College welcomes classes of 2023

Ann Hirst - Casterton Secondary College

CASTERTON Secondary College welcomes our new Year 7 students into our school and we look forward to working together for the next six years.

Our 2023 students have been presented with their jumpers and we wish them well in their senior years.

New hands-on opportunities for senior students

Jill Robertson - Casterton Primary School

LAST Tuesday we welcomed Leon Carey to the school.

Leon is the Coordinator of Hands on Learning (HoL) for our region.

Leon worked with Mrs Barlow and Mr T. to deliver some training and talk about the structure of our program in 2023.

In the afternoon, Leon spoke to all students in Grades 5 and 6 about how the Hands on Learning program works.

He explained the four pillars of the Hands on Learning program:

- A place to belong (HoL operates from the ‘clubhouse’ beside the hall kitchen that is only for Hands on Learning).

- People to belong to (the same small group of people and leaders will meet every week and work together).

- Real things to do (big focus on gardening to grow food for shared lunches, and then woodwork and other creative tasks – sometimes creating things for around the school, sometimes creating things for the community like the Community Garden arbour last year).

- A chance to give back to the community (this involves the work within our school community, and the wider community).

Hands on Learning builds confidence and engagement where students learn to work together as a team.  Students will also have personal goals to work towards every day, e.g. enjoy the day, have fun be safe, etc.

Our Hands on Learning program will operate as a fusion with the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program and a big emphasis on wellbeing for all students.

This program will commence in week 5.

House Swimming Sports

LAST Thursday was a perfect day for the House Swimming Sports – the weather gods were definitely smiling. 

The sports started shortly after 9.30 with all the 50 metre races across four strokes.

Then the lane ropes were changed for the 30 metre events.

Finally, we had the cross-pool events to wind up just after 12 for the presentations.

There were some really exciting races.

Our year 11 girls are the largest cohort of swimmers and there were some very exciting finishes.

Congratulations to all students at the sports for their participation, sportsmanship and fantastic behaviour. 

To the results: Congratulations to Glenelg House for being House Champions for 2023 with a score of 126 points.

Closely behind in second place was Jackson House with 125 points, followed by McPherson with a score of 88 points.

Age champions this year are: 9 years – Abbey Fidler and Oliver Kurzman; 10 years – Sylvie Richardson and Alby Lane; 11 years – Pinelopi Papadimitriou and Riley Gorman; 12 years – Ruby Forbes and equal champions Darcy Gorman and Brody Davis.

Yoga

THIS year we are fortunate to be able to offer junior and senior yoga sessions with Jenna Rogers on Monday and Thursday afternoons.

These have been a great success and we thank Jenna for her generosity.

So far, the students have enjoyed having yoga outside on the grass and have been focusing on tuning in to their breathing.

Makin' a splash!

Rylan, Stephanie and Thomas - Newspaper Club - Merino Consolidated School

LAST year we played hockey a lot at our school and this year the hockey instructors came back to school again to teach us more skills.

They helped us to hold the hockey stick correctly and taught us how to stop and block the ball, get some goals, push the ball around and how to steal the ball.

It’s good to play hockey because it’s fun to play lots of games and it’s exciting to meet new people.

Our first day of school

EVERYONE couldn’t wait to come back to Merino Consolidated School to learn.

It was exciting to see everyone and meet our new student Thomas and our new teacher Ms Sylvester.

We didn’t do any schoolwork on the first day!

Instead, we did lots of fun stuff.

For one of the games we played, we had to try and switch chairs without falling off onto the floor, this was tricky, but we did it and felt proud.

We also created a funny story about a dinosaur who lived in a volcano and ate chocolate.

Finally, we painted a chair yellow with a colourful rainbow.

We felt glad and excited to be back at school doing fun learning.

Swimming

AT THE Merino Swimming pool, we do swimming lessons with Glenda.

It’s so important to learn how to swim because when you’re in water in an emergency, you’re in danger.

If you don’t learn how to swim, you can’t go swimming or keep yourself safe.

We practice kicking with long legs and we float on our backs like a starfish.

We do torpedo arms where we stick our arms to our ears.

And we blow bubbles by putting our faces down in the water and then take breaths to the side.

We get tired and face challenges, but swimming lessons make us feel happy and we have fun.

New faces, new roof, new programs at Sacred Heart

Suzie McManus - Sacred Heart School

WELCOME back to school for 2023!

We are all very excited to start the school year and we are all looking forward to a fun-filled year!

A very warm and friendly welcome to our new Preps and their families: Zara Norris, Lilah Knight, Livy Smith, Pippa Sawyer, and Katie Campbell.

We hope that Sacred Heart provides you with a positive and valuable educational experience.

We also welcome back the families who are already part of our community – we hope to see all your friendly faces around the school this year!

Vic Kids Eat Well

We are very excited to have the opportunity to partner with the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation together with Vic Kids Eat Well.

Our Ambassador is Monique Sobey from the Southern Grampians Shire.

Monique visited Sacred Heart last week; she was a burst of fresh ideas and energy!

We’re already making plans for upcoming events: herb identification, garden harvest and planting.Monique is keen to help our Senior Leadership team, together with our Mini Vinnies, put the ‘fun’ into fundraising and give marketing a healthy boost.

New roof

We are excited that our new roof is nearly complete.

Thanks Casterton Gasfitting and Plumbing – not only are you doing a fantastic job, you have stopped all the leaks when it rains!

Swimming sports

The kids have been busy practicing for the Western Trinity Swimming Sports with St Malachy's Edenhope and St Joe's Coleraine, which is next week.

After the chilly weather, it is great to have a week of perfect pool weather.