Messages

Dear Families,

Monday 8th March was International Women's Day. International Women's Day gives us the opportunity to recognise and celebrate all the women in our lives.  At Galilee, we are surrounded by courageous, strong, independent and brave women.  Inspired by the book "Shout Out To The Girls" we would like to shout-out some awesome Galilee women and girls who need to be celebrated for what they do and who they are.

We would like to give rapturous applause to the amazing sportswomen whose dedication and class take their achievements across the finish line.

We'd like to give a shout-out to Hattie in Year 4 for a personal best swim at the Beachside Swimming Carnival last week. 

Let's stand aside for the thinkers and the creatives who challenge the system for the sake of what's right.

We'd like to give a shout-out to Darcy in Year 2 who is always looking out for others and challenging us to view situations through a Catholic Lens.

Let's hear it for the bold and brainy girls who are using Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) to take us towards a bright future.

We'd like to give a shout-out to Miss Biggs, Miss Coome and Miss Smith who are dreaming big for our students and inspiring our teachers to educate students in the area of STEM; preparing our students for their future.

Let's give an honorary salute to the passionate sisters who share their stories so others can experience the world through their eyes. 

We'd like to give a shout-out to Dani in Year 5 who realises the power of the pen and crafts creative, thought-provoking writing pieces.

Let's sing it for the sisters who bring so much joy through music.

We'd like to give a shout-out to Dimitra in Year 2 who loves Performing Arts and has a real passion for music. 

Here's to the women who speak up to make life better for everyone.

Let's give a shout-out to Mrs Ferguson who runs our debate club and arms our girls with the skills they'll need to speak up, challenge the norm and take action with their powerful voice.

A round of applause for the girls who inspire us to shatter the glass ceiling and rise to the top.

We'd like to give a shout-out to Eliza in Year 6, our School Capitan, for showing us that no job is out of reach for girls at our school.

Let us applaud the girls/women in our school who embrace their mistakes and see them as an opportunity to learn.

We would like to give a big shout-out and heartfelt thanks to all the girls and women who make Galilee a fantastic place to be. You inspire us, encourage us, challenge us, build us up and make us proud.

Raising girls Who Like Themselves By Kasey Edwards and Dr Christopher Scanlon

I am currently in the process of reading the book, titled above, about raising girls. I am also the father of two daughters of whom I am very proud. While the book provides many outstanding concepts, I'm commenting on, "A girl who likes herself is independent and masterful." The chapter begins with..."Do you remember the first time you rode a bike on your own?" Of course, very few children are able to master riding a bike on the first attempt. Most will fall and learn to ride a little further with each attempt. It is a skill learnt with much persistence and failure. Both of my daughters learnt to ride at different ages and stages of development. However, they both showed persistence and a willingness 'not to be helped'. By this age we had already encouraged them to take risks and be fine with not having immediate mastery of a new skill. Both of them entered new challenges in life with willingness and independence. The authors encourage the following rule: "Only do for her what she can't do for herself."  By doing this..."We are building independence and mastery and demonstrating to them that we believe they can do it." Children should be encouraged to carry their own school bag, even if others in their school are not doing the same thing. This encourages taking responsibility for themselves and develops independence. 

School Closure Day

Tomorrow, Friday 12th March is a School Closure Day. Staff will spend the day learning about Writing - Big Write and VCOP. We look forward to staff implementing these writing strategies into their classrooms. GOSH will be open on Friday 12th March, head to their website to book, www.theircare.com.au.

Recently our Prep teachers participated in professional development titled: Big Talk. It emphasised the important links between oral and written language. The Prep teachers have been focusing more on oral language and the results are impressive, leading to accelerated progress in writing by the students.  You are encouraged to speak to your children at home encouraging responses in full sentences. Great work Preps and teachers.

School Photos

School Photos have been scheduled for the 24th of March. Envelopes to order school photos have been sent home. Our code for online ordering is X3036PC42G. If you require an envelope for a sibling photo, you can get one from the office. The sibling photo order can be added at the end of the student order before payment.

