2021 Term 2 .... Issue 2

From Leadership

What is Reconciliation?

At its heart, reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, for the benefit of all Australians.  (http://www.reconciliation.org.au)

National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. This year as we do every year, the BANB7 community jointed with the rest of the nation to celebrate National Reconciliation week 27 May to 3 June. These date are the same every year as they commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision.

27 May 1967 On this day, Australia’s most successful referendum saw more than 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Australian Government power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and recognise them in the Census.

3 June 1992  On this day, the Australian High Court delivered the Mabo decision, the culmination of Eddie Koiki Mabo’s challenge to the legal fiction of ‘terra nullius’ (land belonging to no one) and leading to the legal recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of lands. This decision paved the way for Native Title.

This year, our annual reconciliation campfire event, provided children, families, and our community with the opportunity to come together, experience and celebrate Aboriginal culture and connection to country through, cooking, music, art and gathering around the fire. In the children’s centre and across the school, reconciliation is a time of acknowledgement and togetherness. Through dialogue and learning provocations we support children to develop their sense of self and others. We support children to build strong and confident identities whilst respecting and understanding the identity of others.  

Self-awareness and empathy are very interconnected. Once we become more aware of what makes us who we are, we are better able to understand the differences between ourselves and others and what makes them who they are. Not surprisingly, both ‘self-awareness’ and ‘empathy’ are considered to be two of the main pillars of emotional intelligence and are intrigue to our ‘Belonging, Being and Becoming at BANB7’ Philosophy. 

Whilst we look forward to our annual reconciliation events and celebrations, at BANB7 reconciliation is not just for one week of the year. Children are given many opportunities across the year and throughout their schooling to consider, act and reflect on reconciliation and the importance of our local and national Aboriginal community. We invite you to ask your children about the campfire event an enjoy the photos taken across reconciliation week.

Kim Coyle

Children’s Centre Senior Leader

NCCD Parent Information

National Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

All schools are required to collect information about the numbers of students that they provide adjustments to under the Disability Discrimination Act (1992) and Disability Standards of Education.

This data is used as the basis for national funding.

The NCCD involves the collection of;

• The number of students receiving adjustments to enable them to participate in education on the same basis as other students.
• The level of adjustment provided to students
• Students type of disability if known

Under the model the definition of disability is broad and includes learning difficulties, health and mental health conditions.  If your child is identified for inclusion in the Collection, the required information will be included in this year’s data collection.

If you have any questions about the data collection, please contact one of our leadership team.  Further information can be found at:

http://www.education.gov.au/nationally-consistent-collection-data-school-students-disability

Children's Centre News

One of our focuses this term has been around Aboriginal culture and connection.  Part of this learning was exploring dot painting.  We have been discussing how Aboriginal people use dot painting to share stories as well as art work. The children have looked at some examples of dot painting and have spent time creating their own dot paintings that have special meaning to them.  We wanted a way to keep a record of our learning and so the children explored dot painting on bunting canvas which was used during the Reconciliation celebration with the school and will now be hung in the Children’s Centre as a living artwork of their experiences this term. 

We have also been exploring the understanding of connection to land and how if we care for the land it will give back to us and how this can then nourish us.  We sing songs about helping the garden grow and explore our own kindy garden, we also looked closely as some native plants such as wattle seeds and lemon myrtle.  We used these ingredients in a baking experience and made Wattle Seeds and Lemon Myrtle biscuits.  The children had varied opinions on the taste of these biscuits, some children enjoyed the taste whilst others were unsure as to why the biscuit wasn’t sweet tasting.  We decided to further share our learning with the rest of the school community by baking more biscuits for the kindy children to share at the Reconciliation event held this term.  The children then spent two weeks making and rolling out over 400 biscuits to share with the wider school community.  The kindy children enjoyed sharing their hard work and learning with the school community and the feedback from the school was wonderfully positive.

Blue 1 and 2

We have been learning about animals in blue 1 & 2. Here are some facts we loved learning about.

Did you know that koalas have a pouch. Ghassan

Did you know platypuses have webbed legs to swim better. They are called the duck bill platypus because the have a big bill. Abubaker

Did you know that echidnas lay eggs and when they are born they have fur. Also they use electric waves to find their food. Bisudha

Did you know that peacocks stand up to sleep. There are white peacocks. Rupan

Did you know koalas can sleep for 20 hours? They eat gum leaves. Kainat

Did you know kangaroos can turn their ears to hear behind. Kangaroos can tuck their baby and close their pouch to protect their baby. They can stand on their tail. Aiza

Purple East

As part of our Inquiry unit this term, Purple East visited the Adelaide Planetarium to explore the question : ‘How do scientists think and work?’

