15 November 2024

Term 4

It’s hard to believe that we’ve reached the mid-term edition of our school newsletter! As we reach the halfway point of the term, we are excited to reflect on the accomplishments, growth, and hard work that our students and staff have put in so far. This newsletter highlights some of the memorable moments, key achievements, and upcoming events that are shaping our school community. Whether it’s in the classroom, or during extracurricular activities, we continue to be inspired by the enthusiasm and dedication of everyone at our school. Here's a look at what we've accomplished and what’s ahead!

World Teachers’ Day

In week 2 we had a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and thank all our amazing teachers for the important work they do within our classrooms and school community. They guide students through challenges, instil confidence, and help them develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in life. Our amazing SSOs put on a lovely morning tea and together we showed our appreciation for the teachers’ dedication and the incredible work they provide to support our students’ growth.

Site Learning Plan

This Pupil Free Day we begin planning for 2025, including the first steps in transitioning to a new Site Learning Plan. The new plan will continue to focus on supporting the areas of impact, specifically effective learners. It will also continue to be underpinned by Literacy and Numeracy but focus on an inquiry approach with strategic indicators of growth and progress as opposed to targets.

Academic Reporting

This semester we are transitioning to Education Management System’s Academic reporting module. This system allows for a more seamless approach to data and information entry for teachers, with the added benefit that the system automates the collation process and can email directly to families, reducing paper usage. Reports will now be emailed at the end of week 9, we will provide further information towards the end of term.

Warm regards,
Andrew Dowling 

Japanese Cultural Day

Minnasan Konnichiwa (Hello Everyone),

On 5 October, Eden Hills Primary School celebrated the amazing culture of Japan by having their bi-annual Japanese Culture Day.

In the morning there was a whole-school assembly in which the day was introduced in both English and Japanese. Next, those who dressed up had the opportunity to stand up and show off their Japanese themed dress-ups and then all the students performed Ramen Taiso, a Japanese song and dance about the desire to eat ramen noodles. Maki, one of our Japanese parents delivered the ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ speech in Japanese.

After the assembly, all of the classes participated in a variety of Japanese cultural activities: Suikawari (similar to the pinata but using a watermelon), listening to a traditional Japanese story about a rice ball followed by eating a rice ball, origami, Jan Ken Pon (rock, paper scissors), hoop jumping game, Mario Kart box-car relays, a spot themed scavenger hunt and a spotty art lesson inspired by the brilliant Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama.

We were fortunate enough to have Aiko, a talented Japanese performer mesmerise the students with a show that was very entertaining as well as educational. She engaged the students through her use of comedy, audience participation and her likeable side-kick Taro, a puppet who Aiko managed to bring to life with her incredible miming skills.

Thank you to the whole school community for supporting Japanese Culture Day, it was wonderful to see everyone get into the spirit of the day! We would also like to give a special thanks to our Japanese parents, Maki and Youko for all your help throughout the day!

Elin Sensei & Kelly Sensei

Here are a few student quotes about Japanese Culture Day:

‘It was really fun especially the watermelon smashing and also the Jan Ken hoop game was really good. I loved how you got to dress-up and have a lot of fun. I loved eating sushi.’ (Bobby, Room 9)

‘Japanese Day was the BEST!!!! Because we got to eat sushi and watch Pokemon!’ (Lachie, Room 9)

‘My favourite activities were the Mario Karts and origami because the Mario Karts were really funny and the origami was really fun because I made five foxes. I wish it was for a week.’ (Elaine, Room 9)

‘I liked everything because it was fun, really really really fun!’ (Luca, Room 5)

‘I loved the rice balls because they were tasty.’ (Angus, Room 6)

‘I loved the Mario Karts the most because it was fun, it felt like I was really racing. We also saw a performance with a puppet called Taro. It was funny and Taro went to sleep too.’ (Sophia, Room 6)

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Parliament House Excursion

The parliament house is fantastic, if you like to learn and have fun this report is for you!! My favourite thing that we did at the parliament was the debate in the house of assembly. I especially liked when people who agreed and disagreed banged the table until the speaker (me) yelled out “ORDER!!!” and everyone would be silent and listen.  When you get there, you would go through security and get looked at if you seem like you may have something. Then you would meet the member for Waite Catherine Hutchesson, she is really nice, and you can ask her anything about the parliament house.

When we got to go to the place when the parliament house was half built, I felt like I had lots of questions why and how and all sorts of things. When we got to see the pictures of people with easter eggs in them I was wondering why they had one like is it their old job? Did they like doing it?