Wellbeing 

Joyfully Positive 

By understanding how you can create positive feelings in yourself, you will be able to have self-control over, and self-awareness about, your wellbeing. Positive emotions expand your attention to see more possibilities in your life. Great ways to create them yourself include, writing down three things you are grateful for daily and also looking forward to, doing kind acts, writing letters of thanks, saying "sorry" and smiling to get a smile back. 

Beachside Swimming

On the 5th of March, Sienna E, Silvana M, Johnathan H, Lenka M, Annabel G, Harriet Mc and Alexander O represented our school at Beachside Swimming. Oakleigh Recreation Centre hosted the event. 

When our swimmers got there it was freezing cold. The events that Galilee participated in were freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and the medley relay. Harriet and Sienna raced in backstroke. Harriet came first for her heat but overall she didn't make it due to her time. Sienna also raced for backstroke she came second in her heat but didn’t make it into the next round next also due to her time. For breaststroke Silvana raced for Galilee. For the butterfly, Sienna participated in it. The medley relay was the last race and the girls relay squad was racing, they came third but didn't get through. Everyone was really proud of themselves and each other. Although it was freezing we all had a great time.

Favourite quotes that some of our swimmers find inspiration from;

If your life goals don’t scare you, they are way too small. - Sienna

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon. - Jonathan M

Stars can't shine without darkness - Lenka

Be strong because things will get better, it may be stormy now but it never rains forever. - Annabel

Play by the rules but be ferocious. - Alexandra

You can't change how people feel about you, so don‘t try. Just live your life and be happy.  -Harriet

Year 4 Camp at Angahook

Last week,  the Year 4 students went on camp to Angahook in Aireys Inlet. They spoke about the camp and their experiences at assembly this week

This is what they presented:

Angahook Camp

In the rooms, all the girls in 4H were in one room and all the girls in 4R were in another room. All the 4H boys were in another room and the 4R boys in their own too.

The 4H girls slept in a different place to everyone else with Mrs Burns next door while the other people slept near the dining room.

We all slept in bunk beds as well but some of the cabins did not have enough space so they slept on mattresses on the floor. Everyone had to bring a sleeping bag because there were no blankets.

We arrived on the bus and went to the beach to meet Jack, Ollie and Tex - the Angahook staff. First of all, we split up into 3 teams: red, blue, and yellow. Tex was blue, Ollie was red and Jack was yellow.

Our first activity was a relay race so each team had around 14-16 people on each team. Then we got ready and Tex said, “Go!”, and we bolted to the cone and back! It was a really tough and intense race. It was down to the last people on each team they pushed as fast as they could but blue became victorious for the first round. 

Our second activity was the river, bridge, tree relay. The first person in line had to go the first cone and lie as a river, the 2nd cone you had to bend like a bridge and the 3rd cone had to stand like a tree. Everyone else had to jump the river go under the bridge and around the tree but in the end, yellow won! 

The third game was that you had to roll the tennis ball down the hill into the cone, first, everyone was using their hands and then someone was dragging another person down the sand dune to create a bigger and better path and out of nowhere red won!

After we thanked The Angahook staff, we walked to a lighthouse called Aireys Inlet Lighthouse and guessed how old it was. It was over 120 years old! Then we looked over the cliff and we saw Eagles Rock. After talking about it we walked all the way back.

The Giant Swing

On the camp, we had groups 1, 2, 3 and 4. I was in group 2. One of the activities was the big swing. One of the camp staff, Jack, told us what to do, the rules and how to do it. We got clipped on, the ladder was there to help us.

We all had a go except the people who didn’t want to because they didn’t feel confident. The max height was 18 metres, and when people were about to go on they were a little nervous but it was still awesome!

Once we got on, all the people in our group started to pull a rope that would take us up. Some people went to the top but you could yell stop when you wanted to. When you were ready, your group mates let go of the rope.

