Mid Year Reports.
Teachers are currently completing mid year written reports. Reports will be sent home in a sealed envelope on the last day of term. Year 1-6 students are graded in all areas of the curriculum with a written comment for English and Maths, and a general comment regarding student attendance, learning dispositions, curriculum, general behaviour and work habits etc.
There is no requirement for schools to assign A to E grades when reporting on Reception students. Teachers use the Foundation (F) year Australian Curriculum achievement standards as a reference point for reporting on student progress, including written comments for English and Maths, as well as a general comment.
If you have any concerns about your child’s report please arrange a time to meet with the classroom teacher early next term.
Pupil Free Day
Our recent Pupil Free Day was focused on the Key Strategies of Formative Assessment.
Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve teacher instruction and student outcomes.
Five key strategies:
1. Clarifying, understanding, and sharing learning intentions (sharing Learning Intentions and Success Criteria)
2. Engineering effective classroom discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learning (questioning)
3. Providing feedback that moves learners forward (feedback)
4. Activating students as learning resources for one another (peer assessment)
5. Activating students as owners of their own learning (self assessment)
We are currently focusing on the first three strategies with our students, although the language used in classrooms and expectations change depending on year level.
After surveying students Year 3-6 earlier this term we realised that despite explicit teaching around formative assessment strategies with students, almost a third of our students were still struggling to understand the purpose of Learning Intentions, Success Criteria and Feedback to improve their learning. We took time to analysis the data, discuss barriers, reflect on practice and then plan for improvement. Students will be surveyed again in Term 4 to measure our improvement in this area but also to ‘check in’ with students about their ability to articulate the purpose of their learning and next steps.
When Sokhan and I visit classrooms, we ask students three questions:
1. What are you learning? This reflects the learning intention – purpose of the lesson/task etc.
2. How are you doing? This reflects the Success Criteria – what they have to do to be successful in the lesson/task.
3. How do you know? This reflects how students use feedback to move learning forward.
When students respond we are expecting them to talk about learning intentions, success criteria, feedback from teachers, and self reflection. Next term you may want to begin using these questions with you child when asking them about what they are learning at school.
Our term 3 Pupil Free Day is on Friday 1st September, followed by a School Closure on Monday 4th September.
Student Wellbeing boost – funding from the Australian Government
The student wellbeing boost aims to support schools to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This one-of Commonwealth funding is for extra mental health and wellbeing resources and initiatives to support students. The Australian Government has set guidance for how schools can use the funding for student mental health and wellbeing activities. This may include:
· extra school mental health professionals, such as psychologists and school counsellors
· camps, excursions, sporting and social activities that improve students’ wellbeing
· other proven student engagement and mental health initiatives.
We have been allocated $10,000. This money will be used to support our cooking and gardening wellbeing program that is inclusive of all students at Angaston. The old community garden space behind the kindy or ‘The Backyard’ as we like to call it, will be redeveloped in to an outdoor learning space that includes an outdoor kitchen, native garden, veggie garden, play space etc.
What are the benefits for children?
Children who spend more time outdoors in nature are happier, healthier, stronger, smarter, kinder and more social (White, 2004). Additional benefits for children include:
Reduces stress
• Children’s stress levels fall within minutes of seeing green spaces.
• Even a view of nature — green plants and vistas — helps reduce stress among highly stressed children. Further, the more plants, green views and access to natural play areas, the more positive the results.
Improved concentration
• Exposure to natural environments improves children's cognitive development by improving their awareness, reasoning and observational skills.
• Children with views of and contact with nature score higher on tests of concentration and self-discipline. The greener the environment, the better the scores.
• Children with symptoms of ADD are better able to concentrate after contact with nature.
Improved physical skills and health
• Children who play regularly in natural environments show more advanced motor fitness including coordination, balance and agility, and they are sick less often.
Social benefits
• Natural environments stimulate social interaction between children.
