SNC Term 2 News 2015

SNC inspired garden designers.

Some of the students in our LC have been involved in a gardening design project. First the students walked around the school grounds and identified an area they were keen to re-design.

In their groups they took a photo of the area, drew a garden design and researched plants they might plant.

Each group presented their garden plans to Janet and Jill. They spoke passionately about their garden designs and confidently answered any questions they were asked.

They had clear visions about how their ideas would benefit students at B.E.P.S. Janet has said she will take their plans to parent grounds group. The students involved in this project were Amelia, Amy, Annabelle, Claudia, Doug, Eleanor,  Ella, Ethan, Eve, Evie, Finn, Frankie, Freya, Gabe, Ish, Jacob A, Lila, Lilyan, Luke, Max, Nereus, Olive, Sami, Thom, Turlough and Zoe.

Debating Teams

On Tuesday, April 28^th our first debating team, Freya, Ella (SNC) and Karla (Il Nido) won the first debating challenge at Coburg College. Understandably they were so proud of themselves. Their debating topic was “Should we ban horse racing?” The group had the task of arguing that we should. Our second team, Chris, Maddie and Eve are busy researching and writing persuasive arguments for why “We should keep our Australian flag” and will compete this Tuesday. Our final team is Ella (SNC) and Rosie and Mieke (Il Nido).  Debating has developed the student’s persuasive argument skills and we have all been impressed with their team work and support of each other. Congratulations to both Chris and Freya for getting ‘Speaker of the Week’ at the competition.

MTQ

Lots of our students have taken up the opportunity to tackle the Maths Talent Quest. We have dedicated two hours each week for teams to develop their ideas into inquiry projects. As the deadline gets nearer, some extra time will be allocated to help students finalise their research and presentation. A number will be selected for judging externally.

Maths Olympiad

Since the beginning of this term, the Maths Olympiad workshop have been meeting to prepare for the first Maths Olympiad Test, which will be held this Wednesday 20^th May. Students have been practicing worded maths problems to support them to develop their problem solving skills, investigating areas of maths such as patterns, fractions and number. During the Maths Olympiad, students have about 30 minutes to solve five maths problems that are challenging. Students have been super engaged and we look forward to sharing our successes with you.   

PG Forms Reminder

Earlier this term, we sent an email with a link to a digital permission form for your child to view PG (parental guidance recommended) rated material. Many members of our learning community have not yet replied to this form. If you have lost the link, http://beps.vic.edu.au/permission-to-view-pg-content/ is the address, follow the prompts from there. If you have any questions or concerns, check in with a home group teacher. Thanks to all the families have already responded to this.

Puberty Education Program

This year our Puberty Education program, will be implemented by ‘Family Life Victoria in Term three. The students will be involved in three, one hour sessions over the course of three weeks, Thursday August 6^th, 13^th and 20^th. Parent sessions will also be available for parents of year 3 and 4, Thursday, August 6^th .45 – 6.45pm followed by a session for parents of students in 5 and 6 at 7.00pm – 8.00pm. Feedback will be sought from parents and students about the quality of these sessions, to inform decisions about Puberty Education sessions in 2016. More information and a flier will be coming home soon.

Secondary School Selections

Don’t forget that for Year 6s the Secondary School selection forms are due THIS FRIDAY! Please put the forms in the box in the LC. Any supporting paperwork should be forwarded directly to the appropriate secondary school, and not attached to the form. Thanks

ODT Testing (On Demand Testing)

Assessment of students progress in Reading Comprehension and Maths using the On Demand Testing computer system has begun. These tests are adaptive, which means they will adjust the difficulty of the questions depending on the capability demonstrated in previous questions. This means that, each student will receive different questions as they progress through the test.

Cross Country

Just a reminder that next week the students will be involved in Cross Country training. Pete has emailed about this. Some students will then go onto represent BEPS at a district level.