16 September: Term 3 - Week 8

Principal's report

Acknowledgement of our dedicated Parent Volunteers

I had the pleasure of attending the Year 4 Camp to El Shaddai Camping Centre at Wellington last week. Along with a dedicated team of teachers and a very excited group of young people, I found myself in awe of the enthusiasm and commitment of the parent volunteers who accompanied us. Our parents supported students with their well-being, organisation and led teams of students as they navigated the various activities. Without favouritism, they were encouraging of all, creating a positive and supportive environment that enabled children to take risks and persevere with the challenges they faced.  Many had taken days off work and for one parent it was his second camp for the year; this generosity cannot be underappreciated. Camps would not be possible without our wonderful parent volunteers.   On behalf of our Year 4s, a big thank you!  

Congratulations

Our Linden Park Primary Team won the recent Sports SA District Athletics Carnival by 9 points ahead of Black Forest Primary last Tuesday - well done to the team and supporting staff Geoff, Harry & Tammy.  All of the team performed to their very best with special acknowledgement of Myles Kidd, William Baker, Janet Menachery, Jerry Liang, Oreste Zheng, Elina Yao, Lua Elmualim, Murphy Power and Gianluca Zuckermann who have been selected for the Adelaide South East District team to compete on Monday 26^th September 2022. 

Class Placement 2023

We are in the first phase of 2023 planning and families will be sent an Edsmart permission slip to advise if your children will be returning to Linden Park Primary School in 2023.

For 2023 class placement we will continue to use our online Class Creator program to build positive and balanced learning environments for your children.

Educators, with a close working relationship with your child, will be talking with them, capturing their voice regarding friendships that will support their well-being and engagement. Children’s ideas and wishes will then be entered into the Class Creator program as part of the student survey. The staff will also contribute information about your child’s strengths and areas of challenge.

Class creator synthesises all data from the surveys and the information from students, educators and parents is often juxtaposed; the program then struggles to function effectively to create classes that are balanced in terms of friendships, collaboration, complexity and gender.

For students R-2, the staff and student survey will be used to construct class placements.  For students in Years 3-5, we will continue the tradition of capturing friendships via parent response on the Edsmart platform with the intention to phase out the parent survey by 2024. The parent survey is not part of the Class creator program and needs to be manually entered.

In valuing parental voice we would ask you to have conversations with your children, discussing with them who they work well with, who they play with etc.  If there is other critical information eg health, emotional and personal needs of your child and specific class environment considerations which could impact your child’s placement, please email:-

Enrolments.LindenPark727@schools.sa.edu.au

Thank you for your support in this transitional phase. 

Fiona Voigt, Principal

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: Public Memorial Day

Thursday, 22 September will be a one-off national public holiday to mark the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  This means schools, preschools and OSHC services will be closed on that day.

School events held on this day, including camps and excursions, will be rescheduled or cancelled, where an alternative isn't practical. 

We understand this may cause inconvenience for you and thank you for your flexibility. Schools and preschools will remain open and operating as usual outside of this day.

We seek your support in ensuring that your child attends school on Friday, 23 September, and is able to continue their learning program, unless they are unwell and unable to do so.

Further information about South Australian observances for the death of Her Majesty the Queen can be found at https://www.dpc.sa.gov.au/observances

Martin Westwell, Chief Executive (Department for Education)

Materials & Services Charge 2023

Parents are invited to attend a Governing Council meeting on Monday 26^th September 2022 @ 7:00pm in the staff room to discuss the Materials and Services Charge for 2023 (verified notice is below).  

Please RSVP to the front office on dl.0647.info@schools.sa.edu.au   

If you are unable to attend the meeting, any questions or comments can also be emailed to dl.0647.info@schools.sa.edu.au 

Learning Journeys are fast approaching!

