Hearing Unit Term 3 Newsletter

Yarra Valley Grammar Hearing Unit Newsletter www.yvg.vic.edu.au

Telephone: +61 3 9262 7700

Facsimile: + 61 3 9876 1077

Term 3

Email: reception@yvg.vic.edu.au

September 2019

Remington Hobday receiving his SRC badge from Year 7 Coordinator Mr Jason Wylie

TABLE OF CONTENTS: FROM THE HEARING UNIT ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 SPEECH SPOT ............................................................................................................................................................................ 4 YEAR 12 .................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 YEAR 7 ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 FELLOWSHIP MORNING 2020 .................................................................................................................................................... 6 YEAR 7 ZOO EXCURSION ............................................................................................................................................................ 6 CONGRATULATIONS EMILY........................................................................................................................................................ 7 CONGRATULATIONS REMINGTON ............................................................................................................................................. 7 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS EXCURSION TO MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY. ...................................................................................... 7 YEAR 6 ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 BUTTERFLY BADGES .................................................................................................................................................................. 9 YEAR 4 .................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 BIG KIDS LITTLE KIDS GATHER .................................................................................................................................................. 10 PREP ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 YEAR 1 .................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 JUNIOR SCHOOL FRENCH DAY ................................................................................................................................................. 13 YEAR 4 .................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 YEAR 2 .................................................................................................................................................................................... 15 YEAR 2 CONTINUED ................................................................................................................................................................. 16 JUNIOR SCHOOL FOOTY DAY ................................................................................................................................................... 17 JUNIOR PRIMARY CLUBS.......................................................................................................................................................... 18

FROM THE HEARING UNIT Welcome to the Hearing Unit’s Term 3 Newsletter. We hope that you have all had a wonderful term and are looking forward to a well-deserved break.

Earlier this term we asked our some of our Senior School Hearing Unit students, what they like about being part of the Hearing Unit and these were some of the responses: “Being part of the Hearing Unit helps me learn easily in class. If I miss something, I can get the information from the (Teacher of the Deaf) note-taking.”

“Hearing Unit is a community where everyone understands how their lifestyle is affected by hearing loss. We know how to help and support each other because we are going through the same things together.”

“Being a part of the Hearing Unit is like being part of one loving family. The teachers and students of the Hearing Unit are able to coalesce forming a supportive environment. Without it, choices I made leading into the future would have not been possible.”

“It makes me feel connected and I can make new friendships and seek support here. It is an amazing place.”

“Being in a classroom full of noise is tiring. When we come to the Hearing Unit where we are all able to listen to one person at a time without needing to deal with other background noises and conversations. This is a nice contrast.”

“The Hearing Unit gives me more opportunities.”

Earlier this term, we welcomed the Year 7 Hearing Unit students for 2020 for Fellowship Morning. They had a wonderful time and participated in lots of fun activities such as Drama, Art, Minor Games, Icebreakers, Science Technology and Music. Many new friendships were formed and we look forward to welcoming them back in November for Orientation Day. The Butterfly is a symbol of deafness, as it is believed that butterflies are unable to hear. They are beautiful and admired, just like those who are Deaf and hard of hearing. For over ten years, Yarra Valley Grammar has supported the Deafness Foundation by selling butterfly badges. Recently, the Junior School Hearing Unit students and teachers worked together to sell butterfly badges and keyrings to the Junior School during lunchtimes. This also included two visits to the YVG Early Learning Centre. The Senior School also sold badges during tutorial, at the school production and during recess and lunchtime. These were fantastic opportunities for all the students to work together to raise awareness for the important work of the Deafness Foundation. The funds raised are used to provide money for research and innovations that may make positive, practical changes for people that live with a hearing loss. They also support research into how to prevent hearing loss. In total, the school raised $1057.50.

In August, we held our Parent Evening in the Senior School Hearing Unit. Our Speech Pathologist, Anneke Flinn, shared with parents and teachers the ‘Social Thinking Needs’ of students with a hearing loss and the challenges they face. Anneke gave an insight into what parents can do at home to support their child and what the latest research is telling us.

2

On Thursday, 29th August, we headed off to the Combined Schools Secondary Deaf Sports Day. This annual event is a wonderful, social occasion where the students have the opportunity to connect with other teenagers with hearing loss. One of the highlights was meeting Taylor Adams and Daniel Wells from Collingwood Football Club.

Our placement student, Sonal Vashisht, who is studying to be a Teacher of the Deaf, also joined us on the day. It was a tiring, yet rewarding day.

On behalf of The Hearing Unit, I would like to wish you all a safe, fun and relaxing break.

Ms Rachel Wilson Head of the Hearing Unit

3

SPEECH SPOT Hello!

My name is Alice and if we haven’t met yet, I am a fourth year Speech Pathology Student from Australian Catholic University in Fitzroy.

I have had such a wonderful time during my final placement in the Hearing Unit at Yarra Valley Grammar.

I am very grateful for such a unique experience and to have had the opportunity to work with your wonderful children! We have had lots of fun playing games together whilst also working on our speech and language goals.

Did you know, that in Australia, more than 1.2 million people have difficulty communicating on an everyday basis?

