Year 7 Camp

This week our Year 7 students attended their camp at Ern Halliday Sport and recreation campsite at Hillarys.

The students enjoyed a wide range of activities designed to enhance relationships, strengthen team work and build resilience in tackling new challenges and facing fears. The students had a wonderful time. Thanks go to our staff for organising yet another great camp (Mrs Snart, Mrs Dewing and Mr Ralph).

Photos from camp have been placed on the school Flickr photostream.

Greenfingers TV

Another clarification came through today. Greenfingers will show on Channel 7 on Sunday June 3 and 10 at 5.30pm. Sorry for the constantly changing dates but those were the ones that were given.

Thanks go to the parents who have expressed an interest in helping out over the weekends and holidays. We will create a roster over the next week and make contact with you soon.

Greenfingers Day 5

Friday was a very big day with lots of work being done to complete the garden along with plenty of filming. It was great to see so many staff, students, parents and community members at the end of the day for the final handover. I hope everyone who wanted to will get their face on TV.

The first episode of Greenfingers will be shown on Channel 7 at 5.30pm on Sunday June 3 and the second will be on June 10. I will send a reminder letter home in the week prior to this so that no one misses seeing the episdodes.

Our thanks go to the Greenfingers crew for all their work and the wonderful way that they interacted with our staff and students throughout the whole production process. Many thanks also go to our staff for being so flexible, supplying students for filming with very little notice.

Now it is up to us as a community to manage our new garden. We will need parent help to do this on weekends and holidays so please let me know if you are available. A note will be sent out this week asking for volunteers.

Parents are welcome to come and look through the garden.

For more photos visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuarthillprimaryschool/

Greenfingers Day 4

Today was a really big day for Greenfingers. The yabbies, fish and chickens have all now been added to our outdoor classroom. The students were so excited and loved being involved in the filming of these segments.

Many of the new plants are now ready for planting and the grassed area around the seating has been layed.

Don't forget to check your phone some time tomorrow as we will be sending out an invitation for you to come and see the garden and watch the final handover segment being filmed. This could be as late as 4.30pm

For photos of some of today's activities go to our Flickr page Flickr Photostream

Greenfingers Day 3

The garden is really starting to take shape today. The aquaponics have been installed and the greenhouse and chicken coop are well on the way to being complete. A lot of seedlings and plants have appeared and will be planted over the next 24 hours.

A group of students have been photographed for next Tuesday's Stirling Times and some more will be filmed this afternoon for a 'throw to news' and aquaponics installation segment.

The attached link will take you to our Tuart Hill Primary School Flickr photostream which has lots of photos. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuarthillprimaryschool/

Todd and some kids having a photo taken

Shooting the greenhouse construction

A tank full of water, ready for some fish!!

More Greenfingers photos Day 2

Greenhouse filming

Herbs ready for planting

Chicken coop

Leaf shaped garden bed

Greenfingers Garden Plan

Here is a plan of what our new Waterwise sustainable garden will look like.

The garden will be able to operate as an outdoor garden classroom.

Walk Safely to School Day

Last Friday we held our annual Walk Safely to School Day by conducting a 'walking school bus' followed by a breakfast. This was a fantastic success with over 200 students participating as well as many parents and family members. Many thanks go to Mr Ioannou and the staff who helped set up and run the various activities.

The key messages for students included:

1. Always remember to stop, look and listen before crossing a road.
2. To look and listen as you cross the road and until you are safe on the other side.
3. To walk on paths, if there are no paths then to walk off the road, facing on-coming traffic
4. Make eye contact with on-coming driver to check they have seen you
5. Never to approach a stopped vehicle or lean into a window of someone they do not know
6. Use the cross walk and overpass if you can

Please remind your child about these safety messages.

Greenfingers TV

The episodes of Greenfingers currently being filmed at our school will go to air on Sunday June 3 and 10 on Channel 7 at 5.30pm. You can go to the Greenfingers site and view previous episodes. Some of our students will also appear in the West Australian and local paper some time in the next couple of weeks.

Greenfingers Stage 2



Crew hard at work


Day 2 started early with lots of construction. The rain came down but the crew kept working. Our chicken coop and greenhouse are taking shape and the paths can be clearly seen.

We have attempted to ensure that at least a few students from each classroom appear in each segment.

Can you see a chicken coop?

Earth paths

Busy, busy, busy!!

