In this issue
- National Simultaneous Storytime
- SPARK
- Gippsland Academy Awards Night
- Artists of the week
Traralgon Junior School
From the Head of Traralgon Junior School,
Mr Andy McNabb.
Dear Parents,
As we move into June, it always comes as a bit of a shock just how quickly we are travelling through the year. Then I look back at all the events we have covered and realise how much we have achieved as we approach the half way point of the year. Carlie will ensure you have a flyer for your fridge door, which outlines the main events for Term 3 but before we arrive there, here are a few comments on things happening currently.
We were invaded this week at one point in the office as the ELC Joey group came to visit, en masse. Carlie has a new respect for our Kinder staff and they only stayed for a few minutes! It was like being nibbled to death by ducks! We are privileged to have our Kinder so physically close to the Junior School and we look forward to welcoming our Pre-Prep groups on their next visit to assembly, with their impeccable manners.
Coming up in the ELC calendar, the students will be celebrating ‘PJ Day’ with various days booked in for the different groups. The whole of the ELC are also planning on visiting the wetlands in Week 9, hopefully not wearing their PJs on that occasion!
I have not had to comment for a while about driving behaviour in the car park but you may have noticed that the electronic sign is asking everyone to slow down and take care. We have had a couple of incidents where impatient behaviour has caused other parents to feel unsafe and we want the school to be a place where we set a good example for our children in every situation. The chances are that if you read this and agree, then you are not one of the people I am referring to but if we could all slow down a little, it would go a long way towards solving any issues. I know of a couple of parents who deliberately turn up a few minutes later and get to leave the premises when things have calmed down a little after the initial fifteen minute rush up to 3:35 pm.
Congratulations to everyone for our can collection this year. Mr Whitehead will be back to thank the students for the 1,250 cans that we collected. Together the schools in Traralgon managed to collect 5,516 cans which will go towards a very good cause with the Rotary Club. We still have cans coming into school and so it is not too late to add to the total. They can be left in my office.
You will have seen the letter regarding the changes to reports which went out this week. I encourage you to attend the information session we have arranged for Wednesday 13 June in the Library at 3:30 pm, so that you can further understand the reasons behind the changes. It was good to see parents attend our ‘Reading for Meaning’ session held on Wednesday and hopefully you gleaned some useful information from the staff. Thank you to Ms Steendam and Mrs O’Malley for facilitating this.
I would like to congratulate all the students who have taken part in sporting and performing arts events in recent weeks. If I try to list everybody, I am bound to forget someone but it is always good to acknowledge the achievements of our students and even hear them perform in assembly as we did with Oscar Wilkins this week. I reminded the students in assembly about the brown wooden box that lives to the right of Carlie’s desk. Some students are very up front about coming to tell me what they have been involved in but others are a bit more reserved. I genuinely enjoy celebrating with them and it is a shame to miss out on anything. If they would rather not talk, or if I am not in my office when they call, they can leave a note in the brown box for me to see later.
I also need to acknowledge the students who took part in the Division Cross Country event last week. I was the supervising teacher and in recent years I have not attended such a wet and miserable event. I was freezing cold and soaking wet in all my gear and yet every one of the students ran their hearts out and kept going on the two kilometre or three kilometre course, depending on their age group. Mr Reed assures me that cross country runners are tough and we should expect that sort of weather. Maybe I am just getting a bit older!
In between all of this we have also managed to fit in the National Simultaneous Storytime, which involved finding mice all over the playground (thankfully my wife was not around for that activity!) Thanks to Mrs O’Malley and Ms McNally for creating and hiding the mice, as well as organising the story session. We also held our Fun Run last week and the sun actually came out! The Preps made sure that Ted completed the circuit with them and it was great to see the secondary students involved in helping our very youngest children. If there are any more sponsorship forms or donations to come in, please return them to the office.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to return my sailor costume and put my tie back on again. The students in the 4/5 unit can hopefully tell you a bit about Joseph Bone from Devon who visited to help with their journal writing about the first European arrivals in Australia. The best teachers are always the best actors and my mother would not let me take to the stage…
Andy McNabb
Head of Traralgon Junior School
WHAT’S ON IN THE JUNIOR SCHOOL
JUNE
1 June Report Writing Day | STUDENT FREE DAY
11 June QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY
13 June ICAS Exam – Spelling
14 June ICAS Exam – Writing
19 June ELC Incursion (Pre-Kinder and Pre-Prep) ‘Wildlife Xposure – Creepy Crawlies’
20 June ELC Incursion (Pre-Kinder and Pre-Prep) ‘Wildlife Xposure – Creepy Crawlies’
22 June Year 6 Multicultural Day
End of Term 2, 3:20 pm finish
CLASS AWARDS
ELC Harrison for making good choices during inside and outside experiences.
Ellie for her kind and caring attitude towards others every day.
Ben for displaying great confidence during ‘Surprise Bag’ sessions.
