1 May 2015

Dates for Your Diary

8 May – Variety Fun Day

12 May – Opera Australia “Cinderella”

13 May – P&C Meeting

14 May – School Photos

‘Lest We Forget’

Jon-Paul and Sienna laid a wreath

The Hon. Adrian Piccoli, Jenny Zagas, Jon-Paul & Sienna at the ANZAC

Commemoration

R/Director Public Schools NSW, Anne Reddie, presents Sienna & Jon-Paul with

their awards

Principal’s Message

I would like to extend a warm welcome back to everyone for Term 2.

We started the term with two very significant commemorations. Last Thursday 23 April, Jayne, Jon-Paul, Sienna and I attended the RSL and Schools Remember ANZAC Commemoration Service at the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park. Over 300 students from schools around Sydney and other special guests attended the ceremony to honour those who paid the ultimate price.

It was a very moving service and our students are to be commended for their outstanding behaviour and the respect they displayed. After the official party laid wreaths, all schools were invited to lay a floral arrangement or wreath at the memorial.

On Friday 24 April we held our ANZAC Commemoration service at Lucas Gardens School, led by Daryl Hood. All students showed great respect during the

Lucas Gardens School Celebrating Ability Through High Expectations

Cnr Queens Rd & Walker St Canada Bay NSW 2046

Ph: 9744 6461 Fx: 9744 1705 Email: lucasgarde-s.school@det.nsw.edu.au

proceedings. It was a pleasure to have in attendance Ms Anne Reddie, Relieving Director Public Schools NSW. During our service Ms Reddie presented two very special awards, to Jon-Paul and Sienna for representing our School at the RSL and Schools Remember ANZAC Commemoration Service.

This term we welcome to our school Ms Rebecca Stark. Through the merit selection process, Rebecca was awarded the positon of Assistant Principal for Lucas Gardens School. Rebecca brings with her a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience in Special Education. In addition to this, Rebecca is an international MOVE trainer, a philosophy we are currently implementing in our everyday school routines, so this expertise will be warmly welcomed and beneficial for both students and staff.

Rebecca will commence on Monday 4 May and will be teaching Stage 5 Purple, supported by Gail Baguley, a very experienced School Learning Support Officer. Part of Rebecca’s role will be supervising the Secondary classes and leading teaching and learning programs. Please join me in making Rebecca welcome to Lucas Gardens School!

I would like to sincerely thank Daryl Hood for relieving as Assistant Principal most of last year and during Term 1 this year. Daryl quickly embraced the role taking a particular shine to transport operations and has admirably supported students, families and staff. Thank you Daryl!

There will be some changes in the Secondary school from next week. Melinda Broadbent will be teaching Stage 6 Silver and Daryl Hood will be fulfilling the teacher/ librarian role in addition to the release from face to face role, supporting all classes.

New School Update

We have begun sorting, clearing and packing in preparation for our move to the temporary site at Lakemba. Shortly, I will be speaking to Assisted School Travel personnel to ensure that the transition to this site is as seamless as possible for students currently accessing transport. If you are not currently using Assisted School Travel and hope to use this service to the temporary site, contingent on your eligibility, please contact the school as soon as possible in order to receive and complete the necessary paper work in time.

Focus on Learning

This term our whole school focus is ‘Australiana’. All classes will study Australian History, Culture, Literature, Art and Music. Students will be provided with experiences and opportunities to explore Australiana through the outstanding lessons delivered by staff.

Due to a generous donation from a private foundation, the music program, delivered weekly by Josh from Rhythm Village, will continue in Term 2. We are very fortunate to have such valued friendships. Josh’s music program will be in line with our ‘Australiana’ theme complementing teaching and learning.

