From the Head of Campus
As we come to close out the first semester of 2022, I wish to thank you all for your ongoing support and partnership as we’ve settled back into the routines and rigor of life and learning at the Bellarine Campus. While the term hasn’t been without its challenges, with many staff and families impacted by illness, what has been a joy, has been the opportunity to re-connect as a community through various Campus events, from classroom visits and assemblies to music evenings and sport. I thank you for your support of your young person at these occasions and I look forward to further opportunities to come together as the year progresses.
Friday, 17th June, is our last day of Term 3, concluding as a normal school day at 3.30pm. Families that may be seeking a holiday program for your children between Monday 20th June and Wednesday 22nd June are encouraged to consider the Camp Australia program at Christian College’s Junior School Belmont Campus. Further details and registration for existing and new Camp Australia users can be found at https://www.campaustralia.com.au/.
I wish all students and families a safe and restful holiday break.
Preps on the Move
This week, on a very wet and windy Wednesday the Preps participated in an excursion to Sorrento to further explore various aspects of their Integrated Studies Unit on ‘Transport’. They continued building on their knowledge of transport by travelling on various modes throughout the day. The day began with the children boarding the College bus to Queenscliff. Once in Queenscliff the Preps were extremely excited to set sail on the ferry to Sorrento. Before they boarded the ferry, the students watched carefully as the ‘ferry controller’ directed all of the vehicles as they were loaded onto the lower deck.
As the ferry docked in Sorrento the skies cleared and we were able to take a brisk walk up to the playground where the children played as they watched the ferry come and go across the bay.
The favourite part of the day for many was to ride atop of the ferry looking out to sea. Throughout the day the children shared and recorded what they saw, heard, felt, and wondered. We look forward to drawing upon these experiences during the year, as we look back on the exploration of land, air and water transportation that we have worked through this term.
Junior Strings Day
Last Friday, the Junior String Ensembles from Surf Coast, Belmont Junior School and Bellarine campus gathered together for the first time ever! The excited students were brought together in the Bellarine Auditorium to form a super-sized String Ensemble, which rehearsed two pieces before a short break in which the students from different campuses got to mingle freely with other like-minded string musicians.
We then resumed playing with some individual group performances, before our excited audience of Year 1 and 2 Bellarine students arrived to hear the combined string group perform “Mister Croc Scratches his Back” and “Samba”, where the string students wowed their audience with some Samba dance moves led by Mrs Trish Timmins!
It was wonderful to see these young musicians band together so seamlessly and participate so fully, especially after the last few years that have seen limited performance opportunities and limited cross-campus interaction. We look forward to presenting these two pieces at the Spring into Strings evening scheduled for late next term. Thanks to Jeannette Carnie our wonderful cello teacher and the piano accompaniment staff of Stephanie Lawrence, Tammy Treloar, who assist with rehearsal and to Lesley Walters, who stepped out of retirement to help us on the day.
Thanks also to Music Admin for helping get this event off the ground and to Mr Andrew Dunlop who cooked all the sausages for our lunch time sausage sizzle.
Strings Rock!
Martin DeMarte on behalf of the strings team.
Writing Letters – the Old-Fashioned Way
The old-fashioned letter was the springboard for some valuable cross-curriculum learning this term. Our Year 1 and 2 students have been exploring letter writing from a historical perspective during Integrated Studies and studying the features of a letter in Literacy. They were then ready to start writing letters of their own. In Year 1 the students wrote a letter to their buddy from last year and excitedly delivered it to the Year 5 classrooms. They read these letters to their buddies and had some time to ‘catch up’.
Finally, all of the Year 1 and 2 students wrote a letter to their parents and followed up with a walk to the post office to pop the letters in the mail. In retrospect, as easy as it is to whip up an email and push ‘send’, the humble letter still provides much enjoyment and a tangible way to share memories with friends and family.
