In the OSHC office in the gym, we have a lot of lost property items that we are hoping to give back to the right children. Some of these items may also have been left behind from PE, or left on the deck after recess or lunch.

If your child is missing something and it isn't in the school's lost property, please come past the gym to check if we have it at OSHC. Below are a couple of photos showing some of the items we've sorted through recently. 

Happy Haven OSHC Mitcham

We're excited to share details of the upcoming Mitcham Girls High School Winter Dance Showcase!

This event is a fantastic opportunity for primary school parents to experience a highlight of MGHS, especially if they are interested in our Dance program. Tickets are available here: https://www.trybooking.com/CSACQ. 

Please see below the upcoming important dates and school events for the remainder of Term 2 2024.

This term, our teachers have been diligently working on enhancing Learner Agency in the classroom, particularly in the area of writing. The concept of Learner Agency in education is fundamentally about students having an understanding of what they do well and what they need to work on, and taking charge and ownership of their learning with the support and guidance of their teachers.

Through the use of goal setting, our teachers are encouraging students to set clear objectives for their writing tasks, whether it's crafting a more descriptive narrative, punctuating a sentence, or spelling target words correctly. By defining their goals, students gain a stronger sense of purpose and direction in their writing endeavours.

But setting goals is just the first step. It’s important to provide timely and constructive feedback to support our students' growth. Our teachers are delivering personalised feedback that is specific, actionable, and encouraging, guiding students towards achieving their writing goals. Whether it's through one-on-one conferences, peer review sessions, or written comments, the aim is to empower students to reflect on their work towards their goals, make revisions, and ultimately, progress as writers.

By integrating goal setting and feedback into our writing lessons, we can cultivate a culture of continuous improvement and self-efficacy among our students. Beyond mastering the technical aspects of writing, we're nurturing skills that will serve our students well beyond the classroom walls, equipping them to navigate challenges, set meaningful goals, and strive for excellence in all areas of their lives.

At home you can support the learning by engaging in conversations with your child about their writing goals, celebrating their achievements, and reinforcing the importance of perseverance and growth mindset. Together, we can empower our students to become confident, articulate, and reflective writers.

Lachlan Norman - Assistant Principal

Towards the end of Term 1, our Year 4 and 5 students embarked on a challenging Mathematical journey through the 'World of Maths' incursion. With 17 captivating hands-on challenges, the event immersed students in real-world mathematical scenarios, fostering problem-solving skills and teamwork in a fun environment.

As the students delved into the activities provided by 'World of Maths', they encountered a myriad of fun and challenging problems, each requiring a unique approach to solve. From decoding puzzles to navigating through mathematical mazes, the incursion presented opportunities for students to employ critical thinking, trial and error and collaboration.  During the sessions, students were encouraged to analyse problems through investigation, comparison and reflection, fostering a deeper understanding of mathematical principles.

The 'World of Maths' incursion created a supportive and encouraging environment for students to "have a go" at each activity. With a focus on enjoyment and resilience, students were empowered to tackle mathematical challenges they wouldn’t necessarily encounter during a regular school day

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Here is a selection of responses from our Year 4 and 5 students.

“It was amazing, although some of the activities were hard and I didn’t get to do them all.” (Josiah, N2)

“I found the World of Maths a fun, helpful and challenging experience.” (Rafan, G8) 

“The World of Maths was an amazing experience. I had a great time figuring out problems and having fun at the same time.”  (Max, N1)

“I really recommend World of Maths because it’s really fun and it doesn’t matter if you’re in a low group.”  (Samreen, N1) 

This term, our Student Representative Council (SRC) will meet fortnightly on a Tuesday. Last week, we had our first meeting and discussed our focus for Term 2. We brainstormed some dress-up themes for our next casual day to raise money for our school’s World Vision Sponsor child, Aster. These ideas will be taken back to classes for voting on before a final decision being made in our next meeting.

In week 4, we will work together to make some signage to display around the school, to promote Reconciliation Week (May 27^th- June 3^rd).

Moving forward, our Year 3-6 Reps will work in collaboration with Miss Scriven to continue the work our 2023 SRC started around changing our school sports house names. Driven by the SRC, and supported by whole-school input, it was decided that we will change our current house names of Dunks, Devonshire, Mellor and Selth, to Kaurna names that are meaningful to our school community. Students are very excited to be involved in such a significant and important process for our school. 

Our R-2 Reps will work together with Mrs Cookson to focus on strengthening community connections. Students will be visiting a local residential aged-care facility to spend time with the residents, sharing in music and art, to share joy and build positive relationships.

Lauren Cookson & Laura Scriven

On Wednesday 8^th May, N3, N8 and G8 visited the Mitcham City Council. We all got to meet the Mayor of Mitcham, Dr Heather Holmes-Ross, who spoke to us about the three levels of Government. She then explained about the different things that our local government does for the community, as well as who the Mitcham Councillors are and their role.

