Junior School

October 22, 2020/in juniorschool /by Georgia Bennett

CamNews

Junior School

October 22, 2020

Settling into Term 4

It has been wonderful to see all our Ormiston students from Early Learning 3 to Year 6 settle in so beautifully this term after an extensive period of time of remote learning at home. I would like to thank our class and specialist teachers for continuing to provide a very high quality of education at Camberwell Girls Grammar School and I look forward to seeing our students work towards doing their personal best for the remainder of the year at school.

Junior School Protocols

I would like to let parents know that we are continuing to take temperature checks each morning when our students arrive at Junior School. Each student is also required to use hand sanitiser before they play outside or go to their classroom. Hand hygiene is very important throughout the day and students are reminded to clean their hands at the end of recess and lunchtime, and of course before they eat and drink.

Throughout both phases of face to face learning this year, Camberwell Girls Grammar has employed an extra cleaner during the day to clean high volume areas around Ormiston. Both the Early Learning Centre, Mountfield building and the main Junior School building is thoroughly cleaned after student use. For instance, all classrooms are cleaned at recess and lunchtimes when students are outside playing and sports and play equipment on the campus are also cleaned each day after use.

Ormiston Student Council & Sustainability Squad

As a Junior School, we have elected to continue with the Semester One representatives for Student Council and Sustainability Squad in Term 4. Here are the students who will be working with Craig Goodwin, Emma Hinchliffe and Ellie Zafarty this term on different projects within the school.

Ormiston School Council

Year 1- Neesha Navaneetharaja

Year 2- Annabelle Teh & Molly Iervasi

Year 3 – Lauren Tang & Sophie May Ronzani

Year 4- Jessica Wong & Rita Wong

Year 5- Jasmine Li & Chloe Lau

Year 6 – Rivya Nambi Subramaniyan

Our Ormiston School Captains from Semester One and Two will also be working with the Student Council this term. Our School Captains this year are Alyce Law, Angelique Quah, Anneka Sinnappu and Christina Weickhardt.

Sustainability Squad

Here are the Sustainability Squad members for the rest of the year:

Sustainability Leaders – Chloe Hall & Chloe Byers

Year 1- Yui Yu

Year 2- Estella Ouyang & Audrey Nemtsas

Year 3- Aaratrika Kadam & Ruth Whelan

Year 4- Nina Gan & Amy Yang

Year 5- Emily Foo & Annabelle Nemtsas

Year 6- Grace Wan

Science Talent Search

Due to the efforts of our 35 Year 5 and 6 Ormiston students who entered this year’s Science Talent Search, Camberwell Girls Grammar – Junior School has been awarded one of four Hugh McKnight Encouragement Awards for 2020, with our Senior School also being a recipient. This award recognises the high quality of entries submitted over the breadth of sections in the competition. This is a fabulous achievement and each student should be very proud of their efforts. Special thanks to the team of teachers who mentored the students, mostly remotely: Dr Charlotte Forwood, Ms Penny Dumsday and Mrs Gibson, as well as Ms Emma Hinchliffe and Mr Micah Wilkins who joined Dr Forwood as official judges. Thank you to the many parents who encouraged their children behind the scenes.

In addition to the team award, we have a number of students who received bursaries. These bursaries will be presented at a virtual ceremony in November.

Major Bursary

Elise Orme – Experimental Research: Does Bokashi Juice? Actizyme or water work faster to relieve a household pipe blockage? Elise has also been nominated to enter the National BHP Foundation Science and Engineering Awards for 2021.

Rivya Nambi Subramaniyan – Posters and Scientific Wall Charts: SOS: Save Our Ocean

Natasha Cameron and Aaliyah D’Rozario – Picture Story Book: My Ocean Cleaning Device

Minor Bursary

Usha Nadarajah – Experimental Research: What conditions are best for storing bread?

Overall, our students received 5 bursaries, 5 distinctions, 18 merits and 7 participation awards. Clearly, we have a group of talented budding scientists at CGGS and it is exciting to contemplate the explorations and ponderings they will engage with in the future.

Dr Charlotte Forwood
Director of Learning Design and Development

Hands-On Science and STEAM

Hands-on learning and experimentation are such important parts of learning about Science and the natural world. As part of their Inquiry during remote learning, Ormiston students grew seeds, made rockets and slime, let bread go mouldy and much more. To the parents who played such an important role supporting their child in these activities, an enormous thank you!

This term, it has been wonderful to see the students once again able to interact with equipment and each other as they learn, asking ‘I wonder what would happen if…?’ and discussing their thoughts and observations to make meaning of the world together. Year 6 students have been able to use the Senior School Science labs and equipment as part of their study of Chemistry, and Year 5’s took part in some activities to model the causes and effects of earthquakes while studying natural disasters. Year 4’s have created models of the Earth through time and Year 3 are looking at the Earth and its place in space.

Penny Dumsday
Science Teacher

Year 2

In Maths this week our focus was Mass. We discussed the terminology that relates to comparing the weight of different objects. The students then created their own balance scales by using a coat hanger, string and cups. They predicted which item would weigh more by comparing the two objects and then testing it out.

In B.R.A.V.E this week the students were introduced to the 24 different character strengths. Discussions were had on character strengths that we believed we possess as well as character strengths that we felt we could improve on.

“I have a love of learning because I think learning is fun” – Serena

“I have humour because I am funny and like talking to other people and making them laugh” – Elaine

“I think I could improve my bravery when I talk in front of people” – Estella

“I would like to improve on my self-regulation by controlling my emotions and remembering my belongings” – Alice H

Ellie Zafarty & Mikaela Stanaway
Year 2 Class Teachers

Year 4

Angles, angles, angles! Straight angles, reflex, obtuse, acute have been investigated alongside equilateral, isosceles, scalene and right angle triangles in Year 4.

On return to school students learnt to estimate, classify and compare angles and apply reasoning skills. One activity required the students to write their names and measure the angles within. Students used a protractor and inquired about reflex angles as well. They also found angles within a triangle if it was in their name too!

Another activity involved students being given a jigsaw of angle pieces and they had to fit all eight pieces within a rectangle. There could be no overlap and gaps. This activity lead to much conversation, exploration and justification of their choices. It was brilliant to have students collaborating and problem solving together in the classroom once again.

Craig Goodwin & Jasvindar Gill
Year 4 Class Teachers

Library – Book Week Activities

Our return to on site learning has allowed us to enjoy wonderful Book Week celebrations together in the library and virtual author sessions to take place for some year levels. Last week, EL3 and EL4 enjoyed a virtual visit from author Mark Carthew who entertained the children with readings from his books, some singalongs and dancing. While Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 had a fantastic virtual session with author and illustrator Frane Lessac who shared her stories and taught the students how to draw amazing Australian animals.

The theme for this year’s Book Week is Curious Creatures, Wild Minds and all students have participated in activities based around this theme including scavenger hunts and creating their own curious creatures. Students have also read and explored a number of shortlisted titles from the Younger Reader, Picture Book and Nonfiction categories of the CBCA Book Awards.

In the coming weeks, Years 3 and 4 will have an opportunity to virtually meet and create with author Alex Miles, while Years 5 and 6 will spend a session with Mark Greenwood. The YABBA Award virtual ceremony is another exciting event taking place in October and will be an opportunity for students to see and listen to some more of their favourite authors.

Sally Spencer
Library Teacher

Footy/Sport Day

Today at Ormiston we celebrated all things sport! Students and teachers reflected on the Melbourne Vixen’s sensational premiership win and prepared for the AFL Grand Final by participating in a Sports and Footy Day at Junior School. It was fantastic to see our students come to school showing such team spirit and enthusiasm by donning their team’s colours. Some of the sports our students chose to celebrate were: netball, basketball, WAFL/AFL and soccer.

Throughout the day students participated in sports activities and a range of fun and thought-provoking Footy Maths challenges. Our Year 6 School and House leaders did a fantastic job of organising year level specific sports activities at lunchtime including: target throwing, skipping routines, shoot out, silent ball and bocce.

Students and teachers thoroughly enjoyed their special footy lunch orders prepared by Pinwheel. The donuts were a real hit!

A big thank you goes to Mrs Robottom, Mr Goodwin and Miss Kitsou for organising a day of sporting fun that activated our minds, bodies and hearts.

