Weekly Update 18 september

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Aristotle

Do not confine your children to your own learning for they were born in another time.

Hebrew Proverb

One of the skills we want to develop in our students is critical thinking. So, what exactly is critical thinking (as opposed to any other kind)? Very broad definitions include ‘thinking that has a purpose’ or ‘reflective judgement’. A more useful definition is ‘thinking which seeks to explore questions about existing knowledge for issues which are not clearly defined or for which there are no clear-cut answers.

In order to learn how to think critically, students need to develop skills in:

• Interpreting; understanding the significance of data and clarifying its meaning.
• Analysing; breaking information down and recombining it in different ways.
• Reasoning; creating an argument through logical steps.
• Evaluating; judging the worth, credibility or strength of information or opinions.

One of the joys of being a teacher is seeing students beginning to find original and innovative arguments, solutions to problems or ideas to explore.

We often say that we are preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist. Their ability to be creative, innovative and original and yet logical, reasoned and discerning will be of immense advantage to them as they enter the world of work.

I remember one student who went to an engineering firm for two weeks work experience at the end of Year 10. She is a bright girl and the firm soon realised that they could give her more to do than photocopying and routine tasks. They sat her down in front of an engineering drawing on sophisticated software for an underground vent to keep cables cool. They simply said, “This design doesn’t work, have a play with it, see what you can do.” A few hours later she said, “If you turn it upside down and then do this, and that, I reckon it might work.” And it did.

Anne Coutts
Principal

Open lines of communication with our children and our students is, I find, always a healthy approach.

This becomes particularly important when the more difficult conversations need to take place. Relational trust is a most important base when navigating ‘troubled waters’ but also when having those great relaxed conversations about the many positive things happening in their lives.

A spirited but very reasoned discussion took place in my class this week regarding the state of political debate in recent days. While I am not going into the details, the level of general and specific knowledge of the students was most impressive. I presumed from some comments made that the discussions at home had helped the students involved enter into a very mature conversation.

It also occurred to me that we sometimes underestimate how much of the political or social discourse is being taken in and that, for some students, it may be quite distressing or challenging. This is particularly true of the images we have been witnessing in recent weeks both here and overseas.

A colleague often quotes that great scene towards the end of The Chamber of Secrets where Professor Dumbledore compares Harry Potter to Tom Riddle (who crossed to the dark side), “Exactly,” said Dumbledore, beaming, “Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” My colleague uses this example to suggest that “Today, whoever and wherever we are, the children of our world call us to make choices based on love and courage. We can’t say, “Someone else will do it, for if not us, then who?” We can’t say, “I’ll leave it to another time,” for if not now, then when? We can’t say’ “It’s too far away.” For if peace is to be, it has to be here, not there. These choices will show us what we truly are and history will be the judge. Open communication about matters of local, national and international significance as well as what is happening in our student’s lives builds resilience and depth of meaning in relationships.

Congratulations to our Senior Council Sports Captain, Olivia Sutton who returned last Sunday from the International Olympic Commission’s Youth Forum in Piestany, Slovakia. Olivia was selected by the Australian Olympic Committee as one of eight students in the Australian contingent to attend the 10th International Pierre de Coubertin Youth Forum.

Congratulations also to the Gabriel Singers who performed Melbourne over the weekend. Congratulations also to Emily Turner, Laura Cockerill and Amelia Service who placed 2^nd in a competitive Year 7/8 ACT judging event of the Young ICT Explorers Competition at ANU on Saturday. The girls produced a game, programmed in Scratch, about the dangers and risks of Coal Mining in our environment. Well done. (See photo gallery below).

Good luck to the sporting teams in their respective Grand Finals this weekend. 

Peter Milligan
Head of Senior School

Last weekend, the Junior School was well represented at the ACT Young ICT Explorers Challenge, held at the ANU.

