Primary School

Classroom News 

We hope you enjoy reading what our classes have been up to this week. 

Djinda  

The children created wrapping paper, unique key rings and cards with a whole lot of love. We discussed when Father’s Day was and how many sleeps until the special morning, but our favourite part of the day was seeing the children bound up to Dad at pick up and pass over the present immediately: the joy spreading from Djinda to Dad. Some were opened there and then, some in the car and we wonder how many waited until Sunday! This week children are finishing their individual chickens ready for the Kingfisher Fair and Open Day; each child has drawn, crafted and made design decisions for the aesthetic with only the cutting being left to the educators. We cannot wait to show you our fabulous chickens this coming Sunday. 

Kindergarten 

We have had a fun-filled week. We are excited that after weeks of hard work and dedication, we have finally completed our amazing Art Exhibition pieces! We cannot wait for our families to see them all at the Whole School Art Exhibition 'Our Place'. This week our Kindergarten classes again combined as we continued our Talk for Writing piece and reviewed the first two sets of PLD letters. We are getting very clever at matching initial sounds! We had a fabulous walk to see the GSG chickens. Seeing Nugget the Rooster is always fun. Whilst we were there, Ms Thomas was busy with her Secondary School class in the vegetable garden. She showed us how some vegetables grow and even dug some up for us to take back to class to cook and eat, YUM! We are very lucky Kindergarten kids!  

Pre-Primary 

This week, our Pre-Primary B students have been exploring teen numbers (11-19) and developing their understanding of place value. Through hands-on learning experiences, children have been learning that teen numbers are made up of one group of ten and some extra ones. Using MAB blocks, students built teen numbers by matching a ten block with the correct number of ones. This helped them see that, for example, 14 is made up of one ten and four ones. We also used pop sticks to bundle groups of ten. Students carefully counted and bundled ten pop sticks together before adding extra sticks to represent different teen numbers. Students then demonstrated their learning by drawing representations of teen numbers, recording bundles of ten and individual ones, and connecting these drawings to the written numeral. By moving between materials, pictures and numbers, children are developing flexible ways of thinking about Mathematics and building a strong foundation for future learning. 

Year One  

Thank you to all our dads and grandpas who came to spend the morning with the class. The children were super excited to spend time with you and to give you all the things they have been making in class over the past two weeks. Our inquiry has continued to look at the comparison between First Nations toys from the past and our own toys of the present. In Science we have been investigating how toys move, with a particular focus on pushing and pulling forces and how these make things start, stop or change direction. After experimenting with a range of different toys, we watched how a simple pushing force could cause an impressive cascade of motion with dominoes! Mrs Gouldthorp set us some pair challenges to create a range of different domino chains ourselves. This was so much fun that we joined up with other groups to make longer chains, learning about the science of forces, as well as the art of negotiation! 

Year Two 

The students loved having their dads and special friends visit last week. They enjoyed making keyrings and rocket ship cards and writing thoughtful messages expressing how much they love and appreciate their dads and special friends. This week, we have been revising o'clock and half-past times and have now begun learning quarter past and quarter to times. This can be a challenging concept for many students, so we have been using a variety of hands-on activities, games and written tasks to help build their understanding and confidence. We have also completed a Hot Task writing assessment for our Information Report on a chosen planet. The students are now enjoying using their research and writing to create a Canva poster in Digital Technologies. As part of this project, we are also practising our keyboard skills and working on becoming faster and more efficient typists. 

Year Three  

We have begun our Humanities inquiry task, where students have chosen a community of their choice to research and investigate in depth. This project encourages students to explore different communities, understand their unique characteristics, and examine their past and present. Students will research the history, culture, location, roles and contributions of their chosen community. They will gather information from a variety of reliable sources, analyse their findings and present their learning in a meaningful way. Some students have already created interview questions to ask members of their community to support their understanding and gain deeper insights into community life. Through this inquiry, students will develop important research, critical thinking and communication skills, while gaining a deeper understanding of the diverse communities that exist locally, nationally and globally. 

Year Four 

The students have been busy preparing for the Kingfisher Fair and Open Day, while continuing to build their understanding of how erosion can slowly change our environment over time. Across the classes, students have been preparing interactive demonstrations to show how different types of erosion occur. In Year Four C, students are focusing on river erosion and will be displaying posters explaining how rivers gradually erode and reshape the land, alongside a hands-on demonstration using pipes and pumps. In Year Four H, students are investigating wave erosion and will demonstrate how waves gradually wear away landforms and change coastlines over time. Alongside their inquiry learning, the classes have completed their persuasive texts based on the premise Why should we protect…? Students chose a project, topic, place or issue that is meaningful to them and developed a persuasive argument explaining why it deserves protection. They have been busy rehearsing their presentations and will be ready to perform their persuasive texts to their classmates in Week Nine. 

Year Five 

As a child, I was obsessed with Ground Force, a UK television show where suburban gardens were revamped in a mere weekend. Each episode would feature a slightly ostentatious water feature, a pergola (cue the fight as to how to pronounce that) and many exotic plants ill-suited to back gardens in Manchester bunged in the ground as the surprised owners came back home from a weekend in Blackpool. But I loved it… and most of all I loved the planning phase. So, fast forward to 2026 to Year Five and our units of measurement inquiry. The students have all been posed a similar scope: 300 square metres of opportunity in which to design their own masterpieces. The learning of course is to apply perimeter as you plan, design and cost your fencing choices, sketch out your turf (surface area) and, yes, pick out that water feature. Students have been inspired by trips to the GSG kitchen gardens and have almost finished designing their garden beds (volume) in which to house their veggie patch. Bunnings has never had so many hits from the GSG servers. Who knows, maybe a future Costa Georgiadis or Alan Titchmarsh may be amongst our group. 

Year Six  

We have continued our investigation on salinisation and the results are starting to take effect. The seeds that are being watered with ‘clean’ water are starting to sprout and we have seen no growth with the seeds with heavily salted water. Next week we will share some pictures of our results. 

Outside the classroom, students participated in Young Writers and the Dockers Cup, and prepared for the Kingfisher Concert.

The Arts 

Arts Dress-Up Day is Tuesday 15 September. Come as your favourite artist, whether from music, film or visual art. Let's celebrate all the creativity in our lives! No need for a gold coin donation.  

Please visit the Whole School Arts Exhibition 'Our Place' in the Hall during the Kingfisher Fair and Open Day. Students from Djinda right the way through to Year Twelve will have their art on display. We have been super busy in the last couple of weeks getting ready for the exhibition. The Year Four classes have been finishing off the houses for the ‘streets of Albany’. The Year Five students have created ceramic insects to be displayed next to our carnivorous plants, while Year Six has been finishing off the aerial perspective paintings of their favourite place in the Great Southern.  

Primary School Briefing 

Students have been focusing on the value of Integrity this past week. Well done to the following students who stood out within their classrooms: 

Year Three: Benjamin Fergie 

Year Four: Bryce Ward and Imogen Yap 

Year Five: Mackenzie Coleman  

Year Six: Sadie Cameron and Edward Yeboah 

Brag Award: Fun and Games with accents. Miss Laneaux-Neale was the winner! Close second was Alex Schaefer.  

Ten-Minute Tables 

Congratulations to our newest members of the 120 Club: Evie Ford, Harriet Stan-Bishop, Carter Jones, Haydee Bowey and, from Year Three, Ava Archdale! We also gave out many personal bests. Congratulations for working so hard on your times tables.  

Have a wonderful weekend.  

Ms Leah Field | Head of Primary and

Mrs Hayley Ranger | Head of Early Childhood