Primary News

Welcome back to school for Term 3! It was wonderful to see so many smiling, eager faces on Monday. The sunny weather matched everyone's positive attitudes perfectly. Greeting students as they arrive at school is always a highlight for me.

I understand that mornings can be hectic for some families, especially for those whose children travel over an hour by bus to get to ACC. We also have students boarding at Albany Boarding School, and I enjoy welcoming them as well. It’s great to see the familiar faces of our students’ family members, too.

If you have any quick questions about the school or your child, please feel free to ask. I also love hearing about what families are enjoying and the exciting things happening in the lives of our students.

This term in the primary is where the rubber hits the road in terms of learning. Classroom structures and culture are set and the learning can increase in rigour. This term the whole primary is focussed on persuasive writing as the text type in Writing. Cold tasks will happen early in the term for moderation against similar aged students across Australia. From these assessments, the students will be set individual growth pointers to work towards during the term. A Hot task will be set near the end of the term to check on the student's achievements. 

For some students, the growth points may be as simple as using capital letters and full stops, while others will be motivated to include more cohesion devices between paragraphs. We focus on improvement by the student rather than where they are at in their writing journey. We give achievable aims and the students love having a high success rate. The Parent/ teacher meetings are a great way to find out more about your child’s writing aims and progress in all subjects.

Parent Teacher Meetings. 

The meetings will happen on Monday and Tuesday the 22nd and 23rd of July. If these times don’t work for you please email the teachers and book another time. The classroom teachers are keen to discuss the academic, social and behaviour development of your child with you. This is the opportunity to ask questions and share information from home that may help our staff care for your child. Please be mindful of the 10 minute time limit but we are happy to continue the conversations at a later date. 

Cross Country

Wow, what an incredible Interschool Cross Country event! Once again, we punched above our weight, finishing third overall, ahead of and behind much larger schools. In the Year 3 boys race, we impressively placed 1st, 2nd, and 4th! 

Our students were awesome, showing tremendous support for their teammates and encouraging other runners. We approached the meeting with a team attitude, understanding that everyone who finished contributed to ACC’s scores. The perseverance displayed was remarkable, especially considering the warm weather for Albany and the commendable competition.

Well Done ACC.

Primary Music Festival

The ACC Southlands school choir has been practicing every week during lunch breaks in preparation for the Primary Music Festival. This is to be held at The Albany Entertainment Centre on the 12th of September. Mr Findlay, our primary music teacher, has just finished a very successful About Face Music camp during the holidays. Over 100 students auditioned for the camp with 70 children chosen. We are proud of the 8 children from our school who made the cut and attended this valuable experience. The camp even made the Channel 7 news. I have attached the item to this link.

Mrs Burns has been accompanying our students on the piano and she is very impressed with the way the choir is developing. There will be no spoiler alerts yet but we will post videos of the songs closer to the festival.

TOMS - Tournament of Minds

Our Tournament of Minds team has just received their challenge and will spend the next 6 weeks preparing for the first round of competition. The Tournament of Minds is a competition designed to challenge the creativity, problem-solving skills, and teamwork abilities of students. It offers a platform for students to showcase their talents across various disciplines, including STEM, the Arts, Social Sciences, and Language Literature. At ACC, we strive to provide opportunities for our students to engage in activities that foster their intellectual growth and personal development. Participating in the Tournament of Minds aligns perfectly with our mission to nurture well-rounded individuals who are not only academically proficient but also adept at collaboration and critical thinking. Our team meets at lunchtimes with the facilitator, Mrs Natasha White. The carefully chosen team consists of; Bentley, Oscar, Erinn, Troy, Judah, Isla and Harmony. We are very proud of these students who are working together as a team, building a model and preparing their presentation.