Primary News

It is Bunuru season in Albany, which is the season during February and March. It sees a break in the very hot weather, and the change in the season is evident in the wind with seeds, dust, and leaves blown across the landscape. Flying ants can be seen cruising around in the light southerly winds of Djeran. You’ll also notice this season brings cooler nights and dew on the school grounds early in the morning. More notably the scattering of school jackets and jumpers are evident across the landscape. These strange animals would love to return to their owners and have more of a chance if they were named.

The primary has been as busy as those flying ants, with great things happening in every classroom and in the playground.

Run Club has seen a large turnout of keen athletes with 7 children from other schools even joining our team. This is a great way to build fitness and strength before the cross country season, next term. This continues on Wednesdays and Fridays at 7:30 am at Collingwood Oval.

ACC has been recognised in the local papers for our Adopt-a-Spot , Middleton Beach regular cleanups. Below is an insert from those articles.

Primary school students from the Australian Christian College in Albany, Western Australia, have taken on a commendable effort to clean up their local beach of micro-plastics. As part of the Adopt-a-Spot program, which is run by the Keep Australia Beautiful Foundation, the school has adopted Middleton Beach and has been focusing on the area around Griffith Street since 2020. The students walk regularly from the school to the beach which is only 1.5 kms away.

The students have become experienced in spotting the tiny artificial colours that identify micro-plastics, and they have been making significant progress in cleaning up the area. The regular beach maintenance is part of the whole school Sustainability program which also includes woody weed eradication and recycling. Being a founding partner of Albany’s largest community garden, the Good Life Garden, the children learn to care for the environment through meaningful activities.

The students in Year 6 have noticed that there is an increasing amount of plastic at their local beach. Malachi Bresanello a year 6 student said that “ The rubbish is more everytime we go, there is fishing line and bits of plastic ropes. One day we went and got half a bucket of rubbish and two days later the Year Four class got 25 bits more from the same spot.”

Well done Year 6 students!

At the opposite end of the Primary School, the Kindergarten and Pre-Primary students have been delving into the world of color, exploring both primary and secondary hues. The students have already made significant progress this year, having successfully mastered their first six sounds (SATPIN) and are now beginning to construct words on their own.

The children in Kindergarten and Pre-Primary were thrilled to observe the seasonal transformations taking place in the Good Life Community Garden. As they explored the garden, their curious minds were sparked by the sight of guinea pigs, chickens, ducks, and snails. In addition to these animals, the school tends to two garden beds, which provided an opportunity for the children to observe the growth of watermelons and rockmelons at a leisurely pace. The insects that the garden attracted were also a source of wonder and delight for the class.

Having the Bob the Builder scenes situated right outside the classroom is yet another fantastic opportunity for learning.

The Year 1 and 2 classes have recently learned the story of Jack and the Beanstalk through oral storytelling. As a creative exercise, the students have been reimagining the fairy tale by altering key elements of the narrative. Throughout the writing process, they have been instructed on the importance of phonetics, including the technique of sounding out unfamiliar words by placing a finger on their chin for each sound. The progress made by the students in their independent writing has delighted their teachers, particularly with regard to their newfound confidence. Additionally, the Year 2 students have been incorporating proper paragraphing techniques into their work.

In another recent activity, the class took a walk with Mrs. Schulz to the beach for a day of cleaning and sand-filled fun.

NAPLAN

Training starts on Tuesday after the public holidays and this leads into our NAPLAN primary schedule.

Please ensure your Year 3 and 5 child has their fully charged ipad at school each day over the next 3 weeks, and headphones they can operate. Please ensure the following app is installed; NAPLAN 2023 Browser for iPad: App Store

Below are the dates for NAPLAN for primary school, on campus.

Tuesday 8th March - practice

Wednesday 15th March - writing

Friday 17th March - Reading

Tuesday 21st March - Language Conventions

Thursday 23rd March - Numeracy

At ACC, we have fun during our Naplan weeks, treating the children to outings and activities as part of our Work Hard, Play Hard philosophy. We endeavour to lead the children gently into the testing period. We have found we have less stressed children due to their familiarity with ACER online tests. Your child will cope well when they have a good night's sleep (9 -12 hours for 6 to 13 year olds) followed by a substantial breakfast.