Yarra Valley Grammar Hearing Unit Newsletter www.yvg.vic.edu.au
Telephone: +61 3 9262 7700
Facsimile: + 61 3 9876 1077
Term 1
Email: reception@yvg.vic.edu.au
March 2017
Lochie Baulch meets the Prime Minister
TABLE OF CONTENTS: FROM THE HEARING UNIT ............................................................................................................................................................................. 2 SPEECH SPOT ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 LOCHIE BAULCH MEETS THE PRIME MINISTER................................................................................................................................................ 4 YEAR 7 CAMP by Abbey Gartlan ..................................................................................................................................................................... 5 THE POWER OF SPEECH ................................................................................................................................................................................. 6 YEAR 9 CITY EXPERIENCE ............................................................................................................................................................................... 7 CERES ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 YEAR 4 WRITING ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 JUNIOR SCHOOL SWIMMING SPORTS .......................................................................................................................................................... 10 YEAR 5 WRITING......................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 YEAR 5 WRITING ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 YEAR 5 CAMP .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 13 YEAR 5 CAMP .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 14 WELCOME TO OUR NEW PREPS ................................................................................................................................................................... 15 JUNIOR PRIMARY SPORTS DAY..................................................................................................................................................................... 16 STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS ATHLETICS ............................................................................................................................................................. 16 YEAR 11 MEDIA STUDIES ............................................................................................................................................................................. 17 HARMONY DAY IN THE JUNIOR SCHOOL ...................................................................................................................................................... 18 EASTER EGG HUNT ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 CONGRATULATIONS JAYA! .......................................................................................................................................................................... 20
FROM THE HEARING UNIT At the start of February we welcomed four new families to the Hearing Unit. The Sommer family whose daughter Indigo is in Prep. The Savage family whose son Fabien is also in Prep. The Gurry family whose son Riley joined us in Year 7 and the Palmer family from Hobart whose daughter Jaya joined us in Year 8. Indigo, Fabien, Riley and Jaya have all settled in wonderfully. This has been evident in many ways whether it be in the classroom, the playground or in the Hearing Unit. In the last week of term we had what is now becoming a tradition, The Easter Egg hunt. It was wonderful to see all the students interact and the Senior students help their Junior School buddies find eggs. Lochie Baulch of Year 4 had an amazing time in Canberra recently when he met The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP, Prime Minister of Australia. Lochie was chosen as one of the Victorian representatives to deliver a speech as part of the The First Voice, Power of Speech awards. Lochie won his division and received the prime minister’s courage award. Congratulations to Lochie Baulch on a fantastic effort. Abbey Gartlan represented Victoria in shotput in Sydney in the National Track and Field games in the multiclass. She achieved a personal best by beating her record by 6cm. Nationally, she came 8th in the competition. Well done on a fine effort Abbey. It was pleasing to see parents attend the Hearing Unit Parents’ Information night recently where our Director of IT Services and eLearning, Mr Phil Callil, spoke about Canvas and the new community portal. Many questions were asked and the evening was really beneficial in helping to understand the School’s digital platforms. During the last week of term I had the pleasure of attending the Year 5 Dreamtime story project where I read and listened to dreamtime stories written by Remington Hobday and Ryan Dang. As we finished the Term our Junior School students were involved in the Easter Bonnet Parade and Jaya Palmer participated in the Yarra Great Shave and raised over $1,000 for blood cancer research. Together with this, Joshua Randall, Emily Baulch and Riley Gurry participated in the Good Friday Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal. After the Easter break we look forward to a busy and productive Term 2. Mr Ian Saynor Head of the Hearing Unit
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SPEECH SPOT Is it just me or has this term really flown?!?! In fact, has this year really flown so far! It hasn’t taken long to get back into the swing of things in the “Speech Room” this term. It has been a joy starting work with our new students and I always look forward to continuing on from last year with my existing students. So far the “Speech Room” themes have been “Back to School”, “Music”, “Farms” and the student favourite (maybe because of the Easter egg prizes …?!?) “Easter”. It has been fun exploring these topics whilst targeting a large range of student-specific speech and language goals.
