This week the Junior School had its first Ormiston Spirit Awards Assembly for the year. This special award recognises students who exemplify the core values of CGGS – Hope, Courage, Commitment, Respect and Integrity. This award honours students who demonstrate these values in their daily lives within and outside the school, serving as wonderful role models for their peers.
Additionally, the assembly was not just about recognising individual achievements, it was also about celebrating the spirit of the School community. Each school value contributes to creating and nurturing a school environment where every student can flourish and be encouraged to do their personal best.
Finally, an important part of the assembly was the opportunity for five students to share their perspectives on each of our school values. This is what they came up with:
Courage
Courage means to be brave when you are scared to do something. It also means to tell the truth when you do something wrong, even though it is very difficult. When you have courage, you can do new things.
Charlene – Year 2
Hope
To me, hope means having hope for good times to come and bad times to go. If there wasn’t any hope, life would be sad. We would never believe in or trust ourselves. Sometimes all we need to brighten our day is hope. You should always believe and hope that you will have a bright future.
Eshaal – Year 3
Commitment
To me, commitment means to make a promise to keep doing something even if it’s hard. It is important to show commitment because if you don’t, you won’t get better. An example is that at first, I didn’t like to practice violin, but then my parents encouraged me to practice. So I committed to it and I improved. Now I enjoy playing it!
Lily – Year 4
Integrity
Integrity is a school value. It is essential for having a trustworthy and kind community. Integrity means honesty, being understanding and showing friendship. We can all show integrity by helping each other and always trying to do the right thing.
Aadhya – Year 5S
Respect
Respect is important to Ormiston because we should accept each other for who we are. You and I can demonstrate respect by listening to others’ ideas and including them in the classroom and on the playground. Respect builds feelings of trust, safety and wellbeing in our school community.
Aanya – Year 5G
Congratulations to the following recipients of the Semester One, Ormiston Spirit Awards.
Have a great weekend.
Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School
Class Awards
Foundation R – Scarlett X
Foundation S – Annabel Y
Year 1 – Avery W
Year 2 – Audrey S
Year 3 – Alina L
Year 4 – Elsa L
Year 5G – Claire Z
Year 5S – Emma Z
Year 6G – Nellie E
Year 6H – Isabelle B
Specialist Awards
Art F-3 – Chloe G (Year 2)
Art 4-6 – Angela W (Year 5S)
PE F-3 – Sia K (Year 3)
PE 4-6 – Quynh B (Year 6G)
Music F-3 – Emilia Z (Year 2)
Music 4-6 -Sofia R (Year 4D)
Library F-3 – Iris Q (Year 2)
Library 4-6 – Kayla C (Year 4)
STEAM F-6 – Isabella L (Year 2)
Chinese Heritage F-4 – Amy S (Year 4)
Chinese Mainstream F-4 – Isabelle G (Year 4)
French 5 & 6 – Aanya (Year 5G)
Being literate is the capacity, confidence, and disposition to use language in all its forms – written, oral, visual, and auditory. Literacy incorporates a range of modes of communication including music, movement, storytelling, drama, the visual and creative arts, as well as talking, listening, viewing, composing, reading, and writing.
The Early Years Learning Framework p. 57
In our classroom we provide many learning opportunities and spaces for the children to engage with literacy in meaningful ways.
Imaginative and creative role play where children experiment with different roles and scenarios and act out pretend and real-life situations provide many opportunities for children to develop different modes of communication. In the classroom, as the children engage in role play in our café/restaurant, they communicate with their peers, develop their oral language and listening skills, increase their vocabulary, foster their creativity, and develop their storytelling abilities as they create shared play scenarios. In shared play scenarios, the children often integrate many roles and switch roles to extend their play and develop the play narrative over several days.
As creative and imaginative communicators the children engaged in café/restaurant role plays that required them to take orders and prepare food and beverages. Children demonstrated various dispositions throughout the role plays, including learning to be resourceful, flexible, cooperative, and curious.
As well as providing appropriate materials and a strategically planned space, we also create a positive classroom writing culture where children see learning to write as useful and worthwhile. The children feel confident to ‘have-a-go’ with written language as they know their approximations and attempts to write are valued. Providing this real-world situation that requires the use of written language demonstrates how writing can be used to communicate ideas, and it is through experimentation where children develop and consolidate their understandings of written language.
Providing children with time and opportunity to create their own menus to use in the café/restaurant enabled them to demonstrate their beginning understanding about the conventions of written language. Their documentation demonstrates their understanding of conventions of print including, print and pictures are different, in English print is written from left to right and alphabet and letter/sound knowledge.
Continuing to provide opportunities for the children to write a range of text for authentic purposes and audiences; and have opportunities to use and combine printed, spoken, visual and digital processes will contribute to their willingness and eagerness to write.
Angela Follacchio
Early Learning 4 Teacher
Inquiry learning is a vital component of the Early Learning 4 (EL4) Part-Time classroom, providing children with opportunities to nurture their curiosity and critical thinking in a collaborative environment.
The theme ‘Lines, Journeys and Ways’ continues to captivate their interests by offering abundant opportunities for discovery and creativity. By integrating Reggio Emilia’s theoretical approach, ‘the 100 languages of children’, the EL4 children have listened and responded, learned by doing, transferred knowledge, reflected, and applied new insights gained in different contexts, including a collaborative session with Early Learning 3s.
Children were invited to converse across ages and document their journey from home to ELC using line drawings, creating a map that considered perspective and spatial concepts observed in the neighbourhood.
