From the Head of Junior School

At Junior School Assembly two weeks ago we were fortunate to have a presentation by SisterWorks, a social enterprise group that aims to empower women who have immigrated to Australia by providing work experiences. SisterWorks will have a weekly working group at our school preparing our old style uniforms to be sent to a school in the Philippines. They will also be repurposing any uniforms that cannot be used so that there is no waste. This is a joint initiative between SisterWorks, St Killian’s Church and our school. We thank Kate Mahony for her time, effort and initiative in setting up this partnership and for volunteering her time to the running of the Second Hand Uniform Shop. Anyone interested in helping with the project can catch up with Kate at the Uniform Shop.

This week I presented to our Junior School students an initiative that the Year 7 cohort are running called Solar Buddy. At assembly our students learned that many children in developing countries do not have access to electricity so studying at home is very hard. We watched a video about students in Guinea who were forced to find lighting after hours wherever they can so that they can study for their exams. (https://vimeo.com/41361234) Our Year 7 students are constructing the Solar Buddy kits to send to children in developing countries. Details of the project and how to sponsor a light kit can be found on this link: https://www.girton.vic.edu.au/year-7s-light-up-lives/?fbclid=IwAR3Ej6KQPWOUF2EBlv6yQHj5cusnoZEGkVWR1HKC-52DfUxeJadtjWqolBU

SUPERVISION

We have seen a trend over the past few weeks where students are leaving class at the end of the day and then going out into the playground to run around or play on the equipment. While we understand that our students love school and the playground we do not have the resources to supervise students in multiple areas after school. Most of our teachers are involved in meetings 2 nights a week and take co-curricular commitments for 2 nights. We have a staff member supervising the Walking School Bus, one at the bus pick up area and two supervising the MacKenzie St pick up. At the end of the day students must either be picked up straight away to be taken home, wait at Reception for the Walking School Bus, go to the bus area, or wait at the MacKenzie St gate to be picked up. Some parents have indicated that they are supervising their own children on the equipment. It becomes very hard for staff to identify which children are being supervised by parents and which children are “free-range” so we ask all parents to keep their children with them once they have picked them up at the end of the day.

PARENT SEMINAR

As a Parenting Ideas member school, we are invited to participate in parent education seminars at no cost. The next seminar that we have been offered is about Brave Parenting.

Brave parenting in a culture riddled with worry

Join Lenore Skenazy, President of Let Grow, in this webinar that explores;

Why treating our kids as physically and emotionally fragile is bad for their future
That your kids are not in constant danger
How independence impacts children
How to raise nimble problem solvers
Ideas to know how safe, smart and capable your kids can be

When

Wednesday 27 November 2019 8:00pm AEDT. If you are unable to make the scheduled time you can simply register and access the recording later.

How you can register

Click this link: https://www.parentingideas.com.au/parent-resources/parent-webinars/webinar-brave-parenting-in-a-culture-riddled-with-worry
Click ‘Add to cart’
Click ‘View cart’
Enter the voucher code BRAVE and click ‘Apply’. Your discount of $37 will be applied to the order. This voucher is valid until 27 December 2019.
Click ‘Proceed to checkout’
Fill in your account details. These are the details you will use to login to your account and access your parenting material
Click ‘Place Order’

This voucher code is valid until 27 December 2019, so we encourage you to redeem it right away to secure your free webinar.

Year Five Camp

We left from Vine St gate at 8:00am saying goodbyes to our parents from the bus. Many children were excited for the trip. We stopped at 3 spots, Daylesford, Ballarat and Narmbool. At Ballarat we saw a memorial of all the diggers/soldiers who died at the battle. It was a wonderful sight to see. It was a 3 hour trip from Bendigo to Narmbool (including stops). When we arrived, we split into 3 class groups and did a rotation of Day 1 activities. Each rotation was an hour to an hour and a half. There were team games, sampling the water in the dam and having a look around the shearing shed. After the first 2 rotations, we had afternoon tea while watching the Melbourne Cup. We did our last rotation with anticipation that cabin selections are coming up. After the hour, it was 5:00pm and we had cabin selections. After we found out who was in our cabin, we went to our spacious cabin rooms and had 45 minutes of downtime, getting everything ready and getting to know each other. After that, we all left to go to a light show named AURA. It was about the Eureka Rebellion and it was amazing. After the show, it was 10:30pm. We got back to camp at 11:00pm! Everyone was so tired from a very long day.

We woke up from a good night’s sleep ready to face the day. After breakfast, we set off for a 10 to 12 km walk. The first stop was about 2.5 kilometres from the Narmbool lodge. We learnt about how the aboriginal people used a rock to make utensils and about Bunjul the creator of Mount Buninyong. We also learnt about a painting that an indigenous man made which was ruined in the bushfire. Then we ate morning tea and sang happy birthday to Anya [me]. After that, we continued walking to the tea tree camp to have lunch. The walk was slightly challenging due to tough wind and wavy grass. When we arrived, we ate lunch which was sandwiches. Next, we did a rotation of indigenous games. After 40 minutes of playing games, we left to return to the lodge. The walk was much shorter because we didn’t stop. Seeing the cabin rooms was probably one of the best parts of the day for many people. Everyone was tired, but very happy that they had completed the walk.

On the Thursday, we went to awesome Sovereign Hill! We got a feel of what it was like in the 1800’s. We did various activities such as going down a dimly lit mine and watching a movie about Chinese people going to the diggings, we also watched gold pouring. The man said that back then the gold pourers had short lives because of all the smoke and gas. We went gold panning it was a bit rainy but still fun. We went to the poppet head for a look, then to the candle shop. We also went to the lolly shop (it was full of students). Lastly, we went to an old-style school and played a stressful game about miners, troopers and gold sellers. We went to dinner at the New York Bakery and had fish and chips. For dessert we had a pavlova with cream and strawberry syrup! All the year fives had a great day at Sovereign Hill.

On the fourth and final day of the Year Five camp which was the saddest day because we had to descend back to Bendigo. On the wakeup call at 7:30am, the teachers said it was time to pack. After breakfast, we started our first activity which was aboriginal painting. Matt the instructor was in charge. We used cotton buds and paintbrushes to make our drawing. After the aboriginal painting, we made critters. We got some clay and made an animal that you thought would be useful for Narmbool so you had to talk about how it was useful by how it eats, kills, talks and moves. At 2:00pm the bus left. All the students were sad but they were also happy because they got to see their families again. When everyone was on the bus to Bendigo people started to eat all their candy to make sure that their brothers and or sisters didn’t get any candy. We had a fantastic time on Year 5 Camp!

By Trisha Mohapatra, Anya Satpathy, Olivia Maher, Lily Rohan, Jack Jemmett and Liam Dole.

Please click on the images above to view the gallery

Prep Extended Stay

On Bendigo Cup Eve the Preparatory students enjoyed their “Extended Stay” at school. They started the adventure at the White Hills Botanical Gardens where they explored the park and visited the bird aviary. It was then onto Bendigo Pottery, where the children created some wonderful pieces of artwork with clay. Back at school, Mrs James took the Preps through another art activity before they enjoyed garlic bread and pizza for dinner.

Following a play outside and a short movie, eager parents collected the children at 7pm. The experience is a great introduction for students to the Girton Grammar School Camps Program.

Please click on the images above to view the gallery

Examinations