Year 6 Deliver ‘Second Step’

Last week, the Year 6 boys delivered a lesson from the ‘Second Step’ Program to the other classes. It was their first attempt at doing so and they accomplished their task with great success.

Working in groups of 5 or 6, the boys were given 2 hours to prepare their lessons. They were encouraged to design activities that involved as much student involvement as possible, incorporating visual aids, technology and design thinking activities such as ‘Think, Pair, Share’.

The majority of the lessons involved how we interact with others in our lives. The feelings we share, the resilience we show and the perspectives we take were all explored throughout the activities.

The lessons lasted approximately 30 minutes and judging from the levels of enthusiasm from both the students and the teachers of each grade, the boys did a wonderful job. The level of care and commitment from the Year 6 boys was evident throughout the planning and delivery process and they were rewarded with wonderful feedback.

One of the most interesting aspects of the whole process was the empathy shown by the boys towards the teachers and what they go through on a daily basis. They certainly gained a little more understanding of what it takes to deliver engaging and well-planned activities that deliver an important message for the other boys to understand, however, this was not a deterrent, as they can’t wait to do it again in Week 8.

They learned a great deal about themselves as peer tutors and how other people can react to that tutelage. We, their teachers, were extremely proud of the boys.

Mr Edwards and Mr English – Year 6 Teachers

SRC Thank You

The SRC would like to thank everyone for their support of our fundraiser for Breast Cancer.

                     ‘Wear Your Favourite Jersey’                         

A total of $354.70 was raised with staff and students wearing a colourful selection of jerseys on Wednesday 18 May.

This money will be forwarded to the McGrath Foundation to help support patients with breast cancer.

Newington Lindfield Student Representative Council

Foster the Love of Reading

How Do We Foster the Love of Reading in Our Children?

Why do we read? 

Books make it possible for learners of all ages to be amazed by real and imaginary worlds. Reading is a way of opening doors to the world, a way of visiting times and places that most of us will never have the time to fully explore, allowing curiosity to develop and a way of discovering all manner of facts and fiction. It is a natural healthy part of our everyday life and just as important as exercise.

Fostering a love of reading in our children sets them up for a lifetime of happiness, success, learning and enjoyment. Research shows that reading for enjoyment is important for educational, social and personal development.

It can also impact on children and adults achieving their goals and in raising their self-esteem.  

Reading skills lay the foundation for children’s success inside, outside and beyond school. Evidence shows the more we read the better readers we become.  

Reading comprehension ensures understanding of the written word and opens the doors for future success. 

As teachers with books and reading materials in our classrooms or as parents with books and reading materials around the home, we are building an awareness of written messages. When we are out and about we give our children exposure to all manner of reading materials, information, entertainment and fun.

No matter how young a child might be they are never too young to enjoy a story, engage in pictures and illustrations or share the simple enjoyment of books. 

Reading experiences are all around us. We can ‘read’ the television, movies, video games, the internet, e-books, road signs, advertisements and bill boards to name just a few. We need to encourage the children in our care to engage critically in a variety of reading experiences so they can make their own judgements in life around them.

Some ideas to foster the love of reading…..

• model reading – it is important for children to read with both their parents and to see their parents reading independently
• read to your child
• read out loud together
• take it in turns to read a book together
• listen to books on CD, take advantage of the e-books available through Borrow Box in the school library for Yrs 2 – 6
• have unlimited access to a variety of books in the home either purchased or borrowed from the library
• have a library date with your child and allow them to make their own book selection
• allocate a reading session time slot for the family each week
• develop a ‘comfy’ corner in the home set up with pillows and blankets and designated for reading only
• record your child’s favourite story so they can read along with you
• for younger readers include a simple note in their lunch box
• create reading ‘scavenger hunts’ – a note to be read that provides directions or hints to find the next note.
• cook together and get your child to read the recipe for you
• when shopping, create a shopping list for your child and encourage them to read the list and match the item with a product label
• encourage your child to keep a diary or journal of activities and share with the family
• when reading the newspaper give your child the comic section to read or for younger children let them make up their own story to match the comic pictures
• Make a weekly timetable together and display

Reading and writing work together as learning experiences so it is important to encourage children when they have finished reading a book to engage in further activities that enhance their learning. Activities that are centred on the book such as writing a brief synopsis for their friends as to why they should read the book or perhaps adding another chapter or re writing the ending. Adding another character can also be fun as is changing the format of the story for example from a narrative to a graphic novel or comic.