Mrs Ngare Knight, Ms Susie Moxey, Mrs Jessica Chakir, and Mr Sam Kennedy
Year 1 and 2 Classroom Teachers
Marty’s Moments
Since we last checked in Marty has continued his visits to classrooms and Wellbeing sessions just to make sure the ‘kids’ are going okay. With the wet weather setting in and an obvious disdain for wet paws, Marty has been enjoying his recess and lunchtimes games in the Music foyer. He continues to enjoy instrumental lessons and last week spent some time with Jack as he practised on the drums. As you can see from the photos all this activity really tires him out!
On Tuesday it was time to have College photos taken, and Marty was very excited to join the Bellarine staff for their group photo and sat up on the stool to have his very own I.D. photo taken. Marty even joined some students in their photos and was very happy to read a book with them or even just be next to them as the photographers snapped away on their cameras. We can’t wait to see how the photos turn out!
As we head into the school holidays Marty is looking forward to some extra time to work on his obedience, maybe a couple of new tricks to share with the children, and time for a big rest. Enjoy your holidays and we’ll catch up again next term!
The Bellarine Bands Evening
The Auditorium was full of families and musicians on Tuesday evening this week as we celebrated the work of our bands at Bellarine.
The evening opened with the Stage Band playing “Little Bit of Sugar for the Band” – with a swinging rhythm, grooving bass line and some great horn solos, it was thoroughly enjoyed by the crowd! This small but powerful ensemble features a full rhythm section as well as a horn section. This style of band allows students to play in jazz, funk, latin, rock and blues styles in the small band setting.
Then we progressed to the Novice Concert Band which Mr Dunlop and I just love working with each week. These young musicians come together on Thursday mornings to learn the ropes of playing in a larger ensemble. They sound remarkable for their level, and it is an amazing team of passionate young students. A highlight of this band’s repertoire for the evening was the “Pirate’s Revenge” piece in ¾ time, finishing off with a good old “Yarrrr” to wake up the audience.
Moving on to the Bellarine Concert Band directed by Mr Sean Rankin; they played the beautiful piece “Midnight at Moondarra” complete with a rain and storm soundscape. Then we moved on to the super fun “March of the Arachnids” to take out the evening. This march in 6/8 time features complex melodies and rhythms interacting throughout the band, as familiar ‘spider songs’ layer over each other.
Can I take a moment to acknowledge the work of ensemble leaders Ben Anderson, Andrew Dunlop and Sean Rankin who are assisted each week by various instrumental staff including Rob Moffat and myself, to bring the talents of these young people together.
We look forward to more concerts and performance opportunities in the second half of the year.
Bean Break Café
The Bean Break Café is a student run cafe that operates from Tuesday to Friday for Bellarine Campus staff and middle school students during recess and lunchtimes.
The students, under the guidance of Mrs Leo and Mr Hartley, assist in all areas of preparation through to the service side of beverages at the café. The café enhances the schools existing contemporary philosophy of ‘The Learning That Matters’ and is often the catalyst for sharing conversations, aspirations, and collaborations among students and staff. The Year 9 students involved with the cafe plan, test, implement and improve its operations. The cafe is instrumental in providing opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills in many curriculum areas including digital literacy, design technology, literacy, numeracy, and health. The students do a fantastic job to provide a great experience and build community on campus.
Regional Cross Country
On Thursday the 16th of June, two of our Year 6 Bellarine students, Thomas Stefanovski, and Olivia Clark travelled to Keilor to compete in the Western region cross country. In true cross-country conditions: rain, wind and mud; both students gave it their all. Olivia finished 31st out of 86 girls and Thomas 12th out of 81 boys. Thomas has now qualified for the State Cross Country later in the year where we will follow his progress with interest. Congratulations to both students for their efforts in tough conditions and for representing our College with pride.
Year 5 Express Yourself – Creating Character
Year 5 students have been extending their Term 1 Humanities learning about Geelong’s iconic bollards through role play and performance.
Students chose a bollard – this could be the same one they focused on last term or a new one. We then needed to decide if our bollard was based on a real person or a representation. Then it was time for additional research to find out why this person, place or thing was important to Geelong. Finally, we were able to start giving these characters a bit of personality. How did they move? How did they talk? What did they like? What didn’t they like? What might their relationship with some of the other bollard characters be like and why?
