With the anticipation of Easter, and many children counting down the sleeps until the Easter Bunny comes, we can be grateful that in this country we will be able to attend church services and gather together with our families to celebrate Easter.

As we prepare for Easter, I thought it would be fun for families to do an Easter quiz together. There are questions throughout for all ages, some for those who understand the Christian significance of Easter, or want to learn more, and some for the small children in your families who will know about the traditions of Easter but may not know why these traditions exist. Your family may or may not choose to follow, or place importance on all of these traditions, but others in our community will. Have fun quizzing your family knowledge. The answers are on the last page of the newsletter. No peeking, until you have finished.

Test your knowledge with our Easter Trivia Quiz

1. Why do people usually receive Easter eggs on Easter Sunday?
2. What are Easter eggs usually made of?
3. What animal is commonly associated with Easter?
4. What sweet objects are commonly ‘hunted’ by children at Easter time?
5. What part of your body would you wear an Easter bonnet on?
6. Easter Sunday is an important day in the Christian calendar, why?
7. Which famous Easter song has the lyrics ‘one a penny, two a penny?’
8. What vegetable do children leave out for the Easter Bunny?
9. What symbol do you find on top of the sweet, spiced buns that come out at Easter?
10. Why is there a cross on the top of hot cross buns?
11. What Australian marsupial is used by Haigh’s Chocolates to replace the Easter bunny?
12. Easter is held on the first Sunday after what type of moon in March?
13. TRUE/FALSE: Lent, a period of fasting and reflection, which comes before Easter, lasts for 40 days?
14. What food is often served on Shrove Tuesday?
15. What is the significance of Shrove Tuesday?
16. In Australia, what season does Easter fall in?
17. How many hot cross buns would you find in a baker’s dozen?
18. What is the Friday before Easter called?
19. What is the significance of Good Friday?
20. The Easter bunny is thought to have originated in which country?
21. Some Claremont families also celebrate Easter at a different time in the calendar. What are some countries that do this?
22. TRUE/FALSE: Christian Orthodox families from Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Amenia, Macedonia, Cyprus, Turkey and many more, will celebrate Easter this year on 2nd May.

This will be our last newsletter for Term 1. As we wrap up another busy term of learning, we have some staff news to share:

We are very excited to announce that Laura Gilbert will be joining the Claremont team officially to teach Music to our students. Laura has been delivering quality lessons for a few weeks now and the students are loving Music. 

Laura is a keen musician with over 18 years of experience playing both piano and trumpet and over 8 years experience tutoring primary school music. Her genres of expertise range from classical and jazz, to Latin and Balinese gamelan. Laura completed her studies at UNSW in 2019 graduating with a Bachelor of Music (Pedagogy) and Bachelor of Education.

We are sad to farewell Alexe Wallace in our front office at the end of Term 1. Alexe has been an integral part of the administration team and is moving on to a promotion in ‘The Appointment Group’. We wish her all the best and thank her for her outstanding communication, organisation and care.

We welcome Justine Hodges to the team. Justine will be working in our front office on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday each week, which will allow a crossover day with Mrs Lee on the front desk.

Mrs Herborn finally gets to celebrate her wedding over the Easter break. This is her (and her husbands) third attempt, because of COVID restrictions, to celebrate with friends and family. We wish them a wonderful and memorable day.

On Monday during our Professional Development day, our staff worked with George Telford, a Senior Consultant and Project Manager from the Oceania division of Challenging Learning. We spent the day learning together, being both challenged and entertained, as we reflected on the approaches we already use to challenge students in their learning, while learning new strategies that we can’t wait to implement.

George cleverly planned the day to focus on Challenging Learning Through Feedback (2017), using the strategies from Challenging Learning Through Dialogue (2017) throughout the day, to engage and challenge us in our learning. It was such a good opportunity for us to work with an accomplished presenter on well researched teaching strategies, and we are grateful to all of our parents for your understanding of our need to have the pupil-free day.

On Tuesday this week we welcomed parents, on a very wet day, to our school to talk about ‘Home Learning’ and ‘How to Help You Child With Their Learning at Home’. I would like to thank the parents who braved the weather and came along to learn and to share ideas about student learning at home. Attached are the following handouts: Please add links here + on the website

• Home Learning + Helping Your Child at Home
• Claremont College Home Learning Policy

Finally, in keeping with our family friendly quiz, a blessing for Easter:

                  May God bless you at Easter,
                  And keep you all year through.
                  May God give you all the faith it takes,
                  To Make your dreams come true.
                  May His love and wisdom always help,
                  To guide you on your way.
                  May His light shine down upon you,
                  To bless your Easter Day.

