Junior School

NAPLAN Results

Year 3 and Year 5 parents will receive their children’s 2024 NAPLAN results this week. The Punctuation and Grammar, Numeracy, Writing and Reading tests were sat by our students in March.  NAPLAN results are scored based on four levels of achievement – exceeding, strong, developing and needing additional support.  A student that tests at ‘strong’ or ‘exceeding’ is considered to be at or above the expected standard for their age.  A student who tests at ‘developing’ or ‘needs additional support’ does not yet meet the expected standard for their age.

The tests are designed to be challenging but fair. A student’s achievement in a domain is represented by a ‘band’ with a dot, which represents where your child falls within the range of all students Australia-wide in the same school year.

Mathematics Extension Opportunity 

As part of our commitment to offer enrichment opportunities to our students at the Junior School, the Year Five Maths Games and Year Six Maths Olympiad students will compete in the 2024 Australian Maths Trust ‘Mathematics Competition’.  First run in 1978, the Australian Mathematics Competition is Australia’s longest-running, largest and most well-known maths competition for school students.  The AMC contains unique problems designed each year by leading educators and academics to challenge and extend your students’ problem-solving skills.  Our students will sit the Year 5 and Year 6 papers on Tuesday, 6 August. 

Week 2 Assembly 

The following students received Star Student awards at this week’s Assembly.

• Prep – Matilda Giles for demonstrating a strong understanding of counting and place value when using base ten blocks.
• Year 3 - Fred Hawker showing great improvement in his Reading and working independently on Comprehension activities.
• Year 4 - Olive Monk for her successful start to Term 3, seamlessly getting back into the classroom routine and trying her best in every subject.  Keep up the great work, Olive.
• Year 5 - Alex Monsbourgh for being a wonderful tour guide to the Year 5 Chinese visitors.
• Year 5 - Johnny Fenton for demonstrating kindness to the Year 5 Chinese visitors.
• Year 6 - Ada O’Brien for working exceptionally hard in all subject areas and presenting all of her work with care and pride, particularly her biography brochure at the end of Term 2.
• Year 6 - Emma Milne for her positive approach to all class tasks, excellent organisation and impressive and convincing speech about the placement of wind farms in our electorate for the ‘Have Your Say’ Parliamentary Prize. 

Our focus in this week’s Assembly was the Olympic Games. Several staff members shared their most memorable Olympic moments. The common thread in all three was that they were performances under immense pressure—‘No pressure, no diamonds, ’ as the saying goes.

• Mrs Callinan - athlete Cathy Freeman winning gold in the 400 m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
• Mrs Milich - athlete Sally Pearson winning gold in the 100 m hurdles at the 2012 London Olympics.
• Mr Nelson - archer Antonio Rebello ignited the Olympic cauldron with an arrow at the opening of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics opening ceremony.

Junior School Sports

Hockey

Congratulations to the two Junior Schools College teams - Boys’/Mixed and Girls’ - on winning the Hamilton/Portland Hockey 7s Championships at a cold and blustery Pedrina Park last Friday. The girls defeated Hamilton North 2-0 in the final, and the boys defeated Coleraine 8-0 in their final.  Both teams will progress to the Greater Western Region finals in Hamilton on Tuesday, 13 August.  Thanks to Heath and Julie Templeton, Doug Cameron and Louise Patterson for their collective efforts in managing, coaching and running the event.  A huge shout-out to our College Parents' and Friends' for their wonderful catering on the day. 

Division 4 Wolves had a hard-fought 4-3 win over Coleraine Maroon.  The match ebbed and flowed, with both teams willing to run the ball.  Goal scorers for the Wolves were Poppy Edgar, Finn Hawthorne and Tommy Brown, with two.

Division 4 Foxes played well and came away with a strong 6-0 win over Demons.  They remain atop the Division 4 ladder and are playing some attractive team hockey.

Division 5 Panthers lost 6-0 to a strong Dunkeld side in challenging weather conditions. The team fought hard and improved with every match.

Division 5 Tigers achieved a 2-1 win over Coleraine and climbed to the top of the Division 5 table. 

Netball

On Wednesday, 31 July, our Junior School netball team will compete in the Hamilton round of the School Sports Victoria Netball Championships. Best of luck to the Year 6 girls and coach Kate Pye. 

Green and Gold Day

On Friday, 2 August, the Junior School will join other schools around the country in supporting the Australian Olympic Team at the Paris 2024 Olympics and celebrating Australia’s sporting achievements on the Olympic stage.  We will run an Olympic sports afternoon in the House Sports timeslot. Students and staff are encouraged to come to school dressed in green and gold.