Term 3 is very busy in the library: with Book Week, Author Visits, the Big Read and The Great Book Swap.

On Thursday in Week 4 Perform Education will be visiting the Receptions to Year 2s to perform their musical show Way Too Cool. They will sing about a variety of the Children’s Book Council’s shortlisted books for this year.

During Week 5 we will also have two authors visiting. Katrina Germein will be visiting the receptions – year 3s on Monday and Mike Lucas will be visiting the year 4s – year 6s on Tuesday.

On Friday 25th August we will be celebrating with a Book Week parade. It would be wonderful to see students come to school dressed as their favourite book character or dress to the theme Read, Grow, Inspire. Hopefully we have lovely weather and we can welcome families to attend the parade at 9am at the basketball courts. Unfortunately, if the weather is not favourable we will need to hold the parade inside and families will not be able to join us.

We will be hosting a Great Book Swap during Book Week, week 5 of this term, with all funds raised going to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. We ask that you send your child with a book/s to donate to the Great Book Swap. Books are being collected in the library now. During Book Week (week 5) children will have the opportunity to choose a book to take home in return for a $2 donation.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge closes on the 8^th of September. Please encourage your child to complete the Challenge. Forms are available in the library and more information can be found online at http://www.premiersreadingchallenge.sa.edu.au/PRC/ 

Yours in reading,

Vasi and Sunyoung

Important transition dates for Unley High

Please see below the upcoming important dates and school events for the rest of Term 2 and Term 3 2023.

On Tuesday June 6^th, beautiful weather greeted the Year 2’s in Ms Wadmore’s T1 and Ms Day’s T3 classes as they headed off on their excursion to the Museum and Botanic Gardens.

We have been learning a lot about Aboriginal Culture. Their stories, art, history and tools. In our classes we thought about the excursion and wrote some explanations about why we think children SHOULD go on this excursion in the future.

Here are some examples:

Children should go on an excursion to the museum because they can learn about Aboriginal people and the tools that they used to do so many clever things. - Leroy (T3)

Children should go on an excursion to the museum because you can learn about things from the past from photos and videos. You can see the giant squid which is awesome and there is a lion in a glass box that swishes its tail too! - Annabeth (T3)

A reason to go to the Botanical Gardens is that you can play in the autumn leaves with your friends and learn more about types of plants. There’s lots of space and grass to play on. I liked walking through the trees and exploring. - Alistair (T3)

I believe going on any sort of excursion will help our brain by telling us more about things that we don’t know about, like how it was for Aboriginal people a long time ago. It will also give you some exercise and fun exploring the museum and the Botanic Gardens. - Clementine (T3)

A reason I think children should go to the Museum, because it is amazing place, and you get to have lots of experiences. You can also learn lots about Aboriginal culture and see boomerangs the Aboriginal people used. It was amazing because you can see animals that you haven’t seen. - Bailey (T1)

Children should go to the Museum because it is really interesting and fun, and you can learn about Aboriginal culture. Its lots of fun to go there as you can learn how they used to tell stories. It really is awesome to go there. - Grace (T1)

The Botanic Gardens is a good place to go because you can see beautiful plants. At the Botanic Gardens we saw about 5 turtles swimming in the very dirty looking water. We followed a trail to learn how Aboriginal people used plants. - Maylin (T1)

I think children should visit the Botanic Gardens. It is the best place to go on an excursion because it has lots of plants and special leaves, there really were a lot of leaves there. Fun fact a Bottle Tree can save your life in a drought. - Miles (T1)

GooRoo Claymation Incursion

Earlier this term, the Year 2 classes participated in an engaging and fun half-day stop-motion workshop run by Cam and Dani from GooRoo Animation as part of their Stem learning. 

The students learned how to create their own plasticine characters and learn how to bring these to life using the Stop Motion App. In small groups they molded characters, took photos of the scene as they slowly moved them, as well as adding background music and sound effects.

