Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...

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Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...
Pre-prep to Year 12
                                                                                 Co-Ed Day & Boarding
                                                                               30 Dr George Ellis Drive,
                                                                  PO Box 235, Charters Towers Qld 4820
                                                                                  Phone: 4788 2242
                                                              Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au

 Junior School News                                       26 February, 2021
WELCOME TO ANOTHER YEAR OF LEARNING.
We have enjoyed a successful few weeks of learning
and are looking forward to a positive, safe and
healthy year ahead.

We have a strong team of professionals in the Junior
School. This year we extend a warm welcome to:
Miss Prue Clarke (Year 6) and Mr Stephen Price
(Music). Junior School Staff have high expectations
for every student to achieve their best and care
enough to expect more. We delight in watching each
child grow, as they share experiences, develop
friendships and celebrate their achievements. Each
day we take on the shared responsibility of the
academic and emotional development of our young LEADERSHIP DAY (MAGNETIC ISLAND)
students.                                            The Year 6 class travelled to Magnetic Island last
                                                     week to participate in a number of activities designed
It was wonderful to see so many parents/guardians to develop their understanding of what it means to
attend the recent Junior School “Meet the Teacher” work together as a team to achieve a common goal.
parent information evening. The involvement of They participated in a variety of tasks that required
parents within our School community remains a key them to co-operate with their peers, show
aspect to the successes we will celebrate throughout commitment to a task, display empathy and
the year.                                            understanding of others while celebrating personal
                                                     achievements and group success. The day also
In addition to celebrating the achievements of each
                                                     provided the opportunity for the students to
child, we appreciate the conversations we have with
                                                     demonstrate they are safe, respectful learners.
parents and guardians and value the feedback we
receive. This is one of the many ways to identify Thank you to Miss Clarke, Mrs Nicholls and Mrs
areas for improvement. The feedback can be as Weston and the staff at Apex Camps for organising
simple as a few spoken words at drop off or pick up this great experience. Our thanks are also extended
time, or a quick, direct email to the teacher or to the crew on the Sealink ferry.
administration at the end of the day. Working
together, our aim is to develop confident and
resilient students by providing a diverse range of
learning    experiences    and   challenges    which
encourage curiosity, excitement for learning, thirst
for knowledge and connectedness to our community.

Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                      Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...
Junior School Leaders
Student leadership is an experience, which is highly valued by our School community. As leaders in the Junior
School, the Year 6 students will be given many opportunities to demonstrate their leadership and work together
at various School and community events.
There is a defined process for the selection and election of the Junior School Captains, Vice-Captains, House
Captains, Prefects and Student Council Student Representatives. It is a big learning experience for all our
students, as they explore the range of emotions that go along with nominating, preparing speeches, accepting
results and supporting their peers.
This year, Year 6 will present their Leadership Speeches to the students on Friday, 5 March. Installation of the
Junior School Captains, Prefects, and the Year 4 and Year 5 Student Representatives, will take place on Friday 12
March.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
The Junior School students will have many opportunities to make connections with the senior students
throughout the year. Senior students will attend the Junior School Assembly to congratulate the children
receiving their awards, engage with the Junior School students during Tuesday lunchtimes and provide additional
support during various sporting and other events during the year.
STUDENTS’ HEALTH AND SAFETY
We all share a duty of care for our students’ safety.
DROP OFF - NOT BEFORE 8AM PLEASE
As Junior School classes do not begin until 8.30am, we ask that you do not drop your child off at school before
8am. Although many of our staff arrive at school before 8am, they are diligently preparing for the day’s learning
activities.
We have staff on duty for supervision in the Junior School between 8.00am and 8.30am. Pre-prep and Prep
children are welcomed into the classrooms after 8.15am. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.
                        RIDING TO SCHOOL
                        A number of the older Junior School students have started to ride their bikes to and
                        from school.
                        It is not recommended children under the age of 10 ride to and from school
                        unaccompanied. For older students please think carefully about the following when
                        judging their ability to ride on their own:
                             How safe is the travel route?
                             What are their riding skills like?
                             How aware are they of their surroundings in the traffic environment?
                             How well can they manage unexpected hazards?
Before leaving home, please ensure your child is wearing an approved helmet that is fitted correctly and your
child’s bike is in good working order. If your child is carrying a phone, please remind them to check it in for safe
keeping at the Junior School office when they arrive at school. Children can collect their device at the end of the
school day.
Thank you to Constable Donnelly (Traffic Police) and Constable Machin (School Liaison Officer) for speaking with
the students about bike and road safety, and reinforcing safe riding practices.
Students who ride their bikes to school are required to dismount when entering the school grounds and walk
their bike to the designated area where it will stay during school hours.

   Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                          Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...
CARPARK SAFETY
As our school continues to grow, we ask for your continued co-operation in making the car park and drop
off/pick up driveway safe for all our students and families.
                                   Please take special care when driving into, and exiting the car park,
                                 especially at peak times before and after school. All drivers must give way to
                                 pedestrians at all times.
                                    Before reversing your vehicle, please make sure you have a really good
                                 look around.
                                    Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian when walking
                                 through the car park.
                                   We also ask that children are not left in a car unsupervised, particularly
                                 on a warm day.
As we have staff on Gate Duty until 3.30pm each afternoon, parents and guardians may like to consider
staggering your pick up time to help relieve some of the car park congestion.
FOOD ALLERGIES
With food allergies on the rise in Australia we need to ensure we
can provide a safe school environment for all.
Please ensure that we are fully informed of any allergies (medical
conditions) that your child may experience, and that you provide
us with the appropriate Action Plan and required medication to
prevent any sudden allergic reaction.
We have children in our Junior School who are at risk of anaphylaxis.
Anaphylaxis is a severe and sudden allergic reaction when a person is exposed to an allergen. The most
common allergens in school-aged children are eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (e.g. cashews) cow’s milk, fish and
shellfish, wheat, soy and certain stings and medications.
I would like to remind parents/guardians that ASSG Junior School is a ‘Nut Free Zone’ and appreciate your
assistance to maintain this, by making sure your child’s lunch boxes, birthday cakes etc. are also ‘nut free’.
STAFF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Prior to the students returning to start the academic year, Junior School Staff were busy taking part in
professional learning, as we embark on the implementation of a Literacy program for Pre-prep to Year 6.
The program written by Diana Rigg (who has extensive experience as a Classroom Teacher, Specialist
Literacy Teacher and Speech Pathologist) in collaboration with a team of Speech Pathologists and
Occupational Therapists, is designed to translate the latest research from around the world into classroom
best practice. We have been fortunate to have a follow up online session with Diana to ask specific
questions that relate to our student data. There will be some small, but highly significant changes to our
current Literacy teaching and learning practices and homework expectations. Please don’t hesitate to
contact your child’s teacher if you require more information as the term progresses.
GOING FORWARD
Our School has a rich history of collaboration that we will continue to respect and value as we move
forward. Working together, we will build upon the excellent reputation All Souls St Gabriels has within the
wider community.
We are all excited about the year ahead, and look forward to another great year of academic, cultural,
physical and spiritual growth for all our students, staff and community. We are confident that with your
continued support, we will be able to achieve great success and outcomes for all our students.
Please don’t hesitate to contact the Junior School Office (juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au or phone: 4788
2242) if you would like to make an appointment to discuss any aspect of your child’s learning and
wellbeing.

 Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                        Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...
5 February, 2021

   12 February, 2021

Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049   Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...
19 February, 2021

