Grammar Football Cup is being held tomorrow (Saturday 23 March) on Cowper from 7.30am. Spectators are welcome.

The last day of Term 1 is Wednesday 10 April. A reminder to all families that School finishes at 12.00noon. The Middle Harbour and Hunters Hill buses will be departing the School at 12.05pm on this day.

We are thrilled that Paul Jarman will be our Visitor-In-Residence at St Ives in the coming weeks where he will be working alongside Mrs Jacqui Fane in the Year 3-6 music classes and collaborating with all boys in Year 6 to create a work that will be premiered on the coming orchestral tour to Singapore.  This piece will be performed for the enjoyment of the whole School Community later in the year.

Paul Jarman is a widely acclaimed Australian composer, performer, musical director and educator. Paul is most well known as a lyricist and composer of choral music, a world music multi-instrumentalist, and a facilitator of community inspired collaborations.

Paul has written over 100 commissioned works for ensembles, festival and events. His unique blend of melody and timeless poetry celebrates the human endeavor and has captured the imagination of singers and audiences worldwide.

Mr I Stephens

We are approaching that time of year again! NAPLAN this year falls in Week 3 of Term 2. All tests (EXCEPT Year 3 Writing) will be online this year.  We participated in the online version last year – so we’re old hands at this now! To help prepare this year’s boys for the online interface that is used we will be completing a trial NAPLAN test next week for Year 5 and the week after for the Year 3 cohort. The trial test is purely so the boys can see the interface and experience the login process. NO DATA is recorded from these trials.

From the NAPLAN website: 

Between 14-17 May, our School "will participate in NAPLAN Online. Students do not need to be computer experts to take the NAPLAN test online. Making sure students have computer skills is part of our school curriculum, and our teachers will ensure your child is familiar with the online format. To see the types of questions and interactive features of NAPLAN Online, visit the public demonstration site. “

For more information:

• How to support your child during NAPLAN

• Information for parents and carers

• Watch a video that explains NAPLAN Online

“There’s no such thing as winning or losing. There is won and there is lost, there is victory and defeat. These are absolutes. Everything in between is still left to fight for. Serpine will have won only when there is no one left to stand against him. Until then, there is only the struggle, because tides do what tides do – they turn.”

Skullduggery Pleasant

Derek Landy

Year 1    curious

Year 2    frustrated

Year 3    delighted

Year 4    gnaw

Year 5    circumstance

Year 6    charismatic/charisma

Mrs C Greenup

Music Timetable for Term 1 Week 9

Click here for the Week 9 Music Timetable. Parents please note this is subject to change.

Mr M Smith OAM

Combined Orchestra Tour to Singapore

A reminder that our first rehearsal will be 2:00-5:00pm on Saturday 30 March at Edgecliff Prep.

Taiko Workshop on Saturday 23 March in the Hall and Ensemble Room

Please remember your bachi and earplugs.

Group 1 RIKU and Group 2 SORA 2.00-3.30pm

Group 3 KAZE and Group 4 HONOH 3.30-5.00pm

Ensembles Week 9

NO rehearsal for School Orchestra on Thursday 28 March due to Term 1 Concert

All other ensemble rehearsals are back to normal so please be on time.

Term 1 Concert at 6:30pm Thursday 28 March 

1. Boys will bring their instruments to school on Thursday 28 March and leave them in their usual storeroom ready for rehearsals during the day. At the end of the school day they will be given time to take their instrument to their Holding Room where string players will unpack in preparation for tuning. No instruments will be taken home on Thursday afternoon. 

2. Please make sure your son’s instrument case is clearly labelled with his name so that he can find it amongst all the other instruments. 

3. Boys go home as normal, then return to school at 6.00pm and go to their Holding Room. They will wear neat, clean summer uniform with polished school shoes.

4. The Concert will conclude at approximately 7.30pm.

5. After the Concert, please collect your son from his Holding Room.

Boys are asked to travel to school on a Friday in their School Sports Uniform. If they need to change into either their football or rugby gear for training they are to do this just before sport.

In preparation for Winter Sport, boys participated in trials today and will have a further trial on Friday in Week 9. Boys have been informed of the days and times so that they will bring the appropriate equipment required.

Yesterday, Felix Carrasco, Noah Kazal, Brian Lee, Lucas Lin, Adam Nguyen and Emerson Siroky participated in the CIS Swimming Carnival at Homebush. Representing IPSHA, Noah participated in the U9 Freestyle, Brian in the U12 Breaststroke and Lucas raced in the U10 Freestyle, Breaststroke and Backstroke. Lucas made it through the heats into the finals and placed 3rd overall in the Breaststroke and will now represent CIS at the PSSA Championships. Our Junior Relay Team of Adam, Emerson, Felix and Lucas also made it through to the final and placed 6th overall. 

All the boys should be very proud of their achievements. I would like to congratulate them on an outstanding Swimming season! Well done!

In preparation for the IPSHA Cross Country Carnival on Saturday 6 April, the ‘Barefoot Bandits’ will be run as the School Team Training as detailed below:

• Fridays before School, 7:30-8:10am (only if you are not in choir or any other music group):

o Friday 22 March (Week 8)

o Friday 29 March (Week 9)

o Friday 5 April (Week 10)

• Lunchtimes, 1:05-1:20pm (before you eat your lunch):

o Monday 25 March (Week 9)

o Wednesday 27 March (Week 9)

o Monday 1 April (Week 10)

o Wednesday 3 April (Week 10)

To help plan ahead, these will be the Winter Sport training afternoons for 2019.  All sessions are 3:00-4:00pm;

Winter Fixtures have been finalised and are published on the School website. They can be downloaded here. Matches begin in the first week of Term 2, the dates for Saturday Winter fixtures are;

Term 2 on 4, 11, 18 and 25 May, 1, 15 and 22 June, Term 3 on 27 July and 3 and 10 August.

College Street is holding a Holiday Tennis Camp that boys from the St Ives Preparatory School are welcome to attend. For more information click here.

A Rugby Camp is being run for boys from both the St Ives and Edgecliff Preparatory Schools on Friday 26 April. Please click here for more information.

Mr B Townley-Jones

The new basketball uniform that was purchased for boys this year has shorts that are too long. The clothing manufacturer is going to fix this issue and has requested that we collect all the Basketball shorts the week after the last round of Term 1 sport which is the week commencing 18 March.

Boys should bring their Basketball shorts to the Office in a plastic bag with your son's name and class noted on the bag, no later than Friday 30 March.

If you haven’t already ordered your son's Basketball uniform, please do so in time for Term 4.

A new noticeboard has been established in the Library, to display boys’ book recommendations. Boys are encouraged to complete a recommendation slip promoting a book they have enjoyed. To be displayed, the recommendations must be neatly written and have no spelling errors.

In our weekly Lunchtime in the Library session this week, Mrs Flaks introduced the country of Guatemala and boys enjoyed making Mayan Worry Dolls. Tradition has it, that if the dolls are placed under the pillow at night, worries will disappear.

In Library classes this term, the focus for each grade is fiction. Fiction can be more challenging for children to understand, as it is concerned with abstract concepts like, love, friendship, loyalty etc. By reading fiction and discussing characters, children become more confident in understanding the inferred meaning of the text.

Parents can help with this at home by reading aloud and talking about the thoughts and feelings of characters and why they have acted in a particular way. Children need both fiction and nonfiction in their reading diet, however, mostly they find nonfiction easier to access.

I am looking forward to welcoming young children with their friends and families this Friday from 3:15 pm, for the first Stories, Song and Rhymes session. 

Happy reading!

Mrs R Lee