Welcome to Term 4

We are now well into Term 4 and looking forward to a productive term ahead.

As we discussed last term in CamNews, we reviewed our subject offerings within our remote learning program from our class and specialist teachers, and we made decisions in the best interests of our Junior School students.

Our specialist teachers are supporting student learning through continuing to provide specific tasks on Seesaw and through the use of Zoom meetings. These experiences will prepare students for a seamless transition back to face-to-face learning at Ormiston.

As a Junior School community, we look forward to all our students returning to face-to-face learning. This Monday will be a big day with our Foundation students returning to Ormiston, followed by Years 1 and 2 returning on Thursday and Friday.

The following week we see all our year levels from Early Learning 3 – Year 6 attend school at some stage during the week.

If any parents would like to ask questions about their child transitioning back to face-to-face learning, they are welcome to contact Paul Donohue Head of Junior School on donohuep@cggs.vic.edu.au.

Wishing all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Junior School Assembly

Our weekly Junior School Assembly is now taking place at 8.40am every Wednesday and parents are encouraged to watch our live assembly each week. I would like to thank the Assembly and Events Leaders Ella Turnley, Gretel Blake and Poppy Tymmons for all their work so far and I would also like to thank our School Captains Allegra Reedman and Elise Orme for helping with the Junior School prayer and for coming up with the assembly theme of Hope for this week.

I wanted to share our assembly prayer from last week with the school community. Here it is:

Dear God

Bless us as we start a new term with our friends at Ormiston while doing remote learning. Help us to settle into Term 4 and give us the courage, confidence and belief to always do our personal best.

Open our eyes to fresh challenges that a new term brings and remind us to look out for the positives in our lives and others around us, whether at home or online via Zoom with our class. Help us to support each other.

Look out for our school community of students, teachers, school staff and families and give them the strength to look forward to the time we are all back together as one community. Your help with this is so important to us all.

Finally, keep us happy and safe for the start of Term 4 and remind us to keep strong and resilient for when we are ready to be back at Ormiston, particularly our Year 6 students who are starting their final term of primary schooling. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as well as their teachers, Ms Cheong and Mrs Robottom.

In Jesus name,

Amen

Pyjama Day – Winter Warmth Appeal

Today our students finally got the opportunity to celebrate their contributions towards our annual Winter Warmth Appeal for Anglicare. Last term, students from Early Learning 3 – Year 6 donated food and clothes to the appeal, which assists those in need during the cold winter months.

I would like to especially thank our Early Learning families for their wonderful contributions. As our Foundation – Year 6 families were at home completing remote learning, our Early Learning 3 and 4 students donated a considerable amount of items for the appeal and Anglicare were very appreciative of having so much to hand for people in need.

Emma Hinchliffe
Deputy Head of Junior School

Character Strength Spotting

As we learn to cope with our everchanging world environment, one of the most important things we can do to support ourselves and our children is to focus on highlighting, developing and using our own personal character strengths. In recognition of this, as a school we are focussing on highlighting different character strengths during our weekly assemblies and through our teaching staff nominating students for character strengths digital badges when they spot students displaying the weekly character strength.

Our first character strength focus for the term was perseverance. In assembly we read a story and discussed that perseverance is when we work hard to achieve our goals and don’t give up. We were pleased to award 50 digital perseverance badges to students in our first two weeks of term. If your child was spotted displaying this strength and was nominated for a badge, a purple digital badge was added to their Seesaw portfolio and profile picture. All nominated students were then entered into a prize raffle and it was a pleasure to award Aurelia in Year 2 a raffle prize for her perseverance.

Over the next fortnight our character strength spotting focus will be HOPE. Our School Captains introduced our theme during assembly and explained that hope is not just about looking on the bright side, it is about focusing on good things to come in the future by taking actions to work towards them. Students have been asked to bring in their HOPE colouring on their first day back onsite to help to create a colourful whole school display.

Emma Hinchliffe
Deputy Head of Junior School

Special Music Achievement – Asha Bhattacharjee Year 5G

Asha Bhattacharjee of 5G sat her AMEB Grade 7 Piano Examination in May 2021 and received a High Distinction (A+). Asha also competed in the 2021 Booroondara Eisteffod in the Piano Solo 10 years and Under Category at the Hawthorn Arts Centre in May and performed Albeniz’s  “Tango”. Asha performed very well on the day and relished the opportunity to perform before an appreciative audience.