Finally, apart from sharing books with family, friends and the neighbourhood children, we can further develop our global consciousness by sharing our love of reading further afield. There are several organisations that welcome children’s books in good condition that can be forwarded to disadvantaged children both in Australia and overseas continuing the love of reading to all.

Katrina James – Learning Enhancement

Kindergarten – Living Things Inquiry

Kindergarten are enjoying their unit of inquiry into living things. The Central Idea is, ‘Human choices may impact living things and their habitats’.

To start the unit, the boys inquired into living and non-living things. They enjoyed going on a living and non-living thing hunt around the school and recorded their findings using the camera and ‘Photo Mess’ app on their iPads.

The boys worked hard in small groups to create polar, desert, rainforest and ocean habitats inside the Kindy classroom. It was wonderful to observe the boys working collaboratively and sharing their fantastic thinking with each other.

We then observed the local habitat surrounding our school. We created a data chart to record our observations of the living things we spotted and their habitats. This then led to tremendous discussions about the ways that we can care for these animals. It was fantastic to see boys keenly picking up plastic wrappers on the playground to prevent birds from eating them and to stop the plastic potentially blowing into the storm water drain and making its way into local waterways.

Our excursion to Calmsley Hill City Farm was a huge hit and supported our line of inquiry into caring for living things and the connection between animals and humans.  The boys enjoyed patting baby farm animals, milking a cow, watching the sheep dogs round up sheep and seeing a sheep being shorn. One of the highlights of the day was the tractor ride. The boys loved going over all the bumps!

Belinda Smallhorn – Kindergarten Teacher

Stage 1 – Choices Humans Make to Support the Earth’s Resources

Stage 1

Stage 1 have been exploring their current Unit of Inquiry’s central idea, ‘People can make choices to support the sustainable use of Earth’s resources.’ This started with the boys deciding what humans actually ‘need’ rather than ‘want’ in order to survive (who knew that an Xbox wasn’t essential to human survival?!) The next step was to define what the Earth’s resources are, in order to identify how humans use them.

Food and drink were two of the most obvious choices for human needs and the boys learnt that both are not as freely available as they had previously thought. Although not necessarily defined as ‘finite’ resources, the boys learnt that water in particular can be hard to source and needs to be managed responsibly.

The boys went on an excursion to Warragamba Dam in order to learn about Sydney’s water supply. The dam itself was amazing, 150m deep and with a water supply four times the size of Sydney Harbour!  The boys were absolutely blown away by it’s sheer size. But more importantly, the boys began to learn about sustainability from Rusty, WaterNSW’s excellent education officer. The boys learnt about how the dam water is kept clean, how water levels are maintained and how the water gets from the dam to their taps. They also learnt about the importance of conserving water, particularly as Sydney’s population will grow in the future.

The idea that some resources are finite and need to be sustained responsibly can be a challenging concept to teach students of a younger age, but by going to Warragamba Dam the boys were able to experience it first hand.

In the coming weeks the boys will continue to explore the idea of sustainability and the need to manage finite resources responsibly. We hope that this in turn will encourage the boys to take action, one of the five essential elements of IB Primary Years Program.

