From the Head of Campus 

What an incredible term it has been for the Bellarine Campus community. We have experienced a rich term of learning that has been uninterrupted, enabling the full extent of both our classroom and extra-curricular programs. A flick back through the Vine archive is testimony to how much has actually been achieved this term. Our students have been settled and incredibly engaged in their learning this term, and for the staff team, it has been extremely rewarding to see our young people not only thriving in their learning, but to be embracing the spirit of being in community as a campus.  

RUOK? 

On Monday this week, Bellarine Campus held its RUOK? Day event. 

The students met in the Gym and listened to a talk about becoming a champion with the message of RUOK? 

A conversation involving the four steps below could change a life! 

Middle School Guest Speaker – Scott Darlow 

Scott, a Yorta Yorta descendant, is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and didgeridoo player. He has sold more than 50,000 albums worldwide and has extensively toured Australia, Asia and the USA.   

During the day, Scott met with the different Middle School year levels. He told some wonderful and often startling stories passed down from his elders, and intrigued students with use of digeridoo, guitar and loop pedal.  

Cupcake Challenge 

The Year 9 Food Studies class ended the term with the much anticipated ‘Cupcake Challenge’. The students were tasked to make their own cupcake patties, delicious cream cheese icing and decide how they would decorate their patty.  It was a very close competition with many worthy winners. Voters finally chose the gorgeous pink tone cupcake with gold dusting and sprinkles made by Asta Kapitelli and Sahara Stephenson – congratulations. 

Karaoke and Netball a Great Finish to Term 3! 

What a joyful and fun way to close out Term 3 for our Middle School students. The Auditorium was pumping to classic tunes presented by our very own talented musicians Ms Sharon Huber and Mr Martin deMarte, who led the inaugural House Karaoke championship. There was robust singing, dancing, house dress up and air guitar play offs. In the end though, after stretching the vocal chords of all students, the judging panel awarded Penman the 2022 House Karaoke Champions. 

From singing to netball, the final of the Year 8 and 9 House Netball Championship was played. Burrows and Flynn played off for 3rd and 4th, while the championship event was played over two halves between Penman and Taylor. It was a quality game of netball, however Penman with a quality line up of experienced players were just too strong, and have taken away the trophy for this year. 

We have been really impressed with our student participation in these activities – they have been very supportive and encouraging of one another and was a fine way to finish the term. 

Semester 2 Weekly Maths Challenge Number 10

The final week of Term 3 and the 10th edition of the weekly mathematics conundrums and logical questions. Each week a different maths question is posed to share the fun of mathematical trivia. Share the delight with your family and friends and amaze them with your maths skills!  

Did you get last week’s answer? Check out the solution below. 

Challenge Number 9 solution 

This famous river crossing problem is known as the “bridge and torch” puzzle. Four people are crossing a bridge at night, so they all need a torch—but they just have one that only lasts 15 minutes. Alice can cross in one minute, Ben in two minutes, Cindy in five minutes and Don in eight minutes. No more than two people can cross at a time; and when two cross, they must go at the slower person’s pace. How do they get across in 15 minutes? 

Students Meet CSIRO Challenges Head-on 

The Bebras Australia Computational Thinking Challenge was on again this Semester with over 27,000 students taking part around the world. This competition was all online, run by the CSIRO and is aligned with the Australian Curriculum. The Computational Thinking challenge is available to students from Years 3-12 in an individual and collaborative problem-solving environment. This is an opportunity for students to develop skills for exam style questions but with a collaborative, low pressure, and growth centred approach. 

I would like to recognise the incredible effort the following students made to complete challenge alongside their current studies: Sebastian De Marte (Year 7) for participating and for the first time we had a team entry with a focus on collaboration and communication to solving problems, Jessica Berra and Hugh Whitaker (Year 5) worked together to achieve a Credit! This is a wonderful effort by all students who participated!  

Videos for Change 

The culmination of student learning as a part of the Humanities component of their ‘Words Shape Worlds’ unit this term has seen Year 7s empowered by being given the opportunity to inspire empathy, awareness and action on important social issues through creating entries for global platform Videos for Change. Taking part in this competition gives students a voice, not just in our community but potentially across the world, as well as allowing them to contribute to a safer, more sustainable and inclusive world.  

