Junior School: Sandringham

Curiosity Centre Aerobics

The Curiosity Centre and garden were opened with great delight earlier in the year. The classroom spaces, which have previously been used for Prep, were converted into a new art room with storage facilities and a thoroughfare to the STEM room. The old Social Centre toilets were removed and replaced with two new instrumental rooms including provisions for audio and AV capabilities, and the Social Centre was refitted with new doors and carpet on the floor and ceilings. The students are also enjoying learning about growing vegetables and fruit in our new Curiosity Centre garden which was generously funded by SHPA (Sandringham House Parents Association). Teams of girls competed at the State AeroSchools Competition on Thursday, 28 July. The girls have been very committed to their training every lunchtime to build their fitness, strength and flexibility and develop their routines.

Year 1 & 2 Café Early Learning Centre

As part of their unit of inquiry, ‘How we organise ourselves’, the Year 1 & 2 students organised and ran their own café as they inquired into the interconnectedness of organisations and the roles within the organisations. Here, some Prep students are enjoying spending time at the café. Our ELC team identified in our Quality Improvement Plan the need to further develop our outdoor learning space. This involved finding ways to negotiate a shared space between 5 classes (including 102 students), and ensuring our outdoor experiences were as rich and challenging as our beautifully crafted indoor programs. We decided that our community of learners should become part of the designing and planning of our garden space. Each fortnight, our ELC 4 classes gather to reflect on the program that has been and share their ideas and interests for future plans. Students are encouraged to think about the resources they will need and the appropriate placement of the various activities. This work involves two of the seven Principles of Practice, ‘Design & Plan’ and ‘Collaboration’.