Wishing you a blessed and joyful Easter, and we hope that you all find time to rest and enjoy the Easter school break.

Janelle Ford
Co-Principal

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Website: www.claremont.nsw.edu.au
Instagram: @claremontcollege
Twitter: @claremont2031

There is no school on Thursday 1 April.

Last week I shared my recollections and reflections about why my grandparents are important to me. I hope you enjoyed reading my memoir. This week I would like to continue to develop the theme of celebrating and thanking God for our families, culture, heritage, traditions, special memories and the things that are most important to us. 

So, with this, a very big thank you to Cooper S (Year 2) for this beautiful piece of writing during this week of celebrating Greek Independence Day (yesterday 25th March). We are all so proud of you Cooper and we can tell that you are very proud of your Greek heritage and your many wonderful customs and traditions. 

A memory I have when going to Greece is seeing where my Grandfather grew up when he was a young boy. This showed me the different lifestyle in the village that he grew up in and how hard it would have been for him to leave his family. 

In Greek culture we have lots of traditions which we have kept throughout many years.

In Greece, Greek Easter is a tradition where we dye eggs red and crack them together to symbolise Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. At Easter, we also celebrate by lighting candles and walking around the church at night.

I love being Australian but I also love having a Greek background. From the  time my grandparents came to Australia, our family has grown so much and I love having so many cousins, Aunties and Uncles in my family and celebrating all our Greek traditions together. 

By Cooper S (Year 2)

Thanks again Cooper. To all our Greek families, we are sorry that again this year because of COVID we are unable to participate in the annual Greek Independence Day march in the city. We certainly hope that things might be different in 2022, and we hope that you enjoy the celebrations with your family and friends.

Did you know that Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the NSW Government decided to light the sails of the Sydney Opera House last night on 25 March 2021. The Greek flag was projected onto the Sydney Opera House, and lit up blue and white in recognition of the 200th anniversary of the declaration of the Greek War of Independence.

A request for all Claremont families for your stories

Please help us to continue our theme of memoirs and recollections. We would like to include other student and family contributions in our weekly newsletter. Across the year, please let us help celebrate the National or other significant day of your country of origin. Do let us know when this might be, so that we can acknowledge and celebrate the special place that your family comes from. If you have already celebrated this year, it’s not too late! Please send your contribution with advance notice to office@claremont.nsw.edu.au.

Mr Doug Thomas
Principal

You make me feel like dancing… anyone feel like dancing from Monday onwards?! You may have read on the news that many restrictions have been eased this week. This is WONDERFUL news. For all those of you that have been singing in the shower, you can sing in public again! There is lots of work to be done at Claremont to bring back our singing culture, we invite you to sing along with us.

From a school’s perspective, we have not had any further updates for our context.  We will keep you in the loop should we receive any information. We are hopeful for Term 2 and what the possibilities will be.

It is certainly the positive update we needed with many families across the country coping with the aftermaths of floods. I hope you are all safe and haven’t been too affected. 

Grandparents Day

No matter what happens, our school makes decisions with our core values in mind. They keep us focussed and consistent (even throughout the worst of what 2020 had to offer). Last week Grandparents and Special Friends Day led by Mrs Alanna James and the P & F was a perfect example of how we collaborate to ensure that our students are provided with a learning experience that promotes community and wellbeing.  We ensured that we could still invite guests to the school despite the restrictions that were placed on us. While this needed an army of dedicated mums, and this will not always be sustainable for every event, it was a one off and we made it happen. We will always do what is best for our students and we hope you enjoyed the beautiful virtual presentation. I was very proud and teary watching the endearing messages of love and joy to celebrate the special people in our lives.

Tara Barr
Acting Deputy Principal

ANZAC Day will look a little different in 2021.

There will be no Schools March this year. In lieu of this the Coogee Randwick Clovelly RSL Sub-Branch have invited a small number of Claremont school leaders to lay wreaths on Sunday 18 April at a closed event. We believe there will be no ceremony or service due to COVID restrictions at this event. We are awaiting confirmation of this.

The actual Anzac Day Dawn Service at Goldstein Reserve Coogee Beach on 25 April numbers will be limited and it will be an invitational event. More detail will be made available in early April should we be invited.

