Teaching & Learning

It’s been a busy term so far.

I enjoy walking into classrooms and hearing students cheer when a teacher tells them it’s reading time. It shows me that they love to learn. It’s also great listening to the students read to another staff member and you can hear them trying to improve on a certain aspect of their reading such as fluency or even just using picture clues to help them read. Children are asking if they can read with me when I walk into the classroom to work with their teachers.

Since we have starting implementing CARS and STARS this term, it’s been wonderful to hear teachers and students using the same terminology in their lessons, not just CARS and STARS, that they are learning through the program. It’s beginning to show they are making connections.

Early Stage One and Stage One classes have been writing informative texts. They have been enjoying finding facts about places in Australia and animals. It’s wonderful hearing them develop their knowledge of the purpose of informative texts and knowing the differences between imaginative and informative texts. Kindergarten learnt that a baby echidna is called a puggle and found that to be quite funny.

Jody Welsh

Instructional Leader

The PBL focus this month has been respectful relationships and communication. Students have been learning what respectful relationships and respectful communication looks, sounds and feels like. Students have also been encouraged to show empathy and understanding towards others and learning appropriate language to communicate their opinions in a respectful way.

Congratulations to our PBL raffle winners!

PRIMARY CLASS AWARDS - Term 2: Weeks 3-6

The last month has been a busy one for Kindergarten. We finally visited Healthy Harold and all the students loved the experience. Students learnt about healthy choices and were able to meet Harold himself.

Kinder attended their first Cross Country and it was a huge day. The excitement of attending an event outside the school and seeing parents in the crowd made it a memorable one.

Last week we attended The Very Hungry Caterpillar puppet show at the Capitol Theatre and it was magical. As we walked to Centrepoint Arcade we were lucky to see some mums and dads. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day and some Kinder students even asked if they could go back the next day. A huge thank you to Miss Cunneen for organising this event. We absolutely loved it.

Lots has happened in class. Kinder has been doing lots of artwork, especially for Mother’s Day. In Maths, we have been learning about subtraction and area and the students have enjoyed the hands-on activities. In writing, we have just begun our unit on Information Reports. Kinder are learning to describe how an animal moves; what they look like and eat; and learning some interesting facts along the way. This unit of work will be linked with our excursion in week ten to the Marsupial Park.

Hello from all of us in Stage 1

We have been extremely busy this term and have been having lots of fun.

We have written information reports on famous landmarks around Australia including Uluru, The Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Great Barrier Reef and Wave Rock.

We have been super busy in maths.

We’ve been sliding, flipping and turning 2D shapes and making some fantastic designs.

We’ve looked at number patterns and we’ve been discussing different strategies we can use when solving addition and subtraction problems.

Changes to the timetable and staffing

The last few weeks have certainly tested our ability to be resilient. TWPS sadly said goodbye to a respected colleague, Mrs Tanya Sinclair. Stage 3 students have demonstrated increased maturity and responsibility in recognising their sadness and acknowledge the need to move forward with their lives. Staff could not be prouder of the response by students to her passing.

I would like to thank Mr Chris Lyon and Miss Nicole Cunneen for their flexibility at this time. Mr Lyon worked with 5F in Mrs Flick’s absence and Miss Cunneen is teaching Mrs Sinclair’s class. These changes are expected to be short term. The full day rotations with five teachers will cease until further notice. Classes will have a one library lesson and another hour in computer. Parents will be advised of staffing changes once Mrs Kay has been able to appoint a teacher to 3/6S.

Excursion

We appreciate that families are becoming anxious about the excursion and apologise for lack of communication. We have had significant changes to staffing and role responsibilities in the past few months. I have prepared an expression of interest note for parents to be distributed next week. Sadly many venues remain closed or have restricted access. As previously advised at the parent teacher evening in Term 1, we have an approximate cost of $650 for the trip. We hope that families have been saving in preparation for their child’s participation to Canberra. In light of the current COVID outbreaks in Victoria, we also hope that the excursion will be able to go ahead.

Year 6 Shirts

I had hoped that Year 6 would be able to purchase jumpers this year in preference to polo shirts. I had eagerly set a deadline to maximize student’s usage of their purchased jumper, end of week 2 this term. Sadly, my best intentions have not come to fruition. I am sorry for any confusion and disappointment the Year 6 shirt order may have caused. As a result, this year we will be ordering polo shirts as originally planned. Orders forms will go out at the end of this term with further information for Year 6 students.

It has been a busy term for K3M so far. We have started to replant our garden bed. We still have some great spinach plants growing and our marigolds are blooming.

This week we have started to plant some strawberries and calendulas flower. We hope to plant a blueberry bush next week and revamp the hanging herb garden too!

The students have been very diligently weeding some of the other garden beds to help out and they are doing a great job at working out what is a weed and what is a plant! We are looking forward to seeing our garden grow.

Our Early Stage 1 students had the opportunity to attend the stage performance of The Hungry Caterpillar.

It was certainly a winner and it was really an enjoyable experience for both the students and staff who attended.

We had lots fun at the school’s Cross Country event and enjoyed having our parents and grandparents there this year to cheer the students on.

Until next time, bye for now!

3-6S and 3-6D

During the last few weeks 3-6S and 3-6D have been working very hard on their athletics skills during sport. Everyone is looking forward to the Inclusive Sport Athletics Come and Try Day being held on Wednesday, 2 June, 2021. This will see us well prepared for the Be Skilled Be Fit day at school on Friday, 4 June, 2021. All students and staff will have been lots of fun increasing their fitness and staying warm now that the cooler weather is upon us!

In Geography both classes are continuing to learn about the Earth’s Environment with a focus on sustainability.

During History, stage 3 will continue learning all about government and how Australia's system of government and the responsibilities of each level of government.

Students are moving onto our second English unit called “Why I love Australia”. Students are continuing to learn how to persuade and convince an audience of their point of view in writing and through speech.

During our Math lessons all students have been working really hard to learn their multiplication facts, angles, place value, addition and subtraction. These activities have provided key areas of focus during the last couple of weeks.

3-6S have also been doing some exciting theme-based work in their room. They are currently studying the Great Barrier Reef. Their learning activities have seen the students completely involved in a fully integrated program based on this theme.

New Books in the Library

Below is a small selection of new books that have recently arrived in the Library. Don’t forget your Library bag so you can borrow some of our new books.

Girls Softball Gala Day

On Monday, 24 May nine girls and Miss Cunneen walked down to the softball fields to participate in a gala day. Our first game was against Tamworth Public with a familiar coach on the team, Mrs Heather Richards, a previous teacher from Tamworth West. This was a friendly and enjoyable game with both sides learning lots about the game. We won this game and advanced to the next round. In next round we played Duri and it was a tough competition. Our skills were pushed to the limit and Maddison and Haley Mason effectively combined with the support of the team to reduce the numbers of runs scored. The game ended in a draw. Our third game saw us combine with Westdale and Tamworth Public for a friendly and skill-based game. Many new friends were made and lots of laughs occurred. A huge thank you to Mrs Mason for co-coaching with Miss Cunneen on the day. The girls were demonstrated resilience, sportsmanship and a positive attitude all day and should be congratulated for their efforts.