As a reward to the children for achieving their Premier’s Reading Challenge targets for 2016 we visited Collins Books in Ballarat and the school bought the kids a book each of their choice. They all selected very challenging books from the terrific children’s book range that they have. (We are actually spoilt for great bookshops…

I’m sure there are some other schools where 100% of the students attending successfully reach their reading challenge target but there wouldn’t be very many (I’m betting they’re small rural schools like us) and we have done it on consecutive years. We will pop into Ballarat as a treat this week and select a book…

Because of our size we were lucky enough on our ‘Sturt Street walk’ to get a tour of the Town Hall including the mayor’s rooms (We just popped in to look at the beautiful tiles and staircase and we were invited to have a special tour and talk) and we stopped off at il Piccolo…

I know its not necessarily unique to Glen Park but we really enjoyed the last few days of glorious spring weather and our fantastic school site means we have a lovely, tranquil and safe outside learning and play space for the kids to enjoy.

We often get visits here from native wildlife including possums, koalas, kangaroos and of course kookaburras but yesterday we had a visit from an echidna for the first time that I can recall. Sadly the kids are on holidays and missed it this time but I managed to get a few photos before it scurried…

After our visit to the ballarat Art gallery we had lunch in Ballarat and then on the way home stopped off at the Little Cupcake Shop and chose our own delicious cupcake for afternoon tea!

One of the great things about Glen Park is that we are not constantly standing around waiting our turn….I’ve noticed that students from the huge school group doing gymnastics before us at the Aquatic Centre have to line up and wait constantly for their turn on the apparatus whether it be the trampoline, balance bars…

At Glen Park our students have time, space and resorces to complete quality projects they can be proud of. Such as this construction project where one of our students made a model of Gigantor and put it on display.

Not only does every child get a sunhat at Glen Park but they also receive a warm beanie for those cold winter days.

When our students returned to Glen Park after their term 2 break they each had a pile of new books waiting for them bought specifically to meet their reading interests. We also visit our local book shops on buying expeditions.