When we introduced this topic with students at our commencement service, I mentioned that the key goal of Christian College is to have our young people flourish. I said that when each of us flourishes, the community flourishes, and when the community flourishes, each of us flourish. It’s the same sentiment that Coach Carter was expressing – we’re in this together, we’re a team. Our goal at Christian College is to help each young person in our care flourish, and one of the significant ways we aim to achieve this is by supporting our community to flourish. Healthy relationships underpin strong communities, and as our College Captain Sophie Potter so eloquently shared with staff and students on our first day back – ‘healthy relationships are those that make us feel safe and bring out our best.’ Our staff have been sharing about Healthy Relationships in our morning devotions, and it has been a powerful and provocative way to begin our day. Messages on encouraging words; supportive and uplifting peers; assertive communication that puts the bests interests of all parties at the centre; and the importance of communing with God, have helped our staff to keep focused on why we come to work each day – to build a school community that helps our students to flourish.  

Similarly, our House Group topics for this term have been leading our students to think about healthy relationships. The first few weeks have centred on healthy relationships in the online world. We understand that it is just as important for our young people to practice healthy relationships in this space as it is for them to practice healthy relationships in what we would call ‘the real world’. For them, cyber space is just as much ‘the real world’ as the physical world, and those online relationships are just as real and just as significant – they have just as much power to cause them to flourish or flounder. We will, of course, be supporting our students to think about cultivating healthy relationships in ‘offline spaces’ as well; both in and out of school, as well as a focus on the importance of seeking help and how to be a supportive friend, in connection with RUOK? Day during September. We are keenly aware of the role that the past two years has had in shaping the way our young people relate to each other. Their face-to-face interactions with their peers and adults outside their close circle were often inconsistent and clouded with uncertainty. We are only six months into the regularity of being a part of a school community again and both learning and relearning what it means to be a ‘team’ and support one another to flourish. Our young people are doing a terrific job of navigating this often tricky but very rewarding landscape and, as always, we consider it a privilege to be partnering with families in supporting your child to flourish in this area. 

Some parents may have received an email when your child has been given several opportunities to address a uniform issue, seeking your support at home also. We believe that we have now given the right amount of time to allow students to transition back to wearing their uniform appropriately and well. We know from some of the events mentioned previously that are students are capable, and, for the most part, those who are not yet wearing their uniform according to our uniform policy are now choosing not to meet our community standards. From Week 4, teachers will no longer be providing students with a ‘warning’ for being out of uniform but will instead ask students to attend lunchtime detention. Students have been given notice regarding this process over the beginning of this term and should be prepared. We anticipate that this will only affect a small number of students. And we know that giving up their lunch time is an effective way to encourage students to address these small matters and align themselves with our community expectations once again. We wish for our students to always aim to be their best and have high expectations of themselves, and we believe that they are more than capable; this extends to the way they wear their uniform.  

As in all things, we are also here to support students in striving for excellence. With this in mind, if there is any reason why your child may not be able to present to school in the appropriate uniform, please get in touch with your child’s House Mentor, or contact the student office so that we are aware and can offer help as necessary. We thank you in advance for your understanding and support in this matter. 

Over this time, in the broader community and in our own College community, we have seen a range of factors influencing young people’s wellbeing and learning, including their digital wellbeing. We know that there is a relationship between young people’s attitudes and habits towards technology and their wellbeing and learning, and that this relationship can be either helpful or harmful. We’re committed to supporting our students with their wellbeing. We view helping them develop positive attitudes and habits towards technology as an important facet of “the learning that matters”. 

We wish to work and partner with you, as parents of our students, in this digital wellbeing space. 

Many parents will have noted in previous Vine articles this year, references to our new Cyber Safe Schools Program in partnership with Linewize by Family Zone. We’re excited to invite all parents to join us in attending an evening to explore this new program and how we can partner together. 

