from our principal...people from different countries came to visit us’ vedika m. i really enjoyed...

Newsletter

Number 15

18th October 2019

231 Charman Rd, Cheltenham, VIC, 3192 http://cheltenhamps.vic.edu.au/

Dear Parents, Students and Friends of Cheltenham Primary School,

What a highlight this week has been as we have celebrated our Science Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics (STEAM) inquiry framework. In implementing this approach three years ago, our goal was to engage all students in each of the STEAM disciplines and to promote the transdisciplinary nature of learning throughout the school.

It has been a high learning curve for our students and our staff, requiring continuous professional learning and enhanced collaboration in all teams and school wide. In our recent school review, the reviewer listed STEAM as a highlight; noting that ‘students were highly engaged in the STEAM program through innovative learning strategies, such as Learning Expos, a Maker Fair, and opportunities for parents to see students’ learning’.

Our STEAM inquiry framework is underpinned by the core discipline of English. It is essential for academic growth and metacognition that our students are able to articulate and connect their learning across subject disciplines.

Positive feedback we received from families throughout the week focused on:

the improvement in student collaboration and student creativity

the high ability of students’ to articulate their learning

the excellence of the curriculum content

appreciation for the multiple opportunities for families to view and engage in all the STEAM disciplines throughout the week

A group of Year 6 students in appraising the Year 3/4 Traffic Light Expo acknowledged they were “...far better that when we worked on the same project, two years ago!”

Some other comments from students:

I liked how we got to go and see other people’s STEAM projects in the Junior School. Oscar C.

It was really fun getting to watch and participate in all the things at lunchtime: the Dance Off and tennis match. Natalie M.

STEAM week was great. It was good how everyone got a chance to share their projects. I also liked how we had people from different countries came to visit us’ Vedika M.

I really enjoyed STEAM Week as I had the opportunity to explore a variety of different things, such as projects from all the year levels, artworks and Japanese drumming. Aidan 2A

From our Principal

The Juniors enjoyed watching some of us, trying

some Japanese drumming!

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Number 15

18th October 2019


One of our teachers brought their own children along on Tuesday morning and commented that they thought “it was amazing, they could not believe all the things that our students had done and everything that was going on!”

One of the week’s highlights was a visit by 20 educators from Saudi Arabia, who are attending Monash university’s Leadership for Change program. All our students were so thrilled to share their learning with them. Our visitors were ‘blown away’ by the children’s creativity, thinking and competency in STEAM. We hope this will be the first of many such experiences for our students as we place a focus on cultural diversity and international mindedness in our next School Strategic Plan.

This week also had a wellbeing focus, through Smile Week, which aims to promote kindness to others. It is always appreciated by the children...

Just a small letter changed my emotions very quickly. Toni M.

I loved Smile Week because everyone was so nice to each other. Everyday someone did something to make me smile. Chloe W.

I thought Smile Week was really good because you got to give or do something nice to your smile buddy and then hopefully it would go in a loop. You do something for someone and then they the do something nice for someone else. It felt really warm doing something for someone else. Ryan R.

More importantly, many of our students are learning to express what kindness and care mean to them...

A conversation between three Year 2 boys on Thursday while eating their snack at recess.

“Friendship is far better than getting a thing”

“Yes, friendship is worth more”

“It is forever and you can lose a thing but never a friend”

As these boys acknowledged, kindness is about caring for another not about giving ‘things’ but giving time,

compassion, understanding.

During the week one of our parents was involved in a traffic accident outside the school. It was scary and could

have been potentially serious. Fortunately in the end, the damage was minor. What was wonderful to see was

the kindness of the parents and staff that came together to support a member of our community: getting a coffee

to help with their shock, looking after their children, and taking them home and staying with them.

This is what community is...this is what kindness is ….and this is what makes me, smile.

I would like to acknowledge Andrea Kinsey our STEAM Specialist for her leadership of STEAM week, our amazing

specialist teachers who opened their programs to the community to show how STEAM is connected in each

discipline, all our classroom teachers, who facilitated the STEAM projects, prepared the children for the Learning

Expos and all in our community who came to celebrate with us!

