30 October 2020

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S PRIDE

Dear Parents and Carers,

Over the past fortnight we have had much to celebrate and it is always fantastic to see our year levels contributing to our school newsletter.

Week 2 had our Year 6 students buzzing! They happily and enthusiastically shared their modified leadership experience at Kirwan State High School and they loved experiencing fun, teamwork, laughs and overcoming their fears with a range of activities. A shout out to our amazing Year 6 and specialist teachers and our Kirwan State High School colleagues for the fantastic range of activities for our students across the 2 days. I also would like to thank Mr Tod for his organisation of this extra-curricular activity.

Week 3 was a great week filled with modified sports across Prep-Year 6. It was fantastic to see our students enjoy team and individual sporting events and cheer loudly for their houses. I would particularly like to thank our wonderful PE staff, Ms Deuble and Mr Madeley for their outstanding organisation and flexibility to deliver the fun of sport for our students. A shout out to all of our teachers for getting behind our students and our sport program.

This week has been filled with State Education Week activities, Book Week celebrations and Day for Daniel. It has been wonderful seeing so many staff and students involved in the various activities throughout the week.

STAFF APPRECIATION DAY

Today we celebrate our staff! We have a fantastic team and 2020 has highlighted the most amazing synergy across all members of our school team. Great schools are made of great staff working together for our students...we are part of an excellent school and I thank all staff for their efforts!

PREP 2021

Children are eligible to enrol in Prep in 2021 if they will be five by 30 June in the year they commence Prep. The birth date range to be eligible for Prep in 2021 is from 1 July, 2015 to 30 June, 2016. Enrolments are open and welcome NOW!

ATTENDANCE

As we head towards the middle of Term 4, it is important that students attend school every day they are well enough to do so as teaching and learning across all learning areas continue as assessments are finalised for the year.

Thank you to all members of our school community for your support as we continue to follow Government guidelines regarding COVID 19, your patience is appreciated.

Kind regards,

Helen McCullough
Principal

GENERAL NEWS

UPCOMING EVENTS

Positive Behaviour Learning

Music News (The Pitch)

Prep News

Prep News

In English we have been creating new adventures for characters in story books. When we are writing, we are focusing on using our sounds, sight words and remembering to add full stops and capital letters. Here are some new Three Little Pig tales.

Maths

Maths this term involves us working with numbers up to 20. We are looking at number words, numerals and counting teen collections correctly.

Science

In Science we have been exploring how objects move and why they move in different ways. It’s a great chance for us to get out and observe hoops and balls in motion.

Technology

Technology involves us designing and creating a spinner. Through exploring different spinners, we are observing how to make a fast and entertaining spinner.

Sports Carnival

On Monday we had so much fun competing in some sports day activities. We were ten pin bowling, running racing and also playing some ball games. All of us showed great team spirit.

Year 1 News

This term in maths, the Year 1 students are learning how to solve addition and subtraction problems using efficient strategies. They are enjoying learning about all of the different ways they can represent their addition and subtraction problems. By using number lines, part-part-whole boxes, tens frames, pictures and concrete materials to assist them is helping them to work out their problem so they are able to use number sentences to show their result.

Year 2 News

Year two have been engaged in a new Science Unit learning about water conservation. We have been identifying ways to save water at school and why it is important to conserve Earth’s resources. The children have been engaged in creating posters to display for all year levels within the school.

Thinking Question: How can you save water at home?

Year 3 News

During Term 4, students have been working on writing an adaptation of a poem that they will later present to an audience. Throughout this unit, students have been investigating a poem that explores a desert community. This involved unpacking the structural elements of a poem and exploring extended vocabulary to develop understanding. 3C DAV took a digital approach to visualising the poem and analysing the evaluative adjectives. This helped to understand how these elements of language could influence the mood of a poem.

By investigating “Desert Community”, students were able to see that using different poetic devices, such as rhythm and rhyme and using language features like alliteration and personification can vastly effect how an audience reacts to their writing. This has caused some very careful construction of sentences and stanzas. It has been exciting to see 3DAV passionately create their own versions of poems about an “Arctic Community” and a “Jungle Community”.

Year 4 News

In Science this term, Grade 4 students are learning about Forces. They have been investigating contact and non-contact forces playing 60 second slam games. Grade 4’s have conducted investigations about how contact and non-contact forces are exerted on an object.

In 4E MEN, Students have played table straw soccer and balloon tap to investigate contact and non-contact forces. They have drawn simplified forces diagrams and investigated patterns in data to show their understanding. 4E MEN students will be using their robotics learning and forces understanding to turn a robot into a push or pull robot and explain how the forces in their robot are exerting the force onto a ping-pong ball.

Year 5 News

English:

Year 5’s English task this term is to interpret a novel and its film adaptation to make comparisons between the two texts. To this end, we have been super-engaged with Colin Thiele’s book Storm Boy and Safran’s film of the same title working as text detectives to identify key characters, major events and the underlying themes and issues that will form the basis of our comparison.

