Mrs Leanne Schulz

Year 4 Camp

The Year 4 students had a wonderful time at Camp Weekaway last week! The students and staff embraced the opportunity to be involved in outdoor adventure activities, such as: canoeing, the flying fox, damper making, the maze, low ropes, low ropes, laser tag, and the flying fox. A very big thank you to all the staff who attended for working tirelessly to ensure that things ran smoothly: Ms Monroy, Mr Munro, Miss Jackson, Mrs Pocervina, Mrs Zugan, Miss Donohue and Mrs Adams for organising things.

Cumberland Athletics Carnival

The Cumberland Athletics was a huge success! There was excitement all around as many students enjoyed their first athletics carnival. The sun was shining, parents were supporting and there were smiles everywhere. It was great to see the positive attitudes and good sportsmanship displayed by all! A very big thank you to Mrs Emma Dowling and Mrs Julie Wachter for organising the event, and the PE and Primary staff who worked tirelessly to ensure that the day ran smoothly.

Aksheta R (Year 6 Cameron House Captain)

Cumberland had a lot of fun at the athletics carnival! Students participated in races and other events. There was 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m races and a 100m relay. For the field events there was discus, shot put, high jump, long jump, triple jump and javelin. Our carnival was at Meadowglen International Athletics Stadium. 

Mackenzie SB (Year 6 Millar House Captain)

On Wednesday 19 May the Cumberland students participated in the athletics carnival. Athletics carnival is a house event where all students put there name down for a specific event, then they get to enjoy it. It was the Year 3 students' first time doing the athletics carnival, they were all terrific! No one knows what house won yet, but every house did amazing!

Chloe G (Year 6 Brodie House Captain)

I enjoyed the Cumberland athletics day because it was loads of fun. It was an enjoyable competition and it was great working with other house captains and staff members, so I really enjoyed the Cumberland athletics.

Mitchell N (Year 6 Clarke House Captain)

The athletics carnival was very enjoyable and all the kids had fun. It was really good as all the students got involved in various events and many students won events and were very happy. The carnival was a success!

Luca S (Year 6 Cameron House Captain)

The best part about athletics day was participating in races and getting points for my house. A lot of parents were there to watch. It was a really fun event and I cannot wait for next year.

Prep News

Miss Gemma Jackson (Prep AHOS)

We have had a fun-filled fortnight in Prep. We had some very special guests arrive in the Prep rooms. They were eggs! The Preps got to watch the chicks hatch and have been taking care of them. They started in the incubator and now they are in their brooder box. The students know that the chicks need food, water and heat to survive in their early stages of life. The Preps have noticed they like to huddle together to keep warm. Last week, the Preps went for a special walk up to the farm to visit the calves. They also got to make jam toast as the word of the week was jam. In Mathematics, there has been lots of learning about graphs. We have been posing yes/no questions, collecting data and recording it onto a graph.

Here are some of our questions for our data collection:

Mila R (Prep A)- Do you like vanilla ice cream?
Harrison A (Prep A)- Do you like trampolines?
Ranumi A (Prep R)- Do you like the Aitken alpacas?
Raphael G (Prep R)- Do you like the calves?
Thesandi R (Prep G)- Do you like unicorns?
Jack D (Prep G)- Do you like carrots?

Year 1 and 2 News

Miss Hannah Petterson (Year 1/2 AHOS)

The Year 1 students have been busy exploring ‘Day and Night’ this term. Students have been thinking about what they can see, hear and do during the day and during the night. The students drew and coloured artwork to show their ideas. Some ideas during the day included: children playing, dogs barking, sun in the sky and birds outside. Some ideas during the night included: owls hooting, the moon and stars in the sky and people snoring. The students even realised there are things they can see, hear or do during both! For example, they can hear the wind and rain at night time.

The Year 2 students have been practising their visualising skills in English by reading or listening to a passage of text and building the image in their mind. The students extended on this by creating their own imaginary animals! Students needed to choose from different descriptive phrases, such as thin whiskers, bulging eyes, wide wings, slimy skin, and then then draw a matching animal. Check out their amazing imaginary animals!

