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Basketball Sessions Years 1-6
30 Aug

Basketball Sessions Years 1-6

by Admin
Father's Day Celebrations
30 Aug

Father's Day Celebrations

by Admin
Book Character Parade
22 Aug

Book Character Parade

by Admin
Basketball Sessions Years 1-6

Basketball Sessions Years 1-6

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 30, 2024

Cockburn Basketball and Kennedy Baptist College came to visit on Friday 30 August, bringing students to present training and drills sessions for Years One to Six.  Each session went for an hour with students rotating around with different Kennedy Year Nine Students instructing them on different skills.

It was so amazing seeing how well our students were focussed and listening to learn from these budding coaches.  We thank them immensely for this opportunity.  They then gave us a gift of a bag of basketballs.  So generous and kind.

Father’s Day Celebrations

Father’s Day Celebrations

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 30, 2024

Thursday 29 August was our Father’s Day Stall.  Thank you to the P & C for working so hard on purchasing items, sorting and pricing and then on the day setting up and selling.

The following day we had our Family Day Lunch and Play.  It was our biggest yet and so many with picnic style foods and rugs.   It was a delight to see everyone having fun and playing the games.  Thank you yet again to our P & C for the preparation and paying for lunches for the adults who ordered curries.

Book Character Parade

Book Character Parade

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 22, 2024

Our Book Character Parade was held on Thursday 22 August and as always, we had a fantastic participation of students and turn out of parents.  People had been very creative and put a lot of time and thought into their costumes.


Congratulations to our winners:

We gave three awards per class at the event and several more were given in the classrooms, but everyone deserves a congratulations on such an amazing effort.

 

 

This year our staff dressed up as Fairies from the Rainbow Magic series by Daisy Meadows.

Firefighter Incursion – Room 7 & 17

Firefighter Incursion – Room 7 & 17

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 19, 2024

On Monday, 19 August students in Year 2/3 and 3/4 were visited by our local firefighters. Students engaged in learning about fire safety at home and had conversations about how to prevent electrical fires. After that, students went outside where they were able to have a closer look into the fire trucks and learn all about the equipment used for various scenarios. Students got to use the hose and test out their firefighting skills. They also had the opportunity to sit in the fire truck and learn about the different radios and gadgets. Overall, all students enjoyed themselves and had a wonderful range of questions to ask.

Hiroshima Day

Hiroshima Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 7, 2024

Hiroshima Day is on the 6th August.  This is the anniversary of when the first Atomic Bomb was dropped.  It is remembered worldwide as people work towards lasting peace and never using nuclear weapons again.  Every year the City of Cockburn, who has a close sister city relationship with Japan, holds a ceremony in remembrance.  Our two School Captains, Sian and Kaliyah, planted a tree and then attended a special morning tea at the City of Cockburn.  At the morning tea there was a delightful Japanese cultural dance and origami.


The City of Cockburn has commemorated this day for 39 years, each year planting trees. Trees were first planted at the Peace Park on Spearwood Avenue and now trees are planted at other City Parks.  This year we planted at Powell Reserve and were assisted by Pierre and Joti from the City of Cockburn.

Let’s hope the annual ceremony and planting the trees are effective in helping us remember that such horrors should not be repeated.

Lightning Carnival

Lightning Carnival

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 17, 2024

On Friday 14 June, a group of students from Year 4,5 & 6 attended the Winter Lightning Carnival.  The students represented Soccer and Netball.  The weather was amazing and the students performed beautifully.  They certainly displayed sportsmanship, fair play and were kind and respectful to their opponents.

It was lovely to see a number of parents attend both venues and cheer the students.  Thank you to Mrs Gartner, Mrs Colleran and Mrs Kovacevic for organising the teams and being there for our students.

I just loved seeing the students smile and enjoy the day.  They were so grateful for the opportunity.  The netball team came second in their group and the soccer came third.  A surprise for the Soccer team as they received a, ‘Fair Play’ trophy.  Congratulations to the participants as they modelled true sportsmanship.

A big thankyou to Katiana’s mum for umpiring all 6 netball games.  Thankyou also to all the family members who assisted with scoring, timing, coaching and cheering.

A big thank you to Signora Kovancevic for assisting in the selecting and coaching of the soccer team.  Ms Colleran was thrown into the deep end and experienced her first soccer carnival, supervising the team!  Thank you to the parents who came along in support.

 

Reconciliation Week

Reconciliation Week

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 31, 2024

The school held a Reconciliation Assembly on Thursday 30 May, led by our Student Leaders.  Our special guests, Uncle Kenny Hayward played the didgeridoo  and Narrelle Ogilvie performed the smoking ceremony.   It was lovely to see parents and other family members attend.

 

Throughout the week students learnt and explored the importance of this National event and that everyone can make a positive difference. Classroom teachers provided the educational curriculum whereby students were enriched with knowledge and understanding.

Mrs Dowding has worked with the whole school from K – 6 to complete the Serpent project which will be placed in the old undercover area next to the staffroom.  The Rainbow Serpent – dreaming in Aboriginal society represents the great and powerful forces of nature and spirit.  Connected to water, the Rainbow Serpent is the great life giver, and protector of water, which is his spiritual home.

The wood was bought and cut out by Mrs Dowding and every student had a go at working on the artwork.  We used the colours of the seasons that are around the school as our inspiration and our amazing serpent started to take shape.

National Simultaneous Story Time

National Simultaneous Story Time

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 23, 2024

Our school participated in the National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) on Wednesday 22 May. NSS is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association and involves the simultaneous reading of a picture book across libraries, schools, homes and bookshops around the country. This year’s book was “Bowerbird Blues” by Aura Parker. The students and staff loved it.

 

Mother’s Day Stall

Mother’s Day Stall

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 10, 2024

The P & C have been busy planning and ensuring your children had the opportunity to buy Mother’s Day presents for a special Mother, Aunt, Grandma or friend. The stall was held on Thursday 9 May, and it was a great success.  There was great excitement as the students were amazed at how many choices, they had to purchase their gifts.  Thank you to the wonderful work the P&C performed setting up the stall.

WA Opera Company Incursion

WA Opera Company Incursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 30, 2024

What a beautiful incursion the school had on Monday 29 April.  The students were fortunate enough to have two lead Opera singers and keyboard player. The students and staff were amazed at their performance and were engaged at all times.  They especially loved the Italian Opera singing as they understood the words.

ANZAC Service

ANZAC Service

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 26, 2024

On Wednesday 24 April, we held the annual Anzac Service.  It was a respectful tribute to our fallen soldiers.  Our students honoured the tremendous sacrifices made by Australian servicemen and women who have participated in wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations around the world, past and present. It was a time to reflect on the impact of war and how it has shaped and defined ours shared sense of identity.  Thank you to all who attended and especially our Year 6 student leaders for being our Master of Ceremonies.

Easter Hat Parade

Easter Hat Parade

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 3, 2024

What a lovely way to finish term 1 with an Easter Parade Assembly. It was wonderful to see our students design and create their Easter Hats/Bonnets and have the support of so many parents attend the assembly.  So much work went into the designs.  Thank you to Sian and Kaliyah, our school prefects for their judging experience as it wasn’t an easy task to choose two winners from Kindy to Year 6. Thank you to the families who attended for making it a lovely community event.

Congratulations to our winners:

Isaac & Amelia – Kindy

Dante & Harper – Pre Primary

Djaran & Billy – Room 6

Evelyn & Stella – Room 14

Tafaris & Willow – Room 16

Harmony Day and Family Picnic

Harmony Day and Family Picnic

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 22, 2024

Harmony Week celebrates all the ways in which Australia is a multicultural country, and how different cultures work together to create communities. Every year at Spearwood, students can dress in orange-coloured clothes, as this is the Harmony Day colour, or in their National Dress.  This year we celebrated Harmony Day, which included a Family Picnic, on Friday 21 March.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scitech

Scitech

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 20, 2024

On Tuesday 19th March, students in Years 3-6 took a trip to Scitech. They engaged in a session within the Planetarium (We are Astronomers), before heading off to the Human Potential exhibit. Students also enjoyed some free time exploring all of Scitech’s amazing and mind-blowing exhibits. A big thank you to parents who volunteered their time, it is greatly appreciated; Sandra Demirovic, Sonia Nelson, Lili Harman, Danijela Vasic, Jasaraha Tobin, Chae Byrne, Amy McWilliam, Andreia Violas, Alyssa Brennocks, Zara Spencer- Brown and Luke Hayward.

Student Leader Recognition

Student Leader Recognition

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 18, 2024

Mrs Adam had the pleasure on Friday 15 March, to escort four students to a Recognition ceremony.  Thank you to the City of Cockburn for inviting and recognising two of our student leaders at a ceremony held at the Function room. Congratulations to Sian and Kaliyah as they were recognised for their work in inspiring students, exhibiting empathy, supporting their peers and embracing diversity within the school.  The community is proud of your achievements.

Science

Science

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 26, 2024

This terms Science lessons are based on Earth and Space Science. For the Pre-Primary this meant looking at the weather and how it affects us. Years 1 and 2 learnt about Earth’s Treasures including water, air, rocks and minerals and plants.  Years 3 and 4  looked at how our Earth is changing slowly over time.   Our experiment looked at the movement of converging tectonic plates and how the movement creates mountains, valleys and caves. We did it in a few minutes, but in real lifetime it is happening very very slowly.

We also had the opportunity to explore a huge range of rocks, gems, sand, minerals, shells, coral – all Earth’s treasures.

 

The shell collection kept us busy trying to look at the many different shapes, sizes, colours and even some big enough to hear the sea!  There was also a collection of corals to look at.

 

We studied a box of test tubes that contained many different coloured sands, from black to snowy white, glass beads, dried clay and very black bitumen.

 

 

 

Sally’s Room

Sally’s Room

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 14, 2023

The Ground Committee Volunteers have been busy putting together the new outdoor classroom.  The grant money was provided by the Australian Government as part of the Schools Upgrade Fund Round 1.

Mrs Sally Piotrowski taught at Spearwood Primary School from 2006 to 2022.

She was an outstanding teacher and had the idea of an outdoor classroom for messy, fun, learning and which is also a place for play.

The staff and community loved her idea and begun to find ways to make it happen.  We have finally made her vision a reality.

While Sally is no longer with us, we will always remember and honour her with this outdoor classroom known as ‘Sally’s Room’.

Kindy Concert

Kindy Concert

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 8, 2023

On Wednesday 6 December, the Kindy students celebrated their wonderful year with a Christmas concert. It was a morning filled with singing and dancing.

The parents were also invited back into the classroom to join in some fun Christmas activities.

It was a beautiful morning watching the students perform and the parents celebrating the successful year their children had.

Author Visit – Emily Norman

Author Visit – Emily Norman

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 17, 2023

On Wednesday 15 November, children’s author Emily Norman visited our school to talk about her debut picture book ‘Lily Longnose finds a home‘, accompanied by the famous Miss Lily herself!  The students learnt about the writing process and the path towards authorship, as well as dog care and safety with a focus on recognising a dog’s emotions through body language.  They were treated to a sideshow of Lily’s many fashionable outfits that Emily had made and a discussion about why Emily loves sewing and crafting as a means of self-expression.  Older students learnt about how natural adaptions allow greyhounds to run so fast, as well as why this affects their ability to stay warm.  The junior group talked about how we can be safe when we pat a dog.

Emily said she was impressed by the behaviour of the students during session and the thoughtful questions asked.  Our students should be very proud of their conduct.  In addition, $68.00 was raised for Greyhound Adoptions WA through student donations.

Interschool Athletics Carnival

Interschool Athletics Carnival

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 30, 2023

This year it was Spearwood Primary School’s turn to host the Cockburn Districts Interschool Athletics Carnival.  It was a 2 day event carried out on the 24 and 26 October,

The selected students had 2 weeks to prepare and train – they worked very hard.  It was a tough competition against schools with many more students than us.  Our Spearwood students tried their best in every even, displaying great sportsmanship and cheering for and supporting each other.  Everyone came home with some ribbons.

A HUGE congratulation to Eliazer for winning the Intermediate Champion Boy!!

Thankyou to our fabulous P&C who provided our great tent to shelter our students and also our amazing sports uniforms.  They also worked hard presenting ribbons to all the winners.

Everyone went home tired but happy after a fantastic day.

Fire Engine Visit – EC1

Fire Engine Visit – EC1

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 16, 2023

Thursday, 12 October,  the Kindy students were lucky enough to have the fire fighters from Fremantle Fire Station come and visit them. The firefighters spoke of their role in the community and the roles and responsibilities of what it takes to be a fire fighter. The students were then able to see the truck and have a turn of using the water hose. The smiles on their faces were priceless.

Compost Workshop Incursion

Compost Workshop Incursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 13, 2023

On Wednesday 11 October our students had a composting incursion, thanks to a grant received from the City of Cockburn.  The grant is being used to improve the way we deal with our organic waste at school.  We are trying to minimise the amount of organic waste that we are currently sending to landfill.  Students from Yr 1 to 6 made their own mini composting system and the Pre-Primary students learnt about worm farming.

Faction Carnival

Faction Carnival

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 22, 2023

Our Jumps and Throws Carnival was on Monday 11 September and the Track and Field was on Wednesday 20 September.

The weather was on our side for the Jumps and Throws and the students performed beautifully.  It was lovely to see the classes attend to watch whilst the students ran the 400m and 800m races.  We celebrated at the end of the day acknowledging the student’s participation and place getters.  Thank you to Ms Tames and Mrs Dowding for their organisation throughout the day.

 

Our Track and Field day was planned for Wednesday 13 September, but due to bad weather is was postponed until the following week.  It was a very successful day and congratulations to all our students who represented their Faction.  Thank you to Ms Tames for her hard work leading up to the event and to the staff and our parent volunteers who ensured the event ran smoothly.

Congratulations to GOLD for winning the Faction Shield and GREEN for winning the Spirit Shield.

Book Week Parade

Book Week Parade

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 26, 2023

Our Book Character Parade was held on Wednesday 23 August.  Our students looked fabulous, and all made a lot of effort.  Two of our Pre Primary students even wrote and illustrated their own original book, dressing up to match! Thank you to all the parents who helped your children with their costumes.  Our staff scrubbed up well, including our values of Six Kinds of Best.

 

Congratulations to all the award winners and thank you to the Prefects for your help in choosing a prize for each class.

Hiroshima Day

Hiroshima Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 7, 2023

On Friday 4 August, Mrs Adam along with our two school leaders, Allen and Rain, attended Hiroshima Day at Jan Hammond Park, Success followed by morning tea.  This is an annual event and is in its 38th year. It was hosted by the Japanese consulate and City of Cockburn.  It was a lovely ceremony remembering the tragic detonation of two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August, 1945.  It was a moving ceremony and our leaders represented Spearwood Primary  School respectfully.

NAIDOC Week Cultural Immersion

NAIDOC Week Cultural Immersion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 28, 2023

On Tuesday the 25 July Room 14, years 5/6, were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend a NAIDOC Week Cultural Immersion event run by Fremantle Dockers (Walyalup), City of Cockburn and Cockburn ARC to learn about our presence on Beeliar Boodja land and its significance.

The morning started with a traditional Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony, where everyone had to line up and walk through the smoke to celebrate the significance of country.

Then we were taken in our school  groups to participate in a variety of activities:  Storytelling and learning the Noongar words for the animals and lands; history lesson on the Fremantle Dockers and the indigenous players; designing our own AFL, AFLW indigenous round shirt; traditional dancing to the didgeridoo.  Our final 4 rotations involved learning new football skills with a variety of football coaches and players.

Then it was lunchtime – sausage in a roll.  We had a choice of Emu, Kangaroo or Crocodile sausages!

To top off our morning, everyone was given a Dockers members hat and then we had the opportunity to line up and get them signed.

Edu-Dance Concert

Edu-Dance Concert

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 1, 2023

After a term of lessons to learn their routines, the whole school performed their items at the annual Edu-Dance Concert on 28 June.  There was a large number of family and friends who attended and were treated to a fabulous performance.

All the children were amazing and absolutely shone on the day, with many of them overcoming their stage fright and nerves.

Thank you to everyone who helped prepare for the concert with a special shout out to Mrs Harper for her assistance to pack away.

Foodbank Food Drive

Foodbank Food Drive

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 30, 2023

Thank you so much to everybody who collected food for the Foodbank Food Appeal here at Spearwood Primary School. We did an amazing job! It is wonderful to give back to Foodbank and support the people who rely on them to meet their daily non-perishable needs.

Our final collection results:

Room 14 – 10 items

Room 16 – 12 items

Room  7 – 25 items

Room  6 – 30 items

EC2        – 24 items

EC1        –  6 items

Staff       – 41 items

We collected a total of 148 items. Well done to Room 6! Enjoy your “Recess on the Canteen” this Friday.  A special thank you goes out to the Nelson, Hayward, Kemp and Raymond families plus our staff members Shelly Reynolds and Elaine Visioli for their generous donations.

Breakfast Club Open Day

Breakfast Club Open Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 30, 2023

We had a wonderful Open Day with many students and a few parents / carers attending. Some of our staff members helped out including Casey Bright, Joanne Harper and Tabitha Riches plus our wonderful Spearwood Uniting Church Volunteers namely Sandy Scott, Monika Cowell and Chris Lock.

Breakfast Club is held on Wednesdays between 8.00am and 8.25am. The students can choose from Weetbix, Toast, Tinned Spaghetti and Baked Beans. Milo is also available and is popular with many of the students. Everyone is welcome!

The club is run by our School Chaplain, Coral and our 2 lovely volunteers from the Spearwood Uniting Church, Monika and Sandy. We are so thankful for their ongoing support, ensuring that our club runs smoothly and is a positive place to be for students who attend.

Lightning Carnival

Lightning Carnival

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 19, 2023

On Friday 16 June a selected group of students attended the Winter Lightning Carnival, playing soccer or netball.

Soccer

This year we finished third in the annual Soccer Carnival!  Traditionally, the carnival is designed for year 6 students but with our smaller school, we had to supplement our team with students from years 5, 4, and 3!  This group of students played as a team,  backing and supporting each other the whole tournament, with every team member doing above and beyond what was expected of them.  Their off-field behaviour was also fantastic.  The only time they panicked was when they got caught in a massive hailstorm before the event started.  With everyone in degrees of soaking wet, we managed to win 4/6 games across the day.   A special thankyou to all our families, who came to support us, especially Allen’s family and his older brother Frank Junior who stepped into his father’s shoes and took over the coaching.

Netball

The courts were very wet on arrival and the goal posts were the wrong height and our opponents had not arrived!  After the slightly chaotic start, the girls settled into a great team, working together and playing very well.  So well in fact that they won the title in the D Division!  Thank you to all our families who braved the cold and came along to support the team.

