Enrichment in the Junior School – Spring Term
What a joy it has been to recommence existing initiatives and to launch new opportunities that are designed to challenge, stimulate and enrich the learning of our students in the Junior School. Winter Term certainly saw teachers and students eagerly reconnecting with co-curricular offerings, online competitions and assessments, with all parties benefitting from the hindsight that our school closures and COVID-19 limitations have given us all.
Tournament of Minds
The organisers of Tournament of Minds changed the format this year, allowing teams to collaborate on a digital challenge, submitting a final video presentation of their work. Miss Cirillo and I worked with an enthusiastic group of Year 4 and 5 boys who chose to focus on Language and Literature and worked independently and creatively on the Lords of the Lost Locked Lion Language, incorporating figurative language devices very cleverly into their original script and designing costumes with the minimum of materials and the maximum of fun and innovation. We were very proud of them all and congratulations must go to Billy Black, Raymond Bodie-Hall, Charlie Burton, Angus McIntosh, Ben Bloch and James Ackerman for their impressive work which gained an excellent review from the panel of judges.
Challengeopolis
Another new initiative that was borne out of restrictions, has been a new collaboration between Christ Church Grammar School, PLC and St Hilda’s. Challengeopolis is a non-competitive event where mixed teams of pupils participate in a series of challenges designed to broaden their thinking, socialise and expand their horizons through philosophy, artistic design and open-ended mathematical tasks. Judging by the feedback from participants, this is an area that all schools will look to grow in the coming years by inviting more schools to participate and in greater student numbers. Congratulations to our inaugural team members; Lachlan Gillett, Alexander Rogers, Elias Rigg, Ethan Palassis, Marcus Yang and Ahren Mahesh.
Philosothon
Cross campus associations and opportunities have also enabled us to continue to offer a wide variety of challenges to our students. The Middle School Philosothon annually invites eight Year 5 students to enter and gain valuable experience in the world of philosophy as they discuss and challenge one another’s points of views in a series of topics including:
- Is it ever morally right to kill someone?
- Can a robot be conscious?
- How do I know the world isn’t virtual?
- What is freedom?
Our Year 5 entrants coped brilliantly with the exposure to this event and I hope that it has sparked their enthusiasm to participate in future events. Well done to Eryn Richards, Tom Gamble, Eugene Cha, Ishir Bhaduri, Eamonn Maher, Raymond Bodie Hall, Gus McIntosh and our Most Promising Year 5 Philosopher Billy Black.
Connect to Create
This term will see the launch of Connect to Create where Junior School boys from Years 3 and 4 will work alongside Senior School IB students in a series of workshops, as they collaborate in an exciting range of subjects; Philosophy, Debating, 3D Printing, Drones and Robotics, Digital Storytelling and Music. The prospect of this association is mouth-watering and we are anticipating an enthusiastic response from all parties involved when we launch the projects in Week 2 to all of the pupils, parents, teachers and experts that are involved.
PYP Exhibition
Our Year 5 students are now entering the final stages of their Primary Years Programme (PYP) Exhibition, a discipline that stretches and challenges all students to think more broadly and deeply about their burning questions surrounding the transdisciplinary theme of 'How the world works'. Added to this is the Year 5 Musical which is always outstanding and provides every boy with the chance to explore the Performing Arte. Please mark the date in your calendar as it is a wonderful showcase of talent. Finally, spare a thought for Mr Wells and Ms Louden as they prepare their Year 5 and 6 teams for First Lego League competitions that are due to commence in November. It has been a massive undertaking and has required many hours of additional work and problem solving but I am sure that our contestants will excel, and I wish them every success.
Mrs Alison Webster
Junior School Enrichment Coordinator