Sam Watson and Leonie Russell – Stage 1 Teachers

Music Weekend 2016

On Saturday 21 May, Lindfield and Wyvern Prep choirs met up at the Senior School campus in Stanmore to rehearse for the Founders Day concert. The theme for this year’s concert is ‘ Sweet 16.’ The two songs we are singing are ‘Sailing,’ which was dedicated to Jessica Watson, a girl who sailed the entire world when she was 16. The other song we are singing is ‘Hot Chocolate.’ Mrs South had the genius idea to use the ‘sweet’ from ‘Sweet 16’ which is how this song links in with the theme for the concert. It was lots of fun rehearsing and learning the harmonies and melodies to the song. It sounded great! We were lucky enough to have breaks throughout the day where we got fruit and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We had lots of fun throughout the day and can’t wait for Founders Concert.

Adi Apana ( 6B) and Harry Firth (6B ) – Music Monitors

On Sunday 22 May Mrs South got the whole string ensemble to go to Stanmore for a music Weekend. We played with Wyvern Strings. We worked on three pieces. – ‘Into the Sky’, ‘Hyperdrive’, ‘Mama Mia’. It was a great experience and our lunch was even provided for us. There was a sausage sizzle and ice cream. Overall it was a great day. Thank you to Mrs South for organising us to get there and also for her and all the other music teachers giving up their weekend to help us.

Jack Middleton – String Music Monitor

At 9:00 on 22 May 2016 Newington Lindfield and Wyvern boys in the Bands went to a music weekend at Newington Stanmore. At first both school bands got together into a group and practiced the piece that both school bands had only just recently received, ‘Kingdom Of The Sun And Moon’. After one hour we went to our instrumental tutors and we worked on the specific area that we needed to work on. Next, we went to recess. After recess we went back to the full band rehearsal for another one hour and then back to our tutors. Next, we went to lunch. After lunch for the last time we went to the full band rehearsal and then went to the tutor to finish off the day. The music weekend made myself and many other people more skillful with the pieces we have been given. 

Caleb Strawbridge – Band Music Monitor 

A Message from the Head of Lindfield Campus

Parental Involvement – What Works!

I have read a few education articles recently, focusing on the types of parental involvement that have the most positive effects on student achievement.  The research findings confirm what many of us think to be the case, but there were also some tips which we may not readily associate with increased student achievement.  The good news is that many are subtle and most of them we are, as parents, probably already doing. 

While many of us envisage parent involvement as time spent in the building of our children’s schools, this is not always the case.  While I do not want to down-play the importance of any type of parent input (or how much we rely on our P and F committee!!), what we do at home has been found to be as beneficial or even more beneficial to our children than volunteering at Lindfield, showing up at school functions or being seen in and around school.  This is good news for those of us who may work long hours and lack the flexibility to ‘be seen’ on campus.  

Student achievement, in the case of this research encompasses; increased attendance, higher grades/test scores and better preparation for higher education (university). Here is an outline of some of the aspects found to be most beneficial to our students. 

• Monitoring homework
• Making sure children attend school
• Rewarding efforts
• Talking up the idea of going to university

Homework activities that encourage parent-student communication are great.  The significance of discussions with our children about the concepts they are grappling with in class can not be underestimated.  So, while independence with homework is always encouraged, we need to know and talk with our boys about, their learning at school.  Homework is a great segue into these discussions. 

We all know about the value of rewarding efforts with Lindfield’s wholehearted commitment to developing a ‘growth mindset’ in our boys.  Any adult involved in the development of a child’s academic and social/emotional potential needs to be mindful of how they reward them.  Focusing on how commitment and effort leads to advancement and achievement goes a long way to fostering a growth mindset both at school, and at home. 

Some of the subtler ways in which parents contribute to their child’s achievement at school are through: 

• Parental expectations
• Parent/child communication
• Parental style 

Both teachers and parents need to be mindful of how they communicate their expectations to children.  The expectations we are considering here are not the idea that the boys must ‘live up to’ particular standards, but rather the ones understood by the child without them being overtly pushed.  What was found in these studies to be most beneficial is the understanding of parental sacrifice to save for higher education, low-stress communication and a general agreement between parents and child about the value of higher education. Valuing education and expecting that is is an on-going process that does not stop when schooling is complete, is a subtle understanding that we must encourage.  Life-long learning is key and pointing out to our kids how we have continued to build on our own education over time provides them with a great model. 

