Junior School News
Term 3 is a time when the whole College is buzzing. There are so many events that give our students the opportunity to shine and show off their talents in all areas of College life. In the Junior School, we recently celebrated our Year 4 – 6 Academic Awards and it was wonderful to see our students being rewarded for their hard work and diligent efforts in Semester 1. I spoke at the assembly about the famous ‘10,000 Hour Rule’ as described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers: The Story of Success. In the book, Gladwell looks closely into the work habits of people who have achieved excellence in their chosen fields. Interestingly, he found that in various studies across a vast array of disciplines (including sportsman, authors, musicians and chess players), the one thing they all had in common was over 10, 000 hours of practice over many years. It is amazing to think that the time our students put into practicing their skills at a young age, has a direct impact on their mastery of these skills in their adult lives. We often only see the end result, the final product – how gracefully a diver enters the water without a splash, or how a pianist plays complex pieces. It is important to remember the many hours of practice that went in prior to these moments.
Some of our students have selected to showcase their talents through the ICAS Competitions, which are now underway. Students from Years 3 – 10 have completed the Digital Technologies and English Competitions. In the next two weeks, students will compete in the areas of Mathematics and Science and we look forward to receiving and celebrating these results later in the year. We also have many students competing in the MLTAQ Speech Competition for Languages this weekend and we wish everyone competing all the best. We know that students have spent hours preparing for these events and we hope your efforts will be rewarded. We must also thank our Languages teachers for assisting with these preparations.
Not only have we been celebrating our students’ academic success, there are also many opportunities for our students to showcase their musical talents. It was a pleasure to see our Year 1 – Year 3 cohorts perform in their year level concerts. We are always so impressed with these performances. With the Gold Coast Eisteddfod beginning this week, we look forward to hearing how our choirs, bands and dance troupes perform. We know our students always come away feeling so proud that their many hours of practice result in these polished, enjoyable performances. A special thank you must go to our Performing Arts staff for preparing the students the way they do.
As we look ahead in the College calendar, we can see there are many more opportunities on the horizon for students to be involved. Whatever it is your child is preparing for, I hope you will encourage them to reflect upon their work habits, as they continue to put in the necessary preparations as they work towards achieving their goals.
Rebecca Taylor | Deputy Head of Junior School: Teaching & Learning