Ruby for displaying great concentration and coordination during sport.
Lachlan for engaging role play in the ELC hospital.
Ruby for her practical problem solving and reflective thoughts.
Harrison for challenging himself at new activities.
Aurora for her consistent caring and considerate approach to others.
Prep V John for being a great team ant down on our special Prep trip to the wetlands.
Nicholas for always trying his best and finding the fun in everything we do.
Prep S Lani for being proud of your achievements!
Sihala for writing a very creative story about a cow!
Year 1F Hayley for taking her time to improve the presentation of her work. Well done!
Kallan for making thoughtful predictions when reading. Well done!
Year 2S Sophie for working hard to understand quarter past and quarter to time with great results.
Eva for persevering with challenging Maths tasks, with great results.
Year 2C Amelie for not giving up during the Cross Country event though she was very tired.
Adele for a convincing persuasive letter to your mum about having a birthday party.
Year 3BH Mitchell for his positive attitude and effort during the week of NAPLAN testing.
Year 3BH for successfully completing a week of NAPLAN testing.
Hallie for the thought and concentration used to complete her written pieces.
Year 3BD Tobi for interacting respectfully and positively with staff and students.
3BD for a fantastic effort with NAPLAN.
Freya for having a super smile and playing so well with others.
Harrison for a very persuasive piece of writing. If I was your mum, you could definitely have a birthday party!
3BD for enthusiasm, effort, participation and overall awesomeness in Protective Behaviour lessons.
Year 4O Armita for the way she has tried to extend herself in all areas of Maths this week.
Year 4/5W Josh for your diligence during our activity collating data from our ‘Multiplication Bingo’ game.
Asmi for always thinking of others in and out of our classroom.
Year 5H Josh for being a clock master during National Simultaneous Storytime.
Year 6R James for playing patiently with younger children at lunchtime.
Michael for playing patiently with younger children at lunchtime.
James for showing determination to complete his work without distraction.
Lucia for sensible inference and justification of ideas when reading.
UNIFORMS
In response to parent queries about the necessity of the yellow stripe on the pocket of the Secondary School blazers, the School has agreed to phase out the yellow piping. Although our uniform suppliers, Dobsons, will not be ordering new stock it will take twelve months to run out the old.
The good news for current school families is that Junior School blazers (or their pockets) no longer need to be replaced as students move into Secondary School at St Paul’s.
PERFORMING ARTS SPOTLIGHT
Sale Eisteddfod
Congratulations to the following music students for their tremendous efforts and successes at the Sale Eisteddfod:
Traralgon Senior School
Joshua Albanese (Year 10) – 1st place in Intermediate Championship 13 to 15 years, 2nd place in strings solo currently studying grade 7/8, 2nd place in strings solo 15 to 17 years and Adjudicators Choice Award for Orchestral Strings Encouragement Award.
Stephanie Graham (Year 10) – 1st place Senior Stage of Film Solo Year 7 to 12 and 1st place Intermediate Championship Vocal Solo Years 7 to 10.
Ashlee Jennings (Year 9) – 2nd place Senior Stage of Film Solo Year 7 to 12 and 2nd place Intermediate Championship Vocal Solo Years 7 to 10.
Lachlan Wilson (Year 7) –1st place with City of Traralgon Band Brass Band Entertainment Contest.
Traralgon Junior School
Heath Wilson (Year 6) – 1st place with City of Traralgon Band Brass Band Entertainment Contest and 1st place for “Any instrument not provided for”.
Angus Wilson (Year 2) – 3rd place for Orchestral Brass Solo 11 years and under.
Upcoming Dates
19 June Ensembles Concert
ARTISTS OF THE WEEK
Year 1: Mason Chan, Mia Nethercote and Phoenix Tyben.
Years 4 and 5: Kenuli Ganegoda and Phoebe Cooper.
FROM THE FINANCE OFFICE
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 www.education.vic.gov.au/csef. Parents are encouraged to lodge the application form as soon as possible, so that payments can be made from March 2018. However schools can accept parent applications up until 8 June 2018 for processing in Term 2.
For parents who received CSEF at the school in 2017 (and the student/s are still enrolled in 2018), the school will ‘copy’ the application across from 2017 to 2018 on the CSEF system. The CSEF system automatically validated the parent’s eligibility with Centrelink on 29 January 2018.
Traralgon Secondary School
From the Head of Traralgon Secondary School, Mr Stephen Klemke. Staffing I would like to welcome Lisa Johnson as our Traralgon Campus School Psychologist. …
Traralgon Secondary School
From the Head of Traralgon Secondary School,
Mr Stephen Klemke.
Staffing
I would like to welcome Lisa Johnson as our Traralgon Campus School Psychologist. Lisa replaces Leigh-Anne McKinley who has resigned to pursue other opportunities. Lisa is working each Thursday.
