The NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge is hosting guided illustration sessions online and our school joined in. Here are examples of our students’ takes on the fabulous illustrations by author Mick Eliott’s Squidge Dibley series. Students from Lower 1st to 6th Class took part. The NSW PRC people were very impressed and shared our students’ work on their instagram @nswprc. Our school is in the draw for some great prize packs! Wish us luck!
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3rd class develop Geo skills
Third class are learning mapping skills and using grid references to locate places. They are also learning how to use an atlas and an
to locate the grid references of key natural features in Australia.
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Why do we need evidence and examples to support our opinions? What are the hallmarks of effective persuasive arguments? 4th Class considered this closely this week. In Grammar we learnt about intensifiers and how these boost the feelings or opinions being expressed and add strength to the description; and in comprehension we looked at understanding texts containing direct and reported speech such as discussions and transcripts.
In my Maths class we have focused on revision before taking part in the Australian Maths Competition which we all agreed was rather challenging.
In History, we began to look at post-First Fleet Australia and read some real letters from Australian colonists describing the difficulties of life in the first years of the colony for both convicts and free settlers.
In Geography, we investigated how different people’s ideas about the environment influence how we look after the environment and sustainability. We specifically looked at the Boabs
Back into a busy Third Term for 6th class
Children’s authors Jackie French, Daniela Abela and Andrew Daddo shared creative writing tips with 6th class in a Mini Writing Festival this week. The children were keen to put into practice creating vivid descriptions, building curious characters and developing plot.
In other matters, the busy-ness of school has resumed with buddies (who celebrated 101 days of school dressed as the 101 Dalmations), Shakespeare, French and debating. Congratulations to our debaters who won today’s debate against Ravenswood School for Girls! On Monday we had our Teacher’s Day assembly and the children heard several short readings about the sun, moon, Earth, sky, water and air; and contemplated what they could teach us.
For Romeo and Juliet, ‘costumes’ will be basic blacks – black tights to the ankles and black short-sleeved t-shirts. Features will be added to each child’s clothing to identify their character. 6T will be in Western style costumes for their interpretation of
5th Class settling into Term 3 nicely
In 5th class this week:
Maths – Students have been exploring fractions and decimals. We have been looking at how to plot some decimals on a number line.
English – The children have been exploring what it might be like for the early settlers of Australia. They are working on a diary entry from a picture from that time period.
Grammar – We have been exploring Pronouns and when to use them in our writing.
History – children have been exploring the difference between primary and secondary sources.
Shakespeare rehearsals have been great! The children are enjoying acting out their lines. 5I is doing Twelfth Night with a Hawaii 5-0 theme (!) and 5K are doing Julius Caesar. Performances will be held at the end of October, at Glen Street Theatre, all going according to plan.
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The week that was in Second Class
2C enjoy exploring addition and subtraction and working on problems using dice, blocks, counters and revising our number facts to ten, twenty and up to the hundreds. In Writing we are developing our understanding of persuasive writing: a point of view, arguments and reasons for those arguments. We considered the arguments for ‘A Dog is The Best Pet’. We worked collaboratively with Mr Sjoquist’s help as we investigated grouping animals into Mammals, Insects, Fish and Reptiles. The children came up with several questions – Is a shark a fish? Is a snail an insect? Is a dolphin a fish? We also began creating our own detailed map of the school in Geography, including a Key with our design for symbols to record on our maps.
Spelling has taken on a new enthusiasm for the children this week. On our Staff Development Day, we teachers updated our training in ‘Sound Waves’, our
Deputy Head of School’s comment
This week we conducted our annual Teacher’s Day celebration. Our usual celebrations were significantly modified due to current restrictions and we met separately with Primary and Infants. Our Leadership Team all gave a short reading taken from the Srimad Bhagavata which speaks of 24 teachers. The readings acknowledge many teachers and we looked at 7 in particular: The Arrow Maker, the Earth, the Air, the Sky, the Water, the Moon and the Sun. The children were asked to reflect on the things around us that can act as our teacher if we have our eyes open. During a conversation with 6th class, one boy made the observation that by teaching or demonstrating something, you magnify the thing itself. In this way we are all teachers.
Di Renshaw
Deputy Headmistress
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Getting smarter every day in Lower 1st
One hundred and one days of learning, and counting! Lower 1st loved their celebration of being ‘101 Days Smarter’ on Thursday this week. They all dressed up as the 101 Dalmatians, but Cruella was nowhere to be seen! Thanks Miss Cipollone and and Mrs Cooper for planning such a delightfully doggie day, with at least 101 fun activities ranging from writing 101 words, counting 101 objects in groups of ten (plus 1) and making dalmatian masks with their 6th class buddies. More photos are on our Facebook page.
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6T e-meet Jacquie French and perfect their twangs!
6T are honing their writing skills after an online writing festival featuring the very famous Australian author, Jackie French. Now they know more about enhancing their writing by ‘showing not telling’. And they learned how using our sense of taste, hearing and smell gets the reader to imagine all kinds of events! Dominic’s suggestion – “Burgling bush-rangers crashed through the doors with a noise like a clap of thunder” was read out by the presenter and Jackie French’s comment was, ‘Oooh, yummy!’ It was exciting taking part in the online event and we were one of over 170 schools all writing together! The photo shows some of 6T taking part in the activity via webcam.
Shakespeare Accents
Meanwhile, our drama Teacher Miss Emmanuel has asked 6T to work on their Texan accents over the next few weeks. She gave them a link to some Youtube videos which may help with this skill:
Census data privacy notice
2020 Census Privacy Notice
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