Junior School

Welcome to Term 3! We trust you all enjoyed the winter break and treasured the opportunity for quality family time and making memories, either locally, interstate or overseas. We want to take the opportunity to welcome our new students and their families to Oxley this term. We pray that you will settle in quickly and feel part of our community. 

We appreciated the opportunity to meet with parents at Parent Teacher Interviews in Week 1. Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to conversations about student progress and goal setting for Semester 2. We value the strong partnership between school and home as this is vital to a child experiencing growth and success in their learning.

Students from Prep to Year 6 are currently learning their items for our upcoming Junior Musical, Madagascar – A Musical Journey JR., under the guidance of our Performing Arts teacher, Mr Jeffrey Clarke. The main cast are busy learning lines and rehearsing during Performing Arts lessons. Excitement is mounting, and one often hears the students humming the catchy tunes when in the playground! Please add these dates to your diary – Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 September and consider inviting family and friends to what promises to be an incredible show. Ticketing information will soon be released. 

Congratulations to our Prep students who celebrated 100 Days of School on Friday 22 July. It was an event to celebrate, after the previous two years, having our Preps onsite for 100 days straight! In this formative year, every day at school counts, and we thank the students for their motivation and eagerness to learn. Thank you to our fantastic Prep teachers and Learning Support Assistants for organising such a memorable day to mark this milestone for our students. 

On Thursday 28 July, we formally acknowledged the students elected to serve as Home Group Captain and Enviro Captain for Semester 2. Students received a badge and certificate at Chapel. We take this opportunity to thank the students who faithfully served in these roles in Semester 1. Their contribution was much appreciated. 

Junior School Leadership 2022 – Semester 2

Across our College, the leadership team is introducing a Student Code of Conduct which outlines students' rights and responsibilities as members of our community. One significant component of this is respect. In Junior School, we have introduced a Student Code of Respect which lists six things everyone is expected to respect. This code will provide Junior School with a common language and clear expectations for behaviour. 

There was great excitement at our Chapel service the other week when students discovered that Monty, the lion, had returned with the exciting news that he has 15 grand cubs. To encourage respectful behaviour, Monty helped Mrs Liddle introduce the ROAR Award, which will be awarded to a student in each class twice a term. Teachers will award students who show Respect, Obedience, Acceptance of others and Resilience. Each of Monty's grand cubs have been adopted by a class to help teachers spot awardees. These students will attend a special morning tea with Mrs Liddle, Mrs Kirby-Beach, Monty and the cubs. The ROAR award will work hand-in-hand with the Code of Respect to assist our students in making positive choices in their behaviour.

We look forward to seeing ROARsome behaviour across our Junior School. 

And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Amy Liddle

Head of Junior School

What Did You Do at School Today?

Prep

Hip Hip Hooray! What a busy start to the term for the Preps. Not only did we get to celebrate 100 Days of School we also had our very first Enviro Barn lesson. We had so much fun enjoying a variety of specially planned activities. This included, making fruit loop necklaces, counting by 10s and making paper chains just to name a few. Another first was our Toy Over Time incursion at the Stadium. We had so much fun learning about how toys have changed. We even got to play with them and discover how they worked. Thank you to our parents for taking the time and effort to help us look like 100 years old! It was a great day full of many happy celebrations. 

Go to the Preps Celebrate 100 Days of School page in this newsletter for more photos.

Year 1

We are so clever! We are experts at telling people how to do things, especially now we know how to write a procedural text. Each step is written in order, using exact words to ensure our instructions are easy to understand and follow. If you would like to know how to make popcorn, follow our morning routine or brush your teeth, we would be happy to show you the way in our fabulous written procedures.

Year 2

Wow! What a fantastic start to Term 3! In Mathematics, we have been learning about multiplication. Did you know that you can use repeated addition, number lines and arrays to help solve tricky problems? We loved applying our new knowledge to real life situations. This is a skill that is important in all areas of Mathematics. Our goal is to keep practising our multiplication facts at home. This week, we were blessed with the opportunity to watch the Senior School production, The Little Mermaid. It was INCREDIBLE! Our favourite characters were Ariel, Prince Eric, Ursula and Sebastian. The singing and dancing blew us away! We can’t wait to use our performing arts skills during our production later this term.

Year 3

This term, we are investigating different forces and their functions. The focus will be on recording observed information, looking for ways to make continual improvements and identifying how to conduct a fair test. We will use this information to help them design and build a balloon-powered car over the next few weeks. Can you name some contact forces?

Year 4

Wow, Hoih Lia, Amazing, Adipoli! These are a few of the words we can use when we respond to life’s surprises and God’s blessings. During this Semester, we will explore the Habit Of Mind – Responding with Wonderment and Awe. This will help us to have an open mind and appreciation for the beauty and mysteries in our world! There are many ways we can respond with this mindset; we encourage you to have a chat at home about how you can respond to unexpected situations!

Year 5

It has been a great start to Term 3 as we journey through famous discoveries during our Integrated Studies lessons. We started by being inspired by some of the incredible images we have seen from the Hubble Space Telescope and the awe-inspiring landing of a rocket by the SpaceX program. In our writing we have begun focusing on procedures, including drafting a piece on how to be me! 

We also had two teams compete in an interschool Maths Games Day competition that featured 11 different schools and over 20 teams. They competed in written maths challenge questions, math related strategy games and finally an amazing, race-style, problem-solving challenge. Our students had an enormous amount of fun and we congratulate them on their outstanding representation of our school. To add to this they also finished 6th and 2nd respectively to cap off a remarkable day! Well done, Year 5!

Year 6

What a tremendous start to Term 3! Our unit, Journey to Discovery, has led us to uncover differences between scientific and accidental discoveries and how they have shaped our world. We have begun to explore how computer coding can be used to communicate information and have loved learning from our peers, especially in the way sound effects are used! 

Our swimming program at Kilsyth Centenary Pool was a wonderful opportunity to learn how to be safe in the water, including how to rescue someone in need. This week, 6G has farewelled Miss Naomi Paterson from Deakin University. We have cherished having her as part of our Oxley community for nine weeks this year, and we know that as she begins her career in 2023, she will be an amazing blessing to her future students!