Junior School News

From the Head of Junior School

Thank you to students, parents and teachers who joined us for our very first Virtual School Assembly last Friday. I would like to particularly thank Lily, Vincent, Matilda and William for helping co-host the assembly and for keeping me on track when I went off script! They were able to think on their feet when things weren’t going quite as planned which is very impressive for students of their age. They stayed calm and adjusted with good grace. This really has been the theme for all of us this year. We have had to consider each new situation or challenge put in front of us, remain calm, adjust and keep moving forward. In some cases, it has meant pushing ourselves past our comfort zones and learning some new skills. In other situations, it has required flexibility and the ability to adapt quickly to the situation at hand. This was the case on Friday when I mixed up the order that we had just rehearsed! The students remained calm and adjusted. In situations such as that, it helps to know that you are in a supportive environment where those around you are there to help. I would like to think that this is how we are viewed as a school. Every single person at school is working with the same purpose, to assist our students and families to be able to learn to the best of their ability and to stay connected to the school as best they can. While it is not an ideal situation, each day I am amazed by the flexibility, adaptability and creativity displayed by our students and their families as they make the best of these very different times. 

Earlier this week I received some feedback regarding the impact of our Girton Co-Connect program for a member of the wider community. They had received a letter from one of our students as part of one of the Community Service Co-Connect initiatives. The impact that this letter had for them was very positive. This person lives by themselves and has been unable to get out and take part in the normal activities that connect them with others. A simple act by one of our students has made a real difference in their life by creating a connection at a time when they had very few. I am so proud of our students who are using their time at home to make life a little bit easier for others. 

There are many aspects of our daily lives that we are missing at the moment. Coming in to school everyday, seeing our friends, playing sport, visiting family and friends. Technology is amazing and has made the isolation a bit easier but it cannot replace those little things that we look forward to each week. One of my favourite times of the week when I was in Primary School, was our weekly visit to the library. As an avid reader, I always looked forward to the chance to borrow some more books. Unfortunately for our students, weekly visits to the Library are not possible. Mrs Polidano and Mrs Kolenaty have put their heads together and have come up with a solution. From today our students will be able to request books from the library by sending an email to the Junior School Library (jslibrary@girton.vic.edu.au) and a password will be provided that allows students to reserve books available in the Junior School Library. Staff at school will select the books and parents will be able to come in next Friday to return current loans and collect the new ones. 

As communicated in Week 4, the remote learning structure for Term 3 was adjusted from the structure earlier in the year to reflect the feedback that we received through our Parent Survey. The sessions before lunch are very much teacher-directed with a focus on Literacy and Numeracy. Sessions after lunch are project-based and include a mix of classroom activities and Specialist subjects. Children are encouraged to attempt all Specialist work to the best of their ability and within the constraints of each family’s circumstances. If students need additional assistance with any work, specialist or general classes, please contact the relevant teacher directly. As discussed earlier, every staff member at school is committed to helping every student succeed, even when this cannot be face to face.

Finally, at the end of Week 8, class teachers will be providing Progress Reports.  These reports will provide parents with feedback on student performance in the core classroom subjects. It is an interim report with full reports to be provided at the end of the year. Parent interviews will be conducted in Week 3 and 4 of Term 4. We are planning to utilise Zoom for interviews in the event that we are still under COVID restrictions.

Mr Donald Thompson

Head of Junior School

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Radio Play Rehearsals Heating Up!

Week 4, Term 4

Rehearsals are well underway for this year’s Radio Play of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The play involves a group of 28 keen Year 6 students. We are truly impressed with the talent, and enthusiasm students have displayed so far in being a part of this incredible journey through the wardrobe and into Narnia. The play will be performed as a live stream during Week 4, Term 4. With plenty of singing and acting presented as an audio performance, this classic story is sure to capture the hearts and imagination of the Junior School students at Girton Grammar School. 

Synopsis

Four children from the same family have to leave their town because of the bombings of WWII. A woman and a professor take the children to their house. While playing a game of hide-and-seek, the youngest member of the family, Lucy, finds a wardrobe to hide in. She travels to the back of the wardrobe and finds a place named Narnia. After going in twice, the four children go in together for the last time. They battle wolves, meet talking animals, encounter an evil white witch, and meet a magnificent lion named Aslan. Will this be the end of their journey to Narnia or will they stay?

Congratulations to all cast members for their enthusiasm, perseverance, and courage. The Radio Play is a wonderful opportunity for the Junior School students at Girton Grammar School to be part of something that has never been done before in the history of the school. This is an exciting journey, and the teachers and students involved are all learning together at the same time.

A special mention to Mrs Geyer, and Mr Beever for their help with re-writing our script as a Radio Play, and to Mrs Dusseljee for finding the music and teaching the cast the songs. Much work and effort has gone into developing the Radio Play thus far, and I think I am even starting to speak the script in my sleep! 

