I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. William Henley This week I have commenced the enjoyable task of interviewing our Year 12 students. This has provided an opportunity to meet each of them and to learn more about their experience at Firbank, their hopes and plans for the future and gain feedback on their suggestions for the future of our School. I have been warmly heartened by their genuine, candid and thoughtful comments. Without exception, they expressed their gratitude for the opportunities afforded to them throughout their Firbank journey. They have learned the value of hard work, the importance of friendships and have been sustained by the trust between staff and students as they face the final year of their formal schooling. Many of them shared the importance of experiences such as the camps in Junior School, the Year 9 Thailand trip, the Community Service initiatives in every year and the nurturing by expert teachers. Students who were closely involved in the Performing Arts reflected on their roles in the many musical productions, and this week we have seen a feast of talent as we enjoyed Beauty and the Beast, and Seussical the Musical. Thank you to our talented students who willingly committed time to provide two distinctively unique experiences. In particular, I thank Ross Vernon from Brighton Grammar School for his work with our students in Beauty and the Beast, and Michelle McNamara for her skillful direction of Seussical the Musical. NEWSLETTER From the Principal 30 May 2014 We are also grateful to the following students and staff for their contribution: SEUSSICAL CAST: Hattie Hook, Meggyann Davie-Smythe, Claudia Tomas, Saskia Mulder, Emma Dicker, Madeline Jordan, Riley Annear, Sarah Bowers, Sophie Lever, Lillian Cook, Imogen Smillie, Hanna Tsiakos, Ally Lynch, Olivia Hosie, Kat Taplin, Phoebe Hennig, Eri Yoshida, Sabrina Agnew, Elspeth Lawson, Cleo Taliadoros, Piper Workman, Summer Workman, Tahlia McDonald, Brooke Bailey, Maddy Cain, Olivia Arrigo, Georgia Thomson, Tori Ferres, Sophie Bolton, Maddie Whitehead, Amy Hopwood, Ruby Gardner, Charlotte Richards, Kate Damyon, Katja Hesse, Caitlin Gilligan, Amelia Stewart, Isabella Sangster, Bryony Stringer, Milly Jasper PRODUCTION TEAM: Michele McNamara, Simon Marsden, Greg Di Natale MUSICIANS: Philippa Jones, Christine Smillie, Michael Ooi BACKSTAGE: Taylor Lyons, Emmie Frederico, Sophie Dilena, Mackenzie Miller, Zabrina Leung, Isabella Scollo, Alani Sharp MAKE-UP: Debbie Waite, Julie Trethowan, Anna Parry, Annette Davie-Smythe Eliza Fricke, Meg Pithie, Christina Qian, Isabel Armstrong, Jessie Chen, Sophie Adam, Yasmeen O’Brien, Georgia Summerhill, Cassy Robertson, Kate Walker FRONT OF HOUSE: Sarah Saunders, Monica Delaney, Annette Wagner-Hesse, Jamie Mawkes, Lara Maratos, Jade Siang, Rachel Zhou, Aisha Dalal BEAUTY AND THE BEAST CAST: Susannah Huse, Stephanie Gotze, Gabrielle Morelli, Emily Yates, Laura Cuerden, Johanna Joyce, Rachael Joyce, Shajeda Kalitzki-Abedin, Millie Anderson, Jenny Cai, Kate Duggan, Sophie Gibb, Fleur Goodman, Alexa Harrington, Annabel Johnston, Jess Lee, Shirley Liu, Charlene Ong, Caitlin Pullen, Samantha Stuart Firbank. Aspire. Achieve. PRODUCTION CREW: Lauren Carroll, Kelsey Mahoney, Lauren McElroy, Chelsea Start, Isabelle Nightingale, Zoe Gousmett, Samantha Stuart, Chloe Moisidis, Sophie Daddo-Langlois In another facet of learning at Firbank, students in the Turner House String Orchestra and the Sandringham House Sinfonia combined to perform at the Victorian Schools Music Festival at The Atrium at Federation Square on Thursday 29 May. Students competed against other, much older orchestras who were secondary school based. We were so proud of our students who won the Gold Shield. Thanks to Mr Kim Morley and his team for their dedication. Education has a unique role in our community as we explore each student’s talents and provide possibilities for success. Together, with parents, we are our children’s greatest audience as we gently encourage them to extend into unchartered waters. Only then will they learn that they can be captains of their own journey and that the goal of independence into adulthood is achievable, providing courage to persevere through life’s elation and sadness. In the poem Invictus William Henley speaks of an unconquerable soul, reiterating the refrain; I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. It was this poem that inspired Nelson Mandela while he was incarcerated on Robben Island and continues to be cherished through generations of many leaders across the world. At Firbank, we plan for our students to enjoy a range of adventures and experiences to give them the strength to find their passion. Our students have learned to seek opportunities to be challenged and to serve others. In my interviews with Year 12, I am