Today we celebrated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through our NAIDOC Week celebrations. We were very fortunate that we had Aunty Yvonne Walker and Aunty Cheryl Wanganeen-Davey speaking to both the Infants and Primary students, highlighting some different aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. Here is a summary of the learning today.

Learning Intention:

WALT (We Are Learning To): appreciate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and to discover how this can be represented in artworks. 

Success Criteria:

• I can know how Sorry Day came to be.
• I can show respect to people of different cultures.
• I can represent a story through symbols and art.  

PRIMARY

• Read Sorry Day by Coral Vass and Dub Leffler (National Library of Australia, 2019) and discussed the implications and how this has impacted First Nations peoples today.
• Watched a video about Aboriginal artwork and talked about how Aboriginal artwork isn’t about looking a certain way, instead, it is about telling a story.
• Created artwork, by first asking students about a message or story that they want to tell. ·   Uncle Archie Roach’s song Took the Children Away has become iconic and special to all involved. Students listened to this as they completed artworks.
• Read No Way Yirrikipayi! written by the children of Milikapiti School Melville Island in Tiwi and English, and illustrated by Alison Lester (Indigenous Literacy Foundation, 2015). 

INFANTS

• Sat together in a yarning circle and discussed what Country means to them. Wrote these ideas down and created a working document/poster for their learning space.
• Learned the ‘sit-down’ song and dance movements of the Torres Strait Islander song Taba Naba, sung in the language of Meriam Mir, which celebrates going to the reef together and enjoying being on Country.
• Modelled scratch artworks and talked about how students might complete the activity.
• Created artwork, by first asking students about a message or story that they want to tell.
• Listened to some Aboriginal stories or music in the background.
• Read No Way Yirrikipayi! written by the children of Milikapiti School, Melville Island in Tiwi and English, and illustrated by Alison Lester (Indigenous Literacy Foundation, 2015). 

The photos attached represent today’s activities. 

We would like to thank the team of teachers who planned and led the activities for today: Mrs Stephanie Affleck, Mr Angus Ryan and Mrs Lina Gonzalez.

Virtual at the Gate chat with Mr T

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I am commencing a weekly opportunity for parents to meet with me on Wednesdays from 2:00pm-2:30pm. Everyone is welcome. Bring your questions, suggestions or ideas. Click  HERE for the Zoom link. 

If you have a specific question, it would be appreciated if you could send it my way in advance HERE, but otherwise, feel free to join without an RSVP. 

Doug Thomas
Principal

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

With the increasing numbers of COVID cases, we are mindful that the next few months may bring some challenges regarding student learning and staffing. We know this will not be news to any of you, as you will be experiencing similar concerns in your own workplaces. 

As we are expecting there to be a significant number of staff and students impacted by COVID, we are planning the following options, each of which will be dependent on our staff numbers and availability of casual teachers. 

Please be assured that we will be doing all that we can to ensure the safety of everyone in the school community, while continuing student learning as much as possible. However, with this new COVID wave we are expecting more staff to be impacted and therefore too unwell to be providing online learning.  Consequently, the following strategies will be deployed dependent on the changing situation with staff availability.

• If we have no staff on a grade and sufficient staff on other grades, we will split the grade between other grades and they will work on their ‘COVID Learning Pack’, which the staff are preparing for each grade.
• If we have no staff on a grade and insufficient staff on other grades, we will need to send all the students in that grade home for as long as required. They will be given their ‘COVID Learning Pack’, to take home.
• If we have no staff on a grade and sufficient staff throughout the school to cover the grade, the students in that grade will stay together and work through their ‘COVID Learning Pack’, using staff who are not usually on the grade.
• If we have enough staff at school, who are able to support the students at home who are working through their ‘COVID Learning Pack’, the students will be given a zoom link, so they can call in to talk to staff, ask for help and join an online story-time each day.
• If we have enough staff who are well on a grade but have many students who are away, we will need to send the remainder of the grade home as a circuit breaker, however the staff will be able to provide Off Campus Learning (OCL) as we have in the past 2 years.
• If we foresee that OCL may be necessary, we will commence sending home iPads daily. 

