School Newsletter

In Philippians 4:6-7 Paul writes “⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Whilst I understand where Paul is coming from, and certainly agree with his instruction, I sometimes find this challenging to live out. The reality is, there are occasions when I do get anxious. Sometimes I am asked what it’s like being a principal, my standard response is, “It’s great for my prayer life!”

Research would suggest I am not the only one who gets anxious at times. The data that is surfacing regarding the declining mental health of teenagers in the Western world has many people deeply concerned. Anxiety and depression are the two biggest concerns when it comes to teenagers’ mental health. I recently finished reading a book called ‘The Anxious Generation’ by American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. It is an excellent book and I would encourage all parents to read it if possible. In the book, he outlines what he believes are the causes of the rapid increase in anxiety and depression. It likely won’t surprise you that he identifies the advent of smartphones as a significant problem, even going so far as to demonstrate the data spiked further when smartphones developed the front-facing camera. It has given us reason to discuss whether, as a school, we are doing enough to assist students have healthy relationships with technology. You may hear more about this at another time.

Much is being written about the impact such technology is having, but it’s not my intention to elaborate further here, (interestingly Haidt also identifies overparenting as a key problem). Reflecting on his research though has also reminded me of how important it is to remind our students of important Biblical truths that they should hold on to; that they are valued, loved, children of God and that their worth in Him does not change regardless of their looks, likes or number of followers. It can be challenging to think about how to get that message through to our students when faced with the tsunami of messaging coming at them through social media. I believe that is all the more reason for us to partner well as teachers, parents and carers to help set our children up to flourish in the world. I remember reading a sign in church once that read ‘Whoever wants the next generation the most will get them.’ That seems rather apt given the cultural moment we find ourselves in.

This week we also welcome a new member of staff. Mr David Andrew will be joining us as a full-time TAS Teacher. He will take over from Mrs Linnet who is moving on from her time with us. We are very grateful to Mrs Linnet for her servant heart whilst we journeyed through the season of finding a more permanent replacement for Mrs Jones and look forward to seeing the contribution Mr Andrew will make.

God bless,

• Junior School Celebration Assembly – Friday 27th September at 9am (Week 9)
• Secondary School Celebration Assembly – Friday 27th September at 2pm (Week 9)
• Last Day of Term 3 - Friday 27th September (Week 9)

K-12 LITERACY DAY - TUESDAY 27TH AUGUST

Students from K-12 are encouraged to dress up as a character from a book in our Library or in an Olympic/Paris theme for Literacy Day on Tuesday 27th August (Week 5). The Parade will take place at 9am in our Multi-Purpose Centre. Families are welcome to join us, and younger siblings are encouraged to dress up too.

FATHER'S DAY AT WCCS

Our K-12 Father's Day Stall will be held on Friday 30th August (Week 5). An email with further details has been sent home to families.

Our Father's Day Breakfast is being held on Friday 30th August (Week 5). We would love to welcome our school Dads, Grandads, and carers to join us for a warm drink and some breaky (please note that catering will only be provided for the dads/carers).

WBC CHURCH SANCTUARY GARDEN

Wyong Baptist Church have created a beautiful, welcoming space for the community with their Garden Sanctuary. WCCS family members are welcome to visit this restorative space. There is also a community library that can be borrowed from and donated to. This space is located behind the Old Church Hall.

SHINE EVENING

On Thursday 12th September (Week 7) we will be celebrating the talents and gifts of our students at Shine Evening. This is a wonderful opportunity for family and friends to come and watch the children from Kindergarten to Year 12, as they showcase creative performances they have been working on.

Keep this date free in your calendar, and stay tuned for updates as we get closer to the date.

YEARS 3-6 AFTER SCHOOL DISCO

On Wednesday 18th September (Week 8) we will be holding a Disco for students in Years 3-6. The disco will run from 4pm-5:30pm followed by a sausage sizzle from 5:30pm-6 pm. Futher details will be emailed to families in the coming weeks. The theme will be Under the Sea Glow in the Dark. Kindergarten to Year 2 students will also have a Taster Disco during class time on the same day.

WOOSH VACATION CARE

• Give thanks for reading and literacy, that we can celebrate Book Week as a school.
  
• Give thanks for the safe arrival back of our Year 9 students from the RCRT. They had an incredible time and we are thankful for the staff and parents who journeyed with these young people.
• Pray for Years 5 & 6 on their camps during Week 5.