FOSP Fun Run
Thank you to members of FOSP, Andy McNabb and Sandra Timmer-Arends for organising the FOSP Fun Run. It is always a pleasure to watch our secondary students interact with the Junior School. I took the opportunity to snap this panoramic picture which I thinks captures the enthusiasm of the morning along with the beautiful scenery the Traralgon Campus enjoys.
SEISA Cultural Day
I had the opportunity to attend the performance that was the culmination of the SEISA Cultural Day. The five SEISA schools spent the day rehearsing to produce a wonderful evening performance. There must have been over seventy musicians playing at once. The performance was wonderful, the music beautiful and the power of the orchestra breathtaking.
Blazer Pocket Change
In response to parent queries about the necessity of the yellow stripe on the pocket of the Secondary School blazers, the School has agreed to phase out the yellow piping. Although our uniform suppliers, Dobsons, will not be ordering new stock it will take twelve months to run out the old.
The good news for current school families is that Junior School blazers (or their pockets) no longer need to be replaced as students move into Secondary School at St Paul’s.
Growth Mindset
With mid-year exams fast approaching I wanted to remind families that a core belief at St Paul’s is that of having a Growth Mindset.
“A growth mindset is characterised by children believing that intelligence can be trained and the brain is a growth organ, it is NOT a fixed trait that some are born with and others are not.
With a growth mindset children know that hard work is the key to success in all things; that putting a lot of effort into learning and working hard is the key; that mistakes are to be capitalised on and deficiencies to be confronted.” (Dr Carol Dweck, Mindset)
So while exams give a measure of your academic performance at one point in time, they also provide opportunity to see where you are and set goals about where you would like to be.
Hard work and persistence are qualities that will stand you in good stead, both in school and in life.
Stephen Klemke
Head of Traralgon Secondary School
WHAT’S ON IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL
JUNE
5 June Year 10 Exams
6 June Years 9 and 10 Exams
7 June Years 9 and 10 Exams
SEISA Winter Sport, Junior, Round 4
Year 10 CareerWise Parent Information Evening, 7:00 pm, Library
8 June STUDENT FREE DAY
11 June QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY
13 June Year 8 Melbourne Museum Excursion
14 June SEISA Winter Sport, Junior, Round 5
DAV Debating
16 June Japan Tour Departs
19 June Early Commencement
Ensemble Concert
22 June St James Community Lunch Excursion
BoHo Friday, East Timor Fundraiser Event
Year 8 Courage to Care Excursion
Last day of Term 2, 3:10 pm finish
SPORT NEWS
SEISA Junior Winter Round Robin
Our Junior SEISA Winter Round Robin has finally commenced with teams already having played two rounds. Our first round was against Gippsland Grammar, where we had success in football and girls and boys soccer. We have not been able to field an AFL team for a number of years and to get our first win was a wonderful achievement. Playing Newhaven College in Round 2 last week, proved more challenging for all teams. We did not register a win for any of our teams but they all played to their best ability.
Judo Nationals
We wish Zach Nabulsi and Axel Nightingale the very best when they head up to Queensland to complete at the National Judo Competition next week.
Axel Nightingale and Zach Nabulsi with their brothers.
Gippsland Sports Academy Awards Night
A couple of weeks ago, the Gippsland Sports Academy had their annual dinner and awards night. As a school we were fortunate to have quite a few of our ESP students attend this evening, with two being nominated for an award. Jordyn Cargill was nominated for the Tim Forsyth award for sporting excellence and Molly Van Berkel for the David Drane award for improvement in their sport.
Gippsland Sports Academy Awards Night.
PERFORMING ARTS SPOTLIGHT
Sale Eisteddfod
Congratulations to the following music students for their tremendous efforts and successes at the Sale Eisteddfod:
Traralgon Senior School
Joshua Albanese (Year 10) – 1st place in Intermediate Championship 13 to 15 years, 2nd place in strings solo currently studying grade 7/8, 2nd place in strings solo 15 to 17 years and Adjudicators Choice Award for Orchestral Strings Encouragement Award.
Stephanie Graham (Year 10) – 1st place Senior Stage of Film Solo Year 7 to 12 and 1st place Intermediate Championship Vocal Solo Years 7 to 10.
Ashlee Jennings (Year 9) – 2nd place Senior Stage of Film Solo Year 7 to 12 and 2nd place Intermediate Championship Vocal Solo Years 7 to 10.
Lachlan Wilson (Year 7) –1st place with City of Traralgon Band Brass Band Entertainment Contest.
Traralgon Junior School
Heath Wilson (Year 6) – 1st place with City of Traralgon Band Brass Band Entertainment Contest and 1st place for “Any instrument not provided for”.
Angus Wilson (Year 2) – 3rd place for Orchestral Brass Solo 11 years and under.
Upcoming Dates
19 June Ensembles Concert
FROM THE FINANCE OFFICE
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 www.education.vic.gov.au/csef. Parents are encouraged to lodge the application form as soon as possible, so that payments can be made from March 2018. However schools can accept parent applications up until 8 June 2018 for processing in Term 2.
