As we come to the end of Term 3, I would like to celebrate some of our proud achievements over the term and reflect on the success and achievement we have seen in our Primary School community. Moreover, most notably in how well we have gone been represented at State and National levels in a number of areas.
Most recently, I had the opportunity to work with the Primary Leadership team and work through the results from the Parent Questionnaire I conducted a few weeks back. It is important to ensure as a Primary School, we hear the voice of our community. I have appreciated how the majority of feedback was overwhelmingly positive and constructive. As a leadership team, we have reflected on what areas are in need of necessary improvements and those that need further investigation that have been fed back to us. We will in the coming weeks, prepare the information for you to peruse, and for those that requested my invitation to contact you, I will in due course.
Our students continue their commitment to sporting activities with our fabulous first place position with the State Cross Country competition this term. A credit must go to the students from Years 2 to Year 6 and families who braved and the supported the early morning training twice a week with Mr. Senior. The Year 5 and 6 cohort have represented the School in the NIPSSA Basketball competition at Warwick Basketball Stadium and enjoyed their day. To add to the busyness of sport this term, we have had the Lower Primary and Upper Primary Athletics days with perfect weather conditions and have most recently finished a two-week stint of swimming lessons last week.
We have had again in Academic Extension, Tournament of Minds success this year, with our STEM team getting through to State level and winning! This means they will be competing in the International Final held in Darwin next month.
The Primary Choir had an opportunity to perform for the Anglican Community School Eucharist at St. Georges Cathedral early in August. This was a wonderful experience to show case our choir and perform in such a magnificent setting. It was delightful seeing so many of our Primary School students perform in the School Musical ‘Lion King Jr.’ earlier this term. A number of our Primary School students played roles such as Brody Graham in Year 6 who starred as the junior Simba and others performed as animals in the animal kingdom who either danced or sang. The Instrumental Concert midway this term enabled a number of our students to perform the instruments they have been learning. A highlight was some of our Year 2s performing their string instruments.
The Library team have gone all out this term with Book Week celebrations on the theme of ‘Find Your Treasure’. We have had a number of excellent author visits come to our School such as Kirsty Murray and Norman Jorgensen. The book parade was the finale of the week with the Year 6 cohort stealing the limelight with their ‘Very Hungary Caterpillar’ costume extravaganza.
The Father’s Day morning for K to Year 6 students had many of our Dads involved in hands-on activities with their child/children. Staff prepared fun filled activities to help our Dads feel most welcome.
Our Primary School Teachers have been recognised for their efforts in teaching and learning by running a number of professional learning opportunities for schools from all over Perth. We have led a number of professional learning workshops whereby visiting teachers and schools have been able to have a glimpse into an Inquiry classroom in and around our Primary School. It has been wonderful for my staff to be acknowledged for all their hard work and to be held up as an exemplar Primary School. We have the Australian Independent Schools of Western Australian (AISWA) keen to continue working with us as Universities are now making inquiry learning a pedagogical priority in their courses. We were also very delighted to have written a chapter in one of AISWA’s publications that tells our journey at book launch at the start of this term. This book in on display in the Primary School Reception.
Another way for the Primary School to communicate what we do has been the development of a 4 and a 9-minute video using some of our teachers, students and parents to assist our community to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of Inquiry learning. I hope to launch this at the start of next term, so watch this space!
Another thrill this term was having the Primary School selected to be on the Channel 9 Current Affair show casing our approach to play and not wrapping our students in ‘cotton wool’. Rather than vicariously experiencing risk through a screen, we actually want our children to be exposed to risky or adventurous play. It is about creating opportunities for children to explore and test their own capabilities to manage risk with our aim of growing capable, resourceful and resilient children. Supervised risky play can increase a child’s safety awareness and help them judge danger better. We want our children to assess the risk by helping them to manage and problem solve and to learn from their experiences.
We have ended the term with our Science Fair spectacular! Mr Horrigan and Ms Sutherland and their Science Club co-curricular team were able to create highly engaging and fun science activities that enabled all our students to explore, experience and wonder at the myriad of activities that were on offer to them. Another very highly worthwhile activity that created by our staff.
Finally, I would like to thank Ibu Fransisca Smith who has been our Primary School Indonesian teacher whilst Ibu Bell has been on Long Service leave. Ibu Smith has embraced our community and we have loved her involvement and especially the decorated doors of the Primary School! We truly wish her well in her next endeavour and thank her for all her hard work and commitment.
I wish each member of the Peter Moyes ACS Primary School community a well-deserved break and look forward to seeing you next term for the final countdown!
Written by Mr. Roderick Wood - Associate Principal – Primary School