Week 5, Term 2

School Saving Bonus reminder and allocation to school activities

The Victorian Government is delivering the School Saving Bonus (SSB) – a one-off support of $400 for eligible government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025.

The SSB can be used for uniforms until Monday, 30th June 2025 after which you will not be able to purchase school uniforms using your SSB Code. Uniforms purchased after 30th June will need to be paid for by the parent/carer.

Any funds remaining after 30th June 2025, including online voucher amounts that have not been redeemed, will become a credit to use on school activities. However, the credit will not be available on your family account at our school until late July. To use any remaining SSB funds to cover the cost of school activities in July, please refer to the SSB online system and allocate the funds to school activities before 30 June 2025.

The Department of Education’s SSB contact centre will remain available until 30 June 2025. The contact centre can be reached by calling 1800 338 663, between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm on weekdays.

This week, we are pleased to share information about two workshops that are happening in our community in June. Both are very relevant to many of our families and are great opportunities to gain knowledge and support.

Hello from the Manna Gum Prep building! 

In Literacy, we met the last two of Milo’s friends: Max the Fox and Wilbur Whale, which means we now know all 26 letters of the alphabet. Every day we continue to practise saying and writing the letters. In writing this week, we have had many opportunities to be ‘brave’ and have a go at writing our own sentences independently. We are remembering to use ‘Space Pevan’ to show spaces between our words, sound out words to spell them and remember how to write all the letters. We even got new Literacy books that have lines in them so now we can learn how to write the letters correctly on the lines!

In Maths, we have been exploring shapes; circles, rectangles, squares and triangles. We enjoyed going for a shape hunt around the school and sorting shapes by size, colour and shape. We enjoyed using different shapes to create our own shape pictures.

This week, we started our new Big Question "What do we know about where we live?". We learnt about the First Nations People and the land we live on and the three different Australian flags. We read a book ‘My Country’ and discussed what it means to be connected to places. We drew a picture of our own special places and shared why they are special to us.

In STEAM, after learning the nursery rhyme ‘Humpty Dumpty’, we used different materials to protect our own egg and see if would not break when we dropped it from a height. It was impressive to see some eggs survived the fall.

Next week, we will revise the 26 letters of the alphabet through saying and writing the letters. In Maths, we will be extending our knowledge of numbers to numbers 10-20. We are all VERY EXCITED to be celebrating MILO’S SURPRISE PARTY on Friday. We can’t wait to see everyone dressed up as Milo’s friends so we can have a party together.  

From Lauren and Nicole

Hello from the Golden Wattle building!

This week, the Grade 1/2s have focused on how houses have changed as part of our Big Question, "What do we know about where we live?". Our excursion to Buda historic house showed us how different life used to be and how household items have changed and evolved over time.

We also looked at lots of photos of Australian houses through the decades and thought about how our own houses have changed. We drew layered pictures of a house showing how it looked in the past, how it looks now and imagined what it might looked like in the future.

In Literacy, we read the book ‘Farmhouse’ by Sophie Blackall. We learnt that the author stumbled upon a derelict house and took photos, bits of wallpaper and other relics to bring the house’s story to life. The book is based on the lives of the twelve children who grew up in the house and follows their stories over generations. We responded to the story but using some of its rich vocabulary, such as ‘gnarled’ and ‘glittering’ in our own sentences, and wrote a book report highlighting the parts of the story we liked or didn’t like.

In Maths, we have been developing our addition and subtraction skills with a focus on using number lines. We first started by adding or subtracting single digits by jumping forwards or backwards on the number line. Then we extended our skills by ‘bridging to ten’ which means we add or subtract part of the number to get to the nearest ten, before adding or subtracting the remaining part.

Our Wellbeing focus this week has been on positive coping strategies. We have identified different things we can do to help ourselves either ‘cheer up’ or ‘calm down’. We also played the Play Is The Way game ‘Catch the Tail’, which was challenging but also lots of fun!

Next week, we will acknowledge Reconciliation Week by sharing stories and participating in related activities. In Literacy, we will be focusing on questions, which is perfect, as we will be interviewing Miss Cox about how life in Castlemaine and our school has changed over the years. We will continue building our addition and subtraction skills in Maths. Don’t forget that Wednesday is a pupil free day.

Enjoy the weekend, 

Wendy, Laura, Claire, Sarah and Andrew

Welcome to the Silver Banksia!  

This week, we have continued to inquire into what we know about where we live. We have been reading about the megafauna that once grazed our land and how there is evidence that our First Nations people shared the land with these amazing creatures. We also read about the arrival of the first Europeans to our shores.