For parents who received CSEF at the school in 2017 (and the student/s are still enrolled in 2018), the school will ‘copy’ the application across from 2017 to 2018 on the CSEF system. The CSEF system automatically validated the parent’s eligibility with Centrelink on 29 January 2018.
Warragul Junior School
From the Head of Warragul Junior School, Mr Rowan van Raay. Welcome: We extend a warm welcome to Mrs Shawna Cosgrove who joins us …
Warragul Junior School
From the Head of Warragul Junior School,
Mr Rowan van Raay.
Welcome: We extend a warm welcome to Mrs Shawna Cosgrove who joins us teaching Year 2G. Mrs Cosgrove replaces Mrs Galea who is now awaiting the birth of her first child in the coming weeks. We also welcome our new Aftercare coordinator, Kylie who replaces Danielle who recently resigned.
There has been a lot of illness running through our Junior School recently among both staff and students. I thank families that are keeping their children home until they are fully recovered and for your understanding when staff are absent and replacement teachers are filling in. We understand that this can be unsettling for some students, however, we endeavour to keep the daily routines and programs as normal as possible.
School Fun Run: Parents would have received information regarding our first ever whole school fun run following on from William Brewer’s (Year 6) fun run earlier in the year. This is a wonderful initiative from our parent group and I would like to clarify that participation is optional. Families who do not want to register their children for the fun run via CUA, but would still like to raise money, can do this manually using the page on the back of the information booklet that was sent home recently. Any money raised can be sent to school to be added to our efforts. We anticipate that the students will run/walk around an 800 metre circuit for about thirty minutes on the day with money raised going back into the Junior School. Quotes and investigations are being looked into with some of the SRC’s and parents’ suggestions being considered. Stay tuned.
National Simultaneous Storytime: It was lovely to see many of our Prep to Year 6 students enjoying National Simultaneous Storytimeime last Wednesday. We were very fortunate to receive a personal message from the author of the 2018 National Simultaneous Storytime book ‘Hickory, Dickory, Dash’, Mr Tony Wilson. Tony sent his best wishes to our school as he has a connection with the Madden family, Isla (2G) and Stevie Madden (4B) also received a personal hello from Tony in his video message. Our thanks to Mr Herbert who was our guest reader and the Year 10s who joined us to read some picture story books to the Junior School students.
Blazers: The yellow piping on the pocket of the Secondary School blazers is being phased out. The good news for current Year 6 school families is that Junior School blazers (or their pockets) no longer need to be replaced as students move into Secondary School at St Paul’s. Our uniform suppliers, Dobsons, still have quite a large number of blazers with the yellow piping for secondary students and will reduce this stock prior to selling ones without the piping.
Performing Arts Concert: Our Prep to Year 2 Revue and Performing Arts Concert are fast approaching. Ticket order forms were sent home recently and a reminder that these events will be held on Thursday 14 June in the Warragul Junior School Gymnasium.
RoboCup Junior Competition: Teams are busily preparing for the RoboCup Junior Victoria Regional Competition being held in our Junior School Gymnasium on Saturday 16 June. We have fourteen teams entered and they have been attending Robotics Club each Tuesday to Friday lunchtime under the direction of our STEM coordinator Ms Rapinett. The competition runs all day, so please feel free to drop in and take a look and see our students and their robots in action.
Semester 1 Reports: This week, parents should have received correspondence regarding changes to Junior School reports. For parents who would like to know more, a reminder that we will be holding an information session regarding these changes on Tuesday 19 June at 3:30 pm to 4:00 pm in the Prideaux Centre, Horizon classroom. Students are welcome to wait in the Library whilst this session takes place. Parents are reminded that Semester 1 reports will be sent home with students on Friday 22 June. If for some reason you do not receive your child’s report, I ask that you contact the Junior School office.
Rowan van Raay
Head of Warragul Junior School
WHAT’S ON IN THE JUNIOR SCHOOL
JUNE
11 June QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY
13 June ICAS Spelling (registered students only)
14 June Regional Cross Country (selected students only)
Prep to Year 2 Revue, 1:45 pm to 3:00 pm, Junior School Gymnasium
Performing Arts Concert, 7:00 pm, Junior School Gymnasium
16 June RoboCup Junior Competition, Junior School Gymnasium
18 June Year 4 Excursion to Morwell Immigration Park
21 June Divisional Winter Round Robin (selected students only)
22 June School Fun Run
Reports Distributed
Last Day of Term 2, 3:20 pm finish
Drouin and Warragul public school bus network notice
Please be advised the public school bus network services will not run on the following date in Term 2:
• Friday 8 June 2018, Drouin Bus Network
Please ensure you have alternative travel arrangements for this day. All St Paul’s buses will run as normal on these days.
BAW BAW SCHOOL’S CHINA EXCHANGE
We have an exciting opportunity for school families to be involved in the Baw Baw Shire Combined Schools China Tour. We require school families to host a Chinese Exchange student for one week from Tuesday 31 July through to Tuesday 7 August 2018.