Speech Pathology Week was celebrated in August in Australia. The theme for the week was “Communicating with Confidence”. Communicating with confidence is vital to empower everyone to participate fully in the social, educational, economic, community and sporting aspects of life. It involves so much more than just the sounds we make and the words we use.

I look forward to my final few weeks after the school holidays and cannot wait to take everything I have learnt here into my future career. Thank you to all the students, parents and teachers, particularly Mrs Flinn, who have made me feel so welcome during my time at Yarra Valley Grammar. Have a great break!

Miss Alice Powell Mrs Anneke Flinn Speech Pathologist

4

YEAR 12 Our Year 12 boys, Joshua Randall and Nelson Vu have been working hard for many months on their Product Design Technology products. Nelson and Josh had to choose a client and design a product based on the client’s needs and requests. Josh decided to be his own client and designed a bedside table for his room. Nelson’s brother was his client and Nelson designed and built a new desk for his brother. Both boys have enjoyed the whole process from the research stage, to planning and finally producing. The boys experimented with computer aided design and hand drawings. One condition of the assignment was that their product had to be innovative. Nelson incorporated squares in an arrow pattern on his desk top. Josh incorporated many triangle shapes in his design.

5

YEAR 7 Footy report by Remington Hobday‌ Every Saturday morning, I have to wake up early to travel to other schools or for early games. But every game I played was very enjoyable. Mr Bisset, who was my Year 4 teacher, is our coach and he is a very good and concentrated coach. The first two rounds were really with positions I am comfortable with. Then the third round was a bit disappointing when Ivanhoe smashed us, (120 - 31) But I snapped a goal from the corner which was very exciting. Marcellin Gold smashed us as well by 88 - 10, which was disappointing because we weren’t playing accountable footy at all.

After all the big losses and one win (which I was emergency for) in the first half of the season, we finally were relaxed when we had to play at Yarra for the first time. Our first Yarra game, was probably the best game we played this season. I had a set shot before the final break, and it was a goal which made Yarra into a 21 point lead. After the final break, the opposition were grinding to win, they got the next 3 goals, while we struggled to score only scoring 3 behinds. In the end, it was a hard fought draw (43 - 43). There were 3 more close losses, then Camberwell absolutely dominated and beat us by 64 - 0. One of my teammates were away, so I was able to play in the midfield for the first time! The last round was clearly the Year 7s best game, we won 63 - 20 in our last Year 7 game to finish the season off as a memory. I kicked one goal in the last quarter to boost our lead, it started raining after half time, which was enjoyable. This season was an extremely sensational season and I enjoyed it very well.

FELLOWSHIP MORNING 2020

Some of our Year 7 2020 team

YEAR 7 ZOO EXCURSION On Wednesday 7th August, the Year 7s made their annual trip to the zoo for their Biology study. In Science classes the students had been learning about classification and endangered species. The students attended a number of keeper talks throughout the day to learn about many of our endangered animals. They also had to gather a range of photos and put together an information video about one specific endangered species. Sammi and her friends Rhea, Kana and Abigail chose to focus on the Orang-utan.

6

CONGRATULATIONS EMILY Emily was presented with Hockey Colours, Most Valuable Player MVP and recognised as an AGSV representative at the Winter Sports Firsts Presentation Night.

CONGRATULATIONS REMINGTON Remington was made Student Representative Council member for his class for second semester.

He was part of Royal South Street Eisteddfod as part of the YVG Concert Band. Remington performed in the Intermediate Concert Band section as a member of the Concert Band. They were awarded 2nd place which was a great result all round.

Remington was in the Grand Final for his tennis team at Parkwood Tennis Club on Sunday 8th September. The team played at home and lost 5 sets to 1. Remington’s singles match ended with him playing a tie breaker.

Remington won a silver medal for his efforts. He is to be congratulated on this wonderful achievement.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS EXCURSION TO MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY. On Wednesday 14th August, the Year 11 International Students were invited to attend an open day at the University of Melbourne. The day provided a lot of information about studying at the University of Melbourne, with current students speaking to the Year 11s and guest lecturers giving mini lectures and finally a tour tailored to International students studying VCE. Dylan enjoyed the day.

7

YEAR 6

This term in Year 6, we have been learning about our Asian neighbours. We have done so many awesome activities. We competed in an Asian Scavenger Hunt, where we walked around and found information about Asian countries and had to answer questions on a card. The winner was the East Timor group. The Asian food tasting was an exciting part of the term. We had to be blindfolded and try to guess what the foods were. Some guesses were buffalo testicles, shark liver and many more weird and wonderful Asian foods. The winners were Arnott who guessed the most correct foods. On Friday we ended our Asian Unit by going on a trip to Chinatown. We went to the Chinese Museum and we learnt about Chinese immigration. Then we went on a tour through Chinatown. We went through a church and also saw dumplings being made. We went back to where we started our excursion, to a Chinese restaurant. We had a buffet of Chinese food and it tasted amazing. Then we went to a Kung Fu studio to learn some martial arts. We learnt how to blind the enemy and block shots to the head, we then learnt how to get out of a headlock. After this we went back to the bus, and it was a long journey back to YVG. We had so much fun this term and wish we could do it all again.

