Junior School News 

• From the Head of the Junior School 
• From the Junior Resource Centre
• Junior Chess

From the Head of the Junior School 

Prayer to begin a New Semester

Lord, as we prepare for the coming of a new semester, 

make us ready, attentive and available to hear you. 

Thank You for the gift of being able to rise each day 

with the assurance that You walk through it with us. 

Thank You for the gifts of creativity and uniqueness, 

and the energy to put them to good use. 

May all that we are today, all that we try to do today, 

may all our encounters, reflections, 

even the frustrations and failings all be placed in your hands. 

May the work we do and the way we do it, bring new hope, new life,

and courage to all we come in contact with this semester. 

We thank you, Lord. Amen 

Xavier University website.

Thank you to all the parents and teachers for the Parent/Student/Teacher Interviews at the conclusion of last term.  It is very important that you take a positive interest in your son’s education especially now that we are again in lockdown.  Your son probably has some goals or areas that he needs to work on for the semester. If you could occasionally ask your son how he is going with these goals or areas that would be great.  Writing the goals down and a strategies is a worthwhile exercise. Working together with the school is the most effective way for your son to improve. Even though we are in a lockdown, we need to ensure the boys have a positive mind set.

Online learning

You have received several emails from me so I won’t repeat myself.  Thank you to everybody for their support of online learning and a special thank you to the teachers who have to put in a lot of preparation time to make this work. Obviously we will have a bit of settling in time but as long as we persevere and tell the boys it is all okay then we should get a successful result.  We are all in this together so it is important that you reiterate to your son that his behaviour has to be excellent online.  I already have received reports of poor behaviour, albeit from a minority of boys. Please tell your son this fact:  lessons will be recorded so we can trace poor behaviour.  It is also highly disrespectful to the teacher who has put in the effort to get the lesson prepared and not fair for the rest of the class.

Please note the following timetable for online learning:

WHOLE SCHOOL LIVE STREAMED ASSEMBLY 

On Friday morning, the College will live stream a full school Assembly and I invite parents to join us online. It will be a 15 minute assembly from 8.55 am - 9.10 am. The link for this assembly is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BygRZimHV0.

GOOD NEWS STORY

Congratulations to James Borg in Year 6 who competed at the BlueScope WIN Wollongong Eisteddfod during recent School Holidays.  He was awarded First Place in the Guitar Solo 12 years and under, and First Place in the Instrumental Ensemble Duets and Trios (all instruments) 14 years and under.

James was set to compete in the Sydney Eisteddfod this coming Saturday, but this has been unfortunately delayed due to COVID.

BIRTHDAYS

Despite the lock down, congratulations to the following boys who celebrate or celebrated their birthdays in July:

Finn Baker, Marco Berarducci, Julian Bloem, Anton Boulos, Jackson Byak, Michael Chung, Xavier D'Silva, Declan Earle, Sebastian Gadaleta, Cameron Giang, Daniel Gorken-Spyrou, Graham Halgreen, Oliver Hartry, Nikolai Hurrell, Bradley Newman, Alan Pawlus, Aidan Robinson, Isaac Sharpe and Alessandro Siclari.

A THOUGHT TO PONDER

Thanking you for your support.

Mr Tim Long - Head of the Junior School 

From the Junior Resource Centre

This Week's Highlights are:

Welcome back to an exciting new term and a return to online learning! To make things a little easier for everyone, any hard copy library items borrowed this year have been renewed for you and are not due back until 6/8/2021. Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief – one less thing to worry about.

Books sent home to students today

Today we sent out 182 books to students. Look out for your envelope in the mail. 

A big thank you to Mrs Hunt, Mrs Sutton, Mrs Fromager, Mr Darbin and Mr Munday for helping to make this happen for our students.

Where can I find books to read from home?

Some online sites you can read books from home include:

• Sydney Opera House has developed the Footlights and Booklists series, which provides videos of a range of picture books read by authors and celebrities in the beautiful Opera House setting.
• Publishers have made available a range of read-aloud stories on their social media platforms. Many of these are hosted on YouTube, for example the Penguin Read Aloud Stories playlist. Please check individual publisher websites for information about books and read-alouds that they  may have made available online.
• Project Gutenberg - provides access to books that are not covered by copyright, so are able to be shared freely online.  There is a listing of children's literature with links to copies of these books for download: Project Gutenberg Children's Literature Bookshelf. These are mostly classics, such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Little Women, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Jungle Book.
• ebooks through major digital platforms are often available for free or at a reduced cost, so check out any ebook platforms you have access to through your digital devices (for example, Google Books, Apple iBooks).
• Author and illustrator sites - many Australian and international authors and illustrators are running story times and shared reading sessions online during the Covid-19 crisis. It's not possible to list them all, as the sessions available are growing and changing daily. Please check the availability of these story times on the author's websites and social media pages.
• Audible has made access to a range of children's and young adult books available for free during the current crisis.  The included stories can be accessed without creating an account from their website: Audible Stories

Mrs Martin’s Book Trail:

CBCA Shortlist Eve Pownall book 2021 – Azaria: A True History by Maree Coote.

Besides knowing the line, ‘the dingo stole my baby,’ I had absolutely no idea about the ramifications of this particularly dark moment in Australian media and society. Coote presents the truth of the matter by exploring all elements of the case. The simplicity of her words allows her to create a narrative that highlights the facts without laying blame.

There were a number of key ideas that Coote brings to light within her words and illustrations – injustice, media manipulation and prejudice. Through her drawings and use of colour, she was able to convey to the reader the many facets of this case, which ultimately showed the mistakes made at the expense of the mother.

This was such a moving non-fiction picture book. I am looking forward to exploring and reading this book to my classes as part of Book Week celebrations.

   Mrs Elena Martin – Teacher Librarian

JUNIOR SCHOOL CHESS CLUB

Due to the COVID-19 lockdown in NSW the last two remaining Chess games have been postponed.     

Mrs Elena Martin - Junior School Chess Convenor