learning that we have many captains of destiny who will always remember their school days with gratitude and joy. Heather Norton From the Head of Junior School, Brighton Campus Thank you to Sharron Bailey for the report below on very successful Professional Development for our teachers and teachers in other PYP schools. Sharron has also reflected on the Parent sessions: Approaches to Learning. These sessions are to inform parents about how students learn and how the program at Turner House caters to this. I have received extremely positive feedback on these sessions and parents who attended have told me they have a clear understanding of how and why we offer an environment based on understanding that blends explicit teaching and inquiry learning. We will offer the same course, in the evenings to ensure our working parents have the opportunity to have the same insights. On Thursday, the Turner House String Orchestra and the Sandringham House Sinfonia combined to perform at the Victorian Schools Music Festival in the city. It was a great opportunity for our girls to perform to a wider audience as well as seeing other schools perform. Thank you to Kim Morley, our Head of Strings and to Anna Pilcher, to preparing the accompanying the girls. Early on Thursday, three of our Year 6 students and Ms Brooke Clayton left for Milikapiti. This is a remote aboriginal community in the very north of Australia. The girls will fly to Darwin before taking a charter flight to Snake Bay. They are away for a week and will work at the school as well as explore the area. I am looking forward to joining them on Monday next week. The girls are travelling with 8 Brighton Grammar boys and their teachers and we are very fortunate to be involved in this program. Later in the year we will be hosting girls from the island. NEWSLETTER Junior School Brighton Campus 30 May 2014 This is a busy time of year for the teachers as they prepare the formal reports that will be published in the last week of the term. The reporting process has undergone a change this year and our reports will be more informative and easier to understand. I will be sending a more detailed letter to parents explaining the changes and invite you to provide feedback on the new system. On Friday 6 June, the teachers across all three campuses have a report writing day. This is to moderate and collate reports and a valuable time for teachers to ensure the information you receive is correct and up to date. Students do not come to school on this day. The following week is Queen’s Birthday and Student Led Conferences. These conferences are a highlight for many girls who are able to share their learning and classroom with parents. We look forward to seeing all families involved. Michelle Phillips Term 2 Week 7 Monday, 2 June 7:00 8:00 – 8:45 9:30-11:00 11:00 2:00-3:20 3:20-5:00 BGS 3:30-4:30 4:30 Swimming Squad Orchestra Rehearsal @ Music Room TH/SH Junior Choir Choral Concert Workshop – Music Room String Quartet @ Music Room Year 6 Firbank/BGS Musical ‘Pirates of Penzance’ – full company @ BGS Year 6 Firbank/BGS Musical ‘Pirates of Penzance’ Rehearsal for leads only @ Aerobics Training and every Monday in Term 2 and 3 Piano Recital @ CCA Tuesday, 3 June 7:30 - 8:00 Aerobics Session 8:00 – 8:45 Chess Club 8:15-8:45Aerobics 1:30 Aerobics 3:30-4:30 After School Sport (Years 4 + 6) Firbank. Aspire. Achieve. Wednesday, 4 June 7:30 Run Club 1:45 – 2:15 Jazz Combo @ Music Room Thursday, 5 June World Environment Day 7:00 Swimming Squad Training 9:00 4M @ Tomorrow’s Leaders for Sustainability Program 10:00 4S @ Tomorrow’s Leaders for Sustainability Program 11:00 Aerobics in Music Room 3:30 – 4:30 After School Sport (Year 5) Friday, 6 June Report Writing Day – No students at School today. AROUND THE SCHOOL Lemon Myrtle Room Newsletter - ELC4S Hello from the ELC! It has been an exciting term so far. Here’s a little snapshot of what we have been doing in the Lemon Myrtle Room, ELC4S. Although we certainly observe and live children’s emerging interests every day, we also have had a PYP focus this term of Sharing the Planet with our central idea of “Caring for the environment is our responsibility.” We have been inquiring into different environments people share. At first we needed to understand what an environment is and its difference from a community but also how the two are inter-related. We expanded on the sea environment in our classroom. Then one day one of the children spotted some Rainbow Lorikeets outside our classroom window on a gum tree branch. We then launched into their environment and also other bird environments. We were also lucky to have some “old bones” to examine. The discussion we had about what had happened to them was amazing. We are continuing our research! We went on a nature/adventure walk around our school. The