Community Engagement

Tournament of Minds   

On Saturday we were very proud to have two teams of Year 5 and 6 students compete in the Tournament of Minds Challenge at Deakin University against many other schools from across Eastern Melbourne. 

This opportunity is a part of our Extension and Enrichment Program at St Roch's.  One of the strengths of Tournament of Minds is that it is designed to encourage and develop skills of co-operation, teamwork, risk-taking, and creative, divergent and critical thinking. Students are  strongly encouraged to rely on their own strengths and abilities to generate ideas. 

This year tour students chose a Social Sciences topic: TOMmunity Tackles Town Tensions! as their Long Term Challenge.   

They were given this background information:

Your local council has decided to build a new recreational facility in your town that will serve the community for years to come. They’ve asked the community to help decide where it should go and how it should be managed. This has caused a lot of excitement—and differing views!

 The Social Science Challenge: 

The council has chosen your team to pitch your idea to a community forum. You need to showcase two potential sites as the location for this new recreational facility to the forum, clearly identifying the advantages and disadvantages for each. You are also tasked with presenting a creative, well-thought-out facility design that caters for the diverse needs of the community. 

Students had five weeks to prepare and then present their learning in an engaging performance. They had to research and compare two possible sites listing advantages and disadvantages, write a script to engage the audience, draw plans, build models of their designs and create costumes and props from a list of  'Allowable Materials'. On the day they presented to a panel of three judges and were scored according a criteria. 

The students were outstanding and worked together to present their challenges with creativity, humour and great acting! they certainly impressed the judges. 

ICAS Assessments 2025 

ICAS Assessments continue this week and next week for the students in Year 2 - Year 6 who have registered to participate in this enrichment opportunity. 

This online academic competition is designed to assess students’ higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Writing and Digital Technologies and supports our enrichment program at St Roch’s. 

We wish all of the students who are participating all the very best best.  

 If you have any questions about ICAS please don't hesitate to contact me. 

The following dates have been scheduled for the ICAS assessments to be undertaken.  

Term 3 Chess Club   

Chess Club for Term 3 began last Wednesday 30 July and will be held every Wednesday from 11.00am - 11.50am for all interested students. Please consider registering your child for this great lunchtime club. Our  students would be delighted to welcome your child into this club to build chess skills. They love teaching new students how to play chess! Please see details below to register and in the Extra Curricula page of the newsletter. 

Gardening Club

Gardening Club will run throughout Term 3 every Wednesday at 1.50pm and is open to all students from Prep - Year 6. This is such a beautiful time for our students to increase feelings of wellbeing while learning about science and gardening as they dig in the soil and tend to the garden. 

Even in Winter there is lots to do in our vegie patches! The sweet peas are growing and the students have been adding worm castings to build up the soil in readiness for Spring planting. Spring isn't far away. 

We are now looking forward to watching the students and Mrs Meseha's Spring vegetables growing in our veggie patches.

Dance Club

Dance Club with Maddie from Dance Fitness Victoria is held every Thursday at lunchtime. Dance Club is open for all students from Prep to Year 2. Registrations for Term 3 are now open. 

Art Club

Art Club is being run by our very own Arts Leaders Michael and Evie and our Art Specialist teacher Ms Boers. This week there will be an activity especially designed for students in Year 3 - 6 with art activities on offer for students in Prep to Year 2. There is always a lot of fun being had in the Art Room. 

Icy Pole Friday maybe getting a 'Make Over!'

Stay tuned for updates from Miss Allen and our Year 6 leaders who have been working on a more 'weather appropriate' after school fundraiser treat. More updates to follow shortly.  

Nadine Bolton 

Deputy Principal, Learning Diversity Leader and Student Wellbeing Leader