HearingUnitTerm4Newsletter

Yarra Valley Grammar Hearing Unit Newsletter www.yvg.vic.edu.au

Telephone: +61 3 9262 7700

Facsimile: + 61 3 9876 1077

Term 4

Email: reception@yvg.vic.edu.au

December 2018

Enjoying our final Australian Hearing visit for 2018 with a touch of Christmas.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: FROM THE HEARING UNIT ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 SPEECH SPOT ............................................................................................................................................................................ 3 DEAF SPORTS DAY ..................................................................................................................................................................... 4 MELBOURNE MUSEUM ............................................................................................................................................................. 4 CAMP MANYUNG ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4 GAURVI SINGH AT HEALESVILLE ................................................................................................................................................. 5 YEAR ONE MINI BEASTS ............................................................................................................................................................. 6 AUSTRALIAN HEARING VISITS .................................................................................................................................................... 8 NATIONAL ATHLETICS................................................................................................................................................................ 8 YEAR 7, 2019 ORIENTATION DAY ............................................................................................................................................... 9 HEARING UNIT PARENT DINNER ................................................................................................................................................ 9 OUR STUDENTS IN ACTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 11 MARY POPPINS CURTAIN RAISERS ........................................................................................................................................... 12 YEAR 9 ART ............................................................................................................................................................................. 12

FROM THE HEARING UNIT As I am writing this, we are awaiting the results of our Year 12 students. This time of year always brings a certain amount of anxiety and apprehension for our Year 12 students and their families. Phoebe Dare, Sam Rickard and James Webb should all be proud of their efforts this year. We are certainly proud of them all. All three of our Year 12 students have been at the school for thirteen years and are certainly a testament to the school and The Hearing Unit.

This term, Abbey Gartlan, Remington Hobday, Ben Baulch and Lochie Baulch have all competed and represented the school at Nationals. We are extremely proud of all their achievements. Many medals were won, PBs were smashed and they all tried their best in every event they participated in.

On Thursday, 1st November, all the Junior School Hearing Unit students headed to Doncaster Athletics Track to compete and participate in the 2018 Primary Deaf Sports Day. This is a fantastic day for both the Hearing Unit students, parents and staff to connect with other Deaf and hard of hearing staff, parents and students from across Victoria. This year we came second overall, a wonderful achievement by our students, especially under the extreme heat conditions. We are so proud of all the students and as always they all tried their best.

This term in the Hearing Unit we have had a focus on mindfulness and gratitude. This also connects with the message of the Resilience Project. Ms Keeler created our colourful gratitude tree this term to encourage students to think about what they are grateful for in their lives. Students are encouraged to fill in a leaf of the tree to represent the following:   

What made you smile today?

Who or what are you grateful for today?

What went well today?

At the Junior School Presentation evening, history was made. Gabe Cameron became the first Hearing Unit student to become a Junior School Captain. We are all so very proud of Gabe. He will be joined by Lucia Hammerstein as they represent the Junior School together in 2019.

The Middle School Presentation evening saw Riley Gurry receive a Bronze Service to School Award for Sport, Music, Drama and Community Links and Emily Baulch received a Platinum Service to School Award for Sport, Music, Drama and Community Links. Emily was also nominated for the Pettet Award. The criteria for this award is: pursuing and achieving their personal best in academic, cultural and sporting activities; being a positive role model; making every effort to develop their own creativity; modelling care and tolerance and demonstrating service to our School and to the wider community.

We held the always successful Hearing Unit Dinner this term in the Brooke Nicholas Pavilion. This was a wonderful event where parents, executive, trustees, staff and graduating students come together to celebrate the past year.

Two of our departing students, Sam Rickard and James Webb made a touching, funny speech, while the video reflected on past photos of the graduating students and photos of 2018. We welcomed our new Hearing Unit families for 2019 and they appreciated the opportunity to connect and get to know the other parents.

Our last Australian Hearing visit for the year with our lovely audiologist, Rebekah was filled with festive cheer. We had a morning tea to celebrate Rebekah’s last visit for the year and to wish Ryan Dang all the very best as he will be leaving us at the end of the year. We will all miss Ryan’s sense of humour and cheeky smile.

Last week, we were informed that we will be receiving a grant from The Deafness Foundation next year to support a mindfulness and yoga program for Deaf and hard of hearing students across Melbourne. More information regarding this will be available early next year. We are excited to be able to continue to provide a program to support the emotional wellbeing of our secondary students.

We are all so proud of the students and their achievements this year. Wishing you all a safe, relaxing and happy holiday. We will see you in 2019.

Ms Rachel Wilson Head of the Hearing Unit

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SPEECH SPOT Another whirlwind year comes to a close!!! It has been so much fun working with my HU students in the Speech Room again this year – their persistence, dedication, enthusiasm and joy is a credit to you all! Wishing you all a fabulous festive season and restful summer break. See you in 2019!

Mrs Anneke Flinn Speech Pathologist

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DEAF SPORTS DAY Our annual Deaf Sports Day was again a great opportnity for our students to socailaise with children from facilities. Matthew and Amara enjoyed the new challenges of highjump, long jump and shot put, whilst the younger children enjoyed the TriSkill activities.

MELBOURNE MUSEUM

The Year 1’s visited the Melbourne Museum and IMAX because they have been learning all about minibeasts. They loved looking carefully at a large range of insects, arachnids as well as other categories within the minibeast family.

CAMP MANYUNG

The Year 3’s went to Camp Manyung. They learnt about marine life and conservation. The children also enjoyed many activities including the Giant Swing and Tree Rolling.

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GAURVI SINGH AT HEALESVILLE The Preps visited Healesville Sanctuary to add to what they are learning about Australian animals.

Gaurvi used the Show Me app to record 3 of the most interesting things she learned on the excursion.

This app lets you draw and record your voice, saving it as a video. It is quite daunting thinking of what to say when the microphone is turned on. The information in brackets is some additional information she discussed in her Hearing Unit session, but did not say in the recording.

The emu egg is bigger than I thought. (It was bigger than our hands.)

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YEAR ONE MINI BEASTS The Year 1s have been learning about mini beasts this term. Indi has written a bug tale about a shy ladybird. Included in this newsletter are the first three pages of her story. Fabien completed his project on praying mantises.

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YEAR 5 GOLD RUSH

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AUSTRALIAN HEARING VISITS Australian Hearing visits are always a good opportunity for the Big Kids and Little Kids to interact and enjoy each other’s company.

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NATIONAL ATHLETICS

We congratulate our Multi Class National Athletics competitors, Ben and Lochie Baulch and Remington Hobday, who performed well recently at Lakeside track in South Melbourne.

Lochie – third in shot put, first in discus, fourth in Medley Relay Ben – third in 800m, ninth in 200m Remington – fourth in discus (PB), fourth in 800m, fifth in 200m, second in the 4 x 100m relay, fourth in shot put

YEAR 7, 2019 ORIENTATION DAY Remington Hobday and Sammi Merritt joined us in the Senior School for their first official day of Year 7 on 13th November 2018.

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HEARING UNIT PARENT DINNER

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OUR STUDENTS IN ACTION

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MARY POPPINS CURTAIN RAISERS

YEAR 9 ART

Jaya Palmer – rendering portrait.

Emily Baulch - digital photography.

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