From the Head of Junior School

Dear Members of the St Gregory’s College Community,

Welcome to another newsletter and the end of another week at the Junior School. Things are moving very quickly towards the end of the Term – but who is counting, right? 

I am so impressed with the way our community have started the year, the classrooms are energized the teachers are enthusiastic and it is so lovely to see our parents' community starting to come back on-site at the Junior School. 

Sport, Glorious Sport!

What a fortnight we have had in sport with our Junior School wining to Diocesan Boys Champions, Girls Champions and Overall Champion School. The swimmers have also successfully achieved great results at Corrimal this week with 10 students heading off to the NSWCCC Swimming Titles in Homebush on Monday 22 March.  We wish them the best of luck!

Our IPSSO teams continue to impress as they keep on their 'winning way' and we’re happy to announce that we have had 14 students make the Wollongong Representative Teams in the past two weeks for League, Soccer, Netball, Hockey and Touch Football – well done to Mr Howe and the students for this wonderful effort.

Our Library Team!

Congratulations to Mrs Cosentino, Mrs Husband and one of our parents Mrs Jones, for their dedication to the Junior School Book Fair. The number of books sold was outstanding and a real community effort which was lovely to witness. Mrs Cosentino has also launched the Premiers Reading Challenge for the year with the students. Mr Ashby, who is our Indigenous Liaison Officer (K-12), has helped kick off the challenge by performing with some of our Senior Students, some indigenous song and dance.

Opening Junior School Mass

We had a beautiful opening Mass last week 

with Fr David that brought together the whole Junior School community. The Mass was led wonderfully by Year 1 and we couldn’t have kicked off the year with a more reverent Mass. The students enjoyed coming together once again in our College Chapel. I thank Mrs Bowen, our Leader of Learning – Religious Education and Mrs Cathie Clarke for their preparation for our first Mass.

A New Spark in Students

As a Junior School over the past 12 months, we have taken on the PYP (Primary Years Programme), which is the primary programme of the International Baccalaureate. The journey to date has strengthened our mission, refined our teaching and learning culture and shifted our mindsets on what it means to be truly educated. A school that decides to take on the PYP commits itself to work towards developing international-mindedness in the whole school community. 

The PYP is not an add-on. We are in the process of truly becoming an IB World School. We have had to immerse ourselves in the programme and shift our philosophy, our understanding of why we are here as educators and the job we need to do.

Taking on the PYP is immensely rewarding but also very challenging – it requires a huge amount of skill. It's not about lecturing, it is about constructing and co-constructing meaning with students. This has brought about big opportunities for collaborative learning. We have 14 classes that know, understand and utilise collaborative planning each week.  

Rather than having isolated island in teams, year groups work together to plan exciting, meaningful and significant units of work. The end result is that we have a programme that truly engages our young learners. A great example of this was this week, having our Year 6 students participate in an online experience with Ms Bustamante, who is a real-life Volcanologist. 

On Monday, we are hosting a ‘Celebration of International Mindedness’. As a PYP school, we value the diversity and perspectives that exist in our community and look to celebrate this on Monday, with a real fun emphasis on various cultures. I thank all the parents who have volunteered to help on Monday, we look forward to working with you to build an authentic learning experience for the students.

Events on the Horizon

• Monday 22 March – Celebration of International Mindedness (Mufti – colours of a specific culture/cultural dress)

            -NSWCCC Swimming at Homebush

• Tuesday 23 March – Cross Country Carnival
• Wednesday 24 March – IPSSO Sport v Macarthur Anglican @ MAS
• Thursday 25 March – Paul Kelly Cup (AFL)
• Thursday 1 April – Easter Hat Parade 8:45am followed by the Awards Assembly for K-6 
• Thursday 1 April - K-6 Easter Liturgy in Br Luke Hall at 11.30am. 

As our St Gregory’s College motto states, ‘You will reap what you sow’.

Mr Joel Weekes

Head of Junior School