Year 6 Celebration

Date:       Thursday 1 December

Time:      5.15pm – 8.15pm

Venue:   Barbreck 

Fast approaching is the time for us to formally farewell the Year 6 students of 2016 as they prepare to move into the next chapter of their schooling and transition to Senior School in 2017.

The Year 6 Celebration is always a very important date in the Barbreck calendar.  It is one we look forward to enjoying with the girls and their parents.

From an organisational point of view, please note that the students will be inviting their parents and, in the case of some, step parents as well. Siblings and other family members do not attend this particular function.

Families are asked to note that the commencement time for the evening is 5.15pm sharp. The calendar incorrectly advises a 5.45pm beginning.

Proceedings commence at 5.15pm and refreshments and finger food are served for adults.  The students will enjoy a celebratory meal in each other’s company. Students wear summer uniform on this evening.

More details will be provided as we proceed towards the date.

Year 6 Lead in Style!

Late in Term 3, following discussions with our 2016 Year 6 students, they were asked to provide written advice which might assist younger students before entering the ages and stages of access, or use of, social media options.

I posed the following question to the students and their responses were extremely practical, sensible and helpful. It was very evident that they felt strongly about assisting younger students in a strong way.

Included below are just some of the snippets of advice well presented in writing by Year 6 students. Once again, we remark upon how capable and competent young people can be if given the opportunity.

• Make sure that you would be happy for anyone to see, hear, or talk about your messages that you are about to send before you send them. 

• Before posting anything on social media, whether it be a photo or simply a text message, think in your head whether you would be happy for it to be published in a newspaper. If not? Do not post it. 

• When sending a message, always read it over to yourself before sending it. Other people might read it differently and be offended. 

• It is not a competition to get “likes” and “hearts”. The Apps are for fun and not to cause trouble. 

• Put your account on the private setting. Strangers are not your friends. 

• Keep your password secret but your mum and dad should know it. They will help you to stay safe online. 

• Only put things on social media that you would be happy for your parents or grandparents to see. 

• Never post photos which have people or yourself in School uniform or where the location or address is obvious. 

• Parents should know what you are signed up for.

 Year 1 at Como House

On Friday 9 September, Year 1 students went on an excursion to Como House to explore Family Life in the Past.

Dressed in olden day clothing, the girls experienced memorable activities of what it would have been like to have lived in this beautiful mansion so many years ago. The activities ranged from a tour of the mansion, olden day games, servants’ jobs and a walk around the gardens, whilst finding clues to solving the mystery of ‘Who broke Laura’s doll?’

Three of our Year 1 students provide their reflections on the excursion below:

On Friday we went to Como House. We went to Como House to see what their life was like then. When we got there we met a lady. She was dressed up as an olden day maid and her name was Janine. After we all met Janine, we split up into two groups. I was in group two. We did the History Mystery activity first. It’s about a girl called Laura and she had a big birthday party. Her parents gave her a porcelain doll. We had to find out who broke the doll.

After the History Mystery we did some olden day dancing in the ballroom. It was very fancy because we had to curtsy and do lots of twirls. After the ballroom dancing, my group had a big look at Como House. On the way up the stairs we had to hold our dresses up. After the tour of Como House, we played olden day games. There was egg and spoon, drop the hanky, what’s the time Mr Wolf, skipping, croquet, sack races and tug-of-war. My favourite game was tug-of-war. After the games, it was wash time. We had to scrub and wring them out. My part was the washing. I felt like I was in the olden days. When it was time to go, I did not want to go.
Ziabella Armstrong

On Friday I went to Como House. It was a very old house. Janine showed us in the old house. I loved the ballroom. When we went into the ballroom we did some amazing dancing. Scarlett and I were partners. Then we went into a new room. It was the men’s room. They had my favourite game. It was called billiards. In the ladies room they had French things everywhere. We had to find who broke Laura’s doll. We played servants’ jobs too. I had to learn four bells. Janine showed us the photos of the rooms. We had to learn each bell from each room. My favourite game was washing the old clothes. I learned how to wash old clothes. I had a great time!
Sofia Marshall

On Friday we went to Como House. We went for an olden day excursion. First we had our recess while we waited for the lady called Janine, who ran the program. She was wearing a pretty dress with an apron on top. Then some of our mums and Ms Lynden-Bell took us on a history mystery. We had a map of 14 clues and we had to solve it. Eventually we finished it and there were two children who broke Laura’s doll. It was Anne and John.

Next Janine took us on the tour of the mansion. We looked at what they used to use as toilets called chamber pots. On some chamber pots there was some furniture around it called a commode. Then she took us up to a maid’s room. The maid was called Millie. We also looked at where they had breakfast and dinner. We then had lunch. After that we went to play some olden day games such as tug of war, egg and spoon race, drop the hanky, what’s the time Mr Wolf, oranges and lemons, croquet and sack races. Then we went inside again and did some of the servant’s duties and we had to carry wine glasses filled with pipe water. Then we washed some of the clothes the children used to have. Last we listened to four different bells from different rooms. It was hard to find the right room. It was the best excursion that I‘ve ever been on!
Olivia Grasso