Junior School 

From the Head of Junior School

Thank you, and congratulations. Term Two is truly one to be celebrated. As a community we have thoughtfully navigated through numerous COVID guideline updates and maintained our continuity of student learning throughout, whether on-campus or at home. A heart-warming observation I see every day is our students and their teachers enjoying their learning in the classroom, in open foyer spaces, outside and around the campus. Smiley faces, or smiling eyes behind masks, are everywhere as you walk through the Junior School. Thank you, students, for the energy and enthusiasm you bring to your learning each day, thank you to our magnificent educators for the experiences you design for our students and thank you families for the contributions you make to the happenings of your children each day. Students, educators and families – it’s the combined efforts of all three, as it always is, that has made Term Two one to be celebrated. 

Inquiry Programme

Across the term, the variety of learning experiences our students have accessed through inquiry is impressive. From Pre-Kindergarten (Djinda) to Year Six our students have explored the following themes in their units of inquiry.

  • The farm, Johnston Creek and wild spaces in Kindergarten and Pre-Primary
  • Community resources and designed their own playground in Year One
  • Renewable and non-renewable resources in Year Two
  • Climate and its impact on us in Year Three
  • Early explorers in Year Four
  • The democratic systems of government, how diverse groups cooperate and participate in our community in Year Five
  • Farming methods, traditional and modern in Year Six

Inquiry is about integrating subject areas together around a core theme (central idea) and exploring questions of interest (lines of inquiry), making connections to relevant information and enjoying the discovery of new information before putting it to action (how students express their learning). The inquiry programme integrates multiple subject disciplines within a unit, typically driven by the Humanities curriculum but often with leading contributions from Science also. Other subject areas are incorporated into each unit of inquiry, with English always featuring, then other subject areas as relevant to the inquiry like Mathematics, Technology, Art, Music, Languages, Physical and Health Education. 

 

The inquiry programme inspires a love of learning by sparking interest in a topic through questioning and provocations, then research, discovery and finally action – how do students express what they have learned? Depending on the age-group, their action might be to share their learning with peers or family, or it could be to create something (a model playground, diorama), or perhaps organise an experience or present their learning (run an election, pitch an idea at a ‘shark tank’). It is an absolute delight to see students heavily engaged in their inquiry units, the ‘magic’ happens when you see students exploring further when they’ve connected with an idea or question on their own and what to see how far they can go. We often talk about life-long learning skills, using inquiry processes where students are ‘learning to learn’ is a great example of a life-long learner. 

Year One Badges

On Monday 27 June, Year One students were presented with their Great Southern Grammar school badge from Year Twelve students. This is an honoured tradition normally held at the beginning of the year during the student leadership Induction Ceremony which was reconfigured this year due to COVID guidelines at the time preventing mixing cohorts together. With patience though, we have been able to keep this symbolic and significant occasion in our calendar for students and families to share as a whole community. The presentation of badges to Year One symbolises their connection to GSG, and receiving badges from Year Twelve, who are in the final stages of their school journey, reminds us all of the incredible transformation that occurs within such a small window of time. It is a short but lovely ceremony that creates a memory for a lifetime. Year Twelves and past students who started their school journey at GSG shared that they clearly remember receiving their badge in Year One and recall it as the moment they felt connected to GSG. These milestone moments are a key part of the fabric of GSG, and it was wonderful to be able to share that together as we close out Semester One. 

Semester One Reports

With Semester One school reports being issued at the end of this week, I thought I would again share some excerpts from my Anchor article last week around reporting progress on student learning. Forgive me for repeating some of these messages, but they might be helpful when reading through report information. 

 

Our learning progress across the semester is to be celebrated. Semester reports will be issued in the week to come, and whilst grades and results are an important measure, learning progress is much broader than numbers and capital letters alone. Teachers have written comments throughout the semester in SEQTA releases that are a helpful reference point for progress in each learning area, at the point in time when feedback is most relevant. I encourage all families to refer back to these entries via SEQTA Engage as the feedback often has work samples included, audio recordings, video clips, photographs and student reflections. These entries will provide a deep insight to your child’s learning progress. Semester reports are a retrospective update on student learning progress to this point in time. They (reports) are indeed a helpful measure of reflection and conversation when meeting with teachers at the beginning of Term Three. Reports are composed using a combination of formative and summative assessment for a students learning progress. Formative assessments are typically samples of learning throughout a unit of work to help inform a student and their teacher for how their learning is progressing and which areas to follow up next. Formative assessments can be verbal, practical tasks, written work, drafts and check-ins. Summative assessments represent learning progress typically at the end of a unit, project or period of time. In a school setting, whilst learning is continuous, summative assessment are helpful though for taking a point of reference at a moment in time for how a students learning is progressing in particular areas. Both formative and summative assessments are valuable insights, and we use them together to inform our feedback to students and families throughout the year and in semester reports. When forming grades in reports, teachers refer to School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) Western Australia guidelines which provide achievement and judging standards across all year levels and subject areas. This moderation process of utilising our formative and summative learning progress together with SCSA achievement and judging standards will provide an accurate sense for student learning progress at this point in time, and provide helpful guidance to project forward their next steps. At each stage of the learning progress, I encourage all families to celebrate the efforts of their children and affirm the value they are contributing each day to their learning.

 

Finally, my sincere best wishes to everyone for the upcoming break period. I hope you find some time for rest and connection with family and friends. Semester Two is filled with wonderful events and special occasions, which I look forward to enjoying with you all.

 

With sincerest warm regards, and appreciation,  

Mr Ken Raven | Head of Junior School


Year Four Science Technology

As part of our Term One Science Curriculum, the Year Four students explored forces. We learnt about how friction works to make heat and slow things down. There are many types of forces such as magnetic force (non-direct); push and pull (direct); and gravity (non-direct). At the end of this journey, the students applied their new knowledge of forces to design and create a toy suitable for the Pre Primary class.

  • We had to make sure the toy was not sharp. ZH
  • We wanted the toy to be more than a ‘once use’ toy. HT
  • It had to demonstrate a force, like a magnetic fishing game. DC

There were a range of games including a magnetic reading game, an obstacle course and a series of moving cars and other automobiles. It was great to see the students identifying the simple machines that could be found in their toys.

 

In Term Two, the Pre-Primary students helped to test and evaluate the toys. There were some catastrophic failures; however, the Year Four students did a great job of dusting themselves off and sticky taping things back together. In addition to the fun and laughter, the Pre-Primary students took their testing job seriously, providing a lot of ‘constructive criticism’ and feedback. Highlights included exclamations of “the train should have 15 wheels, not four!” and “black isn’t my favourite colour car, it should be gold and pink!”.  

The Year Four students would like to thank Mrs Brown and the Pre-Primary students for being an integral part of our engineering process.

 

Mrs Sarah Lilley | Teacher