Surf Coast Term 2 Week 8

From the Dean of Christian Culture

In the boat

Beside the sea, there lived a cow, a donkey, a sheep, a pig, and a tiny little mouse. One sunny day, they decided to go for a row in the bay. Guess who sank the boat?

Did you ever read this classic picture story book ‘Who Sank the Boat?’ It is a wonderful book by Pamella Allen that you can still find in most primary and public libraries, you can certainly find it on my bookshelf, right next to ‘Mr Magee’. If you haven’t read it this book tells the story of a boat that sinks as each animal piles aboard. Eventually after the big cow and the large donkey, the fluffy sheep and the pig all get in the boat a tiny mouse climbs aboard and...the boat sinks.

We often use this story book to teach measurements, weight, volume displacement etc. We ask questions like ‘Who sank the boat?’, ‘If the mouse got in first, before the cow and the donkey, would the mouse still have sunk the boat?’ ‘What would we need to change about the story to ensure the boat didn’t sink?’. Young readers are quick to understand that it doesn’t really matter what order the animals enter the boat the reality is they can’t all be in the boat together without it sinking. Readers are also quick to suggest that in order not to sink there are two solutions; either the animals need greater capacity in their boat, or the same boat must make multiple trips to carry all the animals.

The story is not so different from our lives. Maybe you’re hitting that close to mid-year point, nearing the end of term and starting to feel the waves are coming up over the edges of your boat. Or that perhaps you’re in a place where it really wouldn’t matter how tiny or light the mouse is, if you add one more thing your boat is going under.

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 2 2024

WEEK 9

Monday 10 June                       Kings Birthday Public Holiday

Wednesday 12 June                  Prep Kings and Queens Day – Prep

Wednesday 12 June                  Year 1 Spring Creek Visit – Year 1

Thursday 13 June                      Year 2 Strings Concert Period 1 – Year 2

Thursday 13 June                      Lunchtime Concert – Music Students

Friday 14 June                           Middle School Talent Quest – Year 5 & 6

WEEK 10

Monday 17 June                       Year 3 Excursion to the Chocolate Factory – Year 3

Friday 21 June                          Assembly – All Welcome

Friday 21 June                          Last day of Term 2 – All

Student Celebration of Learning

Our school recently hosted the Student Celebration of Learning afternoons, a special event where students had the chance to share their learning journeys, discussing the concepts they mastered, challenges they overcame, and skills they developed. The students’ presentations showcased clear growth in their academic and personal development. It was inspiring to see them take charge of their learning and share their goals with such enthusiasm. The afternoons provided a fantastic opportunity to celebrate our students’ successes and set a positive tone for the next semester. We extend our gratitude to everyone who attended and supported these events.

Reminder:  Generative AI Parent Webinar

A reminder to parents and members of our community that we will be offering an online parent webinar, delivered via Microsoft Teams, next Wednesday. It has been wonderful to see such strong parent interest via RSVP responses and questions submitted so far.

There is still time to register for this event. Further details about the event are listed below.

Event: Generative AI and School Parent Webinar
Format: Microsoft Teams online webinar
Date: Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Time: 6.30pm – 7.15pm

Topics likely to be explored in the webinar include:

• What is generative AI?
• What are the benefits, risks, and limitations of these tools?
• What is the College’s response to generative AI?
• What AI tools do students have access to at school?
• What are the College’s rules and guidelines for use of generative AI?
• How can I support my child with navigating this space ethically and safely?

Interested parents are encouraged to register for the event via the form link below, to help with planning. Parents can also indicate what information they feel would be most relevant to them as they complete this form.

Register for the parent webinar

From The Chaplain: Reflections on Rest

What a term we’ve had so far! As we look towards the final two weeks of Term 2, I’d love to share a quick reflection around how we rest and recuperate during times of rest, which I hope will be helpful for you as you enter the holiday break.

Psalm 46:10 encourages us to “be still and know that I am God,” to pause and be reminded of the peaceful presence that God can bring to our lives. I know that, personally, I can find stopping, being still, and resting quite a difficult thing at times, as life is just so…busy!

However, while life is busy, when I can rest and take time just between myself and God, I find the effect it has on me transcends the chaos of day-to-day life, and gives me genuine inner peace, to face what will come. I am intentional about setting aside time to stop, be still, and rest in the knowledge that God is there with me.

I hope that, during this holiday period, there are several opportunities for each of you to rest, whether alone, in intentional time with God, or with family and friends, and that you can feel God’s peace in your life.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Snakes and Measurement

Our Preps delved into the fascinating world of length measurement. Through hands-on activities, they gained a deeper understanding of this fundamental concept. One of the highlights was creating playdough snakes. These squishy, colorful creatures served as excellent tools for exploring length.

