Positive Climate for Learning

Year 7 - 9 Learning Community

In Term 3, Years 7 to 9 students are participating in some new and exciting electives, these include gardening, sport and cooking. 

Students are having the opportunity to participate in sport activities to showcase ACS values: Care, Commitment and Collaboration. This Term in sport our students have been learning and practising working in teams as well as fundamental motor skills like catching, kicking, striking and throwing. Our students have been enjoying playing a variety of games, with a different theme to our activities each week. We have played hockey, volleyball, kickball and some mixed activities. 

In gardening, Year 7-9 students have been preparing for spring. Students started by investigating what to plant in Spring. Students then created environmentally friendly planting tubes out of paper, filled the tubes with seed raising mix and planted seeds in the tubes. Students also planted succulents from cuttings. This week students have been preparing the school garden for the seedlings. Students turned the soil, added fertiliser and mulch to the garden.  

In cooking, students have been introduced to basic food handling and safety techniques. They are learning how to follow a simple recipe and use ingredients to create lots of delicious dishes including smoothies, chocolate crackles, wraps, chocolate chip cookies and so much more. Students will cook food using lots of different types of equipment as well as food preparation techniques. Students have also learnt how to wash and store their equipment correctly.

Physical Education

We had such a great start to the term and have continued to have fun and develop our skills throughout. Our students should be so proud of their efforts this term who have embraced every topic in PE we have thrown at them. A reminder to students to please bring their drink bottle to every class to minimize disruption to the lesson and please bring their jacket in case we need to work outside. 

We also ask that students bring in a picture of themselves playing their sport or in their out of school sport uniform so that we can add it to our wall of local sports in the hallways of the gym. Not only does it demonstrate how proud we are of our students but also may encourage others to join local community sport.

WHATS BEEN HAPPENING IN CLASS?

Prep

Our Preps started off by practicing their kicking skills. They learnt what part of the foot we kick with in soccer, where our eyes should be and how to be accurate with our kick. We played games such as ‘protect the treasure’, ‘clean the yard’ and 'keepings off'.

We are currently working on our bouncing skills where students have focused on using their ‘spider hands’ and bending at the elbow. We have spoken about dribbling in basketball and practiced moving with the ball whilst dribbling and defending their ball in a game. 

Year 1-2

At the start of this term, our Year One and Two students focused on the skill of Forearm Strike. We used things such as our hand for down ball, tennis racquet for tennis and bat tennis bats. 

We spoke about the use one hand, eyes on the ball and stepping forward to create power in our swing. The Year 2’s also focused on following through with their bat/racquet when hitting a ball. 

We are currently in our second week of Gymnastics! The students are loving this unit and have showed great enthusiasm and skill throughout. They have been practising the skills of balance on the balance beams, jumping on the trampoline and motorbike landing on the crash mat and testing their strength on the horizontal bars (and of course a bit of dancing in between stations!).

WEEK 5 COMMONWEALTH GAME THEME

In week 5 the Years 3-6 and Secondary students participated in a themed week around the Commonwealth Games, particularly para-sports. 

We spoke about the difference between the Olympics having a separate Paralympic competition but the Commonwealth Games embedding para-sports into their multisport event. We spoke about what inclusion means and how it ensures that everyone has the same opportunities at success no matter the individual. 

We played games such as Goal Ball, where students were blindfolded and had to roll a ball with a bell inside into a goal but also block the ball from going into the goal ensuring they were using their listening skills to gain success. They also competed in assisted running races where one student was blind folded and the other assisted using clear communication and we also did sit down Volleyball. We used balloons at first and some then used pink volleyballs, the trick was to remain seated the whole time while in play.

Students then reflected on how they felt doing the activities, the challenges they faced and how they overcome them. We also discussed how we could make games and sports more inclusive! Some ideas were using a bell ball when playing tag for those who may be partially blind and another was if someone had a broken leg that everyone would hop instead! Enjoy some pictures at the bottom of the page of all our students enjoying themselves through this themed week.

Years 3-6

Our Year 3-6 students have been developing different skills within striking and fielding and invasion games. We practiced games like ‘chuck the chicken’ to develop strategies in striking where the best options to strike is. We played sports such as Baseball, Kickball, Rounders and T-ball all focusing on skills such as stepping forward, keeping our eyes on the ball and following through with our swing. The Year Five and Six students experimented with strategy in the game, thinking about where to hit the ball, the order in hitting and defending and the technique rules of a game. We are currently completing a unit in invasion games learning about what invasion games mean, making space within a playing area, defending, being an option in a game and working together to achieve a common goal. We will be focusing on a different invasion sport each week. Our first week, an introduction to the strategy around invasion games and really practicing the above skills, followed by netball, soccer, rugby and basketball.

Secondary

Our secondary students have had voice and agency within their lessons, choosing which sports interest them and what skills they would like to improve on and try with guidance by the teacher. We have developed a 2-3-week system where we develop and execute skills and sports chosen by our students. We have participated in games such as baseball and kickball to practice our striking and fielding skills and have almost completed our gymnastics unit. We have practiced things such as cartwheels, handstands, strength and fitness training, balance and some flips here and there allowing students to not only express themselves and their skills but also have a bit of dun. I have seen such a change in motivation and participation with our students which I feel will continue and develop throughout the rest of the year.