Junior Journeys

Numerical Acumen

By Kellie Osborn Email this article

Over 650 people gathered in the Prince Alfred College Red Centre on Tuesday 6 August 2019 to attend the Numerical Acumen Night. 

This celebrates the dedication of thousands of students across the state during Term 1 and 2 in the Numerical Acumen Challenges. The Potts-Baker Institute, Prince Alfred College challenges all students at all year levels to master mental calculation strategies. Challenges are long-term, offered over a number of months, because it takes time to master mental calculation strategies.

Congratulations to the following students who received awards on the night. You should be very proud of your achievements and hard work. We look forward to seeing all that you will accomplish.

Casio Achievement Awards

Charlotte Kroeger - Dedication
Isabella Martiensen - Improvement
Christopher Keeping - Performance
Charles Greaves - Dedication
Connor Lam - Performance
Jared Cenko - Improvement
William Catinari - Dedication
Adam Pivato - Performance
Mikhail Sidhwani - Improvement
Marion Dietrich - Dedication
Deklan Murphy - Performance
Alana Kay - Improvement
Stephanie Burns - Dedication
Sam Doan - Performance
Gilbert Pronk - Improvement
Ortensia Primavera - Dedication
Avalon Schunke - Dedication
Orestes Corolis - Dedication

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Junior School Bin Audit

On Friday 9 August 2019, Junior School students and staff had the opportunity to work with NRM Education Officer, Jeremy Gramp, to conduct a bin audit within the Junior School. This was a practical hands on exercise, which allowed students and staff to look at landfill (general waste), recycling, compost and other bin use.

A bin audit is an evaluation of the waste that the Junior School produces. It allows us to find out two things: how much waste our Junior School produces and what type of waste is produced. The information can give us an idea of where to begin our waste minimisation efforts. For example, what type of recycling to implement or what type of waste to reduce. The information gathered from a bin audit can also be a valuable way of measuring improvement.

This was an exciting out of the classroom experience, as students learnt firsthand what this process involved. Following the audit, a report is provided with results and recommendations for actions to improve resource management. We look forward to viewing and analysing the data and results that are produced.

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Reception Junior School Assembly

On Friday of Week 3, the Junior School gathered together to celebrate and acknowledge our new leaders for Semester 2 and the work of our Reception classes. The Reception classes educated, entertained and wowed the audience with their video of their recent work in the Junior School kitchen garden. They also shared their beautifully presented and environmentally thoughtful Earth Book.

Finally, they excited and encouraged us with their energetic and inspirational performance about ‘reducing, reusing and recycling’, which provided positive and supportive messages for all. It has been wonderful to see the way that our Reception classes have taken the lead in sharing the importance of caring for our local environment and planet. Our Year 1 students in being last week’s winner of the Golden Bin Award are also successfully putting this into action in the yard.

Our assembly also offered a group of our Year 5 students the opportunity to launch a first for the Junior School, a student run and developed newspaper. The Mercy Scoop is a newspaper created by students for students. It will include news from the Junior School inspired by students' interests, passions and ideas. At our assembly, our Year 5 news team shared information about the first edition and encouraged our budding writers to submit ideas and articles. This is an exciting development in promoting student voice and I congratulate the student newspaper development team on their creativity and initiative.

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Junior School Leadership in Semester 2

There is always great interest, enthusiasm and activity when it comes to leadership in our Junior School. Junior School leadership provides opportunities for students to demonstrate and develop their talents, skills and passions.

Junior School Leadership:

• Create opportunities for student ownership in whole Junior School decision making.
• Provides students with practical opportunities to care for and encourage other students.
• Allows students to learn new skills in the service of others.
• It gives student leaders a chance to feel connected with others through working together.

In the Junior School, we recognise that students can be leaders across many different areas, and that leadership skills learnt in the Junior School can lay the foundations for future leadership opportunities.

It is our aim to promote and develop leadership skills in all students. These opportunities range from classroom responsibilities and personal confidence development, to leadership that is in roles that are more formal. We have a well-developed buddy programme, allowing older students the opportunity to form relationships with, and act as role models to, younger students.

Students in Year 5 have additional opportunities to develop their leadership skills. The leadership roles that are available include School House Captains (PE Leaders), Music Leaders and Student Mentoring Programme Leaders.

At our Junior School Assembly in Week 3, our Junior School Leaders were officially welcomed and acknowledged in a presentation ceremony attended by their parents, family and peers. Student badges were blessed by Father Bob and were presented to students by our College Captains.