The Learning Journey is a showcase of student learning and provides students with a means to formally share their knowledge, conceptual understanding and skills they have learnt at the end of a Unit of Inquiry.  This can connect to curriculum content and the elements of the IB PYP including the central idea, line of inquiry, concepts, learner profile and approaches to learning. Parents are invited to interact with their child’s learning and celebrate their achievements and growth. Students lead the Learning Journey as a way to report on the learning.  They focus on real-world skills by verbalising what they know and describe learning experiences they participated in. Students share what they have collaborated, investigated, researched, inquired and designed.

The Learning Journey builds community and home connections as families see not just what students have learnt, but how they learnt it and the progress that was made along the way. The Learning Journey is a great way to prepare students for the PYP Exhibition that they participate in their last year at school. They gain a sense of confidence that will stay with them throughout their lives. They discover the joys of learning, and understand that curiosity is the key to becoming a life-long learner.  

This year we invite parents back into the classroom! To reduce the number of parents on site during this time we are asking that only one family member attend this year.

We will begin each Learning Journey in the gymnasium for a short overview of the Unit of Inquiry, presented by Nicole our Deputy Principal. Parents will then migrate into their child’s classroom where student work, presentations, and displays will be awaiting for visitors to discuss with their child.

Although not mandatory we strongly encourage that all adults wear face masks when inside the buildings.

Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 4, Year 5 parents please meet at 9.00am in the gymnasium on the day allocated below.

Year 3 parents please meet in the gym at 2.00pm.  Year 3’s Learning Journey will finish at 3.00pm. We ask that parents wait on grassed area outside the COLA to wait for their child to pack up before exiting the classroom.

Nicole Scrivener, Deputy Principal

Week 8 Pupil free day

Did you know that teachers are reflective too? ‘Reflective’ is one of our ‘Learner Profile’ attributes.

On Monday, staff jointly reviewed our whole school programme of inquiry (POI). This is our physical planner that outlines detailed information about our units of inquiry in each year level.

To ensure there is a coherent curriculum that organises learning and teaching within and across year levels (horizontally and vertically) the programme of inquiry requires regular review.  Therefore staff reflected not only their own teaching year level, but also the year level below and above to professionally discuss and analyse with a ‘big picture’ lens. Teaching staff identified and cross-referenced using the Australian Curriculum achievement standards and content descriptors to map our teaching and learning big ideas and journey.

This year v9.0 of the Australian Curriculum was released. We have spent some time comparing the new content descriptors and achievement standards with the old. There are some changes that will impact our future units of inquiry and teachers will work together to develop on these in the near future.

Our aims of the Pupil free day were;

• To gain an overview of the program of inquiry (POI)
• To interact with educators from different year levels and across learning area specialties
• To share observation and questions that will assist in tightening the POI
  

Nicole Scrivener, Deputy Principal

International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) Results

Over a 3-week period, students at Linden Park Primary School participated in the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS). The ICAS assessments are designed to assess the student’s ability to apply classroom learning in new contexts, using higher-order thinking and problem solving skills. They are designed to recognise and reward academic excellence. Students are asked to demonstrate a deeper, integrated and thorough level of learning.

ENGLISH

We had 134 Students in Years 4-6 compete in the ICAS English competition in Term 3. We received 2 High Distinctions and 22 Distinctions. The remainder of the results and certificates will become available in early Term 4.

Well done to the following students who received High Distinctions or Distinctions.

Year 4

• Linda Wang – High Distinction
• Danny Gong – Distinction
• Chuyi Peng – Distinction
• Zhizhen Shan – Distinction
• Cindy Chen - Distinction
• Ethan Du - Distinction
• Jenny Wang - Distinction

Year 5

• James Tzamtzidis – High Distinction
• Tinaya Yapa Mudiyanselage – Distinction
• Ethan Harish – Distinction
• Amelia Liu – Distinction
• Robbie McCreadie-Welsh – Distinction
• Aditi Neyyalga – Distinction
• Chloe Tzamtzidis – Distinction
• Olivia Elovaris – Distinction
• Justin Li – Distinction
• Mason Li - Distinction

Year 6

• Isabelle Zheng – Distinction
• Pratham Surana – Distinction
• Cloris Xu – Distinction
• Ella Sima – Distinction
• Ke Rui Yang – Distinction
• Tyler Han – Distinction
• Janhvi Sharma - Distinction

MATHEMATICS

For the ICAS Mathematics Competition, we had 143 students compete in the competition and had 4 High Distinctions and 19 Distinctions. The remainder of the results and certificates will become available in early Term 4.

