Bringing the two approaches together hasn’t been easy. This weeks efforts are based around this term’s theme of “Gold”. Readers in other parts of the world may not be aware that the State that we live in owes its foundation and wealth to the discovery of gold back in 1851. What must it have been like for early settlers to find out that one minute they were dirt poor and the next minute had so much money the diggers literally lit their cigars with the paper money that they had gained.
If you read the student’s blogs you will see their attempts to catch that moment.
As an added bonus this week, one of our students has added a heart felt plea to stop bullying. Even in a small and extremely safe rural town like Beeac, it would seem that cyber bullying cannot be stopped.

Below is an extract from a student who doesn’t have his own blog.
“Wooohoo I found it!” I screamed.
“Found what? said another miner. ”
“I think I’ve found the biggest piece of gold ever it’s “…. it’s beautiful and it’s about 2 meters tall 1 meter wide!

On the last week of term, we tried a second time to work on tightening the tension in stories. Topics about visiting the dentist or the expectation of opening presents on Christmas Day made great topics. Students were asked to focus on their senses.  These results were better than the first ones.
We are getting better with practice. Even though we were only working on the middle bit of the story, most students wanted to finish it too.
What follows is an extract from student who doesn’t have a blog.

I’m getting ready for a speech and I’m really nervous because I have to be a narrator of a play called, “Bunny hunter. I hear cheers saying”, “Come on come on! Okay I’m ready for story telling and”…. ahhh! too many people here. Help how do I escape from here???

Our class spent the second week of our writing, using the technique of tightening tension. We watched a Starwars scene where Luke and his mates are slowly being crushed to death in a garbage compactor. Using the six senses we analysed what made the tension rise in the scene.
This was a harder task to get the kids engaged with and the results show this. Students who chose to describe a football match often did well, and a murder scene from Vivienne has ‘nailed’ The idea. We will need to revisit the idea next term.
What follows are extracts from two students who don’t have their own blogs.

Help! Help! Help there’s a bushfire and there’s smoke everywhere and… “Help! I’m on fire! Help Dad I need a fire fighter.”  “OK son, I’m getting one, just hang on”.

The footy match
I was sitting in a seat at a footy match and hearing the crowd scream when the players came out. Its Essendon and Geelong and I was going for Geelong, but Essendon was winning. Geelong slowly caught up and Geelong won and I was sooooo happy.

Two weeks ago our teaching staff travelled to Bannockburn Primary School for a day of professional development with Jen McVeity. She has authored and developed a writing program called seven steps to writing success. Step two: “sizzling starts” is an approach designed to grab the reader’s interest. Our students have been practising their art with this concept. When you look at the student’s blogs you will see that whilst some of them still need to work on it, many others have produced some great “sizzling starts”.
What follows are two examples from students who don’t have their own blogs.

The school with no teachers: 
 “Woohoo!”  No rules. Bang bang, I knocked him out.

The three legged dog.
AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A three legged dog leapt in to the room. A dog that I had never seen before.

We’ve been very busy at our school this week with Bike education. Every afternoon we have been out practicing skills. On the first couple of days we stayed within our school grounds and tennis courts. But by Friday we had taken a bus load of students, two trailer loads of bikes and headed off to Colac for the afternoon. Despite the frequent showers of  rain we managed to finished the day successfully. A member of the local police force Terry Woodcroft joined us also, so overall we also had a very productive day. I hope that we will be able to hand out certificate threes to many of our students. Successful completion will mean that they demonstrate:

• driveway and kerbside rideouts
• riding in a straight line
• riding single file and in pairs
• turns at intersections
• negotiating roundabouts
• riding in a variety of road conditions.

One of our students started the week unable to ride, so every student can be proud of the progress that they have made.

What follows are a couple of comments from students who don’t have their own blog.
This week we had bike ed.
Friday just gone mum and I went and picked up my niece and we were looking after my niece until Tuesday .
Friday just gone my nephew went in to hospital.

Tonight I am going to a disco.
All this week  I’ve  been doing bike ed which is a thing that you get to ride a bike around towns and on roads and around the school.

This week, in addition to writing about what is happening in their lives, we have asked our students to comment on how well they think they are going. All our students feel confident about how well they are progressing. That is a good sign. What measure are they using to gauge this feeling? W need to think as a class about what they are expected to achieve by the end of this term, and perhaps they will then be able to comment more accurately about how they are going.

What follows are a couple of comments from students who haven’t got their own blog about how they are going.

At my school I am learning to read level 36 and I’m going good at math and spelling and I’m a good writer.
With my reading I am going good. I am good at writing. spelling I am good at. Math can be hard but I will improve more soon.
On the Saturday I don’t know what I’m doing. On Sunday mum Ian and I are going fishing but I don’t know where.
On Monday the school has a day off because the teachers are going to Bannockburn Primary School.
On Tuesday the  grade 4 5 and 6s are having bike ed.
On Monday the 19^th of August Terry Woodcroft a local policeman came in to talk to the grade 4 5 and 6s about sexting and social media.

