School Newsletter

Yesterday the Annual General Meeting of the School Company occurred. It was a great opportunity to be reminded of the wonderful blessings that have occurred at WCCS over the last 12 months. We heard reports from the Chairman, myself as the Principal, and also the Treasurer. As we continue to plan for the future, giving thanks for the blessings God has provided us in the past is important.

I am certainly thankful for the School Board. They literally volunteer hundreds of hours of their time to serve the school. They accept significant legal and financial responsibility to become a Director of the Company, not for any personal gain, purely because they are passionate about what occurs in our school and are keen to contribute. I am delighted to inform you that we have two additional Board Directors elected as a result of the meeting. Mrs Alison Graeve (nee Bannister) who was the founding teacher/Principal of WCCS and Mrs Tash Martin have both been elected to the School Board and will accompany our existing five members, two of whom were re-elected, having been required to relinquish their positions in line with the constitution. In the compliance driven world in which we now live, it is wonderful that we have a School Board that is prepared to fulfil the critical role of School Governance.

This coming week, our Chairman, CFO, and I will head to Canberra for the National Policy Forum for Christian Schools. I believe it is important for us to be represented at such forums, but I am reminded of the weight of the cultural moment in which we find ourselves. There will be keynote addresses by a range of people speaking into the current political landscape and other pressing issues for Christian Education. Whilst this can feel heavy at times, being present at such forums can also be incredibly encouraging. It is a blessing to stand in a room of approximately 1,000 people, all of whom have great stories to share about the spread of the gospel through the work of Christian Schooling in all sorts of different environments across Australia.

I would also like to pass on a couple of staffing updates. Last week we farewelled our part-time Secondary PDHPE teacher, Mrs Amelia Cox, for her second maternity leave. We are very grateful for her contributions to our school community and wish her all the best as she continues her journey of motherhood. During Mrs Cox's absence, we are fortunate to have Mrs Astrid Edworthy stepping in to temporarily assume her teaching responsibilities. I would also like to inform you that we have appointed a new Head of Teaching and Learning for Secondary School. The experienced and well-credentialed Miss Jessica Fedder will be joining our staff team. She will commence in the July Professional Development week. We look forward to the contributions that both these ladies will make as part of the ministry that is our school.

God bless,

• Secondary School Play 'Robin Hood: A Bard's Tale' Matinee Performance at 11am - Tuesday 2nd July (Week 10)
  
• Secondary School Play 'Robin Hood: A Bard's Tale' Evening Performance at 6:30pm - Tuesday 2nd July (Week 10)
• Secondary School Play 'Robin Hood: A Bard's Tale' Evening Performance at 6:30pm - Wednesday 3rd July (Week 10)
• Junior School Celebration Assembly at 9am - Friday 5th July (Week 10)
  
• Secondary School Celebration Assembly at 11:45am - Friday 5th July (Week 10)

IMPORTANT REMINDER: EARLY DEPARTURE PROCEDURE

As indicated in our School Information Handbook, any parent needing to sign their child out of school early is required to come to the office to sign them out and then collect their child from the classroom. If you are heading to an appointment, please allow enough time to do this.

Due to the demands within a busy school environment, it is not appropriate to ask our office staff to collect your child for you, or to expect that an email to the teacher with little notice will be received in time.

If you would like your child to meet you at the office, you will be required to:

• write a note/email to the class teacher and school office (Junior School)
• write a note/email to the school office (Secondary School)

It will then be the student's responsibility to inform their teacher (at the required time) of their early departure, prior to coming to the office to meet you.

Where possible, please avoid booking appointments during school hours to ensure your student is not missing out on valuable learning time.

Thank you for your understanding and support in this matter.

SCHOOL PHOTOS

School Photos have been scheduled for Thursday 13th June (Week 7), organised by The School Photographer. Information on how to order photos has been emailed to families.

ROBIN HOOD: A BARD'S TALE (SECONDARY SCHOOL PLAY) - TICKETS NOW ON SALE

We are delighted to invite you to our Secondary School play, Robin Hood: A Bard's Tale.

