It was a real treat for the students in Year 6 to watch Laurence’s dad land a Bell 47 Helicopter on the grass of H Block to give the students a real ‘up close and personal’ experience with a helicopter.

Laurence’s dad (Brett) offered to bring out a helicopter, land it and then give the students a lesson on the principles of flight and to go over what is needed to make a helicopter fly and how to control it.

After giving us some information about the helicopter he took off again and proceeded to fly up to the oval to give us some demonstration manoeuvres so that we could see what a helicopter can do.

It was an amazing experience, one which will stay with the students for a long time.

Thank you Brett and Laurence, for sharing a wonderful experience with us!

As part our Science Unit (Sinking, Sailing, Soaring) students had to design and construct a boat using recyclable materials.

Once complete, they raced against each other in a trailer filled with water.

They raced in two classes – Wind Powered and Motor Powered.

Congratulations to Josh who had the winning boat against all the other Year 6 students!

Here is an animoto of the finished boats.

Here is a video of the boats racing against each other.

As part of our Sinking, Sailing, Soaring Unit, students are working on constructing boats to race against each other.  It is a Design and Make task which means that they only have recyclable materials to work with and they have to design their boat and then construct it.  An important part of the process is to test their design and make modifications to improve how it works.

It was great to see all the students showing excellent creativity and quality design techniques.

The boats will be raced in 2 classes:

• Wind powered (sail, balloon, etc.)
• Motor powered (propellor, rubber band paddle, rockets [I’m not joking], etc.)

Here are some photos of the students working…

East Meets West Day was a cultural day to celebrate aspects of French and Japanese culture.  Students from Year 1-4 study French as a language.  Students in Year 5 and 6 learn Japanese.

The day began with some sport activities on the oval.  We played some French cricket and had a turn of using a kendama.  We also played Captain Ball where we had to call out numbers from 1-10 in Japanese.

We finished the day with enjoying some fresh baguette with ham and cheese, as well as icing a Milk Arrowroot biscuit and using a red Berry Bliss lolly to make the Japanese flag.

We then made a French Carnival mask and a Japanese Oni-mask.

With only a few weeks left of Junior School our Year 6 students are starting to work through a transition program to help them get ready for Senior School.

One of those activities is to interview a Senior School student and ask them some questions about what Senior School is like and what advice they would pass on to make the transition easier.

Here are some of the top responses to the question, “What are your best tips or advice for me starting Senior School?“

1. Don’t lose your locker key
2. Stay calm with assignments and don’t leave them to the last minute.  Also plan when you will get them done.  Have faith and have fun!
3. Learn as much as you can at the Orientation Day
4. Follow your timetable, learn the school and don’t listen to your Primary School teachers (hmmmm….)
5. Don’t stress and make lots of new friends
6. Be organised and don’t get your phone taken off you.  Also, wear the right socks
7. Learn how to study
8. Be open minded and make new friends
9. Be yourself and don’t be annoying.  Study hard before exams and tests.  Don’t let other people judge you for who you are
10. Stay on top of your work and pay attention in class