There have been some exciting things happening in the Junior School over the last few weeks. On top of the Reconciliation Week activities this week, we have had Esport Trials in Year 4, the Year 1 visit to our Currency Creek EcoCentre and National Simultaneous Story Time.
Esports
This week at lunch time we have been conducting try-outs for our Year 4s to compete in an Esport competition called The FUSE Cup. The Federation of United Schools Esports
(FUSE) Cup is an international network of schools connected in providing young students with an opportunity to participate in a safe, supportive and structured national esports competition while developing positive gaming behaviours and digital wellbeing. On Monday we will have four Year 4 students participate online in The FUSE Cup and later in Term 2 a team of Year 5/6 students will compete in person in The Fuse Cup at Pulteney Grammar School. Esports is a growing industry and currently over 250 million people participate in Esports worldwide. This is another example of how Investigator College is setting up our students with vital future skills.
Simultaneous Story Time.
On Wednesday, National Simultaneous Story Time was celebrated throughout the Junior School. Some classes participated in National Simultaneous Story Time online while others read the hard copy of the book. This year the focus text was Family Tree written by Josh Pyke and illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh. The students loved this experience and the follow-up activities.
National Reconciliation Week
Our Reception to Year 6 classes worked together with their buddy classes this week to celebrate Reconciliation Week. ‘Be Brave. Make Change’ is the theme for the 2022 Reconciliation Week which officially starts on Friday 27 May. Reconciliation Week is a chance for all Australians, individuals, families, communities, organisations and government to ‘Be Brave’ and tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation, so that we can ‘Make Change’ for the benefit of all Australians.
Some of our Year 6s and Year 1s joined together to read a story about Australia Day, from all perspectives. Students learnt and talked about ‘unity’ and being ‘connected’. We all live in this beautiful place, and we want to be reconciled to look forward to a better future.
Year 3 and Year 5 classes joined together to decorate hands as a way to talk about the past including the stolen generation. As a group they talked about in the early 2000s in Sydney where the Indigenous people gathered with non-Indigenous.
“I liked decorating the hands as it is understanding further the Aboriginal people’s culture.” Connor
“I loved learning that the black part of the flag stands for people, the yellow is the sun and the red is land.” Jordan
“The hands are also a symbol of care and love for the Aboriginal people.” Jorja
“I liked doing the spray paint and now I have glitter on my hands.” Hazel
“I learnt that we have to take care of everyone who we see around us.” Chase
“I enjoyed making the hands and I like to take care of Aboriginal people”. Ava
Principal’s Tour
Investigator College continues to field lots of interest from prospective families and this week we had our first Principal’s Tour. If you know of a family that might be interested in attending Investigator College but missed this tour, please encourage them to contact Elly Parker to register for our upcoming Principal’s Tour on 7 June. Thank you to all of the current families that have already referred family and friends.
There are lots of other events to look forward to this term. I am particularly looking forward to Wednesday 1 June, where we will host renowned presenter Glen Gerreyn who will be facilitating a Positive Parenting Seminar. I thoroughly recommend this presentation.
We look forward to having more opportunities to get together as a community to celebrate the wonderful work of our students and staff.
Nicholas Smith
Head of Junior School
