Surf Coast Term 1 Week 9

From the Executive Principal

Yesterday I had the privilege of spending the day with a group of our Year 8 students as part of their GEOS camp. We undertook a 10km hike in the beautiful Great Otway National Park around Lorne together. It was such a wonderful opportunity to see the students grow and learn in a different setting. I loved seeing the growth in perseverance as they were pushing themselves to not give up; I loved seeing the growth in resilience as they were dealing with obstacles; I loved seeing the growth in independence as they were dealing with the responsibility of cooking their own meals for four days; I loved seeing the growth in teamworking skills as they were helping each other across rivers; and I loved students overcoming fears and anxieties to embrace discomfort and adventure.

Ironically, over lunchtime yesterday, as we were all taking a well-earned break on our hike, I had a phone call from a journalist who wanted to interview me about the value of camps to students, since many schools nationally are cutting camps because of funding concerns. I think that our commitment at Christian College to outdoor learning experiences for all of our students is wonderful antidote to societal concerns around reduced resilience in younger generations. I also want to acknowledge our amazing staff who are always willing to go the extra mile to make these wonderful learning opportunities a reality for our students.

In this edition of the Vine, you will also hear about how our staff continue to develop themselves professional to bring greater learning benefit to our students. It is truly exciting to see ourselves as a learning organisation where adults and children continuously learn and grow together.

In the Middle School-Highton and Bellarine Vine editions, there’s a report on the wonderful opportunity for our Year 9 leaders to attend the Youth Leadership Academy Australia Conference in Melbourne this week.

This week there have been three Sport Carnivals, Senior School Athletics at Landy Field on Monday, Bellarine’s Athletics Carnival on Tuesday and Junior School’s Cross-Country Carnival today. You can read the reports in each of the relevant campus Vine editions.

Finally, the Christian College Foundation is putting on a Night of Cabaret – June 13. Save the date and find out more in the article below.

I wish all our students and families an enjoyable and restful weekend, and please enjoy reading this week's edition of The Vine!

From the Vice Principal  

The Value of Professional Learning: Investing in our Staff, Investing in our Students 

At Christian College, we are committed to lifelong learning—not just for our students, but also for our dedicated staff. Already this year, many of our teachers have engaged in a broad range of professional development opportunities – some outside work hours – enhancing their skills, refining their teaching practices, and strengthening their ability to improve student outcomes. 

Research highlights the significant impact of teacher professional development on student learning. Analysis by education researcher, John Hattie, shows that when teachers continue to learn and improve their skills, it has a strong positive impact on student success. In fact, its effect is well above the benchmark considered to make a real difference in the classroom. By prioritising continuous learning, we ensure our teachers remain at the forefront of effective teaching.  

Examples of professional learning undertaken by our teachers and leaders so far this year include:  

Expanding Knowledge and Teaching Practices 

Many of our staff have actively engaged in professional learning to deepen their understanding of curriculum developments, innovative teaching strategies, and best practices in their subject areas. For instance, on a Saturday in mid-March, a dedicated group of teachers from three of our campuses attended researchED, a leading education conference in Ballarat focused on equipping educators with the latest evidence-based classroom practices. Equally exciting has been seeing our staff share their expertise with colleagues, such as delivering a session on harnessing digital technologies to enhance numeracy skills in the primary years. 

What’s Happening at Surf Coast?

This an up to date list of planned activities at Surf Coast Campus that you can use for planning purposes.  Please be aware that these dates are set early in the term and occasionally items may need to be cancelled or dates/times altered.  This itinerary is altered each week to reflect any changes – please check this list of events EVERY WEEK carefully when you read the weekly VINE newsletter.

TERM 1 2025

WEEK 10

Monday 31 March                   Prep Alphabet Day – Incursion

Monday 31 March                  SSV Geelong North Division Female AFL Championships – Selected Year 5 – Year 6 students

Tuesday 1 April                       House Athletics – Refer to RISE UP email

Wednesday 2 April                 Instrumental Music Performance Night – Strings – Cross Campus – Selected Students

Wednesday 2 April                 GISSA Surfing – EdSmart to come – Selected Year 7 Students only

Thursday 3 April                     GISSA Surfing – Selected Year 7 students

Wednesday 2 April                 Easter Egg Walk – Torquay Township – Year 7 cohort

Friday 4 April                         Easter Bonnet Parade 9am – Prep to Year 4 students only – Parents Welcome

Easter Service Prep – Year 7 – Campus Stadium – Parents Welcome

End of Term 1 – Dismissal at 2.30pm for all students

Silly Sock Day at Surf Coast!

