From the Head of Junior School

At time of writing I am fortunate enough to be with Year Five students on their camp in Pemberton. The weather is stunning, activities are perfect for the group and we are enjoying the experience together for their first off-campus camp. A full write up about the camp will feature in next week's Junior School Anchor article.

I am mindful though, that whilst we are able to interact in-person with relative freedom and normalcy, for many schools in Australia at this point-in-time, they are learning online from home. My thoughts and best wishes are extended to these students, their families and their teachers. The efforts from everyone to maintain continuity of care and learning is extraordinary and something to be truly proud of. Schools are wonderful places, whether on-campus or on-line.

The value of learning with each other and from each other cannot be understated. Schools are social places of learning. This term it has been an absolute delight to see a new initiative called ‘Passions and Pursuits’ launch its first round of activities on a Friday afternoon from 1.30pm to 2.15pm. Students from Pre-Primary to Year Six share learning experiences together across a range of interests that the students themselves have self-selected. 'Passions and Pursuits' is a fun way to end the week for students, whilst learning something new and perhaps finding an activity that becomes a life-long passion for them. Activities from the first four weeks have been:

Cooking
Digital Media – making short films and stop motion animation
Lego Engineering
Maker Space building projects
Dance
Theatre Sports – fun drama and improvisation games

The next round of activities will be offered to students next week. There will be some activities that reoccur, and other new activities we will offer with student input.

The core principles behind 'Passions & Pursuits' was to offer experiences for students that connect their interests with applied skill development. It’s been lovely to see these principles lived-out over the past four weeks, but what has been an absolute delight, and some happy unintentional benefits of this initiative, are two elements worth noting:

the leadership and mentoring of middle-upper year levels with younger year levels and
authentic connections between cohorts through the week at break times.

When cooking together, building Lego or crafting a video we (teachers) have provided guidance and suggestions on how to perform the tasks and work together, then the students have quite naturally taken on leadership/mentoring for other students and worked together. Aside from the enjoyment they are genuinely experiencing, students are learning to explain tasks or skills in ways that their younger peers will understand and coach them though the activity – these are incredibly valuable skills. Students are also developing their social skills for working with different people in problem solving type scenarios – also wonderful skills to develop, particularly for leadership.

At break times I’m noticing that whilst students still play with their age group peers, which is entirely appropriate, there are little moments where you hear a “Hi Sophie” or “Hi Joel” from their activity buddy. These interactions build community and sense of belonging, where students feel that they are known and valued. We too, as teachers, are enjoying interacting with students across all year levels and the different conversations that are generated around these activities. It’s a positive experience on many levels and I look forward to seeing how this initiative evolves over time.

Looking ahead – next week we celebrate Book Week. I look forward to sharing this year's theme ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’ with our students through books and stories. There will of course be the much loved ‘dress-up’ day, where Junior School students are invited to parade their costumes on Wednesday morning in the Gym. All families are welcome to attend and celebrate the parade together before visiting classrooms to see their Book Week theme inspired classroom set-up. An exciting week ahead! I better see what I can scrounge up around the house for a costume…

With warmest regards, and gratitude,

Mr Ken Raven | Head of Junior School

Year Two Magical Mystery History Tour

On Monday the Year Two class went on a Magical Mystery History tour.

First, Scott from the museum came in to teach us about insects, bugs and arachnids. An insect has six legs and an arachnid has eight. Did you know that spiders don’t have any muscles in their legs? They move them by hydraulics, they pump fluid through their legs! Do you know that if you shine a light on a scorpion it turns blue! We also got to hold a leaf insect, it felt really weird because it’s legs were a bit ticklish when it walked on us. It was a female. Female stick insects can lay female eggs without even needing a male!

Ollie and Olli

After that we went to the beautiful Alison Hartman gardens in town which has the statue of Mokare. On the bus it was really hard to hear each other because everyone was talking. Around Mokare’s statue were some symbols of the seasons of the Noongar calendar. The Mokare statue looked extremely old. Mokare is significant because he helped the Europeans when they arrived in Albany. We then went to look at the Town Hall. The clock there has four faces because in the olden days it was really rare to be able to buy a watch. Sam and Finn

Next we went to the Brig Amity and had recess. After we had recess we went on the Brig Amity and saw where the sailors and convicts used to sleep. Then we saw the helm! It had a rudder in front of it. When we moved the helm it made the rudder outside the boat move. The Amity is significant because it is a model of the boat that Edward Lockyer and the first convicts came on when they arrived in Albany in 1826.

Leah and Kaiden

Our next stop was the Desert Mounted Corps. It is a significant place because it has the horse on the statue. Which reminds people about the soldiers that went to war. We had lunch at Eyre Park. The whole class was spinning on the roundabout, but after a while, Mrs Diletti told us to get off there because she didn’t want us to get sick. We went over to the flying fox. Mrs Diletti and Mrs Ranger had a race and Mrs Diletti won!

Lola and Baxter

Lastly, we visited the Baudin statue on the boardwalk. The statue looked nothing like the picture because his nose was too big! Baudin is significant because he mapped out the outside of Australia including Tasmania. We think we saw a whale in the water there. On the way back we drove past Dog Rock then got some fuel at the Lower King Store before we went to school. We felt tired and happy and had a great day in the beautiful sunshine! Emily and Boyce

Mrs Donna Diletti | Teacher

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