Notices Sent Home

Year Six dismissal arrangements - Year 6

U11 Football flyer – Years 3, 4 & 5

Date change for PE – Prep, Years 1 & 2

Week Ahead

Monday, February 24th

U14s basketball matches commence

Wednesday, February 26th

U12s cricket matches from 4.0 pm

Thursday, February 27th

Friday, February 28th

House Athletics Carnival at Myrniong

U10s and under 12s basketball matches commence

Clubs and Interest Groups - 2020

This week has seen the commencement of recess and lunch clubs and interest groups. Apart from an amazing playground in which students can enjoy time with friends, the Junior School offers a range of clubs and interest groups to eager students. We have a Student Representative Council made up of like-minded children from Prep to Year Six. Pizzicato Strings, Art Club and Gardening Club provide avenues for creativity and expression. Chess Club caters for those wanting a competitive challenge and Running Club allows students the opportunity to get fit with laps around Myrniong. Fortnightly opportunities to visit the Birches nursing home are afforded to the community minded. This year also sees a Library/Reading Club offered by Mrs. Drummond at lunch time on a Wednesday.

Compass Award

Sixteen Year Five and Year Six students have signed up to commence Level One of the Compass Award. The students will expand their comfort zones and embark on three hours of a new hobby, an exploration, a new sport and a voluntary community service project. The Compass Award seeks to provide a platform for 10 to 14 year-old Victorian children to push their comfort zones, build leadership skills and participate in exciting and challenging activities. Mrs. Sharon Kelly will coordinate the program at the Junior School.

Year Six Badge Assembly

On Monday, our Year Six students received their special Myrniong pins, symbolising their year of leadership and their final year of primary school. Our eight House Captains were also presented with their badges. The Year Six group were presented with three leadership points to ponder;

‘The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack’. Their success as a group is closely linked to the individual strengths they bring to the group.
‘Leave the jersey in a better place.’ At the end of 2020, the hope is they will have performed well as a leadership group and left a legacy for the Year Fives who will step into red, blue, yellow and green House shirts in 2021.
‘Let’s be the best at the things that require no talent.’ A lot of day to day tasks don’t involve talent. Great teams do the little things well. They support each other, they have pride in their uniform and school ground, they work hard at talking less and listening more, and they have manners and a high moral compass.

Parents and Friends Fundraiser

At our Junior School House Swimming carnival, the Parents’ and Friends’ Association ran a barbeque and sold refreshments. Megan Mould and her team raised $642.00 for the Hay Run charity appeal. The team will front up again at our House Athletics carnival on Friday, February 28th, to sell sausage sandwiches, drinks and icy poles. If you have a spare half an hour, the Parents and Friends would love you to assist with cooking and selling. The more volunteers, the more opportunity for all to see their children compete in track and field events. Funds raised will be added to those of the House Swimming and a donation made to a very worthy cause.

House Swimming Carnival

The 2020 Intensive Swimming program culminated in our House Swimming carnival at Hughan Park last Friday. Congratulations to Berry House on winning the first sports trophy of the year. In all our sports carnivals, total points accumulated on the day are divided by the number of students in each House.

Final Points

Berry 260.8 points

Laidlaw 238.8 points

Learmonth 214 points

Young 199.5 points

Throughout the day, our students gave their all and we were overwhelmed with the number of entries in 25 m and 50 m events. The confidence gained in the Intensive Swimming sessions certainly paid dividends. Placing a ‘parent hat’ on, I was so pleased that our House Swimming provided a platform for our youngest students to take part in a whole school event. This isn’t the norm and many schools opt to not include or even invite Prep students to take part. All of our Prep, Year One and Year Two students gained points for their House and can be safe in the knowledge they pushed their comfort zones and contributed to a great day - well done all!

Age Champions for 2020

9 Years Boys’ – Charlie Hindhaugh

9 Year Girls’ – Yolanda O’Sullivan and Sophie Satchell

10 Year Boys’ – Harry McDonald

10 Year Girls’ – Phoebe Alexander

11 Year Boys’ - Tom Templeton

11 Year Girls’ - Ruby Hausler

12/13 Year Boys’ - James Heazlewood and Taylor Haley

12/13 Year Girls’ - Sophie Spence

A huge thank you to the parents who volunteered to marshal, record and time keep. Well done to the brave souls who put themselves forward to swim in the parent/teacher relay. Thanks to the maintenance team, Mrs Povey, Mrs Munro and Junior School staff who contributed a great deal to a superb day and finally, thank you to Mrs Louise Patterson for the time, effort and enthusiasm she put in to make House Swimming a success.

Stephen Nelson

Head of Junior School

The Hamilton and Alexandra College Newsletter

Issue 4 · 20 Feb 2020

In this issue