Our Surf Coast Kids stepped out in their silliest socks today to help Our Village (Geelong Mums). Each student was encouraged to come to school in the silliest socks they could find and to bring along a new pair of kids’ socks that will be donated to Geelong Mums, an incredible organisation that helps local Geelong families.

Once again, it was fantastic to see our whole campus get behind supporting others and doing what they could to make life a little easier for people who are doing it a bit tough.

Preps Huff and Puff as They Explore the Story of the Three Little Pigs

Last week our Prep students delved into the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ as their rich text in English. The students eagerly participated in the reading of the text, enthusiastically joining in with the voices of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf.

Throughout the week the Preps answered comprehension questions that encouraged them to think carefully about the story and discussed the story setting, characters and plot.

Prep students used their imagination to create a picture of the three little pigs houses using paper to create the materials for each house—one house of straw, one of sticks, and one of bricks. They added the three pigs and the wolf huffing and puffing to complete their scene. It was wonderful to see the students use their pictures to retell the story of The Three Little Pigs to each other.

Year 1 – Beach Time!

The Year 1 beach excursion was a great morning designed to provide students with the opportunity to learn about their environment while also allowing them to experience nature in a fun and engaging way.

Students split into teams and were tasked with building the most creative sandcastle. This activity encouraged teamwork and allowed students to express their creativity while enjoying the natural surroundings. After this we went and explored the rock pools looking for sea life.

The students showed great enthusiasm, actively participated in activities, and were eager to ask questions. Their behaviour was outstanding, with all students following the rules of the excursion and demonstrating respect for their surroundings.

Year 2 – Bringing Bancoora Beach to Life Through Art

Our Year 2 students have been busy creating stunning artworks inspired by their recent IDL excursion to Bancoora Beach. After exploring the beautiful coastal environment, they used their experiences to sketch, paint, and fine-line their own artistic interpretations of the landscape. The students carefully observed the colours of the sand and sea, the movement of the waves, and the unique coastal vegetation to bring their artworks to life. Their creativity and attention to detail have resulted in some truly impressive pieces that capture the essence of Breamlea.

As part of their learning, students have continued to delve into the fascinating story of William Buckley. Our students have been captivated by his incredible journey and reflected on how he might have seen the Breamlea coastline all those years ago.

Through this combined study of history and art, the students have deepened their understanding of the past while expressing their creativity. Their final pieces will be proudly displayed in our classrooms, allowing the students’ artistic talents and historical insights to be truly appreciated. We are so proud of their efforts and can’t wait for you to see their beautiful depictions of Bancoora Beach!

Mapping Adventures in Maths

This week, our Year 3 mathematicians took their learning outside as part of our Position unit. Equipped with grid paper and curious minds, students headed into the playground to put their mapping skills to the test.

They practised using grid locations to accurately plot key landmarks such as classrooms, playground equipment, and the down-ball courts. Drawing from a “bird’s eye view” perspective, students worked carefully to represent the space with accuracy.

As part of this unit, students are also learning to use position language such as left, right, above, below, near, and between to describe the location of objects on their maps. These activities are helping build a strong understanding of coordinates, scale, direction, and location; which are all key concepts of Maths.

It was a great way to apply their learning in a hands-on way, and we were really impressed with their focus and hard work. Well done, Year 3!

Harmony Day and Australian History

In the past week we had a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Harmony Day with our preps. We enjoyed a special lunch together. We also wore orange wristbands to symbolise the day and explored the meaning of Harmony Day and its importance.

In our Australian history lessons, we delved into what life was like for new settlers in the colony. We continued working on our historical narratives, bringing the past to life through our stories from a first-person perspective. The students have enjoyed learning Australian History through stories written from young children’s perspectives in the book Waves.

