RSPCA Million Paws Walk
We all love our pets! They can be our best friend! So, in support of the RSPCA Million Paws Walk we have organised the following:
- Students and staff have the opportunity to join Chaplain Mia and her dog, Monty, for a walk around the oval on Thursday May 18 at 1.30pm. Students are encouraged to walk with a photo of their pet (sorry, no real pets allowed).
- Students can send in photos of them reading with their pet to libary@ccg.vic.edu.au so we can make a display in the Library.
- A ‘match the staff member with their dog challenge’ will take place in the Library.
Students are encouraged to join in the fun and support the RSPCA Million Paws Walk.
Bellarine Library Staff
Preps Take Over the Fire Station
This term, the Preps are studying all things ‘Transport’ as part of their Integrated Studies unit. This week, they were lucky enough to take a trip to the Ocean Grove Fire Station. They learnt important skills about fire safety and were able to practise this by remembering the chants “Crawl down low, go, go, go,” and “Stop, drop, cover, roll”. Firefighter Barker showed the children just how quickly he could get into his uniform and the students were amazed at how his uniform began to glow in the dark! The Preps loved participating in all the fun activities but their favourite part was being able to have a go at using the fire hose!
We would like to say a big thank you to Becky and the rest of the Fire Brigade at the Ocean Grove Fire Station.
Making Robots Dance
During Investigations the Year 3s have been learning how to program robots and Spheros to move and perform functions using Mindstorm Iconic Programming. These NXT robots and Spheros follow the directions, speed and distance, using commands sent from the computer, or iPad, to the performance arena. Each group has tried and tested their series of movements many times, refining and improving on each occasion, to enable our Indigenous Dreamtime Story to unfold in a logical manner. Once the routine has been established, the development of costumes and backdrops for our performance will begin, which comes later in the process. Everyone loves their time exploring but none of it would be possible without the extensive knowledge and perseverance of Mr Viegas, who has opened his Technology Wing to enable us to refine and extend the skills that we were introduced to last year, under his guidance.
Happy Mothers’ Day
All students in our Junior School have this week been working hard to express their love and thanks for their mothers by making them a gift. We hope that our dear mums feel loved and appreciated come Sunday and enjoy some special time with their families.
Junior School Teachers
A Mothers’ Day Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father,
We thank you for Mothers, for Step Mothers, for Foster and Adoptive Mothers, for Grandmothers and Special Women Guardians.
We thank you for creating each of these mums with a unique combination of gifts and talents.
We thank you for the sacrifice of self each mum gives for her children.
We thank you for the gift of time mums give for their kids, whether it’s stay-at-home mums, working mums, and mums who have some combination of the two.
We thank you for the flexibility of mums, for their tirelessness, their perseverance, and their devotion. We pray you give each mum strength and allow her to see the great significance that you place on motherhood.
We pray that each mother rejects perfectionism and instead embraces the goodness of the gospel and the fact that they are just right for their children.
Most of all, Lord, on this day in which we honour mothers, may we love and cherish the special women who have borne us, who have nurtured us, and who have prayed for our well-being.
May our hearts overflow with gratitude to you, who formed and knitted each of us in a mother’s womb.
Amen.
Year 6 Letter Writing
Year 6 has had a fun start to their Letter Writing unit in English. On Wednesday, 6S received letters from students in the United States. My sister is a third-grade teacher at a Christian elementary school in Killeen, Texas. Her students wrote a letter to the students in 6S. Everyone had big smiles on their faces as they opened their personally addressed letters. There was a small glitch however, the Australian students were unable to read the American cursive handwriting, so I had to translate most of the letters! It became a teachable moment of the importance of handwriting and legibility. Some questions the American students asked included, ‘Are there really a lot of spiders there? Does it snow in Australia? Do you have giraffes? Do you celebrate different holidays?’ We are now in a busy rush to correspond to our Texan friends, as they start their Summer holidays on May 26.
Bellarine North Rotary Club Writing Competition
Middle School students had the privilege of listening to Andrew Jeffrey and Alexandra Dakin from Bellarine North Rotary Club speak during the Middle School Assembly. They spoke about a creative writing competition their organisation puts on, encouraging our Year 5 and Year 6 students to enter in 2024. In addition to sharing about the writing competition, they awarded the winner of the 2023 Bellarine North Rotary Club Creative Writing Competition. The award went to Sammy Johnston from 6S. He wrote a creative piece about dinosaurs; well done Sammy!