Congratulations to the following students who received these awards.

Year 4

• Zhizhen Shan – High Distinction
• Danny Gong – Distinction
• Charlotte Chen – Distinction
• Oliver Tian – Distinction
• Sammy Gallomarino – Distinction

Year 5

• Courtney Fu – High Distinction
• Mason Li – High Distinction
• Leanne Shi – Distinction
• Harry Jin – Distinction
• Amelia Liu – Distinction
• Hantao Huang – Distinction
• Ryan Zhang – Distinction
• Ilyas Faisal – Distinction
• Robbie McCreadie-Welsh – Distinction
• Keith Wong - Distinction

Year 6

• Tyler Han – High Distinction
• Matthew Duffett – Distinction
• Nathan Ng – Distinction
• Mehrad Rezaee – Distinction
• Lua Elmualim – Distinction
• Cloris Xu – Distinction
• Patrick Liu – Distinction
• Donald Zuo - Distinction

SCIENCE 

We had 108 of our Years 4-6 students compete in the ICAS Science competition in Term 3.  We received 5 High Distinctions and 9 Distinctions. The remainder of the results and certificates will become available in early Term 4.

Well done to the following students who received High Distinctions or Distinctions.

Year 4

• Danny Gong – High Distinction
• Zhizhen Shan – High Distinction
• Siang Xu - Distinction

Year 5

• Robbie McCreadie-Welsh – High Distinction
• Mason Li – Distinction
• Harry Jin – Distinction
• Amelia Liu – Distinction
• Ethan Harish - Distinction

Year 6

• Matthew Duffett – High Distinction
• Mehrad Rezaee – High Distinction
• Nathan Ng – Distinction
• Tyler Han – Distinction
• Will Taggart – Distinction
• Ke Rui Yang - Distinction

Harry Slee, ICAS Coordinator

School Sport SA (SAPSASA) District Athletics Carnival

On Tuesday 6^th September, the Adelaide South East District Athletics day was held at Bridgestone Athletics Centre in Salisbury. Linden Park Primary took a team of 39, Years 4-6 students to compete in the various track and field events. On a beautiful day for athletics, we had some really positive results across all ages and events. The students had a great time being able to put their skills on show against other school participants and had a wonderful time mixing amongst the other competitors.

The students had been working extremely hard over the course of the Term 3, arriving at school at 8:00am to practise their skills on some cold and frosty mornings. The relay teams gave up multiple recesses and lunches to work on their handovers, which resulted in being the difference. Students had been working tirelessly on their communication and smooth exchanges and it was time to put it all together on the biggest stage. There was some lightning quick competition but some costly changeovers from the opposition allowed Linden Park to steal the show and achieve some outstanding results.

Linden Park Primary’s Athletics Team finished overall winners at the School Sport SA District Athletics Carnival, scoring 23 field points and 21 track points for a total of 49 points. A narrow win over Black Forest primary was a fantastic achievement for all the students hard work.

A huge thanks to Geoff Mills for organising the team and the day, to all the parent volunteers for assisting with supervising the students on the bus and volunteering at the events. A special thank you to teachers Henry Nicholson, Kate Low and Erin Williamson for giving up their time before school over the past month to hold training sessions for the student to practise their events before the carnival. Another huge acknowledgement to our students for the excellent behaviour and conduct during the day. They certainly competed and acted in the appropriate way for a major sporting event including acknowledging other participants at the end of their events. The amount of support they had for everyone in the team during each other’s events was outstanding. A special shout out to students Myles K, William B, Janet M, Jerry L, Oreste Z, Elina Y, Lua E, Murphy P and Gianluca Z who have all been selected for the Adelaide South East District team to compete on Monday 26^th September 2022. 