Emma Hinchliffe
Deputy Head of Junior School

I wish Ormiston families a restful long weekend. A reminder it is a Public Holiday on Friday 23 October and we look forward to seeing all students back at Junior School on Monday 26 October.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Junior School

October 9, 2020/in juniorschool /by Georgia Bennett

CamNews

Junior School

October 9, 2020

Welcome Back!

This week has been very exciting for our Early Learning students. The students have been actively engaged in their learning and there have been many opportunities for them to play and socialise together whether inside the classroom, or outside in the playground. I would like to sincerely thank our Early Learning staff for transitioning the students so seamlessly this week after a long period of time of remote learning.

Our Foundation – Year 6 students will be returning to Ormiston on Monday. Class and specialist teachers have been completing their remote learning program this week on Seesaw while at the same time, getting their classroom and resources ready for face-to-face learning activities next week.

Below are the Foundation – Year 6 student arrival and departure times starting on Monday 12 October.

Arrivals:

Foundation – Year 2 /8.30am
Years 3 & 4 / 8.20am
Years 5 & 6 /8.10am

All parents are required to pick up their children using the Stop, Kiss and Drop procedure at the front of the school. Departure times are listed below.

Departures:

Foundation /2.55pm
Year 1 /3.00pm
Year 2 / 3.05pm
Year 3 /3.10pm
Year 4 /3.15pm
Year 5 /3.20pm
Year 6 / 3.45pm

From 3.20pm – 3.45pm Year 6 students and their sisters will be able to go outside in the playground and then get picked up by their parents at Stop, Kiss & Drop at 3.45pm.

Celebration of Sport Assembly

At Ormiston each year in Term 4, we organise a Celebration of Sport Assembly to recognise the efforts of students across different year levels. This special assembly will not take place this term because of COVID-19, however at our weekly Foundation – Year 6 assemblies we will hand out specific sporting certificates for students that were involved in school and community sporting events early in Term 1.

Additionally, each year at this assembly, we hand out a trophy and an award for the Ormiston Sportswoman of the Year. Unfortunately, we will not be able to complete this task due to limited sporting opportunities throughout the year. However, we hope our Junior School students may be able to participate in some non-contact training at some stage during Term 4 depending on the Victorian State Government guidelines.

Early Learning 3 Update

Easing back to school in Early Learning 3 after remote learning for many weeks has been such a joyous occasion for us all. The children could not believe that they were able to come back to school and they walked into Early Learning Centre with beaming smiles and plenty of confidence.

Here is what some children had to say about being back at school:

Chelsea said, “I happy to see my friends I like playing with Eason and I like doing puzzles.”

Jayden said, “Me like playing with blocks and Lego.”

Sophie said, “I am so happy to play outside with my friends and I like going to Music.”

Ryan said, “I like seeing all my friends and playing with them with playdough and building with blocks and sitting on the mat.”

Melanie said, “I like playing outside and playing with Iris and seeing all the pictures of our families on the wall.”

Eason said, “I like playing with blocks and building things with Jayden.”

Scarlett said, “I am excited to play in the home corner and to see Kimi from EL4 and to see Sophie and Azalea back.”

We all look forward to a dynamic Term 4 in Early Learning 3.

Ramila Sadikeen
Early Learning 3 Class Teacher

Early Learning 4 Full-Time Update

Cultivating an attitude of gratitude in Early Learning 4 (Full Time)

This week it was wonderful to see the Early Learning 4 (Full Time) children return to school. They were very excited to reconnect with their peers after remote learning and spending time at home during the holidays. Throughout the week there were many opportunities for the children to engage with each other, both in the classroom and garden.

In the classroom we shared stories about the character strength gratitude and dialogued about those things that we are thankful for and are good in our lives. We wondered about the words ‘grateful’ and the positive emotion ‘gratitude.’

Calista and Rubyrose expressed their understandings:

“Grateful means that you be grateful that you have toys. In some parts of the world little kids don’t have toys.” – Calista

“My daddy said that you have to be grateful for what we have – for everything.” – Rubyrose

We paused to notice and appreciate the things in our lives both at home and school that we need to be grateful for, such as, family, friends, a house to live, food, clean water; and things from nature such as butterflies, flowers and rainbows. During our afternoon reflection time, we have been thinking about the day and expressing gratitude (thankfulness) to each other for positive actions and thoughtful acts of kindness that have been experienced both in the classroom and garden.

The children are currently expressing things they are grateful for through drawing and dialogue. We will be compiling these into A Gratitude Story that we look forward to sharing with you.

By cultivating an attitude of gratitude, the children are experiencing positive emotions and feelings of happiness and this is important for their wellbeing.

Angela Follacchio
Early Learning 4 Class Teacher

Early Learning 4 Part-Time

The Early Learning 4 (Part Time) children returned to the Early Learning Centre, excited to see their friends and educators and eager to explore new experiences. A group interest emerged from a book we started reading called ‘Mr Archimedes Bath’ by Pamela Allen.

In the book Mr Archimedes has a bath with a kangaroo, wombat and a goat. He is furious that the water keeps overflowing and blames each of the animals. We decided to explore the problem in the book using a tub of water and plastic toys to represent the characters in the book. The children helped act out the story and shared their theories about why the water rose. Through participating in teacher guided investigations, children learn how to participate in simple inquiry cycles. They explore, wonder, raise questions, share ideas and engage in deeper explorations.

Lilian Bishop
Early Learning 4 Part-Time Class Teacher

I wish our Ormiston families a restful weekend and we look forward to seeing all our Foundation – Year 6 students bright and early Monday morning ready for face to face learning back at Junior School.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Junior School

September 11, 2020/in juniorschool /by Georgia Bennett

CamNews

Junior School

September 11, 2020

Thank You

We can all agree this year has been like no other. Demanding, yes, but also filled with so much diverse learning and discovery. I have been extremely impressed with how our school community has supported and helped each other this term. Our remote learning program, onsite supervision and face-to-face learning have all highlighted the importance of connections and relationships. The school community has impressed me with their ability to laugh, question and learn together not only in the virtualworld, but in different modes of learning as well.

Additionally, I would like to express my gratitude to all our Ormiston families for their understanding and partnership as we navigate through this challenging time. As a school, we will continue to communicate with you regularly as we receive updates on the COVID-19 situation. These updates will continue to guide us in the type of teaching and learning that will take place in Term 4. We look forward to having our Early Learning 3 and 4 students back in their classrooms at the start of next term and Foundation – Year 6 will be ready to continue with remote learning in Week 1.

Finally, I would like to thank our Ormiston staff for all their continued outstanding work, dedication and commitment to their teaching throughout the pandemic. I am very proud of the way they have continued to improve their teaching during such an uncertain time. I know they are looking forward to a restful holiday break and will be ready for more challenges in Term 4.

Term 4 Long Service Leave – Fiona Gibson

I would like to let all Ormiston families know that Fiona Gibson, our Junior School Art Teacher, will take Long Service Leave in Term 4. Her replacement will be Nicole Burns who was a Student Teacher at Ormiston a number of years ago.

Nicole comes to Ormiston with a passion for Art and has just completed her role at Sacred Heart School in Kew as an Art Teacher for 12 months. Previously she has been a Class Teacher and Art Teacher in both Government and Catholic Schools in the local area and we look forward to working closely with Nicole across all year levels from Early Learning to Year 6.

We also wish Fiona Gibson all the best for her Long Service Leave.

I encourage all families to please make Nicole Burns feel welcome in Term 4

We look forward to all our students returning for the start of Term 4 and hope our Ormiston families have a safe and healthy holiday break.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Early Learning 4 Part-Time

Early Learning offers a platform for children to develop oral language through social interactions with other children. Our morning meetings via Zoom have provided an opportunity for the children to engage with classmates and remain connected to their class. To ensure that the children were actively engaged in ‘speaking and listening’, the EL4 Part-time children have participated in ‘Share Time’ sessions. The children have been preparing short talks with their parents and then presented these to their friends. Through our ‘Share Time’ sessions, the children are learning that they have something worth sharing and that other people have something worth listening to.

The children have researched a topic they are interested in and planned how to express their ideas. Speaking in front of a small group has helped develop the children’s confidence and communication skills. The children in the audience have practiced listening to the ideas of others and asking questions based on what they have heard. Our topics have covered: ‘my favourite toy’, ‘something I’ve made’, ‘someone special in my family’ and ‘remote learning experience’.