Year 6C Student Leadership Positions for Semester 2

When our Foundation – Year 6 students return to Ormiston on Friday 3 September, our Year 6C students will be very keen to get started with their leadership positions for Semester Two.

As a school community, we would all like to congratulate the following students:

Art Leaders – Alex Kossaris & Sarah Luo

Assembly & Events Leaders – Gretel Blake, Poppy Tymmons & Ella Turnley

Digital Leaders – Sarah Lu & Maya Waide-Hee

House Leaders

Lawrence – Chanel Ghostine

Schofield – Charlotte Lim

Singleton – Scarlett Sim

Taylor – Alexia Stuart-Adams

Library Leaders – Jessie Lu & Claire Pham-Nguyen

Music Leader – Aathana Sivapalan

School Captains – Elise Orme & Allegra Reedman

Sustainability – Emma Liu & Vivienne Torre

Social Service Leaders – Hannah Lan & Ashanti Rajakulendran

Wellbeing Leaders – Aekam Gill & Nirvani Subedi

We look forward to presenting our official Semester Two Leadership Induction assembly for these Year 6C students. The plan is for this assembly to take place during the last week of Term 3, hopeful we are back onsite by then.

Remote Junior School Assembly

During remote learning, our weekly assembly has changed to a Wednesday at 12.30pm, just before lunchtime. The focus of this week’s assembly was Science Week, and I was able to share some wonderful science facts about the Earth and Space. I would like to thank Penny Dumsday, our Junior School STEAM Teacher for all her work in planning and preparing a wide range of optional Science activities for students to complete across all our Foundation – Year 6 year levels. These activities also included some optional Zoom meetings for students to be involved with some very engaging science experiments.

This week, Annabelle Teh of Year 3 read out the prayer for us. There is so much we can appreciate and look forward to in the future. Here is the prayer:

Dear God

We thank you for your help during remote learning and for giving us the strength and determination to through this challenging time away from School.

Thank you for giving us the confidence to always do our Personal Best and to appreciate the Science around us. We thank Mrs Dumsday for organising Science Week activities for us to complete at home, as we learn so much more about our beautiful planet.

Teach us to look forward to the good times in the future and to remind us to keep in  touch with our friends and family members who we cannot see in person at the moment.

We hope to return to School very soon.

In Jesus name,

Amen

I wish all our Ormiston families a safe and restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Remote Learning Highlights

Throughout remote learning our teachers have been encouraging students to continue to focus on taking their time and producing high quality work. It has made us really proud to see most students have really taken this on board and used the time learning from home to show their creativity in different ways. Some highlights of student’s remote learning have been:

Year 6 Writing
As part of their inquiry unit exploring immigration, Year 6 students have been completing a collaborative, in depth text study of The Arrival by Shaun Tan. This week, students have worked with focus during their Zoom meetings and independent learning time to produce highly descriptive letters that detail the experiences, perspectives and emotions of the protagonist pictured in the text. Students should be congratulated on the fabulous way they approached these lessons. They brainstormed figurative language together, listened and responded to individual feedback on their writing and continued to edit, revise and refine their writing, focusing specifically on the five senses, figurative language and purposeful and ambitious vocabulary throughout.

Year 2 Learning Adventures
To support the development of students curiosity and transferrable skills such as creativity and communication at home, our Year 2 students have been working on completing their own learning adventures. Students have been excited to spend time at home learning new skills including how to create stop motion animations, cook, perform magic tricks and even juggle.

Science Week
This week, we have been celebrating Science Week! Our fabulous Science Department, including our Junior School STEAM teacher, Ms Dumsday, put together a range of engaging online activities for our students to choose to explore to foster curiosity, experimentation and a love of Science. Students really enjoyed making ice-cream in a bag, creating their own compost and challenging their knowledge by completing the expert level Kahoot quizzes. I encourage you to view the Padlet of engaging Science activities that students have completed here.  https://cggs.padlet.org/dumsdayp1/ScienceWeek2021

Year 4-6 Music Performances
As part of their classroom music program, Year 4-6 students were given the opportunity to practise their instrumental performance presentation skills. Students were encouraged to share their instruments and special talent for music for the enjoyment of others. It was fantastic to see so many students take up this opportunity and share performances on the cello, recorder, violin, trumpet and piano.

