Illalong Newsletter - 15 June 2023 | A.B. Paterson College

Prep to Year 3 Makerspace Programs - Always Something Different!

Term 2 was another fun term of discovery, creativeness, and experimentations.

Our Prep and Year 1 students meet on Tuesday afternoons in the Lilly Pilly Learning Centre and our Year 2 and Year 3 students meet on Wednesday afternoons. Our Term 2 group of students are led by our ‘Green Jackets’ – a group of Senior School and upper-Junior School volunteers who help run our Prep and Year 1 and Year 2 and Year 3 Makerspace programs.

We are always filled with gratitude for these student-volunteers. It is their involvement that makes the program as successful as it is. Our youngest students enjoy collaborating with our oldest. Most lovely, is how our ‘Green Jackets’ often remark that this is one of their favourite parts of their week as well!

The programs always highlight the festivals and events that the term brings. Being project based, we developed our fine motor skills while exploring the concepts of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths. We worked to create seven different projects, each week of the Term 2 program.

Week 1:

Bubbles and bubble wands started the Term. We had a bubbly blast experimenting with pipe cleaners and various home-found ingredients to make the perfect bubble.

Week 2 – Mother’s Day:

Secret surprises were made for the women in our lives. We made beautiful glass bead necklaces and were proud to report the number of mums who were pleasantly pleased on Sunday morning with a new piece of jewellery that they “actually would wear” (to quote a mum)!

Week 3 – Harmony Week:

Orange slime was the experiment of the week – with orange being the colour of Harmony Week. We added in Orbeez to represent the diversity of people who we live and learn with.

WEEK 4 – NATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS STORYTIME:

To celebrate the book The Speedy Sloth, we had sloth races. Decorating balloons to look like sloths and using balloon power to race them along a string. This was a tricky task, and we all used our perseverance to race our sloths – the same perseverance ‘The Speedy Sloth’ used to complete her race!

WEEK 5 – RECONCILIATION WEEK:

Being Reconciliation Week, we learned about Australia’s deadly First Scientists – First Nation people and the science behind the boomerang. We read some books and watched a short documentary before finding our connection with country and decorating our own boomerang to remember the week and our learning.

WEEK 6:

We always ensure we have a technology aspect to our program – by allowing students to develop their skills with the College iPads – and enter new dimensions with our Virtual Reality goggles. We also gave student the options to create – putting out a variety of craft and building supplies to truly ‘Makerspace’ – (which also could be called MakeaMess)!

WEEK 7 - ICE CREAM TRADITION:

The tradition ended our Makerspace program by making ice cream and discussing the Science behind this. The delicious final project is created with basic ingredients, plastic bags and kid-power. Despite the start of winter, this does not slow our Makerspacers down from getting in on the cold action to create their very own ice cream treat!

Once again thank you to everyone who has supported our Prep to Year 3 Makerspace program in Term 2. Our Prep to Year 3 Makerspace program will begin again in Week 3 of Term 3. Please look for a registration email at the start of Term 3 if your child would be interested in joining. We look forward to working with a new group of students to create together next term.

Happy Holidays. We hope your family will have a chance to create and experiment together over the term break!

Stephanne Siberry | Head of Library Services

Year 12 CLS Public Library Project

To members of A.B Paterson community, this CLS proposal took on the challenge of the construction of a public library, which will be setup around the school in various locations. The proposal, designed by a student group of a committed Year 12 CLS class, is keen on tackling the challenge of a low reading rate within the student community and young people as a whole.

This public library will be capable of increasing the take-up of reading books by the student population, thus indirectly improving literacy and hence academic performances and personal wellbeing. The proposal of making such a public library will grant ease of access to knowledge and the pleasure of reading books throughout the school, granting students the privilege of being able to read whenever and wherever.

Currently, only a downsized, 3D printed library is produced to serve as a prototype, but with the initiation of this program, the actual full-sized library will be installed across near the bus stop at the front of the school.

Another option for reusing texts at the College came in a vision of a buy-back system. To start the program, expressions of interest could be sent out to ensure the program is viable. Key staff members have already been contacted and are fully on board with the initiative. Senior students will facilitate the book swap through meeting with each grade to collect the books and students donating books will be noted to ensure they receive the next book. These students in charge will then organise the books and ensure there is enough for everyone. After this, the year level above will collect their donated books and then the swap is complete. This will ensure that there is less waste and students can reuse books. If books become redundant, they can be donated to the school to be involved in new initiatives, facilitated through the English faculty.

In an effort to promote literacy and sustainability further, some of us decided to develop the concept of a vending machine that dispenses and reuses books used in the Australian Curriculum. This machine works by allowing students to donate a book in exchange for a book of their choice from the machine. While this idea is futuristic, it has the potential to promote literacy, sustainability, generosity, and convenience in schools. However, users must also consider the limitations and potential drawbacks of these machines, such as limited selection, quality control, maintenance and cost. With proper planning and management, these machines can be a valuable asset to any school looking to promote literacy and sustainability.

