Companions on the Journey

Our Pre-Primary children celebrated 100 days of school! They dressed up and participated in fun activities to celebrate being 100 days brighter. They made fairy bread using hundreds and thousands, created an ice cream picture with 100 toppings, wished for 100 things and made crowns! It was such a fun day.

Academic All Stars is a competition where teams from various schools compete in an array of different and complex team challenges. The teams work on engineering, dramatic performance, geographical knowledge, puzzles, logic problems, as well as high level literacy and numeracy tasks. The St. Andrew’s team included students from multiple year levels and all students represented our school amazingly well this year.

Each Year in Term 2 we hold a Faction Cross Country Carnival.  It was wonderful to see the dedication from the students as they participated in their events. A number of children achieved their personal best times, and we are all so proud of all of the children’s efforts. The children showed so many kind traits and well wishes to their classmates. It is a credit to everyone. In particular, we congratulate our medallist’s in all grades as well as the Amalfi faction for placing first in the Carnival!

Each year our wonderful P& F Committee plans and delivers a fun Disco Night for all of our students. The children have an awesome time and share in a lot of fun and great music. It is only possible with the amazing assistance of so many keen and helpful parent volunteers.  

We were delighted to welcome to our school Heath Chapman, Lachie Schultz, Caleb Serong and Blake Acres from the Fremantle Dockers Football club. They delighted our children at a mini-Assembly and then had a footy clinic with some of our students. It was a fabulous afternoon!

Each year a function is held to acknowledge all fathers, grandfathers and significant adults within our children’s lives. This function is held on the Friday preceding Father’s Day. The Kindergarten classes at the school also celebrate Father’s Day with functions that are held within their classroom on the days of attendance.

Each year, the Pre-Primary class conducts a Father’s Day assembly on the Friday preceding.

All students within the school, make a special card or gift for the significant adults within their lives.

As a part of the celebrations, the P&F conducts a Father’s Day raffle, which is drawn at the Assembly.

We were also dazzled by all of the children as they performed their Footsteps’ routines. These routines are designed to develop co-ordination, cooperation as well as developing their music and rhythm skills.

Our students are invited to dress up and participate in fundraising for various Catholic charities. A popular theme has been “When I grow up, I want to be…”. The children had a great day celebrating with their peers and teachers their aspirations for the future. We thank the children for participating with such enthusiasm and for providing a gold coin donation to Project Compassion.

To celebrate Science week, all students from PP to Year 6 participated in the Kanyana Science Incursion. This incursion is dedicated to wildlife conservation by caring for sick, injured, orphaned and displaced native animals, breeding threatened native species, animal care training, research, and education through schools and local communities. This was a very rewarding experience for all of our students.

This week our Kindy children are learning all about the colours in our world. They played a parachute game and went “colour hunting” in the playground!

All aboard and ready for take-off on St Andrew’s Airlines!  The Pre-Primary children have been enjoying exploring the new dramatic play areas in their classroom. This term they are focusing on Weather in Science and investigating all things to do with air and flight. 

We were entertained and amazed by our in-school music students who performed in the Music Gala. This event has proven to be popular for all involved and showcases the talent of our students; some students have just recently joined the music program to others who are accomplished performers. It also allowed the tutors to demonstrate to the children small group performance compared to an individual performance.

NAIDOC Week will be celebrated in the last week of Term 2 each year. Our NAIDOC co-ordinator organises for classes to work with each other on a variety of activities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have played and continue to play significant and active roles in the community at the local, state and national level.

Our Year 1 students ventured into our Naturescape playground to explore our natural environment. Whilst exploring, they had an opportunity to develop some of their gross motor skills.

In pre-primary we incorporate opportunities for children to engage in both structured and free choice play experiences. These experiences are guided by the children’s interests at a class level. Play based learning provides a context for learning through which children organise and make sense of their social worlds as they actively engage with people, objects and representations. Through play, children are able to explore, identify, negotiate, take risks and create meaning.

Play based learning, inquiry learning and explicit and intentional teaching approaches are all used to provide a child centred, balanced education. This encourages the positive development of the whole child to grow spiritually, cognitively, emotionally, socially and physically.

The Pre-Primary children planted Lettuce seedlings in their vegetable garden and eagerly watched them grow. They then harvested the lettuce and participated in a cooking activity. The children enjoyed a taste of lettuce cups with carrot and cheese!

The students in Year 3 enjoyed some poetry reading by Mrs Sincorsa Canzirri, a published poetry author. The poems in her book, Nature in Poetry, were inspired by her childhood home in the Southwest and her current home closer to Perth. What a fabulous experience for the children. We thank Mrs Canzirri for supporting the children at our school.

Our students participated in a number of incursions coordinated by the RAC. These interactive road safety workshops enabled the children to learn about bicycle, pedestrian and passenger safety and focussed on developing skills that will assist to keep them safe around the roads. It was a great learning experience!

Our School Choir had the privilege of attending Clarkson Library. Our Choir dazzled the Clarkson community with their Christmas song singing!

