What’s Happening at Surf Coast?
Is 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 3 2023
Week 3
Monday 31 July – Camp Wilkin – Year 1
Tuesday 1 August
Tuesday 1 August Band Session at Bellarine (All Day) – Year 5
Tuesday 1 August Discovery Learning – Prep
Thursday 3 August Piano Day – Selected Students
Friday 4 August BLP Clubs – Prep to Year 4
Week 4
Monday 7 August Prep 100 days at school
Tuesday 8 August All College Choir performance evening – Choir Students
Wednesday 9 August Discover Prep Week/session – 09.30am – 11am 2024 and 2025 students
Thursday 10 August Lunchtime Concert – Selected Students
Friday 11 August Maths Day – Selected Year 5 students
Friday 11 August Assembly 2.45pm – 3.30pm – All Students
Week 5
Monday 14 August Science Week – All Week – All Students
Tuesday 15 August Discovery Learning – Prep
Friday 18 August BLP Clubs – Prep to Year 4
Week 6
Monday 21 August Book Week – All Week – All Students
Monday 21 August Gymnastics Begins – Selected Days – More information to come
Monday 21 August Zoo Excursion – Prep, Year 1 and Year 3
Tuesday 22 August Pupil Free Day – All Students
Wednesday 23 August Book Week Parade – 09.30am – All Students
Thursday 24 August District Athletics – All Day – All Students
Friday 25 August District Athletics – Back Up Day
Friday 25 August Science Works Excursion – Year 2 and Year 4
Friday 25 August Assembly – 2.45pm – 3.30pm – All Students
Week 7
Monday 28 August Gymnastics – Selected Days – More information to come
Monday 28 August Subject Information Night – More information to come – Year 5
Tuesday 29 August Discovery Learning – Prep
Thursday 31 August District Basketball – More information to come – Selected Students
Thursday 31 August Fathers Night – More information to come – All Students
Friday 1 September Fathers Day Stall – All Students
Friday 1 September BLP Clubs – Prep to Year 4
Week 8
Monday 4 September Gymnastics – Selected Days – More information to come
Monday 4 September- Middle School Music Camp – More information to come -Selected Students
Tuesday 5 September Division Athletics – More information to come – Selected Students
Wednesday 6 September Science Expo – More information to come – All Students
Thursday 7 September Lunchtime Concert – Selected Students
Thursday 7 September Footy Colours Day – More information to come -All Students
Friday 8 September Assembly 2.45pm – 3.30pm – All Students
Week 9
Monday 11 September Gymnastics – Selected Days – More information to come
Monday 11 – Wednesday 13 September Middle School Music Camp – More information to come – Selected Students
Tuesday 12 September Discovery Learning – Prep Students
Thursday 14 September R U OK? Day
Friday 15 September Last Day of Term 3 – 2.30pm
Tick Tock Clocks
In Maths this week, the Surf Coast Preppies have been learning about the different ways that time can be sequenced, collated, and recorded.
The Preppies enjoyed sequencing the days of the week and discussing the different times of the day, such as morning, lunchtime, afternoon, and nighttime.
Many discussions were had such as, what time do we go to bed? How long does a movie play for? How fast can we all count to 100? The preppies also loved comparing the speed of slow animals compared to fast ones.
Our Preppies were also very interested in the features of an analogue clock and had the opportunity to make one of their own.
Much fun was had this week in our mathematical learning!
Caitlin Maher
Nereda Welsh
Year 1 – Biological Science
What a cracking start to Week 2! As a part of our exploration of biological science and how things live and thrive, we have been watching eggs turn into little chicks! How (c)lucky are we?!
We have been discussing the life cycle and stages of life that these chicks go through before they turn into adult hens or roosters. We’ve been keeping a close eye on them to ensure they are well looked after and cared for. We even got the chance to see one of our beautiful eggs hatch right before our eyes. What a unique moment it was. To keep the chicks happy and ready we’ve spent lots of time reading to them and playing around the pen. We are eager and ready to see what eggcellent things come next!
Nick Hogan
Sarah Minge
Swimming and a New Spelling Program
Our Year 2s have enjoyed swimming these first two weeks. They’ve progressively developed their swimming skills and have loved being in the pool every day.