Congratulations to the following students who finished top 3 in their events:

Track & Field Events

• Myles K:  1^st 12yo 100m, 2^nd12yo 800m, 2^nd 11yo 1500m
• Gianluca Z: 1^st 10yo Discus, 2^nd 10yo 1500m, 2^nd 10yo Long Jump
• Alana D:  1^st 12yo 100m, 1^st 12yo Long Jump
• Lua E:  1^st 12yo Shot Put, 1^st 12yo Discus
• Murphy P: 1^st 10yo Discus
• Elina Y: 1^st 10yo Long Jump
• William B:  1^st 10yo Long Jump
• Janet M:  2^nd 11yo 100m, 2^nd 11yo Long Jump
• Jerry L:  2^nd 11yo 100m
• Spencer H-K: 2^nd 11yo 200m
• Oreste Z: 3^rd 12yo 100m
• Harry Y:  3^rd 12yo 200m
• Genevieve C: 3^rd 10yo High Jump
• Amelia H: 3^rd 12yo Long Jump
• Kyle F:  3^rd 11yo Discus

Relays

• 1^st 10yo boys:  Gianluca Z, Nicholas N, Thomas D, William B
• 1^st 12yo boys: Myles K, Oreste Z, Victor M, Harry Y
• 2^nd 12yo girls: Amelia H, Devna K, Filipa H, Charlotte K

Harry Slee, Sports Coordinator

Year 2: Art Gallery excursion

As part of our Unit of Inquiry "How we express ourselves” Year 2 students visited the Art Gallery of South Australia in weeks 7 & 8. The children engaged in a facilitated workshop in the Studio, which is currently featuring South Australian artist Jasmine Crisp.  Jasmine uses traditional painting techniques to produce narrative-fuelled imagery from personal life experiences. Students were encouraged to think of the things that they treasure most and to create their own version. The children also had an hour guided tour of the Archie 100 and Robert Wilson: Moving Portraits exhibitions. They were able to vocalise their perspective and discuss what they believed each portrait was communicating. 

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Year 3: Zoo excursion

On Wednesday, 7 September our year 3 students attended a zoo excusion.   

As part of our Unit of Inquiry into “Sharing the Planet” and our central ideal of “Living things rely on a balanced environment for their survival” our year 3 students went to the Adelaide Zoo on Wednesday, 7 September to get up close to some of the Zoo’s friendly creatures and learn about their amazing adaptations and features.

The visit focused on engaging students by getting close-up to animals while communicating important science and sustainability themes directly related to the Australian Curriculum. Students also had the opportunity to walk around the zoo in small groups observing animal's features and characteristics.

Year 4: Camp

Rooms 25; 27 on 5-6 September & Rooms 23; 24; 26 on 7-8 September. 

Our year 4 students attended a camp at El Shaddai Camping Centre, Wellington.    The camp connected to our Unit of Inquiry, "Who We Are" and was an opportunity for the Year 4 group to get to know each other and to develop leadership skills in an outdoor setting. 

Feedback from students in Rooms 25 & 27 ....

Introduction by Oliver & Linda: On the 5th of September 2022, Rooms 25 & 27 left on two buses to El Shaddai Christian Camping Centre.  The first bus carried most of the students and had a movie playing throughout the trip while the second bus had a smaller number of people and carried a trailer. When we finally got to camp, we unloaded our bags and had some recess. We then found out our day groups and dorm mates. We made our beds and unpacked our belongings.   We had our first three activities.

Reptiles by Summer:  On Tuesday, our group went to the recreation hall to learn about reptiles. Our instructor’s name was Elijah and he taught us how to hold all the reptiles. It was so awesome to hold the reptiles, especially Monty the python and Squirt the turtle. Elijah showed us the latest full piece of shedded skin from Monty the python. Squirt had very sharp nails but luckily his nails didn’t dig into my hand. The other reptiles were a blue tongue lizard, a shingle back lizard and an Eastern bearded dragon. We also got to hold a turtle shell (with no actual turtle in it) named Shelly. We weren’t allowed to hold the blue tongue lizard because he was shedding his skin on his back.

