Mrs Dunwoody shares the School’s reviewed and refreshed Uniform Guidelines.
Dear Families,
It’s been a full and uplifting fortnight in the Junior School, with plenty happening across classrooms, on excursions, and in the wider community.
Last week we were thrilled to see Year 6 student Neesha N awarded with the 2025 Alison Harcourt Award for her generosity and commitment to helping others. Neesha, along with Senior School students Abigail and Dina, were presented with their award by the Federal Member for Kooyong, Dr Monique Ryan MP. This is a significant award is such a well-deserved recognition of Neesha’s commitment to service in the community and living our school motto, Utlilis in Ministerium.
The 3–6 Swimming Carnival once again highlighted the strength of our community with students cheering each other on and embracing the fun and challenge of the day. We extend our thanks to Ms James and the many staff who worked behind the scenes to bring the event together.
We’ve also been heartened to see so many donations already arriving for the Anglicare Victoria Toy Appeal, a simple but meaningful way for our students to make a difference to others as we head into the festive season.
Finally, this evening we come together with families and staff to celebrate our Year 6 students at their Graduation Ceremony and we look forward to this special occasion together.
Wishing families a lovely weekend,
Nancy Robottom & Emma Hinchliffe
Acting Heads of Junior School
Since Term One, the EL4 children have continued to grow in their social understanding. Over recent weeks, we have seen an even deeper maturity emerge as they recognise intent, purpose, and sincerity in their interactions. A question that has surfaced repeatedly, through play, conversation, and problem-solving, has now become the centre of our inquiry, particularly as we look ahead to their transition to Foundation next year: What does it mean to be a friend?
Together, the children have explored big ideas:
Do you have to play with the same friend all the time? Do friends need to like the same things? What happens when someone wants to join play in an unexpected way?
These moments have become gentle invitations for reflection. The children are beginning to understand that friendships can stretch, bend, pause, and grow, and that being a friend is less about sameness and more about kindness, listening, and welcoming others’ ideas. They are learning that disagreements are not the end of friendship, but an opportunity to practise patience, flexibility, and shared problem-solving. Their collaborative skills are becoming increasingly sophisticated. We are seeing growing confidence in compromise, negotiation, and the shift from simple turn-taking to truly meaningful sharing. During one group discussion, Thomas offered his own definition of friendship: “Being caring… it means you need to let others have a turn, even when you don’t want to.”
This thoughtful contribution led the group to a new question: What does it mean to be fair?
The children explored fairness through real scenarios, such as sharing a gold pencil for different amounts of time, and discovered that fairness is not always the same as sharing. Their ideas included:
“Everyone gets the same amount of turns, like two turns on a bike.” — Mia
“Everyone gets the same amount of goes, even when they are not your friends.” — Angeline
“If you don’t want to share your toys from home, then you can’t bring it to school.” — Macy
Eloisa raised a challenge that many children face daily: “What if there isn’t enough time for everyone to have the same amount of turns?” After reflecting, she suggested, “You need to wait for next time.”
When asked how it might feel to be the one who received less time, the children responded with honesty:
These conversations encouraged the children to step into each other’s shoes and think deeply about fairness, kindness, and empathy. This inquiry continues to shape the way they interact, negotiate, and strengthen their friendships, helping them build a thoughtful, inclusive understanding of what it truly means to live and learn together.
Esther Wong
Early Learning 4 Teacher
This term, the Year 2’s have been learning about how the past has impacted our community today. We have learnt about how the Wurundjeri people used and treated the land or Country, the interactions between settlers and Wurundjeri people and how our community has come to be what it is now. Through our learning, the past has significantly changed and how life was 200 years ago was very different.
The Year 2’s ventured by bus to Como House in South Yarra to have a first-hand experience of how different life was for people in the past. Students took a step back in time and participated in different activities that were conducted around the house. Students gained valuable experience and lessons at all the jobs that needed to be completed every day.
The students were separated into two groups. In the morning they completed a servants activity with their ‘Head Servant’ Tiss. Tiss showed the students how to do all the washing by hand, remember all the bells for the different rooms and clean the chamber pot that they used as a bathroom. Many students were enthusiastic to do these chores, but it would remain to be seen if they helped more at home. The other group played children’s games in the park – Oranges & Lemons, Quoits, Skipping, Croquet, Hot Potato and Sack Races were just some of the games that children played to occupy and pass the time.
In the afternoon, the students went on a tour of Como House and were able to see all the different rooms that the family had. They practiced walking around the house as ladies and gentlemen, shown different decorations and ornaments around the house and the main bedroom. The students loved exploring the differences of the house that they are not used to. The last activity was the Broken Doll Mystery. Students needed to find all the clues around the gardens to uncover how the porcelain doll was broken during a birthday party.
Despite the warm weather, the students were terrific and enthusiastic all day and had a great time. Thank you to Ms. Williamson, Stav Varvarigos and Radhika Perera for helping out.
Peter Sartori
Year 2 Classroom Teacher
Our last House event for 2025, 3-6 House Swimming, was held on Monday 24th November. All students in years 3-6 attended to swim for their house, cheer on their peers, and hopefully come away with the winning House Cup!