First, the students rolled out their playdough into long, wiggly snakes. They used informal units (such as their own fingers or small blocks) to measure the length of their snakes. As they stretched and molded the playdough, they discovered that longer snakes required more playdough, while shorter ones needed less.

In addition to measuring their playdough snakes, our Preps practised comparing the sizes of various objects. They learned the essential vocabulary: “shorter” and “longer.” Armed with this language, they engaged in lively discussions about different items.

For instance, they compared pencils, crayons, and even their own shoes. They confidently declared which objects were shorter and which were longer. The classroom buzzed with excitement as they held up items side by side, making thoughtful observations.

Overall, it was a week filled with hands-on exploration, playful learning, and the joy of discovery. Our Preps are well on their way to becoming measurement experts!

What’s the Time, Mr Wolf?

Year 2s have been learning how to tell the time on both analogue and digital clocks. They have analysed the positioning of the hour hand and the minute hand as they move around the hour and realised the hour hand moves very slowly from one hour to the next. Many can even estimate the time without having a minute hand, by looking at the position of the hour hand!

Year 2s have also identified and compared analogue times to digital times. Many learners are used to reading the time on digital clocks but now have a growing understanding of how to read an analogue clock.

Viscosity!

Year 3 had a fantastic time learning about viscosity! Viscosity is the measure of resistance of a fluid to flow. A fluid that is highly viscous has a high resistance (like having more friction) and flows slower than a low-viscosity fluid.

We had fun exploring whether honey, water, tomato sauce, soy sauce, chocolate milk, oil or dishwashing liquid were highly viscous. We dropped a marble into our liquids and timed how long it took for the marble to fall to the bottom of the beakers. And to our surprise we found out that the tomato sauce was more viscous than honey!

But that wasn’t enough for our budding scientists! We decided to test whether heat would affect our liquid’s viscosity so we talked about how we would heat these liquids and so not to change the liquid’s composition we put our liquids in buckets of hot water.

We heated the liquids and repeated our previous experiment finding that tomato sauce becomes less viscous when heated. This may be the reason that Bunnings sausages sometimes drip sauce all over us!

Fair Go Mate…

During the second half of this term, our Year 4 classes have been thoroughly enjoying an engaging Civics and Citizenship interdisciplinary learning unit called “Fair Go Mate.” Throughout this unit, we have been exploring the distinctions between laws and rules and examining their impacts on people’s lives.

One of the key areas of our study has been understanding the vital roles of local government and how it supports our community. Our young learners have discovered that local government responsibilities are vast and varied. They include animal control and registration, issuing building permits, maintaining foot and bike paths, garbage collection, managing parking, and overseeing public libraries. Additionally, local government takes care of parks and gardens, roads, bridges, street signs, and the sporting facilities we enjoy.

Our investigations have also highlighted the diversity and identity supported by various community groups. Students explored the rich tapestry of religious, social, cultural, sports, and arts groups that contribute to the vibrancy of our community.

Culminating this research, students are now channelling their newfound knowledge into a creative project: designing a community group for a specific demographic. This task involves considering various aspects such as the type of group, the target audience, and the group’s activities, traditions, and symbols. Moreover, they are pondering how local government could support their envisioned community group.

We are eagerly anticipating the unveiling of these projects next week, when students will present their creations to their peers. This hands-on approach not only enriches their understanding of civics and citizenship but also fosters a sense of community involvement and responsibility. Stay tuned for an exciting showcase of our budding civic leaders’ projects!

Paint and Colour at Surf Coast Campus

Paint mixing is one of my all-time favourite things to teach and our foundation students at Surf Coast have been enjoying the lessons.

Not only is painting fun, but this joyous activity exposes our students to maths, science and art all in one go.  It introduces colour theory, cause and effect and new vocabulary.  Very importantly our young students have demonstrated an ability to become decision-makers and problem-solvers through paint mixing.  They were exposed to math concepts like measurement.  They have been thinking creatively, practising trial and error, experiencing success and building confidence.  They have been learning how to use new tools and work responsibly and this list goes further. We took inspiration from looking at the marvellous sunsets and even the recent spectacular Aurora Australis light show. Below are some young artists working. Be sure to look out for more creative pieces as they make their way home.

Flynn Takes Cross-Country Honours!

Last Friday, our whole campus community enjoyed our House Cross-Country Championship. Although the weather conditions weren’t favourable, we managed to conduct all the events to determine House champions for 2024.

Congratulations to the students of Flynn Falcons!

After weeks of training and preparation, the students were keen to run to the best of their ability in the hope of becoming House Champions.