Thiele’s use of imagery has captured ours senses and we have observed with interest how the filmmakers have maintained the intent of the original text and its key messages.

All classes are currently drafting their comparisons. Below are some samples of our work.

Storm Boy, a well-known classic, was written by Colin Thiele and published in 1963. Soon after the success from Thiele’s novel, the story was adapted by Henri Safran into a film that was released in 1976. Both novel and film follow young Storm Boy and tell a heart-warming tale about him befriending a pelican named Mr Percival, along with his father Hide-Away Tom and an aboriginal man named Fingerbone Bill. Together they all live in the Coorong, located on the Ninety Mile Beach in, which is bursting with wildlife. The iconic tale, Storm Boy concentrates on the destruction of the environment, and this theme is shown in both texts.

Charlotte Hall 5 KRO

The character of Hide-Away Tom is depicted differently in the novel compared to the film ‘Storm Boy.’ In the novel, Hide-Away Tom is described as a hermit and beachcomber who lives his life with his son, Storm Boy. They live by the banks of the South Australian Coorong, in isolation. Although he is ‘a quite lonely man,’ he had Storm Boy for company. Hide-Away uses humour to create a greater connection to Storm Boy. Hide-Away also cares for his son and doesn’t like to see him cry or be sad.

Christian Neeb 5 KRO

In the movie, the character of Hide-Away Tom is portrayed very differently to the character in Thiele’s novel. Tom is represented as an abrupt authoritative man. Hide-Away has a distant relationship with Storm Boy, not having much conversation between each other. Hide-Away Tom says, ‘lying is about as low as a man can get,’ when he thinks Storm Boy has lied about seeing than aboriginal man living in the Coorong, suggesting he does not really know his son. Additionally, Tom does not think about Storm Boy’s emotional needs and is surprised when Storm Boy questions their life together in the isolated environment.

Tara Robinson 5 KRO

While there are differences around Hide-Away Tom’s character between the two texts, there are some distinct similarities. In both texts, the father shows concern for his son by erecting a lookout post as a clear landmark along the isolated beach. While its inclusion is described in the written version of the story, the lookout post appears visually in the movie version of Storm Boy. In both texts, the post symbolises the father’s desire for Storm Boy to grow up safe and happy in the remote environment.

Class construct 5KRO

Year 6 News

Last week, the Year 6’s went on their Leadership day to Kirwan State High School for two days. It was a well-deserved and enjoyable time for all the students! The staff and students of Kirwan High School organised numerous exciting activities that included several teamwork activities, canoe tipping, rock climbing, rope swinging, catapult building and much, much more! Thank you to Kirwan High School for the amazing time our staff and students had on their Leadership day.

Community Events & Notices

THE SMITH FAMILY SAVER PLUS

What is Saver Plus?

Saver Plus is a 10 month financial education and matched savings program that assists people to improve their financial education and develop a savings habit for their own or their children’s education costs.

As part of the program, participants receive:

• one dollar in matched savings for every one dollar they save, up to $500, funded by ANZ;
• free MoneyMinded financial education; and
• personal support and guidance from a trusted community organisation.

At the end of the program participants use their matched savings to purchase an education-related goal, which can include school uniforms, textbooks, excursions and other school or sporting costs.

Benefits of Saver Plus

By joining the program participants will:

• be motivated to save by receiving a financial reward for their saving efforts, up to $500;
• strengthen their financial skills;
• improve their ability to save in the long-term; and
• increase their financial confidence.

How it works

Participants:

• work with their Saver Plus Coordinator to identify an educational expense for which they intend to save;
• open an account with their local ANZ branch and begin making deposits;
• attend MoneyMinded workshops to improve their financial management skills;
• continue to make regular deposits into their ANZ Progress Saver account over a 10 month period.

Once participants reach their savings goal, participants savings are matched dollar for dollar, up to $500 by ANZ.

To be eligible, participants must meet all of the following criteria:

• have a current Centrelink Health Care or Pensioner Concession Card;
• be at least 18 years old;
• have some regular income from work (themselves or their partner) including casual, part-time, full-time or seasonal employment;
• be in receipt of an eligible Commonwealth social security benefit, allowance or payment
• be a parent or guardian of a child at school OR be attending or returning to vocational education themselves.

How to apply

For more information contact your local Saver Plus Coordinator Debbie Mitchell on 0418 201 533 or email debbie.mitchell@thesmithfamily.com.au enquire online at www.saverplus.org.au , call 1300 610 355 or email saverplus@bsl.org.au .

Saver Plus is an initiative of Brotherhood of St Laurence and ANZ, delivered in partnership with The Smith Family, Berry Street and other local community agencies. The Program is funded by ANZ and the Australian Government Department of Social Services. Go to www.dss.gov.au for more information.