Our school spent a very pleasant day at Narana Creations in Grovedale, Geelong. Our students threw boomerangs and were involved in a variety of activities, that Ian our guide informed us were typical activities of the original natives of the area: the Wathaurong people. There is evidence to show that the  Wathaurong tribe have settled our area for at least 25,000years. Ian our guide lightly touched on some of the interesting aspects of how a typical person spent their time before white visitors arrived. He showed us some of the medicine and food that was used. He also showed us how the men hunted with spears, woomeras and throwing sticks. He also showed us how the women cared for their families and their children.

Our students appeared to enjoy the day and we were inspired to attempt some facial painting after we got back to Beeac.
What follows are a couple of  student’s accounts of the day. You might be interested in visiting our student’s blogs that you can see elsewhere on this page to get other versions of our day.

Student one
On the 13^th of August the school went to Narana Creations. When we arrived there we got off the bus and met the owner of Narana Creations and his name was Ian. We threw boomerangs and we did lots of other good things as well.
On the 19^th of August, which is on Monday, Terry Woodcroft is coming in to talk to the grade 4, 5 and 6’s.
Tonight my mum, sister, aunty and I are going to Lismore in VIC. We are going to see my cousins dance thing that he and his class are doing.

Student two
On 13^th of August I went to Narana Creations. I got to throw a boomerang and I broke some sticks. I went on a bush walk and found bush tucker and some rock paintings. I found leaves that are some bush medicine for sore tummies. I found two emus named Polly and Oscar. Then I listened to a man play a didgeridoo and he showed me how to start a fire. He also showed me some aboriginal tools and weapons then I went home.

This weeks posts are a mix of comments about the 150th celebration and our upcoming visit to Narana Creations in Geelong. Our major theme this term has been about aborigines, so out visit will hopefully give us insights in to how Australia’s native people used to live before white settlement. http://www.narana.com.au/  No doubt we will have some comments about the place after our visit.

What follows is a comment from a student who does not have their own blog:

On Monday just gone the 4, 5 and 6 got to taste a bit of kangaroo. I thought it was very nice. I will have it again.
This term the school is learning about the aborigines.
On the 30^th of July my nephew was born and he was 47cm at birth.
Tonight my sisters friend is staying over for the night.
Tomorrow I might be going to Geelong to see my sister and my newbaby nephew.

With the pace of things gathering speed as we move towards our 150th celebration, our students have again been writing about what will happen on the day. There will be a variety of refreshments on sale including a bbq,  scones, tea and coffee and cordial. There will be an opportunity to buy home made cakes. The famous Beeac Primary school cook book will be on sale and there will be an opportunity to buy tickets in a raffle.
We hope that visitors will consider making the day, a day out for your friends and family and come and visit our school
For those of you who are visiting to remember the good old days there will be a big display of historical memorabilia.
For those of you who will be visiting with children, there will be a number of activities including painting plaster casts and races.
Additionally a selection of pot plants suitable for your garden will also be on sale.
Our senior students will be available to guide you through our school.
Once again, we hope that you will consider visiting our school on Sunday 4th of August.

What follows is a comment from one of our students who have not published in their own blog. We hope you take the time to browse through the student blogs to read about the thoughts about the day.

Beeac: the 150th
In 1862 a school conducted by T.C. Camm, had begun in the first Methodist church (97 Main St). Each pupil paid a weekly fee.
In 1923 the Presbyterian Church purchased the building and land at a cost of $1649. The building was then insured for $1000. This purchase took place after the present school opened in February 1923. Pupils finished at the old school in December 1922 and began at the new school in February 1923. Pupils remember playing football in the play ground which extended back to Coulson Street.
In 1865 a common school opened in a bluestone building now owned by James Muntz beside St Andrews Uniting Church. In 1923 this building was purchased by St Andrews’s Church & became St Andrews Sunday School hall.
What is our school doing to celebrate the150^th
There will be food like a bbq soup and scones
There will be raffle they will be a dollar each
There will be cook books they will be $10 dollars.
There will be display photos from the post.
You can bring a couple of friends. If you cant come that’s okay but it would be good if you can come in.
What time you can come in: between 11to 3?
I think that since the kids are working so hard that we should get the food for free.

Beeac Primary School will be open to all members of the public on Sunday 4th August. We hope that as many people will join us from 11.00am to 3.oopm to celebrate 150 years of education at Beeac. If you would like more information about the day then please go to our website and download our latest newsletter. This has a summary of what we will be doing during the day. http://www.beeacps.vic.edu.au/  We have been asking our students to think about what they enjoy best about being at our school. If you go to the blogs you will see that students especially like the smallness of our school because they can make great friends.

Here is an example of one student’s thoughts:

• It is really big.
• So we have enough room for everyone to have their personal space.
• Everyone is nice.