16 September 2024
Principal’s Report
The Learning Pit: Encouraging Resilience and Growth in Learning
At Quorn Area School, we are always looking for ways to support your child's learning journey, helping them develop the skills they need to succeed in their studies and life. This overarching goal was the focus of our most recent professional learning day, during which our teachers worked collaboratively to refine our thinking and develop a strategy to complement our dispositions and further empower our learners to accept the challenges, embrace the struggle, and work collaboratively to secure success. The approach we have collectively chosen to introduce to support this is the concept of "The Learning Pit."
What is The Learning Pit?
The Learning Pit is a powerful metaphor used to explain the learning process to children. It was developed to show learners that it's okay to find things difficult, and sometimes, you need to struggle before you truly understand or master a new concept. Imagine this journey as a pit:
- Stage 1: Feeling Confident (Before the Pit)
- Your child approaches a new task feeling confident, thinking they'll find it easy. However, as they begin, they might encounter difficulties.
- Stage 2: Entering the Pit (Struggle)
- This is the stage where the challenge sets in. Your child may feel stuck, confused, or frustrated—this is entirely normal! The struggle is where the deepest learning takes place. It's important to remind them that feeling challenged is part of learning.
- Stage 3: Climbing Out (Perseverance)
- Your child starts understanding the concept through perseverance, asking for help, and trying different strategies. This is where they learn problem-solving and resilience.
- Stage 4: Success (Out of the Pit)
- After working through the challenge, your child experiences the joy of success and the satisfaction of overcoming a challenging task. They emerge with new knowledge and skills, ready for their next challenge!
How Can You Support at Home?
- Encourage a Growth Mindset: Help your child understand that mistakes and challenges are stepping stones to success.
- Celebrate Effort, Not Just Results: Focus on your child's hard work and persistence rather than simply getting the correct answer.
- Ask Open-Ended Questions: When they feel stuck, ask, "What have you tried so far?" or "What else could you try?"
By understanding and embracing the Learning Pit, learners at Quorn Area School are learning to become resilient, independent thinkers who aren't afraid to tackle challenges head-on. Thank you for your continued support as we work together to foster a love for learning.
Andrew Gilsenan-Reed
Father’s Day Stall
We had a fantastic Father’s Day stall leading up to the special day. The learners had a great time choosing their gifts and practising their money management skills. A big thank you to everyone who helped set up, wrap, and distribute the gifts!
Andrew Gilsenan-Reed
Primary Report
Foundation Highlights and Achievements
The Foundation classroom has been especially exciting this term as we welcomed seven new members to the Foundations family. The term has been full of new beginnings, exciting milestones and many achievements!
In Literacy this term, we have been engaging in activities that build essential skills to nurture reading and writing in young learners. We have explored 44 sounds in Read Write Inc. and begun blending these sounds to form words. As we have progressed through the term, the learner's confidence in their sounds and their independence to write have grown. We have also engaged in interactive games that have honed their ability to rhyme, segment, and blend words. Alongside our phonics program, we have begun to investigate the purpose of text through retelling some of our favourite stories and characters.
In Health and PE, we have examined how to keep ourselves happy and healthy. We began by discussing different emotions and then identified strategies to manage big emotions. Later this term, we studied different foods to understand how some things provide various types of nutrients and impact how we feel. We talked about fibre, vitamin C, sugar, and carbohydrates and even looked at the ratings for different food packaging. The learners created their own lunchboxes with different types of food, including some of our favourite things!
We agreed that it was essential to have a balance of the different things we eat as well as to engage in physical activity to help make us feel good. We have been exploring fundamental skills this term, like catching, throwing, jumping, and hopping, to name a few! Our favourite part, though, has been when we had the high school learners create activities and teach us new skills. We loved doing different activities and showing them how we could progress.
Back in the classroom, we did many interesting things while learning about the Arts and Maths. We have looked at subitising, measuring, counting and shapes whilst delving into the world of dramatic play. We have been improvising, using props, and creating characters, and we have had a few exciting visits to the art room. The learners have shown lots of creativity using different materials to create and design. Most recently, we have used clay to create pinch pots. Everyone did such a brilliant job that we had to try to make something a little more challenging: the coil pot.
