Knoxonian - Week 6 Term 2 2020

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Mr Scott James

Social media
Regardless of your opinion of social media or whether you use these technologies or not, most would agree social media has changed the world. It is playing an increasingly large role in modern society, and with Facebook being one of the most commonly used social media tools, it is a logical progression that this would then be used for connecting communities.

For a school, online communities help to create a feeling of belonging and pride. Having a current Facebook page allows a community to affiliate with their
school, while keeping up-to-date with news and goings-on.

Our very own Knox Facebook page publishes
videos, photos, stories, community messages, stories of personal achievement, and a range of happenings across our campuses. Indeed, when learning switched to online, I found myself following our Facebook page daily as it allowed me to remain connected. Importantly, our social media page provides an opportunity to showcase our unique culture with parents who can’t obviously be on our campuses during the school day.

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Social Justice


Mrs Helen Clarke, Head of Diversity, Justice and Stewardship

Celebrating Reconciliation Week at Knox
We continue our Reconciliation Week program in building the boys’ and staff’s awareness of the importance of Reconciliation with our First Nations People.

Dylan Farr, one of our indigenous students from Walgett Acknowledged Country last week at our annual assembly to celebrate the start of Reconciliation Week. To listen to this marvellous presentation of Dylan’s cultural heritage click here

The Centenary Mural is finished!
Ask your son to go to the breezeway to see the Centenary mural. All of the boys’ cultural totems were created by all of our indigenous students, under the guidance of our Cultural Mentor, Waylon Boney and the totems are represented as traditional rock carvings as is the custom of the local Guringai People.

The following photos illustrate some of the journey of the mural:

1. Waylon and the muralist in consultation about how the totems would be represented as carvings on sandstone on which is a feature of Guringai traditional land.

2. A close-up shows the boys’ totems on the sandstone

   

 

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Cadets

Bri Cormio, Cadet Unit Adjutant

The Knox Grammar School Cadet Unit has been assisting with volunteer initiatives in the local community over the last couple of months. The so-called ‘Volunteer Army’ was an initiative started by the Ku-ring-gai local Member of Parliament Alister Henskins as a community response to the COVID Pandemic. Cadets from Knox and Ravenswood have teamed up with other local Independent schools to provide assistance to vulnerable members of the community. This has included a local letterbox drop to over 2000 vulnerable residents outlining support services. The effort has also seen Cadets packing food parcels for distribution to in-need local residents. The groceries, provided by Harris Farm Markets St Ives, have provided vital sustenance to these isolated people. The work continues and the Cadet Unit is proud of its involvement in such a worthy initiative. It firmly embraces the Cadet values of compassion, respect and servant leadership.

From the Head of the Preparatory School

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Mrs Sue Floro

Everything old is new again!

It’s the little things that are surprising us, and making us smile, now that we are back onsite fulltime. We have enjoyed watching the boys re-negotiate the rules of playground games, like handball; quelling the excitement of being in a rugby jersey again, and the overwhelming desire to tackle anyone running with a ball; getting their feet back into black school shoes, when runners and even bare feet have been the order of the day for such a long time; relearning the intricacies of wearing the uniform – top button done up, socks up and shirt tucked in are just not on our boys’ radar; and the hair…I think many a barber was kept bust last weekend with Knox boys getting their hair cut! It has reminded us that habits and routines take time to instil, but can be forgotten with lightning speed.

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Director of Students K-6

Peter Voysey

Student Haircut Requirements
It has been exciting welcoming all boys back onto campus from the period of remote learning. Back on campus I have had discussions with numerous students, reminding them of expectations in relation to uniform and their appearance. I take this time to remind all families of the School’s requirements in relation to haircuts:

Hair must not be long enough to be over the collar, ears or eyebrows, nor overly full at the back or front. An all over short haircut may be acceptable to a minimum No. 2 cut. Dying of hair is not permitted under any circumstances and dramatic variations in tapering of length between top and bottom, is not acceptable.

When a student’s haircut does not meet school expectations, parents will be contacted to organise an appointment to meet these requirements. If your family has any questions in relation to the School’s expectations please contact me directly.

K-2 Happenings


Mrs Chris Gray, K-2 Coordinator

Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating…too often fathers neglect it because they get so caught up making a living they forget to make a life. John Wooden

Thank you for your patience during our new Kiss and Ride procedures. Our morning drop off has been smooth and safer for our little Knox boys. They are proudly walking into school to start their exciting day independently and with a big smile.

Being a positive role model can help your son learn safe procedures. Your respectful and courteous attitude towards other drivers teaches your son that anger and frustration can lead to careless and unsafe behaviour. Well done to the families who have spent time teaching their little boys to clip his seatbelt on independently to enable a safe departure.

Kindergarten News

Mrs Mary Mae Burton, Kindergarten Team Leader

Last week, Kindergarten concluded their Knoxigations unit about community workers. We celebrated by creating our own community and making a fabulous art display about communities.

We brainstormed lots of different places we find in a community and chose a building or place to create. First, we thought carefully about the features our building would need to suit its purpose, before designing it. Then, we brought in our box and sticky tape from home, to construct our building. We had so much fun planning and putting together our buildings. There was lots of discussion, collaboration and problem solving. Afterwards, we moved our buildings into the open space under the stairs in the K-2 building to display our fantastic constructions. We laid them along the roads across our community. It turned out to be a huge, hustling and bustling metropolis!