Rock climbing by Grace, Summer & Linda:   One of our favourite activities during camp was rock climbing. To climb the walls you had to put on a harness and then get it tightened by the supervisors. There were five different levels: Octopus, Sea monster, Starfish, Penguin, and the Challenge. You started with the two easiest walls and then you slowly levelled up. While we were climbing there were rules we had to follow such as, do not start climbing until you were given permission to do so (as you may not be clipped in) and do not use the rocks of the wall next to you as it is cheating and another person climbing might need to use that rock. According to the instructors (Chloe and Peter), no one has made it to the top of the Challenge wall yet. Annabel came incredibly close to completing it - the moment was very dramatic and the whole group was cheering for her. She was nearly at the top when her arms became too tired to move on and she said the dreadful words “I can’t do it..”. Although she did not make it all the way up, we were proud of her and she received a big round of applause.

Giant swing by Massimo, Sandy & Emily T:   The highlight of camp for us was the giant swing.  I was determined to conquer my fear of heights, so I went as high as I could. Pulling the string that makes you drop was the scariest bit so for a split second I felt my fear creep back but I pulled the string. It turns out it is extremely fun! Because I felt like challenging myself again I went up a second time. (Massimo).    Initially I thought the giant swing was just a regular swing that was very high but it turned out to be a humungous rope that you dangled from before releasing yourself from at least 10 metres long (or maybe it was 25 metres!). I was not planning to do it but my group leader persuaded me to give it a go. It was actually really exciting. I especially liked the part when we swung around, I didn’t even hold Red Fred! (Red Fred is the red string that you can hold to if you get scared). (Sandy).      I liked the part when the instructor said “Brace!!” because we had to hold it tight to the string, then drop it. It looked like a slithering snake on the rocky dusty ground. (Emily T)

Archery by Hannah & Linda: We had to endure a long and dreary walk to get to the archery place. Montana, our instructor, explained and demonstrated how to use the bow and arrow. For example, you have to clip the nock (a little orange part at the end of the arrow) onto the string of the bow, under the gold bead. Then, you have to put the body of the arrow onto the arrow rest. On the end of the arrow there are four plastic feathers - you have to make sure when you clip the nock that the odd coloured feather is facing towards you.  I am right handed, so I hold the bow with my left hand and shoot with my right hand. The proper technique is to use three fingers to pull the bowstring just below where the arrow sits. (Linda)    Archery was my group’s first activity and one of my favourites. I shot two arrows on red, one arrow on blue and even one near the centre. It was almost a bull’s eye. We also learned how to pull the arrows out of the target board safely. (Hannah)

Laser tag by Lathiker, Siera & Oliver:   Laser tag was one of the most fun activities, because it had strong military vibes. The area was technically a big field with tyres and short walls to hide behind.   Before launching into battle, we were shown the boundaries of the battlefield, the different parts and uses of the laser guns, how to recharge our guns if we ran out of ammunition and how to reactivate ourselves if we were deactivated from getting shot too many times. The guns were fairly light. Each gun had a small circle on the top which was the aim and another on the bottom, which also had a red button for reloading.  We were separated into 2 teams (red and blue). If you were tagged 5 times you got deactivated, so you had to go to your base and use a yellow machine to get reactivated.

Low ropes by Emily C:  Low ropes was like an obstacle course where you had to try to balance yourself on ropes or objects tied to ropes. Afterwards you were given challenges such as not holding on to certain ropes or touching/landing on certain objects. It was difficult to do as ropes aren’t the easiest thing to use but we had heaps of fun and that was what mattered.

Treasure quest by Sandy: During Treasure Quest, we had to go around the camp site and look for specific objects by using photos of the objects taken by the instructors. When we found each object, we had to write the number next to it. It was similar to orienteering and it was really hard but we managed to find most of the objects in the end. Some of the things we needed to find were trees, benches, lights, signs and dorms. I thought the light bulb was the trickiest one to find. The instructor Ethan helped us by giving us some clues.