We will hold our ANZAC special assembly at school on Friday 23 April, Week 1. We will update you in Term 2 should we be able to invite parents to attend. Our priority at the moment is to firstly ensure the learning experience for our students is to understand and respect the historical significance of ANZAC Day.

Thank you. Have a lovely Easter!

Tara Barr
Acting Deputy Principal

This week at Claremont we had a very special chapel service! ‘Quiz Worx’, a portable puppet show, travelled to our school to share the good news of Easter!

At Easter Christians remember the greatest swap in history.

This week at Claremont we had a very special chapel service.

‘Quiz Worx’, a portable puppet show, travelled to our school to share the good news of Easter.

Claremont students loved the Quiz Worx presenter, Larissa, and her cheeky puppet friend, Percival. We learnt that the greatest swap in history was NOT swapping a giant easter egg for a rubber chicken, but rather...

Jesus traded His innocence for our guilt by taking all the wrong things that people do on to Himself when he died on the cross. And after dying on the cross, Jesus swapped his death for life when He rose from the dead. Now, as explained in the Bible, anyone who trusts Jesus can be friends with God and will one day also swap their death for life and live forever with Him. What an incredible swap!

We sang, we danced, we watched Eadie P (Year 3) and Harry R (Year 3) act, but most of all we enjoyed ourselves.

Thank you to the Quiz Worx team for presenting for us, and to Clementine G (Year 6) and Evie MZ (Year 6) for their prayers.

If you are thinking of attending an Easter service with your family, here are some service times for the churches in the local area:

ST MARK’S, MALABAR 

Good Friday - 9:30am
Easter Sunday – 8:30am, 10:30 and 5:00pm 

ST LUKE’S, CLOVELLY 

Good Friday - 8:45am and 10:00am (with kids program in the hall, barista coffee and hot cross buns)
Easter Sunday - 9:15am - with communion, coffee, kids program in the hall
4:00pm - with communion, coffee, kids program in the hall
6:00pm - with communion, especially for students and workers

ST NICOLAS’, COOGEE

Good Friday - 9:30am 
Easter Sunday - 9:30am 

ST JUDE'S RANDWICK 

Good Friday - 8:00am and 10:00am - Traditional Service
Easter Sunday Holy Communion – 8:00am and 10:00am 

ST MARTIN’S, KENSINGTON 

Good Friday - 9:00am Service (We will also be celebrating communion and enjoying hot cross buns afterwards at morning tea. Our kids and youth programs will be running.)
Easter Sunday - 10:30am Our kids and youth programs will be running.  After church we will have our annual Easter Egg hunt in the church grounds for children. 

ST STEPHEN’S, EASTLAKES 

Services at St Martin's Kensington

ST JOHN’S MAROUBRA

Good Friday - 9:30 am 10:30 am
Easter Sunday - 9:00am, 10"30am and 6:30pm

ST MATTHIAS’, PADDINGTON 

Good Friday - 10:00am Service
Easter Sunday - 10:00am Service

WILD ST CHURCH, MAROUBRA 

Good Friday - 9:30am - activities and a jumping castle for the kids and hot cross buns for all
Easter Sunday - 10:30am kids program with easter egg hunt and morning tea for all

HOLY TRINITY, KINGSFORD

Easter Sunday - 8:00am (Holy Communion), 10:00am (contemporary service)

Stay safe during the school holidays. 

Larissa Cameron
Co-Principal

A Year 3 student had to have a day at home sick this week, and he was very upset telling his mother:

"I don't want to stay home because I won't do any learning here".

Term 1 2021

Term 2 2021

Term 3 2021

Term 4 2021

As you now know, we are holding our first ever School Fun Run, Crazy Colour Day during school hours on Friday 30 April.

Sponsorship forms have now been sent home with your child and we need your help to create their online profiles.

We are running a competition for the grade who creates the most profiles by the end of term, so please head to schoolfunrun.com.au and follow the prompts to set up your profile and create your own fundraising goal.

With thanks,

Claremont College P&F

Today was the last day of ‘snacks’ in the canteen for Term 1. We thank our dedicated parents who have been making this possible throughout the term. There were lots of full bellies and happy kids, what a lovely way to end each week.

We are excited to announce that we have engaged Anthony Catering who will open our canteen 5 days a week from Term 2 onwards. Thank you to some of our P&F parents who helped us with the interview process. We have taken your feedback on board and we are excited to offer this service again to help with the busyness of family life.   