Kind regards

Jenny Zagas

Personal Development, Health & Physical Education Report

The significance of developing fundamental movement skills in order to maximise the health and well-being of young children and young adults has been highlighted in Australia and internationally in recent years. Proficiency in these foundations of movement contributes to the health and well-being of individuals enabling lifelong involvement in physical activity whilst assisting with the proficiency of everyday movements such as walking, balancing, pushing, pulling and holding.

This term the students at Lucas Gardens School will be taking part in a whole school sport program. This program focuses on developing the student’s fundamental movement skills (FMS) through exposure to concentrated activities. The students will be grouped based on their current skill level so as to ensure they are exposed to concentrated lessons that focus on developing and practising FMS that align with their physical development and are linked with the PDHPE Curriculum Outcomes from Early Stage 1 to Stage 6.

The concentrated activities will be linked to the K-6 content strands; Active Lifestyles, Dance, Gymnastics and Games and Sport.

The following Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) will we be the main focus:

• movement patterns that involve different body parts such as the legs, arms, trunk and head

• travelling skills such as walking, stepping, pushing, running and hopping

• object control skills such as catching, throwing, striking and balancing.

These are the foundation movements or precursor patterns to the more specialised, complex skills used in play, games, sports, dance, gymnastics, outdoor education and physical recreation activities.

This term the sport program will be focusing on FMS related to Dance. The FMS that will be specifically looked at and assessed this term in Dance will be:

• Non-Locomotor skills - balancing the body in stillness and in motion. Examples are: static and dynamic balancing, stopping, landing, bending, stretching, twisting, turning and swinging.

• Locomotor skills - transporting the body in any direction from one point to another. Examples are: pushing, crawling, walking, running, hopping, leaping, jumping, climbing, skipping, and rolling.

• Object control skills - controlling implements (for example, ribbons, hoops) or objects (such as balls) either by hand or foot. Examples are: throwing, catching, waving, and holding.

I am looking forward to supporting the teachers and SLSOs in the implementation of this whole school sport program and I am confident that the concentrated approach to improving the student’s current movement skill level will see great results. I look forward to seeing the students’ dance routines at the end of the term and I hope you will be able to join us in celebrating their achievements.

Yours in Sport

Rosie Ryan PDHPE Co-ordinator

Stage 1/2 - Orange

This term our units of work will be based on the Human Society and its Environment curriculum. We will be studying two topics Community and Remembrance and Australia - You’re standing in it!

We have focused on Remembrance with the ANZAC Centenary celebrations and acknowledging those who fought in the war. The students have been participating in shared reading activities based on the book ‘Lest We Forget’ by Kerry Brown which outlines the memories of a young boy and those of his grandfather who fought in the war. The students have interacted with real objects linked to the story such as a soldier’s hat, medals, ANZAC cookies etc. We have been focusing on visual literacy exploring the images from the book and the story they tell. Everyone did very well in shared writing activities writing sentences based on pictures from the book.

Morgan looking at a poppy as a symbol of remembrance

Ava exploring a story told through pictures

Richard participating in shared writing

activities

In Art activities this term we will be experimenting with paint and using a variety of tools to create different effects. This week we created a poppy field using different types of sponges to apply paint.

Sienna using stampers to apply paint

Jayson creating his poppy field

Thank you to Sienna who did such a wonderful job representing our school at a special RSL and Schools Remember ANZAC Commemoration Service and also to Morgan our class SRC representative who helped to lay the wreath at our school assembly on Friday. Thank you to all Class Orange students for their contributions in making a special wreath using flowers from the school gardens.

Wendy, Diane and Denise

Stage 6 - Silver

Hello again to everyone in the Lucas Gardens School Community from Stage 6, Class Silver! This is the first Newsletter for Term 2 2015! We hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.

We went straight back into learning this term, using the great new communication support materials in the ‘Communication Boxes’ that were developed last term. They replace the old ‘Literacy Boxes’ and now contain a large range of object, photo and picture communication supports.

