School Newsletter

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

Welcome back everyone to Term 4! I hope you were able to enjoy some holiday time, even if the weather wasn’t always conducive to fun days at the beach. Term 4 can sometimes be thought of as the festive term. We have Year 6 Graduation and the Year 12 Formal to look forward to, Junior School Carols, and we are again planning a Christmas Fest similar to last year for our 30 Year Celebration. The HSC will commence tomorrow, our Samoa Mission Team will head off in Week 7, and our new building is set for completion. There is certainly so much to look forward to.

Whilst there are many blessings that we are reminded of each day we come on campus, when I turn on the news or read the paper, I am also reminded that we live in a fallen world. The landscape of the Middle East at present, the ongoing situation in Ukraine and the devastation occurring due to hurricanes in America are just some examples of the challenges people are navigating. In the face of such atrocities, it can be challenging to know how to respond and tempting to ask where is God in all of this.

At the moment in my chronological Bible reading, I am working my way through the gospels. In the last few days, I again read the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish. Those who are familiar with the story will know that the number five thousand only represented the men who were present. Indeed there would likely have been many thousands more when the women and children were included. As the story unfolds, Jesus recognises that the people need food and rather understatedly says to his disciples “you give them something to eat.” I can certainly resonate with Philip who was obviously perplexed and said to Jesus “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” As we know, the disciples then establish that they have five loaves and two fish and Jesus feeds everyone present with twelve basketfuls left over.

What I always find so compelling from this story is that the disciples were faced with a challenging situation – one that they had no idea how to resolve. Jesus effectively says to them, bring me what you have, and I will do the rest. Personally, I find that a great encouragement when I face challenging circumstances. I can come before our Lord and express that this is all that I can offer, and Jesus effectively says, leave it with Me, I’ll take over from here.

What a great blessing that we don’t have to solve everything ourselves, nor should we try to. Sometimes I have felt that God has placed me in challenging circumstances to remind me that I need to come to Him, recognise that I don’t have all the answers, and humbly ask for His wisdom and guidance because this is all I have to offer. Perhaps you might have had a similar experience at some stage.

A quick update on a couple of staffing matters. Mr Jason Cullender, our hard-working IT staff member has decided to move on from our school. Today we welcome Rowan Adams to the IT Team. He is in a different role to that of Mr Cullender but I’m sure he would love you to say hello if you see him around the school.

God bless,

• Year 7 Orientation Day - Wednesday 13th November (Week 5)
  
• K-12 Orientation Day - Thursday 21st November (Week 6)
• Junior School Grandparents' Morning - Friday 29th November (Week 7)
• WCCS Christmas Fest - Tuesday 3rd December (Week 8)
• Junior School Carols - Tuesday 3rd December (Week 8)
• Year 6 Graduation - Thursday 5th December (Week 8)
• Kindergarten Graduation - Tuesday 10th December (Week 9)
• Celebration Assemblies - Wednesday 11th December (Week 9)
• Secondary Thumbs Up Award Day - Thursday 12th December (Week 9)
• Last day of Term 4 - Thursday 12th December (Week 9)
• Presentation Evening - Thursday 12th December (Week 9)

TRANSPORT NSW ANNOUNCEMENT

Transport for NSW is making adjustments to the public transport network.

The train timetable will change on Sunday 20th October 2024, affecting most lines across Sydney and some regional and outer metropolitan services. Bus timetables in regional and outer metropolitan areas will also change to match the adjusted train schedule.

Please familiarise yourself with what this may mean for travel to and from school for your family by visiting transportnsw.info.

The Transport for NSW Trip Planner will be updated with the new information before the changes take effect. You can access the NSW Trip Planner at https://transportnsw.info/trip.

CHESS COACHING

Chess Coaching for students at Wyong Christian Community School is held on Tuesdays from 3:15pm to 4:15pm, starting for Term 4 on Tuesday 15th October 2024. Activities include group lessons on a demonstration chess board or interactive whiteboard, puzzle solving and fun practice games. Students earn merit awards by making checkmates, or by displaying skills and positive qualities, which all good chess players strive to develop. Each student in the Chess program will also receive access to Chess Squad which is an online teaching/playing platform.

If your child is interested in taking part in the class, please email office.sydneyacademy@gmail.com for an enrolment form. For all enquiries, please contact Sydney Academy of Chess on (02) 9745 1170.

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 fava beans, peanuts, tree nuts, and peanut butter or Nutella (chocolate/hazelnut) spreads to school. Please adhere closely to this policy, as we have numerous students throughout our school who have an anaphylactic allergy to nuts and fava beans.

SCHOOL APP

Please be reminded that WCCS utilises our School App to communicate important information with parents (along with our fortnightly Newsletter and EdSmart). The 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 our Newsletter. You can also submit student absences via the App.

WCCS PARENTS' PRAYER GROUP

Our Parents' Prayer Group is an opportunity for WCCS parents and carers to gather each week and pray for our school community.
When: 8:45am on Wednesdays during term time.
Where: Wyong Baptist Church Green Room - accessible via the Good Day Kiosk.
The group is hosted by our School Chaplain, Rev Matt Shorten. All are welcome to come and pray together.

MORNING SUPERVISION OF STUDENTS - 8:15AM

Please be reminded that staff supervision of students commences from 8:15am. So we can best care for our students, they should not arrive at school before 8:15am.
Junior School students who need to be supervised before 8:15am can access the WOOSH program (Wyong Baptist Church Out of School Hours Care).
Thank you for your understanding.

