Head of Junior School 

Winter has finally arrived and what timing, with our Cross-Country event scheduled for today! By the time this newsletter goes to print we will have returned to school and be warming ourselves up. 

House Cross Country Wrap Up

Our annual House Cross Country event was held today. We were fortunate once again to hold an event where the weather was very kind to us. The course was muddy in true cross-country style which caused some students to slip and slide. Some boys as well as some uniform items will also require some extra ’soaking’ tonight!

There was a lot of House spirit evident today as well as fierce competition. Below are the progressive points scores. 

Joyce took out the day with a total of 338 points. Congratulations to Captain, Will Anderson and Vice-Captain, Darcy Hickey on the leading the way with their team. Top 8 competitors in each year group will represent the College at the STCPSSA and JSSATIS Carnivals in the coming weeks, with 9th and 10th places being reserves. 

Thank you to Mrs McCullagh for her superb organisation of the day as well as all others who contributed to making the event a success. Thank you to our supporters, mum, dads and grandparents who cheered on from the sidelines!

Progressive Point Scores:

After the Grade 3 event:

Hessian: 25, Doyle: 57, Joyce: 76, Dwyer: 87

After the Grade 4 event:

Hessian: 76, Dwyer: 130, Joyce: 136, Doyle: 138

After the Grade 6 event:

Hessian: 146, Dwyer: 166, Doyle: 193, Joyce: 233

After the Grade 5 event:

Dwyer: 211, Hessian: 223, Doyle: 238, Joyce: 338

Mother’s Day Breakfast

What a wonderful celebration we had last Friday for our annual Mother’s Day breakfast. Fortunately, the weather was on our side, as it was a mild start to the day. This year looked very different to the past as we were required to be set up outside due to the large numbers and COVID restrictions. We had approximately 230 mums, nans, boys, and their siblings take part. They dined on egg and bacon rolls, fruit, coffee, and milo. 

I would like to thank the army of dads and some grandads who turned up to help with setting up, cooking, cutting up fruit on the morning and many other duties. Thank you also to Sandra Mazengarb and Jason Moles who were on deck from 6am for set up, as well as the P&F Committee members and other members of staff who came to lend a hand for final preparations. 

Thank you once again for the beautiful and generous donations for the Raffle and door prize. Richard and Claire Lennon from Davey St Pharmacy, Effie Agyropolous from Escape Beauty, Amanda Griffiths, Annette Palmer, Karryn McCullagh from ‘These Pretty Ones’ and Abbey Doggett. 

Prize winners were:

1st: Davey St Pharmacy Gift Pack: Vanessa Downie (Youssef, Y4)

2nd: Monique Marsden (Charlie Y6, Max Y4)

3rd: Escape Beauty Classic Facial: Clair Lennon (George Y4)

4th: Springvale Pinot Gris: Kylie Britten (Eden Y3, Sonny Prep)

5th: Clover Hill Rose Cuvée: Peta Clark (Angus, Prep)

6th: Bangor Captain Spotswood Pinot Noir: Vanessa Mann (Angus Y5)

7th: These Pretty Ones earrings: Olivia Gillie (Clancy Y3, Sebastian Prep) 

Lucky Door Prize winner: Melissa McGuire (Hamish Y6)

NAPLAN

This and last week, boys in Grades 3 and 5 completed their NAPLAN Assessment tasks. The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual national assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 and is the only nationwide assessment that all Australian children undertake. It provides a measure to see whether young Australians are developing their literacy and numeracy skills. The boys participated in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and a Numeracy assessment task. Results will be available in the coming months and will be distributed to all parents.

Term 2 Uniform Reminders

To combat the incoming changes to our weather, we have expectations with uniform.

Formal Uniform: boys must wear their jumper to school under their blazer. Once in the classroom, if it is warm, they may remove it. Otherwise, it may not be removed until morning tea. As an additional layer of warmth, boys may, during the day, wear their soft-shell jacket over their jumper. The soft-shell jacket is not to replace the jumper. Boys also have the option of wearing a long sleeve shirt or long pants.

Sports Uniform

In Terms 2&3  boys are required to wear their full sports uniform to and from school. On sports uniform days, boys may also wear a beanie to and from school but not during the day. There is a long sleeve ‘training top’ available for purchase, which the boys love to wear. This may be worn to training for sport, after school or on the weekend for sporting events. It is not permitted to be worn under the polo top on a PE day. Finally, boys are permitted to only wear white socks with their sports uniform, no black or other colours.

If you have any clarifying questions regarding the uniform, please contact your classroom teacher in the first instance.

Project Compassion Fundraising and Awareness

Our whole Junior School community, led by our Mini Vinnies group, did a wonderful job raising awareness of people in our world who have been made poor and raising money for some of the most vulnerable people in our world.  Twice each week, we 'walked the block' in solidarity with the millions of people who have to walk every day to access water.  While we did not quite meet our goal, together we walked more than 1200km in Term 1.  

Our Mini Vinnies boys raised $462.60 selling raffle tickets and 'Guess how many eggs are in the jar' guesses.  Their dedication and enthusiasm in selling raffle tickets is a credit to the group.  Thank you to all the families who donated Easter eggs as prizes.  

All our boys were very generous in filling their Project Compassion boxes.  There was much excitement on Holy Thursday in filling the big tubes to see which house had raised the most money. 

The final results were:

Dwyer: $549.10

Doyle: 426.70

Joyce: $337.00

Hessian: $331.95

In addition to this, St Virgil's have made a donation of $250 from our Term 1 Friday ice cream sales.  All together, we have been able to donate $2357.35 to Project Compassion.  This is extraordinary generosity from our Junior School families.  We sincerely thank everyone for supporting our fundraisers and enabling us to support those made poor and vulnerable throughout the world. 

Junior School Sport

Soccer 

Our Kinder debutants! A great time was had by all. 

Under 6 SVC Green

SVC Green V SVC Blue

A hard fought game with both sides showing good skills.

The game was played in good spirits and ended up a draw 1-1.

Player of the Week: Archie Ashelford for endurance and sportsmanship.

Well done Boys!

Under 12 SVC Green

SVC Green V Dover

A great start to the season with everyone playing well.

SVC taking home the win against Dover.

Cross Country Action