I went to the top and I got a bit scared but I loved it. I wanted to do it again, It was fun! I went swinging into the air!

When it was my turn I went to the top, I screamed a little but it was still amazing. Sadly, the instructors only let us have one turn but it was still lots of fun.

After it finished the ladder was there to help us to get off and the camp staff helped us get the harness off. 

Everybody had so much fun and loved it and thought it was the best!

Nearly everyone went to the top, even Paul and Miss Hall, everybody wanted Charlie to do it but sadly he didn’t.

Archery

We arrived in the archery course, it was full of hay. Our instructor Ollie went through some of the rules of Archery like these.

First, he told us how to nock a bow, by sliding on the clip and then holding it tightly with our two middle fingers. Then, you put the arrow gently on the stand and carefully pull it back while turning the bow vertical. Then you aim at the targets and release the arrow quickly! If you followed this guide you would have hit the targets!!

That's how you shoot a bow and arrow! After archery, we went back to our cabins and had dinner. I hope we can go back to Angahook!

Low Ropes

Firstly, we had to learn the rules: only the person who had the helmet could go on the course, there had to be 2 spotters on the course and one person on each obstacle. Then we went on the course.

Secondly, we got on the low ropes course. The first obstacle was a log that you had to go uphill in a straight line in the air! It was easy! Well, at least in my opinion.

Thirdly, we went on the obstacle where you had to swing to each piece of wood on a rope and we had to walk on the wood without holding anything.

It was hard at first but then my friends helped me and I got the hang of it, my friends struggled a lot. 

Fourthly, we went to some rope that had some cool triangles. It was very hard but my friends managed it. We did lots of other awesome activities and my friends loved it. For some of us, it was our favourite and it was the best one yet.

Canoeing

The next morning,  we got on the van in small groups and Angus drove us to the place we were doing the canoeing.

When we got there, we hopped out of the van. When everyone had their life jacket on, we started to pick our partner for the canoe. 

We had to go all the way from a path to a bridge. Everyone kept getting stuck in the bushes! We had to stop and wait for other people. I can tell everyone loved Canoeing. 

Mountain Biking

On our year 4 camp, we went Mountain biking. First, the instructors told us their names: Simon and Shane.   

Then they gave us our bikes and we did an exercise where we rode around in circles until everyone was ready.

When everyone was ready we headed off. We had to cycle on the road because there wasn’t a bike path.

Soon after we were on the mountain biking trail. As soon as we got on the trail we flew through when we got to our first break we had to wait for the others to catch up. 

When they caught up we continued going straight. There were some big roots but we could go over them because we were concentrating.

After some time we were at the end of the trail but it was kind of annoying because we had to wait for everyone to catch up. Shane had to keep stopping when we got to two or three different paths so we didn't lose anyone. Then we went back to the camp.

When they caught up we headed back. We went faster on the way back because we were familiar with the trail. We were soon back to our campsite so we put our bikes back and we had a fantastic time!

Overall the bike riding was really fun and I think everyone thinks the same. 

It was amazing to ride a bike in the beautiful Australian bush!

Movie Night

On Thursday night, we watched a movie! Everyone wanted to know what it was called, I thought it was Sing because the teachers were holding a Sing DVD. Turns out we were watching Snoopy and Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie! 

Before we watched the movie, we had to put on long clothes and our PJ’s under because the mosquitoes have a virus called; Ross River. Then Mrs Burns came out with a massive pot of hot chocolate and it went down amazingly fast. 

Then, we went to brush our teeth and went to the game room to watch the movie. Lachie fell asleep but the movie was really good.

After that, we went to the toilet, took off our long clothes and went to bed. We were allowed to talk for 10 minutes and head off to sleep. In about 15 minutes everyone drifted off to sleep.

Bush Dancing

On the first night, we went into the Games room where we met Ken and Evie. They asked for 6 volunteers, 3 boys and 3 girls. Then they asked us to line behind one of the volunteers. They said only 8 could be in one line. After we did that they taught us a duck dance. Then we partnered with someone and learnt many other fun dances. It was so cool!

