From the Head of Junior School

I would like to express my gratitude to the entire CGS community for the incredible job you have done during these difficult, unprecedented COVID-19 times that have required us to learn and teach remotely for the majority of 2020.

Thank you to our students for their incredible resilience, positivity and for simply getting the job done.

Thank you to our families for not only supporting your children’s remote learning under what can only be described as incredibly difficult circumstances but also for your continued support of our staff.

Thank you to our teaching staff for the countless hours you have contributed to ensure our students’ academic needs are being met but also for always putting the wellbeing of your students first.

Thank you to our support staff, many of whom have had the difficult but important task of working onsite to supervise the children of our critical workers.

Thank you to my Junior School Leadership colleagues, Ms Charlotte Bouman, Mr Shane Bell and Mrs Sandra Torcasio for the many, many hours of additional Google meetings we have had over the past 6 months. Your contributions and willingness to always be available to assist have been appreciated more than you could know.

Finally, I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank and commend my fellow members of our CGS Senior Management Team. As I’m sure you can appreciate, this year has proved to be a year like no other. Despite our many years of collective leadership during our careers, let’s not forget that with the exception of myself, who has been a member of the SLT, formerly AMT, for 19 years, every other SLT member is new to their roles at CGS this year. Thank you to Mrs Fiona Williams, our Principal who is only in her second year at CGS, Mr Peter Shepard, our Head of Wellbeing and in his first year at CGS, Mr Craig Townsend, Head of Teaching and Learning and in his first year at CGS and Ms Cathy Marchmont as Acting Head of Secondary School. It has most certainly been a baptism of fire. In our entire lengthy careers, we have never had to deal with anything like this pandemic and subsequently our Remote Learning Program, however, I am extremely proud of the way in which the SLT have come together to work collaboratively to deal with this unprecedented situation. Crucially important decisions have been required to be made on almost a daily basis and to date, I believe all of these decisions have been the right ones with the best interests of our students and staff being at the forefront of our minds. Like every staff member, we have been extremely busy and will go into this next break knowing that we will be meeting regularly to ensure we are poised and ready to welcome our students and staff back onsite as safely and as soon as possible. It has been a privilege to work alongside these colleagues and I can assure you that we are in good hands.

I’d also like to recognise and congratulate Mr Shane Bell, Miss Laura Dascoli and Miss Holly Waugh for being nominated by their students and parents for the Casey Cardinia Outstanding Teacher Competition for going above and beyond inside and outside the classroom for your students. Bravo!

I wish every member of our school community a healthy and restful holiday break and I eagerly await welcoming you back onsite early in Term 4.

Mrs Melissa Roberton

Head of Junior School

Health & Physical Education

The Health & Physical Education Matrix provides the Year 3-6 students with many activities to choose from. These range from yoga and meditation to skipping and HITT workouts. The students even had the opportunity to ‘compete’ in the IsOlympics, in lieu of the postponed Tokyo Olympics.

In these videos, you can see some of our Year 6 students, Ryan Riet, Shamita Ah Tong-Pereira and Ronal Weerasekara, as they stay active while learning from home.

Ms Belinda Roffey

Teaching Staff

It’s a Wrap for Annie’s Words of Wisdom

Everyone loves a good news story, especially at the moment! I have a little update on Annie’s Words of Wisdom bracelets to brighten your day! Annie has decided to wrap up her fundraiser and came up with another clever idea to raise money. She decided to raffle off some special ‘lucky’ bracelets for her final hoorah. She sold tickets online and lots of people rushed to purchase them, in hope of scoring one of the three magical bracelets. Annie drew the winners live and posted the results of the super lucky recipients.

Overall, Annie’s incredible efforts selling her handmade bracelets has raised a whopping $1350 for the Mums Supporting Families in Need (MSFIN). Annie and her family are so excited to share this news with our CGS community and even more excited to tell the MSFIN! She is hoping this money can go towards buying toys and games for children in need. This is something Annie is passionate about after spending time at home in lockdown and realising that many children may not be fortunate enough to the luxury of things to play with and keep entertained. Devoting her time to work on such a project like this is truly remarkable and we are all incredibly proud of Annie. Thank you to everyone who supported her project!

