Senior School News

How are we already coming to the end of Week 3?! It has been all systems go over the last two and a half weeks in the Senior School. Gala Day in Week 1 was a fabulous day, with our teams across Tennis, Volleyball, T-Ball and European Handball exhibiting not only talent, but extraordinary teamwork. Debating also began in Week 2 with Sandra de Geest. Our students dove straight in and have already completed one debate, with another fast approaching on Monday. Centenary Day last Wednesday was a huge success thanks to our Year 6 leaders. The examples they set for students from Prep to Year 5 were recognised not only by OLGC staff, but also the external incursion coordinator. They should be extremely proud of their efforts. Yesterday, our leaders had yet another opportunity to shine at House Cross Country. The chants led with gusto and the support cheered from the sidelines were both heartwarming to hear. We can’t wait to see our Year 5s step up next year and take it to the next level when they are given their time to shine. 

DEBATING

Back in Term One, the students learned about persuasive writing in our Literacy lessons and now debating has started in Term Two. The students are taking on a seven week course on developing their argumentative skills. Each week, the students will take part in a debate between two teams of three. Each child will take the role of first speaker, second speaker or third speaker. Outside of the actual debate, the other students will play the role of the audience, adjudicator, and time keeper. Our first debate was: plastic bags should be banned. Those who were taking part in the debate impressed us with their research, arguments, and the delivery of their speeches. Public speaking and debating is a very challenging skill, but our students made it look easy.

GALA DAY & CROSS COUNTRY

Gala day was a huge success, with students participating in a range of different activities. 

Congratulations to everyone who participated in Tennis, Volleyball, T-Ball and European Handball. 

On Wednesday the 31st of March, OLGC held their annual Cross Country Day. All students from Prep to Year 6 participated in the event at Deepdene Park. Students showed great house spirit as they cheered on in their colours. A highlight was the Prep event, where Year 5 students supported their Prep Buddies in the 500m race. Upon completion of their cross-country event, students have the opportunity to qualify to represent the school at the District Cross-Country event to be held later on the 20th of May. They all did a fantastic job! The winning house on the day was Lynch (Yellow!)  Congratulations to all students involved for their effort and sportsmanship. 

LITERACY

All staff took part in a fantastic professional development session last Friday focused on the ‘Science of Reading’. Led by Joyce Dunn and Cecily Kerr, we learnt the importance of phonemic awareness, daily recall and picture story books (among much more) in a child’s English-based education. Moving forward, these lessons (Writing, Reading and Spelling) will be taught from a more holistic perspective. Combining all three subjects in what are now known as ‘Literacy’ lessons, students will focus on phonemic awareness and word study for 20-30 minutes at the beginning (recalling past learnings and building upon them everyday), before taking their additional teachings from a new story book each week. We are currently looking at ‘Suri’s Wall’  - a beautiful tale about celebrating your uniqueness and expressing your imagination. 

MATHS

We have jumped into Maths heads first in Term Two with collecting and representing data. This unit is all about doing surveys, collecting data and being able to represent it on a graph. We have been exploring different types of graphs such as column graphs, dot and plot graphs, and line charts. The students started the unit by brainstorming ideas that we could collect data about in our classroom such as eye colour of students, hair colour, or favourite sport. Students were placed into groups and then presented their questions to the class to collect data. Following this, the groups had to take their collection and represent it on a column graph. Although the column graphs were similar in presentation, it was amazing to see how creative the different groups were with their colour and style.

INQUI-RE

This term, the Seniors are going to be constantly zooming in and out. They will learn what it means to have a global perspective and understanding of issues such as sustainability and climate change (i.e. through the ‘Global Goals for Sustainable Development’ and case studies from around the world), while also approaching the issues from a local standpoint. Students are encouraged to think critically and creatively about these widespread topics, coming up with achievable and realistic solutions to the problems as we progress through the subject. Regarding RE, students will be focusing on the importance of sacraments in our faith community, not only locally but globally. Researching their origins, investigating their significance to the liturgy, exploring their unique rituals, and their impact upon the lives of themselves and others will form the basis of our exploration. 

Have a great rest of Week 3!

Warm regards,

Tom Brophy, Carrie Kudelka and Chelsea Perrin 🙂