Success all round… and as one of our pillars, Celebrating Success – Mukamukarrinthi, what a perfect start to this week’s Bell article. Last week I attended the Junior Orators Competition with two of our students, Ashlee and Shareef Bussenhoccus. In what was a stunning field of eloquent and talented orators from around the state, our students shone brightly, both being runners up. One of our School’s successes in this, is the fact that so many students entered this competition and were willing to be risk takers, public speakers, and were disciplined in their busy schedules to ‘have a go’. I am so proud of all our students for this wonderful effort.

In the same fortnight, we had two of our Tournament of Minds teams win the state competition and will now represent South Australia in Melbourne at the National Competition next term. In addition, we also have two of our debating teams currently participating in the final’s series. In fact, we won this competition last year as part of the South Australian Debating Competition. Good luck to all!

Public speaking and presenting individually, and in teams, takes great skill and a brave sense of having a go. This doesn’t begin in our upper primary years but starts as young as our Reception children when they happily present and run their Junior Primary assemblies, or perform on their chosen instrument at assemblies and concerts. It becomes a natural occurrence to share their knowledge, skills and put a voice to this. We are providing wonderful opportunities for all our students to have a go. This could be through Music, academics, running assemblies and events, or even sport.

Opportunities provided throughout a child’s journey at St Andrew’s School, from ELC to Year 6, support the critical thinking, problem solving, public speaking and presenting with courage that is so evident in its growth and presentation for our students. We are all very lucky to be part of this experience, as a teacher, child, and parent.