Ormiston Olympic Spirit Award Winners

It has been incredible to see the sustained commitment and courage shown by our students during remote learning. Remote learning is requiring a real-life application of grit and growth-mindset for the whole school community and I am incredibly proud of all of our students for persevering through this challenge.

Each week I am lucky to read some fantastic nomination statements from both our classroom and specialist teachers about why they have chosen to nominate students for an award. Over the past fortnight it has made me smile reading that our students have been described as: committed, respectful, full of initiative, hardworking and displaying kindness, determination and generosity of spirit.

Congratulations to the following students for being awarded a digital badge over the past fortnight:

Foundation: Qianqian, Evia

Year 1: Sofia, Doris, Aurora, Aryana, Nicole, Evie, Cathy, Alice,

Year 2: Aanya, Audrey, Annabelle, Faye, Emma, Akira,

Year 3: Angelina, Elfie, Angela, Annicle, Amelia, Laila, Chloe, Ivy 

Year 4: Aratrika, Amelia, Amiya, Georgia, Sophie May, Ruth, Sienna, Ellie, Shreya, Selinna 

Year 5: Zihan, Maddison, Eden, Jessica, Celeste, Alisha, Karina, Mo Lin, Amy Q, Genevieve, Nina, Christine, Nicole, Sophie, Rudra, Stefanie, Nellie, Rita, Cathy, 

Year 6: Charlotte L,  Charlotte C, Sarah Luo, Hannah, Alex, Alexia, Chanel, Poppy, Emma, Gretel, Aaliyah, Natalie, Charlie, Natasha O, Natasha C, Ashanti, Allegra, Aekam, Alina, Angel, Sarah Lu, Preesha

Emma Hinchliffe
Deputy Head of Junior School

Foundation – Year 6 Remote Learning & Onsite Supervision

For the third time this year, I have been very impressed with the way our Ormiston staff, students and school community have transitioned back to Remote Learning with confidence and determination to do their personal best despite not being onsite at Junior School.

It has been inspiring to see many members of the Ormiston community go above and beyond for others. I have seen and heard our community help others in need during this difficult time and many of our students continue to be there for others not only in their class, but in their year level. Our School values of Respect, Integrity, Commitment, Hope and Courage are evident in everything we do here at Ormiston, and I would encourage our community to continue to use these values during this lockdown period.

With over one week of Remote Learning completed, I would like to thank parents and extended family members for supporting our Remote Learning program. We have all got our fingers crossed that Foundation to Year 6 students will return to onsite learning next Wednesday 28 July.

During Remote Learning, we continue to have a group of students onsite to allow their parents to continue to work as essential workers within our community. Once again, an enormous Thank You to Lisa Williams our CGGS Swimming Coach for looking after this group of students during this difficult period. Lisa has been a wonderful support for this group for over the last 12-months and she has made a very positive impact on their learning.

As part of our continuous improvement plan at Ormiston, I encourage Foundation – Year 6 families to contact me via email, donohuep@cggs.vic.edu.au to provide feedback on the Remote Learning program. We are regularly making changes and any feedback is valuable for future planning.

Wishing all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Early Learning 3 Artists!

In Early Learning 3, we provide children with the time and opportunity to engage with different drawing tools and explore how these can be used to express their ideas, reflections and thinking. Drawing is one of the earliest forms of communication – a visual text that children develop. When children draw, they often talk and provide an explanation or narrative about their drawing. In the classroom, these words are documented by the child or the teacher through written language or audio recording. This is important because it creates a multimodal text: drawing, talking and writing – that is, visual, oral and aural. Whilst drawing provides opportunities for creativity and rich expression, talking and drawing together are powerful because the dialogue deepens the message and shows the increased complexity of the visual text – the drawing. As teachers, we value this dialogue because it demonstrates ‘thinking in action’ and provides opportunities for further understandings of the learner and the learning that is occurring. It also creates opportunities for the teacher to support and scaffold this learning, this means, the teacher can support and build on what the child knows and can do (Mackenzie, 2018).

Associate Professor Noella Mackenzie from Charles Sturt University believes that drawing promotes strong communication skills and young children learn to make sense of their world through drawing. Her research has explored the key relationships between drawing and talking, drawing and writing, and drawing, talking and writing.

If interested, you can listen to Professor Mackenzie talk about the importance of drawing in her conversation with Gareth Parker. The link is available here.

