Last Thursday and Friday Barbara Sutton Hall came alive with our biannual Junior School production titled Wilbur the Optical Whale. Our Speech and Drama Teacher, Mrs Kath Buckingham adapted a play written by Karen Lee Roberts that gave all our Foundation – Year 6 the opportunity to act, dance and sing. Each performance was of a very high quality and the final song of both evenings was John Farnham’s ‘You’re the Voice’ and this was a wonderful highlight to finish off the production when everyone was on stage together. Once again, I would like to thank the main characters for all their hard work in making sure the production was very successful, congratulations to Tiffany Lau, Nicole Zhang, Nellie Ruddle, Asha Bhattacharjee, Zara Teh, Rudra Santhosh, Stefanie Nguyen, Grace Chan, Eshani Nagarajan and Christine Moi. Finally, I would like to also highlight the tireless efforts of Mrs Kath Buckingham and Miss Aleksis Payne. Both staff members spent a considerable amount of their time working with students and staff to ensure Wilbur the Optical Whale was a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by our school community.
Over the last two weeks, Ormiston has celebrated a number of enriching activities including Ormiston Creates, Book Week and our Art Show. Our Art Teacher, Mrs Fiona Gibson has once again put on an outstanding art exhibition which includes art pieces from each student from Early Learning 3 to Year 6. Overall, there were nearly one thousand pieces of artwork on display for our school community to view. I would like to sincerely thank Fiona Gibson for her wonderful planning and organisation in preparing our Art Show for 2022. Our students are very fortunate to have such a talented, dedicated and passionate Art Teacher at Junior School.
This is our final CamNews for Term 3. Our last day of this term is on Friday 9 September and students are required back at school on Monday 3 October. I would like to wish all Ormiston families a wonderful 3-week school holiday break.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Donohue
Head of Junior School
The Early Learning children have been keen observers of the changing environment, noticing the bright blossoming pops of golden wattle in the yard and outer community. The blossoming of wattle signifies the seasonal transition of winter to spring, and from Waring (wombat) to Poornet (tadpole) season, as referenced from the Wurundjeri seasons of the Kulin Nation.
This week the Early Learning 3 and 4 children celebrated National Wattle Day (1st of September) using multimodal forms of language to communicate, express and represent their ideas. Golden wattle is the native floral of Australia, symbolising the land, diversity (as there is more than one thousand different species) and resilience. In the EL3 classroom children have been closely observing and representing this blossom through acrylic paintings. Whilst EL4 children have been using a sequence of observing, drawing, and sewing to express their ideas, and develop intricate fine motor skills. The arts are great mediums for engaging children in noticing their environment as they refine and represent their world around them.
Esther Wong
ELC Coordinator
As part of their Inquiry studies, the Year 2 students have been investigating how our senses help us perceive the world, in particular scientific phenomena relating to sound and light. We have prepared hands-on experiences on Thursdays throughout the term including learning about the senses, visualising the vibrations that we perceive as sounds, and constructing paddle pop stick harmonicas to investigate pitch and volume.
During the last few weeks of term, students are taking part in a design project in the Makerspace at the Senior School, creating a unique musical instrument out of household materials. This is an opportunity to apply their science knowledge to the engineering design process of brainstorming, planning, creating and testing. Completion of this project requires imagination and persistence, as well as a willingness to learn and apply new skills.
We have enjoyed seeing the focus and drive the Year 2 students have brought to this project and the way they have been experimenting with different ways to create sounds.
Sofia – ‘I learned that not all things that you plan always come out right. You sometimes have to edit it because you try it and it won’t work!’
Isabelle – ‘I have learned that some of my ideas didn’t always work so I decided to change some materials.’
Olivia D – ‘I learned that I had to think of another idea when things didn’t work at first.’
Cathy – ‘I can make sound by hitting, tapping or shaking my instrument.’
Akira – ‘I have learned that sound is air sending a message to our ear, and our eardrum sends a message to the brain, and then the brain knows that you just heard something.’
