Campus News
Spelling Bee success
We love lots of things at City, including spelling! This term, 142 City students from Years 3 to 8 have taken on the challenge of the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee and they have been showcasing their super skills in spelling words ranging from ‘tame’ to ‘consternation’.
Out of the tens of thousands of students who participated, 18 City students progressed to the State Finals, placing them in the top 100 spellers at their level. Congratulations to Eva (Year 4), Henry (Year 3), Sonny (Year 4), Angie (Year 5), Clayton (Year 5), Macey (Year 6), Evan (Year 7), Nathan (Year 7), Anaya (Year 8), Maya (Year 8), Mila (Year 8), Piya (Year 8), Ashwyn (Year 8), Henry (Year 8), Krish (Year 8) and Mackenzie (Year 8) on this wonderful achievement.
Will (Year 4) and Aariyan (Year 8), also placed first in Victoria for Years 7 and 8 and went one step further by qualifying for the National Finals. This invitation is only extended to the top three spellers at each level in each state. We are extremely proud of their efforts.
Happy holidays
We wish all our families a happy and safe holiday. Spending time together and creating new family memories is always special.
Students return on Monday, 2 October in summer or winter uniform for the first two weeks to allow for variations in the weather. We look forward to all the exciting learning that awaits us in Term 4.
Early Learning Centre
Exploring nature
Reception children have had an ongoing interest in insects, and they have been exploring where certain insects live. The children’s observations of snails and their gradual understanding of why we only see snails when it has been raining has been fascinating.
Further investigations will continue as we develop an understanding of these natural habitats and an awareness of how we can care for our environment.
Sustainable practices will continue to be embedded into the program and we will look at the effect our actions have on the habitats of different small creatures. Our ELC families will spend a lot of time observing bugs in their native habitat at home with their resident young entomologists!
Spring has sprung!
The change in season has brought changes to our Level 3 terrace garden. This has led to Pre-Prep discussions about the different flowers and plants we can see around us. During group time experiences, children have researched different seeds and predicted the types of plants that will grow from these seeds. Exploring life cycles has excited the children as they problem-solve what will happen next. We look forward to more exciting investigations within our natural environments.
Junior School
Fathers and Significant Men Morning
On Friday, 1 September many of our Junior School dads and special guests gathered at our City campus to join in some interactive and imaginative activities with their children. These included crafting paper planes, programming spheros and bee-bots, playing board games and creating live portraits! It was truly heart-warming to see everyone enjoying themselves and forging lasting memories in the process.
A fabulous Footy Colours Day
On Monday, 4 September, City students were excited to unite for the much-anticipated annual Footy Colours Day celebration. As part of the celebration, all ELC, JS, MS and SS students were encouraged to infuse their sports uniforms with the colours of their beloved AFL, NRL or soccer team. This touch of team spirit and camaraderie added a colourful dimension to the event and created some lasting memories for all who attended.
Year 3 Camp
With eagerness and enthusiasm City’s Year 3 students embarked on their first camp to Forest Edge in Neerim South. They embraced every aspect of camp life, whether it was tidying their cabins or mealtime responsibilities, braving the flying fox or joining environmental walks.
Camps promote the learning and fostering of independence, a growth mindset and problem-solving skills, all while venturing slightly outside of one’s comfort zone. We are so proud of how our students approached these activities and thank our City staff who attended and fully participated!
Middle School
Cooking up a storm
Term 3 has seen the successful launch of Haileybury City’s Years 7 and 8 Cooking Club. The brainchild of Year 8 Leader, Jack, the club is providing culinary education and connecting students through a love of food. The meals Jack has guided the students to cook include beef enchiladas, meatball pasta, shakshuka, honey-garlic glazed salmon and a very special chicken curry which came directly from the family recipe book of Krish (Year 8).
The Cooking Club is held each Monday on Zoom at 5.30 pm. The recipe and Zoom link can be accessed each week via the Heads of School page on Canvas. All are welcome to join.
GMS Campfire
During Wednesday Homeroom our Girls Middle School students have been participating in a cross-year level connectedness initiative. Led predominately by Year 8 students, our GMS students have enjoyed building relationships and learning from one another. Activities have included sharing the ‘5 of my life’ and a black out poetry creation centred around our theme of Fearlessly be Yourself.
We have also welcomed our Year 12 students to answer questions about the Senior School years. We look forward to continuing to build this successful program in Term 4.
Welcome to the Man Cave
On Thursday, 14 September, the Year 8 boys took part in a Man Cave incursion. Led by highly trained staff, Man Cave facilitates ideas about healthy masculinity for young men and the incursion was a valuable and important experience for our boys. The workshop focused on how students can build healthy and respectful relationships across all domains of their life and explored how to support others, empathy, conflict resolution, expressing needs, power, privilege and integrity.
In this workshop, the boys:
- Explored what defines a respectful relationship, especially with women
- Considered the quality of their own relationships
- Took responsibility for the impact of their words or actions on others
- Learnt to empathise with each other’s personal stories
- Learnt to manage and resolve conflict without violence
- Improved the quality of their relationships with each other.
Man Cave is an important program that helps to foster positive masculinity in our boys.
Caroline Merrick
Head of City
Haileybury Parents & Friends City (HPF City)
I can’t believe how fast this term has flown by. Maybe it is due to the fabulous Middle School musical, National Dance Championships, School camps and Father’s Day activities this term. It has certainly been a very busy time and I hope that all our families were able to enjoy some of the fun.
Second-hand uniform shop
Thank you to everyone who responded to the second-hand uniform survey. We received just under 100 responses which was fabulous. We are collating the results and will discuss these along with suggestions for improvement at the next HPF Committee meeting on Monday, 16 October at 7.30 pm. As always, everyone is welcome to attend. The Zoom code can be found in the myHaileybury announcements.
As you are all aware, we went live with the new point of sale system in the Second-hand Uniform Shop this term. Although there are a few teething issues, as with any new system, it is a huge improvement on the old manual system. There has been a great deal of work behind the scenes to get the information into the system. Thank you to Andrea Livingston, Michelle Li and Caterina Kuljis for their help relabeling all the items. It certainly was a big job! Going forward, we hope this new technology can provide the community with information about stock and products.
Term 4 opening dates for the shop will be posted on the myHaileybury app.
I hope everyone has a fabulous spring holiday break, enjoys the footy finals and returns to school refreshed for Term 4 on Monday, 2 October.
As always, feel free to email HPF City should you have any suggestions or comments.
Melissa Fisher
President, Haileybury Parents & Friends City