Year 3 and 4 News

Mrs Anne Adams (Year 3/ 4 AHOS)

In Year 3, students were out and about measuring the school grounds with metre wheels and square metres that they had created from newspaper. Great, hands-on experiences for Maths!

Camp Weekaway is something that the students will remember from their Primary years.

Here are some comments from the students...

Aarav K: I learnt how to row a boat. My favourite was laser tag because the laser guns had a scope on them.

Jessica M: The zip line was my favourite. I was scared of the canoeing. I thought I was going to fall in but we didn’t!

Reuben T: I really loved laser tag because we got to run around and the sound effects were really cool! The flying fox was amazing too! We had a screaming contest on the flying fox and I won!

Kiara P: The activities were really fun! Canoeing was my favourite because Eliana and myself were freaking out! We were worried that we were going to fall out! We didn’t though.

Year 5 and 6 News

Mr Nigel Keegan (Year 5/ 6 AHOS)

It has been a productive couple of weeks in Year 5 and Year 6, with a variety of excellent learning experiences happening. Recent highlights include Year 5 study on Space and the Solar System, Earthcraft in 6T, Pathway to Federation in 6K, the Peer Support program, and narrative writing, fractions and data in both year levels. Plenty of great work is happening across the variety of subjects, and Term 2 assessment tasks have commenced. These tasks provide opportunity for students to demonstrate progress with their learning.

Our winter Interschool Sport season is underway with Aitken teams competing extremely well in fixtures against School of Good Shepherd and Tullamarine. Congratulations to students who have received Most Valuable Player awards. These awards recognise outstanding contribution to the team. Well done also to students involved in our Friday morning school-based sport program for your positive involvement so far.

How to give kids feedback for improvement

Parenting Ideas by Michael Grose

‘Here’s how to deliver feedback to make sure it sticks.

Make it specific

It’s absolutely essential to give feedback about one behaviour, skill or attitude at a time, if you want improvement. “Jai, if you make eye contact with your brother when you talk to him, he’s more likely to listen to you.” The feedback needs to be specific rather generalised so that a child or teen knows exactly how to do better. It also needs to be delivered in a non-judgemental way.

Ensure it’s descriptive

“That’s not the way to behave inside” doesn’t help much. “Use your quiet voice when you play inside the house” cues a child into how to behave. Use phrases and terms that have real meaning for kids rather than vague, non-descriptive language such as ‘be a good girl’, so kids not only know what’s expected but they understand how to meet your expectations.

It’s got to be timely

Providing feedback to a toddler half an hour after they’ve thrown a tantrum in public will ensure there’s no impact. On the other hand, providing behavioural feedback when a teenager is angry will ensure one thing – you’ll have an argument on your hands. Feedback needs to be fairly immediate for young children and if possible, provided before an event or activity. “When you set the table put the fork on this side and the knife on the other.” Choose the time and place to provide feedback to older children, remembering that angry tweens and teens generally don’t listen.

Give from a place of calm

Angry parents generally deliver feedback poorly to kids. Regardless of how well you choose your words and how accurate your feedback may be, feedback delivered angrily will prompt the flight/fight response from a child or young person. They will ignore you or start an argument, but they won’t take your message on board when you’re mad at them.

Give sparingly

When children require approval for every scribble, homework problem and picture they draw, it’s probably because they have always been offered feedback on every scribble, homework problem and picture they draw. It’s vital that children develop their own internal sense of validation and honest self-assessment, because as they grow up and face hardship, they need to be able to look to themselves for strength and approval. If they can’t, they will be much more vulnerable to superficial external approval that comes their way in the form of peer pressure, bullying and the usual social jostling. As you wean them off of your feedback, turn their “Mummy, is this picture good?” or “Dad, did I do a good job?” back on them, and ask them how they feel about their work.

Feedback is a wonderful parenting tool that requires attention to detail, sensitivity and a willingness to respect the dignity of the child or young person who is receiving it. It’s also most effective when given sparingly, rather than like a nervous tic, which keeps kids anchored to you for approval.’

The Art of Parenting