News From SNC Term 4

Hello parents and carers, 

Its getting to the busy end of the year in Su Nei Cieli and there are lots of exciting events coming up soon. 

The Su Nei Cieli Camp leaves for Portsea on Wednesday 2nd December. Camp payment is now due to be finalised. The total cost of the camp is $320. With the deposit of $ 50, most families with outstanding payments will owe $270. If you have any questions about the finalisation of this payment that might be still outstanding, check in with the office staff or teachers.   

To get us ready for the camp, students have had a Learning Community meeting to discuss events. Students should be coming home with a copy of the camp schedule and timetable today which will share what we will be doing at Portsea this year. A reminder that students must have a hat the meets all SunSmart requirements with them on camp, or they will not be able to participate in activities, which are based in the lovely outdoors. 

a Student using their sketch to Build their Bridge

The Science inquiry is coming to fruition. The students have been investigating many areas of science which they will be sharing with their learning community this coming Wednesday 25th November. This celebration is open to visitors, and we would welcome any family to join us to celebrate and learn from each other about our inquiries. 

From 9am-10.45am

The Paper Plane projects will fly their designs in the hall, then

The Floating Garden Projects will float their gardens in the Merri Creek near the velodrome and behind the Onion Dome Church. 

From 11.30- 1.30am 

The Bridge Building Bonanza will test their bridges in the Learning Community, then

The Wind Power groups will see how big a load their wind turbines can move. 

From 2.30pm

The shadow workshop will show us their investigations into light and shade in the Learning Community. 

With Graduation for our grade sixes fast approaching, the working teams are furiously finalising plans for their food, decorations, speeches, and films. 

The Film Groups want to remind families that photos of our year 6s in their early years need to be brought in to share, so we can add them in the film. 

Photos can be brought as a soft copy, on a memory stick or emailed directly to Stephen Tyas, the teacher mentoring the film working team. 

The Grade Six Friday market in full swing ! 

Early next week, students will send home the invitations to graduation as well. Family members (up to a maximum of four) are invited to attend, and an RSVP is required, due to the limited capacity of the hall. If your family would like to request extra places for more than this, RSVP early. If we have any familes using less than this allocation, the seats will be reallocated on a first come, first serve basis. 

We hope to see you in the near future at one of these exciting events, 

Thanks, 

On behalf of the Su Nei Cieli Teaching Team 

Our Documentaries, The Australian Maths Comp, and The Maths Olympiad

Term 4, as always, is an incredibly hectic term.

However, we have a couple of things to follow up from last term. Firstly, we are excited to inform you that results from the Maths Olympiad and the Australian Maths Competition have arrived.

We will be presenting certificates, results, and awards for these at the school assembly this coming Monday.

Secondly, we'd like to thank parents who came to the BEPS Septtacolo. The evening had such a great vibe. One of the items on display was our LC's Resilience Documentaries. We know that some family members were unable to attend, or missed out on viewing them, or would like to watch them again. So we have made them available online.

Follow these links. You will need a password to view the films. It is the word 'resilience'.

Julie's Inquiry Group:  https://vimeo.com/143309120
Steve's Inquiry Group: https://vimeo.com/143309119
Chris's Inquiry Group: https://vimeo.com/143309118
Suez's Inquiry Group: https://vimeo.com/143309042
Wendy's Inquiry Group: https://vimeo.com/143308672

Enjoy!

Science Week A Hit

Science Week was an outstanding success. Lots was learned across a big range of scientific topics.

Thank you parents for your support.

The topics that students inquired into included:

Anatomy of the heart

Inside an Eye

Genetics and Blood Crimes


The Scientific Process

Well known scientists

The Deepest Place on Earth

Cabbage Chemistry

The Solar System

Climate Change

Malicious Malaria

Air Pressure

Chris Hadfield about being in space

Floating Eggs and Floating Oranges

Tornado In A Bottle

Liquid Density

Dissolving Sugar

Volcanoes

The Ice Age

And the list goes on...

I thought it was fun and I learned a lot of interesting new knowledge - Genevieve

Seeing that I have not done a lot of science before, I have learnt a lot about little things that occur in every day life. A lot about Marine Bioology was interesting. The chemistry with the cabbage juice was also good. - Ethan

Science Week... It was cool because got to do cool experiments with cabbages and we got to watch cool videos about interesting science. We learnt about hearts and eyes... and science!

I liked the information about alien planets. My favourite was the planet where the skies are full of gasses and the rivers are gasoline. - Chris

I liked learning Marianas Trench. Comparing really high building that are smaller than it is interesting. Also, learning about blood genetics was fun.- Imogen

What I liked about science week was how much I found out about how the earth is made. My fascination has grown bigger for earthquakes and natural disasters. - Grace

Due to the popularity, some extra sessions have been put on this week.