Australian History Competition  

Earlier this year, 19 Year 7 and Year 9 students participated in the Australian History Competition 2022. The competition aims to promote and showcase History as equally important as English, Maths and Science. The focus of the competition is on testing interpretation and analysis rather than prior knowledge. Students were presented with a certificate at a recent Middle School assembly and recognised for their effort, with results ranging from participation through to high distinction. Notable results were Jamison Cox (7S) receiving a High Distinction in the Year 7-8 competition and Henry Hicks (9E) receiving a High Distinction in the Year 9-10 competition. Congratulations to all students involved.  

Japanese Manga Calligraphy 

Many of our students seem to know about and enjoy Japanese Manga or Anime. Also, they seem to like to use fancy stationery items connected with calligraphy. So as a response to this situation, students from Year 4 to 9 have all practised writing Manga captions. This has involved using a special brush pen to write hiragana, katakana, or kanji script onto Manga speech bubbles.  

One benefit of this practice is that students can learn how to write Japanese script related to core vocabulary study. Students are asked to pay attention to balance and shape when writing. Also, students in the Middle School year levels can decide the caption they write. As students become more confident, the teacher can see better student understanding of how to sit with correct posture, hold the brush pen and ‘flick’ Japanese-style when making brush strokes. 

If you would like to check out more about Manga, some classrooms already have wall displays. 

3,2,1, Blast Off!  

Year 5 students have started to investigate variables in science and have looked at factors which help rockets to launch. This week students worked on designing, building, and launching plastic water bottle rockets. With much excitement, they collaborated and launched their rockets, with the expert assistance of Mr Benson. An exciting and fun time was had by all, and our Year 5 students look forward to continuing this task next term. 

Design Thinking Challenge 

During this term, Years 3 and 4 were set the challenge to design, create, build, test and finally evaluate a form of transport that would answer the problem, ‘What if the world ran out of petrol?’ We looked at a variety of different forces that would help with the movement of our vehicle, which we incorporated into our design, as the challenge was for the vehicle to move independently for at least 30cm. 

Everyone eagerly took it on. Working in pairs or small groups, they set about designing, building and testing their creations, before the design was refined to improve its performance. All parts of this challenge were documented and at the end of the process, each person reflected on their part of the journey.  

Light and Sound Expo

This week the Year 1 and 2 students participated in many interesting and engaging experiments when they visited the school science lab for our ‘Light and Sound Expo’. The students used light boxes, mirrors, coloured glass, and prisms to explore how light travels and changes when passing through different materials. Using torches and their hands /bodies, they demonstrated that opaque objects cast shadows and followed diagrams to try to make a range of shadow puppets on the white walls. The students were very excited to pull apart a model of a ‘giant eyeball’, using language such as pupil and nerves, to describe how our eyes see. When exploring the concept of sound, tuning forks placed in water formed ripples to show how sound waves travel.  

Let’s Go Fly a Kite with Year 3 

Throughout this term, Year 3 have been looking at different forces during Integrated Studies lessons, one of which was air resistance. To illustrate this, we followed directions to build our own kites and tried our luck at getting them to fly. There were many excited faces, as the craft took flight and stayed in the air for long periods of time. It was a joy to look up to the sky and see all the brightly coloured kites soaring, held in the air by the power of the wind.  

Spring into Strings – Junior String Players Perform!! 

Last Thursday saw the return of our annual celebration of String playing in our Junior Campuses with 'Spring into Strings'. The Junior String ensembles from Bellarine, Surf Coast and Junior School Belmont campuses gathered together at the RW Gibson Music Performance Centre to perform for each other and their families. We were also graced with enchanting performances from the Yr. 4 String Quartet from Belmont, as well as the Ceilidh Band from Bellarine, before all students combined to form a massed String Ensemble which then presented two pieces for their captive audience. 

There were many excited and nervous young musicians at the start of the night, but it was amazing to see these young musicians focus and perform with such aplomb-well done to all! 

