2019 has been an enjoyable and successful year in the Junior School with the children having many interesting and enriching opportunities.

We welcomed Mrs Lodge and Mrs Crump to the Year 6 class. In Years 1 and 2, Mrs Cockcroft returned from maternity leave to work alongside Ms Payne. Mrs Jennifer Mundy also joined us as our Teacher Aide and Learning Support Tutor for the year.

Throughout 2019, the children have had opportunities to visit a range of EOTC events which include the Art Gallery, the Otago Museum, the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, Willis Street Gymnastics Centre, the Edgar Centre and the Portobello Aquarium to participate in support programmes for Health, Physical Education and Integrated Studies programmes.

All our senior students in Year 6 have taken on leadership roles. The PALs (Physical Activity Leaders), FBIs (Fun Buddies Indoors) and our Jump Jam leaders have done an amazing job of providing activities for our Junior School children. We have really appreciated their commitment to these roles. A big thank you to you all.

The Junior School staff have had intensive Professional Development in the new Digitech Curriculum which is to be in place in 2020. Our outside facilitator, Mr Anthony Breese, and Mrs Jane Pollard have ably led us through a range of plugged and unplugged activities which we have integrated into our learning programmes. This is a learning journey which will continue into 2020. The staff are grateful to the Parents’ Association who have given us funds to purchase a range of programmable floor robots and Lego to support us in this curriculum area.

Our Annual Swimming Carnival was held in Term One at Moana Pool. This event is a culmination of all the swimming skills the children have acquired during their swimming and aquatics lessons. It is always wonderful see the children supporting their Houses and each other during the events.

As part of Book Week we had a successful Scholastic Book fair which was ably coordinated by our Book Club administrator, Mrs Sherrie La Hood. Profits from this event assisted everyone in the Junior School. Another Christmas Book fair was held in November, allowing parents to purchase early Christmas presents.

In June, the Junior School children performed ‘The Greatest Show’ which was directed by Ms Anna Leese and accompanied by Samuel Leaper. The show included a variety of songs from The Greatest Showman and a selection from Disney. As usual, Constance Hall was packed with parents, grandparents and friends. The children are to be congratulated on their performances. They managed to showcase their many talents in a highly successful 2019 Musical Concert.

Elgregoe is one of our favourite visiting performers. Once again this year he enthralled us with his magical skills and was able to successfully share the anti-bullying message in a fun and entertaining way.

We had two Year 6 teams enter in the EPro8 Challenge. EPro8 is an engineering and problem solving competition where teams race to complete challenges. It was an exciting morning and we were proud of the team work, perseverance and creative thinking our students demonstrated. Our teams finished in third and fourth place and enjoyed the challenge.

We also had success with our Year 6 team who gained third place in the NumberWorks’nWords Year 6 O’Mathalon competition at the Edgar Centre

The children had the opportunity to gain valuable skills in a range of sports including Golf, Swimming and Gymnastics. These programmes have been led by professional sports coaches and certainly enhance our Physical Education programme. Students in Years 3-6 have also participated in ‘Have a Go’ days at the Edgar Centre.

Thank you to Mrs Graamans, parents and senior girls who have willingly given up their time to organise, coach and support the children and staff in a range of sports in 2019. These have included Hockey, Mini Sticks, Futsal, Touch Rugby, Tee Ball, Mini-ball, Netball and Flippa Ball.

The Cross Country, Hills Cluster, North Zone Athletics and the Otago Championship events have also provided opportunities for our students to participate in during the year.

The Junior school staff and pupils were very excited receive new furniture over the July holidays. Each class received a variety of new desks, chairs and storage. We now have vibrant new classes to teach and learn in.

Our Annual Junior School Spring Service was held in August in Constance Hall

with our Chaplain, Dr Jennifer Macleod leading us in a wonderful service of praise. The singing was superb and the Year 6 children wrote and presented lovely spring poems and prayers and the Junior Choir performed beautifully. Stunning spring artwork from our Year 6 class decorated the Hall and provided a beautiful backdrop to the Service.

We were delighted to have a new crossing system in place on Oban St. The students in Year 8 are now fully trained and it is wonderful to have a safe way of crossing the road during the busy early mornings drop offs and after school pickups.

Years 4-6 were able to get their sprints, long distance and relay races completed on a very cold, windy Athletics day at the Caledonian Ground. We left the years 0-3 at school in the warmth of their classrooms, hoping that a nice day would come in Term Four when we could hold some fun tabloid events.

October came and Years Five and Six were off to Berwick Camp where the students had a wonderful time participating in a range of individual and team challenges. Lots of fun was had by all and a huge thank you to Evan and all the parents who assisted us.

Early November saw us welcoming the new pupils to the Junior School for 2020. It was lovely to see the new students participating in activities with our students.

The Year 0-1 class ‘Mystery Trip’ was a fun celebration for the young students in Miss Eason’s class. There were lots of wonderful games to play and the day was filled with laughter and giggles. It was a perfect family outing.

The Crossing over Ceremony and Orientation day for our Year 6 girls, the Carol Service at First Church and the Junior School Prize-Giving and Concert quickly brought the year to a close.

Thank you to the teachers, students and parents. We all appreciate having such a caring and supportive Junior School family and look forward to 2020 with many new highlights and experiences to anticipate.

Mrs M. Hogg

Dean of the Junior School