Smiles in the Classrooms

It was a delight to finally welcome many of our Junior School students back to school last week. The Preps were first to arrive on Monday, followed by our Year 1 and 2 students on Thursday. Their smiling faces certainly lit up their classrooms.

They enjoyed every minute of their long-overdue reunion with their classmates and their teachers. After not being in the practice of being at school for quite some time, our students finished each day happily but I must admit, many looked exhausted, too.

The return of our Year 5 and 6 students was brought forward by almost a week and they arrived eagerly last Friday. It was fabulous to have more than half our students onsite on that day. Nothing beats learning in the classrooms and the camaraderie and friendship witnessed in class and in the playground was a joy to see.

We look forward to welcoming our final two year levels back to school on Tuesday.

As always, our teachers will ensure that student wellbeing is of utmost importance as we transition back to school. In just a few days of each class being back, our students have already enjoyed discos, painting, crafts, dress-up days and lots of fun.

Sincere thanks to our teachers for making the return to classrooms so positive and enjoyable for their students. I’m not sure who is happier to be back—our students or our teachers!

Congratulations to Meg

During lockdown, one of our Year 5 students, Meg van Brakel, received some exciting news. She won the state final of an exciting Techgirls Competition. Please read her article below for more details about her fantastic win. Congratulations, Meg!

Valedictory Celebrations

It was a privilege and an honour to be part of our 2021 Valedictory celebrations last week. Nine of our graduating students attended CGS for all 13 years of their education. It was wonderful to reflect on their journey from the curious, bright-eyed, five-year-old children we welcomed back in 2009 as they departed as wonderful, well-educated young adults.

On behalf of all your Junior School teachers congratulation to Tea, Julia, Caitlyn, Russell, Phoenix, Jordan, Zachary, Ben and Noah. We wish each of you and the entire class of 2021 all the very best for your upcoming exams and for the exciting futures that await you.

Melissa Roberton 

Head of Junior School 

Techgirls Competition 2021

Techgirls is an app designing and developing competition for girls which is held once a year. The goal of this competition is to design and develop an app that could have a positive impact on the world. The creators of Techgirls wanted to bring confidence to young girls with technology, so they can grow into confident women.

My teammate, Symone, who attends Toorak College, and I got along fantastically. In June this year we started brainstorming ideas for our app. We agreed that the idea of matching people in need of essential items with those willing to give items was the best idea. We named our app Me 2 You.

Together we developed a business plan, the actual app and database and a pitch. Being in lockdown most of the time had its ups and downs—for example, it was hard because we could rarely do our work together face-to-face because of the lockdown rules. We were thankful for technology that enabled us to continue to work together to complete our project.

It was a great feeling when we finally submitted all of our work in August. After a while we were told that our team had been selected as a State Finalist and we were invited to attend the virtual National Showcase.

At the National Showcase, each State had a runner up and winner announced. There were 78 teams in Victoria and the winning app was Me 2 You! We did it! Our team won and we were the winners of the Techgirls competition 2021! Symone and I were pumped!

https://www.techgirlsmovement.org/competition

Meg van Brakel, Year 5