Seeing the real mace looked very very heavy since it is made out of like 60kg of gold! 

I feel like even when we just walked around, I feel like most of the class when we got back to school, we were all tired. I feel like next time we have to see a bit more of the parliament because like when you start learning about it you get hooked in for a while and when you leave you would have like lots and lots of questions and like looking back on what you saw and what you were really hoping to look at.  I love that you can always just come and learn in the parliament and look around and explore what connects SA together.

Savanah

When we first got to parliament house, we had to go through security and it was similar to the security at the airport. Then we met Catharine Hutchesson and she took us upstairs where we were going to have afternoon tea later. Then she led us up to the Lower house (green) and had a debate that we had been practicing in class. In the debate I didn’t have a speaking part but it was still really interesting seeing how it was set out with lots of little details and lots of well thought out features in the Lower house including how in every room in parliament house there was an imperfection that they made on purpose because the designers and builders believed that nothing but God was perfect.

Then as we were walking to the Upper house (red) we saw the mace, which is made of 6 karat gold and has a rainbow opal from South Australia on the top of it. As we entered the Upper house, it looked similar to the Lower house but you can see that they put a lot less money into it. The roof looked like it was a giant sky light, but it was just made to look like that it is actually just lights behind glass.

After that we went to the library and saw heaps of old book dating back to the 1600s. There was also two massive globes, one of them was of earth but the other was of the star consultations which I found really interesting. There was also a model of our solar system that had turning moons that circle around the planets, this was one of the 2 in the world. After that we headed back upstairs for afternoon tea which included scones, fruit and orange juice which was delicious. But before we ate our afternoon tea Catharine Hutchesson told us about a Mock Turtle Soup that they had made for Queen Elizabeth, now don’t worry they didn’t use real turtles they put an entire cow’s head and many other gross things in it, and fed it to the Queen.                                                                           

Iris

On 1 November room 12 went to parliament house. The first thing we did was have a debate about a wildlife bill in the lower house. We then took it to the upper house. After that we looked in the library where there were books from the fourteenth century. After that we learned that when Queen Elizabeth came to parliament house the chefs served her mock turtle soup with ingredients being a full cow head, horse hooves and ears and some plants. Apparently, it looked like snot in a bowl and the queen didn’t come back afterwards so that’s embarrassing. The last thing we saw was the oldest bit of parliament house which was built in 1874. In the library there was an antique model of the solar system and there are only two in the world. There was also a big globe of earth that had a thick furrow above Australia because some kid in a different school a few years ago spun it round really fast and stopped it by laying his metal ruler on it which cut into it. My favourite part was when we had the debate because it felt pretty real. 

Jacob

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Sports Day 2024

Sunshine, laughter, challenge and success!! What a fantastic day we ended up with for our Sports Day on Friday 8 November. The forecast of rain teased us in the days leading up, but the weather couldn't dampen us two years in a row. Students challenged themselves, had fun, stepped out of their comfort zones and showed a fantastic Eden Hills attitude. 

A massive thank you to all staff that supported the organization, setup, smooth running and pack up for the day. It honestly cannot be done alone and your help is greatly appreciated. To the parents that helped out classroom teachers, thank you for the extra hands. It really is appreciated by the teachers. Finally, thank you to all the students that participated, in particular, the year 6s that helped and the House Captains. 

For the 4 weeks leading up to the day, all teams gave a huge effort in earning points for their houses. Congratulations to Watiparinga for taking out the cup for the second year running, closely followed by Shepherd, then Karinya. It's days like these that make me love my job!

Shelley

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Remembrance Day

On Monday 11 November the SRC Exec hosted a whole school Remembrance Day ceremony on the tiger turf. We followed the traditions and had a minute’s silence at 11:00am. This was to acknowledge the end of the First World War. It was a moving ceremony with some grandparents there. It feels nice to remember the people that helped make our country, and other countries, like they are today.                                                                                                                

Nivyn

End of Year Concert

Our annual End of Year Concert will be held on Thursday 5 December at 7:00pm at the Capri Theatre, Goodwood. Tickets will go on sale next week and further information will be provided.

Resource Centre End of Year arrangements

Week 7

• last week for borrowing

Week 8

• all books and readers due back by Monday 2 December
• all Rec-Year 5 students given a Summer Reading Contract (participation optional) to be signed by them & an adult at home and returned to school by Monday of Week 9

Week 9

• Summer Reading Contracts must be returned by Monday 9 December
• students borrow their summer reading books on Tuesday 10 December or Wednesday 11 December

Reception Mid-Year Intake 2025

OSHC

Community Notices