School Weaving Project – Reclaim the Void

School Weaving Project – Reclaim the Void

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 16, 2023

This term students have been working to create circular rag rugs in their classes to contribute to a project called ‘Reclaim the Void.’  The vision is to cover a mining pit with large-scale ‘dot’ artwork made up of thousands of handmade circular rag-rugs woven from discarded fabric. These are to be woven by people from all walks of life and backgrounds.

Students started with some recycled fabric torn into strips (or weavers) and a hula hoop which was used as a loom. The students took turns at weaving fabric strips around warp threads on the loom. They also learnt how to join the fabric strips together when they ran out of fabric.  It was a great way to recycle and repurpose materials we already had. After the spokes were filled, the ends were tied off. The rag rugs are waiting to be sent away where the individual rugs will be tied together. The individual rugs will be joined together into a giant textile artwork that will carry the story of the country on which the mining pit is situated. The idea for the project came from a group of Ngalia elders in Leonora, Western Australia.

The final artwork will include the tapestry of stories of all the people who have contributed to it, and will be a story of our collective love, respect, and wish to care for country.

World Environment Day

World Environment Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 12, 2023

On Friday the 9th of June, Room 14 had the opportunity to participate in the Cockburn World Environment Day Schools Festival – Beat Plastic Pollution. We travelled via bus to the Cockburn wetlands precinct at Bibra Lake.

We were met by our guide and escorted to the big hall for the initial instructions about the day and sang alongside a couple of the supervisors, while we waited. Then Marie Taylor presented the Welcome to Country to start the festival.

Our first stop was learning about the way the Scientists used DNA to identify individual plants, then we had a go at using these amazing pipettes- that are worth $100.00 each.  We got to take a minute sample, then we created an artwork using tiny drops of paint onto a DNA chart.  We were the first school to use these amazing pipettes.

 

After a quick recess break, we learned all about the Long Neck turtle, the body shape and parts and how to watch for them in the environment.  We did a quick quiz about what we had learnt and then made our own clay turtle.

 

 

 

 

Our next move took us to the ‘Beat Plastic Pollution in Soil’ session. There was a variety of healthy soil samples that we looked at in minute detail, using iPad cameras zoomed onto the samples.

 

After lunch we worked with the Water Corporation to look at water samples from various places, tap, dam, lake, or ponds.  We had to use mini microscopes to try and identify which was which.

 

Our last activity for the day was whittling sticks.  We were well supervised as we had a go at using the special tools to remove the bark from sticks. Once we had our stick to its required form, we rubbed it down with a range of different sandpapers and then waxed them to keep them moist.

Healthy Eating Incursion

Healthy Eating Incursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 29, 2023

On 17 and 24 May, the year 5 and 6 class participated in 2 sessions presented by Laura t’Hart from Cockburn Healthy Schools Program.

They had fun sorting several different and unfamiliar foods into their correct food groups.  Reading nutrition panels was both interesting and challenging.  They also looked at how misleading some product packaging can be, giving the impression that the product was a healthy choice.

It was very ‘eye opening’ to see how much sugar, salt and saturated fat is hidden in our everyday products.  Even a few small, simple changes in product choices can make a difference in our diet.

Each student also received a small recipe book full of delicious and simple healthy recipes to try.

Remember – Try to have 2 Fruits and 5 Veggies each day.

National Simultaneous Storytime

National Simultaneous Storytime

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 26, 2023

The National Simultaneous Reading this year was on Wednesday 24th May, 2023.  The NSS is a fun, online event promoting the value of reading and literacy.  Schools, libraries and other institutions gather school-age children together to read the same picture book at the same time.  A total of 2,357,960 people joined in from across Australia and New Zealand.

The story this year was “The Speedy Sloth” by Rebecca Young and Heath McKenzie. It was followed it up with a demonstration of how to draw a sloth.

National Reconciliation Week Morning Tea for Grandparents

National Reconciliation Week Morning Tea for Grandparents

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 22, 2023

On Friday 19 May the school held a Morning Tea to celebrate National Reconciliation Week.  Grandparents were invited because the NAIDOC theme this year is ‘For the Elders’.  Dianne Hunter, a member of the Cultural Committee, cut the celebration cake.

Diontaye read our Spearwood Acknowledgment of Country in Noongar and English before the Morning Tea.  Our Cultural Committee Aboriginal Elder, Doris Hill, was there to proudly hear him.

ANZAC Youth Parade

ANZAC Youth Parade

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 1, 2023

Our Year 5/6 class, Room 14, participated in the annual ANZAC Youth Parade and Service on Thursday 27 April 2023.   Mr Arthur Stanton, who was at our school for our Spearwood ANZAC service and comes each graduation to present the RSL prize, was one of the people who got this lovely tradition started decades ago with the City of Cockburn.

The parade assembled at 9.30am on the verge near the Cockburn City Council in Coleville Crescent.  There were 29 schools represented by approximately 1500 students and teaching staff. The parade included the 10th Light Horse Memorial troops, The Scotch College Pipe Band, the City of Cockburn Pipe Band as well as representatives from the Cockburn RSL.  The traffic heading East along Spearwood Avenue and the traffic along Rockingham Road was halted while the huge contingency made its way down to the RSL Memorial Park and Field of Poppies on Spearwood Avenue.

The students from different schools do all the readings and the Senior Student ANZAC Address, and students are invited to lay a wreath of remembrance. It has become a popular fixture for our school.  Our wreath layers this year were our school Captains, Allen and Rain, who did an amazing job.  The Seton Catholic College Choir sang several songs throughout the service.

After the service, fruit and water was provided for all students. Once refreshed we began the long trek back up the hill to school.

We are all very proud of the fantastic behaviour of our students. Students know that we expect them to be great school representatives and they were exactly that for this event. Most importantly they can be proud of themselves.

ANZAC Service

ANZAC Service

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 30, 2023

Thank you to our very special visitors Noongar Elder Marie Taylor, Returned Service League (RSL) representatives Mr Arthur Stanton and Mrs Nola Stanton for coming along and contributing to our ANZAC Service on Wednesday 5 April 2023.   We appreciate you helping us show the respect that is so essential for this event.

Thank you to Room 14 students, Ms Terri Dowding, class teacher and Mrs Susie Williams, Education Assistant, for all the work that leads up to and then presenting the Spearwood ANZAC service.   I loved the new banner around this year’s theme of the Animals who have served.  Diontaye reading the Spearwood Acknowledgment to Country in Noongar and English greatly impressed everyone.  He deserves to feel very proud of himself.

Thank you to the parents and community members who came along.   Thank you to parents who contributed flowers for wreaths and to the Education Assistants and students who helped put them together.  As often is the case Mrs Elaine Visioli did more than her share so, thanks Elaine.

Easter Hat Parade

Easter Hat Parade

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 7, 2023

Term One ended on Thursday 6 April with a wonderful Easter Hat Parade.  Our new Deputy Principal, Mrs Jo Harper, said it was the most fun Easter Hat parade she had been to in her career.  She is going to be amazed when she sees Spearwood’s Book Week character parade!!

Thank you to the teachers who worked with the students to make sure everyone could join in.  Thanks to the parents who very creatively made extra special hats for their children.  Thanks to the students who danced and joined in so enthusiastically.  Each classroom selected extra winners.

 

Room 16 winners
Room 14 winners
Room 7 winners
Room 6 winners
WASO

WASO

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 3, 2023

On Friday the 31 March,  a small string group from the West Australian Symphony Orchestra came to perform a free concert to our students.  We thank them for this wonderful performance and presentation.

Life Education

Life Education

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 3, 2023

Students from Kindergarten to Year 6 had a lesson from Life Education on 29 and 30 March.  Feelings, Friendship and Connection were the themes that teachers picked.  These areas help to build relationships and resilience.  Parents were able to come and visit and discuss the programs and look at the resources before the sessions.  Thank you to those parents who came along.

Harmony Day and Picnic

Harmony Day and Picnic

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 24, 2023

Thank you to the families who joined us for the inaugural Harmony Day Picnic on Tuesday 21 March.  It was a bit hot, but everyone found nice spots in the shade to eat lunch with their children.  Families were picnicking at the front of the school and in the Early Childhood area.  Lots of families included the friends of their children who had parents who were unable to attend.

 

After the picnic, parents visited rooms to see the lessons in action or participate in activities with their children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Movie Night – Sing 2

Movie Night – Sing 2

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 20, 2023

Thank you to the Spearwood Progress Association, City of Cockburn and our amazing Manager of Corporate Services, Ms Carol Derbyshire who organised the Movie Night on Saturday 18 March, for our community.  The weather was lovely and the movie was enjoyed by all.

Thank you to Mrs Jo Harper and Mrs Samantha Bell who came along to help with the smooth running and safety.  Thank you to the P & C parents who came early to cook and set up and then sold the sausage sizzle, movie lollies and drinks.  Thanks to Mr David Griffiths, Mrs Janine Griffiths, Mrs Sonia Nelson, Mr Shaun Nelson, Mrs Sarah Hayward, Mr Luke Hayward and Ms Jodie Bridges.

 

Constable Care Excursion

Constable Care Excursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 13, 2023

On Friday 10 March, Rooms 14 and 16 went on a safety excursion.  Thanks to our previous Deputy Principal, Mrs Jacqueline Freckelton, who organised that the activities were free, students only had to pay for the bus.

It was a fantastic excursion teaching about road and bike safety.  The centre has an outdoor area set up as roads with buses, stop lights and all sorts of road signs.  Thanks to the students who were beautifully behaved and the teachers for making the excursion ‘awesome’ to quote a student.

Golf Clinics

Golf Clinics

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 9, 2023

We have been training some future PGA stars!!

The students attended some fun golf clinics, run by Mark Parry, on Tuesdays from 14 February to 7 March.  They have been learning about the different clubs and what they are used for.  The children have discovered the anticipation, excitement and frustration of the wonderful game of golf.  They were all very keen to tackle the long driving hits.

Our students are very lucky to have the exposure to several different sports.

Clean Up Schools

Clean Up Schools

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 6, 2023

On Friday 3 March, the students participated in School’s Clean Up Day. The Pre- Primary students spent time looking for rubbish in their area. The area was already very clean, but the students found lots of little pieces of plastic. They were very happy to have saved them from washing into the drains and then out to the ocean, preventing fish, birds and turtles from eating them.

After lunch, the remainder of the students, where given areas of the school to clean. The Clean Up Australia organisation provided us with gloves and disposable bags for collection. Afterwards, Mrs Dowding’s class sorted the rubbish. They found lots of plastic- lots of plastic bags, paper- some food containers- chunks of shade cloth and carpet.  A few cans and some drink bottles. It was pleasing to note that no cigarette butts were found. Thank you to all students for participating and well done for being so kind to our beautiful school environment.

First Aid Focus

First Aid Focus

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 3, 2023

On the 1st of March, Linzy from St Johns came to our school to teach the students about what to do in emergency situations. Children learnt how to make 000 calls and what service they would require. They also learnt the sequence of DRS AB to assist them in an emergency situation. The children had fun learning how to put their patients into the Recovery position. An important point that came up was – children should know their address and parents/caregivers phone number.

Year 6 Big Day Out

Year 6 Big Day Out

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 8, 2022

On Monday 5 December, the year six graduating class and some invited year fives, went to Woodman’s Point Day Camp for their Big Day out with their two teachers, Mrs Dowding and Miss Carbon.  There was a variety of exciting activities which the students were able to participate in, including the flying fox, rock climbing and abseiling.

It was an extremely fun experience and all the students learned lots of new skills.  Thankyou to the School and the P & C who made it happen.

Italian Assembly

Italian Assembly

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 5, 2022

On the 2nd December  our students participated in an Italian assembly hosted by students from Room 14. The Italian Consul for Western Australian, Dr Nicolò Costantini, attended this special language assembly.

As our school is multicultural, students from the 20 different countries of origin gave a greeting in their language. This was followed with the students from EC2 giving a greeting in Italian.  Room 6 then shared the Italian things they like and Room 7 entertained us all with a short play ‘Il Pappagallo’.   Room 14 had everyone tapping their feet to the beat as they danced the Tarantella. The assembly ended with all the students singing ‘Volevo Un Gatto Nero‘.

The Italian Consul for Western Australia, Dr Nicolo Costantini

RAC Incursion

RAC Incursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 1, 2022

On Wednesday 30 November our students had an RAC incursion on various topics, depending on the year group.

EC1 and EC2 had sessions about road safety.  They enjoyed the interactive session where they used the skills taught to engage in safe strategies to cross the carpark.  We were proud of how the students used their best manners and listened so well to our RAC guest presenter.  The students were sent home with information about how to join the online RAC kids club, which has holiday activity discounts.

Noongar Workshop

Noongar Workshop

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 28, 2022

On 23 November we welcomed Sharon Gregory, Noongar Language Specialist who ran workshops with our classes.  Sharon discussed the Noongar Nation and the languages used.  She taught us some simple songs in Noongar and the names of birds and animals.  We each made a book with pictures and Noongar names of the animals.  Sharon helped us write an “Acknowledgement to Country” for us to use around our school and at special events like assemblies.  Sharon also supplied our library with 10 Noongar Dictionary’s for staff and student use.  Thank you Sharon for your knowledge, we all learned a lot and are keen to learn more.  Thank you to Mrs Julie Waigana and Mrs Janine Griffiths for assisting with these sessions.

SERCUL Excursion

SERCUL Excursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 25, 2022

On Friday the 11th and Friday the 18th November, Spearwood students from pre-primary to year 6, attended an excursion to the South-East Regional Centre for Urban Landcare (SERCUL), an independent Natural Resource Management body in Perth. SERCUL brings together the community, business and government to develop and implement projects that improve the health of our waterways and other ecosystems.

Our pre-primary to year 2 students participated in activities showing how to care for our waterways to encourage and sustain wildlife into our ecosystems.

Our year 3 to 6 students were treated to a working model of how our waste-water travels through our environment and the importance of caring about the products we use.  We discovered that everyday items, like vinegar and lemon juice, make effective cleaning materials and don’t impact our wildlife. We even cleaned a car!

Thank you to Ms Derbyshire who organised both excursions. We learnt that we can make small changes that have BIG impacts for our environment.

The Excursion was made possible with support from the City of Cockburn Environmental Grants and the Spearwood Primary School P & C.

RSL City of Cockburn ANZAC – Remembrance Youth Parade and Service

RSL City of Cockburn ANZAC – Remembrance Youth Parade and Service

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 11, 2022

On Wednesday, 9th November, 1250 students from 27 schools across the Fremantle and Cockburn districts, participated in the annual RSL Youth Parade. The ceremony commemorated the 104th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice on the 11th November, 1918, putting an end to World War 1.

Our Year 4, 5 & 6 students from Room 14, represented Spearwood Primary School, marching from the Cockburn Council Chambers to the RSL Memorial Park on Spearwood Avenue. The students’ behaviour was exemplary, and our school leaders Hesha and Ezeckiel demonstrated their exceptional leadership skills by laying a wreath on the memorial, following protocols to the letter. It was a moving and thought provoking service, one that sets our students up to be leaders of the future. We are very lucky to be a part of such an event. Thank you to the City of Cockburn and RSL for the opportunity to attend.

Interschool Athletics Carnival

Interschool Athletics Carnival

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 31, 2022

On the 25th and 27th October some students represented Spearwood Primary School at the Interschool Carnival. Thanks to Mr Walsh from Phoenix Primary School for organising the carnival. The overall winner of the carnival was Newton Primary.  Spearwood Primary won the Meritorious Shield by 1 point. This is a handicap points system, due to the schools all having different enrolment numbers.  Thank you to our fantastic P & C for our marquee and uniforms – Spearwood are always the envy of the other schools!!  Our team looks great and our students’ behaviour is
impeccable

Congratulations to Peter for winning Champion Boy, Hepa being Runner-Up and Kaliyah winning Intermediate Champion Girl. All the students came home with a haul of ribbons.

Congratulations Peter and Hepa
Congratulations Kaliyah
EC2 Police Visit

EC2 Police Visit

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 10, 2022

EC2 have been learning about roles in our community and the places where these jobs take place.  This Term, Mrs Gavranich and Ms Riches organised a visitor from the Western Australia Police Force.  We were lucky to have the Fremantle Community and Youth Engagement Sergeant, Andrea Fraser, come to visit.  We got to ask questions and learn about the role of the police in our community.

STEAM Morning – Room 14

STEAM Morning – Room 14

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 22, 2022

On Monday 19 September, Room 14 had a fun STEAM Morning (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics).

There was a wide variety of hands on activities set up around the senior area and students worked in pairs to explore, design, experiment or create.  The morning was great fun, with lots of hands on learning achieved.

They had a City, Engineering and design area where students had to create a city, complete with bridges and towers.  They also had access to K’Nex where students followed instructions to design a balance scale.   The Forensic Finger Printing Lab gave them an opportunity at doing their own finger prints and comparing them to others with the use of a magnifying glass.

City, Engineering and Design area
Building a balance scale using K’Nex
Finger Printing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Computer Lab there were microscopes giving the students the opportunity to explore a wide variety of micro views of our natural world.  A  huge set of Marble Maze pieces were placed on the floor where they had to design a long downward run for a marble.  There was a Tumble game where students needed to work out how to get some tiny balls down a near vertical board using a series of well-placed levers.  A very challenging activity was the tower building using playing cards.

Microscopes to explore the natural world
Tumble Game
Building a tower with playing cards

Students had a paper tearing competition to see who could make the longest strip from a piece of paper.  The final activity involved using symmetry to draw the other half of their faces from a half photo.  Some student just estimated while others used rulers to get the exact measurements.

Paper tearing competition
Completing the other half of our face photo
Faction Athletics Carnival

Faction Athletics Carnival

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 19, 2022

Weather threatened the first day of our carnival on Tuesday 13 September, so the Long Jumps were held on the Monday and the 800 metre race was held on Wednesday.  The 800 metre race was held on Wednesday.  All other events were held on Thursday.  There was a little bit of wet weather which held up one event, but our children stayed dry in shelters in the bays.  Our staff and P&C volunteers worked hard all day in many roles.

Congratulations to Blue Faction on winning the Spirit Shield.
Congratulations to Gold Faction who won this years carnival.
Father’s Day Lunch and Play

Father’s Day Lunch and Play

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 5, 2022

Our Father’s Day Lunch and extended play was held on Friday 2 September.  Father’s, grandfather’s, uncles and other father figures enjoyed a lunch with their children followed by lots of fun with a variety of activities.

Book Week Parade

Book Week Parade

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 29, 2022

On Friday 26 August, Spearwood Primary School finished off Book Week with a spectacular Book Character Parade.  This year’s theme was “Dreaming with your eyes open” which inspired the staff to dress as the characters from Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M. Barrie.  Thank you to all the parents who assisted in the making and assembling of costumes.  It was great to see so many students who used everyday clothes and items from their home to create a costume, proving that you don’t need to spend money to have some Book Week fun!  Congratulations to all our winners.

