Issue 10 / 19 June 2015
Junior School Bulletin
Junior School News Literacy Week For the past week we have been celebrating Literacy with the concluding event being the Celebration Assembly on Friday afternoon. This week has been about focusing on literacy and celebrating its value in our lives. The importance of literacy cannot be understated. Literacy is the ability to read, view, write, speak and listen in a way that allows us to communicate effectively. Sound literacy skills are essential for participating in society, getting a good job and making a meaningful contribution to our communities. It is also essential to helping us make sense of our world. We began our Literacy week celebrations with the Year 6 students creating a collage of the well known book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ that ran from the Junior School Administration down to the Year 1 classrooms. The text was written in English and Japanese.
ELC Family Service It was a real treat to see the ELC students at Church over the weekend. It was very cute seeing them taking the lead, they really contributed to the service. It has been wonderful having the Early Learning Centre students and their families join our College community this year. Our College is a much better community for having them on site. Student Reports With our new database system we now have the opportunity to send home reports electronically. These reports will then be available online through Parent Lounge for parents to access at any stage after that. Semester 1 It’s hard to believe that we are coming to the end of the Semester. For the Prep students it’s half way through their first formal year of education. For the Year 6 students it’s the half way mark of their final year in the Junior School. The school holidays provide an excellent opportunity for the children to take a break from the day to day pressures that are associated with school life. I would encourage the children to take time throughout the break to read a good book and keep up to date with their number facts while still enjoying the outdoors. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parent volunteers who have volunteered their time throughout the Semester. The College really appreciates your assistance in the Tuckshop, Uniform Shop, as class coordinators, parent volunteers in the classroom, traffic safety attendants, helping at the Fete, library volunteers, and the many other ways that you support the College. We are so blessed to have so many parents who are very supportive of our ethos and we really value the partnership that exists to provide a quality Christian education for the children.
Our Year 3 students worked on a collaborative project with the Prep students. Other classes created picture books and used the time to write informative reports. The Year 5 students created a digital storybook using a technique called Claymation. It is the same technique used by the creators of the Wallace and Grommit movies. The results were spectacular. The students enjoyed the focus on literacy this week, I have had lots of positive comments from them about the benefits to their learning from the activities that they have undertaken.
Our teachers and teacher assistants often go above and beyond what is expected of them. I would also like to thank all of our staff for their valuable contributions over the course of the Semester. Darrin Schumacher Head of Junior School
Happy Holidays!