Thomas Edison was thrown out of school when he was 12 because he was thought to be lacking in intelligence. He was noted to be terrible at mathematics, unable to focus, and had difficulty with words and speech. It was very clear, however, that Thomas Edison was an extremely intelligent student, and he refused to allow the things said by others to stop him from doing what he wanted to do.

He was an extremely hard worker, sometimes working 20 hours a day and his hard work was rewarded as he patented 1,093 inventions in his life time, the largest number on record. Interestingly, as an inventor, Edison made 1,000s of unsuccessful attempts at discovering. In response to a question about his missteps, Edison said, “I have not failed 10,000 times - I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”

What is the relevance of this story? Well, I believe every single person has something worthwhile to contribute to a community. One of the interesting things I have discovered in my years working in schools is that every student is good at something.

Some students are good at particular subjects; some are good at sport; some make great actors or excellent speakers; some have a wonderful sense of humour; some are good at making things; some are good listeners; some make good friends.

We are all good at something, but it may take more time for some to find out what exactly they excel at. What is important is that you never let others ‘put you down’. There are hundreds of examples of people in the world who have believed what others have said about them, and failed; there are just as many who have refused to be influenced by the opinions of others, and been successful. The brilliant scientist and inventor, Thomas Edison, is a good example of this.

What I am suggesting to all students as we commence Semester 2 is that they think about the talents they have and see what they can do to develop them. No one should be discouraged if they don’t succeed at first. Don’t be discouraged if other people seem more talented. Don’t give up no matter what.

There is more than three decades of research that demonstrates focus and perseverance are vital to success at school. The key to raising successful children is to tap into this understanding ... being a ‘natural’ is no guarantee of success.

Welcome back to Term 3.

Public Health Order – list of locations
A reminder, the NSW Government has a strict Public Health Order in place. We ask all parents to please check the list of locations from the NSW Government which are covered by the Public Health Order before sending their child to School each day.

This list is changing daily and it is imperative you check this list regularly for the protection of our School community.

Our course will run on either a Tuesday or Wednesday or both mornings, starting at 7.30am, once minimum numbers are confirmed.

A minimum of seven students, and a maximum of ten, ensures individual attention. The course costs $300 for seven sessions of 45 minutes.

The Introductory seven week course includes a tub of theraputty, that is designed to improve hand muscle strength and fine motor skills.

Availability of places is dependent upon a first come first served basis. All students who miss out on a place in Term 3 will be placed on a waiting list.

Should you be interested in pursuing this option for your son, please contact Rebecca Papageorgiou in the Learning Enhancement Department ASAP.

Food Drive - thinking of those in our broader community
Traditionally in the winter months, we do a food drive of daily staples for Sydney families who are struggling and living in very challenging conditions. The following non-perishable donations may be handed in to the SAOs or Mrs Clarke's office: long-life milk, cereal, coffee, tea, cans of meat, vegetables, fruit and/or soup, cup of soup, dried fruit. Note: no glass items, please.

Growing Traditional Native Bush Food - Student Volunteers Wanted
An area near the Borambil Gates has been developed into a traditional bush food garden.

Volunteers note:
• A roster will be developed
• Guidance from the Agriculture Department
• Instructions given for the use of tools and the project
• Social distancing for all Knox students who participate
• Working with schools in Walgett, Hawaii, Liberia and Kenya - all via Zoom and One Planet Education

Please email Mrs Clarke if you are interested. 

The Knox Social Justice Club
The Club is meeting as a group again each Friday at lunchtime in the WSA Auditorium. Updates are still available in the e-Club platform. Please email Mrs Clarke for more information on how to join or volunteer.

This collection of information is approved via the Australian Education Act 2013, and data supplied will remain compliant with the Privacy Act 1988. Census date for 2020 is 7 August.

Please click here for further information.

Thank you to the majority of parents who are understanding of the need for patience as they wait to collect their sons each afternoon, using the Kiss and Ride lines. Unfortunately, some parents are trying to circumvent the processes that have been established, putting the safety of our boys at risk. Thank you to all of the parents who are following our published pick up routes. We are bound by time constraints, bus runs and narrow streets. We are constantly evaluating the effectiveness of these processes, and will adapt as required. However, no system is perfect, and we seek your continued patience as we endeavour to clear a very large cohort of boys within a relatively brief timeframe.

Saturday Sport resumes for all boys from Years 3 to 6 this coming Saturday. Once team lists are published on Wednesday afternoon, you will be able to register for one parent to attend your son’s fixtures. There are specific protocols in place and parents are asked to read these carefully to ensure a speedy entry to the Prep Campus. The Knox Prep COVID-19 Sports Hub can be accessed here.

Finally, we have returned to one timetable from K-6 this week and all classes are operating from their regular classrooms. All boys enter through the health screening station each morning before moving to the playground.Teachers are continuing to reinforce the need to use the hand sanitiser on entry to, and exit from, the classroom each lesson. They are also encouraging social distancing practices with the boys. Assemblies and Chapel Services are all being held online and we are avoiding large gatherings of staff and students. Unfortunately, this also means that we cannot allow parents and other adults onto campus, unless arranged prior. We thank you for your cooperation with this. Please know that we are eager to welcome you back on-site as soon as we are able to. In the meantime, please do make contact with our staff, who will be very happy to answer your questions and address your concerns.