We are excited to announce that we have engaged Anthony Catering who will open our canteen 5 days a week from Term 2 onwards. Thank you to some of our P&F parents who helped us with the interview process. We have taken your feedback on board and we are excited to offer this service again to help with the busyness of family life. 

More information will be communicated in our Pre Term 2 Newsletter on Friday 16 April.

We are working towards developing a school canteen that is as plastic free and environmentally friendly as possible. This is a long term goal and we will be putting initiatives in place term by term to achieve this. We would greatly appreciate the help of some parent volunteers to help bring this vision to life. We hope to finalise the exact details closer to Term 2 but we would like to gauge the availability of potential parent volunteers. One aspect that we may require help with will involve loading the dishwasher in the canteen with reusable cutlery.

Thank you.

Canteen Volunteers Needed Term 2

Year 1 - Excursion to Elizabeth Farm

Kindy - Excursion to Calmsley Hill City Farm

Canteen Parent Help Survey

School Bus Term 2 Registration

Creative Arts K–6 is one of six key learning area syllabuses for the primary curriculum. This syllabus provides information about teaching and learning in Visual Arts, Music, Drama and Dance. Each of the artforms is acknowledged in this syllabus for its unique contribution to the Creative Arts and students’ learning. This week our focus is on the Visual Arts component of this syllabus.

In Visual Arts, students develop their knowledge, skills and understanding in making artworks informed by their investigations of the world as subject matter, use of expressive forms, and consideration of the audience for their works. They also develop their knowledge, skills and understanding in appreciating their own artworks and those of others, recognising some relationships between artists, artworks, audiences and how the world is interpreted.  (Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus, 2006)            

We hope you enjoy reading about the variety of creative art the students are learning and experiencing across all of the grades.

Janelle Ford, Co-Principal

Visual Arts in Kindergarten

In Visual Arts this term, Kindergarten has been focusing on drawing self portraits. Students have explored a range of artworks where artists have manipulated portraits in a creative way to produce unique results. Across English, History and PDH this term, Kindergarten has focused on what makes each student unique through discussions about our similarities and differences. We have applied this understanding to our learning in Visual Arts to enhance our self portraits, considering our hair colour, eye colour and face shape. Furthermore, we saw this concept as an opportunity for students to transfer the iPad skills they have developed in Science earlier in the term to create digital artworks.

Initially, the Kindergarten students drew self portraits using Seesaw by experimenting with a range of drawing tools that included various colours, thicknesses, lengths and density of lines to construct the features of their face.

To build on this, students experimented with self portraits by using oil pastels to draw over photographs of themselves.

In our most recent self portraits, students drew half their face alongside a photograph and focused on drawing facial features in proportion to one another.

Here are some highlights from our Visual Arts learning this term:

"I liked drawing the lips on my face and adding lipstick." - Eva L
"I enjoyed using different colours to draw my self portrait." - Carissa W
"I liked drawing the other half of my face." - Brindha P
"I like drawing the eyes because they’re so cool." - Audrey B

Mr Julian Ko, Miss Abby Carter, Miss Jessica King, Mrs Sally Durek and Mrs Jesse Hitchen
Kindergarten Teaching Team

Visual Arts in Year 1

This term, Year 1 has been learning about the colour wheel and how to create secondary and tertiary colours from the three primary colours. Students have been experimenting with colour, line, shape and size to express emotions. They have also been developing their skills in applying paint, and using different techniques such as pointillism. Students would apply small dots of colour to a surface so that from a distance they visually blend together. They have been learning to examine different elements of art by studying works by artists, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Georges Seurat. Year 1 have been encouraged to take risks with their art as they develop a growth mindset about themselves as an artist.

Mrs Nicola Breakspear, Mrs Melanie Stewart, Mrs Fiona Vula, Mr Jake Smith, Mrs Carol Giles and Mrs Nicole Nunn
Year 1 Teaching Team

 [INSERT LINK]

Visual Arts in Year 2

In Year 2 we have spent the term studying the Elements of Art. The students have been engaged in several activities including using shapes to create a holiday inspired collage, studying various materials to create a texture board and exploring Piet Mondrian’s artwork and his use of lines and primary colours.

Understanding these elements has allowed the students to analyse, appreciate, write and chat about art, as well as helping to create art themselves.

The students used their knowledge of shape, texture, colour, line and form to create an artwork inspired by Hundertwasser’s 745 Blobs Grow in Beloved Gardens. We were blown away by the work they produced.

