Welcome back!

It's good to see everyone back on deck for Term 2. We are already two weeks down and so much has already happened. 

ANZAC Day

On Monday this week we observed the weekend's ANZAC Day with a service in the plaza. Led by our assembly team, students listened respectfully as they heard of the origins of the day, the sacrifices made and what the day now means. During the ceremony, students presented class made wreaths before pausing for a moment of silence and reflection. The students should be proud of the way they all conducted themselves and how they treated the ceremony with respect and engaged in its meaning. 

 2027 Prep Info Night

Next Tuesday, May 5th at 6pm we will be holding our 2027 Prep Info Night at school. If you have a 2027 Prep child, or know someone who does, we encourage you to come along to find out more about the 2027 enrollment process!

Cross Country

Thank you to all those who turned out for today's Cross Country event at Hartwell Sports Ground. There was a big crowd of supporters there for the 9/10 year old 2km event when I visited in the morning. We will have more details in next week's news, including the students who have made it through to the District level. In the meantime, a big thank you to Dean Worlley for organising it all, the teachers for managing the to and fro, Indi for her work in first aid and all the students who tried their best. 

Junior School Council

Our JSC has met several times already as they look at how they can impact our school and the wider world. As part of their brief, the JSC looks at 

• what students feel can be improved about the school
• what causes and charities they believe we should help
• how we can bring these together in themed fundraising activities

They will be sharing this term's initiative soon! 

Year 4 Term 2 Week 2

It’s hard to believe we’re already well into Term 2! The Year 4 students have returned from the break with a positive attitude and have settled back into classroom routines with impressive focus and maturity. They’ve truly hit the ground running, embracing new learning opportunities and demonstrating a strong commitment to their work.

The start of the term has been both busy and rewarding, and it’s been wonderful to see such enthusiasm across the cohort. We are especially excited about the upcoming Japanese Cultural Day, which promises to be a fantastic opportunity for students to engage with and celebrate Japanese traditions, language, and activities in a fun and meaningful way. At the same time, students are preparing for the upcoming Cross Country event, building their endurance, setting personal goals, and encouraging one another as the day approaches. Both events provide valuable opportunities for students to challenge themselves, connect with their peers, and take pride in their efforts. 

We have… 

• Started to develop their understanding of multiplicative thinking, building confidence with using doubling to solve unknown basic facts. We also explored and described the properties of 2D and 3D geometric and composite shapes.
• We made connections in their learning by exploring first contact and different perspectives.
• Students worked on writing biographies, focusing on organising information and including key details about individuals.
• In reading, we practised visualising to support their comprehension and engagement with texts.
• In Sport we learned and participated in kickball, developing teamwork and coordination skills.

What a great start to Term 2.

Mr Baker, Miss Dooley and Miss Stewart (who has filled in for Miss Shivani).

Breakfast Club

This term, Breakfast Club will be run on Wednesday morning, instead of Thursday morning.

Any leftover produce will be available in the Conference Room the next morning.

We have moved to the other side of the Conference Room to allow for more students to line up under cover and in the Conference Room as the weather gets a little colder and the chances of it raining increases. 

Please remember 3 important things on Breakfast Clubs mornings:

1. Use your manners
2. Use the bins
3. You must wait until the 8:45am bell to enter the school yard and line up.

Lunch packs and Take Home packs are still available upon request. Please let Rachel Roberts know and this will be arranged for you.

Cross Cohort SMILE Activity

At the end of last term, we held our first Cross Cohort SMILE activity, bringing students together from across the school in a meaningful and engaging way.

Students were placed into 20 mixed-age groups. These groups were randomly generated, with the exception of our Prep students joining their year 5 buddies. 

As this coincided with Cultural Diversity Week, the session focused on the theme:
 “Culture connects us all.”

Throughout the session, students engaged in rich discussions about our school and community — exploring our differences, recognising our similarities, and thinking about how we can celebrate diversity together.

Each group then worked collaboratively to create a collage representing the diversity within their group. The final pieces were vibrant, thoughtful, and a wonderful reflection of our inclusive school community.

Why this matters

Cross cohort activities like this provide valuable opportunities for students to:

• build connections across different year levels
• develop a stronger sense of belonging and school community
• learn from and support one another
• strengthen communication and teamwork skills
• deepen their understanding and appreciation of diversity

It was fantastic to see students working together with different peers and teachers, and engaging in meaningful conversations about inclusion and belonging.