Overall, the repurposing of books at A.B. Paterson College will be able to generate positive effects such as increased English grades, improve in NAPLAN results, and encouraging as well as promoting the benefits of reading within the College community, encouraging and improving general literacy across all cohorts. It answers the issue of waste when it comes to purchasing texts from book lists and decreases the cost of resources for parents.

Daisy Ross | Junior School Service Learning Co-ordinator

The students split into groups and attacked the project in a 3 pronged approach (Public Library, Vending Machine (literacy of the future) and Book Buy Back System).

This project was led by Senior Science Teacher, Richard Worsey and students involved were:

Connor O’Neil 1, Dean Tuesley 3, Tyson Powis 3, Oisin Fountain 2, Eric Zhou 3, Simar Deep 4, Flynn Fahy 2, Ben Canning 2, Joshua Lee 3, Ashley Williams 4, James Zhou 3, Mia Maratos 1, Charlotte Squire 5, Jessica Williams 1, Sarah Read 5, Harry Huang 2, Jasmine Neuffer 1, Harry Argent 4, Tyson Brand 4, Nikolina Subotic 5 and Zoe Vaughan 5

2023 Senior Interhouse Athletics Carnival

It has been a busy end to the term with the athletics carnivals taking place on 8 June for Juniors and on 13 and 14 June for Seniors.

Congratulations to all students involved. There were outstanding performances and many records fell to our exceptional student athletes.

A big thank you to all our coaches for their dedication over Term 2.

A detailed report including Age Champions and record-breaking performances will be published in the first Illalong Newsletter in Term 3 (14 July).

Congratulations to Wright House as overall winners!

Year 1 – Design and Technologies – Building Bridges

During Design and Technologies, students used the design process to develop ideas around how to design a bridge that could withstand the weight of a toy car and be high enough to cater for a boat to travel underneath.

Students considered the important design features of bridges such as beam, truss, arch and suspension. Both the structure and support must be strong and well designed in order to ensure that the bridge meets the needs of the community. Students also had to consider the materials used, the forces that will act on the bridge and the purpose of the bridge.

Students used Book Creator to collate and showcase their design process. They were able to access their 1:1 device and create a digital artefact. Students were able to present their thinking digitally as well as learn about the principles of engineering and the importance of teamwork and collaboration.

Lisa McNee, Amy Rainey, Ruth Bradley and Natalie Pierron | Year 1 Teachers

2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge

The 2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) is underway at A.B. Paterson College.

The PRC is not a competition but a way to encourage students to develop a love of reading for life. Students are encouraged to select a range of fiction and non-fiction books suited to their reading ability and record books read during the reading period, between 8 May to 25 August. The reader record form for students to record the number of books they have read can be found in our libraries or online at:

https://readingchallenge.education.qld.gov.au/register/Documents/non-state-school-reader-record-form.pdf

To complete the challenge:

Prep to Year 2 must read or experience at least 20 books
Years 3 and 4 must read at least 20 books
Years 5 to 9 must read at least 15 books.

Experiencing books can include shared reading, listening to stories, or reading picture books. The aim for the 2023 challenge is to encourage students to make time to read.

Key Dates	Activity
8 May to 25 August	Reading period for Prep to Year 9 students
28 August	Student reader record forms submitted to teacher
30 October to 10 November	Premier's Reading Challenge celebration weeks

For suggested books or for more information about the PRC, please visit: readingchallenge.education.qld.gov.au or contact our Library Team in our space or at librarystaff@abpat.qld.edu.au.

Every student who completes the challenge and returns the completed record reader form and consent form, will receive a Certificate of Achievement signed by the Premier. We look forward to seeing as many of our students as possible take part in the 2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge.

Consent form and third-party providers for the Certificate of Achievement

This section is to inform you about how the department will use, record and disclose you and your child’s personal information. The department, as the PRC organiser, often works with third-party providers which may involve disclosing personal information to those parties.

Due to the high volume of reader entrants in the PRC, the department utilises a third-party organisation (Median Technologies Pty Ltd) for collecting the reader entries, printing the individualised certificates and mailing them to schools.

The department needs to receive consent in writing before it uses or discloses an individual’s personal information or materials to a third-party organisation.

By completing and returning the reader record form and the signed consent form to us, you agree to your child/children participating in the PRC and their personal information (their first and last names, year level, class name and school name) to be collected, used and disclosed by the department for the purposes of registration of their entry in the PRC, and printing and issuing a Certificate of Achievement to your child. This information is collected and disclosed to Median Technologies and held for a period of one (1) year in their online database (https://prc.median.com.au) which is based in Australia (using local Microsoft Azure Cloud Services). Any data held by Median Technologies is deleted within one (1) year after the PRC is completed.

Duration of consent

The consent lasts for one year. If you wish the department to update or remove your child’s/children’s data before one year has expired, you can contact reading.challenge@qed.qld.gov.au or call 07 3328 6628. For more information, please see section 3 of the consent form, our Terms and Conditions at https://readingchallenge.education.qld.gov.au/how-to-register/terms-and-conditions and our Data Collection Notice available at http://prc.median.com.au.

We look forward to seeing a large number of A.B. Paterson College students from Prep to Year 9 receiving this prestigious certificate, signed by the Premier of Queensland!

Happy Reading!

The Library Team