PRIMARY SCHOOL
A Message from Head of Primary Mrs Hughes
We are so proud of our incredible students for their perseverance and positive attitude this year! Despite the challenges thrown at us through lockdowns and COVID-19, we have had a wonderful year and made so many amazing memories!
Whether it was Pirate Day, Primary Family Kahoot Night, Camps, Wellbeing Days, Market Day, Excursions and so much more – this year has been filled with many highlights!
Last Friday night we were so blessed to celebrate out Year 6 students at their graduation. We ate KFC, took hundreds of photos and danced the night away! It was a perfect way to see ‘goodbye’ to this season of their College journey.
Above all, we are grateful to God for His kindness and faithfulness to us all this year. At Primary School we have continued to “Choose Joy” and look back with thankful hearts at all that He has done.
Yvonne Hughes
Head of Primary
Year 12 & Prep Scavenger Hunt
Preps and Year 12 came together to celebrate the end of 2021 and their great achievements.
Even though the year was interrupted with several lockdowns, the bond formed between the Preps and their Year 12 Buddies was evident as they race around the school trying to solve all the mystery question in the St Andrews Scavenger Hunt. The Preps kept these young adults running here and there trying to be the 1st team finished.
This fun was followed by a shared morning tea where great conversations were had and the words “I Love you”, “I will miss you”, “I have had so much fun” were overheard. We have loved our partnership with the Year 12 class of 2021 and wish them every success.
Shellene Pillifeant
Prep Teacher
Beautiful Beach Day
God blessed us with a beautiful day at the beach on Thursday 18th November!
The Prep children had a lovely time exploring God’s creation at Rickett’s Point, a marine sanctuary. We looked at sea artefacts and sorted things we found on the beach, into groups to show what God made and what people made.
We had a walk on the rock pools to find crabs, limpets and sea urchins. After enjoying our lunch, a highlight of our day was paddling in the cool water and building creative sandcastles on the sand. We are so thankful we could enjoy this day together!
Sonia Sires
Prep S Teacher
Healesville Sanctuary Excursion
After a few postponements, we finally made it to the Zoo!
We saw kangaroos, echidnas, koalas and emus. Our favourite part of the day was watching the bird show and having the wedge-tailed eagle swoop over our heads!
This excursion reminded us of how creative and amazing God is to make the animals so different and special.
Although a thunderstorm was scheduled to roll in on the day, God blessed us with incredible weather and only a few drops of rain. How great is our God!
Gaye Jones & Natalie Nheu
Year 1 Teachers
Year 4 Visit The Ranch
The Year 4's went to The Ranch on Friday 26th November. It was such a fun day, participating in 3 different activities during the day.
Well done to Moses who was voted the winner of the loudest scream on the Giant Swing.
Jacqueline won the archery for receiving the most points and popping the balloons. Nathan was the winner of the Mountainboarding for going the furthest. Well done to everyone for making our day happy, fun and a great challenge.
Paige Cheung & Gail van Heerden
Year 4 Teachers
Year 4's Interesting Discoveries
Year 4 have been learning about the circularly system, discovering interesting facts we researched about the heart.
Everyday the human heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back – Annabelle
The heart can still pump even when it is disabled from the body – Akesh
A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s heart – Livia
Give a tennis ball a hard squeeze, that is around the same amount of force your heart uses to pump blood to your body – Zara
More heart attacks occur on a Monday than any other day of the week!
Year 4 have been studying facts on the tree frog and the cane toad.
Did you know...?
The tree frog is a carnivorous amphibian – Michelle/Groups sharing their researched information.
The tree frog has a green, smooth, wet and shiny skin – Levin
The tree frog has a long tongue and has teeth – Esther
Tree frogs have a very efficient breeding program – Sam L
The cane toad is poisonous – Edrick
The cane toad has no teeth and cannot swim – Ebony
The cane toad can create havoc in bushes using his poison. They eat snakes and goannas - Steve
Year 5
5L have been busy learning about North American countries and comparing them with Australia. They have also been making their own North American menus and presenting them to the class.
In Biblical Studies, the students have been researching bible characters including David, Jonah and Esther. They made videos and animation clips to present their characters which were very entertaining, creative and clever. Well done 5L.
Ben Sheahan
Year 5 Teacher
Year 6 Graduates!
Year 6s enjoyed celebrating their final year of primary school by dancing, feasting and having lots of fun at the 2021 Year 6 Graduation Evening on Friday night!
We congratulate all Year 6s on such a wonderful achievement and know that they are well equipped for a new season ahead of secondary school!
Melanie Lepileo & Chelsea Edwards
Year 6 Teachers
Year 6 Visit From Brett Ryan
The Year 6s enjoyed an informative incursion from Brett Ryan from Focus on the Family, who came to speak about puberty and physical health.
Brett was an engaging speaker, and the students loved asking him questions and even asking for his autograph! Thank you to Brett for being such a great resource for our students, we hope that this visit may start some important conversations at home for our Year 6 families.
Chelsea Edwards
Year 6 Teacher
Art News
What an amazing term it has been here in the art room. The students have been super busy completing amazing art work.
Students from Years 4, 5 and 3 have made felt that will be turned into a piece of art by Elizabeth Armstrong the artist who started the project with us in Term 3. The art work will represent the bible verse of the year and will be completed in time for the beginning of 2022.
This term I say goodbye to St Andrews as I leave after 15 years teaching Art here. I have loved my time at St Andrews, it has been a joy to teach here.
Sally Darlison
Art Teacher
Chinese Language
Well done on another great year of learning Chinese!
Students have participated in activities related to the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival!
They have had much fun in taking part in activities such as lantern making, and joining a drawing and colouring competition. They have produced such beautiful work and showed their creativity.
The winners for the competition this year are:
Year 6: Inseo Yang, Isabella Tan and Alexa Wong.
Year 3: Ciara Gung
Year1: Abigail Ha and Chloe Mei.
Congratulations to all and I hope you've had a great year learning Chinese so far! Jia You!
Rebecca Lim
Chinese Teacher
Digital Technology
The primary digital technologies lab has been buzzing with excitement as students have enjoyed being able to create and collaborate with their classmates in person.
Whilst technology helped keep us connected during online learning there’s nothing quite like being together in a physical space where you can feel and witness the creative energy of others, share ideas freely, experiment and learn all at the same time.
Learning and creating should be a joyful experience – that's how God designed us! We can be thankful that our access to modern technology gives us even more ways to express our God given creativity.
Junior Choir Performances!
After a long period of time practising singing online, our junior choirs (MicroVox and MiniVox) finally had the opportunity to sing together on returning to school!
We were able to film these as a celebration of the students work this year, their commitment to attending online rehearsals, and in praise to the incredible faithfulness of our loving God!
The Year 4s also had the opportunity to perform their very hard work, and were able to record their singing for Mrs Ranger to collate. Please also enjoy their FINAL performance of ‘It’s Raining Taco’s’ along with some photos of their photo booth fun!
We are so proud of all our groups that persisted with their rehearsals online and joined together to perform for you all in this ‘virtual’ way!
STEM Cardboard Arcade
This week we ran our Year 3 STEM Cardboard arcade. The Year 3s have worked so hard both at home during lockdown and at school over the last few weeks to complete this project.
Using all recycled materials the Year 3s have built incredible arcade games. The students have raised $1,705 for Cambodia all from recycled materials and STEM creativity!
I am so proud of these incredible students!
