Junior School
Head of Junior School Update
We are proud to celebrate the recent achievements of our talented students. Mosese T (Year 3), Evelyn M (Year 4) and Eseta T (Year 1) were selected from over 1,500 entrants to have their portraits featured in the Warrnambool Art Gallery’s Young Portrait Prize 2025 calendar. Their artistic skills shone through, and we congratulate them on this outstanding achievement! See photos of this in the articles below.
Ollie D (Year 6) continues to excel, securing the lead role of Michael in Warrnambool Theatre Company’s Mary Poppins production during the holidays. His dedication to the arts is an inspiration to us all. Grab yourself a ticket here if you haven’t already.
In the Lions Club Speech Meet, Joey D (Year 3), Adrian P (Year 4), Maisie N (Year 5), and Grace B (Year 6) each placed first in their year levels. We are excited to support Ollie and Grace (overall Year 5 and 6 winners) and Joey and Adrian (overall Year 3 and 4 winners) as they progress to the next stage, competing against other schools. See more photos in the Year 3 and 4 articles below.
A special shoutout to our Junior School student leaders, who helped organise the King’s Got Talent show last week. Their hard work paid off, making it an unforgettable evening of entertainment. Well done also to those who performed on the night and all those who auditioned.
Congratulations to all our students on these incredible accomplishments – we couldn’t be prouder!
Alex Burgess
Head of Junior School
Prep
It has been a busy and wonderful term! We had the most amazing time at swimming. We were so appreciative of all the parents who came and helped to make it all run smoothly!
We have also just gotten new books in the Prep classroom, and we are so excited to take these home to read over the holidays! What a wonderful term!
Here are some of our favourite things from Term 3:
"When we have assemblies, and when we have buddies and art" - Bailey
"Buddies, cause buddies is better. And assembly and maths" - Lewis
"Everything" - Micah
"Art and handwriting" - Miriam
"Integrated studies and science" - Sorcha
"Fruit snack, art and playtime and buddies and lunch time...and science" - Alvin
"Buddies and science" - Indi
Eden Romero
Prep Teacher
Year 1
Year 1 students had a great time predicting, planning, observing and analysing experiments where everyday materials were changed through heating, cooling or mixing in Science. They were especially excited when a fizzy, colourful explosion erupted from our conical flasks as vinegar mixed with bi-carb soda, soap and food colouring.
Earlier in the week, our class went to the Warrnambool Art Gallery to view the Young Portraits on display. It was wonderful to see so over 1,500 entries fill the walls from floor to ceiling. Congratulations to our Year 1 student, Eseta T, whose portrait of her father was selected to feature in a special calendar. In the words of the children, “the artwork was very inspiring”.
Lyndell Tucker & Kerry Snook
Year 1 Teachers
Year 2
It is hard to believe that we're already at the end of another term!
Year 2 had a special visitor this week from firefighter Mr Griffin, who spoke to us about the different ways that he uses water as a firefighter and how he uses water responsibly in that role as part of our Science unit, Water Works. We also learnt a lot about the importance of fire safety and the precautions that are taken by firefighters to protect themselves from flames. The Year 2's asked lots of great questions, and even got to try Mr Griffin's fireman gear on!
Another interesting thing happened in Year 2 this week... one morning, we came into our classroom to find that the chairs had gone on strike! Our chairs had had enough and quit for the day. Luckily though, we have just been looking at persuasive writing, so the Year 2's put their writing skills into action and wrote some very convincing letters to the chairs, persuading them to come back. Thankfully, by the end of the day the chairs had returned! But that meant that students were completing their work either standing, kneeling, or sitting on the floor for almost a full day.
We are all looking forward to a good rest over the holidays before getting ready for all of the exciting things that are to come in Term 4!
Alissa Griffin
Year 2 Teacher
Year 3
Year 3 have had a really busy finish to the term! In this last week, we visited the Warrnambool Art Gallery to see the Young Portrait Prize Exhibition that all of our classmates entered. We were so proud to see our work displayed on the walls and in a special book that the general public will be seeing! We are particularly proud of our very own Mosese T, whose portrait of his Aunty Emma was one of twelve portraits chosen from 1,500 entries to go in the calendar for next year!
We also had 11 of our kids very bravely enter the Lion’s Club Junior Public Speaking Competition, which was magnificent! They all did such a wonderful job and Mrs Hales was so super proud of each and every one of them. Our little superstar, Joey D, won the Year 3/4 division of the competition and will now progress through to the next part of the competition!
Finally, we have been doing some outstanding work in Art with Mrs Kosh! Take at look at our awesome sea creatures that we have been making. They are super impressive!
Ang Hales
Year 3 Teacher
Year 4
Year 4 have had a very busy week! We started off the week with a trip to the Warrnambool Art Gallery to view the portraits done by local school students around the area. It was especially fun to find all the portraits drawn and painted by Year 4 students. We were all so proud of Evelyn M who had her portrait of her dad chosen to go into the calendar - what an amazing achomplishement to have her artwork selected out of so many entries!
On Tuesday, some Year 4 students represented our class in the Lion's Public Speaking competition held at school. The topic for Year 3 and 4 was to write and speak about their favourite character from a book or fairytale. What did they like or admire about this character and if they were to meet them, what questions would they ask them? Well done to all the Year 4 class who wrote a speech and especially to those brave few who shared on the day. A special congratulations to Adrian P who was the overall winner for Year 4!
