FACILITIES

The garden continues to grow and change through the seasons and is cared for by children, staff, parent helpers and community members. It is a wonderful resource for social and hands-on learning where we work together to promote the wonder of nature. There is a myriad of living things nurtured within the garden, from those we can see including plants, chickens and insect life to those we can’t see in our healthy soil, compost and worm farms. The garden provides an opportunity for discovery for students throughout the day, including break times. This is a space where kids use play as a learning tool in this vast and varied outdoor learning space.

There are opportunities for children to demonstrate their care for environment by maintaining the school’s plant life and gaining skills through seasonal activities such as watering, weeding and planting. The Garden supports learning across the curriculum, from life cycles in Science, measurement in maths, to gaining inspiration in the Arts.

The Wildlife room has a diverse range of animals including a Western Woma python named Winston, Golden Eyed Green Tree Frogs, Murray short and Long Necked Turtles and an amazing range of salt, tropical and fresh-water fish.  Students each term during Life Science and Sustainability learn about the animals, what they need to survive, adaptations, ecosystems and how to care for the tanks.  Life Science Monitors visit at breaks to help feed the animals here 3 times a week.

The Café provides the students with the amazing opportunity to learn to cook sustainably using fresh and nourishing produce from our garden – including seasonal and native ingredients. Students will develop a range of cooking skills appropriate to their age including knife skills, health, safety and hygiene and are able to create delicious goodies which are heavily connected to their learning. Students apply age appropriate classroom learning to the cooking sessions which ties in literacy and numeracy heavily into our life science and sustainability program. Jess from Cook n Create works closely with students each term to build learning, confidence and skills. Each term the skills are developed and refined to support students to build a skillset for life. The practical, hands on learning is fun and all inclusive and sparks a love and passion for cooking seasonably and sustainably. The Café also support the Kick Start for Kids breakfast program on Wednesdays and Friday’s.

The Aquafarm contains breeding tanks for the critically endangered Southern Purple Spotted Gudgeons. We are very proud of our school’s conservation work and have been involved in a breeding program leading to reintroducing the species to the wild. The Aquafarm will also support new vertical aquaponics in the future.

The Aboriginal Education Room at Alberton Primary School was officially opened in 2020, and is called ‘Rosey’s Room’ in honour of Aunty Rosey Agius.

This space is a multi functional learning and meeting space which supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families in our school community.

Our Meeting and Memorial Garden was designed in collaboration with the Agius Family, students and parents at Alberton Primary School. In 2022, Thomas Readett, TR Visual Arts worked with the ATSI Nations Ministry and student representatives on a Mural Design enhancing the Meeting and Memorial Garden space.

Breakfast club is open every Wednesday and Friday morning from 8:15am in the cafe. This is a great opportunity for students to have some breakfast and start their day in a calm manner.

We are thankful for Kickstart who provide us with food, and our volunteers from Kickstart and MRS Property who volunteer their time at Alberton Primary School.

 

The Library is a space with an abundance of books to encourage and foster love of reading for children. We have an extensive range of Lexile books to support children’s reading and also a vast range of fiction books and non-fiction books. Not only is the library a place filled with wonderful books, it is also a space for children to seek solitude when in need, in a calm and supportive environment. Students are able to access activities and aids in our Library to support sensory needs.

Inside our Library we have a space called the Solare Room. This space is used by staff for professional learning meetings, and by students during play time as part of our Yard Play program. Activities in this space during yard play include art and craft activities fostering fine motor skill development and social skill development tasks developing resilience and a Growth Mindset. The Solare room is also accessed by our Smith Family on Monday’s from 3pm-4pm for our Learning Club.

The Library is a space loved by all at APS.

Some of the school’s facilities, in particular the gym and grounds, are for hire. The rates for hire will be dependent on your connection to the Alberton Primary School community, the extent of the hire and type of activity. A Hire Agreement must be entered into for any hire arrangements, whether for private or business purposes.

Please contact our Finance Manager for any enquiries regarding hiring these facilities.

School uniform is compulsory as it encourages our school value of Belonging. All uniforms supplied in the shop are quality hard wearing clothing and are in our school colours of navy and gold. If purchasing items from another supplier please ensure they are in our school colours.

