Student wellbeing at Mitcham this term has focussed on building an awareness of the importance of mindfulness to support self-regulation.

At Mitcham we have two Wellbeing rooms, quiet respectful places which students can visit, regroup their emotions, have access to an adult to assist with this, and receive sensory and emotional support before returning to class.  Students who use these rooms say:

• "It feels like my safe place at home and is a good place to calm down".
• “There are so many things to help me calm down and the room is perfectly nice".
• “It’s calming and it’s got all these things to help people calm down sometimes”.
• “I can go there and it helps me calm down”.
• “I like the sensory tiles and toys”.
• “When I go there it helps me calm down”
• “It’s quiet, I like the sensory tiles and trampoline, it helps me calm down”.
• It helps me calm down when I’m upset. I like the interoception exercises, puzzles and games.

Some of the strategies we use are:

• Interoception exercises, students focus on stretches and notice where they feel this in their body, they then repeat the exercise focusing on a particular muscle and notice where they feel it in their body this time.
• Learning to recognise big feelings, and strategies to slow down, breathe and regulate their emotions.
• Talking about what happened and how they feel, how they can restore the situation and what they can do in similar situations.
• Mindful techniques (colouring, short mindful practices).
• Yoga
• Sensory tools
• Puzzles and games

Students who have been using the room are creating an inspiration board around the word ‘Be’ and also discussing what they are “Grateful” for.

We also support the development of social skills and friendships by offering structured groups at lunchtime where students can join us in the yard to play board games. Students practise the skills of joining in groups, taking turns and learning how to win and lose gracefully.

There will be a display of wellbeing resources used at school for parents to look at during Open Night. We hope you have a chance to visit this display that will be located in the Courtyard.

Julie Ascher-Ellis and Susan Bowler

Congratulations to  Lucas in year 4 who was selected to represent South Australia in the School Sport Cross Country championships in late August.

It is an honour to have the opportunity to compete in these championships and we are very proud of his effort.

Just a reminder that tickets for Mitcham Primary School's Choir performance on Wednesday the 14th of September at the Festival Of Music are now on sale. 

To order your tickets to the performance go to the Ticketek Festival of Music tickets page for Wednesday 14 September 2022, 7pm performance.

Also, a reminder that any girl student who'd like to attend a free workshop run by the Australian Girls' Choir, needs to have a signed permission slip on the day of the workshop, which is on the brochure attached. The workshop will be held at 11:30am on Wednesday the 21st of September in the gym.

Josh Fielder - Performing Arts Teacher

Book Week Costumes

If you have any book week costumes that you no longer need please send them in to Gayle Judd, JP Music Teacher, who will be able to put them to good use. Thank you.

Gayle Judd - JP Music

We are excitedly watching the final stages of the gym construction and landscaping, and are on track for handover within the next fortnight. Students and teachers are very keen to get inside for their first look! Once handover has occurred, classes will have an opportunity to tour the building and garden areas with their teachers. We know they will enjoy students using the outdoor space at play times.

Fencing is anticipated to be removed by the end of next week, apart from additional sections of paving which we have requested to be replaced. Access to and from the oval may be impacted during this time, with students and families asked to use the pathway on the southern side of the gym.

We will have a staged approach to moving our programs, resources and equipment into the new gym, which will occur over the remaining weeks of Term 3. We expect to move the PE program into the gym by late August, followed by primary Performing Arts approximately 2 weeks later. At this stage we hope OSHC will be able to move in prior to the end of term, however this will be confirmed closer to the time.

G1 and G2 students have been watching the transformation of the gym build over this year from their classroom windows. In our recent STEM learning, we integrated their excitement for the upcoming new school gym and learning about identifying features of a building, place or monument around Australia and the world.

The students used the Design Thinking Process to research monuments, structures, and sculptures from around the world, as well as the history and values of Mitcham Primary School. Next, students designed a monument, structure, or sculpture with this research to signify the gym's opening. After creating several design ideas and gathering feedback from their peers, students created their final design prototype using the Maker's Empire software. When using the Maker's Empire software, students used their designs to recreate them on the 3D platform. As creators and inventors, they turned their abstract designs into concrete objects using spatial awareness and thinking, strengthening their growth mindsets and problem-solving skills to find the right tools and actions to best replicate their design. Students were required to constantly review their prototype designs on the 3D platform to ensure the shapes and letters used were connected from all angles. 

We have loved looking at the finalised designs, which the students have glued onto the artist's visualisation of the finished gym.    

Have you ever wondered how eco-friendly a house could be? Last term the Year 6’s, led by Mr Ebert, enjoyed an awesome STEM challenge. Our task was to research, design and build a model eco-friendly, sustainable 2-3 bedroom home incorporating as many features as possible which would help to save energy, water and waste.

