Foundation – Year 6 Orientation Morning

It was a pleasure to see our current students showing leadership skills in helping new students and families that visited Ormiston last week. Orientation morning was an excellent opportunity for the 2020 Foundation to Year 6 students to meet as a group and spend time with their new class friends and class teacher. During the morning, new families had the opportunity to learn more about the daily operations of the Junior School and to meet other new families and ask questions. We are welcoming 18 Early Learning students into Foundation in 2020 which is wonderful for the Ormiston community. This number is reflective of the high-quality program that we provide within our Early Learning Centre and Junior School. I look forward to seeing these students begin their next educational journey with us in Foundation next year.

Year 1 Incursion – Beekeeper

On Wednesday 27 November, the Year 1 students were fortunate to meet Des Peachman, a local beekeeper.

In preparation for his visit, the children have been locating and understanding facts about bee farms in their reading. Students have also been formulating questions to find out more information about bee farms. Some of the questions were:

> What do the bees do when the Queen dies?

> Do all of the bees have different patterns on their bodies, like a zebra?

> How long can bees live?

> How do bees make honey in the tummies?

Des taught us that bees can fly up to 5km away from their hives but this has an impact on their wings. As a result, their lifespan is about 6 weeks. The students also learnt that the hive makes new Queen cells – usually 3 to 5 cells – when the Queen dies. We were taught that bees take the nectar, regurgitate it, remove the water and put it in the cells in the hive.

Des also recommended that if ever we find a swarm or nest at home, there are always local bee keepers willing to come, mostly for free, to take them away. Des suggested contacting Swarm Patrol; don’t use Mortein! We’d rather preserve our helpful honey makers than have them killed!

The children had an opportunity to explore some of a beekeepers equipment and hold honeycomb. It was a tremendous opportunity to learn from an expert!

Year 3 and 4 ADANAC Camp

It was a pleasure joining the Years 3 and 4 students at camp ADANAC at Yarra Junction this week. The behaviour of both year groups was exemplary when participating in either outdoor activities or eating breakfast, lunch or dinner. Some of the exciting activities included:

Year 3
> Flying fox                                           
> Low ropes course                              
> Archery                                              
> Canoeing                                           
> Trampolines
> Cage soccer           
> BRAVE – CGGS                                
> Basketball

Year 4
> Aqua ponding
> Disc golf
> Raft building
> Water trampoline
> Archery
> Hut building
> Table tennis

I would like to highlight the Year 3 students who were on their first ever camp at CGGS. Each student enjoyed the outdoor and indoor experiences and they especially loved the food for all snacks and meals. As with every camp, the students will help the class teachers review the camp program to ensure the activities provided were high quality and relevant to all students.

Foundation – Year 6 Choral and Instrumental Concert

Last Friday morning, our Foundation to Year 6 students were involved in our annual end of year Choral and Instrumental Concert. The concert was a huge success and the participation of every student in Ormiston from Foundation to Year 6 was a real highlight. This year we have had 103 students learn a musical instrument which is almost 50% of all our Foundation to Year 6 students. We also have excellent participation rates at the co-curricular level at Ormiston, with 87 Year 1 to Year 6 students actively involved in activities, and participation and enjoyment continue to be our key focuses.

I would like to thank the Music Department for organising the concert, particularly Directors of Music Kate Savige and Rohan Mack, Jane Scott our Music Administrator and our Junior School Music and Choir teachers Nichole Adams, Penny Byrne, Cathy Georgiev, Katrina Cheong and Marianne Rigby-Black. Additionally, I would like to thank the Year 5 and 6 Concert Band tutors Mat Duniam (percussion), Joseph Yu (trumpets), Stephanie Leslie (flutes), Mandy Lo (lower brass), Catherine Oxworth (clarinets) and Laura Tcheupdjian who teaches the Year 2 Super Strings program.

Early Learning Visit Year 6 Concert Band

The Early Learning children were invited to be audience members and listen to the Year 6 Concert Band. It was a wonderful learning opportunity and the children were immersed in and engaged with the music. They demonstrated their curiosity and interest when the Year 6 students shared their knowledge about their different instruments, in particular how they’re played, their names and the various parts. As the children watched the conductor, listened to the music and viewed how the instruments were played, they were focused and responsive participants. We are grateful that our youngest students had this opportunity to engage with members of our school community and celebrate the joy of music. We would like to thank members of the Year 6 Concert Band for their informative presentations and sharing their musical skills; and Mr Duniam and members of the Music Department for this wonderful opportunity. Below are some ELC student responses.

