A camping we will go!
A camping we will go!
Hi ho and off we go!
A camping we will go!
Wishing all our dads and kids a great time away. Can’t wait to spend the weekend with you all. See you soon.
For the rest of our school community. Have a fabulous weekend. The sun is shining - enjoy!
Doug Thomas
Principal
Follow me @DougJThomas
Today 8 students from Claremont College participated in the IPSHA Debating Gala Day at Ascham Junior School. The Year 6 team won the affirmative side, arguing “Students should write reports on teachers” and the Year 5 team won their first ever official debate arguing for the negative side “School sport should be optional”. We are so proud of all the students for speaking so well and representing our school with such pride. Well done Harry Awad, Natalie Ha, Jade Hastings, Jack Tremain, Caitlin Chee, Anna Laurence, Eliza Le Marne-Court, Henry Stanton. A special thank you to Miss Azaleena Akhand, who has been coaching the students leading up to the event.
Miss Jessica King, Mrs Fiona Vula, Miss Azaleena Akhand and the Debating Teams
Congratulations to Mrs Barr who was awarded her Highly Accomplished Teacher accreditation at a NESA Award ceremony on Tuesday evening. Mrs Barr is one of a small percentage of teachers in New South Wales to have achieved this level of accreditation.
This Thursday (12 September) was R U OK? Day. The message of the day provided the focus of our social skills lessons today at Claremont College. The goal of R U OK? is to work towards a world where we all feel connected to others in positive ways through meaningful relationships. It’s never too early (or too late) to start building healthy habits when it comes to developing and maintaining connections with others. These habits can range from caring for a friend, including others in a game or making sure everyone has a turn. There are ways children can show they are being respectful in their interactions with others. It can include thinking about a problem from the perspective of another and recognising the impact of your own feelings on your decision making, or demonstrating empathy for another and listening to their problem or practising help seeking behaviours like talking to someone you trust about how you feel.
Of course, children cannot be expected to fix someone’s problems nor always know the best way to help and support. But we can encourage children to listen to what their friend is saying, let them know they care and support them, and to talk to a trusted adult like a parent or teacher if they are worried about their friend. This year R U OK? is promoting a 4 conversation steps to help navigate having a conversation with someone when they say “No, I’m not OK”. These steps are:
The message is an important one for us all. Checking in with someone in a caring and considerate manner might start a conversation that gets that person the help they need and if they’re ok, at least you have shown that person you’re someone who cares about them. We also recognise that parents today are often juggling multiple demands, managing work and family responsibilities as well as facing personal and societal expectations on what it means to be a ‘good’ mum or dad. So, it’s important for parents to remember that demonstrating self-compassion is also important as well as taking the time to show compassion and kindness to others.
Ms Catherine McKersie
School Counsellor
Next Friday 20 September we will be holding our International Day. This day proves to be full of active learning to celebrate the myriad cultures that exist in our school, to learn more about each other and to gain a deeper respect and understanding of other people’s stories and histories. The day will open with a short morning assembly and from there, students will ‘travel’ internationally to various workshops to get a taste of cultures from countries such as Indonesia, Italy, Japan, India, China, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, Greece and of course Australia. A big thank you to our wonderful parents who have volunteered to share their cultural expertise in one of our many workshops to ensure our students’ experiences are authentic.
The cultural activities throughout the day will include:
To help us to cover the cost of costumes and resources for activities we will be asking parents to pay $10/child which will be charged to your Term 4 account.
Each grade will perform a dance from a chosen country during our afternoon festivities from 2pm to 3pm. Below is the breakdown of what each grade will need to wear. On top of this, the school will organise accessories for each grade. Thank you for your assistance in sourcing these colours for your child if you don’t already have these.
Students are to come to school dressed in the colours above OR use it as an opportunity to showcase their own traditional costumes. Any student who is wearing a traditional costume will have an opportunity to showcase their costume to the rest of the students. Students who come in their traditional costumes are to change into their dance costume/colours after the morning assembly. We appreciate that some of these costumes have been passed down over generations and may be priceless. Therefore, parents if your child comes in their national costume, we would appreciate it if you could come for the short morning assembly, help your child change into their dance costume.
The Canteen has planned a range of international foods for the students for both morning tea and lunch. The menu is as follows:
Recess
Italian - Mini Pizzas (Vegetarian) $2.50 each
Greek- Spinach & Cheese Triangles $3.00 each
Australian - Anzac Biscuits $1.50 each
Lunch
Japanese - Sushi $4.50 (Salmon/Avo, Tuna, Chicken Teriyaki & Cucumber)
Indonesian - Nasi Goreng $5.00
Mexican - Nachos (Beef & Bean Available) $5.00
Greek - Chicken Souvlaki Skewers & Keftedes Skewers with Tzatiki $5.00 (one serving is three skewers)
The cut off for ordering is 8:00pm on Wednesday evening via Flexischools.