Purple 4 visit the kitchen/garden

The children in Purple 4 were very excited to visit the kitchen/garden in week2.  They enjoyed learning about the garden and how a seed grows with Tom and had the opportunity to harvest some vegetables and herbs for their cookiong.  Then the children had the channce to cook in the kitchen with Belinda.  One group made an amazing frozen fruit sorbet, one group made tasty breadsticks and one group made a yummy salad. What a great time we had in the kitchen/garden.

What's been happening in Purple West?

Purple West have been exploring patterns this term using various resources. Why is patterning important in our learning?

Patterns help children make predictions because they begin to understand what comes next. They also help children learn how to make logical connections and use reasoning skills. Patterns can be found everywhere in our daily lives and is an important skill in math. Understanding patterns help prepare children for learning complex number concepts and mathematical operations.

More news from Purple West

The children in Purple West really enjoyed working with their mates for the Reconciliation Week celebrations.

Purple 4 learnt the numbers from 1-10 in Kaurna language and created them using Aboriginal symbols/designs.  Purple 5 created a story table based around the Aboriginal Dreaming story, Tiddalik and acted it out together with their mates.  Purple 6 wrote books with their mates using Aboriginal symbols to tell their stories.

Yellow 4

In Yellow 4 we have been learning about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people groups of Australia. It has been a great learning journey. Along the way we went to the Botanical Gardens on the Aboriginal food trail which was fantastic. With Toms help we also made our very own Aboriginal food trail for BANB7. We have also built models of the Aboriginal shelters with real materials. We presented our shelters on reconciliation day, in the forest. It was a lot of fun.

Yellow 6

During a recent Kitchen Garden session the learners harvested produce from our BANB7 garden to wash and prepare for the kitchen group. The garden group also carried out garden maintenance including planting, weeding, finding bugs for the BANB7 ducks and finished with a journal entry. The kitchen group prepared vegetarian pizzas, citrus ice cream and a seasonal salad. When making and rolling the pizza dough the learners showed skills such as teamwork, curiosity and communication to be successful making the dough the correct consistency and size. The group who prepared the pizza topping showed initiative to search for more ingredients if there wasn’t enough for all the pizza bases (cheese and basil) and mathematical thinking to divide the tomato sauce evenly across all of the bases. The group who made the citrus ice cream had to work fast and efficient to read the recipe correctly and have the mixture in the ice cream maker so it had enough time to freeze. Once all the kitchen groups had cleaned and reset their work stations and the café tables had been set, it was time to enjoy a delicious meal together! We are so lucky to have the fabulous Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program at BANB7.

Red 1

As our term begins to wind down so do many of the great learning opportunities we have provided this semester. Our explorations into the chemical sciences has finished with reversible and irreversible changes, mixing and separating solutions, physical and chemical change, acids and bases, pH testing and finally two separate student driven inquiries. Our final inquiry (shown in picture) was a request from another learning studio exploring volcanos. Red One was able to provide the science to cause key criteria set by our Red ¾ neighbours. These also related to clues to chemical reactions : Heat, Smoke, Explosion, Fizzing and BOOM!

Thanks for another great semester. David

Red 2 and Red 5

This term Red 2 and 5 have paired up with Tom and Belinda to explore science in the Kitchen Garden. The question they will be exploring is "how the growth and survival of living things affected by physical conditions of their environment?". The learners have made theri very own fermented vegetables (saurkraut and kimchi) and this week they will begin making sourdough and kombucha bubble tea. Throughout the term, they will be learning about the process of  fermentation and how amazing these foods are for our gut! In the conditions in the environment (sun, water, weather, animals, soil, temparature etc).  In Literacy, we have been liearning about how authors use advertisements to persuade their readers.  Learners will be creating their own advertisements later in the term. A highlight for the Year 6's this term was aquatics in Week 3. Gholam said that Aquatics was lots of fun and Kalyan thought kayaking was the best part. 

