The combined subject areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) provide a chance for students to foster skills to prepare them for a rapidly changing world. With the development of innovative programs at SMGS, and to provide an enrichment opportunity for our students, we have initiated a Junior School STEM enrichment program. A small [...]
How do we develop critical, creative thinkers? What value do we place on project-based learning? At SMGS we provide our students with access to opportunities and experiences outside the parameters of the traditional curriculum. Programs such as Kidpreneur, the Aeronautical Velocity Challenge, Write a Book in a Day, the Da Vinci Decathlon Series, the STEM [...]
The rise in mental health issues is of great concern within our wider community, though none more so than the increase in mental health prevalence among our youth. We now have years’ worth of quality data collected from various creditable organisations, which consistently report that around one in four adolescents are presenting with mental health [...]
What is happening at SMGS in the Junior School to personalise the learning journey of our Year 4-6 students? Do you remember learning maths at school? Did you love it? Was it fun? Or did you drag your feet to maths class, dreading another blackboard full of algebra? Was your learning personalised to your exact [...]
Last week SMGS’ Year 5, 6, 7 and 8 teams travelled to Canberra Grammar School to compete in the 2019 da Vinci Decathlon. The da Vinci Decathlon is an academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students. Students compete in teams of eight across ten disciplines: engineering, mathematics and chess, code-breaking, [...]
Last week was week 2 of our K/1 Mystery Reader program! What is the Mystery Reader program? Each week, members of our school community will visit our K/1 students and read a book chosen by Kindergarten Teacher, Ms Taylor. This is a wonderful opportunity to help our youngest learners get to meet other staff [...]
As part of our Mathematics unit on 3D shapes, K/1 explored the attributes and properties of prisms (cardboard boxes), whilst building their own amazing robots! Students gave oral descriptions of their robot’s ability and even named them as Lullaby Singing Robot, Cat Feeding Robot, Cookie Making Robot and Cleaning Robot. This hands on activity [...]
Our youngest learners started Term 2 with some new Literacy Rotation Activities. The Term 2, week 1 challenges included the following: High Frequency Word Familiarisation - Students place magnetic letters on the small whiteboards to spell High Frequency Words. This supports letter recognition and develops phonemic awareness. At the writable table, students write high frequency [...]
Today our K/1 class kicked off it's weekly Mystery Reader program! Each week, members of our school community will visit our K/1 students and read a book chosen by Kindergarten Teacher, Ms Taylor. This is a wonderful opportunity to help our youngest learners get to meet other staff members from around the school! This week, [...]
This term, Class 2/3 are doing a writing unit based around the novel, Storm Boy. To support our understanding of the concepts within this story, Ms Shvetsoff has organised a showing of the new movie which is a beautiful and contemporary retelling of Colin Thiele’s classic Australian tale. Based on the book, Storm Boy is [...]