Next term will be kicked off with Hands-On Science, which will kick off some group scientific inquiries into some different areas of interest.

 

Feedback from student has been very positive, we hope you have heard lots about it at home!

Science Inquiries and More

Science In Action!

At the end of Term 3 and moving into Term 4, plans are afoot for a focus on Science Inquiry.

Next week (Week 8) we are looking forward to visits by Guest Scientists (some parents and a certain BEPS Principal) who will turn our LC into a scientific lab as we investigate a number of concepts linked to possible scientific vocations.

In addition, students have been developing their knowledge of procedural texts in our English Workshops, which will link well to our scientific inquiry when students will be following scientific procedures to complete experiments and learn about the scientific method.

We thank the parents who have offered to be a part of this inquiry!

Hands-On Science

The first week of Term 4 will feature Hands On Science - Forensic Science and Reactive Chemistry. Students have already nominated their preference, with two-thirds opting for Forensic, and one third for Chemical.

Notes are coming home next week. Could you please have the payment back by the end of term so that we can have everything in place ready to go in week 1 of Term 4. Thanks!

Forensic Science (1.5 hours)

A crime will be set. Students will apply chemical testing skills, interpret data and develop an understanding of how scientific evidence is used to solve a crime. Students are asked to platy the roles of detectives, scientists and lawyers during the session.

Reactive Chemistry (1.5 hours)

Students will learn hot to distinguish between physical and chemical change, investigate the behavior of chemicals when mixed, and explore ways of producing a chemical change for a particular purpose.

Friday Market

Our last Friday Market is now scheduled for the first Friday of Term 4. Apologies for the postponement. Look out for a notice about it at the end of the term. Thanks!

Maths!

Well done everyone who took a risk and had a go at the optional opportunities to develop their maths knowledge. We have had kids involved in the Maths Talent Quest, the Maths Olympiad, and the Australian Maths Competition.

Results of each of the three challenges will soon be out and we are looking forward to celebrating achievements, even for those that just "gave it a go", with students. 

MTQ 

Students who entered the MTQ have already heard their result and are looking forward to the awards ceremony soon. If you are interested in viewing the projects, they will be on display at the school in the Su Nei Cieli main corridor for a little while. Come up and take look!

Finally - don't forget hats for Term 4!

Term 3, 2015 - Up and Running

Well, Term 3 is up and running! We have some information for you:

 

Puberty Education Sessions

Puberty Education sessions (run by Family Life) begin this week, August 6^th, for students in years five and six. These sessions will take place each Thursday for one hour for a total of three weeks.

As well, on Thursday evening, August 6^th, there will be sessions run by a Family Life facilitator to support dialogue between students and their parents/carers about puberty. Parents/carers accompany their children to these sessions.

The first session at 5:45pm – 6:45pm is for parents/carers and students in years three and four. Following this session will be a session for parents/carers and students in year five and six at 7pm – 8pm.

Sessions will be held upstairs in the Su Nei Cieli (4/5/6) Learning Community.

AMC

Students who signed up sat the Australian Maths Competition last Thursday! We were very pleased with the number of students keen to give it a go, and they gave it their best shot. Results will take a little while to process, and we will present result certificates when they arrive.

Humanities Inquiry

Students are busy refining their information in preparation for their group’s documentary. Each  inquiry group has used a BTN (Behind the News) documentary, to facilitate a discussion about the way information is presented in a documentary format and how links are made between topics.  We will share our LC final documentaries when they completed.

Heads Up! Calling all Scientists!

Our next focus is a science one. In the last part of this term, students will be exposed to simple experiments, making hypotheses and recording the results. As well we are planning to expose the students to a variety of science knowledge and this is where you may be able to help. If you work in a science field, our teaching team is hoping you would be prepared to give up an hour or so to share your knowledge with a group of students. We are pleased to announce that Janet, who has a long history of teaching science at secondary school, is our first volunteer.

When: We would like to offer a variety of workshops for our students to elect to participate in, during week seven and eight of this term.

Please email us if you can help out. We will endeavor to work around the times and day of the week that best works for you. Please note that on Mondays, students are at Curiosita for most of the day, and Friday morning is sport.

First week back, in term four, students will participate in a science incursion with ‘Hands on Science.’ Students have chosen between Forensic Science and Reactive Chemistry and by far we have lots of curiosity about forensic science. Notices will come home about this at the end of term three. We will end the year with some Science challenge projects,

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.