Aren using the ‘object’ for “Morning Circle”

Our History focus this term is ‘Australiana’. We initiated this by looking at the ‘ANZAC Tradition’ which is generally held to mark the birth of Australia as a nation on the world stage. Class Silver helped to collect flowers from the school’s extensive garden to make wreaths to lay at our ANZAC Commemoration Assembly. This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the ANZAC landing in Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.

Consiglia collecting flowers for a wreath!

We noted that many of the plants that were in bloom before the holidays were no longer flowering and others had taken their place. This is part of our Science focus on the

changing seasons and the cooling temperatures as Autumn moves towards Winter. One of the plants that was in plentiful supply was rosemary which everyone wore on ANZAC Day as a sign of remembrance. It has a very distinctive smell.

Angus smells the fragrance of rosemary!

The ANZACs landed on a beach in Gallipoli where there was nowhere to sleep until they put up tents. They also dug trenches to protect themselves. We decided to see what being in a tent was like!

We took turns inside the tent!

Our school is a PBL school (Positive Behaviour for Learning) and Class Silver decided to make PBL medals for everyone to wear to the Anzac Day Assembly just as returned soldiers and their relatives wear medals of honour at commemorations. Our medals were for Safe, Respectful Learners.

Consiglia helped put the PBL medals together with a sprig of rosemary!

We engaged with lots of stories, poetry and songs from the time of Gallipoli on the white board and read a book called ‘A Day to Remember’.

Aren watches an ANZAC video!

Class Silver would also like to say a big thank you to the boys from St Aloysius’ College for their help on our Community Access day at the end of last term. It was much appreciated!

Thank you St. Aloysius!

That is all this time from Stage 6, Class Silver.

Daryl, Jenny D and Antoinetta

Early Stage 1/Stage 1 - Blue

Welcome back to school for Term 2. We hope you had a lovely Easter break. Class Blue will be looking at old and new Australian icons this term as part of the whole school ‘Australiana’ theme. We have started by looking at the ANZACs who are a very important part of our past, present and future. We have used the book ‘ANZAC Ted’ by Belinda Landsberry to gain an understanding of what ANZAC means to us. We listened to ‘The Last Post’ and also made ANZAC biscuits as part of our commemoration for Anzac Day.

Cara inspected ANZAC Bear to find that he was worn and torn and only had one eye

Harry didn’t mind having only one eye like ANZAC Ted

Adam mixed the dry ingredients together for our ANZAC biscuits

This term we will be focusing on handwriting during our writing lessons. We will be working on fine motor control and mark making. Every week we will focus on making marks using a different medium. Last week we made marks in a tray full of split peas. This week we made marks on the touch screen computer using a paint application. We also have a grip switch which activates a switch toy when the students grip it securely in their hands, encouraging fine motor control.

Jayden made marks in split peas during our handwriting lesson

Pauline, Krishna and Toula

Stage 4/5 - Purple

Class Purple started Term 2 with enthusiasm and wasted no time engaging in our teaching and learning theme of ‘Australiana’. In weeks 1 and 2 we focused our learning around the very relevant topic of ANZAC Day.

In English we used Visual Literacy to access information about the ANZACs. We explored many different types of imagery including photographs, illustrations, posters and artworks. We paid particular attention to exploring what an ANZAC looked like.

Our Food Technology studies have enabled us to research history and recipes for ANZAC biscuits. Together with Class Green, we used a procedure that we found in a magazine to recreate this iconic biscuit, which originated as soldiers' rations as a substitute for bread.

Muhamad looking at a photograph of an ANZAC soldier

Robbie carefully measuring sugar to add to the ANZAC biscuit mixture

In Music we explored traditional Australian ballads and songs that are quintessential to our nation. We learned about an unfamiliar song titled ‘Rip Rip Woodchip’ which was written in response to the rise of pulp mills in Tasmania and uses some iconic Australian symbolism. We used our chosen instruments to join in with the music making.

