Learning at SKiPPS

Curriculum Day

With only one day between the end of the school holidays and ANZAC Day, Term 2 started a little differently this year with our staff working hard on their professional development.

Our teachers spent Monday's curriculum day engaging with professional learning about the 6+1 traits of effective writing and planning for classroom writing instruction.

We worked together to better understand the role that 'voice' and 'word choice' play in making writing effective and we discovered and explored ways that we can support our students to use these traits more effectively in their own learning.

We spent time understanding the role that student agency and a Writer's Notebook can play in developing keen and skilled writers and even had a go at some writing of our own!

We were lucky to spend the day off-site at the stunning Junction Oval Citipower Centre. A huge thanks to Cricket Victoria for being such great neighbours!

Street Art Excursions

Over the school holidays, the 'St Kilda Street Art Gathering' took place on Fitzroy Street, leaving some beautiful new additions around our neighbourhood.

This week, our upper school Visual Art classes have been leaving the school and visiting the amazing pieces of street art dotted around the local area.

At each location they have been learning more about the artists, their inspiration and techniques and choosing a favourite.

We are so lucky to be a part of a local community that is so vibrant and creative and with such wonderful opportunities for learning and inspiration on our doorstep.

Foundation Sustainability Day

On Thursday of this week, our Foundation students were lucky to work with Allison Shanahan, our Kitchen Garden Specialist (and City of Port Phillip EcoCentre Educator) to take part in some fun activities all about sustainability.

The students participated in four activities over the course of the day at school;

• A rubbish relay to help them understand how to separate their waste and use the correct bins to best reduce, reuse and recycle.
• Making some craft creations using recycled and reused materials 
• Planting a seed which they can watch grow into a healthy plant.
• Learning about Indigenous plants and foods and making a native bush tea to enjoy.

The day was a wonderful way to kick-off our learning for the term and the students enjoyed learning about all things sustainable.