From the Chaplain – Shrove Tuesday
This week at Junior School we have been learning about the season of Lent as a preparation for Easter time, one of the most significant moments in the Gospel story. We have been speaking about how we prepare for Christmas with ‘Advent Calendars’ and we prepare for school by packing our bag and our lunch and that Lent is the opportunity to prepare for Easter.
Part of this preparation is celebrated with Shrove Tuesday, a day when we get to look at ourselves and ask honestly, “Who am I?”, “What are the really great things about me?”, “What is working and what might need some re-working?”
On Tuesday the 21st of Feb, we were served pancakes by our Year 4 student leaders and had a morning tea together in the courtyard to celebrate Shrove Tuesday. There were lots of smiles, lots of butter and lots of jam! This was a wonderful morning for the students to spend time with one another and take part in welcoming the beginning of lent.
Darcee Braun, Junior School Chaplain
What’s on at Junior School
Week 5
Monday 27th February – Emergency and Lockdown drills
Friday 3rd March – Assembly, 4R Class Item (*Please note change of class)
Friday 3rd March – Prep Discovery Learning Excursion, Prep B, G and R
Week 6
Tuesday 7th March – Lunchtime Concert (details to follow)
Friday 10th March – Year 4 at Middle School Swimming Carnival held at Kardinia Aquatic Centre (EdSmart to follow).
Week 7
Monday 13th March – Labour Day Holiday
Tuesday 14th March – Student Learning Conferences – 4-7pm (Information to come!)
Tuesday 14th March – Year 4 Students at Middle School Swimming Carnival (EdSmart to follow)
Wednesday 15th March – Prep Students to attend school
Wednesday 15th March – NAPLAN Year 3 Writing
Thursday 16th March – NAPLAN Year 3 Reading
Thursday 16th March – Student Learning Conferences – 4-6pm
Friday 17th March – Assembly, 3B Class Item
Friday 17th March – Prep Discovery Learning Excursion, Prep B, G, and R
Week 8
Monday 20th March – Harmony Week
Monday 20th March – NAPLAN Year 3 Conventions of Language
Tuesday 21st March – NAPLAN Year 3 Numeracy
Tuesday 21st March – Harmony Day
Tuesday 21ST March – Lunchtime Concert (details to follow)
Wednesday 22nd March – Year 2 Excursion – Geelong Library and Art Gallery (EdSmart to follow)
Student Leaders and New Staff Induction Service
I would like to take this opportunity to share my heartfelt thanks to staff, students and families for their participation in our Leaders and New Staff Induction service today, Friday February 24th, 2023. I am grateful that these students and new staff have accepted the call to be leaders within our Junior School and I look forward to their contributions over the coming year.
Our Project Care student Leaders for 2023 are: Raafay Bhatti, Lucas Cao, Michaela Desai, Jude Ellis, William Gannon, Esther Hines, Brydie Johnson, Indie MacFadyen, Hudson McEwen and Lexie Qi.
Our House Leaders for 2023 are: Burrows House: Ebony Kelly and Henry Trott
Flynn House: Pieper Riddle and Alex Upham
Penman House: Lachlan Minett and Hannah O’Neill
Taylor House: Isabelle Hughes and Mitchell Ward
Our new Junior School staff are: Sarah Sheridan-Jones – Learning Support Coordinator
Emily Gliszczynski – Education Support Officer
Rea Pantadis – Year 1 Homeroom teacher
Rachel Smith – Education Support Officer
Bridget Mapleson – Year 1 Homeroom teacher
Carlie Ronning – Education Support Officer
I would also like to take the opportunity to share that our College Captains for 2023 were announced today as Raafay Bhatti and Hannah O’Neill. Both of these students have on many occasions demonstrated their genuine heart for service to our Junior School, fellow students and staff. We congratulate all our students in Year 4 this year for the roles they will fulfill as leaders in our Junior School. We encourage our Year 4 students to be the best versions of themselves and use the many opportunities offered within the College to live out the words made famous by Dr Martin Luther King, Jr “Everybody can be great… because everybody can serve.” This statement emphasises that we each may have different strengths but all of us can make a positive difference by taking action.