“I liked the loud drums because it made a deep sound.”  – Alexandra

“I loved the trumpet because it makes a beautiful sound.” – Rubyrose

“The drum was my favourite because it makes boom, boom, boom. I love boom, boom, boom.” – Zara

“I liked the flute because it made a high sound.” – Leo

“The music made me feel happy.” – Calista

“It sounded like Coming Around the Mountain.” – Maddie

“The other one sounded like a wolf tiptoeing. It sounded like it wanted to eat something.” – Isabella-Rose

“I like the drum.” – Cathy

“It (the trombone) sounds like someone slipping.” – Lina

“I love the drum because it’s really loud.” – Natalie

“It (the music) made you feel excited and happy.” – Maddie

“I loved the flute because it’s high up (the pitch).” – Olivia

Angela Follacchio
Early Learning 3 Teacher & Early Learning Team Leader

Oxford Australian Children’s Word of the Year

This year the students from Year 3 took part in the Oxford Australian Children’s Word of the Year writing competition. There were hundreds of entries from classrooms all over Australia and students were asked to create a piece of writing based on their own chosen word that meant something to them. All the Year 3 students worked with purpose and creativity to plan, draft, edit and publish some wonderful pieces of work.

One Year 3 student, Mo Lin Yu was an individual award winner in the Year 3 category. Mo Lin chose the word ‘bravery’ and wrote an engaging story about a girl in a ski race. Out of all the entries received by Oxford this year, ‘bravery’ was not only selected as the word of the year, but was also a key theme in entries across all age groups.

Congratulations to Mo Lin and all the Year 3 authors for their hard work and persistence.

Angela Columbine
Year 3 Class Teacher

Digital Wellbeing: ‘Tis the season to be scammed!

The 1st of December traditionally is when many Australians begin to think about bringing out their Christmas decorations and making homes look suitably festive. This date is now sandwiched between two events which are gaining more traction within Australia each year; these being Black Friday, today, quickly followed by ‘Cyber Monday’. Both events are designed to lure consumers into opening their wallets and purses. Whilst shoppers can attend their local shopping centres for greatly reduced prices, increasingly, Australians of all generations are taking advantage of the convenience of online shopping.

Unfortunately, the combination of the festive season and significant retail discounts provides the perfect environment for online scammers to take advantage of busy and perhaps unsuspecting consumers. The ACC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission)  provides the service ScamWatch. ScamWatch presents helpful information on current scams as well as tips on how to avoid the disappointment of not receiving purchased goods online. The most common goods that scammers are attempting to ‘sell’ this season are shoes, smartphones and tickets to events.

Scamwatch recommends that you can shop safely and securely by:

> Being mindful of advertisements on social media as these are often used by scammers to direct you to fake online stores or websites

> Avoiding luxury goods that are being offered for very low prices

> Researching websites by checking reviews as well as the website’s information about their returns policies etc. Remember to look out for spelling errors and poor grammar

> Check for a URL that starts with ‘https’ and a closed padlock symbol when making online payments. Consider using a payment provider such as PayPal and avoid international funds transfers or electronic currency, such as Bitcoin

Scamwatch also recommends you share this information with friends and family. It is worth subscribing to email alerts about scams as these change on a regular basis. Register for these emails at the Scamwatch website: www.scamwatch.gov.au

Finally, whilst the festive season is about much more than gifts, the eSafetyCommissioner recognises the need for consumers to make informed decisions if they are considering buying technology for children and teenagers. You may find it helpful to spend a few minutes viewing key information on how to protect your family’s privacy and security if you are thinking of purchasing items such as wearable tech, smart toys or virtual reality technologies.

Paul Donohue and Felicity Carroll

Junior School Netball            

The Netball season is coming to end, the Ormiston students have been showing outstanding skills each week. The Year 2 students have been learning the rules and getting better at their shooting techniques. The Year 3 students understand the game and have been bonding together as a team. The Year 4 Rubies played one of their best games of netball last Friday afternoon, Rubies were very consistent and went for every ball. The Year 4 Garnets defeated KD Stargazers convincingly, the students moved the ball down the court beautifully. The Year 5 Opals defeated Ruyton Rockers 11-1, Opals have been strong in defence all season and transitioning the ball into the attack end to score. The Year 5 Jets are undefeated this Spring Season, Jets will be playing off for first position this coming Saturday. The Year 6 Topaz had a very close game against Strathy Stars, the CGGS team were unlucky with turnovers and ended up going down to them 5-6. Best of luck goes to all teams playing in the Spring Fling Finals this weekend.

