Two weeks ago, the Foundation – Year 2 classes invited their grandparents or special friend to come to Ormiston for classroom activities and morning tea. It was wonderful to see so many visitors to Junior School at the one time and stay for tea or coffee and something to eat. Ormiston prides itself on developing a close and connected school community with parents, siblings and extended family members. Congratulations to our Foundation – Year 2 Class Teachers, Selena Reedman, Angela Columbine and Mikaela Stanaway for organising some dynamic learning activities that everyone was able to be involved in.
Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School
This term, Year 4 have been exploring the question “How does water sustain life on Earth?” as part of our Inquiry unit. On Wednesday 18 October we visited Scienceworks to further explore our understandings of the water cycle and the different states of matter.
Students participated in two sessions during the excursion. The first was called Flushback, an augmented reality activity, where students were able to explore the rich history of the Spotswood Pumping Station while also building their understanding of the importance of sewerage systems and how they fit into the water cycle.
For the second session, the students attended a science show, Cool Stuff, presented by a comical host, Owen. Students were shown liquid nitrogen demonstrations to illustrate the properties of solids, liquids and gases. Using a kettle, glass bottles, balloons and a tiny yellow duck called Howard, he developed students understanding of the changing states of matter through highly engaging experiments and humour.
It was an immersive day of exploring and enriching learning opportunities as this excursion provided students with hands-on experiences to further their understandings of the water cycle, how it connects to the sewerage system, and the scientific processes and vocabulary related to changing states of matter.
Anjali de Quadros
Year 4 Classroom Teacher
On Thursday 19th October, Camberwell Girls Grammar School hosted the Young Australian Best Book Awards (YABBA) Ceremony at the Brooksbank Library at Secondary School. The YABBA awards celebrate Australian authors and illustrators and invites children across the country to recommend, read, rate, and reward their favourite Australian books across four categories. All Ormiston students from Foundation through to Year 6 participated in this program to identify and share their personal preferences across several categories.
The Awards ceremony is a culmination of all the voting, and we were thrilled to welcome 22 authors, illustrators and creators including Andy Griffiths, Heath McKenzie, Meredith Costain, Nova Weetman and Heidi McKinnon to the ceremony, as well our wonderful host, author and MC Peter Helliar. There were over 250 students in attendance from both CGGS and surrounding schools.
The excitement and buzz in the library was incredible and the interactive ceremony was an amazing celebration of the joy of books and reading. Our students were entertained by some of their favourite creators, and once the ceremony had concluded they were able to meet and chat with them in person and have their books personally signed. It was such a memorable event for our students and one that I’m sure our young readers will remember for a very long time. A special thanks to our YABBA VIPs who helped to welcome our guests, participate in the awards ceremony, and presented awards to the winning authors and illustrators – Sharika, Lauren, Rhea, Amelia, Ruth, Cleo, Kasey, Claire, Emelia, Olivia, Ava, Alina H, Stephanie, Matilda, Aneira and Kathleen.
Sally Spencer
Junior School Library Teacher
Throughout Term 3, Ormiston students in Years 3 to 6 had the opportunity to participate in a book review challenge, The House Readers Cup. The aim of the challenge is to encourage students to share their thoughts, feelings, and recommendations on books they have read with their peers through the online library platform, Orbit. Each review earns 1 house point for the student’s House and a personal point to their tally. At the end of the term, one student for each House will be awarded a book prize and the winning house will receive the House Readers Cup.
During our library lessons, students learned and practiced their skills in writing book reviews and at the conclusion of the challenge we were delighted to receive a total of 497 reviews! Singleton was awarded House Readers Cup Trophy for 2023 with 174 reviews. Schofield finished second with 128 reviews, Taylor third with 123 reviews and Lawrence in fourth place with 72 reviews. We congratulate the top readers from each house Nellie E, Stephanie M, Audrey C and Madeleine L and our overall top reviewers, Sabrina Z and Aaratrika K.
Sally Spencer
Junior School Library Teacher
Bonjour et bon appetit! Our Year 5 students are currently learning all about French food. They are practising vocabulary to talk about food but also useful phrases for shopping for food. Markets are so glorious in France and what better way to really feel French than to channel a French market situation?! Students are working towards a role play where they take on the roles of vendors and customers and we are excited to see the finished product.
Our Year 6 students have successfully navigated directions and finding their way around a French town. They presented a song and a clip, in which they demonstrated their knowledge of prepositions of places. The students are now working on the language needed to describe their house, rooms and furniture. They have looked at some French houses and compared them to the houses we have here and they are now creating an ideal house which they are labelling and describing in French. There are some incredible houses so far and we are looking forward to hearing all about them.
Joanne Rittey
French Teacher
During this semester, students have worked on topics and texts in Chinese that are relevant to their own personal experience and the world around them. “Long lists of vocabulary words that do not have personal relevance or do not resonate with a topic about which the student has been engaged are likely to be blocked by the brain’s affective or emotional filters,” said the neurologist Dr Judy Willis. Relevant and meaningful activities that both engage students emotionally and connect with what they already know are what helps build neural connections and long-term memory storage.
Students who are in Chinese Mainstream classes have explored different texts from the famous authors Eric Carle, Esphyr Slobodkina and the award-winning short film ‘The Present’ in Chinese. Year 1 students have been learning the text ‘The Very Busy Spider’ in Chinese with a strong focus on activity verbs and different animals. Year 4 students have been learning the story ‘The Present’ and ‘Caps for Sale’ with a focus on applying repetitive sentence structure to develop the skills of describing and retelling.
Students develop their oral fluency and storytelling skills through using sequence cards. This Padlet shows Year 4 students who have used a thinking routine called ‘Name – Describe – Act’ to look closely and describe an image or observed event in ever-increasing layers of detail.
Students who are in the Chinese Heritage class have been working on theme-focused projects. The Year 2 Chinese Heritage class has recently completed a picture book project on the theme of ‘Spring’. Students took photos of little seeds, seedlings, fruit trees and flowers around the beautiful Junior School campus. They observed nature with great detail, investigated and researched the lifecycle of different greenery, and then created texts to tell unique stories of little seedings in Chinese characters.
Scarlett Zhang
Chinese Teacher
On Wednesday 11th October, 10 students competed in the School Sport Victoria (SSV) Boroondara Division Athletics Competition. Congratulations to Ava P and Nawita D from Year 6 and Audrey C in Year 4 who progressed through to Regional Athletics.
The Regional Athletics Competition was held last Thursday and all three students performed incredibly well amongst very tough competition. Ava competed in Hurdles and Nawita competed in Discus. Both students placed 4th in their events. Audrey competed in the 800m race and placed 2nd her event and now progresses on to State Championships. Congratulations to all three students for their achievements.
We wish Audrey all the very best at the State competition in November.
Kim James
PE Teacher