Our cast is:

Stay tuned, as we continue to update our progress on the Radio Play. 

Mrs Catherine Stagg

Teacher of Drama

Preparatory: Show and Tell 

This week the Prep students studied the garden and created terrific ‘What Am I’ fact sheets to present for their Show and Tell.

Year One: Mini Beasts

The Year One classes have been studying Mini Beasts and have been treated to guest presenters who have joined their morning Zoom sessions to share fun facts about different mini beasts. 

Some of the children have also had fun creating their own “What Am I” mini beast quizzes to share with their classmates. They have also been very creative by taking the Incy Wincy Spider rhyme and producing short videos complete with spiders that actually climb up the water spout! 

Some of the children also created a puppet play based on the storybook The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle and then videoed it to share with their friends. It has been great seeing the creativity that the children have put into their learning in the last two weeks.

Year Two: Journey of Chinese people to Australia

The Year Two students are studying the journey of the Chinese people to Australia in the 1850s to find gold.  They have been learning about the problems they encountered on the boat ride plus the issues they faced when arriving at Robe, South Australia.  Their lessons have also included the long trek from Robe to Bendigo!

Mrs Kendra Burge

2M Classroom Teacher

Year Three: Fun Friday

During Remote Learning in Term 2, 3D always looked forward to ‘Fun Day Friday.’ Students loved it so much, they have asked ‘Fun Day Friday’ to return this term. On Fridays, we dress up and play games. We always have a theme and students are encouraged to talk about their costumes or special item they have chosen to bring to our Zoom session. 

Today was ‘Fun Day Friday – Fan Day’. Students dressed up in sport team colours, characters from their favourite book series, and there were plenty of Starwars and Minecraft fans! Our favourite was Leah M who decided to wear her Girton jumper. She has only been at the school since the beginning of Term 3, but she is already a fan! 

Ms Erin Moss

Teacher of 3D

Year Four: Shopping Challenge

Sigh, back to home learning again. But this time Mr. F has made up a shopping challenge to beat our boredom! It’s fun but has also left people scratching their heads. I’ve completed 2 so far and received 2 five-star manager badges. Every time you complete a challenge you get a five-star manager badge. I enjoy this daily challenge. Each day Mr. F gives us a random decimal number, we then cut items out from our catalogue and put them in our trolley (a page in our LAHJ) the total price has to add up to Mr. F’s number.

Lucas Chen (4 Jenkin)

Year Four: Spelling Words

Year Four children were asked to practice their spelling words in a creative way. Sean Hughan (4 Jones) wrote his words in salt!

Year Five: Digital Photography Co-Connect

What is the digital photography contest?

The digital photography contest is a Co-Connect where you take photos of the theme of the week set by Mr Parry.

It's easy to join! You just need to go to the Co-Connect page and click 'join here'.

The themes that have been chosen this term so far are Monochrome, also known as black and white, and Jumping. 

Personally, I think you should join Digital Photography because it's a lot of fun to do after you've finished your school work.

Here are my photos.

Will de Vries (5 Jenkin)

Year Six: The World Around Us

The Term Three Humanities topic for Year Six is ‘The World Around Us’. Students have been learning about the many reasons people migrate to Australia. The most recent assessment task required students to write a biography on a refugee who now calls Australia home. The biographies highlight the many challenges that these individuals have faced on their journey to become successful members of Australian society. 

Mrs Prue Milner

6M Classroom Teacher

Year Six - House Rocket Writing

To support the transition to Year 7, Year 6 students have begun to work in House groups for some of their lessons. This week we held our first House Rocket Writing session via Zoom. Students are presented with a prompt for a fictional text. They are given ten minutes to write a response, followed by five minutes to edit their composition.

The purpose of Rocket Writing is to provide students with a regular creative writing opportunity. Completing and submitting these short texts requires students to apply the composition and editing skills which are explicitly taught and practised at other times. We are proud of what our Year 6 students can achieve in this limited time.

Students’ compositions are published by House group, so that they may enjoy reading each other’s texts and be inspired for their next Rocket Writing task.

This week’s prompt was 

The following are some of the wonderful responses received from across House groups.

Mrs Katherine Meadows

6H Classroom Teacher

It was already night, a full moon rose above the clouds. You could hear the wolves howling. It was one of those nights that if something scary was going to happen it would be tonight. The wind started to pick up.

BANG, the house door slammed shut as I jumped in fear. The street light was flickering and the wolves sounded like they were getting closer to my house. I saw a figure on the street, so I squinted, but nothing was there. Now the wolves were louder than ever. I felt a cold breeze brush across me as a shiver went up my spine.

I had lost sight of the figure that was out in the street. But then I heard the door slam shut, so I ducked under my bed and hid. Mum or Dad were not home, it was just me. I saw a shadow go under my door. The door slowly opened, but there were no feet at the door. I turned and faced the wall under my bed. I saw a shadow, so I looked again and this happened.

