New Students to Ormiston

As a school community, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new students and families that have started at Ormiston this year. At the start of Term 1, in Early Learning 3 we have 18 students starting across all three programs and in Early Learning 4, we have eight new students that are beginning their educational journey with us in both the Full-Time and Part-Time classes.

Our new students have settled in very well and I encourage them to continue to contribute as much as possible in their classroom each day. Here are the names of our Foundation – Year 6 students:

Foundation

Madison Abou-Assi            

Diyana Amarasingha

Chloe Cao                            

Summer Chew

Chelsea Gu                          

Annie Hu

Eva Kalyanimath                 

Evelyn Kao

Isabella Lee                         

Olivia Li

Ruby Lim                              

Eugenie Lin

Evelyn Patel                         

Iris Qiao

Charlene Wang                   

Hailey Yong

Emilia Zhang

Year 1

Ginnie Hao Pandey            

Sia Kim

Yolanda Ma

Year 2

Mia Gao                                

Lily Kwong

Year 3

Aarza Bhatia                        

Kenolee Hatangala

Jaslene Ng                           

Cecilia Yang

Year 4

Ada Li                                    

Likka Jiang

Yiyi Loo                                 

Zoe McManemin

Sooki Tian                            

Angel Nguyen

Year 5

Rachel Franco                     

Emilia Cai     

Kasey Hao                           

Alina Hou

Aneira Paul                          

Rebecca Luo

Charlotte Thomson             

Sharika Piratheepan

Jennifer Wu                          

Aanya Richharia

Olivia Wu                              

Elsa Wei

Year 6

Jenny Jin                              

Stephanie Chiodo

Bella Beltrano

 

2022 Ormiston Staffing

I am excited to let the Ormiston school community know our Junior School staff for this year from Early Learning 3 to Year 6. Junior School staffing is as follows:

Head of Junior School – Paul Donohue

Deputy Head of Junior School – Emma Hinchliffe

Junior School Coordinator  – Justine Clancy / Vicki Ibbott

Junior School Reception – Vicki Ibbott / Catherine Daniels

Early Learning 3    
Class Teacher – Esther Wong (Early Learning Coordinator)
Class Teacher – Jacqui Laird
Class Assistant – Joanna Lee

Early Learning 4 Full-Time
Class Teacher – Angela Follacchio
Class Assistant – Effie Kitsiris

Early Learning 4 Part-Time
Class Teacher – Ramila Sadikeen
Class Assistant – Melinda Murphy

Foundation
Class Teacher – Selena Reedman
Literacy/Numeracy – Annabelle Vivarini

Year 1
Class Teacher – Angela Columbine
Literacy/Numeracy – Annabelle Vivarini

Year 2
Class Teacher – Mikaela Stanaway
Literacy/Numeracy – Emma Hinchliffe & Nancy Robottom

Year 3
Class Teacher – Liz Warren
Literacy/Numeracy – Nancy Robottom

Year 4D
Class Teacher – Anjali de Quadros

Year 4H
Class Teacher – Amelia Hart

Year 5S
Class Teacher – Fiorella Soci

Year 5G
Class Teacher – Craig Goodwin

Year 6G
Class Teacher – Jasvindar Gill

Year 6C        
Class Teacher – Katrina Cheong

 

Specialists

Learning Diversity – Lisa White

EAL – Michelle May & Melissa Donelly

Music – Nichole Adams & Penny Byrne

Library – Sally Spencer

Art – Fiona Gibson

Physical Education – Liana Kitsou

Choir – Jessica Huggett

Y5 & Y6 French – Rouba Iskandar

F – Y4 Chinese – Peipei Liu, Scarlett Zhang & Crystal Zhang

STEAM Teacher – Penny Dumsday

Chapel – Rev Helen Creed

 

Wishing all our Ormiston families an enjoyable weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School

Settling Back into School

It has been wonderful to see the children enjoying spending time back together with their friends and teachers at School. We are thrilled to have the students back on site and eager to learn.

While the beginning of the year, brings excitement and possibility for new learning and connections, it is important to acknowledge that the beginning of the year is a time of transition for all members of our school community.

