I would like to reiterate with parents the importance of following our school value of “respecting others and treating people with dignity and kindness”.  Recently it has come to my attention that some people’s tempers have been frayed while driving through the school car park.  I understand that people are time poor and often in a hurry and sometimes a short, friendly ‘toot’ helps people realise that they may be holding up the flow of the traffic.

Please remember the speed limit in our school car park is 10km per hour as it is a shared zone with children, parents, prams and cars.  I ask that ALL parents AT ALL TIMES observe the speed limit.

The car park has been ear marked as an area that we are seeking input and solutions from the architects that we are working with to develop a new Master Plan for Yultiwirra.  Last week we offered a consultation session on Zoom with parents, and I thank the parent reps and other parents that attended.  This was a perfect opportunity to voice concerns and issues regarding the car park or any other area of the school’s facilities.  The car park was raised in this session and attending parents gave feedback about some of the difficulties experienced at drop off and pick up times.

We are hoping the Master Plan process will address issues raised so that we can subsequently find workable solutions and implement proposed changes. 

In the meantime…..

At drop off time

We ask that parents don’t park in the “No Standing” zone out the front of the Preschool and Yultiwirra hall between 8.30am - 9.30am.  This causes significant difficulties for everyone.  If you need to park to take your child into school to sign them in, please park in the central part of the car park.  We ask that primary school parents ‘drop and kiss’ to reserve car park spaces for preschool families.

At pick up time

We ask that parents drive around the outer car park circuit until their child comes to the gate to be collected.  Remember that Cycle 1 students will be at the gate at 3.20pm and Cycle 2 and 3 students will be dismissed at 3.30pm.

Some parents have got into the habit of parking in front of the staff car park area and waiting until they see their child arrive at the gate.  This is ‘acceptable’ however there can only be FOUR cars lined up here at any one time.  Some people try to ‘poke the nose’ of their car into this waiting zone queue which means that no one else can pass and the whole car park comes to a stand still.  This is where people’s frustrations increase and tempers fray. 

PLEASE use your common sense and DO NOT hold up the flow of the outer car park circuit.

I trust that everyone will be able to adhere to these very simple car park ‘rules’, use common sense, be courteous, be aware of other motorists and keep the car park flowing.

In anticipation, I thank you for your compliance with these requests.

Cathy France

Principal

We appreciate our staff who over the past couple of weeks have really stepped up as COVID cases have risen both at school and in the wider community.  They have shown flexibility in covering for each other if people are unwell or needing to quarrantine, and have demonstrated support, compassion and resilience.  What an awesome team!

Cathy France

Principal

“A person who is appreciated will always do more than what is expected of them."  

This term we have been learning about Australia – our continent, its flora, fauna and geographic features.   We have talked about the First Peoples of our nation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags, the original custodians of the land on which our school is located and the local Peramangk people including some of their language. 

We have recently begun learning about the colonisation of the country, colonial history and the Australian nation as states.  This includes learning about the state flags and emblems of flora and fauna representing each state.

The children have also worked together to raise the flag each day- choosing which flag they would like to hoist. 

Cycle 1 has been exploring the field of Zoology.  We started by talking about the differences between living and non-living things and then moved on to classifying living things.  We investigated the role of the sun and talked about how it gives us light, warmth and helps plants to grow.  This led to much discussion about animals including which ones eat plants, which ones are omnivores and which ones are carnivores.  We have most recently been learning about invertebrates like sponges, molluscs and jellyfish and will start to explore the arthropod family soon. 

“Horses are herbivores!” – Scarlett

“The sun gives us warmth and helps plants grow.” – Sophie

“The sun keeps us warm.” – Anouk

“Rhinos are vegetarian.” – Sunny and Jack

After sharing the First Great Story, Cycle 2 have embarked on various activities to get a sense of our place in the Universe. Lisa and Christine's class have conducted research and participated in science experiments relating to the formation of the earth, volcanoes, our solar system and star constellations. A few highlights include making a plasticine model of the layers of our planet, learning about the sheer scale of our solar system and discovering how old we would be on other planets (based on the amount of days each planet takes to orbit the sun). We look forward to reading the next great story and exploring the evolution of life on Earth.

