From the Head of Junior School

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to travel to Swan Hill to support our Primary School Girls Soccer Team who had qualified for the Regional Championships after winning the Divisional Event in Bendigo. It was a great day of competition, with the team winning through to the State Finals after a sudden death penalty shootout. While the result was wonderful and thoroughly deserved after the efforts that every player put in on the day, what I really enjoyed was seeing the camaraderie, positive spirit and support of each other during, between and after the matches. What made it an even more remarkable feat was that only three of the girls play soccer. There was no way the team would have been successful without contributions from every team member. The support that each of the players showed towards each other, experienced player or not, meant that each of the girls could play to the best of their ability knowing that their team mates “had their backs”. Mistakes were not criticised, best efforts were celebrated and the team was stronger as a unit for it. I know that the girls would have celebrated at the end of the day even if they had not won the tournament, as it was an achievement for most of the players just to play at that level. Particular thanks to Mr DiFede, Shamila Dayananda and to the parents who were there to support the girls on the day.

The idea of working together to support each other and lift each other up is one that I spoke on at assembly two weeks ago. A previous Head called it the peloton effect, where a team working together and supporting each other is more successful than a group of individuals working alone. As a School, we work hard to help each child succeed and reach their potential. This is not limited to staff and parents, but also includes students supporting and encouraging each other. At assembly I spoke about being proud of the achievements of others and celebrating them, rather than envious and criticising. I also spoke about encouraging those who are struggling and lifting them up rather than putting them down and teasing them. As a School we strive for a culture of support and the Primary Girls Soccer team were a wonderful example of this culture in action this week.

Digital safety

Over the past few weeks, we have had cause to speak to some of our students about digital safety. The issues involved sharing passwords and accessing other students' accounts. While it is spoken about regularly in the classroom and is incorporated into the Technology curriculum, there are still instances where students do not protect their passwords or where they log on to a machine and save their logon and password details locally. It highlighted to us that there is still a lot of work to be done to educate our students about staying safe online. While the issues we had to deal with involved student-to-student interactions within our school, it raised the question of how we can ensure students are staying safe when accessing computers at home and when they are interacting with other members of the wider community online. I am asking that all of our parents have a conversation with their children this weekend about the importance of staying safe online. Suggested topics to discuss are how to protect your accounts online and how to protect your identity when interacting with others. It is an unfortunate reality that there is no such thing as a totally safe online environment if there is the capacity for one-to-one or one-to-group correspondence, whether that is through text messaging or direct conversations. A simple measure to take at home is to ensure all devices are used in public areas and can be viewed by adults at all times. Devices should not be used without supervision, particularly in bedrooms or other spaces out of direct line of sight. It is also important for parents to have conversations with their children about how they can seek help. Children need to know who they can go to if an online interaction causes them to feel upset, angry or uncomfortable.

There are some good resources available for parents to access online, including the eSafety and Australian Institute of Family Studies websites. Please also feel free to contact your child’s classroom teacher if you need further advice.

Mr Donald Thompson

Head of Junior School

VSMF – Strings

Super Strings had a wonderful morning on Monday 24 July performing at the Victorian School Music Festival, with students (and teachers!) braving an early 6:45am start.

The performance stage was wonderful and Super Strings played strongly, plus they got to listen to another school perform, as well as participate in a workshop with the chief adjudicator.

The beginners section was not graded, but our adjudication marks were all in the excellent and very good category. As usual, our Girton students were impeccably behaved and their performance etiquette shone through on stage.

A huge thanks to Emma Wade and Belinda Moon for supporting Super Strings each week as well as today, and to Graham Crickmore for driving us all the way down to Melbourne and back. Finally thanks to Kim and the Junior School Office for keeping us impeccably organised.

Mrs Cally Bartlett

Head of Faculty – Arts

VSMF – Choir

On Thursday 3 August, the Performance Choir attended the Victorian School Music Festival. They performed at the Box Hill Salvation Army Performing Arts Centre. It was a very early start for our students but they all pitched up excited for the day and ready to perform.

The students were up against some very solid competition on the day and they stepped up to the challenge. After watching the three other performances in their section, they had the opportunity to shine, and shine they did. It was wonderful to see the choir performing and they did our school proud. The adjudicator was very pleased and only had minor feedback on their performance.

The Performance Choir was awarded Platinum, which some were a bit disappointed by until they realised that is even higher than Gold standard! Congratulations to all the students in Performance Choir and we wish them luck at the Royal South Street Competitions next month.

Girton v Ballarat Football and Netball Match

Despite not being able to bring any silverware back to Bendigo, students and staff had a great day at Ballarat Grammar. After persistent showers on our bus ride, the sky lightened as we entered Ballarat and thankfully the rain stayed away!

The netball was where the excitement was. After Girton won the first match by four it was down to the second match to see if we might be able to win on aggregate points. In a tense final few minutes, Ballarat just managed to hold onto a slender lead when the final whistle blew.

Our football teams found the going tough against a couple of strong Ballarat Grammar outfits. The girls battled hard all match and it has been a highlight seeing the immense improvement by the girls team over the last two weeks. The boys were literally blown away early with Ballarat Grammar kicking with a gale towards the Lake Wendouree end. Despite some valiant efforts in the second half, it was a difficult day!

Thank you to Mitch Clark (9 Aherne) and Ethan Fletcher (9 Millward) who assisted and took on goal umpiring duties. It was great to get this day back up and going again and our students enjoying competing and socialising with the Ballarat Grammar cohort.

Mr John Gibbs

Teacher of Year Four

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