Parents are encouraged to save the date and attend one of the two evenings listed below, whichever is most convenient, to join a gathering of College leaders, parents and families. We will share specific details of our Cyber Safe Schools Program, including how it operates at school to support students’ wellbeing and learning, and how parents can partner with us in the home as part of this program. 

Following our formal parent launch of the program on this evening, all parents will receive an invitation to activate a complimentary Insights parent account from Family Zone. 

• Thursday, September 1st at 7.00pm (Week 8) – R. W. Gibson Music Centre, Senior School 
• Thursday September 8th at 7.00pm (Week 9) – Auditorium, Bellarine Campus 

These two evenings will be identical and are expected to be completed within 45 minutes, with a light supper afterward. All parents are encouraged to attend, and more information will follow in the coming weeks. 

Congratulations to Head Chefs, Bella Maclean (Burrows), Kaitlyn Esler (Flynn), Madison Pfender (Taylor) and Lauren Crawford (Penman) for their amazing leadership in the kitchen. The kitchen atmosphere was hectic but in control as the head chefs did an amazing job to pull every rotation into line and on track so that every team completed their meals on time. 

We tasted a lovely variety of meals including; baked stuffed chicken fillets wrapped in streaky bacon, lamb with green pea hummus and white beans, carbonara, homemade gnocchi, oreo parfait, chocolate mud cake with raspberry coulis, apple crumble and chocolate mousse with fresh cream and raspberries. Seriously all delicious!  

Our special Year 4 visitors from the Surf Coast Campus also joined in on the judging, harvesting from the garden, smoothie tasting and cooking experiences provided. It was fantastic to see the excitement on their faces as they mingled with the big kids in our community. 

Well done senior students who participated in this event, the team behind the scenes making this happen and for the many that joined us and made it such a joyful community event. Huge shout out to our fabulous Food Studies teacher Mrs Emma Workman for her vision and hard work in pulling all of this together and for the tireless support of Karen Smits in our kitchen. What a team! 

And the overall winner of House Cooking 2022 was PENMAN! 

The students have worked consistently throughout the year and the practice has clearly paid off – the ensemble was awarded a ‘Gold Medal’ in their section! This is a truly outstanding achievement for these students, and they should be extremely proud of themselves! 

This superb result has created a great sense of anticipation as the group prepares to attend the annual Senior Music Camp over this weekend, culminating with an intimate performance at the charming Convent Gallery in Daylesford at 1.00pm this Sunday afternoon. 

YEAR 11 STUDENTS 

• National Youth Science Forum 
• Biomedical Research Summer Camp 
• Spring into Monash: Indigenous Camp 2022 
• Take CTRL: IT Bootcamp 

YEAR 10 STUDENTS 

• Spring into Monash: Indigenous Camp 2022 
• Take CTRL: IT Bootcamp 
• Defying the Drift Agricultural Program 
• Science Experience 

ALL STUDENTS 

• Focus on open days – download the open day calendar 
• Studying medicine at Monash University 
• Studying business at university 
• Why are post school qualifications so important? 
• Cyber security 
• Student exchange programs 
• The built environment – download course guides for occupations such as architecture and urban planning 
• Interesting career articles 
• News from RMIT University 
• Emerging careers in agriculture 
• The Heywire writing competition 
• Upcoming career events 

The deadline for both competitions is 5pm Monday 15th August. 

We are offering three age categories for the competition. 

Junior – Years 5 and 6.                                               

Inter – Years 7 - 9 

Open – Years 10 - 12       

The selected winning entry in each category will win a science themed book with winner's names and entries to be posted in the Vine newsletter.  

Detailed guidelines and entry forms are attached and can also be obtained from your science teacher, or by sending an email to science@ccg.vic.edu.au 

Good luck to all entrants, we look forward to reading and viewing your submissions! 

CCG Creative writing entry form

CCG Creative writing guidelines

CCG Photography entry form

CCG Photography guidelines

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.