Using apps to support literacy.

Today the grade 6 kids were at orientation events at their respective high schools so we had a quiet day today. The grade 4s experimented with 2 apps I found the other day ( Diamanté and Swap Cards) They created diamanté poems and swap cards for Roald Dahl characters. ( refer below)

We had our lawns mowed today and as it was quiet In got a few jobs done outside that I normally have to do on weekends which was great!

below are some panoramic images of the school grounds I took today.

Pyne Flops

The Abbott government's hopes of ending the parliamentary year with a budget win have been dashed after one of its centrepieces – the plan to allow universities to set their own fees - failed in the Senate.

The government's higher education package was voted down 33-31 on Tuesday night - a major blow to its reform agenda, and to its budget repair task, blowing a $5 billion hole in its already deficit-laden balance sheet.

Palmer United Party senators Glenn Lazarus, Dio Wang and independents Nick Xenophon and Jacqui Lambie voted against the government's package with Labor and the Greens.( To add to his woes Senator Lazarus has told Minister Pyne to stop texting him about his vote as he regards it as harassment! Senator Lazarus, who was hospitalised on Monday with kidney stones, accused Mr Pyne of "embarrassing himself" by inundating the senator with text messages asking him to support the government's proposals. He also predicted Mr Pyne would not be Education Minister next year.) It was laughable to listen to Pyne refer to himself as a 'good minister'on the 7:30 Report tonight. That comment will come back to bite him.