Angela Follacchio
Early Learning 3 Teacher

Early Learning 4 Full-Time – Strengthening their Sense of Identity

The children are strengthening their sense of identity as they move forward with a new term and prepare for their transition into Primary school.

“Identity is unique to each individual, and defines who people are, what shapes their interests and how they come to view the people and events around them (DET 2016, p. 18)”.

The sense of awareness of personal identity involves both self-expression and self-awareness. The children have worked on their personal identity and awareness of self, which can be summarised in the statement ‘I know who I am’.

It is rewarding to see the children’s sense of identity grow as they express themselves in the medium of Art. The children have used balls, hoops, music, puppets, paper mache, coloured blocks, drawing and painting to express their ideas.

The children have focused on expressing their ideas through creating three-dimensional models and structures. These tasks assist in the development of co-ordination, communication and collaboration. In the classroom, the children are surrounded with interesting three-dimensional objects, both large and small, to stimulate new ideas and develop their awareness of form and shape.

Ramila Sadikeen
Early Learning 4 Full-Time Teacher

Early Learning 4 Part-Time – Bucket Fillers

This term in Early Learning 4 Part-Time, we have been discussing ‘bucket filling’. Bucket filling refers to actions or words that show you care about someone. The ‘bucket’ represents your mental and emotional self. When your ‘bucket’ is full, you feel more confident, secure, patient and friendly. The metaphor of the ‘bucket’ is one that young children can easily relate to and understand. It easily explains to children how negatives actions and words can ‘dip’ from your ‘bucket’, but that positive actions and words have the opposite effect and will ‘fill’ it.

Azalea – “Bucket filling is when you care for someone when they are sad.”

Isabella – “If you say something mean, you are dipping their bucket. If you say, ‘I love you so much’, you are filling their bucket.”

Eugenie – “When someone says, ‘I don’t like you’, you are dipping bucket.”

Emilia – “When I play with Azalea and Aileen, it fills my bucket.”

Scarlett – “When mum says, ‘I love you,’ it fills my bucket.”

This term, the children are learning to notice when someone is filling their bucket. Each time they or the teacher observes bucket filling, we put a glass stone in our classroom bucket. At the end of each day, the children are encouraged to recall when someone filled their bucket. Then we count how many glass stones are in the bucket. Learning about ‘bucket filling’ relates to children’s sense of ‘identity’. Children will learn how to interact with others with care, empathy and respect. They will begin to empathise and express concern for others and reflect on their own actions and consider the consequences for others.

Lilian Bishop
Early Learning 4 Part-Time Teacher

Foundation – Year 6 Remote Learning & Onsite Supervision

Once again, I have been amazed at the smooth transition from face-to-face learning to remote learning by our Foundation – Year 6 students, class and specialist teachers. The continued use of our online learning platform Seesaw and the video conference tool of Zoom has worked extremely well and all stakeholders are very experienced with working with these new learning tools. After each remote learning period, as a Junior School we will take the opportunity to review our programs and improve them if needed for the future.

Additionally, I would like to thank our school community for having a growth mindset and doing their personal best throughout the circuit breaker lockdown. Many thanks to our students, parents, extended family members (this includes grandparents, uncles and aunties) for having-a-go at the remote learning at home. Also, a big Thank You to our Junior School teachers for implementing such a very creative, engaging and unique remote learning program for the fourth time!

Finally, during remote learning we still have a large group of students onsite to allow their parents to continue to work as essential workers within our community. An enormous Thank You to Lisa Williams our CGGS Swimming Coach for looking after this group of students over the last two weeks.

I encourage Foundation – Year 6 families to contact me via email on donohuep@cggs.vic.edu.au to give me some feedback in regard to the remote learning program your child participated in over the last two weeks.

It was wonderful to see so many smiling faces when our students came back to School this morning. There was lots of energy and catching-up to do with friends and the Junior School teachers could not wait to get back into their classrooms.

I wish all Ormiston families a safe long weekend. Do not forget it is a public holiday on Monday 14 June and the School will not be open. Early Learning 3 – Year 6 students are required to be back at School on Tuesday 15 June.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

School Captain Prayer

I would like to share Chloe Lau’s Junior School Assembly prayer from a few weeks ago during Diversity Week. Chloe was able to express her own thoughts about diversity so clearly in her prayer, and it reminded our school community to always respect and appreciate the differences in each other. Here is Chloe’s prayer:

Dear God,

People in our school all come from different places, but that’s okay. Each one of us has different ways of reacting to the same situation, but that’s ok.

