Junior School Bulletin Issue 10 / 5 August 2016
Junior School News New Sound System in the Bus Shelter Thank you to the Parents and Friends for kindly donating the funds to purchase the sound system in the bus shelter. It has made it so much easier for the children to hear their names called and the traffic is flowing smoothly. Thank you to the Traffic Safety Attendants for their continued work in getting the children to their cars safely and efficiently. Football (Soccer) Congratulations to the Year 5 boys and girls football teams who played in the champion of champions matches recently. Whilst playing extremely well and giving their all, the girls unfortunately were beaten. The boys played well as a team and won their match and have qualified for the next stage of the tournament in Brisbane. We wish them well.
Years 5/6 Classrooms and STEAM Room The Years 5 and 6 classrooms will be handed back to the College on Tuesday 9 August. The classrooms have been designed to create open learning environments that are flexible and enable a range of learning experiences to be undertaken. The STEAM Room will also be completed on Tuesday 9 August. It will be used as a temporary Music room as the C Block demountable is refitted. STEAM is an acronym for the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. By its very nature it is transdisciplinary and uses the design process to solve real world problems. Undertaking real world problems and projects related to the Units of Inquiry, students apply the 5 essential elements of the PYP to shape the learning experience. It is about equipping the students with necessary skills, knowledge and understanding to solve complex problems. We look forward to the students getting in and using the STEAM room for their inquiries and completing hands on learning experiences. Future activities that may be conducted in this room include students telling fables through the use of traditional Aboriginal art techniques (Year 4), creating a chair to hold their mascot and choosing the best materials to complete the project (Prep), or design and construct a musical instrument (Year 1). Through having a dedicated space to do some of these activities, the students can delve deeper into the topics studied. Japanese Visitors Over the past two weeks we have had a number of Japanese visitors at the College. Some families have billeted Japanese students in their homes for the week. Thank you to those families involved. We have had other groups who have joined our Junior School classes. The exchange helps our students get a greater understanding of the Japanese culture, as well as an opportunity to practice their Japanese language skills.
SEAT Recently we had a guest speaker come and speak to the children about spinal safety awareness and what they can do to protect their spines. The three key messages were: 1. Always wear a seatbelt 2. Wear a helmet when riding your bike 3. Check the depth of the water before you dive in The guest speaker shared his personal story about how he ended up in a wheelchair and reinforced the key safety messages in a powerful way.
Use of Playground - After School Parents are reminded that children are not to be playing in the playgrounds after school. There are an increasing number of students who are playing in the playgrounds unsupervised and this compromises the College’s duty of care and the safety of your children. If you have a meeting with a teacher after school, your children will need to wait in or outside the classroom or in Junior School Administration. The playgrounds are also designated OSHC play areas and part of their guidelines stipulate that only OSHC enrolled children can play in those areas while the OSHC is operating. Thank you for your support. Darrin Schumacher Head of Junior School