What’s Happening at Middle School
Week 9
- Mon 11 Sept – Wed 13 Sep – Middle Schools Music Camp
- Fri 15 Sept – Talent Quest
- Fri 15 Sept – Rural 6 (9R & 9Y Girls) concludes
- Fri 15 Sept – Last Day of Term – Early dismissal 2.30pm
Term 4, Week 1
- Tues 3 Oct – First Day of Term 4
- Fri 6 Oct – East Timor 20 Years Celebration Evening
Week 2
- Mon 9 Oct – Fri 13 Oct – Offspring Week – Project Care
- Thurs 12 Oct – Annual Music Evening
- Fri 13 Oct – Medieval Day Year 8BGH
Art Into The Future
Exploring combining traditional and digital art
In the vibrant world of art education, our year 6 students are eagerly participating in a captivating unit of work that merges traditional art techniques with digital art wizardry. This unique combination showcases the seamless integration of the old and the new, fostering creativity and technological proficiency among our budding young artists.
These enthusiastic students began their creative journey by exploring classic art forms such as painting, sketching, and collage-making. They delve into the realm of color mixing, texture creation, and composition, honing their skills in traditional techniques. The students then embark on a thrilling adventure into the digital realm. They learnt to skillfully manipulate their traditional artwork to create visually captivating and multi-dimensional masterpieces. This transformation allows them to experiment with various layers, filters, and effects, enhancing the overall aesthetic appeal of their original artworks.
Through this art unit of work, students develop a more comprehensive understanding of diverse artistic techniques and gain proficiency in digital manipulation tools. Additionally, this dynamic and innovative approach encourages critical thinking, problem-solving, and opens doors for future artistic explorations. Ultimately, this unit amalgamates the past and present, seamlessly blending traditional artistry with contemporary digital capabilities, expanding the creative horizons of year 6 students and inspiring them to unleash their boundless artistic potential.
Felicity Van Kan
Humanities Alive at CCG in Term 3
It has been a big and wonderful term for our Humanities Team at both Bellarine and Highton, our student cohort are excelling in some many ways and the academic output has been very impressive. The Year 7-9 Hums teams have jam-packed the term with rich learning activities, incursions and excursions.
Starting with our Year 7 cohort, they have moved on from creating some incredibly sophisticated and detailed Ancient Civilisations in their Minecraft creation, with a wide variety of examples from a number of civilisations including Ancient Australia, Rome, Greece, Egypt and China.
This term the focus in Year 7 Humanities has been on evaluating the liveability of differing Australian cities with a firm focus on Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula. It was wonderful to get out and about with the Highton Year 7 cohort for an incursion to Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, to examine the resources, infrastructure and facilities of our near neighbour.
Half of our Year 8s at Highton and all of our Year 8 Bellarine cohort have been getting their Medieval on by deep diving into the amazing (and gruesome) Middle-Ages. They have explored concepts ranging from the Fall of Rome, the Dark-Ages, the Vikings, the Battle of Hastings, the Crusades, the Black Death and much much more, what a truly exciting period of human history to be studying!
With our Medieval Day fast approaching for both campuses, it is time to start searching for that costume, so as your child can fully immerse themselves in the rich historical activities on offer by History-Up-Close, who I have to say run a truly remarkable history program.
Our Year 9s at Highton are completing their ‘Conflicts’ unit where they have been examining and analysing the great and disastrous conflicts’ of the Twentieth Century including World War 1, World War 2 and The Vietnam War.
Across the Peninsula at Bellarine, they are one unit ahead looking into both national resolutions, with our Indigenous community, and international resolutions, examining the role that the United Nations has achieved in reducing global tensions and conflicts.
Our teaching staff work tirelessly to deliver an outstanding educational program and we are seeing the rewards of their hard work with our student cohort who are producing some very professional pieces of historical work in their portfolios.
A very exciting term it has been with many more wonderful experiences to come in Term 4.
