JLC Community (Prep - Year 4)

Classroom Hours

School runs from 8.20am - 3.00pm (2.40pm for Prep only), Monday to Friday during term time.

Daily Timetable

Our Junior Learning Community classrooms provide great diversity to incorporate a range of exciting topics and activities while following this general daily timetable:

Life Group 8.20am - 9.00am
Period 1 9.00am - 9.40am
Period 2 9.40am - 10.20am
MORNING TEA 10.20am - 11.00am
Period 3 11.00am - 11.40am
Period 4 11.40am - 12.20pm
Period 5 12.20pm - 1.00pm
LUNCH  1.00pm - 1.40pm
Period 6 1.40pm - 2.20pm
Period 7 2.20pm - 3.00pm

Prep - Year 4 students attend a weekly chapel service called The Gathering. During our Mini (Prep - 2) and Junior (Years 3 - 4) Gatherings, our students have so much fun as they celebrate each other’s achievements, and enjoy devotions, Bible teachings and a lively time of worshiping God.

We provide a quality Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) service onsite at the College and many of our Hillcrest families enjoy the great benefits of our Before School Care, After School Care and Vacation Care programs. The programs are run from our classrooms in ECHO Block, and participants have access to use the College playgrounds and some of our sporting facilities, under the supervision of our OSHC staff.

Our OSHC service provides a child-centred environment for Prep - Year 6 students, offering a range of educational and exciting activities from Monday - Friday.

Our OSHC is licensed by the Office for Early Childhood Education and Care, and eligible families are able to claim the CCS (Child Care Subsidy) through Centrelink. Hillcrest's OSHC staff are qualified or training in Children’s Services, and all hold First Aid Certificates and Blue Cards.

Important OSHC links

• Read more about OSHC on our website
• OSHC Handbook

Our music program at Hillcrest is informed by research relating to child development, and our young students all have the chance to develop a strong foundation for musical learning through the concepts of beat, rhythm, inner hearing, timbre, pitch and singing. Hillcrest students in the JLC have the following music lessons:

ACADEMIC MUSIC

• Prep - Year 1 (50 minutes)
• Years 2 - 4 (40 minutes)
• Years 4 and 5 String Immersion Program

COCURRICULAR INSTRUMENTS (optional)

• Ensembles
• Violin and Piano
• (from Prep)
• Guitar (from Year 3)
• Individual Vocal and Instrumental Instructions

CHORAL COCURRICULAR (optional)

• Chorus (Year 2)
• Hillcrest Blokes (Years 2 – 4 boys only)
• Choir Junior Singers and Primary Voices (Years 3/4)
• Voice and other instruments (from Year 4)

For more information, please contact our Performing Arts Department.

Our JLC students are involved in a range of Physical Education and Sports programs, including:

S.M.I.L.E. PROGRAM (SENSORY MOTOR INTEGRATION LEARNING EXPERIENCES)

Prep – Year 3 students have a weekly S.M.I.L.E lesson to practise:
Gross and fine motor skills, body awareness, body control, integrating movements and manipulating equipment, social skills, interaction with others, effort, behaviour, engagement in activities, introduction to sport specific skills - throwing, catching, ball control, tracking and trapping, kicking, striking.

AQUATICS & SPORT EDUCATION PROGRAM

• Prep – Year 4: Learn to Swim and Stroke Correction
• Years 3 and 4: Sport Development Program
• Inter-house Carnivals: Prep – Year 3 Sports Day
• Years 4 - Swimming, Cross Country and Athletics Carnivals

PHYSICAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

Students will have a weekly PE lesson to practise:
Progressive development of all fundamental and specialised movement skills and techniques; improvement in physical performance in fitness elements [cardio-respiratory endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility] for health and wellbeing; refining of teamwork, tactics, strategies and enhancing participation in physical activity.

