News from Papunya

Many of our community will remember that in 2015 we had a group of seven children travel down from the small remote indigenous community of Papunya, N.T. (Papunya is situated 240 kilometres North West of Alice Springs and has a population of approximately 300 people.)

During this time, the children stayed at my place for a week and spent time with us here at Moonee Ponds West. They had a hectic schedule visiting the Melbourne Zoo, The Eureka Tower, a guided tour of the MCG, a trip to the beach and much more.

Over the holidays, I returned to Papunya to visit the community and catch up with friends and of course my old students from my time teaching there. I also met with the principal to discuss plans for two groups of children to visit us this year. (One group in late June and another group later in the year.)

I am excited that it has been confirmed, that both of these visits will go ahead, with four children attending on each visit! I believe it is a wonderful opportunity to build relationships, learn about each other and the very different contexts in which we live and explore how in spite of these differences we share many commonalities. It is my hope that we can build an ongoing relationship with the Papunya School into the future.

I will continue to update our school community as plans become clearer.

Jenny Irvine (Room 8)

Soil investigation Wonderings from room 17…

The 3/4s are learning about earth science this term. We started off the unit by investigating different types of soil found from all over the school.

Following our investigation, these were the questions some of the students from Room 17 came up with:

‘What does soil have that helps plants grow?’- Carina

‘How is soil formed?’- Liam

‘Is sand soil?’- Nandi

‘What is in fertiliser?’- Emily B

‘What is the difference between dirt and soil?’- Otis

‘Is clay soil?’- Aliya

‘Why is soil better than dirt for plants?’- Zac

‘What makes different types of soil?’- Alyce

‘What are the different types of soil?’- Poppy

‘Is compost a soil?’- Charlie

‘What is soil?’- Indi

‘Is soil only found in a garden or a farm?’- Navya

‘How do plants grow in soil?’- Jack

Toilet build update

On Thursday this week Sue Phillips, staff member on the Master plan working group and 2 student members - Amy from room 18 and Jack from 17 attended a consultation with Daniel and Alex from Haskell Architects in their office in Spencer St. Their offices are situated in a 1930's old building designed by the same architect who designed the Myer building in Bourke St.

When we arrived we were warmly welcomed by Daniel Haskell and all his team of friendly young architects. Before we viewed the new plans were lucky enough to be given a tour by Daniel of their new architecturally designed premises with all the latest technology and fantastic work place amenities. Carefully designed by them of course! We then looked through the latest plans in a huge conference room which included snacks of chips, orange juice and sweet biscuits.

The plans look fantastic. Daniel and Alex listened to all our concerns, questions and suggestions. We loved the design, the colour schemes Alex suggested are great, and we were even shown samples of the bricks we might use and the type of wood for the fence. We asked if the art works that are in that area, the veggie patch gate and others would be incorporated into the new plan and Alex said she would make sure that happened.

One of the issues that the students need to take back to the other classes and JSC is whether we need small and large size toilets and basins that suits students in prep to grade 6.

Thursday was a great opportunity for the students to experience the real world context for all their efforts in eliciting student feedback leading up to the build and inform their role in ensuring the new toilets are designed/built to address the needs of the children.

We are extremely pleased to be working with the Haskell group who have consulted and listen to the ideas of students, teachers and parents.

Reminder - Information Night

To our families and friends of MPW,

You are invited to attend an Information night on Wednesday 2nd of May in the Performance space at 7.00pm through to 8.30pm.

We are very happy to announce that David Hornsby will be presenting and speaking about the teaching of English and the importance of a balanced approach.

Some of the things he will talk about include:

What do we actually do when we’re reading? How does the reading process work?
How can we help our children with reading at home?
Why is phonics always a ‘hot topic’?
What is phonics, and what place does it have in a literacy program?
How does our spelling system work? (It’s not all about sound.)

This is David’s 51st year in education. He is passionate about teaching and learning and doesn’t want to retire!

David was with the Victorian Ministry of Education for 28 years and taught at every year level from Prep to Year 6. During that time, he also lectured at La Trobe University, the University of Melbourne and RMIT University. For 4 years, he was an Education Department consultant in both primary and secondary schools and then returned to the primary classroom. He was the principal of Ringwood Heights Primary School, a school he loved, for 5 years.

He is currently in demand as an education consultant in schools and in conference centres across Australia and in many parts of the world. He has completed many lecture tours of the USA and the UK, and has also worked with teachers in China, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malta, New Zealand and Singapore.

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