May you give us the love to respect everyone, no matter how many differences we have. Help us to learn to listen to others who may have a different background to us.

May you help us learn to create a world where all types of people are welcome. May you gift us with peace and harmony amongst all people throughout the world.

In Jesus’ name

Amen

Early Learning 3 – Positive Education – Being a Bucket Filler                                                                                                    

Positive education is a science informed framework for schools to encourage and support their students to flourish. It is made up of the domains of positive relationships, positive emotions, positive health, positive engagement, positive accomplishment and positive purpose. These domains are integral to student wellbeing and flourishing – feeling good: positive emotions and engaging experiences and doing good: functioning effectively, being connected, overcoming challenges. Keyes and Annas, 2009

During this term, the Early Learning 3 children were introduced to some of the concepts and language from Positive Education, in particular, that everyone has an invisible bucket. Through ongoing stories, songs and discussions, the children are developing an understanding about how their invisible bucket holds all their good thoughts and feelings about themselves; and how they feel happy and at their best when their bucket is full and overflowing. The children are discovering that when they choose to fill a person’s bucket, they in turn fill their own bucket too.

Recently, the children viewed a clip about being a bucket filler and participated in singing the associated song, Fill Your Bucket. This song focused on all the things the children can do throughout the day to fill someone’s bucket. If interested, this is the link to the Fill Your Bucket song. We also discussed ways we can fill another person’s bucket, for example, when we do or say something kind, take turns, smile, listen, include others, help and share.

Throughout the day, intentional teaching is used to explicitly teach and reinforce and highlight when children are being bucket fillers and the impact their words and actions have on themselves and their peers. At the end of the day, the children have some reflection time to think about who and what filled their bucket during the day, and they are encouraged to share their thoughts with the group.

Through teaching these valuable life skills, we’re providing the children with the capacity to learn effectively and build a strong foundation on which they can engage with and relate positively to their peers.

Angela Follacchio
Early Learning 3 Teacher

Early Learning 4 Full-Time –Celebrating Diversity Week & STEAM Program

Diversity & Reconciliation Weeks
‘Values and attitudes, understandings of community and individual, and ways of communicating and behaving, all impact on children’s sense of belonging and acceptance. When children experience acknowledgement of and respect for diversity, their sense of identity becomes stronger.’ – Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework.

Diversity Week led to Reconciliation Week with discussion and meaningful interactions with community members and elders. The EL4 children are experiencing a holistic curriculum with discussion, stories, songs and expression of art. They have engaged in examining their own identity and belonging by continuing to explore their own community.

In celebration of Diversity Week, the children were invited to dress in rainbow colours. This activity opened up the conversation of individual physical differences, the children identified what is similar and different in their physical appearance and created links to their place of birth. The different countries, languages and cultures are a rich source of information for the children to learn about. While exploring the backgrounds of others, the EL4 children were able to acknowledge the unique space the Wurundjeri people have within our School community. Murrundindi visited both classes via Zoom and the children discussed ‘Sorry Day’ and learned more about reconciliation.

The EL4 children also explored other traditional cultural events such as an Indian wedding and a Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon festival. The children were given an insight into these significant cultural events, enabling an appreciation of cultural differences and a strengthening respect for diversity.

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths) Program
This term, the EL4 children have continued to work with Penny Dumsday our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths) Teacher. Mrs Dumsday assisted the children to learn more about our five senses and provided many different learning experiences. Additionally, Mrs Dumsday encouraged the children to ask questions, make connections with their prior knowledge and present ideas in relation to the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste.

As Ormiston is quieter than usual during remote learning for the Foundation – Year 6 students, the EL4 children have taken the time to enjoy the whole School yard with a purpose. Winter nature play has encouraged the children to look closely at the changes to the trees and to stay closely connected to nature which can be highly beneficial to student wellbeing.

Ramila Sadikeen
Early Learning 4 Full-Time Teacher

Early Learning 4 Part-Time – The Cycle of Nature

The cycle of nature continues on, regardless of what is happening in the news headlines or the stresses of the adult world. The children in Early Learning 4 Part-time have noticed and been curious about the seasonal changes that Autumn and Winter have brought. They share their observations and suggest theories about why particular things happen in nature.