The Cultural Diversity Week-inspired collages look amazing — we encourage you to take a look at the displays around the school! 

Rachel Roberts

Assistant Principal

Can you believe we’re already into Term 2! The Year 6 students have settled back into routine beautifully and have hit the ground running. It’s been a busy and exciting start to the term, with preparations well underway for Interschool Sport and Cross Country. We can’t believe how quickly the year is flying by, it’s already May! Over the past two weeks, students have been:

• Developing their understanding of biographies in English, learning about structure, tone and the use of figurative language. Students have enjoyed creating their own autobiographies and are now comparing written biographies with video texts, identifying differences in detail, purpose and effectiveness.
• Exploring key Maths concepts, including area and volume, while working collaboratively on problem-solving tasks such as the ‘Chicken Boxes’ investigation. Students have also been strengthening their understanding of 2D and 3D shapes.
• Preparing for upcoming sporting events, with Interschool Sport just around the corner. Students have been training and getting excited for sports such as soccer, AFL, softball and netball, alongside preparing for Cross Country this Friday.
• Beginning their Connected learning focus, with an introduction to history as a key area of study this term. Students are starting to explore how the past shapes our present and future learning.
• Spending time reading with the Year 2 students, which has been a fantastic opportunity to build confidence, develop leadership skills and foster positive connections across the school. The Year 6 students have thoroughly enjoyed supporting the younger learners.

From Brooke, Issi, Mandy & Emma

The Preps have made an exceptional start to term 2 and we hope that you all had a relaxing break during the school holidays.

In Literacy, the Preps have been consolidating their learning of the graphemes (letters)- m,a,t,s,i,d,f,n,p and o through classroom work and the Soundwaves program. Along with this, we have introduced some High Frequency Words in our writing and reading. These HFW help us to write some simple sentences using our knowledge of decodable words so far. Please keep a look out for the taught graphemes and the High Frequency Words taught so far in the take home books. These are - the, I, a , my. 

As a reminder, take home books are swapped by teachers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but it is easiest to keep the green reading bag inside your child’s school bag everyday in case of absence.

In Numeracy, the Preps have been exploring location and positional language, including terms such as above, between, below, in front, behind, and beside. To bring these concepts to life, we visited the playground and took photos while practising how to describe different positions. Students have also been learning about partitioning (breaking numbers into smaller parts) while working with numbers to 5 and beyond. For example, they have explored how the number 5 can be partitioned into 2 and 3.

In Connected Learning, we have begun our unit on Sustainability and Place: Where We Live. Throughout this unit, students will learn how to care for our environment by conserving water and practising reducing, reusing, and recycling. We are also exploring the places where we live and their features. We learn about animals, their habitats and how to take care of them. Look out for information about an exciting animal incursion to be announced soon.

We look forward to a busy term of learning and fun!

The Year 2 students have had a busy and happy return to school after the recent holidays. 

In Literacy we have been working on:

• Re-establishing positive Independent reading practices. 
• Making Text-to-Self and Text-to-Text when reading our new class novel ‘Definitely No Ducks’. 
• Looking for and writing down new and interesting words when we read our Good Fit Texts. 
• Using a Story Mountain to plan and write a narrative text. 

In Numeracy we have been working on: 

• Becoming more confident when making 3-digit numbers with Base Ten Blocks
• Using Base Ten Blocks to add beyond 100 by trading using minis, longs and flats. 
• Renaming numbers as ones, tens and hundreds. 
• Using uniform informal items to estimate and measure everyday items in the classroom. 

In Smile we have been focusing on:

• Developing strategies to help us manage stress.
• Sharing our ideas that encourage others to ask for help when they need it. 

In Phonics we have been focusing on the phonemes /u/ as in up and /g/ as in gate. 

We have been exploring the different graphemes for these sounds:

•  /u/ as in duck and /o/ as in honey. 
• /g/ as in hug and /gg/ as in jogging. 

We have been identifying these sounds in our 200 Oxford High Frequency words and completing the tasks in our Soundwaves books. 

In Connected Learning we have been introduced to our Topic for the term ‘Through Generations’ and look forward to exploring life as it was in the past. We enjoyed learning how to write in Olden Day script and making ANZAC cookies to commemorate ANZAC Day.