Spelling Bee

Congratulations to all students who participated in our Spelling Bee this week. It was fantastic to see so many students enthusiastically engaged in the competition, challenging themselves, working together and striving for their personal best to earn points for their faction. A huge thank you to the many staff who supported the event and helped make it such a success. In particular, thank you to Mrs Lilly and Chappy for their leadership and organisation in bringing the Spelling Bee together. Well done to everyone involved!

Influenza

A reminder to families that we continue to have cases of influenza within our school community. We ask that children who are unwell or displaying flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat or fatigue, remain at home until they are well enough to participate fully in normal school activities. Thank you for your continued support in helping to reduce the spread of illness and keep our students and staff healthy.

Assembly

Room 2 will be hosting our Assembly this Tuesday. We look forward to welcoming families along to celebrate the achievements and successes of our students.

This week, our behaviour focus is Be Responsible, Be Safe.

Being responsible means making good choices, taking care of our belongings, completing our work, and owning our actions. Being safe means looking after ourselves and others by following school expectations, using equipment correctly, and making thoughtful decisions both in and out of the classroom.

By working together and demonstrating these positive behaviours every day, we help make our school a safe, respectful and supportive place for everyone.

Room 8 enjoyed a wonderful creative learning experience today, participating in a Lantern Making Incursion facilitated by Southern Edge Arts as part of the Carrying the Fire project for Albany's 2026 Bicentenary celebrations.

During the workshop, Room 8 students created Kwornt lanterns, inspired by the traditional Noongar shelter. Using natural materials and recycled fabric, students explored the idea of home, belonging and connection to Country while reflecting on the question, "What creates a sense of home?"

The incursion provided an authentic link to our learning this term in History and Health, where students are exploring local history and the importance of community, belonging and connection. Through the creative process, students considered how communities come together, reflected on our shared history and celebrated the unique stories and people that make Albany such a special place.

Carrying the Fire will culminate in a spectacular community lantern walk on Saturday, 7 November at Binalup (Middleton Beach). The event will bring together thousands of illuminated lanterns in a celebration of Albany's people, history, and shared future. While participation in the lantern walk is optional and not a school requirement, families are welcome to register independently if they would like to be involved in this memorable community event. www.southernedge.org.au/carryingthefire

We are incredibly proud of the creativity, collaboration and enthusiasm shown by our Year 5 students throughout this inspiring experience.

 We have hit the ground running this term! It has been a busy few weeks filled with lots of learning, creativity and fun.

 In Maths, we have been learning all about mass and location. We have learned how to heft objects and use balance scales to compare their mass, as well as order objects from least to most mass. In Location, we practised giving and following directions in real-life situations before putting our new skills to the test by creating our very own treasure maps!

 In writing, we have been focusing on recounts. One day, we were very surprised to discover that our class softie, Todd the Turtle, had gone missing! He left us some clues to follow, which led us to find him playing lego in Mrs Lilly’s office. We then worked together to write a fantastic recount of Todd’s adventure, which has become our model text for our Talk for Writing unit.

 We have also been practising our full participation techniques to help our brains grow and remember important information. We are becoming experts at using these strategies during Heggerty and UFLI, particularly when we use our whiteboards to show our thinking and practise our new skills.

 We have also been busily preparing for our assembly on Tuesday! Here is a little sneak peek of what we have been working on. We are very excited to share our performance with you!

 In between all of our learning, we have still found plenty of time for creativity and play. Play is an important part of learning in the early years, giving us opportunities to strengthen our social skills, practise problem-solving, use our imaginations and have fun together!

Congratulations to Tessa, our latest Signing Star!

Tessa has been recognised for her fantastic active listening skills and for consistently working hard to be deaf aware. She is always making a wonderful effort to communicate respectfully, use her signing skills, and help create an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

Well done, Tessa! Keep up the amazing work—we're so proud of you!

This week’s sign of the week is animal.

Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring lexical signs for different animals. This week we will dust off language we have already learnt in previous years, reviewing farm animals and pets and communicating which of these animals we like and dislike. 

At the recent GSPPSSA meeting, the public school Physical Education teachers agreed to several changes to the Interschool Athletics Carnival.

The first change is that the 300m event has been removed from the Junior Interschool Athletics Carnival and replaced with a 200m event. To prepare for this change, all students in Years 1–6 will be practising the 200m during PE lessons this term.

A second change is that the Interschool Athletics Carnival will now be held over multiple days in Term 4:

200m Selection Process

Due to our school oval having only a three-lane running track, we are limited to timing three students at a time. To ensure a fair and consistent selection process, every student in Years 1–6 will complete a timed 200m during PE lessons in Weeks 5 and 6.

Based on these results, the top six students in each year level and gender will qualify to compete in the 200m event at the Faction Athletics Carnival:

During Fitness Club in Weeks 4 and 5, all students in Years 1–6 are encouraged to practise the 200m event. Students can make their way to the 200m starting line at the far end of the oval, line up, and complete as many practice runs as time allows.

Please note that Fitness Cards will not be available during Weeks 4 and 5, as Fitness Club will be dedicated to 200m training and preparation.

These practice sessions will help students build confidence, improve their pacing, and prepare for the timed 200m trials that will take place during PE lessons in Weeks 5 and 6.

Need a break from making lunches? Run out of ideas? Or simply want to spoil the kids with a special midweek treat?

Why not take advantage of our Wednesday Canteen and let someone else do the lunch packing for a day!

Just remember, all orders must be placed by 12:00 pm on Tuesday via www.quickcliq.com.au so our wonderful canteen volunteers can prepare everything ready for Wednesday.

For further events or detailed information about upcoming events, please view the schools event calendar on Compass.