Today marks our 101st Birthday of Swansea Primary School!  Can you believe our centenary was a year ago?

It has been a busy fortnight at SPS. On Monday, we held our Ride to School Day which was a great success. A very special thanks to our local constables Tony Peters and Craig Vermey for joining us for this event.

Planning and preparation for our External School Review is well underway and we are looking forward to the panel joining us for two days next week.  We have three lines of inquiry which are:

"How effectively is the school using feedback, including data - at all levels for improvement and growth?"

"To what extent are students engaged and challenged in their learning?"

"How effectively is the school using quality teaching pedagogies to guide learning design and classroom practice?" 

Please join us for the parent session - on Tuesday 5th April from 11:30-12pm and the School Association meeting from 2:30pm-3pm.  Light refreshements will be provided.

On Wednesday, some of the School Association representatives met, to plan for our 2022 AGM which will be held at 5pm on Wednesday 13th April in the Art Room.  All parents are welcome and encouraged to attend.  This meeting will be followed by a general committee meeting directly afterwards.

The SRC are excited to be planning their first fundraising intiative - an Easter Raffle.  If you own or work in a small business that would like to support this fundraiser please make contact with the school for some raffle ticket books.  All funds will go back into the school.

A gentle reminder that as the weather is getting cooler, please make sure your child has a school jacket packed daily for the changing weather conditions. Please also check your uniform supplies at home as there are several students who have lost items.  

Have a wonderful weekend.

Kristy Hay

Principal

Hagley Farm Excursion for Middle & Upper Primary Students

Friday 8th April

Bus departs at 7.30am 

Please return completed permission forms to the school office as soon as possible.

*As part of our COVID-19 safety procedures, we have planned two buses to transport the classes to and from Hagley Farm. 

Computer Programs in STEAM

Upper Primary

During STEAM, Swansea Primary school students in Upper Primary have begun using the Scratch program to create an "All About Me Page". Students will also be able to log on to their scratch accounts from home. Scratch is a visual programming language that allows our students to develop computational thinking, which will help them problem-solve many of the challenges that will come up both now and in the future. Using critical and creative thinking, students become creative users rather than consumers.

Early Primary and Middle Primary

This week in STEAM students in Early Primary and Middle Primary used the programs Reading Eggs and ABC Mathseeds. Swansea Primary Schools has registered all students with the ABC Reading Eggs and ABC Mathseeds online programs. Our students have their own username and password and can access them both at school and at home. This enables teachers to create specific student programs based on their individual learning goals. Teachers collect data about each student's learning and can incorporate assessment activities to discover what children know, understand and can do. This data is then included in the ongoing observation cycle, analysing learning, documentation, planning, implementation and reflection. ABC Reading Eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities. Children love the games, songs, golden eggs and other rewards, which, along with feeling proud of their reading, really motivate children to keep exploring and learning.

ABC Mathseeds teaches kids aged 3-9 the core maths and problem solving skills needed to be successful at school with fun, highly interactive and rewarding lessons.ABC Mathseeds combines highly structured lessons with fun motivational elements that keep children engaged and keen to learn. 

For information on the Mathseed lesson content and outcomes please click on the following link.

Mathseeds Lering Outcomes

It had been fantastic to see students becoming more confident using devices. Next week we look forward to intoducing a set of 10 new Ipads to the Middle Primary Classroom. These will help develop of students literacy and numeracy skills and be used in all subject areas. 

Mrs Wells

On Monday the 28th March, SPS celebrated National Ride Safely to School Day.  What a wonderful turn out we had at the footy oval, ready to ride safely to school.  We were escorted by our lovely local police officers, Craig Vermey and Tony Peters, who shared some road safety information with us.  It was also wonderful to share some fresh fruit and vegetables together when we arrived back at school.  Thank you to all the students, parents, staff and community members who made this event a special one.

The Alphabet Inquiry

Tuning In (for the Prep Learners)

As thinkers, what do you notice about this collection of corks? 

“Big and small”, “letters”, “Capital letters”, “little ones”, “upper case and lowercase letters!”

What might these boxes represent?

“That’s ‘A’ ”, “that’s zzz... ” (pause) “It’s the alphabet!”    

The Problem:  Sorting out.

Miss Pearce explained to the Preps that she had placed the first and last letters of the alphabet in their right boxes but ran out of time to do the rest.  The Preps were eager to help.  Mrs. Sparshott helped the Preps work together as collaborators, to complete the alphabox.  Miss Pearce worked with the Kinders to match the collection of classroom objects with their beginning sounds.

Going Further

As collaborators, The Kinders and Preps worked together to complete the alphabox puzzle by matching the objects with their beginning sounds.  As self-mangers, they persisted when feeling challenged and solved their own problems by asking questions like researchers do.  The Prep learners showed great leadership when helping the Kinder students to match their objects with their beginning sounds.  It was wonderful to watch our Early Years learners supporting each other‘s learning rather than taking over it (if they already knew the answer).

Making Conclusions

-How did our learning assets help us to solve the alphabox problem together? 

-Which letters/sounds do you know well?  Which letters/sounds do you need more practise with?

-What could we add and/or change to help our learning grow?   

Taking Action

- As a communicator, how and when might the alphabox table support your learning this year? 

5 Moves to 100!

Middle Primary got their mathematical brain boxes switched on this week with a great learning game called 5 Moves to 100.  Players begin the game by setting up their game board and rolling the dice 5 times.  After each roll, players must choose whether they place the number they rolled into the tens column or ones column, and then work out their running total.  The challenge is to finish as close to 100 as possible.  The thrill level was high as we anticipated each roll, hoping to be the closest team to 100 at the end.  After a whole-group game, we had a go with our partners, putting our place value strategies and addition skills to the test.  Lots of mathematical fun was had throughout this activity!

Inquiry in the Upper Primary Class.

The Upper Primary Class is in the midst of an inquiry into explosions - man made and natural.

In an inquiry cycle, there are several steps:

Students are at varying stages of the cycle as they sort and prepare to act by communicating their findings, which will be presented as a TV news style report.

We hope to share some of the recordings with you soon!

Here are some images of the inquiry process so far...

Students are also becoming more familiar with the learner assets that will help othem to become life long learners. These include being: a communicator, a collaborator, a thinker, a researcher and a self manager.

So far we have considered the attributes that help us to become good self managers and good collaborators, and we will further explore the other learner assets soon.

Outdoor Education Excursions:

On Friday the 18^th of March students in the Middle Primary Class had an opportunity to participate in an excursion to Douglas Apsley National Park. Students participated in activities such as bird watching, sketching and a treasure hunt for different plant life.

On Friday the 25^th of March students in the Upper Primary class had an opportunity to participate in an excursion to Freycinet National Park. Students walked to the Wineglass Bay Lookout and enjoyed lunch on Richardson’s Beach before returning to school.