                                          Class Award 14 February

Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                 Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...
News from the Pre-prep,                                   In Health, we are really thinking about what we need
                                                          to do to stay safe at school especially around
Mrs Peagham, Mrs Limkin and Mrs Cragg                     cleanliness and hygiene. We have listened and
Our Pre-prep pirates have had an amazing start to the     watched stories about invisible germs and how they
year. They have settled in beautifully to the routines    make us sick, what we can do to avoid getting sick or
and transitions of big school life, and are keen and      make others sick too. We are learning how to sneeze
curious to explore, discover and learn.                   and cough into our elbow, use tissues and wash our
                                                          hands correctly to keep our school environment safe
In Literacy, we have been building our print (word)       for everyone. We have also practieed our emergency
knowledge by identifying the title of a book and the      procedures in case there is something unsafe inside
words in the book. We have explored setting,              our classroom or school (evacuate), and if there is
characters and doing words in our picture books and       something unsafe outside our classroom or school
thought about them for ourselves. We are expressing       (lockdown).
our ideas to our friends to build our oral language. We
                                                      Our full-time students are very much enjoying their
are using our bodies to identify the beats or syllables
in words including our names, it is quite tricky so wetime in Music with Mr Price including a wonderful visit
will need to keep practising. We are learning nursery from our Year 9 Drama students who took us on an
rhymes so we can sing and move our mouths to the      adventure through story. Their extra lesson in Physical
different sounds and use different vocabulary.        Education with Mrs Nicholls provides a wonderful
                                                      opportunity to practise and apply the gross-motor
In Numeracy, we are learning the attributes of things skills they are learning.
including our basic and advanced colours. We are
playing a variety of games and looking at how objects The 2021 Pre-preps are a wonderful group of children
are the same. We watched a story about when Mrs who have welcomed their new friends and school life
Peagham and Mrs Limkin discovered so many different with joy and curiosity and we look forward to the year
types of leaves in our Pre-prep playground. We chose ahead as they continue to grow and learn.
our favourite and we talked about them. We felt them
with our skin, we smelt them and looked at them
closely to describe what they looked like. We learn so
many numeracy principles spontaneously during play
as we talk about what we are creating while including
shape, colour and size.
In Science, we are exploring what it means to be
alive. We are sharing what our pets need to be alive
and have been able to connect this learning in sharing
time as our friends bring in pets from home. We are
thinking about how living things eat, drink, breath and
grow. We will explore what other things are alive
around us and what they need to live.
In History, we have been discovering the past. We
have been thinking about the special day called
Christmas, what we do at Christmas time and why we
celebrate it. Did you know Jesus was born on
Christmas Day! We have watched the Christian
Christmas story and our friends pretended to be
characters in our Christmas play. We watched as our
friends pretend to be Mary and Joseph way back in
the past before electricity, cars and running water.
Our friends looked very different in the clothes they
wore in the past too. We are now using the clothes
and items in our home corner to role-play life in the
past. The Queensland Kindergarten Guidelines state a
kindergarten child has a strong sense of identity when
they show pride and confidence in who they are, their
family and culture.

  Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                      Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...
News from Mrs Marshall’s Minions
Mrs Marshall’s Minions have started the year with a
bang. The children have transitioned easily into the
Prep way of life and are beginning to see the fun in
learning. The little Minions have been involved in a
variety of activities so far.
The Year 9/10 Drama students came down and lead
some activities centred around Pirates. The children
played pirate games, made pirate hats and listened to
a pirate story. They loved interacting with the older
students and had lots of pirate fun.
In class we have been dancing our shoes off. This
term the children are doing a Dance unit, and by the
end of it should be able to choreograph their own
superhero dance and perform it for their peers. Mrs
Fittock and I have been impressed with the children’s
skills and creativity. The Minions love this form of
expression. I love it too.
We have begun our new Phonics program and the
children have caught on very quickly. We also use the
interactive board to learn more about each sound. The
Minions love having their turn to show us what they
know.
Outside play is one of the Minions favourite activities.
They get to run around and play games, push trucks
and dig, paint and make pretend cakes, and a lot
more. I like it when they hop in the car and pretend to
be bank robbers or drop off and pick up the kids from
school. Some of them are pretty rough drivers.
Hahaha.
During Mathematics we have been concentrating on
learning numbers from 1-10. Making groups of objects
and counting them is important at this level. The
children love it when I line them up and count them,
shuffle them around and act surprised when I don’t
get a different number. Recognising the numbers
during games and play is fun. If you get the chance at
home, play Bingo, Uno or other number recognition
games to help your child along.
Dress-ups and pretend play is popular in Prep. I love
the role play and discussions we have with the children
during this time. This also allows the children to take
turns, share and talk nicely to others. Construction
using Lego and larger items helps with their fine motor
skills. Handling these materials makes their fingers and
hands stronger, getting them ready for writing.
As you can see the Minions have been involved in a lot
of different types of activities this term. I can’t wait to
see what they can do further down the track. If you
have any concerns about your child’s learning, please
don’t hesitate to contact me.
Until next time….. Gru

  Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049         Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...
News from the Kingdom of Learn-A-Lot
Mrs Reardon
In Kingdom Learn-a-lot we have started our journey,
learning across the lands.

The first day was so exciting. We had to look for our
names on our desks and unpack all of our new school
supplies. We got to put things into our tidy drawers
and a new pencil cup to sit on top of our desk.
Everyone looked so smart in their day uniforms. We
were even lucky enough to have a returning student
join us this year; Max Stuart.

