Junior School Update

New Term, New Friends

It was a delight to welcome our Junior School students and families back after the Easter holidays and to see everyone looking refreshed and well after a much-deserved break. We had a happy first week back, focusing our learning on the ANZACs. This culminated in Friday’s Junior School assembly where the Year 3 and 4 students shared their learning through the reading of an ANZAC story and some of their writing.

We are very pleased to have some new families join our community and we extend a very warm welcome to Avery C in Year 1, Eila S in Year 3 and Emme D in Year 6. Avery spent some time with us last term and was able to attend the Easter Service, so it feels like she has been with us for much longer than just a week. Eila comes to Shelford with a wealth of experience in French from her previous school and is looking forward to continuing with French enrichment and singing at Shelford. Emme has joined us just in time to go on camp to Anglesea with the Year 5s and 6s, where she will celebrate her birthday. 

Easter Service and Hat Parade

It was wonderful to see the Junior School resplendent in their Easter hat finery after their beautiful performances at the Easter Service at the end of last term. We love the tradition of hand-made Easter hats, begun by Ms Nguyen last year and look forward to seeing many more in the future.  

Year 6 Visit to Only About Children (OAC) ELC and Childcare

On two mornings at the end of Term 1, some of our school leaders in Year 6 visited OAC (formerly Your Place) and assisted the pre-school children in the making of Easter bunny ears. These received many compliments during the visit of Mr David Southwick MP when he joined the group for a reading of Little Bunny Foo Foo. 

Chess Club Awards

After another very successful term of Chess Club, our congratulations go to the Junior School award winners for Term 1: Chloe Y (Year 3), Oliva M (Year 6) and Emily BF (Year 5).

Congratulations, Ariana F 

Hard on the heels of her success when she was in Year 2, when she won the Kids News Short Story Competition, Ariana, now in Year 5, was a runner up in last year’s event. Her winning story, The Unexpected Friendship, was published, inspiring Ariana to continue to write prolifically in her preferred genres of poetry and fiction.  

Buddies

One of the most highly anticipated things about being in Year 6 at Shelford is that you get to be a buddy to a student in the JDC! Once a week, the JDC students invite their buddies into their beautiful learning spaces where they read to each other before lunch. This is a wonderful opportunity to develop connections across the year levels. We love that often these relationships continue into Senior School.    

Here is what some of our students had to say about their buddies:  

Hailey – My buddy is a good girl. I enjoy going to buddies to help her.   

Grace - I like how we respect each other.  

Eden - I like how I get the chance to learn about my buddy and have lots of fun with someone from a younger year level.  

Lilli T - I enjoy being a role model and teaching my buddy new things.  

Ashleigh – I love how they look up to us.  

Caroline – I like being a role model and I like how we get to interact with people who are smaller than me because they can learn from me and I can help them to discover new things.  

Sofia – I like my buddies, you and you! They make me feel happy.  

Olea – Being a buddy makes you responsible because it's kind of like looking after a child. It makes me very happy.  

Audrey – I like being a role model to someone little especially Sofiia because we can help her with her English and it feels good doing that.   

Beatrix – My buddies are kind and they are fun.  

Kasia – In buddies we get to teach her stuff and she teaches us stuff!  

Clara – I like how my buddy always looks on the positive side of things. When I’m around her she always makes me smile.  

Phoebe – I like that my buddies can give me support and that we can play with them. 

Vicky Gemmell

Head of Junior School – Student Wellbeing and Development

Jacqui Sidaway

Head of Junior School – Curriculum and Innovation