From the Head of Junior School

It has been a very creative term already, with more to come! Last week we celebrated all things musical with the annual Junior School musical showcase, the Junior School Ensembles Concert. It was inspiring to watch all our students from Years 3 to 6 performing on stage. For some, it was the first time they had performed on stage to an audience. One of our students had only been with us for 17 days and was up there performing in four different items. They were also playing an instrument that they had only begun learning when they started with us in Week 2. It is a testament to the skills of our Music staff, the openness and accepting nature of our students, and the general culture of our Junior School that students can perform on stage, nervous but willing to try, after a relatively short time at our School. Some of our other student performers started with us last term, or at the beginning of the year. Even for those Year 3 students who have been with us since their Preparatory year, performing at Ulumbarra was a new experience. Thank you once again to our staff and parents for your work and support leading up to the concert.

Continuing with the theme of creativity, students celebrated Book Week this week. The theme for 2023 was Read, Grow, Inspire and our celebrations certainly championed this. The week began with a collaborative activity involving the Senior School, where older students provided their favourite picture books to Junior School classrooms wrapped in a plain brown paper cover with clues about what book was contained inside. The Junior students loved trying to guess the title of the book and enjoyed reading the uncovered book together. On Tuesday we celebrated together with a 'Books and Bikkies' morning before school followed by a Book Swap on Wednesday, where students could bring a book of their own to the library and swap it with another student. On Thursday morning, the Junior School playground was buzzing with creativity as our students came in dressed as a favourite character from a book. It is great to see that, even in the age of technology and streaming services, our students still love to celebrate reading and all things book-related. And it wasn’t just the students who were excited for Book Week. Many of our staff have been planning their costumes based on a favourite book for weeks! It was obvious that the love of stories, imagination and adventure is as alive and celebrated by our students today as it was when I was at school. Books allow us to be transported to places we have never been, or perhaps do not exist, and be part of a life outside of our own. This is why we are so committed to ensuring our students have the skills and knowledge they need to read. Reading opens new worlds to our students and we feel very privileged to play a part in helping them along that journey. Our sincere thanks to Mrs Polidano and Mrs Kolenaty for their work in organising Book Week.

Creativity will continue to shine through the Junior School in two weeks when we host Arts Fest, a combination of the Junior and Senior School Art Shows, International Day and Grandparents and Special Friends Day. We are looking forward to celebrating these events with our school community in the coming weeks.

Mr Donald Thompson

Head of Junior School

Junior School SuperHIRO Day

On Friday 11 August, the Junior School celebrated SuperHIRO day, an initiative of the Bully Zero Foundation. The HIRO stands for Honesty, Integrity, Respect and Optimism.

On the day, classes completed activities related to this year’s theme, Connection, including making a whole-school paper chain with messages about the important people in our lives. This paper chain was then hung around the peppercorn tree and the hand rails.

Each class talked about ways we can be superheroes and help eradicate bullying in our School. The students also made SuperHIRO masks that they wore to assembly.

Book Week

This week the Junior School celebrated Book Week in style with a variety of activities across the week. Every class commenced the week with ‘Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover’, which was delivered to the classroom by Mrs Polidano. Students had fun guessing what books were inside from the clues on the packaging and then enjoyed sharing the books as a class.

Tuesday started with ‘Books and Bikkies' in the Library. This has become a well-loved tradition, with families coming along to the Library to read books with their child while enjoying a bikkie or two. Some Senior School students joined in the fun this year, handing out bikkies and reading to the younger students.

Wednesday, the SRC students ran the ‘Great Book Swap’. Students were invited to bring along a book to swap and join in the fun in the Junior School Library. Students were very excited to see what other children were reading and what titles were on offer to swap.

Thursday was a hive of activity with the much-loved Book Week Parade and literacy activities. Students and staff all dressed up and paraded for each other and the parents as their favourite book characters. There were Cinderellas, soccer players, Mad Hatters, and Mr Men and Little Misses everywhere. The parade promotes much chatter among students and staff about their favourite stories and why they chose a particular character to dress up as for the day. Following the parade, the students enjoyed literacy activities with buddy classes, including cooking, reading, craft and colouring.

The week culminated in a visit from author Isobelle Carmody, an internationally recognised writer of science fiction and fantasy. She has published over 40 books and treated the students to an insight of what it is like to be an author. Isobelle discussed where her ideas come from for her books and how your imagination can help you to create amazing stories. All the Junior School students were fortunate to have a session with Isobelle to bring home Book Week.

South Street

On Tuesday 22 August, the Performance Choir travelled to the Royal South Street Competitions. It was another very early start for the Performance Choir, departing at 7am; however, they were excited to once again show their skills to the wider community. After a huge few weeks prior with competitions and the Ensembles concert, the students performed well and their behaviour was impeccable.

They were awarded second place in two sections for their performances and should be very proud of their efforts. Thank you to Mrs D, who has only been back working with the students for five weeks, and Ms Moon and Mrs Crameri for accompanying the students on the day.

Year 5 Free-verse poetry

The students in Year 5 have been studying free-verse poetry. Free-verse poetry is not bound by rules regarding rhyme or meter; however, the writer can convey powerful feelings and ideas through careful word choices and literary devices that appeal to the reader’s senses.

‘Toenails’ by Henry Cooney

‘Rain’ by Noah Kroschel

‘Diamond’ by Sean Morse

‘Chewing Gum’ by Noah Harrison

‘Basketball’ by Peter Smith

‘Rain’ by Lilly Hetherington'

‘Strawberries’ by Steel Austin

‘Rain’ by Priya Lewis

Camp Australia

We kicked off Science Week with a glow party. We had loads of glow sticks to play with!

This was super cool, and the children all had a great time exploring static electricity, plasma balls and an energy bar that was powered by our hands touching both ends of the bar. This amazed some of the children and they tried their hardest to get it to turn on in other ways.

A few of our experiments were elephant toothpaste, lava lamps using water, oil, salt and sugar, and we also made car launchers out of shoeboxes. We did do a few other experiments and like good science experiments some did not go as planned and we will research why they did not work and try again.

Jillie

Congratulations

Congratulations to Owen Barnes (5 Frew), Lauren Davenport (5 Jenkin) and James Davenport (3 Jenkin), who have all qualified to compete at the Australian Country Swimming Championships. Owen, Lauren and James will travel to Darwin in September to compete.

Girton Student Wellbeing

Empowerment Program

Parenting Teens with Empathy

CathlicCare Victoria Events

Our words matter – Dr Justin Coulson