Capital 'E' for efforts as students honoured school-wide

Ann Hirst - Casterton Secondary College

CASTERTON Secondary College presented our semester one awards at a special assembly and it was very pleasing to have some parents / carers in attendance.

Awards were presented for Academic Diligence, Academic Excellence, Year 11 and 12 Subject Awards, Citizenship Awards, 100 per cent Attendance Awards and our Writing Challenge Awards.

Our school captains, Maddy Robinson and Rhys Southern, hosted the assembly and were assisted in the presentation of the awards by our school council president, Mrs Leanne Munro.

Academic Diligence Awards are awarded to students who achieved an excellent rating for effort in at least three-quarters of their subjects in semester one.

Academic Excellence Awards are awarded to students in Years 7 to 10 who achieved a grade of 80 per cent or more in at least three-quarters of their subjects in semester one.

Year 11 and 12 Subject Awards are awarded to the top students in these classes over the semester.

Citizenship Awards were presented in recognition of assistance at the Casterton Primary School Cross Country, the Combined District Primary Schools Cross Country, assistance at the Kelpie Festival working bee, excellence in the debate club or dedication to rearing calves.

Educating the educators a hit

Jill Robertson - Casterton Primary School

LAST Tuesday our Teach the Teacher Group presented their professional learning session to our teachers, over a shared lunch. 

After a rigorous practice in the morning with Scarlett, the kids lined up nervously in the staff room and took turns sharing their information and posing questions to the teachers. 

By far my favourite bit was the video the students made to demonstrate the continuum of engagement to teachers, by way of a warmup activity. 

The Continuum of Engagement contains six different levels of engagement along a continuum of disengagement to engagement. 

Each of the group acted out one of these traits and teachers were tasked with matching the child to the characteristic. 

In the performance, Bridie Dorahy joined the group to act as the teacher. 

It was very entertaining and effective. 

The teachers were able to discuss and place all students correctly! 

By far, Rupert’s favourite part was the food! 

Always an appreciative audience!

Unfortunately, our final workshop has been postponed but when we resume, we will meet with VicSRC and the other participating schools to create an action plan for how we can respond to the student and parent surveys and our research with the teachers, to increase engagement at school.

Thanks again to Chloe Kurzman, Rupert Dorahy, Georgia Bailey, Ruby Forbes, Brooklyn Mutch and Darcy Brown for their commitment to the program, to Bridie for stepping in to support our video and to Scarlett for stepping in many times to support me in facilitating this work.

100 Days of School

MS DENNIS and the Grade Prep students also celebrated 100 days of school last Thursday, with a dress up and fun filled day of activities involving every grade in the school. 

Prep students were invited to come to school dressed as if they were 100 years old, as did Ms Dennis complete with fluffy dressing gown, slippers and hair rollers! 

It was wonderful to see everyone dressed up and having fun with this theme.

Some of the activities included making crowns with 100 days across the front of them, an activity to write their name as many times as possible in 100 seconds, make a poster about learning in 100 days, coin tossing 100 times with a partner, 100 movements outside in the sun which involved doing simple activities in sets of 10 to reach 100, the food element which was the number 100 shaped out of food, and a special delivery of delicious scones, jam and cream from Penny Farquharson.

Celebrating the seniors in their lives

Suzie McManus - Sacred Heart School

GRANDPARENTS’ Day has always been a highlight on our calendar and sorry we still can’t celebrate it the way we would like.

Grandparents truly are gifts in our lives and we thank you for all that you do for your children and grandchildren.

Our students channelled their inner grandparents to celebrate this special day and it was such fun seeing so many people dressed up as seniors.

They stayed in character all day - the joys of getting old must be well documented!

Busy in the community

THE last two Fridays have been busy with a performance at the Town Hall, Tree Day and Jeans for Genes Day!

We joined the Casterton Primary School at the Town hall to catch the arts performance.

It was very clever and so much fun.

We won’t look at recycled materials the same way after watching this show where two brothers from the faraway planet JUNKLANDIA embark on a mission to Earth to teach the earthlings the Junklandian ways of music and creative recycling!

Portraits to greet guests at Merino's front gate

Newspaper club - Merino Consolidated School

IN HANDS on Learning we just finished our individual portraits, painted on boards.

To make these we first sketched a picture of ourselves and then painted them using the colours we wanted.

They are going at the front of the gate of the school so everyone can see them.

- Charli

Problem solving

IN MATHS, we did some problem solving.

One of the last questions was about making a recipe that was only meant for three people but we had to figure out how to make it for 10 people.

We had to use our times tables to work it out.

- Judd

Yolanda Yoga

LAST week we had Yoga with Yolanda.

We did Toega which is when we have to dance and used our feet to pick up pom poms.

Then we did pom pom golf which was when we were trying to get the pom pom into the cup.

You had to blow it and I ran out of breath.

Last we had to be quiet for meditation.

It made me so tired.

- Steph

Excursion

LAST Friday as a part of our Integrated Topic Indigenous Australians, we went on a pretty fun excursion.

First, we checked out the water tower and saw the five Brothers Art.

We then went to Budj Bim and had a walk and learnt lots of interesting facts about the area.

We were very lucky to have Aunty Coleen show us around.

My favourite part was that we got to eat some different things from nature.

We then went to Tae Rak lake and saw some eels.

Finally, we drove to Portland to look at some cool Indigenous art at the art gallery.

- Joy

Non-linear equations

WE WORK really hard at Merino and we are challenged!

I have started learning non-linear equations in maths.

It is definitely really really hard.

The questions that I was working on were for a Year 8 level and I’m only in Year 5!

- Ryan