Junior School
Our Junior School has been filled with great excitement and activity over the past few weeks with two major calendar events; Book Week and the Junior School Swimming Program. A very big thank you to staff and parents who have worked hard and given up extra time and effort to ensure these events were such a success for our Junior School students.
Book Week
I was so impressed with the efforts that students and families went to to make their costumes look so colourful and creative. Alice, Gandalf, Geronimo Stilton, Wylah, Winnie the Pooh and lots of Cats in the Hats amongst many other book characters turned up at school.
We celebrated in the Auditorium with a Costume Parade and special Assembly. Mr Griffin entertained us with an Obi-Wan Kenobi dance across the stage and Mrs Neild read to us one of this year’s shortlisted Book Week books. During the Assembly, students were reminded "not to judge a book by its cover" and that God looks at us on the inside. He is much more impressed with good character, than what we look like on the outside.
Later on in the day, we came back to the Auditorium and watched a performance of the fractured fairy tale The Emperor's New Clothes performed by the New Zealand Playhouse Theatre Company. It was an impressive display of comedy and incredible singing and acting which students and staff thoroughly enjoyed. What a memorable day!
Swimming
Each year students are given the opportunity to swim (almost daily) for two weeks at the Splash Factory pool. The repetition of learning in such a short space of time, always proves to help students grow in skill and confidence in the water, and this year is no exception. We are so proud of each child’s improvement in the water, with many a splash and giggle along the way. Again, a big thank you to the many diligent parent volunteers that assisted the students and teachers to make this a successful and enjoyable time for all. Our last session ended with some fun games.
Alex Burgess & Jess Ballinger
Head of Junior School / Assistant Head of Junior School
Prep
The Prep students have loved swimming over the past two weeks! They have had so much fun and have especially loved diving underwater to find the sinkies.
Eden Agnew
Prep Teacher
Year 1
It has been a big two weeks for our students with Swimming and Book Week. The Year 1 class enjoyed celebrating Book Week. Their highlight was dressing up as their favourite book character. The costumes were amazing, with much thought and time spent on creating each of their costumes. Thank you to our families who go the extra mile, especially during Book Week and the Swimming Program. Here are some comments from some Year 1 students about Book Week:
"I dressed up as Laura Ingalls Wilder. I love dressing up. We also saw the performance of The Emperor’s New Clothes".
Alina
"My Mum’s friend made my costume of Kenny the Truck. I liked my dress up".
Bobby-Joe
It was so lovely to see some of our grandparents and parents out in force to encourage the students at swimming these past two weeks. We send a huge thank you to our helpers who assisted our young ones before and after their swimming lesson. We could not have done it without you!
Here are some thoughts on swimming from a few our our Year 1 students:
"Swimming is fun because I have never had swimming lessons before".
Peter
"I couldn’t touch the bottom of the pool before I had swimming lessons and I feel good".
Eleanor
"I can now swim two laps of the swimming pool and it makes me feel happy".
Mollie
"I enjoy doing backstroke because you only have kick your legs and use your arms".
Bobby-Joe
"I can stand on my tippy toes on the bottom of the pool".
Ethan
Kerry Snook
Year 1 Teacher
Year 2
The Year 2 classroom has been a hive of activity over the past couple of weeks. The students (and their teachers) have enjoyed two big events; Book Week and the annual Junior School Swimming Program. During Book Week the students enjoyed dressing up as their favourite book character and attending New Zealand Playhouses' latest production, The Emperor's New Clothes. Our annual Junior School Swimming Program has provided the children with eight swimming lessons over two weeks, where a progression of skill and confidence in the water has clearly been seen. Well done Year 2!
Jess Ballinger
Year 2 Teacher
Year 3
Over the last fortnight, the Year 3 students have been busy with Book Week and Swimming Lessons!
Christine Burford
Year 3 Teacher
Year 5
The Year 5 students are creating a stop motion animation to tell the story about the Eureka Rebellion, as part of their Humanities unit on the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s. Working in groups, they are researching, designing and creating sets, props and characters to tell the story. The students are super engaged in this project and having a blast. We can't wait to see what they come up with.
The Year 5 students have also been enjoying swimming lessons at Jason's Splash Factory. Here are a few comments from some of them:
"It was fun! I liked it when we did the Iron Man where you have to do heaps of different strokes - butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, then freestyle".
Will
"I liked how they put us in groups that suited us for our skills, so we feel comfortable".
Grace
"It was really fun! We did lots of strokes, warm-ups and lots of games. We played Peanuts where the teacher says random words that sound like peanuts like "peanut butter", and when she says "peanuts" we jump in the pool and turn around to touch the wall the quickest".
Kathy
Carolyn McDonald
Teacher
Year 6
The Year 6 students have had a really busy time recently. We've performed in the Jonah musical, had Book Week costume day, an incursion with the NZ Playhouse company and gone swimming. Plus we are currently working on secret business for a particular person we celebrate this coming Sunday and we're learning our item for assembly next week! Here are a few photos of some of those events.
Coral Robertson
Teacher