Week 4, Term 2 | 20 May 2022

‘The assistant coach at the time called me over and said, “You are the best teammate I have ever been involved with in basketball”. Hearing this meant more to me than any amount of playing minutes would have.’ (Jarrad Weeks)

Jarrad Weeks, son of our Learning Support teacher, Ms Felicity Weeks, recently represented the Tasmanian Jack Jumpers (as vice-captain), in the NBL Grand Final series against the Sydney Kings. 

Jarrad’s recipe for being a great sporting teammate involves:

• a mindset and a willingness to put others above yourself. 
• giving your all whenever you are needed. 
• showing authentic care for another and picking someone else up when required.
• understanding that when others succeed, we ALL succeed.

It sounds like a pretty good recipe for teamwork in any context!

Sport provides a unique and powerful vehicle in which life lessons can be learned and character shaped. Attitudes such as confidence, cooperation, empathy for each other, enthusiasm, integrity, responsibility, respect and tolerance can be developed in a context where boys are often highly motivated and focused.

Perhaps one of the most significant concepts connecting many of these dispositions is teamwork. This is an attitude and a value that is taught and encouraged intentionally in our Mosman Prep team sport program.

Coaches and parents need to work together to focus on the truly important elements of team sport – the attitudes we hope our boys will carry with them as they grow to become the pillars of our community.

Our School Motto ‘Not for ourselves alone’, provides such a perfect anchor as we educate our boys to understand and embody TEAM - Together Everyone Achieves More.

Peter Grimes | Headmaster

References:

Jarrad Weeks - Tasmanian Jack Jumpers (as vice-captain) - NBL Final Series
Link - Athlete Inspired/the-value-of-being-a-great-teammate

During the July holidays, Mosman Prep will be hosting a Day Camp. This would be our second such camp, with the first being in 2019. This year we are going all out! We will spend two days onsite, two days at our Terrey Hills Outdoor Education Campus, and a day excursion to Taronga Zoo. Activities will include jumping castle, scooter ball, laser tag, nerf tag, funbox creation, plus much more!

I look forward to seeing many boys (and their siblings) at this great week-long Day Camp.

Registration details - https://crudaycamps.com.au/cool-cru#cru-on-the-coast-camp-details

Early bird discounts end in a week (save up to $40).

Expression of interest - email me ddiener@mosmanprep.nsw.edu.au

• COOLCRU PROMO VIDEO

We are thrilled to announce the birth of Genevieve and Nick Anderson's (Year 3A Teacher) baby daughter Heidi Loney Anderson, who arrived on Monday 9 May. A little bit earlier than expected but everyone is doing well. 

We are sure that Violet will enjoy being a big sister!

In the last few weeks, we had an exciting visitor at our school, named Healthy Harold! 

Life Ed is Australia's largest preventive health organisation empowering children to make safer and healthier choices so they can live happier lives.

Since 1979, Life Ed has educated more than 7 million children through their innovative and holistic teaching and learning approach.

Their programs focus on the following 3 main areas: physical health, social and emotional wellbeing and safety. The boys have enjoyed different valuable modules such as Growing Good Friends (EE), Harold’s Friendship (Kindy), Ready Steady Go (Y2), Be Cyberwise (Y3), All Systems Go (Y4), Relate Respect Connect (Y5) and Think Twice (Y6)

The topics led to some wonderful discussions in class and it would be great if you could continue these conversations with your children at home. 

The Life Ed website provides lots of helpful resources for families and young people, if you are interested please find the links below

Link - LifeEd/Thrive

Link - LifeEd/Families/Resources for Parents & Carers

Link - LifeEd/Families/Thrive: To be Mentally & Physically Strong

If you would like to talk further about this topic, or you have questions or concerns please feel free to email Ms Merel and Ms Skye at schoolcounsellor@mosmanprep.nsw.edu.au 

Be kind to yourself and others. 

Ms Merel Dekkers / Ms Skye Adams | School Counsellors

The Chinese Culture Incursion for students from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, was held on Tuesday and Thursday this week at Mosman Prep. The event was part of the Mosman Prep Chinese cultural immersion education program, and was planned to enhance understanding of the Chinese culture. The event consisted of a series of workshops including Chinese calligraphy, Chinese paper cutting, Chinese painting and Chinese knot bracelets making. Students enjoyed the activities and expressed their enthusiasm for the authentic experience with the professional calligrapher and artists:

Chinese Calligraphy
Year 3 attended a wonderful calligraphy workshop where all boys practised very hard with four treasures of study. They painted fans with a Chinese character 福 on them, which was exciting for all students. 

Chinese Paper-Cutting 
Year 4 students were shown paper cutting. They made Chinese characters which symbolise Spring. In Chinese this is the character 春. They have the characters hanging on the window outside their classroom as decorations. 