Lexie Joyce
CGGS Netball Coach

I wish all Ormiston families a restful weekend and a wonderful evening of entertainment at the Carols at Camberwell concert this evening.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Foundation – Year 6 Ormiston Spirit Awards

During this week’s assembly, our Junior School teachers handed out the prestigious Ormiston Spirit Awards in front of the school community. These awards are handed to Foundation – Year 6 students who are consistently displaying our CGGS School Values of Respect, Integrity, Commitment, Hope and Courage in their classroom learning and participation in school co-curricular activities. Congratulations to the following students:

Foundation S
Kayla Yao

Foundation R
Cathy Gao

Year 1G
Angela Hu

Year 1J          
Alice Xu

Year 2S
Ailey Poon

Year 2Z
Nan Cao

Year 3C
Eleanor Robertson

Year 3L
Cathy Wang

Year 4H
Charlie Russo

Year 4G
Ashley Wang

Year 5R
Grace Wan

Year 5 D/K
Abbey Marcou

Year 6R
Sarah Zhou

Year 6C
Lily Thomas

Art
Madison Hall

Physical Education
Madeleine Law

Music
Erena Zhu

Library           
Mo Lin Yu

Chinese (Mainstream)
Sophie-May Ronzani

Chinese (Enhanced)
Jasmine Li

French           
Lucy Ciro

Boroondara Division Athletics Carnival

Over one week ago, three students participated in the Boroondara District Athletics carnival and did a wonderful job competing against the best athletes among local government, catholic and independent schools. Congratulations to Anika Selvaratnam, Christina Weickhardt and Jessica Wu who were all very competitive in their events. Anika came second in her 1500 metre race and qualified for the Eastern Regional Championships, and she came fourth in her 200 metre race. Christina came seventh in her long jump event and Jessica came fourth in her 80 metre hurdles race. I would like to thank all three students for being excellent representatives for Camberwell Girls Grammar School.

Years 3 – 6 Author visit – Felice Arena

The Years 3 – 6 students began Term 4 with a fun and engaging visit from popular children’s author, Felice Arena. Felice shared his path to becoming a children’s author and his ‘sliding doors’ moment with J.K. Rowling. He introduced students to many of his books, including a Chinese edition of his picture book Sally and Dave, A Slug Story. Cathy from Year 3 read some of the story for us in Chinese while Felice read it in English.

In recent years, Felice has written three historical fiction novels – The Boy and the Spy, Fearless Frederic and A Great Escape. Felice captivated students with the stories behind his books, the fascinating research he has done to ensure his books are authentic and gave a valuable insight into his writing process. He had the Senior School Library ringing with laughter when he taught students and teachers how to do Morse Code in a fun and unique way! We could easily have stayed longer to listen to Felice who has definitely gained many new readers with his visit. Felice will be back again in Week 4 for the highly anticipated YABBA Awards where he has two books shortlisted.

Thank you Felice for reminding us of the joy and power of reading.

What I liked about this author visit is that there was a lot of humour and that Felice Arena had his eyes bursting out like he was so interested in telling us about his books and past. As well as that he made us move and stand up so we were not just listening to him, but we were having fun. – Rudra, Year 3

Kim Yeomans
Junior School Library Teacher

Year 4 Excursion

As part of their Inquiry topic this term of ‘who is responsible for changes to planet Earth?’ the Year 4’s visited Blackburn Lake Sanctuary last Friday to learn about the natural and man-made changes that have occurred over time. Students viewed maps of the area from the 1800s through to current day to understand how natural and human developmental changes to the landscape and surface of the earth have affected the local flora and fauna.

Students enjoyed walking through the sanctuary and learning how man-made changes such as the planting of vegetation and erecting barriers can have a positive impact on the environment. These include minimising erosion and attracting wildlife and creating ecosystems. It was also very exciting to spot various birds such as lorikeets and even a tawny frog-mouth.

Jasvindar Gill & Emma Hinchliffe
Year 4 Class Teachers

Year 3 – 6 Netball

Netball has kicked off at Ormiston for Term 4. The Years 2 and 3 Netball Skills is a huge hit, the students have been working on many skills and learning the rules of the game. A Year 3 team has formed and they played their first game last Friday afterschool in the Boroondara Netball Competition. The opposition came out strong, but the CGGS team were up for the challenge.

The Year 4 Rubies had a good game but went down 5-2. The Year 4 Garnets had a very close game against MLC, CGGS had plenty of opportunities but couldn’t finish it off.

The Year 5 teams both won their matches last Saturday. Opals were unstoppable down both ends of the court, CGGS kept Ruyton scoreless for the whole game and our students scored 10 goals. The Jets also played a great game, the ball flowed very smoothly down the court and the CGGS team defeated MLC 11-2.

The Year 6 Topaz welcomed some new players to the team and had great patches of play. Unfortunately, Genazzano defeated CGGS 10-5. Congratulations to all netballers on their efforts.

Lexie Joyce
CGGS Netball Coach

Digital Wellbeing

We have completed surveying the CGGS community about digital wellbeing. Thank you to our students, teachers and families for your participation. Your contribution has helped us gather current data about our community’s technology usage and perceptions, including any concerns.