This is a competition that allows students to create an ICT project of their choice—one that solves a real problem! The projects were judged by ICT professionals and academics. Each project was assessed on its creativity, uniqueness, level of difficulty, quality and project documentation. 

CGGS Junior School had 10 entries from Years 3-6 and I was very pleased to observe how we boosted the numbers of girls! Each team, or individual presented amazing projects and we were proud to win in all primary divisions. The teams were mentored by our ICT Coordinator, Alex Galland. The winning teams have now been invited to the national final, where they will be judged against winning teams from all states and territories.

With our push towards STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics), we have been re-evaluating our core curriculum and also looking for as many opportunities as possible for our students to pursue these areas. The ICT Explorers Challenge is ideal for this purpose. 

This week, following the competition, the teams held a mini Exhibition for the School so that their work could be celebrated by students and staff in the Junior School.

Please read below the students’ descriptions of their projects and the results.

YEAR 5 /6 SECTION

Speak Up For the Animals who Can’t   (1^st place)

Lauren Faulder, Evie Lane, Emily Nguyen

Speak Up is a free, web-based application that aims to teach children and teenagers about how they can make a difference towards saving the orangutans from extinction. The application starts by introducing this incredible species (the orangutans), then explains the major issues and finally teaches the user about how they can make a difference based on a quiz.

No Texting While Driving   (1^st place)

Caitlin Richards

I hope to achieve an app in which will prevent an adult driver from texting whilst driving a vehicle. When the app is running and the driver receives a message the app will speak the number in which the message is from then, it will speak the message. The app will also send a custom message back to whomever texts you.

Be A Friend. Don’t be a Bully    (2^nd place)

Catherine Hardman, Indiana Saunders, Penelope Robson

We making a short animated video clip, in the form of a catchy song that provides helpful messaging to try and help prevent bullying among girls. We have chosen to use the ICT tool of a video clip because we think this is an appropriate way to catch the attention of young people. We aim to develop some catchy messaging for young girls about respecting differences in other people and about being patient with each other and how we need to be supportive and friendly to each other.

Our School  (3^rd place)

Tess Chung, Maia Hehir, Ashwini Sivakumar, Lauren Jaggers

We are creating a house and class merit system using the power of spreadsheets and forms. We hope to streamline the house point awards and lost property systems at our school.

Endangered Marine Species Locator  (3^rd place)

Bella Mun

My project aims to create an online atlas so that schools can use it as a learning tool for young students. It is also very useful for tourists as it can be used to raise awareness of endangered marine species during their travels around the world.

Get Fit!

Toni Haridemos, Andrea Newham, Ellie Koundouris

Our project will help people to lose weight. We have created a game in which you jump into different buckets in the real world and it shows up on your computer. To do this we used electrical circuits. As the buckets will be filled with something that contains moisture, this will generate electricity and energy to power the circuit. Upon the completion of this project we hope to help obese people to lose weight and get fit again, which will benefit them in their day to day lives.

Interactive Friendship Videos

Georgia Lister, Emma Heldon, Zeina Elfar, Raya Atreya

Our project consists of an interactive (choose your own adventure) YouTube video where you choose your own path. This Video will be made from scratch and with teach about friendship problems and how to support someone with them or what to do if it was yourself.

YEAR 3 / 4 SECTION

Bin it Right!    (1^st place)

Lucy Galland

I am creating a game that will help students learn to put correct items into the different bins in each classroom (landfill, recycling, food scraps, paper).

Poverty Game     (2^nd place)

Abigail Lee, Annika Stone

Our project is a game where you’re in poverty and you have to try to collect resources to survive. Once there are no resources left, the game is over.

Global Warming Prevention Game  (3^rd place)

Lilian Bailey, Audrey Wilson, Parisse Satsias

Our game is about building a car and then using it to clean up litter. We hope that this will change people's minds and they won't litter as much,and we'll have a cleaner world.

A photo gallery can be seen below.

Heather Ablett
Head of Junior School