Kingdom Conquer by Hannah: In Kingdom Conquer, we used catapults to shoot balls into crates. We got to arrange the crates to how we thought was easiest to shoot in. I shot a basketball in red and a tennis ball in blue.

Food by Emily C:  Dinner on the first night was grilled chicken with potatoes, corn and peas. People with dietary restrictions such as gluten free and vegetarian got their serves first. We were allowed second serves but I didn't eat fast enough, so unfortunately I didn't have a second helping. Dessert was straight after dinner. We had chocolate mousse with whipped cream and sprinkles.   The next morning for breakfast, we had toast and cereal. We had again allowed to have second serves, and this time I ate quicker so I got to have seconds. For lunch, we had a selection of pizza with assorted toppings with salad on the side.

Free time & Movie night by Grace & Sandy:   At camp, we had some free time and there were many activities to do. You could play on the Tarzan swing, go on the flying fox, play gaga ball, have fun in the recreational room or just sit down and have a chat with a friend. You just had to make sure an adult was around in the area you wanted to play. The Tarzan swing had one flight of stairs which led you to a flying fox seat. You walked up the stairs and jumped onto the swing. It went really high and fast, and was really fun. Gaga ball was a fun game that involved trying to use a ball to hit people. In the recreation room you could play lots of different sports and games such as pool, table tennis, air hockey and basketball.   At night, Miss Kong and Mr Pipprell put on Spongebob Squarepants. It was hilarious and funny when Spongebob spent so much time writing the essay only to find out that he didn't need to write it! He literally ripped the paper and literally broke in half!

Dorms by Jayden, Linda & Emily T:   After the movie, we trudged back to our dorms. We took turns brushing our teeth and changing into our pyjamas. Our dorm put our lights out early and there was this brief period of time where everyone willed themselves to sleep. Unfortunately, no one fell asleep and soon we were chatting. Then someone decided "banana" meant be quiet, and there was a chorus of “banana’s” around the room.    After a while, Jenuki asked Sandy to tell her spooky stories. I can’t really remember the stories Sandy told, because I was too busy trying to sleep. Sandy’s story got interrupted at some point: Anh interrupted Sandy’s story by telling her to ‘shush’, so she could sleep. After a while, it started to get warm, so Hannah, Sandy and I tried fixing it. We couldn’t fix it, and we were way too loud, as Miss Kong knocked on our door to tell us to be quiet. We went back to our beds and whispered for a while. Then Jenuki woke up. She started talking, and everyone followed, so Miss Kong came a second time!    

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School snap shot: Room 28

Last weekend, Sue Gaden (Finance Manager) and I went to a small farm just outside the village of Maclaren Vale to pick out 15 chicks.   I didn't realise there are so many different breeds of chickens but the owner, Robyn, seemed to have them all.  We chose Marans, Leghorns, Wyandottes and Australorps.   We also bought a couple of ‘Eggers’ which lay different coloured eggs.

Most of the chicks were only one day old when we picked them up but were already all fluffed up and independent. 

We are looking after them in the Year 5 Unit in a purpose-built wooden pen built by Enzo and Sam, complete with a heat lamp to keep them warm until their true feathers emerge. 

We won’t know for a little while whether the chickens will be hens or roosters.  We will need new hens for egg laying and will keep them in the henhouse behind Enzo's shed.  The roosters will be returned to Robyn, who is happy to look after them. 

We can’t really keep them as the neighbours may not enjoy being woken up at 4.00am by lots of crowing cockerels!

Jacky Tavener & students, Room 28

SAC: Casual Day

Date:  Friday 30^th September (last day of Term 3)

Dress:   Pyjamas

Donation:   Gold coin

Please note that on the last day of this term all students are invited to wear their pyjamas to school to celebrate the last day of term and to help raise money for purchasing lawn games over at Mariner Oval.

This year our SAC committee decided that terms 1 & 4 would have a casual day where donations would be passed onto charities nominated by our students.   

Money raised from casual days in terms 2 & 3 would stay in the school and be put towards improvements and games at Mariner Oval.

From:   Even Stevens SAC representatives

Scrunchies

Community notices

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.