We have practiced ‘mindfulness’ outside, using our senses to hear, feel and see the seasonal changes. Tuning into the sights and sounds of nature, draws children’s attention to the here and now and reduces stress and anxiety. Engaging all of their senses has encouraged the children to pay close attention to the small details.

The children have also used different art mediums to represent their Autumn and Winter observations. These have included drawing, sewing, collage and printmaking. Through visual art the children are learning to express their growing understandings about the world around them. Young children explore the arts with both a creative and scientific “eye”.  The artist in them seeks ways to express their ideas and the scientist wonders why things happen.

The children observed that some of the trees have started changing colour and are losing their leaves while others are not. They were introduced to the terms, deciduous trees and evergreen trees. They were encouraged to ‘wonder’ why some leaves change colour and fall from the deciduous trees.

Our STEAM Teacher, Penny Dumsday worked with the children to explore their wonderings about Autumn. Mrs Dumsday did a science experiment with the children to show them that leaves contain lots of different colours. They learnt that some trees draw the chlorophyll (which is the green pigment in leaves) back into the trunk to feed them over winter.

Every child learns differently – some prefer to observe, some listen, some engage actively, and others talk. With this in mind, it is important to provide multiple ways for children to engage in new learning. The three main ways that young children learn are auditory (listening), visually (pictures and images) and kinaesthetic (through doing). By engaging in a multi-faceted approach to learning, all children are able to understand and represent their learning.

Lilian Bishop
Early Learning 4 Part-Time Teacher

Year 4 – Exploring their Neighbourhood

Lockdown is always challenging but the Year 4 students still have lots to be thankful for. They have been exploring their neighbourhood on sensory walks to observe and appreciate nature. Leaves of different shapes and sizes have been collected resulting in the creation of gratitude trees.

Jasvindar Gill
Year 4 Class Teacher

Kanga Tennis Coaching Clinics

The last two Fridays there has been a lot of racquet movement from all of our students practicing their forehands, backhands and volleys on the Junior School tennis court.  The Kanga Tennis coaches – Annette, Tim and Dustin have delivered high energy and skilled-based clinic sessions to all our students from Early Learning 4 to Year 6.  Kanga tennis Coaching have been working with our Ormiston students for over 5 years and their experienced coaches do a fantastic job.

Kanga Tennis Coaching provide lessons every Tuesday and Thursday morning for our students at these times:

8.00am – 8.40am / Year 3, 4, 5 & 6

8.40am – 9.10am / Foundation, Year 1 & 2

9.10am – 9.40am / Early Learning 3 & 4

If families are interested in taking up tennis lessons at Ormiston in Term 2, please contact our Junior School Reception via email on junioradmin@cggs.vic.edu.au.

I wish all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Foundation Rabbits – Snowy, Fluffy, Rainbow and Cutie

For the past two weeks the Foundation students have been fortunate to have had four rabbits visit our classroom. The students quickly took to the rabbits and they became our much-loved pets for the time they were here. The students named the rabbits: Snowy, Fluffy, Rainbow and Cutie. They were responsible for filling the rabbits’ water bowls, ensuring they had fresh hay and even helping to clean their hutch from time to time. They also gave them an infinite supply of love, pats and cuddles. This was a great experience for the students to learn first-hand what living things need to survive and how people can help to care for other creatures.

“When the rabbits come out they can be a little bit scared. We need to be quiet to help them.” – Ting Xuan

“We have to be kind and gentle with them.” – Clara

“Carrots are a treat for rabbits, they don’t always eat carrots. Our rabbits eat hay and pellets.” – Angela

“Rabbits needs lots of care to make them happy.” – Bella

“You need to clean out their cage, even though it’s the worst job in the world.” – Joelle

“When we go in the circle to pat the rabbits we have to pat them with one hand.” – Eshaal

“If you scare them, they will hide.” – Theresa

“The rabbits are so soft and fluffy. I like to pat them.” – Chloe

“We got to teach the Year 1s about our rabbits.” – Rubyrose

“The rabbits are my favourite thing at school.” – Lena

Selena Reedman
Foundation Class Teacher

Year 1 – Healesville Sanctuary Excursion

Last week Year 1 took part in an excursion to Healesville Sanctuary as part of our Inquiry unit investigating the question “How do living things change, grow and survive?” Murrundindi (Head man of the Wurundjeri people) greeted us at the entrance and he spent the day showing us the Sanctuary and various exhibits. He showed the students some of the features of native flora in the area and explained how they were significant to the Wurundjeri people and animals. The students had a closer look at the kangaroo apple, lemon myrtle, manna gum, wild strawberries and various grasses used to weave baskets.