Many of our talented Secondary School students have been diligently preparing for this play, and are excited to showcase their hard work during the performances in Week 10 of Term 2.

The performance dates are as follows:

• Tuesday 2nd July - Matinee Performance
• Tuesday 2nd July - Evening Performance
• Wednesday 3rd July - Evening Performance

Please click here for further details and ticket purchases.

SCHOOL UNIFORMS

There have been multiple cases of students losing their labelled uniform (jumpers, jackets, hats) and not being able to locate them in Lost Property. We ask that you please regularly check that your child is wearing their own uniform and not someone else’s. Particularly during the cooler months, it is common that students will wear a jumper to school and then take it off during the day; often being left on the ground and then mistakenly picked up by another student and taken home. This can become frustrating for both parents and students, so we ask that you please make a conscious effort to check your uniforms. Please encourage your children to check their own clothing and to put their uniforms straight into their school bag if they are not wearing them. Thank you.

• Pray for the 2025 Kindergarten students visiting WCCS for their first Kindy Starters session this week. Pray that the children will feel calm and comfortable on the day, and begin to form friendships as they prepare for 'big school' next year.
• Give thanks to the school's Board Members who volunteer many hours of their own time. Please pray for them and the important roles they take on for our school's ministry.
• Pray for our Year 3 students who will experience their first overnight camp during Week 6, at the Years 3 and 4 Camp. Pray for God's comfort to surround those who may feel anxious, and pray that it will be an enjoyable experience for all students.
• “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”. Philippians 4:6

Greetings friends of Junior School.

As mentioned in our previous Newsletter, you will receive your child’s end of Semester 1 Academic Report. This year sees the implementation of new syllabus for Years 3-6. Our reports will reflect the changes from the new syllabus with new terminology used for focus areas. In our last Newsletter, we focused on the new English syllabus.

This week we look at the new Mathematics syllabus for Years 3-6.

These are the new terms used in Mathematics:

If you would like clarification of any of the new terms or what they mean, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Smithers via email.

There are heaps of things on the calendar this week that are worth a quick reminder.

This week we officially change over to the Winter uniform. This is also a good time to ensure that your student jackets and jumpers have names clearly labelled. This really helps the teachers to make sure lost jackets and jumpers find their way home. The challenge for the students is that the mornings are really cold, but the day warms and they no longer need their jackets, especially on the ovals, so they discard them. The duty teachers collect the discarded jackets and try to find their owners. It would be helpful if you could remind your children to ensure they collect their labelled jackets after playtime.

We do have a lockdown drill scheduled for Wednesday this week. If your child comes home and tells you that something bad happened and they had to hide in a classroom, it was just a drill. The staff will be making that clear to the students before the event.

We are planning on a lunchtime lockdown drill this year to ensure that our students know the procedure, just in case we do need to lockdown during playtime.

If your child is anxious or requires a social story to cope with a change in routine, it would be great if you could forewarn them. The teachers will also do this in class. Naturally, some of the students will be annoyed that their playtime is interrupted, but we do think that training the students for a realistic lockdown situation takes precedence.

A quick reminder to our Years 2-4 families that Camp Toukley is a week away. If you haven’t responded to the dietary, medication, permission slip and waiver, please check your emails and reply at your earliest convenience. Thank you in advance and apologies for the expanding paper trail.

Mr Higgins is taking our soccer champions to Taree for the Soccer Gala Day today. Please pray for travelling mercies and safe, God honouring competition.

We have our 2025 Kindergarten students starting their orientation days this week, on Tuesday and Thursday. It would be great to pray for our newest disciples as they begin their potential 13 year educational journey at WCCS.

Our wonderful Mrs Livette-Vial and the Years 5-6 students have a big week with the Ripple Extension Writing Program at Ourimbah Campus of Newcastle University, in addition to the Debating Team competition at school.

We finish this wonderful week of events with the State CSSA Cross Country Championships and Chapel on Friday.

God bless,

Hello to all our wonderful Secondary School students and families.

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?

