Week 10, Term 1

How do you like your class for 2025?

I love it! My class is very funny and we love learning together.

What would you do if you quit your job at school?

Well, that’s a hard question because I love being a teacher, but maybe [being] a travel writer would be fun.

What is your favourite colour?

Red.

How do you rate yourself out of 5?

I think you would have to ask my class.

What is your favourite sport?

Basketball.

How will you do if you did not like your class?

I think you will find ways to like something about your class.

Did you play a sport when you where a kid?

I played basketball and tennis.

Where did you grow up and how many siblings do you have?

I grew up in Warrnambool and [I have] seven siblings.

What is you favourite food?

Of course, it's chocolate.

How many family members do you have?

I have two children – Bailey and Finn – and three stepkids – Pippi, Jack and Nelli – and my husband Ben.

What do you want to do when you stop teaching here?

I think [I'll be] a writer and also travel.

What job where you in before you started here?

I did book publishing.

Interview by SRC member Ava M.

Wellbeing

Hello from the Preps!

What a busy and exciting final week of term we’ve had! We started off the week with a special visit from Shelley (Ruby’s mum), who read the story Come Over to My House, which explores the home lives of children and parents with disabilities. Earlier this term, students had the fantastic opportunity to watch Shelley represent Australia in wheelchair basketball in Japan, and they loved being able to ask her questions about her experience.

In Literacy, we explored a new sound and met its character, Yasmin Yak. Each day, students have been practising their reading and writing skills with enthusiasm and growing independence. On Wednesday, we held our School Cross Country, and it was wonderful to see everyone giving their best effort. Congratulations to our place getters and to all students for their bravery and willingness to take on a new challenge!

To wrap up our Big Question, “How are we connected to living things?”, we enjoyed an engaging visit from Kieran (Ruby’s dad), who spoke to the students about bees. It was a fascinating session, and we loved learning more about these important pollinators.

To finish off our amazing term, we enjoyed participating in the annual Easter Hat Parade and showing off our amazing hats, whilst dancing to the ‘Chicken Dance’. We even got to go on a special Easter egg hunt with our Easter egg baskets and followed clues to get some special chocolate eggs!

Today, students have brought home their Learning Journal in their reading folders, containing samples of their work from this term. We hope you enjoy looking through it together. Please return these to the classroom in the first week of Term 2, as we will continue adding work throughout the year.

We are so proud how well students have transitioned to school and their enthusiasm for learning. Congratulations to everyone on a wonderful first term!

Have a safe and relaxing Easter break. We look forward to seeing you next term.

Lauren and Nicole

We have had such a fun-filled last week in the Golden Wattle building!

This week, in Literacy, we enjoyed reading some beautiful stories including Bentley and Egg and The Secret Path. We have been focusing on using correct boundary punctuation when writing by starting our sentences with a capital letter and ending with a punctuation mark. 

In Maths, we have been looking at maps and creating a bird’s eye view. We used these skills when creating a map of part of the school. Our finished maps were handed over to a Grade 5/6 buddy, who then marked where they had hidden some Easter eggs for us to find.

The Easter theme continued with our Egg-Drop STEAM Challenge. This involved working in small groups to design and make something that would protect an egg being dropped from a height of 2 metres. This involved a lot of collaboration, problem solving and compromise – with some interesting results.

On Wednesday, we enjoyed participating in the House Cross Country. Well done to all students who showed courage and determination to finish their races. After the races, each House team chose some students (and teachers!) to compete in the ‘Rob the Nest’ challenge. 

And of course, on Friday we had the annual Easter Hat Parade. As always, we were amazed at the imaginative creations students came up with. They always make it so hard for the judges to pick a winner!   

We hope you all enjoy a restful break and look forward to seeing everyone in Term 2!

Wendy, Laura, Claire, Sarah and Andrew

We made it! We are ¼ of the way through our school year. We have been summing up and finalising many things this week and pieces of work have been making their way into our Learning Journal. Please take the time to share your child’s learning journal with them.

The plans for our Dream Homes are finished and ready to be sent to the builders (we wish!). Our work around them has been measuring Area and Perimeter and calculating costs in a variety of ways.

In Literacy, we learned about the flow of energy through ecosystems and created diagrams to model the producers, consumers and decomposers of an ecosystem. We reviewed what we have learned from our word studies and vocabulary learning this year.

For Wellbeing, we have continued to work on Emotional Literacy and how to identify intense emotions, situations that may trigger them and how to find the words to describe them.

We had a great participation rate for our Cross Country day on Thursday. Thank you to all for coming dressed in house colours and full of team spirit. The Easter Hat Parade was also sensational! The 5/6 unit helped set the tone for a magnificent display! Our highlight for the week was helping the Grade 1/2 students hide their Easter eggs!

We wish you all a happy and safe holiday, and we’ll see you back for Term Two!

 Bendigo Easter Festival – Parade Opportunity

Over the Easter Long weekend, the Bendigo Easter Festival will be happening with a great program including many fun activities for kids and families. As part of this the Indonesian group ‘Mugi Rahayu’ will be partaking in the parade on Saturday from 11am-2pm. This group is run by Aaron and Nita who have recently been at our school running workshops for the Indonesian Day as well as providing an opportunity for our students to get involved in Indonesian dancing at the Castlemaine Fringe Festival. Students have been invited to get involved in the parade and be part of this event. There may also be room for some parents to jump in and participate, numbers pending.  

Here is a link to the festival and a video of a previous parade to give you an idea of what is involved. If anyone is interested, then please confirm your participation with Nita directly on 0421912012 so she can have enough costumes organised and ready to go on the day. Please note that this is not an official school event but an amazing opportunity to get involved in a fun community festival.

https://www.bendigoeasterfestival.org.au/about/about-event

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=zVSfF0qgZxs

Gamelan

This week, most students from Grades 3-6 have been playing the gamelan. As we had the set out last week for Indonesian day, we had an additional few lessons before packing it away yesterday. Gamelan has been taught for longer periods biannually, so next year students will have a more extended opportunity to play. Thanks to all the parents and teachers who were available to help shift it from space to space on either end. It certainly requires a team effort, but it’s always worthwhile as it is a great and special resource we have at our school! This legacy was brought to Castlemaine North Primary School in the mid-nineties by Mr Vic Say, who previously taught Indonesian here and currently has 2 grandchildren attending the school. It was lovely to hear his stories about bringing both the gamelan and the Barong from Indonesian last week when he attended our Pasar.

House Cross Country

All students made terrific progress with their cross country this month to culminate in an exciting whole school event. We heard some new house chants and had a great turnout of families to cheer us on. Blue (Evans) house finished up with the most points for the day, followed by Yellow (Freeman), Green (Laver) and Red (Jackson). Grade 3-6 students, keep up your jogging practice over the holidays to prepare for our Term 2 District event!

District Cross Country Gr 3-6 

Early next term, on Friday 9th May, all of our students in Grades 3-6 will participate in the District Cross Country at Wesley Hill, along with students from other primary schools in the Castlemaine District. This event is usually run in two sessions. The 3km events for students who turn 11, 12 or 13 in 2025 are in the morning at 10am-12pm, while the 2km events for students who turn 8, 9 or 10 in 2025 are in the afternoon at 12-2pm. Permission notes will go home next term. We will require the assistance of parents/carers to help supervise our students and act as marshals. It may be beneficial for your child to continue some slow jogging over the holidays to maintain their aerobic fitness gains this term in preparation for this District event. Students who place in the top 20 in this event, in the 10, 11 and 12/13 year old age-groups only, will receive an invitation to the Division Cross Country the following Friday 16th May, also at Wesley Hill.

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