P & C

It was fantastic to be part of the P & C Meeting on Tuesday night. It was a great opportunity for me to be able to get to know the team and be part of the discussion to create great outcomes for the school. The group are incredibly energetic and dedicated to supporting the community. There are some exciting things in the pipeline!

Catch Up Conversations

Over the past week I have been meeting one-on-one with staff, the School Board Chair, and the P&C President. These conversations are helping me get a clearer picture of the school - its strengths, challenges, and what matters most to our community as we work together to support students. These will continue over the next week, which I am really looking forward to.

Under Cover Area

With a focus on high care for our students and other family members, can I please ask parents to not allow children to play in the Undercover Area after school or use the equipment that may be left in there.

Many thanks

Mr James Baker

Principal

Young Scientist Earns National Recognition for Coral Spawning Video

We congratulate Josie, our talented school leader and room 7 student, as she has received national acclaim after being awarded a Highly Commended prize in the prestigious Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize, run by the Australian Museum and the University of Sydney.

Inspired by Dr Karl’s documentary on the Great Barrier Reef, she dedicated many hours of her own time to researching, scripting, filming, and editing a two-minute science video on coral spawning. Despite the challenge of reducing her original four-minute video to meet the strict time limit, she showed remarkable perseverance and creativity throughout the process.

In April, she proudly submitted her video as both a personal project and a representation of our school. Yesterday, we received the exciting news that her entry was selected as one of only 11 Highly Commended entries in the Primary category—placing her in the top 14 across all of Australia! Even more impressively, her submission was the only award-winning Primary entry outside of NSW and QLD.

Her skills were clearly showcased in the final product. Drawing on her experience from the PEAC animation course, she used stop motion techniques and green screen effects to great effect. These technical elements brought her video to life and helped communicate the science behind coral spawning in a fun and engaging way.

Throughout the project, she exemplified our school values: resilience in editing her work, openness to learning new skills, responsibility in meeting all requirements, and deep respect for our Little Grove environment—clearly shown through her chosen topic.

Her video and recognition can be viewed on the Australian Museum website. We are incredibly proud of her achievement and the way she represented both herself and our school on a national stage.

Congratulations Josie, this is an outstanding achievement. 

To help teach our expected behaviours, we identify areas where children need some extra help and work on developing their skills in that area. For the first five weeks of this term we have been working on “Keeping hands and feet to ourselves”. We talk to the children about where and when this happens and try to help them follow the instruction. So far we have looked at keeping our hands and feet to ourselves in regard to personal space. Currently we are looking at what happens when we are overcome by an uncomfortable feeling, like anger, and how that when one has an uncomfortable feeling it is sometimes hard to keep one’s hands and feet to oneself. In class, teachers are trying to target this outcome being practised, so if you get groovy grover notification of your child keeping his/her hands and feet to him/herself that is why!

We’re off to a smooth and happy start this term, with children warmly embracing routines with enthusiasm and confidence.

We’ve introduced playful rhyme activities—songs, stories, and our beloved silly “rhyme soup”—to gently build early sound awareness and spark curiosity about language.

We continue to engage in fine motor-rich experiences—manipulating construction materials, playdough, and drawing—to build finger strength and hand coordination as we begin practising pre-writing patterns.

Recently, we took a Math Walk around the school to bring numbers and shapes into the real world—counting items in nature, using informal measurement to compare lengths by sight, and spotting shapes and numerals around the grounds—encouraging hands-on discovery and informal mathematical thinking.

We continue to learn about aspects of Deaf culture. This week we had a glimpse into Deaf schools of the past and discussing Deaf education today. 

The sign of the week this week is HEARING.

Are you ready to brave a frosty morning?? Let’s get out and exercise together. We are running our Winter Walk to School Day on Wednesday next week! We can’t wait to see how many people we can get out and about, making the most of starting the day with movement. Our wonderful P & C will be providing some yummy fruit snacks for our students who participate. See you there!

This term in Fitness Club, I will be running high jump practise for students in Years 4–6 who are interested in improving their skills. Sessions will begin in Week 2 and run for 4 sessions, from 8:20 to 8:45 on a Monday. See attached fitness club poster. 

If you have a child in Year 4–6, please have a chat with them to see if they’d like to take part. Based on these sessions, I will then invite selected students to try out for the Interschool High Jump team in Term 4.

All other weeks will feature Running Club as usual. We’ll also be holding a Winter Walk to School Day on Wednesday, 6th August, and celebrating World Car Free Day on Monday, 22nd September.

This term also includes our Faction Athletics Carnival, which will be held on Friday, 19th September, and our Distance, Jumps, and Throws Day on Tuesday, 16th September.

So, lock these dates into your calendar!

Our Containers for Change has begun! So far ROOM 2 is in the lead, with a pizza party for the winning class at stake, let’s all get on board and see if your class can win!

Please see the poster for the collection point at the carpark on the O'Connell Street side of the school. See you from 8.15am on Fridays. There are only two more collection days!

The P&C are doing Picture Products Fundraising next term. Keep an eye out for the forms coming home with more information. We should have spares in the school office if required.

Please note that orders are to be paid for online, but we do require your order form to be handed in with your plates together at the office. Please return all orders to the office by Friday the 8th August.