EC2 – Isabella, Holly, Stella, Oli D
Room 6 – Luca, Remy, Jacob, Destiny
Room 7 – Brock, Jasper, Keshvi
Room 14 – Chloe, Antoinette, Amelia
P & C Sausage Sizzle Fundraiser at Bunnings

P & C Sausage Sizzle Fundraiser at Bunnings

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 28, 2022

Thank you to the fantastic P & C parents who worked long and cold hours on the Sausage Sizzle at Bunnings, which was held on Saturday 27 August.  This was a great success with many sausages sold and a profit of $1,620!!  This particular event is aiming towards our goal of an outdoor classroom area.

P & C Disco

P & C Disco

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 25, 2022

Friday 5th August was the P & C Disco.  Our theme was ‘S’ and there were some amazing and creative costumes.  The school thanks the P & C for holding such a fun event. The students looked great and had a fantastic time.  The costume winners were:  Sian – the Sailor, Amelia – The Spud, Willow – the Swan, Che – Sponge Bob and Rory – Carlton’s Adam Saad.

Congratulations to our winners

We know a lot of hard work goes into the planning, buying items, decorating, cooking and all elements.  Thank you all to those P & C workers.  Thank you also to the staff and extra Volunteers:  Mrs Jackie Freckelton, Ms Carol Derbyshire,  Ms Samantha Carbon and Mr Garth Caesar.

National Tree Day

National Tree Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 25, 2022

On the 28th July, our students planted 3 beautiful Powderbark Coolabah trees on the slope above the top oval to celebrate National Tree Day.  They will look fantastic, grow to 8 metres tall, provide lovely shade and make our air cleaner.

Thank you to our gardener Nick and our Grounds Committee volunteers Carol, Garth, Annette and Leigh.

 

MCS of the Year – Ms Carol Derbyshire

MCS of the Year – Ms Carol Derbyshire

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 22, 2022

Congratulations to Ms Carol Derbyshire who was awarded MCS of the Year (Manager of Corporate Services) on 18 August.  Congratulations!  Here at Spearwood we know how lucky we are to have such an exceptional MCS and it is fantastic that the judging committee recognised her exceptional work.

Science Week

Science Week

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 22, 2022

There were plenty of science activities during Science Week from 15-19 August 2022.

Our Kindy students tried stacking ice cubes on top of each other.  They managed to stack 3 but when they added salt to the ice cubes, they managed to stack 6 without them falling over.

Room 6 students looked at the life cycles of plants and animals.  Farmer Kate delivered 12 fertilized eggs to our school along with an incubator and brooder, and they were lucky enough to hatch 9 chicks.  The students also grew grass seeds to make “Hairy Head” plants.

Students from Room 7 created floating boats.  They used different types of materials to build a boat that could hold as many stones as possible.  They worked in groups to create amazing models.

Room 14 students had the opportunity to go on a STEM excursion to Newton Primary School.  STEM is an approach to learning and development that integrates the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  The students had the opportunity to work with people from various positions across the mining industries.  They worked in groups and worked their way around various stations learning about circuits, using VR headsets to watch a virtual picture of an underground and open cut mine and learnt to program mini robots.

Foodbank Food Drive

Foodbank Food Drive

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 19, 2022

Well done to everybody who collected food for the Foodbank Food Appeal during 2 weeks in August.  We did an amazing job!  It’s wonderful to give back to Foodbank and support the people who rely on them to meet their daily non-perishable needs.  We collected a total of 221 items.  Well done to Room 7 who collected 32 items and received “Recess on the Canteen” as a thank you.  A special thank you goes out to Remy, Luca, Jacob, Chris, Jasper, Mrs Reynolds and Mrs Visioli for their generous donations.

Water Incursion

Water Incursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 19, 2022

On Wednesday 17 August our school had a Water Incursion.  The junior students learnt about water conservation, the importance of water in our lives, why water shouldn’t be wasted and how to identify simple behaviour changes to reduce water use.  The senior students learnt about the water supply to our houses, the sewer and the recycled water program.

NAIDOC 22

NAIDOC 22

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 16, 2022

We celebrated NAIDOC 22 on 29 July with a storytelling session.  Thank you to Marie Taylor and Chelsea Thompson for engaging our students in Noongar cultural stories.

Hiroshima Day

Hiroshima Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 8, 2022

Hiroshima Day is 6th August when the first Atomic Bomb was dropped.  It is remembered worldwide as people work towards lasting peace and never using nuclear weapons again.  Every year the City of Cockburn, who has close sister city relationship with Japan, holds a ceremony in remembrance.  This year it was held on Friday 5th August.  Our two captains, Ezeckiel and Hesha, planted a tree and then attended a special morning tea to do cultural activities and learnt to make the origami paper crane.  The City of Cockburn has commemorated this day for 37 years planting trees. This year we planted at Manning Park in an area designed to gradually build a corridor for Native animals.  Our School Captains planted a spotted gum.  The City of Cockburn worker who helped us was Peter and he told us all about the tree and assisted with the planting.

Firefighter Visit

Firefighter Visit

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 29, 2022

On Thursday, the 28th of July, the students from room 7 were lucky enough to have firefighters visit from the Cockburn Fire Station. A huge thank you to Mrs Piotrowski for organising such a wonderful incursion for us.

 

Lightning Carnival

Lightning Carnival

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 18, 2022

Soccer

Our intrepid Spearwood Primary Soccer team braved the elements to play against four other schools at the district Lightning Carnival on Friday the 24th June. Their newly learned soccer skills were evident from the start and there is no doubt our best players were the year six boys. Peter, Hepa and Joshua stole the show on numerous occasions, using their fancy footwork in an attempt to control the game. Jeremiah stayed in the goals all day and gave it his best shot. The year 4 and 5 boys and girl tried their hardest to assist whenever they could.   Unfortunately, our very young team could not practise the game skills they required to make a bigger impact on the competition.  Our final game was against an even less skilled team who were very despondent about being constantly beaten all day.  Our team were very excited winning goals so easily until it occurred to them how badly the other team must have been feeling.  They unanimously decided to help the opposition feel better about themselves by fluffing around and letting them score against us. Although we won the game convincingly, both teams scored goals and had fun.  The opposition team PE specialist sent an Email to our school, thanking us for our effort and commented on the positive ‘Sportsmanship’ displayed by Spearwood Primary School.    Congratulations to our intrepid soccer team!

Terri Dowding

Netball

On 24th June, a team of senior students competed in the Netball component of the Winter Lightning Carnival.  They were Runners-Up in the C Division, losing only one game during the day.  I am very proud of the Sportsmanship they displayed by agreeing to play a team that had technically forfeited due to their late arrival.

Everyone had a great day playing and supporting each other.

Rona Gartner

Soccer Clinics

Soccer Clinics

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 18, 2022

All the students participated in a 4 week soccer program during term 2.  They learnt new skills and played some simple games.  Most importantly, everyone had fun!  Thank you Mrs Irving for organising this.

 

Beeliar Boodjar Gallery

Beeliar Boodjar Gallery

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 17, 2022

Mrs Lisa Miller set up the temporary Beeliar Boodjar Art Gallery – in the Art Room showing the art on canvas created by years 1 – 6 and some other ‘Sorry Day’ art from her class.  The room was set up and parents had the opportunity to look at it after the assembly. It stayed in place for the week so visitors and guests could see the fantastic work of students, resulting from the planning and work of our Cultural Committee lead by Mrs Julie Waigana, our Aboriginal and Islander Education Officer (AEIO).

Music Tour

Music Tour

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 13, 2022

Students from Lakeland Senior High School Specialist Music program came to perform for Pre-Primary to Year Six students on Friday 10th June after recess.  The staff and students loved their performance.  The students got up to dance for the final song and then, initiated by Mrs Lisa Miller, demanded an encore of ‘one more song’.  It was fantastic to see these talented high school students and they were overjoyed by the enthusiasm and dancing of the Spearwood students.

National Reconciliation Week 2022

National Reconciliation Week 2022

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 7, 2022

Reconciliation Week 27 May – 3 June

Be Brave Make Change

In 2022 Spearwood Primary School Celebrated Reconciliation Week with the following Activities:

  • We started the week with an awesome morning tea and dance session featuring bush food themed treats from the P&C and Aboriginal music.
  • A PA announcement each day of the week – What is Reconciliation Week? A new fact was shared each day by our awesome prefects!
  • Children researched and ‘taught’ a teacher/parent/sibling a fact they didn’t already know about National Reconciliation Week;
  • We created a collective artwork of “What reconciliation means to me”. All children produced an item, some of which you can see displayed in Administration and around the school;
  • Children heard a story as part of their library session on June 1;
  • and then participated in NAIDOC Week Colouring Competition (K-2) and Poem Competition (3-6).

For Reconciliation week, each class was given copies of
symbols in which Aboriginal people use to tell stores in their
paintings.
It was left to the teachers and student to choose what colours
and material they did the artwork on. Students were asked to
tell a story using the symbols. It was a fun way of exposing
and teaching the student the importance of communication for
Aboriginal people.
Mrs Julie Waigana

 

National Simultaneous Storytime

National Simultaneous Storytime

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 20, 2022

On Wednesday the 18th of May, Spearwood Primary School participated in National Simultaneous Storytime, run each year by the Australian Library and Information Society (ALIA). Joining more than 2 million kids around Australia (and beyond!), everybody read Family Tree by Josh Pike. This beautifully illustrated picture book is written from the point of view of a tree being planted in someone’s back yard as the house is being built, witnessing the generations of the family who lived there playing in its branches. A number of students and staff had sent in a family photo, which was pinned up in the library as part of our Spearwood family. Through the day, the different classes did a number of activities related to Family Tree, exploring the themes of the story. Copies of the book will now remain in EC1, EC2 and Room 6 for the remainder of the year, with further copies in the library for borrowing any time the children wish.

Easter Hat Parade

Easter Hat Parade

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 8, 2022

Thank you to all who participated in the Easter Hat Parade. It was lovely to see the student’s creativity on display. A big congratulations to all the winners!

Edudance 2022

Edudance 2022

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 28, 2022

Congratulations to all of our students for their awesome performances in the annual Edu Dance Concert.

The children have been learning their dance moves and practicing every week this term.

Thanks you to our Edu Dance teachers for their expert help in preparing us to show off our new dance moves.

Parent and carers you can view the videos on our private You Tube Channel.

Links have been sent home via Connect.

 

Harmony Week 2022

Harmony Week 2022

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 25, 2022

This week we have been celebrating Harmony Week.  On Monday, students were encouraged to wear something orange or clothes from their culture.  During the week, classes participated in Harmony Day Activities and learnt about different cultures.

Sporting Schools Ultimate Frisbee!

Sporting Schools Ultimate Frisbee!

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 15, 2022

Ultimate Frisbee

This week we started our 4 week course of Ultimate Frisbee.  Although it can be very challenging, everyone showed some improvement after just 1 lesson.

Everybody had a fabulous time and they are looking forward to our next lessons.

Thanks to Sporting School Funding we are able to offer this to all students from PP-Year 6.

Clean Up Day

Clean Up Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 8, 2022

Clean-up schools Day

On Friday 4th March, Spearwood held the annual Clean-up day.  Thanks to Ms Irving for organising again this year.  The school was pretty clean and most rubbish was blown in.  Well done to students and our gardener, Mr Nick Taylor, for keeping our school looking so good and mostly litter free.

On Friday, 4th March, the whole school grabbed some gloves and a few plastic bags and took part in the Step Up to Clean Up Day. The students from Room 6 cleaned up the oval and basketball court, Room 7 cleaned up around the library, undercover area, main entrance and the big oval while Room 14 cleaned up around the school boundary.  Room 14 took on the task of sorting and classifying the rubbish. Here is what we found:

20 cigarette butts

22 pieces of metal

31 pieces of glass

105 pieces of paper

148 pieces of plastic

The most unusual items found were a Christmas card from 2020, a wrist band from an event with pineapples on it and an empty beer carton. As a whole class, we discussed what item of rubbish the students would like to see less of and all unequivocally agreed that it was cigarette butts. They also expressed disappointment about broken glass being found so close to the school.

However, this is a vast improvement from last year, when 124 cigarette butts were found,1323 grams of glass, 895 grams of metal, 571 grams of paper and 606 grams of plastic.

22.02.2022 Tu-Tu and Tie Day

22.02.2022 Tu-Tu and Tie Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 23, 2022

Twosday

We had a fun “Tutus and Ties’ Day to celebrate 22-02-2022.  The children and staff dressed up and everyone did several activities based on the number 2.  Did you know 22-02-2022 is a ‘palindrome’ – the same left to right and right to left, and an ‘ambigram’ – the same upside down?

Curling!

Curling!

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 23, 2022

Curling

On Tuesday the 22 February, our school Librarian came in and ran a special program during sport! When Mrs Day-Davies is not at work, she is often down at Cockburn Ice Arena playing the winter ice sport of curling with Curling WA. To celebrate the Winter Olympics, Mrs Day-Davies brought in two special Land Curl kits, which allowed us to have a go at curling on dry land. As well as learning how to play the game, we also learnt about the Spirit of Curling, which is how curlers show good sportsmanship and always celebrate other teams’ success (even if we lose).

Thank you to Mrs Day-Davies and Curling WA for loaning us the equipment so that we might have a go at this 500 year old sport. We had a lot of fun!

Student Leaders 2022

Student Leaders 2022

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 7, 2022

Student Leadership

Congratulations and well done to our School Captains: Hesha and Ezeckiel and our three Prefects: Antionette, Amelia and Peter on earning these positions for 2022.

Last week students elected Faction Captains and Vice Captains.  As we are such a small school almost all of our Year Six students now have leadership positions. Congratulations to:

Blue Captains:  Joshua and Hesha

Blue Vice Captains: Zeyla and Maddison

Green Captains:  Amelia and Ezeckiel

Green Vice Captains: Hannah and Allen

Gold Captains:  Antionette and Peter

Gold Vice Captains: Jeremiah and Bora

This group of year sixes have already been such amazing leaders that they have impressed me.  Once they have a responsibility they are getting their jobs done.  These students put up flags, put out junior play equipment and help out all around the school.

Thank you Year Sixes you are doing a great job!

Thank you Assembly and Morning Tea

Thank you Assembly and Morning Tea

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 6, 2021

On Friday December 3rd we celebrated all of our volunteers with a special thank you assembly and morning tea.

The Classes thanked the P&C, School Board, Classroom and site based volunteers.

There is a saying that – ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ and we know that we need the support of the community to increase all the opportunities for our students.  We try to make sure we thank people along the way but this was our big group thank you to all who help out to build our amazing school community.  We know how lucky we are to have so much support in such a small school.

Thank you from the staff and students of Spearwood Primary School for every little and big thing you do for us.  Thank you for your time, efforts and donations.

RAC Little Legends

RAC Little Legends

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 25, 2021

On Tuesday 23 November, the Kindy’s to Year 3’s all participated in a wonderful Road Safety Incursion presented by the RAC.

The children worked co-operatively in groups, where they became accident investigators trying to decide who caused the accident.

They learned about and discussed:

  • The correct side of the car to get out (curb side).
  • Wearing visible clothing when it is dark.
  • Not riding bikes and scooters on the road.
  • Using crosswalks correctly.

All children were actively engaged in the discussions and enjoyed the presentation.

WA Opera

WA Opera

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 22, 2021

On Thursday 18th November, Pre-Primary to Year Six students were delighted, educated and entertained by a free Opera incursion.  We were entertained by:  Soprano; Brianna Louwen, Base, Jake Bigwood, and Pianist, Robert Graham. These talented people performed for an hour and they were amazing, funny and educational all at the same time.  We thank them for this wonderful opportunity to learn.

Simone McGurk Equipment Grant

Simone McGurk Equipment Grant

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 18, 2021

Spearwood Primary School recently received some new sports equipment, thanks to a grant from Simone McGurk, the State Member for Fremantle. Our students are already enjoying the new balls in the playground at lunch. Thank you Simone for supporting sports and physical activity at Spearwood!

 

 

 

Blue Tree

Blue Tree

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 15, 2021

Since our big old Rottnest Island tea tree reached the end of its life, we had it lopped back to stumps, with handy climbing holds. Then we thought it would be a good idea to paint it blue, to remind us to look after each other and ask for help if we need it. Our students had a great time painting it and it looks amazing! It is definitely blue!

For more information on the Blue Tree Project, please visit the website:
https://www.bluetreeproject.com.au

Mr Nick Taylor
Gardener

 

Wadjini

Wadjini

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 8, 2021

On Friday the 5th of November 2021, we had an incursion at our school. The whole school went to the undercover area and sat down. While we were getting organised he started throwing rabbit fur covered balls around the audience. We all had to try to catch them but most of us missed out but it was still fun.

As soon as we settled he introduced himself to the whole school as Wadjiny. Wadjiny is an Aboriginal word for turtle and he comes from Queensland and his role was to teach us some things about the Aboriginal culture.

He told us lots of stories and he put on special music and showed us dances representing Australian animals. We were encouraged to get up and join him doing the dances.

Next, Wadjiny started to tell stories about how Aboriginal people used their weapons and the food that they ate a long time ago. The weapons he showed us were some spears and different types of boomerangs. He also showed us the different weapons they used to hunt different animals.

Then we had some more dances and the teachers all had to get up and dance with the girls. It was a dance to collect food. All the time he was teaching us new Aboriginal words.

Lastly he showed us how to make a controlled fire. He bought out different types of sticks and some flammable bark and dried grass. Then he rubbed the two sticks together really fast to create a fire. It started to smoke then burst into flames.

At the end people kept asking questions. A few of us helped him pack up and we got to put some white rock paint on our faces.

Overall, I think this incursion was great and exciting. We enjoyed every activity that we did and we hope we have more incursions like this one.

Interschool Athletics 2021

Interschool Athletics 2021

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 4, 2021

The Tuesday planned Jumps and Throws Interschool day was cancelled due to inclement weather including forecast hail.  Luckily the weather changed for the better and Thursday Interschool Carnival was able to go ahead.

On Thursday 28th  October, the Interschool Athletics Carnival went ahead the weather was perfect.  They got all events from Tuesday except the 800m completed in a busy but good day.

Spearwood Primary School won the Handicap Shield, which means when you calculate for the sizes of the schools we are winners.

We were also the inaugural winners of The Brett Pollard “Team Spirit” Perpetual Shield which is awarded for positive sportsmanship and teamwork with perseverance and determination.  Our students can be very proud of themselves for this win. It is a show of character and the staff and I are so proud of them all.

EduDance 2021

EduDance 2021

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 22, 2021

Well done to our amazing students on their Edu Dance performances last term.  It was a terrific concert and a great conclusion of Term 3.