Lilian Bishop
EL4 Part-Time Teacher

2020 Virtual Ormiston Art Show

This year we were unable to have our annual Ormiston Art Show however, instead our Early Learning – Year 6 were able to celebrate and visit the Art Show virtually. The virtual Art Show mainly comprised of artworks which were completed at school, in Term 1 and 2 and all students had the opportunity to see their art digitally.

There is a Padlet for each class. On each Padlet, there is a list of the artworks and each student has a collection. Students who joined our school in Term 3, have a selection of remote learning tasks.

Students have been encouraged to look at their own artwork and also students from other years levels, with family and friends. Scattered amongst the Padlets are some fun art related jokes. Enjoy admiring the talents and skills of our students.

Please click on the link below to access the Padlet.

https://cggs.padlet.org/hinchliffee2/2020jsartshow

Be inspired, ask questions and try new art ideas and most importantly, enjoy creating your own artwork.

Fiona Gibson
Art Teacher

Ormiston Creative Arts Day

On Thursday, Ormiston students participated in a variety of activities to celebrate the Arts. The theme of the day was – Joy through Colour to encourage our students to notice that “Joy through colour” and the Arts can bring to our lives.

Students provided musical performances, composed, created, drew, danced and acted. They engaged in story telling sessions, slow looking through art, nature art explorations with Google Voyager and the creation of a Centenary art installation. Students searched for the beauty of colour in nature, created colourful stop motion animated artworks, multimedia representations of art, music and drama. Teachers even joined in the fun by performing an amusing readers’ theatre in the afternoon. There was plenty to stimulate curiosity, inspire creativity and celebrate student talent.

Click the images below to expand.

Emma Hinchliffe and Charlotte Forwood

Ormiston Creative Arts Day: Music Performances

Students, staff and parents had the opportunity to enjoy and appreciate a wide range of music, speech and drama performances throughout the Creative Arts Day. It was wonderful for the students to be able to connect with one another and share their love of performance. Many thanks to the Music Department for all their efforts in facilitating the performance platforms – it was a great way to end the term. It was also inspiring to see that, whilst we cannot be together at school, the performing arts can provide a strong connection for us to celebrate the joy of Music and Drama. Particular thanks to the Music staff who hosted the Zoom sessions – Nichole Adams, Penny Byrne, Kath Buckingham and Mat Duniam.

Kate Savige
Director of Music

Important Dates

We kindly ask Junior School families to note the following important dates:

Friday 11 September
Last day of Term 3

Monday 14 September – Friday 2 October
School holidays (no students at school)

Monday 5 October
Planned first day of Term 4

> Early Learning 3 and 4 students will be back to school with face-to-face learning

> Foundation – Year 6 will commence with remote learning from home

Junior School

September 4, 2020/in juniorschool /by Georgia Bennett

CamNews

Junior School

September 4, 2020

Early Learning 3 are thriving in Remote Learning!

EL3 children and families are to be commended as they have transitioned into remote learning seamlessly, enabling us as teachers to be able to offer a wider variety of approaches to engage the children and the families.

Our new student Francis Yan was introduced via Zoom where he was able to virtually meet his fellow classmates. Hopefully, Francis will get to meet everyone face to face in Term 4, when students return back to school.

During remote learning, we have recently focused our chats on plant life. The children wondered how plants could grow without air and it was pleasing to witness their involvement during our Zoom sessions with the support of their parents.

We are thankful for our EL3 parents as they played a vital role in helping the children to make their very own bears. The EL3 children are enjoying the company of their bears and have been involving them into their daily lives.

The bears have become a symbol of hope and comfort for the children as they settle into remote learning with just as much enthusiasm as if they were learning inside their classroom.

Ramila Sadikeen
EL3 Class Teacher

Early Learning 4 Full-Time

Zoom has provided an opportunity for the Early Learning 4 (Full Time) children to remain connected during Remote Learning. Every child engages in one of three Zoom sessions that are offered each day. We also gather at the end of each week as a whole class on Zoom.

During these sessions, the children engage in various learning opportunities, some of which have included:

> sharing and dialoguing about their interests and ideas, in particular their creative and imaginative constructions, drawings, paintings, science experiments, musical pursuits and number sentences

> meeting and finding out about family pets such as Madelyn’s rabbit and Ginger her dog; and Qianqian’s cat named Echo

> physical exercise

> stories, in particular, The Paper Bag Princess that provided a message that girls are courageous, brave and risk takers

> discussions that focused on endangered animals, such as sea turtles, and how we can take action to create positive change

> singing and movement

> games, for example, ‘I want to be challenged’ and a variety of bingo games

I am very proud of what the children have been learning to do and to be during remote learning. As learners, they continue to develop the dispositions of risk taking, curiosity, flexibility in their thinking and persistence.

Angela Follacchio
EL4 Full-Time Class Teacher

Health & Safety with Foundation

During the second half of this term, the Foundation students have been investigating how they can be safe and healthy. They have learnt about the importance of hygiene and caring for their body, why we have rules and guidelines for road and water safety and who can help us in and emergency.

This very topical unit of work has been enhanced by some special guests to our class. We would like to acknowledge: Atlas Ko (Estelle’s Dad), Ed Karim and Zainab Hamudi (Lina’s parents), Julian Maingard (Olive’s Dad) and Lisa Williams (CGGS Aquatic Swim School Coordinator) for giving up their time to attend Zoom meetings with Foundation to explain what their jobs entail and to give some fantastic advice about how the students can stay safe and healthy in a variety of situations.

As you can see from the photographs, the students were particularly enthralled by the huge toothbrush and big set of teeth. They learned about the most efficient and effective way to brush. We should be seeing lots of sparkly, pearly, white smiles in Foundation!

Selena Reedman
Foundation Class Teacher

Year 5

Throughout the year, the Year 5 students have been challenging their mathematical thinking by participating in the APSMO Mathematical Olympiad and Mathematical Games competitions. These competitions consist of five tests interspersed throughout Terms 2 and 3. They consist of five extremely challenging questions and the students have been spending time in class preparing for them and refining their problem-solving skills. They have increased their problem-solving toolkit and worked on developing strategies such as guess and check, finding a pattern or creating a table. The Year 5 students, along with students in Year 6, will sit their final test this coming week. Good luck!

Over the past few weeks, the students have also refined their debating skills as they completed Round 1 Debates via Zoom. They consistently used a range of powerful persuasive strategies to convince classmates of their team’s argument. The topics were related to our Inquiry topic – ‘How can we make informed choices as consumers to create a more sustainable world?’

> Bottled water should not be sold

> Cheap, fast fashion should be banned

> Cars should be completely replaced by public transport

To further explore the Inquiry topic, the students have embarked on an Inquiry Project. They will be writing a persuasive letter and making a documentary to present to their family about how their family can make sustainable changes to lessen the impact of climate change and global warming. We are sure we will be seeing greener and more sustainable living in many of our Year 5 homes – ‘be the change you want to see in the world’ – Mahatma Ghandhi.

Meagan Wilson, Anjali de Quadros & Fiorella Soci
Year 5 Class Teachers

Chinese Heritage

In the Heritage class, students have the opportunities to appreciate their rich culture and literary heritage through the study of short poems and rhymes.

> Foundation students have shown great interest in learning seasons and weather by reciting and drawing Chinese rhymes and watching Chinese cartoons.

> Year 1 students enjoyed sharing riddles they have learned in class and had fun reciting them to their family members for them to guess.

> Year 2 students, whilst studying the topic on animals, had the opportunity to appreciate a poem written by an ancient poet about Goose when he was only 7 years old.

> Year 3 students have covered many topics and one of the topics studied was about Chinese Art and Craft. The students created their own craftwork and made a short video explaining how they made it.

> Year 4 students started learning informative writing and wrote about the city they were born in.

Chinese Mainstream

In the Mainstream classes, students continue to develop their language skills through exploring different stories in Chinese.

> Foundation students have been describing Paddington Bear’s family, facial features and body parts in Chinese.

> Year 1 students have been focusing on developing speaking and reading skills. They have created their own Chinese version ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and presented this piece with confidence.

> Year 2 students have been discovering a new part of the story ‘The Cat and The Little Ducklings’ and are learning different verbs.

> Year 3 students have a strong focus on verbs and different vocabulary when studying the classic story ‘Three Little Pigs’. Students have been using sequencing cards to develop their storytelling skills to retell the story in Chinese. The students will focus on developing their retelling and describing skills.

