Archive | July 2015

Education Week Celebrations

Thank you to all the grandparents, parents, families and friends that joined us yesterday to celebrate Education Week. All our performers, public speakers and student leaders did a superb job during our morning assembly.

It was wonderful to see so many people visit our student Art Gallery set up in the lower hall. A massive thank you to Jane Lander (Vincent’s mum) for all her hard work and efforts working with our students in the Art Cave and setting up the gallery. If you were unable to join us on Thursday, the gallery will be set up until Wednesday so feel free to come in and have a look.

During the last session of the day, our Yr5/6 students visited classes to deliver an art activity. Some of these included origami, hand-print painting, playdough monsters, egg carton caterpillars, a dance routine, 3D designs, paper craft boxes, snowflake designs, bubble writing and mask making. I was so impressed with the way our seniors conducted themselves and worked with our younger students. There were so many happy little faces excited to take home their artwork at the end of the day.

All the photos from the day are below.


ICAS Science

Today at our assembly students were recognised for their achievements in the ICAS Science competition. Well done to everyone who had a go, as the ICAS exams are always challenging. We had participation certificates for Adrian, Gill, Nelson and Max. Well done to Freya who received a Merit (top 38%); Credits for Patrick (top 26%), Sachin (top 16%), Dan (top 14%), Cai (top 20%), Sia (top 21%) and Sarah (top 22%). Congratulations to Lachlan for his outstanding achievement, a Distinction (top 3%) and recipient of the Principal’s award.

IMG_6731

OC Soap Opera

Below you will find the first episode of the OC Soap Opera. Earlier this year, Dan came up with the idea to write and film a soap opera with each episode featuring different characters from the OC. The story revolves around our young protagonist Gill, the new kid at school and his adventures and mishaps with some of the interesting characters at this school. Well done to Dan, for his efforts and creativity. Apart from the filming at school, Dan has worked tirelessly in his spare time writing, storyboarding and editing. I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to episode 2!

Term 3 Overview

With Term 3 well and truly underway, below is an overview of some of the opportunities and learning programs students will be involved in throughout the term. Remember to visit the OC Events page as I will be updating it regularly throughout the term when dates and information become available.

Sapphires Fundraising

We are so proud of Elsie, Sophia and Sia (our Sapphires) who will be representing our school at the Australian Championships later this term. A huge thank you to everyone who has shown their support by getting involved in our Friday fundraising festivities. So far we’ve had a cake stall and out of uniform day. Next week is a lunchtime disco and pizza day is Week 4. Be sure to get your pizza orders in by Tuesday 4th August as no late orders will be accepted.

Homework

Homework for students began this week (Week 2). Included in our homework menu this term, students will have the option to work on past papers for the Newcastle Permanent maths competition which is coming up in a few weeks. This term’s speaking and listening task has also been sent home and is due in Week 6.

Class Needs

It’s that time of year when many students need to replenish materials and equipment. Please encourage your child to bring the required equipment each day, in particular – glue stick, USB, headphones and pens. We are also running low on tissues.

Mastery Core Value

This term we are focusing on the core value of quality. Students who achieve 5 mastery ribbons will be inducted into our Hall of Fame during our special assembly in Week 10.

Reading

This term students will be studying the class novel Esty’s Gold by Mary Arrigan. This historical fiction novel supports our history topic and is about a young Irish girl and her family who survive the potato famine and make their way to Australia to find gold.

OC Book Club

A note will be sent home next week about our August book. We have been recommended Troll Mountain written by Matthew Reilly. Well done to everyone who read last month’s favourite, Fairy Tales for Wilde Girls.

Writing

This term our major focus is on informative texts. Students will be learning about a variety of devices used to create effective informative texts.

Students are currently working on an imaginative piece of writing for this year’s Board of Studies Write On competition. Our best entry will be submitted to represent our school for Stage 3.

Mathematics

During our maths sessions, students will work in groups, covering a different strand each week. The maths content we will be covering this term includes: Fractions & Decimals, Volume & Capacity, Mass, Patterns & Algebra, Chance, Length, Area and Data. Students will continue their participation the in annual Maths Olympiad and Maths Games– 3 to go! So far, students have been doing a terrific job solving these challenging problems. Students also have the opportunity to access past Olympiad papers as part of the homework options.

The ICAS Maths competition is coming up in Week 5 and the Australian Maths competition next week for students who have paid. All students in Year 5 and 6 will take part in the Newcastle Permanent Maths competition in Week 7.

Premiers Reading Challenge

Well done to the students who are taking part in this year’s challenge and who have been entering their books online. There’s not long to go – all reading logs need to be completed by 21/8/15 (end of Week 6) for validation. Keep reading!!

Premiers Spelling Bee

One of my favourite events – the Premiers Spelling Bee – will be taking place this term in Week 6. Information will be sent home soon for students who wish to participate. Parents and carers will also have the opportunity to come and watch the Spelling Bee.