We would love for you to join us for the afternoon celebrations from 2pm to 3pm.
The DRAFT agenda for the day is as follows:
8:45am - 9:00am: Morning assembly: Recognition of Traditional Owners of this land, and presentation of National Costumes.
9:00am - 11:15am: Three rotations of cultural activities
11:15am - 11:45am: Morning Tea - with International food options available from the school canteen
11:45am - 1:15pm: Two rotations of cultural activities
1:15pm - 1:55pm: Lunch - with International food options available from the school canteen
2.00pm - 3.10pm: Dance & Celebration of International Culture
The International Day Team:
Mrs Jill Shoebridge, Mr Joel Geering, Mrs Tara Barr, Mrs Janelle Ford
We had SO much fun at our Year 5 and Year 6 drumming incursion on Tuesday. Tuza came all the way from Ghana West Africa to inspire us with his musical expertise. He performs with a band called ‘Salaka’ which means sharing. We are so grateful that he shared his musical expertise with us. He also brought along a special guest who calls herself Pepsi! She originally hails from Zimbabwe and has been performing as a dancer with the Lion King Musical over the past few years.
All the drums that we played came from Ghana. It was wonderful to see the hall filled with djembes (a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands, originally from West Africa). We all got to play one. We learnt some interesting facts such as ‘Djembe’ is traditionally pronounced ‘yembee’. This translates to ‘Symbol of joy’. It is made using a special timber and the skin of a goat or sheep.
Tuza emphasised that originally there were NO bongos South Africa, as they actually come from Cuba.
We danced, sang in 3 part harmony, learnt African words and played lots of funky, syncopated rhythms. Tuza was so impressed with our ability to play repeated musical drumming rhythms over and over again in time with each other. All that work in Music class has been paying off everyone! We even started playing syncopated rhythms and all of a sudden found ourselves singing “Waka waka”. That was such a fun surprise!
‘I have been looking forward to this for so long, I couldn’t sleep last night I was so excited’ Bella Munter
‘I really enjoyed the drumming incursion as it was interactive’. Francesca Silva
‘It was better than other incursions as it was so interactive’. Joesephine Xue
We also learnt about a very impressive three piece percussion unit which is made up of:
1. Doon doon ba (largest drum keeps beat)
2. Samban (rhythm drum)
3. Cay cay knee (drum that adds rhythmic flavour)
We also learnt about two rattle style shaker instruments the “Bambala” and
“Wuso wuso”. It turns out they are used both as musical instruments as rattles to stop babies crying! The kids loved the fact that Tuza calls them the African version of a Playstation. He showed some impressive technique showing us how they work.
Pepsi danced a variety of traditional dances that symbolise different animals. Tuzu was in awe of how intelligent and observant our kids were as they guessed each animal correctly.
What a wonderful experience… I’m just chuffed I got to join in the fun too and play along with the kids.
The children were keen to find out further information so I told them I would share details of the company here:
https://www.africanbeat.com.au/entertainment-event-services/the-salaka-ensemble/
Congratulations to Hannah Brown (Year 2) who recently passed her Grade 1 Music Theory Exam.
Mrs Tara Barr
Head of Music
With the Premier’s Reading Challenge over for another year, we are thrilled to announce that 112 of our students successfully completed the challenge, reading over 16,000 recorded books. A special congratulations to Year 2 who had almost half the year finish. More than anything, the PRC is a format 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. Our biggest hope is that the children enjoyed the opportunity to discover new books and authors.
With International Day fast approaching, students have been celebrating books that are set in different countries. Over the next week or so, a group of keen Year 6 Library Monitors will be displaying these on our big world map.
A huge congratulations to Mrs Kesur and Caitlin Chee (Year 5) on their superb organisation and running of our Book Swap for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. The Great Book Swap is a fantastic way to celebrate reading locally, and raise much-needed funds for remote communities. The idea to swap a favourite book in exchange for a gold coin donation was embraced by our Claremont students this year, raising $650. Congratulations, and happy reading.
Mrs Stephanie Affleck
Teacher/Librarian
The premise of Australian Reading Hour is simple. It’s about picking up a book and reading for an hour anytime during the day on Thursday 19 September. The 2019 campaign will be officially launched with the Parliamentary Friends of Australian Books and Writers at Parliament House in Canberra next Tuesday. This year five children’s Ambassadors Mick Elliott, Anthony Field, Karen Manbulloo, Sally Rippin and Matt Stanton will be sharing their love of reading and encouraging all Australians to get involved on 19 September to take time to escape with a book! For the first time, each of the children’s Ambassadors have created a book to be published for Australian Reading Hour. This amazing range of children’s books have been produced to entice even the most reluctant readers to dive into a book! The selected books will be available in bookshops and libraries across Australia on sale at the very accessible price of $2.99. We have ordered several copies for the school library.