Each year level took off with speed and enthusiasm negotiating the 1 km cross country track through the Bellbrae Recreation Reserve. The efforts of every runner were impressive. The display of resilience, perseverance, and determination by every competitor was amazing to watch. From the littlest Prep to the strongest Year 6 student, from the front runners, to those further back in the field, everyone gave their best efforts on the day.  

A definite highlight of the event was the ‘half time entertainment’ displayed by our teachers. They displayed great speed and agility in the obstacle course race, wearing hilarious inflatable costumes. Congratulations to Burrows House Leaders (Nick Hogan and Caitlin Maher) on taking out first place.

World Environment Day, June 5

The 2024 theme, “Our Land, Our Future. We are #GenerationRestoration,” underscores the significance of land restoration, desertification combat, and drought resilience enhancement.

The experience of brainstorming diverse ways for each campus to acknowledge this crucial day has been truly rewarding. Collaborating with the sustainability action group, led by Sue Strong, has been a delightful journey. It’s heartening to know that the collective actions of our campuses are contributing to a larger positive impact on our precious land.

At Surf Coast Campus, we aligned well with this year’s World Environment Day campaign focus on land restoration by engaging students in the nurturing and caring of young native plants. Our ‘infant’ tuber plants were potted into larger pots filled with nutrient-rich soil.

What a triumph! We successfully planted 180 native and indigenous plants, gearing up for the spring planting season. However, the day was about more than just environmental action. It was a day brimming with joy, laughter, and collaborations across different year levels. Students seized this chance by creatively giving their plants amusing names. Staff members participated in the hands-on activities alongside the students, and the atmosphere was charged with comments like, “This is so heart-warming”, “So tell me more, where are we planting these? I can’t wait to see them grow”, “That was such an amazing activity, so much fun!”

Now that the young plants have been planted in their nutrient-rich soil, they are on their way to growing strong and healthy, ready for ground planting. The school community will nurture these plants until they are ready to be planted around our school grounds as new buildings open. When the new garden beds are prepared, the weather conditions are optimal and the tuber plants are ready, students and their families will be invited to help plant these native plants.

A very big thank you to Geoff Trevaskis, Craig Stack and the amazing staff and students at Surf Coast campus for making this action such a success.

Pulau-Pulau Indonesia

As we approach the end of our first Semester of learning Indonesian, our Year 5 students enthusiastically shared their island posters with their classmates. Students had been working diligently on their posters for a number of weeks, researching the five main islands of Indonesia. Students can now confidently share key points about their island, including famous dishes, animals, places to visit, languages spoken and religions practised. Indonesia is indeed a very diverse group of islands!

This term students have been consolidating their numbers in Indonesian, focusing on 11-20 and have enjoyed learning about Aboriginal first connections with Indonesians.

Our wonderful Year 5s are now starting to prepare for their upcoming oral presentations where the class will be performing a play ‘Tidak ada harimau di Pulau Kalimantan’, There are no tigers on the island of Kalimantan. This performance will be lots of fun as we practice our Indonesian speaking skills and get to make our very own masks to wear for our performance.

String Ensemble Performance Evening

Last night saw the annual String Ensemble Performance Evening take place in the RW Gibson Auditorium. The evening began with a combined performance of Bach's Brandeburg Concert No. 5 from the Highton and Bellarine Middle School String Ensembles. The students have been preparing this piece separately, and it was a wonderful experience to hear it as a combined performance.

Each of the Middle School Groups also presented individual group pieces, "Viking" from the Highton MS Strings and "South Brisbane Tango" from the Bellarine MS Strings. Both of these energetic pieces were executed with great aplomb by our Middle School Students.

The Ceilidh Band from Bellarine then presented some traditional Irish Folk Music for the audience in the form of a set of reel and jigs.

Combined Junior Strings Rehearsal

Today saw the Junior String Ensembles from Surf Coast, Junior School and Bellarine gather together for a fun day of combined music making.  The enthusiastic students were brought together in the Bellarine Auditorium to form a super-sized String Ensemble of over 60 musicians! They rehearsed two pieces before a short break in which the students from the different campuses got to mingle with their fellow string buddies.

We then resumed playing with some individual group performances, before our excited audience of Yr. 1 and 2 Bellarine students arrived to hear the combined string group perform “Jack in the Box”, followed by a rousing rendition of an Irish folk tune “Toss the Feathers” made famous by the Irish pop group The Corrs. This tune also featured the  Bellarine Ceilidh Band in support. The young string students were also graced with an exciting performance of some themes from the movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean” from our VCE String Ensemble, most of whom began learning their instruments in Grade 2!

It was wonderful to see these young musicians perform together so seamlessly and participate so fully. We look forward to presenting a similar concert for families and friends at the Spring into Strings evening scheduled for later in term three.