In small groups, students created short stories. These scripts needed to include how each bollard character was important to Geelong and/or how they impacted Geelong and the surrounding areas in their life.
This week, for the first time this semester, the Year 5s were able to have a live audience – with junior classes from Years 1, 2 and 3 coming to watch.
Year 7/8 Sport Semester Wrap-up
Congratulations to our Year 7 and 8 Sport students on their enthusiastic involvement in the GISSA Interschool competition this Semester. The students represented the College in Boys AFL, Girls AFL, Netball Div 1 and 2, Boys Soccer and Girls Soccer.
All teams experienced pleasing results throughout the competition, with some exciting wins and nail-biting defeats! The students should be commended on their positive teamwork and sportsmanship that they displayed during all our matches.
We are looking forward to another busy semester ahead and welcoming some new Year 7 and 8 Sport students to our elective. The students have already selected their sports – basketball, badminton, table tennis, Gaelic football or judo. The GISSA competition kicks off Week 3 of next term.
Sustainability Projects
We are currently working on minimising our waste to landfill as a collective campus. Our Yr. 9 Sustainability Team including – Lila Mustica, Amelia Hopper, Charlotte Muller and Suzanna Mavromihalis have initiated our soft plastics improvement and have been meeting to work on our plan moving forward with this initiative.
We have found that students are using the soft plastic bin more often which is great to see as the volume of soft plastic waste have increased, this is currently just for Middle School students. Each Middle School homeroom has their own bin plus a couple of bins in the yard. This waste gets collected and disposed at Redcycle where they create new, useful items such and fencing and walking tracks. Although, we are finding there is contamination occurring within our soft plastics bins, as it is strictly only for soft plastics items and we are now focusing on addressing this issue of contamination. To help motivate students we will start a competition next term to see which class has the least contamination occurring, judged by our Y9 Sustainability Team. There are hot chocolates up for grabs! It is pleasing to hear this soft plastics initiative at school has inspired some students to arrange a soft plastics bin at home with their families.
World Oceans Day was held on the 8th June and students engaged in devotionals to prompt their thinking about what is special about our waters and what is a small change they can make to help protect it. As part of the World Ocean’s Day celebration we are holding an Art Competition. We are looking for the most creative and sustainable works. Sustainable art pieces mean the use of recycled materials. There will be a JS winner and a MS winner both receiving a dolphin swim pass. The art piece is due on the 22nd of July. Happy creating!
CCG Senior School: Passion, Purpose and Pathways
At Christian College’s Senior Campus in Waurn Ponds, our commitment is to help students explore their passions, discover their purpose and find their pathways.
During the first week of Term 3, all parents of Year 9 students at Highton and Bellarine Campuses are invited to the Senior School Information Evening on Thursday July 14.
This year, for the first time, we are also inviting parents, families and others from outside of the CCG community who may be interested in choosing Senior School – Waurn Ponds in 2023 and beyond for their students to complete their secondary schooling.
This is a wonderful opportunity to:
- Learn more about the transition program designed to help students settle into life and learning on the Senior Campus
- Meet and hear from key support staff including Heads of House, Chaplains and Careers Counsellors
- Learn about the Year 10 academic program and progression towards VCE and Vocational Pathways
- Discover the many benefits of the Senior School House system including House carnivals, House Music, Wearable Art and lunchtime House competitions
We would strongly encourage all members of the Christian College Community to spread the word about this event, and those planned for our other campuses, among friends, neighbours, colleagues – anyone who may be considering schooling options for their children.
Please see next week’s Vine and watch our social media platforms for more details about the Senior School information evening and the events scheduled at other campuses during Term 3.
Have you Taken the 5min Cyber Safety Parenting Quiz?
With school holidays almost upon us, now is a great time for parents to review their approach and strategies around managing screen time and technology in the home. Not sure where to start? Family Zone has free parent webinars on ‘Managing Screen Time During School Holidays’, ‘Popular Games and Their Dangers’, ‘My Kid is Better at Tech Than Me’ and many other topics available via their events page.
Did you know that our own CCG Online Safety Hub also has a helpful quiz to support parents with this?