Year 5 Camp to Merricks

Next Tuesday 16th March, our Year 5 students will be off to their camp at Merricks lodge for 3 nights. Students will participate in a range of outdoor activities including surfing, snorkelling, raft building, beach games and other team-based challenges. We look forward to hearing all about it on Friday afternoon when they return.

PE Uniform

We are sorry that there have been many changes to the days that students are required to wear PE uniform this Term. We would like to thank you for your patience, understanding and flexibility.  In Term 2 and will endeavour to keep the days students are to wear their PE Uniform as consistent as possible.

These are days that students need to wear their PE Uniform next week:

Prep S: Monday and Thursday

Prep P: Monday and Thursday

Prep M: Tuesday and Friday

Year 1J: Tuesday and Friday

Year 1B: Tuesday and Thursday

Year 2R: Tuesday and Friday

Year 2J: Wednesday and Friday

Year 2E: Wednesday and Thursday

Year 3M: Wednesday and Friday

Year 3B: Monday and Thursday

Year 4R: Monday and Thursday

Year 4H: Wednesday and Friday

Year 5C: Monday and Thursday

Year 6M: Tuesday and Friday

Year 6F: Tuesday and Friday

Debate club

By Millie A, Michala S and Anna L

Every Tuesday at lunch time, the Year Fours, Fives & Sixes join Mrs Ferguson at Debate Club in the Year Six room.

We started the year by building our confidence by playing fun games that helped us to voice our opinions. We played games like; ‘Would you rather’, ‘Four Corners’ and ‘Yes or No’. 

Recently, we have started discussing ethical conundrums that make you scratch your head! It is hard to pick a side. This week, we also learnt about the structure of a debate team. We explored the role of the three speakers and how they work together to deliver a convincing argument. 

We are really looking forward to the rest of the sessions this term!

Writing in Year Six 

In Year Six, we have been engaging in Free Writing Fridays. During these sessions, students have an opportunity to put into practice what they have been learning that week in writing. In Year Six, we focus on the purpose of our writing - are we writing to persuade, inform or entertain? We carefully examine and assess our sentence structure, making amendments where necessary. We challenge ourselves to create opening sentences that hook our audience, all while using punctuation to add effect and suspense. Finally, we encourage and celebrate the use of ambitious vocabulary. VCOP has been a fun and engaging part of our writing lessons that help our students to focus on the word and sentence level elements of writing as demonstrated below by Sive B. Enjoy her gripping opening paragraph introducing you to Neverlands Beast. 

Neverlands Beast

By Sive B

Darkness engulfed the moonless night sky, as footsteps pounded against the deserted cobblestone path. A drain could be heard dripping in the distance, a result of the not long-gone winter showers. 

WELCOME  TO NEVERLANDS BAY. You've probably been to Neverlands Bay and just never known it. It's nestled between the twisting pinelands and the sunny shores of Sunshine Bay. It's the kind of place you'll wander yourself into while trying to find Sunshine Bay’s beach bathrooms. Neverlands Bay is not the kind of place you would want to arrive at, no. It is the kind of place that will send you home mad...if you can find your way out! This is where our story begins...🐾🐾🐾

Craft club

Today in Craft Club we made little monster friends. Join us next Thursday for a St Patrick's Day themed craft.

Parents Battle Of the Bands

The Parents Battle Of the Bands is back for their 3rd edition!

Like in previous years, it will be staged at the Prince Bandroom on the 27th of May, 2021. 

Our Parents Band P.O.G.S. is participating with 6 other local primary schools including St. Kilda Primary, Elwood Primary, Port Melbourne Primary, Gardenvale Primary, St Kilda Park Primary & Ripponlea Primary.

The funds raised are used to expand the musical education programs and improve facilities for participating schools & help further our children's musical education.  It is also a great opportunity to connect with the different school communities and have a lot of fun. All proceeds will be redistributed back to the school pro-rata of parents’ attendance / number of tickets sold by each school. 

