Mrs Leanne Schulz

Welcome back to Term 3 and the winter weather!

Over the holidays it was very exciting to see a slab being laid for the new Cumberland building. It will be wonderful to see the building taking shape in preparation for 2022, where there will be three streams of each year level and reduced class sizes.

Year 6 Community Service Captains

Jasiah C and Maheen B

Due to the current pandemic many people are struggling to feed their families. To help struggling families we are holding a food drive for Fairview and Cumberland. We are partnering with the Food Bank Australia to try and provide support.

Could you please assist us by bringing in food such as:

Canned foods
Dried fruit/nuts
Sauces and seasonings
UHT milk and juices
Coffee and tea
Spreads
Rice, pasta and noodles
Cereal

We will be placing a box in each room with labels on them outlining what items to bring. Thank you for supporting this initiative to help families in need.

Funhelen Day for Cumberland Students

Cumberland students had the opportunity to enjoy the variety of activities created by the Dunhelen students for the Year 9 Service project, 'Funhelen'.

By Mia P

Funhelen was a great experience for everyone, especially me. Kids got to have face painting, cotton candy, blow bubbles, play sports and eat candy! The music was enjoyable to listen to and some students even danced a bit. Overall, I’m sure Funhelen was a great experience for everyone.

Prep News

Miss Gemma Jackson (Prep AHOS)

The Prep students have settled in well and have enjoyed catching up with their friends. We have jumped straight back into learning this week. Our new word of the week is ‘vet’. We discussed what we might want to be when we grow up. We introduced our very new sky, grass, ground books for writing. The Preps were very excited to have blue, green and brown colours on their lines. In Mathematics, we have introduced addition. The students will commence their learning by practising the ‘counting on’ strategy and learning their addition facts to 10. We have a new topic for Integrated Studies this term called ‘Materials and Movement’. We have a special Science incursion at the end of term to look forward to. We are also excited for the upcoming swimming program. It is going to be a wonderful, busy Term 3.

Year 1 and 2 News

Mr Jevon Scandrett (Year 1/2 AHOS)

Years 1 and 2 are very excited to return to school for Term 3!

We warmly welcome Mr Kyle Parkinson as Homeroom teacher for 1A this semester as I take on the role of Assistant Head of School (Years 1/2). Mr Parkinson is looking forward to working with the students over this exciting semester.

Ms Monique Ferla joins 1R as a pre-service teacher for the first three weeks of term. Ms Ferla has a wealth of experience with children and currently works as a swimming instructor. We look forward to having Ms Ferla teaching and learning with Mrs Josephine Russo in the 1R classroom.

Year 2 students were very excited to take part in their excursion to the Melbourne Museum and IMAX on Thursday 14 July. It was fantastic to finally have this excursion and for the students to experience lots of fun and learning! Photos and details from the excursion will be shared in the next newsletter- exciting times!

Your child’s Homeroom teacher is your first point of call to discuss your child’s academic and social needs. Please feel free to contact me as the Assistant Head of School (Years 1/2) with any questions or concerns.

Year 3 and 4 News

Mrs Anne Adams (Year 3/ 4 AHOS)

Year 3

The Year 3 students were busy last term creating their short stories for the Cumberland Short Story Competition. Their hard work has paid off, with many masterpieces for their peers to read. Good luck to all in the competition. Winners will be announced during Book Week which is August 21- 27. This coincides with the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards.

Year 4

The Year 4 students have finished their semester of the Kitchen Garden Program. This subject emphasises the link between gardening with experiences such as growing and harvesting vegetables, and where our food comes from and how to cook it. The students not only learn life skills such as cooking in this subject but also social skills in the form of working as a group. We would like to say a massive thank you to the Food Technology Staff, Ms Leonie Macnaughtan and Ms Deborah Garlick who make this subject informative and interesting. Digital Technology in the form of Sphero chariot races completed the term. We had some crazy drivers on the chariot racetrack, and not all chariots made it to the finish line.

Year 5 and 6 News

Mr Nigel Keegan (Year 5/ 6 AHOS)

Welcome back to all our students. We are excited to see what will be achieved during Semester Two.

During the coming weeks, Year 5 students will be engaged with many topics including measurement, informative text writing, reading comprehension activities and skills, and working through Integrated Studies topics on Migration and the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.

In Year 6 students are working on informative texts, reading comprehension skills, and justifying ideas and opinions, angles, fractions, decimals, and percentages for Maths, and Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy during Integrated Studies.

Students will be engaged in many other interesting and exciting activities across the various subject areas; please keep an eye on My Aitken for these. We look forward to students’ progress during the term.

Sibling Rivalry

By Michael Grose, founder of Parenting Ideas and one of Australia’s leading parenting educators.

Sibling Rivalry

‘Question: What causes sibling rivalry? Answer: Having more than one child.

This joke always gets a laugh in my parenting presentations but there is more than a hint of truth about it. Sibling rivalry comes with the parenting territory. If you feel uncomfortable with this then maybe it is best to stop at one child.

Sibling rivalry is usually at its most intense when there are only two children in a family. There are many simple, straightforward strategies parents can use to decrease the likelihood of rivalry between two children. The following ideas will help parents reduce rather than eliminate rivalry between two or more siblings.

Accept children’s individual differences
Recognise their role in the family
Use encouragement liberally and praise sparingly
Put them in the same boat when they misbehave
Focus on solutions not the fight
Introduce family meetings at age five
The family that plays together stays together ‘

Chaplain's Corner