For all upcoming events please see the Penguin District School Calendar

This week we held our AGM, as our end of year falls on the 31st March. I am pleased to announce the current committee for 2025:

• Sheila Steele - Chair (parent)
• Melika Kelly - Secretary (parent)
• Julie McKenna - Treasurer (staff - School Business Manager)
• Elisha Franks - Vice Chair (parent)
• Matt Smith - returning parent
• Robert Arvier - returning community member
• Trudy McInnes - newly nominated parent
• Julian Devery - newly nominated parent
• Matilda Lutwyche - newly nominated staff (secondary teacher)
• Angela McAuliffe - Principal

As we have 11 seats, we are open to one more nomination from either parents, staff or community members. We would love to have the primary teaching space represented, so give your teachers a nudge! 

Of course you do not have to commit to being on the committee to join our meetings and you are all welcome as observers. We have scheduled the rest of the year for Mondays, weeks 3 and 7 each term, at 5:15 pm. Meetings are held in the first meeting room on the left as you enter reception. The next meeting will be on the Monday 12 May. 

At Monday's meeting we also met with two DECYP Facility Managers. We discussed the current exploration of various sites, including the Old School Site, to be used for DECYP employees (such as social workers, administration staff, etc). We also had the chance to state our preference that the site be used in ways that benefit the school and the wider community, including but not limited to the provision of Out of School Hours Childcare. 

It is saddening to know that there has been vandalism to the old site, which has made ongoing use more challenging. Please continue to enjoy the grounds, park in the car parks, and report anything suspicious to the police. 

Enjoy the countdown to Easter.

Sheila Steele

Congratulations

Flynn, Hudson, Will, Hunter, Sophie, Matilda, Rory, Heid,i Liffey, Kirra, Eleanor, Lucy, Mackenzie & Marley

Who were recently elected as members of the Primary Student Board

and to our 2025 Primary House Captains and Vice House Captains.

 2025 House Captains                                               2025 Vice House Captains

 Rayff, Elijah, Maya(absent) , Eva                                        Jochi, Tully, Angus, Ella

This year all Year 7s have been hard at work with their first year of Japanese. Our fantastic teacher, Miss Lutwyche, has been guiding us all through learning the Japanese alphabet and all the characters. So far, we have leaned vowels, the “k” line, the “s” line and the “t” line. Some students were happy to tell us how their enjoying Japanese.

I loved playing the Japanese game “Gimkit” it’s a fun, enjoyable quiz game that tests our skills in hiragana – Will.K

I love learning Japanese and learning how to write symbols and hiragana - Ruby.L 

Piku piku means wriggly and I learnt how to play Gimkit – Charile.L

I enjoyed learning new words; nemui means tired – Myra.C

All Year 7s are learning lots of all things in not just Japanese but a range of other subjects too. But most of all, big thanks to Miss Lutwyche the amazing homegroup teacher of 7C and our awesome Japanese teacher teaching all of us a new and really awesome language!

By- Grace C and Scarlet T 

Highlights of Year 7 ...... so far!

• Making new friends, Ruby G
• “I like art a lot” - Roy
• Camp, Ash and Tida
• Meeting all the new teachers and having applied learning. Especially MDT, Grace
• Meeting and making new friends, Zahalia
• Playing Ping Pong, Cooper
• Meeting and making new friends at camp, Layla

Wise words from Year 8

• “Don’t forget your PE gear” – Elijah
• “Sometimes it takes some time to find the right people” – Bronte
• “You fail every shot you don’t take” – Noah
• “Smile at everyone” – Peyton
• “Don’t follow the crowd” – Elsie
• “Don’t be afraid to be yourself” – Ashley

One of the skills that all students 7 – 10 have explored this term is Indices.

The Australian Curriculum scaffolds the understanding of indices from learning about index form through to simplifying quadratic equations.

Here is an example of the same skill being built upon through our four, year levels:

Are you smarter than a Year 7 student?

1. Can you prime factorise the number 24 and write the answer in Index Form?

How about being smarter than a Year 8 student?

1. Can you simplify the expression  using index laws?

Let’s try Year 9 student understanding...

1. Can you simplify this expression  using more than one index law?

Alright, can you graduate Secondary school and answer this year 10 question?

1. Factorise the following expression:

x² + 6x + 8

Mr. King also has provided us with a Maths Methods question to show the progression to College maths…

1. Draw a graph of y = 2 (x – 3)² - 8

Congratulations if you were able to complete all four levels of understanding indices.

The secondary maths CTT collaboratively plan lesson sequences to ensure all students are accessing differentiated activities in their classes.

The use of PAT, Naplan and ACF data guides our planning as well as the conversations and observations made in the classroom.

 Throughout term 2, we will build upon this understanding and all students will be exploring Algebra concepts.

Today staff and student at PDS dressed in PINK to raise money for the Penguin In Pink oraganisation.

See next weeks newsletter for a total of money raised and more photos. 

2024 Gnomon is now available to purachse for $25 on the Qrk App or cash or EFTPOS from the office.