When asked what they enjoy about Art the students responded:

“Looking at the different surfaces because I got to feel what stuff inside and outside felt like before I drew it.” Aveline B

“Learning about different artists and the creativity they have used in their artworks.” Cooper S

“The line work because they are really basic and it’s not hard to draw but you can do really advanced things.” Finlay P

“Making the collage because it was fun!”
Flynn K

Mrs Alanna James, Miss Deborah Tan, Mrs Susan Nicolaides and Mrs Sally Durek
Year 2 Teaching Team

Visual Arts in Year 3

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi Oi Oi! 

This term, Year 3 has been immersed in an Australian theme. We have studied some examples of Australian advertising in our English Persuasive Writing unit, and have learnt about the Australian place names and celebrations in History. It is fitting, then, that this term in Visual Arts, Year 3 explore Australian artists.

In particular, Year 3 focused on how to make artistic decisions that result in effective artworks. Have you ever quickly rushed through a project, and then regretted your choices? Why didn’t I make that part larger? I only realised after I had finished my artwork that pencil doesn’t show up very well on black paper… 

Appreciating: Students first studied and appreciated famous artworks created by Australian Artists. They were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of different techniques and mediums. Why do you think Ken Done used that yellow next to that blue?

Creating: Students were then given a wide selection of mediums to choose from to create an nocturnal and diurnal Australian Animal artwork. Will I use crayon, water colour, texta or pencil?... We discussed how different mediums have varying levels of effectiveness when used on different coloured paper. Students identified the many artistic decisions they were required to make when creating an artwork; the animal (one diurnal animal and one nocturnal animal), the size and positioning of the animal on the page, the mediums (possibly a different set of mediums for black paper and white paper), the colours used…

Appreciating: In our Year 3 gallery, students admired and evaluated one another’s artistic choices. They took photos of their artwork and identified effective and ineffective techniques.

Now that we have finished our study of Australian animals, we are onto Australian floral emblems based on Lyn Weir’s work… Watch out, Louvre!

Mr Darren Oen, Mrs Adelaide Marquet, Mrs Michelle Parker and Miss Sinead Kelly
Year 3 Teaching Team

Visual Arts in Year 4

This term, students in Year 4 have been exploring how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ knowledge, values, cultural practices and customs are represented through various artforms. They have been developing their knowledge, skills and understanding in appreciating their own artworks and those of others, while recognising relationships between artists, artworks and how the world is interpreted by others.

Students have investigated the use of Aboriginal symbols, techniques and processes by Aboriginal artist, Michelle Possum Nungurrayi. Inspired by her work, Year 4 students created their own collaborative artworks of the Dreaming story the ‘Rainbow Serpent’ and a wreath that consists of their own stories using Aboriginal symbols.

Linking with the History unit this term, and the excursion to Bundeena in Week 4, students were able to explore some indigenous plants that have been used by Aboriginal people for medicine and food. Students were then able to investigate these plants in more detail to create their own artworks using a block painting technique. 

Miss Hannah Mackay, Mrs Bianca Herborn, Miss Sinead Kelly and Miss Yasmin Campbell
Year 4 Teaching Team

Visual Arts in Year 5

Environmental art is a form of art that addresses social and political issues relating to the natural and urban environment.  It is also used as a platform to celebrate the beauty of our planet.  This term, Year 5 students have been exploring environmental art through art appreciation and art making activities. 

Students started the term off by exploring a series of environmental art installations and were able to work collaboratively to identify the message these installations were attempting to communicate. 

Some of our hands-on art projects have involved using nature as our canvas.  During the January storms, Miss Shiels found several rather large fallen branches while driving around the Eastern Suburbs and thought she’d find a fun way to use them at school.  After cutting the branches into 44 smaller sticks, the students used oil pastels and paint to create a unique design that celebrates our beautiful Australian environment.  

Drawing inspiration from the Aboriginal story of the 7 Sisters, students used bark fallen from gum trees to paint their own version of the 7 sisters.  Using paint, students were able to explore what happens as they applied different layers of their chosen colours to create the night sky and how they can draw inspiration from dot painting to find their own unique way of representing the story of the 7 Sisters. 

Charcoal was used to create original drawings of flora and fauna.  Our students enjoyed working with the charcoal, immersing themselves in the creative experience and turning their white canvases (and our tables) into beautiful black masterpieces!

Students also worked on creating an installation designed to deliver an environmental message important to them.  The design process allowed students to set their imaginations free and create a unique and unrestricted installation. 