May our students and new staff receive God’s richest blessings as they commit to bringing the love of Jesus, his compassion, and his teaching to encourage others and in the words of 1 Peter 4:10, “Each of you received a spiritual gift. God has shown you his grace in giving you different gifts. And you are like servants who are responsible for using God’s gifts. So be good servants and use your gifts to serve each other”.
Ann-Marree Weigl, Head of Campus
Safety at the Roundabout – Front of Junior School
Just a note to all our Junior School parents and families to ask for your continued assistance in helping us maintain the safety of students in our school grounds. Please note that the roundabout at the front of the school is NOT to be used for daily general student drop off and pick up.
The exceptions to this being:
- If students are arriving for Strings at 8am on a Tuesday morning and/or Choir at 8am on a Wednesday morning
- If your child has an appointment between the hours of 9.30am-3pm when you are welcome to use the front roundabout for pick up and drop off as this will not generally impact student safety.
- If students are being dropped off at before school care from 7.00am-8.00am or collected from after school care from 4.30pm-6pm.
Thanking you in anticipation of your assistance in this matter.
Ann-Marree Weigl, Head of Campus
An Evening of Community
Last Tuesday evening the Junior School community came together for our Welcome Picnic. There was lots of laughter and fun as the children and their families gathered together on the grass under the big lone pine tree. Mr Horman, Mrs Hollingsworth, Mrs Braun and Mr Foran entertained us with some amazing music and singing and the children and families danced and sang. It was a wonderful opportunity for the community to come together.
The classrooms were then open for families to be able to see the fabulous learning that has already occurred at Junior School. The hallways were packed as teachers greeted families and showed them around our learning spaces.
Some thoughts from the Prep children:
I loved that all my friends were there and I loved playing with them. – Maeve
I really liked doing the singing and dancing. – Parker
I loved playing with my friends while Mr Horman was doing the music. – Kai
I liked the singing and I had pizza for dinner. – Dabi
I showed my Dad the classroom and all of my learning. – Jacob
We look forward to further events where the Junior School community can come together.
Julie Shutie
Mathematic Legends in Year 1!
Numbers, Numbers, Numbers!!
The Year 1 children have been working very hard to develop their skills in Number and Place Value. We have completed a variety of number games and activities which aim to help students identify and record numbers quickly and confidently. We are thrilled to see the children attempt these classroom tasks with excitement and enthusiasm! It really is such a joy as educators to observe the children learning, while working cooperatively with one another.
A very popular game in Year 1 is called ‘The 30 Second Challenge.’ The children are given 30 seconds to record (in their mathematics journal) as many numbers as they can starting at 0 and counting forwards by ones. They complete three rounds of this game and aim to reach a higher number in each round. After round three, the classroom is BUZZING with excitement as the children share their results with their classmates! It is so lovely to see the support and encouragement they show one other.
“I like this game because you can practise your numbers.” Xander
“It’s a challenge and challenges are fun!” – Charlie
“I like this game because it makes me happy!” – Neah
“It helps me get better at it.” – Alexander
“Every time we play it, we get a higher number.” – Mattias
“I like seeing what number I end up with.” – Evie
Well done, Year 1! Keep up the terrific work!!! 😊
Rea Pantadis
Persuading the Masses in 3R
In Year 3 we have been learning about persuasive writing and how we can use a variety of persuasive devices to convince people of our opinion, such as rhetorical questions, emotive language, alliteration, and statistics.
To begin with, we drew on what we have been learning about in our Core Knowledge Unit, ‘Ancient Greece’, and completed a Venn diagram showing the differences and similarities between Ancient Athens and Ancient Sparta. The students then decided which they would have preferred to live in during that time period. Some interesting opinions were expressed and there was a clear divide between boys and girls, with the boys preferring Athens and the girls preferring Sparta.
