In this issue

• 20th Anniversary, Traralgon Campus
• DAV Debating
• Year 7 History Museum
• Equestrian State Championships

Grammarian Issue 6, 6 May 2022

Traralgon Junior School

From the Head of Traralgon Junior School,
Ms Tracey King.

Term 2 began with an ANZAC Day service to remember the legacy of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who rowed towards the shores of Gallipoli and into history on 25 April 1915. Our Year 6 Student Leaders Isabella Slocombe and Araan Patel also represented our Junior School at the Traralgon Commemorative Service and laid a wreath at the cenotaph on behalf of our school. The first few days of term were all about discussing the importance of ANZAC Day, the ANZAC spirit and how we can learn from history.
There was great excitement as we eagerly watched the live streaming of Phoebe Balcombe’s State Swimming Championship races. Congratulations to Phoebe for her fabulous efforts and achievements. Phoebe swam in butterfly and backstroke events placing third and fourth respectively. This is an outstanding achievement for Phoebe and wonderful results reflecting her determination, commitment and talent.

Congratulations to Siena Rikken and Stella O’Mara who represented St Paul’s at the recent Regional Tennis Championships. Both girls played hard and with determination and can be very proud of their achievements being ranked in the top eight players for their age group in our region. The day was enjoyable and exciting as the girls completed round robin matches and finished in the quarter finals.

This week we celebrated the St Paul’s Traralgon Campus 20th Anniversary with a special service and gathering. Along with our Junior and Secondary students, it was wonderful to see a number of past teachers and foundation families in attendance and to hear some stories about the development of the campus over the past twenty years. Each student received a special Anniversary badge and a whole campus photograph was taken outside near the bulldozer that will soon be digging and preparing groundworks for our new Futures Building.

We enjoyed a lovely Mother’s Day Evening event with many families participating in special activities together. Many thanks to our teachers for hosting the evening and to Mrs Jayne Price for her organisation. Mother’s Day is a wonderful time to celebrate and share gratitude with the women who have helped us become who we are. Not everyone is able to or wants to celebrate a traditional Mother’s Day and for some families, the day can be difficult and bring reminders of loss and grief. In acknowledgment of all the different types of families and their needs, we hope everyone is able to acknowledge the special women who are a part of your families and who contribute in positive ways to your lives whether they are mums, nannas, aunties, sisters or friends.
Our FOSP group have been very busy organising our Mother’s Day raffle and stall and I thank all parents involved. A special thankyou in particular to Sue Magee who has been able to coordinate some beautiful prizes and gifts. The following local businesses have supported our school with donations and lovely gifts and we acknowledge their generosity and encourage our St Paul’s families to support these traders where possible.

• Endota Spa, 43 Hotham St, Traralgon
• LeKeyah, 39 Kay St Traralgon
• V Cases, 54-56 Seymour St, Traralgon
• Traralgon Food Co. on Franklin, 217 Franklin St, Traralgon
• Miss Frou Frou, 4/19-23 Seymour St, Traralgon
• Valentina & Botanix Florist & Décor, 63-69 Seymour St, Traralgon
• Raue’s Leather & Travelgoods, 67 Seymour St, Traralgon
• The Kitchen Cupboard, 95 Seymour St, Traralgon
• Sam & Frank Hairstylists, 2/85 Hotham St, Traralgon
• Beu + Caddy Earrings Beu + Caddy – Facebook
• Monique Cawcutt The Body Shop At Home

Throughout 2022, we will be working closely with ‘The Resilience Project’ to support the wellbeing of our school community. The Resilience Project delivers emotionally engaging programs and provides evidence-based, practical strategies to build resilience. Our Partnership Program consists of online presentations and weekly lessons for students, professional development for staff, and Parent & Carer Hub for our parent and carer community. Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing the Parent & Carer Hub with you. The videos are 5-10 minutes long and will walk through the key pillars of resilience: Gratitude, Empathy & Mindfulness. You will hear stories and be introduced to activities to show how these strategies can support our children’s learning and development, and also support you as parents and carers. This program is an important part of our school’s effort to look after the mental health of our community.