Here is Hendy’s beginning of his recount:

"It’s unknown but believed that the First Nations came down from southeast Asia/Indonesia Philippines area and then started their own culture and languages. For around 60 thousand years, they hunted and made shelter and hundreds of different cultures. Then one day, around 1690, the Netherlands, trying to expand their empire, landed in modern day West Australia. They explored more but didn’t set up a colony or expand. Furthermore, they weren’t interested but thought it was just a big area of desert. They did name it New Holland and then left, never really thinking of it and the rest of Europe never cared either…For another hundred years or so, at least, the First Nations continued living like normal…"

We explored the complexity of the first meeting with First Nations people and the European people through a game called Rabbits and Bilbies. Each culture had certain rules to follow and a rich discussion followed about how misinterpretations could have occurred, leading to considerable conflict. Our focus for our Literacy and BQT next week will be on learning about key events that have happened in our past as we delve into the theme for Reconciliation Week, “Bridging Now to Next”. The 5/6s will be heading down to attend the Sorry Day Commemoration on Monday, as well as to sing “Solid Rock” with the one and only Shane Howard.  

In Maths, we have continued to learn about fractions and how to compare them when they have related denominators. We have seen continued growth as we practise our foundational number facts each day with our MIND Facts on Fire.

House Athletics Grade 3-6

Next Friday, 30th May, is our House Athletics Day, with track and field event rotations being held at our school from 9:00-1:30. Students may wear their house team colours on the day. Families and friends are welcome to come along and support this event. This year, there will some indigenous games thrown into the rotation mix to acknowledge and celebrate Reconciliation Week, as well as our Reconciliation Relay once we announce the winning team after lunch. 

Bendigo Braves School Cup 

Our CNPS team has made it through to the semi-finals after their great performances in shooting, passing, agility and dribbling! The semi-final is on Saturday 24th May (tomorrow) at 5:30pm during the Bendigo Braves matches. Best wishes for the semi final! 

Division Cross Country Photos

We were lucky enough to have Rebekah from Drama Victoria work with the Grade 5/6 students on Thursday. We started with an icebreaker and students created quick frozen shapes or "statues". This started individually, then in small groups, and built to the whole class working creatively together. The main focus of the workshop was Empathy and Global Citizenship. Students walked around the space responding to emotions called out (happy, angry, nervous, etc). This was followed by a guided conversation about culture, family, and identity. Students were then split into groups and given short scripts all based around the concept of global citizenship. They had a short rehearsal and performed for the class. I’m in the process of organising a similar workshop for the Grade 3/4 students later in the year.

Prep E

Catherine F - for working hard and achieving your goal of writing your name!
Hugo B - for the impressive way you included spaces, sounded out words and added detail in your sentence.

Prep N

Roan K -  for the way you are persisting with your handwriting to form letters correctly.
Jovi C - for the kindness and care you show towards others.

1/2 CS

Xavier B - for the effort and detail you put into your layered house drawing.
Ella M - for the creative way you included adjectives in your Big Write.

1/2 L

Elio H - for volunteering to support your table partner in a time of need.
Hugo S - for your intricately detailed layered house drawing.

1/2 WA

Nala L - for the thoughtfulness and care you took writing and illustrating your book report.
Torrie L - for the passion you showed when designing the historic layers of your house.

3/4 H

Bella C - for the way you turned all of your spelling words into a paragraph!
Wesley H - for your focus when learning about fractions.

3/4PS

Emily B, Zaria F + Delaney D - for the initiative you took to feed the class fish in Mr. Scott's absence.

3/4 S

Arlo T - for bravely stepping out of your comfort zone when trying new things on camp.
Erica N - for the courage and determination you showed on camp by not letting a fractured arm stop you from joining in the activities.

5/6 BC

Saatchi W - for the way you have consistently focused on your learning.
Evie-Jean C - for your incredible improvement in maths this term.

5/6 BN

Johnny H - for always finding ways to make your writing creative and interesting.
Poppi W - for being someone we can trust to support class members in just the right way.

5/6 H

Edan L - for demonstrating strength, bravery and emotional intellegence.
Josh M - for taking action to regulate and manage yourself independently.

5/6 J

Thomas C - for gaining confidence with writing and putting it into practice in RRRR.
Phoebe B - for the way you engaged with the Rabbits and Bilbies activity and reflected on the clashing cultures.

Performing Arts

Peyton B - for the energy and positivity you brought during the Drama Victoria workshop.

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