• Give thanks for the exciting and fun events we have coming up in Term 4!
  
• Give thanks to God for a great year so far, and pray that we will finish the 2024 schooling year well.
• Pray for our Year 12 students as they commence their HSC Examinations. Pray for peace and clarity, and that they would know God's love during this time.
• Pray for our Infants students as they commence their Swim Scheme. Pray it would be a wonderful opportunity for them to develop their swimming and safety skills in preparation for Summer.

Greetings friends of Junior School.

I pray that you are holding on tight because this term is going to be a roller coaster ride of fun for the kids.

We start the term with an exciting excursion for Year 3 in Week 1, as they head out to Kincumba Mountain for a Geography field trip. Isn't it interesting that it is spelled 'Kincumba Mountain' and it's located in Kincumber? Mr Higgins is taking out our basketball teams for a Gala Day and Junior School will have Chapel on the B-block veranda because the HSC commences this week.

Our annual Infants Swim Scheme will start in Week 2 with 2A and Kindergarten commencing the fortnightly program first, followed closely by 2B and Year 1 classes. We still have some bus driver openings for anyone who has some time on a Wednesday. Thank you so much for the wonderful group of volunteers that we already have on our bus-driving roster. It is such a blessing to be part of a supportive community that is keen to invest in the safety of our fledgling disciples.

In Week 3 our Year 1 students will head off to Rouse Hill House and Farm and hopefully come home more appreciative of the blessing that they may take for granted.

In Weeks 3 and 4 our budding Primary Age cricket champions will have some fun at the Cricket Skills Gala Day. Mrs Thomson and Mrs Ormsby will be providing expert coaching and extreme encouragement as our cricketers try their hand at developing some new skills.

Our musicians don’t miss out this term because the Beginner and JS Band will be joining other young musicians at the Band Jam Day hosted by Green Point Christian College.

In Week 6 Year 4 will head to Sydney and enjoy some wonderful learning experiences around the Hyde Parks Barracks. This is a new excursion for WCCS and we are excited about Mr Crumbley bringing some new opportunities for our students to expand their knowledge of Australian Colonial History.

In the finals weeks of term, we have a couple of awesome events that I am sure you won’t want to miss.

In Week 7 we are hosting our final Grandparents' Morning for the year on Friday 29th November. Please come and join us for Chapel at 9:30am and then head up to the classrooms and enjoy watching our students at work in their native habitat.

In Week 8, on Tuesday 3rd December, we are hosting the premier event of our school year, Junior School Carols Evening and the Whole School Christmas Fest. Our milestone celebration event last year, with games, food stalls and activities, was such a treat that many members of our community enquired about us hosting something similar this year. We are so excited to add this wonderful family afternoon to our Christmas celebrations.

What a massive honour it is for our Year 6 students to host such an outstanding event. They will be presenting a contemporary Christmas message through the songs and dances of our K-6 class items.

God bless,

Welcome back to school for Term 4! We hope that all our students and families had a great break and that you were refreshed for the term ahead. It is a pleasure to see our students back at school today.

As we commence the term, we are praying for our Year 12 students as they start their HSC Examinations on Tuesday 15th October. At the Year 12 Graduation, we witnessed how admired and respected these students are by our school community. We continue to pray for peace, protection and focus for the students as they tackle these final hurdles of their HSC journey.

This is a significant term for Year 11 students as well, as they will commence the first term of their HSC courses! We are very proud of everything that these students have accomplished, and we pray for wisdom over them as they make choices about their pattern of study and embark on the final year of their schooling journey.

Students from Years 7-10 will also be busy as they complete their final assessments for 2024. Year 10 will have a week of examinations in Week 3 and Years 8 and 9 will have their examinations in Week 4. Year 7 will complete their assessments as per their teachers' instructions. More information is available on Canvas.

As teachers, our goal is for students to be engaged in rich learning experiences. While there seems to be a big focus at this time of year on assessment, this allows us to see how students have grown and what they know and can do. We encourage students to view assessments positively and calmly. We look forward to celebrating student growth over the year.

We also encourage students to take care of themselves as they approach this busy period. Simple strategies such as getting enough sleep, factoring in movement, drinking enough water, having screen-free time and taking time out to relax all assist in keeping some balance in a busy period. If students need some support with this, we encourage them to reach out to one of us and we can direct them to the right channels of support.

In Psalm 16:8 it says: “I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.” This is our prayer for our Secondary students as you embark on this busy season – that you will know that our Lord is always right beside you.

God bless,

On Tuesday 24th September, fifteen champion spellers from Years 3 to 6 competed in our inaugural Inter-School Spelling Bee. Hosted by Green Point Christian College, this was a wonderful opportunity for students from our school, Green Point and Charlton Christian College to get to know some like-minded students from other schools and have a great deal of fun, whilst developing their spelling skills. We enjoyed learning from the students at other schools what their favourite words were in the English language (and how to spell them) as well as what new school subject they would bring in if they ruled the world!

Our students did very well in this Inter-School competition, earning a Bronze medal in Year 3 (Oliver G), Silver medal in Year 4 (Cameron P) and in the Year 5 competition, earning the Bronze (Benjamin M), Silver (Noa F) and Gold (Rebekah G)! Congratulations to all our clever spellers and a huge thank you to GPCC for hosting the event!

FINAL REMINDER: YEARBOOK COVER COMPETITION ENTRIES

Mrs Anne Livette-Vial | High Potential & Enrichment Teacher