Year 4 also went to the Melbourne Zoo on Thursday 19th September. Here is their recount of the trip:
First we caught the bright and early train at 5:56am, we were still half asleep. Next we got off at Southern Cross Station after a long journey and then caught a train to the Melbourne Zoo. One of our favourite stops on the day was the Wild Sea exhibition, reptiles, elephants and lions. Back at school we had been learning about animals and enrichment programs they have. We had the opportunity to talk to a Zoo Keeper and hold some dud enrichments which are no longer used as it was either too dangerous for the animals, or the animals outsmarted the Zoo Keepers. Once our feet were tired, we went shopping at the gift shop and made some great purchases. Once we left the zoo, we caught a train back to Southern Cross Station and ate Grill'd for dinner before the train trip home. As a class, we rate this excursion a 10/10. - Year 4 Class
Emily Hunter & Christie Stephen
Year 4 Teachers
Year 5
Year 5 have had a great few weeks of learning as we round up our term. We have finished off our Science and Humanities units and had some wonderful results in our light assessment. We also had an incursion to finish off our Humanities unit on democracy. The parliament education program came to class and we had lots of great information given as well as a mock sitting in Parliament passing a bill. I pray we have wonderful holidays and get lots of rest.
Naomi O'Brien
Year 5 Teacher
Year 6
Below is a combination of the Year 6 students' writing about their excursion to Scienceworks last week. We hope you enjoy it.
On 9th of September 2024, Year 6 went on a super exciting excursion! (Lilibet). We went to Scienceworks to learn more about electricity and how it works because that is the unit we are doing in Science (Lachlan). We had to meet up at school before seven o’clock in the morning. Why? Because we live in Warrnambool. And Warrnambool to Melbourne is three hours away (Jewelle). At seven o’clock, the bus left and Jimmy put a movie on for us to watch (Eliza P). The bus trip was good, we had a few stops (Niah).
The next thing we did when we finally got there after 3 ½ hours was have morning tea and put our bags away (Eliza R). We got to go to the Pumping Station and we learnt that back in the day people had to operate boilers to push all the sewerage out into the ocean. It was pretty gross! (Eliza P). It was super cool to see boilers from so long ago (Lilibet). Then we went to the lightning theatre (Niah).
The show was amazing! It was so funny! This awesome guy, Owen, ran the show for us. I love seeing how electricity works (Grace). We were doing Quizzes on lights and energy and we got most of them right. He showed us a lot of cool experiments (Eliza R). Owen put a can in the middle of the circle and then the energy that had the same magnetic pulse crushed the can, it had a very loud BANG! (Lachlan). He showed us this sea animal called the manta ray shrimp and it can kill prey with its claws because it can slam its claws down and it hits them so hard that there was a little bit of light coming out of the shell (Nellie).
He also showed us how lightning could make different noises and turn into music which was very awesome (Ollie). There were lightning bolts coming from the generators that made the theme song from Legend of Zelda (Lachlan). After the amazing music he got a wheel that he would stop with his hands. He asked us yes or no questions. He asked us a question and everyone said yes but me and I got it right (Elaine). We learnt so much about electricity and circuits and energy (Lilibet). Big shoutout to Owen for putting on an amazing and informative show (Jewelle).
After the lightning theatre, we had twenty minutes to have a play on the playground before we had to go back into the Lightning Theatre (Eliza P). The next show was about electricity as well but he did more experiments and you could ask him lots of questions (Nellie). We saw balloons getting stuck to walls without any magnet (Grace). We also got to watch what would happen to people in aeroplanes, cars, under trees and bus stops if they got struck by lightning (Eliza P). There was also a plasma ball and balloons and so much more! (Lilibet). With the plasma ball, he showed us how a light bulb could be powered if you put it close to a plasma ball (Ollie).
After the two lightning shows, we had lunch. After lunch, we went to explore the inside of the main building. We were split up into three groups. Team Wakim, Mrs. Burgess’ team and the A-listers (Jewelle). The next thing we did was walk around all of the upstairs of Scienceworks. We got to play around with these cool sports games like strength tests and sensory games (Eliza R). They also had activity stations. There were sports things, a racing track, there was a sledding simulation with a board on the floor. You could stand on it (Niah). There were loads of cool displays and fun activities for all! There were even vibrating beds and cool games. We even got to be judges on these gymnastics things. We explored and had such a fun time! (Lilibet).
Lastly, the thing we did was go to the gift shop (Nellie). There were lots of cool things we could buy (Eliza P). Finally, after a jam-packed day, it was time to get on the bus. We rested and Mr Wakim fell asleep! It was fun on the bus and everyone enjoyed themselves. Then we got home (Lilibet).
Coral Robertson
Year 6 Teacher
Lunchtime Clubs
This term, we were able to get a number of different lunchtime clubs up and running. Unfortunately due to technical issues, Educational Minecraft didn't get off the ground, however that won't stop us next term. We look forward to more board games, LEGO, Marble Runs and Minecraft next term. I hope everyone has a safe and restful holiday break.
Steve Griffin
Assistant Head of Junior School