Getting back into the routines of school, requires a lot of mental and physical energy, often resulting in children requiring more rest than usual. You can support your children at transition times by being mindful of not overcommitting to after school and weekend activities and ensuring children get enough rest and sleep. Rest and sleep are vital to enable students to process and consolidate all that they are learning during the school day. Due to the sudden changes in daily routines and interactions, transition times can bring a wave of emotions for children and adults alike. It is important that as adults we help to normalise how our feelings can change during transition times by naming emotions and feelings as they arise.

We recognise the importance of the transition time at the beginning of the year to support students to settle in and to set strong foundations for the year ahead.  All year levels participate in the Quality Beginnings programs during the first two weeks of school, where they spend time getting to know their peers, teachers and reacquaint themselves with the school environment. Classes collaboratively develop routines and expectations for the year to help cultivate supportive learning communities, where students feel respected and safe to take risks in their learning. The Quality Beginnings program encourages students to explore their personal strengths and values, develop strategies to support their own digital wellbeing and help them to make connections with their peers.

Emma Hinchliffe
Deputy Head of Junior School

First Weeks of Foundation

We are so proud of the way our Foundation students have approached their first two weeks of school with courage and big smiles. They have been really encouraging and supportive of each other both in the classroom and the playground. They are learning to ask questions when they are unsure of things and have been engaging in creative play in the big Ormiston playground.

The Foundation students have already mastered the morning routines, unpacking their bags and organising their belongings independently, ensuring a smooth start to the day. Through careful practice and modelling students are learning to respect each other by showing the 5L’s (looking, listening, lips closed, hands in laps, legs crossed) when other children are speaking.

It has been wonderful to see the children have already begun identifying, reading and writing words beginning with ‘m’ and ‘s’ sounds and using different strategies to count collections of objects.

When I asked the Foundation students to reflect on their first weeks of school, they indicated that they all enjoyed playing with her friends, learning new things about numbers and the alphabet, and they are having fun working together and learning to share with others.

We can’t wait to see the contribution our capable Foundation children make to our School community this year.

Emma Hinchliffe
Deputy Head of Junior School

Early Learning 3 & 4 – Building A Sense of Place

Over the summer break, the ELC has undergone major refurbishment work to the outdoor and indoor learning environment. Teachers and CGGS staff have worked tirelessly to ensure the spaces are welcoming and brimming with opportunities for children to explore, create, experiment, imagine and construct independent and collaborative learning. The changes you might have noticed include new landscaping of the outdoor vegetation; installation of a vegetable garden, dry river creek bed, a bush walkway; a performing arts stage; green lawn construction space; installation of terrazzo linoleum flooring and repainting of the classrooms.

Loris Malaguzzi, an educational pedagogist known for the Reggio Emilia approach draws voice to the importance of the physical spaces and its prospective influence on how and what children learn. The teachers have created environments that are engaging, fosters a sense of belonging, builds child agency, supports children to feel ownership, respect, and inclusion towards their learning space and as an extension, towards each other.

Even though Term 1 has barely begun, EL3 and EL4 children have embraced their new learning spaces with a respectful and productive calm. Each classroom community is excited to design yet also implement individual and collective inquires to lay a foundation to developing shared ‘sense of place’.

A big thank you to Michael Lawrence, Martin Conlon and their team for their enormous effort over the school break. Although it may be a time for us to reflect and look back on what the year was for teachers and staff of 2021, the Grounds and Maintenance team worked tirelessly during this period to ensure exemplary educational spaces were instated, ready for this year’s cohort of children to thrive. We look forward to sharing our learning with you from our reinvigorated learning spaces.

Esther Wong
Early Learning Coordinator On behalf of the Early Learning Teachers

Early Learning 4 – Year 6 Art

After the first two weeks of a new year, Ormiston is full of colour and imagination. Positioned in different locations within the Junior School building, close observational drawings of fruit by Year 4 artists are on display. Love heart fingerprints by all artists from Early Learning 4 to Year 6 represent their love of Art and the opportunity to create beautiful pieces. In Year 5, Mystery Portraits of the word ‘Wominjeka’ are on display in the Junior School Hall which are very creative and full of colour. I look forward to sharing more creative student work with you throughout the year.

Fiona Gibson
Art Teacher