Now we begin the process of examining this data. It will be used to help inform our next steps as we work together to promote digital wellbeing. Our teachers have begun this process, by looking at some data trends and considering their implications. We have also had initial student focus group sessions and will be running more of these as we look at refining our shared expectations of device usage for learning. We are grateful that many parents have expressed an interest in participating in digital wellbeing forums and focus groups. Details of these opportunities will be published in upcoming editions of CamNews as well as results from our student, teacher and family surveys. We look forward to continuing our community’s focus on digital wellbeing throughout this term and in 2020.

Paul Donohue and Felicity Carroll

Student Achievements

Years 5 & 6 French

We would like to congratulate two Year 6 students, Monique Desai and Samantha Chua.

Monique came second in the Alliance Française Berthe Mouchette poetry competition. This is a competition open to all French students in Victoria. She competed against 700 students in total and 76 finalists. Félicitations Monique!

Samantha received first place in the Alliance Française Berthe Mouchette drawing competition. Samantha illustrated her own representation of the Year 6 poem studied this year. Bravo Samantha!

Year 3 Asha Bhattacharjee – Eisteddfod by the Bay

On 8 September, Asha competed in the Years 8 – 9 section of the Piano category in the 64th Eisteddfod By the Bay (Piano Section). She played a piece titled “Two Little Birds” by Frank Hutchens. In a highly competitive group of 25 participants, Asha missed out on the top three prizes, but did tremendously well to have received an Honourable Mention in her category.

Recently, Asha also sat her Grade 5 piano exam in June and received an A+ (High Distinction) for her results. This is an outstanding effort.

As a school, we are extremely proud of Asha and her musical achievements this year.

I wish all Ormiston families a restful weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Junior School Disco

Last Friday over one hundred students attended our annual Junior School Disco which took place once again in the Senior School Anne Feehan Building (Year 7 Level). The first session involved students from Foundation to Year 3 and the second session included students from Years 4 to 6 to get together to sing and dance. The evening was once again very popular and well attended by students across all year levels. This Junior School event truly promoted our CGGS Strategic Pillar of a Connected Community. These special events throughout the year help bring our Ormiston community together. I would like to thank Susannah Jepson from the Foundation Office for all her planning and preparation in making the disco a very successful event. Also, many Junior School Parent Representatives gave up their valuable family time to volunteer at the event. I would like to thank the following parents:

> Meagan Healy
> Tammy Sim
> Jo Rees
> Rhian Hall
> Angelina Lagana
> Josie Mason
> Carolyn Russo
> Cecellia Zhang
> Helen Yue
> Priya Nadarajah

Book Week!

Happy Book Week!

This year the Book Week theme is ‘Reading is my Secret Power’.

In our weekly Library classes we have enjoyed exploring our reading powers and how reading empowers us. We have also shared some of the books shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council Awards and congratulate this year’s winners.

Book of the Year / Early Childhood –Tricky’s Bad Day by Alison Lester

Picture Book of the Year – Cicada by Shaun Tan

Book of the Year / Younger Readers – His Name was Walter by Emily Rodda

This year we had a Creative Book Week Challenge. Thank you to those students who accepted the challenge and unleashed their creativity by baking and decorating cakes, writing books and poems, making models and posters, painting, drawing and minecrafting. Their work is on display in the Library.

Book Week has been a fun celebration of the joy and power of reading. We began the week with Ms Ruffles, Miss Soci, Ms Hinchcliffe, Miss Zarfaty and Mrs Jackson reading their favourite picture books to eager audiences during lunchtime in the library. The library has also been a hive of creativity with students making reading superhero bookmarks, reading power glasses and book badges at lunchtime library.

The Book Week assembly was the highlight of the week and it looked as though the book characters in our library had come to life! The students’ reading powers of creativity and imagination were on display and it was a delight to see many popular book characters in our Book Week Parade. Thank you also to parents for your assistance with costumes and to those who came along to celebrate.

Reading is alive and well in the Junior School!

‘The greatest gift is a passion for reading.’ – Elizabeth Hardwick

Kim Yeomans
Junior School Teacher Librarian

National Science Week

National Science Week is an annual celebration of science and technology and was recently celebrated at Camberwell Girls Grammar School. Science Week provides an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of Australian scientists to the world of knowledge. It also aims to encourage an interest in science in young people.

Destination Moon: more missions, more science was the theme for National Science Week in 2019. Many exciting activities were on offer throughout the school, which provided an opportunity for students across all year levels to explore the theme.

Activities in the Junior School kicked off on Monday lunchtime with a group of students working with Mrs Lemanis and Ms Dumsday to make their own water rockets out of soft drink bottles. With much of the school watching and counting down (from a safe distance), we used the Science Department’s rocket launchers to show how the movement of gases provides enough force to propel a rocket high up into the air.

