Specialists Updates and Celebrations

Music

2023 has been an incredible year in the SMPS Music Program. The program has continued to grow and expand. Most importantly, student engagement and learning is still trending upwards. Our students have become stronger musicians when it comes to developing their skills on instruments. Our students have gotten particularly better at playing and singing music written by others as well as creating and making their own pieces of music. One of the highlights has been introducing the Kalimba, an African tuned percussion instrument to the Years 2 to 6 students. The way students have picked up skills on this instrument so quickly is amazing to see.

Our students performed at many events including Celebrations of Learning, Open Day, Rockstar Day, Art Show, Assembly and the Christmas Concert.

It was fantastic, as always, to involve our families in the music program by hosting a Mother’s Day Marimba Workshop and Father’s Day African Drumming Workshop. Both groups performed for the whole school.

We are very excited for 2024, being that it is a School Production year it will surely be a busy and rewarding one!

Mr Paul

Physical Education

Physical Education at SMPS was marked by the vibrant engagement of students across various grades. The younger members of the school community embarked on a journey of foundational physical development, through activities focusing on teamwork, adherence to rules and motor skills such as throwing, catching and kicking. Students in Years 3, 4, 5, and 6 actively participated in basketball, soccer and frisbee gala days, not only displaying their athletic skills but also demonstrating outstanding good sporting behaviour both on and off the playing field. The dedication and teamwork displayed by these students was truly commendable. The Sports Day was one of the main sporting highlights of the year. It was an exhilarating event that brought together students, teachers, and parents in a celebration of athleticism, teamwork and school spirit. Students had the opportunity to play various games and win points for their house. Observing the smiles on students' faces not only brings us happiness but also a sense of pride in being part of their journey and growth. 

Miss Ali

Visual Arts

It has been another incredible year in Visual Arts for the wonderful students of South Melbourne Primary School. Seeing the improvement in the students’ artistic skills and techniques has been a pleasure to see. This was most apparent in our amazing Art Show that took place this term. Every student got to choose an artwork they were most proud of to go on display for the whole school to see. They clearly chose very well because the calibre of work was extremely high. I get to see the amazing work our students do every day, and its an honour to be able to share this experience with the members of our community. Thank you to every family who donated their time and money towards supporting the Art Show and the Visual Arts program, your support means so much to me and all our students. I already cannot wait for another year full of colour, self-expression and fun!

Miss Phoebe

Digital Technologies

This year has been filled with curiosity and exploration in Digital Technology. From learning about the inner workings of computers to coding games and robots; each student has engaged in rich learning about our tech-filled world. Students should feel incredibly proud of the way that they have grasped new concepts and tackled challenges in the first year of Digital Technology at SMPS. For myself and many students, coding has been the highlight this semester with students learning to use computational thinking to problem solve in many scenarios. It was wonderful to see the Prep to Year 2 students unleash their creativity using Codespark to create stories and games to share with their peers. Years 3 to 6 students used the Vex Go to solve real-world problems such as excess trash or planetary exploration by building, driving and programming rovers of their own design. 

It has been an absolute blast and honour to teach Digital Technology this year, but as many families and students already know this will also be my last year at SMPS. I have been lucky enough to purchase a house down on the Mornington Peninsula and will be embarking on a new challenge teaching high school next year. I want to thank the SMPS community for being incredibly kind and supportive over the years. I will take with me many beautiful and hilarious memories from my time of teaching STEAM, Year 2 and Digital Technology/Robotics. You will all truly be missed! 

Miss Hope

Library

During Term 4 we added a total of 689 new books to SMPS! 231 for the school library, 266 for the classroom libraries and 192 teacher resources. That brings us to a total of 2,744 new books for 2023!

In Term 4, Years 2 to 6 visited the library every week. During these sessions 1,770 library books were circulated. Classes with the most books borrowed were: 

The top borrowers for each class were:

The most popular books were: 

A HUGE thank you to the parent volunteers who have helped in the library during Term 4. They covered 230 books in contact to protect the new books for use in the library and classroom libraries.