24 May 2024: Term 2 Week 4

Kaurna Acknowledgement

Niina Marni. As we feel the earth beneath us, the wind around us and the sun above us, we acknowledge the Kaurna people, the traditional owners of this land. We pay our respects to past Elders and will work with present and emerging Elders to protect and care for this unique land of ours. We also extend this respect to other First Nations peoples.

Principal's Report

Term 2 is well underway with classes engaging in new Units of Inquiry, with ‘Sharing the planet’, How the World works and ‘How we express ourselves’ as key transdisciplinary themes.

Our Primary Years Program in Action

Students are engaging in provocations designed to stimulate curiousity and wonderings. The Year 4s have been to the Wingfield dump identifying ways that rubbish is recycled and repurposed.

The year 3 classes are off to the zoo, looking at the needs of animals and how these are met.

Year 6 students are investigating the impacts of migration on communities including refugees, a topic that builds understanding, compassion and acceptance of cultural diversity.

Our Year 1 students are scientists, researching the impacts of forces, (Push & Pull), through the unit, ‘How the World Works’.

“How Our World Works” – Room 14 Scientists in the making!

A recent visit to Miss Millie and the Room 14 students was very educational; with the newest members of our learning community excited to share their exploration of the Central idea, “Living things have external features for different purposes”.

The Reception students and were able to describe an experiment they were about to perform that explores what happened when you water plants.  Students were able to explain the steps of the experiment but also elaborate on their predictions.

Arham shared these instructions:

First, we are going to pick the flower and place it in water. Then we will add food colouring, five drops. We will leave the flower overnight and then the colouring will be on the petals.  The green part, the stem brings the water up to the petals and the food colouring will go through the petals.

Nate was able to analyse his hypothesis; ‘I thought that only the stem would change colour but I was very wrong, the petals and the leaves changed colour.

Stephanie was able share her understanding of what the Central concept meant, explaining what living and non-living things were before giving an example of what a feature is.

Students recorded their observations and thinking.

Mid-year intake

We are preparing for the sixth Reception class to start at the beginning of next term. Thirty-three new Receptions and their families will be welcomed to the LPPS community. Our first school tour is scheduled for next Friday, led by our Year 6 Ambassadors. 

We are currently preparing the learning environment as well as designing the curriculum to create connections with the preschool approaches.

Attendance

With the colder months upon us, I thought it was opportune to reflect on the importance of being at school everyday and on time.

If a child is regularly 10-30 minutes late, they miss the critical instructions that often set them up for the learning of the day. Over time, the 10 minutes each day totals 50 minutes, nearly a lesson, a week or over a day a term.  A day a week over the course of a child’s primary education equates to a month of lost learning time. This time added to family holidays and illness, can have a significant impact.

Our current attendance sits at 93.48%; continuing to rebound towards the pre-COVID achievement of 96%. 

Fiona Voigt, Principal 

Assembly Student Awards - Early Years

Congratulations to all the students listed below, who demonstrated the Learner Profile Attributes this past fortnight in R-6.

National Reconciliation Week 2024

‘Now more than ever’

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

The theme ‘Now more than ever’ encourages all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation. It is a reminder of the importance to support and uphold the rights of First Nations peoples. To call out racism wherever we encounter it, and to actively reinforce the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The dates for NRW remain the same each year; 27 May to 3 June. These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.

27 May 1967:  On this day, Australia’s most successful referendum saw more than 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Australian Government power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and recognise them in the Census.

3 June 1992: On this day, the Australian High Court delivered the Mabo decision, the culmination of Eddie Koiki Mabo’s challenge to the legal fiction of ‘terra nullius’ (land belonging to no one) and leading to the legal recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of lands.

National Reconciliation Week begins on National Sorry Day on May the 26^th. National Sorry Day is a day to remember and acknowledge the strength of the Stolen Generation survivors who were mistreated and forcibly removed from their families and communities. It is a day to reflect on how we can all play a part in the healing process for our people and nation.

At its heart, reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples. There are five interrelated domains of reconciliation including; race relations, equality and equity, institutional integrity, unity and historical acceptance. Reconciliation cannot be seen as a single issue or agenda; the contemporary definition of reconciliation must weave all of these threads together.

Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider Australian community, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The IB philosophy encompasses international mindedness and global citizenship. Intercultural understanding is a general capability of the Australian Curriculum and cross-cultural perspectives are embedded in all that we do. Celebrating National Reconciliation Week is a way to embrace our nation's rich cultural heritage, while embracing curriculum commitments. During Reconciliation Week classes will participate in a wide range of activities.

Nicole Scrivener, Deputy Principal: Innovation and Inquiry

Reconciliation Action Plan

We need you……

Linden Park Primary School would like to invite you to join our Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group. We are looking for members of the community to establish a diverse working group that ensures the responsibility of implementing reconciliation.

What is a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP)?

The Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) program provides a framework for organisations to support the national reconciliation movement. Schools and early learning services can develop a RAP through Narragunnawali.-Reconciliation in Education. Narragunnawali supports all schools and early learning services in Australia to foster a higher level of knowledge and pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and contributions.

RAPs are making a difference across Australia in workplaces, universities, schools, government and community organisations.

The RAP framework enables organisations to contribute to reconciliation by:

• Building and encouraging relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, communities, organisations, and the broader Australian community
• Fostering and embedding respect for the world’s longest surviving cultures and communities.
• Develop opportunities within your organisation or services to improve socio-economic outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.

Anyone can join our RAP working group. If you are interested, please email Nicole Scrivener with your name and email  dl.0647.info@schools.sa.edu.au

We will organise to meet in a couple of weeks. Reconciliation is everyone’s business. We hope to hear from you soon.

