This week we held our first Kindy Transition, in preparation for 2025. Our new Kindy students met their buddies for the first time and participated in many fun activities. Marni said her favourite was the beads, and Mayela asked for the letter 'M' to colour-in next week. Before crunch and sip the Kindy students sat in lines, to replicate morning routine, and practiced writing their name. The rest of the morning was filled up with craft, stories and some fun phonics activities. We can't wait for next week!
Stage 3 Canberra Camp
This term started with Stage 3 Camp for our Year 5 & Year 6 students. We were joined by students from Maroota, Wisemans Ferry, Kurrajong East, Colo Heights and Macdonald Valley PS. The camp was three days and two nights of learning, fun and adventure. As always I was proud of how the Cattai PS students conducted themselves over the three days. Showing a vast amount of curiosity, social skills and emotional intelligence that filled me with confidence for their lives beyond Cattai. A big thank you to Mrs Dorbis for organising the camp and organising the hilarious Minute to Win It activities that we did on the first night.
Kindy Transition
This Wednesday our 2025 Kindergarten students joined us for their first formal transition day. Students had 2 hrs working in their new classroom completing a range of school readiness activities. Parents joined me in the Library during this time for our parent information session. This session was filled with everything our new and returning parents need to know about Cattai PS. As well a quick introduction to cognitive load theory and how it guides our teaching of reading through explicit phonics.
Museum of Fire Excursion
On Thursday the 24th October students at Cattai PS went on a whole school excursion to the Museum of Fire in Penrith. There were 3 great reasons for this excursion. 1) Our C3 class are currently study Bushfires as part of their writing unit. 2) C2 are currently studying Adventure Tales as part of their writing unit. 3) The bushfire season is now upon us and we wanted students to build up their knowledge of fire safety. The day was a great success! So good to explore this wonderful resource and learn and build our scheme around fire safety.
John Towers Memorial Award
This year for Remembrance Day we begin a special tradition. John Towers, who served in the Second World War and was also a student at Cattai Public School many moons ago, will now be remembered every year on Remembrance Day at Cattai PS. A memorial award has been setup where by one student from Year 6 will be chosen for this award. The award recipient is someone who supports others, is generous with their time, takes pride in mate-ship and kindness and has other students' backs even when not watched. Finally, they have shown loyalty to the school. These are all character traits, from talking with John Towers family, that he had in abundance. John's family are also generously donating $500 to the winner of the award which will be transferred to the winning student's High School as a line of credit to help buy books, uniforms, pay for excursions etc. Parents and carers are more than welcome to join us on the 11 November at 11:30am for the Remembrance Day Service here at Cattai PS where the award will also be presented.