Martin Costello
Global Academic Challenge and Australian Maths Challenge
Enrichment opportunities are a wonderful way students can share their talents and compete against likeminded peers, within the school and externally. We began the year with the Global Academic Challenge (GAC), an academic competition for high achieving students offered through the Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER). All challenge results were compared and reported against national and international standards.
Congratulations to all GAC participants. We are very proud of the way they participated and for the outstanding results they achieved. Across the students who entered, eight were awarded Distinctions; four High Distinctions and one High Distinction with Honours awarded to Declan Pritchard of Year 8 Middle School in Reading.
In Term 3 some students participated in the Australian Maths Competition (AMC). Run by the Australian Maths Trust the competition aims to inspire, extend, and recognise mathematical understanding for primary and secondary students. We congratulate six of the participants for their achievement of Distinction and well done to all our competitors and their effort.
Enrichment opportunities have continued in Term 3 with two outstanding programs Following on from this we had 14 students participate in the Tournament of the Minds (TOM). TOM is a program for primary and secondary aged students who work together to solve authentic, open-ended challenges. Our teams this year were a Year 6 team called ‘The Cornerstones’ who chose a Language Literature challenge and a Year 7 and 8 team called ‘Titanisk’ who chose Social Sciences.
All students should be very proud of their commitment and teamwork, as they gave up class time to meet and collaborate. They worked through frustrations and differences to come together and present as a team to judges and an audience at Deakin University. The judges were impressed by what our teams accomplished and our Year 7 and 8 team were awarded with Honours! Congratulations to all the participants and their outstanding effort in the 2023 Tournament of the Minds.
Kathrine Bowyer
Transformation Impact – Music Therapy Session
“When words fail, music speaks.”
– Hans Christian Anderson, prominent fairy-tale author
Year 9 Transformation student Jack Rivas has been diligently organising a Music Therapy session for some elderly residents at the local Aged Care Home, Mecwacare Elstoft House this week as a part of his project impact for the subject. Jack has been researching the impacts and benefits of music therapy in the treatment of elderly patients suffering from dementia. Jack, along with fellow Year 9 students Aidan Santalucia, William Wray and Felix Rankin performed a thirty-minute concert for a group of residents in our Middle School chapel, showcasing both their amazing musical talents and compassion for the elderly in our local community. The students demonstrated maturity and professionalism in the way they conducted themselves, impressing all present for the afternoon of harmony! During the Transformation process students create an impact to help raise awareness and make a difference for their chosen topic over the term, Jack and Aidan well and truly made an impact on the residents of Elstoft house with some handwritten cards on the residents departure as another sign of their kindness and care for those in our community, truly reflecting the school’s values of love and grace.
Rebecca Barry
Book Week Competition Winners
During Book Week the Middle School library ran activities each day at recess and lunch time. The activities included making bookmarks, blackout poetry, mindfulness coloring and the Book Week online homepage with competitions. Students could also write the title of a book that inspired them on a leaf and contribute to the display on the wall. During Reading for Pleasure sessions, the students had the opportunity to vote for their favourite shortlisted picture book. The tokens in the jar suggest that their favourite picture book was Frank’s Red Hat by Sean E Avery.
Congratulations to all students who participated and entered the Book Week Read Grow Inspire competitions.
The following students were competition winners.
Writing Competition – a 500-word short story on the theme Read Grow Inspire
Sebastian DeMarte
Reading Competition – What inspiring book have you read recently (randomly drawn)
Seyara Mataraarachchi, Illyria McCormack, Archer Bright, Isla McKeag, Finn Bruozis, Sarah Giado, Belle Moore, Keira Stephens, Archer Bright, Sebastian De Marte, Tenzin Lagdup, Elizabeth McClure
Guess the selfie of the Staff Member reading an inspiring book
Equal first – Isla McKeag, Keira Stephens, Elizabeth McClure, Tenzin Lagdup, Lily Costa
Second – Sarrah Millie
Third – Illyria McCormack
Trivia Competition – Book trivia questions
First – Tenzin Lagdup
Second – Belle Moore, Sarah Giado
Third – Isla McKeag
Joy Whiteside
R U OK? Day – ‘Here to Hear’
The mental health of all members of a school community is a critical component to overall wellbeing and therefore it is vital that we encourage open conversations about it. As a national initiative, R U OK? day offers a timely and powerful reminder of the importance of checking in with one another in a meaningful way as a tool to strengthen connections and foster a sense of belonging and understanding.