Greetings friends of Junior School.

Following on from sharing Mrs Thomson's 5 Finger Breathing Technique research in our last Newsletter; a speaker during our Professional Development Week shared with us some really interesting research from Jonathan Haidt, the author of 'The Anxious Generation; How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness'. Haidt suggests that two trends have resulted in children born after 1995, becoming the 'Anxious Generation';

1. Overprotection in the real world.

We are not permitting our kids to experience actual physical risk in backyards, playgrounds and neighbourhoods.

2. Underprotection in the virtual world.

We are allowing our kids unsupervised access to the internet without appropriate restrictions, protections and security filtering.

He also claims that our teens have been moving predominantly to smartphones and this has caused a tidal wave of significant mental health issues. His research suggestes that these issues affect girls more than boys and preteen girls are the most susceptible.

The book goes on to suggest that free play is essential for the development of social skills but play-based childhoods have been replaced by phone-based childhoods.

This research makes us feel even more committed to limiting access to smartphones at school and on camps and excursions. This is especially important with our Hill End and Canberra trips during Week 5.

WEEK 5

There is a lot on during Week 5 with Book Week, Years 5 and 6 trips to Hill End and Canberra, plus our Father’s Day Stalls and Breakfast.

Just a reminder to please keep any scary outfits at home for Literacy Day (Tuesday 27th August). We do not want to scare our younger students. Also, it would be appreciated if we avoid students dressing up as witches, warlocks, vampires and all other monsters.

Our Years 5 and 6 students can participate in our Father’s Day Stall on Tuesday 27th August so they don’t miss out due to their camps. The remainder of Junior School will be able to purchase gifts from the Father's Day Stall on Friday 30th August, after Chapel. Our Father's Day Breakfast will also be held on Friday 30th August and we look forward to celebrating the fathers and father figures in our community.

Just a reminder that our Years 1 and 2 students will participate in their Spelling Bee on Thursday 29th August from 7:45am in their usual Assembly time. The families of students who are spelling on the day have been notified via email. You are invited to attend if you are free.

Mrs Meredith Brown will be heading up Junior School from Wednesday to Friday during Week 5 as Mrs Smithers, Mrs Thomson and Mr Marks will be in Hill End and Canberra.

WEEK 6 - WELLBEING WEEK AND OUR BANDAGED BEAR PICNIC

While we are on the subject of wellbeing, in Week 8 we are hosting Wellbeing Week at school and will be engaging in some of the resources provided by Bullying No Way, with the theme Everyone Belongs.

Our Bandage Bear Picnic Concert will be held on Friday 6th September (Week 6). You are invited to come and join us for lunch from 12:40pm and our concert will commence at 1pm. All this excitement will be on the B Block veranda. Please pray for good weather on the day.

God bless,

G’day to all our wonderful Secondary families, from this Aussie traveller!

What an incredible blessing it was to head back into the centre of our beautiful country, with an amazing group of young ladies.

While rather exhausted, I have returned to WCCS with my spiritual tank filled. It is my hope and prayer that many of our Year 9 Girls and Boys have also experienced the power, glory and majesty of their Creator while travelling throughout the Red Centre. It has been a blessing to chat with parents, who have reflected on a noticeable change within their child. There’s a peacefulness, increased gratitude, and willingness to help out – these are some comments that have been shared. Praise God, we have students who gave their life to the Lord for the first time while on the road.

I may have also heard the students complain quite loudly about returning to uniform and schoolwork!!

In the last edition of our school newsletter, we shared some images that emphasised the incredible places we visited. God’s power is undeniable in those moments. However, it was the ‘unseen’ moments that I will treasure, as will many of our students this year and every year. Conversations, devotions, bus playlists, moments of challenge and chaos, dealing with unexpected toads in sleeping bags, dislocations, red-eye flights and more.

As we explored our identity in Christ, Pastor Brett Robinson (from Wyong Baptist Church) shared Psalm 139.

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

¹ You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me.

A HUGE thank you to all our students, staff and parent helpers for their contribution to this great adventure.

WELLBEING VIDEOS

The next addition in our Wellbeing Series, Connecting as a Family, can be viewed below.

