Week Ahead

Monday March 9th - ‘Labour Day’ holiday

Wednesday March 11th - College Open Day

Thursday March 12th - HDSA Athletics Carnival at Pedrina Park

Friday March 13th - Division Swimming in Warrnambool

Artist in Residence Panels

Last year, Mrs. Lisa Addinsall and Mrs. Bec Cameron piloted an ‘Artist in Residence’ program in which Junior School students and families could contribute to some pieces of artwork that would make their way into the Junior School playground. They worked on three large panels that would be attached to the brick wall of the walled garden. The panels have an animal theme and were constructed in conjunction with other pieces of animal art for the Art Exhibition in Term Three. On Tuesday, Mr Dopheide fixed the finished panels to the wall outside the Prep/Year One and Year Two rooms. They certainly brighten up the area and are well worth a look when you are next at Myrniong.

Microsoft Professional Learning

Over the past few days the College has sent a number of Senior Campus and Junior School staff, including Miss Simone Brabham and me, to Melbourne for professional learning days focused on Microsoft’s suite of tools. Technology is moving quickly and we were shown a number of new products and some of Microsoft’s future prototypes. Two tools that stood out can be found on most devices at home that have Word or Microsoft Office;

Dictate - this tool is a small microphone in the Word toolbar. It allows the user to dictate notes and the tool will translate the speech to text. This could be very handy for upper primary students completing projects and written tasks.

Within Microsoft online ‘Word’ and ‘OneNote’ programs is a tool called ‘Immersive Reader’. This allows the user to cut and paste text, which can be read aloud by the program. It can also translate the text into many languages and also highlight nouns, adjectives, verbs etc.

Open Day - Wednesday March 11th

Next Wednesday is the first of the College’s 2020 ‘Open Days’. This is an opportunity for prospective families to tour the College and see our educational offer. If you have friends or family members that might be interested in viewing both the Senior School and Junior School, please invite them along. The day starts at Chaucer Street at 9.00 am, with an introduction to the College by Dr. Hirst, Executive staff and Senior School students. Tours will be conducted and a morning tea will follow. At 11.30 am, tours of the Junior School will be available. One of the many positive aspects of conducting tours of Myrniong is ’what you see is what you get’, in other words, we are authentic in our offer to prospective families. They see engaged students, quality core and specialist programs, energetic and committed teaching staff and fabulous grounds.

Uniform and Hair

Term One is always a busy nine weeks. As we enter the second half of term, a few areas of uniform and personal appearance are in need of addressing by some students.

*If boys opt to wear a tie, they must wear a blazer to and from school.

*Junior School socks for boys are short navy socks, not the blue and white Senior School socks.

*All students wearing P.E uniform should have plain white sports socks.

*Untidy and ‘lived in’ hair is becoming more prevalent amongst some of our boys. College requires boys to have ‘neat and tidy hair of a respectable length’.

Reminder notes will be sent home with students not following these guidelines. The way we personally present and wear our uniforms is a strong tradition of the College, and a point of difference from other schools. I seek parent support in maintaining these standards right through to the end of term.

Missing Blazer - Year Two

Could all Junior School families check names in blazers. One of our new students to College, Mi-Ha Kim in Year Two has misplaced a brand new blazer. If located, could the blazer be returned to Mrs. Povey in the Junior School Office.

Learning Progress Meetings

Learning Progress Meetings will be held on Tuesday 17th March and Wednesday 18th March between 3.30 pm and 5.30 pm. Please telephone or email Nat Povey to make a time with your child’s teacher. Students attend these meetings. Bookings will not be taken after Wednesday 11th March. Thank you.

Chamber Singers

The Term One after school rehearsal will be held between 3:15 pm and 4:30 pm on Wednesday 18th March in the Junior School Music Room, in preparation for the College Easter Service. Afternoon tea will be provided.

Stephen Nelson

Head of Junior School

House Athletics Carnival

Last Friday saw the annual Junior School House Athletics Carnival run again on the Myrniong oval. It was a cool and at times damp day and the children were a beautiful sight to see, participating in many individual events.

Congratulations to all students who participated. It is a big day for little legs and each student deserves praise for the good nature in which they competed in all of their track and field events. The expectations of all Physical Education and Sport participants at the Junior School include having a go at all sports, trying your best, working as a team, engaging in positive sportsmanship, encouraging others, striving for your personal best and to always use sporting manners. Our PE and Sport motto at the Junior School is to be Gracious in Defeat and Humble in Victory and the positive sportsmanship and goodwill demonstrated between team-mates and the opposition was an absolute credit to each and every one of our Junior School children!

Congratulations to Laidlaw who won overall, with the trophy accepted by House Captains Hattie Nicholls and Darcy Fleetwood, and to the following very talented age-group champions:

9yo: Yolanda O’Sullivan and Charlie Hindhaugh

10yo: Millie Mould and Harry McDonald

11yo: Chloe Laidlaw, Alison Foster and Thomas Templeton

12/13yo: Sophie Spence and Taylor Haley

The carnival atmosphere of the day was absolutely made by the lovely parent group, led by Mrs. Megan Mould. The delicious cakes and biscuits along with the sausage sizzle were greatly appreciated by everyone. Thank you to all parents who helped on this front.

Our events rely completely on the involvement of our parents and I thank all the parents who helped either at the start or finish line of the running events or to measure and organise at the field events. It is a busy day for everyone and your help is always greatly appreciated by all staff and students.

Good luck to our large team of athletes who will participate in the HDSA Athletics Carnival next Thursday 12th March at Pedrina Park. This team will wear the new Athletics singlets kindly donated by the P & F Committee and we are very grateful that our athletics team will now look absolutely amazing.

Mrs Louise Patterson

Head of Junior Sport

The Hamilton and Alexandra College Newsletter

Issue 6 · 05 Mar 2020

In this issue