> Year 4 students have been learning the story ‘The Gift’ in Chinese. Students are currently using a thinking routine called “Name – Describe – Act” to recall nouns, verbs and adjectives and then produce sentences in Chinese. Students first look at a scenario shot from the story ‘The Gift’ on a Padlet and then make a list of vocabulary. They are then encouraged to add more details and description. View the padlet here. https://cggs.padlet.org/zhangs/year4liwu

The last thinking process involves students putting different vocabulary and phrases into a sentence to describe a picture. Year 4 students will use this thinking routine until the end of this term.

Lin Zhang, Scarlett Zhang & Peipei Liu
Chinese Teachers

Year 5 & 6 French

For the greater part of the term, the Year 5 students learnt a number of words to do with animals, followed by learning some adjectives of colour, size and personality that they could use to describe animals. As a summative task they wrote a short description of their ideal pet (Mon animal idéal).

Concurrently, the Year 6 students learnt how to express themselves in the ‘future tense’. Combined with their knowledge of tourist attractions in Paris, they created an imaginary mini itinerary of a visit to the “City of Lights”. In the last few weeks of the term, the students have been learning vocabulary and grammar that will help them acquire conversational skills needed in a shopping context.

Tafadzwa Gwamba
French Teacher

I wish all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Junior School

August 28, 2020/in juniorschool /by Georgia Bennett

CamNews

Junior School

August 28, 2020

Year 6R – Semester 2 Student Leadership Positions

Congratulations to the succeeding Year 6R students on their Leadership positions for this Semester, their final Semester at Ormiston before Senior School. As a school, we are very proud and excited to be working with these valued students.

Many thanks to Nancy Robottom – Year 6C Class Teacher – for organising the Leadership Assembly on Zoom, albeit a different method to how we usually conduct this event but to everyone’s credit and adaptability, the assembly went very well.

Here are the positions below:

Art: Sharon Tijoe, Larissa Ma & Cassandra Vu

Assembly & Events: Vrinda Dhir, Tiarni Siaw & Grace Wan

Digital: Zoe Lim & Mara Vais

House:
Singleton – Isabelle Santoso

Schofield – Rivya Nambi Subramaniyan

Lawrence – Anika Selvaratnum

Taylor – Charlotte Hayes

Library: Amber Chia, Trinity Sideris & Maddie Wood

Music: Vivien Chang

School Captain: Anneka Sinnappu & Christina Weickhardt

Wellbeing: Amelie Greenbank & Lina Ooka

Sustainability: Chloe Byers & Chloe Hall

I would like to thank our Year 6C students for their Leadership in Semester One. I’m sure they will be happy to assist the above leaders for the remainder of this term and Term 4 if needed.

Year 1 Presentations

This term, Year 1 students have continued to develop their presentation and reading aloud skills as part of our Literacy program. Each week they plan, prepare and deliver a short presentation focusing on voice projection, fluency, expression and eye contact. It has been wonderful to see their skills continuing to flourish while they work remotely.

In recognition of National Science Week, the students either researched facts about oceans and marine life, or shared their favourite STEAM learning task. The budding young marine biologists and oceanographers were keen to share their knowledge about the five oceans of the World, interesting marine life facts, information about coral, the depth of the oceans and what percentage of Earth is covered by water.

Angela Columbine
Year 1 Class Teacher

Year 2 Update

This term in Year 2, the students have been learning about the senses of sight and sound throughout their Inquiry unit. This week the students were able to investigate the different sounds that they could create around their house. It was great to see them use their imagination to find different sounds using a blowing action, a shaking action, a scraping action and a hitting action.

During STEAM they created water xylophones using cups, water and a wooden spoon. It was wonderful to see all the girls playing pieces of music like ‘Hot Cross Buns’ using their xylophones. All the Year 2’s, Miss Zarfaty and Miss Stanaway have loved exploring the senses of sight and sound with brilliant STEAM activities each week – Thank you Ms Dumsday!

Mikaela Stanaway and Ellie Zafarty
Year 2 Class Teachers

Year 4 (Virtual) Excursion

What happens when you can’t attend an excursion? Well, we bring the excursion to you – virtually of course! On Friday 14 August, using Zoom and Google Earth, the Year 4’s embarked on a discovery of the ecosystem at Blackburn Lake. Ms Dumsday led and inspired the students to identify plant and animal species and apply their knowledge of the roles within a habitat. Students created scientific sketches of their findings and used their understanding of producers, consumers and decomposers to imagine what the cross-section of the lake would look like.

Jasvindar Gill & Craig Goodwin
Year 4 Class Teachers

Year 6

The Year 6 students have currently been exploring the question: How has migration impacted the lives of people in Australia today? The students have been viewing ‘What’s your story?’ resources from the Immigration Museum website and attempting to deduce details about a migrant’s life from photographs of special objects that they brought with them to Australia. The students completed the visible thinking routine ‘I see, I think, I wonder’ to help them to formulate their ideas. They then engaged in lively discussions, sharing their interpretations in Zoom break-out rooms.

In the final few weeks of Term 3, the Year 6 students are preparing a migrant monologue that shares the migration story of someone they know.

Nancy Robottom & Katrina Cheong
Year 6 Class Teachers

Library

The Junior School Library has two Book Clubs which meet each Monday afternoon after school. Year 3 and 4 students meet with Mrs Spencer and Year 5 and 6 students meet with Ren Pennesi, our wonderful Library Assistant.

Year 3 and 4 students: Book Club offers a place for book chat, a forum to discuss favourite authors and illustrators and an opportunity to share recent and popular reads with fellow students. Details, activities and examples from new books in the Library are shared as well as suggestions for future reading. It has been wonderful to see the students engaged and enthusiastically talking and sharing about their reading.

Year 5 and 6 students (The Book Ninjas): These students are in the process of creating their second novel project – a sequel to ‘The Search for Colour’ which they wrote last year. With support from Ren, each student is actively involved in the creative process, from planning, writing and illustrating. It is a fabulous collaborative project with the students all passionate and excited about working towards a shared piece of work.

Sally Spencer
Library Teacher

ART UPDATE

Year 4 – Biome Drawings

Year 4 students have been studying biomes as part of their Inquiry topic. In Art, the students chose a biome and then drew a detailed drawing, which was to include appropriate flora, fauna and abiotic items.

The students were also required to show the illusion of depth, using one or more horizon lines to show space and distance.

Year 6

In Literacy lessons the Year 6 students have been studying the picture story book, ‘The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan. In Art the students then completed a series of lessons, relating to ‘The Arrival’, building upon and combining aspects of each lesson.

Imaginary ‘companion’ creatures

The students started by drawing an imaginary ‘companion creature’ which was to travel with them. The creature combined elements of other animals.

3D City Scape or 2D Drawings of City Scapes

The second Art lesson, the students chose to either build a city or draw a city, full of interesting shaped buildings.

The drawings were to be very detailed with shading to give the impression of 3-D. The students also drew maps of their cities.

In the final lesson, the students were required to add their companion creature, add a Banksy graffiti, add people and street signs.

Fiona Gibson
Art Teacher

I wish all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Junior School

August 21, 2020/in juniorschool /by Georgia Bennett

CamNews

Junior School

August 21, 2020

Early Learning 3 are on Zoom!

The children of EL 3 are truly a community of learners. They are embracing multiple and diverse ways of learning which has been displayed when the children entered their first Zoom classroom session followed by partaking in our Seesaw online platform activities.

The children navigated their way on screen by first acknowledging the country to help increase their awareness of the plants, birds and animals and people of all cultural backgrounds.

The focus on nature and virtues such as kindness have continued to play a dominant role in the lives of the EL3 children as they settle into remote learning and Zoom meetings.

On Zoom, we read a story called “Kindness makes you strong” followed by Iris and Scarlet making cards for their friends. The cards say how much they miss their own friends, while Jayden sorted leaves in pairs, Chelsea noticed different leaves in the environment, Angus joined in with action songs and made the sound of the wind.

A highlight during remote learning was when the EL 3 and EL 4 Part-Time students observed together ‘The acknowledgement of Country’ via Zoom with Murrundindi and they continued to work together on their path to building a community of learners.

Ramila Sadikeen
EL 3 Classroom Teacher

Early Learning 4 Full-Time

During Remote Learning, the Early Learning 4 (Full Time) children have used digital technologies for purposeful communication, to gain understandings about wonderings, to document learning, to share a skill or interest and to maintain relationships with peers and teachers.

In the same way that children learn to share and collaborate within the classroom, children are learning how to take turns, listen to peers and teachers, work towards shared goals and contribute to discussions – through their engagement with digital technologies. These are important social behaviours that children require to actively participate with others in digital contexts, for example, during our daily small group Zoom meetings.