In Viaana’s journey to ELC, she highlights the typography of the landscape, stating “In the morning, I just go on a little journey because I’m close by. I get into my car, and I drive all over the road, sometimes it takes a long time because it’s so bumpy, we keep going up and down and up and down and up and down, it’s the hills and the road works. I see so many houses, my favourite one is red and white, it’s big, it’s the same size as mine.” Whilst Ralph contemplated the landmarks and workings of traffic, stating “I get into the car, daddy or mummy drives the car, I see a roundabout, and then a traffic light, we wait for the traffic light, it turns green and then we go, sometimes we don’t go because there are too many cars, then I get to kinder, it’s a quick drive, sometimes there are lots of cars. It’s a bit of a boring drive, I wait until we get there, I’m patient.”
Through two- and three-dimensional art, music, drama, literature, sculpture, and multimedia, children have been exploring and depicting different types of journeys taken by car, aeroplane, train and on foot. Experiences such as creating maps, soundscapes, block installations, role-playing, and storytelling integrate various artistic forms and techniques that support each child’s narrative when expressing their ideas.
As this inquiry evolves, the goal is to develop children’s sense of identity, sense of community and belonging, sense of place and connectedness, happiness, the importance of respectful relationships, and care for one another. Equipping children with the skills and values they need to navigate and journey through their world with confidence and empathy.
Esther Wong
Early Learning Coordinator and Early Learning 4 Part-time Teacher
In Foundation, we have been learning about the jobs of people who help to keep us safe and healthy. We were lucky enough to have two visits from a crew of fire fighters to consolidate our classroom learning. They taught us about fire safety and the critical role they play in our community. The firefighters conducted engaging and interactive sessions, demonstrating the use of their equipment and sharing valuable tips on fire prevention and emergency responses.
The students were thrilled to explore the fire truck and use the hose. They were able to ask questions about the firefighter’s daily routines and experiences.
The visit not only provided important safety knowledge, but also helped the students to appreciate the bravery and dedication of these community helpers.
“When I’m big I want to be a firefighter”. Hannah
Selena Reedman & Mikaela Stanaway
Foundation Classroom Teachers
In French, Year 5 have been learning parts of the body and actions. They can sing “heads, shoulders, knees and toes,” (têtes, épaules, genoux, pieds) in French and they can give instructions in French, for example: raise your hand: levez la main, jump: sautez, cross your arms: croisez les bras. They made a spinner to practise these words, saying them to one another and acting them out. They then wrote a script and filmed a video for an aerobics class. According to the students, it was “fun, but awkward!”
Joanne Rittey and Rouba Ojaimi
Year 5 & 6 French Teachers
One of the important events on the CGGS Sport Calendar is Cross Country. This competition begins with our House Cross Country event which ran at the end of Term 1. All students in Years 4-6 participated and did a fantastic job. The results from this event are used to select the team for District Cross Country. We had 30 students make team selection and represent CGGS on the 10th May at the North Balwyn District Cross Country. The team did incredibly well, with 4 students making it through to Boroondara Division Cross Country. Congratulations to Claire Z, Janice P, Alessandra R and Neesha N.
Cross country running presents challenges that require physical and mental fortitude. However, the benefits gained from participating in the sport, including improved fitness, mental well-being, teamwork, and a connection with nature, make it a rewarding and fulfilling endeavour for many athletes.
Boroondara Division Cross Country was held on Monday 27th May at Ruffey Park in Doncaster. It was a great day with the sun shining and the track dry. The team arrived early so we could walk the track and plan how best to tackle the first big hill approximately 1km into the race.
Janice P was first to run in the 9/10 girls 2km race. Janice had a fantastic start and positioned herself well in the pack. It was a particularly fast race with the first runner coming across the finish line in under 9 minutes. Janice did a great job and ran a personal best.
The next group to run for CGGS were Claire Z, Neesha N and Alessandra R in the 11 year old girls 3km race. Again, the girls had a great start with all three of them in the front of the pack as they headed up the first hill. The students ran incredibly well and it was fantastic to see them supporting each other as they raced.
All 4 competitors should be proud of how they represented the school and themselves.
Kim James
PE Teacher
Over the past few years, CGGS has been partnering with Titans Junior Basketball Club to deliver Friday afternoon skills sessions in the Secondary School gym. From these humble beginnings a number of current Year 3 students have taken the next step to form what is now known as Titans Diamonds playing in the Under 10 competition of the local Camberwell District Basketball League.
I have had the joy of helping mentor this Year 3 group whilst coaching the team is Year 9 CGGS student Alexia S who shows great leadership and communication skills with the younger students. Recently she has reflected on her time coaching:
“Across the past year I’ve had the privilege to coach an U10 Titans basketball team from Ormiston. These basketballers entered their first season with no experience on the court and were learning much about the game of basketball. The first season provided lots of learning opportunities and skills development leading into their second season. This season they have grown immensely winning their first ever game in basketball and continued the winning streak into their second, third and fifth game this season. The girls created opportunities for great team communication, passing, dribbling and shooting across the season so far. The improvement that the Year 3 students have endured across both seasons are evident and I can’t wait to continue coaching the team.”
As Alexia has reflected, the development in confidence, skills and teamwork is evident with the team being successful in grading and last weekend winning their opening round game 18 – 1. CGGS is very proud of this Year 3 basketball team and we are confident they will continue the great work team and I look forward to watching you play many more games together.
Shane Maycock
Education Outdoors Coordinator and Health & PE Teacher