Mikaela Stanaway and Penny Dumsday
In Week 6, Year 3 were visited by Murrundindi, Ruby (Y10) and Ms Biggs as part of our Inquiry unit entitled ‘How can understanding the importance of Country enrich our lives as Australians?’ The students were very excited to share the Acknowledgment of Country we wrote as a class and Rachel read it at the beginning of our session:
“Today 3W learns, plays, and connects on Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to the traditional owners and thank them for caring for the animals, plants, land, and waterways. We commit to helping to find our collective heart, so we can have a shared future.”
The Year 3 students have been learning about how music, dance and story can be used to pass on traditions and culture. Murrundindi explained to us that music is healing and can make you feel better if you are sad or not having a good day. Aadhya, Aless and Audrey had the privilege of being invited to play their violins while Murrundindi accompanied them on his didgeridoo. Murrundindi taught us about the Brolga – his spirit animal. The Brolga Dance was the first thing he learnt to play on the didgeridoo, and he played this for us as we danced like Brolgas. Murrundindi also asked us to close our eyes while he played for us and describe what we imagined.
‘I felt like I was in the desert and there were a lot of animals around me.’ – Olivia V
‘I imagined that I was in the desert and animals, such as kangaroos, wombats and echidnas, were making a circle around me.’ – Claire Z
‘It felt like baby kangaroos jumping and chasing their mums.’ – Neesha N
‘I saw animals around me all being in harmony and peace.’ – Emma Z
‘I saw an Aboriginal dance.’ – Aanya C
‘I saw animals running around. I saw Aboriginal people dancing.’ – Jaslene N
Elizabeth Warren
Year 3 Class Teacher
Our Ormiston Book Week celebrations kicked off with a fabulous visit from author and illustrator Lucinda Gifford for our Foundation and Year 1 students. The students were enthralled as Lucinda spoke about her love of drawing from a very early age and shared examples of pages from her incredible sketch books with our group of enthusiastic artists. A big thrill of the session was watching Lucinda create a beautiful piece of art based upon animal suggestions from our students. All the students then had a chance to create their own piece of animal artwork.
Students and staff from our ELC were also treated to an author visit from Mark Carthew. Mark shared two of his wonderful rhyming books, The Thing that Goes Ping and The Moose is Loose with the children and had everyone dancing, marching, and singing along to a collection of fun songs.
A big highlight of the week was the Book Week Assembly, inclusive of a Book Character Parade which took place on Wednesday 24 September. After two years of remote learning, it was extra special and wonderful to see so many students and staff celebrating books and the joy of reading, with some creative, colourful, and very entertaining costumes on display.
The library hosted a selection of book related events and activities throughout Book Week. These included creating origami butterflies, bookmark making, word searches, colouring and viewing a selection of our favourite books which have moved from page to screen, including Grangsta Granny by David Walliams, The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, and The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Our wonderful Library leaders, Christine and Minaaz also created a Book Scavenger Hunt for students of all ages.
A huge thankyou to the incredible library team, staff, parents, and students for making Book Week a wonderful success.
Sally Spencer
Library Teacher
Last week, four students from Junior School took part in the 64th Victorian Interschools Snowsports Championships at Mt Buller. Ginnie Hao-Pandey in Year 1, Ivy Xie and Yiyi Loo in Year 4 and Jasmine Xie in Year 6 proudly represented Camberwell Girls Grammar School under extremely testing weather conditions. All students competed in the Alpine Giant Slalom and Ski Cross multi-disciplinary events and demonstrated courage, persistence and a positive attitude throughout the competition.
Contending with gale force winds and poor visibility, the students showed adaptability as events were changed and rescheduled throughout each day. Each student pushed themselves to do their best, learnt new skills, developed their ski race knowledge, and had a lot of fun. Mrs. Gibson and I couldn’t be prouder of each student’s effort, and we would especially like to thank the wonderful parents who accompanied their children and were so encouraging and supportive throughout the entire event.
The students are already looking forward to returning to the slopes in 2023!
Angela Columbine & Fiona Gibson
