Junior School update

It has been wonderful to see our students back onsite and eager to learn. Students have enjoyed celebrating the Tokyo Olympics whilst online and onsite, marvelling at the strength and courage of the Australian athletes. This newsletter features some of our Specialist classes, showcasing the many opportunities Shelford students are presented.

Languages 

Every day is an adventure in our Junior School Language classes. Below are a couple of snapshots from the week. Students in Year 2 have been studying the Olympic symbols and this year’s mascots. They labelled the ring colours in Hiragana. Students also learnt to write the names of the Tokyo mascots and the word peace in Katakana.

The Year 3 students have been busy learning a beautiful French poem ‘Reve’ by Anne-Marie Chapouton. Some of the girls made use of the gesture strategies they’ve been working in over the course this year to help them remember the poem. Here is a group hard at work practising their presentations.

The Year 5 Japanese students are preparing a skit in Japanese on a Japanese language classroom. Maddie was our ゲストの先生 (guest teacher) for this lesson and here she is with our class mascot Wanchan the dog working with her group.

This year we introduced French alongside Japanese in the Junior school to reflect our Senior School programs. We are pleased to announce that from 2022, Year 5 and 6 will be able to focus on one language of their choice (French or Japanese) as we develop Year 5 to 12 sequences for our languages.

Performing Arts

The Junior School Performing Arts Dept were thrilled that families are now able to access the movie of the Performing Arts Showcase. As you all know, this was originally to be performed live in Term 2 but our plans were scuppered by lockdown 4. We were fortunate to be able to change tack quickly, and record most of the items in-between lockdowns and school holidays, and we are thrilled that the film conveys the joy that Shelford students bring to a performance. Sincere thanks to Mr Andrew Zhang for his audio-visual expertise with bringing this concert to the community. One point of interest that many families may not realise is that upon return to school after lockdowns, there are often restrictions on singing, brass and woodwind playing. This has meant it has been impossible to film our Year 5 Band item for the Showcase, but we will certainly be pursuing a different performance opportunity for them as restrictions lift. 

All Junior School music classes and ensembles are now enjoying being back at school and are working on their music literacy as well as beginning new performance works. We really appreciate the girls’ commitment to music, whether in or out of lockdown. 

Visual Arts

Junior School students continue to impress us with their creative ideas and skill development in the Art Room and beyond. We love offering opportunities for our creators to showcase their talents. Several Junior and Senior students have recently entered the Zart Art competition. We have also advertised the Glen Eira, Unity in Community Art Competition. This competition is open to all Junior and Senior students. Details can be found on Shelly or visit www.gleneira.vic.edu.au/yae.

Our Year 2 students are ready to go up, up and away with their hot air balloon sculptures. They have thoroughly enjoyed getting messy with papier mâché and moved onto a calming basket weaving lesson last week.

Year 4 are enjoying the world of clothing design, developing abstract fabric concepts that will be developed into their own stylish sculptures in the weeks ahead.

Finally, Year 6 continue to strengthen their understanding of the creative learning process with Digital painting landscapes inspired by Artist, David Hockney.

Digitech

Junior School students were eager to return to the Digitech lab this term. Year 6 students have started to learn about 3D drawing and design in preparation for 3D printing towards the end of the year. 

Year 5 students are beginning to code using Scratch and they will demonstrate these new skills when they code programs for the Sphero Bolt.

Year 4 students are building and programming using Lego WeDo2. They have enjoyed building the various models and adding code to make the creations move, produce a noise or have flashing lights.

Brisbane 2032 Olympic mascot competition

Students were given the opportunity to design a mascot for the upcoming 2032 Brisbane Olympics. We were overwhelmed with the number of entries, many featuring Australian native animals. Some mascots were given names, some even with mottos. Thank you for your careful thought and consideration in designing your mascot. Congratulations to Jane, Maya and Clemmie who received awards for their creative designs.

MS Readathon 

Thank you to the families who have signed up to participate in MS Readathon. It is not too late to join and the rules are simple; read whatever you like, as much as you can, throughout the month of August. Please click on the button below to register if your daughter would like to take part.

Bebras 2021

Bebras is an international initiative to promote Informatics and Computational Thinking among students. The second round of the 2021 Challenge begins in August. This is an optional competition that students from Years 3 to 6 may register for. Mrs Thibou and Miss Sidaway will run lunchtime practice sessions each Wednesday beginning 28 July. For further information, and to register your daughter please follow this link.

Extend after care program

Open the document below for Term 3 details.

Sarah McKenzie, Head of Junior Discovery Centre

Jacqui Sidaway, Head of Years 3–6