Term 3 Week 4

As we move into the middle of Term 3 there is plenty going on as always. Having a quick read of the classroom articles in this newsletter, it’s brilliant to see the rich learning that is happening inside the classrooms. 

Today we celebrated a beautiful mass with Father Matthew. It was the first time we have had Father Matthew down for mass and we thank him for making the trek from Adelaide. The children as always were impeccable in their reverence and their behaviour throughout mass. Father commented afterwards that it was the best school Mass he has been a part of. We’ve had similar feedback recently from a couple of new relievers to our school who commented how enthusiastic, kind and welcoming our children have been.  

School Production 

There will be an important letter going home tomorrow detailing the logistics of the school production. There will be two rehearsal days prior to the performance date where we will have the children down at the Light Church performance space. The performances on the 6^th of September are free, and you are welcome to invite family and friends. All this and more will be contained in the letter tomorrow.  

Building Works 

Excitingly, tomorrow our Year 3-7 students will be moving into the refurbished classrooms. To say these rooms are spectacular would be doing a disservice to them. Complete with new furniture, breakout spaces and technology, these rooms will give our middle and upper primary students classrooms they can be proud of to complete their learning in. As with most building projects at the moment, there are a few things that will come over the next week (Pin boards etc.) but we are ready to move in which is beyond exciting.  

I would like to thank my staff for their patience as we have been without a staff room for the past 8 weeks which has been used by the Year 5 class.  

As we have found with our new Junior Primary building, new spaces and new classrooms are treated so well by the students, who look after them like they own them. In so many ways, they do.  

We now move into Stage 3 of the project, which is the completion of the landscaping works, the school entrance, and the removal of the transportable. 

The transportable will be finding a new home at Yorketown Area School, and we are excited that they will still be used for education. I believe the plan for YAS is to use the rooms to support some VET students and give them a place to complete their studies.  

These transportables will be decommissioned next week and moved by A1 Transport services next Thursday and Friday. While this is happening and throughout the rest of Term 3 we will be using the entrance closer to the hall to have visitors come in and out of site.  

Please feel free to drop in and walk through any of the classrooms in the morning. It’s worth a look! 

I will see some of you at the Book Week Parade next Tuesday! Looking at the forecast ahead we are likely to hold this in the Hall.  

God Bless, 

Scott

Hello!

Today we had the joy of celebrating a school Mass for the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (which actually occurs on August 15). Fr Matthew Newman from the Adelaide Cathedral parish drove over to celebrate this Mass for us which is a huge effort that we are all very grateful for. After Mass, Fr then visited the classrooms and had a chance to meet with and chat to the students. These visits are always so warmly received by the students who love to have the priests visit their room and to ask questions or to show off what they have been learning in Religion. Fr Matthew was very impressed with what the students knew and were learning, which is the result of some excellent teaching from the staff.

Next Friday the staff will be off on their annual staff retreat. We will be heading to Sevenhill Retreat centre to be lead in talks and reflections by Fr Keiren Gill who is the parish priest of Sevenhill and Clare regions. The retreat day is always a beautiful day for the staff to take a step back, pause and reflect on their own faith journeys. It will hopefully give them all something to think about and bring back into their lives, and also the classrooms.

Have a wonderful rest of week and weekend.

God Bless,

Miriam Honner

APRIM

This week the Reception class have been learning all about shapes. We have learnt about the features of shapes and how their features help us to tell them apart. We used words to describe each shape such as how many sides and corners they had, as well as what colour and size each shape was.

In Year 1/2 the students have been learning about procedure writing. They have explored many different texts and identified where they see procedures in their life. They completed an activity where students worked together to order procedure samples from least effort to the best. From this activity, the students were able to work with positive expectations and I have been able to see them putting forward their best effort.

In the Middle Primary Class, we have been learning about different authors. We have used our guided reading sessions to read biographies about Roald Dahl, Mem Fox and Anh Doh and have started transferring our knowledge from these texts into our writing lessons. The students have learnt about how to structure a biography using subheadings and have then created their own biographies.

We have also used our weekly author focus during our Visual Art lessons, as students have redesigned the covers of some of these authors most popular books. Mem Fox's 'Where is the Green Sheep?' was a favourite amongst the class. 

