Junior School

Penguin Pals

The Junior School has been filled with excitement throughout the year with the Penguin Pals program. Penguin Pals is our buddy system that matches every student from Kindy to Year 3 with a student from Year 4, 5 or 6. At scheduled times throughout each term, Penguin Pals spend time together, participating in a range of activities around the school.

Students worked cooperatively to learn from each other, completed art and craft activities and read stories together, generating lots of positive feedback and enthusiasm for the next Penguin Pals session. Our program also ensured that our younger students not only have a pal during the regular school day but also at special events including interhouse cross country, athletics and swimming carnivals. Students were partnered according to their S Aidan’s House, which enhanced House spirit within the Junior School.

The Penguin Pals program has been implemented to nurture authentic, caring, confident, creative and connected students in line with our school’s values. Research has shown that buddy programs such as Penguin Pals contribute to the creation of safe, friendly and caring school communities and assist students to develop skills associated with empathy and compassion.

It is exciting to observe the strong, trusting and supportive bonds being established across the year levels and we look forward to seeing these continue as our students move into the Senior School.

Emperor Penguins

Globally, there is a significant corpus of research that promotes the benefits of intergenerational connections. The many advantages of these interactions include enhanced conversational skills, increased physical activity, and a sense of connection.

St Aidan’s has enjoyed a long history of engaging with grandparents. In 2022, we arranged to have more regular connections through our Emperor Penguin program. This initiative invites grandparents and senior friends to the Junior School to enjoy coding and robotics, reading, playing games like Chess and Connect 4, skipping and knitting. The program allowed different generations to find common interests, and connect and learn from one another. Sometimes young students created the activities, and other times our Emperor Penguins shared their knowledge and taught our students new skills. We look forward to our Emperor Penguin population growing in numbers as we seek to share the myriad of benefits the program offers our younger and older community members.

Prep – Late Night saw the girls experience a camp-like night of fun. They collected badges by completing tasks such as: making lanterns, hunting by torchlight, cooking, playing team parachute games, putting on pyjamas and cleaning teeth, sharing stories by the ‘campfire’ and then resting in their tents.

Year 1 – Late Night enabled the students to experience the excitement of Wonderland. They raced to fill up teapots and found secret keys before following a white rabbit down a dark tunnel. The girls created hats and decorated teacups in preparation for the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

Year 2 – Late Night surrounded the theme ‘All things fluoro’. The girls enjoyed outdoor play, indoor physical activities and fluoro art. They worked in teams to solve unusual ‘Minute to Win it’ challenges and created a firework art piece to take home.

Year 3 – Our Year 3 girls travelled to Camp Kindilan where they were encouraged to try new tasks and make new friends. Team initiatives, the possum glider and canoeing enabled the girls to spend time in the great outdoors and participate in traditional camp activities.

Year 4 – Year 4 embraced the outdoors at Maroochy Waterfront and learned how to work in a team by navigating their way around the grounds, completing a series of complex tasks involving obstacles, physical, cryptic, and academic challenges. Students also participated in beach safety lessons and swam at Maroochydore Beach.

Year 5 – Year 5 students visited Camp Laurence at Lake Moogerah at the base of the Great Dividing Range. In this picturesque setting, students participated in a range of nature inspired activities including archery, team building, mountain biking, canoeing and the high ropes crate challenge. Developing teamwork and leadership skills were the focus as students looked toward Year 6.

Year 6 – Our Year 6 Leaders faced new challenges while attending camp at Moreton Island. They were encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and participate in a number of physical activities ranging from night kayaking and sand tobogganing to team building skills.

Steve Baker Assistant Head of Junior School BEd (Primary)