Thanks to our accompanists Tammy Treloar and Stephanie Lawrence for your support.    

Martin DeMarte on behalf of the String Team -Trish Timmins and Jeanette Carnie. 

Athletics Victoria All Schools ‘NITRO’ Athletics Championships 

There were medals everywhere for our CCG Eagles Team at the Athletics Victoria All Schools ‘Nitro’ Championships on Thursday. 

Our College had two teams of six athletes (one male, one female) compete at this marquee event, which brought together about 30 schools from across the state to the picturesque Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park. 

Our male team won the gold medal for the Under-16 ‘Field’ Relay, with points from the High Jump, Long Jump, Discus and Shot Put Events adding up to an overall winner. 

Combined Middle Schools Music Camp was a Blast!

The celebration that was the combined Middle Schools Music camp has definitely returned in 2022 as a highlight of the year for many of our Middle School musicians. Choir, Band and String Ensemble members from Highton and Bellarine Campuses journeyed to Camp Wilkin in Anglesea on Monday this week for a 3 day jam-packed getaway full of music making, fun activities and great friendship! 

Musically the groups from each campus collaborated, seeing the students learning new music and skills together. The camp program also offered a broad range of activities such as group singing, mindfulness and the practice of Alexander Technique which provided the students with opportunities to consider their wellness both as young people but as well, as young developing musicians. 

For Families Relocating or Withdrawing Students 

A reminder that if your family is relocating and/or you are planning to withdraw your child from Christian College, a full term’s notice, in writing, is required. Please contact your student’s Campus. 

Important VET Information for Subject Selection 2023

Vocational Education Training (VET) is offered as a subject in Year 10, 11 and 12 at CCG Senior Campus. Students travel off campus to either The Gordon or a government or catholic school (non-Gordon) who offer the courses one afternoon a week. Year 10 students study VET as well as VCE Unit 1 Industry and Enterprise over the whole year which includes a week of work experience. VET is mandatory for students studying the new VCE Vocational Major (VM) and optional for VCE students. More information can be found in the subject selection booklets and on the Senior School Hub – VET for 2023 on SEQTA.

Uniform Shop Hours Over the Holidays 

The Uniform Shop in Centreway Arcade, Belmont will be closed from Monday 19th September and reopening 26th September 2022.

Opening hours in the second week of holidays are from 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday  26/09/2022  through to  Friday  30/09/2022  

The Uniform Shop resumes normal trading hours from Monday 3rd October 2022. 

Canteen not Open on Last day of Term 

Please note that on the last day of Term 4, Friday December 9, the canteen will not be open. 

Thank you to all volunteers for your fantastic help during the course of this term, and throughout 2022.  

Recycling Uniform Items 

As part of the transition to our new College wardrobe it was important that we consider the environmental impact of clothing items no longer required. Whilst it is still possible for students to wear items from the traditional uniform, when items are no longer able to be worn, they can be recycled. 

Any such items can be dropped off and placed in recycling bins at each campus. We are working with our wardrobe manufacturer to ensure that these can be recycled as part of the introduction of our new wardrobe over the next 18 months. 

Scholarship Applications for 2024 Entry now Open! 

Each year we offer Academic Excellence Scholarships for entry at Year 5 (Middle School-Highton, Bellarine and Surf Coast campuses); Year 7 (Middle School-Highton and Bellarine); and Year 10 (Senior School-Waurn Ponds).  

These scholarships have been designed primarily to encourage and support new and current students who wish to attend Christian College and who demonstrate high levels of academic excellence.  

We are now seeking scholarship applications for entry at any of those year levels in 2024.  

For more information, and to apply, please see our website. Use the hotlink from our homepage or click here 

Applications close on Thursday September 29. The examination date is Saturday October 8. 

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

A MYTERN Thought for This Week 

When you find yourself worrying about something that hasn't even happened yet and may never happen, reach for a PET (Personal Emotional Tool e.g. breathing, exercise, immersion in nature, music).  The best way you can influence your future is by taking control of this moment. That's why they call the present a gift 🎁👍😊 

Discover more about Mytern here