My Hearing Unit days in 2017 will be Monday and Tuesday. I hope to cross paths with you all during the course of the year. Mrs Anneke Flinn Speech Pathologist
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LOCHIE BAULCH MEETS THE PRIME MINISTER On the 21st Of March, Lochie Baulch in 4M took part in the Power of Speech event at Parliament House in Canberra. This is a public speaking event that celebrates the remarkable outcomes possible for cochlear implant recipients and aims to challenge perceptions about what it means to be a deaf child in the 21st century. Profoundly deaf children aged between 7 and 12 from WA, SA, Vic, Qld, NSW, ACT and New Zealand each gave a short speech on topics of their choice, presenting to an assembled audience of parliamentarians, families, friends and dignitaries and The Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP. A winner from the Junior and Senior groups was selected and an overall winner of the event received the Prime Minister’s Courage Award. All participating students proved that a hearing loss doesn’t stand in the way of a good education, sports and music accomplishments, or even public speaking. Lochie, with his speech about misconceptions about deafness and the crazy questions he has been asked, won the overall event and he received the Prime Minister’s Courage Award from Mr Turnbull himself. We are all very proud of Lochie, well done.
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YEAR 7 CAMP by Abbey Gartlan On camp there were so many challenges to have a go at. All of the activities were amazing, but some of my favourites were the bike ride through the forest with nature all around us and the low ropes, where we had to lift each other over a string without touching it. There was also a lot of new challenges to try, for some people it was riding a bike for the first time, rock climbing, kayaking, and many more. For me it was the abseiling, I got to the top of the tower thinking I would abseil down, but once I saw how high I was, I realised that this was the highest I had ever been (besides in an aeroplane) and I decided not to do it. It was so interesting to hear my camp leader talk about where she came from in America and she told me all of the best spots in America and I told her all of the best spots in Australia. It was very sad to leave camp, but it was a great experience to take what we learned and use it in everyday life skills.
By Abbey Gartlan
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THE POWER OF SPEECH
The Power of Speech. A joint piece of writing by Lochie and Ben Baulch On Sunday the Baulches and the Coglan family drove up to Canberra for Lochie's Power of Speech competition. The Power of Speech is a competition where deaf kids talk about their deaf life in Parliament House. It took all day to get there because the Baulches had lots of toilet stops and they also stopped at the submarine museum. They paid to get in and they found a submarine they could go inside of and look through the periscope. Monday was a really busy day but the Baulch boys thought it was fun. They went passed Parliament House, Lake Burley Griffith and Questacon. The Baulches visited the National Dinosaur Museum, the A.I.S. where Emily wanted to swim the next day, and they finished the day with a buffet dinner. At the museum Ben discovered a five-eyed alien dinosaur fish called Orabinia. Tuesday was the big day. Lochie woke up at 5:55am. He was feeling very nervous. They all put on their fancy clothes and went to Parliament House. They went into a theatre and 12 children did a speech about their deaf life. Lochie was happy when people laughed at the right spots in his speech. Ben was so proud of how well Lochie spoke. The judges gave 2 trophies to second and third place. The Prime Minister arrived 14 minutes late but just in time to award first place. Maybe he had needed lots of toilet stops too! When Malcolm Turnbull got to the theatre he shook hands with all of the speakers and said a couple of words. Then he handed out the award for first place. Lochie was nervous and shaking but still didn't think he would win. Mr Turnbull said "The winner is Lochlan Baulch". Lochie felt faint, Paul Baulch (Lochie and Ben's dad) almost fell of his seat. Lochie was given a trophy and a medal and was interviewed by the Prime Minister. The Baulches all got to have lunch with Malcom Turnbull. They thought he was friendly and funny. After the Prime Minister left, John, one of the people running the competition, asked Lochie who was the better interviewer, John or Mr Turnbull? Lochie said "I think I will choose both" because he didn't want to hurt their feelings. The Baulches loved it so much in Canberra that they want to go back at Easter. 6
YEAR 9 CITY EXPERIENCE The Yarra Valley Grammar Year 9 City Experience was recently completed by students as part of their LINK@9 program. Students worked in teams of approximately four towards completing an Inquiry Based project based in the City of Melbourne. They were expected to compete individual tasks including a narrative piece for English and personal reflections around their focus questions. The philosophy behind City Experience is based around “inquiry, experiential learning�. They are taken out of their typical school environment and given opportunities for authentic experiences in the real world. Our two Year 9 students, Adem Goktepe and Naish Dare had a very rewarding and enjoyable week on the program.