View the first presentation of the series here: Part 1: Meet Hugh and learn about The Resilience Project: https://theresilienceproject.com.au/parent-and-carer-hub-hugh/

In this presentation, Hugh shares a personal experience about his sister’s battles with Mental Illness.
Please note: This video contains a story about an Eating Disorder that may be triggering. Please consider this before watching. For mental health resources and support information, visit The Resilience Project’s Support Page.

Class Updates

Prep
The Prep students have settled into Term 2 well and have nearly learnt how to write every letter of the alphabet and the unique sound each one makes. We have five more letters to go! Students have explored what important features are in a sentence and have been learning how to write sentences, provided by the teacher, carefully on the lines using the correct formation and sizing of letters. They have also been focusing on using spaces between each word. Some students have even attempted to write their own sentence using an Upper case letter at the start, spaces between the words and a full stop at the end.
In Maths, we have been developing our ability to look at a group of objects and knowing how many are there without counting them one by one as well as using directional language to describe the location of items or to follow simple instructions of where to put an item. Students enjoyed listening to the story Rosie’s walk and created a map using the different locations and actions of the characters. We are also focusing on numbers up to 20, focusing on how to write and read teen numbers and identifying the number before or after a given number.

During our Wellbeing sessions with the students, we have begun our Resilience Program, focusing on labelling feelings and how our body responds. We have also begun our Protective Behaviour sessions and have explored the ways we can show respect towards others and to not use differences between ourselves and others as a way of putting others down.

The students have been exploring what makes a family and the different types of families in our community. We have also been discussing the different members of their family and what makes them special.

Year 1
The Year 1 students have started the term with lots of enthusiasm and excitement. We were really impressed with how respectful our Year 1s were while attending our ANZAC Day service on Tuesday 26 April. In class we read and discussed ANZAC Ted by Belinda Landsberry and Lest We Forget by Kerry Brown and learnt what ANZAC meant. This was a good introduction to our history topic this term which is focusing and comparing the past to the present.

Week 2 was a busy week with the students attending the 20^th Anniversary Service of the school on Wednesday 4 May. They listened and were respectful to all the people that spoke. They then enjoyed a whole school photo in front of the bulldozer, which was photographed by a drone. On Thursday we began our Mother’s Day celebrations by enjoying a lovely evening making bracelets and pampering our mothers, nannas and special friends with massages and special manicures. On Friday students were then given the opportunity to buy a special gift at the school stall and then made special cards to go with them.

Year 2
It has been a wonderful start to Term 2 for Year 2 students who enjoyed making and eating ANZAC biscuits to commemorate ANZAC day. It was a fun experience gathering data from the school car parks in order to create a graph to show the popularity of car colours. We also began our history unit of work for this term and have spent time this week defining traditions and categorising them into family, school, Australian and world traditions. We had our first Resilience Project session with a focus on gratitude and identifying things we are grateful for. There was a buzz of excitement in the classrooms as we prepared something special for Mother’s Day.

Year 3
This week we wrote a persuasive letter to Ms King about what we thought could be changed in the school to make the school a better place. We had lots of ideas which were based on therapy dogs in the classrooms, a fence around the school and ways to keep the school free from rubbish just to name a few. Estelle Agustin from 3C stated, “Secondly I recommend something like SRC but for making the school cleaner and a better place for kids to be in with no rubbish around the School.” Harrison Hogan from 3C stated, “Firstly I think we should have therapy pets to focus better so you can spell and write better than you could without them.” Vishvak Kancherla from 3C stated, “Have you ever thought that too many people are entering our school? As half of the public thinks, it’s a park, so we should have a school gate.” Cassie Beckman from 3B stated, “Concluding, therapy dogs are the best! They’re adorable, they could help nervous people, and they make people new friends! We need more therapy dogs!” Neave O’Mara stated, “My second reason is when kids are having a hard time at school a therapy dog could turn faces a bit brighter!”

Year 4
In Year 4, we are learning about the journey of the First Fleet, arriving at Sydney Cove and their encounter with the Aboriginal people. Students enjoyed investigating what life was like as a convict and the work they might have done in the colonies. In Literacy sessions, we have been identifying the author’s point of view and have examined ways to argue our own point of view. In Maths, we are building on our knowledge of statistics and probability through playing number games where students are required to tally results and display the data using a variety of graphs.