Complete the cyber safety parenting quiz to receive a safety rating for your family and useful hints and tips on areas that you can focus on to keep your family safe online. Why not complete an audit of your home’s cyber safety and get advice on how to improve it and keep your loved ones safe?
School holidays are a great time for having constructive conversations with young people about their technology use and referring to the tips and feedback from the parent quiz may be a useful way to begin such a conversation with your child.
Sport News
This term has provided many sporting highlights for our students competing in our various college teams, through their Deakin District primary sport, and our secondary GISSA sport involvement.
Further to the success of our teams at these Interschool competitions, we have many students competing in their chosen sport at a State, National and International level. We wish to acknowledge some of the performances that have come across my desk, and apologies if I have missed any performances this term in the following summary.
- Madison Cooper (Yr12), Nicole Briscoe (Yr11), Hayley Mackinder (Yr9) and Matilda Byrnes (Yr9) qualified and swam at the Australian Swimming Championships in May, which were the selection trials for our Commonwealth Games team. This opportunity and their subsequent performances will stand them in good stead for future National team selection opportunities. As a result of their performances at the ‘Age Championships’ in April, Madison, Nicole, Hayley and Brooke Briscoe (Yr9) have been selected in School Sport Victoria’s ‘Team Vic’ swimming team to compete later this year at the Australian School Sport Championships. Matilda and her family are moving to the Gold Coast where she will swim the competitive Bond University swim club. We wish Matilda all the very best for her future career in the sport of swimming.
- Harrison (Yr12) and Kade Leigh (Yr11), along with Ashton Schram (Yr8) competed for the State at the National Hockey championships. Harrison and Kade played in the U18 team, which finished 4th after a penalty shoot-out for the bronze medal. Ashton played in the U15 team, which provided him with some great playing and learning experiences over the week.
- After winning the gold medal at the State Championships, Ali Cronk (Yr11) competed at the Australian Gymnastics Championships (Aerobic gymnastics) in May where she claimed the silver medal and a personal best at these championships. Ali has worked hard over the past few years, with COVID not stopping her training regime in the garage at home!
- Charli Cox (Yr7) took all before her, winning gold at the Victorian Gymnastics Championships (level 8), which were held earlier this term at the Arena. Charli earned 1st place overall, and placed 2ndon bars and 3rd with her floor routine.
- Jacob McKie (Yr11) was again selected in School Sport Victoria’s ‘Team Vic’ triathlon team to compete in September at the Australian School Sport Championships. His selection followed some outstanding performances at the National level, which included a top 10 finish at the Australian Super Sprint Championships. Jacob followed this result with strong performances at the Oceania Sprint Cup (State U20 team member), which included a bronze medal as part of the Victorian A team in the mixed relay format (a new Olympic event in Paris 2024).
- Guy Williams (Yr8) was selected in the National U16 track & field team that competed at the recent Oceania Athletics Championships in Mackay. Guy jumped to the bronze medal spot in the high jump, 6th in the long jump and 10th place in the triple jump at these championships. This followed a fantastic athletic season for Guy, where he medaled at the State and National Championships, earning him selection in the Oceania team.
- Aidan (Yr8) and Callum Simmons (Yr6) are heading to Turkey and Europe to represent Australia at various sailing events. Aidan will be competing at the World Junior Championships in Turkey as a member of the Australian team. He will join his younger brother and travel to Italy and other destinations to compete at numerous European sailing championships where they will be representing the country and gaining some valuable racing experiences.
- Charlotte Brereton (Yr9) and Xavier Kay (Yr9) earned selection in the State water polo team that competed last weekend at the National Tournament in Melbourne. Charlotte and the Vic girls competed very well over the 3-day event, securing several wins that earned them a spot in the bronze medal match. After a tremendous tussle, the Vics went down by 1 point! We congratulate Charlotte and Xavier on making this State team, where unfortunately injury kept Xavier out of the water.