Eden’s a Classy Clay Shooter!
I am thrilled to share the remarkable success of one of our talented students, Eden Simmons (7S), who recently participated in a regional clay shooting competition at Laang Sporting Clay Association. Eden’s outstanding performance in the Junior section resulted in him coming second, missing out on first place by only one shot, despite some very fierce competition. As a result of Eden’s success, Christian College will receive an invitation to this yearly event going forward. Mr Watson presented Eden with a school plaque at our recent Middle School assembly. Congratulations Eden!

Makanan Indonesia (Indonesian Food)
This week our Year 8 and Year 9 Indonesian language students had the opportunity to experience the vibrant flavours of Indonesia through a cooking class led by Indonesian cook and MasterChef alumni, Tati Carlin.
Under Tati’s guidance, students worked together to prepare two iconic Indonesian dishes, Indonesian Mie Goreng (fried noodles) and Bakwan Jagung. Bakwan Jagung, corn fritters, is a popular street food in Indonesia, that also proved to be very popular amongst our students!
Witnessing our students’ enthusiasm in the kitchen as they created authentic and delicious dishes was a joy. Not only did the students successfully bring a taste of Indonesia to our school, but this hands-on experience will also further enrich their understanding of the broader topics they are currently studying in the classroom.
We extend our thanks to Tati for sharing her knowledge and passion for Indonesian cuisine with our students and hope this experience has not only inspired them to try new flavours but has also given them the confidence to cook an Indonesian meal for their families.
Selamat Makan! (Enjoy your meal!)
Bu Leathem & Pak Zacky
MFDC Visit and Intertidal Reef Investigations
It has been a busy two weeks with students engaged in great discussions with marine scientists on a visit to the Marine and Freshwater Discovery Centre (MFDC) and an intertidal rocky reef exploration around the rocky platforms at the entrance to Port Phillip Heads. These hands-on practical experiences are designed to further the students’ grasp on the word adaptation. Alongside these fieldwork experiences students are currently researching and completing an inquiry task on a particular marine invertebrate that they would likely see in these environments. These rich learning experiences allow students to apply their learning to real life moments where species are identified and observed in their natural habitats.
Years 4-6 District Cross Country
On Thursday May 4, a selected group of Year 4, 5 and 6 students headed off to Eastern Park to participate in the District Cross Country. All students represented the college well, giving their best effort and achieving some excellent results. This was the first time a lot of the students had completed the loop at Eastern Gardens and did a great job of navigating the inclines throughout the course.
We had a number of students finish in the top 10 this year with the top 8 going through to the next stage. A special mention to Harry Judge who finished in ninth place and Jade Dalton who finished in tenth place, just missing out on qualifying. Congratulations to the following students who finished in the top 8 and will now progress to the Division Cross Country on Tuesday May 23.
Patrick Clark- 11 boys- First place
Lexie Strachan- 11 girls- Second place
Harvey Stefanovski- 9/10 boys- Second place
Ellie Cox- 11 girls- Fourth place
Will Guise- 11 boys- Fifth place
Tayte McKenzie- 12/13 girls- Sixth place
We wish these students all the best and will follow their progress with interest.
Canteen Update

