JUNIOR SCHOOL
CamNews
Junior School
Olive Black Book Launch
On Friday 28 April, former student and former School Captain, Alex Miles (nee Lee: 2001) launched her new children’s book series, Starring Olive Black, at the Senior School Library amidst fanfare and celebrity sightings! The series follows the life and times of Olive, a ten-year-old movie actress, as she balances everyday life as a kid with super stardom.
Ormiston students from Years 2 – 4 joined Alex’s family and friends for an extravaganza that included a cameo by a disgruntled movie director (played by author and journalist Tony Wilson), a clue hunt for a missing safe code, and a moving tribute to the important people who have helped Alex along her journey – not to mention a real-life red carpet. In her opening remarks, Mrs Dunwoody shared details of Alex’s many, many achievements while at Camberwell Girls, which is where her career began as the playwright of a winning House Drama production. Our students were enthralled from start to finish, and Alex’s signing queue stretched for miles.
Davina Bell – Junior School Literacy Specialist
Ormiston Spirit Awards
This new award introduced last year concentrates on our School Values of Commitment, Respect, Integrity, Hope and Courage, and also relates to the way a student has demonstrated a Growth Mindset as part of their learning in class and during Junior School co-curricular activities.
Each student that receives this award will be given a certificate as well as a special Ormiston Spirit Award badge. This badge is proudly worn by the student throughout Term 2 2017 and will be officially passed to a new student within the next term. Only one student from each class and one student from a specialist subject will be selected for this very special award.
A number of Ormiston students were presented with this award during our Wednesday Assembly this week. Congratulations to the following students:
Student
Ellie Zhang / Foundation R
Sharon Zhang / Foundation S
Eden Chia / Year 1K
Maddison O’Meara / Year 1J
Sadhana Warrior / Year 2D
Ashanti Rajakulendran / Year 2B
Maria Lin / Year 3C
Sophie Tong / Year 3L
Anneke Cook / Year 4H
Anna Li / Year 4R
Georgia Langley / Year 5B
Ava Lillehagen / Year 5R
Olivia Petrakis / Year 6G
Zara Pearson / Year 6C
Yu Jiang / Year 4H – Art
Penelope Petrakis / Year 3L – Physical Education
Asha Bhattachaijee / Year 1J – Library
Isabella Madden / Year 3C – Chinese
Iris Yang / Year 6C – Music
Jasmine Wan / Year 6C – Music
Early Learning 3 – Year 6 Home Learning In-Conversation
This week our second In-Conversation workshop with parents took place with the topic being Home Learning. Over the last 12-months, Camberwell Girls Grammar School from Foundation to Year 12, has been looking very closely at Home Learning across all year levels with a working group of staff from Ormiston and Senior School.
The areas the group have been concentrating on are: the benefits of home learning, the research behind using home learning, understanding the busy lives of our school families, and the impact of school co-curricular activities and outside activities families have organised for their daughter during the week and on weekends.
The conversation with Ormiston parents revolved around the above topics and the selection of home learning activities across Foundation to Year 6. Across both campuses, home learning activities will continue to be carefully selected and sequenced to ensure a smooth transition from Ormiston to Senior School in Year 7 and taking into account the academic learning and the emotional and social impact home learning has on students and families.
Please take the time to view and read the Home Learning Workshop presentation HERE
Year 4-6 House Cross Country
On Monday, our Year 4-6 students participated in our annual Cross Country event and it was wonderful to see so many students give their personal best during the race. The Year 4 students ran 1.5km and the Year 5 and 6 students ran 3.0km along Shenley Reserve. We congratulate all girls for participating! The results of the top ten participants are as follows:
Year 4 Year 5 Year 6
Ellie Cowell Emily Price Allanah Lam
Sarah Zhou Sofia Sanifilippo Crystal Cui
Eliza Bosco Katrina Tong Scarlett Giang
Sabrina Bignold Ella Traiforos Jasmine Wan
Maya Goonewardene Georgia Langley Tanya Sevo
Amy Cao Matilda Chan Ella Hiramatsu
Jenny Wang Madeleine Yim Riley Olsen
Priyanka de Silva Eva Papadopoulos Lily Ning
Jacqueline Zheng Ava Lillehagen Elizabeth Xiao
Samantha Chua Zoe Brisk Charlotte Drew
Year 1 Virtual Excursion
Last Thursday, the Year 1 classes joined together for ‘Minibeasts Magnified’, our first virtual excursion for the year. We met Karen from the Australian Museum and joined in the online discussion with a class from Duranbah Primary in NSW.
We learnt that insects have bodies separated into 3 parts and always have 6 legs. This helped us to understand that spiders are not technically insects. Because we have 5 stick insects in our class right now, we enjoyed asking an expert more about our pets. We learnt that some stick insects can be as wide as your thumb and look more like a small tree branch than a stick! Did you know that the combined weight of humans on planet Earth is less than half of the combined weight of all of Earth’s ants?! We thought that was amazing!
Year 4 Video Conference – From Cook to the First Fleet
To support our learning about Australia’s past, the Year 4 students engaged in a fascinating videoconference from the State Library of NSW. Students had the unique opportunity to view primary sources of evidence that included notes made by Captain James Cook, letters written on the voyage of the First Fleet and clothing worn by convicts. The students listened to expert knowledge about what life was like in the past and were able to ask questions about the artefacts.
I found it interesting that the only way to communicate was by writing letters and they took months to arrive at their destination. I never knew that Captain Cook had such a large family and was quite poor. He kept persisting, he wanted to achieve his dream and slowly he did.
Jenny Wang Year 4R
I learnt that people found the journals of the people who were on the First Fleet and that the NSW library had real artefact from the past. I was very interesting to hear about Australia’s history.
Maya Goonewardene Year 4R
NAPLAN
NAPLAN assessments will take place in Junior School next week. The following assessments will be conducted on these days in Year 3 and 5:
Tuesday 9 May Language conventions (40mins) and Writing (40mins)
Wednesday 10 May Reading (45 – 50mins)
Thursday 11 May Numeracy (45 – 50mins)
Friday 12 May Catch-up assessments for students that have been absent
More information for parents about NAPLAN can be found at: www.nap.edu.au/
With best wishes,
Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School