There were feet pointed at me and the bed creaked like someone was sitting on it.

By Samuel Rumpff (6 Jones)

The engine burst with enthusiasm, bags get zipped and throw into the car boot. It's time for a camping trip. There are laughs and screams of joy and rush, it's was 6 am in the morning and my family and I were going to Camp Tyuip, Mum says that it has the biggest lake in the whole world. 

The car tyres rustled against the ground and I could see a big sign saying 'CAMP TYUIP'.

My excitement got 10x bigger, it felt like I could run the 800m race in 2 seconds. When we arrived, I rushed to the boot and got out my camping gear, asked dad what tent we'll be in, he said we have to set up our tent, so I waited at the car for everyone to get everything out of the car.  I was running around the car until I saw the lake, it was huge!

I asked Mum if I could go over there but she said to help us pack first. I nodded and put my camping gear where we had decided to build our tent, we had two tents, one for me and my brother and the other for Mum and Dad.  I started begging Mum so I could go to the lake, she nodded and I did a small victory punch then and I ran over to take a look. I saw with the glimpse of an eye near the bottom of the lake. I screamed, I was pushed in the lake and I was struggling to breathe. I saw my parents and brother rushing over but when I saw them through the water, they looked completely different, that moment my mind was rushing with thoughts and I couldn't think straight. I was swimming up as well and trying to think, but I was also too scared to swim up to the shore. 

By Ellianna Langan (6 Frew)

We had just moved to our new house. It was really old and had a pond out the back.

All the doors were creaky, and Dad fell through the floor, it appeared that underneath it was moulding. The day we looked at the pond, I tried seeing the bottom, but all I could see was leaves and green lurky water. The whole house was creepy.

At night the house was especially creepy, I could hear voices in the middle of the night, upset, angry even scared voices. I could also hear things being smashed, the chandelier fell one day.

Then came the day we decided to have a dip in the pond, I jumped in, and something grabbed at my leg, it pulled me down and down and down. I reached up through the water, trying to grab my sister Claire.

The hand felt slimy, and rough at the same time.

I could no longer see the light, I had no longer any more air.

The world grew dark around me, just as my life ebbed away.

By Alodie Thomson (6 Aherne)

 “MUM!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “I'M GOING ON A WALK IN THE BUSH, I’LL BE BACK IN AN HOUR!

“OK” she yelled back.

After I had been walking for a while, I decided to take some photos of the bush, so I got out my camera and started taking the photos, after a few photos I realised that I had been standing in a small puddle.

“Aww man!” I said as I started to wriggle my feet hoping to get at least one of them out but no they would not come out.

“HELP! HELP!” I screeched trying to get anyone’s attention, but it was too late. I was sinking and it was getting quicker as the oozing mud came up my neck and, on my face, I took one last breath then I was fully submerged in the disgusting filthy brown mud.

I was in the mud for around 30 seconds plugging my nose and my eyes. Suddenly I heard footsteps coming towards me I so I started to wriggle my body trying and hoping to get out when, just one of my hands made it out I waved my fist telling them I was drowning but in a puddle so they rang a fire truck to get me out. As I heard the sirens coming closer, I could feel my body weakening and thought I am never going in a puddle again.

By Xanthe Breen (6 Jenkin)

The blood curdling scream came from John. As I looked back I saw a ghostly hand pulling him into the puddle.

" I'm coming John, I'm coming" I yelled.

I knew Mummy would be very angry about the state of our clothes, but that thought could wait. I dashed in around trees. I hurdled over roots and finally I found John. His whole body was nearly gone. I sank into a kneeling position and pulled. Tears splashed down my face as I tried to tug John out.

"John" I sobbed through mountains of tears, "are you alright?" It was a stupid thing to say but it was the only think I could think of.

I looked up but it was not John who I saw before me… it was the ghostly figure of Graham Lake. I had been told the stories of the ghost who haunted this lake. I knew it was a life or death matter. I ran for it. the ghost figure howled with rage and started to chase me through the forest. 

By Sabine Stewart (6 Millward)

It felt like I had been running for hours. Not far to go now. I run around the corner and there's a dead end. I stop.

"Don't tell me I came all the way for this!" I said.

I wiped away some of the grime on the walls, and I saw some markings. There was a bunch of little dots and dashes, and a lump in the wall. “Morse code!” I cried.

I got out my trusty notebook and started to decipher the code. It said: danger lies within; Once you press the button there is no turning back. But I give you this clue; you cross the lake, the more progress you make, but just you remember, you lose what you take.

I pressed the button. There was no turning back. As soon as I pressed it, the wall crumbled aside. There was a massive lake. Suddenly the ground below was tilting and it threw me in the water. I crashed about for a minute and went to pull myself out, but there was a glow coming from underneath the water... 

By Sarah Crosby (6 Riley)