Ms Rachel Shiels, Miss Louise Ireland, Mrs Nicola Breakspear, Mrs Speranza and Miss Yasmin Campbell
Year 5 Teaching Team

Visual Arts in Year 6

Throughout Term 1 in Visual Art, Year 6 have been looking at the diverse world of “Portraiture”. Initially, the students' thoughts of portraiture revolved solely around that portraits were simply ‘drawing a self portrait’, however we quickly discovered that this form of art can encompass so many different aspects of art.

Students have created their own self portraits with a twist, drawing an image of themselves but also using words to add to their image. The words around the image all focus on developing a greater understanding of what makes each student unique and individual. Students were asked to write down things that were important to them, things they enjoyed and distinguishing features that made them unique. 

We then began to explore the world of abstract portraiture, examining the work of Sydney based artist Daniel O’Toole, also known as Ears. The main features of his work are highlighting key features of the human face and drawing these features in different proportions. The Year 6 students did a fantastic job at interpreting this style of portraiture and creating their own abstract portraits. 

Another aspect of Visual Art that Year 6 students are exposed to is the Appreciation side of art, or understanding why artworks are created. We have discussed that artists can use their work to convey a wide variety of meaning and that art itself can have a different meaning for each individual. Students have examined the work of Andy Warhol and other well known artists through the “Pop Art” movement, and how these artists used colour and contrast to convey meaning in their work. Year 6 has a number of exciting units ahead for the year, but none more so than our Term 2 Visual Art unit which explores photography as a medium to convey meaning through art. The students' photographs through this unit constantly amaze us and we are super excited to explore this unit in Term 2. 

National Young Leaders Day

On Thursday the 25th of March, Year 6 participated in the National Young Leaders Day, a conference held at the ICC in Darling Harbour. This conference provides students with the opportunity to listen to well known speakers discuss their life stories and empower students to believe that each and every one of them are capable of achieving amazing things. Year 6 students were able to listen to speakers such as Lachie Smart (youngest pilot to fly solo around the world), Anastasia Woolmer (Australian Memory Champion), Jimmy Rees (Jimmy Giggle TV personality) and David Campbell (entertainer).

All speakers throughout the day provided a wide range of advice and tips on leadership, initiative, perseverance and resilience and left our Year 6 cohort feeling empowered and ready to take on the world. Here are some reflections from the day; 

“My favourite part of the day was Jimmy talking about how important it is to be yourself and to not let anyone tell you that you can’t be that.” - Lola U

“I liked Lachie Smart the most because he told his story, his background and then the events that happened on his trip and how he then overcame them and learnt from his mistakes.” - Teddy G

“I found Jimmy Rees the best because he was funny and a really good speaker.” - Seamus M

“Our favourite speakers were all of them. They all showed their struggles throughout their lives and spoke about how they got through it. That having people around you to support you is really important. We really liked how all the speakers were talking about the same thing but overcame the challenges in different ways.” - Hannah N and Sienna G

Electricity Showcase

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, throughout Term 1 Year, 6 has been investigating energy systems, transformations of energy and how electricity works and flows through circuits. Earlier this term, Year 6 students were given the task of creating a project that highlighted the transformation of energy from one form to another. The originality, perseverance and creativity that went into creating these projects is something that all Year 6 students should be proud of. Today, we had the opportunity to ‘show off’ the hard work of the students and display these projects to other year groups and some of our Year 6 parents.

Mr Angus Ryan, Miss Sophie Valdeck, Mrs Lisa Speranza and Miss Sinead Kelly
Year 6 Teaching Team

School Children Planting Project

We are excited to announce that Claremont College have restarted our ‘School Children Planting Project’, an initiative that is led by the Christian NGO, ‘Convoy of Hope’. Similar to last year, our Eco Warrior students will be raising seedlings to eventually gift to people who were affected by the bushfires in Lake Conjola in 2019.

Last Friday, 400 native seedlings were delivered by Kevin from the ‘Convoy of Hope’. Our 12 Eco Warrior students were very excited to meet Kevin and hear about the impact that their work will have on the community in Lake Conjola. The native seedlings will be watered and tended to by the Eco Warriors until June when they will be transported by ‘Convoy or Hope’ to the people in Lake Conjola. 

Through this project, our school community will connect with those in need, and ultimately we can do our small bit to bring hope and help to those who have been devastated by so much loss and destruction. The Eco Warrior students are particularly pleased to be involved in something that is very hands-on to help not just people, but also assist in restoring the habitats of native birds and animals. 

