Prep School

I would like to take the opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the Churchie community for an enjoyable, busy and successful Term 2. As the holidays are fast approaching, it is timely to reflect on what has been an extremely busy and eventful term.

We returned from the Easter holidays to commemorate Anzac Day, a significant day in the Australian and Churchie calendar. The boys did a fantastic job and acquitted themselves well throughout the community service. We officially commenced our house meetings with our newly appointed housemasters. Our Year 3 to 6 boys had the opportunity to elect our first ever house and vice captains. Year 6 joined St Margaret’s in a leadership day furthering our philosophy of boys learning to lead. Our parents had the opportunity to meet with our teachers to discuss the boys’ progress from Term 1. We held our annual Interhouse Cross Country carnival, and our junior cross country squad took first place in the Junior GPS Cross Country Championships for the third year in a row. We hosted a wonderful Mother’s Day High Tea and enjoyed performances by our talented musicians at our choral, band and strings concerts, along with performances at our Prep Solos event. Our boys have enjoyed chess tournaments, academic competitions, Readers Cup and G.A.T.E.WAYS opportunities. We again joined St Margaret’s at St John’s Cathedral for a service for boys who were baptised and admitted to Holy Communion. We have also had our fair share of incursions and excursions. The boys have loved their Thursday afternoon sports and Saturday morning tennis and football fixtures. We had a large number of entries in the Head of Prep Reading Challenge, encouraging boys to participate in reading. We have witnessed our lovely weekly chapel services and celebrated the boys’ accomplishments at assemblies. It was fantastic to see our dads involved in the end-of-term sausage sizzle—a fantastic community event for the boys. This Saturday, 36 boys will travel to New Zealand to participate in our sports tour, and I am sure they will be wonderful ambassadors for our school.

In our last week, the boys have enjoyed the Scooter and Ripstick Day, and we will come together as a Prep School for our end-of-term Eucharist Service. This week, we will have held several mini showcases for our parents to highlight the academic work the boys have enjoyed this term. Our finale for the term will be our annual Billy Cart Grand Prix, which supports the wonderful work of World Vision.

Among all this, we successfully engaged our boys in the classroom and challenged them personally and academically, resulting in personal growth and development. I am so proud our boys are living embodiments of the School’s four tenets and enjoying the holistic offerings of the School.

I thank all boys, staff and parents for their efforts, energy and enthusiasm during Term 2 and for what has been another great chapter in the 2024 school year. I hope all boys enjoy some rest and relaxation during the holidays and return to school well-prepared for a challenging Semester 2. As always, it will be busy! Don’t forget your holiday haircut for the start of Term 3.

Value of the week: kindness

Kindness is showing you care and doing some good to make life better for others. Be thoughtful about people’s needs. Show love and compassion to someone who is sad or needs your help. When you are tempted to be cruel, to criticise or tease, decide to be kind instead.

Attribute of the week: knowledgeable

When you are knowledgeable, you explore concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance. In so doing, you acquire in-depth knowledge and develop understanding across a broad and balanced range of disciplines.

Japanese Celebration of Learning

We have been having lots of fun in Japanese classes this term. The Year 3 classes completed their movie review of My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Year 4 classes looked at the key features of Japanese houses, Year 5 classes looked at the key features of the solar system, and Year 6 classes looked at shopping and ordering food. Each of these units of enquiry ended with a culminating presentation where the boys spoke in Japanese about these topics. They were amazing, clever and creative. We recently showcased some of these in Assembly. Well done, boys.

Year 1

As part of our ‘How the world works’ unit, Year 1 has thoroughly enjoyed participating in weekly experiments and hands-on activities. The boys have made tornados in bottles, playdough, melted wax crayons, observed light through different materials, placed gummy bears in different liquids and tasted different food. Throughout this unit, the boys were encouraged to use their senses and employ adjectives to describe their observations. To end the term, the boys will be making popcorn to engage all their senses!

Year 4

At Year 4’s recent Tiny Home Showcase, students unveiled their innovative, sustainable tiny home designs, tackling pressing issues like climate change, housing shortages and the soaring cost of living. The event was not just a display of creativity but a testament to the power of youthful ingenuity in addressing real-world challenges. The boys showcased their creativity to their parents and peers, while also effectively communicating their knowledge of sustainable building practices and how the properties of materials inform their use in building design. This initiative not only fostered environmental consciousness amongst the cohort but also instilled valuable, creative problem-solving skills in these young men.