The Years 3 and 4 students were eager participants in a ‘Moon Rovers’ Coding Challenge, creating algorithms using Blockly to code a Dash Robot. Their mission was to program their ‘Moon Rover’ to travel across the surface of the moon, avoiding the craters to collect a rock sample for NASA. Some extra keen students repeated the activity during a lunchtime session, creating more complex algorithms.

The Years 1 and 2 students worked cooperatively in groups to create a LEGO Space Scene. The students utilised the School’s Space Mission LEGO kits to produce a range of creative landscapes, astronauts and space crafts. The activity promoted the development of fine motor skills, encouraged positive team work, communication and problem-solving skills.

Students in Years 5 and 6 helped map out the safe places for a spacecraft to land and the scientifically interesting places to explore on the moon with Moon Mappers. This project asked participants to partner directly with scientists – including NASA mission scientists to identify craters on the moon.

A group of Junior School students had the opportunity to participate in an exciting hands-on lunch time activity held in the Senior School MakerSpace. The students were challenged to construct their own telescope made from everyday materials.

Science Week culminated with a viewing of the landing of Apollo 11, the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. A number of the classes came to watch this momentous occasion and reflected upon the character strengths displayed by the astronauts and the scope of the Apollo 11 accomplishment.

Annabelle Vivarini
Junior School STEAM Educator

Victorian Interschools Snowsports Championships

This week Mt Buller staged the 62nd Victorian Interschools Snowsports competition which saw over 6000 students taking part from over 180 schools. Ormiston took an enthusiastic team of 13 skiers and snowboarders from Years 1 to 6 who competed in Skier Cross, Alpine Giant Slalom, Snowboard Cross and Snowboard Giant Slalom events. The participating students were Ivy and Jasmine Xie, Audrey and Annabelle Nemtsas, Rita and Raynee Wong, Mo Lin Yu, Ashley Wang, Anneka Sinnappu, Angelique Quah, Zara Chueng, Jessie Chen and Elysia Wang.

Our athletes proudly represented Camberwell Girls Grammar School and we were thrilled at the endeavour, sportsmanship and persistence each student displayed throughout the event. Many students were participating in Interschools Snowsports for the first time and they handled the conditions remarkably well, with many achieving personal best results.

The soggy, windy weather didn’t dampen the spirits of the students or their supportive families, and the opening ceremony gave them an opportunity to parade with gusto through the Village carrying the CGGS banner before enjoying a fireworks display. A wonderful three days were had by all and the students continued to develop their skiing and snowboarding skills, along with making new friends and seeing each other in a different and magical environment.

We would like to offer our sincere thank you to all the students and particularly their parents, for their valuable help, support, good humour and embracing Snowsports. Many thanks to Teddy Yu (Molin’s father), Henan Feng (Jasmine & Ivy’s mother) and Lynda Ea (Zara’s mother), who were volunteers and team managers and spent many hours standing in the cold, to support and enable us to take part in the competition.

We look forward to seeing you on the slopes in 2020.

Angela Columbine & Fiona Gibson
Year 3 Class Teacher & Junior School Art Teacher

NEXT BIT

Year 1 Science

Last Wednesday, the Year 1 students visited the Senior School Maker Space to work with Ashley from ‘Linked Excursions’ who helped us to investigate how we can use different forces to make movement.

After building our own LEGO car, each team explored the Design process to make changes and improve our creation depending on the challenge it faced. We removed the bunk beds and fancy steps from our vehicles when we realised they weren’t strong enough against the power of gravity! Our modifications let us add magnets to explore magnetism, propellers to explore electricity and even balloons when we explored the power of wind!

I learned that sometimes a magnet and gravity can fight. When the red bit of the magnet faces the other red bit, they repel each other. That makes the magnet float in the air. Gravity is pushing it down but it is being repelled and pushed up. – Elfie

My favourite part was building the car. We had to change it a zillion times! I learnt that some magnets are powered by electricity. That’s called an electromagnetic force – Molly

We had the most wonderful time before heading back to Junior School and watching footage from the Apollo 11 Moon landing. What a wonderful way to celebrate Science Week in Year 1!

Miranda Jackson & Craig Goodwin
Year 1 Class Teachers

Year 2 Service Learning – Hedley Sutton Visit

On Wednesday 14 August the Year 2 students once again visited the residences at Hedley Sutton. Musical items were presented by Ruth Whelan who played Que Sera Sera and Ria Wong, who played ‘I’m A Fine Musician’. The residents loved these musical presentations and could be heard singing along.

The students introduced themselves to a number of different residents throughout the visit – asking questions about their past; about games they played when they were little children, memories from school days and the styles of clothing worn. All of these questions have come from our Inquiry focus and the answers from the residents have been extremely helpful for our learning.

