School Newsletter

I would like to say a huge welcome back to everyone! 2024 is upon us and there is so much to be excited about. I do hope you were able to have a refreshing break across the Christmas season and are now looking forward to all that God has instore for us this year.

This year we will welcome 134 new students to our community. A number of these will be in Kindergarten but it is also true to say that we have new students commencing in every grade within the school apart from Year 12. Along with all of the new students commencing, we also have 25 new staff – too many for me to actually list here. You’ll just have to come onsite at some stage to get to meet them all. We have eight new teachers commencing in Secondary, additional Administration staff and 15 new Student Learning Support Officers (SLSOs) to further assist the learning in the classroom.

Whilst discussing staffing, I also need to let you know that over the holidays Mrs Leisa Williams had the opportunity to return to Canberra where she had been living for 26 years before coming to us. She will be taking up the role of Head of Curriculum at Covenant Christian School in Canberra. It is sad to see Mrs Williams leave our community, but we do recognise that Christian Schooling is bigger than WCCS and wish her every blessing as she continues to grow God’s Kingdom in her new school.

We are also excited that our latest building project is underway. Four new classrooms, four music tutorial rooms, a Junior School Sports Shed, additional toilets and large deck are getting built at the end of each of the C Blocks in Secondary. They are currently scheduled for completion in early Term 3. We are also enhancing the entrance to the school from the parent carpark. The staircase will now extend across both buildings to allow a much better flow for our community as you enter our school.

May I encourage you to be aware of our school calendar so you can feel informed of all that is happening this year. In Week 1 alone we have five different events that spread across Junior School and Secondary School.

Whilst I can’t tell you everything that will occur this year, I can confidently say that it won’t be boring. God certainly has adventures planned for us, some of which we can foresee, some of which we will need to navigate as they arise. What I can also confidently say though, is that we remain galvanised in our focus to invest in your children to equip them to become responsible and responsive disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are looking forward to partnering with you again in 2024.

God Bless.

• Term 1 Commences Years 1-12 - Tuesday 28th January (Week 1)
• Kindergarten Commences - Wednesday 29th January (Week 1)
• Secondary School Swimming Carnival - Thursday 30th January (Week 1)
• Junior School Swimming Carnival - Friday 31st January (Week 1)
• Years K-11 Meet the Teacher Evening - Monday 3rd February (Week 2)
• Year 12 Parent Teacher Interviews - Monday 3rd February (Week 2)
• Year 7 Camp - Wednesday 5th to Friday 7th February (Week 2)
• Years 5 & 6 Camp - Wednesday 12th to Friday 14th February (Week 3)
• WCCS Open Day - Wednesday 19th February (Week 4)
• K-12 Combined Chapel - Thursday 20th February (Week 4)
• Kindergarten, Year 5 & 7 (for 2026) Information Evening - Tuesday 4th March (Week 6)
• Years 3, 5, 7 & 9 NAPLAN Testing Commences - Wednesday 12th March (Week 7)
• Wellbeing Week - Monday 17th to Friday 21st March (Week 8)
• Junior School Crazy Hair Day & World's Greatest Shave - Friday 21st March (Week 8)
• WCCS Twilight Open Evening - Wednesday 26th March (Week 9)
• Junior School Athletics Carnival - Thursday 3rd April (Week 10)
• Years 7-11 Parent Teacher Interviews - Monday 7th April (Week 11)
• K-11 Parent Teacher Interviews - Tuesday 8th April (Week 11)
• K-12 Cross Country Carnival - Thursday 10th April (Week 11)
• K-12 Easter Service - Thursday 10th April (Week 11)
• Junior School Celebration Assembly at 9am - Friday 11th April (Week 11)
  
• Secondary School Celebration Assembly at 2pm - Friday 11th April (Week 11)

SCHOOL APP

WCCS utilises our School App to communicate important information with parents (along with our fortnightly Newsletter). Our School App is available for free download from the App Store and Google Play by searching ‘Wyong Christian Community School’. The App contains lots of great information on school notices, events, staff email addresses, and more. You can also submit student absences via the App.

The App is now password-protected, and families were emailed details about that last week.

SCHOOL APP - NOTICE SUBSCRIPTIONS

If you are utilising the School App and subscription settings, please remember to reset your subscriptions for 2024.