RESPECT

Last week during our Secondary School Assembly, I spoke to our students about the importance of showing respect to all members of our community. This includes peers, staff and parents. Sadly, this conversation was prompted by non-teaching staff sharing their experiences of being disrespected regularly by Secondary students in the playground, office, library, canteen etc. When addressing Years 7-12 students at the Assembly, I asked them to reflect on their personal behaviour, to seek opportunities to thank our support staff and to show respect and kindness to ALL members of our school community. Respect is one of our school values.

We Treat Everyone With Dignity

“Treat others the same way you want them to treat you”. Luke 6:31

• THE HEAD - Secondary students were encouraged to listen and understand what respect means.
• THE HEART - They were encouraged to allow their reflection regarding respect to shape their passions, emotions and desires to treat others with love.
• THE HANDS - To demonstrate growth, displayed through changed behaviour.

'ALL TRIBES & TONGUES' EVENT

On a positive note, while celebrating at the ‘All Tribes & Tongues’ lunch event on Thursday 23rd May, the students were amazing.

Students were lavished upon by our generous families from many different nations, and they thoroughly enjoyed the experiences, activities and food. The feedback from our stall holders was pleasing. Our Secondary School students were reportedly gracious, thankful, patient and enthusiastically engaged.

Thank you so, so much, to each of our host families. Our ‘All Tribes & Tongues’ lunch event was a huge success and a wonderful cultural experience for all our students.

God bless,

DA VINCI DECATHLON

On Tuesday 14th and Thursday 16th May, our Years 5-8 da Vinci Decathlon teams represented WCCS brilliantly at the State da Vinci Decathlon tournament at Knox Grammar. With over 70 teams competing in each year group, we are so proud of the excellent teamwork and wonderful resilience shown by each of our students as they tackled some very complex tasks together. From Mathematics, English, Science, Geography and Ideation to Code Breaking, Drama, Art and Poetry, Engineering and General Knowledge, our students embraced each challenge with determination and resourcefulness. The artistic talents of our students were particularly on display, as out of the 140 teams present, our Years 6 and 8 teams were recognised on both competition days as having the most creative tablecloth design! Our teams finished the day buoyed by their experience and excited to compete again next year. Congratulations to all!

ICAS COMPETITIONS

We are looking forward to once more offering our students the opportunity to further develop their higher order thinking and problem-solving skills through ICAS, a highly acclaimed online academic competition. Every student who participates is celebrated and recognised with a printed certificate in each subject area, and a results report to track their development each year. Top performers are eligible for one of the highly coveted ICAS Medals.

The dates of this year’s competitions are as follows:

• ICAS Writing Competition: Monday 5th to Friday 9th August - Years 3-12
• ICAS English Competition: Monday 12th to Friday 16th August - Years 2-12
  
• ICAS Spelling Competition: Monday 19th to Friday 23rd August - Years 2-7
• ICAS Science Competition: Monday 19th to Friday 23rd August - Years 2-12
• ICAS Mathematics Competition: Monday 26th to Friday 30th August - Years 2-12

If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, you can:

• Read about ICAS subjects and prices here.
• Go to the Parent Portal to sign up for chosen subject areas here.
• Enter our school’s access code – YUV807
• Enter your child’s details, select the subject areas your child would like to participate in, and then proceed to payment.

The last day to sign up will be Friday 26th July 2024.

We have generously been gifted with 10 free ICAS licences, to be used by students whose families may be experiencing financial hardship. If this is your situation, and you have made the school aware of this, and you would like your child to sit an ICAS test, please email me (alivettevial@wyongccs.nsw.edu.au) to express your interest in having your child participate in ICAS.

Mrs Anne Livette-Vial | High Potential & Enrichment Teacher

In Year 9 PDHPE, students have delved into an engaging road safety theory unit. They have recently explored the intricate dynamics of speed, vehicles, road surfaces, and weather conditions. Through interactive learning activities like the 'Physics of Speed' game, students conducted hands-on experiments, investigating the profound impacts of these factors on reaction time, braking, and stopping distances. Beyond the classroom, students honed their coordination and object manipulation skills during enriching visits to the Wyong Tennis Club, further enhancing their physical literacy and understanding of personal health and safety.

Mr David Thomas | PDHPE Learning Leader