As we have done so for many years, Christian College will actively participate and engage with R U OK? day – Thursday 14th September (students to wear timetabled uniform on this day). There will be special activities throughout the week, as well as on this day specifically. These will include various College-wide staff versus student’s sports challenges and in our dedicated wellbeing sessions, as well as a range of activities designed to strengthen belonging, empathy and understanding and to build listening skills. Finally, we will also be running a photo or art competition with the theme ‘Here to Hear’. Our aim is to create a canvas of support, encouraging conversations about mental health and this creative vision can help remind us all that we’re here to listen and support one another.
Whilst this day holds immense value in encouraging open conversations about mental health, R U OK? Day is just one part of our broader commitment to fostering a positive and inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and supported.
Kerrie Dapiran, Deputy Head of Campus
Konnichiwa From Japan
Three Year 10 Japanese students, Djinda Moore, Supreet Kaur, and Niko Nakayama, arrived in Japan safely on Wednesday night and began attending Naga Senior High School the following day. This marks the beginning of a new chapter for our long-term exchange program—a four-month stay in Japan, from September 2023 to January 2024. Djinda, Supreet, and Niko are staying with a Japanese host family for an authentic daily experience.
The sports day and cultural festival are coming up on their calendar at Naga Senior High School. When Naga students visited Christian College Geelong earlier this term, the girls had the opportunity to meet and make a good connection with their host students and the Naga High principal. Resuming this wonderful long-term exchange program is great news, and our language assistant program, as well as our preparation for the Japan Study Tour in December 2023, are also back in action.
This year, we celebrated the 31-year friendship between Naga Senior High School in Japan and Christian College Geelong, as well as the 101-year anniversary of Naga Senior High School since its establishment.
The Japan Study Tour, Year 11 students, and staff are looking forward to catching up with Djinda,
Supreet, and Niko in December.
Yuji Nakayama
College Production 2024 – Update
As published in The Vine at the end of Term 3, the College will be staging Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Broadway Version) at the Geelong Arts Centre from May 2 – 4, 2004.
Audition Registration
All students from Years 5 – 11 (in 2023) across the College will receive an email early next week, with information and a link to an online registration form. Auditions will commence across the College on designated days from Sunday October 22. To register for an audition, students must complete the online form on/by Friday October 13.
There will be an information session held at each campus for students to have an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the show. These will be held at:
Highton MS Campus Chapel Monday October 9 12.40
Senior Campus Music Department Tuesday October 10 1.20pm
Bellarine Campus Auditorium Tuesday October 10 at Lunchtime
Surf Coast Campus – Ms Notini will visit the Year 5 classroom next week.
Rehearsal Schedule
All rehearsals will take place at the RW Gibson Centre – Senior Campus with regular weekly rehearsals during Term 1 on Thursdays, 4.00 – 6.30pm and Sundays, 2.30 – 5.00pm. There will also be nominated full days and extended rehearsals, with more detailed information included in the email to be sent to students next week.
To be allocated a part, successful auditionees must be available for the full rehearsal period. We aim to cast approx. 70 students, with over 200 expected to audition. We request families to please consider the implications of their child’s involvement and that a total commitment to the show is required prior to auditioning/accepting a place in the cast. Please do not audition if you are unable to commit to the full rehearsal period.