Customising your subscriptions will allow you to receive notices and alerts that are relevant to your student/s’ year group/s, excursions and activities.

How to update your subscriptions:

1. Open our School App and Log In
2. Click on Settings
3. Click on Subscriptions
4. Click on each category and select the specific tags you would like to receive notices about.

IMPORTANT REMINDER - ALLERGIES

Please be reminded that we are a “High Risk Foods – Minimised” school. This means that parents, students and staff are requested to refrain from bringing peanuts, tree nuts, peanut butter or Nutella (chocolate/hazelnut) spreads to the school. Please adhere closely to this policy, as we have numerous students throughout the school who have an anaphylactic allergy to nuts. Thank you for your understanding.

CANTEEN MENU 2024

Our updated Canteen Menu for 2024 can be found here. Please ensure this new menu replaces any old versions you might have around your home.

Our Canteen is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

The Canteen's first day of trade for 2024 is tomorrow - Tuesday 30th January (Week 1).

You can find instructions for online ordering through MunchMonitor here.

Things to Note:

• All recess orders will need to be picked up from the Canteen by the student.
• Years K-6 lunch orders will be delivered to your child's classroom.
• Years 7-12 lunch orders will need to be picked up from the Canteen.
• All frozen items (available at lunch only) will also need to be picked up from the Canteen.

If you have any spare time and would like to volunteer in our Canteen either regularly or sporadically, please email the Canteen for more details.

MEET THE TEACHER EVENING

Our annual Meet the Teacher evening will be held on Monday 5th February (Week 2). This evening will give parents an opportunity to meet their child’s Class Teacher (JS) or Home Room Teacher (SS). Information has been emailed to families.

YEAR 12 PARENT-TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Parent-Teacher Interviews for Year 12 will be held on Monday 5th February (Week 2) from 3:30-6pm in our MPC. Information on how to book in for these interviews has been emailed directly to parents.

COMBINED YEARS 1-12 CHAPEL SERVICE

On Friday 16th February (Week 3), we will hold a combined Chapel service for Years 1-12 at 9am in our MPC. Families are welcome to attend.

PRIVATE MUSIC TUITION

If your child is interested in learning an instrument with one of our music tutors, please click here to view the information flyer. Lessons are available for clarinet, saxophone, flute, trumpet, drums, keyboard, guitar, bass and voice. Lesson prices vary. If you have any further questions regarding tuition, please email Jessica Crocombe in our office.

• Ask God to bless the new school year. Praise God that we can be part of a school environment that is spirit-filled and pray for effective continued ministry here in 2024 and beyond.
• Give thanks for the new students and families who have started at our school this year. Pray that they will develop relationships quickly and praise God that we have these new families in our community.
• Pray for our Year 7 students as they attend Camp this week and settle into Secondary School.
• Pray for good weather for our upcoming Swimming Carnivals this week.

Greetings friends of Junior School.

It is an absolute pleasure and privilege to be serving our wonderful Christian community again this year. We are really looking forward to partnering with you during the delights and challenges that 2024 will present.

During our Professional Development week, one of the really beneficial PD sessions our staff engaged in, provided by EquiEnergy Youth, was in the area of mental health first aid. Their premise is that, in the same way the acronym D.R.S.A.B.C benefits first aid, so too T.A.R.R.R benefits mental health first aid. T.A.R.R.R stands for Trigger, Action, Response, Reaction, Resolution. Numerous publications have reported on the information overload that our children experience each day compared to the information exposure of our ancestors over their lifetimes. It is no surprise that our children experience times of anxiety and overwhelm. Our staff are now well-equipped to provide initial support for our precious disciples who experience overwhelming situations at school. We can be like Jesus to our students in their time of crisis.

One of the interesting soap boxes that the presenter stepped onto is the area of resilience and building coping skills within our children. After decades of mental health nursing, the presenter was convinced that we should allow our children to experience boredom and disappointment. If they sometimes get bored at home, this allows children to become creative, engage in fantasy, and devise solutions to their problems, to amuse themselves instead of relying on external stimulation. The suggestion was to resist the temptation of placing an iPad/device in their hands, which can potentially rob them of their opportunity to be creative and amuse themselves, developing independence.

If students experience disappointment in the supportive environment of home, they can develop low-level crisis-coping skills that become stronger with experience. In this way, we can potentially avoid 15 year old youths collapsing in a heap or engaging in unhealthy activities instead of dealing with their challenges productively.

