Hong Kong School visit

This week the Primary School hosted a Year 5/6 class from the Dr Catherine F. Woo Memorial School in Hong Kong. The children from Hong Kong and St Augustine’s participated in a shared music lesson, led by music teacher, Amelia Granturco. Observing sixty students connect from across the globe, sharing stories, playing handball and having recess together was a welcome relief from the media circus surrounding politics from over the weekend. The students from Hong Kong have been visiting schools in Australia as part of their STEM cultural overseas program. They concluded their visit by sharing their STEM project, a robot constructed entirely from aluminium and containing over 200 screws. It is incredible to believe that this programmed robot was designed, tested and constructed by these very clever students and their teachers.

Thank you to Amelia Granturco for conducting such a creative lesson and Vivian Cao, International Student Officer, for coordinating the visit.

Reading Buddies – Year 10 & 11

Last Tuesday, 21 August, the Primary School boys had a visit from some Reville House Senior students to assist in the Reading Buddy program. The Reading Buddy program has been a feature in the Primary School for the past three years and continues to provide an opportunity for the boys to connect with an older student as well as promote the importance of reading.

Tips for success in High School

This week we had another visit from the Year 10 and 11 Reville House boys. This time it was the Year 6 boys who had the opportunity to talk to a Senior Buddy about their transition into High School. The advice given by a group of Year 11 boys included their top 3 tips for success in High School.

• Get along with your teachers. If you don’t get along with your teacher, you generally don’t like the subject and don’t do as well in that subject.
• Be involved in the co-curricular program because it is where you meet friends.
• Be organised, use your diary, prioritise and don’t leave everything until the last moment.

Bishop’s Shield

Throughout the year, several school events contribute to Colour House points with the eventual winning House being awarded the Bishop’s shield. This week the Senior School House captains have organised a Primary School soccer tournament to run over the next few weeks. Good luck to all the teams and once again thank you to our House Captains for providing opportunities to connect with their ‘big brothers’ in the Senior School.

The winning House this year has the added incentive of a day of ten pin bowing and a BBQ lunch at Dee Why beach as well as being awarded the ‘Bishop’s Shield’.

Jersey Day – Friday 31 August

This Friday, 31 August, is ‘Jersey Day’ with boys permitted to wear their favourite jersey to school to raise awareness for organ donation.

Write a Book in a Day Competition

The Write a Book in a Day Competition is a team writing competition open to writers from Year 5 to adult. All books are written and illustrated by a team of writers in a consecutive 12- hour period on one day. Each team is provided with a unique set of parameters to write their story: two human characters, one non-human character, an issue and a setting. The writers must also include five given random words somewhere within the story.

This week the ‘talented writing’ group, plus two budding artists, completed the Write a Book in a Day competition. Over the past three years, under the direction of John O’Brien, the Primary School has supported this initiative which raises money and awareness for The Kids’ Cancer Project. I thank John for facilitating such a worthwhile project and for sharing the published story in the coming weeks. The talented writing group consists of: Oliver Castellan, Cameron Alexander, Alex Thoms, Nicholas Varano, Charlie Snell, Gus Anderson, Oliver Balenzuela, Luke Varde, Brodie Sciberras and Austin Jeffery.

Walking into the College

To access the College in the morning and when departing in the afternoon, all boys are asked to enter and leave the College via the Alfred or Federal Parade gates. The exception is if parents utilise the ‘kiss and drop’ area on Gulliver Street.

With many cars parked in driveways along Gulliver Street, boys are having to walk on to the road to navigate around these parked cars. Please be aware that the traffic island at the beginning of Gulliver Street is not a pedestrian crossing, so all students need to stop and ‘give way’ to cars in this area.

I strongly encourage boys not to use devices while travelling to and from the college. Boys are oblivious to the traffic when plugged into or checking messages on their devices.

NSW Championships

Congratulations to Year 5 student, Antonio Hartman, who recently competed in the NSW State Basketball Championships in Maitland, with his team coming away with the win!

Terry Walsh
Head of Primary School