New water tank

Up goes the roof

Greenhouse

Our Tuart Hill leaf is being used to shape the garden bed

Greenfingers Stage 1

The Greenfingers crew have been hard at work constructing our water wise garden. On day 1 they prepared the site while a group of students visited Herbs-R-Us in Henley Brook. Todd Johnston, the host of the show talked to the students at our mini- assembly. Small groups of students filmed some 'throw to breaks'. It was a  very busy day with so much excitement!

Herbs-R-Us filming

Herb specialists

Herb stars

Soil delivery

Todd at assembly

Throw to Break stars

Filming in progress

Our chicken coop has started

The garden beds are taking shape

Student Enrolments for 2013

Applications for enrolment of children entering Kindergarten, Pre-primary, Year 1 or Year 8 and for children changing schools for the 2013 school year should be made by Friday, 3 August 2012. An advertisement will be placed in the public notices section of The West Australian on Wednesday 20 June 2012 with a reminder placed in The West Australian on Monday 18 July 2012.

As school holidays are from early to mid-July, please remember to submit your application before the end of Term 2.

Information Communication Technology

Our Deputy Principal, Mr Ralph has done an outstanding job at building up and maintaining so many new ICT devices for use by teachers and students around the school. All but one of our classrooms now have an interactive whiteboard. Our Library has had a makeover with new computers being installed along with a complete rearrangement of the furniture which was conducted by Mrs Gabrovec (she gave up many hours of her own time to complete this). We now have a bank of laptop computers, a bank of netbooks (mini-laptops) as well as 15 iPads. As of last week, the Year 7 class also received a bank of desktop computers which are housed in the clasroom and the wet area of the Visual Arts cluster.

Along with this additional hardware, Mr Ralph and Mrs Gabrovec have been working to assist teachers become more confident in using ICT within their classroom. Many of our teachers are now exploring ways of incorporating ICT in their day to day teaching.

Mr Ralph is also conducting some parent information sessions to inform parents of the benefits of using ICT as well as to explore issues related to student safety in cyberspace. For more information please arrange to chat with Mr Ralph or send him an email Ian.Ralph@det.wa.edu.au

Greenfingers TV

Next week, May 14 - 18 will be a very busy week with NAPLAN testing and the Greenfingers TV shoot taking place at Tuart Hill PS. Below is a link to the Greenfingers website which contains video of a similar project conducted at Carey Baptist and Roleystone Community College. http://www.green-fingers.tv/

To view the video, go to the website and click on the video link. In the dropdown menu select episodes 1 - 4, April 8 - 29. These videos will give you an indication of the kinds of activities our students will be engaged in next week.

It is important that all students return the 'talent release' form sent out last week if they wish to appear on the program. Returning the form does not guarantee your child will appear on the program as only limited opportunities will be available.

We are excited by the wonderful opportunities that this program offers our school both in the production of the TV program and in the sustainable, waterwise garden that will be created for ongoing use in the school.

Term 2 WELCOME BACK

Welcome back to school for Term 2.

Last week we held two school development days. On the first day our teaching staff explored elements of the new Australian Curriculum and developed a collaborative team plan to address specific elements of the writing curriculum. The second day focussed on the use of information, communication technology (ICT) within the Australian Curriculum. This day involved staff from a number of local schools exploring the use of things like iPads, wikis and Web 2.0 tools in the classroom. We are excited by the opportunities that ICT resources bring to our classrooms and look forward to learning how to better use them to enhance our teaching and learning programs. Our educational assistants were also involved in training programs over the two days including sessions on classroom management strategies as well as general induction and information on their role within the school.

In Week 4 of this term we have two major activities occurring at our school. The first is NAPLAN testing which will involve students in Years 3, 5 and 7. You may have seen some media reports discussing the positive and negative aspects of NAPLAN testing. The main things you need to remember about these tests include:

• they are important for providing our school with a snapshot of where our students are at in key areas of literacy and numeracy compared to students of a similar age and background
• they provide us with comparative information i.e. we can compare previous tests to see how well our students are developing (the ‘value’ that has been added to their learning)
• you will receive a report which shows how your child went on each test. The school also receives test results which we can use to analyse the effectiveness of our programs and plan for improvement

The second big event in Week 4 is the Greenfingers television program which will be filmed throughout the week and involve the establishment of a fully functioning sustainable and waterwise garden on the school grounds. You should have received an information letter as well as a ‘Talent Release’ form which you need to sign and return to school by Wednesday May 9. We are very excited about this program and the opportunities it offers our school and our students.