• Children who play in nature have more positive feelings about each other.
• Enhanced language and collaborative skills.
Our class has a paper tower competition running at the moment. One metre of masking tape is all that is allowed. Ashley and Lolly have the tallest tower so far.
Sky changes by Oliver Pryde
Yr 5/6
It is early morning.
People’s shadows are very long.
As the sun rises,
A new day is forming.
It’s the middle of the day.
People’s shadows are small.
Ants are carrying food and leaves
To their nest which is tall.
It is late afternoon,
People are going home.
The sun is moving down the sky,
And the moon will be up soon.
*State Cross Country Carnival*
On Thursday 8th June the State Cross Country Carnival was held at the Oakbank Race Course. Angaston Primary had 4 representatives for the Barossa and Light Sapsasa District team. In trying conditions of pouring rain, mud and wind our students represented the district extremely well and should be super proud of their efforts. Well done legends, very well deserving to represent the district. Students that were selected were Ruby Hughes, Asha Gabel, Flynn Clarke and Cohen Myatt.
*State Hockey Carnival*
During week 8 Cohen Myatt represented the Barossa and Light Sapsasa District Boys Hockey team in the State Hockey Carnival held at West Beach.
It was a hockey festival with 9 games played across 3 days from both teams. Cohen had a great week despite the artic conditions and rain and represented the district extremely well. Well done Cohen on your efforts.
Wort der Woche: die Glühbirne (Glowing Pear = lightbulb)
There has been so much activity in the kitchen over the past few weeks, as we cook our way to the end of the term from Pizza Scrolls, to "experimental jam scrolls", to Spinach and Ricotta pastries with spinach harvested from our own APS Garden. We have even had some very inventive Pizza Parcels from Edith in Mr. Burnes's class. I love it when kids come to the kitchen with their own ideas, I am able to learn something too. A big thank you to Arya McGrath for sharing her "famous" Pastry Twist recipe and demonstration, I may or may have not made a few batches at home and passed them off as my own. They are very yummy Arya!
Another big thank you to Emily, Ethan and Chelsea from Mrs. Goudie's class, who had a special cooking mission! We needed them to make some Weetbix Slice for Breakfast Club last Friday, to help supplement with the bread shortage. Everyone loved the slice - it has even been requested as a staple on the menu.
Mrs Linke gifted the school with a mass of pumpkins, so we are now on the hunt for the best pumpkin recipes for the students to cook up. If you have any tried and true culinary delights you want to share with us featuring the good ol' pumpkin, please email me atnat.wood883@schools.sa.edu.au. I would to see them. Someone suggested Pumpkin Cheesecake, yes its a thing!
Enjoy the holidays, rest up and stay warm.
NAT x
Thank you to those families that have paid the Materials & Services charge of $319 for 2023 (When paying for school fees please remember to deduct $100, leaving a balance of $219, as the Government has approved a $100 rebate to be applied to all students school fees( not including school card approved students) . The Materials and Services charges are now overdue and need to be paid to avoid debt recovery action by Department for Education. A Final Notice has be sent out via post. Applications for School Card assistance are still able to be made so please apply online at www.sa.gov.au under the heading Education, Skills and Learning. Please contact the Front Office if you require any assistance.
Payment can be made:
· via the school bank account BSB 105-021 Account number 104147940 - using your family code or invoice number as the reference.
· via Cash, Cheque, Eftpos or Credit Card at the Front Office between 8.30 – 9.30am and 2.30- 3.30pm.
· via Credit Card over the phone between 8.30-9.30 and 2.30-3.30pm.
Any current Direct Debit Payment Plans will continue.
Please contact Kim Oag on 85642215 if you require any further assistance.
The Uniform shop is open Monday & Tuesday 8:45 to 9:00am and Thursday 2:45 to 3pm. Purchasing of uniforms outside of these hours during the term is not available, including hats.
Order forms are also available from the Front Office.