Reardon’s Royal Court have been busy learning the
daily routine. This includes the Daily 5 with group
work and rotations, listening to our weekly Master of
Ceremonies and the day, date and weather, working
in Mathematics counting and making teen numbers,
writing in the Year 1 lines and studying living things.
We are learning how to log onto the iPads for Literacy
Planet and how to decode and write out our phonics
words according to sounds. Plus we are also busy
exploring the routines with HPE, German, Music and
Library times.

There are so many changes happening in Year 1. The
Year 1s now join the Year 2s for phonics. Playtime is
another challenging part of the day, where we make
decisions on whether to play in the Prep playground or
out in the big playground.

Most importantly these are the goals that Year 1 are
working on this term.

   Stamina – keeping our focus on an activity

   Learning the new PLD phonics program

   Copying work from the board

   Correctly writing in the red and blue lines

We work hard every day practising these goals. They
may sound easy to some, but for a Year 1 student
they can be tricky.

I am very proud to see the Year 1 students adjusting
so well. They come in each morning with a smile and
a greeting and they do their jobs to make sure they
are ready to learn. Throughout the year, I look
forward to sharing samples of our work.

  Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049     Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...
News from Year 2:                                                 materials and looked at basic skip
                                                                  counting patterns. They have
Mrs Heuir in the Hat and Seussville                               enjoyed learning movements to
                                                                  help them remember the seasons
                                                                  and months, and have investigated
                                                                  calendar concepts. Soon we will
                                                                  begin investigating mapping skills
                                                                  to help support our work in HASS.
                                                                  Science……………..Think Right
                                                                  Did you know that not all materials
                                                                  mix well together? Our little
                                                                  scientists have had a great time
                                                                  experimenting      with     different
                                                                  mixtures and describing their
                                                                  properties. They are learning how
                                                                  to create an investigation question,
                                                                  predict the outcome of their
“If your keep your eyes open enough, oh the stuff you             investigations and reflect on their
will learn. The most wonderful stuff” – Dr. Seuss                 predictions. Many of the children
It has been a Seussical start to the year and ‘Things 1 -         were very surprised to learn that oil
15’ have settled magically into their daily routine in            and water do not mix…….. until
Seussville. Some of our favourite activities from the first       detergent is added anyway! Here is
couple of weeks included mathematical board games, Cat            one of the predictions that we created together as a
in the Hat art activities, hands on learning games and ex-        class:
perimenting with some substances to investigate                   What will happen if I mix cocoa powder, icing sugar and
mixtures in Science. We also spent time getting to know           rice bubbles together?
each other while practising the classroom rules, routines
                                                                  We predict that the three substances will               mix
and procedures. To top it all off, Seusville has been alive
                                                                  together. The mixture will turn a light brown           and
with four exciting birthday celebrations!
                                                                  will be lumpy from the rice bubbles. The cocoa          and
Our learning journey so far……………………………..                          icing sugar will mix very well because they             are
English………. This Way                                              both powders.
                                  In English, we have             HASS………………Think left
                                  started our Daily 5             Places are parts of our world, a location on the Earth’s
                                  rotations that consist of       surface. A place has features and features can be
                                  reading, writing and word       described at different scales by using the language of
                                  work activities. We have        position. Wow! Quite a lot to remember, but it is all
                                  also begun investigating        happening in HASS. The students will learn about ‘Aerial
                                  characters in stories and       Views’ and will use Google Earth to support their
                                  have       studied       how    understanding. They will represent features of a place
                                  authors use words and           using symbols and will begin some basic mapping skills.
                                  images       to       portray   There is so much to learn in HASS, but it is so interesting
                                 character      traits.    The    studying the world around us!
                                 students loved reading the
                                                                  Visual Arts……..Think Up
                                 story of the ‘Stinky Cheese
                                 Man’ and comparing him           Seussville is transforming into an art gallery as our
                                 to the more well known           creative and talented little artists complete various self-
                                 Gingerbread Boy. They            portraits using different techniques. They have used their
                                 discovered      that     while   observational skills and drawing expertise to create a
                                 characters have many             series of directed portraits focusing on the shape and
                                 differences,     they     also   position of facial features. The students have discussed
                                 share similarities. Students     the differences between realistic and abstract portraits
                                 have been encouraged to          and have viewed artworks created by famous artists like
                                 justify   their      decisions   Picasso and Andy Warhol. They have carefully studied
                                 about      characters       by   photos with the goal of making their own drawings more
                                 providing evidence from          life-like. It is fabulous to observe both their enthusiasm
                                 texts and have recorded          and conscientious efforts during art sessions. Wow!
                                 their ideas in character
profile charts.
Mathematics………. That way
Activities in Mathematics have focused on the revision of
number and place value concepts to 100. The students
have played games, represented numbers using different

   Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                               Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Junior School News 26 February, 2021 - All Souls St Gabriels ...
News from the Year 3 All Stars
Miss Miliauskas
The Year 3 All Stars have had a wonderful beginning
to our year. We have begun to explore why we are
stars, as we settle in to our classroom routines while
continuously trying to grow into the very best version
of ourselves. We welcomed a new student to our
team, Lexie Leake. She has been a magnificent
addition to our class community.
We love working and exploring together in all our
learning areas. However, two of our most favourite
learning areas are Drama and Science. One of the
best activities in drama so far has been our freeze
frames, where we had to create a scene using only
our bodies. The photo shows the whole class creating
a freeze frame of Christmas morning. We are also
beginning to apply the dramatic elements of role,
character and movement to create our own short
drama based on The True Story of The Three Little
Pigs.
The All Stars have become quite the biologists during
Science as we have been exploring, documenting and
classifying things that are living and non-living. Using
our inquiry skills we have been identifying the
observable features of various specimens, which have
helped us to identify whether something is living or
non-living.
Throughout the term, we have been developing our
own Mental Math Magic skills to become incredible
math magicians. We have awed many individuals with
our remarkable mind reading abilities. We will
continue to develop our Mental Math Magic to grow
and develop our mathematical skills.
As our term develops, we are also developing our
persuasive writing skills. We had our classroom chairs
go on strike and we needed to persuade them to
come back. Luckily we worked together to write some
very convincing letters. Now we are preparing to
persuade Mrs Akers to allow us to have our very own
classroom pet. Our class has narrowed the choices
down to either a fish, a bearded lizard or a snake. The
All Stars are determined to convince Mrs Akers to
agree to our point of view.
During Technology, we have been working on our
coding skills. We learnt that computers run off codes
that tell it what to do and if the instructions are not
exact, things can go terribly wrong. Later this term we
will be creating a guessing game for a friend in the
class using the visual coding program Scratch.
We have had an incredible start to the year and am
very proud of what Year 3 has achieved so far. I am
very excited for the rest of the year ahead.

  Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049      Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
News from Year 4 and Mrs Turner
Welcome back to 2021. We have had a great start to
the year with Year 4 busily involved in many learning
experiences across all subject areas. They have
settled beautifully into classroom routines and
expectations. I am also pleased to say that some
children will reach their first destination in ‘Reading
Around the World’ this week. The Reading Area in the
classroom with the rainbow bookcases is a favourite
place to be. They have also enjoyed working on
puzzles before school and they are getting very fast at
solving them, I will have to invest in more to get
through the year.
The class has been very involved in our History Unit –
The First Fleet. They have shown a keen interest in
finding out what life was like in the past and about
the cause and effect of certain events during that
time. They have been developing and answering
inquiry questions and imagining what it would be like
living during that time in history. I cannot wait to see
how they merge this knowledge with their letter
writing task in English later in the term.
We have delved into a variety of Mathematics topics
including reading and organising larger numbers,
fractions and probability. There have been some
hands on tasks, group investigations, games and skills
tested. The students are making good connections to
prior knowledge and adding new concepts every
week.
In Science, we have been investigating the structure
of the Earth and weathering. To understand the
concept of abrasion, we used sugar cubes and rocks
and shook them in a container over 200 times! This
fun activity showed how the rocks (sugar cubes) can
be changed by consistent rubbing over time. We
found the sugar cubes had rounded edges and had
gotten smaller. There were particles left behind just
as they would be in a real life example.
We will soon start sharing ‘Something I
made’ as part of our Speaking Tasks this
term. Students are working on the delivery
of their speeches as well as entertaining
the audience with some of their creations
they have made either individually or with
a family member. I am looking forward to
this speaking and sharing experience.

  Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049      Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
News from Year 5 and Mrs Dickson

                       We are on the Path!
It has been a great start to 2021. Everyone has adjusted to new routines and is striving hard
to remain on “The Path”. This means that we are all following our School and Classroom Used with Permission
Code to be the best person we can be.                                                         Copyright Way of Warri-
                                                                                                      or Kid 2017
Up to this point, we have been busy establishing routines and becoming familiar with
expectations across all learning areas.