Paddy playing along to ‘Rip Rip Woodchip’

In other news, Class Purple have been using their communication systems across all aspects of their daily school routine. In particular, Christopher has been using Proloquo2go to make requests, comments and jokes. He was able to use his communication skills to have a phone conversation with past teacher Katie, who was very impressed with the progress he had made since she last saw him. Well done Christopher!

Christopher using Proloquo2go to tell Katie that he bought a new whistle from K-Mart

Melinda and Gail

Stage 4 - Green

Welcome back! It was so good to see the students return last week looking so happy and healthy. We have an exciting term of learning ahead while also maintaining a continued commitment to incorporating the MOVE (Movement Opportunities Via Education) philosophy into our everyday program.

Our learning activities this term will be centred on the whole school ‘Australiana’ theme. This ties in well with our history elective, as this term we will be studying World War I and World War II.

Last week the students began their investigations by unpacking the terms ANZAC, ceremony and soldier and exploring what these means in terms of symbols, sounds and images. This teaching strategy enabled the students to establish a personal connection with the terms and therefore an interest that extended into other related learning areas.

The student’s took an active part in making ANZAC biscuits and were able to link the

taste and smell of these to the image of a soldier and the word ‘ANZAC’. They also investigated what ‘dawn’ means and were able to relate this term to images of the sun rising, sounds of a rooster, alarm clock and bugle playing the reveille. The students extended their learning by linking these literacy symbols to our numeracy content (time) by matching these sounds and pictures to a clock reading 6:00 am.

Katherine helping make ANZAC biscuits

Luke and Lina enjoying making the ANZAC

biscuits – they were very impressed with the end result

Jacob showing off his PBL Medal during the

ANZAC Ceremony and Bianca making a poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

We look forward to a fun and successful term!

Rosie and Jayne

Stage 3/4 - Yellow

Hello and welcome back the students, parents and carers. We have a term full of programmed learning experiences and learning activities for the students to actively participate in. At the ANZAC Day Commemoration, we had the opportunity to pay our respects and remember the men and women who sacrificed their lives for our freedom, during our whole school assembly.

We have started to explore Australian poetry and the first poem we deconstructed was written by Banjo Patterson ‘We’re All Australian Now’. The poem was read to appreciate the poet’s experiences, thoughts and feelings which enabled the students to

experience how words can be written to form and create imagination. This activity was the springboard into enabling the students to make poetry as visual as possible in order to gain an understanding of what the poem is about. The students were assisted to use a search engine to locate, cut and paste pictures to make and create visual imagery of words using pictures in their minds to surround the poem.

Isaac placing strips of red crepe paper to create his red poppy

Whilst serving in the World War I, Canadian military doctor and artillery commander, Major John McCrae performed the funeral service for a young friend and former student who was killed in battle. To express his anguish John McCrae composed the now famous poem in 1915, ‘In Flanders’ Fields’, which described the red poppies that grew in the field that marked the graves of soldiers killed fighting for their country. The students listened to this poem read aloud and sung as it demonstrated another way to appreciate poems can be appreciated. This learning opportunity then took a slightly different angle and used multimodal and multimedia to create a 3D representation of the red poppies growing in the fields. Using The Sun Herald and The Sunday Telegraph newspapers, the students had the

opportunity to look through and listen to the events that took place on ANZAC Day both ‘Then and Now’.

Students listened intently as Laura read aloud, focusing on the text and pictures

The students were really captivated and engaged by the large pictures, photographs and text print that were spread across the pages of the newspapers. The newspaper images, print and text were used to create a collage surrounding the poem finished with hand-made poppies. This enabled students to create a visual art representation of the sacrifices made by the men and women on the battlefields. These learning experiences

enabled staff to engage and provide valuable learning opportunities for each student to participate, recognise and remember the red poppy as a worldwide symbol.

Yuko communicated his appreciation of the completed poem by making hand gestures

and vocalising

Diane and Penny