While the form of our Primary Shakespeare Festival is yet to be determined, preparations are well underway. The enthusiasm and confidence with which our Primary students are approaching their new plays is so impressive. The embodiment of the roles being played, together with the children’s articulation and passion in speech is regularly commented on by our teachers and those that are visiting as casual staff. The students’ years of practice since Lower 1st are obvious, and the skills and confidence that this experience brings has had an impact on all areas of learning.
Julian Wilcock
Head of School
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Category: Latest News from John Colet School Belrose
Deputy Head of School Comment
We have been talking about manners and respect in Assembly with both the Infants and the Primary children. At school we ask that children stand when an adult enters the room. It is a small thing and in some ways could be considered old fashioned, however the effect of this small gesture is far reaching. It helps the children to become aware of the presence of others and to have the discipline to stop what they are doing and acknowledge someone who has entered the room. In the same way we have been making efforts to greet teachers and visitors using their name and looking them in the eye. These two small gestures make a world of difference both to the giver and the receiver.
Di Renshaw
Deputy Headmistress
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Increasing maturity as readers
In English, this past week, 6N looked at how the title and cover of our class text, and our predictions about it, relate and connect to other books, to our personal lives and to society at large. The children offered insightful comments about familiar and memorable stories, experiences they have lived and ‘big ideas’ or concepts with similar themes. This demonstrates the increasing maturity the children are showing towards the content they are exploring in class. I have noticed this in Shakespeare lessons also, with the children showing great interest in exploring the themes and characters of the play Romeo and Juliet. On the subject of Shakespeare, this week we had our first dance lesson with choreographer, Miss Bianca.
Congratulations to our debaters, as they once again defeated Ravenswood this week!
Mrs Nadjarian
Teacher
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Year 3 write their own biographies
We have been busy learning here in 3rd Class. The children are focused and learning well. They are all making excellent progress.
What have we been up to this week?
English – This week the children read a biography of choice from the Big Dreams Little People series. They used the information from these to write a mini biography of their own.
Maths – This week we have focused on formal written methods for subtraction as well as calculating change.
Science – The children demonstrated their knowledge of how night and day occurs. I have attached some videos of their explanations.
Geography – This week we have been learning how to use an atlas and read maps using coordinates.
Shakespeare – We worked on Act 2 this week with Miss Emanuel, again I was so impressed with the children knowing their lines. This makes things so easy as we can move straight to the stage directions. Please keep practising these with
Diving back in to Shakespeare
4th Class are having lots of fun diving back into Shakespeare rehearsals. As part of homework each night, all students have been reminded to learn their lines as soon as possible. We have limited time each week with Miss Emanuel and rehearsals are interrupted when students are carrying scripts around instead of props. Everyone is doing really well and we hope to have all students with memorised lines within the next 2 weeks.
The past week:
• In writing we have been looking at effective persuasive arguments and using conjunctions and other connective devices to illustrate opposition, reinforcement and cause and effect to strengthen our arguments. In Grammar we have looked at the etymology of words from Latin and Greek and how new words are created all the time; and in comprehension we looked at understanding texts containing direct and reported speech with a focus on historical recounts.
• In my Maths class
Update from 2nd Class (Year 2)
In Maths this past week, 2nd Class explored multi-digit addition and subtraction, trading (regrouping or borrowing). This requires a good understanding of place value. I was delighted to see the children embrace this with a sense of challenge and enthusiasm. Addition proved interesting and all managed it well, after some practice. Our next challenge was mastering this process, with subtraction. Any interested students might like to watch this video to help master this skill.
Free Writing
The children have been decorating their own ‘Free Writing’ book. There is much excitement about this. Some children have planned their topic to write about and can discuss the purpose and audience they will write for. I will not mark this book and allow the children some scope to develop their skills without concern about punctuation and spelling. We have a ‘Free Writing Area’ with resources and topic/sentence starters for those who need a help to
Deputy Head of School’s Comment
I would like to take the opportunity to comment on the on-going resilience of our students in the current situation. There have been many disappointments as Open Day, Infants Shakespeare live performances and the year 5 and 6 visit to Canberra have all had to be cancelled. The children have met these disappointments with good grace and worked to make the best of the circumstances. I would particularly like to acknowledge our 6th class students who are having a very different final year at John Colet compared to normal. They set a wonderful example to the rest of the School of good humour, acceptance and equanimity.
Di Renshaw
Deputy Headmistress
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On the vegetarian lunch menu for Week 4
Monday Macaroni cheese
Tuesday Chickpea and sweet potato curry
Wednesday Salad rolls
Thursday Vegetable pies
Friday Bean tacos
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6th Class are considering negative numbers in Maths and the question was asked, “How can there be a number less than zero, if zero is equal to nothing?” Is there a quantity less than zero? How can we have less than nothing at all! What a conundrum to debate! We turned to real life problems to answer the question, including looking at negative temperatures and landforms beneath sea level. There is of course an infinite number of integers ‘going left’ on the number line and 6T have been investigating them all week. We will finish up today with our weekly assessment and online Kahoot quiz. It is fascinating listening to the children discuss their Mathematical understanding. Justifying their answers and reasoning with each other is an important part of their learning and is rightly included in the NSW Maths Curriculum under the strand name ‘Working Mathematically’.
Allison Tomicki
Teacher
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6th class make personal keepsakes for Art
Each year 6th class students learn the ancient art of bookbinding. They make their own hand-stitched books under the direction of professional bookbinder and artist Brigitta Gallaher. The books are a beautiful and personal keepsake for the children to collect and display their favourite drawings.
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