As you can see, we have lots of contingency plans and will need to make decisions on a grade-by-grade basis and decisions will be made on a day-to-day basis, as we try to provide the best support for both staff and students. We are confident that we are prepared for whatever situation we may face. 

We look forward to your ongoing support, especially throughout the next few months, as we navigate the changing COVID circumstances. We will, of course, ensure that our communication to you will be timely.

Mrs Janelle Ford
Deputy Principal

By Jeanne Simon (nee Benson)

1920, my first year at Claremont at the age of five, was also the first year of the new kindergarten building. This was a modern addition to the two beautiful large stone residences set in very large grounds which housed the rest of the school until the late twenties. To reach the kindergarten we entered a narrow board walk which ran under the foundations of one of the houses. This was known as ‘the tunnel’ - ark and eerie and to little girls definitely inhabited by ghosts. Hysterical screaming and playing ghosts in this area was frowned on as was dropping stones through a hole in the floor which covered an old underground well. It seemed an age before we could hear the sound of a stone hitting the water. Needless to say because it was forbidden to play in the tunnel we played there all the time.

Progressing to the Lower School we were under the aegis of the principal Mrs Brimacombe, gracious, calm, never seen without her academic gown, and able to give young girls the feeling of awe as if in the presence of at least royalty. She took charge of all scholastic activities taught by the staff, while her Co-Principal Miss Williams looked after more practical matters and was in charge of the boarders, as well as most matters pertaining to discipline. We are all in some fear of Miss Williams’ tongue and quailed at the approach of her uneven footsteps caused by the need to wear a heavy surgical boot as a result of contracting polio as a child. “Here comes Bill” the nickname by which we all knew her was enough to scatter us in all directions. But she was an excellent teacher and told us wonderfully exciting stories of her early life in Java and other parts. She had witnessed the eruption of Krakatoa as a child in 1883 and could tell most vivid impressions of the spectacle. After exams were finished she would read us wonderful stories and introduce us to classics outside the school curriculum such as the story of the Ring of the Niebelugen which in my case led on to a love of the music of Wagner.

In the years of which I write there was a very high proportion of boarders from the country at the school, some from sufficiently far away not to go home for the short May holidays. We day girls couldn’t imagine being in an empty school during the term break with only one or two girls instead of a noisy couple of hundred. At one stage I too was a boarder and learned how different it was to sleep in a dormitory with a dozen or so others, take 4” baths and deal with boarding school eating rules. Nothing to be left on your plate which was passed to the duty mistress at the head of the long table for checking before being taken away by the maid. After having my plate returned to me to be finished with all eyes watching, a few times, I soon realised it was easier to eat everything than be the focus of attention. Not everything could be controlled however. On one occasion one of the girls from a sheep station in the west brought some emu eggs back after the holidays and the cook made a baked custard with them. This we all enjoyed until Miss Willilams announced that it had been made with emu eggs whereupon we all gasped with dismay; one girl said “I’m going to be sick” and rushed out of the dining room, followed by another and then another. In a matter of minutes half the dining room was outside retching, and in various stages of losing their emu custard. Miss Williams had a great deal to say about the mass stupidity of little girls. To say that she was furious would be an understatement. 

Our school curriculum was English, French, Latin, Mathematics, History, Geography, Botany, Scripture and Sewing. There was much learning by rote of spelling, tables, dates of kings of England and battles won in English History. We learned our tables up to twenty times both backwards and forwards, and by the time we were in upper school most of us could answer 17 times 14 and 19 times 16 in a flash. Spelling mistakes were required to be written twenty times, and staying in at playtime, part of lunchtime and after school to write 100 or 200 times “I must not talk in school” or “I must not be late for school” etc were the norm. Very serious breaches such as taking something that did not belong to you, or cheating very often earned the punishment of being “sent to Coventry” and no one was allowed to speak to the offender for a week or perhaps longer. This was nearly as hard on the friends of the wrongdoer as we always felt very sorry for the girl who had to sit by herself and had no exchange with others either in school or in the playground.