Parenting styles and parent-child communication were also mentioned in the articles as having a significant effect on student achievement and success.  Our high expectations must be communicated in a way that is loving and supportive.  The big message here is that time spent with our children is more important than many of the more traditional ideas we have of parental involvement.  That is, time playing games, watching movies, engaging in hobbies etc. is as important than our involvement ‘on campus’ or ‘in the building’. 

To quote from one of the articles, “Academic involvement practices themselves, unless accompanied by love, may have limited impact on children’s academic achievement and well-being.”  So, the message is clear.  In order to boost our boys’ achievement at school, we need to support them at home.  While much of what we communicate about our values is quite subtle, the time we spend showing an interest in their academic development and personal interests cannot be underestimated. 

Jeynes, W. (2010). The Salience of the Subtle Aspects of Parental Involvement and Encouraging That Involvement: Implications for School-Based Programs. Teachers College Record, (Vol. 112, #3, p. 747-774)

Barth, P. (2011). Research: What Can Parents Do?  American School Board Journal (Vol. 198, #11, p. 32-33)

Ben Barrington-Higgs – Head of Lindfield Campus

Faith Matters

Conviction

Howard Hendricks says, “A belief is something you’ll argue about. But a conviction is something you’ll die for.” Knowing what to do (knowledge), when to do it (wisdom), and how to do it (ability), is worthless without the conviction to actually do it (obedience). People without conviction follow the crowd, which is why Paul wrote, “Don’t let the world…squeeze you into its…mould.” If we don’t take a stand for something, we’ll fall for everything! Ironically, a lot of us have strong convictions about weak issues such as rugby, fashion, etc., while having weak convictions about major issues such as what’s right and what’s wrong before God. Conviction helps us grow spiritually, but growth requires time and effort. Without a deep conviction of our need to grow spiritually, we become discouraged and give up. Don’t give up on God … He hasn’t given up on you!

Rev Peter Morphew – College Chaplain

P&F News

What’s happening in your P&F and Committees

Hello from your P&F

Wow! It is hard to believe that we are nearly half way through the year.

We have lots of exciting events coming up, have welcomed Jennifer Kahn our Prep Shop Manager and have a new policy in place to give parents more access to second hand uniform stock moving forward.  Please read on…….

MOTHERS DAY BREAKFAST

Our lovely Year 3 parents hosted a beautiful Mothers Day breakfast and stall for all our wonderful mums and boys at Lindfield.  The homemade food added such a nice touch and everyone had a great morning together.  Thank you so much Year 3 for your hard work.

MINI OLYMPICS – Monday 20 June (back up date Wednesday 22 June)

We are all looking forward to holding the Mini Olympics again to raise much needed funds for Special Olympics Australia.  It is a truly rewarding day for everyone involved, especially the boys, and a valuable way for them to understand a little better the meaning of “Service Learning”. 

Tim Davies (son Nicholas in Year 1) has made a fantastic thermometer which is being used to track the funds as they come in during assemblies.  We would encourage all the boys to participate in raising funds for this worthwhile cause.  Forms and funds are due back on or before Monday 13 June.

If a fundraising letter and form hasn’t made it home in your son(s) bag, please contact Jenny in the school office.

GRANDPARENTS/SPECIAL FRIENDS DAY – Tuesday 21 June

Our Year 4 and Kindergarten parents are busy organising Grandparents day.

In order to make their job as easy as possible, we would please ask that RSVP’s be returned for catering purposes.  Invitations will be distributed via a school e-mail and Spaces.

It is always fantastic seeing the boys interact and look after their visitors on the day.  We look forward to a special morning together.