Chinese Painting 
Year 5 students painted Chinese plum blossoms. They learnt to appreciate the beauty of plum blossoms in traditional Chinese painting, as well as holding the paint brush correctly. Students have been very creative in their artworks. 

Making Chinese knot Bracelets by 6M
Year 6 students spent one hour making Chinese bracelets. They have used the square knot technique to make beautiful red and gold bracelets. They all had a fantastic experience designing and learning about Chinese knots.

A big thank you to all professionals and teachers involved. 

Ting Wang | Mandarin Teacher 

Chinese Knots Workshop

When Mandarin started we didn’t realise what would happen! When the lesson started we were being taught how to make a special Chinese bracelet! It was quite a lot of fun and everyone had a great time. I finished first with my red and yellow string! Everyone else chose a red and RAINBOW string! At the end we got some tags put on them saying our name! Wow that was an amazing day.

By 6M Thomas Dalgleish

The Chinese workshop 6M did was an amazing experience. Not only did it enhance our understanding of Chinese culture, it also put our crafts skills to the test, and also tested our patience, since it takes a while to make. We made traditional Chinese wrist bracelets from a thin rope. We did it by repeating a sort of knot which slowly increased the length of the bracelet, and we did that until the thin rope ran out. Although it was tricky for some, there were professional Chinese crafters, who helped anyone in need. In the end everybody finished the bracelet and everyone produced a bracelet that looked great, and now they will be proudly displayed in the learning celebration.

By 6M Wei-Yi Chiou

Chinese Painting Workshop

The Mandarin incursion was an amazing experience for the whole of Year 5. We learnt about different shades of colours and how to use them to make a beautiful art piece. If you ask anyone in Year 5 about the Mandarin incursion, or asked boys who previously did it, we guarantee you that they would say it was a wonderful experience. 

The amazing helpers taught us how to make the art look even more beautiful by showing us how to add extra details that made the art pieces look so much better than they already were. They understood everyone’s abilities and helped us with all the extra details that we might’ve missed out on. 

Although the paintings looked odd at first, we got to understand that a picture doesn’t need to be all the right colours. You can make a picture in your head of what the colours should be. We also learnt that different colours and shades mean different emotions. 

We are truly thankful towards Mrs Wang for organising this memorable experience for the whole of our year group. We also would like to thank all the other teachers and helpers involved in this project. No one in Year 5 will forget this joyous learning experience.

By 5G Archer Webster and 5H Harry Birch

Chinese Paper Cutting Workshop

On Thursday we were making Chinese paper cuttings for Chinese cultural learning. I found it was such a fun experience and it would be great to do it again. A special thank you to our instructors.

By 4H Hugo Hughes

Chinese Paper Cutting Workshop

We had lots of fun during a beautiful Chinese font incursion known as Calligraphy. They showed us how to decorate the fans and how to hold the paintbrushes like a pen straight down. It was done in black inky water. The instructor told us the books are in your head and you do not need calculators or anything other than the ink pad. The characters we drew were farmers and dragons. As this was our first time, we were not very good, but will hopefully improve next time. We are looking forward to our parents seeing them at the learning celebration.  

By 3P Matteo and Sam

We are in a "board games frenzy" at ASC! Boys of all ages have been actively involved in learning new games and in friendly competition with friends and with educators, when playing favourite games.

Current popular games are: chess, checkers or draughts, Guess Who, Battleship, billiards on our mini tabletop billiards table, and the card game Uno. We have lots of fun and laughter while playing these games. 

While having fun with these games, the boys are cementing friendships and developing communication skills (Can you keep a "poker face" when you have a great hand in UNO?). We discuss strategies and thinking skills, aligning the activity with Outcome 4.3 of the My Time Our Place Learning Framework for Out of School Hours Care: Children use a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating. 

We are open to suggestions for new games for ASC as well. 

Leonie, Justina, Bridget, Matthew | The ASC Team

Dear Mosman Prep Community,

Many of you will know Carl St Jacques, has been working at Mosman Prep as a strings peripatetic music tutor for a number of years. He has been an inspiration to so many of our boys, teaching violin and viola.

You will be saddened to know that Carl has recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, and is undergoing treatment at present. He is unable to work and earn, and would benefit from any help or assistance our community could give. 

On behalf of Carl and his wife, we would like to reach out to our parent community to support our ‘GoFundMe’ campaign to raise money for Carl. 

Link to Donate - GoFundMe

He wishes to keep this information away from social media. Thank you for respecting this request.

Thank you for your support and prayers. 

Kind regards,

Mosman Preparatory School

Mosman Prep families are invited to join The King’s School registrar and Mr Peter Grimes for a guided tour of The King’s School on Tuesday 21 June.

Click on the button below for more information and register here - https://enrol.kings.edu.au/community-event

It will be a wonderful opportunity to experience all King’s has to offer your son in High School.