Year 5 Showcase

Written by Huxley Callianiotis (Year 5).

This term in Year 5, we have based our learning on how scientific discoveries impact our world. Throughout our unit of inquiry, we learned about states of matter, light and Earth’s place in space. The culmination of the unit was to present a showcase of our learning to the wider community. All the boys were given the opportunity to choose a topic and create an inquiry question that would drive their research.

The Year 5 students did many things to prepare for the big day of the showcase. Firstly, we chose a topic of interest based on the unit of inquiry that we have been working on. Shortly after the students had chosen their topic, we went on to research the topic using our key concepts or our own lines of inquiry. For example, form is a key concept, and a question would be ‘What is the solar system?’ Alternatively, we investigated a line of inquiry such as ‘An inquiry into the key features of our solar system.’ Additionally, to the key concept of form, we inquired into the function and change within each of our topics.

After we gathered all our information about the topics, we found images and labelled diagrams to enhance our showcases. The boys could also make a flowchart, timeline, model or PowerPoint presentation to further support our understanding. The key to the showcase was to create an eye-catching presentation that would grab the audience’s attention. Some of the students used their extra time at home, during a homework task, to do something like make a quiz or diorama. Finally, the students presented their astonishing work not only to the parents but also to boys in other grades and the wider school community.

The showcase was a wonderful experience for Year 5 and helped us become ready for tasks in the future, especially the Year 6 PYP Exhibition. The chattering of all the Year 5 boys across the classrooms could be heard far and wide across the school. Let me tell you, there definitely would have been some very sore throats on Monday afternoon. Year 5 just had to get all their fascinating knowledge out! I had a great time presenting my information and sharing as much as I could. I tested the parents to see if they were listening by adding in a fun quiz! I heard all the interesting speakers talking away to the parents, and I felt proud of my classmates. Nobody was shy, instead, the students all gave speaking a go and tried their best. I assure you that everybody had a wonderful time on Monday afternoon presenting their expertise on scientific discovery to an engaging audience.

Readers Cup

Our Year 6 Readers’ Cup team participated in the regional competition last Wednesday. The team consisting of Arthur Bickle, Harry Burke, Finnegan Kilpatrick, Oscar Mountford and Owen Shen achieved top scores in two of the five rounds of questions and made us very proud with their outstanding effort. Of 30 teams from all over the city, they came seventh and were the highest-ranking boys school. Most importantly, they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. 

Holiday borrowing

This week we are doing holiday borrowing with all classes. All boys are encouraged to borrow longer books to enjoy over the holidays. Year 3 to 6 boys have the option of borrowing an additional book.

A visit to your local Brisbane City Council Library is free, and it’s a great way to help your children continue reading over the holidays.

Book Week 2024

Book Week reading celebrations at Churchie will be held in August this year. Author visits have been booked for all year levels, and we’re getting very excited about the 2024 theme, ‘Reading is Magic.’ This year’s Book Week and Book of the Year information can be found on the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) website.

Our Book Week costume parade for the Reception to Year 2 students will be held on Monday 19 August. Boys are asked to come to school, dressed as their favourite book character. More information about the book parade will be sent home early in Term 3.

Uniform requirements last day of school

On the last day of school, Thursday 13 June, all boys are to wear their blue and grey uniforms to school. Students in Years 4 to 6 may change into their costumes for the Billy Cart Grand Prix after morning tea.

Semester 1 reporting

Prep School Semester 1 reports will be issued via myChurchie. The reports will be available in the afternoon on Tuesday 18 June. There will be a myChurchie notification when they are available. Please note that hard-copy reports are not issued.

Oaklands car parking

As part of the legislative requirements, Oaklands Childcare requires car parking facilities for the operation of the centre. These carpark spaces are reserved for Oaklands parents and are not available to Prep School parents. We thank you in advance for your cooperation in adhering to these guidelines as we move into Semester 2.

Mark Wyer
Head of Preparatory School