- Finally, Brodie Gawith (Yr11) is currently competing in the Australian Superbike Championships (‘Supersport 300’ and ‘Yamaha R3 Cup’ classes), which is a series of races across the year, that takes Brodie and his father to various racing locations across the country. This is the breeding ground for future Superbike and Grand Prix Superbike riders, with Brodie earning a top 8 finish at the last race in the series.
We congratulate these students on their recent fantastic performances and wish them well in their future pursuits in their chosen sport.
2022 GISSA Female AFL Inter and Junior Championships
It has been two years in the making, but finally our Inter and Junior Female AFL Teams got their chance to play and challenge themselves against the best from other independent schools around Geelong.
Our College’s Female AFL Program is still very young, and the momentum it was building over the past few years was unfortunately stopped in its tracks by the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
So, it was very encouraging to see that the two-year interruption has done nothing to curb the enthusiasm for competitive football among the Year 7 to Year 10 students from our Bellarine, Middle School Highton and Senior School campuses.
There were huge numbers to choose from for both our Inter Female Team (made up of Year 9 and 10 students) and our Junior Female Team (made up of students Year 7 and 8 students).
Our CCG Eagles Inter Team journeyed to Queens Park last week for the single-day GISSA Championships against five other Schools.
The day started out well with a strong win against Geelong Lutheran College and our girls then ran eventual Champions Clonard College to maybe their most competitive match-up in the second of our qualifying games.
Our Eagles team eventually finished fourth overall, which probably exceeded the Sport Faculty’s pre-Championships expectations considering the relative infancy of our Female AFL Program.
Year 10 Flynn Falcon Gabi Hayward was named our Team MVP on the back of her high-level play through the midfield and off half back, as well as her leadership off field as captain.
But there were plenty of names of the coaching staff’s short list for that award, which is a great sign for our Senior team in 2023.
Speaking of the future, ours was on display a couple of days later when the Junior team ventured to South Barwon Recreation Reserve for their GISSA Championships.
The competition was very tough, but our College did well to finish middle of the pack and, more importantly, it was encouraging to see what might be possible next year when the current Year 8 cohort steps up into the Inter Female Division next year to join our current Year 9 group.
One of our Year 8 stars is Flynn Falcon midfielder Greea McKeegan, who underlined her status as one of the best young female players in Geelong by winning our Team MVP.
On behalf of our Sport Faculty, we would like to thank every student who competed in these GISSA Championships for the heart and talent they showed in sometimes cold and wet conditions.
We sincerely hope they enjoyed this experience, and we look forward to seeing the same names (and more) on the sign-up sheet for next year as we build on the momentum created in 2022.
We would also like to thank our coaching staff for these matches, led by former Geelong Falcons player Lucy Were, as well Lauren Davis, Sapphire Main and Kelly O’Neil.
We now look forward to our Senior Female AFL Team taking centre stage next for their GISSA Championships in Term 3.
National Collection of Data on Students With Disabilities
Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). With data collected on the first Friday in August (this year, on the 5th), the NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD Guidelines (2021).
Please see the attached NCCD Fact Sheet for more information.
Golf Tournament
The Foundation Golf Tournament is set for Thursday, 27 October 2022. Join us at 13th Beach Golf Links from 8:00am for a shotgun start. Tickets are $190 each ($150 for members) or $750 for a group of four. RSVPs close on Thursday, 6 October 2022 at 5:00pm.
Funds raised from this event will be allocated to our Foundation Scholarship Fund, supporting current students who are in need of financial assistance.
Book online at: The Foundation Golf Tournament
Uniform Shop Hours During Holidays
During the second term school holidays, please note the following hours apply for the Christian College Uniform Shop in Centreway Arcade, Belmont:
Monday to Friday, June 20 – 24: Closed for stocktake.
Monday June 27: Uniform Shop re-opens, normal trading hours.
A MYTERN Thought for This Week
Try not to fixate on your rear-view mirror and judge your past choices.
At the beginning of every day, we get to choose how we will respond to the roads that may come our way.
Use that responsibility wisely. Be aware of the PETs (Personal Emotional Tools) that you may use to help regain or maintain control.
Don't waste time blaming. Grab that wheel and take control. It's worth it 👍🙂
Discover more about MYTERN here.