The Year 2 students are commended for the caring and respectful manner in which they presented themselves during our time at Hedley Sutton. It was a valuable learning experience. Here are some thoughts from the students:

Student Comments:

“I learnt that my buddy Ivon used to be a piano teacher.” – Amelia

“I enjoyed talking to the residents about the past.” – Kathleen

“I liked how they listened to us and told us about when they were little.”- Georgia

“I liked how we get to talk to the residents about their families.”- Semaya

“It was good that we get to be interactive with the residents and find out about their stories.”- Ruth

“I liked going to Hedley Sutton because I got to learn about the peoples’ stories, and they were very interesting.”– Jade

“You don’t have to be old to remember.”- Ailey

“You are only as old as you think you are. Actually, we are all young.”- Shreya

“I enjoyed going to Hedley Sutton because I like to chat with people about their past.”- Nan

Fiorella Soci & Ellie Zafarty
Year 2 Class Teachers

Year 5 & 6 French – Alliance Française Poetry Competition

Our Years 5 and 6 French students participated in the Alliance Française Berthe Mouchette Poetry competition in May, reciting a French poem by heart to a French judge. The judges are very exacting and students must get full marks of 20/20 (100% correct and a perfect score) to be invited to the finals.

Congratulations to the following Year 5 and 6 students who received perfect scores of 20/20:

Year 5

Mara Vais

Sophia Zeitoune

Emily Lioe

Maria Lin

Alyce Law

Amber Chia

Madeleine Wood

Anneka Sinnappu

Year 6

Monique Desai

Lucy Ciro

Anneke Cook

Jenny Wang

This year has been our most successful year participating in this competition.

Melissa Drentin
Junior School French Teacher

Fire Fighters come to Ormiston!

Last Friday the Foundation students had their second visit from the Hawthorn Fire Fighters. They learnt many valuable tips for keeping safe in the event of a fire, discussed safe meeting places outside of their homes and learnt about the job of fire fighters. The highlight of the visits was getting to climb aboard the fire truck and spraying the hose.

“I liked it because we sprayed the hose at Stop, Kiss and Drop” – Emma A

“The Fire Fighters taught us that if you catch on fire you have to stop, lie down, cover your face and roll” – Lucy

“We went on the fire truck and we sprayed the hose, it was the best day ever” – Audrey

Selena Reedman & Mikaela Stanaway
Foundation Class Teachers

Year 3 – 6 Hoop Time Basketball Competition

Last week, a select number of students competed at the Hoop Time Basketball Competition at the Nunawading Basketball Stadium. The students were very nervous on the bus ride to the stadium, however, once they arrived the excitement kicked in. Both teams had a warm up game against a boys team, which fired them up for the day. The Year 5/6 team finished third in their division, and the Year 3/4 team finished second. Unfortunately, neither team will be progressing to the next level. However, the students are already super keen to start training now to come back bigger and better in 2020! Go CGGS! Congratulations to the following players:

Year 3 & 4

Allegra Reedman

Annabelle Nemtsas

Anthea Vais

Ashanti Rajakulendran

Natasha Oakley

Scarlett Sim

Genevieve Khaw

Madeline Mason

Year 5 & 6

Mia Chapman

Sarah May

Jessica Wu

Sarah Zhou

Zara Cheung

Charlotte Hayes

Madeleine Wood

Liana Kitsou
Junior School Physical Education Teacher

Year 4 – 6 Netball

The CGGS netballers are getting close to the end of the season. The Year 4 teams have been learning many game tactics and implementing them in the games. Whilst, the Year 5 teams have had some fantastic wins over the past couple of rounds. The Year 6 students are working hard and coming up against tough opposition. The Years 5 and 6 teams will compete in the Semi Finals next Saturday, and the Year 4 teams will play in a Round Robin to finish off the season.

Best of luck goes to all CGGS netballers in the coming weeks!

Lexie Joyce
CGGS Netball Coach

Student Achievements

Sabrina Bignold – Year 6
Sabrina had an amazing experience in Hong Kong at the Asian Grand Prix Ballet Competition. This was an amazing experience for her elite ballet level of training and competing. Hundreds of dancers competed in Regionals across twelve countries. Although Sabrinia didn’t receive a medal at the Asian Grand Prix, she was in the mix with outstanding dancers from Asia Pacific.

Sabrina was thrilled to receive a Gold Medal as well as Best Performance Trophy (for highest score) in the first week at the Asian Ballet Competition. She also received a full scholarship to attend the Ballet Intensive Program in 2020. Congratulations Sabrina on this outstanding achievement.

Lucy Ciro – Year 6
Lucy Ciro also participated in an inter-school chess tournament at Yavneh Leibler College in Elsternwick on Wednesday this week. She came equal third out of 164 students and was presented with a trophy for her achievement. Congratulations Lucy!

Erena Zhu – Year 3
Erena Zhu, came third with her dance partner Albert in the couples category for Waltz and Quickstep at the Tasmania DanceSports competition. Congratulations Erena!