Our Pre Primary students performed “What makes you Beautiful” and Room 6 students “Hot Conga”.

Room 7 students performed “Life is Dynamite” and Room 14 students “Purple Hat”.

Thank you to our Edu Dance teachers, Cassie and Jo.

Athletics 2021

Athletics 2021

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 24, 2021

Our First Tuesday the 14th September went without a hitch but our planned Thursday had to be postponed because of inclement weather.  The weather was so bad that it washed away a lot of our line markings, which are done twice in the term, and damaged the 200m track.  Even on our wonderful delayed event on Tuesday 21st we were unable to hold the 200m championship event and had to replace it with a 100m event. In spite of this one issue, our delayed Athletics Carnival was a great success.

It was a very warm day but students were wearing sunscreen and protected by our shade shelters in the bays.

Thank you to the whole staff and P & C volunteers who worked hard all day in many roles. Thanks to the P & C for lunches and the Raffles.

Thank you to our gardener Mr Nick Taylor, and his set up and pack up crew.  It takes so many people working hard to make this annual highlight event.

Thank you to the parents who came along and cheered and respected all the Covid-19 plans we put in place to allow the event to run.  This year there was no rubbish left in the family area.  Thank you for being role models for your children.

Thank you and Congratulations to all of the students, I was impressed that we had no students give up no matter how far they were behind.  Great sportsmanship shows great character.

Congratulations to Blue Faction – Spirit Shield Winners!  They started the day with the best cheering and marching and kept up that team spirit all day.  I was very impressed with how they encouraged each other when they were not winning. They kept trying until the very end.  Gold challenged them with some very good cheering this year but they held on for the win for this shield.

Congratulations to Green Faction, which had some of the students who demonstrated the best sportsmanship of the Carnival.  Cheering for and congratulating other teams and competitors.  I would like to make a special mention of Allen as one of the students I consistently noticed doing this in Green.

Congratulations to Gold Faction who won the Carnival again this year.

The final score was:  Gold 455, Green 350 and Blue 221.

Factions folder

Congratulations to the Runners Up and Age Group Champions:

 

Junior Boy Champion Eliazer Blue
Junior Boy Runner-up Tafaris Gold
Junior Girl Champion Charlotte Gold
Junior Girl Runner-up Willow Green
Intermediate Boy Champion Allen Green
Intermediate Boy Runner-up Kobi Green
Intermediate Girl Champion Hayley Green
Intermediate Girl Runner-up Ali Gold
Senior Boy Champion Peter Gold
Senior Boy Runner-up Jeremiah Gold
Senior Girl Champion Fiona Blue
Senior Girl Runner-up Lyla Green

 

Fire Fighter Visit 2021

Fire Fighter Visit 2021

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 8, 2021

Last week the Firefighters from Success Station visited some of the Year 2 and 3 students.

First they gave us some important safety messages:

  • Don’t charge your devices on a soft surface
  • All items should be kept 1 metre from the heater
  • Organise a family fire escape plan
  • Don’t leave rechargeable power packs for tools on charge over night

We then got to sit in the fire truck, look at the equipment and the best part was squirting the water hose.

All the students had a great time and learnt a lot about fire safety.

Father’s Day Lunch 2021

Father’s Day Lunch 2021

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 6, 2021

On Friday September 3rd the P&C made an amazing lunch for all of our Dad’s/Uncles/Father Figures!

Thank you to Mrs Janine Griffiths, School Board Chair, P & C Executive member, Volunteer Canteen Manager, etc. who on top of her weekly many hours volunteering to run the canteen organised and cooked the pies and special orders for the Father’s Day Lunch.

Thank you to her amazing side kick our P & C President Dianne Hunter.  Thank you to their extra workers on the day who were so needed and appreciated:  Jodie Bridges, Donna Juner, Amy Hobson and Irrine Dawa.

The P & C made the lunch possible and then the Fathers came and had fun playing with their children in the school yard.  The weather turning nice just in time for our day it was wonderful all around.

Book Character Parade 2021

Book Character Parade 2021

by Admin / Library / No Comments / September 2, 2021

On Friday, 27th of August, the students at Spearwood Primary concluded Book Week with our annual Book Character Parade. We were very pleased to see 100% costume attendance for the second year running.

This year the staff dressed as a variety of different witches from an assortment of different books. Ms Rotondella, when questioned about her lack of costume by the P&C, reminded us all “They [witches] live in plain sight, disguised as normal women” (from The Witches by Roald Dahl). Very sneaky!

Thank you to all parents and caregivers who helped in the construction and assembly of all those costumes. Everyone looked fantastic.

 

 

Prizes were awarded as follows:

 

Class Book character prize Creativity prize Prefects prize
Pre-Primary Evie

Pete the Cat

 

Charlie

Billie B. Brown

 William as Optimus Prime

Transformers

 Oli D.

Alpaca’s with Maracas

 
Room 6 Jasper

The Solar System

Junior

The Legend of Zelda

 

 Remy & Luka

Family Forrest

 

 ?

… as Marshmallow

Roblox
Room 7 Ali

The little girl who lost her name

Princess

Harry the Dirty Dog

 

 Declan

The Mad Scientist next Door

 Cody & Brock
Among Us
Room 14 Antoinette

Sage Cookson

Amelia

How to be an astronaut

 

 

 Cooper

Mr Wolf’s Class

Lyla

Real pigeons fight crime

 

 

Author Visit 2021

Author Visit 2021

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 20, 2021

On Wednesday 18th of August, Spearwood Primary hosted visiting author Sally Murphy at our school. Sally is an author of more than 50 children’s books and she brought a selection with her to talk to the children about how to find ideas for writing, as well as how to make interesting complications and resolutions when writing our own stories.

It was particularly interesting meeting Sally as one of her books, Looking Up¸ was illustrated by A?ka, who visited us last year. It was interesting to hear about how authors and illustrators work together, and how little input an author gets to the illustrations of their writing.

Some of our students purchased books from Paper Bird in advance, which Sally signed (as well as the books we had in the library!). We are looking forward to reading more of her books throughout the year.

Food Sensations 2021

Food Sensations 2021

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 12, 2021

On Tuesday the 10th August, Room 7 went to the science room to cook lots of delicious food.

There were five groups. There was Super Sweet Potato, Pasta Blast, Wonder Water and Melonator.

Pasta Burst was my group, it was great to cook, I mean chop, dice and scoop! We made carrot, beans, capsicum and dip. Sweet Potato made some rolls, Wonder Water made noodles and chicken – I loved that! Melonator made curry with peas and corn, it was good but altogether it was DELICIOUS!

I think that today was my favourite day EVER!

Hiroshima Day 2021

Hiroshima Day 2021

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 9, 2021

On Friday 6th of August our school captains, Lyla and Ashlee, accompanied by Ms Irving and Mrs Crofts attended the City of Cockburn’s Hiroshima Day Commemoration. Every year the council recognises the tragedy of Hiroshima by inviting local students, Japanese dignitaries and special guests to participate in a tree planting activity in one of the local parks. This year we planted native trees at Bishop Park in Spearwood. The Mayor and Japanese Consul released two white doves to represent mutual respect and hope for continuing peace. Following the tree planting, we went back to the Council building for a wonderful morning tea and some very tricky origami folding. Lyla coached Ashlee, Mrs Crofts and Ms Irving through the more complicated parts of our “Peace Crane”. It was a very special day and one which makes us pause and reflect on the tragedy that occurred in Hiroshima and the lasting effects of the bomb which devastated the city.

Spearwood Tree Day 2021

Spearwood Tree Day 2021

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 8, 2021

On August 5th, every class had the chance to plant a tree thanks to Nick our gardener, and the volunteers on our Grounds Committee. Nick explained to the classes and all students got to touch the tree and shovel some soil in to help it grow. Nick showed us the plaque to be placed on the wall and told us all about our beautiful tree. The area behind Bunuru Block will soon be a beautiful, tree filled area that will provide homes for birds and natural shade.

Thank you to PALS and City of Cockburn for partially funding this activity.

 

ATCO Gas – Blue Flame Kitchen

ATCO Gas – Blue Flame Kitchen

by Admin / Excursions / No Comments / July 31, 2021

Recently the Year 4, 5 and 6 class went to visit the Atco Gas facility in Jandakot.  They learnt about all the different pipes that are used to carry gas into our houses.

They also helped to prepare, cook and serve a delicious and healthy morning tea and lunch, rounded off with chocolate brownies for afternoon tea.

The students were also responsible for all the tidying up and cleaning afterwards.  Everyone received a recipe book and a pencil case filled with gifts.

We all had a fabulous day and want to go again next year.

 

P&C Day

P&C Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 29, 2021

On July 23 Spearwood Primary School students celebrated P&C Day.

We made cards and thank you letters for all of the P&C helpers who work so hard to give us our canteen, excursions, play equipment, big day out and so much more.

The team then enjoyed a special afternoon tea and received a box of chocolatey treats.

 

Tree Planting with City of Cockburn

Tree Planting with City of Cockburn

by Admin / Excursions / No Comments / July 29, 2021

On Monday July 26 the Years 1-3 children worked with City of Cockburn Rehabilitation team to plant tube stock in the former Roe 8 corridor.

Students worked in groups to remove the plant from the pot, place it in the ground with a fertiliser tablet, press it in and then install the cardboard guards.

Thank you to Izzy and Steph for having us work with your team, thanks also to Nick our Gardener and Garth and Annette our grounds committee volunteers for helping us on the day.

After the planting session the children visited Bibra Lake Regional Playground for an extended recess break and play.

Marine Safety Incursion

Marine Safety Incursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 24, 2021

On Wednesday June 23 the team from Marine Safety visited us with their boat and safety equipment.

Students learnt about being safe around boats and on the water, saw a distress flare lit and had a chance to climb onto the boat!

Winter Carnival – Netball

Winter Carnival – Netball

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 14, 2021

Netball Report

The senior class recently participated in the Winter Lightning Carnival.

Even with our very small population we managed to enter a Soccer team and a Netball team.

I am so proud of both our teams as we had a very limited training and they both performed very well.

The netball team had no previous experience at all but by the end of the day they were playing their positions very well and won 4 out of 5 games.

Our cheer squad was amazing!

They were so loud and enthusiastic.

Once again my thanks to our P & C for our fabulous sports uniforms.  Whenever we wear them to an event we get several positive comments.  (The team got a real buzz when they heard people talking about their uniforms.)

The group was awesome – they looked great, behaved well, showed great sportsmanship and represented our school very well.

Fortunately the rain held off and everyone had a great day.

Winter Carnival – Soccer

Winter Carnival – Soccer

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 14, 2021

Soccer Report

This group of 11 students from Room 14 did an amazing job at the Cockburn Districts School Soccer Competition on Friday the 11th of June. Due to unforeseen circumstances the group have not had the opportunity to train as a team before this event. Well done to Lyla  Year 6 who extended her School Captain Role to encourage and inspire the team spirit to get us started.

Our on field defence team were amazing. Cooper (Year 6) and Ezeckiel (Year 5) stood shoulder to shoulder and created a strong defence line and they were responsible for many turnovers. They were backed up by our intrepid Goalie Jeremiah (Year 5), who stopped almost every ball that got past the other two boys. I was complimented on the strength of our defence team.

The  Year 6 girls, Lyla, Kate, Raezhel, Fiona and Summer played combos of forward and mid field and threw themselves into the game from the start. Lyla’s ball skills and understanding of the game helped the team enormously.

Our mid field/forward team were helped enormously by Peter (Year5), Allen (Year4) and Kobi (Year 4).  The boys were continually on the ball and had the skills to support the team. Special mention must go to Allen who was the youngest and smallest player on the field. He played with gusto against opposition twice his size and even when sidelined twice for minor injuries, was itching to get back into the game.

A special thank you goes to Mrs Lillian Crofts who helped all day and to Mr and Mrs Hlungupi, for their support, especially Mr Hlungupi for giving the team a mini training session during break time.

The highlight of the day came at the end when we finally won our first game 2-1 against Samson Primary. Then at the presentation, a new award was introduced.  It was to be decided by collected votes from the umpires. The Fair Play award recognises that children’s sport is about enthusiasm, enjoyment, consideration, and all round good sportsmanship.  Out of 18 teams, the Award went to our very own Spearwood Primary School Soccer team. This is a real credit to our whole community!

Reconciliation Week

Reconciliation Week

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 9, 2021

Spearwood Primary School celebrated with in-class activities yesterday under the theme of:

“More than a Word. Reconciliation takes action”

Reconciliation Australia’s theme for 2021, urges the reconciliation movement towards braver and more impactful action.

Reconciliation is a journey for all Australians – as individuals, families, communities, organisations and importantly as a nation. At the heart of this journey are relationships between the broader Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

 

Students from Pre-Primary to Year Six rotated around three activities designed and led by the Cultural Committee.  After a delicious morning tea supplied by the P & C and Cultural Committee using Bush Tucker ingredients, the students were broken into their faction groups so the older children could help and work with the younger children.

The factions rotated around so all children did:  Hand Prints on the log in the Nature play area, Face Mask painting and Traditional Stories and Designs colouring in.  Thank you to our very proactive Cultural Committee for this special day.

The Cultural Committee is driving our School Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).  This committee are also working to enhance the learning opportunities of students in Aboriginal Cultural education.

Recounts from Room 7

On Tuesday I painted a mast with the Aboriginal colours and it looked amazing with the lines and strikes on it. At the library Mrs Day read a story to us about birds and learning what the bird’s names are. At the Art Room we painted our hands to put our hand prints on the Nature Play log and I painted my hand blue. It looked so good. – Ian

Reconciliation Day is a special day for Aboriginal People because we share connections and relationships. We first went to the library to do a colour-in and learn about birds. Secondly we went to the Art Room and painted the Nature Play log. Thirdly we painted masks for Reconciliation Day. It was so colourful. – Stephanie

Reconciliation Day is where people join together and have harmony and we did painting and we were reading and we did our mask painting. It was fun. – Brock

 

World Environment Day Excursion

World Environment Day Excursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 4, 2021

On Thursday the 3rd June 2021 Room 14 went on an excursion to participate in the World Environment Day Festival. It is normally held at Bibra Lake but this year due to the ongoing building works, it was held at Harmony Primary School.  The students participated in five different activities run by qualified members of the Native Arc Centre at Bibra Lake.

Our first stop was the Black Bream. This presentation was a series of games and well thought out information points, set up in a rotation form by the students of John Tonkin College in Greenfields.

Next we visited the Food Chain activity where students looked at the need to balance the environment so the food web system stays balanced.

The next stop was the Wicked Water Bugs, we got to look for the tiniest bugs in the wetlands and investigate and classify them using microscopes.

After lunch we visited the Reptile station. We learned about bobtail goannas and snakes, we even got to touch them if we wanted to. The goannas where rough and the snake was very smooth. Our guide explained what we needed to do if we saw them in the wild and how to get them off the road so no-one gets hurt.

Our last stop was the Frog habitats. In groups we had to study a specific frog and then use the local environment to create a suitable habitat for them. We shared our work and information.

The day was well run and we all learned something new. I spent the day constantly being congratulated by the behaviour of the students, a few people saying they are a credit to our school.  So well done to the students in Room 14.

Pizza and Paper Planes – Spearwood Dad’s (Fathering Project)

Pizza and Paper Planes – Spearwood Dad’s (Fathering Project)

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 29, 2021

On Saturday May 29th the dads and kids from Spearwood Dad’s group held a pizza and paper plane fun night at Spearwood Primary School.

We took our time to make as many planes as we liked, tested them on the basketball court and then decorated them for the big ‘fly off’ competition.

Dad’s competed against dads and there were two heats for the kids with the little ones going first.

Some fantastic distances were flown with a few planes going all of the way across the undercover area!

Every child won a prize, thanks to our group leader dad Kyle and one dad and 2 kids one a $20 gift card for the longest flight and the best decorated plane.

We then enjoyed delicious pizza thanks to Domino’s Spearwood who catered for all of our hungry tummies!

We cant wait to see what our next dads and kids adventure will be 🙂

 

Talk 4 Writing Assembly

Talk 4 Writing Assembly

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 28, 2021

At our assembly, the PP – Year6 classes show cased the whole school Writing Program. This was a dynamic display of how we implement the writing program in our classes. Talk for Writing is an approach to teaching writing that encompasses a three-stage pedagogy: ‘imitation’ (where students learn to recite texts, to identify transferrable ideas and structures), ‘innovation’ (where students use these ideas and structures to construct new versions with their teachers), and ‘invention’ (where teachers help students to create original texts independently). These tasks aim to improve writing ability by giving students an understanding of the structure and elements of written language. All classes presented the first stage of the process – the ‘Imitation’ phase.

Book Fair

Book Fair

by Admin / Library / No Comments / May 27, 2021

Book Fair 2021

Despite a slow start, this year’s Book Fair finished off with a big bang. More than half the books sold this year were on the final day of the Fair.

In total, $1419.00 were spent at this year’s Book Fair. With every book sale, Spearwood Primary receives a small amount of Rewards Points which the school spends at Scholastic. This year’s sales generated a whopping $425.00 worth of books for our school library. Most of this was spent on new picture books, of which a very good selection were provided this year.

Thank you to all parents who supported us, as well as the students who chose to spend their hard earned pocket money at the Fair. I hope you enjoy your new books!

 

Mrs Suzie Day-Davies
Library Officer

 

 

National Simultaneous Storytime 2021

National Simultaneous Storytime 2021

by Admin / Library / No Comments / May 19, 2021

Today we participated in National Simultaneous Storytime an event held annually by Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). More than a million children have participated in NSS over the years and at Spearwood Primary the whole school gets involved.

This year we heard “Give me some space!” by Philip Bunting read by NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker from the International Space Station! Philip Bunting is a well known Australian picture book author with a number of recent nominations for awards from the Children’s Book Council Australia (CBCA), including Mopoke, Wombat and Not Cute.

In order for this to become possible, this year ALIA partnered with the US-based non-profit organisation, Storytime from Space. This existing organisation aims to educate and excite children about science through reading various space-themed picture books, all from the International Space Station. Their website is filled with recordings of other book readings, activities and small experiments that kids can do at home. If you would like to share with your children some more amazing stories read by astronauts, please visit the above link and check it out.

Celebrating our Mum’s

Celebrating our Mum’s

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 10, 2021

Mother’s Day 2021 was celebrated with our annual mothers day stall where children can select a gift for mum, followed by a lunch for all of our mum’s nanna’s and aunties.

Thank you to the P&C and Canteen who provided a special and delicious lunch for all of our lovely mums!

ANZAC Service

ANZAC Service

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 23, 2021

On Friday 23rd April, Spearwood Primary School held its ANZAC service.  Well done and Thank you to the wonderful staff:  Mrs Maria Gorman, Mrs Terri Dowding and Mrs Susie Williams for pulling together such a lovely service with such a short preparation and practice time.

