Middle School

CSEN PUBLIC SPEAKING CHAMPS

On Tuesday 28th May the St Andrews Public Speaking team consisting of five students (pictured above), namely Reese Firme, Sarah Farmer, Caitlyn Smith, Kate Courtis and Melissa Yao, travelled to Maranatha College to participate in CSEN Public Speaking Competition against four other Christian schools. Students gave a prepared speech and then an impromptu speech on an unknown topic.

We are very pleased to report that our students won the competition and were awarded the Public Speaking shield. Additionally, Caitlyn Smith was awarded best speaker for both the prepared and unprepared speech and Reese Firme was awarded best speaker for the unprepared speech.

What a wonderful effort from the St Andrews' team! Well done, girls!

We are now looking forward to participating in CSEN Debating next term.

A SUPERHERO EFFORT ON MARKET DAY

On Thursday, May 30th, the Year 6 students ran our annual Market Day at St Andrews that is part of the Middle School's Business subject. It explores the concepts of profit and loss, production lines, design thinking, and consumer needs and wants. All profits generated go towards the school’s missions trip team going to the Solomon Islands.

For a gold coin donation, students from Prep to Year 6 were free to dress up in the theme ‘My Future Career’. You could dress up as a doctor, tradie, accountant, AFL player, scientist, painter, model, pilot, even as a teacher! This year was best year ever, raising $1965 toward the school's missions trip.

Well done everyone involved and all those who generously contributed and thank you Mr Sheahan for your superhero effort (your outfit looks pretty impressive too!)

IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME

This semester, the year 7 classes have been studying Ancient Greek Theatre in Drama. Ancient Greek Theatre was performed outside, to large audiences, and involved the use of masks and exaggerated gestures. As part of their studies the Year 7 classes experimented with performing outside, with their audience sitting a long way away. They explored using masks to communicate, and attracted lots of curious onlookers with their Ancient Greek style performances!

SHADOW A STUDENT CHALLENGE

Dear MS community,

On the 30th of May, I had the wonderful privilege of participating in the ‘Shadow a Student’ Challenge (www.shadowastudent.org). For a full day, I stepped into the shoes of a student and was a member of the 7C class; I was dressed in a St Andrews uniform and completed all the tasks that students were expected to complete!

The purpose of the day was to gain a unique insight into how our students are experiencing Middle School. By participating in the challenge, it helped me to observe first-hand what is working well, but also to think through different ways we can improve as a section.

Some of my highlights included:

Hanging out with students at recess
Participating in a poetry masterclass with guest poet, Hany Samuel
Building a clay house in Art

I would like to thank the wonderful teachers who hosted me as well as every 7C student for welcoming me into their class for the day!

Daniel Lee

Head of Middle School

VALUE CHAMPIONS

In Middle School, our passion is to develop faithfully devoted servants of Christ. On a regular basis, we love to celebrate our VALUE CHAMPIONS: the people who live out our values on a daily basis.

Well done to the following students:

Faithfully Honouring Commitments (Matt. 25:14-30) – It’s about being faithful in the small things.

Ezra Ferguson (5S) for reminding his classmates to keep the room tidy by tucking in their chairs- a great example of faithfully honouring his commitment as class safety monitor.
Ethan Wang (5F) is faithfully honouring his commitments as the overall classroom monitor, ensuring that all the students are doing their jobs.
Eugene Tu (6L) for doing his job of ‘Safety’ so diligently.
Alannah Li (6L) for handing in her Humanities project one week ahead of time!
Hayley Appleby (6C) for diligently completing her job and making sure the bonuses are paid each day.
Hei Hei (7H) is always prompt and organised, solidly focussed on his learning, smiling and working hard.

Devoted to Growth (1 Tim. 4:14-15) – It’s about seeking the small improvement one day at a time.

Daniel Lee (5S) displayed great focus and concentration; his diligence and work ethic on the Humanities project is a great example of being devoted to growth!
Samuel Cheung (5S) for his participation in class and willingness to share understanding with his peers- an excellent example of being devoted to his own growth while encouraging others to do the same.
Jim Lam (5F) has shown that he is devoted to growth by successfully reading out this terms Bible verses in front of the class.
Scott Bass (6L) for studying hard for his maths assessment to then achieve 100%.
Hannah Chard (6C) for taking on board feedback and completing her projects to an incredibly high standard.
Rosella (7H) striving to achieve her goals in English, spoken language and friendships.

Servant Heart (1 Peter 4:7-11) – It’s about taking action to add value to others.

Sean Ortega (5S) displayed a real servant heart towards a friend in his class. His compassion and empathy were inspiring.
Matthias Goh (6C) for being willing to make sacrifices for his peers and putting others before himself.
Ashley Cheng (7H) staying back at recess to put up chairs for people who were absent, cleaning up the classroom without being asked. Always encouraging people every day and sharing their joy and excitement.
Noah Crotty (7H) supporting others in preparation for Maths exams
Jice Jice (7H) is always a good friend and makes others feel good about themselves
Chris Vuong (7H) helping a student find their iPad when it was lost.
Holly Ghatas (5F) showed her servant heart by comforting another class member when they were injured.
Daniel Elias (6L) for offering to help Mrs Law with daily tasks

Keep up the great work!

Mr Lee

Head of Middle School