We are looking forward to a term filled with learning adventures, playful fun and a return to competitive sport!

Praising accomplishments, however small, will make them feel proud; letting boys do things independently will make them feel capable and strong. By contrast, belittling comments or comparing a child unfavourably with another will make children feel worthless.

Boys who feel good about themselves have the confidence to try new things. They are more likely to try their best. They feel proud of what they can do. Self-esteem helps boys cope with mistakes. It helps them try again, even if they fail at first. As a result, self-esteem helps them do better at school, at home, and socialise with peers.

Choose your words carefully and be compassionate. Let your son know that everyone makes mistakes and that you still love them, even when you don't love their behaviour.

We continue learning about shelters in our Knoxigations unit as we begin our projects of selecting an environment, then designing and building a shelter that suits its features. The boys will be exploring three different environments: arctic, tropical and desert. Using the visible thinking routine of 'See, Think, Wonder', we will be investigating the features and climate of each environment along with the type of shelters found, as well as locating where we would find these environments on the world map.

The boys are progressing in their reading skills, learning all their sounds and digraphs, instantly recognising ‘tricky’ words, practising their fluency and developing their comprehension skills. We have started writing about our holiday highlight and will keep building and practising our writing skills looking at different text types. In Maths groups, we are starting the term learning about addition and subtraction.

We are looking forward to Semester 2 and the rest of our Kindergarten year with the possibilities it will bring.

We hope you found some time over the holidays to relax, rejuvenate and enjoy reading with your son. All of Year 1 are continuing to work towards completing the Premier's Reading Challenge and we encourage all our boys and families to continue to read as many books as you can. Remember, it is so important for us as adults to always be a good reading role model for the boys.

The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity and that means finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books and letting them read them.
Neil Gaiman

As we begin a new term it is important that the boys get back into the routine of being back at school and we appreciate your support in ensuring that the boys have the correct uniform on each day, appropriate haircuts and are looking neat and tidy. This includes making sure that all boys have their blue bucket hats for lunchtime and sport. These hats should stay at school in the boys' lockers so that they have them whenever they are in the playground. We are trying to instil in the boys sun safe behaviours and thank you for your support with this.

Over the next few weeks we will be completing our Knoxigations Sustainable Solutions Inquiry. The boys will be given the opportunity to reuse and recycle materials to create an item of use or purpose for others. The boys will need to understand where the materials came from and what their properties are that will be helpful for the item to be repurposed.

What a term we have ahead of us! Boys are continuing to develop their knowledge and understanding of sustainability and the importance of steering clear of single use packaging. The 20-1 Recycling Program launched at the Prep School on Monday with Year 2 students eagerly participating in the leadership role of Eco Monitors. The aim of this program is to reduce the number of rubbish bags produced each day at the Prep School from 20-1. With this goal in mind, the Eco Monitors will be encouraging students to place their rubbish in the correct bins (soft plastic, organic waste, bottles, paper and landfill) after eating their recess and lunch. In a bid to assist the Sustainability Portfolio in their goal to ‘Stomp Out Waste’ and to reinforce the importance of educating our boys about reducing the waste we produce, we encourage parents to minimise the amount of plastic packaging being used in lunchboxes.

Linking perfectly with this newly launched recycling program and our Sustainable Solutions Knoxigations Unit, the Year 2 students are going to be re-engineering a current product to make it more sustainable. This week, students will begin by deciding upon a plastic problem in our society that they hope to solve. Boys will then draw a labelled diagram of their design and receive constructive feedback from their peers pertaining to how their initial blueprint can be improved. In the coming weeks, boys will use the program Tinkercad to design their prototype using computer software in addition to examining the Design Thinking Process through a Design Logbook on Google Slides.

We thank all parents for their prompt collection of their son in the afternoon and look forward to another fabulous term of learning.

This semester, all Year 3 students are being given the opportunity to participate in a weekly one-hour Drama lesson. As part of these lessons, the boys will learn to make, perform and appreciate dramatic and theatrical works. They will devise and enact dramas using scripted and unscripted material and use acting and performance techniques to convey meaning to an audience. Students will learn to respond to, reflect on and analyse their own work and the work of others and evaluate the contribution of drama and theatre to enriching society. It is hoped the boys will embrace the opportunity to take part in these weekly Drama sessions and also benefit from Mr Foltyn’s extensive experience in this area as he teaches the boys throughout Semester 2. Any enquiries may be directed here.

On another note, I would like to remind all parents and guardians that absentee notes are a legal requirement of the School. If your son is unable to attend school for any reason, please use the absentee form via the Knox app, contact the Prep Office directly via email or phone 9473 9351. The Year 3 team thanks you in advance for your support with this request.

