These occasions provide an opportunity for me to speak with the students to encourage them and to share a message. My focus this term was to ask each of us to consider how we contribute to our community. I used a mirror to demonstrate how we can see ourselves in the reflection of our community and more importantly to use the mirror to reflect on how we contribute to making our community a welcoming, safe, and nurturing place to learn together. 

During the assembly, I talked about kindness and asked students to consider how they interact with others at school, online, outside of school and within their families, reminding us all of the commandment given to us in the Bible. 

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another" (John 13:34).  

The command to love each other was not new, but Jesus magnified it by adding the spirit of the law, that we be motivated to love each other with the self-sacrificing Godly love that Jesus showed. 

This term as we re-engage and re-connect with each other as a community, this is a wonderful reminder for us all, students, staff, and parents. 

Last semester concluded with perfect examples of community events that demonstrated the value that comes from being together when we gathered for the Year 11 Presentation Balls and the Year 12 Formal. These events were a credit to the young people involved for the way that they conducted themselves. I am most grateful to the staff and families for supporting them. 

Our annual Staff Retreat was held over three days prior to the semester break. We were blessed to be guided through a series of sessions led by Middle School Chaplain Mia Kafieris, titled ‘A Hero’s Journey’, guiding staff through a time of reflection, and personal growth. There was time dedicated to fellowship, worship and to honour colleagues that have reached significant milestones in their careers, serving our college over 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 years. These fabulous staff achievements are listed below. 

10 Years 

Kristen Barr 

Matthew Bonner 

Kim Doherty 

Renee Garing 

Nicola Morrish 

Kate Pritchard 

15 Years 

Ben Anderson 

Jane Bailey 

Stephanie Butler 

Kerrie Dapiran 

Shirley Lazaric 

Jonathan Maddock 

Steven Sullivan 

Regina Thomae 

Brendan Vanderkley 

Jessie Warren 

20 Years 

Andrew Allen 

Mandy Calderwood 

Mark Foran 

30 Years 

Paul Brewster 

Stephen Cody 

Glen McKeeman 

Karen Smits 

40 Years 

Daryl Riddle OAM 

I congratulate our colleagues and thank them for their contribution to the life of Christian College. It is particularly significant to celebrate and highlight our CEO, Mr. Daryl Riddle OAM, on the 40 years dedicated to visionary leadership and energy that has left a remarkable legacy for our College. Thank you, Daryl. 

The staff were blessed to commence this term with a service and to hear an encouraging message from Pastor Matt Jacoby, Senior Pastor from One Hope Baptist Church. 

After repeated cancellations over the last two and a half years the staff also had the privilege to hear Dr Jordan Nguyen speak on Monday following our commencement service. Dr Jordan Nguyen is described as one of Australia’s most innovative engineers, who is committed to improving the lives of as many people as possible, and to help become a driving force behind both human and technological evolution as we move into the future. 

An internationally renowned engineer for humanity, Jordan designs life-changing technologies to transform the lives of people with disabilities and the elderly through his role as founder of Psykinetic, a social business committed to bringing positive, sustainable and life-altering change, and shares his adventures through documentaries across the world. Inspired by human endeavour, Jordan has big ambitions to see our world step consciously and creatively into a better future. 

Jordan’s address was inspiring, engaging and a perfect fit with our college vision and philosophy for the ‘Learning That Matters.’ His encouragement to the staff will flow on to our students as a result of hearing about his experiences as a student and his work today. 

Term 3 has certainly commenced with a positive vibrancy and energy. I look forward to all that is in store for us in the coming weeks. 

It was wonderful to have a full Campus assembly on Tuesday afternoon, and for our students from Prep through to Year 9 to literally look left and right of themselves in the Auditorium and recognise they belong to something much bigger. They are each important and valuable members of our Bellarine community. Principal Mr. Glen McKeeman, College Captain Sophie Potter and College Prefect Molly Inglis each shared valuable messages with our young people that spoke to the important responsibility that each one of us has to reflect God’s goodness of love and kindness to one another, and our broader College community. From this approach we can continue to grow a school environment where each member of our community can thrive, being the best person they can be in their learning and in their relationships. I’m grateful to Charlotte Visscher and Jasmina Bevacqua-Hall for leading our community in prayers. 