Year 7 Sporting Opportunities @ Surf Coast

In Year 7 we have a fantastic range of sporting opportunities available to us. We can participate in weekly Health and Physical Education classes, the Interschool Sports elective, GISSA championships, and our House Swimming, Athletics, and Cross-Country events. There are many seriously sporty students who are keen to take their skills and endurance to the next level, whilst other students enjoy the social aspects these sporting activities provide. It’s been exciting, as the first Year 7 cohort at Surf Coast Campus, to explore the incredible sporting experiences presented to us.

Mrs Emma Workman, our fabulous HPE teacher, has been incredibly busy this year organising and coordinating an abundance of sporting events and activities for us. We have already competed at our Swimming Carnival, held at Kardinia Aquatic Centre, where Flynn swam their way to victory. We are looking forward to our Athletics Carnival at Middle School, Highton, next week, and soon enough we will be preparing for our Cross Country Carnival. Mrs Workman says, “I love to see the Year 7s having a go, whether they’re jumping in the pool or doing high jump on athletics.”

Japanese at Surf Coast Campus

We have had a great Term 1 in Japanese. The children are learning a wide variety of new vocabulary, cultural understandings and how to interact on a personal level in Japanese. I often get asked how to teach a new language to children when they are just starting their formal learning of English. There are many answers to this question but one of the important tools in learning a new language in early childhood is through a visual medium, drawing and pictures.

The children will often learn new Japanese words such as different fruits. As a way of allowing the children’s working memory to process this new information and then lock it away in their long-term memory, we allow them many ways of experiencing the new word. They hear it from their teachers, they practise saying it, they see it appear as a word on the board, and they see it connected to a picture. This is called dual coding, where information is presented in both a visual and a spoken format simultaneously. This gives the children two pathways to access and then store the information.

We also learn to draw the object. We use directed drawing as a way of improving their skills to accurately draw an object and to increase their ability to focus and pay attention to details. It is wonderful to see the pride and joy on the faces of the children when they can draw a dog that has all the details needed to look like a dog. It can be dispiriting for a child to be asked to something independently that they don’t have the skills yet to do successfully. Directed drawing scaffolds the children enough to give them the skills but also allow them some independence to add extra, personal details like funny eyelashes or a curly tail like their own dog at home.

We hope you enjoy the wonderful work your children bring home and join your child’s language learning journey.

Butterfield House Kindergarten – Silent Auction Fundraiser

Butterfield House are hosting their annual Silent Auction fundraiser for their Kinder families.

This has been our most successful fundraiser over the years, through so many generous and awesome donations from our wonderful community.

Our goal is to raise funds to be able to revamp our outdoor space with new play equipment.

These improvements will allow us to continue providing high-quality programs for the children in our care and future generations.

If any families at the Surf Coast Campus have ‘vouchers’, ‘goods’ or ‘services’ that they would like to donate for our silent auction, we would be so grateful to you.

If you are wishing to donate, can we please have all donations in by April 23 at the latest.

Please contact me at g.henderson@ccg.vic.edu.au if you are wishing to donate or have any questions.

The 2025 Science Talent Search is Here!

This year’s theme, “Decoding the Universe – Exploring the Unknown with Nature’s Hidden Language,” invites students to explore the mysteries of nature, quantum science, and the cosmos. It’s a fantastic opportunity for young scientists to showcase their innovative ideas and discoveries. For more details and to register, visit the Science Talent Search website.

If any students are interested, please come and speak with me next week.

Cross Campus Piano Evening – More Than Just ‘Tickling the Ivories’! 

Last Thursday, on March 20, more than 30 piano students from all five campuses performed at our Term 1 Piano Evening in the RW Gibson Centre. 

This was a very special event with students from Year 2 to Year 12, performing in front of a full house. 

The students entertained the audience with musical selections ranging from “Run Mouse, Run” to Menuets and Bourrées, from amazing arrangements (some of their own) of film music and popular charts, as well as Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart.  

The evening was inspiring for the audience and performers, by giving us wonderful insight into the whole journey of a pianist’s development from beginner to VCE level. It also highlighted the endless music repertoire choices available to piano students through the performance of a vast variety of styles, techniques and approaches. 

