Blair Athol North B6 School

New Episode of BANB6 Stories now available via the link below ⬇
Link chats with Rwen, Ali, Mostafa and Imad about their experiences at the Herding Caterpillars Festival...

‎BANB6 Stories: BANB6 STORIES - Episode #4: The Herding Caterpillars Festival on Apple Podcasts ‎Show BANB6 Stories, Ep BANB6 STORIES - Episode #4: The Herding Caterpillars Festival - 11 Aug 2024

Last Friday, members of the BANB6 SEMP TEAM and some Year 5/6 Mentors travelled to the Bicentennial Conservatory in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens to participate in the HERDING CATERPILLARS FESTIVAL. The team learned all about the fascinating relationship between small black ants (Iridomyrmex) and the Chequered Copper Butterfly (Lucia limbara). Through Virtual Reality, performance, art, storytelling and a very cool 'Echo-Location' game, our children found out about the symbiotic connection where the ants herd the Chequered Copped Butterfly caterpillars to their favourite plant (Native Sorrel - Oxalis perennans) to and from their nest in return for a Honeydew substance secreted by the pupae. The ants care for the caterpillar in the nest, where it will builds its chrysalis before the ants bring it to the surface as it emerges as the small, but beautiful, chequered copper butterfly. For more information on this amazing relationship, go to:
https://butterflyconservationsa.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ChequeredCopper.pdf

We would like to extend a huge thank you to Gerry Butler and the team from Butterfly Conservation SA for organising this fantastic event!

The latest instalment of the BANB6 STORIES podcast is now available!

‎BANB6 Stories: BANB6 Stories - Episode #3: Kicking Goals with Marzieh, Setayesh and David on Apple Podcasts ‎Show BANB6 Stories, Ep BANB6 Stories - Episode #3: Kicking Goals with Marzieh, Setayesh and David - 5 Aug 2024

A new episode of the BANB6 Stories Podcast has just dropped! This edition features our host Link interviewing Concetta and Venessa about the upcoming Book Week. If you like the episode, make sure you have a listen to Episode One - our National Reconciliation Week special where Link interviewed Gurnoor from the Yellow Neighbourhood.
Check it out via the Apple Podcast app or the link below ⬇

‎BANB6 Stories: BANB6 Stories - Episode #2: 2024 Book Week Preview on Apple Podcasts ‎Show BANB6 Stories, Ep BANB6 Stories - Episode #2: 2024 Book Week Preview - 31 July 2024

This year’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day theme is, ‘Strong in Culture, Stronger Together’. This year we stand with our children, proud of their culture, stories, kin and community – all that makes our children special, resilient and the bright leaders for our future. Our vision is for our children to thrive, be strong in culture and connected to kin and community – our children should be proud to come from
the oldest living culture in the world.

Birds of BANB6 update - Greedy Galahs?
While we haven't spotted any new species on our school grounds for a while, we are still a favourite spot for many Galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla) who love our oval, Raingarden and Loop spaces. Last year our experimental wheat 'fields' grown for the 2023 Crop Comp were decimated by Galahs but it's hard to be upset at such beautiful native birds taking advantage of the food that is available to them! This year, we currently have a pair of galahs who seem very interested in one of our Raingarden nesting boxes - stay tuned for any update. Our student SEMP TEAM also recently did some analysis of the current bird feeder locations and decided to move the BANB-made feeders to the loop, as this was a high traffic area for a number of native birds. While the galahs are not accessing the feeders yet, they are taking advantage of any spillages, and don't seem too fussed by our children taking a closer look. - some galahs are looking very well-fed at the moment!

Have you ever wondered what to do with empty medication blister packs? You many not know that they can't be recycled through the Yellow roadside bin collection and if they end up in landfill, they will take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to break down. There is some good news, however! Here at BANB6, our student SEMP team are happy to accept empty blister packs through our COMMUNITY RECYCLING HUB based in the Kitchen Garden Shed. We will take the packs to our local PHARMACYCLE (https://www.pharmacycle.com.au) drop off point where they be sent off to add to the 30 million packs that have already been recycled since 2022. Any time we can divert items from landfill, we are doing our planet a favour!

Have you ever heard of the 'Wisdom of the Crowd' theory? In 2004 James Surowiecki published a book in which he argued that under certain conditions, a diverse collection of individuals can make predictions and decisions better than individuals or even experts. Last week, we put the theory to the test with rainfall predictions when 2 adults, Sam (10mm) and (Tom 5mm), and 2 children, Ria (7mm) Kobie (4mm) estimated the amount of rainfall we would receive over a 24 hour period. None of the individuals were correct in their predictions BUT...the average of our estimations turned out to be 6.5mm. Can you guess how much rainfall was recorded? 6.5mm in the Kitchen Garden Rain gauge! We might need to investigate this theory a bit further...

Last Friday was National Tree Day, and while it was a little more low-key this year at BANB6, our Year 5/6 Studios had the opportunity to learn about planting mature trees with expert guidance from our Garden Specialist, Tom. The groups planted 3 'advanced' Callistemon (Bottle Brush) plants which were donated to BANB6 through the Port Adelaide Enfield Council's 'Get Shady' initiative. The trees will, over time, provide great screening along the Stanley St fence as well as shade for us and an important habitat for a range of animals.

The Girls Soccer Specialist Program competed in the Schools Statewide Knockout Competition last Friday. They travelled to Nuriootpa and won all their matches. The video is a VLOG produced by the girls from the day. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I265-TGKNSg

Here is the Out of School Hours Care Holiday Schedule. Bookings are essential. For bookings please visit www.myoshc.net.au/blair-athol-my-oshc/

Join us for National Reconciliation Week on Wednesday. Our program includes Team Time at 9am and outdoor activities including bush tucker tasting and forest campfire. It's going to be an excellent day!