At the end of the year Speech Day was held in St. Judes Hall with prizes presented by Lady Storey, and this was the occasion when we all hoped to have a new white dress, which in most cases would be our “best dress” for the coming year or years, depending on how quickly we grew out of it.

Most days we had Physical Culture and a Mr Turner from Bjelke Petersons in the city supervised us and gave us little coloured cards with saying on them if we exercised well. “The camel has a hump, have you?” A favourite one, was purple and rather prized as it was not given lightly and meant you really had put your heart into your physical jerks that day. At the end of the year we handed them all in and the one with the highest number according to their value received the Physical Culture Prize. To get the Physie prize rated higher in our girlish criteria than receiving a prize for an academic subject, as did being in the netball or tennis teams. Claremont had a number of outstanding sports girls in the years that I was at the school and we were very proud of the Interschool shields which we held.

When we were in the Lower School we loved to play marbles at recess. We all had our marble bags with our initials on them. Once a week we had sewing classes and if you had finished making your crepe de chene petticoat and had done “fine French seams”, you were permitted to embroider your marble bag as a treat. Hopscotch we played endlessly and at lunchtime many of us climbed high the Moreton Bay Fig trees in the grounds, many of which must have been at least sixty years old, to eat our lunch. We all had favourite spots high in the branches, although these retreats were declared out of bounds when one of the girls fell about twenty feet and had to be taken to hospital. In the late twenties, the school was transferred to the present site a block or so away, and the old school was pulled down and replaced by houses and flats. Though the new school was more modern we all missed the old stone buildings with their high ceilings, large classrooms and wide verandahs, and the spacious grounds.

In upper school we all began to grow up in a gentle way. Scripture classes were given by Canon Cakebread from St Judes each week were full of appropriate religious instruction. But once a month we throbbed with excitement when Mr Polain the Curate came. Young, good looking and full of smiles, he had been a Padre in World War I and spiced his stories from the Bible with graphic word pictures of life in the trenches during the War. We heard all about Ypres, Verdun, Villers Bretonneux and hung on his every utterance. We tended to do our Scripture homework well in order to receive a word of praise.

Simultaneously I recall a devotion and adoration in the direction of Miss Gibson, our Botany teacher. This must have been an embarrassment to her, because in case my exceptional progress in Botany had escaped her notice, every attempt was made to draw attention to myself by talking in class, answering back and being generally troublesome in order to receive a detention, or better still, a double detention, which meant that she would have to stay back after school to supervise me. My day was made! But she must have been very patient and understanding because I remember on several occasions when detention was over she allowed me to take home a book on art or music from her personal library of beautiful books.

As the Intermediate year got underway we all worked furiously to endeavour to get A’s or at least pass, which was in fact somewhat of an achievement in that period. When the time came for the exams we went to Sydney Girls High, where, together with other girls from the area we sat in the Assembly Hall. It was all rather strange and unnerving and did not help us to perform as well as we might have in our classrooms. Following this came one more Speech Day in St Judes, where those who received prizes curtsied to Lady Storey, and apart from two or three who stayed on to do the Leaving it was a somewhat sad affair knowing that it was our last time to be addressed by Mrs Brimacombe in her end of year report. With a final singing of the School song -

“Since 1882 we’ve stood, o’erlooking oceans blue.”

We dispersed into our then unknown futures as educated young ladies of Claremont College.

Wear your uniform with pride. Please ensure you have your tie, blazer and formal hat for Monday morning assemblies and for any time you are outside school grounds eg: coming and going from school. Hair that can touch the collar needs to be tied back neatly, and your shoes need to be polished each week. 

Mrs Larissa Cameron
Deputy Principal

On 4 August we are inviting parents to join us for an afternoon workshop followed by a walk-around the school to witness collaborative teaching in action. 

Time: 1pm – 3pm

Venue: School Hall followed by a walk-around the learning spaces. 

To register your interest in joining us for this workshop, please do so by following the link. 