Since I wrote to you last, our Year 12 students have completed their Trial HSC Examinations. What an exceptional group of young people! Students were on time, in a great mood, well prepared and displayed excellent exam etiquette. They will be well-prepared for the HSC examinations. Examinations are a great chance for students to display all the learning that they have been engaged in by showing their growing knowledge, understanding and skills. These things go far beyond a syllabus and prepare students for life beyond school. However, while the HSC is a significant milestone, I want to remind the students that their worth does not come from a mark in an exam or on a report, but from our loving God who made them. As Mrs Worboys reminded us above from Psalm 139, God knit them together and they are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made”! As our students prepare to leave WCCS, it is wonderful to see that the School Values, such as Excellence, Integrity and Respect are hallmarks of this cohort. We continue to pray for them in their final term at the school.

Just a few reminders for parents and carers mid-term:

We would appreciate it if you would partner with our staff team in ensuring your child is ready and equipped for their classes each day by:

• Having their device charged.
• Ensuring their workbooks and pencil cases are packed.
• Making sure your child has a water bottle for school, which is particularly important as the temperature rises.

Most of our students continue to wear their uniforms appropriately and consistently. We would appreciate your partnership in checking the following:

• Sports uniform is only worn for sports lessons.
• Jewellery as per policy (male and female students).
• Skirts are ‘to the knee’ and NOT rolled. (We are aware some of our girls are choosing to roll their skirts upon arrival to school. Our female staff members will discuss this with individual students where necessary.)
• Hats are to be worn when outside.

God bless,

SPELLING BEES

Congratulations to all students who participated in the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee. We look forward to presenting certificates to Class Champions, Grade Champions and our School Champion in the coming weeks.

Our next stage in celebrating God’s gift of words is an In-Person Spelling Bee. The top eight spellers from each grade in Years 1-6 (with self-nominations from Years 7 and 8) will receive the same words and spell these words on a whiteboard. Parents of those selected for the Years 1-6 Spelling Bee have been emailed.

• Years 1 & 2 Spelling Bee – Thursday 29th August from 1:35pm during Infants Assembly
• Years 3 & 4 Spelling Bee – Friday 30th August from 1:40pm during Primary Assembly
• Years 5 & 6 Spelling Bee – Friday 6th September from 1:40pm during Primary Assembly
• Year 7 Spelling Bee – Thursday 12th September at lunchtime (students self-nominate)
• Year 8 Spelling Bee – Friday 13th September at lunchtime (students self-nominate)

Our final stage of celebrating spelling will be to take our top four Years 3-6 students to participate in an Inter-school Spelling Bee with Green Point Christian College. This will be held at GPCC on Tuesday 24th September from 11am to 2:30pm.

SCIENCE WEEK
We are so proud of our talented young Years 1-6 scientists, who completely blew us away with their Science Fair displays during Science Week. Topics ranged from exploring the effect of changing the angle of launch on how far a rocket will fly to looking at what solution would help a cut flower to last longest. Our many visitors, including students, parents and Secondary Science teachers were so impressed with our students’ depth of understanding of the Scientific Method.

EVENING OF EMINENCE

With Science Fair wrapped up for the year, we are excited to now embark on our next extension project—the Evening of Eminence. This year, over 50 students from Kindergarten to Year 7 are taking on the challenge of learning about, and ultimately ‘becoming,’ an eminent person who has made a positive impact on the world. We anticipate a vibrant semester of learning, drawing inspiration from a diverse array of figures - artists, musicians, scientists, explorers, missionaries, authors, athletes, mathematicians, politicians, presidents, and pilots. From Marie Curie to Rosa Parks, from Tony Hawk to Billy Graham, we will be enriched by the legacies of many outstanding individuals who have chosen to use their God-given talents to benefit the world.

Mrs Anne Livette-Vial | High Potential & Enrichment Teacher

The Years 3 and 4 Boys Team competed at CSSA Soccer recently. The team started strong and secured a convincing victory in the first game. By winning the second game and losing the third, the team finished top of the group and progressed to the semi-finals.

They faced Green Point Christian College in the semi-final, the team they played in the final of the HCZS Primary Zone Soccer. Our defence played a strong game and the forwards were able to score some spectacular goals to progress to the final. The team came up against a tough opponent in the final where they lost. Congratulations to the boys for not only progressing to CSSA Soccer but also reaching the final.

