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. 

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. 

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! 

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! 

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.  

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. 

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! 

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.

• 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.   

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.