Mrs Janelle Ford
Co-Principal

Congratulations to the following students who received either a Gold Certificate or Pennant at Monday’s Merit Assembly:

Gold Certificates

Year 1 - Lana R, Oliver L
Year 3 - Amber O
Year 4 - Mia I
Year 5 - Chloe K

Pennants

Year 3 - Samantha G, Georgia O, Isabel R
Year 4 - Peter T
Year 6 - Caleb S

2022 Term 3

Term 4

P&F Meeting

Our next P&F Meeting will be held on Wednesday 10 August at 7:30pm in the school hall. 

All parents are welcome, if you would like to attend please email the P&F at [email protected] 

Year 4 Solar Buddies Onsite Event

Claremont College will be participating in the world renowned ICAS competitions in Term 3. International Competition and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) is developed by UNSW Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of New South Wales, with over 35 years of experience in educational assessments. 

Each ICAS assessment celebrates students’ accomplishments by providing opportunities for

recognition. Every student will receive a certificate and an online result report. Top performers will be eligible for medals. ICAS assessments are optional, and suitable for students wishing to extend themselves academically and take up the personal challenge of competing in a rigorous, international assessment. Your child will be presented with high quality, expert developed questions, allowing them to apply their learning without the need for prior study or revision. ICAS assessments are online, allowing greater accessibility for students and faster delivery of results. 

Your child has the option of sitting ICAS assessments for English and/or Mathematics, under exam conditions at school, with sitting windows as follows: 

ICAS English - Monday 15 August, 2022, to Friday 19 August, 2022

ICAS Mathematics - Monday 29 August, 2022, to Friday 2 September, 2022

Payment and Permission Information

Each test incurs a charge of $19.25 per student. ICAS registration and payment is online and closes on Monday 1 August, 2022. Should you wish for your child to take part in one or more of these assessments, please follow the steps below:

1. Visit the online Parent Portal https://shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps
2. Enter Claremont College’s unique access code: CQG685
3. Select the assessments your child would like to sit
4. Make a direct payment to UNSW Global

After payment is made via the Parent Payment System, you will receive an order confirmation email. Please keep this for your records. You and your child can access the results once released via the Reports Portal using the TAP ID and pin found on the back of the ICAS certificate. 

Renee De Rossi
Head of Learning

St George Girls High school in Kogarah is once again offering their highly regarded MindQuest program after three long years. Thirty-three exciting courses for gifted and talented students in Years 1 to Year 6 will be provided on Saturday 17 September, and Sunday 18 September, from 9:30am to 3:30pm. The course fee for the program is $230. A list of courses is provided on the MindQuest website. If you are interested in registering your child, or would like to know more about this event, please collect a brochure from the Claremont office. It is anticipated that many of the courses will be full before the closing date, Friday 19 August. 

Renee De Rossi
Head of Learning

Our STEM committee members attended the 9th Annual STEM Education Conference earlier this week. This event showcased current perspectives and insights in STEM alongside some amazing projects from schools across the country. 

There is a significant need to develop enjoyment and engagement of STEM amongst our students. Our students will be entering a workforce where STEM skills are strongly desired, and we understand that it is our job as teachers to foster curiosity and ongoing engagement in STEM. Research shows that students may disengage with STEM as early as the age of six. Less students are selecting STEM related subjects in High School. Furthermore, girls are typically less willing to volunteer in STEM activities. We are proud to be developing interest and enthusiasm in STEM in our early years students right through to Year 6 here at Claremont College.

All of our students participate in STEM activities each week where they engage in the skills and concepts in the design thinking process shown above. Our collaborative and innovative learners are enjoying construction challenges, investigations and problem-solving tasks that may even involve technologies like Blue Bots in Year 2 or Lego Mindstorms in Year 6. These tasks are cross-disciplinary and allow our students to share strengths to achieve success. The next step of our STEM journey will be to equip our students to solve more complex, real-world problems to benefit our school and the wider community. 

Alongside our teachers, you are the greatest innovation coaches for your children.

• Encourage your children to investigate problems at home and support them in researching and creating practical solutions.
• Engage in meaningful discussions about real-world problems around the dinner table to support your child’s curiosity.
• Place a positive value on failure and mistakes. They are part of the learning process. 
• Reward curiosity and inspire this with questions.

Thank you for your continued support of STEM at Claremont College.

