It has been a busy fortnight in the Junior School as classes prepare to attend upcoming camps, with the preparation of our Sports Day, and teachers and girls deep in our assessment and reporting cycle for Semester 2.

Junior School Sports Day

The girls were more than ready for Sports Day after the Semester 2 House Captains ran some fun activities to get the girls moving and the House spirit flowing in our assembly on Thursday.

Warmed-up and ready, the girls took this spirit into Sports Day and made it a wonderful event for our community. Postponed from last Friday to today due to the significant weather at the end of last week, the day turned out to be sunny perfection for our girls as they competed for their Houses at the Parklands.

Our Year 3 to 6 girls began their day at the playing fields, the events were quickly underway after our requisite, spirit-building House cheers to officially commence the carnival. The Junior School Semester 2 House Captains, ably supported by Mr Kieran Jackson, prepared warm ups, practiced House chants and took very good care of their younger House counterparts today.

Year levels rotated through a broad range of athletic-based events through the morning before being joined by our Reception to Year 2 girls after recess. Our littlest girls were outstanding in the way they participated in the event rotations, enjoying sharing the space with the bigger girls as they made their way around.

Given how long we’ve been living with restrictions on events, it was just wonderful to be able to welcome our parents to enjoy our Sports Day with us. We have missed our parent community and their involvement and attendance at School events over the past 18 months, so to see so many of you take the time to gather, support your girls and enjoy being together after so long was a testament to the commitment of our parent community.

While the day was enormously successful in terms of House spirit, the way in which the girls conducted themselves with a view to healthy competition, showing grace and kindness in both victory and defeat, was outstanding. Please refer to the Sport article in this edition for all the results from the day.

Camps

Our Year 5 and Year 3 girls are off to camp next week, with Year 5 going to Wirraway Camp in the Adelaide Hills from Monday to Wednesday and the Year 3 going to an Outdoor Education camp at Aldinga from Wednesday to Friday. I am immensely proud that, even in a year of border closures, restrictions and the many logistical challenges that come with that territory, we have ensured that all of our girls from Year 2 to 6 have had a camp experience. When we were unable to attend the scheduled camp for reasons related to the pandemic, we replaced them with other, meaningfully planned overnight experiences.

States of Matter

In Science this term, the Year 3s are learning about states of matter - solids, liquids and gases.

The girls did an exciting and messy experiment with cornflour and water. They had to test cornflour to discover if it was a liquid or a solid as sometimes things are hard to classify. They soon learnt that cornflour is a solid and a liquid because when you add water unusual things happen. When you put your fingers in the bowl and poke it, it turns all gooey and when you punch it, it would turn rock hard. When you tried to pick it up, it would run through your fingers like a liquid!

We can’t live without solids, liquids and gases because they are all very important. Some solids give us food, liquids, like water, give us something to drink and the oxygen gas in the air helps us to breathe.