Camp Australia

ChatGPT, Generative AI and Young People
Information and guidance for parents
Parents may be aware of the news and hype around recent developments in generative AI (artificial intelligence), especially the digital tool ChatGPT that launched in November last year. ChatGPT reached a million users in five days, and by January of this year had 13 million daily users.
By typing in a specific prompt, a person can ask ChatGPT to produce a written response and it will create it in seconds. It can produce emails, poems, song lyrics, speeches, reviews, recipes, stories, social media posts, working program code, and academic essays and reports. It can analyse text and code, and offer advice on improvements, corrections, and alternative approaches for just about any written text.
ChatGPT facilitates a chat-based conversation between the person and the AI chatbot that produces the output, allowing for questions, refinements, and iterations on the original output until the resultant text suits the intentions of the user.
Since ChatGPT’s launch late last year, there has been an explosion in the proliferation and availability of similar digital tools to the average person – including our young people. Google and Microsoft are racing to build AI tools into their browsers, office suites and search engines, and you may have heard of Microsoft’s new Bing Chat or Google’s BardAI.
Popular social media platforms are including AI features with the same capabilities as ChatGPT into their features, such as SnapChat’s ‘MyAI’ feature and Discord’s ‘Clyde’ AI chatbot. Other AI tools available online allow the creation of images, artwork, and music from a straightforward text prompt.
ChatGPT and similar AI tools have their limitations, including the potential to produce inaccurate information or to return text that has inherent biases. Depending on the AI tool used, it can also be difficult to cite sources or track back and identify where the information originally came from. The free version of ChatGPT is not a real-time search engine and only has access to information up to 2021, so the text output it produces may be outdated.
Generative AI and Education
The proliferation and accessibility of these digital tools for our young people presents both opportunities and challenges for education. It prompts questions for teachers and schools such as:
- What does this mean for contemporary learning?
- How does this influence our approach and thinking around assessment?
- What are the issues of safe and ethical use?
At Christian College, we have begun to grapple with these questions and are taking a careful and measured approach towards the development of guidelines and policy around the use of AI tools in the context of learning.
On Wednesday, May 3, teaching staff from across all campuses were well-represented at an in-house professional learning event introducing ChatGPT, generative AI and education where the limitations, opportunities, and challenges of these tools in the education context were explored. There is potential for these tools to provide many benefits to teachers and students in the classroom setting in future, if used within an appropriate framework that promotes age-appropriateness, privacy and safety, ethical use, and an understanding of these tools’ limitations.
Interim guidelines for staff were released while we work towards developing more formal and robust policy. These interim guidelines acknowledge that most AI tools require a personal account for use and come with Terms of Use that require users to be 18+ or else 13+ with parental consent. As with any online technology-based tool, student safety and privacy are an important consideration.
Currently, student access to ChatGPT and AI tools is filtered, to the degree possible, on their school device during school hours. This is a short-term approach as we continue to review and develop more formalised policy and explore implications for teaching and learning, including assessment.
We’ll continue to consider what this means for our College and community going forward in the context of our philosophical statement, which acknowledges that we live in a “progressively technological age” and identifies a commitment to adopting the best educational technology practices to support student learning. Our response to the increasing availability of AI tools must ensure we enable students to be their best and to thrive and positively influence their world – now and into the future.
Guidance and Support for Parents
I encourage parents to engage with their young people at home, especially teenagers and those using social media, about experiences they may have had with AI tools such as ChatGPT and to experiment and explore together.
For parents new to this technology, you may find value in viewing the video below at home – together with your young person – and considering possibilities and questions that it prompts. This twelve-minute video ‘Why OpenAI’s ChatGPT is Such a Big Deal’, though produced by American news channel CNBC, provides an engaging and accessible overview of ChatGPT, generative AI, its limitations and possible future impacts.
- View the video: Why OpenAI’s ChatGPT is Such a Big Deal (CNBC, February 2023)
I also highly recommend the two parent support articles below. While they both focus primarily on ChatGPT, the guidance and parent advice can be equally applied to any generative AI tool.
- Guide to ChatGPT for Parents and Caregivers (Common Sense Media)
- ChatGPT and its Role in Education (parent advice on our CCG Online Safety Hub)
Parents and young people should be aware that:
- ChatGPT and AI tools like it can get things wrong, and their information shouldn’t be trusted.
- Confidential or personally identifiable information (such as names) should not be entered into AI tools as part of a prompt due to risks to privacy.
- These tools have clear Terms of Use, requiring that users are over 18, or at least 13 if they have parental consent to use them.
- AI-generated content should not be used in the context of school without discussion and explicit approval by their teacher, and only in specific cases. Parental consent will be sought for such activities.
- It is important to be mindful of privacy when using AI tools, and personal information shouldn’t be included in data provided to them (for example, as part of a prompt).
It is important for parents to know that the use of AI tools will not be introduced by teachers in the context of learning activities and assessments for now, and this will only occur in future with careful planning, communication, and explicit consent from relevant parents.
Vocation Education and Training (VET) Tasters
Year 9 and 10 Preparation for Vocational Education and Training (VET) in 2024
Senior School students can choose to study a VET course off-campus as a subject in Year 10, 11 and 12. These courses are usually undertaken over two years giving students a TAFE certificate qualification on leaving school in addition to their VCE. They providestudents with an opportunity to gain industry training assisting them with career pathways. The Gordon is offering some free VET tasters for interested students.
Registrations are now open for Taste of TAFE sessions.
This brilliant two-day program will give Year 9 and 10 students an insight into the incredible careers TAFE can deliver. They run from 9.30 am – 2.30 pm and students can choose to do one or both days. Taste of TAFE is a fun and engaging program that will see students get hands-on with all program areas at their East Geelong and Geelong City campuses.
Tuesday July 18 2023 Taste of TAFE at East Geelong Campus
Tuesday July 25 2023 Taste of TAFE at Geelong City Campus
Registration forms and information about the tasters on offer can be collected from the student office or Year 9 Coordinator. Forms must be completed and returned to the student office no later than May 24. Early application is advisable.
For more information about studying VET at Senior School please contact Kerryn Fearnsides via k.fearnsides@ccg.vic.edu.au

