Archive | August 2014

OC Book Club

On Friday we held our first OC Book Club. Well done to the students who participated by reading our August book – The Giver by Lois Lowry. Students generated great discussion about the text’s themes and also shared recommendations of other books they have been reading.

We will meet again in Week 10 this term for our September book – Wonder by R.J Palacio.

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A few reminders…

The last few weeks of this term are certainly shaping up to be extremely busy! Here are a few reminders about events taking place…

Parent Teacher Interviews-

These will take place next fortnight. If you are yet to book a time, please do so by visiting schoolinterviews.com.au and using the school event code – N54SY. Bookings close today at 4pm! Alternatively, you can complete a ‘paper’ copy that was sent home last week.

Canberra-

Our Canberra excursion is coming up in Week 10. Please ensure you have returned both your permission note and green medical forms. All notes sent home can be accessed on our school website if you need another copy. You will also find our itinerary and what to bring in this section. Please ensure all payments are finalised at our office before the trip.

Engineering Excursion-

In Week 9 the OC will attend an excursion to Kahibah Public School to compete in the Science and Engineering Challenge. The cost is $15 and a sausage sizzle lunch is provided.

Book Week-

Be sure to come along and celebrate Book Week with us next Wednesday. It would be great to see all our students get into the spirit of things and dress up. There is a shared lunch provided by our P&C and the assembly and parade will be held in the afternoon session.

Year 5/6 Fair-

Thanks to everyone who has already brought in money and donations for this fundraising event. Any donations of lollies, trash and treasure and drinks would be greatly appreciated. If you are planning on donating cakes, ice cream or items for the pizza stall, please bring these to the classroom on the morning of the fair.

Lastly, I’d just like to congratulate our students who all sat the Newcastle Permanent Maths competition yesterday. It was great to see such terrific effort and application demonstrated by our students and I look forward to receiving our results early next term.

If you have any questions about any of the events taking place, please let me know. See you at our parent – teacher interviews!

 

 

Water Wise!

During the past fortnight, students in the OC have been working on storyboards and scripts for the Hunter Water – Water Catchers competition. The competition is all about raising awareness of being water wise and the best entry will receive $10 000 for an environmental project at their school and have their script turned into a short film. Well done to our students who completed an entry and fingers crossed!

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ICAS Writing

Today we recognised the achievements of our students who participated in the 2014 ICAS Writing competition. The UNSW competitions are always set at a high standard so it was great to see students achieve such terrific results. Congratulations to Dayna and Lachlan who received a participation certificate, Rory (top 23%), Heidi (top 32%) and Max (top 23%) who received a credit and Sarah (top 11%), Dan (top 7%) and Eva (top 5%) who received a distinction. Well done to Eva who also received the Principal’s award for her outstanding result.

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Write On!

Well done to Dan, whose short story Brother was voted the best by our class to represent Stage 3 in the Board of Studies writing competition – Write On! Students used the stimulus image below to create a 500 word story. When completed we had an anonymous reading session of students’ short stories and then voted on the best piece of quality work. You can read Dan’s story below and fingers crossed for the competition!

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Brother

Yeh, that’s it. Get up and walk over to your Dora towel. I peeped out of my clean, big, thick lens binoculars. My Indiana Jones hat and short-sleeved blue shirt covered the remaining visible parts of me as I crouch down in the long blades of crisp, clean, grass. I can’t enter the land of boiling sand and water. I need to stay hidden in the thick plantation and trees.
I can’t go on the enemies land, the land of tans and bikinis; my sister gets up and sprints over to the water, kicking up bits of sand behind her. She dives in the crystal water and doesn’t emerge again, I think she drowned. Like a walrus that can’t swim, her walrus friends run after her again and do the same, jump in the water and don’t emerge.
I think the water is shallow so she wouldn’t have been able to go far, except drown, but even then, where is the body, and still, what about her friends, where are they?

Mission aborted; I throw my binoculars from around my neck on the ground, then sprint off on the hot sand, ripping my shirt from my chest, like spandex pants being stretched too much. The rags fall on the ground, my abs twinkling in the sunlight. I work out! I continue down the bank, towards the cold twinkling water, my skin fresh and cold from the undergrowth but growing hotter as the sun sieges it with the army of UV rays.
My body is officially warm, I can feel the sun already burning down the castle that’s my skin, tingeing and freckling it. But that warmth is quickly interrupted by the splash of salt water as it covers my back. I have dived in, and I am shocked, my eyes stinging underwater… a hand. A human hand. It comes out of the sand, only up to my elbow, and it drags me down. It grasps onto my left hand and pulls me into drenched sand.
Slowly, but steadily, I manage to pull it up enough to catch a rushed breath of air, inhaling the stuff. Then I get dragged into the doom hole, first my left arms go in, then my head and I end up getting sucked in head first. I’m a grape that is getting slowly sucked from its stalk by the hungry sand mouth. I will get indulged; it will roll me around in its mouth, playing with me with its tongue, drowning in slobber. Then it will bite me in half and suck the sweet juice from me, then spit my seed out and peel the green thin skin off with its teeth. That is how I’ll die- like a grape!
My lungs are bursting now. I am pulled down into a cavern. I fall… the wet sand forming a ceiling and then I see a shadowed figure emerge from the darkness. And it says: “You should not have come here, brother.”

Disco Fever!

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What a super night! Well done to all the students who attended the SRC disco in the upper hall this evening. We were very lucky to receive a visit from world-famous guest DJ Mix-a-lot, all the way from London! It was great to see everyone busting their best moves in their PJs and onesies. Some impressive skills demonstrated early on in the first dance-off from break dancing Joe, shimmying Rory, groovy Noah and crumping Dan. It was also good to see many kids getting into the classics like the Nutbush and YMCA – super moves from Demaris, Liam and Heidi. The Limbo was another favourite – great back bending from Adrian, Cala and Sarah. A shout out also to Joseph for the most stylish onesie; Zane for being the most photographed; Jack for his enthusiastic jumping; Declan for his hugs; and Max, Nelson and Oliver for being the cool kids at the back! Congratulations to Lucas, who was crowned Lord of the Dance tonight – very well deserved as he danced away all night long! Great work everyone for having fun and enjoying yourselves. I’m sure you’ll all sleep well tonight!

A big thank you to all the SRC members for selling tickets each morning and to Miss Staniland for her great organisation and for taking lots of photos. How disappointing that Mrs Bowman couldn’t make it to the disco tonight – I’m sure she would’ve had a great time and enjoyed meeting our guest DJ.

Planetarium

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What an awesome way to celebrate National Science Week – with our very own starry night in the lower hall, thanks to the visiting Planetarium from the Newcastle Museum, organised by our wonderful Mrs Bowman. A big thank you to Emma from the museum for sharing her amazing scientific knowledge with us this afternoon and showing us how to map the stars. I was very impressed with the range of excellent questions and answers from OC students, in particular Nelson, Oliver and Dan – definitely some future scientists and astronomers in our midst!

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Sporting Superstar!

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Congratulations to our sporting superstar Lachlan, who has been selected for the Sydney Swans Academy Under 11 squad commencing in February 2015. Lachlan will begin rigorous training sessions at Newcastle University and will also go to Sydney for training at Macquarie University. In April he will get to attend a squad camp. Lachlan was the only player selected from the Newcastle City AFL club in his age group out of hundreds of players who tried out. Well done, Lachlan! An amazing achievement!

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