Mrs Susan Kesur
Library Assistant
Tuesday 24 September - Years 3-6 Cricket Blast Gala Day
Friday 27 September - Claremont Cross Country Carnival
Monday 28 October - Year 5-6 Basketball Gala Day
Our annual Cross Country Carnival for all students will be held in Week 10, on Friday 27 September. This carnival is held from 9:30am to 12:00pm, and students have the option of returning to school, or going home after the event with parents. As you might understand, we need lots of parent help to ensure a safe and successful event with the course being spread over a 2km distance. There will be an opportunity to volunteer to help through the online registration form and event note that can be found on the parent portal.
Term 4 Sport information and registration form have been made available on your Parent Portal. Please remember to register online for all morning/lunchtime activities as soon as possible to avoid disappointment as some sports have limited positions, particularly infants programs. Programs commence from Week 1.
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
The Year 5-6 Basketball Gala Day will be held at Bankstown Basketball Stadium on Monday 28 October. Please read the Term 4 Sport information (see above) for more information and link to the registration form.
Congratulations to Jade Johnson (Year 3), Tom Burke (Year 4) and Anna Macri (Year 6) who represented IPSHA and Claremont at the NSW Combined Independent Schools Athletics Championships this week. NSWCIS is made up of hundreds of Independent Schools across NSW. Representing and competing at this level is a huge achievement!
Well done to Jade who came FIRST in the 9yrs 100m Sprint! She will now represent CIS as the upcoming NSWPSSA Athletics Championships, competing against every Primary School in the State. What an amazing effort and result, Jade!
Congratulations to Tom who finished 10th in the 10yrs long jump and Anna who finished 7th in the 11yrs 200m. Impressive achievements at this level of competition.
The origins of the Bolts basketball team goes back some 3 years. These days it is two teams known as Bolts 1 and Bolts 2, made up of Claremont boys and girls from year 5 and one Claremont alumni- Joey Acland, Audrey Brown, Caitlin Chee, Tessa Chua, Dante Fearn, Nicholas Hickman, Lewis Lin, Lilly McLean, Joseph Milwood, Akanksha Mohan, Henry Stanton, Max Stone, Tyson Wechgelaer and Jordan Zitser. The Bolts are also the only mixed team with an almost 50:50 gender split, in an all-boys comp. The coach at the helm is Damien (Caitlin's Dad) who took on the reins two years ago.
Playing year round in the Easts Basketball competition, the Bolts aren't at the top of the scoreboard but they are the team that has won the hearts of parents and spectators, even those of the opposition. The endless determination and perseverance of the Bolts players has been infectious and their character is top class. Often the Bolts would be trailing by an insurmountable margin, but they still would be trying their best on each and every play all the way to the final bell. They have really set a great example that the numbers on the scoreboard are nothing next to the character of trying, learning, doing your best, good sportsmanship, respecting the referees and of course having fun! They are Claremont Champions!
Some of the Year 4 Claremont girls; Isabelle, Lola, Isla, Clementine, Hannah, Tia (and Anna, Year 5) completed in their Netball final on Saturday. At the end of regulation time, both teams were tied and the game went into overtime where they were unfortunately defeated. It was a fantastic nail biting game and the girls all played amazingly!
Congratulations to Joey (Year 5) who was part of the Swimming NSW Junior State Championship last weekend. He came an impressive 10th in the State in Butterfly. Joey is proud of his achievement and happy to see his hard work and effort pay off. Well done, Joey!
Well done to Ava Williams (Kindy) who represented EGA in her first Level One gymnastics competition at Hornsby on the weekend. She did amazingly well bringing home a gold medal. Well done on a wonderful achievement, Ava!
Thank you to all the students and parents who have returned Claremont singlets/uniforms recently. It would be very much appreciated if any Claremont singlets/uniforms from gala days, IPSHA carnivals etc are still out there, they can be returned for use at future Sporting events.
Gavin from Smart Fit Tennis, who currently runs the infants tennis skills sessions at Claremont and also worked with Year 6 this term, is running tennis camps in the upcoming holidays. Please see the flyer for more information.
Joel Geering
Sport and PDHPE
Calling all Kindergarten and Year 1 students for not one but TWO free trial drum lessons in term 3! Dip your feet in, test the waters of music and have a go! There’s nothing to lose but to have a whole lot of fun, build self esteem, boost confidence, cultivate patience and maybe even score a free pair of drumsticks in the mix! Perhaps your child and their buddy from their year group could sign up together?
Email at p.reddy@claremont.nsw.edu.au to book a spot for your child. Trials commence in week 9 till 10. I’m excited to meet the new and upcoming drummers!
Here to serve,
Percy Reddy
30 Coogee Bay Road, Randwick NSW 2031
P 02 9399 3217
E office@claremont.nsw.edu.au
