From the Head of Junior School

Rites of Passage and Milestone Moments

These are valuable constructs we mark for ourselves to recognise a significant period of growth or change. Some age groups have more of them than others, like the Year Six cohort experiencing their final year of Junior School or Kindergarten enjoying their first. These moments are important for the students as it helps them prepare for what comes next like moving into Middle School, or for Kindergarten, the socialisation of school with people other than their immediate family. These experiences are just as important for our families too. They mark moments when we recognise that our children are growing up, which no doubt fills many families with the mixed emotions of happiness, pride, sadness and worry as we grapple with the tension of wanting our children to grow up confident and capable young people….but not too quickly!

Last week, our Year Six cohort ventured away on their camp to Rottnest Island for the week. This was a long-awaited milestone, as for many students it was their first camp, and their longest period away from home. Needless to say there was excitement and ‘butterflies in tummies’ for all students, and probably their families too. The student reflections below capture ‘what’ they did on camp and perhaps a snapshot of their experience, but it's probably fair to say that they are yet to fully recognise the value of their experience as a ‘milestone moment’ for their development towards Middle School. The five days away was filled with:

Communication skills, as they conversed with each other, tour guides and various business operators throughout the week.
Organisation skills, managing their own movements and belongings between activities.
Responsibility skills, fulfilling group tasks to ensure the camp functions on schedule.
Resilience skills, physically pushing themselves to ride, walk or carry what was required for the activity; but let’s not underestimate the resilience to manage living away from home for a week and the inevitable homesickness we all feel at some stage. Also the resilience of living with people they don’t normally spend that much time with, their peers, and the adjustments required to accommodate each others needs – some might call that tolerance, a close relative of resilience.
Patience and persistence, when approaching the challenge factor of new experiences; we rarely get it right on the first attempt, most new experiences in life require multiple attempts, patience and persistence to be successful.
Optimism, bringing a bright attitude of positivity to an activity, task or conversation. This lifts the individual, and the group up, no matter what the environment or scenario brings.

Camps are wonderful milestone moments, the points shared above probably don’t fully capture the value they offer. My sincere thanks to the students for your support of each other and engagement in the camp; to the teaching staff for your care and efforts throughout the camp preparation and the camp itself; and finally our families, you were wonderfully supportive throughout the whole process and we tremendously value the trust you have in us to deliver such an experience for your children. A true highlight for me was seeing the ‘welcome home’ hugs between the students and their families as they stepped off the bus. Priceless.

This Friday our Year Three cohort enjoy their first camp experience with a trip to Castle Rock followed by a sleepover at school. This will be a very special milestone for them, and I look forward to reporting more on this event in next week's Anchor.

Upcoming

Today the Junior School held its Interhouse Athletics Carnival, blessed with perfect weather! A detailed report of the event will be provided in next week's Anchor including a gallery of action photographs from throughout the day.

With warmest regards, and appreciation,

Mr Ken Raven | Head of Junior School

Year Six Camp

Summary By Year Six F

Day One

The Year Six students went on a camp to Rottnest Island during Week Three. The fun camp went for five days. The trip started on the bus at 9.00am and once we got to Fremantle Port, we waited for the ferry. We boarded the ferry at 3.30pm and that is when the adventure really started. Once we got off the ferry, we were given a bike each to ride to the Kingstown Barracks (camp site). We had time to ride around and chill out in the lounge area until dinner was ready. Once we had finished and cleaned up from dinner some of us went for a bike ride and the other stayed back to unpack and find out who was in which dorm.

Day Two

We all woke up early and some of us (the girls) got ready for dorm check so we could get a prize for the cleanest dorm. For breaky we had cereal, toast, and eggs. It was great!! We got ready for the adventure ahead - going to the other end of the island. We quickly got ready to head off on our bikes. Mrs Berryman’s group had a shorter ride to Oliver Hill for the Guns and Tunnels tour while the rest of us went out to The West End (the most western point of the island). The ride was about 27km all together and seemed to last forever. We saw some seals at Cape Vlamingh too. We only had two people fall off, but we were all super thankful to get to the bakery for lunch.

We were happy that we had a good lunch, we were ready to hop on our bikes and ride to our dorms. When we arrived, we tidied our dorms and did some awesome and fun activities. We made adverts for Rottnest using the iPads and completed our camp booklets. That night some guides came to talk about the planets and tell us some tales about the animals on the island. Everyone was tired and hopped into bed and ready for the third day of camp.

