I have heard people say ‘If you want something done then give it to a busy person’. Well this has certainly applied to our Year 5 boys this year. They have navigated their way through an extremely busy year and only became better at managing it with each new challenge put before them. Mrs Aquilina, Mr Batty, Mr Trevethan and I are proud to be sending them on to be leaders of the school next year.
We were very fortunate to experience many excursions this year, and this type of learning outside the classroom is so valuable as it connects the real world with teaching. Our history excursions took us to the Brisbane Commissariat Store Museum. The boys made many connections even at this young age during this visit. Perhaps an even more valuable lesson was the one in social skills that was inadvertently given as we attempted to walk 78 boys through Queen Street Mall. At this age they are not overly aware of anyone else’s need or right to use the walkway, but they did much better on the return journey and we even got a few comments from passers-by who said how courteous they were.
SANDY GIPPEL
Year 5 Coordinator NUMINBAH VALLEY CAMP
The chance to attend camp in the Numinbah Valley so early in the year set the foundations for great relationships between the Year 5 teachers and students. Experiencing the boys outside the confines of a classroom gave great insight to their personalities that may not have surfaced in the normal dayto-day teaching environment. As the boys pushed themselves it allowed relationships and strong bonds to develop, benefiting all of us when we returned to school. I can’t say that all of the teachers bonded with the large mountain that needed to be climbed, OK, maybe that was just me, but I was so lucky to be accompanied on my journey up and down by a group of the most encouraging and optimistic young boys. One comment in particular warmed my heart no end, ‘For an older lady, Mrs Gippel, you did pretty well’.
GPS SWIMMING
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THE SOUTHPORT SCHOOL SOUTHPORTONIAN 2015
COMMISSARIAT STORE MUSEUM
The more hands-on side to history involved our excursion to Eureka Goldfields, which is tucked up in the middle of residential acreage at the back of Beenleigh. This much anticipated excursion is always fun and the boys are treated more like they would have been in the 1800s and less like we treat them now, which is with compassion and care. They strangely loved the idea of how rough and rugged it was. Many boys said they would have loved to have lived in that era, but I wonder if they really meant it, as they asked for the airconditioning to be cranked up to high and a movie to be played on the in-car DVD player on the bus during the trip home. Our field trip for geography took us to the Q1 to view the waterways from a fabulous vantage point and really appreciate the characteristics and changes that have occurred in this fast-developing city of ours. The boys delighted in pointing out their own
