The Hamilton and Alexandra College Newsletter

Junior Campus and ELC

NOTICES SENT HOME THIS WEEK

  • Division 5 Hockey Update – emailed to families during the holidays
  • Division 4 Hockey draw
  • NAPLAN information to Year 3 & 5 families

Open Day - Let Your Friends Know

Next Wednesday, 20th of April, we open our doors from 2:00pm-3:00pm for anyone interested in seeing the Junior Campus in action.  Please let your friends know!  The very best advertising we have is word of mouth by our fabulously supportive parent community!

New Faces

This week we enjoyed the company of Toby Hawthorne (Year 10) who undertook his Work Experience placement in the Year 4 classroom.  Next week, Bowie Lei, (also of Year 10) will be joining us for her placement.

We also welcomed Jodie Keane, to the Early Learning Centre as she completes a seven week placement with us to upgrade her Early Childhood qualifications.

Tomorrow is Cultural Connections Day!

Tomorrow we are excited to be running our first Cultural Connections Day at Junior Campus.  With the guidance of a team of indigenous leaders, our students will be engaging in a variety of activities, including storytelling through art, men’s and women’s business (spears, boomerangs & basket weaving), dance and indigenous games.  They will also learn more about Welcome to Country and Acknowledgment of Country, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flags, as well as Gunditjmara Country.

The children are invited to wear casual clothes in blacks, reds and yellow for the day with runners – or their sports uniform.

Image source:keephealthyeatingsimple.com

Junior Art

Term 2 in Junior Art is going to mark a shift in our focus. While we will continually be focusing on the elements of art, we are now also going to start looking at the work of artists from around the world: what they did, how they did it and how we can use their techniques to create our own art work. We have already looked at Roy Lichtenstain who was a famous Pop Artist and Piet Mondrian who created Modern Art with black lines, and proportional squares and rectangles painted in primary colours. The younger children started off the term investigating expressing emotions through art and much time was spent drawing the faces that we made at each other while imitating what we look like when we are sad, scared, disappointed etc. Please visit the Art Blog which can be found at juniorarthamiltoncollege.weebly.com to see our progress so far.

Out of School Hours Care Survey

The College values parental feedback in regards to our Out of School Hours Care programme and we would like to draw on the feedback of our users, for our Quality Improvement Plan.  We would ask you to take a few moments to complete an anonymous online short survey over the coming fortnight if you have used Out of School Hours Care this year.  The survey link is https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CSF6C2Y.

The survey closes on Saturday, 30th April.

ANZAC Service Invitation

This year marks the 101st anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign.  A group of Year Five students from Berry and Learmonth Houses has offered to lead our Service of Remembrance on Tuesday, 19th of April at 10:20am.  This Service will be conducted in front of Myrniong under the flag pole during our Assembly time (or in the Refectory if wet).  All parents are invited to join us to mark this occasion.  The decision to hold our Service the week prior to ANZAC Day is to increase the children’s awareness of the ceremonies and formalities around this commemoration should they visit local ANZAC Day Services with their families on the 25th April.

Uniform Reminder

A reminder that next week is the final week that students may elect to wear their summer uniform to school.  Everyone needs to be wearing their winter uniform following ANZAC Day. The 1st of May is Hats Off Day.

 

Junior students have also been reminded that if they would like to use the oval (as the weather becomes wetter and the ground muddier), they are to bring some old runners to wear and a footy jumper and track pants (or the like) to protect their uniform.

Piccino Nature Exploration Sessions Commence

In the coming week our Early Learning Piccino Group will commence their Nature Exploration Sessions in our very own Sanctuary nestled amongst the Equestrian Centre blocks over the other side of McArthur Street.  This programme was introduced last year and the half day back-to-nature experience held each week, was relished by both staff and students.  There is increasing research, worldwide, revealing personal wellbeing benefits, as well as increased problem-solving and concentration skills for children who spend time simply exploring and connecting with nature.  Our programme runs on Friday mornings for Terms Two and Three.

