Bardwell Park Infants School

TODAY is Mabo Day, which commemorates the life of Eddie Koiki Mabo and marks the anniversary of the historic 1992 Mabo decision.

Eddie Mabo was a Torres Strait Islander man who challenged the claim that his family’s traditional land was owned by the Crown. The High Court’s decision in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) overturned that claim and set a precedent in Australian law for the recognition of Indigenous custodianship over their traditional land.

The decision also overturned the colonial concept of terra nullius, Latin for ‘nobody’s land’. At the time of European settlement of Australia, terra nullius was used to justify the British Crown’s claim on the land - as though it was previously unoccupied territory.

The Mabo decision was a watershed moment in Australian history. In addition to overturning a long-held colonial myth, it paved the way for subsequent native title claims. The Australian Parliament passed the Native Title Act 1993 the following year.

Sadly, Eddie Mabo died several months before the decision was handed down, though his legacy lives on.

See What’s On at Bardwell Park Infants School in week 7 starting Monday, 1st June

In maths this week our Kinder class have been working hard on partitioning numbers into smaller groups and learning about ‘Friends of 10’ . They love the practical activities that follow and have been demonstrating that they can work both independently and collaboratively to solve maths problems. Mrs Kritsotakis

Mornings in Kindergarten always begin with phonics. Whole class explicit teaching is the way we start our day together on the mat learning new graphemes and phonemes, segmenting and blending. This is followed by literacy rotations where the students work independently in small groups to consolidate what was just taught. This week iPads were introduced into phonics lessons and they were a big hit. Mrs Kritsotakis

In their Robokids Lesson 4, Introduction to WeDo 2.0 - The Cooling Fan, Kindergarten explored how parts work together to create movement before building a cooling fan from the WeDo 2.0 library. Using basic “start” and “motor power” directions and sound coding blocks, students experimented with different speeds of the fan blade to move different materials, determining which speed moves more air and which ones make the motor struggle.

Chosen for National Simultaneous Storytime 2026, Luna Roo the Kangaroo Baller delivered a high-energy story that had our students cheering like they were in the stands!

Today is National Public Education Day. Proud to be public!
Public education brings together children and young people from a range of diverse backgrounds and builds a cohesive community that works as one to create equity and opportunity.