Students had the opportunity to swim freestyle, backstroke, butterfly or breaststroke in a 25m race. It was really wonderful to see so many students having a go in support of their House.
Year 3 enjoyed participating in their first House Swimming Carnival, and it was fantastic to see a large proportion of the class swimming in multiple races. A special mention to Emilia Zhang, Ruby Lim and Chelsea Gu who swam all 4 strokes and fought it out for 1st, 2nd and 3rd on multiple occasions. It was great to see such competition at the lower year levels. Congratulations to Emilia Zhang, who won 1st in 4 races on the day, a great addition to Singleton’s points tally.
Our Year 4 cohort also represented well in the pool. Most students swam in multiple races, which demonstrates fantastic commitment to their House and a great effort to earn house points for the day. A special mention to Caroline Chen, Chloe Gu and Sia Kim, who swam freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly, and placed in the top 3 in all 4 strokes. Congratulations to Caroline Chen, who came away with three 1st places and a 2nd place, earning 15 points for Lawrence House.
Our strongest year level for participation goes to Year 5, which saw strong competition across the board in all events. Singleton House was incredibly well represented with Nicole Lin winning four 1st places, Amelia Lau winning three 1stand one 2nd place, Emma Braden winning three 1st and one 2nd place and Olivia Chen winning three first and one 3rdplace. What an achievement for Singleton House, that’s a total of 60 points from just 4 swimmers!
This was the last Junior School House Carnival for our Year 6 students and the last official event for our House Leaders. Year 6 is a very competitive and enthusiastic group, and we had many students swimming 4 events on the day. It was wonderful to see each House with a strong result within the Year 6 cohort, with Schofield lead by Cathy Gu and Alessandra Ronzani, Singleton by Annabelle Zhang, Taylor by Aurelia Poon and Lawrence by Claire Zhang. The Highlight of the carnival was our House Leaders race with students racing each other on an assortment of fun pool floaties such as an avocado, a crocodile, a shark and a giant gummy bear. A special mention to Claire Zhang, who won a 1st place in all her individual races and then finished with a 1st place win while riding a giant gummy bear in the House Leaders race.
Thank you to my House Leaders, Cathy Gu and Aarza Bhatia (Schofield), Cecilia Yang and Claire Zhang (Lawrence), Aurelia Poon and Kenolee Hatangala (Taylor), Caitlyn Loh and Lucy Wang (Singleton) for all their hard work across our House Carnivals this year. The swimming carnival was a great success and a lovely way to finish the year with students demonstrating what we have been working on in the pool. The results from the day were:
1st SINGLETON on 152 points
2nd LAWRENCE on 128 points
3rd SCHOFIELD on 104 points
4th TAYLOR on 101 points.
Kim James
Head of Health, Physical Education and Sport
We are delighted to share that our Christmas Toy Appeal for Anglicare Victoria is underway once again! Each year, our Junior School community donates gifts for children – from toddlers to teenagers – who are experiencing struggle or hardship during the Christmas period.
Although we are collecting for all age groups, every year there is a shortage of gifts for older children (13-17 years). Some suggested for teen gifts are: gift cards, beauty & grooming kits, sporting goods (all ball sports) & sportswear (NBA caps), tech & audio, wallets and bags.
Your contributions play an important role in supporting vulnerable children and it has been wonderful to see so many gifts being brought in already.
If you would like to contribute, please place donations on the tables located in the Great Space. All gifts will be collected by Anglicare Victoria on Thursday 4th December.
Thank you for your kindness and generosity.
Junior School Social Service Leaders and Student Council
Our 2nd Mountfield Maestro Performance for 2025 took place on Wednesday 19 November. The Junior School Hall was filled with a very encouraging and enthusiastic audience, who welcomed a variety of performances from students from Foundation to Year 6.
Once again, the level of musicianship was outstanding, and variety of styles and instruments entertained our captivated Junior School community. From Voice to Bassoon, French Horn, Flute, Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano, the level of performance was very advanced, you could be forgiven for thinking you were at a Secondary school soiree.
We congratulate our young performers for demonstrating the courage, confidence and talent required to perform in public. We also thank the many staff involved who worked hard behind the scenes to support the students on their musical journey.
A special thank you to our amazing 2025 Music Leaders; Aadhya TG and Annabelle Z, Tim Mallis for his beautiful accompanying and Jessica Hughes for all her hard work in helping us plan this event.
We must also acknowledge our Directors of Music, Kate Savige and Rohan Mack for all their support, our Principal Mrs Debbie Dunwoody, our Deputy Principal Ms Davina McClure, and our Junior school leaders Mrs Nancy Robottom and Ms Emma Hinchcliffe, for their constant ongoing support and appreciation towards our music program.
Nichole Adams
Music Teacher, Violin & Viola Tutor
The school year may be coming to an end, but the Secondary School students are showing no signs of slowing down!
A Christmas Toy Appeal, House Swimming Carnival, excursions and Mountfield Maestros - it's a busy time at Junior School!
The School was thrilled to celebrate the volunteers in our community who have contributed so much in 2025.