Mr Darren Oen and Ms Kristina Wright
STEM Committee members

Save the Date

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

We are excited to invite parents to our Kindergarten Learning Festival this term. Please save the date for a  wonderful celebration of your child’s Kindergarten journey so far. Our Learning Festival will be on Friday 5 August 2022 from 9:00am--10:00am. 

We hope to see you there!

Mrs Lina Gonzalez, Mrs Stephanie Affleck, Mrs Jesse Hitchen, Mrs Susan Nicolaides and Mrs Sally Durek
Kindergarten Teaching Team

Friday Maths Groups - Parent Helpers

Dear Year 1 Parents,

This term we are excited to have parent helpers to assist with our Friday Maths Groups. Our Maths Groups will be a wonderful opportunity for students to do hands-on, engaging activities with the help and encouragement of our teachers and parent helpers.

Our groups will run from approximately 11:30am - 12:30pm on Fridays for Weeks 3, 4, 7 and 8. We are unable to have our groups in Week 5 and 6 due to the Athletics carnival and concert preparation.

If you are able to assist for one (or more) of the weeks, please complete this form, and we will send you a roster in the coming weeks. 

Thank you in advance for your support!

Mrs Alanna James, Mrs Emily Eu, Miss Katie Roberts, Mrs Sally Durek and Mrs Michelle Parker
Year 1 Teaching Team

Save the Date

Dear Year 3 Parents,

We are excited to be able to invite Year 3 parents to our Learning Festival this term. Please save the date for a celebration of your child’s learning this year. Our Learning Festival will be on Wednesday 10 August 2022, 2pm-3pm. 

We hope to see you there!

Miss Sinead Kelly, Mrs Adelaide Marquet, Mrs Darren Oen, Mrs Michelle Parker & Mrs Nicole Nunn

Year 3 Teaching Team

Solar Buddies Onsite Event Note

Year 5 Learning Festival - The Lorax

On Thursday, Year 5 showcased their incredible drama skills in a performance of The Lorax, by Dr Seuss. This event exhibited a culmination of student learning in Creative and Performing Arts during Semester 1, with a focus on elements of mime, movement and voice. Through this story students were also able to explore their individual responsibility and choices that they can make to protect the world that we live in.

The Year 5 students managed the event expertly, beginning by providing a workshop of mime techniques. The audience were treated to mime displays including; a chatty hairdresser, a bored student and someone stuck in the rain! Following this the students presented The Lorax play. To allow maximum student involvement the play was divided into scenes. Every single student gave an incredible performance, which they should be proud of and was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. A question and answer session took place after the play, followed by a demonstration of voice techniques. During this time four brave parent volunteers joined in to demonstrate giving a speech in different voices such as a newsreader and an angry child, which gave rise to lots of laughs from the students.

It was wonderful to be able to gather together, and a big thanks to all the parents and Kindy students who attended. It was evident from the successful performance how much each of the students had learnt and grown in their practise. As a group they reflected on the difference that drama has made to their confidence, and how this can be taken into other ‘life’ situations.

Year 5 Teaching Team

New Fiction Titles To The Collection

Ash Barty is a proud Indigenous woman, a three-time Grand Slam singles champion and is committed to supporting kids through sport and education around Australia. Ash has teamed up with Jasmin McGaughey and Jade Goodwin to bring young readers a fun and exciting new illustrated series about school, sport, friendship and family.

The first title in the series introduces us to a young Ash who loves to play sport. She’s tried karate, softball, netball and gymnastics. Ash wants to find a sport that really makes her happy, luckily she is introduced to tennis! 

We have all three titles in the series.

Recommended for children aged 6 years and older.

From the bestselling author of Alice-Miranda, Clementine Rose and Kensy and Max series comes a new series called Willa and Woof. Willa is best friends with a dog called Woof and together they try to track down a missing pigeon called Mimi. This story is full of adventure, imagination and loads of fun! The author Jacqueline Harvey has had a passion for storytelling since she was a child and writes books filled with mystery, adventure and humour. 

Recommended for children aged 6 to 9 years old.