Thanks to: Rebecca Bertoncello, upper strings teacher and director of the Bellarine Junior String ensemble; the piano accompaniment staff of Stephanie Lawrence and Tammy Treloar, and our Cello teachers Jeanette Carnie and Caitie Martin. Thanks also to Mr Andrew Dunlop who cooked all the sausages for our lunch time sausage sizzle.

Gathering Hope

The Foundation was pleased to host their bi-annual Gathering Hope Appeal Luncheon on Friday, 24 May 2024 at Provenance Wines in Fyansford. With close to 80 guests in attendance, the event successfully raised $19K, which has been doubled, thanks to our current dollar-matching campaign, raising a total of $38K for the Foundation.

The guest speaker was Jossy Chacko, who generously gave up an entire day to support the work of the College and our local community. In addition to speaking at the luncheon, Jossy gave a devotion to our Senior School staff, spent time being scrutinised by the Year 10 Global Ethics class, and supported our local Christian radio station, 96three FM.

Calling all CC Eagles Members and Families

A big thank you to the families that have purchased NBL1 Tickets to date.

An opportunity is still available for you to be a part of CC Eagles Basketball Club/ Geelong United Basketball Fundraiser, with NBL1 Tickets available for the following game through the Club:

Round 10 – Geelong United Supercats v Melbourne Tigers – Saturday 15 June

Tip-off: Women – 5:00pm, Men – 7:00pm The Ticket gets you into both games at The Geelong Arena

All pre-ordered tickets are $12.00 with $6.00 being retained by the club. Please note General Admission tickets are normally $16 per person.

If you are a Christian College family, you can purchase 1- 8 tickets ($12 to $96) through the College Portal:

• Log into Parent Portal – My Details – Payments Tab – Click on the NBL1 Game Day Tickets
• Then click on the drop down to select how many tickets you want to purchase. Amount will automatically fill.

Seeking Christian College Company Members

Christian College Geelong is seeking expressions of interest from any parent or guardian interested in becoming a new Company Member.

Company Members play an important part in the governance structure and protection of the College. A number of positions on the Christian College Board are filled by company members, depending on the skillset required when vacancies arise, and it is the company members who have the responsibility of voting to pass any amendments to the Christian College constitution. Company members may also be eligible to sit on various committees involved in the governance of the College.

Whilst participating as a company member is not overly onerous, it needs to be pointed out that the position is voluntary and not remunerated in any way. Also, please understand an expression of interest does not guarantee automatic membership of the company.

If you have a heart for the College, and feel you would have the time to dedicate and an interest in this role, please contact the Company Secretary, Bernard Nicholls at b.nicholls@ccg.vic.edu.au. All expressions of interest must be submitted by COB Friday, August 2.

Camps, Sports and Excursion Funding

Every Victorian child should have access to the world of learning opportunities that exist beyond the classroom. The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) helps ensure that no student will miss out on the opportunity to join their classmates for important, educational and fun activities. It is part of making Victoria the Education State and Government’s commitment to breaking the link between a student’s background and their outcomes.

CSEF will be provided by the Victorian Government to assist eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities.

If you hold a valid means-tested concession card (HCC) or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible for CSEF. The allowance is paid to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions or sporting activities for the benefit of your child.

The annual CSEF amount per student is:

• $150 for primary school students
• $250 for secondary school students

How to Apply

Application forms are available online through the Parent Portal (Student Information, then Important Forms for Parents) these forms can be downloaded, completed then uploaded according to the instructions. Hard Copy forms are also available from reception at each campus or by emailing enquire@ccg.vic.edu.au

The closing date for applications is June 28.

 For more information about the fund visit www.education.vic.gov.au/csef

National Collection of Data on Students With a Disability

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). With data collected on the first Friday in August (August 5 this year), the NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability.

These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD Guidelines.

Please see the attached NCCD Fact Sheet for more information.

NCCD Parent Fact Sheet

Golf Tournament 

Join the Christian College Foundation for an exciting four-person Ambrose Golf Day, including a $30,000 hole in one prize on Thursday, 24th of October at 13th Beach Golf Links, Barwon Heads.

Set on the stunning Bellarine Peninsula, the day provides an opportunity to enjoy the award-winning creek course, known for its undulating couch fairways, deep bunkers and interesting swales and hollows.

You will be treated to a scrumptious breakfast on arrival and an opportunity to participate in several fun activities including the longest drive, nearest to the pin etc.

There is plenty of prizes up for grabs, including a cash prize of $30,000. Score a Hole in One on the 12th Hole and you can win. *

You will also be treated to a delicious buffet lunch and learn more about the incredible work of the foundation. Every dollar raised will be dollar matched!