Miss Bridgette Reale

Head of Trist House

News from Year 4

The Year 4 students enjoyed a day of ‘FUN’ during their remote learning. The morning started off with both classes enjoying a Google Meet. Many of the students went to great lengths to decorate their rooms/learning spaces. We had balloons, streamers, hats and even party clothes! Some students shared some funny jokes with their peers.

After their combined Google Meet, the students then went into their individual classes to make Father’s Day cards. What an amazing job the students did! Year 4 definitely have some very creative students.

The day was then followed by some games and a maths quiz. The students brought along some party food and there were plenty of laughs throughout our ‘FUN DAY’.

4N & 4B joining in a Google Meet

4N students loving the ‘FUN’ day!

Some Father’s Day cards from some of our students

Ms Sarah Nolan

Year 5D Teacher/ Head of Booth House

Year 5 Reflections

The Year 5’s have had a busy term with Remote Learning and we have very much embraced the challenges presented to us. Enjoy the reflections written by some of our Year 5 students on their experiences this term.

The Homeschool Journey

Wow! We have all been home for so long I have totally lost track of how many weeks it's been. Who would've thought that back in March, we would have still been in lockdown now? I'm still surprised I've made it this far in lock down. What started off as a massive challenge has turned into our new normal. The teachers tried to make it a fun experience, even though we couldn’t see each other, and they definitely have succeeded. Hopefully not too much longer and we can all get on with life as we once knew it.

Zac Foster, 5D

Remote learning ... an interesting one!!!

We have had to learn how to adapt to the change of learning from home using technology. Every day we have Google Meets with our teacher, classmates and friends to keep us all together. We have done lots of fun activities. To finish off the term we are doing a project called The Five Wonders Theme Park. It involves forward planning, map reading creative, thinking and research skills.

Mackenzie Bell, 5D

Bambert's Book Of Lost Stories! A Tale about Hope and Belief

Bambert, a tiny man with an overflowing imagination for story writing, lives in a small attic above a grocery store. Bambert loves story-writing, but feels like his stories are just words on a paper and are just showing the story not telling it. Bambert decides to let his stories free by putting them on mini hot air balloons and hope they will travel around the world and come back to him with a stamp from wherever they come from, but when the stories didn't come back Bambert loses hope: Will his stories ever find their way around the world? On Bamberts last story he writes his wish: ‘I hope this story will write itself.’ Bambert believes if his writing pieces can tell the story, this one can tell itself…

Finley Harding, 5D

Bambert is a small, shy little man who lives in the attic of his friend’s peculiar shop. He loves writing stories with his very wondrous and creative mind. Then one day he realises that his books are just words, so he sends them off on small hot-air balloons to become reality. With one book that is going to write its own story…

I thought that this performance had a beautiful meaning and you can really take away a lot from it. This performance also taught me how your life is a book writing its own story as well.

Elora Pratt, 5H

Remote learning is a fantastic way for the Year 5 students to learn technology and it also gets us ready for any emergencies like Covid-19, at the same time. We have been able to practice being more responsible for our own learning and have had lots of fun using a Kahoot to revise in Maths. We have opportunities to share things we make. I really enjoy Fridays, we create our own timetable to do finishing off or other personal projects. At that same time even though how much fun I am having, I still miss school. I hope we go back to school quickly.

Agamjot Sidhu, 5H

Opportunities never end for Grade 5! Although we never expected to be learning remotely, we always look at the positive side of it! Such as, we can improve our technology skills by using Google Classroom (GC) and Google Meet as well! We have grown more mature, especially as part of preparing for applying for leadership positions! I personally think that Remote Learning makes learning a bit tougher, but we have AMAZING people to help and support us! Such as parents, fellow peers and teachers! Daily I make sure I drink plenty of water and go outside and have some fresh air! And remember, ALWAYS look at the positive side!

Esha Shiju, 5H

Miss Laura Dascoli and Mrs Claire Harvey

Year 5 Teachers