Junior Campus

DIWALI

‘Shubh Diwali’ to everyone in our Early Learning Centre and Junior School learning community celebrating this week.  Diwali, or Dipawali, is India’s biggest and most important holiday. The festival gets its name from the row (avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light outside their homes to symbolise the inner light that protects them from spiritual darkness.

CONTINUOUS REPORTING

In an exciting development for the Junior School, we will move to a Continuous Reporting model in 2024.  As the name suggests, this type of reporting is continuous, which means that students and parents are given meaningful feedback in real-time and receive assessment information regularly throughout the semester rather than just at the end.  Parents become more involved in their child’s educational journey as they receive frequent progress updates.  So, a continuous report is one that is built throughout the semester and provides students and parents with an ongoing overview of how they’re progressing. 

Information about how this will look and work will be sent out to Junior School parents at the beginning of 2024.  We will also host a parent information session to run through this new reporting system. 

STAR STUDENTS

The following students were awarded Star Student or Compass Award certificates at this week’s Assembly.

• Year 1 - Will Diprose for his enthusiastic approach to all tasks in Mathematics. 
• Year 3 - Euan Baulch for helping his peers learn about the planets in the solar system and being super engaged in his inquiry work. 
• Year 4 - Alex Monsbrough for the detail he continues to put into his Reading Group summaries this term.
• Year 5 - Ellie Lewis for her increased confidence and persistence in her Numeracy Fractions Unit, which resulted in fantastic test results.
• Year 5 - Abel Gaussen for applying himself in numeracy, using all class time wisely and achieving great results in his Fractions Test.
• Year 5 - Ruby Price - Compass Level 1 Award.
• Year 6 - Violet Lynch for her positive attitude to her learning, constantly engaging in our classwork and giving 100%.
• Year 6 - Jess Templeton for applying her learning to new situations and approaching problem-solving tasks clearly and step-by-step.

TERM FOUR EVENTS AND DATES

Final term dates are closer than you think! As we know, Term Four tends to speed up rather than slow down. We have listed the events and dates to be aware of as we enter the final few weeks of the school year:

• 16 and 17 November – Year 1 and 2 Port Fairy camp
• 21 November - Year 6 Class Assembly
• 22 November - Chamber Singers/Myrniong Quartet performing at St Mary’s Combined Carol Service at St Mary’s Church
• 28 November - Piccino/Junior School Nativity Service - 10.15 am at Hamilton Uniting Church
• 29 November - Year 6 Dinner- 6.30 pm at the Refectory
• 1 December - Junior School Speech Day- 10 am, Simons Auditorium at Senior Campus
• 4 December - Year 1 to 6 Class Party Day and Prep ‘Big Day Out’ to Halls Gap
• 6 December - Last day of Term 4 - Old Fashioned Sports/Final Assembly

2024 JUNIOR SCHOOL CAPTAINCY INTERVIEWS

On Tuesday, Mrs Bernadette Milich, Mr Neil MacLean and I interviewed 16 enthusiastic and confident Year 5 students for the 2024 Junior School Captain positions.  The students submitted an application letter and were invited to an interview.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable process.  The students presented with confidence, determination, humour and the promise of a strong work ethic if given the position.  A short list of applicants will be given to Junior School staff for consideration.  We will announce the Junior School Captains for 2024 at our Speech Day on Friday, 1 December.