The students were excited to share their finalised stop motion videos with their class and are now looking forward to using the techniques learned from this workshop to create a stop motion video for their current STEM unit.
                        

Old Adelaide Gaol Excursion

Throughout terms 1 and 2, year 2 students from G1 and G2 have been exploring our local history and changes between the past and the present. On Wednesday 21^st June, we braved the rain and cold to set off and explore the Old Adelaide Gaol. Our classes participated in a guided tour and were thoroughly engaged by the sites and history of one of the oldest remaining colonial buildings in Adelaide.

Some things we learnt:

“The prisoners could only see their family once a month, for 10 minutes.” – Chloe B, G1

 “Children the age of 4 and over could go to jail.” – Poppy, G1

 “The bricks are called honeycomb bricks.” – George, G2

 “Good work and behaviour earned 20 cents.” – Frankie, G2

 “Prisoners would get their bed sheets and a plate then would throw it over the wall to try and escape.” – Liv, G2

Some of our favourite moments:

“Seeing the part of the room near the cells because the scientist fell through the floorboards. So, we can now see all of the special things they found underground.” – Nash, G1

 “Finding the guards hiding in different places and ringing the bell.” – Zirwa, G1

 “Going to the rose garden planted by the women prisoners because it was interesting.” – James H, G1

 “Ringing the bell!” – Hannah, G2

In STEM this term we have been learning about the importance of bees in our society.

On Thursday the 8^th of June, N8 and G8 had an incursion with Max the Beekeeper. He told us a bit about himself and included some information about how to start Beekeeping.

Some of the things you need are; a suit with a hat and a net, bees and a queen bee, a smoker a hive tool, a frame, a Bee brush, jars and metal rods to crack the hive open. He showed us the box that the queen bees comes in and there is sugar in the box. If the bees accept the queen they will eat the sugar.

Max showed us a video from his youtube channel, Max the Beekeeper. His YouTube channel is all about his experience in Beekeeping.

We found it very interesting and informative, and we really appreciate Max coming from Urrbrae high school to talk to us about bees.

- Mabel and Will.P

Do you have a child beginning Reception in 2024?

We are now preparing to plan next year’s classes!

To help us gain an accurate record of student numbers, please complete an expression of interest form on the MPS website as soon as possible.

https://www.mitchamps.sa.edu.au/about/enrol

From 2024, Department for Education schools offer two starting dates for Reception children – the beginning of Term 1 and the beginning of Term 3.

If your child turns five years old before 1^st May, they will start Reception on the first day of Term 1 that year. Students who enrol in the Term 1 intake will complete 4 terms of Reception.

If your child turns five between 1^st May and 31^st October 2024, they can start school in either Term 3 of the same year OR Term 1 of the following year. Students who enrol in the Term 3 intake will complete 6 terms of Reception.

When will enrolment offers be made?

Round 1 enrolment offers for children beginning school in Term 1 will be made in the first week of August, for siblings of existing students and new families living in the local area.

Round 2 offers are for new families who live outside of the area and will be made in the first week of September. Round 2 offers are subject to available spaces.

Enrolment offers for children starting Reception in Term 3 will be made early in 2024.

Is your child leaving MPS in 2024?

If your child is in Reception to Year 5 this year and will not be returning to Mitcham in 2024, please contact the front office by email or in person to obtain a Clearance Form and return it as soon as possible. This will allow us to confirm our student numbers and begin the class placement process later in the year.

If you would like further information or a clearance form, please contact the front office on 8271 2227 or email: dl.0270.admin@schools.sa.edu.au

Cross Country

On Tuesday of Week 3 students travelled to Belair National Park to compete in our SAPSASA district cross country day. Congratulations to all our students for competing well in wet conditions. A special congratulations to Lucas A, Lenny M, Summer B, Lucy B and Isla S who placed 1^st-6^th in their race and made it into our City South district team who competed at the State Championships in Week 6.

5-a-Side Soccer

We had 20 students form 3 teams to compete in our district 5-a-side soccer carnival on Monday Week 8. All teams competed hard and came away with some wins.

