GRAPEVINE
New kindled in the honey-scented trees. Hugh McCrae
Kings Canyon), the culture, and the reports about their engagement and conduct were excellent.
reports about their engagement and conduct were excellent.
We have had many students busy with their sporting pursuits, both in and out of school. Interschool skiing, Secondary Round Robin, Southern Ranges Athletics, local football, basketball, netball, and soccer have all been well-attended by our students. Our location means these activities often involve a lot of travel. Thank you to the parents and staff who make these opportunities possible for our students.
We have had many students busy with their sporting pursuits, both in and out of school. Interschool skiing, Secondary Round Robin, Southern Ranges Athletics, local football, basketball, netball, and soccer have all been well-attended by our students. Our location means these activities often involve a lot of travel. Thank you to the parents and staff who make these opportunities possible for our students.
helpers.
Further thanks to the Parents and Friends who attended and ran the trivia night. Amber and Bernie were so pleased with the support they received and wished to thank everyone for their work. The night raised over $2.5K, which, along with your upcoming efforts at Spring Fair, will go towards the next P&F school project.
Further thanks to the Parents and Friends who attended and ran the trivia night. Amber and Bernie were so pleased with the support they received and wished to thank everyone for their work. The night raised over $2.5K, which, along with your upcoming efforts at Spring Fair, will go towards the next P&F school project.
Our primary students continued to develop their competence and ability to manage themselves and enjoy the challenging alpine environment on their ski days at Mount Stirling. For Class 6’s, this experience culminated in their overnight camp at the ‘Cricket Pitch.’ A huge thanks again to the parent volunteers who make the ski program possible by attending as helpers.
Our primary students continued to develop their competence and ability to manage themselves and enjoy the challenging alpine environment on their ski days at Mount Stirling. For Class 6’s, this experience culminated in their overnight camp at the ‘Cricket Pitch.’ A huge thanks again to the parent volunteers who make the ski program possible by attending as
Our musicians and music staff, as always, have been busy, and we would like to particularly thank Danielle and the students who are part of Snowgum Strings (Scarlett, Thea, Lexie, Hanna and Minseo. The group recently played at the opening of the IB Art Exhibition and at the Community Bank Grant Awards afternoon on Sunday at the Goughs Bay Boat Club.
Our musicians and music staff, as always, have been busy, and we would like to particularly thank Danielle and the students who are part of Snowgum Strings (Scarlett, Thea, Lexie, Hanna and Minseo,. The group recently played at the opening of the IB Art Exhibition and at the Community Bank Grant Awards afternoon on Sunday at the Goughs Bay Boat Club.
Glenn Hood | PRINCIPAL
Glenn Hood | PRINCIPAL
MORNING STAR Sandi Valerio
Sandi Valerio
Last week the Morning Star children farewelled Winter with a special gnome afternoon tea. The Honeybee children were surprised as they arrived on their
Winter afternoon tea. Although we had a lovely afternoon sipping on chocolate chai and enjoying honey biscuits, we will do it all over again this week as some of our friends were not well and could not join us. Our stories have been telling us tales of the beginnings of Spring. ‘Pussy Willow’ with her little fluffy kittens became White’.
ROSA MUNDI JACK FINEGAN
Last week the Morning Star children farewelled Winter with a special gnome afternoon tea. The Honeybee children were surprised as they arrived on their last day of Winter to see little gnomes waiting to share some pancakes and tea with them. Many conversations were had, games were played and then the little gnomes joined morning circle for a last time singing songs of frosty cold days. The Echidna children have been busy sewing gnomes to be ready for their end of Winter afternoon tea. Although we had a lovely afternoon sipping on chocolate chai and enjoying honey biscuits, we will do it all over again this week as some of our friends were not well and could not join us.Our stories have been telling us tales of the beginnings of Spring. ‘Pussy Willow’ with her little fluffy kittens blooming as Lady Spring arrived, and a Norwegian Folktale, ‘How the snow became White’. The children could not believe their eyes when they looked closely at the snowdrop and saw that it had shared some of its white with the snow. The little green dots were left where the white was wiped away and given to the snow.
ROSA MUNDI JACK FINEGAN
The start of Term 3 has been all about listening to our bodies, keeping warm and dry in the mornings and ensuring we head back outside to move and play
Rosa Mundi have been spending time out in the yard watching the Princess of Spring work her magic on the flowers and trees as they seemingly spring back to life. The seeds we planted in the garden are also springing to life with the kids excited to see what is to come. Our morning circle has changed with the season, as we prepare the yard for our Spring Festival and upcoming Spring Fair. Father Sun is returning from his holiday as the children enjoy singing songs of blossoms and warmer weather.