Parent/Teacher Interviews

At the end of this term we will again hold parent/teacher interviews to discuss student progress and development. These interviews will also allow the opportunity to review student’s Individual Educational Plans (IEP). The online booking system will again be used and information regarding this will be sent home closer to the end of term.

Excursions

In Week 9 this term is our Stage 3 excursion to the Great Aussie Bush Camp. Thank you to all the families who have finalised payments or have been making regular instalments. If you require assistance or have any questions, please let me know.

The OC will also be taking part in the Science and Engineering Discovery Day in Week 9. Permission notes will be sent home later this term.

Our top 5 Chess players (Jack, Dan, Cala, Adrian and Zane) have been invited to compete in the semi-finals at Coal Point PS in Week 5. Good luck!

HSIE/History

This term students will take part in the unit Australian Colonies: Gold.  Students will have the opportunity to explore the influence of the discovery of gold on Australian identity, environment and heritage. The unit focuses on significant events, actions and people as well as lifestyles and perspectives of the people and groups living at that time.

Techno Buddies

Last term our class worked with 1E for the Writing Buddies program. This term we will be focusing on technology where students will have the opportunity to share their technological skills with our younger students and create and use projects using our class iPads.

CEP Outdoor Festival

Our school will be taking part in the Callaghan Education Pathways (CEP) Outdoor Media Festival in Term 4. This event was very successful last year with many schools in our cluster participating. Part of the festival involves a short film screening and the OC have the task of making a film for our school. We will begin working on our filming project this term. Information about the CEP Outdoor Festival will be sent out towards the end of this term.

Events

This term has already been quite busy with lots of events taking place. Many of our Yr 5 students are working on scripts and storyboards for this year’s Water Catchers competition. Some of our Yr 6 students will be taking part in the NBN Junior Journos program in Week 4. We have another group of Yr 6s devising a story for the video category of the Newcastle Herald writing competition.

We are celebrating Education Week – Grandparents Day this Thursday 30th July beginning at 9.30am. We will be showcasing creative and performing arts programs with performances from our choir, dance groups, school band and public speakers. Following our assembly you’re invited to visit our student Art Gallery set up in the lower hall. A huge thank you to Jane Lander who has been working with students on their art project in the Art Cave and is setting up our student gallery.

We will be receiving a visit from our Mathematicians in Schools partner, Dr Jarad, in Week 6 as part of National Science Week.

In Week 10 this term, students will be organising our Year 5/6 Fair which is a fun celebration day for all students and our major fundraising initiative for our Year 6 Farewell and school gift.

Finally, congratulations to all the students who have had a wonderful start to the term. Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding OC learning programs or events.

Musica Viva!

On Thursday we were treated to a live musical performance from the Sousaphonics as part of the Musica Viva program. The talented quartet performed their Sideshow Alley, a mixture of festival styles from across the world. It was very entertaining and lots of fun. Well done to Lachlan, who did a terrific job welcoming and presenting the performers. Thank you to our P&C who fully funded this wonderful event for our students.

Touchdown Writing

Well done to everyone who completed and submitted a piece of writing for the School Magazine My Word competition at the end of last term.

The competition involved writing a short opening to a story using 10 words of the month: chaotic, dilapidated, judder, luminous, peremptory, scapegoat, speculation, tantalising, thwart and vermilion. In addition, the story had to begin with the sentence: If he thinks I’m going into that old house, he’s got rocks in his head!

After we looked up the definitions for these challenging words, students began the task of writing their creative story introduction. Have a look at their wonderful efforts below. The winners will be published in next month’s edition of Touchdown.

Adrian       Cai     Cala    Calvin    Dan    Elijah    Elsie    Freya   Jack    Jarvis   Joe    Joseph   Lachlan   Louis    Lucas   Max

Mikayla   Nelson   Patrick  Sachin   Sam   Sarah    Sophia   Vincent

covers-9-2012

ICAS Digital Technologies

Today we recognised the achievements of our students who participated in the 2015 ICAS Digital Technologies competition. The UNSW competitions always set a high standard so it was great to see students achieve such terrific results. Congratulations to Gill, Cai, Nelson and Freya who received a participation certificate; Credits for Sia (top 14%), Adrian (top 24%), Sachin (top 33%), Max (top 24%), Zane (top 24%); a Merit for Dan (top 40%); and Distinctions for Elsie (top 9%), Sarah (top 11%) and Lachlan (top 3%) who also received the Principal’s Award for most outstanding achievement. Well done everyone!

icas digital

Active Numeracy

Thank you to the students and Mr Andrews from Callaghan College Technology Campus Waratah who delivered a wonderful session on Active Numeracy at the end of last term. Our year 5/6 students participated in a variety of fun, hands-on problem solving tasks that challenged them and also got them moving. Well done!