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Year 1 News


Miss Nadine Smith, Year 1 Team Leader

Congratulations to all our Year 1 students and families on the wonderful collaboration in transitioning all the boys back to face to face teaching last week. The Year 1 teachers have worked tirelessly to make this as smooth a process as possible and continue to ensure that the children are feeling safe and happy. Thank you to every parent for your continued support, we are very lucky to have such a supportive community.

Year 1 have enjoyed exploring a variety of ways we can collect and represent data. We have been collecting data on our favourite foods, sports, pets and cars. We have represented this data in an assortment of ways including picture graphs and bar graphs. On Friday, all of Year 1 came together to make a ‘Colour House Bar Graph’ using grids on the oval. The boys sorted themselves into groups, collaborated on how to best represent the data and then worked together to organise the results clearly. We were lucky enough to get some aerial photos of our graph and were able to analyse the results together back in class. We think we did a pretty good job! What do you think?

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Year 2 News


Miss Sarah Beaumont-Jones, Year 2 Team Leader

What a week it has been! Year 2 boys have thoroughly enjoyed diving straight into the ‘tuning in’ phase of the inquiry learning cycle of our Sustainable Solutions Knoxigations unit. Over the next 8 weeks, boys will be investigating the importance of sustainable practices for a sustainable future at home, at school and in the community. A domain overview was sent to all Year 2 parents via Seesaw on Friday afternoon containing further information on the concepts and skills boys will be learning throughout the coming weeks.  

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Year 3 News


Mr Glenn Stephenson, Year 3 Team Leader

All Year 3 students are quickly settling back into routine once again now that they have returned to school on a full-time basis. With only four weeks remaining in Semester One, it is imperative that the boys do everything they can to continue working towards their learning goals over the final stretch of the term.

Much to the delight of many boys, this week saw the recommencement of usual homework routines as students were provided with a matrix of specific activities to choose from.

A friendly reminder that the boys must complete one task per domain during each cycle and ensure that they also return their Homework exercise book to school on the due date.

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Year 4 News


Mr Jared Rastall, Year 4 Team Leader

Thriving communities in growing cities
Our next Knoxigations unit begins next week and will continue until Week 4, Term 3. More information about this unit can be found on the Year 4 page of the Knox Portal under ‘Sustainable Solutions’.

My Place
Year 4 have been working on a creative writing task titled ‘My Place’ inspired by the television series and book by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins. This maximum 500-word piece of writing will be a reflection on the current climate. We look forward to sharing with you your son’s reflection on how the coronavirus pandemic has reshaped his life or his perceptions of the world around him.

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Year 5 News


Mrs Tammy Paterson, Year 5 Team Leader

Our Year 5 boys are well into the routine of being back at school. We have been quite impressed with the flexibility they have shown in coping with the alternative afternoon routine and the addition of the carline. In class, we started to look at historical sources; initially the difference between primary and secondary sources. Furthermore, we identified some of the aspects that would impact on the validity of these sources. A big focus on our inquiry will be to look at life on the goldfields from a number of perspectives and how the same event in history can draw from a number of points of view. We hope that the boys will begin to look at sources with a critical eye, rather than just accepting all that they read as being the whole truth. This will remain a focus for the remainder of the year within all of our Knoxigation inquiries and will become a useful skill to master for many years to come. How can you help at home? Discussing alternative perspectives regarding any situation and developing a sense of respect for alternative points of view that we may or may not agree with is a difficult skill for adults to master so the more practise we give our boys the better equipped they will be when we ask them to be an analytical historian.

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Year 6 News


Mr Liam Flanagan, Year 6 Team Leader

What a wonderful week it was with the boys back on site last week. We would like to again take the opportunity to thank the boys for all their hard work and dedication as we are back at school full time! Please ensure that your son brings back any equipment which he took home for online learning, this includes items such as iPads and chargers, novels and any other books which the boys may have used in their time at home.

It is important that the boys get back into the routine of being at school and we appreciate your support in ensuring that the boys have the correct uniforms, appropriate haircuts and are looking neat and tidy. The Year 6 staff are thrilled to have the boys back in Ewan House!

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K-2 Literacy Centre and 3-6 Library


Mrs Emma-Kate Smith and Mrs Jo Wheatley

Prep Library Page
The Knox Prep Library page contains a wealth of resources to assist with learning at school and home.

These resources can be accessed here

Access is available for the students only as they are patrons of our Library. Your son will need to log in using their Knox email address and password. All students have been issued with a Knox email address and password. Please check your son’s diary.

 

Code Camp

Code Camp Expressions of Interest
With restrictions starting to lift we are excited to start planning the return of camps at Knox in the upcoming winter holidays. In order to help us gauge interest in running a camp please click here to add your child to the waiting list. Please note this is not a booking and no payment will be taken at this time.

If you would like to know more about Code Camp please visit the website or contact Code Camp here.

From the Head of Knox Sports and Aquatic Academy

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Mr Martin Haywood

Week 6 has seen the next steps towards preparing our boys for any potential winter season with extended afternoon training sessions for many sports. Training is strictly run in accordance with health guidelines and advice and our coaches are constantly checking all boys are adhering to all school protocols from change rooms, sharing and cleaning equipment, social distancing, temperature checking and no contact at all.

Last Saturday all boys were offered an opportunity to enjoy some fitness and speed drills at Gillespie and the take up was amazing. Thanks and well done to all boys on completing a tough and rewarding session. These sessions will continue through to the end of the term and is a great opportunity and start to the weekend. 8am at Gillespie. We WILL be running again this weekend (Long Weekend) despite some correspondence suggesting no session this Saturday. It will be on and a wonderful opportunity to get away from screen time. Please encourage your son to come and join our wonderful and committed Athletic coaches.

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Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4: 6-7