Around the Grounds - Junior School

An unfamiliar and exciting sight greeted the Junior School students as they returned to school for the 2025 year: the wonderful new portable classrooms, housing Prep and Years 1 to 3. Mr Mike Blood, along with our Property Manager Mr Geoff Hardcastle, has led a hardworking team of people in readying these new spaces for occupation. Our dedicated Prep to Year 3 class teachers - Mrs Sue Kouvelis, Mrs Kathy Prince, Mrs Meg Cole, Mrs Rhonda Jenkin, Ms Rebecca Sinclair, Mrs Dora Handby and Mrs Sally Whitrod - have spent a huge amount of time preparing the classrooms beautifully for teaching and learning. The smiles of our students as they walked into their new classrooms are a testament to the hard work and boundless creativity of their teachers.

We’ve also relocated the Junior Library and the Technologies and Learning Enrichment classrooms to spaces in the Senior School, in preparation for the demolition of the 1954 building. Mr Blood and his team have outdone themselves, handling complex logistics, repurposing the Senior School Product Design space, and managing the enormous task of moving books, computers and other learning materials with skill, patience and determination. Ms Jackie Knight and Mrs Amanda Wilson in the Library, Ms Ai Lin Ho in Technologies and Mrs Cate Mowat in Learning Enrichment have worked countless hours to create truly engaging and lovely learning spaces for our students.

The old Junior School corridor is much quieter without the busy hum of activity in the old Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 rooms. However, we are still making use of the Music Room for assemblies and Music lessons, and the old Library for Chess and some Specialist classes. The Term 1 schedule of the Junior School is as packed as ever, and as we move deeper into 2025, we are determined to ensure that our curricular and extra-curricular programs will remain unaffected. We’ve already had the Junior School Meet the Teacher and school photos behind us, and we’re looking forward to the P&F picnic, a THRASS workshop, the Junior School Athletics Carnival (in our fabulous new House polos) and NAPLAN testing. I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with many parents so far this year, both new to the school and long-standing, and I look forward to seeing even more Junior School family members at a school event soon.

Ms Carly Major Gough

Head of Junior School

Term 1 Captains

Ruthven

Elisha H & Kiyan R

Thomson

Vania Y & Ellis S

Music

Sana M & Alexander B

Junior School House Polos

We are delighted to announce that the Junior School has stunning new house polos! These fabulous designs are visually striking, pay homage to the original crests of Ruthven and Thomson, and share the modern, smart look of the Senior School house polos.

Junior School students were invited to submit their designs in Term 4 of last year. They spent time in Art lessons with Mrs Nix, exploring sporting apparel from various sports and drawing inspiration from the designs that appealed to them. Mrs Nix also guided them to incorporate design elements from the Thomson and Ruthven House crests. You can see each component – the star and castle, the ‘Watch’ motto, and the upwards-pointing chevron of Ruthven; the book and lion, the ‘Unitas est victoria’ motto, and the downwards-pointing chevron of Thomson – in the final design.

The design of our new polos combines elements from several different entries but is largely based on the work of Wynn H, who is now in Year 7. Congratulations, Wynn! If you want an indication of how the new polos were received by the students when we revealed them at assembly this morning, just take a look at the smiles on the faces of our models. We love the new house polos!

As we would love to see everyone in their new polos at our athletics carnival on Wednesday 19 March, the new polos will be offered at a discounted price of $40.70 until the carnival. After March 19, the price will be $44.00.

We can’t wait to see the Junior School decked out in their new polos at the athletics carnival!

Ms Carly Major-Gough

Head of Junior School

What's Cooking?

It has been wonderful to welcome students back into the kitchen this week!

The Grade 3 faces were beaming with huge smiles as they returned to the Kitchen Garden Program, delighting their classmates with Spanakopita, made with our home-grown Rainbow Chard.

We hope every Food student will recreate these recipes for you at home over the next few weeks. Keep cooking!

Mrs Chrissy Collins

Head of Food Technology

New Year 5 Students

Year 5 classes, now known as 5B and 5W, have been spending the week getting to know their new classmates as the first year of double streamed year levels.

Mrs Cathy Bateman

Year 5 Teacher

Preps at Big School

The first few days of school have been filled with excitement as our Prep students settle into their daily routines. With enthusiasm, they have met their specialist teachers and eagerly participated in engaging activities. They crafted special first-day crowns, listened to captivating stories, and worked together in small teams to construct and complete large jigsaw puzzles. One of the highlights has been meeting their Year 6 buddies and exploring their new playground, their faces lighting up with big smiles!

Mrs Sue Kouvelis

Prep Teacher