Kind Regards,

Bronwyn

Newsletter

Number 15

18th October 2019


From Andrea Kinsey, our STEAM Learning Specialist…

What an exciting week! It began with all the students showcasing their wonderful STEAM projects. The enthusiasm of the students was shared with many parents, family and community members: Animal habitats formed the start of the STEAM journey for Foundation students. Very creative bug catchers that showed the ingenuity of our junior students and their ability to problem solve. Traffic lights designed to take us into the future - with working circuitry invented by the Middle School students. Finally incredible new board games that highlighted the numeracy and collaboration skills of our senior students. Next, the Specialist areas showcased their programs with the students rotating through each area with many ‘hands-on’ activities. The students’ smiling faces and their eagerness to share their experiences could be heard throughout the day. The ability to communicate and share to an audience has always been a focus of our STEAM projects. The success of developing these skills could be seen at the lunchtime Dance Off and the instrumental pop-ups. It was great to see so many students confidently participate in these events. Many thanks to the parents, family members and students who came to watch and appreciate. On Thursday, our international visitors were so impressed with the quality of the teaching, the friendliness of the students and the amazing projects that it was difficult to get them back onto their bus! Finally to finish off the week a rocking Disco for the students to celebrate and reward their hard earned work. All these projects and events are a credit and testament to our hardworking teachers, staff and students who are continually challenging themselves to strive higher and prove everyone is capable of achieving success.

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18th October 2019


Traffic Light

Project: Years

3 and 4

Design a new

Board Game

Project: Years 5

and 6

Catch a Bug:

Years 1 and 2

Foundation: Animal

Enclosures

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Number 15

18th October 2019


The kitchen classroom was a biscuit factory this week. A supervisor was appointed to oversee the factory workers to make and design biscuits. Each biscuit had to weigh the same and a design on the top of the biscuit was to be produced by choosing a piece of equipment from a draw or cupboard or something in the kitchen. The children rose to the challenge and all produced amazing supermarket quality biscuits!

PE and Mini Golf

Visual Arts: paint

blowing

Kitchen classroom: Biscuit factory

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18th October 2019


Threads & Textiles

Art Technology

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18th October 2019


"A big thank you needs to go to those wonderful parent helpers who helped put on and staff the Junior and Senior Disco's last Friday night. Without the involvement of parents at the school, activities such as our annual disco simply cannot run. Almost 30 parents gave up their time so that their children and all of the rest of the children could have themselves a wonderful time. Again, an activity like this cannot run without the support of the school staff in the office, the teachers and the school leadership team. Everyone puts in a lot of time and effort to run these activities, so thank you to all of those helpers and staff. The Junior and Senior discos were a blast on Friday night with the children dancing around and singing out loud. There were a number of fantastic costumes from Spacemen to Princesses, Unicorns to Halloween dress up and eve-rything in between. Not everyone got dressed in costume with School Colours day also on Friday, a number of stu-dents simply came in their school house colours and showed that off with pride. The hall was awash with disco lighting, smoke machines and bubbles falling in waves from the roof (my personal favourite!) and the children were adorned with a multitude of glo products purchased from our tables. A great time was had by all the children which is after all why we run this event each year. Thanks to those kids who came along and had a great time. I can't wait to do it all again next year. Derek Screen PTFA Disco Coordinator"

Newsletter

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18th October 2019


Term 4 2019 - October /November/ December

Week 2 Monday 14th—Friday 18th STEAM EXPO Week

Friday 18th School Disco—Years F –2: 2.30pm—4pm, Years 3-6: 5pm—7pm

Week 3 Tuesday 22nd—School Council—7:30pm

Week 4 Friday 1st—Foundation 2020 Information Morning—9am –10am

Friday 1st—2020 Leadership Assembly—2.30pm –3.30pm

Week 5 Monday 4th—Pupil Free Day

Tuesday 5th—Melbourne Cup Day

Friday 8th—Foundation 2020 Transition session 9.30am—10.30am

Week 6 Friday 15th—Foundation 2020 Transition session 9.30am—10.30am

Week 7 Tuesday 19th—School Council—7:30pm

Week 8 Thursday 28th—Yr 6 School Production

Friday 29th—Foundation 2020 Transition session 2pm— 3pm

Sunday 1st—Working Bee 9am –12pm

Week 9 Thursday 5th—Friday 6th—Yrs 5/6 Beach Program

Friday 6th—Foundation 2020 Transition session 2pm— 3pm

Week 10 Tuesday 10th—Yr 7 2020 Transition Day

Week 11 Monday 16th—Year 6 Graduation Practice

Tuesday 17th—Year 6 Graduation Lunch and Evening

Thursday 19th—Class Party Day

Friday 20th—Last day of Term –1.30pm Dismissal

Newsletter

Number 15

18th October 2019


from our principal...people from different countries came to visit us’ vedika m. i really enjoyed...

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