Mitcham 1 had a win in their first game and had some close results not go their way throughout the day but showed good school spirit. Goal of the day came from this team, with an excellent cross to Evan who headed it into the top corner of the goals.

Mitcham 2 won all but 1 match and finished 5^th overall in the competition. They had some fantastic wins and could have easily finished higher if they hadn’t been in such a tough grouping.

Mitcham 3 had a loss in their first game but after that they came together as a team and went through the rest of the competition undefeated and ended up winning the Grand Final against the team they lost to in their first round.

Well done all students for a great day.

State Carnivals

Throughout the term we had several students compete in state carnivals for the City South District. Congratulations to the following students who competed in the following sports:

Cross Country    Lucas A, Lenny M, Summer B, Lucy B and Isla S

Swimming          Louis T, Sophie L, Elijah K and Thomas P, Samara C

Aussie Rules      Zoe N, Edward F, Lucas A and Jonah S

Netball                 Madison W, Riley G, Clarrie H, Kaitlyn B and Abigail T

Hockey                 Roscoe MP

National Swimming Championships

Congratulations to Sophie L and Samara C who have been selected to represent the South Australian 12 years and under team to compete at the School Sport Australia National Swimming Championships in Sydney from 25^th to 29^th August.

Well done to all our students who have competed in SAPSASA sports this term and we are looking forward to more to come with boys' soccer this term and boys' and girls' basketball early next term.

- Clint Rowland, PE Teacher

Year 5/6 Boys and Girls Netball Statewide Competition

On Monday the 8^th of May, there were 20 boys and girls from MPS who proudly represented the school at the first round of the Netball Statewide Competition, previously known as Knock-Out. It was the first year that the competition has been run in a carnival style, with all games played at Netball SA Stadium over 1 day and the first year MPS have had a boys team compete!

The day proved to be a lot of fun for all students involved with great support between both teams, watching each other and cheering on from the side.

Our boys team learnt a lot from the day, for many of them this was their first opportunity to play competitive netball. They picked up some great skills from the day and demonstrated quality sportsmanship and competitiveness all throughout the carnival.

For the girls’ team, it was a day of great success, moving onto the next round of the competition which will be held early in Term 3. They walked away from the day being the City South and Southern Heights Champions! The team is looking forward to their next challenge against the other districts.

City South District Team and Metropolitan Carnival

Congratulations to Kaitlyn B, Abigail T, Clarrie H, Madison W and Riley G who were successful in making it into the City South District Netball Team for 2023.

The girls competed in a 3-day carnival from the 21st -23rd June which was held at Netball SA Stadium. The weather over the 3 days proved to be challenging, with very cold, rainy, and windy conditions truly showing why netball is a winter sport!

The girls represented MPS with great pride at the carnival and walked away with memories for life. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to coach such a passionate and motivated young group of athletes and we look forward to seeing what they achieve in their future netball endeavours.

- Laura Scriven, Coach

Term 3 will be a busy one for us here in the library – we have Book Week; the Great Book Swap and the Premier’s Reading Challenge is coming to an end.

Book Week is held in week 5. On Friday the 25^th of August we will celebrate with a dress up day. We would love to see students dressed as their favourite book character or dressed up to suit this year’s theme Read, Grow, Inspire.

During Book Week we will be hosting a Great Book Swap with all funds raised going to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. We ask that you send your child with a book/s to donate to the Great Book Swap. Books are being collected in the library now. During the Great Book Swap children can take home a book in return for a gold coin donation.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge closes on the 8^th of September. School holidays are a fantastic time for children to read and we would appreciate it if you could encourage your child to complete the challenge. We have additional forms available in the library and there is a wealth of information available online at http://www.premiersreadingchallenge.sa.edu.au/PRC/ . Just a reminder that this year students can read an additional eight books that are not on the Premiers Reading Challenge list to get a special 20^th anniversary certificate.

Yours in reading,
Vasi and Sunyoung