Calwell Primary School eNewsletter

From the Principal

Dear Calwell Families,

These final two weeks are busy as we prepare for the end of what has been a challenging term. Staff are finalising reports which will be sent home next Wednesday and arrangements for 2022 are well underway.

Year 6 Graduation

Today’s leadership assembly and next week’s graduation ceremony and dinner disco mark the end of primary school for our year six students. This is always a period of mixed emotions, excitement, sadness and anxiety as our graduating students transition into the next stage of their learning journey. We are looking forward to marking this special time with year six and their family members.

Learning Assets

This week all classes are focussing on learning more about the Learning Assets that we are embedding into the educational program at Calwell Primary. Consciously engaging our students in understanding how they learn, assists them to develop a set of skills and dispositions that supports them as learners both in the school and prepares our students for lifelong learning in the 21^st Century.

A graphic designer has used the images our students nominated to develop a colourful and engaging Calwell logo for each asset. We are thrilled with the final images and hope you like them too. The images are attached to the newsletter email today.

As effective learners, our students need to be thinkers, self managers, communicators, researchers and collaborators. It may be useful to imagine each of us having a kind of ‘tool kit’ we draw on to learn something. That tool kit has 5 compartments and in each compartment we have a range of skills and ways of being (attitudes or dispositions) that are ASSETS to us as a learner. Different learning situations require different skills and attitudes but growing and sharpening those ‘tools’ over time makes us stronger learners.

Being a SELF MANAGER is such an asset! Some of the skills you need include being able to stay focussed, manage your time and be organised. This is also about being able to regulate our emotions and being a responsible and resilient person.

COLLABORATING is a powerful asset. This includes being able to compromise, take turns and take on different roles in a team. It helps too, if you are kind and reliable.

We all need to be RESEARCHERS these days! This means learning how to do things like asking the right question or deciding whether a source of information is trustworthy. It also helps to be curious and courageous.

Effective COMMUNICATION is a vital asset for learning. We need to learn to listen actively, respond appropriately to others and get our message across in different ways. Good communicators are responsive and respectful.

Finally, building our skills as THINKERS is the key to deep learning. Some thinking skills include being able to analyse, predict and imagine – and it really helps to be open-minded and flexible.

These assets are not just for our children. We never stop learning – we learn at school, at work or at home. You can help your child at home by using this language with them – even about yourself. “Hmmm, the WIFI doesn’t seem to be working. I will have to think flexibly today and work differently!” It is also very powerful to use this language as you notice your child showing them in some way: “I noticed how well you shared with your sister when you were playing with the lego. Great collaborating!” The lovely thing about the assets is that children can strengthen them all day, every day, whether we are doing school related tasks or simply setting the table for dinner. Enjoy talking about learning with your child!

Linda Neeson

Principal

From the Board

The board met on the 30th November and have approved the 2022 school budget. A copy is availble for viewing at the front office.

Calwell CARES

PBL Awards

Notes Home/Due & Dates to Remember

A reminder for parent's to please download the SZapp to view our Newsletters and upcoming events. If you access the calendar and click on the date on an excursion/incursion permission notes are attached to re-print if needed.

- Gingera winning house colour day Friday 10th December

- Graduation Ceremony Wednesday 15th December

- Year 6 Dinner/Disco Wednesday 15th December

- K-Year 6 Movie Day Thursday 16th December

- Last day of term Friday 17th December

Preschool

Preschool recently visited kindergarten. Together we explored the classrooms and wrote a letter for our new teachers to introduce ourselves. We wrote our name, drew a self portrait and some things we love on our letter. We saw where we will hang our bags, the tote trays and talked about all the new and exciting things we will learn.

It has been a pleasure to watch the preschoolers grow and blossom over the year. We are excitedly counting down the days together and looking forward to hearing all about their kindergarten adventures next year. The preschool team would like to wish all our families a safe and happy holiday period!

Kindergarten have been busy this week preparing their portfolios for the end of the year to take home and share with their families. Here is a sneak peak of some of the students gluing in their special work!

Corin

Year 1

In Year 1, we combined our English, Maths and Inquiry focus to compete a project. Students had to work together to plan a pet they could construct with reused materials, create a persuasive poster to persuade others to buy their pet and earn money to buy a pet. Students earnt and learnt the value of money by following classroom expectations. Everyone had a great time viewing the pet stalls and buying their favourite pet!

Year 2

Year 2 have been using clay! Throughout the past week we used techniques such as rolling, pinching, smoothing and applying water to the clay to make Pinch Pot Animals/Monsters. Students made creatures such as dogs, cats, snakes, lizards, turtles and even a ghost! To make these we first rolled the clay in our hands, then using our thumbs we pinched around the edge of the clay to make the pots. Next we cut out our character features such as their faces, ears and tails. The students then attached these by applying water to the areas of the pot. After a couple of days to dry they were ready to go home to be painted.

Year 1

Year 2

Googong

The 3/4’s have been looking at 2D shapes and classifying them according to their sides, vertices and angles. We have defined what a polygon is (a closed shape with straight sides), what the difference is between regular and irregular polygons (regular has equal sides and equal angles) and the different types of triangles that there are (right, isosceles, scalene, equilateral). Students then combined their knowledge of 2D shapes to create tessellating patterns.

Bendora

Some of our Year 5 & 6 students have been learning to sew, developing their fine-motor skills, problem solving and attention to detail. Using these new skills, they produced fleece beanies, just in time for summer!

During week 8 students were excited to dress down for a 'Crazy Hair Casual Day'. Money raised from this event contributed to the Year 6 Graduation.

Students are revising Cartesian Planes and drew their own treasure maps of a made up island. By following the co-ordinates and directions, another student in the class had to find where the hidden treasure was buried.