Year 5
This week students have had a strong focus on learning about the different techniques used in persuasive writing. Students practised using rhetorical questions, exaggeration, the rule of three, humour and emotive language. Everyone has absolutely loved sharing their viewpoints about the different topics and trying to convince their classmates that their opinion is correct.

Here are some samples of writing based on the topic ‘Books are better than movies/Movies are better than books’

‘Do you enjoy being told what characters look like? Are you sick of getting told off for watching too much TV? Books will give you an extensive vocabulary.’ – Sophie
‘I strongly agree that you should stop wasting all of your money on books that you will only read once.’ – David
‘Imagine having to read those giant, long and tricky words which will make your brain fall out because of how boring they are.’ – Frankie
‘Do you really want some poor and helpless animals to lose their habitat because of a book?’ – Nand
‘Who would waste their time staring at a bunch of words when you could just relax and watch something entertaining?’ – Dheaia
‘I’m personally tired of reading books and spilling food which ruins the book, but if you spill food while watching a movie, nothing gets wrecked and its easy to clean up.’ – Ari

Year 5 students have also spent time practising NAPLAN style questions which included Numeracy, Reading Comprehension and Language Conventions. All tasks were tackled with a positive attitude and students really understood that practising the NAPLAN style questions would help build their confidence for Week 3.

Year 6
It is always busy in Year 6 and the beginning of Term 2 has been no different!

Year 6 students began to explore The Resilience Project and engaged in activities centred around defining gratitude and the things we can be grateful for in our lives.

During Literacy, students have continued to explore figurative language, with a focus on similes and metaphors. In Maths, students have engaged in lessons where they have learned further about 2D and 3D shapes, nets and lines of symmetry. In Integrated Studies, Year 6 students have begun learning about the systems of government in Australia and are beginning to compare Australia’s government and laws to that of other countries around the world.

Music
Music classes have been busy since the start of this term. Prep students have continued to keep a steady beat while singing. They also had a flashback to Kinder when we had fun singing ‘Mr Clicketty Cane’! Year 1 students have started learning about the music stave: they learnt the notes lower on the stave have a low pitch while those notes higher up on the stave have a high pitch. Year 2 students are coming along with great guns with their String playing. They have learnt the names of all the open strings on their instrument and have started using their 1^st finger (in string playing 1^st finger is the pointer finger) on the D string to play the note E. More updates will be posted on the Year 2 Parent Page on MyStPauls, along with the backtracks and sheet music of the pieces they are learning.

Visual Art
Year 2 students are working on two projects this term:

• Cartoon people in pastel with watercolour backgrounds.
• Caterpillars on tissue paper backgrounds.

Tracey King
Head of Traralgon Junior School

WHAT’S ON

MAY
6 May Mother’s Day Stall
District Cross Country
10 to 13 May NAPLAN
16 to 20 May NAPLAN Catch Up
21 May Open Day
25 May National Simultaneous Storytime
26 May National Sorry Day
27 May Reconciliation Week begins

JUNE
2 June Region Cross Country
8 June District Winter Sports
10 June Student Free Day

* Please note that all events/excursions are dependent on COVID-19 restrictions.
* TBC – to be confirmed.

DOBSONS TRADING HOURS

Please note that some COVIDSafe procedures may still apply. We thank you for your cooperation.

Order online or click and collect: Please ensure that you only attend the store to collect your items once you have received notification that your order is ready, order here.

PREPS IN ACTION

Prep classes are learning about Author’s Message in library this term. The author’s message is the reason why the story was written. It could be to entertain, inform, or persuade. After listening to BUSTING by Aaron Blabey, Prep Price decided that Blabey’s message for why he wrote Busting was to make them laugh.

After listening to the story the Preps then redesigned the books cover to make it FUNNIER!

ST PAUL’S EQUESTRIAN TEAM COMPETES IN STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

In the school holidays, students represented St Paul’s in the PETstock 2022 Equestrian Victoria Interschool State Championships held at Werribee National Equestrian Centre, between Saturday 9 April and Wednesday 13 April. Congratulations to all riders on their successes.