Dates for the diary:
• Friday 24 July – House Track and Field Carnival
• Tuesday 4 August – Year 3 Parent/Teacher Interviews (online)
• Friday 7 August – Jeans for Genes Day initiative
• Monday 17 August - Friday 21 August – Prep School Science Week
• Wednesday 19 August – Years 3-6 Winter House Gala Day
• Monday 21 September – Wednesday 23 September – Years 3 and 4 Musical performances
• Thursday 24 September – House Cross Country Carnival
• Friday 25 September – Term 3 concludes

If you have any queries with upcoming events, please do not hesitate to contact your son’s classroom teacher or me.

The Year 3 team hopes you have another enjoyable week as we officially commence Semester 2.

In writing we will be focusing on persuasive texts and this week our boys have completed a pre-assessment. We use pre-assessments to inform our own teaching and learning programs by identifying trends in student writing and providing goals for individual learning. We were so excited to see the growth in narrative writing last term and we look forward to sharing your son’s progress with you in the upcoming Parent/Teacher Interviews.

Homework will begin in Week 2.

Reading
Reading is an important aspect of our curriculum as it relates to the acquiring of vocabulary, understanding and interpreting text and in turn has a direct positive correlation to writing. As mentioned in the middle of last term, we had half of our Year 5 boys complete the Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC). We are now at over 85% of our entire year group that have completed the PRC and are well on our way to achieving our goal of having every student completing the PRC in 2020.

Another way we encourage reading in Year 5 is to utilise the Accelerated Reader (AR) program. One of the ways we motivate the boys is to provide term challenges. The Term 2 AR goal was to complete two fiction and two non-fiction books, then complete and pass the corresponding AR quiz related to those books. If they achieved this goal, the boys would receive a WISDOM award sticker. Over two-thirds of the boys in Year 5 achieved this goal. The boys were offered an additional bonus sticker if they completed and passed over 10 AR quizzed throughout the term. The Term 3 challenge announced this week was for the boys to read and complete one non-fiction and three fiction books with the bonus being 12 books and quizzes completed over Term 3. Class teachers and the library staff will continue to support the boys through this process. The boys complete 10 minutes of daily silent reading.

As the boys have started back for another term we will continue to focus on setting high standards for the boys in Year 6. This includes ensuring they are wearing the correct uniform with shoes shined and appropriate haircuts as we enter the new term. On our first day back on Monday, Mr Voysey spoke to the boys about legacy and encouraging the boys to finish the year strongly, ensuring they maintain the high standards they have set for themselves since day one of Year 6. This is a challenge we will continue to remind the boys of as we continue through to the second half of the year.

There are a few timetable changes for this term, particularly in regards to PE. For the remainder of the year, Mr Greg Scott will take all Year 6 classes for PE. As a result of this change not all classes will have PE on a Thursday. Your son’s class teacher will inform your son of the days in which he will need to wear his sports uniform. Please note that all boys will still wear sports uniform on a Thursday as they will all have sports skills on a Thursday morning.

We are looking forward to another wonderful term of learning with your son!

Overdue Library Books
There are many books that are overdue and need to be returned to the K-2 Literacy Centre and/or the 3-6 Library. Please ask your son to look at home for any books that belong to our Prep Libraries.

Books that are more than 100 days overdue and not returned will be charged to your account.

Band Camp
This year we will be having a one-day Band Workshop on Sunday 13 September for all four of our bands. It is an expectation that all students in band attend. At the workshop we will have intensive rehearsals and tutorials and I have also organised a very exciting and special ensemble to entertain the boys! Instead of having a major end of camp concert, we will be streaming the concert live for parents to watch online from their laptop or devices. Time of the concert and further information on the camp will be emailed shortly so stay tuned!

Private Instrumental Lessons
There are still a few vacancies for all instruments/voice with our talented tutors in the Prep School. If your son is interested in learning an instrument please email Mrs Morris.

Note: if your son is already learning an instrument at school and he cannot attend his lesson for whatever reason, 24hrs notice must be given to the tutor directly or you will be charged for the lesson. Please do not assume that because something is in the calendar (which means your son cannot attend his lesson) that your tutor will know about it. It is the responsibility of the parent to always inform the tutor of any absences.

As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to email our office. 

A number of Senior boys will be recognised at the School Assembly this week for their selections in their respective 1st teams and also nominated as Captains of their winter sport 1st teams. This is a huge honour and a wonderful group of talented boys have been selected. Congratulations.

Reminder - this is the last chance for all boys to get on and register for our annual Knox Track and Field Championships to be held next Wednesday at Sydney Olympic Park. Please help us and encourage your son to check his emails and register in as many events as possible. We are determined to build on a great season last year and keep building depth in this wonderful sport. There is a discipline for everyone and a wonderful team spirit to be a part of. Come and give it a go. Any queries can be sent to Matt Fowler. 

Over the holidays, our 1sts Basketball Coach, Jacob Jackomas, moved to a coaching position in the NBL with the Illawarra Hawks. Jacob was with Knox for three seasons and had an amazing impact on the Basketball program, taking our 1sts to two consecutive CAS Premierships. We wish him all the best in his professional coaching career.


Thanks and good luck, Jacob.

Have a great week everyone and thanks for your continued support through some different times indeed.

Go the Black and Blue.