Junior School News
Junior School Cookbook
Have you sent in your family recipes yet?
At St Gregory’s Junior School, we are collating and publishing a commemorative cookbook comprised of recipes that celebrate traditions of family, culture and history. A book that will be treasured and take pride of place on the bookshelf, coffee table or kitchen benchtop. Inside the covers of this book will be the recipes, photos and personal connections of our families. We also aim to encapsulate the history of the College.
Please send your recipes (1-2) with your family name and a short blurb about the history or significance of the recipe to your family. We would love every family to contribute. Photos are optional. Please send your recipes to recipes@stgregs.nsw.edu.au. Recipes are due by the end of Term 2.
Sponsorship opportunities
We are seeking sponsors from businesses in our school and local community who would like to be part of this publication. This is open to current families, old boys and local businesses who would like to be part of this quality publication. If you would like to assist in approaching and collecting sponsors, please contact Mrs Diana Ivancic at divancic@stgregs.nsw.edu.au. Send any expressions of interest or enquiries to recipes@stgregs.nsw.edu.au
Sponsorship packages:
| Gold Sponsor | Company logo and details will appear in the book Voucher offer available | $500 |
| Silver sponsor | Name and website printed in sponsor directory in the book | $200 |
Mrs Diana Ivancic
Assistant Head of Junior School
What a great start to Spanish!
We have been very busy exploring greetings, days of the week, parts of the day, emotions and family members in Spanish. Each grade has had a wonderful time learning new songs, dances and customs from different Spanish speaking countries.
We’ve also had teachers visit the Spanish classroom as part of their collaborative planning time. We are a community of learners and seeing what the children have been up to outside of the mainstream classroom has allowed teachers to see different ways our students learn.
Spanish has been very well received by not only the students and teachers at the Junior School but by parents also. The feedback we have received is fantastic. From ‘my child won’t stop singing the Spanish songs’ to ‘we are now being taught the days of the week and numbers at the dinner table when we’re all together’.
What a wonderful start to a very exciting journey.
Mrs Paula Grados
Junior School Spanish Teacher
Junior School blast off into space!
On Wednesday 19 May the Junior School joined over 1 million students, families and schools throughout the world in reading this year’s National Simultaneous Storytime’s (NSS) chosen book, “Give me some space”, by Philip Bunting.
NSS is an initiative of the Australian Library and Information Association to encourage students to read widely and often. This initiative aims to see over one million young people reading the same book, at the same time =, throughout the world. This year our students were one of the 1.8 million students in 25,500 locations reading this space-themed book.
Captains Cosentino, Grados and Husband created an out of this world pocket of space to live stream a reading of “Give me some space” to all of our Junior School classrooms. One of the most exciting aspects this year was that we not only read the book in English but we also had our Spanish teacher, Senora Grados read along in Espanol.
Our astronauts also visited lots of classrooms and many space-themed STEM, writing, art and mathematics lessons were undertaken throughout the day. You can see the story read from space here: https://youtu.be/XP0PokLCQNQ
Mrs Rachael Cosentino
Teacher Librarian/Literacy Specialist
Kindergarten News
Kindergarten has been buzzing with excitement this term. Our ‘Sharing The Planet’ Unit of Inquiry is focused on how living things play a role in our lives. The students have been exploring what a living thing is and this has led to amazing collaborative learning and meaningful discussions amongst the children.
Farmer Skye visited and surprised Kindergarten with an incubator full of eggs. This sparked curiosity and the children wondered “what other animals come from eggs?”,
“Is there an elephant egg?”, “Why are they different colours?” It is questions like these that drive our inquiry and empower children to take ownership of their learning.
As this Unit has evolved, it has allowed us to integrate our English Unit as we focus on information texts and composing an information report. In Mathematics students use their knowledge of time and measurement to estimate and explore how long a tadpole takes to transform into a frog and how long it will take for the eggs to hatch. We will also explore our Religion Unit of ‘God’s Creation’ and in Creative Arts the students will create sculptures of living things using everyday materials.
Kindergarten has also planted their own seedlings and are observing and recording changes using scientific drawings and labels. It has been wonderful to see the learning come to life in Kindergarten. We can’t wait to visit the Senior School farm this week to explore more living things and their needs for survival.
“Living things need oxygen”- Xavier
“Living things reproduce, that means makes more of itself”- Adriana
“Living things come from God”- Gus
“Living things grow and change”- Makenzie
“Living things need food and water”- Emily
Mrs Kristy Scott and Mrs Louise Limbrey
Kindergarten Teachers
Author Spotlight – Ivy Quigg, 5 Blue
Ivy Quig is a name that you might be seeing soon as you browse the shelves of your local bookstore or website. Ivy, in Year 5, is our most recent published author in the Junior School.
A few months ago Ivy edited a longer story that she had written, to meet the requirements for submission into Write 4 Fun’s Short Story Competition. Write 4 Fun hold short story, poetry and art competitions throughout the year. Ivy’s entry, titled “A teacher’s long day” was recently shortlisted, and Ivy tells us that it will be published soon.
Ivy’s favourite book and author is ‘The Golden Door” by Emily Rodda and Ivy hopes to follow in her footsteps and become a world-renowned author. She says, “When I’m writing, the ideas just come into my head.”
We can’t wait to see what Ivy continues to write and we are so proud of her efforts.
Mrs Rachael Cosentino
Teacher Librarian/Literacy Specialist
Year 1
On Friday 30 April, Year 1 attended an excursion at Sydney Living Museum at Rouse Hill Farm. Here the students explored life in the past travelling back in time to the 1880’s. They participated in hands-on activities including practising writing on slates, a sewing lesson, a drawing lesson as well as an outdoor physical education drill and maypole dancing in the yard. Students were able to make vivid comparisons between schooling then and now. This lesson completed our unit of inquiry with the central idea ‘Knowing the past helps to understand the way people live today.’
Author Spotlight – Ivy Quigg, 5 Blue
Ivy Quig is a name that you might be seeing soon as you browse the shelves of your local bookstore or website. Ivy, in Year 5, is our most recent published author in the Junior School.
Mrs Robyn Bowen
Year 1 Teacher
Position Available!
There are positions available for REGISTERED NURSE & PERSONAL CARER/EN – CAMPBELLTOWN within the Marist Brothers – St. Gregory’s College Community. Full position details are in the attachment.