There will also be opportunities for students to be involved in the production orchestra and a range of backstage tasks. More information about these opportunities will be shared with students as the project progresses.
There will be a large group of staff and visiting tutors working with the students throughout the staging of the production. The initial production staff includes Kelly Clifford – Director, Taylah Broad - Assistant Director, Fiona Gardner - Musical Director, Kate Notini - Vocal Director, Andrew Dunlop, Victoria Kent, Sharon Huber, and Brian Alexander. Students with specific questions are invited to approach the teachers at their campus.
We are looking forward to meeting students from across the campuses at auditions, casting and staging this production for our community.
Fiona Gardner, Musical Director on behalf of the creative team
Christian College Snowsport
In Week 6 of this term Christian College Geelong competed in the Victorian Interschool Snowsport Competition. Twenty-six students, ranging from Year 1 through to Year 12, competed in both snowboarding and skiing competitions. Whilst the snow conditions this year weren’t as good as past competitions, both competitors and families had a fantastic time enjoying the opportunity to spend time together whilst refining their skiing and snowboarding prowess.
If you have not been a part of this competition before and would like to register your interest for the 2024 Victorian Interschool Snowsport Competition, please contact the Senior Campus.
Paul Breguet
The Christian College Sport Hall of Honour
We are proud to announce a new initiative, which will become an important tradition in the life of our College – the Sport Hall of Honour – to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of our past students who have reached national or international status in their chosen sports.
On October 5, we welcome our inaugural inductees to the Sport Hall of Honour – ex-students, Gary Ablett Jr and Tegan Philip. Both are universally recognised as champions at the highest level in their respective sports – AFL football and netball.
You are invited to join us for this gala dinner event at Mt Duneed Estate. On the night, we will also honour a cohort of current students as ‘Rising Eagles’ for their outstanding achievements in their chosen sports, putting them on a pathway to perhaps achieve the type of success required to enter our Sport Hall of Honour in future years.
The night also presents the perfect opportunity to award, for the first time ever, the ‘Gary Ablett Jr’ and ‘Tegan Philip’ medals to the students named as MVP of our Senior Male Football team and Senior Female Netball team from this year’s GISSA Championships.
For more information and to purchase tickets to the October 5 event, please visit our website.
The Hall of Honour will be a permanent display within our school, displaying the names, images and achievements of our extraordinary sports stars. This will not only inspire our current students but also serve as a testament to the values and dedication instilled within them during their time at Christian College.
We encourage our College community to join us in celebrating those who have pursued their gifts and passions to an extraordinary level of success. While one of the criteria for induction to the Sport Hall of Honour is that individuals have retired from their sport professionally or at the very highest level, if you are aware of any past students who have achieved, or are achieving, national or international recognition in sport, please reach out to our Sports Administrator Matthew Murnane m.murnane@ccg.vic.edu.au with any relevant information.
Daryl Riddle OAM, CEO of Christian College
Scholarship Applications are Now Open!
Each year Christian College offers Academic Excellence Scholarships for entry at Year 5, 7 and 10 levels. Applications are now open for this year’s scholarships, which apply to entry in 2025, at three campuses – Middle School-Highton, Bellarine Campus and Surf Coast Campus.
Year 10 entry applies to Senior School-Waurn Ponds only.
To find out more, and to apply, visit our website and look for the homepage hotlink, or click here.
Scholarship applications are open to students who do not currently attend Christian College, as well as those who are currently enrolled here. Scholarship examinations will be held at Christian College on Saturday October 7. Closing date for applications is Thursday, September 28.
Foundation Golf Day 2023
Following the success of last year’s inaugural event, we are delighted to announce the Christian College Foundation Golf Day tournament for 2023.
Save the date: Thursday November 9.
We are seeking prizes for this event – if you own a local business and are interested in creating partnership opportunities with Christian College, please contact Fiona Provan on 0400 477 467, or email f.provan@ccg.vic.edu.au
Uniform Shop Clearance Sale!
