Dear families and friends of Merino Consolidated School,

Term Four has had a very busy start with lots of great events and learning happening. We are hosting the Merino Community Remembrance Day Service this year. It will be led by the students and will start at 10.45am at the Merino Cenotaph. We will also be at Digby at 8am for a short service.

End of semester reports

The teachers have now started their end of semester assessments for reports. We use a combination of paper-based tests, online tests and ‘cold writes’ for writing. A cold write is a writing task that the student completes without any support from a teacher. This really shows what a student has a solid understanding of and where their learning needs to be focused on next. Reports will be sent home on Friday 12th of December. Students that have individual support meetings will be scheduled by Miss Bailey in the upcoming weeks.

School Council

We have had the October meeting on the 16th and our next meeting will be on Thursday 13th November. At the last meeting, items discussed were: the Child Safety Review, Finance reports, Bush Fire-at-Risk funding, Arborist Report and building a new bus shed/garden behind the admin block.

Music/Visual Art

We have had many musical and artistic opportunities this term to enhance our music lessons with Miss Bailey. Miss Bailey has taught herself the ukulele and now she is teaching our students. They are becoming very adept at the ukulele and we have some budding musicians in our school!!

Recently, we were invited over to Casterton Primary school to attend to enjoy some Latin music from ‘El Camino’. El Camino celebrates the music of the performers’ background in Latin America alongside musical influence from their home in culturally vibrant Western Sydney. We heard songs in ancient languages, performed with traditional instruments like the ‘zampoña’ (pan-flute), ‘charango’(10-string guitar) and ‘bombo’ (cow-hide drum), as the musicians share the heart and soul of their cultures. Each of the three members were either born in Chile or their parents were. Mak was lucky enough to help perform one of their songs out at the front!

For the last two Thursday’s during our MARC lessons with Mr Cummins, we have had a special visit from Karen Meredith (the artistic Director) from the Upwelling Festival from Portland. Karen worked with our students’ making displays and learning about the Bonney Upwelling. The Bonney Upwelling is a unique natural ocean phenomenon where the spring winds changes the ocean currents that powers a seven-month feeding frenzy of tuna, crayfish, seabird, seals, krill, blue whales etc. The festival was held on November 1st along the streets of Portland, with all the Portland and area schools involved in a street parade.

LOTE (Language other than English) Japanese

This term, we have a new Sensei (teacher) for our Japanese lessons. We have WebEx lessons via video each Tuesday afternoon. Our Juniors are already loving lessons with Mai Sensei. In their first few lessons they had a “pre-test” of their Japanese culture and language knowledge. Then they were learning to describe different things as either Chīsai (small) or Ōkī (big) and write both words in Japanese! The seniors are also working on their writing of Japanese words. We are also very lucky to have Kou help with our pronunciation of words and with writing.

English

Writing is an essential part of our daily learning at Merino CS. It helps students develop strong communication, thinking and literacy skills. Through writing, children learn to express their ideas clearly, build vocabulary, learn to punctuate correctly and strengthen reading comprehension skills. Writing also encourages creativity and supports learning across all subjects, such as our Space theme this term.

The Junior class have been working super hard as authors. Their most recent piece of writing was inspired by a picture of a rocket house and they have drafted, edited and illustrated their own space narrative stories. Miss Bailey helped type their ideas on the computer for a final published piece of writing. The senior class have now started learning to write an information report on a space rocket and we look forward to seeing their final report.

All our students have entered a piece of writing into the Casterton Show which is this Saturday the 8th November at Island Park, Casterton. We are looking forward to receiving feedback about our authors!

Sport

This term we have been heading into Hamilton for Gymnastics lessons with the Hamilton Gymnastics Club coaches. We have been lucky enough to secure a small grant from Sporting Schools Victoria, which helps with the cost of our weekly lessons and our travel costs for the 100km round trip. The students are really developing their skills each time we have our lessons.

Mr Cummins has been focusing on cricket this term and teaching our students to throw, catch, bat and bowl. Mr Cummins plays cricket on a weekend, so we are lucky to have an A Grade player teaching our students. Xavier, Rylan and Kou are now all playing cricket each week with Casterton Cricket Club U12’s and Lincoln and Oliver are allowed to train but just need to be a tiny bit older before they can play a game!

Changes to digital device use

From 2027, the Victorian Government is introducing changes to the use of digital devices for students from Prep to Grade 6. Under the new guidelines, schools:

will follow new recommended digital device times, including minimal device time for Prep to Grade 2; and a maximum of 90 minutes per day for grades 3 to 6.

They will also support students by reducing screen-time which can reduce the risk of eye strain, sedentary behaviour and reduced peer interaction. These reforms complement Victoria’s nation-leading mobile phone restrictions, ensuring an integrated approach to addressing digital distraction and the inappropriate use of technology.

What this means for our school

As you know, we already provide school-owned digital devices for student learning. Students with disability who use a digital device as a reasonable adjustment are exempt from these changes. You can read more about the changes on the department’s website: Digital Learning: Policy.

Kind regards,

Lisa Ferrier