This term we have been exploring many cultural studies topics.  With the recent State election, the class has explored the history of democracy in Australia.  To introduce the concept, four students were randomly selected to be the 'decision makers'.  They had to enforce rules - Eg. when and how long for snack, only a few at a time, use your opposite hand with all work for ten minutes, some people were asked to move seats.  This was to demonstrate the opposite of democracy.  Maddie, Amber, Jet and Ashlee were selected and they said, "It felt horrible and strange to make rules for other people".  "Would have preferred to be on the people's side".  "It felt like everyone was angry with us".  Tilly and Joe were 'non-decision makers'.  They said it was "unfair", "It felt annoying and strange".  "It was exciting to find out the rules but annoying to follow them".  The next day the class did a 'mock vote', lined up outside and had their name crossed off the class list and then voted their preferences for Pizza, Fish & chips, salad roll or hamburgers.  Pizza was the overwhelming majority 15/22 votes.  The class our now completing a project about democracy in Australia.

In Geography the class has started a destination box project.  Each week a student is randomly drawn, and they secretly choose a country to research.  The following week they present this to the class.  Each child has a passport, lines up at immigration, and gets their passport stamped after locating the country on a world map.  So far, we have visited Columbia, Italy, Pakistan and France.  There is a 'destination box dance' (conga line) to the tune 'Around the World' by Daft Punk.  Students have presented in poster form, on a slideshow and recently a story book.

Recently students in Cycle 4 had the opportunity to attend the theatre during the Adelaide Festival. On Wednesday some students were able to attend an adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray by the Sydney Theatre Company and it did not disappoint. The students and guides were astounded by the production and had us all thinking deeply about image, vanity, and the pursuit of everlasting youth; as seen so much in today’s pop-culture. The following day all of Cycle 4 went to see Wudjang: Not the Past by dance group Bangarra. Students and guides alike commented on its powerful, emotional, and thought provoking storytelling as the dance company sought to relay the story of Australia’s collective history through a truth-telling performance. Two incredibly inspiring and conscious performances and ALL of Cycle 4 felt grateful to have been able to attend these shows.

Our fresh team of Year 7 students have hit the ground running this year. Not only are they whipping up amazing Tastes of the World food offerings for their Market Day stalls, they are working hard across the range of curriculum areas. Pictured is just a selection of creative representations of cell structure by Year 7 students. Other students used clay or gathered garden treasures to model and explain the functions of cell organelles.

Preschoolers, Cycle 1 and 2 students have been practising their literacy skills by reading and writing words and sentences in Indonesian. They begin to identify and pronounce letters in simple words for places such as ‘Australia’ and ‘Indonesia’ and learn other nouns by playing ‘word bingo’ card games. Students listen to stories read aloud in Indonesian to become familiar with the structure of written texts and the use of language conventions such as spelling, capital letters, and punctuation. They build fluency by imitating and reading aloud words, focusing on the vowel sounds e.g., ‘a’, ‘I’, ‘u’, diphthongs e.g.  ‘ai’, ‘au’ and nasal tones such as ‘ng’ and ‘c’ (ch). As students’ ability and confidence grows, their aim is to read narrative texts in Indonesian, independently with accurate intonation and pronunciation.    

In 2021, the Hills Montessori teaching staff undertook an engaging and thought-provoking professional development session about South Australia’s history following colonisation through a First Nations’ lens.  It was a highly interactive experience and left an enduring impression on us all. 

In early May, a similar session will be led by members of the Kaurna community at the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre.  This session is aimed towards adults and tickets are available via:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/cultural-awareness-histories-of-sa-an-aboriginal-perspective-sahf-tickets-251659158317?aff=ebdssbdestsearch