Another interesting perspective was that students who play games where their avatars can respawn are much more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours because their brains don’t develop healthy concepts of mortality. We all experience this daily when sharing the road with some P Plate drivers who are keen to demonstrate their incredible skills.

Many visitors to our school comment on the incredible culture of our school and the outstanding behaviour and attitude of our students. This is a real blessing for our wider school and church communities. One of the areas that visitors comment on is the beautiful manners of our students. This reflects the supportive families in our community and their desire for their children to engage in traditional values and manners. To this end, our students will be expected to demonstrate good manners to their teachers, peers and parents.

Some of the words, phrases and behaviours that we teach our students, and expect them to demonstrate, include;

• Please
• Thank you
• I’m sorry
• Excuse me
• May I ?
• I appreciated that
• Can I help you?
• Would you like to share this with me?
• Would you like to join us?

Using kind and encouraging words at all times.

Respecting elders including students.

Inclusive and respectful behaviour at all times.

• Allowing others to play, speak and disagree with you.
• Play with someone else if someone is consistently unpleasant.
• Seek teacher assistance if disagreements escalate and/or tempers flare.

We believe that these elements are in alignment with our three Junior School Rules.

BE KIND

WORK HARD

SHOW RESPECT

If you suspect that manners, kind words and inclusive behaviours are not areas that have been prioritised in your life and family, may I humbly suggest that you will be doing your children a great service by supporting them in this endeavour at home. It may feel awkward initially, but please be released to challenge your children in these areas instead of retreating to the idea that they are just kids. It is our collective responsibility to train them. We all make mistakes and if we were perfect, Jesus need not have sacrificed himself to save us and bring us into relationship with God the Father. If our children are kind, hard-working and respectful, with effective communication and teamwork skills, including manners, they will be much more effective in their future ministries, occupations and social endeavours.

Please know that we are praying for our students and families every day - yes, that means you!

May God bless you and keep you, may His face shine upon you and give you peace as we share this glorious journey of faith and discipleship.

We are so excited to welcome back our returning students and we give a warm welcome to the new students and families joining our community this year.

There are many new faces and names to learn, so it would be helpful to introduce our Year Advisors, Learning Leaders and their teams over the coming weeks in the Newsletter.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: ENGLISH

In English this term, we are excited to hit the ground running with lots of reading and creativity.

We’re moving away from using WordFlyers as part of our literacy and homework programs and will be using IXL instead. Stay tuned for more information about that!

Our team has spent a lot of time over the past year planning for the new English curriculum being implemented this year, and we are excited to start teaching our new programs. There will be wide reading, genre studies, lots of creative thinking and construction, and further exploration into the joys of studying literature. Year 12 English Advanced will be heading on some excursions to the theatre soon, and we are making plans for the adventures we’ll take the other grades on over the year.

We are also excited to welcome Mrs Rachael Hastings to the faculty, who shares our love of books (she read over fifty of them last year!) and all things English.

We are so excited for the new year and to continue to impart our passion for our subject and Jesus with your kids.

Mrs Hannah Gierhart | English Learning Leader

YEAR GROUP SPOTLIGHT: YEAR 8

I am delighted to serve as the Year 8 Year Advisor this year, working alongside dedicated colleagues – Mrs Linda Makepeace, Mrs Jade Dobson, Mrs Hannah Gierhart, Mrs Sue Latty, Mr Andrew Warner and Mr Isaac Creanor. Together, we eagerly anticipate an exciting year filled with new learning opportunities, expanding horizons, and personal growth for our Year 8 students.

It is a joy to witness the positive start Year 8 has had, marked by growth and maturity among the students.

Throughout the academic year, our focus will extend beyond academics. We are committed to fostering a sense of acceptance and unity within the cohort. Encouraging students to look to Jesus as a role model in their relationships, we aim to help them develop resilience, a strong sense of identity, and exhibit qualities such as acceptance, love, and grace. We are passionate about helping Year 8 become relational and collaborative individuals who support one another throughout their Secondary School journey and create a positive learning environment where students can thrive academically, emotionally, and spiritually. We are excited to see how the students will grow to become exceptional individuals.

Mr Joseph Newman | Year 8 Year Advisor

We look forward to sharing more with you next fortnight.

God bless.