Term 1 Wrap Up

Well it has certainly been a busy Term 1, and we always have much to celebrate with our learning at Hackham East Primary School.

 

Some highlights from this term include:

Castle Unit

  • Our Reception and Year 1 children have had a wonderful start to their school year. They are mostly excited to be at school and enjoy sharing their learning with others! This term they have explored lots of learning at school including – learning numbers and patterning in Maths, learning decoding strategies and visualising in reading and learning to write sentences to convey a message in writing. They have also explored a unit on Sense of Belonging and participated in lots of activities to highlight the special people in their life and that families are similar, different and unique!
  • The Year 1 and 2 classes have also been involved in lots of exciting learning including changes in life cycles and living things as they grow. They have been writing personal stories and learning how to revise and make their writing more interesting by adding adjectives and adverbs.
Reception children received a Book and 'Reading Buddy" from Ms Sally
Reception children received a Book and 'Reading Buddy" from Ms Sally

Stillwell Unit

  • Ms Woods and Ms Dealtry’s Year 3/ 4 classes have spent time learning about Living and Non-Living things in biological sciences. Students have been very ‘persuasive’ in their writing and have enjoyed learning about Australia’s neighbouring countries and different climates around the world.

Holly Unit

  • In HASS the Year 5-7 students have been investigating Australian history from the colonization of Australia by the British to the Gold Rushes and Australian Federation – including significant individuals involved in the creation of modern Australia as a nation.
  • In Science the Year 4/5 students have been studying plants including plant biology - parts of plants, how roots germinate and grow, dissecting flowers and identifying leaf types.
  • All students have continued to display a Growth Mindset towards Problem Solving in Mathematics and it is wonderful to see students not giving up, trying multiple strategies and getting in the “Learning Pit” in mathematics.

Other School Learning Events for Term 1

  • All classes participated in the National Day of Anti-Bullying, ‘Bullying No Way! Take action every day!’ Students engaged in a range of learning activities to identify what bullying is and strategies they can use to be an ‘upstander’ if they are the person being bullied or if they see others being bullied.
  • Our Harmony Day Assembly was held on the same day and allowed students to wear the colours of orange or blue to signify acceptance of cultural difference and mutual respect. Classes then participated in a range of learning activities throughout the day to enhance the key message of ‘inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians.’
  • We were very privileged to have Rachel Sporn (former State and Olympic Basketballer) visit us as part of SA Olympics Unleashed. This is an organisation that promotes the upcoming Olympics and highlights to students the traits that athletes draw on to help them when participating in sports at this level. Many of the traits mirror our School Values and our students responded positively and displayed good manners to our visitor.
Rachel Sporn
Rachel Sporn
Rachel Sporn
Rachel Sporn
  • Sporting Events – a number of our middle and upper primary students recently participated in SAPSASA Softball events, supported by Mrs Martin and Mr Amoroso.
  • Buddy Class Program – all classes are buddied with another class for the year to foster positive learning interactions and modelling with younger and older students and to build staff connections across classes with different students.

We love seeing our older and younger students interact and to learn from each other on a regular basis. This also has a positive impact on buddies helping each other out in the yard.  I recently observed a Year 7 students ‘hanging out’ with their Reception buddy doing colouring activity together during Lunch play time – it was a delightful sight to see!

  • Gym wall mural – we have had the talented Scott Rathman work on another mural as part of beautifying our school. Scott worked with a group of 38 students to develop some images to represent our local community, then using these in the mural. The mural represents the Onkaparinga River, our local beach areas and the Hills surrounding our School.
Disigning the new mural
Painting the new mural
The completed mural
Disigning the new mural
Painting the new mural
The completed mural

A big thank you to all of our Staff who work extremely hard to develop ongoing and rigorous learning that engages but also stretches our learners and fosters collaboration, problem solving, and students ‘grappling’ with challenging learning. 

 

Some quotes and feedback from our learners recently that backs up our wonderful learning:

 

“I have been learning my times table this year, x 10 and x 2 were easy, the x 5 were a bit trickier”

 

“This term I got an iPad to do my learning, I love reading on EPIC and doing Maths activities on SeeSaw to help me learn.”

 

“In maths it has been a bit stressful, it has been stretching my brain when we learn about millimetres and the number line.”

 

“I’ve been learning bigger numbers and it has been a bit hard for me but I use my different learning strategies and I don’t give up.” 

 

“I used to only try the easy learning, I’m excited to try hard learning now and use my whole brain.”

 

If you are looking for family outings that are low or no cost, check out the website links for family friendly events during the holidays and throughout the year.

https://playandgo.com.au/april-school-holiday-guide-best-ideas-for-adelaide-school-holidays/

 

We wish all of our families and caregivers a happy and safe School holiday break.

 

Kind regards,

Ms Sally, Principal

'A Special Visitor'
Play Is The Way
Bananagrams
Cubby Building
Cubby Building
'A Special Visitor'
Play Is The Way
Bananagrams
Cubby Building
Cubby Building