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Student Representative Council Semester 2

Each semester, students are chosen from each Junior School class by their peers to represent their classes. Congratulations to the following group of students who were selected by their peers to be elected to the Junior School Student Representative Council for Semester 2:

5HC 
Patrick Harvey
Annabelle Phillips

5MM 
Lachlan Murphy
Tayla Simpkin Thompson

4AK 
Chloe Toogood
John Manos

4SW 
Lucas Grigg
Saskia Toogood

3NB 
Finn Grund 
Marion Dietrich

3MB 
Isobel Fitzgerald
Ethan Bailey

2IB 
Ivania Wang
Winston Schunke

2NC 
Sienna Tropeano
Asher Hogarth

1LD 
Maya Nazzari
Walker Whittaker

1BD 
Isabelle Nguyen
Jack Schreurs

RAS 
Alyssa Bickle

RLC 
Elijah Bronicki

RAD 
Lucy Filsell

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Junior School Music Leaders

Our Junior School Music Leaders assist our Junior School Music Department and encourage, support and promote music opportunities and events for other students. Congratulations to the Junior School Music Leaders for Semester 2:
                
5HC 
Stephanie Burns

5HC 
Beatrix Hannon

5HC
Grace Morton

5MM
Eleanor Mathwin

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Junior School PE Leaders

Our Junior School PE Leaders (House Captains) play a significant role in encouraging their peers to get active and involved whilst promoting the benefits of Junior School sport and related events. Each of these students has been selected to be the leaders of our Mercedes College House teams of McAuley, Dalton, Fitzpatrick and Barry. Congratulations to our Junior School PE Leaders for Semester 2:

McAuley
Rowan Batra  

Dalton
Isabelle Hicks  

Fitzpatrick
Rocco Schirripa  

Barry
Eleanor Wood  

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Junior School Student Mentoring Programme (SMP) Leaders

Our Student Mentoring Programme is a student-centred programme that provides an individual welcome and support to many students across our school. Our SMP Leaders have been selected to promote this important programme within our Junior School. Congratulations to our Junior School SMP Leaders for Semester 2
                 
5MM 
Sadie Goldsworthy 
Amalia Schreurs

5HC 
Milana Russo 
Chanel Cocca

Congratulations to all our Junior School Leaders in Semester 2. We all look forward to working closely with you in the second half of the school year. A big thank you to our Semester 1 leaders for the way that they have represented their class with passion, important ideas and a genuine care for the needs of students in their classes. These students received a certificate from Miss Osborn for their services to student leadership in Semester 1 and gathered for a final celebration on Friday of Week 3.

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Parent Reading Workshop

Last term, our Resource Based Learning Coordinators, Mrs Debbie Lauder and Mrs Lara Ebbs, along with our Key Literacy Teacher, Mrs Tori Beers presented a parent-reading workshop in the Carmel Bourke Library. We were conscious that due to the morning timing of this session that many parents would not have been able to attend. To provide this opportunity, this session will be repeated on Tuesday 20 August from 6:00 - 7:00pm. The focus of the workshop is on raising children who love to read. The focus for the workshop is on:
• Reading identity and attitude
• Strategies to empower young readers to develop a love of reading through exploring a wide range of texts
• Selection tools to find a ‘good fit’ book and to decide what to read next.

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Jimmy Dodd - Artists in Residence

This term, Junior School students have the unique experience of working with our talented artist in residence, Jimmy Dodd. Jimmy has exhibited widely across Australia in artist run, publicly funded and commercial spaces.  His work traverses the boundaries between visual street culture, alternative use of urban space and existing gallery conventions.  Some of his recent significant projects have included collaborations with the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide City Council and the Splendour in the Grass Festival.

Jimmy is also a teacher at Adelaide Central School of Art, amongst other roles. It is a pleasure to have him working with our students this term. A big thank you to Mr Ryan Stor for your support in organising this opportunity.

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Author Visit from Gerard Michael Bauer

On Friday 9 August 2019, author Gerard Michael Bauer visited us. He is the author of Don’t Call Me Ishmael! amongst a number of other notable titles. Students enjoyed and learnt so much from his visit. It was a great privilege to to meet him in person and share in his day-to-day work. He shared the process of writing, how he pieces together different ideas and experiences to create characters and events that engage the reader.

His novels are well known for their humour and Michael did not disappoint in his delivery, as his stories of success and misfortune were both funny and relatable. Just as his books put the reader in the shoes of the characters, those in the room had a similar experience as Michael recounted his own stories.

Michael Gerard Bauer is a former English teacher and this enhanced his presentation, as he was able to communicate the academic art of writing through discussing the enjoyment of the written word. Hearing writing advice from the author of books that many of our students adore was powerful. It is always a joy to see learning experiences outside of the classroom and guest speakers are no exception. We all left the room not only enthused for reading but also writing.

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Junior School French Poetry Competition

On Thursday 15 August 2019 our Junior School students entered the French Poetry Competition run by the South Australian French Teachers’ Association. To enter the competition students are asked to recite a French poem with expression and correct pronunciation. This in an exciting morning for students who look forward to having this opportunity to utilise and develop their French language knowledge and skills and to share this with others.

Kellie Osborn 
Head of Junior School