Promenade of Sacred Music Festival Experience

Is the marimba a drum?  Is a drum a marimba?  Does the marimba come from Merimbula?  Today our Piccino and Prep children discovered the answer to these questions as they had the pleasure of marimba playing, through improvising, singing and dancing with Leanne Barber at the Uniting Church Hall.  I am sure that the children will have a keen eye out for our own College marimbas on their return to school!

Student Leadership Development at Year 5

Year Five brings a unique opportunity for our students to work on and develop their leadership skills.  This is achieved through providing children with opportunities to undertake leadership roles or positions of responsibility that have varying sized portfolios which meet their range of skills, experiences and interests in this area.

 

On Tuesday all of the Year Five students attended a full day GRIP Leadership Conference in Mt Gambier. The day reinforced the expectations, privileges and responsibilities that come with being in the Year Five Leadership group.  Two of the key messages were:

  • Having a badge isn’t what makes a leader – it is action that makes a leader.
  • Anyone can contribute to a leadership role – good leaders bring others on board and work as a team.  Leading is about enabling others.

Armed with the messages and experiences of the conference, the Year Fives will be writing leadership speeches over the coming week to present to their House next Friday.  They will also be writing application letters for a variety of leadership roles and roles of responsibility reserved for Year Fives. 

 

There are eight major leadership roles (House Captaincies) which are voted for by both the student body and the staff.  House Captains are required to undertake public speaking, planning of events (such as Assembly) and give up some of their recess and lunch time to perform their roles, and as such need to demonstrate strong personal organisation and communication skills.  This is also why students are expected to write their own speeches and letters.

 

In voting for House Captains the focus is to elect the best two Year Five candidates for the position.  This has meant in some years there are two boys or two girls.  To enforce that the Captains must be one boy and one girl, would mean that in some years, where there is only one boy or girl in the group, the allocation would have to be automatic and would, therefore, have nothing to do with leadership.

 

There are many positions of responsibility for the rest of the Year Five team, designed to promote leadership skills.  This is particularly important for students who strongly desire to be a House Captain, but do not receive the role.  We stress that if students don’t get the role that they wanted, they have the opportunity to turn the role they are offered into one they want.  As a result, we see the roles of responsibility (such as Community Liaison Officer, Head of the Student Representative Council and President of the Red Cross Youth Group) thrive and develop in some years, as students take initiatives to grow and develop their role.

 

The Leadership selection process has always been the most successful and positive experience for students, when it is supported by parents.  We acknowledge disappointments but stress that these need to be kept in perspective and used as an opportunity to build resilience, and then initiative and motivation for new goal setting (as this is what we have to do in life).

Please note, the Year Five Leadership Assembly is scheduled for Tuesday, 3rd May commencing at 10:10am sharp.

Junior Basketball

Round 4 Friday 15th April:

  • U10 Boys' College Tawny Owls vs Tigers black, 4:50pm court 3
  • U10 Boys' College Barn Owls - BYE
  • U12 Boys' College Masked Owls vs Minders White, 4:50pm Court 1
  • U12 Boys' College Powerful Owls vs Minders Blue, 4:50pm Court 4
  • U12 Girls' College Sooty Owls vs Good Shepherd College, 5:40pm Court 4
  • U10 Girls' College Boobook Owls vs Tigers (time and court tba)
  • U10 Girls' College Snowy Owls - BYE

Week Ahead

  • Junior Campus Cultural Connections Day (casual clothes red, yellow and black or PE uniform – runners required)
  • Junior Campus Anzac Service 10:20amesday 20th April
  • Junior Campus Open Afternoon 2:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Primary Division Athletics in Warrnambool
  • Red Cross Youth Group visit to the Birches at lunchtime
  • Year 5 students to deliver their leadership speeches to their Houses (letters due after the long weekend)
  • Parents & Friends Social Function at the Roxburgh this evening.