Congratulations to the students doing the readings Lyla and Ashlee, School Captains and Fiona, prefect.  Thank you to Jayde and Cooper, prefects, for doing the flags.

Thank you to the parents who donated flowers for our lovely class wreaths.

Wreaths.jpg

Thank you to Returned Service League RSL representative Mr Arthur Stanton for your lovely speech.  Mr Stanton was so impressed and moved by our School song that he said he choked up and wanted to stand and join in the marching.

Well done to all our Spearwood students on their respectful behaviour and singing of the national Anthem anthem and School song.  We don’t applaud at ANZAC services but you do deserve a round of applause for your efforts.

 

ANZAC Parade

ANZAC Parade

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 21, 2021

On Wednesday 21st April, over 1600 students including our Years 4-6 took part in the ANZAC Youth Parade.  Spearwood Primary thank the RSL and City of Cockburn for this outstanding event.  Thank you to Mrs Susie Williams who went as a supervising staff member but also made an amazing Australian plants wreath.  Thank you to Mrs Terri Dowding for taking our students.  Thank you to the students for their excellent behaviour on the walk and for the ceremony, you make us so proud.

Easter Hat Parade

Easter Hat Parade

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 1, 2021

Term one ended on a high with the last day being the much loved Easter Hat Parade.

Congratulations to the whole school for the creativity and work that went into the hats they were amazing.  We were also impressed with some very sharp moves in the dancing.

Congratulations to the winners!

Spearwood Progress Association Movie Night

Spearwood Progress Association Movie Night

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 28, 2021

Thanks to the City of Cockburn for supporting the Spearwood Progress Associations’ Movie Night.  Over 200 people gathered on Spearwood Primary School front garden to watch “Spies in Disguise” an animated adventure movie.  Thanks to Cockburn Ice who donated free passes as door prizes.  We hope you will all join us for the next one!

Shoe-lace Tying

Shoe-lace Tying

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 20, 2021

Ascent footwear, in partnership with The Athlete’s Foot, visited us last Friday, 19 March, to teach our students from PP to Year 3 on how to tie shoelaces.

Harmony Day Fathering Project Breakfast

Harmony Day Fathering Project Breakfast

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 17, 2021

On Wednesday 17th March, Harmony Day, the Fathering Group and P & C hosted a breakfast.  We had a nice turn out of fathers and families who ate fruit and yoghurt or sausage in a bun.  It was delightful to see the Dads playing with the sports equipment with their children before school. Thank you to both school community groups for the special morning and the food.  Thank you to our Gardner Mr Nick Taylor, and volunteer Mr Garth Caesar for setting up and manning the BBQ.  Thank you to one of our fathers, Mr Luke Weaver, for coming in early and assisting.  Thank you to anyone I have missed in naming but who helped on the morning.

On this day, Harmony Day activities were also held in classrooms where cultural diversity was celebrated.  Students wore orange to represent Harmony Day or the National Costumes of their heritage.  Lots of children were looking amazing in these celebration clothes.

Sporting Schools Lacrosse Clinics

Sporting Schools Lacrosse Clinics

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 10, 2021

Thanks to a Sporting Schools Grant – All students have been very fortunate to participate in a 4-session clinic.

Lacrosse is not a familiar sport to most of our students and community members.  It is quite a challenging sport requiring many skills.  The children had fun learning how to scoop and throw the ball with their sticks.  They are looking forward to practising when our new equipment arrives.

Emily (our coach) from Quick Stix commented on how well the children behaved.

 

Clean Up Schools Day

Clean Up Schools Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 8, 2021

On Friday the 5th of March, our whole school went out to clean up our school environment. Each class was given a bucket of gloves and plastic bags and allocated an area in and around the school grounds. Strict rules were set by our classroom teachers as we headed out to clean our environment.

Room 14 worked hard to clean up the outside boundary area. What surprised us was the amount of cigarette butts and broken glass that we picked up, extremely carefully. The collected rubbish was then sorted into basic categories for recording purposes.

As a whole school we collected:

  • Glass: 1323 grams plus one beer bottle
  • Metal: 895 grams
  • Paper: 571 grams – including cardboard, papers, junk mail- all very light materials
  • Plastic: 606 grams- plus one big plastic drink bottle- including plastic bags, food wrappers, straws- this is a lot for such light objects
  • Cigarette butts: more than 124.

We were so shocked by the number of cigarette butts, collected outside near parent parking areas, that we did a mini research on the effect on our environment. Did you know that it may take up to 500 years for a cigarette butt to break down? They are made of plastic particles and turn into micro plastics. They are still investigating these effects because cigarettes have not been around long enough to know the exact details.

Packed with Goodness Lunchbox Session

Packed with Goodness Lunchbox Session

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 26, 2021

Yesterday some parents and staff attended the Packed with Goodness lunchbox information session.

It was filled with ideas and information on how to pack a healthier lunch box. Here are some of the key ideas:

  • children need 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables every day
  • most children are getting the fruit but NOT the vegetables
  • try to pack vegetables into the lunch box so not all 5 serves need to be eaten with dinner
  • make crunch and sip vegetables
  • children do not need any other drinks other than water and milk (fruit juice boxes contain 4 teaspoons of sugar!!!)

Some healthy ideas to try:

  • swap white bread for grain bread
  • try some unusual or less common vegies ie raw mushroom, snow peas
  • swap packet snacks for fresh snacks
  • for great recipes and ideas for fussy eaters visit crunchandsip.com.au

 

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 17, 2021

Our Term 1 writing program is well underway with the Talk4Writing ‘hook’ this week.

Our students will write an application letter to be a waiter for the Mad Hatters Tea Party.

Staff enjoyed an ‘extra cuppa’ this morning outside the staff room!

2021 School Leaders

2021 School Leaders

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 8, 2021

Meet our school leadership team for 2021.

Congratulations to our School Captains and Prefects.

Captains: Ashlee and Lyla

Prefects:  Fiona, Cooper and Raezhel

2020 Christmas Concert

2020 Christmas Concert

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 17, 2020

Another successful, entertaining performance from all students. Well done staff and students on the fabulous all singing, all dancing Christmas extravaganza. Another successful end of year assembly. It was great to be able to host a larger group of parents on site now that we are moving into less rigid, restricted procedures.

 

Year 6 Big Day Out

Year 6 Big Day Out

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 15, 2020

The Big Day Out at Woodman Point Recreation Camp was a huge success. Students were well behaved and had great fun with the archery and water activities. Thanks to the P&C and Mrs Griffiths for funding the excursion and provision of the amazing lunch. Such a wonderful memory of the last week of Primary School.

 

Thank You Assembly and Volunteers Morning Tea

Thank You Assembly and Volunteers Morning Tea

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 7, 2020

On Friday 4th December we showed our appreciation for all of the volunteers that work with us to make our school a wonderful learning environment. We thanked our Cultural Committee, Board members, P&C, Grounds Committee and all of the other wonderful helpers that give their time to help our students achieve their very best.

The assembly was also be a chance for the students to personally thank Sheila for the many years running the Community Bingo in the Hall – we are sad to see her go but are so grateful for all of her fundraising efforts and the benefits to our school and students have been immeasurable.

EC2 Assembly

EC2 Assembly

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 23, 2020

Our students from EC2 gave an amazing performance at the assembly held on 20 November where they performed 2 songs.  The first was a wonderful rendition of “We are Australian”, with the addition of the Auslan Language which they had been learning over the previous few weeks.  The 2nd song was a Wiggles song, “Stop at the Lights”.

 

Dolphin Watch Excursion

Dolphin Watch Excursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 20, 2020

On Thursday 19th November, the Year 2-6 students travelled to Matilda Bay to take part in the Junior Dolphin Watch excursion. The students conducted a scavenger hunt of the river and surrounding area to determine what types of activities were conducted in the area and what litter had been left behind. They then tested the pH, temperature and saltiness of tap water and river water and compared the two. Later they labelled a diagram of a river dolphin and tried to identify some of the local dolphins by their dorsal fins.

 

Fire Fighter visit to EC1

Fire Fighter visit to EC1

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 3, 2020

Today our kindergarten class was treated to a special visit from the Success Fire Fighting branch.

As part of our community helpers program this term, this visit was a huge hit.

Four fire fighters showed the class all of their safety equipment, their radio communications and a full tour of the fire truck. Each student was able to have a turn of the fire hose and received a special stamp.

The fire fighters radioed to base and the students got to hear a special message as well as the lights and sirens show.

A wonderful morning was had by all and the staff and students would like to thank the fire fighters for taking the time to speak to us today.

** Don’t forget to click the links at the bottom of the picture gallery to see the videos!

 

Fire Fighter Message Video

Fire Fighter Lights and Sirens Video

 

Community Helper Police Service Visit

Community Helper Police Service Visit

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 29, 2020

The kindergarten children have been very fortunate to have Police Officer Sam And Police Officer Chloe from the Cockburn Police station visit us today.

We learned what the role of the police officers in our community involves, how to contact them in an emergency and why they are so important for the community.

We then got to make our own hats and use the police stickers to turn each student into a junior officer.

The officers then showed us all their equipment, turned on their radios and took us out to see the vehicle. All students got to sit in the front seat and have their picture taken. We even got to watch the lights and sirens.

Spearwood kindergarten EC1 would love to thank Officer Sam and Officer Chloe for coming in today.

 

St John Ambulance Service Visit

St John Ambulance Service Visit

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 22, 2020

The kindergarten students at Spearwood Primary have been fortunate to have a visit from the St John Ambulance service today.

As part of our community helpers program this term, the students were able to see first hand how important the ambulance service is. We all listened to Blade give her talk about when to call an ambulance and what an emergency is. We then got to go for a climb up inside the ambulance, test out the chairs and the bed and have a go at some of the equipment. At the end we were treated to a lights and sirens demonstration and all the students were gifted a sticker.

We would love to thank Blade from the St John Ambulance service for taking time to show us her ambulance today.

IMG_E3351

A visit from Ranger Kylie

A visit from Ranger Kylie

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 21, 2020

This term as part of our kindergarten program, we are looking at ways in which people in our community can help us.

We have been very fortunate to have the City of Cockburn ranger services come to class and have a talk with our students.

Ranger Kylie brought all her ranger equipment and demonstrated how she catches snakes, captures dogs and we even got to watch her talk to base with her walkie talkie. We then followed her out to her ranger vehicle and got to see inside.

The kindergarten students had lots of wonderful questions and enjoyed the whole morning. Ranger Kylie even gifted each student a special teddy bear to take home.

Thanks to the City of Cockburn for sending Ranger Kylie to our school!

EC1 Kindy seashell size sort and pattern play

EC1 Kindy seashell size sort and pattern play

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 25, 2020

On Wednesday 23rd, the kindy class had some tactile fun while practicing their size sorting with seashells and items collected from Woodman Point Reserve by Education Assistant, Mrs. Liddle. They sorted from largest to smallest (or smallest to largest) and traced the oceanic items.  They all were very interested and engaged and received a bit of a marine biology lesson too!

Then the kindy’s had a go at their pattern knowledge by selecting an assortment on 1-5 pictures and following a repetitive pattern. They did really well!

EC2 Daily Activities

EC2 Daily Activities

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 25, 2020

Our daily activities are maths and play.  The children love to use the dominoes chain reaction to see how long they can make the train. The children then push the first one that follows through and they all fall down in sequence. At the end of the day in playtime they all love to play  in the dress up area. The boys and the girls like to dress up in each others outfits.

EC1 Paint Blowing Fun

EC1 Paint Blowing Fun

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 25, 2020

The kindergarten students in EC1 had a wonderful day experimenting with paint. Using straws to blow the paint across the paper was a fun experience for all. It was great to spend an afternoon outside in the glorious sunshine with our bright and happy kindy kids.

Athletics Carnival 2020

Athletics Carnival 2020

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 25, 2020

On Thursday September 17th students from Green Gold and Blue factions competed in the 2020 Athletics Carnival.

Thank you to the whole staff and P & C volunteers who worked hard all day in many roles.   Thanks to the P & C for lunches and the Raffle!

Thank you to the parents who came along and cheered and respected all the Covid-19 plans we put in place to allow the event to run.  This year there was no rubbish left in the family area.  Thank you for being role models for your children.

Thank you and Congratulations to all of the students, I was impressed we had no students give up no matter how far they were behind.  Great sportsmanship shows great character.

Congratulations to Mrs Miller and Blue Faction – Spirit Shield Winners!  They started the day with the best cheering and marching and kept up that team spirit all day.  The other factions also did some great cheering thought the day.  Blue had already been picked as Spirit winners when, on the second last event, I looked over and saw them cheering for a year one boy in green in the egg and spoon race.  I was so proud of you all!

Book Character Parade 2020

Book Character Parade 2020

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 3, 2020

On Friday August 28th classes from PP to Year 6 participated in a Book Character Parade.

Students were invited to dress as their favourite character from a book and bring their book along to share.

Prizes were awarded for the most original and interesting costumes.

Thank you to all of the families who made the day so special and to the staff who also got involved.

A visit from Aska- illustrator and scientist

A visit from Aska- illustrator and scientist

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 20, 2020

On Thursday the 13th of August, Spearwood Primary hosted a visit from the children’s illustrator, Aska. As well as looking at how we can use pictures to tell stories, we explored the importance of imagination. They led our students through a discussion about how imagination lets us take something small and turn them in to amazing ideas. We explored the history of flight- from a shirt blowing off a chimney from the hot air through to the development of different aircraft (and a whole lot mistakes along the way). Aska showed us a number of different experiments involving flight, including a tea bag hot air balloon, an air pump PET bottle and an Alka-Seltzer in a film canister. This resulted in a very entertaining incursion, perfectly timed for both Book Week and Science Week!

 

 

 

Aska asking students a question

 

Aska using students ideas to draw a picture

Tree Planting

Tree Planting

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 17, 2020

Earlier this year we lost a few large trees from around our school that had been damaged or become unstable.  On Tuesday August 11th, children had the opportunity to plant a tree with the assistance of our gardener Nick.  We purchased 4 trees and have learned how to plant a tree, what they need to survive and will be charged with looking after them as they grow with us at Spearwood Primary.  We will install a plaque next to each tree to commemorate this event.

Hiroshima Day Tree Planting

Hiroshima Day Tree Planting

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 10, 2020

On Thursday August 6th, our School Captains, Emily and Abigail together with Ms Irving attended the City of Cockburn Annual Hiroshima Day Tree Planting Ceremony.  This year Anning Park in South Lake was chosen to receive 20 ornamental pear trees.  The annual event included the symbolic release of white doves, and the making of paper cranes.

 

 

Fire Fighter Visit

Fire Fighter Visit

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 31, 2020

On Wednesday July 29th a team of firefighters from Success Fire Station came to talk to the Year 3/4 class about fire safety.

The students got to spray the hose, climb into the fire truck and see the jaws of life in action.

NAIDOC Celebrations

NAIDOC Celebrations

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 20, 2020

On Friday July 3, Spearwood Primary School celebrated with NAIDOC activities.

While Australia postponed until November their NAIDOC Week we went ahead with our school NAIDOC week activities.  Thank you to the School Cultural Committee and the P & C Committee for all the hard work and great ideas that made such a great day.

First the P & C put on an amazing morning tea with items that all have some bush tucker ingredients.  The students learnt about these ingredients in class.

Then the Year 5/6 class sung an Aboriginal version of ‘Twinkle Twinkle’.  It was impressive and moving.  Well done Mrs Dowding and the Year 5/6 students.

Then the whole school broke into Factions groups and Pre-Primary to Year Six.  Students finally got to mingle after so many weeks of just being in class groups.  There were three stations of activities. Thanks to the staff who worked with students and to the big children helping little children.  It was a lovely way to end the term and you will see many of the art pieces displayed around the school.

 

Farmyard on Wheels

Farmyard on Wheels

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 2, 2020

On Wednesday July 1st, the two Early Childhood classes had a Farmyard Incursion and got to visit and cuddle lots of adorable animals.

Thanks to the P & C who paid for this wonderful opportunity for these students.

Important Dates and Holidays – Updated

Important Dates and Holidays – Updated

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 16, 2020

Spearwood Primary School

2020 School Development Days,

Important dates and Holidays.

 

Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th January 2020

School Administration only – School open for Enrolments and Queries

 

Thursday 30th January – Friday 31st January School Development Days (Compulsory)

 

Monday 3rd February         Students Commence: Term One 2020

Monday 2nd March               Labour Day holiday

Thursday 9th April                Student last day: Term One

Friday 10th April                    Good Friday

Monday 27th April                 ANZAC holiday (WA)

 

School Holidays Friday 10th April to Tuesday 28th April

 

Tuesday 28th April              School Development Day – Department Mandated:  Covid-19

 

Wednesday 29th April        Students Commence: Term Two 2020

Friday 29th May                   School Development Day (School Board selected)

Monday 1st June                  Western Australia Day holiday (WA)

 

Friday 3rd July                       Student last day: Term Two

 

School Holidays Saturday 4th July to Sunday 19th July

 

Monday 20th July                Students Commence: Term Three 2020

 

Thursday 24th September   Student last day: Term Three

 

Friday 25th September      School Development Day (School Board selected)

 

School Holidays Friday 25th September – Sunday 11th October

 

Monday 12th October School Development Day

School Board selected 15/06/20

 

Tuesday 13th October       Students Commence: Term Four 2020

 

Thursday 17th December    Student last day school 2020.

 

Friday 18th December       School Development Day (Compulsory)

 

School Holidays Friday 18th December 2020 – Sunday 31st January 2021

National Simultaneous Story time

National Simultaneous Story time

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 28, 2020

On May 27th at 9 am Perth time, Spearwood Primary School participated in the National Simultaneous Story time book reading and activities.

    

Whitney and Britney Chicken Divas 

“Whitney and Britney are two gorgeous chooks who live alongside Dora von Dooze. But Dora is perplexed – why do her dear chickens seem to sleep all day long? Dora decides to snoop. She follows the chooks out at night to the local jazz club where she discovers, to her amazement, that they are Whitney and Britney: Chicken Divas!”

Written and Illustrated By: Lucinda Gifford

Published By: Scholastic Australia

 

Student Reports

Student Reports

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 27, 2020

Semester One 2020 Reporting to Parents

Dear parents/carers

I want to thank you again for your support throughout what has been a very unusual school semester.  The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our entire community and has presented us with extraordinary challenges in managing schooling during the first half of 2020.  I am pleased that together, we have been able to make the best of this situation and ensure your child’s safety and continuity of learning.

With the regular attendance of many students being lower over this time, the breadth and depth of the curriculum covered throughout Semester 1 may have been reduced.  For this reason, schools are not required to include A to E grades on this year’s Semester 1 student reports.  It also means that your child’s attendance may not be reported, and any written comments may provide less information on their progress than usual.

