Matilda Jr

The season of Matilda Jr is upon us! All the hours of hard work in rehearsal are paying off with four spectacular shows. I hope you have managed to obtain a ticket! I look forward to seeing many of you there.

Thanks to our P & F

Last week I thanked many people who contributed to the HICES Cross Country Carnival that was hosted at BMGS. Amongst those thanked was the P & F who ran a hugely successful coffee service and sausage sizzle, raising over $1,400 for future School projects for the benefit of all the children. Thank you to Magdalena and Mate Herceg, Laura Silva, Rob Engels, Kylyn Huxley, Catharine Tierney, Jenny Qi, Kim Marsh, Mick Magill and Bonnie Mamo.

Introducing our new School Counsellor

We are delighted that our new School Counsellor, Mrs Angela Heathwood, has joined the staff at BMGS. Mrs Heathwood comes to us with broad experience across schools and hospitals and will add great value and knowledge to our community. Mrs Heathwood will be in the Junior School at Wentworth Falls on Mondays and at Springwood on Tuesday mornings. She can meet at other times by negotiation. Mrs Heathwood is meeting with her predecessor Mrs Watts next week for a full handover and may soon be in contact with some families with whom Mrs Watts had regular contact in the past. If you have a concern regarding your child’s mood, development or questions about parenting approaches in difficult circumstances that could best be addressed by a counsellor, please feel free to contact Mrs Heathwood who would be happy to meet with you.

Supporting young children with anxiety

On the topic of supporting and educating parents in the challenges faced by bringing up children in our modern society, it seems timely to share with you an opportunity to learn more about supporting young children with anxiety. With such a culmination of calamities over recent years; the bushfires, floods and then COVID, educators across the country have recognised a sense of growing anxiety in our young people. The teachers and I have been engaging with a number of families to help them understand the complexities of anxiety in young children and how we can support them. The Committed to Childcare Conference network is offering a two-hour webinar designed for families.

My child worries too much! Recognising and supporting children with anxiety in the early years (ages 3 to 11)

This two-hour webinar will discuss the causes and contributors to childhood anxiety and provide practical ideas and recommendations for interventions and more satisfying relationships with anxious children.

Many families are caught in the anxiety dance, where it seems everyone is moving around to the tune of whatever the current worry is and it can be exhausting, debilitating and concerning all at the same time.

If this sounds like your child or a child you are caring for or a family you are engaged with, then you are not alone. In any given year as many as 1 in 10 children will have anxiety symptoms sufficient for an anxiety disorder diagnosis.

During this presentation parents will learn how to reduce the anxiety dance and bring harmony back to their home and other parts of their child’s world.

More details can be accessed by clicking the link below.

Recognising and supporting children with anxiety in the early years webinar June 2021 – Committed to Childcare Conferences

Committed to Childcare ConferencesEmail: info@committedtochildcareconferences.com Website: https://committedtochildcareconferences.com/ Phone: 0404 898 085

Student Achievement

Earlier this term the Stretch Maths group, which comprises talented mathematicians from Years 4 to 6, took part in the Australian Maths Trust’s Computational and Algorithmic Thinking competition. It was a particularly challenging competition demanding deep, logical thinking and reasoning.

Congratulations to the following students who performed particularly well: Simeon Gee (Year 5, Distinction), James Klein (Year 6, Credit) and Keeden Harrison (Year 6, Credit).

Kids' Lit Quiz

The Kids' Lit Quiz co-curricular group has been meeting weekly during this term in preparation for the nationwide competition that took place last week. It is a competition open to Years 5 to 8. Had it been Primary only, our teams would have finished 1st and 3rd! As it was we finished 3rd and 6th overall. Please see below for a report from Mrs Roberson and Dr Drew. Well done to all team members and their facilitators Mrs Roberson and Dr Drew. What a great achievement. We can’t wait to hear how you go in 2022!

HICES Debating

Round 3 of HICES Debating took place this week as our teams travelled to Bathurst and both were successful. One of our teams is actually undefeated and is now guaranteed to progress to the knock-out finals stage. Good luck to our other team for the final round to see if they can finish with another victory and give themselves the best chance of reaching the finals.

