29 October 1999 No. 32

From the Head of Junior School

During the first three days of this week, I was pleased to have hosted Mr Bret Butler, Headmaster from the King's School in Auckland. Mr Butler observed the day to day running of the College in order to consider priorities and directions for his school, that will soon enter a phase of new leadership. Mr Butler will be retiring from King's in April of next year and will be succeeded by Mr Neil McWhannell, a former Deputy Head at Scotch.

Over the past week, it has been a great pleasure to watch all boys involved in 'German Week' activities. Activities including Dance, Soccer, Role-Play, Art and Cooking have involved members from the wider community and a special focus was the involvement of Year 8 and Year 10 boys.

On Tuesday, Pastor Stern from a local Lutheran church presented a wonderful Chapel to the boys in Years Three to Six and our final Assembly this morning provided a summary of all activities involving all boys of the Junior School.

'German Week' has become a regular feature of our academic curriculum and I trust that all boys gained from the variety of experiences offered.

Last week I presented a number of boys with certificates of 'Distinction', 'Credit' and 'Participation' as a result of the Singapore Mathematics Competition. This competition is recognised as a difficult one and I was especially pleased to present Christopher Sia (Y6) with a beautiful trophy and 'High Distinction' certificate for finishing in fifth place amongst Australian participants. This is a wonderful achievement and special congratulations are extended to Christopher and all participants.

My theme for this week has been "Obedience".

Boys were encouraged that being obedient includes: using will power to follow rules, even when you feel like ignoring them; keeping agreements and taking responsibility without being reminded; doing what is right, even if no one is watching; listening to yourself, your conscience and importantly to God; and accepting the consequences if you break a law or rule.

The boys were reminded of the words from Luke's Gospel;

"The seeds that fell in good soil stand for those who hear the message and retain it in a good and obedient heart, and they persist until they bear fruit." (Luke8:15)

My thought for the week:

We sow our thoughts, and we reap our actions;
We sow our actions, and we reap our habits;
We sow our habits, and we reap our characters;
We sow our characters, and we reap our destiny.

Guy B Mason

Instrumental Recitals

On the 23 and 24 November, all the instrumentalists in the school will be involved in the Junior School Recital Series. Please note that due to the large number of string students, the Year 3 - 6 String Recital will be held on the evening of Tuesday 23 November. Further information regarding these concerts will be sent home soon.

Jenni Allen
Head of Junior School Music

From The Jspa

Thank you all who have nominated for class representatives or committee next year.

We are still in need of a few more class reps across all year levels.

Please consider helping our school community in this way. Nomination forms should be placed in the JSPA box by Friday, 5 November.

Bronwyn Cramond
President of JSPA

Cross Age Excursion

On Tuesday, 26 of October 1999, Years 3N and Year 7F went to the Melbourne Planetarium. We all piled into a bus and set off. We walked through Scienceworks to our goal. When we got in the chairs, we found they went up and down. Everybody said, "The chair goes up and down!"

I felt sick in the orientation briefing which was about the solar system. The trip we went on was called "Journey To Jupiter." Our captain was Wilson Fraser, but he made a few mistakes. In the end he got fired for flying past all the planets. In order from the Sun they were: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

We went even further. We flew into another galaxy and got stuck in a big box. By the way we never got rescued!

Declan Smith.
Grade 3N

Year 4 Bike Education

Today was the final day for the Year 4 Bicycle Education Programme. This programme has run for three weeks with each class focussing on the riding skills for one week. For the programme to be successful we rely heavily on parents who have been trained successfully by VicRoads and have gained a Bicycle Education Training certificate.

The following mums; Mrs Coles, Mrs Cooper, Mrs Eves, Mrs Fekete, Mrs Franet, Mrs Goldsmith, Mrs Latta, Mrs Newnham, Mrs Strong and Mrs Watson all have gained their certificates and all assisted during the last three weeks. Also Many Thanks to the many other Mums and Dad who held signs and monitored the entrance roads in to the school grounds.

We thank them for their efforts in assisting the class teachers to make the Bicycle Education programme such a success.

Liz Wyatt
Year 4 Coordinator

Sport Results

Here are the final results of the 1999 House Track and Field athletics competitions.

The N L Emerson Cup for Field Events

The J F Rusden Cup for Individual Track Events

The Marshall Baton for Relay Events

The Overall Winning House for the W T Davies Challenge Cup

Congratulations to Sandy Buchanan 5A Bradshaw for setting a new school record in the Shot Put with a throw of 9m 20cm.

The Year Level Individual Champions for 1999 House Athletics are as follows:

On Wednesday 20 October, our Junior School Athletics Squad competed in the APS Final at Sandringham Athletics Track. All boys performed very well against high quality competition. The following results are the placings in each of the finals: