On Tuesday 6 September, Year 3 students went on an excursion to the Adelaide Central Market. Our tour guides were Amelia and Cheryl and they took us around the market, teaching us about the history of the market and giving us the opportunity to taste test many new and interesting foods. We tasted things like bananas and tomatoes and had to try to identify the organic one. We had fresh sourdough, rich berry yoghurt, Turkish delight, Korean pancakes, tasty cheddar cheese and organic honey from Kangaroo Island.

We went to many different stalls, including ‘Something Wild’ where we tried different Indigenous plants such as ice plant and beach bananas/pig face. Our favourite part of the Central Market excursion was being adventurous and tasting new foods and buying our own item at the end. We went there as part of learning about processed and unprocessed food in Artemis, as well as learning about money in Maths. We all enjoyed our excursion at the Adelaide Central Market and cannot wait to go back with our families!

Mia Zhou and Sophia Rabah
Year 3 Students

Literacy in the Junior School

Providing a quality learning program for our youngest girls that consolidates foundational literacy and numeracy skills is a strong focus in our Junior School. This year, our teachers have been undertaking a significant body of professional learning in the area of literacy. After completing a review of our literacy scope and sequence from Reception to Year 6, we have made some strategic decisions to ensure the ongoing alignment between our teaching and learning programs and current research and best practice models in this area.

Our Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers, as well as our co-educators, undertook both Certificates 1 and 2 in the Science of Language and Reading through La Trobe University in Semester 1. The purpose of this was to ensure our teachers and professional support staff in these foundation years were upskilled with evidence-based knowledge of how children learn to read, write and spell and how to implement these practices in their respective classrooms. Identifying, planning for and addressing individualised learning needs through gathering rigorous assessment data to inform practice has also been an ongoing focus, thus enabling our teachers to plan effectively for all girls.

Teachers in Years 3-6 have also undertaken training and development with highly skilled Literacy Coach, Felicity Clark in the implementation of an adjusted spelling program for more advanced spellers, aligned with and planned to continue the development of our systematic synthetic phonics approach to learning in the early years. Felicity will continue to work across the Junior School in supporting the resourcing of our literacy programs, ensuring our reading materials are aligned developmentally with our scope and sequence of learning. Many of our teachers have attended professional learning workshops in the Seven Steps Writing program, designed to support students in developing their written communication through genre writing. Students are led through a learning plan that sees them develop a common vocabulary around writing and greater sophistication in sharing their ideas cohesively and creatively. We have seen a marked difference in the quality of the writing our girls are producing as a result of the implementation of this program in our classrooms and look forward to continued growth in this area next term and throughout 2023.

Year Four Excursion to the Maritime Museum

Our Year Four students attended an excursion to the Maritime Museum on Wednesday this week, with a focus on understanding the region of Port Adelaide, the history of the river as a maritime port and the indigenous history and culture in this area. Students shared the following insights:

Indigenous people would tell their past on stones with different types of material. Without the drawing, we wouldn't be able to uncover as much as we know about Indigenous people. – Skyler Luong

It was fascinating to learn that the Port River used to be smaller and only surrounded by nature when the Indigenous people lived in the area. There were no buildings or bridges like today. – Elizabeth Le

An Australian flag with a red background is the Australian flag that you put up when sailing and it is called the ‘Ensign flag’. – Isha Wechalekar

When we went on the ship inside the museum, it was so cool because you could go into the Captain's cabin and a couple of other cabins. – Adeline Wilson