CLASS 1 Samantha Charlotte
Fairy Fae recently delivered Class One’s recorders, much to the excitement of the children. We have been working very hard on how we hold, play and take care of our recorders, have heard stories about the birds who took residence in Fairy Fae’s tower, and are rejoicing in being able to use our recorder bags that hang beautifully in the classroom window. This week, we began to hear stories of The Dreaming, compose short sentences and draw beautiful images of what we recall in our Main Lesson books. The children were very happy to welcome spring, and are anticipating all that comes with the blossoming of trees and the warmer days.
CLASS 2 Liz Morrell
Class 2 will finish the Layout of Sums main lesson this week and so far we have worked deeply into addition and subtraction in a number of ways from quick mental calculations to written vertical algorithms. We have used concrete materials, drawn representations and learned how to use bar models to work out word problems. Getting into the garden and exploring the work of the worms was a highlight this week. Naming all the plants in the garden, weeding and having a little taste along the way was great fun.
CLASS 3 Amy Burns
Class 3 spent the last three weeks working incredibly hard to learn lines, movements, songs and dances for their play, ‘Esther, Star of Persia’. I was very impressed by their enthusiasm and energy for bringing the story to life as a group, and their joyfulness the whole way through rehearsals. Each of the students pushed themselves in new ways and overcame many challenges to perform two wonderful shows for the rest of the school and for their families, despite rain and very muddy backstage areas! This week we have started our Shelters and Building Main Lesson, as well as completing planting native species in our yarning circle project. Students have also been busy working at home to make treasures that they will sell at our Class 3 market during the final week of this term.
CLASS 4 Michael Britton
Class 4 has been diving into their Number Processes main lesson over the past couple of weeks. Students have been strengthening their understanding of times tables, place value, and developing strategies for working with numbers. They have worked with prime numbers, and heard of Eratosthenes, the brilliant Ancient Greek polymath who devised a clever method for identifying prime numbers. The class has also been investigating factors and greatest common factors, building a strong foundation for future mathematical concepts. In English, we’ve begun reading Matilda as our class novel. Each student is practising reading aloud, building confidence and fluency. The students have been creating more intricate Viking patterns and Celtic knots, where they are focusing on the ‘weaving’ of lines to create beautiful, interconnected designs. And in the mornings, the class has been practising juggling. Most students are now able to get three beanbags started, and will hopefully be able to start properly juggling by the end of the term.
CLASS 5 Lou Pullar
We had a wonderful four weeks of skiing this year with plenty of snow up high and we are grateful to all the parent helpers who made our trips possible. Class 5 have launched into our Ancient Greece Main Lesson hearing tales of tremendous Titans and glorious Gods. We will be writing creatively about the stories, learning Greek dancing and practicing our sporting technique for the Greek Olympics next term. Last Thursday, Carol also began teaching the Botany Main Lesson, starting with the four elements and tying it in with our gardening and cooking day. This will continue for the rest of the year. Next week, we have district athletics and solo concerts, and we wish everyone well as they strive to do their best.
CLASS 6 Clare Bennetts
We have been learning about what it means to borrow money in order to set up a business, how to calculate profit and understanding that bank loans are paid back at a particular interest rate. We are all crafting, growing or creating some items to sell at our stall on Thursday lunchtime 9th October. Students have debated, tallied and graphed where the profits should go and discussed the benefits of philanthropy for our society. Now that the concept of percentages is consolidated, students are working out the new price of discounted items in catalogues.
YEAR 7 Dion Hall
Being Indigenous means belonging to the original peoples of a land, carrying deep ancestral connections to its landscapes, waters, and life. It reflects a living continuity of culture, language, and traditions that have been passed down for countless generations, often rooted in a profound respect for the natural world and an understanding of its cycles. Students explored this way of knowing, researching their own cultures of interest from around the world and some of the challenges inherent in displacement and change that can envelop cultures.
YEAR 8 Amy McMahon
The Year 8s have recently returned from their week-long Northern Territory camp, which formed an important part of our current Main Lesson, Earth: Origins, Processes and Landforms. Students had the opportunity to experience the vast and ever-changing landscapes of Central Australia, making meaningful connections between their classroom learning of the Earth’s development and the formation of Uluṟru and Kata Tju a. Throughout the camp, students embraced a wide variety of experiences—from eating damper and kangaroo tail to sleeping beneath the stars. They visited historical and sacred sites, admired the desert wildflowers, and even held native reptiles, including the Rainbow Serpent and a white-skinned blue tongue lizard. The group conducted themselves with respect and resilience, pushing their physical limits while adapting to the extremes of the outback climate—from strong winds and freezing nights to hot, sun-filled days. We were very fortunate to be accompanied by Bella Moore (Year 9 OED teacher) and Jack Finegan (Prep teacher), and we thank you both for your energy and valuable contributions. It was a truly memorable experience, and I know many of the lessons and moments will stay with us for years to come. Looking ahead, Year 8 are preparing to embark on their next Main Lesson: The Age of Revolutions.