BACK TO NEWINGTON DAY – Saturday 30 July

Each year the school gathers at Stanmore for Back to Newington Day to celebrate what it means to have a united community, working together for the boys.  It is an open invitation event to the local and wider community, welcoming everyone back to Newington.

With sport rounds, market stalls, food stalls and activities, it is a great day to come and be part of our wider community.

For the first time, our Lindfield campus will run a stall at “Back to Newington Day”.  The P&F, along with our Sports Committee, is currently working on our stall.  A fantastic Sports Pack will be on offer to win, plus ball sports and prizes. 

In addition, the Stanmore P&F runs an electronic silent auction in the period leading up to and on the day, for which we are able to donate items.  If anyone in the Lindfield community has any goods or services that may be suitable for this, please let me know on 0411 047 816.

All funds raised from our stall and the Lindfield donated auction items will come back to our Lindfield campus.

If anyone is able to volunteer on our stall for a short period on the day, we would love to hear from you.  Further information will be sent via our Class Parents closer to the event, however, for more information on Back to Newington Day, please visit:

http://www.newington.nsw.edu.au/community/parent-support/back-to-newington-day/

We look forward to seeing you there on the day.

Once again, thank you to all our wonderful volunteers.  Your help enables us to provide services and support to our boys and school community.

Julianne Ashworth – President, Lindfield P&F

Prep Shop News

Hello Everyone. 

My name is Jennifer Kahn and I am taking over Managing the Prep Shop from the lovely Kylie Strawbridge.  I am very happy to be here and have been trying to absorb the wealth of information that Kylie has accrued during her time as Manager.  I’d like to remind you of the lovely crested items we have for sale, these include umbrellas, toys, balls, car stickers, aprons and many other items. Please feel free to pop in and have a look. I have met a few of our wonderful Volunteers and look forward to meeting the others soon.

SECOND-HAND ITEMS AT THE PREP SHOP

This term we will be starting to offer second-hand items as a regular option for parents to purchase. The second-hand stock will be available to purchase on the first Monday of the month during term time. The opening time will be 2:45pm to allow for a bit of browsing through Second-hand before the Prep Shop officially opens at 3pm. At present in stock we have lots of winter shorts: 22 pairs of size 6 and 14 pairs of size 8! We also have 13 size 6 tracksuit tops in case anyone needs a spare! All second-hand items have been thoroughly checked for stains or tears, as we only want to sell what is in very good condition.

The aim of selling the second-hand items at the Prep Shop is to create a community of donations and in return low price options for parents, which is especially useful when uniform items get lost. For example $15.00 for winter shorts and $15.00 for a tracksuit top can be a relief. Second-hand price lists are available from the office.

This will also be a simple fundraiser for Newington Lindfield. Please do drop-off any donations to the Prep Shop at normal opening times, or the Office. They will be gratefully received.

Opening dates for the rest of 2016 are:

Term 2 – Monday 6 June (That’s next Monday!)

Term 3 – Monday 1 August

• Monday 5 September (3 weeks before end of term – ready for Summer in Term 4)

Term 4 – Monday 7 November

If you have any questions regarding second-hand stock at Newington Lindfield please contact Pippa Dorricott: pippa.dorricott@gmail.com.

Jennifer Kahn – Prep Shop Manager

Learning Self-Defence in the Martial Arts Club

There has been a large increase in the number of K-2 students joining the club this year, with numbers equally strong for Term 2.  Of course, we are not surprised at this since we like to have a good time teaching and we know that when our students are having fun too, they learn a great deal more ☺︎.

Speaking of fun, we have been steadily working through our syllabus of self-defence techniques – sneakily disguised as games.  Students approaching the middle to higher grades must work on combining techniques, i.e. hands PLUS legs/feet.  For any age, this requires considerable concentration, and since it is rare to do a technique perfectly the first time, we remind the boys to be patient with themselves and just keep practising. We are so proud of these little men, they work so hard to get it right!  And as you may know, our animal patches are for when we see them doing their best – remembering that some things are easier for some of us than for others.