The Spirit of the Sky show gave the students the opportunity to view various birds of prey in flight and the koala, kangaroo, brolga, dingo and other exhibits allowed students to discuss some of each animal’s features, their habitats and some of their adaptions needed for them to survive. The teachers were impressed with the positivity and curiosity of the students, most of whom were experiencing their first excursion.

Angela Columbine
Year 1 Teacher

Year 5 PLAY Leadership Program

Last week the Year 5 students participated in the PLAY leadership training, run by Resilient Youth Australia. This full day workshop taught students how to facilitate safe and fun games for Ormiston students during recess and lunch.

The program is designed as a platform for students to have opportunities to support each other, practice positive values, take responsibility and develop their leadership abilities. It was an excellent opportunity for our Year 5 students to begin building their leadership skills before they take on their formal leadership role in Year 6.

Throughout the day, students learnt a variety of interactive PLAY games and how to introduce and facilitate the games effectively with other students without teacher guidance.

Some of the many games that students learnt and taught the Year 3 and 4 students were In and Out, Cat and Mouse, Domes and Dishes and Revolution.

Students relished the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and have fun together at the same time. Throughout the program, students learned the importance of giving clear instructions, working as team, listening to others and giving supportive feedback.

Asha from 5G commented, “I saw the world from a teacher’s point of view. One stand-out moment for me was when a student I was instructing was very shy to begin with, but over time she became more confident and engaged. I felt like I was achieving what I set out to do.”

We look forward to the Year 5 students consolidating their skills this term and then applying their skills to teach the PLAY games to the rest of the school community in Semester 2.

Emma Hinchliffe
Deputy Head of Junior School

Foundation – Year 6 English as an Additional Language (EAL) Information Session

On Wednesday, we hosted our very first parent information session for families whom English is their second language.  Our focus was to support families and to strengthen relationships between school and home, which ultimately leads to establishing true partnerships.

Together with Barbara Peng, our school interpreter and translator, we had parents discussing and asking questions regarding various topics. This included home learning, accessing reports on SEQTA and how to request interpreting services. Additionally, parents became familiar with their child’s learning and were able to converse in open discussions about the present curriculum. Our informal Q&A was led by parents and was an opportunity to meet and share. It was wonderful to see new and existing families having the opportunity to make reciprocated connections.

EAL parent information sessions in the future will be held in Term 2 and Term 4 each year and will range in topics relevant to current happenings. Thank you to those who attended, and I look forward to our next meeting in Term 4 later in the year.

Michelle May
Junior & Senior EAL Teacher

Book Clubs

Each week the Junior School Library offers two lunchtime Book Clubs for interested students in Years 3-6.

Wednesday sessions: all students from Years 3 & 4 are invited to attend Book Club with Mrs Spencer. These sessions are an opportunity for students to share stories and discuss recent reads and book recommendations with their peers in an enjoyable and relaxed environment. Students also participate in a variety of fun book related activities including Book Scavenger Hunts, designing an ideal bookshelf with all their favourite titles, and creating and colouring beautiful bookmarks.

Thursday sessions: Madison Kelly leads the Year 5 and 6 Book Club. Students in this group have enjoyed creating their own Zines on favourite topics and areas of interest. Zines are handmade photocopied books that students have made copies of to take home, as well as a copy for the school library collection. They have also been working hard to complete artwork and illustrations for the book they wrote together throughout the last year. It’s wonderful to see all the amazing and creative items that are produced from these sessons.

Sally Spencer
Junior School Library Teacher

Year 4 Prayer

Dear God

We thank you for giving each of us such incredible mothers and grandmothers.

They support us whenever we are in need, comfort us

when we are afraid and guide us on the right path encouraging us to be

the best versions of ourselves.  We bless those mothers who are

unwell, the mothers that are missing their loved ones, the mothers

who are courageously helping others and the mothers who are not

with us today.  We pray that every mother and grandmother has the

most special day this Sunday.

Amen

Written by Year 4Z & Helen Creed – School Chaplain