From the Assistant Principal's Desk

Year Two at the Australian Museum

Recently Year Two were very excited to be going on an excursion to the Australian Museum. Many of the children had not been to the museum before. The students have been learning about dinosaurs as part of their English unit on informative writing. The visit to the museum was also an opportunity to introduce them to information about rocks and minerals which will form part of their learning about Earth and Space in Science next term. 

The first part of the day was a lesson spent with one of the museum educators. The children examined various items that would appear in a museum and sorted them into themes such as animals, rock and minerals etc. Once the group’s items were sorted they were then able to create their very own museum. 

Following this, the children explored the world of dinosaurs. They were amazed by life size models of dinosaurs, skeletons and fossils. The next part of the day was a special treat. The Australian Museum’s rocks and minerals collection is one of the largest in Australia, featuring more than 80,000 specimens from across Australia and the world.  A wonderful museum volunteer showed the children an amazing display of rocks and minerals and gave them a fascinating explanation of where rocks and minerals come from, including pumice and  fool’s gold. The children were even able to see an actual meteorite! 

In class, prior to the Australian Museum excursion the children were able to play the role of palaeontologists by digging for fossils using toothpicks and paintbrushes. The fossils were the chocolate chips in chocolate chip cookies. It was a clever and fun way to enable the children to have a palaeontology experience. 

Some Year Two responses to the Australian Museum excursion

My favourite part at the museum was seeing the fossils and I saw a fossil of a T- Rex. It made me feel like I was a palaeontologist finding fossils. Shyla

I liked the model of the T-Rex with the hair on top and blood on it. Jack

There was a big tub full of kinetic sand. This was sand that we could shape with our hands and we built it up like a mountain. As the mountain got higher it began to turn red. Sofia

BOTANY-RANDWICK PUBLIC SPEAKING GRAND FINAL

Last Thursday was the Grand Final of the Botany-Randwick Public Speaking Competition. This was the third year of this excellent initiative for our network of schools. Its purpose is to:

• Further develop the public speaking and speaking and listening skills of students
• Increase students self-confidence to talk in front of an audience at a class, stage, feeder network and Grand Final level
• Maintain and enhance the strong tradition of public speaking in our schools and draw the best speakers in the combined network finals to a grand final, providing talented speakers with an opportunity to compete at an elite level. 

The other aspect of this wonderful competition is that it develops connection and relationship between the Primary Schools and feeder High Schools in our network. The HIgh School students are involved in leading workshops and adjudicating for the initial rounds of the competition. The students from Corpus Christi were great role models for our students and provided them with valuable skills and encouragement to develop their public speaking. 

The guest adjudicators, Dr Majorie O’Neill MP, Member for Coogee, Mr Michael Daley MP, Member for Maroubra and Attorney General and the Hon. Ron Hoenig MP, Member for Heffron and Minister for Local Government, gave constructive feedback to the Grand Finalists. Although our students did not compete in the Grand Final they still had the opportunity to participate as chairpersons and gain some excellent insights from the Grand Finalists’ speeches and the guest adjudicators feedback. St Aidan’s was proudly represented by Fiona, Billy, Ainsley and Sebastian.

ICAS

We are delighted to inform you that St Aidan’s will be participating in the world-renowned ICAS competitions again this year. The competition is open to students in Years 2 to 6 in 2023. 

What is ICAS? 

ICAS is an online academic competition that is designed to assess students’ higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Writing, Spelling  and Digital Technologies. 

Each assessment celebrates students’ accomplishments by providing opportunities for recognition and development. Every student who participates will receive a printed certificate and an online results report. Top performers will be eligible for medals. 

We encourage you to consider entering your child into ICAS this year. 

Learn more about ICAS here. (https://www.icasassessments.com/products-icas)   

How to participate in ICAS  

If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please:  

1. read about ICAS subjects and prices here: (icasassessments.com/products-icas) 

2. read the terms and conditions here: (icasassessments.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2023-ICAS-Assessments-Parents-PPS-TsCs_final.pdf) 

3. go to Parent Portal to purchase tests here:(shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps)  

4. enter our school’s access code –  CYR352

5. enter your child’s details, select the tests you would like to purchase, then proceed to payment.   

Have a wonderful fortnight.

Warm regards,

Robyn Green