Tahlia Pursell
Tahlia and Astro placed third in the Senior Combined Training event. They were one of only two combinations to get over 70 per cent in the dressage phase. Tahlia has now qualified for nationals in Sydney during the September holidays.

Georgia Joyce
Georgia and Carisma Park Rose won the overall championship in the 60cm Show Jumping competition.

Kate Joyce
Kate Joyce competed in the secondary 90cm Show jumping on Gresam Lodge Maximus.

Hayden Doupain
Hayden competed in all disciplines – dressage, show horse, show jumping, combined training and working hunter. He finished overall in twelfth place in the open show events.

Mia Fitzpatrick
Mia achieved third in barrel racing and third in bending to be awarded overall games champion. Mia has now qualified for nationals in Sydney during the September holidays.

She also placed seventh overall for show jumping, competing in three rounds to achieve this result.

Melissa Hoskings
Head of Sport, Warragul

FINANCE NEWS

Annual Fee Account
Families have recently received via email an annual fee account for 2022. If you have any queries in relation to your annual fee account, please contact Mr Peter Lees on 5623 5833. As detailed on the second page of the account, payment options are:

Direct Debit
All families are encouraged to participate in the School’s direct debit payment arrangement.

We offer fortnightly instalments (22 payments) on Wednesdays or Fridays that commenced 4 February and monthly instalments (10 payments) that commenced 15 February 2022.

Other direct debit payment dates are also available by arrangement.

Should families wish to commence payment by Direct Debit, please contact Mr Peter Lees, accountsreceivable@stpaulsags.vic.edu.au as soon as possible to set up an arrangement.

Please find the direct debit form on the school’s website at this link, https://stpaulsags.vic.edu.au/enrolment/school-fees/

Instalments (due dates)
Instalment 3 – 3 June 2022
Instalment 4 – 12 August 2022

Private Car Conveyance Allowance
Families driving students more than 4.8 kilometres to attend St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School may be eligible to receive a conveyance allowance. For further information on the eligibility criteria and application process, please refer to, https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/conveyance-allowance/policy

Eligible families applying for the car conveyance allowance will have funds credited to their fee account during the year. If the fee account has been paid in full, or is on a direct debit arrangement, any allocation will show as a credit on the following year’s invoice.

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF)
The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) provides payments directly to the school for the benefit of the eligible student to attend camps, sports and excursions. Families holding a valid means-tested concession card or temporary foster parents are eligible to apply. $125 per year will be paid for eligible primary school students and $225 per year paid for eligible secondary school students. Payments will go directly to the school and be tied to the student. For more information and to download the application form please go to, https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/Pages/csef.aspx

Parents are encouraged to lodge the application form immediately. The CSEF program for 2022 closes at the end of Term 2. All forms must be received by 15 June 2022 to be processed.

For parents who received CSEF at the school in 2021 (and the student/s are still enrolled in 2022), the schools will ‘copy’ the application across from 2021 to 2022 on the CSEF system. The CSEF system will automatically validate the parent’s eligibility with Centrelink.

Grammarian Issue 6, 6 May 2022

Traralgon Secondary School

From the Head of Traralgon Secondary School,
Mrs Leonie Clark

I hope that everyone enjoyed a lovely Easter holiday and that you were able to spend some fabulous time with loved ones making some precious family memories. Speaking of memories, a heartfelt thankyou to our Friends of St Paul’s (FOSP) parents and guardians who so kindly organised the annual Easter Egg Hunt for our secondary students on the last day of Term 1.

Darcy Ellen finding the Golden Egg and winning the FOSP Easter Egg Prize.

The morning commenced with a delightful Easter service facilitated by our very own artist and Chaplain Lynton Allan who shared his artistic talents while telling the tale of a very rebellious young kookaburra who left home in a flurry of anger and bitterness. Our young ‘punky’ and rather rebellious kookaburra thought he knew best but was too ashamed to admit that he wanted and needed to return home to the nest and the support of his loving family. The message about unconditional love and forgiveness was timely and a valuable reminder. We know our students and children will make mistakes, as do we as adults, but with it is important for us all to continue to demonstrate forgiveness, to warmly celebrate difference and to embrace diversity within our community at St Paul’s.