children realized this was our school environment. They had a lot of fun picking up different things from nature to be used later for a collage. One thing they were quite upset about was that there was some rubbish around the play area. The children felt it was their duty to pick it up and dispose of it properly. This launched us into making our Lemon Myrtle Recycling Centre. We decided to match our classroom bins (boxes) to the colours of the Bayside Council because this is where our school is located. We are sorting rubbish in our own classroom and also sorting our recyclables and rubbish from our morning snack and lunches every day. We also dug up our “Rubbish Experiment”. Just before the end of last term, a small amount of rubbish and some food waste was buried. We have our “treasure” on display in our classroom. The children were actually disgusted that the plastic rubbish had not gone away or changed. They are still wondering and investigating as to why the banana and orange peel, the apple core and the biscuit had disappeared. The children of the Lemon Myrtle Room are aware that we all share different environments and that we must help to keep these environments rubbish free and must recycle in order to do so. Do not be surprised if you hear voice near you suggesting that maybe you could recycle a bit more! Year 6 On Friday 23 May, the Year 6 students went to the Melbourne Chinese Museum for a one-day excursion. The trip was full of fun and excitement. Students explored Chinese culture and history of Chinese migration in Victoria in the museum. They learnt different customs of Chinese weddings, herbal medicines and ancient inventions. They were amazed by the Millennium Dragon, the largest Chinese dragon in the world in the lower level of the museum. All the girls found the museum tour refreshing, informative and interesting. After the museum tour, they continued exploring the oldest settled Chinatown in the western world. The Chinese excursion successfully provided an opportunity for students to rediscover the cultures around them and think the interaction between Australian culture and Asian culture. Sicheng Li VICTORIA PYP NETWORK TEACHMEET On Wednesday 21 May, Turner House organised and hosted the inaugural Victoria PYP Network TeachMeet. As a Melbourne IB school, we are fortunate to be part of the dynamic Victoria PYP Network, which has over 50 member schools. As a network, we consistently endeavour to provide innovative and high quality professional learning opportunities for teachers, catering for the needs of both experienced PYP schools and those new to the IB. This year we decided to try the TeachMeet concept, which has recently taken off both internationally and around Australia. A TeachMeet is an organised, yet informal, forum for teachers to share best classroom practice. It includes a range of short presentations – either 2 or 7 minutes, by teachers, for teachers. Participants can attend either just observe or they can volunteer as presenters. We had an overwhelmingly positive response with 20 presenters from a range of PYP schools and over 160 participants, some even travelling from as far as Ballarat to attend. Five of our teachers, Ashlea Mills, Kerrie Maddern, Andrew Dobbyn, Mary Grummet and Paul Connelly presented and represented Firbank in a most professional manner. The range of presentations was of a consistently high standard and the positive feedback we have received from this initiative has been overwhelming. Emails have come from not only those who attended, but also from PYP Coordinators, principals and heads of schools, commenting that their teachers returned to their schools the next day, “buzzing” with new ideas and strategies, excited to share with colleagues. We have also been congratulated by the IB Asia Pacific regional office in Singapore and our TeachMeet has inspired other networks in this region organise their own. This was a great event for the Vic PYP Network. It was also an excellent opportunity for Firbank to continue to demonstrate strong educational leadership and innovation and reinforce its reputation as an exemplary IB PYP World School. APPPROACHES TO LEARNING PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS In our continued efforts to communicate with parents about our teaching and learning practices at Turner House, we conducted a range of parent information sessions on Thursday mornings throughout May, focussed on Literacy, Numeracy, Inquiry and the PYP. These sessions proved to be popular and were a forum for valuable information sharing, questions and discussion between parents and the teachers who presented. We would particularly like to thank Brooke Clayton, Mel Smith, Lauren Mirabella, Linda Lewis and Janet Nieuwenhuis for the time and considerable expertise they put into planning collaboratively