We spent an enjoyable time celebrating with the school community at the St Andrew’s Feast Day Colour Run. The Mass was very reverent and meaningful. The focus was on the Patron Saint of our school and parish. The St. Andrew’s School P&F Committee, with the assistance of a host of very kind volunteers, organised the colour run. The children had so much fun participating in the activities.

Our Year 6 students regularly conduct educational sessions for the whole school regarding the St Andrew’s Student Code of Conduct. These sessions are conducted interactively through Teams or in the classrooms. During these sessions, our Year 6 leaders discuss student rights as well as student responsibilities at school. Our leaders explain what it means to feel respected and listened to at St Andrew’s and they also highlight how students can act appropriately and cooperatively. We value “student voice” at our school and this just one example of the St. Andrew’s students exercising their voice.

We have been lucky enough to employ the services of Cameron the Magician. He showed us how magic can invigorate your senses as well as how to perform in front of an audience. He was absolutely amazing and wowed us all with so many different tricks.

Our Year 6 students have thoroughly enjoyed using the new table tennis boards.

Tournament of Minds is an international educational program. It provides students that participate with an opportunity to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent thinking whilst developing collaborative enterprise, excellence and teamwork. Challenges are set in the following disciplines: The Arts, Language Literature, Social Sciences and STEM. We congratulate our St Andrew’s students on their dedication and participation in this competition.

St Andrew’s recently welcomed Old McDonald’s Travelling Farm. Our children enjoyed cuddling and spending time with animals such as lambs, chickens and rabbits. What a fabulous experience and we would like to thank our wonderful P&F for providing such a valuable learning experience for our children.

Our Years 3-6 students participated in an Ultimate Frisbee clinic. They had a great time learning the rules to this sport and practising their skills. It was an awesome experience.

Our students are invited to dress up and participate in fundraising for various Catholic charities. A popular theme has been “When I grow up, I want to be…”. The children had a great day celebrating with their peers and teachers their aspirations for the future. We thank the children for participating with such enthusiasm and for providing a gold coin donation to Project Compassion.

Our Year 1 students enjoyed their recent Design and Technology lesson. They had an awesome experience designing and making their “spacecrafts”.

Our Year 3 children went on excursion to Cockman House and Wanneroo Museum. Cockman House is the oldest remaining house in the Wanneroo area. It was completed in 1860 and was a family home for three generations. Our children had the opportunity to explore the house and grounds, discovering clues and completing hands-on activities to uncover how technology and life have changed over time. This highly interactive program was a fantastic learning experience!

The students in Year 3 have been exploring examples of changes in communities over time. As part of this investigation, the children explored the contents of the Museum Box from the Wanneroo Regional Museum. Amongst other things, it contained items from a nurse who served in World War 1!

Our Year 5 children are showcasing their sensational art skills by creating self-portrait masterpieces. Their work has been inspired by the style and techniques used by the artist, Romero Britto. 

Last week our students went on a journey of discovery with our fabulous Scitech incursion. Through activities that involved playful science and experiences that incorporated technology and mathematics, our students’ curiosities were ignited, and their imaginations were inspired! The incursion proved to be both an exciting and valuable learning experience!

Every year our school supports the National Day of Action Against Bullying. The NDA provides an opportunity for our school to celebrate friendships and positive interactions with others.

The school works closely with the parish in preparing for and celebrating the sacraments. While the school takes a large part of the responsibility in preparing our students to receive the sacraments of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation, this is done in concert with a parish based sacramental program. Integral to this program are the interactive workshops and retreats for sacramental candidates and their parents held by the school over the course of the year. On occasions, we also celebrate the baptism of some of our children during a school mass.

This year, the Year 6 cohort have had the opportunity to experience flying Parrot Mambo Drones. Using a coding application on their school i-Pad’s, they have been able to fly the drones in the undercover area both manually and using coding. They completed simple flights and obstacle courses with the drones. Well done Year 6 students!

All students in year 3 enjoyed participating in the Aussie Optimism program this term. Mrs Caroline Quintal attended several days of professional development at the Health Sciences department of Curtin University to facilitate the program. In the ‘Feelings and Friends’ program the students were guided through some very important social /emotional strategies.

Recognising feelings, basic emotional vocabulary, recognising ‘body clues’, improving relationships, developing social networks, learning coping strategies and managing conflicts.  The students created a Tool-Kit of strategies they can use when faced with challenging situations. Each session concluded with some quiet guided meditation.

Numero Club occurs during lunch time for our year 4, 5 and 6 children. Numero is a card game with the unique ability to build on the Number and Algebra strand of Mathematics while developing social and game-related skills. It is also a fun way of improving accuracy and speed with mental mathematics.  There is a Winners chart to add an edge of competitiveness!

Each year, since 1945, the Children’s Book Council of Australia has brought children and books together across Australia through Book Week. During this time, schools and libraries spend one glorious week celebrating books and Australian children’s authors and illustrators.

Our Book Week celebrations culminate in our annual dress-up parade. The children excelled as they dressed up in their favourite book characters.

Each year the school choir and the school band participate at the annual Performing Arts Festival for Catholic Schools. [PAF]

At St Andrew’s school, instrumental lessons are offered for woodwind, piano, percussion and guitar. Students may be given the opportunity to participate at the Performing Arts Festival.

