VEX Robotics Tournament

This season the STACC robotics teams have taken on some of the best VEX Robotics Programs from around Victoria. In August we hosted a regional event, and our MPH was filled with activity and was a great day of competition, problem solving and fun, culminating for some of our teams in exhilarating finals games.

All our teams have competed very well this season, showing resilience, intelligence, teamwork, enthusiasm and an impressive drive to excel. Fielding ten competitive teams in 2026 has led to STACC teams winning multiple Skills Champion awards and Tournament Victory awards as we head towards the State Championships next term and then National Championships in Adelaide in December. Look for our teams to fly high this season as the play the VEX V5 game “Override” and the VEX IQ game “Level Up” with robots that are faster and stronger than the competition. Our students are to be congratulated for becoming so proficient at this engineering enterprise, building effective VEX Robotics is a non-simple activity and takes a lot of time, effort and intelligence from all involved.

Thank you to all staff and parent who have supported the program and to our VEX staff team, Bryn Hickling, Fiona Dybronski, and Gary Ong who have worked so hard preparing these teams and supporting them at competitions.

Celebrating Our Students

Students who achieved a High Distinction (top 2 %) or Distinction (top 15%) in the Computational and Algorithmic Thinking (CAT) Competition were recognised in their section assembly.

Primary (Year 5 &6): 6 distinctions and 1 High Distinction
Secondary (Year 7 to 9): 9 Distinctions and 2 High Distinctions

Competitions

This term has seen many of our Year 2 to 11 students participate in various academic competitions. AMC, ICAS, Science and Maths Olympiads and ACER Advance Awards. Many students sat multiple competitions across a range of subject areas, and we look forward to celebrating their achievements in assembly next term.

Withdrawal Classes  – Changemakers

Selected students from Year 4 to 6 have had the chance to investigate issues in our community and run a 6-step problem-solving process to come up with an action plan to solve the issue.

E³ Week

Week 9 of term was Enrichment Week across the Primary School. Students had a lot of fun investigation “Fearful and Wonderful Creations” through the lenses of mathematics and science. They were able to engage in a range of workshops throughout the week:

• Incredible Insects: Small but mighty
• Amazing Eyes: The Science of Sight
• Sound of Music and Creation
• Heart Mechanics: God's Incredible Pump
• Animal Architects: Nature's Secret Builders
• Flight: From Birds to Planes
• Living in Balance: Ecosystems and Food Webs
• Patterns in Creation
• Magnificent DNA and Information
• Uniquely You: Discovering Fingerprints and God's Creation
• Weather Wonders
• Sound of Music and Creation

Brickulum Incursion

As part of E³ Week, we once again enjoyed a visit from Ryan Evans (Lego Masters) and students had a chance to put their creativity to the test with various challenges across the year levels, from creating “funimals” & wearables in Year 1 and 2; ziplines and bridges in Years 3 & 4; to cars and cantilevers in Years 5 & 6.

Maths in Action!

Our Primary students have continued to explore Mathematics through hands-on, real-world experiences, discovering the joy of learning, collaborating, problem-solving and achieving together.

Our Year 1 students explored positional language and ordinal numbers through fun and engaging lessons. Together they were able to use clues to solve who won the Ocean Olympics, move and groove with Mr Abenathy, and give directions to move soft toys around a grid.

Year 2 students explored Money Matters, identifying Australian money and investigating its value. They “earned and added” Maths Hub dollars before visiting the Maths Hub Café to “spend and subtract”, bringing their learning to life in a fun and practical way.

Year 3 students worked collaboratively to research, design and construct a range of community building from 3D shape nets. Earlier in the term, they investigated and graphed gold medals won at the Commonwealth Games. Students considered why larger and smaller Commonwealth countries might have different medal tallies, making meaningful connections between Maths and the real world.

A team of our Year 4 students became true multiplication and division superstars! Through collaboration, strategy and practice, students worked together to solve and order multiplication and division cards as quickly and accurately as possible. The challenge was about much more than mathematical fluency. Students learned to listen to one another, record results and ideas, encourage their teammates, p+ractise at home and recognise the strengths each person brought to the team. With an ambitious goal of improving their initial time of 3 minutes and 20 seconds down to 1 minutes, the team worked together over two weeks to achieve an incredible 47 seconds! Amazing teamwork, Year 4 superstars!

Well done to all of our magnificent mathematicians this term! Keep up the great work and remember “More Maths, More Fun!”

Learning Support News

Learning Support is often a hive of activity, with students actively practising phonograms and developing their reading comprehension skills, Learning Assistants preparing resources or lessons, speech pathologists sharing their expertise, and Friendship Place bustling with students during lunchtime.

This term, we hosted an ASD Parent Support Group meeting focused on understanding behaviour as a form of communication. Together, we explored how behaviours can present differently in children and young people on the autism spectrum and discussed what these behaviours may reveal about a child's needs, emotions, and experiences. Parents were encouraged to consider practical strategies for responding with empathy, understanding, and support.

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 18 November at 9:15 am at the Taste & See Café.

The primary purpose of the group is to provide parents with an opportunity to connect, share experiences, and support one another in the journey of raising a child with autism. Everyone is welcome, and we look forward to seeing both familiar and new faces at our next gathering

LA Appreciation Week

During Learning Assistant Appreciation Week, we took the opportunity to recognise and celebrate our Learning Assistants with a special morning tea. Staff shared notes of appreciation and thanks, and each Learning Assistant received a small gift as a token of our gratitude.

We are fortunate to have 18 dedicated Learning Assistants serving across the school. Their encouragement, flexibility, and support help students thrive and enable teachers to meet the diverse needs of our learners. We are deeply thankful for the important role they play in our school community.

Shirley Gillie – Head of Learning Support
sgillie@standrews.vic.edu.au

Fiona Porter – Learning Support Teacher – Primary
fporter@standrews.vic.edu.au

Kerryn Terrington – Learning Support Teacher – Secondary
kterrington@standrews.vic.edu.au