Mrs Susan Kesur
Librarian Assistant

Key Dates

Important Dates for Term 3 

Claremont Athletics Carnival  @ Hensley Athletics Field
Friday 19 August

IPSHA Athletics Championships @ Homebush 
Monday 29 August 

Claremont Athletics Carnival

The Claremont Athletics Carnival will be held on Friday 19 August at Hensley Athletics Field. It will be great to have a ‘proper’ carnival with parents attending for the first time in a long time due to COVID. Years 2-6 will attend for the whole day, while Kindy and Year 1 will only attend for a small part of the day to compete in sprint races and novelty events. 

In order for the day to run well, there are a large number of roles that need to be fulfilled, more roles than we actually have staff to fill. As such, we are hugely grateful for the Claremont parent community and your willingness to help out at these sorts of events. In order to help preparations for the carnival, if you are able to offer assistance on the day (particularly if you have some background or experience in athletics carnivals), please complete the following form to express your interest. It is likely that most roles on the day will involve field events e.g. measuring long jump, shot put etc.  

Claremont Champions

Congratulations to Jade J (Year 6) who represented NSWCIS at the NSW PSSA State Netball Championships held over the last 3 days at Homebush. The competition was very intense and the CIS team finishied amazing 3rd out of the 14 teams/regions from the state competing. Well done, Jade!

Mr Joel Geering
Head of Sport and PDHPE

If your child uses the school bus, or you would like to register to use the school bus, for Term 3, 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 questions in relation to the school bus service, please email [email protected]

Dear Parents,

These school sports and co-curricular groups were photographed on 2 May and 3 May:

• Band
• House Captains
• Whole School (Waving)
• Captains and Prefects
• Junior String Ensemble
• Year 6 Muck Up
• Choir
• Senior String Ensemble

You can now view and purchase the group images listed above together with any individual or class images from this year or previous years. 

Images can be viewed by visiting www.advancedlife.com.au entering the code: 537 6V3 2EM and clicking on “Group Photos”. Please note the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.

Important

• Sports and co-curricular group photos can only be purchased online, PLEASE DO NOT return payment to your school
• If your child's group or team is scheduled to be photographed at a later date, you will receive an additional email notification when the images are ready to be ordered
• Photos will be returned to your school for distribution approximately six weeks after the discounted early order period has closed
• Past years' photographs including sports, co-curricular and representative groups are also available at your school's advancedorder and your child's advancedyou photo sites

Also, if you did not purchase your child’s photos and would now like to place an order, please follow the details above. If you have any questions, please contact advancedlife directly.

advancedlife would like to express our appreciation to Claremont College for placing your trust in us. Please remember we offer a 100% money-back guarantee on our products to ensure your peace of mind. We would also love to receive your feedback or resolve any issues you may experience, to ensure your satisfaction. If you have any questions, comments or feedback relating to your advancedlife experience, please contact us at www.advancedlife.com.au/contact

TeamKids Term 3 Newsletter

Click HERE to read the TeamKids newsletter.

Term 3 Bookings

A reminder for ALL families to book and verify their bookings for Term 3. Also, if your child is away or will not be attending a pre-booked session, please assist by contacting Customer Service to cancel your booking on the day. Please note this has an impact on the service’s staffing for each session. 

Please visit www.teamkids.com.au to secure your spot! or call Customer Service on 1300 035 000.

We would like to make you aware that the NSW Government has given parents a $500 voucher to use at childcare centres. This is applicable to TeamKids and we encourage you to take advantage of this great scheme. Follow the instructions on the NSW Service website to apply. Then email or bring in the QR code on your voucher so we can scan and redeem it for you. This will be credited to your account to use until June 2023.

Out of Stock Items

Please note that the white sport polos in sizes 8, 10 and 12 are currently out of stock. We are currently waiting for new stock to arrive and all orders will be dispatched when the stock arrives. 

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

Monday: 2:30pm – 5:30pm
Wednesday: 8:00am - 11:00am 

Methods of Payment: Cash, EFTPOS, MasterCard and Visa

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

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

CONTACT

Email: [email protected] 
Phone: 9213 0720

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: [email protected]
Phone: 02 8337 7290