From the Principal 

Return to school plan

Planning for the return of students is well underway. We are excited to have students returning onsite from Monday 18 October.  The next few weeks looks like this:

I will be holding some Webex meetings with families to help explain the plan for returning and answer questions that you may have about coming back to school.  

                            - Friday 15 October at 2:00PM - For Foundation and Grade 1 & 2 families -                               Link will be sent through Compass to all families, I hope you can join me.

                            - Friday 22 October at 2:00PM - For Grade 3-6 parents - Link will be send                                    through Compass to all families.  I hope you can join me.

Microscopes, magnifying glasses and thermometers – OH MY!

Thanks to the generosity of our school community, we have recently purchased some new science equipment including more microscopes, a digital microscope, a number of magnifying glasses, equipment for experiments with batteries, stethoscopes, digital scales and digital thermometers. 

We can’t wait for our amazing Mullum students to be onsite and use the equipment. There is something for everybody! The investigations and experiments are going to be so much more interesting and fun with this new equipment.

Foundation Farm Animals

Foundation have been very busy learning their new topic of farm animals. Looking closely at cows and understanding their characteristics, where they’re found and what they provide us has been lots of fun. Using their creative skills, students were directed in drawing a cow and then encouraged to label the different features of their cows. We’re all very excited to be returning to school next week to learn about the next important farm animal.

Grade 5/6 Fractions 

What an amazing first two weeks of online learning our Grade 5/6 students have had this term. They have been diligently exploring fractions in numeracy, adjectives in writing and some well known inventors in reading. Their numeracy tasks have seen students drawing and labelling fractions of a whole, comparing fractions that are greater than and smaller than others and completing both division and multiplication equations using fractions. Through the use of online interactive websites students have expanded their knowledge and explored different ways of representing fractions visually. 

Lamont Book Fair

On Monday 8 November we will be welcoming students to visit our Lamont Book Fair.  A range of novels, non-fiction text, picture story books and novelty items.  The students will bring home to you a 'wish list' of items they have seen that they would like to purchase. There is then an option for families to buy items and the school receives a percentage of these funds as fundraising.  

Garden of Hope

Last Tuesday the school was presented with a gift from Monique Gleeson who has been attending a course during our lockdown period, a Certificate in Wellbeing.  Monique's gift was all the tools needed to plant a Garden of Hope and we look forward to our sunflowers nodding in the sunshine very soon.

Grade 4 Writing

Grade 4 used the story “I’m Australian Too” to explore why some people have moved to Australia from other countries.  They then explained some of their own family history using the language patterns modelled by the author Men Fox.

Grade 3

For Wellbeing in Term 4, students have been working on a range of tasks. Some activities this week have included making fruit salad, making a kite, writing a letter or card to someone special and making a baked potato later in the week.   It has been wonderful seeing students try new skills during lockdown. 

Andrea made a delicious and healthy fruit salad for her family. 

Sreedath made a tutorial on how to make origami for the class. 

Ario has been practicing performing magic tricks. 

Curriculum Day and Melbourne Cup Day reminders

Monday 1 November has been booked as a Curriculum Day for quite some time and will go ahead despite the COVID interruptions.  This means students will not be in attendance at school on this day.  All staff are working on preparations for 2022.  This day is followed by Melbourne Cup Day on the Tuesday.

Thank you 

Just a quick shout out to the Gordon family for their recent work in the vegetable garden, the family snuck in over the holidays and created magic. The warm weather and rain have created the perfect conditions for new growth.  Here are a few snaps:

Norwood Secondary College Building Works

I have been notified by Andrew Sloane, principal at Norwood Secondary College, that their building works are well underway and have not been greatly impacted by the construction industry closures.  This means that their building works set to commence in late November 2021 are on track.  This work is extensive and will mean the closure of the laneway between the two schools for an extended period of time.  We will keep you up to date about developments in this area.

Community Announcements

There have been some interesting sessions advertised through the newsletter this week. Check out the designated section to access information on a webinar about transitioning to school for kindergarten students and a session on reducing anxiety in children.