The students then created a list of reasons why cats or dogs made better pets and we played a very persuasive game of ‘tug of war’. During this game the students learnt about fact and opinion and how it is important to use strong arguments when writing a persuasive piece.
Some of the strong arguments that we came up with included:
- Cats are more independent so require less ‘looking after’ compared with dogs.
- Dogs can be trained so they are useful in society, for example, guide dogs.
- Cats groom themselves and don’t require baths.
- Dogs require exercise to stay healthy so in turn encourage us to lead more active, healthier lifestyles.
We are looking forward to developing our persuasive writing skills further next week when we write about which Ancient Greek God or Goddess we think is more interesting.
Lisa Johnson
Club Roster
Teachers are Learners too!
After work last Friday, six Junior School staff members jumped into two cars and headed to Bendigo. We attended the Sharing Best Practice Conference held at La Trobe University. Sharing Best Practice is a committee set up to promote current research, improve teaching pedagogy and discuss improvements and refinements that can be made to enhance the learning for all children.
As staff we are always looking for opportunities to expand and develop our own knowledge and understandings. We research and implement ideas based on the evolving educational landscape around us.
At this conference, leaders in their field presented around the science of Learning, direct instruction, understanding morphology and the etymology of words, assessment and data collection, as well as providing current research to support these concepts.
It was also a wonderful opportunity to collaborate as colleagues and spend time together unpacking the information presented to us.
We look forward to what this new learning will do for us and the children that we teach.
Julie Shutie
Health, PE and Sport at Junior School
We are up and running for another year and Term 1 provides lots of opportunities for students on a sporting and skills development front.
From now until the early weeks of Term 2, students from Junior School are encouraged to participate in Swimming (Year 4), Athletics (Year 4) and Cross Country (Prep – Year 4) Carnivals. Our community also looks forward to the Mother’s Day Tabloid Sports which is scheduled for Friday 12th May.
Aside from these events, Year 4 have commenced their swimming program on Friday afternoons at Middle School. Years 1 – 3 students will have the opportunity to swim later in the year.
I have been particularly encouraged to see so many students coming to the Junior School Run Club on Thursday mornings. In fact, this week we had to divide into two groups as we had so many students. It’s great to see some parents joining in with their child, so please feel free to come along on a Thursday morning at 8:15am and support this program.
Students in Prep to Year 2 have a focus on developing their Locomotive and Fundamental Motor Skills. In Term 1 students observe, learn and attempt skills such as running, leaping and vertical jump. In Term 2 the focus is on throwing, catching and kicking. Preps will also participate in the Perceptual Motor Program (PMP), which is great for the development skills.
At the Year 3 and 4 levels, students use these skills to put into sport specific programs and commence learning rules and start to learn ‘game sense’ approaches. Year 3 students are completing a cricket skills unit as well as athletics events and Year 4 T-Ball and athletics.
I hope your child has a positive and productive year in the HPE and Sport program at Junior School.
Please see the attached information about sports uniform for Term 1.
Nick Rice
Teachers Growing and Learning
Earlier this week, Christian College teachers, Julie Shutie from Junior School-Belmont, Emma Workman and Nicola Morrish both from Senior School, commenced a year-long learning journey with the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership as Teaching Excellence Programme participants.
The opening conference was held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre with the opening address from Victorian Education Minister, Ms Natalie Hutchins. She celebrated the role and work of the teaching profession and the work we would undertake as participants in this prestigious program. She charged us with growing ourselves as learners to ensure we are providing the best possible learning outcomes for our students across the state.
We then heard from the CEO of the Academy, Dr Marcia Devlin OAM, who celebrated the teaching profession and this innovative teacher program where 500 leading teachers from across all three sectors (Independent, Catholic and Government) are working together to explore best practice in learning. She also celebrated the Master Teachers who will lead and guide the participants through the learning, with Christian College’s own Angela Tutty working as a Master Teacher for Humanities. Dr Devlin strongly emphasised that together, teachers can change the world.
