Head of Preparatory School - Edition 9 - 2021

Relocation Appreciation

The observant visitors to the Prep School over the past two months would have noticed that there has been significant building activity in and around the rooms closest to Alison Avenue. At the start of the year, these rooms housed our Year 5 and Japanese classrooms. The School Council has committed to a staged upgrade of the Prep School classrooms, and the project for this year has been modernising these rooms. New teaching walls, taking the wet areas out of the rooms, new LED lighting, as well as a glass wall dividing each pair of rooms that allows the space to be opened up, are features that the children will very much enjoy when they move back in.

In order to facilitate this work there has been a shuffle of learning areas that has included:

• Year 5 classes moving to the Nelson Wing;
• Music classes relocated to a variety of locations across the school including the Junior Primary;
• Stretch learning groups sessions had to find alternate spaces;
• Chinese classes have moved to the Junior Primary, and Japanese classes became mobile with Ms Kamei visiting classes;
• Primary Art classes and our Robotics sessions also had to move to the area recently vacated by Senior School classes; and
• Our Occupational Therapy & Speech Therapy sessions are now being held in what was the photography transportable building.

I am delighted to report that all of these relocations have been successful – due mainly to the fact that staff accepted the challenge of making it work in a calm and collected manner. This had a flow-on effect to the students who have not missed a beat, although a few have had to squeeze in a few more steps in their day.

I have appreciated the fact that staff and students have made a difficult time seamless. I am hopeful that at least two of the renovated spaces at the front of the school will be back online for us before the end of term.

Our newest students visiting

Over the past two weeks, we have welcomed the children who will combine to form our two Transition classes from the beginning of next term. They have spent two different days getting used to classroom routines, meeting staff and finding out which parts of the school they will be using when they commence next term.

As a part of the process, I have had the pleasure of meeting these children as well as their parents and outlining what an exciting time starting full-time school is. Some of the parents were more nervous than the children but I am confident that all will manage very well.

And some older children have joined us too

As well as meeting our youngest students, we have welcomed two new families who have both travelled a significant distance to become part of the Westminster community.

Ben Adams (Year 5 Wyvern) has started with us after relocating from the United Kingdom with his older sister Becca (Year 9 Carter) and parents Fran and Chris. They have settled quickly into the Westminster community and Ben was an instant hit on the soccer pitch scoring multiple goals for the dragons in his first outing!

Also joining us recently into Year 6 we have welcomed twin brothers, Remy and Nate Rasmussen (Year 6 Charter). While geographically they have not travelled as far, culturally their journey has been probably far more daunting. The boys, along with an older brother Trentin (Year 10 Heaslip) have come to Westminster from Jabiru in the Northern Territory and their schooling experience thus far has been very different to what they are finding at Westminster.

Updated Bus Run

Starting next Tuesday 15 June, we will be trialling a change to our ‘E’ Bus Service, which currently travels through McLaren Vale and Willunga. From Tuesday morning, this bus route will now start earlier at 7.11 am in Aldinga, before travelling along Main South Road and turning left on to Pages Flat Road, joining the current ‘E’ Bus Route at the corner of Pages Flat Road and Victor Harbor Road. For current users of this service at Willunga and McLaren Vale, there are no changes to pick up and drop off times. We hope that the extension of this service will allow more families to be able to utilise this route to and from Westminster.

Cultural Precinct Deliveries

Sarah Constructions has confirmed that framework steel deliveries will begin arriving from Tuesday 15 June. This means that the site will gear up again quickly with the arrival of these supplies and necessary machinery. While deliveries will be weather dependent, we can expect a lot more large vehicle movement in and out of Gate 4 from next Tuesday in the week or so to follow. If you are a regular user of Gate 4 through to the Thomas Pavilion and Sports and Swimming Centre, whether on foot, in a car or on a bike, please be mindful of these additional movements and take extra care. Construction site traffic will be using this gate and roadway in both directions and may need safety traffic management from time to time during our peaks of drop-off and pick-up, as well as temporary restrictions to parking in this zone. Thank you for your understanding.

Whole School Photo

The recent 60^th Anniversary Year photo is currently with the printers and we thank all families who have ordered their copy. We have arranged a few extras to be printed so if you think you missed out, you can still order at the special rate of $49.50 through www.trybooking.com/BRGLA. The stock of unallocated photos is limited so please don’t delay placing your order.

Netball Representatives

Congratulations to Summer Bradford (Year 6 Charter), Isabelle Sincock (Year 6 Wesley) and Sophie Hutchins (Year 6 Crown) who did a fine job of representing the South West District at the recent SAPSASA Year 6 State Netball Championships.

Footballers Selected

Following recent trials, I am delighted to report that Westminster will also be well represented at the State SAPSASA Football competition to be held later this year. Congratulations to the following boys who have been selected in the South West Football Teams - Henry Styles (Year 6 Mace), Riley Wilson (Year 6 Wesley), Astin Rouvray (Year 7 Kelly), Charlie Bradford (Year 7 Heaslip), Quinn Hammersley (Year 7 Dunstan) and Kobi Ritson (Year 7 Carter).

Uniform Option

At a recent Uniform Committee meeting, it was agreed that girls in Year 6 would now have the option of wearing Westminster leggings for PE and Co-curricular training.

This will be trialled with the Year 6s first for the remainder of the year. Mrs Webber in the Uniform Shop has placed an order and the size range will initially be 10k, 12k, 14k, L8 & up should hopefully cover all the Year 6 girls.

Unfortunately, this order will not be received until Wednesday 25 August, so the smaller sizes will not be available until then. Sizes 12k and above are available now to purchase.

Our Fish meet a Superstar

Sophia Hallam (Year 5 Wesley) performed brilliantly in the pool this year. As a result, she was awarded the Age Group Champion 10-year-old for the Marion Swimming Club.

Below is a photo of Sophia with her trophy and also one of an exciting moment when Sophia along with another Westminster swimming gun Poppy Doyle (Year 7 Jeffries) met Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers.

Poetry on Ice

Congratulations to Penny He (Year 5 Wesley) who has managed to rise early in the morning regularly to hone her skills on skates. Recently she passed her Elementary level test for figure ice skating, this is an advanced level for ice skating and she worked very hard to achieve this goal.

Holiday Opportunity – Code Camp

While the end of term seems a long way off, it is time to again consider activities to keep the children engaged during the break. Code Camp Winter camp will be up and running again at Westminster. These holidays we’ll be running:

• Spark: Monday 12 to Wednesday 14 July
• YouTube Creators: Monday 12 to Wednesday 14 July

The camps are now available to book via www.codecamp.com.au/westminster.

Diary Dates

• Queen's Birthday Public Holiday - Monday 14 June
  
• Sing, Sing, Sing Concert - Wednesday 16 June
• Westminster Giving Day - Thursday 17 June
• ELC Graduation - Friday 18 June
• Battle of the Rock Bands - Wednesday 23 June, 6.00 pm
• End of Term 2 - 1.00 pm dismissal, Friday 25 June
• Code Camp - Monday 12 to Wednesday 14 June
• Term 3 Commences - Tuesday 20 July

Grant Bock
Head of Preparatory School