Term 4 Week 9

Principal's Report

What a busy time it is!  Harvest has kicked off.....very slowly.... I hope it ends up a good year for all of those on the land.  Lets hope the rain and hail stay away from now on, the paddocks dry out and the farmers can get a good run on harvest. 

On Tuesday, I was in Ballarat working on the maintenance plan with Penny Irish from DOBCEL.  I met Penny at the DOBCEL office in Gillies St, Wendouree.  What a wonderful facility they have there.  It was also great to meet a number of people who I have spoken to on the phone for many years but never met in person.  It was a productive meeting that has given me an understanding of what we need to be budgeting for now and into the future to maintain our buildings and grounds.

Earlier this week I received a phone call from Jamie Daff, the Principal of Charlton College.  To accomodate all of their year 10 to 12 students subject choices for 2023, they are going to have to change their timetable from 4 to 6 periods a day and to make this work, they will have to finish school at 3:15pm instead of 3:00pm.  This in turn means that we will also have to finish at 3:15 in 2023.  We will extend recess and lunch by 5/10mins.  I hope this does not cause any inconvenience but in order for our children to catch the buses, we have to follow suit.  

Yesterday we had our second puberty class for the grade 5/6 students and after lunch we were lucky enough to have an AFL clinic with AFL VIC.  The children had lots of fun.

Today is our last transition day for our 2023 foundation students and I hear they may be having a teddy bears picnic!  So 'if you go out in the woods today, you better go in disguise', because you may be in for a big surprise! Don't forget your favourite teddy bear or soft toy F/1/2 class.

Last night we went over our annual action plan and discussed our aims for the 2023 school year.  One of our actions next year is to begin a structured literacy programme run by the SunLit team in the Ballarat Diocese.  2023 will be a learning year for our staff with implementation beginning in 2024.  Following is a blurb from the SunLit team explaining a bit about the project:  

We are fine tuning our Carols by Candlelight songs and preparing for Graduation.  Please remember to let me know ASAP if your children will not be attending Carols or Graduation because every child has a special job to do and we will need to cover them if they are not attending.

Don't forget to put those Christmas trees up today!  I wonder how many Elf on the Shelf elves will be back out of hiding this morning!  

Cate Olive

Acting Principal

Information

Carols By Candlelight.  Carols by Candlelight will be held on Sunday 11th December at the Rex Theatre.  Time to be confirmed at a later date.  We will have a costume fitting tomorrow morning.

Graduation. The Graduation Mass will be held on Tuesday 13th December at 6:00p.m. Followed by a BBQ in the quadrangle. Please let me know ASAP if you are bringing anyone other than your immediate family.

Swimming Programme 2023. There has been a change of plan for our swimming programme for next year.  Charlton College have asked us if we would like to join with them for their swimming programme next year.  We have decided to go ahead with this plan for 2023 and see how it goes. More info will be provided in the new year but at this stage it will still run the first 2 weeks back at school next year.  We will possibly join the college for their swimming sports as well.  

Prep/1/2 Class News

It’s been another great week in the junior classroom, with everyone busily finishing up work and completing assessments before the end of the year. This week we’ve been working on procedural writing, with the students writing the aim, materials and steps involved to make a milo. It was good to see the students using connective words such as firstly, secondly, next and finally, to indicate the flow of events/steps in the procedure, as well as coming up with a special tip for the reader of something to keep in mind. The students did really well with writing their procedures and were able to enjoy their milos afterwards.

In Maths we’ve been exploring location and position language. The students have been learning how to describe the position of something, i.e. next to, above, below, on top of, etc. The older students have been learning about directions and have been practising using maps to give and follow directions to different locations. We’ve also learnt about the language used to describe direction on a compass or map, i.e. north, east, south, and west.

In Religion, we’ve started to explore the story of Christmas with a focus on the story of the Angels visiting the Shepherds. The students have been learning how God sent the message about the birth of Jesus to both wise men and shepherds and that this means the message about Jesus’ birth was meant for everyone from all walks of life. The students have been excited to learn about the Christmas story and to begin to work through some Advent related experiences and activities in the coming weeks.

Last week on Thursday, we also had our new preps in attendance for the second transition to school day. We were lucky to have the new preps with us from the start of the day until lunchtime which was really good. We participated in reading, writing and maths activities and the new students enjoyed being able to have an extra-long play in the yard and playground during both recess and lunchtimes. This week will be the new preps last transition day with a ‘teddy bear’ picnic planned which will be an enjoyable way to finish up before we meet them again in 2023!

3/4/5/6 Class News

This week in Literacy students are learning about the modern wonders of the world through the Taj Mahal. They are continuing to consolidate their reading skills and are learning about relevant vocabulary and how to use a glossary in an information text. Students are also continuing to work on their persuasive writing skills and have chosen one of the natural wonders of the world that they wish to ‘save’ and why this is so important. Students have worked on planning, structure, sentence construction, persuasive techniques and language. 

In Maths students are continuing to revise their learning from the year. Year 3 and 4 students are revising carrying and borrowing in addition and subtraction with three or more digits. Year 5 and 6 students are revising the four processes, with a focus on division. 

Students have had a fun Science lesson this week. They have joined the F-2 classroom to finish their guinea pig mazes and test them out for suitability. They were able to test their maze on three different guinea pigs and make changes to their mazes and reflect on these as needed. 

Homework contract 35 and spelling words are due this Friday please. 

Community News

Humour

O’Malley is leaving his favourite bar when he is run over by a bus. He gets to the gates of heaven and St Peter tells him he cannot enter unless he passes a test. O’Malley agrees to try as he never was the brightest bulb in the box.
St Peter decides to go easy on him. “What has five fingers and is made of black leather?” he asks.
O’Malley scratches his head, thinks hard and finally gives up.
“It’s a glove,” says St Peter. “Let’s try again. What has 10 fingers and is made of black leather?”
O’Malley is clearly stumped. After a few minutes of pacing in a circle and scratching his head, he gives up.
“Why, it’s TWO gloves – don’t you see? Ten fingers, black leather?” says St. Peter, amazed.
Being in a generous mood, St Peter decides to give O’Malley one final chance and thinks of an even easier question.
“Okay. Who is the patron saint of Ireland?” he asks, thinking surely O’Malley can’t miss this.
“It wouldn’t be three gloves, would it?” says O’Malley