Mr Brenton Herbert | Junior School PE Teacher

LAURENCE T - FOOTBALL

Last week Laurence T from Year 10 had the opportunity to represent NSW at the annual All School Football Championships in Perth, Western Australia. This was Laurence’s first time competing at this level.

Laurence and his teammates played against every other state team in the country with just over five days of football games. The team was undefeated for the second year running, bringing the trophy home to New South Wales. Laurence’s performance awarded him not only a champion with the squad, but individually ranked Player of the Championship. But it gets better! Laurence was also given an offer to play for the All Australian Football Team.

There is no doubt Laurence bursts with athleticism and talent as a result of all his hard work in the lead up to this opportunity. Laurence mentioned that he is just so thankful to God for giving him this opportunity to use his God given talents to glorify His name. As a school we congratulate you on your outstanding skills and even better character. We can’t wait to see what plans God has in store for you in your pursuit of football.

JOSHUA C - NINJA ATHLETE FINALS

Recently in the school holidays, Josh and his family travelled to Los Angeles, California to compete in the Ultimate Ninja Athlete Finals. Josh had qualified in this international championship as he placed 4th overall in his age category within Australia in the lead-up to this championship.

There were 22 countries represented and 350 athletes that Josh competed with. Josh was able to secure a top-50 finish in the world! The course consisted of a 3km run with obstacles having to be overcome such as tyre flipping, sandbag carrying, balance beams, cargo net crawls and much more.

He says the experience of flying to America to compete in this large tournament was overwhelming but also a realisation of the blessing that it is to compete at such a high level. Josh, we are proud of your representation and commitment and will continue to pray for you as you continue to glorify God. Congratulations!

CODY C - SPARTAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Last week, Cody C from Year 7 competed in the Spartan World Championships representing Australia. To qualify for this annual event, Cody placed inside the top 5 overall in Australia over the last year. Cody has managed to stack up a number of impressive wins already this year which include; 1st in Spartan in Bright Victoria , 1st in Picton Sydney which was a National Championship event, 2nd at the Gold Coast and a 1st place finish in Werribee Victoria.

The Spartan World Championship race was held in Chongli, China to which he travelled with his family. In fact, the location of the championships was also the same location as the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. At this event, Cody was competing against the world's best athletes, demonstrating his impressive ninja skills in racing though a gruelling course with obstacles along the way in the fastest time possible against others aged 12-14. After competing in this event in China, Cody was able to secure a 2nd place finish which has solidified a ranking of number two in the world for his age category. Congratulations Cody! We are so proud of you and what God is doing in your life. All the best in your future events.

Mr Nathan Irvine | Secondary School Sports Coordinator

Our awesome Year 7 artists have been exploring the idea of representing important places in Visual Arts. We have studied the Indigenous artist Badger Bates and have been influenced by how he passionately and beautifully represented his home through printmaking. Our students have been encouraged to represent a place significant to them through designing a map of a chosen place and then use the linocut method to print their designs. We've had lots of careful workers who have overcome the challenges of carving fine details into lino, and we've had a lot of fun seeing their designs come to life through printmaking. Well done Year 7; onto ceramics next!

Mrs Jade Dobson | Secondary School Teacher - Visual Arts

Over the past few weeks, our students have had some excellent opportunities to engage with science in practical and creative ways.

SCIENCE WEEK

This year's Science Week focused on the theme Survival of the Species, encouraging students to explore how different species adapt and thrive, and what our Christian response should be in caring for creation. Students from Years 3-12 took part in a Paper Plane Competition, testing their designs and refining their engineering skills. Years 7-8 students participated in a Marine Incursion, where they learned more about the threats to aquatic ecosystems and how we as humans can better protect our oceans. In addition, students enjoyed in-class Escape Room Challenges and took part in an Online Trivia Competition, both of which reinforced key concepts related to the theme.

YEAR 10 MARINE & AQUACULTURE TECHNOLOGY EXCURSION

Year 10 Marine and Aquaculture Technology students recently visited Irukandji Shark and Ray Encounters at Anna Bay. During the excursion, they learned about the biology and behaviour of sharks and rays. A hands-on experience followed, where students waded in lagoons, feeding and interacting with the animals. This opportunity allowed them to observe marine species up close, enhancing their understanding of marine ecosystems. These activities provided students with practical learning experiences, helping to deepen their engagement with science in real-world contexts.

Mr Bradley Robson | Science Learning Leader