As part of our assembly, we acknowledged the participants and overall winners of our Inaugural Middle School Chess Championships, along with notable achievements for the following Bellarine Campus high-performing athletes: 

Guy William of Year 8 for his participation in the Oceana Athletic Championships, Eddie Brown of Year 7 who is presently captaining the Victorian Rugby Team and has been selected as a member of the School Sport Victoria Basketball Squad. Aidan and Callum Simmons are presently competing in the Optimus World Championships and the European World Sailing Championships. Thomas Stefanovski is representing the College at the Victorian Schools Cross Country Championships this week. We congratulated Eddie Brown, Kade Little and Keegan Johnson who were members of the College Year 7&8 Basketball Team who won the Division 2 State Championships.  

I wish both families and students well for the term ahead. 

He enjoyed a wonderful time over the holidays spending the first week romping around a farm with his country cousins Diesel and Jeffie in Wooragee, Victoria. Marty wasn’t quite sure what to think of his new little, white, fleecy friends, Buttercup and Lambington, but was soon having fun with them at feeding time. Chloe the calf was a new experience for him too, he thought it was great fun running rings around her as she munched her way through the grass in the paddocks. We soon worked out that as much as he loved the open spaces Marty is not quite a ‘farm’ dog – remember he doesn’t like having his paws wet, let alone muddy!    

Once we were back at home it was back into training for Marty as there is still lots for him to learn and practise. He is really starting to listen carefully and will come when he is asked (on most occasions) and will return the ball to you after chasing it down. We have to continuously remind him that he’s not allowed to jump up when he gets excited, that is definitely a work in progress and a lesson that the children will be working with him to improve.  

Marty has also spent his first day in Doggy Daycare where he made new friends with Fergus the West Highland Terrier and Milly the Maltese Terrier. Steph who looked after Marty at the centre told me they played together until they were exhausted, and I must say he did sleep very well that night.  

Our school photos arrived this week and as you can see from Marty’s ID photo, he takes his job at school very seriously and I’m fairly sure it’s a job he loves! 

Magic Square

Can you solve a Magic Square?  

In recreational mathematics, a square array of numbers, usually positive integers, is called a magic square if the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diagonals are the same. In this case your challenge is to use a 3×3 square and each number between 1-9 once, so that each row, column, and the main diagonals equal to 15. 

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 has increased. 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. As a Middle School we are now focusing on addressing this issue of contamination. To help motivate students we have begun a competition to see which class has the least contamination occurring, judged by our Year 9 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.   

As part of the World Oceans Day celebration our art competition is still open to submissions. 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! 

Just a reminder to parents when placing lunch orders for their children to use the following guide when ordering.  

1) Ensure your child is allocated to their correct class not Test class or None.  

2) Ensure you receive an email confirmation after you have placed your order. If a confirmation is not received, there has been an error when placing the order. 

3) Ensure you place the order before the cut off time and for the correct date of the lunch order day, and please check the delivery date.  

4) If paying by credit card, please ensure the CVC number is correct. The payment will bounce back if incorrect and the order will not be placed. 

Our team does its utmost to ensure all orders are correct, however sometimes items can be missed. Can you please let your children know that, should they be missing something from their order, they are to go back to the canteen staff who can assist your children with a replacement item. These few checks will ensure the order is placed correctly and your child receives the correct lunch items. 

If you have placed a lunch order for your child and they are unwell on the day of the order, please contact School 24 on 02 72516939 before 9:30am and the order will be allocated to the following week. Unfortunately, if School 24 is not contacted by this time, it is too late to remove the order from the list. We appreciate your understanding and please do not hesitate to contact us should you wish to discuss further. At Fresh Meal Fairy our staff do their very best to ensure all the lunch orders placed by parents, go out to the students correctly however sometimes errors do occur. 

If you have a grievance that you would like to bring to our attention, please email us at schoollunchfairy@gmail.com so we can work with you to work through the process to rectify the matter as timely as possible. Please ensure to include in your email: 

• The school’s name 
• The student’s name and class 
• The issue at hand. 

We appreciate you understanding, and assisting us to continue to improve our systems and processes to ensure the best service is being provided to our customers. Please feel free to contact Christine at freshlunchfairy.com.au or on 0424654109 should you have any questions regarding school lunch orders. 

Christine  
Fresh Meal Fairy  

These sessions provide interested families with the opportunity to take a deeper dive into the fantastic learning programs offered by our College. There will be opportunities to meet and speak with campus, year level and subject area leaders.  

We would encourage anyone within our College community who may know friends, neighbours, work colleagues – anyone – that are considering Christian College as an option to spread the word and extend an invitation to any one or more of these sessions.