Children have many outside play opportunities to run, climb, kick and explore, so sneakers are the most ideal footwear. Hats must be worn in Term 1 and 4 and must be purchased from the Uniform Shop to ensure they meet sun safety standards.

The uniform shop is operated by our Front Office staff. It is open 9am-10am and 2pm-3pm Monday – Friday. Qkr! may also be used to purchase uniform items.

View our Uniform Policy

The Governing Council oversees a school canteen, which runs five days a week. The canteen provides healthy and tasty options and operates within the “Right Bite” guidelines.  There are seasonal menus to ensure a variety of options for children. The latest menu is available in your child’s Magpie Group.

The canteen is managed by Ina Woodards with support from volunteers. Please contact Ina via the school number if you are able to volunteer in the canteen at any time.

Lunches may be ordered each day. Order forms are available from students’ Magpie Rooms and the Nest. Orders may also be placed on Qkr!

Alberton Primary School is undergoing a new project to replace our current playgrounds to a Nature Play Space. This space will service as a connection point between both sides of our school. Students, staff, and the community will all have the opportunity involved in the planning process. The Environments Ministry (Children’s Parliament) will be leading this planning with a Landscape Designer.

The Environments Ministry have started by identifying 4 main principles of Nature Play that they think are most relevant to our school. These principles are sustainability, sensory experiences, and connections to school and multipurpose play equipment that cater to all ages. Throughout the process the Environments Ministry will work with the designer to ensure all stakeholder views are considered within the overall design which provides an excellent opportunity to strengthen student’s vocabulary and concept development.

As community voice plays a vital role in the school decision making and planning process below is the DRAFT Nature play design. Please see our Term 1, Week 7 Newsletter for a feedback form or visit our front office to collect one.

Cook n Create at Alberton Primary School

Hi my name is Jessica (but I’m more of a Jess!). I am a qualified and vastly experienced Food and Nutrition/Home Economics teacher. I grew up submerged in the food industry and I have a first class Honors Degree (Bachelor of Science) in ‘Food, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences’. I also have a Post Grad Certificate of Education.  I am from Wales, U.K and ADORE Adelaide, which is now home for me and my young family!

 

The importance of cooking with kids

Cooking with kids is WAAAAY more than cooking. Cooking with kids is about confidence, independence, skill building, friendship building. It’s about nurturing, empowering and fostering creativity – this mixing pot of awesomeness is the fuel behind Cook n Create – where we embrace the mess, the freedom and the excitement behind creating amazing things. We learn through fun and being creative.

Cooking sets children up with the life skills to be resilient and competent adults. At Cook n Create the fun is always the CORE of the learning. By making positive connections with every part of the experience from mixing, beating, cracking, rolling etc.. to munching – these kids are laying down foundations that will last them a lifetime – that’s just so extraordinary to be a part of.

 

Cook n Create at Alberton Primary School

Lunchbox Legends

The Cook n Create program at Alberton is deeply intwined with the Life Sciences and Sustainability part of the curriculum and consolidates classroom learning whilst linking the incredible garden and it’s beautiful produce and making extraordinary learning connections at every turn. We work hard to keep a focus on sustainability whilst covering all areas of the science curriculum and extending and consolidating learning by being practical and creative.

We also ALWAYS focus on building cooking skills to set the children up for a lifetime of success and we do this through the medium of fun!! Kiddies will learn how to whisk, sieve, crack, measure, chop – slicing and dicing (using the claw and bridge) and learning how to handle knives and essential kitchen tools safely. They will learn the handling different ingredients, about functional foods, piping, aerating, coagulation (I could go on and on but just trust us -we never miss a learning opportunity!!)

We also take every opportunity to link in literacy, numeracy, oracy, and strands of STEM – cooking lends itself to a world of learning and it’s such an incredible opportunity for the children at Alberton Primary School. This program is a huge point of difference for Alberton Primary School and the children LOVE it! The practical, hands on learning is fun and all inclusive and sparks a love and passion for cooking seasonably and sustainably.