St Paul’s is part of a sister school relationship with the Number One Middle School in Jiujiang Province of China. This relationship is also part of a broader connection with Jiujiang that is shared by the Baw Baw Shire. As a result, students and staff from both Warragul Regional College and Drouin Secondary College will also participate in hosting the students from China.
During the week the Chinese students will attend classes at St Paul’s and also participate in some excursions to a local dairy farm and the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary.
If you are able to host, your child will also be able to attend the day at Healesville to accompany your host student. There will also be a Mayoral reception held by the Baw Baw Shire at the beginning of the week and a farewell celebration dinner to be held at Warragul Regional College on Monday 6 August. Your family will also be invited to attend these events. The student will stay with you over the weekend and you are able to share with them a little of your life or take them on a day trip to explore the region during this time.
If you are interested in hosting, please contact Christie Bransgrove via email at cbransgrove@stpaulsags.vic.edu.au or by contacting the school directly.
UPCOMING SPARK SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAM
There are some wonderful workshops and opportunities coming together for the July SPARK School Holiday Program. The Tuesday will see us welcoming Coster MMA to the program with a Mixed Martial Arts session. The session will help improve fitness, strength, confidence, balance, discipline and teach valuable self-defence skills. A session your child cannot afford to miss! We also have Heal the Beat Drumming coming in for a loud crashing, bashing session of drumming to start our program off with a bang!
Wednesday sees the return of a whacky Science session, a junior art program and due to demand, a new Auslan session! If your child came to the Auslan session in the last program, their skills will be built upon in this one, but newcomers will also be very welcome!
Thursday will showcase our Performing Arts and Elite Sports Performers Program. We will attempt to create a ‘Play in a day’, a session of Musical Theatre and run a session of three sports in three hours with some of our successful graduates from the ESP Program.
If STEM is your passion, Friday is the day for you! For the first time we will be running a STEM SPARK Academy for the whole day. This incredible opportunity will allow participants to work with our talented Science and STEM staff and use state of the art technological equipment not generally accessible to primary aged students. The SPARK Academy will also involve a session using virtual reality headsets that will allow students to explore outer space from the comfort of our very own classrooms. This day has been six months in the making and we are very excited to offer this opportunity to children in our community.
Keep your eye out for the SPARK flyer in the coming weeks. We cannot wait to see you in July!
FROM THE FINANCE OFFICE
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 www.education.vic.gov.au/csef. Parents are encouraged to lodge the application form as soon as possible, so that payments can be made from March 2018. However schools can accept parent applications up until 8 June 2018 for processing in Term 2.
For parents who received CSEF at the school in 2017 (and the student/s are still enrolled in 2018), the school will ‘copy’ the application across from 2017 to 2018 on the CSEF system. The CSEF system automatically validated the parent’s eligibility with Centrelink on 29 January 2018.
Warragul Secondary School
From the Head of Warragul Secondary School, Ms Laura Butterworth. It is timely half way through the year to remind all school families of …
Warragul Secondary School
From the Head of Warragul Secondary School,
Ms Laura Butterworth.
It is timely half way through the year to remind all school families of the range of measures St Paul’s implements to ensure our duty of care to our students. There are a vast array of processes in place to ensure student safety, from checking in with you via SMS when we have not heard your child would be absent, to notifying you of late or broken down buses, Bushfire Code Red days, risk assessments for all excursions and camps, asking all volunteers to complete Child Safe Modules, Working With Children Checks for all direct contact volunteers and education support staff, notifying you of any emergency evacuation (that is not a drill) and so much more. We take the safety of our students very seriously. We also frequently have far more information than we are able to share with you and therefore appreciate your trust in our judgement and that you understand we will never knowingly compromise student safety at any level of the school.
In addition to the range of measures we employ on a daily basis to ensure our duty of care to our students we ask for the cooperation of our families in two specific things:
- That all parents/guardians comply with Child Safety measures required if they are volunteering at the School.
- That all families adhere to our request that students do not bring known allergens to school. It seems there may be a perception that students ‘grow out of’ anaphylactic reactions, but that is often not the case. It is therefore vital that from ELC to Year 12 students do not bring nuts or other known allergens to school. The consequences for other students can be dire.
We would very much appreciate the ongoing cooperation of our community in these important matters.
Premier’s VCE Award
On Tuesday 15 May I had the pleasure of attending the VCE Premier’s Award Ceremony at the Exhibition and Convention Centre in Melbourne. Class of 2017 Dux and St Paul’s alumna Hannah Robertson-Sas, received a Premier’s Award for English on the day. The Premier’s VCE awards reward top performing students for their outstanding academic achievements in VCE.
Hannah was presented with the English study award by the Deputy Premier of Victoria. There were approximately 50,884 students who sat their VCE in Victoria last year and approximately 43,600 did mainstream English. Hannah was one of only fifteen students who received an English award.