The Story of Buikarin
Buikarin is a small rural community half an hour away from our accommodation house in Viqueque. Within the community there is a kindergarten, that has 128 students enrolled, and consists of three teachers. One teacher is full time, one is on contract and the other is a volunteer. They only have one room to teach these 128 students. The area of that room is 6 metres by 8 metres. The teachers have 64 students at one time in this space. They have two sessions a day. Natercia is the head teacher and she's very passionate about her school. She founded this school with their own money and no support from the government.
On Friday May 19’s Project Care Day, we want to raise money to buy bricks for Buikarin so that we can give Natercia and her students and another teaching space. Natercia has already used her own money to put a roof over a “patch of dirt”and we would love to brick in this area for her so, as she says, “the kids don't run out onto the road when in class.”
One photo here shows 64 students in the classroom. Note the students are on either side of the room because Natercia puts a small wall down the middle to separate the two groups. Imagine the noise coming from this small space with 64 students. It would be very hard to listen, very hard to teach and very hard to learn. The next photo you can see is the roof that her and her husband had paid for themselves to create another teaching space. This is the space we would like to brick in and concrete the floor.

Qustodio Parent App New Feature
New Activity Timeline View
It is a pleasure to share with parents a newly added feature of the Qustodio Parent App, which all parents have access to as part of our Cyber Safe Schools Program and in partnership with Linewize by Family Zone.
Since our launch of this parent app in 2022, it has been wonderful to note the level of engagement by parents with this tool. I have enjoyed many interactions with a range of parents about how it is helping them support their young people in their digital journey at home.
One area where I have often received feedback from parents is that the information about their child’s digital activity on their school laptop is vague and not as detailed or useful as they would like, and not comparable to the activity reporting available for their child’s personal devices.
It is for this reason that I am delighted to share that parents can now access a new feature, Timeline, that provides more specific and detailed information about digital activity on the school device outside school times.
I encourage all parents to take a few moments and view this two minute video that provides an overview of the new feature and how it can be used to better support parents in guiding their young people at home.
Getting Started with the Qustodio Parent App
A reminder that parents can learn more about Qustodio, create and activate their parent account as part of our school program, and explore Frequently Asked Questions, via our school’s Online Safety Hub.
Science Talent Search at CCG 2023
Students at Christian College Geelong in Years 5-10 are invited to participate in the 2023 Science Talent Search (STS).
The Science Talent Search has three broad aims:
- To stimulate an ongoing interest in the study of sciences by:
- encouraging independent self-motivated project work amongst students of science.
- giving students the opportunity to communicate their achievements to a wider audience.
- providing recognition of effort and achievement in a scientific enterprise.
- To promote the direct involvement of the students in the processes of science and its communication.
- To give the public at large an opportunity to see the quality of work being achieved in science, by both primary and post primary students.
The Science Talent Search has a wide range of sections students can choose to enter:
- Experimental Research
- Creative Writing
- Inventions**
- Working Models
- Posters – Scientific Wallcharts
- Games
- Computer Programs**
- Science Photography
- Video Productions
**These sections may require student attendance at a judging day at a Melbourne School over a weekend. Parents are responsible for their child attending a judging day.
A detailed handbook including guidelines and requirements of each section is attached. More ideas and information is available for students and parents at https://stav.org.au/science-talent-search/
Entry fees will be covered by the school.
The number of entries across the school is capped, so students are encouraged to submit registrations to their science teacher as early as possible. Registrations are made by filling in the student registration form and handing in to your science teacher.
Registrations close: Friday 19th May
Closing date for entries: Friday 14th July
Participating students will complete their entries individually or in a group of two in their own time. Support will be available from their science teacher and at optional lunchtime sessions.
For more information, please see your science teacher, or email Mrs Huddart, Director of Teaching and Learning – Science e.huddart@ccg.vic.edu.au Highton students are invited to attend S203 at lunchtime on Fridays where Ms Blackburn will be happy to answer any questions.

Uniform Shop Clearance Sale!

A MYTERN Thought for This Week
Whatever road you are now on, just take a deep breath and know that everything is going to be ok.
Even if you can't change your circumstances or the people around you, you always have the option to change how you respond to them…thus changing the way you feel 👍🙏😊👏
Discover more about MYTERN here
Recent Comments