What a wonderful period of celebration and innovation we have had in the Junior School in the past three weeks! Our Junior School girls thoroughly enjoyed opportunities to wonder, hypothesise and experiment during Science Week. A wide variety of provocations were provided by our Science Department throughout this week, with a display of the many exceptional entries from Wilderness students in the Oliphant Science Awards.

Week 5 saw us celebrate Book Week in style, with activities each day to celebrate our love of reading and literature, including lunchtime literature-based craft in the library, buddy activities and, of course, our much-loved, annual Book Week Parade, which was held last Thursday in the Gym. Girls from ELC to Year 6 enjoyed dressing up as their favourite character and, as always, I was so impressed with the wide and creative variety of ideas on the day. Our girls’ individuality really shone in their choices, with princesses to piranhas, astronauts to unicorns, police officers to famous artists. Thanks to Mrs Katie Silva and the Library Committee for hosting such a fun-filled week.

Year 6 student, Lara Wu, has achieved outstanding success in being selected for the Under 12 State Tennis Team. Lara will be travelling to Brisbane in October to represent South Australia in the national tournament. We wish Lara all the very best and look forward with anticipation to hearing how she goes.

The annual Mind Lab Olympics competition was held on Friday 11 August at Trinity College, with Ms Alison Short accompanying students from Year 5 to attend and compete. The girls achieved excellent results, with our Premier Team (Emma Burns, Rosie Morgan, Lila Nassery and Adeline Wilson) placing second overall on the day.

Individual medals were also awarded to the following students for their placings in individual games:

• Rosie Morgan (second in Quoridor)
• Grace Lin (second in Octi)
• Emma Burns (third in Abalone)
• Skyler Luong (third in Checkers)
• Alina Teng (third in Abalone).

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our Wilderness fathers, grandfathers and those special people who play fathering roles in our girls’ lives the most wonderful of days this Sunday. We thank you for who you are and all that you do.

A reminder that we have our annual Show Day next Monday 4 September, with School resuming on Tuesday 5 September.

Wishing each of you a lovely week ahead as we step ever closer to some longer and warmer days!

Read. Grow. Inspire… celebrating Children’s Book Week 2023

Reading is a vital part of the way we experience the world and it underpins much of the learning we do. It helps us acquire information, understand the thoughts and feelings of others, develop and capture our thinking, be entertained and find out the rules and instructions we need to follow. On a screen, you might read prompts and scores as you play a game, read captions and subtitles while watching a video, follow signs and symbols using virtual reality technology or scroll through social media. When we read, we grow our thinking, understanding and hearts… and often, we may be inspired by the people and situations we encounter. This made the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) 2023 Children’s Book Week theme ‘Read. Grow. Inspire.’ a wonderful opportunity to engage with new Australian literature.

It is fascinating to watch the ELC and Junior School girls carefully consider the shortlisted books, chosen by adult judges, and apply their critical thinking skills to vote for the books that most appeal to them. Valuing their voice and applying democratic voting principles sets up the girls as engaged citizens.

In the lead up to Book Week, ELC to Year 3 girls explored the Book of the Year: Early Childhood shortlist and voted for their favourite. The judges chose Where the Lyrebird Lives (Vikki Conley) as their winner, while we chose Lionel and Me (Corinne Fenton) as a clear favourite. Years 4, 5 and 6 girls examined the Picture Book of the Year shortlist before voting. The official winner was My Strange Shrinking Parents (Zeno Sworder) and we decisively voted for Frank’s Red Hat (Sean Avery). Once again, our student vote reflected the student panels of the CBCA shadow judging ‘Sun Project’, using the same criteria as the official judges to vote for winning books.

Our Book Week class activities have included seeking out puzzle pieces to reconstruct book covers, decorating envelopes to see what turned up in the ‘Wildy Post’ and using colour and pattern to explore our identities as citizens of Australia. Buddies have made hungry frogs, friendly dog puppets, amazing birds and gorgeous giraffes with lovely lashes. Some penguins will be getting creative hats soon, just like our visiting Emperor Penguin in the Library last week (who modelled a number of fetching options).

Our girls are convinced that Book Week is ‘the parade’ and it is always a delight and honour to invite them to display their imaginations and secret identities with costumes inspired by books. I think we managed to field an entire team of Matildas this year! We appreciated the opportunity to have a wonderful audience of parents, including the brave souls who took on my challenge and dressed up too!

I would like to acknowledge the incredible support of our school leaders, Mrs Belinda Arnfield and Ms Liz McCarthy (charismatic as the wonderful Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper); Head of the Library, Mrs Emma Phillips; and our magnificent Library, Early Learning Centre and Junior School staff for placing reading at the heart of our school throughout the year.

Katie Silva
Teacher Librarian

Zoo Snooze

During Weeks 4 and 5, the Year 2 classes had the opportunity to enjoy a sleepover at the Adelaide Zoo for their Zoo Snooze experience. This was a greatly anticipated evening for the Year 2 students as it marked the beginning of their overnight Outdoor Education experiences.

Students arrived at the zoo late on a Friday afternoon with excitement and energy, combined with an occasional tear, as they farewelled their parents.

The students began their evening with some educational games with their zoo educator, followed by a delicious BBQ dinner. The girls then got to meet some of the smaller animals in the education center and set up their beds for the sleepover. After dessert, the girls got dressed in their warm clothes and went out for the night walk. They were lucky to see many of the nocturnal animals, as well as the tiger cubs and their mum, which was a highlight for all. The students then watched The Lorax and dozed off to sleep after a big week.

In the morning, students independently packed up their belongings and attempted to do their own hair. We then had a quick breakfast and went back out into the zoo to say good morning to the animals, as they got ready for a sunny Saturday of visitors.

Rosie Smith
Acting Head of Outdoor Education