Red 5 and Red 6 (previously Red 2) ....... RedWest

Red 5 and 6 (previously known as Red 2) have had a busy week making their move as a combined studio which we will now refer to as ‘Red West’. The learners spent most of Tuesday being part of the move and having a large input in what their new and revised learning space will look like – we are all so happy with the end result! A learning highlight from the past 4 weeks have included the Reconciliation Week campfire event in the forest where learners had the opportunity to try a range of foods, teach traditional Aboriginal games to younger learners and see learning from other studios. As part of the learning about Reconciliation Week, we also designed posters to capture what Reconciliation means to us. The Red Neighbourhood year book inquiry book has also been busy writing articles and designing front covers – have a look at some of the incredible designs! Finally, in our Writing Workshop learners have started designing and creating an advertising campaign that will be used to promote BANB6. As part of their campaigns, they are making radio and television commercials, billboard posters and a range of print advertisements. We can’t wait to see the final products!

Red 3 and 4

For the second half of this term we have continued our inquiry into Natural Disasters. Each week we have researched, read information, learnt how to note-take and began writing information about a different natural disaster including earthquakes, tsunamis and bushfires. During week 8 as we were studying Volcanoes we teamed up with red one to create a giant volcano explosion in the forest as a science experiment!

It was amazing!!

In week 7 we celebrated reconciliation week in the forest. We enjoyed talking around a campfire, making friendship bracelets, eating traditional Australian foods and playing various Aboriginal sports games.

For the last 2 weeks of term we are finalising our information reports and turning them into imovies and posters!

Red 6 Part 1

Red 6 Term 2: We’ve had a good start to term 2, with all learners engaging in some interesting discussions and displaying an improved understanding of living the culture we established at the start of the year. Apart from the below, the year 6’s had a great day of fun and learning in week 3.

Literacy: Reading about Earth’s cycles for our spelling contracts. Continuing our word investigations together and their word sorts in groups to familiarise ourselves with spelling patterns and rules. We’re continuing our grammar focus to improve our sentence structure, vocab and flow of writing. We’re currently writing persuasive texts to persuade LA’s to get their car washed by us to raise money for graduation at the end of the year. Book Club proceeds as it is a good way to discuss texts, share ideas and see things from different perspectives.

Maths: Red neighbourhood is splitting the groups to focus on child needs. As part of the Red 1 and Red 6 Ancient Greece Inquiry, understanding perimeter and area of shapes is a requirement, so there will be some teaching for all in these concepts.

Science: We are looking at biological sciences, the Earths cycles, animal adaptations and how they help them live in certain habitats, and the classification of living things.

Inquiry: Investigating Reconciliation in Australia with First Nations Peoples and letting the truth be known about our collective history, and the narrative that we’re taught isn’t always factual. For example evidence is strong that Indigenous Australians were baking bread 20,000 years before the Egyptians, whom we’re told in history books were the first bakers.

History: Ancient Greece is a fascinating topic to be diving into. It’s legacy lives on to this day, some 3000 years later, in the form of philosophy and politics to name a couple of things.

Red2 (previously Red6) - Part 2

Literacy: The children have been writing persuasive texts about a car wash fund raiser we will hope to put on early next term. They researched the reasons why hand washes are better than machine washes, among other things. We continued our grammar focus to help with all aspects of their writing. Obviously we continued our reading program also.

Maths: We continued with our targeted groups, with some getting a number focus, with money to assist understanding, while others were learning about measuring various things. In my group, measurement, the progress has been quite pleasing.

Science: This term we did biological science, and the children chose an animal to research, and had to hypothesise about what adaptations help it survive, and what might happen to it if global warming continues. The reports produced were quite good.

History: We’ve been learning about Ancient Greece. Working in teams the students have researched an Ancient City, and are now building it with glue guns and plywood. We are having an exhibition to display our learning next Thursday. Feel free to come and have a look.

Inquiry: We’ve been researching Indigenous Australia and trying to ‘not let history be a mystery’. Eg evidence suggest they were baking bread 25,000 years before the Egyptians. We’ve got some designs, and we’re painting some totem poles that we are placing around the school soon.          

"Dream Big Festival"

Our year 3-7 choir were recently fortunate enough to be part of the “Dream Big Festival” opening ceremony. The Dream Big Festival is a biannual event which includes performers from all across the world. This year’s theme was “Be Curious” which featured a strong link to science. Our children sang David Bowie’s classic, “Space Oddity” at The Festival Theatre as part of the 1,000 voices choir with schools from all across South Australia. We saw a front row performance by Australia’s Got Talent finalist, Mitch Tambo who entertained us by singing many songs in his language, Gamilaraay. We then saw an inspirational performance entitled “The Narrator” in which we travelled on a bus across Adelaide that featured actors both on the bus and outside. Our children were captivated from the story which was about growing up, forgiveness and resilience. We look forward to the next Dream Big Festival in 2023.