What's Been Happening!

Love One Another

What we have achieved this term in Grade 2. 

By Charlotte B - Year 2

For our Inquiry topic this term we have been learning about other cultures - it has been really fascinating. We are trying to see the world from others’ perspective. 

We wanted to do something to help others in need, so we decided to collect underpants for the young students of Edmund Rice Centre in Kenya, who do not have any. 

We collected 1332 pairs of underpants. 

Grade 2 students made posters to advertise the drive and it was a lot of fun doing this. The S.R.C’s made announcements over the P.A. and reminded their class. 

We've been storing them in our classroom - we have mountains!!!

Thank you to all the generous families of the St. Cecilia’s community - we really appreciate your incredible support of this worthy cause. More importantly, the kids of Kenya will be so thrilled to receive our gift.

We presented our gift to Louise Wood at Assembly on Thursday. 

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!

Mystery Reader Pics

The Band Playing Old Macdonald in Music

Year 5/6 News

Leaders' Report to Staff

Below is the report that our Joseph House Leaders presented to our staff.

SARAH: INTRO & KINDER VISITS

Hello parents, we are the Joseph house leaders and we would like to thank you for having us here this afternoon. Today we will be talking to you about the different leadership roles we have undertaken during Term 3. 

Recently the grade sixes have been visiting some local kinders, half of the year sixes went to St Dunstan's Kindergarten and the other half went to the Fordham Avenue Kindergarten. I was lucky enough to get to go to my old kinder which was St Dunstan's Kindergarten in Camberwell. As soon as we got there, the kinder kids were already outside ready to play with us, they all had lots of different things they wanted to play and sometimes there would be times when the other kids in the group  didn’t want to play, for example half of the group wanted to play tag but the other half wanted to play don't touch the ground tiggy!

All this ties into our leadership activities because they help us with people skills and patience. Especially when some of the kids kept arguing on what game  they wanted to play, we had to teach them to be patient and listen to other people's ideas. It really helped to talk to a different age group, as we have already done activities with the elderly last term. We  would like to thank the teachers for organising this great experience and to Mrs Sutherland for always bringing us to the kindergarten. 

FLOR: 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT  OF COUNTRY

Another great thing that the leaders have continued to work on is St Cecilia’s Acknowledgement of the country. We thought of different actions to go with the words as this is an excellent way to remember things. We thought this would help make the acknowledgement more meaningful for the junior classes. 

We think that acknowledging the traditional people of this land really helps people understand and I believe it has been a great success. This was a big leadership role for the seniors of the school.

 I will now talk about  Shark Tank and what a great success that was. 

SHARK TANK

In the two 5 / 6 classes we were studying being sustainable and social enterprise we got into groups and we had to be inclusive and come up with amazing ideas!

Of course everyone succeeded in that marvously and in the end we had get  started. All the groups had to have a specific theme that made a link between all the products so there were businesses from decor to bags to even dog toys!

This really brought out creativity in the students and we showed FACE, specifically Excellence. In the end this linked to leadership because we had to speak to the parents and be courageous and proud of what we have achieved. We think that the parents really enjoyed and appreciated what we did and they all had big smiles on their faces. 

LAURA: 

CONFIRMATION REFLECTION 

Next term we have a very special sacrament occurring in our lives - the Sacrament of Confirmation. This sacrament is when we confirm our baptismal promises and the catholic church sees us as becoming more adult. 

On August 31st the year 5/6s went to Don Bosco camp for our Confirmation retreat day. On this day we learnt all about faith and the 7 gifts of the holy spirit. We were far far away from the city so we helped leave all our worries behind. To represent the Gifts of the Holy Spirit we receive different symbols such as pretzels and chupa chups to represent each gift! Confirmation is part of leadership because we learnt all about faith and we accept who we were and learn how to try and be more like Jesus

We also show compassion because we were learning how to be kinder people and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us in Confirmation.

Now I will hand over to Millie.

MILLIE: 

ATHLETICS DAY

Last Wednesday the students year 3-6 went to the District Athletics day at Bill Stewart Sports track! We were so lucky that the weather was nice and sunny for us students and all of the parents that helped out. There were 8 schools in total and it was so great because everyone got to catch up with kids from other schools! While people were doing their events the rest of the school were on the benches cheering their guts out. Everyone there was so happy that they got to come along to this event that we haven't been able to do in years! At the end of the long day of events there were the awards. Our school was lucky enough to take home the aggregate award, but the real award was our school's great sportsmanship and humbleness. We all encouraged each other to try something new, and all of our encouragement really came into play because everyone did amazing, their effort to just keep on going and persist was incredible.We really showed our school motto FACE, on that day and we as Year 5/6s tried to be role models to the younger classes for how to act at interschool events, and for them to know that it is the giving things a go that count, not the winning. Chloe will now talk about hoop time!