Our recent engagement with digital technologies have provided many learning opportunities for the children, for example:

Through Zoom, we connected with Murrundindi to learn about ochre as well as Wurundjeri symbols and the meaning of ‘Elder’. The children used ochre, provided by Annette Sax (Taungurung) to paint Wurundjeri symbols.

During a class Zoom meeting, some of the children shared their creations and Alex showed us an astronaut helmet that she created from recycled materials at home. Through Google, we connected with Storytime from Space and listened to the story ‘If I were an astronaut’ read by an astronaut on the International Space Station.

Through WebEx, we connected with Rebecca from the Wurundjeri Council and she shared stories and artefacts to celebrate National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day.

We connected with Bec, a teacher from Healesville Sanctuary and participated in Wurundjeri Way – a webinar that focused on Australian animals and their homes. The children also listened to a Dreamtime Story and learnt more words in Woiwurrung language.

We advocate for and understand the importance of children having a balance of digital and non-digital experiences both within the classroom and at home. For optimal health and wellbeing, the Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines recommends screen time limits for children – this link provides further information.

Angela Follacchio
Early Learning 4 Full Time Teacher

Early Learning 4 Part-Time are Scientists!

This week in EL4 Part-Time, the children have been participating in Science Week experiences. The theme of Science Week this year is Deep Blue: innovation for the future of our oceans. The children have been conducting science experiments at home such as cooking and making an ocean in a bottle. They have been challenged to make a sea creature (real or imagined) using recycled materials. They can enter their sea creature in a Science Week competition.

Lilian Bishop
Early Learning 4 Part-Time Teacher

Foundation – the comedians!

Ordinarily in Foundation, students would share Talk Time with the class every week. Whilst there is no longer a live audience, the Foundation students are still working on their presentation skills by creating a short video on different topics. They are focusing on speaking in full sentences, articulating their words clearly and making eye-contact by looking at the device that is filming them. These presentation skills are so important as the students will use them right throughout their schooling and for the rest of their lives.

Last week was very light-hearted as the students shared some of their favourite jokes. It was amazing to see that some of our youngest presenters could have such good comic timing! This week the students presented about their favourite free time activity at home. Reading, playing board games and playing with Lego are big hits with this Foundation cohort!

Selena Reedman
Foundation Teacher

Year 3

The Year 3 students have been working hard across all areas of the curriculum. They are confidently using the Seesaw platform to independently share their learning and demonstrate their understandings. Our current focus in writing is the use of persuasive devices to advertise products and services. We have been exploring a range of advertisement types, such as billboards, posters and television commercials and the different ways they persuade their audiences. Students have begun to identify a range of devices such as rhetorical questions, humour and jingles.

Last week the Year 3’s chose a toy product from their home. They brainstormed adjectives, slogans, facts and features to describe their product before using a storyboard to plan a television commercial to advertise it. Students then shared their completed commercials with a classmate and gave constructive feedback to each other. Their innovative and creative commercials demonstrated their knowledge of how a wide range of persuasive devices can be used to influence audiences to buy products.

Liz Ruffles & Rebecca Leondidis
Year 3 Class Teachers

MUSIC DEPARTMENT

CGGS presents ‘We’ve Got MORE Talent!’

In Music this week, it was time for sharing more Camberwell Girls COVID Creations. In ‘We’ve Got Talent’ we saw some incredible videos of our girls recording some of their talents from musicians, artists, magicians, trampoliners and even fast runners. So, we thought it was time to do it all over again. ELC to Year 3’s were invited to take part in our Term 3 Activity – ‘’We’ve Got MORE Talent”.

Once again students uploaded videos demonstrating one of the many talents that they have.

We had Singers, Gymnasts, Dancers, Pianists, Violinists, Comedians, Roller skaters, Artists and creative Lego builders – to name a few.

The talents and skills of our students are incredibly impressive and, despite the challenges we are all facing with remote learning, it is clear to see the students are artistically thriving. Never before has it been more important for our wellbeing to take some time away from our screens and allow ourselves to slow down and be in the moment.

In our creative moment this week, the students did exactly that and we couldn’t be more proud of them. Keep an eye on the CGGS social media platforms for some talent videos throughout next week!

Years 4, 5 and 6

The students have continued to enjoy working in Song-Maker in the chrome Music Lab. They have created a percussion accompaniment to enhance a given folk song. Many of the students have taken up extension options and challenged themselves, creating stunning variations to their folk song theme. The Seesaw activities have provided opportunities to learn further creative tools available to them in this program including increasing the number of bars and splitting the beat. Song-Maker continues to be used to enhance students Kodaly based learning of music reading, writing, performing and creating.

They have been encouraged to continue using their sight singing school course to further develop their musical skills as an extension activity.

It is fabulous to see our students increasingly able to use strategies to learn independently and to work at their own level.

This week we commence our music history investigation. The music selected to begin is Mozart’s Horn Concerto No 4.

Below are two links if you want to hear examples of variations composed by students using the theme of the folk song ‘Ding Dong Digi Didi Dong’.

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker/song/6230428437446656

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker/song/5941611348361216

Nichole Adams & Penny Byrne
Music Teachers

STEAM Ahead

One exciting thing to come out of remote learning has been the STEAM Ahead club. We started in Term 2 as a way to allow keen students to explore Science/STEAM topics in more depth and in a holistic way. The first topic we looked at was Marine Science, with the help of our Senior School dolphin expert, Dr Sue Mason. Students enjoyed learning about local marine animals and we were lucky to be able to share their final models of ocean ecosystems at school.

This term we have been investigating microbiology, starting with yeast and breadmaking and moving on to mould and decomposition. It has been inspiring to see the careful observations and experiments that club members have been able to carry out at home. Hearing the students share their thoughts and energy in our Zoom meetings is a highlight of the week!

Ms Penny Dumsday (Science Teacher) & Mrs Annabelle Vivarini (Literacy & Numeracy Teacher)

I wish all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Junior School

August 14, 2020/in juniorschool /by Georgia Bennett

CamNews

Junior School

August 14, 2020

Year 1 Mathematicians

Year 1 students this week have been developing their skill and understanding of estimating and measuring capacity using informal units. The students did an exceptional job predicting and ordering which containers could hold the smallest to largest capacity and they used water and other objects to determine whether their predictions were correct. I was particularly proud of the way they confidently used mathematical terms such as prediction and capacity and how they could clearly explain the steps in the process and the results they found. A number of students explained that although some containers looked tall, others had a large base and this meant the capacity of the container was larger than they initially thought.

Fantastic effort Year 1!

Angela Columbine
Year 1 Class Teacher

Year 4 & Murrundindi

Year 4 students and teachers participated in a Zoom session with Murrundindi on Tuesday 4 August. He discussed and showed photos of the ‘producers’ in the ecosystem around the Healesville area. We learned which plants were useful for producing fire and which plants produced coffee like beans, amongst other things. The students were surprised to notice that many of these plants could be found in their local neighbourhoods and were able to make connections to some they even had in their own gardens.

Craig Goodwin & Jasvindar Gill
Year 4 Class Teachers

Year 5

The ability to connect synchronously with the Year 5 students over video has allowed teachers and students to meet each morning as a class to plan and prepare for the day ahead. This has also been a wonderful opportunity for students to individually present a personal choice item to their peers. We have enjoyed completing many Kahoot quizzes, some students have spoken about environmental issues that they are passionate about, while others have shared their favourite holiday destination with accompanying photos. The power of meeting in this way, whilst we are remote learning, has also allowed students to work in small groups to explore new ideas and share their discoveries, or in breakout rooms to negotiate, plan and prepare a group response. Our learning curve has been positive and allowed for tremendous creativity and motivation. It’s been great and reassuring to be able to see each other every day.

Fiorella Soci, Anjali de Quadros & Meagan Wilson
Year 5 Class Teachers

Year 6 Mathematicians

Every Wednesday the Year 6 students apply their Mathematics understanding and skills in a focused problem-solving lesson. During these sessions, students explore and practise different strategies for solving complex multi-step problems. They learn how to think flexibly, effectively record their working out and justify their answers. We have been utilising Zoom break-out rooms to enable the students to collaborate and share their strategies and reasoning with each other.