I wish all Ormiston families a restful weekend. I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue

Head of Junior School

Foundation – Year 6 Learning Conversations

This week, Ormiston parents had the opportunity to discuss their child’s start to the year and progress with their child’s class teacher. These sessions are very valuable as they continue to provide a strong home link with the school. It encourages parents to seek out feedback in terms of their child’s academic, emotional, social and physical development, and their strengths and weaknesses. I would like to remind parents that they are able to arrange a meeting time with their child’s class teacher and/or specialist teachers at any time to gain a better understanding of their child’s learning.

Great Success at State Primary Cross Country Championships!

Last week, Anika Selvaratnam from Year 5 competed at the State Primary Cross Country Championships at Bundoora Park. Throughout her previous cross country races at District, Division and Regional levels, Anika was very consistent with her running and had come in first place in each event. At the State Primary Championships, the competition was much tougher, however she ran a Personal Best coming in fourth place and competing against the best runners from across Victoria!

We are all very proud and excited for Anika and we wish her all the best for when she competes at the National Cross Country Championships in Wollongong, New South Wales from the 24 – 26 August.

Early Learning 3 and 4 Author Visit – Mark Carthew

The Early Learning children participate in a number of experiences that develop their capacity and confidence to use language in all its forms and actively engage with and share the enjoyment of language and texts in a range of ways.

Mark Carthew is an award winning Australian children’s author, poet, musician and educator. He is well known for his books celebrating language, humour and wordplay. During their weekly Library sessions and within the Early Learning classroom, the children have engaged with books written by Mark Carthew, in particular, The Gobbling, The Great Zoo Hullabaloo, A Stormy Night and The Big Sneeze. This week the Early Learning children walked to the Senior School Library and met Mark Carthew and listened to him tell these stories through images, puppets and songs. The children demonstrated much enthusiasm and were active participants as they responded to his chants, copied his actions, joined in the singing and discovered how his experiences and interests influence what he includes in his picture story books.

Angela Follacchio
Early Learning Team Leader

Year 5 “2040” Excursion

On Monday 22 July, Year 5 went to Balwyn Cinema for a very exciting excursion! We went to watch the film “2040” for our inquiry topic and question which is “How can we make informed choices as consumers to create a more sustainable world?” We decided to go on this thrilling excursion because 2040 is a documentary made by Damon Gameau that describes and predicts what the future could be like and how we can try to make life on Earth sustainable.

2040 was a very uplifting and inspiring documentary about the different solutions that already exist which could help solve some of the environmental and sustainability problems we have. One solution was taking the carbon emissions in the atmosphere and using it to make the soil healthier so we can grow crops. Another invention they investigated was solar panel microgrids that already exist in Bangladesh and help people to use energy more efficiently in a cost effective way. It was overall a fantastic film that taught us about our effect on the environment and gave us hope for the future ahead of us.

We are very excited to start exploring what changes we can make to create a more sustainable world!

Abbey Marcou & Vrinda Dhir
Year 5 Students

Year 6 Excursion – Parliament House & Old Treasury Building

Below are some reflections from two students who attended the excursion.

Last Friday, the Year 6s went on an informative excursion to the Victorian Parliament House, as well as the Old Treasury Building. It was extremely fun and educational, especially being able to hold our own debate in Parliament!

In Parliament, we visited both rooms, the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. The building itself was not only sophisticated and refined, but had visible accents of gold as well! We found out this was because Victoria was very wealthy near the end of the gold rush and this was when Parliament House was built.

We were led through the Old Treasury Building by two magnificent tour guides and learnt lots about the gold rush and how the building came to be. We found out the Old Treasury Building was first built to store gold, and that the Governor of Victoria, Linda Dessau, works there! We went through areas enclosed with double doors (for privacy) and old living rooms, reliving the Victorian gold rush experience and learning more about our country.

This excursion was a fun and meaningful experience for all of us, and we even got to say hello to the Google Street View car. See you next time, Parliament!

Isabel Sootoh

Year 6R

On Friday 19 July, the Year 6s had an excursion to the Victorian Parliament and Treasury Building. We learnt that the House of Representatives, also known as the Lower House or the People’s House consists of different representatives and a group called the Executive. In the Federal Parliament, the Liberal Party are the executive. This means that the Federal House of Representatives is mainly Liberal members. The Labor Party is called the Opposition. The Labor Party received the second most votes in the election and Bill Shorten was the Leader of the Opposition, until he resigned, therefore The Labor Party has to select a new leader.

The Senate, also known as the Upper House, they receive what is called a Bill, which is an idea for a new law. Once the House of Representatives has given approval, it is then sent to the Senate. This takes place in the Federal Parliament and all of the State Parliaments. If the Bill is approved by the Senate, it is then passed to the Executive. If the Bill is approved, it goes onto the Judiciary, from there it goes to the Governor-General, who is the Queen’s representative. The Governor-General ensures all parties have approved the Bill and once they sign it off, it then officially becomes a Law.

