Last week, students in Stages 2 and 3 presented speeches in class on ‘Important people in Australian History’ and ‘Extreme weather Phenomena’. The best speakers from each class were then invited to present their speech at our Speak Off Competition, which was held yesterday!  A big congratulations to Georgie, Jules and Nikolai who presented their excellent speeches in front of a packed crowd in the upper hall.

I was thrilled with their level of confidence and expertise. Well done all three of you and good luck Georgie and Jules in the next stage of the competition.

Students in K-6 were delighted by the Makukuhan performers for Musica Viva. They listened to and performed a variety of Indonesian songs and dances, including many instruments. Ms Hibbert has been working with classes on Indonesian songs this term. The performance today was a fantastic opportunity for students to meet professional musicians and build on their understanding of Indonesian music and culture.

The AIM HIGH team from the University of Newcastle will be visiting our school for the Careers through Science program. Over four weeks, 4S students assisted by university students will conduct a series of experiments using the scientific method.

Activities will focus on developing their scientific skills in observation and measurement while learning about careers that need us to think scientifically.

The hands-on experiments are designed to encourage students to be curious and think creatively to solve problems, just as a scientist would do!

Our students will learn:

• To safely use scientific equipment to make accurate measurements;
• To make observations;
• To conduct experiments;
• To record data

And through conversations with University students, learning the different jobs that require scientific thinking.

Here are some photos from our first science session last week:

Year’s 3-6 have been lucky enough to secure a 9 week basketball program supplied free of charge by Port Waratah Coal Services. It commenced today and was very well received by the students. As usual they were full of enthusiasm and sportsmanship, listening well to instructions. We are all very excited about the coming sessions.

Congratulations Keita and Sam for receiving this week’s assembly awards. Your dedication and enthusiasm to a new term has been outstanding. Well done!

The crazy, scary and weird acrobats ran wildly down the cobbled street. The director danced around happily and grinned widely in his minute tuxedo. The crowd boomed with laughter as the HUGE acrobat threw the tiny man into the air. The juggler was as talented as Tony hawk. One of the acrobats slipped on his smelly and big backside. Everyone stopped and the acrobat feared for his job!

It was midday and the band of crazy circus performers danced happily down the cobbled street! The big, strongman was throwing his partner up into the sky!

The acrobats were swinging themselves amazingly up into the cool air while the jugglers were juggling in between the mouldy, stinky, cracks in the stone path!

The trumpet player played brightly next to the green vines! Suddenly they stopped!

Last Wednesday K-6 went to Glendale Sports Centre for the athletics carnival. The teams Bryant, William, Elizabeth and Mitchell were cheering on their team mates all day.

It was too wet for the K-1 so we started off with the 8 years 100m boys then girls. While the races were on people were at the canteen or watching or sitting with their family or friends. Later in the day we did sport actives on the grass area. These are a few of the activities we did- shot put, long jump and then it started raining so we had to go back under the shelter. After the rain stopped we started doing some more races. Then we had to wait for the buses. Once we got to school we were the last ones there. When we got there we just played for the rest of the afternoon in the playground we were all tired then we got to go home. We had an awesome day.