Throughout the year, the students have also been using these problem-solving skills to compete in the highly regarded Maths Olympiad and Maths Games Competition organised by the Australian Problem Solving Mathematical Olympiads. It has been a privilege to witness the students demonstrate the school values of commitment and courage and their confidence grow as they grapple with these complex and challenging questions.

During remote learning, families can explore and participate in fun Maths problem solving challenges at The Victorian Maths Challenge website.

Here is the website link to Victorian Maths Challenge. http://vmc.global2.vic.edu.au/

Nancy Robottom and Katrina Cheong
Year 6 Class Teachers

Year 2 Artists

During this term, Year 2 students have had the opportunity to take part in the remote Art Club which is currently focusing on the Australian artist, Ken Done.

The Art Club is open to all Year 2 students and different tasks are released each Tuesday at 3.00pm via Seesaw. Students have learned about Ken Done and his artworks which depicts Australian landmarks and past times.

The first task was a Mindfulness colouring-in, which Ken Done drew, based upon one of his paintings.

The second task was drawing or painting an Australian landmark.

The third task was designing a t-shirt, inspired by his ‘Classic Sydney’ t-shirt.

More tasks will be released: how to draw koalas, a koala family and colourful fish in the bay.

Fiona Gibson
Art Teacher

Chinese

Students receive written and recorded instructions through Seesaw for activities designed by the teachers at the beginning of each week. They will then use creative tools, such as writing, taking pictures, drawing, recording or creating a video to capture their learning; followed then by the teachers approving the students work.

Year 1 Chinese Heritage – Lin Zhang’s class are learning to talk about “My Body”. Firstly, they looked at the picture and listened to the recording. They listened to it again then pointed at the correct parts of the body in the picture.

Secondly, they practised saying the words by themselves.

Lastly, they used the Template below and numbered the body parts shown in the picture in the order they heard it.

Jo Rittey
Head of LOTE

I wish all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Junior School

August 7, 2020/in juniorschool /by Georgia Bennett

CamNews

Junior School

August 7, 2020

Remote Learning Update

I would like toexpress my thanks to our Ormiston parents for their continued support during remote learning in Term 3. As we have now moved to Stage 4 restrictions until the end of this term, nearly all our Foundation – Year 6 students will have been at home for the whole of their learning.

As a Junior School staff, we have been very grateful for the positive feedback that parents and students have been providing us this term. We understand that parents are finding remote learning very challenging at times, and I encourage families to speak with their child’s Class Teacher about ensuring a good balance between Seesaw tasks and family commitments at home.

Student/Staff Wellbeing Day

I would like to remind parents that this Friday 7 August is our Student/Staff Wellbeing Day.

Student Reports

Student reports will be available to parents on Friday 7 August. An email will be sent to Foundation – Year 6 families to let them know when reports will be released.

Learning Conversations

Parent/Teacher Learning Conversations will take place on Thursday 13 August. Parents are encouraged to log-in into Parent Lounge and secure a time.

Early Learning 3

A community of learners listen to each other and come together in teams to make sense of their mini world by using the adults around them to deepen their understanding of surrounding living and non-living things. Taking the views of capable children with their inquiring minds is a great way to position the collaboration of teachers and the wider community’s involvement to play a part that is mutually respectful in this process.

“This apple is plastic and it is not real! Someone bought it from the shop and put it here!”– Sophie

“This lemon is real, and it is going black!”– Chelsea

Eason was holding the apple from its stalk and said, “This is from the tree and I like the apple!”

“These are real, and they are dry now!” said Scarlett as she closely examined the mushrooms that are shrivelled up.

Immersed in close examination with magnifying glasses, these little learners are a delight to capture.

The children are constantly learning and sharing information as they collaborate with each other in a space where the environment has a purpose, linking to prior learning as well as what is current, engaging and challenging.

A balance between child-led and teacher-led spaces where spontaneous learning happens in an organic way is a joy, and that learning can spark in all of us as a community of learners.

Ramila Sadikeen
EL3 Class Teacher

Early Learning 4 Part-Time & Murrundindi

In EL4 part-time, we have been connecting our learning about sustainability with the Acknowledgement to Country that we sing in Early Learning. In a morning meeting, we thought about the words in the Acknowledgement to Country and what it says we should ‘care for’. The children decided that the different ways of ‘caring for country’ include caring for the land, water, sky, animals and people of all backgrounds. We brainstormed the different ways that we could ‘care for country’ and be ‘custodians of the land’.

On Tuesday, we had a Zoom meeting with Murrundindi and he helped the children understand how the Aboriginal people, as the traditional owners of Australia, care for the land. The children sang our ‘Acknowledgment of Country’ to Murrundindi and he sang a ‘Welcome to Country’ to the children in Woiwurrung language. Murrundindi spoke to the children about how the Aboriginal people call the land, Mother Earth and as such they treat the land with great respect. He listened to the children’s ideas for how they could help be ‘custodians of the land’ and spoke about the importance of putting our words into action.

100 Days of Foundation!

Our Foundation children celebrated 100 days of school on Wednesday. All children wore their 100^th day tiara they had carefully decorated the previous day and they caught up on Zoom to celebrate.

Inspired by the letters people receive from the Queen for their 100^th birthday, I prepared personalised letters for each girl to congratulate them on reaching 100 days of school.

Many of our daily activities were centred around the number 100. In true CGGS style, when asked what they would do if they had $100, many girls said they would give it to people who needed it. Living our motto of ‘Utilis in Ministerium’ from a young age! Congratulations to all our Foundation students on reaching this milestone! Even though we haven’t had 100 days together physically at school, they have made amazing progress and learned so much!

Year 2

This week we celebrated 100 days (roughly) of Year 2, with almost 50 of those days spent at home, doing online learning. As our spelling sound this week was ‘ar’ we decided to have a little party in our morning Zoom session. We continued to have party-themed activities throughout the day, which included drawing their own 100 days of Year 2, including adding sentences to describe the party. We also looked at some chance scenarios in our maths session and the students identified if they were certainor impossible. For example: You will see a crocodile at our party.

The students had such a fun day and enjoyed receiving their 100 days of Year 2 and 50 days of remote learning certificates!

Special thank you to Miss Kitsou for helping create the amazing certificates.

Ellie Zafarty & Mikaela Stanaway
Year 2 Class Teachers

Year 3

Our morning Zoom class meetings continue to be an important opportunity for students to share their experiences, talk about their feelings and connect with their classmates. This term, our BRAVE focus is ‘Positive Coping’ which is giving students the opportunity to explore a range of coping strategies to help them manage challenging emotions, such as feeling worried, nervous, frustrated or scared. Positive self-talk, labelling the feeling and breathing exercises are examples of skills that the Year 3 students have started to learn about. These types of strategies are particularly important at this time when regular routines and connections with friends, which often provide reassurance for students when they are feeling big emotions, are diminished.

Below are some reflections from the Year 3 students about positive coping skills:

“I use artwork to help me stop being scared. I draw the thing that I’m scared of and then add a cute or funny touch to it which makes me less scared or worried.”– Shreya 3R

“I have been using one of the activities when I am sad or disappointed. I have used breathing exercises to calm me down.”– Iris 3L

“I think it is important that we have a range of coping strategies because it helps our emotions calm down and helps our mind relax.”– Lauren 3R

“When I feel frustrated I could jump on the trampoline. Another thing I could do is take some deep breaths.”– Sienna 3L

“I would like to try doing yoga because I haven’t tried it before and it might help.” –Kathleen 3R

“I think it is important to have a wide range of ways to calm yourself down so that if one does not work you have other strategies.”– Ruth 3L

“I have used breathing exercises and it helped because it calmed me down and I felt relax. I also forgot about how disappointed I was.”– Amiya 3R

Helping students to learn a range of positive coping skills will allow them to develop and practise these skills and enable them to cope with future changes and challenges. We will continue to explore ways that students can access these strategies throughout the term.

Liz Ruffles and Rebecca Leondidis
Year 3 Class Teachers

Physical Education

During these rapidly changing times, we have all had to show adaptability and our Ormiston students have risen to the challenge! Whilst remote learning cannot replicate the same energy and enthusiasm that our students bring to face-to-face Physical Education classes, they have been working hard to develop their skills in an online environment.

The focus for ELC and Foundation students has been on Fundamental Movement Skills such as throwing, catching, running, bouncing and striking. These are some of the most important skills for students to learn as they are the foundation to a variety of activities and sports.