Schooling is once again returning to normal and our students are engaging in the regular curriculum, in their usual classroom environment.  Those approved to learn from home are also being supported.  Semester 2 reports will reflect this and therefore provide the usual, more detailed information on your child’s progress and achievement.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement as we work together to provide the best learning opportunities for our students. As we progress, I’ll be sure to keep you updated with any new information.

Kind regards

Marta Rotondella

Principal

https://spearwoodps.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/20-Semester-One-Reporting-Letter.docx

New Mural

New Mural

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 11, 2020

Thank you to Justin from “Art Sins” who has painted a sports themed interactive mural on the wall outside Room 6, in the junior primary play area.

If you would like to see our time lapse video of Justin working on Friday, it can be viewed here:  https://youtu.be/dJ2OGuv9k-Y

 

Welcome Back to Term 2

Welcome Back to Term 2

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 30, 2020

Welcome Back to Term 2!

It’s been great to see so many of your smiling faces as we return to school, we have missed you all! We are doing our best to help our school family adjust to these new circumstances. You might see some of us at the gates each morning welcoming your children into the school grounds. If we aren’t there when you arrive, please wait for us as we ferry the little ones to their classes. Rest assured that the school grounds are a safe place for your children and we have implemented extra cleaning routines and have sanitizer available in all classrooms. We will keep you up to date with any new developments as they arise. We are available to chat if you have any questions or concerns on 08 9414 2300.

Regards Spearwood Primary School Staff

Student Work Packages

Student Work Packages

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 9, 2020

Collect your child’s work package from school on Tuesday April 28.

The package and pencil cases can be collected according to the following timetable. 

Please wait outside the classroom practicing good social distancing. 

Staff will watch for you and call you to the door.

Tuesday 28th April

8:30 – 9:30          EC2 Pre-Primary 

9:30 – 10:30        EC2 Year One                    

8:30 – 9:30          Room 6 Year One

9:30 -10:30          Room 6 Year Two

8:30 – 10:30        Room 16 From front Office

8:30 – 9:30          Room 14 Year 6

9:30 – 10:30        Room 14 Year 5

Updates

Updates

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 26, 2020

Please read the latest information from our Principal regarding upcoming school activities and events.

UPDATE 3

Please see attached letter from Hon Sue Ellery MLC Minister for Education and Training

Letter from the MinisterDownload

UPDATE 2

Special Newsletter

COVID-19

Dear Parent / Carer

As many of you will be aware, The Minister of Education, Ms Sue Ellery today announced that all public schools in Western Australia will remain open until the end of term – Thursday, 9 April 2020.

However, families are now encouraged to keep their children at home if they have the capacity to do so.

For Spearwood Primary School this means:

  • From next week (Monday, 30 March to Friday, 3 April) all children who attend school will be taught as normal.
  • The following week (6 to 9 April) teachers and education assistants will prepare teaching programs for Term 2.
  • During this time (6 to 9 April), students who attend school will be supervised only. There will not be a teaching program in place.

At this stage the arrangements for Term 2 in schools are yet to be determined. These arrangements will be communicated to you as soon as they are finalised. As mentioned above, teachers will be working on teaching programs for next term in the last week of this term.

In the meantime, for those who have access to the internet, you may wish to have a look at the Department’s website Learning at home which contains many resources for parents to use with children from Kindy to Year 6.

It can be found at:

https://www.education.wa.edu.au/learning-at-home

Thank you for your ongoing support during a very difficult time for all in the community. I wish you and your families well.

Yours sincerely

Tracey Irving

Principal

26 March 2020

UPDATE 1

Edu-Dance Concert, Easter Hat Parade, 3-Way Conferences, ANZAC Ceremony, Bingo and Canteen

CANCELLED

In line with updated advice we regretfully advise that the following Spearwood Primary School events are cancelled: Half day close for Three-Way Conferences, ANZAC Ceremony.  Last week the school also cancelled the Edu-Dance Concert and the Easter Hat Parade.   Weekly Bingo and Friday Canteen are all cancelled for the rest of Term One and for Term Two. 

Please try to minimise how much exposure your children have to all the information.  Let’s work together to lessen their anxiety.  Children need to know about hand washing and hygiene habits that will lessen their chances of getting flu or Covid-19.  They also need to know that they are safe.

If your child is unwell please keep them at home.  Everyone is going to be more anxious about every cold and flu this year.  Please inform the school and get well at home.

It is a stressful time and a lot of information coming at all of us every day.  Principals’ and schools receive updated information and instructions after midday on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I will keep the school community updated when anything changes for students and families.

I will send home paper notes like this for important information and it will also be put onto the website and Connect Notices.  Please check student bags daily and other electronic sources for school information.

Marta Rotondella

Principal

Monday 23rd March, 2020

Education is open

Education is open

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 26, 2020

Access to online resources for Spearwood Primary School students are available here.

Scroll to the bottom of the page to access, mathletics, typing.com, learning at home, soundwaves and connect.

If you do not have your student login please contact us.

Sporting Schools

Sporting Schools

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 12, 2020

Tennis Clinics

A big thank you to Mrs Irving for organising our clinics.

Nick from the Tennis Academy by Mike Gill, is a fabulous coach.  We have a great time learning skills with fun games such as Mouse Trap, Splat, Bash and Bump.  Most importantly we have learned the split step, a forehand hit and a backhand hit.

We love our beautiful new equipment that we are using and looking after very responsibly.

Thank you also to the Prefects and Faction Captains for setting up the equipment in the morning.

Look out Wimbledon – here we come!

Food Sensations

Food Sensations

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 9, 2020

Last Wednesday the Food bank ladies came to Spearwood to teach the Year 3,4,5 and 6 students about healthy eating. We learnt that homemade food has much less salt, sugar and fat than take-away food. It is much better to make your own pizza or burger than to order one!! After the theory part of the lesson the students broke into groups and cooked several delicious recipes. All the students were given cookbooks to take home.  

Clean Up School’s Day

Clean Up School’s Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 9, 2020

On Friday 6th March we held our Clean Up our School Day.  We usually try to hold this the day before Clean up Australia Day but due to weather concerns it was postponed.  Healthy Harold the Giraffe from Life Education came along to help as we learned about responsible waste choices.  The staff working with Healthy Harold commented on how immaculate our grounds were already and they are right.  There was so much less litter than ever before with this annual event.  A few things contributed to this on top of our students taking responsibility for their rubbish and trying to make less waste.  The fence has meant much less litter from the community entering our school.  An enormous thank you also must go to our Gardner Mr Nick Taylor who works so hard and takes so much pride in our school grounds.  He inspires all the community to do the same in our school.

Life Ed Van

Life Ed Van

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 5, 2020

Pre-Primary to Year Six students attended the Life Education Van for a session on Thursday 27th February, 2020.  These sessions are subsided by the Stan Person Foundation and paid for this year by our Spearwood Primary School Parents and Citizens association.  Thank you.  Students learnt about responsible health choices that will serve them well their whole lives.

Fathering Project

Fathering Project

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 27, 2020

Dad’s go back to school!

All dads and father figures were invited to share the last session of the day with their child in class. We had a great turnout and below is an activity that the Room 14 dads had a go at. Thanks to Kyle our Fathering Project coordinator for facilitating this activity.

Room 14 Dad’s participated in a portrait piece which required them to draw their child without taking the pen off the paper or looking at the paper. This was followed up with touch ups and filling in areas with patterns. A second drawing piece required between 4 and 8 ideas for a little quilt based on a space theme the group voted on. All in all a good session.

P&C 2020

P&C 2020

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 20, 2020

Thank you to all parents who attended the P&C meeting on Wednesday and have volunteered to hold positions in 2020. Your representatives this year are:

President: Donna Juner

Vice President: Dianne Hunter

Treasurer: Katie Anderson

Secretary: Renee Smith

Committee Members: Needmore Zendera, Jody Bridges, Coral Atkins

If you would like to join us for meetings we meet twice a term on Wednesdays of Week 3 and Week 8 of term, our next meeting will be on Wednesday March 25th.

Look out on the school website, newsletter and our Facebook page @Spearwoodprimaryschoolpc for canteen specials, upcoming events and more.

Term 1 2020 Canteen Menu

Term 1 2020 Canteen Menu

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 17, 2020

Term 1’s Canteen menu is now available.

The Canteen is open on Friday’s from 8:30am for morning tea and lunch.

You can order online via Flexischools. To register, click ‘register now’, enter your email address and follow the prompts.

You can view the Term 1 2020 Canteen Menu here.

Welcome Back

Welcome Back

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 3, 2020

Welcome back to all families.

A warm welcome back to those returning to Spearwood Primary School and a special welcome to the families new to our school. I hope everyone had a relaxing summer break and are just as excited about 2020 as we are.

Christmas Concert

Christmas Concert

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 18, 2019

What a fantastic Christmas Concert and Book Awards Assembly we had this week. Everyone bopped along to a very Aussie themed selection of songs, culminating in a very energetic, extremely humorous version of The 12 Days of Christmas. Congratulations to Staff for the time and ideas put in to planning this special performance, and Students for the energy and enthusiastic singing and dancing. What a wonderful way to end a fabulous year… the bar has been set high for 2020.

Year 6 Big Day Out

Year 6 Big Day Out

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 18, 2019

What a huge day the Year 6 students had on Tuesday, 17 December. They started with the formal graduation ceremony and a Powerpoint presentation, showing how much they have grown over their years at primary school. A variety of awards were presented and we sincerely thank our special presenters for attending. Congratulations to all of the worthy recipients.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, we boarded the bus for our adventure to Woodman Point. We split into two groups, one completing the massive flying fox activity and the other climbing Mt Everest (or so it seemed). We were harnessed and helmeted and ready for anything.

After our first activity, we were treated to lunch by the Spearwood P & C – Dominoes pizzas, chips, drinks and a massive doughnut cake. YUM! We swapped activities and then headed to the beach for a cooling swim and some games.

We had an absolutely fabulous day. Thank you to everyone who made it possible; Mrs Freckelton, Ms Irving, Kate, James and Cameron our life-guards and Mrs Griffiths and the P & C. What a way to end our primary school years. We love Spearwood!

Christmas Disco

Christmas Disco

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 16, 2019

Our end of year Christmas disco was a huge success. The P & C would like to thank all the students and their families for coming to the disco. And to all who helped out on the night. All students were very well behaved and had a great night.

Fremantle Excursion

Fremantle Excursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 9, 2019

On Friday 6 December, students from Years 1-6, with good standing, earned a reward excursion to Fremantle. We attended the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre to see an amazing show called ‘The Little Prince’, a classic story originally by Antione de Saint-Exupery. We were dazzled by a beautiful light show as the Prince travelled through the stars to explore. The puppets were amazing and we loved seeing the display of puppets in the foyer.

Thanks must go to Spare Parts Puppet Theatre and the generosity of the Feilman Foundation Schools Inclusion Program who made this excursion possible.

After the puppet show, we walked to the Shipwreck Museum where we saw 400- year- old relics (not Mrs Freckelton), cannons, part of a shipwreck and a skeleton. We also heard of mutiny and piracy with the Batavia story. It was a great day and thanks go to Ms Irving and Ms Derbyshire for organising it.

Year 6 Legacy Project Launch

Year 6 Legacy Project Launch

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 2, 2019

Each year, the graduating Year 6 students contribute a major project to Spearwood Primary, not only as a thank you to the school but also to leave a lasting reminder of their contributions during their primary years.

This year, our Year 6 Legacy Project culminated in a grand official opening ceremony. We had a smoking ceremony to cleanse the school and invite good spirits. A big thank you goes to Ms Marie Taylor, an Aboriginal elder who conducted this ceremony and gave Welcome to Country.

Mr Tim Kelly entertained us with his amazing didgeridoo playing and the Year 6 students conducted an assembly to introduce the project to all of the very special guests who came to see the amazing work.

The idea for the project came about because during Term 2, Room 14 was studying the Indigenous seasons and decided to use these to enhance our grounds. A committee, headed by our amazing Manager of Corporate Services Ms Carol Derbyshire, fantastic school board chair Mrs Janine Griffiths and our equally incredible AIEO Ms Julie, then worked hard to make it happen.

An Indigenous season was assigned to each cluster and we coordinated the seasons to match the age level of people working in that block

Each season is represented by its own colour, so each block has splashes of bright colour, representing the plants that grow at that time of the year.

Mr Steve Cirjak, a graphic designer, with contributors from The Cockburn Community Men’s Shed then created the beautiful animal wall plaques that are now visible around the school. The plaques show the animals most abundant during the season. The Year 6 boys then painted the plaques in the appropriate colour.

Ms Julie and the Year 6 girls designed and made welcome bracelets that were a gift to our special guests.

We have placed signage, outlining each season at each block, to educate our future generations.  Our door and wall signs were also designed and created by Mr Cirjak. The Year 6 Legacy Project this year was made possible through a generous grant given by the City of Cockburn.

The Year 6 students performed beautifully on the day, giving researched information to tour groups throughout the morning. They should be proud of their efforts and will have an amazing reminder of their contributions to Spearwood Primary School. Below are their thoughts on the day.

Interschool Athletics

Interschool Athletics

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 14, 2019

On Tuesday October 29th and Thursday November 11th students from Years 3-6 participated in the inter-school athletics carnival at Santich park against 5 other local schools. All students participated enthusiastically and proudly represented Spearwood. Our efforts were rewarded with 3rd place overall, congratulations to all of our budding athletes.

P&C Colour Fun Run

P&C Colour Fun Run

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 11, 2019

On Friday November 8th the P&C held a fundraising colour run. Students wore their faction t-shirts and coloured zinc sunscreen and ran laps of the school oval. Teachers recorded the number of laps they did each time they passed a certain point. Staff used super soaker water pistols to cool down the runners as they tried their best to complete as many laps in the time allowed. After the run, everyone enjoyed a fruit drink and icypole.

Thank you to our community for your ongoing support with this fundraising activity.

Outdoor Classroom Day

Outdoor Classroom Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 8, 2019

On Thursday 7th of November it was Outdoor Classroom Day. 

All the children in Pre Primary/Year One -Room 6 spent a beautiful sunny morning outdoors rotating through a variety of maths play based learning activities.

The children used the weighing scales to differentiate between light and heavy objects. They used the 30 second and 1-minute timer to see how many balls they could land in the buckets. The children created some amazing creepy crawlies using the 2-D pattern blocks. They measured lines on our basketball courts using the trundle wheels and had fun using the water trolley and various measuring equipment to fill the buckets. 

A big thank you to some of the Year 5 and 6’s who assisted as leaders at some of the stations and a huge thank you to Mrs Bond and Ms Tina for setting up all the equipment. A fabulous morning of outdoor learning was had by all.

Possum Magic

Possum Magic

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 23, 2019

Spearwood Primary School was over-run yesterday, with possums! We celebrated our whole school Talk 4 Writing theme of ‘Possum Magic’ with a wonderful Possum picnic. Each class cooked an Australian favourite from the story and we ate in the undercover area which was transformed into a tranquil (for a while anyway) bush setting, complete with a variety of Australian native animals.

Change to School Bell Times

Change to School Bell Times

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 26, 2019

From Monday October 14 (Term 4 2019) the school bell times will change.

Classes commences at 8.45 am and now conclude at 2.50 pm (change from 3.00 pm).

Our morning break is from 10.35 am until 11.00 am and lunch is from 1.05 pm until 1.35 pm.

Faction Carnival

Faction Carnival

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 23, 2019

In spite of some cold weather, wind and rain we held a very successful Athletics Carnival on 19 September.  Congratulations to the students from Gold who won the Carnival.  The scores were Green 257, Blue 300 and Gold 404.  Congratulations to Green who won the Inaugural Spirit Award.  They won both parts of the award with a clear majority in both Carnival Day points for cheering, marching etc. and school pink cards.

Thank you to students for your excellent behaviour and sportsmanship. 

Thank you to staff for your work before the day training and organising and on the day out in the cold with your various tasks.

Thank you to parents, grandparents, carers and extended families for your support on the day.  A special thanks to those who helped clear up after the Carnival.

Thank you to Tori and Katie who stepped up and helped out in the Emergency at the Carnival.

Thank you to the P & C who worked all day to feed the children and families.

Thank you to our Deputy Principal and Thursday Principal Ms Tracey Irving who organised the Carnival.  Thank you also to her helpers as she was ably assisted by our Manager of Corporate Service, Ms Carol Derbyshire and a drop in assistance from on sick leave Ms Rona Gartner.

Edudance 2019

Edudance 2019

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 17, 2019

Congratulations to all of our students who participated enthusiastcally in the edudance concert on Monday.  Each class presented their item under the guidance of their edudance teacher Dayna.  Thanks to all of our families who supported their children on this day in the audience and with costumes.

Father’s Day Lunch

Father’s Day Lunch

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 3, 2019

The Fathering Project – Father’s Day Lunch was a roaring success with over 20 dads joining us for lunch with their kids.

Thanks to our volunteers in the canteen for the delicious slider meals enjoyed by all.

After lunch the Dad’s joined their children in active play on the basketball court and soccer and footy ovals.

Thanks Kyle from The Fathering Project for supporting our dads group.

Water Week 2019

Water Week 2019

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 3, 2019

We celebrated Water Week with a Charity Fundraiser Free Dress Day. Students and staff enthusiastically participated by wearing blue and donating to a Water Charity. We raised $125 which was donated to ‘WaterAid’.

Rom 8 made music with water by filling bottles to create a class orchestra.

SCIENCE WEEK 2019

SCIENCE WEEK 2019

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 29, 2019

Science week 2019 saw us launch our new ‘Maker Space’ with classes rotating through the space to participate in STEM activities.

For Science week the Kindy and Pre-primary students conducted an experiment. We put coloured water into a glass and added a piece of celery in each glass.  After a couple of hours, the celery started to turn blue and red. This occurred because the plant draws water up through its capillaries. We loved this experiment and wanted to change the colour of other things.

Room 6 spent half a day in our new Maker Space room and read a story called, “The cow tripped over the moon”.

We had to design something to get the cow over the moon.

We decided to build rockets. First we drew our designs. We made rockets by creating 3D shapes such as cylinders and cones and added bits and pieces to create the most amazing rockets.

We had a fun time in the maker space room creating designs and building rockets.

You can see our fabulous creations displayed in our junior block.

Room 8

The students in room 8 visited the Maker Space room on Wednesday of Science Week.

We read a story called  ”The cat on the roof” and then we had to design and make a way to help the cat get down off the roof. Some people made ladders, trampolines, zip lines, parachutes and we even had a helicopter. We had a wonderful time creating and solving the cat’s problem!