We then got to have a mock election and voted in a Mayor from our class, who got to dress up in fancy robes and a special necklace. We all found it very interesting and it was a lot of fun.

I really liked pretending I was a councillor, sitting in the special chairs and learning about what the councillors did. - Grayson and Maylin 

It was great to have an election and vote on who should be student Mayor of Mitcham. - Poppy and Mylah

I found it interesting to hear all about what the Mitcham City Council does. - Danny

It was good to learn all about the Mitcham City Council and how the council helps the Mitcham community. - Louis

National Simultaneous Storytime

Next Wednesday a number of our classes are participating in National Simultaneous Storytime. Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country.

This year’s book is Bowerbird Blues by Aura Parker.

I am a collector. Always looking, finding ... and keeping! Bowerbird loves BLUE. Magnificent cobalt. Brilliant, vibrant blue! But something is missing. What could it be?

To help celebrate National Simultaneous Storytime, the library is holding a competition with a number of prizes to be won. To enter, students need to create their own Bowerbird nest with little blue trinkets for display in the library. Entries close Wednesday Week 5 and winners will be announced the following Monday.

Book Club Orders

Just a reminder that orders for the current Book Club close this Friday (17^th May). All orders must be placed online and payment is processed through the Loop app.

Yours in reading,

Vasi and Sunyoung

Youth Environment Leadership Program (YELP)

This year, our twelve student leaders on the STEM Committee and the Citizenship Committee are also participating in the Youth Environmental Leadership Program (YELP) run by Green Adelaide. The YELP Team will lead positive environmental change within our school and community by working on an environmental project/s of the group’s design during 2024, with support from Mrs Doull.

On Tuesday in Week 2, eight members of the YELP Team participated in a full day Student Forum on the environment run by Green Adelaide. We met with eight other school groups in the main pavilion at Belair National Park, to engage in activities focused on the improvement of sustainability practices in our schools and understanding and caring for our natural environment. We had perfect weather and enjoyed participating in a number of sessions. Belair National Park was enchanting, with a variety of trees scattered around the park.

We highly enjoyed getting to brainstorm our project for this year. The kind people of Green Adelaide had set up a "growing a project" system to get us to think about the roots (group values), the trunk (our goals), the branches (what we need), the leaves (our actions), the fruit (our impact) and the sun (support and community). Using this unique method the eight of us determined that the best project for us to start investigating would be around adding more greenery to spaces around our school's grounds, using native and helpful plants. While this is not guaranteed it seems to be the most popular direction so far. Watch this space!

Another activity we enjoyed was the Sensory Walk. Usually our eyes dominate the rest of our senses but this was an activity designed to contradict this. We put blindfolds over our eyes as our partner from another school led us around the small part of the park we had to explore. Our partners could get us to feel, hear, smell or even taste the nature around us (luckily none of our partners got us to taste anything!). The main point of this activity was to appreciate the beauty and biodiversity of the park.

Craig Baulderstone from the Friends of Belair National Park group told us about the bush care activities that Friends groups undertake in the park. Belair National Park was established in 1891 as only the second National Park in the whole of Australia, and its 832 hectares protects a unique and healthy ecosystem supporting biodiversity and many rare species. 

We also created a "Bird Real Estate" pitch, where we tried to "sell" an assigned an area of natural habitat by identifying the positive qualities this area provided to support life for a range of animals, including birds, insects and reptiles. The "Marvellous Minibeast Mansion" was sold brilliantly by the Mitcham YELP Team! 

The day ended with some reflection in nature, with Nature Journaling. We ventured outside to find a space to sit quietly by ourselves and be creative in response to the environment. Students drew pictures, wrote poems and descriptions, and enjoyed the experience of focussing attention on the environment around us.

Thank you to Green Adelaide for this opportunity to improve our school and experience.

Esme L & Elanor J for the Year 6 YELP Team, and Mrs Doull

Science Teaching Award

Congratulations to our upper primary Science Teacher, Miriam Doull, who was awarded the Credit Union SA Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of Science Primary Years Award 2024, given by the South Australian Science Teacher's Association (SASTA). Thank you to SASTA and Credit Union SA for recognising Miriam's achievements. This Award recognises Miriam's contributions to the education of students in science, her association with SASTA and dedication to profssional learning to improve her skills and student outcomes. The award was presented at the SASTA Annual Conference in the April school holidays.

When children need an emergency lunch, they will be provided with a cheese toastie or a vegemite sandwich. These can then be paid for using the Emergency Lunch Payment option on the Qkr! app; simply enter the amount from the slip that was sent home with your child. If your child has recently been provided with an emergency lunch order, we ask that you please make payment as soon as possible. Thank you.

We have had some new volunteers recently and we would like to thank them for helping, as well as the wonderful group that help us regularly! We really appreciate all your help.

Have a great week.

Anita, Ann and Kerry