Junior School

With the first month of school almost complete, students are well and truly back into the daily routine of school. Our Prep students are now full-time, and when visiting their classrooms, it looks like they have been doing it for so much longer than a month. Well done, Preps! 

Have you ever picked up your child from school, excited and interested to hear about their day? They jump into the car, and you ask, ‘How was your day?’ only to be greeted with a grunt, shrug, or one word response like ‘fine’. You’re not alone! There are some key questions or conversation starters you can use with your child. Why not try some of these questions on the journey home: 

• What made you smile today? 
• What was the best thing that happened today? 
• Did you learn something you didn’t understand? 
• Who inspired you today? 
• What was the peak and the pit? 
• What is something you saw that made you think? 
• What is something you know today, that you didn’t know yesterday? 
• What are you looking forward to tomorrow? 
• If you could change one thing about your day, what would it be? 
• If you switched places with your teacher tomorrow, what would you teach the class?

These questions will help open the door to your child’s world and help you see the day from their perspective. 

It was an absolute delight to induct our Junior School leaders into their positions at our Investiture Chapel on Thursday 17 February. We acknowledged our Junior School Captains, Semester 1 Home Group Captains, and Enviro Captains. In addition, all Year 6 students were presented on stage as they serve as the most senior members of our Junior School cohort. Our guest speaker, Dr Douglas Peck, shared with the students how Jesus is the ultimate example of what it means to be a successful leader. Leadership is not about pushing one’s own agenda, but rather putting others before oneself. Our Junior School Captains, Reuben Talpan and Rachel Jansen, also reminded us that leadership is not about the badge. Anyone can be a leader by being an example to those around them through their words and actions. Leadership is not about self-importance, but rather seeking to serve others. 

Parent Teacher interviews will be held on Thursday 10 and Tuesday 15 March. These Get to Know You interviews will provide you with an opportunity to share information about your child with their teacher. As parents, you have a vast number of valuable insights and information that will assist our teachers in fostering your child’s learning. We certainly value the partnership with our parents. A letter will be sent home with instructions on how to book interviews online. Please call the office on 9727 9900 during office hours if you require assistance with this process. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Philippians 2:3-4

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 

Amy Liddle

Head of Junior School

What Did You Do at School Today?

Prep

It has been an exciting few weeks of learning new things. We have made lots of new friends in Prep and are looking forward to meeting our Year 3 (Prep B) and Year 4 (Prep L) buddies soon. We enjoyed staying at school the WHOLE DAY! In the classroom we are learning how to hold our pencils correctly and write the letters c, a and t for our first word of the week. Soon we will start borrowing books from the library and can’t wait to share them with our families. 

Year 1

We have been fascinated to watch our bean seeds grow. Seeing it change from a seed to it sprouting roots and a stem is exciting! We have been learning how seeds need light and water to grow. Just as we’ve learnt that Abraham and Noah grew when they followed God, we are learning to listen and obey God.

Year 2

Wow! What an incredible two weeks in Year 2! We have loved learning about Place Value and becoming number detectives. Did you know that a three-digit number can be renamed in many ways using hundreds, tens and ones? We also enjoyed investigating patterns on hundreds charts and filling in the blank spaces. We are on our way to becoming FANTASTIC mathematicians. In Integrated Studies, we are exploring how living things grow and change over time. We are currently growing bean seeds in paper towel and observing their changes. It was so exciting to see a shoot emerging from the seed! We wonder how long it will take to grow into a plant.

Year 3

We have created characters in preparation to plan and draft our narrative stories. We interviewed our characters to identify strengths, weaknesses, and interests. It is this information that will drive the problems and events in our narratives. We can’t wait to read the final published pieces. 

Year 4

Splitting the numbers, rearranging the order. Jumping by tens, compensating by ones. Mentally adding numbers in our heads. These are a few of our favourite mental addition strategies. The hills really do come alive when we activate our mathematician minds! We have really enjoyed finding different ways to help us solve equations efficiently! This week, we also delved into the world of ethical dilemmas during Integrated Studies. Sometimes a decision isn’t so clear cut, and we have to really weigh up all our options to see how our decisions will impact those around us. It is so important to monitor our thinking when faced with a challenge!

Year 5

What an amazing two weeks it has been in Year 5. We have been growing, not just as two separate classes, but also as a year level who support and encourage one another. Enjoying devotions together is just one example of this. Our creativity has been flowing in writing, where we have developed interesting characters, extraordinary settings and plots with many twists and turns, as we write our narratives. Learning the Mathematical Mindset of Mathematicians Make Mistakes is helping us to enthusiastically tackle weekly Maths challenges with an open mind. We cannot wait to see what the next two weeks hold for us.

Year 6

What a blessed time we had investing our captains for 2022! We are looking forward to our role as leaders this year as we serve our Junior School community. We really loved celebrating with a surprise afternoon tea. We had a wonderful discussion about metacognition and looked at various ethical dilemmas from different perspectives. We continue to enjoy focusing our thoughts on gratitude through our Me Tree Program and are learning to dig for gold when we are faced with challenging situations.