07 Feb 2023
At the end of 2022, the Wellbeing team made some inroads with our school directions for 2023. After speaking with Uncle Laurie, a local Aboriginal elder, we have been able to determine a number of important elements.
Pennant Hills Public School Totem - Common Brushtail Possum
The common brushtail possum (in Darug “burumin”) is a family totem symbol for the local Darug people, whose land on which we live, work and play.
Afterwards, we asked for student volunteers to create and send in their design of a brushtail possum which could be used for our school. We are pleased to announce that Kelsey C's (Year 6) design was voted by staff to be the most suitable. Staff then also voted on the possum's name, with the successful option being 'Pem the Possum' (name inspiration from Pemulwuy, a Bidjigal man of the Eora nation, and an historic figure in Australian Aboriginal history.
School Values (and Units) - Respect, Responsibility, Aspire
After discussions, focus groups and interviews between students, staff and community members over a number of years, these were the three common values which were continually raised and considered both relevant and important for our school.
Staff have created a series of 6 lessons (different for each grade) to explicitly introduce these values and discuss them in greater detail. Additionally, lessons have been written to introduce students to co-creating an Acknowledgement of Country for their class and on researching the relevance of a brushtail possum as our school totem.
Class Totems
Hopefully by now, all students would know their class animal or plant. This symbol is a totem which each class will learn about in great depth. Please see the complete list of class totems below
KK: Mrs Donoghue, Koala
KL: Miss Lester, Lorikeet
KR: Mrs Rudd, Echidna
KW: Mrs Coventry, Wombat
1K: Mrs Mackay, Kookaburra
1P: Ms Parras, Penguin
1Q: Mrs Mortimer, Quokka
1/2C: Mrs Buttrey / Mrs Turnbull, Cockatoo
2B: Miss Pinnuck, Box Jellyfish
2G: Mrs Erdmanis, Green Tree Frog
2T: Miss Maitland, Turtle
3E: Mrs Cumming, Eucalyptus
3M: Mrs Milligan, Magpie
3S: Mrs Macnaughtan, Sugar Glider
4B: Mrs Buchberger, Bee
4P: Mrs Griffith, Platypus
4/5B: Mr Bryant, Blue Tongue Lizard
5T: Mrs McCloghry, Tasmanian Tiger
5W: Miss Nelson / Mrs Partridge, Whale
6G: Miss Griggs, Gecko
6R: Mrs Rawson / Mrs Gardener, Rosella
6S: Miss Ings, Shark
Positive and Negative Behaviour Systems
These have been drafted and will be presented in more detail at tonight's P&C meeting. They are planned to be implemented for the beginning of Term 2 this year.
We are very much looking forward to an exciting year of improving student wellbeing and building positive school culture.