The Year 1 and 2 students are completing a ‘Huff n Puff’ unit where they are completing a wide variety of cardiovascular fitness activities. Students are exploring how they feel after completing exercises such as skipping and aerobics. By thinking about how their body responds to exercise, students will understand that an increased heart rate and breathing rate is not only normal, but important for improved fitness and health and wellbeing.

Students in Years 3 and 4 are participating in a Dance unit where they are developing their movement skills and ability to perform choreography in time to music. They have enjoyed learning routines to Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ and ‘The Lion King’ as well as some party favourites like the Nutbush.

Our Year 5 and 6 students are also completing a movement unit; however, the focus is on aerobics. Year 5 students are learning a routine of eight basic movements and progressing to transitioning effectively from one movement to another. Having had an introduction to aerobics last year, our Year 6 students are working on learning a more advanced routine. Both year levels are being given plenty of practice time and students are submitting videos weekly so their teacher can provide them with feedback on areas to improve.

In addition to their Physical Education classes, students are completing a daily Fitness Bingo challenge which has a range of activity suggestions such as skipping, going for a walk with an adult, playing outside and meditation. With the increase in screen time for all of us, it is so important now more than ever for students to be active everyday whether it is structured activity or simply just playing. Families are encouraged to join in as well!

Dot Georgiou & Liana Kitsou
Physical Education Teachers

Library

It is wonderful to see our students continuing to read, access and connect to books using the resources available through our library website. The StoryBox Library provides access to fantastic stories being read aloud for children, the eBook collection is being widely used, and many students have reserved books online or via emails to Mrs Spencer. We are always happy to collate titles to be collected so please remember to contact us if you have any requests.

For the ELC children who are learning on site, there was great excitement as we read and explored several new board books and picture books we have recently added to the collection. These books are fun, engaging and full of bright images and illustrations which appeal to our younger readers and the children loved selecting titles to take home to share with their families.

I wish all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Junior School

July 31, 2020/in juniorschool /by Georgia Bennett

CamNews

Junior School

July 31, 2020

Foundation – Rockstar Readers!

Foundation are Rockstar Readers! We have been putting our knowledge of letters and sounds to very good use in lots of reading activities this term. The students are becoming so good at blending sounds to read words and the more they work on it the more their reading fluency is improving. They participate in a small group reading Zoom session each week with a teacher. This is a great way to catch up, share our love of reading, practise reading aloud and discuss books together. We have also begun the ‘60 Second Read’ activity where each student records their reading and uploads a video on Seesaw to share their progress. This is such a wonderful time in Foundation where the students’ hard work and new skills come together and their reading begins to take-off.

Selena Reedman
Foundation Teacher

Year 1 – Curious Minds

This term in Inquiry and STEAM, Year 1 are exploring how objects move and change and how materials can be used in different ways. The students have been curious and creative scientists where they have created their own hands on experiments at home to investigate how objects can sink and float and also, how everyday materials can be manipulated and changed in order to show how common materials can be used in a variety of ways. Students have also participated in additional “challenge by choice” STEAM mini projects to further develop their inquiring minds. They were very proud to share photos and videos of their work, where they made predications about possible outcomes, explained the steps involved in their projects and discussed their discoveries. It has been wonderful to see so many engaged minds and future TV documentary presenters.

See some of their experiments below.

Angela Columbine
Year 1 Class Teacher

Year 4

In Term 3 the students of Year 4 have continued displaying excellent online etiquette through their listening skills and turn taking.

Yesterday was International Friendship Day and for our morning meeting we discussed what makes a good friend. Kindness, trust, support, humour and respect were the main ideas that were shared. The students also discussed what they miss about their friends whilst engaged in remote learning. It is evident that the ability to laugh with each other, run around and create games, share stories and learn from each other are missed.

On the other hand, remote learning has some benefits, as the students noted what they enjoyed:

“What I am grateful for online learning is that most or all of us have a technology device for example: an iPad, a computer etc. Many people in different environments and places don’t even have the opportunity to use these lovely and helpful devices during this pandemic and lockdowns.”– Mo Lin

“I enjoy being able to see my mum while doing my work”– Tiffany

“I think remote learning gives me an opportunity to learn more about technology and help me adapt to independence. Remote learning gave me more time to bounce around on the trampoline and discover nature’s secrets. Lastly it help me spend more time with my family and have a great time together.”– Rita

“I think remote learning is fun in a sense that we take long breaks and can take our time with our work. I also enjoy getting to see my friends and teachers via zoom and having my teacher put on dance music every morning. I think remote learning is a very interesting experience!”– Asha

In the past week the students have also been conducting a science experiment with cress seeds. As part of our study of ecosystems, we have been learning about the necessary conditions required for something to grow that include biotic (seeds) and abiotic (water, temperature) things. The students have been exploring their hypothesis by introducing one variable – can you see what the variable is by looking at the two photos?

We are looking forward to sharing our learning together on Zoom as we continue to unpack scientific concepts through our reading, writing and inquiry programs.

Craig Goodwin & Jasvindar Gill
Year 4 Class Teachers

Year 5 Update

Term 3 remote learning for Year 5 has started with great energy and curiosity. Our morning Zoom meetings have involved students sharing their passions and interests with the class. Amongst many engaging presentations, we were fortunate enough to be given a drawing lesson by Aaliyah D’Rozario who taught the class how to draw a horse, as well as being amazed by Emily Foo’s gymnastic skills. We have also been fortunate to welcome two new students this term, Alexia and Claire, who have both made a great start despite the challenges of meeting their new classmates and teachers online.

Our Unit of Inquiry ‘How can informed choices create a sustainable world?’ has seen the students dive into the 2040 documentary movie and explore concepts such as climate change, biodiversity loss, sustainability, greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and carbon sequestration. Students are currently developing their knowledge on the art of debating and soon they will have an opportunity to work in teams, via Zoom, to prepare debates. Despite the challenges of remote learning and the huge impact lockdown has caused to everyone, we continue to see positivity, gratitude and a great sense of fun and achievement from all of our students.

Anjali de Quadros, Meagan Wilson & Fiorella Soci
Year 5 Class Teachers

Year 6 Update

During this term Year 6 has recently commenced an in-depth book study on ‘The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan. It is a beautiful graphic novel filled with pictures and no words, requiring students to look closely and develop their questioning, predicting, summarising and inferring skills in the process. This book is closely tied to our Inquiry unit for this term exploring immigration. We aimed to connect as many activities to Chapter I of ‘The Arrival ‘ to provide continuity in our learning program and an opportunity for students to explore and reflect on these concepts and themes in various ways. In spelling, students learned immigration-related vocabulary, focusing on the meanings of these words while they continue to explore how to create creatures and cities related to scenes in ‘The Arrival’ in Art lessons with Mrs Gibson. Students also learned how to fold origami cranes as part of a mindfulness activity and carefully chose a maximum of 10 things to pack in their own suitcase if they had to leave for a different country, justifying the importance of each item.

Nancy Robottom & Katrina Cheong
Year 6 Class Teachers

Music is in the air at Ormiston!

In Music this week, ELC students learned about Brass instruments and how to play them. The students also enjoyed watching ‘Wa Wa Waltz’, an interactive music adventure series performed by Queensland ensemble ‘Best of Brass’.

The Foundation Music students commenced the term choosing a dance style in which they recorded themselves improvising a style of dance and also revised the song “Bounce” where they practised singing and notating it.

Program music is a story written with music. It enables the listener to explore music as guided by the composer. The Year 1 students commenced their encounter with program music with the story and music for “Peter and the Wolf”by Sergei Prokofiev.Whilst Year 2 Music students commenced their study of ‘Carnival of the Animals’by the famous French composer Camille Saint-Saens, in future weeks both classes will analyse why the composer chose certain instruments to represent the characters in the stories.

Year 3 Music students were introduced to Chrome Music Lab which is a website that makes learning music more accessible through fun, hands-on experiments. The students experimented with the ‘Songmaker’and ‘Rhythm’applications and are enjoying the opportunity to experiment with different sounds and rhythms.

In Years 4, 5 and 6, the students have enjoyed their introduction to Song-Maker in the chrome Music Lab. Composing ‘picture music’ as a Seesaw Activity was an opportunity for them to learn and use some of the creative tools available in this program. Song-Maker will be used to enhance their Kodaly based learning of music reading, writing, performing and creating.

We have selected some great repertoire for students to get to know this term, as they focus on the following music topics:

Year 4– Music of the modern period such as Holst’s The Planets

Year 5– Music of the classical period such as Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca

Year 6– Music composed for the standard symphony orchestra including Beethoven’s 5^thSymphony.