Keynote speaker for the day was Professor Eric Mazur, Academic Dean for Applied Sciences at Harvard University, who challenged us to advance the quality of teaching through focusing on the quality of learning that takes place in our classrooms. He explored the human, social, cognitive and aspirational sides of learning and emphasised how the hard work of learning must be completed by the learner, with the teacher being more of a ‘guide on the side’. He challenged us to consider intrinsic and extrinsic desires of learners, inspiring us to continue to seek the inner spark of our learners and how this joy enhances their curiosity and improves student outcomes by building meaningful connections to their learning.
We leave this first stage of the Teaching Excellence Program feeling energised to embrace the program objectives and well placed to positively contribute to the teaching profession.
Nicola Morrish, Julie Shutie & Emma Workman
Device Program and Digital Wellbeing Parent Resources
Over the past two weeks, parents of our Year 4 students across the campuses have had the opportunity to attend an information session about the College’s 1:1 Device Program and Cyber Safe Schools Program. At Surf Coast and Bellarine Campuses, where students attend beyond Year 4, this invitation was extended to other families, especially new families to the College.
It is our desire to partner with parents in supporting students at all ages to develop positive digital behaviours and online safety, and these evenings provided information, guidance and support to parents – particularly parents of Year 4 students prior to the students having the opportunity to begin bringing their laptop home.
Though there was some emphasis on supporting parents in the Year 4 context, the information shared during these evenings is relevant and useful to all College families and parents. At each evening, a parent resource was made available to parents with a range of information about the device program, policy, eSafety parent guides and more.
I encourage all parents, regardless of the stage of their child’s learning journey, to explore the video recording of one of these evenings and the parent resource pack. Both of these are available via the links below.
- Video Recording of Device Program and Digital Wellbeing Parent Information Session
- Device Program Parent Resource Pack
During these evenings, the Qustodio parent app was explored as one tool available to College families as a support in the home. Families with students new to the College can expect information about how they can make use of this tool, if they wish, in the next couple of weeks.
Brendan Vanderkley, Director of Digital Learning
Visit Back Creek Café!
Christian College’s Back Creek Café in Meredith is a vital part of our Year 9 residential farm experience. Located 15 minutes south of Back Creek Farm, the café is open six days a week (not Sundays) from 8:30am to 3pm. On weekdays during term time, working at the café is part of the schedule for the Year 9s’ Farm Program work groups. Students learn a whole range of hospitality-related skills as they assist with the day-to-day café operations.
If you’re passing through Meredith this weekend, or just fancy a 35-minute drive up the Midland Hwy from Geelong, make sure you drop in and say hi. While you’re there, enjoy the best coffee in town – or choose from a range of other beverages – indulge in an all-day breakfast or one of the other scrumptious light meal/snack options on the menu. There is also a variety of sweet or savoury treats to enjoy while you’re there and delicious home-made produce to purchase and take home.
You can also check out the latest from the café via its Facebook and Instagram pages.
Back Creek Café is located at 1/27 Staughton Street Meredith. For enquiries and bookings, call 5286 1166.
Lego Club
Dear Families of Christian College Senior, Middle and Junior Schools,
At Junior School we love our Lego, and we are reaching out to families to see if they can assist us in any way to build our resource.
Lego is used at Junior School for students to come together and build skills such as turn taking, sharing, listening, teamwork and collaborative problem solving. In the early 2000s, US paediatric neuropsychologist Daniel LeGoff (2004) published research that showed many children were more interested in interacting with each other if they were playing with Lego. Therefore, as Lego promotes social interaction it is also a part of the social groups that we provide for children where they can practise communication and social skills while having fun.
Whilst we do have a small collection of Lego, our levels of student engagement are meaning that we are seeking donations from any families that may be able to part with their much-loved Lego. If you have or know of anyone who may have Lego that is no longer used, or taking up space in a cupboard or storage space, and want to know that it will go somewhere where it is loved and looked after, I would ask that you contact junior@ccg.vic.edu.au to let us know. All donations will be gratefully accepted.
Thank you.
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