Our Junior School has been a busy place this last fortnight as we returned to the term from our extended time apart due to holidays and then lockdown. The girls have resumed their usual learning programs, enjoying the many new projects, units of learning, and collaborations that a new term brings.

Badge Presentation Assembly

It was a delight to finally be able to congratulate and welcome our Semester 2 Year 6 Leadership Group at our Badge Presentation Assembly on Thursday 12 August. Each girl was presented to Mrs Belinda Arnfield, Acting Principal, who stepped in, in place of Ms Jane Danvers, and given her badge, naming the role she will be undertaking this semester. Ranging from House captain to committee leaders, year level representatives to our executive, each girl now has the opportunity to play an integral role in our Junior School over the coming terms.

Junior School President for Semester 2, Annika Ganesh, expressed the important responsibilities that come with leadership beautifully in her speech.

“When I think about what it means to be an impactful leader, my thoughts turn to the values and ethos of our school - to be honest, kind, respectful, collaborative, hardworking, resilient and community minded. As your Junior School SRC President, I will endeavour to demonstrate these core values and encourage my peers to be positive mentors.

“We, as Semester 2 leaders, pledge to be attentive listeners and create an inclusive environment where your ideas and feedback are heard. We will aspire to ensure a compassionate and nurturing environment and encourage Junior School girls to be kind, show gratitude and to be of service to others.

As the iconic female trailblazer Amelia Earhart once said, ‘a single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions and the roots spring up and make new trees’. When we experience kindness, we are inspired to be kind ourselves. When we show acts of kindness and generosity, we can make meaningful ripple effects in our community.” Annika Ganesh, Year 6 JSSRC President

Book Week

We are thoroughly looking forward to our annual Book Week celebrations, beginning in Week 5, Monday 23 August.

The 2021 theme is ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’ and the girls in ELC to Year 6 will have the opportunity to dress up as their favourite book character and participate in our parade on Thursday 26 August. The parade will be held from 8:30am to 9:00am in the Gym and will be filmed and shared with parents as we are not yet able to have you with us in person.

Please find below some suggestions and inspiration for a wide range costumes you can create with items from the shop, borrowed, or invented at home. Our one rule is that it relates to a children's book. You can also find some costume inspiration here.

New Worlds

• Another country or culture
• Future worlds (robots, technology)
• An animal world - Australian, deserts, rainforests, farms
• Get a bug's eye view as an insect
• Under the water or the air (bird, plane, rocket)
• Your favourite character from a book

Other Worlds

• Imaginary creatures
• Fairies, mermaids
• Witches and wizards
• Unicorns, dragons
• Monsters, giants
• Fictional friends
• Make up your own
  

Old Worlds

• Dinosaurs
• Ancient Romans, Greeks, Vikings Centuries
• Past decades (20s, 50s, 60s, 70s)
• Colonial Australia

A number of exciting activities will take place for our Junior School girls across the week, with more information to come.

Wilderness School's Babysitting List

Looking for a date night or regular babysitter can be a time-consuming task of texting past sitters, asking family friends, or posting on Facebook.

Wilderness School has created a list of old scholars, who can provide babysitting services to families in need of care within our School community. The list can be accessed via the Wilderness parent portal.

Having an Wilderness old scholar as your babysitter also supports the girls in gaining paid work, responsibilities and experiences. This list is regularly updated and we encourage you to contact the girls directly. We are looking to grow our list of old scholar babysitters and if you are interested in being added to the list, please email Emma Bishop, Old Scholars Liaison Officer.

Wishing you a wonderful and safe fortnight ahead.