A Note About Videos Appearing in The Vine

For the past few years, videos appearing in The Vine newsletter have been streamed from the Vimeo platform. We are now streaming them from the Christian College YouTube account. Please note, while videos that appear in The Vine will carry YouTube branding, they have been added to the CCG YouTube account as 'unlisted' videos, not 'public' videos. This means they can only be viewed with a link, which is how we can make them accessible via The Vine. Unlisted videos are not searchable on YouTube and do not appear in the public-facing Christian College YouTube channel. They also do not carry other recommended viewing thumbnails in the same way that videos listed as 'public' do.

Australian Doctors Orchestra Coming to the RW Gibson Centre 

 On Sunday April 6, Christian College will be hosting the Australian Doctors Orchestra (ADO) at the Gibson Centre, Christian College Senior School. The orchestra will be performing in Geelong for their 2025 regional concert.  This concert will raise funds for local charity. Please see concert and ticket details below and attached. The orchestra would also appreciate any assistance with promoting their concert, so please spread the word! It will feature many local medical professionals, will be playing a work by composer Edward Fairlie (CCG Class of 2000), and featuring soloist Emily Treloar on the clarinet (CCG Class of 2024). 

The ADO is a unique national fellowship of medical professionals who are also classically trained musicians.  Since their first concert in 1993, the orchestra has played a concert every year (except 2021) and in every state, using each occasion to raise funds for charity.  All proceeds from this concert will go towards upgrading Social Connect, a much-loved day program at Gateways Support Services.  To purchase tickets, click this Trybooking link. 

We are  looking forward to welcoming the ADO to our region and the Gibson Centre. 

Final Week for Donations of old Uniform

The start of this year saw the time frame for the wearing of the previous College Uniform come to a close. We are now pleased to see all students wearing the new College wardrobe that was first introduced and offered in 2022.

We want to let you know that the College is accepting any outdated pieces of uniform that you may have at home that remain in good condition. We will seek to donate pieces to East Timor where we can and recycle what we cannot donate for use in the textile trade through local recycling centres. When recycled these uniforms can go on to have new beginnings as new clothing, insulation, rags, stuffing for toys, furniture, cushions and toys, they can even be used to create materials like packaging and signage.

Please deposit your clean outdated uniform pieces to your campus reception for collection. This initiative finishes at the end of term, so next week is the final week to donate.  

I also want to take this opportunity to invite interest from students and parents who would like to serve the College as part of the Uniform Committee. This Committee meets once a term to review the uniform (inclusive of all departments of the College) and the associated approval and consideration of processes, procedures and possibilities. This Committee ideally includes staff, parent and student representatives from each of our College sites including our wonderful Kindergartens (Williams House and Butterfield House), Back Creek Farm and Villa Paloma Arts Centre. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please let me know and I will be in touch as we begin to reorganise this committee for the future. I can be reached at m.kafieris@ccg.vic.edu.au

2025 Young Women in Aerospace and Defence

Young Women in Aerospace and Defence is a free four-day STEM program hosted by RMIT. It is open to girls in Years 7 to 12 and will run three times this year during the school holidays: April 7 – 10; July 7 – 10; and September 29 – October 2.

For more details, including how to apply, please read the brochure below.

Interested in Volunteering at CCG in 2025? 

Christian College appreciates the support provided by all volunteers. Around our campuses there is a range of activities in and out of the classroom where we are greatly assisted by parent/guardian volunteers. Many of the College’s programs would not exist or continue without their support. 

Our College community relies upon the skills that each volunteer can provide. Staff at each campus will communicate the different opportunities open to parent/guardian volunteers, such as excursions, camps and other events. 

To engage with us as a parent/guardian volunteer, you will need a current Working With Children Check (these are valid for five years). To ensure all volunteers are aware of, and agree to, the conditions of working as a volunteer, Christian College requires each volunteer to sign this agreement prior to commencing work. A new completed form is required each school year.  

Click on this link to download a Parent Volunteer Agreement form. Once downloaded, it can be completed electronically, including a digital signature, and then uploaded using the button provided.