TRARALGON COMMUNITY ANZAC SERVICE, Monday 25 April
On the final day of the Easter holidays and in the splendid autumn sunshine Ananya Philips and Nicholas Fenech proudly represented our campus at the ANZAC Day service in Traralgon. Accompanied by Tracey King our Head of Junior School and Mrs Sandra Timmer-Arends Head of Years 9 and 10, Year 10 students and Traralgon Secondary School Captains Nicholas and Ananya reverently laid a wreath at the base of the cenotaph in Traralgon.

ANZAC DAY Service, Nicholas and Ananya.

Traralgon Secondary ANZAC Service, Tuesday 26 April
One Tuesday 26 April our St Paul’s secondary students participated in their own ANZAC Day service under the flags at the front of the school. The moving service was presented by our students who understood the significance of the ceremony and who took their time to deliver their contributions with respect and compassion for those who have given so much in service to their country. Appreciation is extended to all students who generously presented speeches, performances, and assisted with organisation on the day. The ANZAC ceremony was exceptionally moving, and it was a privilege and honor to hear it delivered by our accomplished student leaders from Year 7 to Year 10 with warmth and admiration for all who have served.

20^th Anniversary Celebrations, Traralgon Campus
On Wednesday we celebrated the highly anticipated 20^th Anniversary of the Traralgon Campus of St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School. Many past parents and staff joined Mr Cameron Herbert Principal, Bishop Richard Treloar, Archdeacon Clem Watts, former Principal Richard Prideaux and the current Chair of the school board Darren Jennings to celebrate the occasion. We also enjoyed reuniting with many former staff members and foundation families who are and have been instrumental in the growth of the Traralgon Campus. We were delighted that they were able to accept our invitation to be present to generously commemorate this milestone.

Our students were presented with a commemorative badge to wear to the service on their blazers as a precious keepsake to acknowledge the significance of the 20^th Anniversary. At the conclusion of the service all those present gathered outside for a unique photo opportunity. We cannot wait to see the image of our community from an aerial perspective in the coming days.

Included below is the opening prayer from the service which encapsulates the celebratory nature of the service, acknowledges the contributions of so many in our community, as well the values upon which our remarkable school has been established.

Opening Prayer (20^th Anniversary Celebrations St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School, Traralgon)
Everlasting God,
As we gather as a school community, we give thanks for the founding of this campus and for the many blessings we have received over the course of our 20 year history. We acknowledge the commitment of those who worked so hard to establish a campus in Traralgon and we give thanks for the increasing generations of staff, students, and families, who have continued to uphold the identity and vision of St Paul’s and our hopeful future.
As we look forward, may our School strive to be a place where people of wisdom, integrity, respect, and compassion are found. Amen.

Troy Aitken reads a prayer for the School while Alice den Houting awaits her turn to share her prayer.

Ananya Philips and Nicholas Fenech, Traralgon Secondary School Captains and official guests gather at the conclusion of the service.

Year 9 and Year 10 Examinations
We don’t have long until our Years 9 and 10 students will sit their end of semester examinations. It is important that students take little steps each day towards the revising of content. It can take a little while for students to work out the best study method for the retention of information and there are certainly a plethora of ‘experts’ prepared to give advice in this space.

The following blog has some outstanding research-based techniques and advice that may assist students to understand some of the proven techniques to help make their study more effective in the coming weeks.

https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/sciencecommunication/2017/10/21/how-to-study-effectively-according-to-science-emma-fazzino/

Year 7 Homework
After a lovely term of no homework in order to support a gentle transition to secondary school, all Year 7 students are now expected the complete 30 minutes of homework afterschool. Students should be using their diaries to record their homework each day. Students are advised to set up a study space that is reserved for homework. Homework in Year 7 may include completing assessment tasks, finishing some questions, revising for tests or completing their wider reading. All students from Year 7 up are warmly invited to attend Homework Club each Thursday afterschool from 3:20 pm to 4:20 pm in Room 2 to help establish this routine.

Leonie Clark
Head of Traralgon Secondary School