We have all written and begun preparing for our first assessment task; presenting a formal presentation to the
class to convince us who we should vote for as our Year 5 Student Council Representative. It has been
exciting to see the students reflect on their own characteristics and determine what it is about themselves that
would make them a good Class Representative. We have also begun looking at different forms of figurative
language to improve our descriptions when we are writing a narrative.
As a class, we have been working to reinforce our multiplication and division fact knowledge. We have revised
prime and composite numbers and used strategies to work out what a number is divisible by. We have
reviewed how to determine probability using fractions to identify the chance of this occurring, using the range
of 0-1.
Our Humanities and Social Science unit this term is History looking specifically at Colonial Australia in the
1800s. We have discovered the political, economic and social reasons that led to the development of
secondary settlements. This has involved creating timelines and tables to support our learning.
                          Everyone has been involved in AFL skill development, Basketball skill workshop,
                          Netball trials or Rugby League skill
                          development in preparation for Inter-
                          School Sport or Gala Days.
                          It has been fun to see the class explore
                          how to draw with chalk and create
                          texture with paint. Our wild cats will be
                          decorating our classroom. Students are
                          learning to respond to art and identify
                          visual conventions within different
                          pieces and explain what they like or do
                          not like about the artwork.

  Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                           Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Year 6 News: Miss Clarke
It has been an exciting start to 2021. It is hard to
believe we are halfway through the term already. It is
that time in the term where we start to complete the
first round of assessments, so we have been spending
a lot of time talking about what the students need to
do to achieve the grades they are aiming for. Our
conversations have been very interesting, as we have
discussed the higher thinking skills that are needed to
move up in the achievement levels.
We have spent our English lessons this term planning
and writing our leadership speeches. We started by
looking at different examples of leadership speeches
and what language is important for a leadership
                                                           We then moved to the Radio Regaine activity, where
speech to be successful. We then looked at the
                                                           the students had to use their team-work skills to
position description for the different leadership
                                                           conduct a mini-amazing race and collect as many
positions in the ASSG Junior School and identified the
                                                           questions and answers as they could. The students
important vocabulary from these that we needed to
                                                           came up with some creative team names like Pringle
include in our speech. We spent time planning our
                                                           Pringle, Chucky Ducky, Yogi Dogs, Foxi Foxtrots and
speeches before writing them to make sure we were
                                                           Titanic Chickens, which made the activity full of
focused on the position descriptions and highlighting
                                                           giggles. It was easy to see which students have used
our positive qualities. This was a valuable life lesson
                                                           a radio at home before, as they were very clear and
that the students can use as they get older and start
                                                           precise with their codes and their communication. It
applying for jobs and leadership positions in the Senior
                                                           was good to see so many skills being used in this
School. We have spent time practising our speeches
                                                           activity.
and talking through good public speaking skills,
making sure we are ready to deliver our speeches at
the Junior School Assembly next week.
The best part of the term so far has been our
Leadership Day on Magnetic Island. What a great
adventure. The boat ride was a very bumpy
experience, but we all managed to survive the trips.
We started the day with building rafts and using some
new rope and knot-tying skills. This was exciting to
watch as we saw all of the students engaged in the
activity who showed some amazing leadership and
mentoring skills. I was so proud of how hard all of the
students worked with this activity. We had a lot of
giggles when the rafts were tested in the water, with
one losing a floating barrel and the other one partly
sinking. The activity was a great experience for all of
the students.

  Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                       Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Throughout the day the students participated in a       ready for the first assessment. We have been
number of other fun games and activities and all of     learning about different kinds of graphs and looking
them showed just how wonderful they really are.         at connections between the information and making
Their behaviour and leadership skills are an asset to   conclusions with this information. Making these
ASSG and to all of their families. We are so proud of   connections and conclusions has challenged our
them.                                                   thinking as we need to think about the information
                                                        in different ways, and ways that are not so obvious.
                                                        We have been practising our times tables every
                                                        week and we are quickly moving along the levels in
                                                        the Times Table Club program, which focuses on
                                                        fast recall of multiplication and division facts. There
                                                        is a buzz in the air about how fast the students can
                                                        move through the different levels.
                                                        We have been looking at Australia in a Diverse World
                                                        in HASS and we are starting to look at the connec-
                                                        tions we have with Asia. There has been a lot of
                                                        connections with Maths in this unit as we have been
                                                        looking at different types of graphs that give us
                                                        information about the diversity of Australia and Asia,
                                                        including population numbers and population growth
                                                        over time. We have found that understanding these
                                                        graphs and making conclusions from these needs a
                                                        lot of higher order thinking, so we have spent a lot
                                                        of time discussing how to think outside the box with
                                                        our answers. There are a lot of subject-specific
                                                        terms in HASS so we have spent time talking about
                                                        the HASS words and the ‘easy’ words so we can
                                                        make sure we are really understanding what these
                                                        subject words mean. HASS has been a lot of
                                                        thinking.
                                                        Science has involved a lot of thinking like a scientist.
                                                        We have been conducting investigations on the
                                                        impact of watering methods and soil types on plant
                                                        growth. We are about to start our assessment which
                                                        looks at the impact of salt levels in water on the
                                                        growth of plants. The focus of science has been
                                                        writing and developing investigations and scientific
                                                        enquiry skills, which is helping us understand what
                                                        we need to do to make sure our investigations are
                                                        fair. It will be very interesting to see the results of
                                                        our next investigation.
                                                        So far, our Friday afternoons have been filled with
                                                        AFL skills development sessions, Netball trials and
                                                        Rugby League training, as we wait for Inter-School
                                                        sports activities to begin. The AFL skills sessions
                                                        have really helped us prepare for the AFL Gala Day
                                                        on Friday and it has been wonderful to watch some
                                                        students make such big advances in their AFL skills
                                                        in such a short amount of time. We are looking
                                                        forward to the reports from the AFL Gala Day.
                                                 That is all from Year 6 for now. We still have a very
In Mathematics we have finished with the number busy term ahead of us and we know it is going to be
and fractions part of the unit and we have just full of more adventures and surprises.
started learning about data. We are also getting

 Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                       Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
JS HPE & SPORT NEWS: Mrs Nicholls
While it has been a busy start to the year, it has been one of excitement and opportunity for many of our students. The
Junior School students have had opportunities to participate in Swimming, Netball, Rugby League, AFL and Basketball
sessions so far this term. The first few weeks of school brought us some visitors from Auskick (AFL). Over the past few
weeks, Reiley and Penguin from Auskick, have spent some time working with our Pre-prep, Prep, Year 5 and Year 6
students. While our younger students spent some time playing games and learning some of the basic skills involved in
Australia Rules Football, our older students prepared themselves for the upcoming AFL Gala Day. Penguin and Reiley
were extremely impressed at the talent displayed by our students and admired how quickly they built on their skills,
especially considering many had never played AFL before. If your child was someone who really enjoyed participating in
these sessions, I encourage you to get in contact with either myself, Auskick or our local club, the Charters Towers
Demons, to hear about some of the opportunities coming up.
In addition to our AFL visitors, we were also lucky to have Lauren and Bree visit us from JCU Fire (Basketball). While the
rain tried its best to keep us from making it up to the MPC, our Year 1, 2, 4 and 5 students were lucky enough to take
part in some sessions with the JCU Fire representatives. Both Lauren and Bree are part of the Fire Academy and are
upcoming WNBL stars. We were extremely grateful to have them come and work with our students and to share some
of their knowledge with us all.
The first few weeks of school have also seen the Year 5 and 6 students working hard to prepare for the upcoming Inter-
School Sport season. This year we had a large number of students interested in participating in the School netball team.
It was so pleasing to see so many new faces to the world of netball, with all students trying their best and taking on
board feedback from the teachers. They sure made it difficult to select the team!
Our Rugby League team have also begun training and preparing for their first game. Recently they took part in some
training sessions with Mr Urquhart. The boys began learning how to tackle safely and were able to put it into practice.
They particularly enjoyed getting to tackle their teammates onto the mats during their first sessions. For some students,
this was their first opportunity to learn about Rugby League, which was exciting to watch. Thank you Mr Urquhart for
giving up your time to work with our students and helping them to improve their skills.
Good luck to both our Netball and Rugby League teams
as they head into their first games in the coming
weeks. We look forward to hearing the match report.
Upcoming events:
       26 February         AFL Gala Day
       5 March             Inter-School Sport, Round 1
       31 March            Inter-House Cross Country
                            and NQ AFL Trials