As we wrap up this term, thank you to everyone for their support and enthusiasm and for being a part of this journey! We’re excited about what lies ahead and look forward to more achievements and the ‘I got it!’ moments. Here’s to building on progress and continuing to grow next term!
Victoria Alexander
Class Teacher
SAPSASA Athletics
District Athletics Carnival
We had a very successful day at the SAPSASA District Athletics Carnival in Stirling North last Monday, coming 4th overall.
- Callan Finlay: 2nd in Discus and 3rd in Shotput
- Flynn: 1st in high jump and 3rd in Long Jump
- Lara: 2nd in the 200m
- Taitum: 3rd in Discus
- Nevaeh: 1st in Discus
- Maya: 2nd in the 200m and 3rd in Long Jump
- Ellie: 1st in 100m, 200, and 800m
- Amilia: 3rd in 800m
- Lucas: 3rd in Shotput
State Athletics Carnival
On Monday, twenty-eight students from the Northern Zone competed in the State Athletics Championships in Adelaide. The team achieved an impressive 5th place overall, earning 6 gold, 7 silver, and 9 bronze medals. Maya Kruger and Ellie Bury were key contributors to this success. Ellie secured bronze medals in the 100m and 200m events, as well as a silver medal in the 800m. Additionally, Ellie and Maya teamed up to win a bronze medal in the 11-year-old relay.
Congratulations to all our students for demonstrating outstanding sportsmanship at both events. These experiences are surely creating lasting memories.
Click on the link below for a full run down of event results.
SAPSASA Golf
Back in July, Callan Finlay and Ashleigh Scott qualified to represent the Northern region, along with three others, in the SA Schools Golf 12 & Under Country & State Championships. On Thursday, the 12th and Friday, the 13th of September, they played a 15-hole event at the Westward Ho Golf Course at West Beach in Adelaide.
On Thursday, they competed in the Country Championships, with Callan scoring 86 and Ash scoring 115. On Friday, they played in the State Championship, which included all 140 players from both Country and Metro regions. Callan scored 83, and Ash scored 115 over 15 holes.
The Westward Ho Course, known for its heavy woods, lakes, white sand bunkers, and super-fast greens, provided a challenging but rewarding experience for many of the Country competitors. All the players gave it their best shot, had a lot of fun, and made new friendships.
Thank you to Golf Australia, SA Schools Sports, and the Westward Ho Golf Club for facilitating this event. Special thanks to Setio Shanahan for providing training and coaching at Port Augusta in the weeks leading up to this event.
What a fabulous opportunity for our junior golfers. Well done, Callan and Ash!
Secondary Report
Bowls SA & School Sport SA
Mia and Riley Crisp are competing in Geelong this week as part of the School Sport Australia Bowls Championships. This is the first time Bowls SA and School Sport SA have combined to field a team. The event live streaming is via www.youtube.com/@BowlsAus
We wish them and their teammates every success and look forward to tracking their results
SANFL Development Squad
Congratulations to Year 8 student Noah Kruger! Noah was one of just 24 boys chosen from the SANFL Under-14 Development Squad Programme to participate in a Port vs Crows match on Monday, July 15th. His journey began with the North Adelaide Football Club.
The programme included involvement from Crows players, officials, nutritionists, recruiters, and coaches, all utilising the West Lakes facilities.
Well done, Noah, on this fantastic achievement!
Miscellaneous Items
Port Augusta Technical College
Apply now for Year 10 or 11 in 2025
Woolworths Cricket Blast Program
Registrations are OPEN!
Start date: 26th October 2024. Once the program is made available to clubs, session dates will be provided. Eight sessions in total.
Day: Saturday
Time: 8:50 am - 10:00 am
Gender: Mixed
Age: 5 to 10 years old **Kids must be turning 5 before the 1st of September.
Location: Quorn Oval or Courts
Price: $99.00 includes a pack of goodies. Sports Vouchers can be used.
Contact person: Corey Finlay
(p) 0488 119 993
(e) quorncricketclub@outlook.com
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