We also work with the young gentlemen to understand the discipline of personal responsibility, starting with how to behave towards others, and small things such as putting on one’s own shoes and socks for the younger boys, to ensuring protective gear is brought each week for the older boys.

With Mr Barrington-Higgs, we are keen for students to join our FREE Leadership Program.  Leaders receive a booklet and are coached on leadership and instructing techniques for a minimum 10-class commitment. Minimum qualification Y3 & above Orange Belt.  For further information, please visit our website, and follow the link to ‘Leadership & Instructor Courses’, or contact us directly.

As always, follow our Facebook page for insights and events, or feel free talk to us about how our martial arts improves self-discipline and makes young leaders.

Bufu ikkan

Marice Knapman

Principal

Evolution Jujutsu @ Fushicho Martial Arts

Mob:   0416 13 13 25

Web:   fushicho.com.au

Mandarin – Practicing Skills

In Mandarin Classes – How do we practice our language skills?

Learning Chinese is very different from other Roman alphabet languages. By doing so, it encourages the boys to step out of their comfort zone, challenge the ways they learn and develop the skills to inquire about matters from several different perspectives.

Kindergarten boys are learning about family pets in Mandarin. We read story books in the class and we have played some fun language games using handmade animal dice. The boys took turns to throw the dice and construct a sentence using the name of the animal. They practiced and demonstrated great team work skill during the game. The boys were able to help each other out with the pronunciation and are genuinely motivated to learn a new language – it is looked at as a new way to view the world!

Kahoot is an online learning tool. It contains collections of questions on different topics and, in real-time, players can join in and play a friendly game or two against one another. It is a fun, formative way to assess a students’ learning and it is also very popular across all the grades.  As an online tool that can be accessed away from the school campus, students are encouraged to continue learning in a constructive way. 

During the recent peer teaching session, some Year 4 boys attempted to come up with their own questions and answers to assess their classmates’ learning. Displaying initiative and leadership indicate that they are progressing in their learning journey quite significantly and, in a great display of co-operation and mateship, they are helping bring along any members of the class who might be having difficulty.  In essence, they are taking what they have learned in the class to the next level.

In our Mandarin classes we use a wide variety of methods and tools to practice our language skills.  That, in and of itself, does not create success – it is the student’s willingness to learn and actively participate which will lead to greatness!

Eva Angel – Mandarin Teacher

Stage 2 – Where we are in Place and Time

Stage two are inquiring into a unit of work from the Transdisciplinary Theme: Where we are in place and time. They are learning through the concepts of function, causation and perspective to help them understand that ‘Human migration is a response to challenges, risks and opportunities and affects communities’.

To provoke the boys thinking and engage them in their learning they were visited by two parents from the school community guest speakers ‘Sandy Tran and Viet Dang’. Sandy and Viet shared their incredible stories of migrating to Australia from Vietnam when they were only very young children. 30 of the boys were asked to volunteer to sit on a mat which was the size of the boat that Viet travelled on when he left his country in the middle of the night. They were very intrigued to learn about the process a refugee goes through in order to be able to live safely in another country. This encouraged all of the boys to be both reflective and open-minded in order to show empathy for the experiences others’ have been through.

They are continuing to learn about Australian Migration over time, acknowledging the Aboriginal perspectives and the British Colonisation. The boys are beginning to find out about the different reasons people migrate including ‘The Free settlers’, ‘Post-War Europeans’ and ‘Migrants and Refugees’.

Angela Tonkin and Shayne Pollard – Stage 2 Teachers

SAVE THE DATE – Lindfield Music Concert – 4 August 2016

This year’s Lindfield Concert will be held on 4 August. The concert begins at 6pm and is in Centenary Hall on the Stanmore Campus. Every boy in the school is performing in at least 2 items. The boys are beginning to learn some of the songs and the school ensembles have started rehearsing their pieces. Please make sure you put the date in your diary.

Vanessa South – Music Teacher