Room 14

Last week was a huge week for Room 14 – Year 5 & 6. We celebrated Science Week on Monday by catapulting a cow over the moon!! We all worked together to create a catapult that would send a pom pom as far as we could. The Maker Space room was filled with all sorts of great equipment to use. We used popsticks, elastic bands, tin cans, spoons and a hot glue guns to produce marvelous creations. After we had all finished, we had a competition to see whose catapult worked the best. Aiden, Kobi and Carter managed to send their ‘cow’ 4.25 metres!

For science week, room 16 used the new STEM room to create a marble run out of materials of their choice. They watched a youtube clip to get an idea of what a marble run is about. Then they worked in small groups to design a marble run and to list the resources needed to build it.

Book Week 2019: Reading is my Secret Power!

Book Week 2019: Reading is my Secret Power!

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 22, 2019

On Wednesday the 21st of August, Spearwood Primary celebrated Children’s Book Week with an amazing Book Character parade. All the students and staff had great fun in their costumes and special effort was made to ensure each child had a book to go with their costume. Mrs Williams also worked with the students from Room 14 to tell the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar with lots of giant food. This was a big surprise to myself as I was also dressed as a Very Hungry Caterpillar (which recently celebrated 50 years of publication). A special mention goes to the staff who all dressed up as a different Pig the Pug book. Mrs Derbyshire in the office also had an amazing blow-up dinosaur costume that some kids thought looked a bit scary!

Myself and Mrs Dowding had the difficult task of choosing the best costumes and were thrilled to be awarding so many book prizes to students.

Thank you to all the parents and students who put so much time and thought into the planning and construction of their costumes. We had some pretty original ones this year which will be hard to beat!

Mrs Day-Davies

Awards were given to the following students for their awards:

EC2
Lego Policeman (Elliot)
Areonauts (Jasper)
Spider (Axel)
Viking (Declan)

Room 6
The Little Mermaid (Saanvi)
Pirate Polly (Kaitiana)
Minecraft Zombie (Ellis)
Frozen’s Anna (Rachelle)

Room 8
Unicorn (Queen)
Scarface Claw (Antoinette)
Ninja Kid (Jeremiah)

Room 16
Queen of Hearts (Fiona)
Scooby Doo (Lyla)
Chewbacca (Cooper)

Room 14
The Bad Guys (Kobi & Aiden)
Moana (Lavinia)
Nevermore (Tania)

  • Room 6 winners
  • Room 14 photos
Hiroshima Day 2019

Hiroshima Day 2019

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 8, 2019

On Tuesday August 6th, Ms Rotondella and the School Captains, Tania and Lavinia attended the City of Cockburn Annual Hiroshima Day Peace Ceremony and Tree Planting. The Ceremony included a Welcome to Country, Tree Panting, Releasing of Doves and the construction of paper cranes, followed by morning tea.

Tree Planting Bibra Lake

Tree Planting Bibra Lake

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 29, 2019

Last week the Years Three to Five went planting trees and then to play in the Bibra Lake playground.  Thank you to Linda Metz from the City of Cockburn Rehabilitation Team who organised the planting and took us on a bush walk to discover more about the bush land in our area.

Students had a great time and were very well behaved.  We would like to thank the P & C for paying for the buses so these could be free excursions to the students.

Thank you to all adult staff, parents and volunteers who assisted with supervision and planting for making this a great educational experience for all.

Chevron Playground Excursion

Chevron Playground Excursion

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 29, 2019

Last Friday the Year 6 students from room 14 attended an excursion to Chevron Park near Optus Stadium. The intention of the excursion was to allow the students to learn about the six Nyoongar seasons and see the plants that grow and immerse themselves in the environment. As part of their Legacy Project, the year 6’s will be assisting in creating displays and allocating a Nyoongar season to each of our teaching and learning blocks. The students were able to read information about each season and then interact with the playground equipment, logs and plants. It was great to see how inventive all the students were when building with logs and stones. Some of the challenges were to count the djidi, djidi’s, find the tortoises and locate all of the emu eggs. A big thank you goes to Ms Derbyshire and Mrs Griffiths for organising the event and to our wonderful P & C for paying for the bus. We would also like to thank Ms Julie, Mrs Annette Patterson and Mrs Griffiths for attending on the day. It was a fabulous excursion and we all had a great time.

NAIDOC Mural

NAIDOC Mural

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 4, 2019

Spearwood Primary School have been lucky enough to secure grants from the Federal Government and City of Cockburn to fund a NAIDOC activity at School. On Tuesday Gracie Comeagain, her niece Jen and Nephew Brett, along with Bec from Urban Indigenous visited our school to share their culture and help us create a mural along the verandah. The mural reflects the landscape from the ocean to the inland. Students from K-6 all contributed to the painting and are very proud of their work. Come and check out our work.

Disco

Disco

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 2, 2019

Last Friday evening the P&C held a Disco for all students from Kindergarten to Year 6.

The event was a huge success with a DJ, games, prizes, glow sticks, a photo booth, dinner and a lolly bag.

Kite Flying with Dad

Kite Flying with Dad

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 1, 2019

What a fantastic aftenoon we had yesterday with the Fathering Project Team!  Dads and kids worked togerther to make and fly a kite in between the showers of rain. There was plenty of wind on the school oval and our kites slope soared beautifully.

Thanks to all who particiapeted and helped – especailly with our afternoon tea sausage sizzle, Yum!

Lightning Carnival

Lightning Carnival

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 25, 2019

Well done to our Soccer and Netball teams who participated in the Lightning Carnival at Beale Park and Success Regional Sporting Complex last week. The round robin competition meant that all children had an opportunity to play against different competitors from other local schools.

Thank you to our volunteers who assisted on the day with team management and scoring.

Mr Chris Roberg who trained the team over the weeks leading up to the event and supported the team on the day.

Ms Donna Juner who supported one of the Netball Teams throughout the day.

SERCUL Planting

SERCUL Planting

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 25, 2019

Last week our Year 2/3 and Year 5/6 classes participated in planting some bush tucker species of plants in our school grounds.  SERCUL provided these plants to our school as part of the Phosphorus Awareness Project grant it receives from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), which aims to educate the community about the environmental impacts of too many nutrients entering our waterways.  We look forward to seeing their progress as they grow over the winter period.

World Environment Festival – Bibra Lake

World Environment Festival – Bibra Lake

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 20, 2019

On Wednesday the 12th June, Year 4s and 5s participated in the World Environment Day at Bibra Lakes Cockburn Wetlands precinct. We had the opportunity to do five different activities throughout the day with well-informed guides and volunteers.

Our first activity was looking at the tiny invertebrates that enhance the natural life cycles of both the rivers and the lakes. We had to find them and look at them through the microscope to identify them.

Next we looked at our Australian wildlife, especially the slightly smaller ones found around us. We had a go at setting up research traps, pretended to catch wild life and weigh and measure them.

We then walked to the lake and looked at water clarity and we did experiments to explore the effect of vegetation on the water quality. After that we investigated carbon dioxide and its effect on our world in another series of experiments.

Our final activity involved the land fill, looking at the mould and bacteria that break down the landfill and the gases they produce. We used fruit and biscuits to make a simulated land fill bowl and then we ate it.

We had a fantastic day and we learned lots of great new things about looking after our environment and about those special people who work hard to help.

Kindy Taster

Kindy Taster

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 6, 2019

Welcome to all of the new families who joined us yesterday for the Kindy Taster Session.

Children participated in activities including singing, dancing, story telling, literacy based activities, playdough and outdoor play.

Grass Trees

Grass Trees

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 6, 2019

Have you noticed the new additions to our garden?

Thanks to the City of Cockburn and Grass Trees Australia we now have 3 mature Grass Trees (Balga’s) on our grounds.

Two have made their homes near the front of the school administration building while the other is part of our bush tucker garden.

Book Fair 2019

Book Fair 2019

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 30, 2019

Thank you everyone for supporting our Book Fair.

We sold over $1000 worth of books and other items.

All proceeds will be used to purchase new books for our school library.

City of Cockburn Grants 2019

City of Cockburn Grants 2019

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 30, 2019

 

Thank you City of Cockburn for your support of our activities in 2019.

Congratulations to Mrs Piotrowski and the Year 2/3 Class for winning a sustainability grant of $500 for thier STEM project ‘Every Bird Needs A Home’.

Congratulations also to Mrs Irving for winning an ‘Environmental Education’ Grant for a whole school activity to the value of $1000.

Finally Congratulations to Donna Juner the P&C in conjunction with Mrs Freckelton and the Year 6’s for winning $3250 towards their ‘Noongar 6 Seasons Legacy Project’.

 

A visit from Norman Jorgensen

A visit from Norman Jorgensen

by Admin / Incursions / No Comments / May 27, 2019

On Tuesday the 22nd of May, award-winning author Norman Jorgensen visited Spearwood Primary School to talk to our students about his books and what it is like to be a children’s author.

Students in Pre-Primary to Year 3 were entertained with Mr Jorgensen reading his books The Last Viking and The Last Viking Returns and lots of stories about the mischief he got up to as a kid. Students in Years 4 to 6 have been reading Jack’s Island so Mr Jorgensen showed them photos of Rottenest Island during World War II and told the classes about the real Jack that inspired the book. He also showed us the gold medal he received when he won Best Picture Book for In Flanders Fields in 2003.

Mr Jorgensen was very entertaining and has inspired many of us to tell stories and work on our creative writing.

 

Mr Jorgensen talking to the senior students about what it is like to be a children’s author

 

 

Students Emily and Abigail, inspired by Mr Jorgensen, writing a story together

ANZAC Service

ANZAC Service

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 2, 2019

On Friday April 12th Spearwood Primary School held their annual ANZAC Service.

This year we were joined by RSL represntatives Arthur and Nola Stanton.

The Year 5/6 class welcomed guests and ran the service, which included the presentaiton of a whole school song and they laying of wreaths.

Mr and Mrs Stanton then joined the Year 5/6 class for a special morning tea where they were presented with the proceeds of the sausage sizzle fundraiser.

 

Busy Bee

Busy Bee

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 25, 2019

Thanks to our grounds committee members and parent and community volunteers who worked in the Kindergarten and Pre Primary area to install a raised veggie bed this morning.

The children are excited to start growing their very own veggies at school.

Thanks to Tanks Very Much, Bibra Lake Soils and LJ Caterers for supporting this activity.

Mural

Mural

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 21, 2019

Thank you City of Cockburn for donating 4 panels of the “Coogee Live” mural to our school.

We have installed in in our undercover area.

Harmony Day 2019

Harmony Day 2019

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 21, 2019

Children wore ‘National Dress’ or ‘Orange’ coloured clothing as a symbol of Harmony.

They shared a delicious crunch and dip morning tea and tried some delights from the Philippines and Africa at lunch time.

Thank you to Lanie and Lee for your work on the Spring Rolls and Irrine and Needmore for the delicious Mandazi.

Woodside STEM Project

Woodside STEM Project

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 21, 2019

Nyree from Woodside visited the Years4/5/6 classes on Monday to explain to the students how engineers look for and find oil deposits and gas pockets.

Each student then used a combination of bread, vegemite, 100’s and 1000’s and a straw to drill for oil!

Cricket Clinics

Cricket Clinics

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 21, 2019

Thanks to Jacob and Taylor our expert coaches who have guided us through the skills and match play techniques required to play cricket.

We had loads of fun in each of the sessions.

Food Bank – Food Sensations

Food Bank – Food Sensations

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 7, 2019

On March 6th students from Year 4-6 participated in a cooking session with the Food Sensations Team from Food Bank.

They created yummy dishes and shared them with their classmates.

Among other things they created a dip, salad, curry and cottage pie.

Look out for the cookbook when it is available, the recipes were loved by all.

School Clean Up Day

School Clean Up Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 7, 2019

On Friday March 1st all classes were involved in “School Clean Up Day”.

Each class was assigned an area to clean, was provided with gloves and bags for rubbish and recyclables and went on their merry way collecting from around the school grounds.

After they had finished collecting, students took the time to sort , analyse and collect data.

Read more here:  Public Education in Western Australia Facebook Page

 

P&C – Welcome

P&C – Welcome

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 28, 2019

From the new President

My name is Donna Juner and I am the new president of the Spearwood PS P&C. We would welcome any volunteers to help out with the canteen and or other activities we will be holding during the year. Our first priority will be opening the canteen every Friday. I am pleased to advise that our first re-opening day will be Friday 8th March. A new menu will be circulated early next week and I would appreciate all families supporting the canteen ensure that it remains open for the rest of the year. We are looking for volunteers to help out in the canteen for a couple of hours and hopefully we will be able to put together a roster of parents to help out with food preparation and serving the children at recess and lunchtime. If you are interested in volunteering please put your name down in the office and we will contact you.

We will keep you updated with P&C news throughout the year in the schools newsletter.

Our P & C Executive Members:

President

Donna Juner

Vice President

Karen Hagarty

Secretary

Renee Smith

Treasurer

Katie Anderson

Executive Committee? Members

Needmore Zendera, Lanie Endaya, Coral Atkins

P & C VIPs:

Canteen Manager

Position Vacant

School Banking

Jody Bridges

Scholastic Book Club Co-ordinator

Renee Smith

Uniform Shop

Donna Juner

Breakfast Club

Position Vacant

Bingo Co-ordinator

Sheila Loveland
P&C Meeting

P&C Meeting

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 14, 2019

Our next Spearwood Primary School P&C Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday February 20th at 8.45 am.

Please join us as we plan for an exciting year at Spearwood Primary School.

 

 

 

 

Disco

Disco

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 10, 2018

Thanks to our Student Leaders – all students were invited to an end of year ‘Christmas’ themed Disco last Friday.

Fun was had by all!

Everyone enjoyed the music and games.

All students who brought a gold coin donation got a raffle ticket and some great prizes were won.

 

Year 6 Graduation and School Concert

Year 6 Graduation and School Concert

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 4, 2018

The end of the year approaches and so does the Spearwood PS annual Year 6 Graduation and Christmas Concert.

The Graduation will be held on Wednesday 12th of December starting at 9am. The Book Awards will be held approximately half an hour later, followed by the Concert

A number of student will be receiving Book Awards and all students have prepared a musical item to perform for parents, family and friends.

Following the concert, classes will be each having their class party to end the year with a bang!

Click here to view the Year 6 Graduation & School Concert Program.

See you there!

P&C Raffle

P&C Raffle

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / December 3, 2018

The P&C will be holding a raffle at the final assembly on Wednesday December 12th.

Tickets will be available for purchase from the office or the assembly area on the day for $2 each.

Thanks in advance for your support.

3 great prizes to be won!

Pandora Bracelet worth $180.

Cockburn ARC Swim and Slide Family Pass (2) worth $50 each.

Disco!

Disco!

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 26, 2018

The student leaders will host a Disco for all students from Pre-Primary to Year 6 on Friday December 7th at 2pm.

Gold coin donation for entry.

Lucky Door Prizes, Games Music and Dancing.

Wear your school uniform and a Christmas accessory (i.e. Antlers, Christmas socks etc.)

Bush Tucker Garden Busy Bee

Bush Tucker Garden Busy Bee

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 19, 2018

Thank you to all our amazing volunteers who worked today and across the last few weeks to get our Bush Tucker Rainbow Serpent Garden built.  Today the Room 14 students installed their Rainbow Serpent path.

Thanks go to Annette, Donna, Garth, Shane, Leigh & Nicola and Declan.  Our hard workers installed the pathway, gravel, paving slabs, weed mat and mulch and cooked up a storm on the barbecue for morning tea.

Planting of the bush tucker plants will happen on Thursday.

 

 

Remembrance Day 2018

Remembrance Day 2018

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 14, 2018

November 11, 2018 marks the centenary of the end of World War I, known as the Armistice. At Spearwood Primary we learnt about the history of Remembrance Day and the meaning behind the red poppies we wear. In the library we made more than 100 poppies to pin up to mark the 100 years since the Armistice was signed. For a small school like Spearwood this is a big achievement.  Lots of classes read the book In Flanders Fields by Norman Jorgensen and thought about the peace that came at the end of four years of brutal war. Room 16 also wrote some beautiful acrostic poems about Remembrance Day which they have put up outside their class.

Thank you everyone who helped bring this project to life. Thank you especially to Room 14 who did an amazing job helping the little Pre-Primaries make theirs!

 

 

Room 8 & 16's poppies

 

 

 

 

Swimming Update

Swimming Update

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 12, 2018

All of the children from Pre Primary to Year 4 have been participating in Swimming Lessons at Fremantle Leisure Centre.  We are now half way through the lessons.  Children will be assessed on their new skills later in the week and should receive their certificates and reports by the end of term.

Thanks parents for your support of this program.

Thank you! Cockburn Cement

Thank you! Cockburn Cement

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 12, 2018

Thanks to our Community Partner Cockburn Cement – we will be building a new nature play area in the junior primary playground.  A grant of $1000 has been received and a further donation of plants will arrive next autumn ready for winter planting.

 

Canteen News

Canteen News

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 8, 2018

Thank you and farewell to Rose our Canteen Manager.

Thankfully we have found some very willing volunteers to run our beloved canteen until the end of the 2018 academic year.

We have put some special menu items in place and we hope you will enjoy them.

On Wednesdays we have the Filipino Parents Group cooking a lunch time special of either ‘spring rolls & rice’ or ‘chicken noodles’.

On Fridays we have a selection of lunch items available.

Flexi-schools has been updated with the new menu.

In addition Subway is now available on a Tuesday for Lunch!

Please pre order on Monday at the office – correct change is required.

Download the Subway order form here

Save Time… Order Online!

  1. Go to www.flexischools.com.au
  2. Click ‘Register Now’
  3. Enter your email and follow prompts
  4. You can then charge up your online account and place orders from home. Online orders are already paid for, so you do not need to bring money to school.
Uniform Shop – Online Ordering Now Available

Uniform Shop – Online Ordering Now Available

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 8, 2018

Online uniform orders are now available through the Flexi-schools portal.

You can order the item you require in the size you need and your order will be parcelled ready for collection from the Administration Office each Wednesday afternoon.

Sign Up or Log In to Flexi-schools here

WAPOL – Pipe Band

WAPOL – Pipe Band

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 5, 2018

Last week Spearwood Primary School had a special visit from the West Australian Police Pipe Band.  At 10am students sat expectantly as the band marched into the undercover area playing their bagpipes and drums. We listened to them some fast and slow songs. The drummer was able to drum very quickly. During the performance some of the teachers got to do the Hokey Pokey. At the end the band members took their instruments to the classes and talked about their instruments and their special uniform kilt and sporran.

Lap-a-thon

Lap-a-thon

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / November 5, 2018

On Wednesday 31 October the P&C organised a Lap-a-thon for fundraising. Students walked, jogged and ran their way around the oval on a lovely sunny Spring afternoon and were rewarded at the end with a deliciously, frozen treat.

Interschool Carnival

Interschool Carnival

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 29, 2018

Congratulations to all of our students who competed in the Interschool Track and Field Carnival at Santich Park on Friday.

