Learning and Teaching
Australia Computational Thinking Challenge 2022
It’s time for Round 2 of Bebras Australia Computational Thinking Challenge 2022 and students in Years 3-6 will once again participate. Bebras is an international initiative aiming to promote informatics and engage students' computational thinking and problem solving skills in a fun, interactive environment. The Bebras international community has now grown to include 60 countries with over 2.9 million students participating worldwide!
Bebras Australia began in 2014 and is now administered through CSIRO Digital Careers. St John’s began participating in Bebras in 2015. The goal is to promote computational thinking in students in a way that challenges them beyond science or mathematical skills. It uses a number of skills such as pattern recognition, algorithms and logic. Bebras Australia is designed to be accessible and easy to use and is linked to the Victorian Digital Technologies Curriculum.
We use problem-solving in everything that we do – and future jobs will require this even more. Teaching Computational Thinking is not about how to use technology to solve the problem but rather how to understand the problems and identify the tools needed to solve them. Bebras is a challenge, not a competition. The aim is for students to develop a positive impression about Digital Technologies.
In Australia this year, Round 2 of the Bebras Challenge will take place between 29 August and 9 September. The students will participate in this online challenge in a 45 minute (Years 5 & 6) or a 60 minute (Years 3 & 4) session at school.
For more information go to https://digitalcareers.csiro.au/en/Bebras
St John's School Choir
The choir are busy preparing for our Parish Fete this year and all students will be invited to participate on the day. I am including a Google Doc with all the songs and lyrics we will be singing to allow students to rehearse and sing along at home. Please encourage them to do so, you might even like to sing along with them. The Choir will be performing at 2.00pm on 19 November on the main stage at the Fete.
Visible Italian Competition
Congratulations to all of the students who entered the Italian competition this year. It was a difficult task to judge with so many amazing entries across all year levels.
Congratulations to Mietta for being runner up and Samantha and Francis for winning first prize. It was wonderful to see how many photos were captured of the influences of Italian Culture across our city.
Signora De Amicis
Visual Arts Project Term 3
Our mural in the breezeway continues to evolve each Thursday. It is such a great opportunity for our students and the school to have an artist in residence working with us throughout the term. I wonder what will be added this Thursday!