What a busy term it was here at Pender's!  So much excitement with our bi-annual Writer's Festival where we were had a visit from author Sue Lawson who discussed her writing process, her books and ways in which we could all improve our own writing.  Combined with this was our yearly celebration of Book Week where students participated in a range of activities across the week culminating in our Book Parade in the hall with parents and carers.  Students had made their book week costumes and presentations as part of our weekly cross age programs.  

Another highlight of the term was our Grade 3/4 camp.  In early September 55 intrepid campers including staff and parents headed off for three days in beautiful (but chilly!) Marysville.  They participated a huge range of activities including the opes course, bike riding, cooking and the amazing rock climbing and abseiling walls!  

A fantastic result for the school was the increasing of our Out of School Care program to 45 places each day.  We have been working toward this over the last few months and it was great that our families will see the benefit of these extra places this year.  

Of course the classroom learning was, as always amazing!  Inquiry units focussing on Australian history (Grade 3-6) and the people who help us (Grade F-2) saw students present some fantastic work that was shared with other students and families at the culmination of the units.  

Term 3 also saw the start of Spring and our beautiful gardens are looking better every year and are greatly enjoyed by our students and community.  This year saw the  start of our weekly garden party on Monday afternoon.  A number of students and their families attend each Monday after assembly and undertake work in our gardens - planting, pruning, sweeping, planning new designs all whilst sharing delicious afternoon tea!  It's yet another wonderful example of the tremendous sense of community we have here at Pender's!

We are looking forward to an even bigger and better Term 4!

What a fantastically busy Term 2 we have had!  We have seen wonderful learning in classes with inquiry units focussed on Earth Science, plants and growing.  This was a wonderful fit for our inaugral mid winter Solstice Festival last week which saw a huge number of our families and students here at the school on Friday evening sharing soups and a BBQ and also participating in a spectacular lantern parade where much of the work creating lanterns was done as part of our weekly cross age activities.  Our inquiry unit in the F-2 Area also saw students planting in our new planter boxes in the playground with the help of our friends from Northland Bunnings.

We also saw the offical signing of our Memoradnum of Understanding with our new sister school, Doan Thi Diem Primary School in Hanoi.  We were honoured and delighted to have Mrs Hien and Mr Nguyen visit us at the school as part of the process. 

We have also seen a number of improvements works take place at th school over the term.  Paitning of our Specilist building is almost complete and we will also see our front fence gain a new coat of paint over the holidays. 

Two weeks ago it was great to see our whole school participate in a full day excursion to the Venuto club in Bulleen for our yearly Italian Day. Students spent the day cooking, dancing and playing and it is lovely to be part of  school community where our size means that we can take all of our students out together for a day! 

Thanks to all of our students and families for a wonderful term of learning and community and we wish you all a happy holiday!

School starts again for Term 3 on Monday July 17th!

Our grade 3-6 Area have been doing some amazing work this term as part of their Earth Sceince Inquiry Unit.  See below for some fantastic images of Earth models and also some amazing reseach work done via the use of QR codes!