Junior School
From the Head of Junior School
This week we have endured days of wet, windy and bone chilling cold conditions. Even the hardiest of Albany faithful would have been daydreaming about somewhere warmer this week! In the depths of winter as we are, when the days are a little greyer and our daily routines revolve around staying warm and dry, it can take a little extra effort to find the metaphorical ‘sunshine’ in our day. It seems apt then that our focus for the next two weeks is ‘Gratitude’. And we do have much to be grateful for, once we start taking note of it.
A resource I return to regularly is the Character Lab website, created by Angela Duckworth, author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Angela and her team write many short articles, grounded in research, to support students, parents and teachers to develop young people of character with wellbeing skills to navigate through life confidently. The link below is a short ‘playbook’ article on gratitude, its value and how to cultivate it in young people.
I do believe that mindset is malleable, and the more we practice the skills of reframing our thinking to purposeful and positive thoughts, our approach to all things will benefit. I recall a very wet and cold school camp some years ago, days of consistent rain and we were sleeping in tents. The students were understandably becoming frustrated by the experience. It was challenging for sure. The camp instructor we had in our group, Rachel was her name – I’ll never forget it, she was brilliant; she said to the students one morning when we hit a low point: “We can be cold, wet and miserable or just cold and wet, the choice is ours to make”. Then she coached us through some mindset skills. It was great. The students shifted their thinking and we had a great day canoeing – it did rain all day, but we had a blast. I should mention though, endless challenging environments require more than just mindset and gratitude. We all reach a point where something needs to change. But in order to shift ourselves out of a momentary low, there is tremendous value in mindset framing and being grateful. This next fortnight our students will be focusing on how gratitude can influence their wellbeing and sharing some things they are grateful for in their lives.
Science Day
Next Wednesday 10 August, the Junior School is celebrating Science Day. This year's theme is ‘Flight’ and all the technical science features behind its phenomenon, as well as the significance it has had in our lives over time and for the future. Students this week for homework have been asked to create a device that can fly, and include a short report on materials used and how it was made. These devices will be on display in the Early Childhood Centre for us all to view and admire. Celebration of flight is our focus, and celebrating the fun and curiosity of Science more broadly. Thank you in advance to Mrs Gouldthorp for her co-ordination of the day. We’re looking forward to next Wednesday and sharing in the Anchor next week all the features of the day.
Year Four Inquiry - Explorers
For Inquiry over the past eight weeks, students have been integrating their Humanities, English, Technology, Science and Mathematics in a unit around Explorers. Historical experiences of early explorers across the world together with specific Australian and Torres Strait Islander Peoples before the arrival of the Europeans, and European exploration and colonisation up to the early 1800s. The novel study was from Tom Appleby providing an insight into a convict story of a young boy and their journey to Australia. The culminating inquiry piece was to design and create a new land as if they were explorers themselves, with diary entries of their journey and accounts from people on-board. The new land models and dioramas included flora and fauna, landscape features and descriptions of their new land.
When speaking with the students about what they enjoyed learning about, these were some of their responses:
- “I enjoyed learning about how and why explores discovered new things”
- “Understanding that not all explorers were carrying convicts, some were looking for discoveries and carrying supplies from place to place”
- “The convict experience and settling into a new land was interesting”
World’s Greatest Shave and Crazy Hair Day
We have been promoting Mr Hardey’s very brave and generous endeavour to have his head shaved to support the Leukaemia Foundation charity day, which we held last Friday at GSG. The entire Junior School attended the occasion in support of Mr Hardey and the many Senior School students committing to this wonderful charity.
We want to extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who has supported this charity fundraising either through donations for Mr Hardey or contributing a gold coin to the occasion to wear some ‘crazy hair’ for a day. Mr Hardey was able to raise $2560 which is absolutely tremendous. Congratulations, and gratitude to everyone.
Before and After pictures of Mr Hardey!
With warmest regards and gratitude,
Mr Ken Raven | Head of Junior School
You Can Do It
It has been wonderful to begin our Morning Briefings again in the ECC and present our students in person with our Star Awards and You Can Do It! Certificates.
Our leaders have been running these briefings and the students excitedly listen to the important messages delivered and anticipate who will receive awards. You Can Do It! Is our pastoral care program which encompasses learning the keys to emotional success – confidence, resilience, getting-along, persistence and organisation. Teachers cover these skills in class time and our leaders introduce our focus key for the fortnight during our briefings. Each week, a student from each class is nominated by their teacher for showing these keys. Miss Hard also awards a “Star Award” to a student from each year who has been nominated by their teacher for producing work that is of a high standard or effort. This week we began our raffle draw for our house mascots and sang “Happy Birthday” to Mrs Brown! Our focus for the next fortnight is Confidence.
Well done to our winners for this fortnight:
ECC Star Awards
- Kindy: Maria and Elliott
- Pre-Primary: Saakhi and Jax
- Year One: Max and Riley
- Year Two: Amity and Bronte
Our ECC You Can Do It! Heroes for Getting Along
- Kindy: Freya and Ava
- Pre-Primary: Nana Kwame and Eddy
- Year One: Stephanie and Aila
- Year Two: Harry and Blake
Mrs Leah Field | Assistant Head of Junior School