JS News, 27 March 2019

Karen Mahar, Acting Head of Junior School

Important dates

Friday 29 March 6HB Introduction to Rowing

Students to wear house shirts for Sport Day

Mon 1 April Year 3 Excursion to National Gallery

Thursday 4 April Junior School Year 2-6 Athletics Carnival (PreK–Year 1 Athletics Carnival is on Wed 27 November)
Kinder Reading Information Evening

Open School tours

Over the past two weeks, our JS leadership team has been involved in Open School tours for both newly enrolled students and prospective students. It has proven both a privilege and of great interest to conduct these interviews with these families contemplating joining our school community.

Furthermore, it continues to impress me the way our students display a natural willingness to greet and engage with these prospective families.

Year 6 students, Rowan Harris and Audrey Potter, were entertaining and spoke proudly, recollecting their journey through Radford Junior School. They were a credit to their families and our school.

Being involved in the day-to-day running of the school, it is easy to take for granted how friendly and welcoming members of our school community are on an ongoing basis.

Indeed, following the lead of Father Richard regarding our RESPECT model, it’s often a revelation to see our school through new eyes, to listen deeply and to experience the school as a visitor might do.

Uniform Changeover

Students wear the winter uniform in Terms 2 and 3. With the changing weather patterns, students are permitted to wear either winter or summer uniform in the changeover period - the last two weeks of Term 1 and the first two weeks of Term 2.

Kindness

One part of the Junior School Wellbeing program is inquiring into Character Strengths. Character strengths are described as the capacities humans have for thinking, feeling and behaving. The current character strength spotlight in the Junior School is Kindness. Kindness is defined as the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.

There are many ways to be kind, and regular opportunities to practice kindness. Over the next two weeks our staff and students will be encouraged to fill buckets by way of identifying when someone displays kindness either to themselves or to others. Families are also encouraged to ‘catch’ kindness in action.

Bucket of kindness

Celebration

Work hard and be kind Our year 6 students continue to lead our Junior School Celebrations. At our most recent Celebration there was much to acknowledge and celebrate, including excursion reports from Years 2,3 and 5; Harmony Day; Ride2school day; and a Songsters choir performance.

Boronia was announced as the winning house for the 2019 Junior School Swimming Carnivals. Individual students in Years 3-6 will receive place ribbons in the coming week.

At Celebration, our staff are encouraged to ‘Shout Out’ to a student who has demonstrated a Learner Profile Attribute, PYP Attitude or Character Strength.

Week 7	Shout outs
K	Niha Ali - being open-minded and confident Vasanth Krishnakumar - being a risk-taker and displaying a love of learning Amelia Hardy - confidently taking a risk during our writing sessions Scarlett Munns - her infectious positivity and enthusiasm towards learning
Year 1	Samantha Cartwright - being an inquirer by taking action Cole Judd - an active inquirer through his deep questioning in our current unit of inquiry William Xia - responding with resilience and having a balanced approach to friendships and learning Sophie Todd - commitment to her learning, especially when reading
Year 2	Siyara Malhinge - being an inquirer by asking good questions Khushi Katamaneni - being knowledgeable and showing kindness towards others Elsie Osborne - taking action by bringing in excellent resources to connect with our inquiry Ethan Empson – being knowledgeable and sharing technology skills with his classmates (and teacher)
Year 3	Gemma Voortman - commitment to learning and perseverance Tanaz Hussain - commitment and the risk-taking attitude she has shown towards attempting new tasks Aarush Swarup - consistently demonstrating respect and being an engaged learner Amelie Smith - creativity and zest she demonstrates in her learning. Jay Erwin - commitment to learning and perseverance when faced with the challenge of having to complete written work with his other hand.
Year 4	Sophia Syed - commitment to learning and making responsible choices Jeexin Lu - caring nature and perseverance when faced with challenges Rupert Keeling - being a thinker and demonstrating a love of learning Abbey Hiew - being an enthusiastic and dedicated learner Eli Hezkial – a positive and enthusiastic approach to learning while always being a deep thinker.
Year 5	Kaiya Barsby – a balanced and creative approach to learning Lara Southwell - embracing the spotlight character strength of kindness and displaying a caring attitude Keren Zhang - demonstrating commitment and a love of learning Manoj Gutta - an enthusiastic and committed learner
Year 6	Paige Le Lievre - being principled and showing leadership Fiona Nguyen - demonstrating humility and being a reflective learner Audrey Potter - demonstrating outstanding leadership and enthusiasm Cyrus French - being an independent and principled learner.
Specialists	Sophie Freemantle - appreciation of the books and the enthusiasm she demonstrates towards reading Han Zhang – for her caring approach when using the library during class time, before and after school Madeleine Klegeris - showing a mature approach to art making and our studio space Kaiden Trinh – exhibiting an independent and caring attitude Avyukth (Avy) Sudharsan - showing great skills and teamwork during basketball trials and during combined PE Athletics lessons Elena Rock - demonstrating an independent and caring attitude Hayze Shepherd - being a principled and dedicated learner Sari Travers - being an independent and caring member of the class Ben Kopras - perseverance and commitment to reading.