Nicole Scrivener, Deputy Principal: Innovation and Inquiry

Library News

Share the Joy of Reading

Promote the joys and benefits of reading with the series of Reading Research Social Tiles. Want more reading research? Explore the preliminary findings of the https://australiareads.org.au/research-review/ 

I will be highlighting one tile in our Newsletters, with today's tile being 'Share special time with a book'.

Russell Hanson, Teacher Librarian 

National Simultaneous Storytime 2024

National Simultaneous Storytime is an annual event where an Australian picture book is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, kindergartens, childcare centres, homes, and bookshops around the country.

This year, NSS took place on Wednesday 22 May at 11:30am (ACST).

The chosen book was Bowerbird Blues by Aura Parker.  The story is about a bowerbird who loves to collect blue objects. But something is missing from the bird's life. What could it be?

Year 4 Kesab Excursion

In year 4, we are inquiring into Sharing the Planet. Our central idea is ‘Our choices impact on the environment and society’.  In order to explore the key concept of responsibility, the Year 4’s went on an excursion to the Wingfield Waste Management Centre. This involved a bus tour of the facility, so students could see where our organic waste from our green bins actually ends up.  We also saw the amazing landfill shed which is sadly filled every two days!  We then participated in a range of hands-on activities to help us to learn more about how we can take action and responsibly dispose of our household waste. 

One of the big take away messages was that it is really important to understand which bin to use.  For the green organic bin or kitchen caddy, we learnt that “If it grows, it goes…”. So this has really helped us to remember what can go in there.  We thought that this would be worthwhile to share with our buddy class, so in Week 5, Room 25 taught their Room 14 buddies about what can go in their classroom kitchen caddies by doing an interactive online game with them. The students felt very principled and knowledgeable in taking action and sharing their new knowledge. We hope it has helped our buddies to also do the right thing too.

Here is a recount of key learnings from this excursion, by Reesha Yong in Room 25:

On Tuesday 14 May 2024, Room 25 visited the KESAB Education Centre. We were greeted by a staff member, Dianne, and were ushered to visit Jeffries, a composting site. We learnt about the different products and compost that were made from garden and food scraps. We were reminded that biodegradable bags were not suitable for compost because they actually break down into tiny microplastics, thus polluting the soil and waterways. Instead only compostable bags should be placed in compost bins.

Next, Room 25 visited the IWS Landfill Shed. The amount of incorrectly sorted waste was crazy! We noted how much food scraps and recyclable material were incorrectly disposed. This highlighted the importance of sorting our rubbish thoughtfully.

Our experience was enhanced further by interesting hands- on activities such as sorting material into their appropriate bins and learning about the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from rubbish collection vehicles.

In summary, this excursion provided us with many ideas on how to reduce, reuse and recycle. It also reinforced how little actions can have a huge impact on our environment. It was certainly an enjoyable and educational experience!

Year 2 'How we organise ourselves'

During our Unit of Inquiry 'How We Organise Ourselves,' we have been diving into the world of materials and systems. Our central idea is that 'Systems are created to change materials for different purposes.'

Firstly, we learned about different materials and what makes them unique. Then, we explored how materials can change when we squash, bend, twist or stretch them. We found out how these changes serve different needs, like making pottery or tools.

We have also been looking closely at systems. In Resource Based Learning Mr. Hanson has been exploring the many steps in the library system with us and why it is important to our school.

One highlight has been watching a video about making glass. We made a flow chart to understand the steps involved in turning raw materials into glass. We talked about why glass is important for many different things, like buildings and scientific tools.

Here are some photos of our experiences exploring materials and systems. We hope you enjoy seeing our journey!

Abbey Boord (Room 1)

Room 22 News

This week Karen Selkrig (Room 22), brought in a pet lamb, Snowflake, Snowy for short. Snowy will be with us for a few weeks. 

Interesting facts about sheep:

• Sheep are among the most valuable of all domestic animals. Domestic animals are ones that have been tamed for use by humans. The wool is used to make cloth. Male sheep are called rams. Female sheep are called ewes. Sheep are closely related to goats. 
• There are more than 200 breeds of sheep. They are found on every continent except Antarctica. Sheep can be either wild or domestic. Most sheep like to live in high and dry areas.
• Adult sheep weigh 35 to 180 kilograms. Some sheep have horns. They curl in loops alongside the head. Certain types of wild sheep have very long horns. The horns of the bighorn sheep can be more than 3.3 feet (1 metre) in length. Most domesticated sheep grow a thick coat of fibers called wool. Wild sheep grow both hair and wool.
• Sheep eat grass and plants. They often graze in large groups, or flocks. Sheep have four separate stomach compartments, or sections. They regurgitate their food (bring it back up from the stomach) and chew it again. This helps the stomach fully digest the food.
  

Times Tables Rockstars & South Australia Rocks Competition

This term, Year 3 and 4 students are excited to be trailing an engaging online Math program called Times Tables Rock Stars. This program has been designed to boost children’s fluency and recall in multiplication and division. With question-based games that adapt to each child’s learning needs, Times Tables Rock Stars helps students improve their times table skills in a fun and interactive way.

In Week 2, there was a ‘South Australia Rocks’ tournament.  Students played for up to one hour per day and gained points for every correct answer.  All students were highly motivated to see our school high on the leader board!  We are thrilled to announce that Room 26 came in 3rd place in the State-Wide competition, showcasing their speed and accuracy in times tables! As a reward, our school has won a $100 Amazon voucher.  Additionally, many students were delighted to see their 'Rockstar' names on the leader board each night, demonstrating their dedication to learning and practice.

We want to express our thanks to all families for their continued support and partnership in their children's education. Your encouragement and involvement play an invaluable role in helping our students succeed.

Lara Ebbs, Teacher