CHLOE : 

YR 3/4 HOOP TIME

The year sixes were lucky enough to use their leadership skills by coaching the 3/4s this term in their hoop time experience at the Nunawading (nuh- nuh -wo- ding)Basketball centre in Burwood East. We encouraged the year 3/4s to try their absolute  hardest and to just have fun.  The year 3 /4s were really respectful towards us and were a pleasure to help, they really understood the concept of not caring about the scores. The year sixes really enjoyed it too, whether they played basketball or not. Everyone had a role to do and it was a great experience. We encouraged everyone to try their hardest in everything they did. Everything was fair and everyone got a go. We all felt quite accomplished after and glad we helped in one way or another. And now Alice will talk about the buddies.

ALICE: 

SECONDARY SCHOOL TRANSITION/BUDDIES

Part of being in year six is that we all have buddies that we all adore. Some of the most recent things we have done with the buddies is 100 days of prep where we all celebrated the achievement that they have accomplished which was being at school for a whole 100 days! 

For book week we read them all, one of our favourite books as a child to introduce new books to them. These two things we have done with the buddies all comes back to FACE and continue to use our leadership skills.

Being in year 6 is so exciting, one of the things we look forward to is secondary school and the transition to high school is already beginning from interviews with teachers to tours all around the school. We are nervous but still  very excited to make lots of new friends and this will all help with acceptance which is part of our school motto , FACE, which as you all know stands for Faith, Acceptance, Compassion and Excellence.

Thank You for listening to how we are continuing to use and grow our leadership skills.  We look forward to our final term as leaders of St Cecilia’s with mixed feelings.  We know that we will continue to have opportunities to grow as leaders and take these skills with us as we move forward in our lives. 

Yr 5/6 Hooptime

This Wednesday our Year 5/6 students participated in the Bulla Hooptime Basketball Day. We were very fortunate to have rep. baskteball players from De La Salle College come along to work with the our students as coaches and team managers.

Our students had a very successful day with all of the teams going through their preliminary games unfdefeated.

Three of the teams played off in semi finals, two of them against each other. The final results were extremely close with margins of no more than 2 points in both the semi finals and in the grand final in which one of St Cecilia's teams came through victorious. That team will have the opportunity to go through to the next round of competition.

The year 5/6 students all loved having the De La Salle boys as mentors on the day. The boys made a great connection with the students in their teams and were great role models throughout the day. We look forward to continuing this relationship with opportunities for peer mentoring at other events in the future.

Year 3 Update

In Grade 3 we have been inspired by some fantastic picture story books that we enjoyed exploring during book week.  After reading Blue Flower by Sonia Hartnett and illustrated by Gabriel Evans, where the main character is able to change her feelings of confidence and self worth through positive self talk, we created some beautiful drawings that represent how the character felt at the start of the story and how she felt at the end, carefully choosing colours and illustrations that we thought best captured her feelings.

We also read Everyday Wonders by Natala Graetz, a book that reminded us that we are all unique and wonderful just as we are.  We created self portraits and decorated the frames with our many individual interests and passions and all the things that make us the special people that we are.

Dear year 3 families,

A note to let you know that towards the end of next term, Year 3 are planning an overnight camp to The Briars, Mt Martha.  

Further details will follow early next term, but we hope that knowing about this overnight stay well in advance will enable you to make some preparations with your child.

Given the restrictions of the last few years, many families will have had limited opportunities for their children to be away overnight, or to have had a friend to stay overnight at their home.

Perhaps there might be an opportunity during these holidays, if needed, for your child to sleep away from home overnight, either with family or with close friends, in preparation for this experience.

We look forward to sharing more information about our overnight camp with you early next term.

Kind regards

Jacqueline and Jacqui, Tracey and Kerryn

Year 1 Excursion to Ricketts Point

On Thursday the year 1 students went to Ricketts Point for an excursion. 

They explored a variety of unique species in their natural habitat on the Rock Platforms. Students were also able to see and touch a collection of preserved ocean treasures as well as identify marine features that help these animals survive in their habitat.

At the end of the day all the grade 1’s participated in a sandcastle competition.

A big thank you to Bec Cerveri from the Golud League, Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary who was our guide and educator for the day.