Hannah was the Dux of St Paul’s last year receiving an ATAR of 99.30 and is currently studying Bachelor of Arts/Master of Secondary Education, majoring in English and History at Deakin University.
Congratulations on this outstanding achievement Hannah.
Blazer Pockets
In response to parent queries about the necessity of the yellow stripe on the pocket of the Secondary School blazers, the School has agreed to phase out the yellow piping. Although our uniform suppliers, Dobsons, will not be ordering new stock it will take twelve months to run out the old.
The good news for current school families is that Junior School blazers (or their pockets) no longer need to be replaced as students move into Secondary School at St Paul’s.
Comparative Reports
At the end of each semester, parents may request that the School provide them with written information that clearly shows their child’s achievement compared to his or her peer group at the School. The information will show parents the number of children in the group in each of the achievement levels/subjects. However, where group numbers are less than twelve this data will not be provided, in order to protect the privacy of the students in the class. Class teachers will instead explain the student’s level relative to their peers, without identifying the number in each band.
MyStPauls App
Just a reminder that you can download our MyStPauls app to your phones and view our calendar, your child’s grades and other essential information.
’13 Reasons Why’ warning
We would like all parents and guardians to be aware that the second season of ’13 Reason’s Why’ is now available on Netflix. The content of this program is both graphic and disturbing and it comes with serious warnings. We urge parents to monitor your child’s internet and television viewing. We have seen first-hand this week the affect that this program can have on students and I cannot stress to you enough the importance of supervising their viewing.
Key dates to end Term 2
The examination period has begun for Year 11 and Years 9 and 10 will complete theirs next week. Please refer to the previous Grammarian for the examination timetables. Please note the following key dates:
Thursday 7 June Examination catch up day for Years 10 and 11. This is a student free day for these year levels unless they have an exam to complete. Years 7, 8, 9 and 12 are required at school.
Friday 8 June This is a student free day, a reporting and assessment day for the teaching staff.
Monday 11 June Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday.
Tuesday 12 June Semester 2 classes begin.
Friday 22 June Final day of Term 2, 3:30 pm finish.
Laura Butterworth
Head of Warragul Secondary School
WHAT’S ON IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL
MAY
31 May to 6 June Year 11 Exams
JUNE
2 June Sports Aerobics State Titles
4 June to 6 June Year 9 Exams
5 June and 6 June Year 10 Exams
6 June CareerWise Parent Feedback Session, 7:00 pm
7 June Years 10 and 11 Exam catch-up day
SEISA Winter Sport, Junior, Round 4
Psychology Lecture, 2:45 pm
Studio Concert, 7:00 pm
8 June STUDENT FREE DAY
10 June French Exchange Students Arrive
11 June QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY
12 June to 31 July French Exchange Students at school
12 June Semester 2 commences
13 June GAT, 10:00 am
Brass, Flute and Saxophone Ensemble Performance at the Junior School, 2:10 pm to 3:00 pm
14 June SEISA Winter Sport, Junior, Round 5
DAV Debating
15 June HPV Training, 3:45 pm
French Exchange Welcome Dinner, 6:30 pm
16 June to 1 July Japanese Language Tour
18 June to 22 June Timor Week
18 June Years 11 and 12 Legal Studies Prison Excursion
Studio Concert, 7:00 pm
19 June Casual Clothes and Barbeque
20 June French Exchange Students Excursion, Healesville Sanctuary
20 June to 22 June Year 9 City Experience Camp
21 June AIME Program Day
SEISA Winter Sport, Junior, Finals
Year 12 Practice English Exam, 12:00 noon
Psychology Lecture, 2:45 pm
22 June Term 2 ends, 3:30 pm finish
23 June to 1 July STEM Japan Tour
25 June to 13 July School Holidays
29 June VEIS: Boneo Park Dressage and Combined Training Day
JULY
10 July to 13 July SPARK School Holiday Program
17 July Term 3 commences
Drouin and Warragul public school bus network notice
Please be advised the public school bus network services will not run on the following date in Term 2:
• Friday 8 June 2018, Drouin Bus Network
Please ensure you have alternative travel arrangements for this day. All St Paul’s buses will run as normal on these days.
MATHEMATICS COMPETITION
On Thursday 9 August students will be participating in the Australian Mathematics Competition. All Year 7 students and volunteers from other year levels can participate.
If you are interested in entering the ICAS Competition please contact Mr Dewhurst.
BAW BAW SCHOOL’S CHINA EXCHANGE
We have an exciting opportunity for school families to be involved in the Baw Baw Shire Combined Schools China Tour. We require school families to host a Chinese Exchange student for one week from Tuesday 31 July through to Tuesday 7 August 2018.
St Paul’s is part of a sister school relationship with the Number One Middle School in Jiujiang Province of China. This relationship is also part of a broader connection with Jiujiang that is shared by the Baw Baw Shire. As a result, students and staff from both Warragul Regional College and Drouin Secondary College will also participate in hosting the students from China.