Here is an example of a Song-Maker ‘picture’ composition.

Click below to hear the composition.

COMPOSITION

Year 5 & 6 Concert Band

Year 5 Band students have learnt to safely assemble their instrument and have begun the process of making a good sound. They have engaged with the videos that their instrumental tutors have uploaded to Seesaw to learn and memorise their first notes.

Within the Year 6 Concert Band Program, students have been responding to weekly video posts from their instrumental tutor, focusing on different pieces of music from their Essential Elements Interactive Application.

Choirs

The year level Choirs have continued to operate in an asynchronous format, with students working on warm-ups and songs with Ms Huggett’s video tutorials in Seesaw. They have enjoyed singing along with her videos and connecting with her through music.

Year 2 Super Strings

In Super Strings, the students continue to work asynchronously via the Seesaw platform by watching weekly tutorials and demonstration videos. In response, the students are uploading videos of themselves playing the activities. Teachers are then able to make comments to help encourage each student to engage fully with their stringed instrument.

The recent introduction of left hand and ‘siren’ exercises to coordinate fingers means it will not be too long before the students are playing tunes on their instruments.

I wish all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Junior School

July 24, 2020/in juniorschool /by Georgia Bennett

CamNews

Junior School

July 24, 2020

New Student to Ormiston

On Monday 27 July, a new student will be joining Year 5DW class with Ms de Quadros and Mrs Wilson to begin her educational journey with Camberwell Girls Grammar School. Our new student is Claire Pham and I would like to encourage the students, particularly in Year 5DW, to make Claire feel very welcome to Ormiston as part of our remote learning program. We look forward to seeing Claire in person when we all come back to Junior School (on campus) in the near future.

Term 3 Co-Curricular Activities

I would like to remind students and parents that our co-curricular program is continuing during our remote learning program this term. We have several creative, wellbeing and active activities that have been advertised in our Junior School Weekly and last week’s CamNews. These activities can provide a good alternative to the remote learning activities your child participates in during the day. If you have any questions about our co-curricular activities, please email Vicki Ibbott at Junior School Reception on juniorcoordinator@cggs.vic.edu.au.

Early Learning 3 – Multiple ways of being

The second program of remote learning has given us time to revise and revisit our experiences with the children as we guide through this challenging chapter.

We have used this time to listen to the children explore their sense of wonder extending their thoughts outside our gates to the wider community and to rethink and make sense of our daily tasks which we sometimes take for granted.

One such task is our morning routine of reciting our acknowledgement to country statement which goes like this:

“Wurundjeri People

Custodians of the land

We respect and learn from you

The stories you tell.

Care for country, Love our land, plants, birds and animals,

People of all backgrounds

Hand in hand together we stand”

As part of our program, we like to build on each child’s current knowledge, ideas, culture and interests. To do this, it is important to link our learning and teaching to routines and learning experiences. Every morning we create and facilitate a safe space for sharing to build on strong identities to support the multiple ways of being…

> Looking at nature, wondering and noticing

> Considering how we can help each other and help the land

We have taken little walks in the big yard to feel and touch and take in the enormous trees that surround us here at Ormiston. The three bears have set up home to share their porridge with Goldilocks in the home corner.

The inter-play with light and colour is intriguing as the children make marks and venture into schematic drawings and paintings. What is fake and what is real? A classroom table with a variety of objects awaits to provoke the children.

More children are taking on board leadership as a path to learning and we see them gradually embrace stewardship and showing their many capabilities. I know I can always learn from the children and I look forward to building our bond of stewardship together as we embrace people of all backgrounds to stand together, hand in hand, to care for our country and love our land.

Ramila Sadikeen
Early Learning 3 Teacher

Early Learning 4 Full-Time

As curious learners, the Early Learning 4 (Full Time) children went for a walk in the Junior School with their binoculars. This provided them with an opportunity to wonder about the sky, trees, birds and flowers – all things from nature. As they walked throughout the Junior School, the children referred to a book that contained photographs of birds to help them to identify birds they saw in the garden. The children were interested in and observed the magpies as they moved the tanbark with their beaks so they could find worms. The children used the binoculars to observe the lorikeets as they sat on the branches of the trees and were fascinated to see how they spread their bright colourful wings to fly from tree to tree. The children were encouraged to close their eyes and ‘to be still’ and mindful as they listened to sounds from nature. When they returned to the classroom, the children shared their observations and thinking through dialogue and drawing with charcoal.

In Early Learning, we provide opportunities and cultivate interesting and creative environments and experiences, so the children can explore and wonder. Nurturing a child’s curiosity and their sense of awe and wonder about the natural world, is one of the most important ways we can support children to become lifelong learners.

Angela Follacchio
Early Learning 4 (Full Time) Teacher

Early Learning 4 Part-Time

The EL4 Part-Time children are learning about sustainability and the importance of recycling. This week we read a book by Neal Layton called ‘A Planet Full of Plastic’. The children in the classroom listened to the book and some of the children learning remotely watched and joined in the discussion via Zoom. The children learned about the origin of plastic and how it can be both useful and cause environmental problems. After reading the book, the children in the classroom looked for different objects in our classroom that are made of plastic. The children working at home were encouraged to take some photos of plastic objects in their home and post them on Seesaw. The children learned a new word – BIODEGRADE. We will be exploring biodegradability of a range of items in different environments such as soil and water.

Lilian Bishop
Early Learning 4 Part-Time Teacher

Year 2 Update!

Year 2’s have started off Term 3 with online learning determination and resilience.

Week 1 finished up with a ‘Fantastic Friday’ activity where all the girls in Year 2 joined in on a Zoom and played an exciting scavenger hunt game! Each round the students were asked to find something and bring it back to the camera to share with us all. All the girls had a wonderful end to their first week online.

Week 2 has been another wonderful week, where the girls have explored the spelling sound ‘oa’ and participated in multiple reading and writing activities. As our focus this term is on Narratives, the girls spent this week retelling some of their favourite stories and describing characters using adjectives. In Numeracy, the students began their learning about Australian coins and notes and through completing a KWL chart, the students investigated their wondering questions about Australian currency by unpacking videos and website fact sheets.

Below are some comments from the Year 2’s about what they are enjoying about remote learning:

> “My favourite thing about learning from home is that I get to stay with my pets all day and do my work without rushing. I also really like being able to eat whenever I want to and go on lots of little adventurous walks near my house. I really miss my friends though.” – Laila

> “I have enjoyed the Zoom sessions and I have also enjoyed the maths, inquiry, writing and spelling activities because they were very fun.” – Claudia

> “My favourite thing that I did this week was the dice addition because it was fun. I also loved the Carla Sandwich one because I loved that story and it was a fun activity” – Elaine

> “I have really enjoyed remote learning this week. My favourite task has been reading a book called Carla’s Sandwich where the main character brings weird sandwiches to school every day. We then got the chance to design our own weird sandwich, I thought this was really fun. Mine had crazy fillings like ice cream and fish fingers. I am also really interested in learning more about money in maths and how the size in money doesn’t matter. I love coins because my grandfather always gives me special edition coins when he finds them.” – Molly

We are looking forward to another wonderful and exciting learning filled week next week.

Mikaela Stanaway & Ellie Zarfaty
Year 2 Class Teachers

Year 3 Update!

Year 3 have had a wonderful start to Term 3 remote learning. This week we’ve had fun catching up with each other during Zoom meetings. It’s been lovely hearing the students share what they did over the holidays – we have a very creative and curious group of Year 3s!

We have started exploring our Inquiry unit which focuses on Australia and its unique qualities. Thinking routines, such as ‘I see, I think, I wonder’, have given students the opportunity to share their prior knowledge and spark their curiosity. During this unit they will also learn about the states, territories and capital cities of Australia.

Reading and understanding calendars are an essential part of everyday life and our maths Zoom sessions have been lots of fun as students have been consolidating their understandings of this concept through interactive maths games. Students have shared different ways of remembering how many days are in each month. Popular strategies have been catchy songs and mnemonics, such as counting on the knuckles of one’s hand to remember the number of days in each month.

It has been great to see the Year 3 students settle quickly back into the routines of Remote Learning. Their Seesaw journals are already full of great examples of their learning and understandings. We are looking forward to a fun and productive term.

Rebecca Leondidis & Liz Ruffles
Year 3 Class Teachers

I wish all our Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

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