Myrniong and ELC

Week Ahead - Week 1 Term 4

Monday, 7th October - Week 1 Assembly at 2.30 pm, ‘Hats On’ Day

Tuesday, 8th October to Friday, 11th October - Prep to Year 2 Intensive Swimming

Thursday, 10th October - 1st Prep 2020 Orientation session 9.15 am, Year 3/4 Cricket Cup

Friday, 11th October - Greater Western Region Athletics Championships - (Ballarat)

Time for R, R and R

With the holidays only one sleep away, it is time for the Junior School learning community to take the time to review, relax and reset. It has been an incredibly busy ten weeks, with the Sovereign Hill experiences, Wellness Week, Hoop Time, Book Week, ICAS Reach assessments, Tournament of the Minds, Year 5 and Year 2 class Assemblies, Young House Service, Maths Olympiad competitions, Bebras, Birches visits, Hockey 7s and local hockey finals, etc. Have a wonderful two-week break and I look forward to seeing families back for the start of Term Four on Monday, 7th October.

Term Four Uniform

With the Victorian south west’s renowned changeable weather, we give the Junior School students two weeks’ grace at the beginning of Term Four to be in their summer uniform. It is compulsory for all students to wear their school hats to and from school, and during recess and lunch. ‘No hat, no play’ will be enforced from Week One of next term. A reminder to parents that the College Uniform Shop is open on Tuesday afternoons and all day Thursday. There is an e-copy of the Junior School handbook on the College website. This outlines all the relevant uniform information for ELC 3 to Year 6 students.

https://www.hamiltoncollege.vic.edu.au/

Myrniong Grounds

If parents have the time in or around drop-offs and pick-ups, take a wander about the Myrniong grounds. Spring is in the air and the maintenance team of Nick Dopheide, Craig Kennedy and Shane Bonnett have the grounds looking spectacular. The new lawn area outside the Refectory is lush and inviting, the roses in the driveway are starting to grow and the garden beds are alive with activity. Well done boys!

New Junior School Report Format

In Term One we held a parent forum to discuss Junior School reporting. We took ideas from that meeting and merged them with the staff’s best thinking and have made some changes to the Junior School semester reports. The learning outcomes have been replaced with an overall assessment for each learning area and all specialist reports (Music, Art, Library, Physical Education and Chinese) will contain a written comment, which have replaced the behavioural dot points.

State Champions

On Thursday, 12th September, the Boys’ and Girls’ Junior School Hockey 7s teams travelled to Melbourne to compete against the best primary schools in Victoria in the 2019 State Hockey 7s Championships.

The Girls (Skye Headlam, Chloe Headlam, Sophie Merrin, Olivia Rees, Olivia Read, Izzi Adamson, Zoe Addinsall, Ava Mould and Sacha Laidlaw) were in Pool A, pitted against Greenhills, Brighton Beach and Wembley Primary Schools. They won all three games, scoring 11 goals and conceding only 4. The State Final was against the winner of Pool B, Our Holy Redeemer, Surrey Hills. The Girls were crowned State Champions with a fabulous 4-0 win.

The Boys (Harry Austin, Harry Brown, Tom Templeton, Rupert Merrin, Ciaran Nelson, Ben Walker, Jack Jarvis, Charlie Jarvis, Jake Butcher and Harry Mercer) were in Pool A with Cathedral College Wangaratta, Beaumaris and Bairnsdale West Primary School. They were undefeated in their three pool games, scoring 20 goals and conceding 2. The State final was against the winner of Pool B, St Anthony’s, Alphington. The match score was 3-3 at full time. The boys scored in the first period of extra time to win the final 4-3.

Special thanks to coach David Merrin and to Heath Templeton for their contributions to a highly successful day for College hockey. The College parent and grandparent support on the day was incredible. Thank you to all who travelled to Melbourne to support the teams.

Division 4 Grand Final

Well done to the College Drop Bears on a great season. The team came up against a strong Grand Final opponent in Demons. The final score was Demons 4 Drop Bears 0. All played their hearts out and certainly left nothing on the pitch.

Stephen Nelson

Head of Junior School

Early Learning Centre

I am often asked by parents about their child’s readiness for school, so I have adapted the following from the Centre for Community Child Health, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne:

To decide about school readiness, you may want to consider:

Language skills: communication is used to engage with and teach your child. A child needs to be able to follow instructions and understand what teachers are saying, as well as being able to communicate well with teachers and the other students.

Physical well-being: a child who has a disability or a chronic illness may have difficulty with some aspects of school. This does not automatically mean they are not ready for school, but any physical or functional limitations need to be considered.

Motor co-ordination and skills: a child needs co-ordination skills to allow them to dress and undress, unwrap their lunch or open their lunchbox, yogurt, snack packet, use a pencil and scissors, and participate in other activities that require eye hand and motor co-ordination.

Concentration and emotional adjustment: a child needs to be able to socialise and play with their classmates. They also need to be able to deal with the structured nature of a more formal learning environment, such as being able to focus on tasks, follow directions and instructions from teachers, cope with transitions, and understand the rules.

Independence: a child needs a range of skills so that they can cope with minimum adult supervision. This includes going to the toilet by themselves, dressing, and being able to follow a structured classroom routine.

Some simple activities that you can do to help your child get ready for school are listed below:

Read to your child and use books as a pleasurable daily shared activity.
Make everyday things an exploration of language – ask the child questions, listen carefully to their answers, and encourage the child to ask why.
Encourage the child’s natural curiosity – do different things with them, encourage them to try different ways of doing things. Make a walk in the park a nature tour.
Encourage the child to learn to dress and undress independently, and to use the toilet appropriately.
Make sure the child has crayons and pencils and a supply of paper to draw and write on, and always praise their efforts.
Encourage your child, outside of their early learning environment, to mix with other children in different supervised activities so they learn to socialise with their peers, take turns and share their toys and books.

For more information you can visit www.rch.org.au

Mrs Frances O'Brien

Early Learning Centre Director

Junior School Netball

The new season of Netball will be starting in Term Four on Saturday 12th October.

We have yet to receive a draw, but it should not be too far away.

Net Set Go will also run at the same time at Pedrina Park.

There will be three timeslots this season due to the number of teams entered. They will be 8.30 am – 9.30 am and 10.30 am. Each age group will be rotated through each of the timeslots, including Net Set Go.

Our 11 and Under Jaguars and 13 and Under Panthers will be training at lunchtimes on Mondays so please make sure you bring your sneakers to school on that day.

Please make sure you have registered online before the first game:

http://vic.netball.com.au/membership/netball-victoria-membership/

Bernadette Milich

Head of Junior Netball