and presenting these successful Approaches to Learning sessions. SHARRON BAILEY PYP Coordinator PHYSICAL EDUCATION & SPORT Aerobics Congratulations to the girls who were selected for the 2014 Turner House aerobic teams. Good luck at your first competition at Ivanhoe Girls Grammar School held on Saturday 14 June. Please add Aerobics photograph Kim Mears PATH ENTERTAINMENT BOOK Buy a new NEW 2014 | 2015 Melbourne Entertainment™ Membership for only $65 and receive over $20,000 worth of valuable offers that can be used from now until 1 June 2015. Choose from the traditional Entertainment™ Book or the NEW Entertainment™ Digital Membership, which puts the value of the Book into your smartphone. If purchased from Firbank Grammar – Turner House you will be supporting their fund-raising efforts this year. OSHCLUB Before and After School Care I am pleased to share with you all that on 22 May we had Biggest Afternoon Tea and it was really successful event. All the students showed great enthusiasm and responsibility to run the event. This event gave us the opportunity to showcase some of the children’s art work as well. We managed to get some donations for this great cause. Thanks to all for their generosity. A special thanks to Mrs Linda Chapman and all the Year 1 parents for their great support. We will keep you updated about OSHClub program. If you have any questions related to the program please feel free to call on 0402 673 289. Puja Tuli PARENT ACTIVITIES FREE PARENT SEMINAR – BULLYING - COPING SKILLS FOR CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS! Too often we see or read in the media what the devastating consequences of bullying are. Bullying in the school playground no longer stops just there. With technology today, bullying continues on into the home, the consequences of which can be devastating. So how do parents identify who the bullies are? Why do bullies target particular children? How can you equip your children to be assertive and overcome the bullies? Find out more at our next FREE parent seminar, on Wednesday 4 June in the BGS Rosstrevor School Hall at 7.30pm (corner Allee and New St). Presented by the ever popular and widely regarded Melissa Anderson of Shine Academy for Girls and Longford and Fraser Academy for boys. Register NOW with Melissa Anderson on 9592 4948 or [email protected] HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES With over 3 weeks of school holidays coming up in June/July, why not consider one of the many opportunities we have for children to pick up a new skill, develop new or firmer friendships or to simply enjoy some focussed time on something that interests them. School holiday programs have the advantage of being a less stressful environment for learning and friendship development. So why not continue to build on your child’s learning in the holidays! Some of the programs we are highlighting for these holidays include: Football (1 – 3 July, 6-12 & 13-17 years) Something for the football enthusiast! In this 1, 2 or 3 day program, your child will learn all about Aussie Rules, using the outstanding Brighton Grammar School ovals for game practice. Cement new learnings with state of the art video analysis and feedback from professional coaches, including the likes of Dustin Fletcher, Scott Pendlebury, Lance Franklin or other superstars. For 3 day programs book online. To attend for only 1 or 2 days of the program call 1300 914 368 www.australiansportscamps.com.au G.A.T.E.Ways Gifted Program (25 & 26 June, 5-12 years) Gifted and talented children from Years 1 to 6 have the opportunity to attend a wide range of exciting and challenging workshops at Firbank Grammar School in June. With programs in fencing, science, astronomy, design, chemistry, language, thinking, computer design, maths, drama and problem solving, there is sure to be a class to extend and develop your children’s special abilities. See Firbank Festival of Workshop details at www.gateways.edu.au Performance/Acting/Musical Theatre Camp (30 June – 3 July, 7-13years) Jimmy the Gentleman If you love gangsters, flappers and showgirls you will love this fast-paced 1920’s adventure . After the demise of gangster, Fast Eddy, life settles down for Jimmy the Gentleman and Rosie in their respective nightclubs. However, rumour has it that the Chicago gang intend to move into town. What devious plan has Rosella, Queenie, Grisela and Bumpy Johnson hatched to take over New York city? Has the Police Chief finally taken a bribe? Can Jimmy weave his magic again and restore peace to the big Apple? Come along and find out! www.actingantics.com For further information about these or other programs, please see the flyer or the Sh@re website www.share.vic.edu.au or contact Sonia Wagner, Community Education Manager, swagner@ brightongrammar.vic.edu.au Sonia Wagner