YEAR 9 Briony Davenport
Year 9 students have been investigating the branch of mathematics called Conic Sections and the family of shapes that comes from slicing a cone on various angle (circle, ellipse, parabola and hyperbola). Students explored how the equation of a circle describes its size and position, experimenting with how the radius, and the values h and k, shift and reshape the circle. Then, we turned our attention to parabolas and learnt important stills in expansion of binomial brackets and factorisation of quadratics. We also connected the topic to history by learning about Apollonius, the ancient Greek mathematician (200 BC) who first studied conic sections. Students finished the main lesson by creating some parabolic artwork, wielding their compasses and rulers to make some stunning shapes.
YEAR 10 Nicholas Koschitze
Shortly before they all left for exciting and enticing new experiences, Year 10 took a crash course into the depths of poetry writing, looking inward into themselves in the process. The Art and Craft of Poetry travelled students through some of the most significant periods of poetry of our time, beginning with the classics such as The Canterbury Tales and Shakespearean sonnets, and building towards modern free and blank verse poetry. Their work has now been presented beautifully in their own anthology booklets.
MUSIC Celeste Cleason
The music faculty is busy at work preparing all our students for the upcoming solo concerts. This special time is often filled with excited anticipation and some feelings of trepidation for many students. These concerts form a critical part of our music curriculum as well as honouring the individual growth of each individual child in front of our school community. We look forward to listening to much music over the next two weeks!
The music faculty is busy at work preparing all our students for the upcoming solo concerts. This special time is often filled with excited anticipation and some feelings of trepidation for many students. These concerts form a critical part of our music curriculum as well as honouring the individual growth of each individual child in front of our school community. We look forward to listening to much music over the next two weeks!
SOLO CONCERT DATES
SOLO CONCERT DATES
(ALL CONCERTS COMMENCE AT 6PM):
(ALL CONCERTS COMMENCE AT 6PM):
Wednesday 10/9: Class 3 & 4
Wednesday 10/9: Class 3 & 4
Thursday 11/9: Class 5 & 6
Thursday 11/9: Class 5 & 6
Wednesday 17/9: Year 7 & 8
Wednesday 17/9: Year 7 & 8
Thursday 18/9: Year 9, 11 & 12
Thursday 18/9: Year 9, 11 & 12
MUSIC Celeste Cleason
IB YEAR 12 ART Charlote Dayman
On Monday evening, we gathered to celebrate the opening of the IB Visual Art exhibition. Students each
presented a body of work, spanning across 2D, 3D and screen or lens-based mediums. Ideas of nostalgia, introspection and the line between reality and fiction were communicated through the works and curatorial rationales on display. The exhibition was a wonderful showcase of the student’s resolved works, technical skills, conceptual understanding and their overall journey of the IB Visual Art course from the past 18 months.
IB DIPLOMA YEAR 11&12 Saskia Schultz
VICTORIAN SNOW INTERSCHOOLS
Serena Vivash
Five students represented MRSSK at the recent Victorian Interschool Snowsports Championships held at Mt Buller. Well done to Jarrah Bateup, Penny & Spencer Scarborough, Lola McLeish and Angus Speirs.
They all competed in the Skier Cross, Giant Slalom Ski and Spencer also competed in Snowboard Cross and Giant Slalom.
Recently, the Year 11s and 12s had a trip to Melbourne. Saskia has given a summary of our myriad activities below:
Sunday: We visited the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, which provided links to our ethnography for Anthropology, as well as direct engagement for the art students. Afterwards, we took a beginners Salsa class with dozens of other members the public. In the evening, we attended a concert of the jazz group Enki, especially for the music students.
Monday: We walked to the State Library for study and to experience the temporary exhibits, before attending the Immigration Museum and their “Joy” Exhibition. Theory of Knowledge was a focus here. Prior to dinner, we visited the Ian Potter National Gallery at Fed Square, and after our pizza/pasta enjoyed a Melbourne Theatre Company production of “Destiny” and the Q&A following (a play about the South African apartheid). This was an introduction to a different South African play from this era that that Year 11s will study in Term 4.
Tuesday: We visited a Melbourne University campus library, before attending their Ian Potter museum’s “65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art”. While different activities were directed at particular subjects, students were able to experience the links between several different areas of the studies out in the world.
