Menai High Transition

Over the past few weeks some of the Year 6 students from Padstow Park Public School have been going to Menai High School to participate in a transition program. They have been attending classes while at the school.

Students were given a choice of Wicked Woods (Woodworks and Technics), Squirms, Squawks and Squids (Science and Marine Studies), Kids in the Kitchen (Food Technology) and Makin' and Creatin' (Visual Arts).The program was run between 12:30pm to 1:45pm on four consecutive Thursday afternoons.

The aim of the program was to introduce the stuudents to a variety of subjects that are on offer at Menai High School, give them the opportunity to become familar with Menai High School's grounds and the secondary school atmostphere and meet students from other schools with whom they may attend high school.  All students thoroughly enjoyed the program.  Here are some photos of them with some of their creations!

 



Basketball Academy

This semester Padstow Park has had both a junior and senior boys team playing in the primary schools basketball competition at Bankstown Basketball Stadium. The boys play every Monday afternoon and have thoroughly enjoyed their season. Considering most of the boys had never played before both teams have done exceptionally well.

Both teams qualified for the semi-finals which took place on Monday 17^th June. Our junior team fought bravely but narrowly lost 17-14. Our senior team won 30-18 and advanced through to the grand final on the 24^th June. The boys played against Wattle Grove and unfortunately lost 34-25.

Basketball Academy has enabled the boys to learn a new sport, develop friendships and have a whole lot of fun at the same time. We will be giving more students from 3-6 the chance to play in this competition next semester. If this is something that interests you, please come and speak to Mr. Godkin.

 

 

 

Bankstown City Council Chambers Excursion

On the 30^th of May, Stage 3 went on an excursion to Bankstown City Council Chambers.

The day started off at 9:30am and the children were already roaring with excitement!

The chambers could only hold a limited amount of children, so only half of stage 3 could go in the first session and the rest went in the afternoon session.

When we arrived, everyone was waiting at the door for the guide to come. Once he came, everyone raced to get a seat at the front.

Our guide for the day was Matthew. He showed us around and told us what to do.

Firstly, Matthew spoke about local government responsibilities and explained how Bankstown was named.  He also told us the meaning behind the Bankstown Council logo.

Soon after, we did a mock debate of a local issue to help us with our understanding of how decisions are made at local government level.  Students were given roles such as The Mayor, councillors, audience, security guards and trouble-makers. From this, we were able to see how the process works.

After the mock debate had finished, we had recess that was supplied by the City Council Chambers. It wasn’t much but it did the trick of satisfying everyone’s hunger.

After recess, we split into groups and we each were given $10 (fake money) to spend on something in the community. Each of the sectors of the budget was explained to us.  They were Invest, Green, Liveable, Lead and Connect. We each got to spend our money but needed to justify why we were spending our money on that particular sector. The most common area of spending for the morning session was ‘Liveable’ coming in with $100.

Once that was finished, it was the end of the excursion. All the students were glad they had the opportunity and privilege to visit Bankstown City Council Chambers and learn so much about their local government.

By Natasha Harvey & Lili Green

 

 

Congratulations Adeline

 

On the 13^th of June 2013 Local Final No 4 of the Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition was held at Padstow Park PS.  It started at 9:30am for the Year 3 and 4 competitors and was ably compered by our School Ambassador Stephanie Hunt 5/6B and Angela Mataio 5/6B.  The timekeepers for the Years 3 & 4 section were Perry Alexakis 5/6B and Vuong Pham 5/6K.

After all the prepared speeches were over there was a 15 minute break while morning tea was served.  Once the break was over, the impromptus began. The impromptu topic was “The Best Gift in Life”.   There were some great speeches and the winner of the Junior Section was Anthea ???? from ???

The Year 5 & 6 section began at 12:30pm and was expertly compered by Perry Alexakis 5/6B and Vuong Pham 5/6K with Caleb Robson 5/6B and John Luo 5/6 B timekeepes.  Padstow Park was capably represented in this section by Adeline Kwong 5/6K who spoke on the topic “UnAustralian” and Natasha Harvey 5/6S who spoke on the topic “Racist Jokes aren’t Funny”.  The prepared speeches each went for 3-4 minutes.

After some wonderful prepared speeches the impromptus began.  The topic was “Taking Things for Granted”.  The students were all anxious and nervous about the impromptus, especially Natasha!

All the competitors got sent into the ‘waiting room’ or as they called it the ‘death room’.  They were called out one at a time to go to the computer room and prepare a speech in 5 minutes!! Then they had to go out in front of everyone and say it!

Once the last person had gone up and delivered their speech it was the time for the Certificates for Participation to be handed out by Mrs Mollica. Everyone stood up on the stage feeling like celebrities with the paparazzi snapping away.   Once all the parents and grandparents were finished taking photos, the REAL pressure was on… time to see who had won!

After two Highly Commended certificates were given out the winner of the Senior section of Local Final No 4 was announced.  It was our very own Adeline Kwong!!

At the end of the day everyone was happy and tired, especially Adeline and Natasha.

Congratulations to all the comperes, timekeepers and helpers from Stage 3 who represented Padstow Park in such a professional way.  Good luck to Adeline in the Regional Final to be held in Term 3!      By Natasha Harvey 5/6S               

East Hills Boys Enrichment Afternoon

On Wednesday 29^th of May, twelve high achieving male students from Stage 3 attended the East Hills Boys’ Technology High School Enrichment Afternoon. The aim of the afternoon was to develop a deep understanding of problem solving strategies. There were 25 teams involved in the program coming from 9 different schools in the South West Sydney region.

The teams competed with each other in Maths and Science to see which team was the smartest in the entire district. Padstow Park had three teams of four students.

Team 1 consisted of Anthony Bao, James Lee, Shuvam Adhikari and their team captain William Tran.

Team 2 included Michael Li, Jason Lim, Saratt Hayavuchanurak and their team captain Voung Pham.

Team 3 had Dylan Huang, Raymond Du, Sajja Hayavuchanurak and their team captain Jadon Yip.

First was the Mathematics where each team was given a series of math problem solving questions, one on each sheet of paper. Once a team had answered a question, the team captain had to walk the answer to their marker and the marker checked their answer. All the questions were very difficult, requiring a high level of both comprehension and problem solving ability.

After that there was a break, where the teams could relax. Then there was the Science round. There was no working out applied, it was all general knowledge. The Padstow Park teams raced through the questions.

Once all the questions were finished, the results were tallied. Finally they got the results and the victor for the East Hills Boys Enrichment Afternoon 2013 was……Padstow Park Team 2!

All of Padstow Park was thrilled with Team 2’s victory and were happy to have been part of the enrichment afternoon. The students in Team 2 received medals and a handshake from the principal of East Hills Boys High School.

All students involved had a great time.  Thank you to Mr Bao and Mrs Du for helping with the transportation to and from the event.

 

By Anthony Bao and William Tran