Day Three

On Wednesday, the third day of the Year Six camp, Mr Osborne’s group and Mrs Field’s groups went to the Oliver Hill Guns Tour. The bike ride to Oliver Hill was a very long, painful ride for some people especially going up the big steep hill. Once all of us finally got to the top of the hill we met a friendly guide and he started telling us about the history and then took us underground to the engine room and even deeper underground. After the tour, we all went to the bakery. Mrs Field tortured our group with a long cycle back to the townsite whilst Mr Osborne’s took a shortcut. Mr Ferreira’s group went out to the West End and were lucky enough to see seals and dolphins. Once we got home we completed an amazing race activity with Mr Osborne and finished our adverts. Later, we had dinner then we rode our bikes to the main settlement and got into two groups and got informed about the early days of the island settlement and the names of many stars and planets. The guides were amazed by what we already knew. We all slept soundly that night.

Day Four

On Day Four we woke up and had breakfast which was pancakes, beans, toast, cereal and juice. We later went on a 4.7km bike ride to Little Salmon Bay where we went snorkelling, we were roughly there for two hours. We saw fish, coral and helped clean informational signs in the water along the snorkel trail. We then went back to the dorms and had showers and went to town to get food at the bakery by bike. We then did the Reefs, Wrecks and Daring Sailors tour which we used the information we learnt in a scavenger hunt we later did around town. We then went back to the dorms and ate dinner which was chicken rice and vegetables, and ended the day with a camp meeting. We got to nominate people for camp awards and saw Mr Osborne do Elly’s dance.

Day Five

On Friday we had to wake up very early (6.00am) to pack and get ready for the trip home. We left the Barracks at 8.00am and gave our bikes back to go on the ferry for an 8.30am departure. We hopped on the bus at 9.20am to start the bus trip to school. Once we got to Williams, we stopped at the Road House to have lunch and a run around in the park. We got back on the bus and we didn’t stop again until Mt Barker where some people got off and then after another 45min till we got to school. The bus trips made the top five highlights for many people. Thank you to Mrs Berryman, Mrs Field, Mr Ferreira and Mr Osborne, without them Year Six camp couldn’t have happened.

Highlights by Year Six O

What was your favourite part of Year Six Camp?

Mason: Nominating people for camp awards on the last night was great and also really funny. Becoming cave people with Thomas was really fun too.
Kari: I enjoyed the snorkelling because the water was so pretty and the bike riding with my friends was really fun.
Gracie: Snorkelling because there was so many things to look at and it was really fun.
Thomas: Having our own bikes to ride and explore and the tours were really good.
Charlotte: Snorkelling because I got to see fish.
Dakota: The quokkas because they were really cute.
Myles: Hanging out with friends and snorkelling at the beach.
Tim: Going to the bakery for lunch each day as it has really good food.
Ella: Interacting with people I don’t normally spend time with.

You Can Do It!

We have focused on the Social Emotional Keys of Persistence and Confidence so far this Term. During Weeks Three and Four our House Leader nominees for 2022 have run our morning briefings. They have done a wonderful job organizing and conducting these, showing their peers and teachers the types of leaders they will be.

Next Tuesday students from Years Three to Six will vote in the House Leaders for 2022. You can see the nominees’ posters on the windows of the Junior School building.

Well done to the following students for achieving awards for these qualities and our ECC Stars of the Week:

Week 2

ECC Stars of the Week

Annabelle Brennan, Laily Wrobel, Lola Ravenhill, Isamika Tozana

Week 3

Social and Emotional Key Winners for Persistence:

Luke Buckovic, Ando Gatti, Riley Jenkins, Mason Watkins, Josh Pages, Jarrah Headlam, Bronte Pages, Rose Bane, Louie Sutton

Stars of the Week:

Anthony Dimer, Annabelle Brennan, Blake Ravenhill, Leah Watkins

Week 4

Social and Emotional Key Winners for Confidence:

Ryan Parker, William Baldwin, Max Gavin, William Buckovic, Edmund Toomey, Eddy Coniglio, Grace Mitchell, Hannah Fergie, Lola Ravenhill

ECC Stars of the Week

Fraser Lester, Alexander Standish, Jarrah Headlam, Rose Bane

Green Team Update

Over the school holidays the school’s bins have had a revamp to bring them in line with the bin system students use at home. FOGO collection is still not a school service so to combat this we will continue with Take Home Tuesday and Waste Free Wednesdays. The Green Team has also encouraged students to create minimal waste lunch boxes. You can do this by pre-cutting fruits that will have wastage and encouraging your children to take home uneaten food waste. The Green Team has also been composting our hospitality scraps down at the farm. Waste Free Wednesday is an easy way to earn House points by showing a member of the Green Team (wearing a fluro vest with a clipboard) their waste free lunch boxes at recess time.

Mrs Leah Field | Assistant Head of Junior School

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