Reports

Over the past 3 years the Department of Education and Young People completed a rigorous process across the State to review reporting in our schools.  Parents, School Associations, teachers and school communities provided feedback to create a new reporting agreement moving forward.  As a result, reporting has changed from what we have traditionally seen. Overwhelming feedback indicated that traditional reporting processes were dated and did not inform parents accurately about their child’s learning and development. It was recognised that a stronger partnership between home and school would help support children and their learning, while keeping parents informed. Previous reports were extremely time consuming, however, the recent review highlighted that they did not achieve the purpose desired.

As a result, the way schools report has changed.  One of the most significant changes is an increase in the number of conversations between teachers and parents, whether they are face to face, or over the phone.  This allows feedback regarding student learning to be two way, and greater understanding to be achieved regarding student learning, priorities, needs and future focus. In first term, the Department expectation for teachers is to provide a Progress Report for each student, or to make contact with parents via phone or face to face.  Our staff have provided both.  If you have not yet had a phone call from your child’s teacher, expect one soon.

Keeping you informed of your child’s progress is important to us.  There are Department policies that we follow and additional processes we take.  To enhance this, I encourage you to always make contact with your child’s teacher or me to discuss their learning whenever you feel the need.

Student Leaders

We are extremely fortunate to have a wonderful group of student leaders in our school.  We have already seen these students have the courage to try new things and grow. They are respectful and have embraced their new responsibilities.  They are supporting each other and our school by fulfilling a variety of roles across the school.  We look forward to seeing your leadership continue to grow throughout the year.

Disco

Our SRC have organised a disco for next Thursday for our students. Our Kinder to Grade 2 students will have a disco after lunch during the school day, and our Grade 3 to 6 students will have a night disco that will start at 6:30pm and finish at 8:00pm.  This is a Glow Disco, and students are encouraged to wear something bright on the day.  Lollies and some other treats will be available to purchase at the discos.

As we approach the end of Term 1, there will be no Launch into Learning on Tuesday 9th of April.

We thank you all for joining us this term, and we look forward to seeing you all again in Term 2.

Anne Urquhart visited our school to see firsthand the wonderful new playground equipment we now have at our school.  This equipment was made possible by the funding granted to us by the national Labor Party at the last election.  Our students are certainly loving the new equipment and it has significantly enhanced our playground.  We are very grateful.

Learning Measurement through Visual Art 

Students have come to appreciate the critical role of measurements in constructing a 3D model of their farm scenes. Much like architects, they carefully and thoughtfully constructed blueprint plans for their farms. Prior to construction, they have provided the precise measurements required for their models. Through this process, students discovered that effective planning not only saves time but also conserves materials. Their blueprints provided a clear roadmap of their needs, detailing precisely what was necessary and in what quantities. 

This term, our focus has been on mastering unlabelled graduations. Interpreting these graduations poses a considerable challenge, demanding a grasp of various mathematical concepts, including multiplicative thinking. When faced with partially labelled instruments, students were tasked with understanding fractions and discerning the relationship between different units of measurement. 

In Term 1 in 5/6W we have been studying measurement in Maths. We have learnt how to convert between different units of length and why this is helpful. We have also been learning about perimeter and how to calculate this. To make the most of our lovely sunny weather we have been measuring the perimeter of objects in our playground and calculating the total. We have been enjoying applying our knowledge to the real world and using a range of different measuring devices. 

This term, Mrs Hartley has been running 'Lego group' with small groups of students from year 1,2 and 3. We have been doing this at lunch for 20 minutes before the students help pack up and go outside for a play. The focus of the group is on social skill development and having fun! We hope to continue the groups next term; maybe with older age groups included too. There have been some very creative designs including Logan's book holder and Lachlan's hover killer.

Students in 5/6S, after learning about complementary colours, have been learning to mix and blend paint to create paintings that capture the essence of autumnal leaves. Complementary colours are colours that are opposite to one another on a colour wheel and cancel each other out. This colour theory is based on the idea that colours opposite each other on the colour wheel create a striking contrast and enhance each other when used together. Some common pairs of complimentary colours include blue and orange which students experimented with, as well as red and green, and yellow and purple. 

Here are some pictures of the painting process as well as some finished paintings.  

In 3D, we have been learning about capacity. During our lessons we created recipes for magical potions. First, students had to choose between 4 and 6 ingredients to put in their potions. Students were very creative with their ingredients and incorporated things such as smiley water and unicorn vomit. Then, students had plan out how many millilitres they would need of each ingredient. Finally, students were given a variety ingredients and challenged to make their potions by carefully measuring out ingredients. Our next step is to incorporate design elements on the computer to create labels for their potions! 

All existing members and New faces are encouraged to attend!

Children are invited to attend, they are able to play quietly in the library or outside in the enclosed Kinder yard.

The Wynyard Show Pancake Stall Fundraiser for the Grade 6 camp was once again an outstanding success seeing us raise just shy of $2500!

The Parents & Friends Group collected ingredients and donations from generous families and along with their fantstic volunteers were able to plan and execute a hands on and funfilled day.

The fundraising group hopes the support from the Grade 6 families continues in the future, so they can continue to contribute the $5000 towards the cost of the Grade 6 camp in the years going forward.

The Grade 6 students who volunteered to help on the day were asked to participate in making the batter which was an educational and fun experience for them.