A Big Week in the KIP

NAIDOC Week - honouring our nation's history, Australia Reads - an initiative encouraging all Australians in reading, and a Junior School author were all celebrated in the KIP this week. Across the College students in our Junior and Senior Schools were involved in the events.

NAIDOC Week celebrations

Calen with Ms Rebeccal Collie, Head of Junior School

NAIDOC Week acknowledges and celebrates that our nation’s story didn’t begin with documented European contact and the very first footprints on this continent were those belonging to First Nations peoples.

Our Year 11 students collaborated with Junior school this week to assist them with indigenous games, borna jokee which is similar to dodgeball, branbahl, a challenging skipping game and juluhya, a team game involving passing marbles through a long tube.

There were also Indigenous Australian stories and games, all enjoyed to a soundtrack of Indigenous artists Thelma Plum, Baker Boy and Electric Fields.

Australia Reads

On Wednesday we celebrated Australia Reads, a national initiative that encourages all Australians to come together and celebrate the joys of reading.

Students in Years 3 to 6 joined us for a lunchtime story in The Yarning Circle followed by an amazing 'Australia Reads' cake to truly mark the occasion.

Our students have also been encouraged to tell us about their favourite book through our Australia Reads Competition. The entries have been overwhelming and I have to say Harry Potter and the Treehouse series are still hot favourites, all of the entries are papering the walls in the KIP. It is a delight to see that reading is very much enjoyed and celebrated by our students, which is also reflected in our borrowing statistics for this year, which have reached an all-time peak.

Calen wins big for the KIP!

Year 3 student Calen Tang wrote a story for the Coles Little Treehouse Writing Competition that combined three of his favourite things: chess, soccer and piano.

A wacky game of SocChess was clearly a hit with judge Andy Griffiths, who voted it one of the top one hundred, a huge accomplishment as the competition was open to all primary school children across Australia.

Part of his prize included one hundred books for his school library, worth well over a thousand dollars!

Thank you, Calen, for having a great imagination and taking the time to enter the competition. We love your work!