School Development Day

A reminder that next Friday 29 May is a School Development Day and students will not attend school on this day. Our staff will be at school engaging in Professional Learning with Teach Well, continuing our commitment to building capacity and knowledge around High Impact Teaching to ensure our students receive quality instruction, every day.

Good Standing

It is incredible to share that 100% of our students met the requirements to participate in our Good Standing Reward today. Ms Quartermaine and the PASLET team have been working tirelessly this year to consider new ideas and initiatives to create a positive learning environment for our students to thrive in. The focus on positive behaviour, and rewarding the types of behaviours we want to see at LGPS, ensures that our school is a welcoming environment. Thanks Ms Q and a special thanks to DJ Chappy for especially coming in this afternoon to provide the vibes for a great afternoon!

Walk to School

It was wonderful to see so many students participating in active transport on Monday and Thursday this week – despite the weather! Thank you to Mrs Upchurch for organising this initiative and the students who helped out, well done!

Assembly

Room 6 is hosting our assembly in Week 6, and if the sound checks and practice are anything to go by – they are ready to rock! We look forward to welcoming you into our school to celebrate the success of our students.

Kindergarten Enrolments 2027

Thank you to families for getting your applications through to our front office. Please feel free to share with friends and family that that we are now accepting Kindy applications for 2027. If your child is born between July 1 2022 and June 30 2023, they are eligible to enrol at LGPS for 2027. The application window will be open throughout Term 2, and close early in Term 3. At which stage we will then review all applications and advise parents of a position by the end of August. If you would like to apply to enrol your child at LGPS, please follow the link below. Enrolment - Little Grove Primary School.

Block Party Fun for Good Standing Reward

Today, our students celebrated their positive choices and commitment to the school expectations at the Good Standing Reward Block Dance Parties held in the undercover area and hosted by DJ Chappy.

Students gathered together to recognise and celebrate maintaining their Good Standing through consistently demonstrating our school expectations. The atmosphere was full of excitement as students enjoyed dancing, games and spending time celebrating with their friends.

It was wonderful to see so many students in one place at one time, working together towards shared goals and celebrating each other’s success. Events such as these are one of the ways we acknowledge our amazing students and the effort they make each day to be conscientious, respectful and active learners here at Little Grove.

A huge thank you to DJ Chappy for helping make the celebrations such a fun and memorable experience for our students.

This week’s behaviour focus is “Be Responsible, Be Friendly and Be Kind.” In the playground, we are encouraging students to make positive choices that help everyone feel safe, included, and respected. This includes taking responsibility for their actions, using kind and friendly words, and looking for ways to include others in play. When we all contribute to a caring and supportive playground, everyone has a better experience and more enjoyable time together.

Greetings! I hope you are all well and enjoying what has already been a very eventful year.

Although we are not yet halfway through the year, our wonderful Year 6 students have already achieved so much. In English, the class has been exploring a range of literary devices through our novel studies of The Rivet Boy and The Silver Donkey. Students have been developing their understanding of vocabulary, juxtaposition, personification, subordinating conjunctions, and sentence expansion. These skills have also been applied in both persuasive and narrative writing tasks throughout the semester, where students have been encouraged to incorporate these techniques into their own work.

Reading fluency continues to be an important focus in Room 7. Students regularly practise their fluency skills by concentrating on reading rate, expression, and accuracy during timed three-minute readings.

In Mathematics, we begin many of our learning sessions with a daily review, much like we do in English. Students revisit previously taught concepts using mini whiteboards and markers, allowing them to quickly demonstrate their understanding through our engagement routines. Recently, Room 7 has been learning about equivalent fractions, including how to place them on a number line, compare and order them, and simplify them.

To broaden our understanding of the world through HASS, students have been participating in the Letters From Afar program, where they connect with a fictional pen pal while exploring the social, historical, and geographical features of different locations around the world. Last term, the class investigated the fascinating civilisation of Machu Picchu — and the mystery surrounding what happened to its people! As a special treat connected to our learning, students also worked together to make creamed rice, which was a delicious success.

The year has already been filled with many exciting opportunities for our Year 6 students. From receiving their new leavers’ shirts to participating in solar car competitions and sports clinics, the students have enjoyed a wide range of memorable experiences. With so much still ahead — including the much-anticipated Year 6 Camp and high school orientation visits — the remainder of the year promises to be an exciting and rewarding conclusion to their primary school journey.

As we continue to practise signs that relate to family, we will be discussing our family home or house. The sign of the week is House (also used for home in context)

Leadership Lab: Your Move

On Tuesday 19th May, the Year 5 Your Move Team (Archie, Alex, Cecelia, Leila, Lillian, Macey, Mila and Maysin) attended a Leadership Lab at the Town Hall to learn more about active travel and different ways to get to school. Throughout the day, students took part in many fun and interesting activities alongside other schools, including Flinders Park, Mount Lockyer and Bremer Bay.