During the week the Chinese students will attend classes at St Paul’s and also participate in some excursions to a local dairy farm and the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary.
If you are able to host, your child will also be able to attend the day at Healesville to accompany your host student. There will also be a Mayoral reception held by the Baw Baw Shire at the beginning of the week and a farewell celebration dinner to be held at Warragul Regional College on Monday 6 August. Your family will also be invited to attend these events. The student will stay with you over the weekend and you are able to share with them a little of your life or take them on a day trip to explore the region during this time.
If you are interested in hosting, please contact Christie Bransgrove via email at cbransgrove@stpaulsags.vic.edu.au or by contacting the school directly.
A BIG WEEK FOR YEAR 10 STUDENTS
National Simultaneous Storytime with the Junior School
On Wednesday 23 May, the Year 10 cohort enjoyed an early (and quick) lunch together to enable them to head over to the Junior School Gymnasium to take part in National Simultaneous Storytime. They enjoyed Mr Herbert’s oratory of ‘Hickory Dickory Dash’ and delighted in the innocent joy exhibited by the youngest students. It was then their turn to read to small groups of Junior School students, and what a fantastic job they did! It was very impressive to see individual Year 10 students confidently entertain their younger peers and the Junior School students absolutely loved the interaction with the ‘big kids’.
Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea
The Year 10 students put on a fantastic spread to host Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea on Monday 28 May. Each student contributed a plate of yummy treats, which were on offer to staff and secondary students, who contributed $2 towards the event. All money raised will be donated to the Cancer Council who use funds for a number of different support services to help patients battling cancer.
A big congratulations and thank you to all Year 10 students raising $173.25.
UPCOMING SPARK SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAM
There are some wonderful workshops and opportunities coming together for the July SPARK School Holiday Program. The Tuesday will see us welcoming Coster MMA to the program with a Mixed Martial Arts session. The session will help improve fitness, strength, confidence, balance, discipline and teach valuable self-defence skills. A session your child cannot afford to miss! We also have Heal the Beat Drumming coming in for a loud crashing, bashing session of drumming to start our program off with a bang!
Wednesday sees the return of a whacky Science session, a junior art program and due to demand, a new Auslan session! If your child came to the Auslan session in the last program, their skills will be built upon in this one, but newcomers will also be very welcome!
Thursday will showcase our Performing Arts and Elite Sports Performers Program. We will attempt to create a ‘Play in a day’, a session of Musical Theatre and run a session of three sports in three hours with some of our successful graduates from the ESP Program.
If STEM is your passion, Friday is the day for you! For the first time we will be running a STEM SPARK Academy for the whole day. This incredible opportunity will allow participants to work with our talented Science and STEM staff and use state of the art technological equipment not generally accessible to primary aged students. The SPARK Academy will also involve a session using virtual reality headsets that will allow students to explore outer space from the comfort of our very own classrooms. This day has been six months in the making and we are very excited to offer this opportunity to children in our community.
Keep your eye out for the SPARK flyer in the coming weeks. We cannot wait to see you in July!
SPORT NEWS
House Cross Country 2018
On Thursday 17 May we were able to complete the annual House Cross Country. The weather was a mild autumn day, perfect for running and getting into house spirit.
Participation was sensational throughout the junior year levels of Years 7, 8 and 9, as the majority of these students participated to the best of their ability gaining valuable points for the houses.
Winners of each listed below:
Year 7 Girls: Chloe Nicholls (Lalor) Year 7 Boys: Charlie Blackburn (Lalor)
Year 8 Girls: Dallas Loughridge (Franklin) Year 8 Boys: Alexandar Mirkovic (Lalor)
Year 9 Girls: Neisha Ablett (Gilmore) Year 9 Boys: Trent Munro (Chisholm)
Year 10 Girls: Stacie Myers (Lalor) Year 10 Boys: Tully Loomes (Gilmore)
Year 11 Girls: Emma Wong (Monash) Year 11 Boys: Jonathan Charles (Lalor)
Year 12 Girls: Hannah Jantos (Chisholm) Year 12 Boys: Cameron Wong (Monash)
House totals: Lalor 517, Monash 465, Gilmore 453, Chisholm 387, Franklin 383 and Paterson 342.
Well done to all winners, place getters and participants. I would also like to thank all of the helpers both on the course and at the finish line who made this event such a great day.
From this event the top six runners from each year level will compete in the annual interschool cross country event on 20 July. We wish all members of this team the best of luck.
MATHS TUTORIAL CLASSES
Monday – Year 9, 1:20 pm, Year 9 Centre
Wednesday – Years 7 and 8, lunchtime, YS2
Thursday – Years 10 to 12, lunchtime, JM4
Thursday – VCE classes, after school, JM3
FROM THE FINANCE OFFICE
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 www.education.vic.gov.au/csef. Parents are encouraged to lodge the application form as soon as possible, so that payments can be made from March 2018. However schools can accept parent applications up until 8 June 2018 for processing in Term 2.
