocks we have collected. 

Year One

This week has been full of interesting facts in Year One – all about the giant Pacific octopus! Did you know these amazing invertebrate animals can reach up to six metres long? Or that they have blue blood, three hearts and nine brains? Well, if you read our Information Reports, you will find out all this information and more. Mathematically, the students have refined their knowledge of turnaround sums and are becoming technologically adept at solving simple coding puzzles as well as starting on their touch-typing skills. We have also loved sharing our amazing reading abilities with the Djinda and Year Four students!

 

Year Two

We have begun learning about money in Mathematics this week, determining the value of coins and adding small amounts. We have loved spending time in Diletti’s Delicatessen practising how to buy items and give small amounts of change. We also really enjoyed our recent visit to the Wild Space, where the tide was finally out and we got to investigate the many creatures hiding underneath the rocks and shells. We have begun our work on narrative writing, where we are learning the text Kassim and the Greedy Dragon from our Talk 4 Writing story map.

Year Three

In order to read a classification tree, we are required to answer an increasingly refined set of questions about a living thing until we learn the specific class of animals to which it belongs. Interestingly enough, branching code is something we are also looking at in our Digital Technologies lessons. What a coincidence that we can now use our coding skills to create an interactive classification tree in an online environment! Our three terms of touch-typing practice are certainly starting to pay off as we use Twine to create functional HTML files. Maybe you can come in and give them a try in Week Ten.

 

Year Four

This week, the Year Four class has been working on the presentation stage of the inquiry into the services and facilities provided by our local government, the City of Albany. After all their research, the students have put their amazing creativity and construction skills to work, creating a poster and a diorama, which were to be on display for the Kingfisher Fair, to educate the public on how the City of Albany helps the community. We hope to display them in the Primary School foyer during Week Ten.

 

Year Five

This week in Year Five, we faced an emergency and launched a rescue mission to save an astronaut stranded in space. To help them, students had to use their knowledge of measurement and build a ladder using specific lengths provided, prepare supplies to a specific weight and finally provide fuel (water) using a capacity. We can happily report that the students did a wonderful job and the astronaut returned safely to Earth. This week, we are finalising our solar system models and making the final preparations for our market stall.

 

Year Six

This week, Year Six began their new narrative writing unit, Finding Tales. To launch the unit, students took part in a drama activity called ‘What’s in there?’. In this activity, they built suspense as they carefully approached a mysterious basket before revealing what they had ‘found’ inside. The discoveries were wonderfully imaginative − ranging from deadly snakes to naughty puppies, piles of money and even long-lost memories. It was a creative start to our exploration of storytelling.

Languages

The research is in, and our Years Three and Four students have spoken: you should most definitely learn a language! Here are some of their excellent reasons:

  • Travelling becomes easier: Whether you are ordering food or dealing with an emergency, knowing the local language makes life so much smoother.
  • New friendships await: Speaking another language opens doors to connect with people from different countries and backgrounds. 
  • Job opportunities expand: In a competitive world, speaking another language gives you that extra edge. 
  • It is a workout for your brain: Learning a language strengthens memory, problem-solving and overall brain development − like exercise, but for your mind.
  • A window into culture: Language is not just words −it is music, food, traditions and ways of thinking. It is a powerful way to truly understand another culture.
  • Handy for secrets: And, of course, as students cleverly pointed out, it is very useful when you want to share something privately with a friend!

If you would like to see even more reasons, come and check out the colourful posters on display in the language room; they will definitely inspire you!

ECC Briefing 

The following superstars have worked exceptionally well and received a Star Award for their outstanding efforts.

 

Kindergarten H: Arzoyi Mann

Kindergarten M: Islah Crooks

Pre-Primary: Connor Robson

Year One: Jemima Lester

Year Two: Cooper Glendinning

 

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

Kindergarten: Margo Hodge

Pre-Primary: Oscar Weatherill

Year One: Hargun Chahal

Year Two: Ayla Wrobel

Primary School Briefing 

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

Year Three: Alexander Standish

Year Four: Stephanie Forgus

Year Five: Appin Rivers and Brodie Pyle

Term Three Upcoming events

Week Ten 

Monday 22 September

  • Primary School Market Day, Primary School Foyer and Playground, 1.15pm to 3.15pm, small change needed for the stall activities.

 

Friday 26 September

  • Pre-Primary Assembly, in the Multi-Purpose Sport Complex (gym, not the hall), 9.00am, all welcome to attend. Before and after the assembly, please help yourself to the tea and coffee set up in the gym foyer.

  • House Activities – Annual Mathematics Relay (House Shirts please).

     

Have a wonderful weekend.

Ms Leah Field | Head of Primary and

Mrs Hayley Ranger | Head of Early Childhood