HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL

The Junior school has had an inspiring and productive start to the year. Both students and teachers have worked effectively throughout this transition period, and it is rewarding to witness the growth that students have made.

Teachers have coached students to improve their knowledge and skills in the area of learning behaviours. This initiative has led to our learners becoming more self-directed in their learning and developing more strategies to self-regulate their emotions. To complement the Junior School Foundation Lesson program, Mrs Lehman has begun to implement our school-wide wellbeing approach, which incorporates aspects and themes from Smiling Minds and Inside Out.

Apart from their daily classroom learning, there have been many enriching activities that students have participated in throughout the last few weeks. These activities extend student learning and engagement by providing a range of fun and engaging experiences. To culminate learning in Creative Arts, children are being exposed to the Morning Beats program designed by our Head of Music, Ms Clare Brassil. Children experienced the excitement of music as they arrived at school this week. Our K-2 students were given the option to participate in the Morning Beats program, but it was not compulsory. It was very encouraging to see so many students choose to participate in this program. In Visual Arts, the kindergarten students were immersed in what Mr Grant described as an ’all-around noisy, colourful and messy lesson'. Mr Grant, our Junior School Art teacher, worked with the Kindergarten teachers to collaboratively design tasks that aligned with their class inquiry. This transdisciplinary approach to learning had students acting, singing, dancing and creating whilst exploring aspects of their identity.

This week, Stage Two boys and girls competed in our first Representative Sports Day, Ms Addison, Head of Junior school Sport, loved to see so many willing participants and the level of enthusiasm from all the students wanting to be involved in the event. All students demonstrated outstanding sportsmanship on the day. Our teams were very successful throughout both Gala days showing an excellent level of skill with some budding soccer stars in our future. A big thank you to Ms Addison and the Year 10 students Dougall and Ethan for their coordinating and coaching roles on the day.

Finally, our week will conclude with the Junior School Leadership Induction Ceremony. During this assembly, our 2021 Junior School Leaders will be announced. These positions include Captains, Vice-captains, Arts Captain, Service Captain, Academic Captain, Sport Captain, Fellowship Captain, Sustainability Captain and House Prefects. I would like to congratulate all Year 6 students for their participation in the 2021 Leadership Program. The growth in learning that all individual children have made throughout this process was evident through their comprehensive speeches. We wish Year 6 students all the best as they await the results.

Happy Learning.