The Year 5's complete reading in this style three mornings a week. The Year 5's use the four roles of reading; predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarising, to build their knowledge and ideas through communication with others to comprehend what they read. Miss Roads is really proud of how fluent and confident the students are becoming with these reading roles.

COOKING WITH LOCAL PRODUCE

An insight into the 6/7 Home Economics Unit

This term for Home Economics we are learning about the rich history of our area and native food sources on Nharangga land.

For our first lesson we cooked up kangaroo, saltbush and garden vegetable pasty rolls. We used kangaroo, because it is a local resource that is full of protein, iron, zinc and has less fat than most other meat. We used saltbush to flavor our garden vegetables. Saltbush is a native plant that thrives locally, and it is a rich source of protein as well. We wanted to incorporate the food that the First Nations people used to feed on in our meal, whilst also using produce from our green space.

Whilst cooking the pasty rolls, we discussed the different ways the First Nation people hunted, caught and cooked their food, and how this compares to our practices today.

Overall, the pasty rolls were well liked. Many people stated they couldn’t even tell if the meat was kangaroo and just thought it could be beef.

Our second lesson was a honey and soy chicken dish, which included cultural food such as, Lemon Myrtle and Karkalla (pig face). Karkalla often thrives near coasts and has beautiful purple flowers that turn into sweet fruit. It can treat burns and bites. Lemon Myrtle has a strong scent, therefore can be used as a herb.

It has been fun to learn about how some of our local produce can be included in delicious dishes. Hopefully our experience will inspire you to try cooking with local produce too.

By Jada 

The students were introduced to some clothing vocab. and made and shared a flap book to help learn some invierno ropa (winter clothing) words.

The Smart Scribes

I have been working with students from Year 2 on Exposition Writing. These young students will be expected to produce a persuasive piece of writing from March 13th next year in the NAPLAN tests. This is very early in the year, when teachers will have had only a very short time from the start of the school year to get children back into thinking about correct writing.

I have always believed that educating a child is a WHOLE SCHOOL responsibility and so I am doing my small part in helping these students. We have started in our Year Two group, (we have voted to call ourselves the Smart Scribes) by using some descriptive writing techniques, including adjectives, rhetorical questions, and metaphorical language, to describe some delicious cupcakes.

Next, we have moved on to Exposition writing. We are learning that MUSCLE WORDS, like ‘definitely’, ‘certainly’, ‘positively’, are all strong words and make our writing more convincing. We are a work in progress. I will update you as we progress into our lessons.

Regards,

Mandy Thompson

From the Green Space to the Home Ec Kitchen!

We have been working hard this term to use as much in-season produce from the school garden across into the Home Ec program.

The last few weeks have seen abundant winter harvests, with only a couple of extra ingredients required from the shop for our cooking sessions. Our focus areas have been: native ingredients, how migration influences Australian food, environmental and sustainability practises in both the garden and the kitchen, and how we can maximise use of our Green Space produce.

Last week, our school choir had their Hub Assessment with the Catholic Schools’ Musical Festival Director, Denise Rothall.

She was extremely pleased with our progress in both choral and choreography!

It was also great to have Mary MacKillop School from Wallaroo joining us.

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Dear Parents Book Week is fast approaching!

Don't forget that we are holding our costume parade on Tuesday morning at 9.15 followed by a walk down the town as part of our celebrations.

We also have our Book Fair running in our Library so call in before or after school to have a browse.

The Book Fair will be ending on Monday the 28th of August.

Thank you 

Julie Anderson 

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A huge thank you to Sonya Rankine, Jasmine Swales and Jay Milera for their assistance with the preparation for this event, and in particular for their attendance on the day.  They will be ably assisted by an enthusiastic team of Port Vincent volunteers.

Those who wish to attend can do so by booking tickets on Eventbrite - www.eventbrite.com.au/e/come-try-kids-art-session-tickets-675736003577

Sessions are 50 minutes each and offer a variety of arty options to try, including:

Rock Painting
Wooden Boat Creation
Paint a Picasso
Feather Wands with Jay Milera
Places are limited to 20 children per session.

If your child is under 6, a parent or carer will need to stay to supervise.

Please note: Painting and art can be messy. Please send your child in old clothes.

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