School Highlights
Year 6 buddies visit Prep
Charlotte Crellin, Prep Teacher
Our Year 6 buddies recently visited Prep as part of our International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrations. We shared some stories about important women in our lives and created a special IWD badge that we were able to take home. We loved having our buddies visit us!
Happy Birthday to Principal Rob French
Wishing a very Happy Birthday to our Principal, Mr French.
On Tuesday morning, some of our Year 2 students surprised him with handmade cards and his favourite Freddo frogs!
Junior interschool chess tournament
Elliot Hagan and Farees Huda-Rahman, Year 6
On Monday 20 March, five chess players from Years 4 to 6 (Leo Mufic, Elliot Hagan, Farees Huda-Rahman, Jiaqi Xu and Sebastian Braganza) represented Kilvington in the first interschool chess tournament that the Junior School has competed in for quite a few years.
We competed against St. Catherine’s, the hosting school, and Brighton Grammar. Each student had to play seven games and we were all scored on how many games we won. All team members performed well, with many winning four to six of their matches.
At the end of the competition, Leo Mufic, who was our highest scorer (winning six games out of the seven), was ranked 3rd out of the 32 competitors in the entire competition. Elliot Hagan and and Farees Huda-Rahman were ranked 11th and 12th, respectively.
Kilvington was ranked 2nd out of the three schools and finished with a total of 20 points. The scoring system only counted the four highest players' score. Saint Catherine’s came 3rd with a total 10.5 points and Brighton Grammar came 1st with a total of 26 points.
It was a brain-teasing event and we felt exhilarated to compete in our first-ever official chess competition. We all learnt a great deal about the etiquette, rules and strategies related to competing in an interschool competition.
Everyone had a great day!
Year 6 School leaders Leadership Conference
Karen Chandler, Deputy Head of Junior School
Recently, the Year 6 School Captains and Co - Vice Captains (Jiawei Chen, Myrah Bhargava, Oliver Sey, Changan Yang) were invited to be a part of a leadership development program facilitated by WELS (Wellbeing Entrepreneurship Leadership Sustainability).
Over 100 aspiring leaders from independent schools throughout Victoria were invited to attend and meet at Firbank Grammar School for the program. The focus of the leadership program was to complement and enrich the leadership development opportunities for students within their school communities throughout the year, and was guided by the big question, 'What is Leadership?'
Kilvington students worked in small teams with students from other schools to explore, practise and learn about the three layers of 'situational and personalised holistic leadership'. They inquired into:
- Leadership of Self, identifying their own strengths and goals as a leader.
- Leadership with Others, and building relationships with others.
- Leadership as Service, exploring how to use leadership to bring about change and make a difference in their own communities and beyond.
Throughout the day, students were engaged in practical hands-on experiential learning activities, interactive team-based workshop activities, reflective tasks and a small-team leadership and service project with student leaders from other schools.
It was a great experience for our student leaders. The Junior School Captains are looking forward to sharing their learning with their peers and continuing to practise and develop their leadership skills throughout the year.
Tri-Nations Future Problem Solving Scenario Writing
Tania Whitehead, Talent Development & Enrichment Coordinator
Congratulations to Henry Hu, Year 9, and Akshayini Pritam Wadhwani, Year 7, who were selected as winners in the Tri-Nations Scenario Writing Competition earlier this year. Their scenario entries from the 2022 Future Problem Solving competition was judged against competitors from Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.
Akshayini was awarded 3rd place in the Junior Division and Henry Hu was named the Middle Years Division Champion. As the Middle Division Champion, Henry has been invited to participate in the 2023 Future Problem Solving International Conference.
Well done Akshayini and Henry!
Pi Day celebrations
Jude Teo and Melody Xu, Mathematics Academic Leaders
What are the official sea creatures of Pi Day? Octopi!
Tuesday 14 March was the official Day of Pi (π)! (Pi (π) is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle and is approximately 3.14 in decimal form.)
On this day, we held the qualifiers for the Pi Memorisation Contest, where students were encouraged to memorise as many digits of Pi as possible.
The top three participants who could memorise the most digits of Pi were invited to recite the digits during the School assembly on 17 March, where the finalists would compete to be the ‘Pi Champion’.
Every finalist received a pie for their amazing effort, but our Pi Champion took home (or ate) an even bigger pie!
Congratulations to our finalists: Lorenzo Wright who memorised 128 digits, Emelie King who memorised 133 digits and Agrata Sharma, our Pi-Champion, for memorising 223 digits!
Pack-a-thon for NextGen Philanthropy
Jacqui Goldenberg, Community Service Program Director
We recently hosted a pack-a-thon for one of our new charity partners, NextGen Philanthropy (NGP). Sixty people, including four of our Year 8 students and two staff members, came together to pack 500 craft boxes in less than an hour. It was a multi-generational event with a lot of happiness and kindness.
NGP sparks creativity and improves the wellbeing of disadvantaged children by providing craft boxes. Their programs also empower the next generation of givers.
Later in the year, our Year 8 students will hold their own pack-a-thon and organise a School fundraiser to assist NGP.
We hope this is the start of a wonderful and meaningful partnership.
Harmony Day and Cut for a Cause
Jacqui Goldenberg, Community Service Program Director
On 21 March, we celebrated Harmony Day, a celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds.
There were a range of activities that the whole School, from ELC to Year 12, participated in including a food drive, Cut for a Cause, a Junior School dance party and Senior School Battle of the Bands. Along with dressing in orange, students also had the option of cultural dress on the day.
It felt like every student from Years 7 to 12 was cheering the bands and hair cutters. It was a great atmosphere! Thanks to Carrie and Cath from 187 The Barber Room, on McKinnon Rd, McKinnon for volunteering their time and skills.
We have also created our third collaborative Harmony Day artwork with the ELC and Junior School, which is on display in the Junior School foyer.
All monies raised will go to Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC). Families can still donate to the ASRC via this link.