Junior School
Parent Teacher interviews, and student-led conferences took place in the Junior School this week. These opportunities are so valuable to get together and discuss the progress that children are making. Some children make rapid progress in some areas, for some children it’s slower. Many children have goals and a focus to grow in an area like Reading while for others, their goals are about friendships or managing emotions. Whatever the issues, our teachers are proud of the progress children make and look to extend them further.
As our students grow older, we look to give them a say in this too. This is why student-led conferences are in place for our Stage 2 and Stage 3 students. Our students had a wonderful time sharing their learning with their parents. I was so impressed (but not surprised) with how confident the children were, and how capably they talked about their learning across the curriculum with their parents.
This week we continued with the theme of “busy” with Stage 1 on an excursion to Featherdale Wildlife Park, Stage 2 Goldfish out riding bikes at CARES, our Senior boys Basketballers playing in the final and discos times two – last week at Wentworth Falls and this week at Springwood – all being fun things on the calendar. At school in our Assemblies, Stage 2 students at both campuses performed dramas based on their history unit which were a huge success.
We are so proud of the Tournament of the Minds Group that earned Honours in the State final last Sunday. Bravo to the whole team and thank you to Dr Drew for her incredible commitment and leadership to this programme. Dr Drew's full report appears below.
Mrs Rachael J Newton
Head of Junior School
Tournament of Minds State Final
Last Sunday, September 11, our Tournament of Minds team gathered at the University of NSW in the early hours of the morning, ready to compete in the TOM State Final.
After our own team briefing and metaphorical group hug, registration and the official welcome, teams were escorted to separate preparation rooms on campus, where they had just three hours to come up with a creative solution to a previously unseen Language Literature Challenge entirely on their own. Additionally, they were visited by judges during this time to face a ‘Spontaneous' Challenge. This year’s 3-hr Challenge involved creating a nonsense poem inspired by Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky', incorporating a range of literary devices, and presenting it dramatically in a believable context that involved the development of characters as well as many other things!
When we regrouped at lunchtime, it was rewarding to witness the team’s shining eyes and quiet confidence that they had done well with the Challenges, although they were not allowed to reveal, discuss or rehearse it, in keeping with the rules of the competition. Nearly two hours later, they were called upon to present their solution to the panel of judges and a lecture theatre full of family members, facilitators and their rival teams. Our team’s performance was extremely entertaining and thoughtful, combining their fabulous original poem with narrative elements to give it depth and clarity.
Following their presentation, our team members confidently answered questions from the judges about aspects of their solution. Afterwards, they watched and learned from other teams' performances, and responded enthusiastically to the invitation to get on the microphone and share jokes with the room in between presentations! Our BMGS team was absolutely delightful and a lot of fun, as well as being polite and attentive to others. They also demonstrated marvellous endurance to hang in there through a very long and demanding day.
At the Awards Ceremony in the evening, it was absolutely thrilling that our Blue Mountains Grammar School team was awarded Tournament Honours for Primary Language Literature, meaning that they were one of the top three teams in the State in this discipline. Our team is to be commended for their brilliant creativity, discernment, thoroughness and determination in addressing all aspects of the Challenge. They had made the most of practice opportunities made available to them in the week preceding State, showing great commitment in building knowledge and skills to maximise their ability to handle the 3-hr Challenge. They demonstrated teamwork second to none, showing genuine respect and appreciation for each other, listening actively, criticising constructively and helping each other to be their best. They were also justifiably proud of their excellent time management and creative ideas.
Sincere congratulations to our wonderful team for an outstanding achievement! Well done, Carlia, Clare, Elise, Eva, Lorence, Mikhaela and Simeon! Ms Walters and I are immensely proud of you, and also extremely grateful to parents and friends for their support throughout the season and especially on State Final day.
Dr Elissa Drew
BMGS TOM Facilitator
Basketball Ball News
Term 3 Week 8
On Monday, 12th September, BMGS Swish played the Sharp Shooters in the Semi-Final. What a journey for the boys.
Unfortunately they lost 32-17 but they fought valiantly and there were some awesome plays that really showed the improvement they have made over the season.
Mr Dillon Hunter has done a brilliant job at developing their skills and showing them how set plays and a strong defence can turn a game around. All the boys should feel very proud of their Basketball journey.
Due to the Student-led Conferences at the Springwood Campus on Tuesday afternoon, the BMGS Stars were unable to play. They have one more session next Tuesday to finish off their season.
Mrs Lori Gerrard