Good luck to the boys attending the NSW Primary Schools 7's Tournament taking place at Hassall Park, St Ives next Wednesday 25 May.  We are entering two teams, a Junior (Years 3/4 combined) and a Senior (Years 5/6 combined). 

Parents of boys selected have been notified with further details.

The Balmoral Burn takes place up Awaba Street on Sunday 29 May.

We are entering a MCEPS team (all welcome) into one of the many races taking place, the Year 3-6 Primary Schools Challenge: 9:25am race start. There is also a K-2 Race at 9:20am for younger boys.

All boys are welcome to take part and those who enter in the Year 3-6 race will need to meet at the Balmoral Beach Rotunda wearing their School PE Uniform (navy blue polo) or athletics uniform at 8:45am. Please allow time prior to this to collect registration packs, timing devices etc if need be.

REGISTRATION (Link - HERE) For Years K-2 & 3-6 (including Primary School Challenge) races, parents should register their children in 'Individual or Family 2022', and then select Mosman Prep as their child's school. This will ensure their entry is also part of the Primary School Challenge.

We will again also be entering school teams in the ‘Primary Schools Challenge’ event at the: 

• Mini-Mos Marathon (https://www.mini-mos.com/2022-.../ - 2km race) on Sunday 19 June. 

Parents enter their child's details, as their age determines which races they can enter. During the registration, they just select "Mosman Church of England Preparatory School” from the list of schools in the participant questions. Parents need to register their sons and all Mosman Prep boys are welcome to enter.

The Junior Primary Athletics Carnival will be held at our Outdoor Learning Centre in Terrey Hills on Tuesday 7 June, 11:00am-1:30pm. 

Spectators:

• Parents are permitted to attend the carnival. We look forward to having your support back for the boys!

Arrival and Dismissal arrangements:

• Students need to arrive at school as normal. Boys will then be transported to Terrey Hills by mini bus in their respective year groups. 
• At the conclusion of the carnival, students can go home with parents in attendance or will be taken back to school to be collected as normal at the end of the day.

What to wear and bring: 

• All boys are to wear their House sports uniform, including sun hat. 

As this is an inter-house Carnival, all boys must compete in their House shirt. Shoes with extra grip are recommended for the grass surface.

• Bring a packed recess, lunch and drinks in a bag.
• It is recommended that boys apply sunscreen at home. Sunscreen will also be available.
• If any boy requires daily medication they are to bring it in a labeled bag.  

Events: 

• All boys will compete in 50m and 100m races, with the 200m only for those boys who are 8 years.
• At the end of the running races, all boys will be involved in novelty events.
• These will be four different stations that the class groups will complete on a rotation in relay form. 

Term 2

• Wednesday 25 May: Sydney North NSW Rugby 7’s Competition (selected Y3/4 and Y5/6 teams).
• Sunday 29 May: Balmoral Burn Fun Run, Balmoral.
• Tuesday 7 June: Junior Primary Athletics Carnival, Terrey Hills. All day.
• Saturday 11 June: No Saturday Sport (Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend).
• Sunday 19 June: Mini-Mos Marathon (2km Fun Run).
• Saturday 18 June: IPSHA Winter Sport (Rd 7) finishes for Term 2.

Saturdays: On Saturdays the MCEPS Information Line will be updated between 6:30am and 7:00am. This number has the most up-to-date information the School can provide regarding matters of sport and excursions. Parents are to call this number and not the School
Office. After heavy rain Mosman Council often closes its grounds, so please check with this number for all school sport and excursion cancellations.

Weekdays: In case of inclement weather, please ring the Prep Information Line, which will be updated from 1.00pm. Ovals might be closed by Mosman Council on fine days, if the preceding days have been wet. It is therefore advised that parents should ring the School’s Information Line on training days if there has been rain. 

PLEASE NOTE:  if the message has not been updated, Sport is ON as scheduled.

ClimateClever has recently partnered with Mosman Council and is soon to be hosting a free event on the Tuesday 14 June, which you can book by following the link here. 

This is the opportunity to learn more about our sustainability program and ways to reduce impacts at home and school.

Additionally, for a quick overview of ClimateClever, check out this 1-minute video. 

Ella Cottee
Schools Community Engagement Manager 
ClimateClever

For the schedule of school events, please refer to the online calendar, which can be found HERE. Government decisions due to COVID restrictions may require us to alter our scheduled events at short notice. The calendar will be updated accordingly. 

If you have any questions for the P&F or would like to volunteer please do not hesitate to get in touch at pandf@mosman.prep.nsw.edu.au.

The secondhand Uniform shop is open on Tuesdays (7.45-8.30am) and Thursdays (2.45-3.30pm). 

Online ordering has been paused whilst the backlog of orders is collected from the School office.

The P&F cannot guarantee the availability of items (especially larger sizes) but will fulfil orders twice a week, with delivery via the School Office.

Payment is via bank transfer on receipt.