Primary School

Learning Beyond Our School Gates

Last week, Leah and I had the privilege of attending the Independent Schools Heads of Primary Conference. It was an invaluable opportunity to connect with educational leaders from schools across Australia, learn about current research and trends in education and reflect on the future of learning for our students.

A key theme throughout the conference was the importance of being present and being lifelong learners. Just as we encourage our students to approach learning with curiosity and an open mind, it is essential that educators continue to learn, grow and adapt. The world our children are growing up in is changing rapidly, and as educators, we must remain informed and responsive to ensure we are preparing them for the future.

We explored research into how learning is evolving in the digital age and the unique needs of today's learners. Presentations challenged us to consider how schools can balance the opportunities technology provides while continuing to develop the human skills that remain critical: communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and resilience. With the overall focus being ‘be present’, how can we remain present in an ever-changing environment?

One of the highlights of the conference was the opportunity to visit other schools and see a variety of learning environments in action. Observing different approaches to teaching and learning provided valuable insights and sparked many ideas that we can reflect on within our own context.

While it was inspiring to see the innovative work taking place in schools around the country, the experience also reinforced how fortunate we are to be part of our own school community. We were reminded of the many strengths that make our school special: our dedicated staff, supportive families, engaged students and strong sense of community. Often, visiting other schools helps us appreciate even more the wonderful culture and opportunities we have here.

We are grateful for the opportunity to learn alongside colleagues from across Australia and look forward to sharing our reflections and ideas with staff as we continue striving to provide the very best learning experiences for our students.

Mrs Hayley Ranger | Head of Early Childhood

Classroom News

Please see the classroom news below. Some fantastic experiences are happening in our classrooms; we hope you enjoy reading about them.

Kindergarten

We have moved on to an exciting new Talk for Writing text and have been thoroughly enjoying listening to the story of Rosie’s Walk. As we explore the story together, we are learning lots of important words that help us tell stories in the correct order, such as first, next, after that and finally. We are also building our vocabulary by learning positional words, including over, under, around, next to and across. There are so many wonderful new words to learn in Kindergarten!

In Mathematics, we are continuing to focus on counting in order and recognising numbers. We have been very clever as we have worked to unjumble the numbers and put them back in the correct order. It has been wonderful to see the students growing in confidence as they practise these important early skills.

We have also had lots of fun exploring our beautiful sensory tray filled with plants collected from the garden. The children enjoyed using their sense of smell to investigate different scents and used pipettes to create special potions, strengthening their fine motor skills while engaging in imaginative play.

Pre-Primary 

During our visit to the Wild Space, the students had great fun creating boats from natural materials such as sticks, leaves, and bark. They explored which designs would float or sink and tested their ideas in the water. Through trial and creativity, they added features such as sails and paddles to help their boats move. It was a fantastic session full of teamwork, problem-solving and scientific discovery! We then returned to class and recorded our ideas, plans, and creations in our Wild Space journals. The children even experimented with writing full sentences about their experience! 

Year One

The weather was glorious on Friday, and the Year One class had a wonderful time on our parks and playgrounds excursion! First, we visited Albany Peace Park, where we saw that not all parks are built for us to play in. Everyone was amazed to see the three pine trees, and we recalled the story of The Lone Pine that we had read in Week One. Next, we visited Eyre Park and were able to fill in more of our excursion worksheet, which required us to tick the features we saw (natural, managed and constructed). Then, some of the mums, dads and grandparents met us for lunch and we got to test the playground equipment (all in the name of design, obviously, in preparation for our playground plans next week!) Finally, we visited Emu Point and compared this playground to the previous two. We were having so much fun that it was a bit of a race to get back to school before the bell! 

What a fabulous day.

Year Two

This week we have enjoyed learning about area and perimeter in Mathematics. We had fun designing a robot image and calculated its area and perimeter. In Health, we have been talking about the size of the problem and determining the perceived severity of everyday issues that may come our way, along with how our reactions might match these. We were excited to finish our unit on persuasive writing, by using superlatives and rhetorical questions to convince our readers that Albany is the best place to live. 

We are writing superstars!

Year Three 

We have been busy working on estimating and measuring a range of standard units. Students have enjoyed being out of their seats and measuring a variety of objects in our classroom. In Science, we have begun exploring the inquiry question: Are carrot tops living, non-living, or once-living? Students used their prior knowledge to make predictions and to plan an investigation. 

Year Four

After learning about how indigenous cultures used ochre in their art, as well as how valuable some natural pigments can be (we’re looking at you, lapis lazuli!), the Year Four classes have experimented with natural materials to see if they can extract some gorgeous colours. We collected flowers, leaves, fruits, vegetables and even dirt that we thought had interesting colours of their own. We used mortars and pestles to grind the materials in order to release colours, then tested them on different types of papers and fabrics. We mixed these natural pigments with vinegar and bicarb soda to see if they would change the colours. We then left the test samples over the weekend to see how they would change over time (the colour of the beetroot and vinegar mixture changed dramatically). 

In the coming weeks, we will combine what we have discovered about natural pigments to create artworks that tell the story of people on the First Fleet and their first contacts with Indigenous Australians.

Year Five

Year Five has been having a fantastic time refining our mathematical skills through engaging rotations. These short, sharp bursts of learning have allowed us to strengthen our understanding of the four operations while also developing our knowledge of time and measurement. The rotation format keeps learning fresh and exciting, giving opportunities to collaborate, problem-solve and challenge in a variety of ways. We can also see that it is helping us with our daily think mental results! 

Year Six

Combining Health and Digi Tech this week, Year Six has been exploring digital and health literacy by judging online information as credible or misinformation. Starting with a simple search, every time we clicked on a link or a video, we passed on the string. This gave us a visual of how the information we see online can become confusing and is not always the perfect way to answer our questions. Next, we will investigate the steps to ensure we are accessing credible information sources. Year Six Osborne enjoyed their assembly, especially being able to share some of the amazing work Mrs Nyree Mackenzie is doing in Science with the class.

Languages

Last week, Middle and Upper Primary students completed some French practice using Microsoft Teams, where they worked through an online quiz containing both multiple-choice and open-ended questions. While there were a few teething issues as students adjusted to this new way of completing French activities, the use of technology generally increased student engagement. The ability to review each student's responses individually provided a clearer insight into their understanding than the whole-class whiteboard activities we often use. This allowed me to provide personalised feedback, helping students identify their strengths and areas for improvement as they prepare for next week's assessment task.

ECC Briefing 

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

Kindergarten A: Asher Kaczmarczyk

Kindergarten B: Hannah Zhang 

Pre-Primary A: Eddie MacTaggart

Pre-Primary B: Lennix Finaughty

Year One: Kennedy Coleman

Year Two A: Adrian Forgus

Year Two B: Sebastian Jacobs 

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

Kindergarten A: Orion Melia 

Kindergarten B: Wyatt Downham 

Pre-Primary A: Arzoyi Mann

Pre-Primary B: Skylah Langmead

Year One: Sophie Doorey

Year Two A: Freya Standish

Year Two B: Sophie Nelson

Primary School Briefing

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

Year Three: Ava Murnane

Year Four: Nate Lucas and Aurora Leslie

Year Five: Carter Jones and Shelby Mead

Year Six: Charlotte Owenell and Zyana Prasad

Congratulations to the students who achieved a personal best in the June Ten-Minute Tables. So many students are very close to achieving 120. 

We have new members to the 120 Club, too. Congratulations to the students already there and the new ones!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Ms Leah Field | Head of Primary and

Mrs Hayley Ranger | Head of Early Childhood