The Your Move Team enjoyed creating colourful posters and presenting their ideas about starting a Walking School Bus. The presentations gave students the opportunity to promote active transport and speak with members from the City of Albany.

Archie and Cecelia said their favourite part of the day was making posters and presenting their ideas. Mila and Leila enjoyed learning fun new ways to travel to school and creating an action plan to encourage more students to walk, ride, scoot and skate to school.

Maysin said the poster-making activity was the highlight of the day and enjoyed presenting to other schools. Macey also shared that the team had a great time learning about active travel and meeting students from other schools.

Overall, the Leadership Lab was a fun and valuable experience that inspired students to think of new ways to make active travel part of everyday school life.

Moving forward, the Your Move Team will present their project to Mr Baker and the P&C for approval and support. More information about the project will be shared soon.

This year, our Faction Cross Country Carnival will be held on Friday 5th June from 11:15 – 1:15.  Parents and Guardians are encouraged to come and watch students participate. However, to ensure that the carnival runs smoothly, we ask that all parents/visitors stay out of the student area (area to the side of the playground) and do not cross the Cross-Country track at any time.   

Timetable of Events  

These times are all approximate times, and I suggest that you arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the scheduled time to ensure that you get to see your child run. Last year, the event ran much quicker than expected.  If the weather is not suitable, we will notify parents via SMS on the day, and the Cross-Country events will be run during normal PE lessons or at a lunch time to finalise the Interschool team.  

The Interschool Cross Country team will be for students in Year 3-6 on Friday 19th June (Wk 9). This year, the host schools are Mt Lockyer Primary School and Great Southern Grammar, and the event will be held at neutral grounds due to the private schools joining the public schools for the Albany Interschool event. This event will be held at Centennial Park - Eastern Precinct (Junior Football oval in front of clubrooms). This means there will now be around 70 students in a race, compared to 40 students in previous years. The top five runners of each gender per year level (Year 3-6) will be invited to represent our school at the Interschool Cross Country.  

In PE lessons and at Fitness Club, I have been focusing on each individual student trying their best with a positive “I can do it” attitude. Students are aiming to improve on their own Personal Best (PB). Over the coming weeks, students will have four opportunities to be timed running the course in PE lessons which will give them a PB. This year individual results will be made available to all students in Year 1-6 in the undercover area.  

If your child is in Year 1-6, please encourage them come to Fitness Club on Monday and Thursday mornings, where students can practice their running and build up their stamina for the upcoming Cross-Country Carnival. Students are training to be able to complete the following number of laps of the school oval which is equivalent to the distance that they will run on the carnival day: Year 1/2 - 3 laps, Year 3/4 - 5 laps and Year 5/6 - 6 laps. 

Event 1: Monday marked our first of two Walk to School Days this week as part of National Road Safety Week. The weather was definitely not at its best, with overcast skies, light rain, and a chilly temperature of 12 degrees. Despite the conditions, it was fantastic to see so many students and families making the effort to walk, ride, or scoot to school safely. 

This survey recorded a total of 204 student commute trips: 

Thank you to all families for supporting safe and active travel to school. We look forward to our second Walk to School Day later this week on Thursday 21st May.  

Event 2: What a glorious day it was to walk to school this Thursday! It was wonderful to see so many Little Grove families out and about this morning enjoying their walk to school. The first 20 walker received a walking badge today.  

At each event, I try to change things up with different fruits and vegetables that are available. Today I mixed it up with bananas and kiwifruit, which were a big hit compared to the apples and oranges! 

The fruit and vegetables are a big motivation for our students. A big thank you to WestCycle and Healthway for the Wheel to Walk Grant. The funding is a massive help, and without it these events would not be able to provide food for the students. So, thank you! 

At every event this year, students who walk, ride, or scoot to school will go into our end-of-year raffle draw. Again, which is a part of the Wheel to Walk Grant.  

We were unable to see and compare Thursday results, as the Your Move team forgot to complete the hand-up survey. They must be engaged in their literacy block. 

Our next event is our Winter Walk to School Day, which will be held on Monday 29th June in Week 11. Our Your Move students are very keen to make it another fantastic event and will be providing a warm hot chocolate or Milo before school. 

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Do you have an hour or two to help us during the Faction Cross Country?

Please add your name to our volunteer page: https://volunteersignup.org/9Q93P

Lunch orders for the Faction Cross Country is now OPEN!

Please head to https://littlegrovepspc.square.site to order your child's lunch for the Cross Country on Friday 5th June.

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop us a line via facebook messenger or email us at [email protected]

Reminder

Please make sure orders are placed by 12pm TUESDAY via www.quickcliq.com.au

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