Music News: Mr Price
Greetings to the parents and families of our Junior School students. It is exciting to write my first Junior
School Music report in my new role as the Music Teacher. For those who have not met me my name is
Stephen Price and this is my 5th year teaching at ASSG. Up until this year, I have taught Music and English in
the Senior School, as well as previously teaching drums and bass guitar in our Instrumental Music program. I
have been prepared for the transition into Junior School teaching by my two young daughters aged 2 and 7
months who will hopefully be joining us at ASSG before too long.
Years 5 and 6 have been reviewing and refining their rhythm skills by both composing and practising
ostinatos in groups and by themselves. They are starting to use different types of percussion instruments
while learning important skills needed when playing in a band setting.
Years 3 and 4 have started, or continued ‘Keyboard Karate’ where they test their keyboard skills, levelling up
with different ‘belts’ when they successfully perform increasingly challenging pieces. When they level up, they
will receive an armband of the corresponding colour and a certificate to take home.
Years 1 and 2 are exploring some beginner rhythms, learning how to
keep the beat while marching and playing some music related games.
We are learning about good sportsmanship and how to be respectful of
others while learning some music fundamentals. ‘Freeze’ is a crowd
favourite so far!
Prep and Pre-prep are having lots of fun singing and performing actions
to some of our favourite songs like ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and
‘Baby Shark’. We are also working on our active listening skills with
games such as ‘Doggy Doggy where’s your bone?’

    Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                           Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
Library News from Mrs Silverwood                          German: Frau Dunn
                                                          Term 1 is off to a great start and lots of learning is well
Welcome back to new and returning families. It is         underway.
wonderful to have the students back in the library
                                                          The Prep class have spent the last couple of lessons
borrowing books. Please encourage your children to        getting to know Felix and Franzi. Felix and Franzi only
remember their library bags and return their books        speak German, so it has been very important that they
each week. Books borrowed by the Pre-preps and            learn some words or phrases to be able to say hello and
Preps remain at school along with their library bags.     introduce themselves to their new German friends.
At the end of the year, we had a bit of a change
around and the library is looking very fresh. We now
have a special area for story time and our latest addi-
tion is a colourful picture book cushion used with the
younger classes.
With the continuation of sanitising practices put in
place last year, book borrowing has been reduced to
2 books per week. Books are cleaned when they are
returned prior to being rehoused in the library.
In the library, students are encouraged to make their     Year 1 and 2 have also done some revision of
                                                          introductions in German, now having moved on to the
own selections. While guidance is given, it is not al-
                                                          topic of ‘How we celebrate special occasions’. Some
ways accepted. At the moment Goosebumps, Mine-            interesting discussions have been had on what some of
craft and Dog Man seem to be the popular ones.            the similarities and differences might be on ‘how’ and
Also, whatever is on display. Unfortunately I was         ‘what’ we celebrate compared to German children and
away for the first 2 weeks of the term and when I         other cultures around the world. Birthdays are the most
returned the displays were decimated. They looked         meaningful celebration and the first to be looked at.
particularly sad with few books remaining. I have to      Being able to sing Happy Birthday in another language is
                                                          always a fun thing to learn.
remind myself it is the reading that is important, not
how pretty the books look.                                              Year 3 are exploring the concept of fashion
                                                                        for themselves and German children
I do hope the students have a wonderful year and                        through language used to describe clothing
enjoy their time in the library.                                        and accessories. A Fashion parade to show
                                                                        off ‘Dirndl’ and ‘Lederhosen’ (traditional
       The Library days are as follows:                                 German Alpine clothing) was always going
                                                                        to be on the cards.
          Pre-prep        Wednesday                       Years 4, 5 and 6 are delving into a topic very relevant to
                                                          all of them – school. The first couple of weeks we were
          Prep            Thursday                        practising phrases for classroom instructions. A popular
                                                          game has been ‘Der Lehrer sagt’ (the teacher says),
          Year 1          Tuesday
                                                          which is similar to ‘Simon Says’ where the class has to do
          Year 2          Tuesday                         the instructions only if ‘der Lehrer sagt’.
                                                          New vocabulary is always a big part of learning a
          Year 3          Friday                          language, and it is important that students get as much
                                                          practice as possible reading, writing, listening and
          Year 4          Friday                          speaking the new words. Bingo and Memory games are
          Year 5          Monday                          always popular and actually getting up and walking
                                                          around practising words and phrases and using simple
          Year 6          Monday                          questions and answers for each other, helps develop
                                                          mastery.

 Junior School Direct 07 4788 2242 Fax: 07 4787 3049                         Email: juniorschool@allsouls.qld.edu.au
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