For parents who received CSEF at the school in 2017 (and the student/s are still enrolled in 2018), the school will ‘copy’ the application across from 2017 to 2018 on the CSEF system. The CSEF system automatically validated the parent’s eligibility with Centrelink on 29 January 2018.
From the Principal
When I first started teaching in the late 1980s, I often relied upon the wise counsel and modelling of my more experienced colleagues. Indeed, I …
From the Principal
When I first started teaching in the late 1980s, I often relied upon the wise counsel and modelling of my more experienced colleagues. Indeed, I think I learned far more about the craft of teaching during my first years in the workforce than I did at university gaining a teaching qualification. I am sure that this is the case for most teachers and indeed most professionals. While it is crucial to have a solid theoretical understanding, in itself this will not produce a great practitioner. By observing and working with experts, by listening to their advice and putting it into regular practice, we can become excellent at what we do.
One of these wise old ‘experts’ back in the 1980s believed that schools wasted a lot of money on buildings and the design of them. “You can teach in a shed if you have to,” he used to say. While I took his point that the quality of the teacher is far more important than the quality of the classroom, I believe that we underestimate the impact of learning spaces on student learning – and indeed teacher learning! An enormously beneficial feature of the newest learning spaces created at both the Traralgon and Warragul campuses of St Paul’s is the use of internal glass walls and windows. This creates a sense of spaciousness, openness and visibility. The fact that learners and teachers can be seen by one another in action is a big step from the old days when teachers would shut themselves away in a classroom (or a shed) and rarely be seen by fellow workers. When I walk through the school, it is a delight to see teachers and students in action and to see one another in action too. I am confident that our teaching and learning improve as a result.
Like any school, we have a variety of facilities, old and new. Resources will always be limited, as they are in all schools, but we will continue to refurbish and renew so that our teachers and learners have high quality spaces for high quality teaching and learning.
Cameron Herbert
Principal
From the Chaplain
QUARKS, BLACK HOLES, ELECTRONS AND GOD The world is a complicated place! I was listening to an interview on the radio some time ago with …
From the Chaplain
QUARKS, BLACK HOLES, ELECTRONS AND GOD
The world is a complicated place! I was listening to an interview on the radio some time ago with a scientific expert on black holes. As I listened, I was intrigued at just how vague some of his answers were. It seems that while we understand a lot more than we used to, there is still much about black holes that remain a mystery. The National Geographic has this to say about black holes, “No one has ever seen a black hole, and no one ever will. There isn’t anything to see. It’s just a blank spot in space – a whole lot of nothing, as physicists like to say. The presence of a hole is deduced by the effect it has on its surroundings. It’s like looking out a window and seeing every treetop bending in one direction. You’d almost certainly be right in assuming that a strong yet invisible wind was blowing. When you ask the experts how certain we are that black holes are real, the steady answer is 99.9 percent; if there aren’t black holes in the centre of most galaxies, there must be something even crazier.” (http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/space/star-eater.aspx)
Black holes are big and complicated but life is no less confusing at the small end of the scale. Quarks are fun. They are subatomic particles that have not been observed but exist in theory, oh and they do not exist except in pairs, threes or maybe fives! Or did you know that electrons (electrons are the subatomic particles that orbit the nucleus of an atom) have a crazy property? Two physicists, Drs S Haroche and D Wineland, won the Nobel Prize in physics for proving the correctness of the bizarre properties of quantum mechanics, for example: that electrons can be two places at the same time!
In the Anglican Church calendar, last Sunday was Trinity Sunday. The Trinity – the concept of God as both three (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and one – is one of those notoriously difficult concepts to explain. Over the centuries people have come up with all sorts of metaphors, analogies and illustrations to try and explain it – the Trinity is like water; like an egg; an apple; a shamrock (you can blame St Patrick for that one); and in one elusive reference by author Adrian Plass, the Trinity is like a vacuum cleaner! The one thing everyone agrees on is that the Trinity is an incredibly hard concept to understand and even harder to explain.
It is interesting to note that in our predominantly secular society, we readily accept many of the mysteries encountered in the scientific realm, confident that eventually we will figure it out and yet there is a tendency to dismiss out of hand the mysteries of God. “We cannot see God so how do we know he exists?”; “How can something be both three and one?”; “How can something be in more than one place at the same time?” Sound familiar?
Just like the world science explores, God is mysterious, not boring. God is big and exciting and confusing. God does things that make little sense to us. God has properties that we struggle to come to grips with. We should expect God to be more amazing than the universe He created – and this is a universe that contains black holes we cannot see, quarks that only exist in relationship with each other, and electrons that can be in two places at the same time! I do not want a God who is less complicated than my alarm clock!
May we all find joy in the discovery and learning of new things about our world and the God who created it.
Reverend Daniel Lowe
Senior Chaplain