The students who have participated in the PAF play or sing at the Performing Arts Assembly.

Each year our school performs a Nativity play/concert on the school oval. The entire school participates, with kindy children acting out the story, year 5 students narrating and the rest of the school singing the Christmas songs, led by the school choir.

Coding / Spheros / Ozobots / Beebots / Lego Robotics / Computer lab / Drones

At St Andrew’s Catholic Primary School we teach coding and a wide array of STREAM concepts including engineering, understanding data and creating digital solutions. At our school we are well resourced with class kits for Lego Robotics, Drones, Sphero Robots, Ozobot line code readers, BeeBots and Microbit packs.  Students also receive specialist Digital Technology lessons weekly to improve their skills with desktop computers. By having access to a fully equipped computer lab students can research, work on document design and production as well as a vast array of software skills including learn touch typing skills.

At St Andrew’s we advocate and promote regular physical exercise. Students are offered a wide range of sports before, during and after school on specific days, to allow them to learn new skills and to find the challenges they need to extend their sporting abilities. All students are given an opportunity to participate in school Athletics carnivals, along with opportunities to be part of Interschool events including Lightning & Athletics Carnivals and Cross-Country competitions. At St Andrew’s we challenge the students to improve on their physical performance, along with a focus on enjoying sport, building friendships and healthy choices for life.  Before and afterschool activities include; 

• Running club & cross-country training.
• After school Athletics training
• Tennis Clinics
• Sporting schools’ clinics throughout the year:
• Soccer, AFL, Hockey, badminton, Volleyball, Netball, Gymnastics, Basketball, Golf and Cricket.

The Indonesian program at St Andrew’s aims to develop students’ knowledge, skills and understanding of the Indonesian language and culture. Highlights of the school program include kite making, cooking lessons, batik painting, traditional songs and games.

Mini Vinnies empowers Year 5 students to become advocates within St Andrew’s and its local community by putting their values into action.  They meet regularly to learn about social justice issues, develop leadership skills and engage with the wider St Vincent de Paul Society. Mini Vinnies is about doing good works in the community that benefit people facing social injustice. It is also about young people meeting to talk, share ideas and concerns, to have fun and support each other.

The Mini Vinnies model of “See, Think, Do” is a great way to get students thinking and talking about their spirituality and to connect their faith with issues affecting their community through volunteering, advocacy and fundraising. Not only do the students in Mini Vinnies benefit from the experience but also the school and wider community.

Our current Year 6 leadership model, “Student Voice”, has seven student ministries. The initiative “Student Voice” was developed to increase involvement and engagement by Year 6 students, as individuals and collectively as a year group. This initiative allows each student of Year 6 to engage and participate as part of one of the seven ministry groups.  The “Ministry Model” at St Andrew’s Catholic Primary School consists of the following ministries: Communication, Cultural, Environmental, Library, Music, Spiritual and Sport. Each ministry is mentored by a staff member and designed to be collaborative in nature. Students regularly meet with their designated staff member and Leadership to discuss topical issues, put forward by students, and occasionally staff. 

Throughout the process and experience of the initiative, Year 6 students become equipped to problem solve, increase their collaborative skills, carry out tasks, understand accountability and maintain a sense of ownership between group members, the school community and the broader community. “Student voice” allows the students to feel heard, take ownership and acquire the skills and strategies that good leaders possess.

St Andrew’s School Band provides our students with many opportunities to showcase their musical talents to the community.  The students perform in a School Music Gala, in school Masses and the Performing Arts Festival.  Regular instrumental lessons are available at the school with Specialist Instrument tutors including lessons for guitar, drums, piano, clarinet, flute, saxophone and fife.

On alternate years, different talented music groups from Musica Viva visit our school to give concerts for our students. These concerts are interactive and our students love participating in the concert and playing the instruments.

The St Andrew’s Chess Club meets every week during lunch time. The Library Ministry from year 6 enjoy setting up the library and coaching and mentoring the younger students.  The children may challenge other students from different year levels according to their ability. 

Our Year 6 children attended Ern Halliday for their annual camp. School camp is a fantastic opportunity for children to develop new skills, friendships and interests. In particular, the opportunity to foster independence, build confidence and develop their team working skills are important aspects of our School camp. This year, our students participated in many activities which included rock climbing, the big swing and caving. The Year 6 children and staff had an amazing time participating in these exciting and challenging activities.

Our students thoroughly enjoy the Athletics program, as it offers each child the chance to have be involved in team games, track events and field events. St Andrew’s offers free before and after-school training sessions to help them prepare for carnivals and to learn new skills.

Coding / Spheros / Ozobots / Beebots / Lego Robotics / Computer lab / Drones

The Speak Up Award programme endeavours to provide young students with the opportunity to learn, develop and practice public speaking skills.

St Andrews CPS has participated in the Speak Up competition for the past 10 years.

With the support of staff running an in-school event for our Year 4, 5 and 6 students, speakers from our school have been successful in reaching the semi-final stages almost every year. On several occasions, St Andrew’s students have reached the state Speak Up Grand Final.