Miss Sinead Kelly, Miss Sophie Valdeck, Mr Jake Smith
The Eco Warrior Team

Premier’s Reading Challenge 2021

The Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely.

The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is available for all NSW students in Kindergarten to Year 9, in Government, Independent, Catholic and Home Schools.

All students have been provided with their login details. If your child has misplaced their details please write a note in your child’s School Diary and their details will be sent home again. Please note that if they have participated in previous years, their login details have remained the same.

How can I help my child with the PRC? 

• Record the closing date in your calendar (Friday 20 August 2021).
• Keep your child’s logon details in a safe place.
• Assist your child to borrow books from the school or local library.
• Listen to your child read and talk about the story/characters/information.
• Read to or with your child if she/he is participating in the K-2 Challenge. 
• Help your child to add books to her/his Student Reading Record regularly.

     ●   Log on and go to: Student Reading Records > enter books by ID or Title or Author.
     ●   To enter a Personal Choice book, select the ‘Add a Choice Book’ tab > enter part of the title or author > select ‘Search’.
     ●   If your book appears as an option, select ‘Add’.
     ●   If it does not appear, scroll down to the ‘Still can’t find a book?’ section > enter the full title

• Your child’s online Student Reading Record (SRR) must have the required number of books recorded to complete the Challenge by the student closing date. School PRC coordinators have an extra week to validate the SRR. Only students with a validated SRR are eligible for a certificate. 
• In the final weeks of the Challenge, log on regularly to the website to check the status of your child’s SRR.

For further information, please visit the PRC website https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html

Holiday reading selfie challenge

As a way to keep the joy of reading alive these holidays, we’d like to challenge you to take a creative photo or “Selfie” of yourself reading one of your favourite books. These will be displayed next term and there will be a winner chosen from both infants and primary.

Please send your entries to “the library teachers” via office@claremont.nsw.edu.au

We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Stephanie Affleck
Teacher Librarian

New Books for the Collection

New Fiction Titles

Due to popular demand we have added more books in the Claris series to the library collection. Claris is a kind hearted little mouse who dreamed of moving to Paris to pursue her fashion dreams. One day, Claris bravely made the move to the capital and became the most chic mouse in all of Paris! The sequel books take the reader to the Paris Fashion Week, the French Riviera and New York. Claris is accompanied on all her adventures by her best friend, the stylish cat called Monsieur.

The author Megan Hess is a well known fashion illustrator and has worked with some of the most prestigious fashion designers and luxury brands around the world. This series of picture books are for children of any age who love fashion and stunning illustrations.

It has been lovely to bring joy to the library lunchtime club this week, particularly after the flooding of the library space. We have enjoyed Claris themed craft activities. The students have been busy making tiny Claris designer handbags and outfits.

Mrs Susan Kesur
Library Assistant

Key Dates

Important Dates for Term 1

IPSHA Cross Country Carnival
Saturday 27 March (POSTPONED)
* NEW DATE Wednesday 21 April

Term 1 Morning Skills

Monday 29 March will be the final lesson for Tennis for this term.

Tuesday 30 March will be the final lesson for AFL at Grant Reserve.

Claremont Champions

Congratulations to Marnie L (Year 4), Jade J (Year 5), Sanja P (Year 6) and Lola U (Year 6) who braved the horrendous wind and rain conditions to compete at the State Little Athletics Championships at Homebush over the weekend. The best of the best from 136 clubs across the State were battling it out on the day.

Well done to Sanja who finished 4th in the State for her High Jump event

Lola ran a PB in the U11 400m to finish 8th in the state and also ran another PB in the U11 800m to finish 16th overall. Impressive to run a PB given the awful weather conditions.

Jade placed 15th in the state for U11 100m sprint.

Huge congratulations to Marnie who came away with 3 gold medals on the day. 1st in State for U9 100m and 200m plus a gold medal in the mixed age group relay.

Marnie’s success continued over the weekend when she was also awarded with the prize of ‘Best Sand Competitor’ at the Coogee Nippers presentation. This was in recognition of her record 3 gold medals at the recent State Nippers event. Well done, Marnie.

Mr Joel Geering
Sports Coordinator

If your child uses the school bus, or you would like to register to use the school bus, for Term 2, please complete the registration form by CLICKING HERE. Please note that the buses are only able to carry 24 passengers each, and also service certain areas.  If you have any question in relation to the school bus service, please email bus@claremont.nsw.edu.au.