By Hamish and Lochie 6W

8

BUTTERFLY BADGES

It’s become a tradition of the Yarra Valley Grammar Hearing Unit to raise money for the Deafness Foundation through the sale of their butterfly badges. For one week this term, Hearing Unit students across the school sold badges and keyrings at the School production, during tutorial, recess and lunchtimes as well as the Junior School office staff selling badges. Some students went to the ELC and sold badges to the families there.

Hearing Unit students spoke at Assembly to advertise the sales and to report back on the success of the week.

Due to the School community’s support in promoting and buying the badges, the Hearing Unit raised over $1,000 to provide money for research and innovations that may create positive and practical changes for people living with a hearing loss. All the staff and students would like to thank everyone who helped promote the sales or bought badges. It was great to see so many badges on uniforms and bags.

9

YEAR 4

Malala’s Magic Pencil During this term, Year 4 have been exploring the Integrated Studies topic of ‘Abilities and Challenges’.

This is Amara Crotty’s recount of a young girl who overcame many challenges to stand up for what she believed in.

Malala is a ten-year-old girl that wants to stand up for girl’s rights.

At first, she’s wishing for a magic pencil and she imagines what she can do with it. But she didn’t get one.

One day, Malala visited the dump to throw away rubbish. She learnt that not everyone goes to school because they have to help their family to survive. Girls were expected to cook and clean and take care of their brothers and sisters.

Malala wants all girls to go to school so they can learn new things.

Malala wanted to be the top student in class. Eventually, no more students were coming to school. Malala found out that guards stopped the girls from going to school. The girls were scared of the guards.

After a while, Malala feels like she needs to do something to help encourage girls to come back to her class. She wants all boys and girls to be together as equals. Then, Malala writes about her feelings and how girls can’t go to school. After some time, her letters were shared in a famous international newspaper and she got on TV. Malala was a brave but scared girl who stood up for girl’s rights. She wants the world to be with peace so everyone can do what they want to do with their lives. Malala has shared her story around the world and now everyone is helping her to make her voice even louder. Malala did get her magic pencil!

By Amara Crotty, Year 4B

BIG KIDS LITTLE KIDS GATHER At our final Hearing Australia visit for the term, we gathered as a whole Unit and shared morning tea. We celebrated the end of a busy term. We thanked our Student Teacher Mrs V for her work with us and sang Happy Birthday to Mrs Begley. As always the big kids and little kids enjoyed each other’s company.

10

PREP Celebrating one hundred days of Prep.

When the Preps celebrated 100 days of Prep, they imagined what they would be like when they are 100 years old.

11

YEAR 1 Soon the Year 1s will be having an expo where people come to play their arcade games. Students were in small groups and together had to design, make and create rules for their game. Gaurvi has started writing the rules for her group’s game; the Egg Drop.

How to Play Egg Drop Materials – - Egg Dropper - Some Lucky Dips - Some balls Method – 1. Choose if you want to drop the Lucky Dips or the balls.

2. Drop the Lucky Dip/ball in the tubes.

3. Then see where the Lucky Dip/ball lands.

4. If the ball/Lucky Dip lands in a trap, you get 2 or 1 extra goes.

Gaurvi and the Egg Drop arcade game:

12

JUNIOR SCHOOL FRENCH DAY

13

YEAR 4

Abilities and Challenges Year 4 Integrated Studies

14

YEAR 2

Term 3 has come and gone so quickly, but as always there has been plenty happening both in and out of the classroom in Year 2.

We had the annual sale of butterfly badges. The children were all rostered on to sell badges and keyrings during lunch times.

Term 3 was the commmencement of the weekly swimming lessons. The children responded well to reading whiteboards and using visual communications during the times when they were unaided.

The children all had their art work on dispay in the whole school Art Show. It was great to see so many visitors viewing all the different types of art.

In Year 2 each child had the opportunity to learn a string instrument. Luke learnt to play the cello, Indi and Fabien trialled the violin. The highlight was a Friday string concert where the children all came together to play. `

Early in the term, the Year 2 team were responsible for leading assembly. The children all got up and spoke clearly and fluently in front of a large audience.

15

YEAR 2 CONTINUED Another highlight of the term was the Australia Theme Day. We have been learning all about people and places.

We had fun dressing up, cooking, bushdancing, creating paintings of Ned Kelly and gum boot throwing.

In addition to all of this we have worked on maths and literacy activities that have involved group work and collaboration with others.

16

JUNIOR SCHOOL FOOTY DAY

17

JUNIOR PRIMARY CLUBS During Term 3 we had four sessions of JP Clubs. These great opportunities took place on Monday after lunch. There were many activities that the children could choose from.

All Prep to Year 3 children were asked to vote on their favourite activity that they would then persevere with for the remainder of the term.

There were opportunities to garden, code, dance, learn Auslan, create art works, play sport or chess, plus many more. The children were grouped across year levels providing an opportunity for the older children to work collaboratively with the younger ones. All the children really enjoyed participating in their club.

18