SCHOOL EVENTS

100 Days of Kinder

They made it! Our Kinder students celebrated 100 Days of School in style on Friday 6 August.

What a wonderful achievement after so many changes and challenges over the last eight months. They had a brilliant visit from Mrs Brown (Mrs Ripon) and her friend, Iris (Jo Morgan) to lead the 100 Days activities on the day. This included a primary school parade featuring their ‘100’ themed costumes, past all of the older children’s classrooms. We are so proud of all that our Kinders have accomplished, and look forward to seeing where the rest of the school year takes them!

Do it for Dolly Day

Students enjoyed participating in a range of colourful and uplifting activities on 20 May for ‘Do It For Dolly Day’.

‘Do It For Dolly Day’ is about bringing the community together to celebrate kindness and unite in taking a stand against bullying. All of our primary and secondary students wore casual dress for the day and a group of our secondary girls volunteered to braid the primary girls’ hair which proved a wonderful bonding opportunity! Students created a beautiful butterfly mural overflowing with positive, inspiring messages; the primary students in particular spent a lot of time reading and digesting these encouraging messages.

Thank you to our students for coming up with this great idea, and for raising $1078 for Dolly’s Dream!

We Can Sort It Out

The K-6 Composting Initiative, ‘We Can Sort It Out’, has initiated some amazing work in the Primary School.

Every class is involved and has the opportunity to teach and learn from each other. The students will train the next class

until all of the Primary classes know how as a school we can manage our food waste. Each day small groups of dedicated students are using our fabulous composting trolley to collect food scraps from the composting buckets and sort them. Once sorted the students then put them into the compost bin for the process to begin. Our students are learning about the process of making compost and how our food scraps can be turned into a valuable resource. During the year students will learn how to add straw, manure and water to the compost mix and ensure the correct levels of nitrogen are established. They will also learn how to aerate the compost and make sure the balance of materials used is right, which in turn eliminates any smells. It is wonderful to see our keen students from a range of year levels giving their time to learn about sustainability.

MAG’s Creative Minds

We have seen a number of our students participate in creative writing competitions and workshops; and the outcomes have been amazing!

ANNALISE SOMERVILLE, YEAR 7

Annalise entered a submission to The Vox Bendigo Book 2021 Young Writers Anthology. The theme this year was ‘Animal’ – Annalise’s submission ‘If the Animals could Talk’ was selected for publication.

If the animals could talk (an excerpt)

“…the animals would tell us how we are not always careful with our waste, how our rubbish ends up in the oceans, bushland and all over the place!

The animals would tell us about how we cut down too

many trees and how some of them are captured and illegally sold overseas!

Could the animals tell us if they really want to be our pets?

Will we care enough to take them to the vets?

Will we love them when they are older or will we treat them as pests?

Do we take them for granted because we know they are always there?

Do we wait until they are endangered and need to be saved before we decide to care?

Maybe we should rethink our ways, after all some animal species are growing short of days!

If the animals could talk, what would they say?”

OLIVER KNIGHT, YEAR 3

Congratulations to Oliver Knight for an outstanding achievement in this year’s Schools Writing Competition. Oliver was awarded ‘Excellence in Writing’, placing him in the top 2% of entries of the 7,500 entries received Australia wide. His short story will be featured in the publication ‘The Write Note”.

The Story of the Numbat Learning his Lesson (an excerpt)

“…Numbat was a greedy creature who wanted to rule over all the creatures in the land. Numbat thought for a minute… if I could find a Thylacine and force it to be my servant, I would be unstoppable. Numbat clawed at the tree with a sly grin.

That night, Numbat made sure he had packed everything he needed for his adventure to find a Thylacine. This was a lot for a little Numbat to carry. By the time Numbat got to the river he ended up chucking all his gear into the river. Before he got a chance to regret his decision all his gear got swept along the river and into the ocean. “Eh who cares,” said Numbat...”

Mini Writers Festival

In early August, primary students participated in the Virtual Mini Writers Festival, with the support of Mrs Barber. The Children’s Book Council of Australia hosted this virtual event

over a five-day period. Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds was the theme for these sessions. Authors such as Jackie French, Tristian Banks and Lisa Nicol guided students through a series of writing activities focusing on plot and character development, and techniques to add description and detail.

Student reflections about the Mini Writers Festival:

“I thought the way Oliver Phommavanh planned his stories by drawing a map was a good way of organising our ideas.” Bodhi Kohn, Year 5.

“I liked how we could express our ideas through pictures and the tips we were given to develop characters.” Zara Hensley, Year 5.

“I really enjoyed working on designing some silly characters with the author Lisa Nicol.”

Maya Butler, Year 4.

“My favourite day was learning how to create a story map with the author Oliver Phommavanh called “Escape from Death Island.” Nate Murphy, Year 4.

Give Back Day Fundraiser

In Religious Values Education (RVE), students were asked to create a project in which they could make a difference to the community and world around them. Annabel Pickles and Neisha Davidson came up with the idea to organise a school fundraiser to address the issue of clothing waste. Clothing waste is a major contributor to landfill and has significant environmental impact.

On Thursday 24 June, Annabel and Neisha collected 224kg of clothing from the School community for Give Back Day! The items were delivered to the St Mary’s Parish Hall complementing the Echuca Moama Community Projects Coat and Blanket Drive and the St Mary’s Parish Soup for the Soul community lunch event. The Year 5 classes were inspired by a group in Brazil who developed the motto “Be more, not have more”. Accumulating more and more material wealth does not lead to true

happiness, rather it adds to our global problem of waste and its impact on the environment. True happiness comes through serving others with care and compassion, helping people and helping our planet. Annabel and Neisha identified waste generated by unwanted clothing going to landfill as an environmental concern.

They designed their Creation Care Project to raise awareness of this issue and to encourage families in the School to donate unwanted clothing that would otherwise end up as rubbish. They then wanted people in need to benefit from the donated clothing.

Thank you to all the school families who donated clothing and well done Annabel and Neisha – what a fantastic effort and

outcome!

Winter Candlelight Concert

Our Winter Candlelight Concert was held on Wednesday 11 August, with our secondary students treating us to some wonderful musical performances.

Ms O’Shaughnessy and Ms Ellis did an expert job of coordinating the students to put together a varied mix of acts including solo and duet singers, solo musicians, the school drumline, jazz ensemble, strings ensemble, brass quartet and Year 9 band. Thirty-six talented musicians and singers graced the stage and made us proud of their unique talents.

The concert was filmed at the school and is available to view

on the Moama Anglican Grammar Youtube page.