Adem and his City group
On top of Eureka Tower
Rock climbing in the city
Naish and friends: time out at the Queen Victoria Markets! 7
CERES
CERES by Hamish Dickins On the 21st of March we got on the bus and headed to CERES. It was a long trip. It took about an hour. When we arrived we went straight into the first activity. The aim was to try have the most water into the humans via plants and cows. We pretended to be vegetarians and skipped the cows and moved the plants closer to the humans. That saved about 2 litres. The next activity was the energy making activity. We pedalled on an exercise bike trying to power fans and TVs and much more. We learnt to use renewable energy and that it takes a lot of energy to power household appliances. Then we went to the eco house this is how you save energy. Put more insulation in your walls. Put water efficient shower taps in the bathroom and sinks. Use power efficient lights and put more jumpers on instead of using the heater. My favourite part of the Eco house was the Eco car because it used electricity and not petrol. At the end of this hot and sticky day we got on the bus and came back to school. The excursion was really good, probably one of the best I have been on.
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YEAR 4 WRITING Year 4 were asked to write a recount of an experience. Gabe wrote this unedited text about the time his implant magnet was dislodged.
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JUNIOR SCHOOL SWIMMING SPORTS
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YEAR 5 WRITING The Year 5 students have been creating an ebook about an indigenous people group. Ryan’s is about our first people. Here is a page from the book.
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YEAR 5 WRITING By Remington Hobday
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YEAR 5 CAMP
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YEAR 5 CAMP
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WELCOME TO OUR NEW PREPS We are so happy that Indigo and Fabien have started at Yarra this year. They have settled in well and are making lots of new friends. Indi loves purple, pink and making things. Fabien loves cricket and bowling and wow is he great at adding up. It is so exciting as they begin their journey of reading and writing. They are both fantastic at listening to sounds in words. We are very proud of the great start that they have had.
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JUNIOR PRIMARY SPORTS DAY On March 27th the Preps – Year 2 participated in the annual Junior Primary Sports Day. It was filled with fun activities like egg and spoon race, tunnel ball, sack race, vortex throw and hurdles. Despite the hot and windy day all the children had a great time. Some even found it exhausting!
STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS ATHLETICS On Monday 27th March, Abbey Gartlan once again represented Victoria at the State Championships in Sydney. Abbey competed in the Multiclass category for shot put. Abbey competed against students 16 years of age and under. She threw 6.83m which is a personal best for her and as a result she came 8th in her category. We give heartfelt congratulations to Abbey on this outstanding achievement.
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YEAR 11 MEDIA STUDIES Sam Rickard was one of about thirty students who recently participated in an excursion to the 2017 VCE Top Design Exhibition and The Mystery Rooms as part of their Year 11 Media Studies. Top Designs is an annual exhibition at Melbourne Museum presenting work created by selected students from around Victoria who completed VCE Media, Product Design and Technology, Food and Technology, Systems Engineering, Visual Communication Design and VCE VET Interactive Digital Media. Exhibits included garments and articles using fibre, yarn and fabric, graphic and product design, short films, interactive media, print layout, photography, food product planning, mechanical and electronic projects. Works were accompanied by folios comprising work briefs, client feedback and evaluation. The Mystery Rooms, in Fitzroy, is one of many ‘escape rooms’ burgeoning around Melbourne. An escape room game, or mystery room, is a live team game where a small group enter a room or themed space in order to solve puzzles and discover clues, trying to escape the room within 60 minutes. Sam’s group successfully attempted the ‘Tomb Raider’ mystery room.
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HARMONY DAY IN THE JUNIOR SCHOOL Our diversity makes Australia a great place to live. Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity – a day of cultural respect for everyone who calls Australia home. The message of Harmony Day is ‘everyone belongs’, the day aims to engage our students to think about their community, respect cultural and religious diversity and foster a sense of belonging for everyone. In the Junior School we celebrated Harmony Day in our CAB (Cross age buddies) groups. We talked about why Australia is a great place to live and why respecting others is so important.
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EASTER EGG HUNT On Wednesday 29th March, whilst the Hearing Unit students waited to see Rebekah from Australian Hearing, we had an Easter egg hunt. The Big Kids were buddies to the Little Kids and helped the Junior School students to find the 250 eggs that were hidden around the Senior Hearing Unit building. There were a lot of lovely interactions between the Secondary School students and Junior School students which was nice to see. Thanks especially to Zac Diamandis, Emily Baulch, James Webb, Adem Goktepe and Riley Gurry who played games with the Junior School students.
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CONGRATULATIONS JAYA! Our newest member of the Senior Hearing Unit, Jaya Palmer, participated in the Yarra Great Shave (World’s Greatest Shave) and raised $1,152. Jaya was the third highest fundraiser in Senior School. We congratulate Jaya on an outstanding effort.
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