FROM THE JUNIOR SCHOOL

Harmony Week

Thursday’s Harmony Day activities across the Elphin Campus, together with Friday’s House meetings for Year 2-5 students, were highlights of Harmony Week at the Junior School. Activities in classrooms also focused on the central messages of belonging and inclusivity.

The campus was a sea of orange on Thursday and many students proudly wore a national costume reflective of their family heritage. The Harmony Day lunch saw a number of students share their family background with the Prep-Year 5 gathering.

LIVE@Elphin

LIVE@Elphin for students and families across the Prep-Year 5 levels is an exciting opportunity for members of a class to share some of their recent learning experiences at school with peers and parents. It is also a time for parents and other family members to learn a little more about what their children are doing at school – both how they are learning as well as what they are learning.

What does ‘LIVE’ mean and why do we have it?

The name in itself conveys important central elements of our approach to teaching and learning:  Learning, Inquiry, Visual, Engaging.

Some key reasons for, and learning benefits of, LIVE include:

• Effective communication is one of the College’s core Learner Attributes. LIVE enables students to consider, apply and practice public speaking skills, visual communication media and other communication techniques.
• Preparation for LIVE involves reflection on and synthesis of recent classroom or outdoor learning experiences across a range of curriculum areas. Widespread research tells us how important these higher order thinking skills are in consolidating deeper understanding of both content and conceptual learning.
• Understanding learning processes (metacognitive thinking) is as important as achieving learning outcomes when we keep both short term and long-term educational goals in mind.
• Development of a number of other Learner Attributes are to the fore in LIVE, perhaps most notably collaborative skill development, being courageous and being inclusive.

With all of this in mind, LIVE@Elphin is viewed as a valuable learning experience in itself for every student.  While it has a performance aspect to it, the process is more the goal rather than the product.

Families are warmly invited to attend LIVE@Elphin when it is led by their child’s class.

The Dash

Year Level, Class, House, Sport and conneXions pages on The Dash are all sources of school-home communication developed by Junior School staff.

Students and families are encouraged to visit these pages as avenues for both information on current and upcoming school activities and also as learning resources to support students.

Lachie Wright
Head of Junior School