This project was designed to connect and extend our knowledge of sustainability and how important sustainable building is for our world. We had to consider how physical properties of houses can affect how eco-friendly they are.

WEEK 1 Excursion to Christie Walk eco village; a purpose-built community that is based on five key environmental performance criteria; Energy, Water, Land, Health and Pollution. Some things that we learnt include using rainwater to flush toilets, because lots of clean drinking water is wasted every year. It was awesome!

WEEKS 1-3 (EXPLORE & DEFINE) We researched (using both primary and secondary sources of information) eco-friendly houses & gardens to gather some ideas/view what is already out there. We paid attention to size, materials used, reasons for particular features etc. We recorded our understanding of the ideas discovered in our STEM books. There was lots of discussion and interesting questions. For homework, we drew up a floor plan for our house. We designed with all we had seen at Christie Walk and learnt about in our inquiry. We designed with this in mind and justified; I have placed the main bedroom here because… I have put large windows here because… After that we shared our individual plans. Some groups decided to use one person’s plan. Most groups created a new one which contains the best elements from all group members. Our final floor plans had to be ready by the end of week 3 to be drawn onto our base. They need to be to scale e.g. 3cm = 1m or as negotiated.

WEEKS 4-9 (IDEATE & PROTOTYPE) Now the fun really began! We started to construct our models based on our floor plan. We had to consider all of the eco-friendly elements of: wall height, insulation, floor coverings, windows (double glazing), doors, hallways, skylights, wall colours/coverings, garden/shade, roof (slope) & guttering, types of plants, orientation & direction, eaves, solar/wind energy, battery storage (electric car)?  It was a busy time of constructing, cutting, painting, gluing and decorating. We also needed to create an A3 poster that highlighted “why our house is eco-friendly.” It included all of our choices/features and why we included them.

WEEK 10 (TEST) We set up our Sustainable house village display! We saw other students’ projects, and other members of the school have seen our display. Our buddies in particular loved seeing them and hearing us proudly talking about them.

This term we did a reflection after completing the project.

A BIG thank you to Mr Ebert for his organisation and support, and we want him to know that it was an amazing experience that we will never forget.

Last semester's STEM Extension program produced some unbelievable results from our participants, as their ability and confidence to code grew significantly. The games created by the students exceeded expectations and we're now working on showcasing these games in classrooms and, if students are happy to, on our school's website.

This semester we welcome a few new faces to our extension program who are very excited and eager to be taking part. 

In the second semester of the STEM Extension program, students from Year 3-6 will be focusing on using Lego Mindstorm EV3 sets to create a programmable robot. The students will be involved in co-creating the challenge context for the design and building of their robot, and the learning demands of the program will differ for the different age groups.

Students will work with a partner or small group this semester to simulate the collaborative nature of real-world industry. The students will use Microsoft Teams to complete a variety of activities, documenting their progress through the design process.

STEM Extension participants will use the Lego Mindstorms’ visual programming application to build on their coding experiences from semester one, and apply their programming to their robot. They will also use the online 3D design application, TinkerCAD, to create and 3D print accessories to improve their robot’s capabilities and aesthetic.

We're looking forward to seeing what our students can do!

Lachlan Norman

Digital Technologies Coordinator

Our goal as teaching professionals at Mitcham Primary is to improve practice in all areas of the curriculum. In Maths this year we are working towards improving student achievement in Numeracy with a particular focus on solving multi-step complex problems. Staff meetings, team planning sessions, and pupil-free days are dedicated to professional learning around this goal.

This week teachers were released into year-level teams to plan units of work together. Teams are developing a common instructional model for teaching Maths that will build consistency in practice across the year level and ultimately across the school. Our professional planning includes research, conversations and planning for consistency in pedagogy, vocabulary, resources, and strategies. Teachers discussed building meaning in Maths, demonstrating solution strategies, aligning their approaches, and of course, applying the appropriate content from the Australian Curriculum. Teachers shared their ideas and resources working together to ensure all children access the curriculum in a consistent way.

Helping children with problem-solving homework:

We know families understand the importance of mathematics for their child’s future. Participating in your child’s learning by doing things such as supporting homework is important. Even if you may have had unpleasant experiences or difficulties with mathematics in your own schooling, research has found that positive parent emotions lead to positive student emotions, and positive student emotions are connected to better performance. Here are some strategies to help your child when they are problem-solving at home.

Some activities to promote Maths at home:

Maths is everywhere and involving your child helps their understanding of maths in the real world. Here are some simple examples:

Please see below for upcoming important dates and school events.

The white cupboards with all lost property have been relocated to the Tutt building. Access to these cupboards is available through the sliding door, near the mural located in the courtyard.

A reminder to all families to check that all of your child’s property is clearly labelled, including jumpers, hats and drink bottles. We encourage you to check these cupboards regularly for your child’s misplaced belongings.