It is a fun social night with the wider local school community and some great music.

Head over to @parentbattleofthebands on Instagram and Facebook to see what the fuss is about.

Ticketing details to be supplied shortly.

See you there! 

Easter Raffle 

Tickets

Raffle tickets were sent home with students on Tuesday 9th March. This is an Easter Fundraising event to raise money for our school. 

Tickets - $2 each or 3 for $5

Please clearly label each purchased ticket with your child’s name and class.

These envelopes must be returned to class teacher by Friday 26th March.    

*Additional raffle tickets will be available at the school office if you wish to purchase more.

There is no obligation to purchase tickets.

Easter Raffle Donations

The Easter Raffle will be drawn at 12.30pm on  Thursday 1st April, the last day of Term 1 and the lucky winners will take home their goodies!

We are hoping to give out at least 1 prize per class so we are asking for donations of Easter bunnies and Easter eggs. (We recognise some children have food allergies, we will try to accommodate this where possible)

Please drop donations to the office by Friday 26th March. 

Caritas and Food Drive

Hi everyone, 

We are now halfway into Lent. Caritas is a great way to help those in need, and to think more of others during Lent, as well as making space for Jesus in our lives. 

Filling a Caritas box up with some coins can have a positive impact on the lives of those who live in poorer countries. Has your class filled theirs up yet?

If you could also bring to your classroom a can of baked beans, or any other nonperishable food, for those who are less fortunate in our community, that would be great. This drive will begin on the 15th of March and end on the 26th of March.

A few days after St Patrick’s day, is St Joseph’s day. St Joseph is the father of Jesus, and the husband of Mary. It is a Christian tradition to donate food to the poor on his day, March 19th, which is coming up very soon. All food donated will go to the Friars Kitchen.

We hope you have a fantastic week.

-TC, Social Justice Captain

Religion

Scripture of the Week

Prayer for Lent- 

Almsgiving

Dear Lord, help us to give generously to all our brothers and sisters, as You have poured out Your gifts upon us. As we meditate on Your love for us, we ask You to give us the strength to make sacrifices for others. You never cease to draw us to Yourself. Help us to be Your active body, and through us, come to those who are less fortunate than we are. We ask You to protect those who have no walls for security, and provide for them all necessities. Lord, send Your Holy Spirit to console them in the many difficulties of their lives. Remain with our brothers and sisters. Amen. 

TC - Social Justice Leader

St Patrick’s Day

Who is St. Patrick? St. Patrick was a fifth-century Roman-British Christian missionary and Bishop in Ireland. Known as the ‘apostle of Ireland’ he is the primary patron Saint of Ireland. 

Why do we celebrate St. Patrick's day? 

St. Patrick's day observes the passing of St. Patrick. The holiday has evolved into a celebration of Irish culture with parades, special foods, music, dancing and a WHOLE LOT of green!

During St. Patrick’s day at the Sts PP on March 17th at 9am we are inviting you to come and celebrate Mass with Father John.

We also will be giving you all an opportunity to wear something green. This can be a green hair ribbon\band, hat, green clothes, socks but please don't do green hair. 

-Aiden, Social Justice Captain

SACRAMENTAL DATES 2021

Reconciliation:

StsPP - Tuesday, 16 March 7:00pm

OLMC - Wednesday, 24 March 7:00pm

Eucharist

StsPP - Sunday, 6 June 2:00pm

OLMC - Wednesday, 2 June 7:00pm

Confirmation

StsPP- Thursday 19 August 7.00pm

OLMC - Wednesday 18 August 7.00pm

Many of our Year 3 students will be making their First Reconciliation in March. Please keep them in your prayers:

A Prayer for our Reconciliation Candidates

Loving God, teach your children that you love them totally and unconditionally.

Help us to encourage each other to grow in love and to learn how to say sorry, knowing that you always forgive.

Help us to pray for these children and to share our faith with them as we journey together.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen 

Simon Millar

Principal of Galilee