School holidays are just around the corner. TeamKids has a wonderful mix of incursions, excursions and in-house days planned that promise to keep the kids happy, engaged and having fun. Download the Autumn Timetable here.

TeamKids Newsletter - Term 1 Week 9

NOW IS THE TIME TO ORGANISE YOUR WINTER UNIFORMS

Last trading day for term 1 is Wednesday 30th March

Extra trading day during the holidays is:

Wednesday 14th April 8am – 12pm 

1st day back for Term 2 is Monday 19th April

Home delivery or delivery to the school office is not available during the holidays.

www.shop.ranier.com.au 

The Uniform Shop is run by Ranier on the school premises during school terms on the following days:

Monday: 2:30pm-5:30pm (PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE OF OPENING TIME)
Wednesday: 8:00am-11:00am

Methods of Payment: Cash, EFTPOS, MasterCard and Visa.

For new students, fittings are by appointment. Simply book online at www.shop.ranier.com.au

The Uniform Shop is located within the main body of the School. Please access the Uniform Shop via Coogee Bay Road lower side gate.

CONTACT

Phone: 9213 0720
Email: claremont@ranier.com.au
Responses will be provided during opening hours.

Note: The website can answer most of your questions at www.shop.ranier.com.au 

For more immediate assistance, head office details are

Online: ranier.com.au/contact
Email: custservice@ranier.com.au
Phone: 02 8337 7290

We have a thriving art community after school on a Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Take a look at our class artworks at Instagram.com/artisanathomeworkshops. In Term 2, our theme will be on Animals and The Ocean. Our Art Educators have extensive experience with art, craft and teaching young artists. Monday’s class has Art and Craft combined for our younger students; Wednesday’s class caters for students with a little more experience. Thursday’s lessons are focussed on Drawing skills with weekly projects and challenges. Feel free to contact us on 0403377420 if you have any questions.

Art Class Dates:

• Term 2 will begin in Week 2 and end in Week 9 (Monday class ends in Week 8 due to a public holiday)
• Enrolments can be completed online using this link  https://artisanathome.com.au/collections/afterschool
• Each class is limited to 10, so they do fill up quickly. We accept the NSW Creative vouchers, just select the version that is $100 cheaper and is labelled ‘With Voucher’.

Our vision is that we inspire creativity to those around us, by engaging all our senses, trying new materials and skills and building on each student’s passion. We love sharing the creative journey as a community. 

From the team at Artisan at Home,
Phi Morton, Shallal Bader & Dani Hillier
PLAY | LOVE | SHARE
www.artisanathome.com.au 

Chess Coaching Term 2 Enrolment Form

After-school Coding Class Coding classes continue in Term 2, 2021! Join us for 1 hour every Monday or Tuesday, starting from the 2nd week next term.  

When: 3:15-4:15pm every Monday, 26/4/21 - 7/6/21 (7 classes), and Tuesday, 27/4/21 - 15/6/21 (8 classes).
Where: School Library

Monday - Learn Coding with Minecraft: Students design a smart city by creating automations with their Minecraft robot. Students learn the fundamentals of coding, as well as critical and creative thinking.

Tuesday - Learn Engineering in Minecraft: Students design a secret base and learn about the engineering design process. They also learn the basics of electronics and computational thinking.

To enrol, please use the following links to enrol

• Monday - Learn Coding with Minecraft: http://bit.ly/ccps21t2m

• Tuesday - Learn Engineering in Minecraft: http://bit.ly/ccps21t2t

For more information, visit our website, codecreate.com.au, or email us via info@codecreate.com.au.

1. Eggs signify new life. On Easter Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of life that Jesus brings.
2. Chocolate
3. The rabbit/bunny
4. Easter eggs
5. Your head
6. Easter Sunday is one of the most festive events among Christians worldwide. It commemorates Jesus Christ's resurrection from death, as written in the Bible. Easter Sunday commemorates Jesus' resurrection after dying on the cross and being buried in the tomb.
7. Hot cross buns
8. Carrots
9. A cross
10. The bun marks the end of Lent and different parts of the hot cross bun have a certain meaning, including the cross representing the crucifixion of Jesus.
11. The Bilby
12. A full moon
13. True
14. Pancakes
15. Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday
16. Autumn
17. Thirteen
18. Good Friday
19. Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus, his death at Calvary, and burial in the sealed and guarded tomb. By dying on the cross Jesus paid the price for our sins, and we can now be forgiven.
20. Germany
21. Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Amenia, Macedonia, Cyprus, Turkey and many more 
22. True