They demonstrated the values of Spearwood Primary School exhibiting good sportsmanship, respect and fair play.

Practice paid off with the senior teams winning their multi pass ball events.

Congratulations to Chance who was first in her division running race.

Kindy Orientation – Uniform Raffle Prize

Kindy Orientation – Uniform Raffle Prize

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 29, 2018

Thank you to all of the families who took the time to speak with our community members and partners at last weeks orientation meeting.

Mrs Ratto collated all  of the entries and drew the winner.

Congratulations to Mariana who will proudly wear her new polo shirt to kindy in 2019.

Security Perimeter Fencing

Security Perimeter Fencing

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 18, 2018

I am pleased to announce the school has gained limited funding for the installation of a security fence around the perimeter of the school buildings.

The fence will improve staff and student safety. It will discourage the antisocial behaviour that has resulted in high levels of vandalism.

The plans are available for viewing in the school office until 01/11/2018 for comment.

The WA Planning Commission requires comments and complaints to be made in writing to the school Principal including your contact details to allow for follow up on any issues that may arise.

Yours sincerely

Patricia Ratto

Principal

Spearwood Primary School

 

Announcement: Change of Principal

Announcement: Change of Principal

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 8, 2018

Dear Parents / Guardians

I would like to thank all families for their ongoing support this year by working in partnership with the Spearwood PS team of staff in our continued focus on improvement and high expectations.  I am extremely proud of what we have achieved together over the last three terms, laying a strong foundation for success reflected in our school vision, ‘a key to the future’.

Over the holidays, I was the successful applicant of a Principal position close to home.  Whilst I am sad that I will not be able to finish the year with the students, families and staff; I wish each of you the very best for the future. It gives me great pleasure to inform you that Mrs Trish Ratto, a very experienced administrator, will be Principal for Term 4 and is committed to continuing the amazing work we have been focused on this year.

Mrs Rebecca Instance
Spearwood PS Principal

Terms  1 – 3, 2018

               

                             

Dear Parents and Carers

Thank you for the very warm welcome to Spearwood PS. I have already met with the students at today’s early morning assembly and also in their classrooms and I look forward to meeting with the rest of the school community over the next few weeks.

Mrs Instance has provided a very comprehensive handover and I have had the opportunity to meet with the administration team and many staff members over the holidays to ensure a seamless transition. Much has been achieved this year at SPS and there are many celebrations to date.

The School Development Day on Friday 21 September was an opportunity for staff to engage in further professional learning in the Highway Heroes social emotional learning program and also in preparing for the National Quality Standards audit – including evaluating the play-based options available. Staff also had the opportunity to briefly analyse the 2018 NAPLAN results which will assist in setting priorities for 2019.

Term 4 promises to be a very busy term with a multitude of school events including:

  • Interschool Athletics Carnival on 16 and 18 October
  • Swimming lessons (K – Year 4) in Weeks 5 and 6
  • Lapathon on 31 October (P – Year 6)

Term 4 is also the term to assess the teaching and learning for 2018, and so there are several assessments planned over the course of the term. These assessments help teachers in writing their student reports for Semester 2 and therefore it is important for students to take the opportunity to fully demonstrate their learning and capabilities.

I am looking forward to my time at Spearwood PS and becoming involved in all that you do at your wonderful school.

 

Mrs Trish Ratto
Spearwood PS Principal

8 October 2018

 

Edu-Dance Concert

Edu-Dance Concert

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / October 8, 2018

WOW, what a wonderful culmination to our term of Edu-Dance. After 9 weeks of lessons, the students showed off their dances in a fabulous concert. The enthusiastic audience of parents, grandparents and friends were treated to some very happy and energetic performances.

Thanks to our awesome teacher Miss Osborne. Thanks also to all the teachers for assisting with the organizing of costumes.

Dance is the hidden language of the soul and of the body.

R Gartner
PE Co-ordinatorEdu-Dance 2018

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End of Term

End of Term

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 20, 2018

Students finish this term on Thursday 20 September. Staff will be engaged in professional learning and whole school planning on Friday 21 September for our School development Day.

I hope that all families have a happy and safe holiday break. I look forward to seeing all students return to school in Term 4 on Monday, 8 October 2018.

Athletics Carnival 2018

Athletics Carnival 2018

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 19, 2018

The day started out damp and cloudy but the excited and enthusiastic students certainly brightened the day.

The Pre-Primaries started the Carnival with their running races while the whole school cheered them on. All students completed several events and went home with a chest full of ribbons.

 

Congratulations to our champions and runners up!

Junior Champion Boy: Peter
Runner Up: Jeremiah

Junior Champion Girl: Hannah
Runner Up: Antoinette

Intermediate Champion Boy: Kayden
Runner Up: Sandro

Intermediate Champion Girl: Jade
Runner Up: Emily

Senior Champion Boy: Carter
Runner Up: Michael

Senior Champion Girl: Samantha
Runner Up: Devine & Kaleigha

 

 

Total Faction Scores
Blue: 267
Green: 362
Gold: 456

 

 

Thankyou to the P&C and everyone who contributed to and assisted with the Sausage Sizzle and cake stall (I must confess I did purchase a few delicious cakes!). Special thanks to our Construction Team: Shane, Serge, Garth, Declan, Bryce and out Wonder Women Janine and Jackie.
Thank you to all the staff for their assistance and support, and everyone else who made the Carnival a great day!

Congratulation Gold!

 

 

Pre-Primary's watching

Senior girls running

Champions and runners up

Senior students running

Kindy Pre Primary “Fairy Garden”

Kindy Pre Primary “Fairy Garden”

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / September 3, 2018

Thank you to our amazing Grounds Committee Volunteers, Annette and Donna, who have today planted and decorated the “Fairy Garden” in the Kindergarten Pre Primary area.

We are sure all of the fairies in Spearwood will love to inhabit the Strawberry House, relax in the chairs, cross the bridge and sleep under the mushrooms.

The students will continue to beautify this area with some painted bird boxes and mail boxes, which will allow the classes to post letters to the fairies.  We hope they love hearing our news!

 

Triple P Parenting Seminar

Triple P Parenting Seminar

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 30, 2018

Places are still available for the Triple P parenting seminar on Wednesday September 5.

The session runs from 9.00 am – 11.00 am in Room 12.

Session includes:

Take the guesswork out of parenting!

Want to make family life easier – and happier? Triple P’s Power of Positive Parenting

seminar can help you understand why kids act the way they do, and how your

reactions and words can make a big difference. This 90-minute seminar is free for all

WA parents and carers, and is packed with ideas to help you give your kids the best

start in life, and get more enjoyment out of being a parent.

Triple P’s Power of Positive Parenting seminar can help you:

raise happy, confident kids,

encourage positive behaviour,

set rules and routines that everyone follows,

get on well with your kids and argue less,

balance work and family with less stress,

Register for your FREE parenting seminar:  The Power of Positive Parenting

Call Spearwood Primary School on 08 9418 1822.

Interesting things are happening at the library!

Interesting things are happening at the library!

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 29, 2018

Over the last few weeks the Spearwood PS Library has been having a bit of a face lift! We now have a small Reading Nook in the back of the library with soft cushions and chairs which is simply a place to sit and read! We also have an ongoing deletion program in place to remove old, damaged or out-of-date books from the shelves to make way for new books. Ms Irving is a huge fan of her new Big Red Reading Chair, while Mrs Day-Davies is hard at work building a collection of Graphic Novels for the school to enjoy. Plus, every Wednesday lunch time our amazing volunteer Abraham gets out some games and Uno cards to play with anyone who wants to come in.

If any parents wish to come have a look or chat to Mrs Day-Davies about their child’s reading, she is in the library before school on Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

The new library Reading Nook!

The library is looking very bright and cheerful at the moment.

Book Week 2018

Book Week 2018

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 27, 2018

During Week 6, Spearwood Primary School celebrated Book Week in style!

Through the week all the classes did different book-related activities. From writing book reviews to treasure hunts, racing around the school to eventually discover that the real treasure they were looking for was the library!

On Tuesday and Wednesday a second-hand book sale was held, selling old library books. Some of them were in really good condition and at 50c each, a lot of students walked away with armfuls of bargain buys! The money raised will go towards new library books for the school.

The best part of the week was the Book Character Parade. Almost all our students dressed up and a lot of parents cheered from the side lines. Mrs Day-Davies and Mr Ryder had a good look at all the costumes and chose their favourites from each class based on the effort they put into their costume and the creativity they showed when choosing their character. The winners were:

Room 16: Aeden (a Goosebumps book) / Jellaine (Stephen King’s IT)

Room 14: Samantha (Are You My Bottom?) / Lily (The Secret Unicorn)

Room 8: Fiona (Doctor Who’s Tardia) / Cassie (Operation Ouch)

Room 6: Kelly? (Willy Wonka) / (Dinosaur Roar!)

EC2: Lola (Luigi) / Grantley (Ninja Turtles)

Kindy: Jaxson and Ryder (Mr Happy and Mr Strong)

 

There were some pretty amazing costumes from the teachers as well. There were lots of Wally’s, a Magic Schoolbus, Professor Poopypants and even Emily Eyefinger made an appearance!

 

Thank you everyone for going to so much effort this week. From all the staff at Spearwood Primary, have a happy Book Week and keep on reading!

— From Mrs Day-Davies, Library Officer

 

Congratulations to our Cross Country Team!

Congratulations to our Cross Country Team!

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 27, 2018

Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the interschool Cross Country last week at Manning Park.  The team looked great in their sports uniforms and the weather was mild.  All students performed to the best of their ability and displayed excellent sportsmanship.  Overall results gave us an equal third place.  Well done to all team members!  A big thank you to Mr Clarke who trained the team in the last few weeks and to Mrs Gartner who has been training the runners all year during physical education classes.

 

Swimming Lessons

Swimming Lessons

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 13, 2018

All children from Pre-Primary to Year 4 will attend swimming lessons at Fremantle Leisure Centre from Monday November 5 – Friday November 16 2018 (10 lessons).  Transport to and from the leisure centre will be provided by bus.  Payment of $70 for the 10 lessons can be made at any time up until the lessons commence.  Please see the office if you would like to arrange a payment plan.

Hiroshima Day 2018

Hiroshima Day 2018

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 7, 2018

Monday, 6 August marked the 73rd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima in Japan. Ms Irving accompanied our school captains, Michael and Abby to a moving commemoration at Edwards Park in Spearwood. Here we listened to the Mayor Logan Howlett and the Japanese Consular General talk about this tragic event. A pair of white doves were released as a symbol of peace and hope for the future. The students then planted a tree to mark the occasion and attended the Council for morning tea and paper crane origami folding.

Michael and Abby with their newly planted tree
Michael and Abby with their newly planted tree

Mayor Logan Howlett and the Japanese Consular General releasing a pair of doves as a symbol of peace.
Mayor Logan Howlett and the Japanese Consular General releasing a pair of doves as a symbol of peace.

Early Childhood Fairy Garden

Early Childhood Fairy Garden

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / August 6, 2018

Today our very special garden committee volunteers have installed a ‘Fairy Garden’ in the Early Childhood Centre.

A special thank you to Annette and Garth who have given their time and expertise to bring this project to life.

Stage 1 is now complete with the installation of the raised garden bed, stepping stones and mulch.

Stage 2 which involved planting out the garden will be done shortly.

Here is our progress so far…

Soccer Goal Posts and Perth Glory Clinics

Soccer Goal Posts and Perth Glory Clinics

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 30, 2018

In response to student and parent surveys in 2018, Spearwood Primary School has installed Soccer Goal Posts on the small oval.

We have received a Sporting Schools Grant and have secured a coach from the Perth Glory for 4 sessions commencing August 27.

Lunchtime Craft Club

Lunchtime Craft Club

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 16, 2018

At the beginning of June, Ms Irving started a lunchtime craft activity affectionately known as ‘knitting club”.

Students can attend twice weekly to learn to knit, crochet, french knit or pom pom.

Community volunteers are sometimes on hand to assist!

 

 

Docker’s Visit

Docker’s Visit

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / July 2, 2018

On Thursday June 28th the Fremantle Dockers visited Spearwood Primary School.

Years 1 and 2 participated in a Footy Skills Session.

Years 4, 5 and 6 students participated in a “Welcome to Freo” clinic designed to teach students the importance of making healthy lifestyle choices and understanding leadership and social responsibility.

 

Author Visit

Author Visit

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / June 6, 2018

Spearwood Primary School welcomed author Mark Greenwood to talk with students about the process of story writing and the adventure that is exploring history.  Mark showcased his children’s books and shared anecdotes about his life and the inspirations for his stories.  All of Mark’s books are available to borrow from the school library.

Jars Needed!

Jars Needed!

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 30, 2018

Next semester our school will have a fundraising stall at the Cockburn Rotary Spring Fair. We are requesting donations of small – medium clean glass jars to use for our Lucky Jar items. If you have any jars that you are able to donate, please bring them to the office. Thank you.

Crunch n Dip

Crunch n Dip

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 29, 2018

To celebrate the final NAPLAN test and encourage students to bring Crunch’n’Sip to school we had a wonderful Crunch’n’Dip morning tea on Thursday. The rainbow colours of the vegies were amazing and made it all so much fun to share with our friends at recess time. The popularity of these morning teas is a good indication that our students are keen to eat healthy as they devoured the crunchy treats. Please remember that students are having to wait a bit longer for their morning tea with the new timetable trial so a small container of easy to eat, chopped fruit or veg will help them re-fuel to assist their physical and mental performance as well as concentration in the classroom.

Thanks to Kim and Shane Clarke for their help chopping up the vegetables in time for recess.

 

Crunch n Dip
Crunch n Dip

Consent2Go Reminder

Consent2Go Reminder

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 28, 2018

Parents and carers are reminded that Spearwood Primary School uses Consent2Go for excursions and incursion permission. The system has replaced our paper process for obtaining parent permission and consent.

The picture below shows the content of the email you will receive. By simply clicking on the blue box you will be automatically connected to the system.

 

Consent2Go Screenshot

 

There is no username or password required to use the system. All information is stored in accordance with the Australian privacy requirements.

You will be asked to update your contact details and your child’s medical and allergy information. This only needs completing once; parents can then easily update and change details if required through the system.

The school will also use the system to collect payments from parents for excursions. Parents may also attend the school and pay in person if they prefer.

Consent2Go is being introduced to improve the process for parents by providing the school with the most up to date information regarding their child’s medical or other related information. This greatly improves the school’s ability to manage school excursions and events.

Please contact us if you require more information.

2018 Book Fair Now On!

2018 Book Fair Now On!

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / May 28, 2018

Our school Book Fair starts on Friday 25 May and ends on Wednesday 30 May. We always have an amazing collection of books and stationery available for purchase and the profit made from this fundraiser is used to purchase books for our library.

Water Week – Room 8

Water Week – Room 8

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 5, 2018

To celebrate water week in Room 8 the students watched a video on wetlands, they discussed the plants and animals affected by pollution and that nature holds the answer.

Each student designed and made a flag which we then strung together to make a bunting which is displayed in our wet area.

 

Water Week 2018
Water Week Display

 

Water Week 2018
Water Week Flags

Woolworths Earn and Learn Rewards

Woolworths Earn and Learn Rewards

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / April 4, 2018

A huge thank you to all families who contributed last year towards our total points for the Woolworths Earn and Learn promotion. Our purchases have arrived. With these points we purchased a large game for students to play in the undercover area and a handful of rainbow coloured basketballs.

 

Woolworths Earn and Learn
Woolworths Earn and Learn Reward arrives.

Breakfast Club is Back

Breakfast Club is Back

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 15, 2018

Breakfast Club is back for 2018 and is held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 8.00am and 8.25am.

Our breakfast club helps to improve student learning, engagement and attendance.

 

Spearwood Primary School's Breakfast Club
Spearwood Primary School’s Breakfast Club

Aussie of the Month

Aussie of the Month

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 14, 2018

This year we have introduced Aussie of the Month at Spearwood PS which recognises personal endeavour, achievement and contribution to the community and reflects some of the values we share as Australians, such as fair go, mateship, respect and inclusion.

Teachers nominate students for each assembly and then one student is selected to receive this special award to celebrate their commitment to the Australian values we embrace at our school. The first student to receive this award at our school was Lavina, Room 14.

To find out more about this award please visit the Aussie of the Month website.

 

Lavinia Aussie of the Month
Lavinia from Room 14 – Aussie of the Month February 2018

From the Community Health Nurse

From the Community Health Nurse

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 2, 2018

Welcome to the new school year. My name is Sabrina Honschooten and I am the Community Health Nurse who visits your school.

Community Health Nurses work in schools to promote healthy development and wellbeing so students may reach their full potential. A major part of our work is focused on early intervention and the School Entry Health Assessment program.

Community Health Nurses serve as a health contact point for children and their families, providing information, assessment, health counseling and referral. The services provided are free and confidential.

If you have a concern about your child’s health or development, please contact me on 93140100.

Clean Up Australia Day

Clean Up Australia Day

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 1, 2018

Friday 2nd March will be Spearwood Primary School’s ‘Clean Up Australia’ day activity. We are a registered site and will be working as a school community to collect, sort and analyse the types of rubbish that is typically found around our school.

Students are encouraged to bring a pair of disposable gloves and will be given clear guidelines around the types of rubbish that is safe to pick up.

Schools Clean Up Day is a fun and engaging way for us to teach our students, young Australians, about the responsible disposal of rubbish, resource recovery and the repercussions of rubbish dumped irresponsibly in the local environment.

For more information about Clean Up Australia Day and Clean Up Schools Day visit their website.

Student Leadership Team for 2018

Student Leadership Team for 2018

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 28, 2018

Congratulations to the students who are members of our 2018 student leadership team. Whilst the voting process for School captains and prefects was completed at the end of last year, our faction captains were decided upon by students and staff last week.

Our Student Leadership team play an important role in our school through consistently modelling positive behaviour in addition to embracing a range of leadership roles such as representing our school at community events, presenting merit certificates and speaking regularly at assemblies about school programs.

 

Abby - 2018 School Captain
Abby – 2018 School Captain

 

Michael - 2018 School Captain
Michael – 2018 School Captain

 

School Captains:

Michael and Abby

Prefects:

Samantha, Floyd, Genevieve and Lily

 

 

 

Faction Captains:

Green

Sam and Christina

Blue

Kaleigha and Dylan

Gold

Samantha and Divine
Swimming Lessons – Year 5/6

Swimming Lessons – Year 5/6

by Admin / Uncategorized / No Comments / February 27, 2018

With swimming pools and beaches a part of the Western Australian lifestyle, ensuring your children can swim competently and safely is a must for all families. Spearwood Primary School year 5 and 6 students have spent a wonderful 2 weeks at Coogee Beach participating in the Education Department’s Learn to Swim program.

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