What a big fortnight it has been in Junior School! Preparations for Open Day alongside NAPLAN for our Year 3 and 5 students and the normal everyday schedule has kept our staff and students extremely busy over the past two weeks.

Thank you to students, parents, families, and friends who attended our Open Day on Saturday 14 May. It was delightful to see the College buzzing with life, with many braving the damp weather to visit our Junior School. It was an absolute pleasure to showcase the rich learning in each classroom. Mr Jeffrey Clarke and our fantastic Music team put together an array of musical items that blessed our community throughout the day. Many students savoured the opportunity to perform in our state-of-the-art Broadly Performing Arts Centre. Year 6 student ambassadors directed visitors around the property and welcomed families as they toured the College. We thank all staff and students for presenting an exciting interactive program to our College community.

Year 4 students headed off to Mill Valley Ranch for a fun-packed camp. We hope and pray that they enjoyed their three-day camp. This program offers students the chance to build independence and resilience. Improved social skills are also a bonus of attending a school camp, with children encouraged to interact with each other in a different environment. Travelling together, sharing mealtimes and accommodation teaches children the value of working together respectfully. We look forward to sharing with you the memorable experiences enjoyed this week! The Year 5 and 6 students are also counting down the days as they prepare for their camp to Sovereign Hill in Week 6.

Year 3 and 5 students participated in the inaugural online NAPLAN assessments over the past two weeks in both Literacy and Numeracy. Student outcomes are measured and celebrated in various ways at Oxley, and teachers use data from a range of sources to inform their teaching and learning. Thank you to Mrs Vicki Kirby-Beach and our Year 3 and Year 5 teachers for facilitating this testing and adapting to the online platform. We congratulate the students for their effort.

National Simultaneous Storytime is an annual event that aims to encourage more young Australians to read and enjoy books written by Australian authors. The Storytime will be held on Wednesday 25 May, at 11.00am. Students will share in the reading of the book Family Tree by Josh Pyke as it is simulcast around the country. We congratulate our wonderful Resource Centre staff, who have organised this opportunity for our students.

Mobile Phones and Smart Devices

Over the past few weeks, staff have noticed an increase in smart watches being worn by students in Junior School. I would like to take the opportunity to remind families of the College policy regarding mobile phones and smart devices.

Any mobile phone or smart device brought to the College is to be switched off and kept in a school bag during school hours. Phones and smart devices are brought to the College at the owner’s risk. The College will not accept any liability for loss of, or damage to, mobile phones or smart devices. Mobile phone and smart devices must not be used at any time to capture or share images.

If your child is wearing a smart watch to school, please ensure that the connectivity is disabled and that the device is used solely as a watch. A full copy of the Mobile Phone and Smart Device Policy can be found on the Parent Portal. We appreciate your support with this matter.

Across the College, we have enjoyed some additional freedoms with the relaxing of COVID protocols; however, we are still operating under the directives set out by the Education Department and the Schools Operations Guide. It is essential that, although we enjoy these freedoms, we do not become complacent. Although close contacts are no longer required to isolate, there is a requirement that parents notify the school and that the student tests five times during the seven days as well as wearing a mask at school. Further information from Mrs Wendy Booth, First Aid Coordinator, can be found on the RATS and Other Requirements page in this edition. Thank you for your support as we continue to keep our classrooms as safe a place as possible.

Parents, we also wish to remind you that Report Writing Day, to be held on Friday 10 June, is a Student Free Day, and students are not expected at school. Please put this date in your calendar.

Have a blessed week, and we look forward to continuing to partner with you as we guide and teach this future generation, praying that they will become young men and women of God who will make a difference for Him.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Amy Liddle

Head of Junior School

What Did You Do at School Today?

Prep

Wow! It was so lovely to watch the Prep rooms come alive on Open Day. It was great to see so many of our Prep families visit and spend some time in our classrooms. We were so proud of our rooms! This week we are sharing our favourite story books from home. We will use these for our reading activities over the next week. We will critique, retell, make connections, and explore interesting words. We are looking forward to seeing our learning come alive.

Year 1

Maths is the word! We had a fabulous time at Open Day. We loved exploring the concepts of dice and 2D shapes with fun, hands on activities. We also enjoyed showing off our new building and what we’ve learned this year. We relished visiting other parts of the school and taking part in the scavenger hunt and watching our siblings perform.

Year 2

We have had an incredible two weeks. We enjoyed creating wonderful characters for our narratives. Using descriptive language, we are learning to paint a vivid picture of our character’s physical appearance and personality traits. We look forward to sharing our finished stories with everyone. In Mathematics, we have been comparing the mass of different objects using hefting. We enjoyed making predictions and using balance scales to confirm our findings.

Year 3

We have loved asking and creating deep and thoughtful questions. We brainstormed some interesting questions for the book If, by Sarah Perry, about some weird and wacky situations! You may have seen some of our questions on display during Open Day. We have loved learning more about our inquiry topic Into the Unknown and are excited to research a famous explorer. Remember to ask us questions about what we are learning. We are full of knowledge that we are excited to share!

Year 4

Ahoy there, fellow explorers! This week we learnt how to navigate the seas by using the skies! Did you know that long before we had GPS, explorers were able to pinpoint their exact location by measuring the angle between themselves and a fixed point in the sky, such as the sun or the north star? We thought that was pretty amazing, so we decided to have a go ourselves by making our very own sextants – the earliest of navigational tools. Perhaps we will use them to find our way home from camp!

Year 5

We have been working hard on our dioramas that depict impactful moments in Australia’s history. From the Eureka Stockade to the crossing of the Blue Mountains. As we continue to learn more about Australian history and the gold rush leading to an immigration boom, our excitement continues to build for our camp to Sovereign Hill. This fortnight has also seen our first ever series of online NAPLAN testing. We are beyond proud of every student who has participated and congratulate them all on their hard work. Well done, Year 5!

Year 6

We had the responsibility and incredible opportunity to be Ambassadors at Open Day 2022. We braved the rain, handing out programs and guiding visitors around the school. We loved showing God’s love to them. In Integrated Studies, we have been learning how Australia was shaped by significant events and people. Our country has come so far since settlement! To show the changes which have occurred, we have worked in small groups to make dioramas, showcasing our chosen historical moment. It’s been a blast from the past!

Written by Rachel Jansen and Joshua Lynch (6G)

Term	First Day	Last Day
1	Monday 31 January	Friday 8 April
2	Tuesday 26 April	Friday 24 June
3	Monday 18 July	Friday 16 September
4	Monday 3 October	Wednesday 7 December

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