Today Mrs Dunwoody shares a piece written by one of our School Counsellors about how to support young people during challenging times.
As our beloved Barbara Sutton Hall undergoes its exciting transformation, the joy of performance has continued to thrive in new and creative ways. Throughout the past fortnight, the Performing Arts team hosted a series of Open Rehearsal Mornings, giving families the chance to see and join the students in their music learning, including the Foundation–Year 2 Choir, Super Strings, and Concert Band in action. These sessions offered a wonderful opportunity for families to step inside the learning process and share in the joy that music brings.
Our Foundation–Year 2 Choir, led by our talented and experienced music teachers, Renée Heron, accompanied by Tim Mallis, showcased the playfulness and energy that define these sessions. Through song, movement, and body percussion, parents sat with their child to explore rhythm and choral singing. Importantly, seeing parents and their child singing together really highlighted that music learning is as much about joy and connection as it is about skill. Later in the week, families had the opportunity to join the Year 2 Super Strings, observing the teaching and learning of string instruments including violin, viola, and cello. The session gave an insight into the way string instruments immerse students in a rich sensory experience that strengthens auditory and visual processing, fine motor control, balance, coordination, and kinaesthetic awareness. Similarly at the Year 5 and 6 Concert Band rehearsal, families also observed the impressive teamwork and focus required as students played together as a cohesive ensemble, developing their improvisation, rhythm, and music-reading skills.
Throughout all the Open Morning rehearsals, students were guided and supported by our music staff, whose expertise and encouragement helps students perform with growing confidence and musicality. We really valued the number of families who were able to attend these Open Morning Rehearsals, and it provided such a meaningful way to connect. Thank you to our Music staff who brought the open morning to fruition.
It’s been hard not to get swept up in the wave of excitement surrounding Year 6 student Claire Z and her incredible swimming journey. Over recent weeks, Claire has dived through round after round of competition with School Sport Victoria, from district, to division, regionals, to state, all the way to the National Championships in Ballarat last weekend, where she took out gold for the Under 12 girls 50m Backstroke race.
Competing against the best young swimmers in the country, Claire joined 24 other students who had made the finals. However before earning a place in the final race, the students had to compete in a series of heats with only 8 out of the 24 making it into the final race.
For Claire, the opening ceremony was a standout moment. “Even though it’s an individual race, it’s always a team effort,” she said. “My coach, my parents and my teammates keep me focused and positive.”
When the final race came, Claire gave it everything and when she touched the wall first, she said it felt like the most surreal moment. “Everyone was going crazy,” she said. “It felt like a dream and seeing my family cheering in the crowd made me feel so excited because I realised it’s real!”
A huge congratulations to Claire on her gold medal win, an achievement that reflects not only her talent, but her joy for the sport.
At this week’s Junior School Assembly, Sage (Year 4) proudly shared her recent success at a Fencing Tournament (Novice Junior Girls), where she won a Bronze Medal. Sage spoke confidently about her interest in fencing, explaining that timing, precision, good footwork and speed are all vital to the sport. Her dedication to training has clearly paid off! Congratulations to Sage on her achievements and for profiling a different sport within the JS community.
Nancy Robottom
Acting Head of Junior School
Emma Hinchliffe
Acting Head of Junior School
This term, our Year 1 students have been exploring the journey of food from farm to plate as part of their Inquiry unit. To enrich their understanding, they embarked on excursion to Myuna Farm, for a day of hands-on learning and exploration.
For many children, this was their very first school excursion and for some, their first time travelling on a bus. Myuna Farm offered a wonderful opportunity to see and interact with a variety of animals and farm environments; helping students connect their classroom learning to the real world.
During the visit, students explored the animal nursery where they met baby animals, learned how to milk a goat, observed different types of poultry and compared egg sizes. They also enjoyed feeding animals in the paddocks, riding the farm train, and spotting a colony of fruit bats in the wetlands.
Throughout the day, students used new vocabulary they have been learning in class and made connections to their prior learning. It was a fantastic way to bring our Inquiry unit to life and was a truly memorable experience for everyone involved.
The following students were keen to share their thoughts:
I found it interesting that the bearded dragon changed its neck colour and its beard could spread out, so it could show off to a female. I learnt that emu chicks have stripes, so when they stand together in a group, they look larger and predators won’t eat them. – Naomi L.
Today I enjoyed milking the goats because I had never milked a goat before and the teat was so soft! – Olivia Z
I learnt that the raven is a predator to baby emu chicks. I found it funny when the kid goat nibbled my pocket. – Odette
I didn’t know that Myuna farm had wild animals. I saw the grey-headed flying foxes hanging from the branches and flying to other trees. – Scarlett X
I found it interesting that the ostrich egg is the biggest egg in the world, even larger than a dinosaur egg! I also learnt that an emu egg is green. – Jasmine
I enjoyed touching and feeding the animals. My favourite animal was the emu because it ate all the food in my hand. – Luna
Angela Columbine and Liz Warren
Year 1 Classroom Teachers
This term, Year 4 have been exploring the question “How does water sustain life on Earth?” as part of our Inquiry unit. On Monday 27 October, students visited Scienceworks to deepen their understanding of the water cycle and the different states of matter.
During the excursion, students participated in two sessions directly linked to our Inquiry learning. The first was a lively science show called Cool Stuff, presented by a comical host named Owen. Through a series of entertaining demonstrations using liquid nitrogen, kettles, glass bottles, balloons, and a tiny yellow duck named Howard, students observed how materials change between solids, liquids, and gases. Owen’s humour and engaging experiments helped consolidate students’ understanding of the properties of matter.
The second session, Flushback, was an augmented reality experience set in the historic Spotswood Pumping Station. Students explored the history of Melbourne’s sewerage system and discovered how it connects to the water cycle, reinforcing the importance of clean water and sanitation in sustaining life on Earth.
It was a highly immersive and enriching day, giving students valuable hands-on experiences that deepened their understanding of the scientific processes, systems, and vocabulary related to water, the environment, and changing states of matter.
Anjali de Quadros
Year 4 Classroom Teacher
This week we celebrated the beginning of Diwali, a Hindu festival that symbolises light over darkness, which is also known as the Festival of Lights. When children learn about each other through telling stories about their family and culture, they are supported to explore their identities (Early Years Learning and Development Framework 2.0). The children worked together to create a marigold garland to decorate our sign in station and welcome the beginning of Diwali by inviting bright and positive energy. They used yellow and orange embroidery thread to create pom poms and then worked together to thread these onto a longer string. EL3 have consistently demonstrated an increasing ability to cooperate and work collaboratively with each other to achieve a common goal such as the garland (EYLF 2.0). EL3 really persevered and saw the outcome of all their hard work!
We were very excited to welcome Sanchita, Omisa’s Mum to EL3 to share her knowledge and culture with the children and learn more about Diwali. Sanchita and Omisa shared a lovely picture book explaining Diwali, as well as teaching the children about Rangoli. As children become aware of their own and other children’s linguistic and cultural events such as Diwali, this promotes a sense of community and connection (EYLF 2.0). Sanchita was very kind and left many colourful sand pots for the children to use. We created a table with space and resources to encourage the children to experiment and extend on their Rangoli experience which they expressed so much joy as they created their colourful sand artworks.
Eva Szymanski
Early Learning 3 Teacher
Today Mrs Dunwoody shares a piece written by one of our School Counsellors about how to support young people during challenging times.
It's been a busy few weeks celebrating the Class of 2025 and all their achievements.
Our Junior School musicians opened their rehearsal studios to their families this week.
Over the past fortnight, there have been many chances for our alum to gather, celebrate, and reminisce.
