Primary School
Week Two has been about honouring sacred GSG traditions, developing House spirit and testing our academic excellence. Years One to Six have been completing our annual PAT testing rotation which shows development and growth against standardised norms to help us plan for best teaching practice moving into 2025. These are not measures of individual teaching programs, but of thinking processes and age-appropriate milestones with academics. As diagnostic tools, the information they provide to our teachers about whole cohort progress is important and are not used to grade individual students.
Friday sees us bid farewell to the Class of 2024 Year Twelve students. Our Year One students will be up on stage to wish them well and as a symbol of how far each individual has come. The Guard of Honour from the Gym to the Pratten Centre Courtyard, which starts off with our littlest students, is a time honoured and incredibly special moment in every school year.
This week, you will have noticed that you have not received a classroom letter from your child’s teacher. Over the next few weeks, we are trialing having our classroom updates in our newsletter. We are excited about trying this process as it centralises all information in our whole school newsletter with both classroom news and a list of upcoming events. It also gives us the ability to include many more photos to go along with our class reports which is definitely a plus!
Read on to discover what has been happening in each classroom over the last week…
Primary School: Year Level Information and News
Thank you, Class Teachers!
Djinda: The Djinda class has been having lots of fun to start the term. Adventures to the Wild Space have been a highlight, especially looking for crabs. We have also enjoyed reading and completing activities based on the stories “Where’s Stripey” and “In my Heart”.
Kindergarten: The Kindergarten students were full of excitement to return to school. We have a nature focus and looking at the lifecycle of insects. Last week we made nature bracelets, acted out the lifecycle of the butterfly and took part in a Nature Scavenger hunt. We are having fun preparing for our first Primary Interhouse Athletics Carnival and cannot wait to run in our first race.
Pre-Primary: The Pre-Primary class has had an exceptional start to Term Four. We are busy preparing to present an awesome assembly item to everyone in Week Three and we are learning all about how things and people can move in different ways. In class, it has been lots of fun exploring Mathematics concepts in our classroom florist.
Year One: 3D shapes, money and letter writing have been the focus this week, as the class prepares for the opening of the Year One Post Office! The inquiry unit (how light and sound are used in celebrations) has also started, with the opening of the mystery ‘Let’s Celebrate’ box. The children were thrilled to find a mini lit-up disco ball inside with a fluorescent glow bracelet for each of them! In HASS, the Year One students are now exploring what celebrations are, and how and why we celebrate, whilst in science, they are investigating light sources.
Year Two: The Year Two students have come back ready and raring to go and have shown a keen interest in our Inquiry Unit around lifecycles. We have looked at the life cycle of humans and plants this week and are excited to get our caterpillars delivered in a few weeks to watch them grow and change in the classroom throughout the term. We have enjoyed looking at persuasive texts and have loved reading ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ by Drew Daywalt and analysing the persuasive features used in this text.
Year Three: In Year Three we have been thoroughly enjoying outside learning while the weather permits. We have started to explore the inquiry topic ‘ambition matters’ by looking at some of our personal and class goals for the term and in our lives. It has been wonderful hearing some of the life aspirations such as mansions with zip lines to the beach, Olympic swimmers, shoe-free days at school and restaurant openings. I look forward to reading persuasive texts, planning short- and long-term goals as well as achieving some of the many ideas.
Year Four: Year Four has been delving into the technological world of algorithms and robotics. We have had a ball getting our Sphero’s to zoom left, zoom right and zoom all around.
Sphero's are small programmable robots, designed to spark curiosity and creativity through the world of coding. We love Digital Technologies!!
Year Five: Year Five has begun to delve into the past to learn about colonisation and the contribution of certain individuals that have shaped Australia's history. This week we learnt about the penal colonies and how they came about and have begun to explore some bushrangers and what life was like for various groups of people in the 1800s. In Science we have explored how the eye works and how natural and artificial light impacts today's world.
Year Six: Year Six has come back after the break refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. We are all delving into research about Geography and investigating how place and changes to place affect people in the environments in our neighbouring Asian countries. In Design and Digital Technologies, we have begun drafting a short biographical film to be shown as part of our final Year Six inquiry at the end of the year.
It is going to be a big term, and we are ready for it!
Specialists
Nihongo (Japanese)
Years Five and Six: Students have been practising expressing likes, dislikes and favourites in Japanese. We have also been practising how to ask others about their preferences as we learn new vocabulary for different food and drinks.
ECC Briefing
Star Awards
The following superstars have created some awesome work and received a Star Award for their efforts.
Kindergarten: Rosie Pearce
Pre-Primary: Teddy Davison
Year One: Amaya Fourie
Year Two: Dane Pyle
Value Awards
We recognise the following students for their commitment to displaying respect in our school.
Kindergarten: Larni Jefferis
Pre-Primary: Pavleen Grewal
Year One: Elliott Ruffell
Year Two: Aurora Leslie
Primary School Briefing
We recognise the following students for their commitment to displaying respect in our school.
Respect Awards
Year Three: Joel Castle
Year Four K: Layla Glendinning
Year Five: Olli Schaefer
Year Six G: Ruth Toomey
Year Six NT: Mia Palmer
Upcoming Events
Week Three
Monday 21 October to Sunday 27 October,Whole School Art Exhibition, Town Hall
Thursday 24 October - Primary School Interhouse Athletics Carnival
Friday 25 October - Pre-Primary Assembly Hall, 2:00pm (NB earlier start than usual)
Week Four
Monday 28 October to Friday 1 November, Year Six Camp to Rottnest Island
Week 5
Thursday 7 November to Friday 8 November, Year Three Camp, Primary School and Castle Rock
Friday 8 November, Albany Show Day, Whole School Closed
We look forward to an exciting and rewarding Term Four.
Mrs Hayley Ranger and Miss Carys Nichols | Acting Heads of Primary
Uniform Shop
Year Six Blazers and Hats
Year Six blazers and bucket hats are ready to be collected at the Uniform Shop.
If they are not collected by Monday 4 November they will be put back into stock.
Opening Hours
- Monday: 8.00am to 4.00pm
- Tuesday: CLOSED
- Wednesday: 8.00am to 4.00pm
- Thursday: CLOSED
- Friday: 8.00am to 1.00pm