Middle School Term 2 Week 3

All students are to wear full College uniform on the day, including blazer. If students are wearing the ‘original/old’ uniform, they are to wear full winter uniform. Students in the new mix-and-match wardrobe, can wear their preferred items, however – please note that jumpers and cardigans will be removed for the shots. We appreciate that for this year, and next, there will be a mix of uniforms in the class photos.  

Students who have a Physical Education class on the day are asked to bring their PE gear in a separate bag. 

Students are asked to present themselves in line with our College uniform policy. Some key reminders include shoulder length hair being tied back, hair cut neatly, boys to be clean shaven, blue or maroon ribbons only, no make-up, small gold or silver, sleeper/stud single or double piercings…and big smiles!  

 A note on glasses – All students who wear glasses will receive individual portraits with glasses on. Like you, we know that all of our students look perfect just the way they are. However, to enable the photographers to provide the best possible quality shot, your young person may be asked to briefly remove their glasses. 

Due to their current participation in the Farm and Transformation programs, students in 9H and 9M will have their photos taken in Term 3 – Tuesday, July 18. 

What’s Happening at Middle School

Week 4

• Tues 16 May – Intermediate Boys AFL v St Joseph’s College
• Wed 17 May – Year 7 & 8 GISSA Sporting Fixture
• Fri 19 May – Victorian College Basketball Championships – Intermediate Boys and Girls
• Sun 21 May – Senior String Performance at Melbourne String Orchestra Festival

Week 5

• Mon 22 May – Class Photos and Individual Portraits
• Tues 23 May – GISSA Intermediate Boys (Year 9 & 10) AFL Championships
• Tues 23 May – North Geelong Division Cross Country Championships
• Wed 24 May – Rural 3 (9H & 9M Boys) Program Concludes
• Wed 24 May – Year 7 & 8 GISSA Sporting Fixtures
• Thurs 25 May – Rural 4 ( 9H & 9M Girls) Program commences
• Sun 28 May – Tues 30 May – Year 9 GEOS Camp (Group 1 & 2)

Medieval Day

On Friday May 5, the History staff at Christian College Geelong, Middle School were lucky enough to source a time-travelling machine and we decided to go on a trip to Medieval Europe. And what a glorious excursion it was with great excitement being shared amongst both the staff and students.

The day started with the very learned and experienced tour-guide Leon O’Neill taking us on an epic historical journey through time. He brilliantly and beautifully delivered a presentation on what life was like during the Middle-Ages, and succinctly outlined the different social roles and what to expect in everyday life.

From here our students got a real-life taster of Medieval life from the team at History-Up-Close, their historical know-how was truly remarkable and one day with them, being immersed in Medieval activities is certainly the equivalent of many theoretical sessions in the classroom.

Discovering the Joys of Cooking

This term, the Year 6 students are participating in The Secret Ingredient weekly cooking classes that teaches them how to prepare delicious and nutritious family meals. They are learning about different cuisines and dishes and developing their skills and confidence in the kitchen. They are also gaining an understanding of the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE) and how to make smart food choices for their wellbeing. By the end of the unit, they will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of the health benefits of the five food groups and recognise that discretionary foods contain sugar, fat, and salt.

Students will keep exploring the delights of cooking for the rest of the term, making dishes such as risottos, yeast dough, pasta dishes, and tray bakes.

Robbie Noggler Presentation

This week at Middle School Highton on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning, Leading Senior Constable Robbie Noggler came and spoke to our Year 7, 8 and 9 students in the Chapel about cyber safety and what is safe and what is not. Robbie helped students gain a better understanding about how to be safe and respectful online. Robbie talked about how there will always be bad people out there, but if students continue to follow the rules, they should all be safe. He also spoke about the digital footprint and how things said online can impact others.

What a powerful and honest message he shared with our students and staff. Here are some powerful testimonies of the impact his message had and what students gained from this valuable experience.

こんにちは Middle School Families

It is with great pleasure that I introduce you all to the newest addition to our LOTE faculty, Mr Itsuki Kozaki. Itsuki Sensei is a former graduate of our sister school in Wakayama Prefecture, Naga Senior High School, and is with us as part of our exchange program that promotes graduates from both schools gaining teaching (and living) experience in the other country.

Currently enrolled at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, Itsuki Sensei is taking a break from his course to spend time in Australia, living and working as a language assistant. Christian College and Naga Senior High School signed a sister school agreement over 30 years ago and since then, many hundreds of students have been involved in visiting the other school.

The Christian College Japanese and Indonesian departments have extensive exchange programs, and your teachers would love to answer any questions you might have about them. The global pandemic halted exchange for several years but we are so excited to be back in operation again in 2023.

Itsuki Sensei has very quickly become part of the Middle School Japanese team helping both staff and students with their Japanese lessons. Even getting in some push ups! Itsuki Sensei will be with us for the rest of the year, and we look forward to getting to know him. If you see him around, please say G’day!

Chapel: Exploring Grace

This week in Chapel, the year 8s and 9s explored the value of Grace.

As one of the 5 Christian College Values, Grace is identified as:

The secret to real joy and gladness of heart. In the face of greed and envy, Grace allows our students to treat others with compassion, as they aim for a higher purpose – God’s purpose.

We further explored what the biblical understanding of Grace actually is, and how we may understand It in the context of our school. We spoke about Grace as undeserved favor, and unmerited kindness. The reason our College values identify this as the opposite of envy and greed, is that Grace does not seek gain or reward from its presence. In fact, often there is sacrifice attached to acting with true Grace.

We learnt about the story of Dirk Willems, a Dutch Anabaptist who was imprisoned for his faith in the 1500s. Dirk managed to escape his imprisonment and fled into the wintery countryside. Whilst being chased, one of his pursuers fell through thin ice, falling into the freezing water beneath.

Goal-Orientated Lunch Club Kicks Off

Last Thursday saw the inaugural session of The Year 5 and 6 Indoor Soccer, aka Futsal, club.

A group of keen and enthusiastic students came together at the SAC to learn a bit more about the high-paced and highly skillful indoor game that is futsal. Futsal gives players twice as many touches of the ball compared to the equivalent outdoor, big pitch version. It is perhaps no surprise then, that star players around the world, like Sam Kerr, Messi and Mbappe, all credit playing futsal as being a key ingredient that allowed them to master learning the round-ball game.

With most of our CCG Middle School futsal stars of the future being new to the sport, it was a fantastic opportunity to try out a new team sport, whilst starting to learn the tactics and rules. We had a lot of fun, largely thanks to Mr Richardson helping us set up, and to Thomas O’Halloran (Y7 student and community volunteer) who kindly helped officiate and score for us.

Looking ahead, Years 7 and 8 futsal opportunities will be offered in Term 4.

For now, Year 5 and 6 students will keep shooting for the stars at Thursday Futsal Club. New members are always very welcome and might even get a chance to try and beat the teachers’ team before too long!?

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.

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.

East Timor Poster

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.

• Parent Overview Video: Qustodio New Timeline Feature

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:

1. 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.
2. To promote the direct involvement of the students in the processes of science and its communication.
3. 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.