The next part of our excursion was The Treasury Building. The building was used to store gold from the gold rush, so no one could steal it. This was a very interesting part of our excursion. Our guide  told us how Melbourne has changed from the gold rush days. We sat in the room where the Executive Council and the Governor-General meet. We had a look at different rooms in the building as well, such as the apartment of the caretaker’s family.

Overall, this was an interesting learning experience and I had a great time.

Anneke Cook
Year 6C

Anne Harvey-Nagl – International Violinist!

On Friday, the Music Department was honoured to host Melbourne-born internationally-renowned violinist, Anne Harvey-Nagl, for a day at CGGS. Anne is currently based in Vienna and has achieved much success as a performer in Europe. She has played with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Vienna Mozart Orchestra, Vienna Concert-Verein, Klangforum, Music On Line, and the Kammerphilharmonie. From 1999 – 2011 Anne was Principal 1^stviolin of the Vienna Volksoper and was appointed Concertmaster in 2011.

Years 3 – 5 Strings students were treated to an inspiring and extremely engaging lunchtime recital from Anne, who played many pieces, from Kreisler to Mozart. Students were extremely interested to hear Anne talk about her musical experiences, as well as some insights about both violin and musical performance technique. Many Music staff members were involved in the day’s sessions and special thanks goes to Nichole Adams and Rohan Mack who were instrumental in securing this opportunity for our students. Anne visits Australia regularly and always performs when she is here.

Jane Scott
Music Administrator

Oh sleep, oh gentle sleep… and digital wellbeing

Term 3 is well underway with students returning to their school routines. For many students coming back to school requires a reset of sleeping patterns to accommodate school, rather than holiday hours. It is recommended that children aged between five and eight years have ten to eleven hours of sleep a night, with teenagers needing nine to ten hours to function at their best (Raising Children, 2019; Treyvaud, Vowles, 2018).

Whilst each family’s schedule is different, our nightly routines often include at least some time either watching TV or using a computer or mobile device, all of which emit blue light. It is widely recognised that this blue light suppresses melatonin levels. Lower melatonin levels disrupt the body’s circadian rhythms, i.e. the body’s biological clock, which in turn delays sleep and has a negative impact on your sleep quality.

One simple step is to make use of Apple’s Night Shift or the Night Mode function for Android devices as these both reduce blue light exposure. An even more important strategy is to turn off mobile devices, computers and the TV at least one hour before bedtime. You may already be doing this, but if this isn’t the case, a conversation with your children / teenagers about the merits of quality sleep on wellbeing, and how to manage their night-time device usage, could be worthwhile. Refer to the Raising Children website for more advice on good sleep hygiene from newborns through to teenage years.

The previous article in this Digital Wellbeing series mentioned our intention to survey the CGGS community as part of our digital wellbeing initiative. This work has begun with all Senior and Junior teachers completing individual and team surveys. We will be asking for your assistance in upcoming weeks as we conduct surveys of our families and students. Survey trends will be shared with the community in future articles. The focus of our next article in this series, is the digital wellbeing of primary aged children, so make sure you look out for it in the next CamNews.

Felicity Carroll (Digital Literacy Coordinator) & Paul Donohue (Head of Junior School)

References:

> RaisingChildren.net.au. (2019). Understanding sleep. Retrieved from https://raisingchildren.net.au/school-age/sleep/understanding-sleep/school-age-sleep

> Treyvaud, R.,& Vowles, C. (2018) The parents’ survival guide to children, technology and the internet.Wangle Technologies Ltd.

Y4 – 6 Netball

Netball has re-commenced for Term 3, the Years 2 and 3 Netball Skills Program continues to run every Thursday afternoon and the students are enjoying learning many skills whilst having fun playing games.

The Years 4 to 6 teams competed in the Boroondara Netball Association Competition last weekend. The Year 4 Garnets came out strong in their game, they were more consistent than the opposition and shot some fantastic goals. Garnets defeated MA Butterflies 6 – 2. The Year 4 Rubies faced tough opposition but the CGGS team were still able to gain possession of the ball.

The Year 5 Opals were unstoppable against CSNC Blitz, the defensive pressure down the court caused many turnovers that were converted into goals, the CGGS team won 14 – 5. The Year 5 Jets were down at half time 0 – 5, Jets came out strong in the second half, took the lead and defeated KD Starbursts 8 – 6. Both Year 5 teams played their best game of the season and all should be very proud of their determination and efforts.

The Year 6 Topaz had tough opposition last Saturday, the team trained well this week and will come out strong next round.

Congratulations goes to all CGGS Netballers.

Lexie Joyce
CGGS Netball Coach

I wish all Ormiston families a restful weekend. I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue

Head of Junior School