Introducing the BBB...The first ever 'BANB BARISTAS BLEND' coffee! Hand-roasted on site here at Blair Athol North B6 School, the BBB has been created by blending coffee beans sourced from regions where some of our BANB6 students hail from. Thanks to our good friends at Cirelli Coffee Roastery & Cafe, we have roasted ETHIOPIAN SIDAMO, IF MONSOON INDIAN MALABAR and BRAZIL SANTO bean varieties to create our unique BBB signature blend. After some experimentation with different ratios, we think we may have a winner on our hands - lovely mellow chocolatey notes with a hint of fruity zing from the Sidamo beans! If you get an opportunity, please come in and grab a coffee and let us know what you think.

Reminder: early dismissal @ 12pm tomorrow for Family Connections Day.

Don't be frightened - it might look scary but it's just a giant MOTH! During some time spent looking after our Raingarden this afternoon, our learners (with the help of Sonny) spotted this amazing creature on one of the entrance poles. The appearance of Giant Moths is a reliable predictor of coming rain and the changing of seasons. They only live for 24 hours, mate and lay over 40,000 eggs what a fascinating insect!

DID YOU KNOW....that BANB6 has a COMMUNITY RECYCLING HUB (CRH) for harder to recycle items? Set up by our student School Environment Management Plan team in 2023, the BANB6 CRH accepts a range of items that can be recycled but not through the Yellow Bin (Mixed Waste) Kerbside Recycling program. Families can drop off: batteries, mobile phones, spectacles, shoes, bicycle tyres and tubes, bread tags, medication blister packs and more. Our SEMP Team will organise for the items to be recycled and can provide you with information on where you can recycle these items yourself in our local community. If you wish to access the BANB6 CRH, it is located in the Kitchen Garden Shed and you can drop off your harder to recycle items on Thursday mornings.

Sending our warmest wishes to our families and staff celebrating Eid!

Today children from Yellow 2, Purple 2 and Purple 4 Studios (Year 1s and 2s), along with our Year 6 learners, visited the Children's ArtSpace at the Adelaide Festival for a special viewing of their artwork on display as part of the 'Young Plant Carers' Exhibition. It was fantastic to see our children's beautiful representations of Native plants from the BANB6 Raingarden, created with our Artist in Residence Louise Flaherty using pen and ink techniques. Included in the exhibition were postcards written and illustrated by children for their favourite native plants, and artworks made by Year 6s showing hands caring for plants in different ways. If you would like to visit the Young Plant Carers Exhibition, it is open to the public from 10am to 3pm on Fridays and Saturdays at the Adelaide Festival Centre's Childen's ArtSpace (King William St, City) until June the 8th.

https://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/young-plant-carers

Don't Forget - Friday not only has a 2pm dismissal, it is also CASUAL DAY! Please support this BANB6 tradition with a gold coin donation - all money raised goes towards the Year 6 Graduation 🤩🤩🤩.

Just a reminder: school will finish at 2pm on Friday as it is the last day of Term 1. OSHC will be open from 2pm.

The results are nearly in! Over the last half of term one, learners from the Red Neighbourhood have been conducting some scientific testing to determine the effectiveness of their BANB-made environmentally friendly Surface Cleaning Spray. By comparing our cleaners against store-bought cleaners, testing their sprays on a variety of surfaces and substances, using a range of observations and thinking scientifically, our learners have been investigating their theories, questions, big ideas and hypotheses - they will be sharing their findings next week. Today students could construct tests involving UV/Black lights to test for residues and Nutrient Agar plates to test for bacterial presence. Our learners are gaining a good understanding of the need for fair testing, and the importance of including a control sample/specimen when conducting an investigation. We can't wait to see what they have discovered!

SEEDS project update:
Here are two of our Leafless Bluebush (Maireana aphylla) seedlings that we have successfully propagated for the Stewardship of Endangered Endemic Species project. These threatened native plants will soon be residing in our BANB6 SEEDS nursery, which will be set up during the upcoming holidays. We will be receiving more Leafless Bluebush and Black Cottonbush (Mairerana decalvens) seeds from the State Herbarium soon, and we are preparing to plant our Small-Seed Spear Grass (Austrostipa multispiculis) later next term.

This week saw the beginning of the ZEN GARDEN REVEGETATION project. Two of our learners from the Yellow neighbourhood (who are passionate about the environment and sustainability!) helped to plant over 30 Pale Rush, Knobby Club Rush, Tall Sedge and Chaffy Saw Sedge native plants along the southern border of the garden. All of the plants were propagated by students from seeds collected here on site at BANB6 in Term 4 last year. The boys did an amazing job, showing care and pride in their planting efforts. One of the learners shared with us that he had a lot of fun being outside, engaging in an activity that is going to make a difference to biodiversity at our school and learning more about the role that rushes and sedges play in our ecosystem.

Purposeful reflection typically involves looking back at something, a past experience or idea and critically analysing an event. Last Friday our soccer specialist program had a practice match which we recorded. By looking at successful and unsuccessful aspects of our match, the use of reflection will help students learn from their past experiences and turn surface learning into deep learning. In this case how do we achieve our key performance indicator - which was 70% passing accuracy. Our players had to record down how many accurate passes they made and how many turnovers/mistakes they caused. Using these calculations they were able to determine their passing percentage. As I sat back and watched and listened to the students they had some interesting personal conversations. Some players clearly over rated their ability, while other players were identified and given more respect than previously thought. Then were was a deeper conversation between a group of boys about their positioning on the field and how they can move to better areas to increase their passing accuracy. What was more impressive was this was a voluntary reflection session in the morning!
Thanks David