Student Awards

This week in Assembly the following Student Awards were presented:

Bronze: Thomas Hyslop (S2 Geebungs), Will Cottle, Fox Edwards, Jo Frawley (S3 Raspberries)

Silver: Henry Laurie, Luke Westwood (S3 Raspberries)

Gold: Eva Tilley (S2 Strawberries)

Mr Nigel Cockington

Head of Junior School

The Junior School's recycling program is entering its final weeks. If you would like to support this initiative, further details may be found here:

Kids' Lit Quiz

Blue Mountains Grammar School fielded four teams in the recent NSW Heats of Kids’ Lit Quiz, a global competition testing the breadth and depth of students’ literary knowledge. Covering a diverse range of genres, from mythology to fantasy, folktales to science fiction and everything in between, the quiz presents 100 previously unseen questions in ten categories. With COVID restrictions still in place at many venues, all of our teams competed in Virtual Heats, logging into Zoom and submitting their answers via Socrative.

Our two Senior School teams contested the largest Virtual Heat in NSW/ACT on May 21. BMGS 1 (Liam Baker, Winnie Chen, Charlie Monks and Alex Stewart) top scored on the Fantasy round, and BMGS 2 (Eric Downes, Nick Hurley, Clementine Macarthur and Maggie Vivian) earned a perfect score on the ‘Food’ round, winning in a tie-break at lightning speed! Up against several of the bigger Sydney schools, our teams performed superbly, finishing in 6th and 7th places in a very strong field of 36 teams. The final scores were extremely close, with only four points separating 2nd and 6th! These teams are to be congratulated on their enthusiasm and commitment in preparing for the competition. Sincere thanks to past participant, Frankie McNair, and previous KLQ BMGS World Finalists Emily Colbran and Oliver Drew for their support of the Senior teams. Stay tuned for opportunities to become involved in Senior Kids’ Lit Quiz teams in 2022.

Our two Junior School teams contested the Central West Heat on 26th May. They embraced the demands of the competition with energy and determination, and performed brilliantly! BMGS Blue (Hester Kinnear, Elise Lowe, Clare Stewart and Jessica Crambrook) demonstrated great flexibility when Jess was required to step in as a reserve at the last minute, in the absence of another team member. She served as a great asset to the team. The team’s excellent collaboration skills and knowledge of wide-ranging literature saw them finish as the 3rd best Primary school team on the day, in 6th place overall. Teams are invited to choose a “Joker round” at the beginning of the day, when the topics for the rounds are first revealed. A team’s score on their chosen Joker round is doubled. BMGS Gold (Amelie Emmerson, Ainsley Ferguson, Simeon Gee and Charlotte Scott) selected the ‘Animals’ round, and proceeded to achieve a perfect score, thus doubling their score to 20, which made for a very positive start! They went on to become the first placed Primary school team in the Central West Region, in 3rd place overall. We were very proud of the teams’ application and commitment, and it is with great anticipation that we look forward to the years ahead.

May reading continue to be an important and enriching part of our students’ lives!

Mrs Roberson and Dr Drew

Introducing a New Co-Curricular Activity

Mindfulness & Movement Co-curricular

Commencing Term 3 Week 2 on Monday afternoons is a new co-curricular activity centred around Mindfulness & Movement!

Mindfulness & Movement sessions will run from 3:30pm to 4:30pm offering students the opportunity to create space in the body and mind, build strength, body awareness, flexibility, balance and focus in a relaxing and fun environment.

Attendees will learn and practice mindfulness techniques to ground and unwind with every session involving relaxation. All movement practices are accessible to any level, with varying options to suit the individual.

Sessions will be run by past BMGS Alumni (2011) Ms Arabella Stevens. Please note: there will be a co-curricular fee for this activity, and further details to follow.

Mindfulness & Movement sessions will be held in Cuff Hall commencing Monday, 19th July and are open to all students across Junior and Senior School. Please wear sports uniform (or appropriate gym attire) and bring a towel.

To express your interest please click this link and fill in your details.

From the Drama Department