Additional Sports Development

We offer a range of optional programs to ensure students can develop their sporting abilities, including:

• Prep - Year 4: Our Sparks, Flames and Explosions programs offer a range of sports development and extracurricular opportunities before and after school, at minimal cost.
• Sport Season Training includes running and athletics, AFL, netball, hockey, soccer, rugby league, basketball, cricket, baseball / softball, touch football
• Representative Pathways for 10, 11 and 12 year olds who wish to complete in District, Regional and National Sport Trials and Championships
• After school Sport Clinics (sport-specific organisations) include Viva Soccer, Heat Mini Ball basketball, AFL Auskick, tennis, and netball

There is much debate over the value of homework. Research has shown that formal homework tasks at a junior school level have no measurable benefits. It is acknowledged that there are self-management skills learnt where students take responsibility for managing their homework activities. Many families however, experience unnecessary daily stress from homework as they navigate extremely busy after-school and after-work schedules. Taking this into account, this year classes across the JLC will trial a different homework format.

The value of nightly reading and fostering a love of literature in young children is acknowledged, and this continues to be a priority of the homework routine; ultimately we want our children to become lifelong lovers of reading. Practising multiplication tables, vital to achieve automaticity, and efficiency in solving more complex mathematical tasks, and learning memory verses may also be regular learning activities. However, the remainder of homework tasks will be offered as enrichment learning opportunities; activities that ideally students will be self-motivated to complete, and will extend students’ passions and love for learning through engaging in hands-on activities. Some examples from various year levels include: learning a second language, starting a new hobby, writing a letter or ringing a relative that they haven’t spoken to in a while, participating in after-school sport or another discipline, creating an artwork to display at school, serving at church, cooking a meal for their family, or writing a letter to the editor of the local newspaper about a community concern.
 
By engaging in these real-life tasks, students are provided with opportunities to apply their learning and develop their passions in a meaningful context. At times, students in the upper grades may also be required to finish work or projects that they haven’t been able to finish in class time, and your support with this is appreciated. For students who are looking to practise their skills they also have access to Mathletics, Literacy Planet and Study Ladder if they choose. These programs can be tailored to individual needs at a support or extension level.

Every year our Hillcrest teachers appoint a parent to be the Class Parent for their classroom community, who supports the teacher and assists the families within that class, in a number of ways. Their role is to help facilitate communication between the College and the class's parents and families, and may involve helping to organise classroom events or family connection activities outside of Hillcrest. 

All of our Class Parents generously volunteer their time, so we ask that other parents be mindful that their Class Parent may also have work and many other commitments beyond their role.

A Class Parent May Assist With:

• Building of a stronger sense of community among parents in the class
• Assist the teacher in facilitating parent involvement for changing homework each week
• Making new families feel welcome and encouraging their involvement in class and College activities
• Keeping in touch with parents who may need extra support, for example in time of sickness, and helping to facilitate practical support, as necessary
• Upholding students and their families in prayer
• Organising a class gift for the teacher, if the class families wish to do so.

If you would like to be considered for the role of Class Parent, please speak to your child's teacher early in Term 1.

• Class Parents Duty Statement
• Class Parents Letter Template for Class Families

Our students are able to participate in the school banking program that is run in partnerhsip with the Commonwealth Bank. The JLC Administration Office has School Banking Program packs for parents and includes information on the program and details on how to set up your child’s bank account. Once their account has been set up, your child will be able to start the banking program.

The P&F Administer our School Banking program and collection of banking is every Tuesday. Students can bring their savings in on a Tuesday, as often as they wish. Find out more about the Commonwealth Bank School Banking Program.

The College compulsory one2one Device Program seeks to provide students with the tools they need in a rapidly changing world coupled with the development of personal responsibility and ethical conduct in line with our College Vision and Mission statements.

The College provides Classroom devices in Years Prep-Year 3 and compulsory 1:1 device for students in Years 4-12. For full details please refer to the one2one Device Program below.

• One2One Device Program 2021 including user agreement.

• Link to 2021 One2One Device Insurance & Accessories