As well as enjoying swimming lessons, we have started using our new spelling program, PhOrMeS. Each day we practise our sounds, revise spelling patterns, learn new spelling rules, sound out the phonemes and write the graphs, digraphs and trigraphs! It gives our brains a workout, but we’ve made wonderful progress.
In reading, we’ve enjoyed the book, Dirt by Sea, a story of a father and daughter travelling around Australia. We’ve mapped their journey in our books, learning about our beautiful country as we’ve read about the towns and regions around the coast of Australia, all girt by sea.
Sharon Sutton
Surf Coast Campus – Art
The students at Surf Coast have started the Term off with a Unit of Clay Modelling. We have been exploring different ways to shape and size the clay, creating different textures and patters, and learning how to join two or more pieces together. The students have been experimenting with Plasticine before moving onto air dry clay to begin creating their final pieces. We have also had lots of fun exploring the craft of Claymation and looking at the history of pottery and different clay artefacts.
Bea Greenhalgh
Prep – Year 5 Aquatic Program at Highton Campus
Students and staff continued to enjoy all the aquatic experiences and again displayed wonderful organisation, responsibility, resilience and flexibility.
Ongoing group lessons increased students’ confidence and skill levels. Continued instruction produced improved water confidence and stroke techniques, which was very pleasing to observe.
On Wednesday all students took part in the water safety component of our program. Our younger students participated in a chat about pool and water safety, and carried out basic safety and survival skills. Older students worked in small groups and took part in a rotation of safety and rescue drills.
Today, students finished up with their instructor and group lessons, and enjoyed participating in various games and/or fun races in celebration of what has been a wonderful two weeks of aquatic involvement and development.
I would like to thank all our staff, students and parents for embracing this new way of delivering our aquatic program. Students are to be congratulated on their efforts, resilience, and perseverance. It has been a big two weeks, but I am very pleased with what the program delivered and provided for all students.
Special thanks to Jacqui Simon for her involvement in the program. We are lucky to have Jacqui’s coaching knowledge and experience, and our students benefited greatly.
I hope all our students have a restful weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone back on campus for our regular Health and PE lessons next week.
Jo Richardson
Book Week and Great Book Swap Donations
It’s that time of the year again! On Wednesday August 23, we will be holding our annual Book Week celebration, where students are encouraged to dress up as a favourite book character for our school parade. It has been wonderful to hear the many exciting costume ideas and preparations already underway.
Festivities on Book Week Celebration Day will also include a ‘Great Book Swap’ to help raise money for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF). The ILF is a charity that works to promote literacy in remote communities across Australia by providing culturally relevant books and learning resources to children and families.
To help run the ‘Great Book Swap’ stall, we rely on donations of great books in excellent condition. Should you have any books at home that are looking to be loved by someone new, there are donation boxes in each classroom ready to accept them!
We look forward to celebrating Book Week together in Week 6!
Katherine Tatnell Moore
Sport Update
The 2023 All Schools XC Championships were held last Saturday at Bundoora Park in beautiful running conditions. In the wake of some very good performances at the GISSA Championships last term, the following students represented our college at the All Schools, which attracts some of the best runners from across the State.
Thomas Stefanovski (Yr7 Bellarine Campus) and Nate Bradley (Yr7 Highton Campus) competed in the U14 boys’ section where 170+ competitors completed the undulating 3km course. Nate finished in 49th position with a time of 10:57mins, and Thomas finished 85th in 11:35mins. Both boys competed brilliantly against some quality competition, where the winner’s time was 9:39mins.
Lewis Reed (Yr8 Highton Campus) ran solidly in the U15 boys’ age group, finishing 75th in a field of 150+ competitors. His time of 15:29mins for the 4km course was a credit to him, with the winner clocking 12:02mins.
Suzanna Mavromihalis (Yr10) and Shelley Forkgen (Yr11) competed in the U17 and U18 age groups, respectively. Both girls ran very well, attacking the 4km course with some strong running. Suzanna finished in 6th position in a time of 14:30mins, only 40sec behind the winner. Shelley finished in 25th spot in a time of 15:53mins.
Jacob McKie and Aaron Hanson (both Yr12) competed in the U20 age group, which was an 8km course on the day. Jacob and Aaron ran against a quality field of 70+ competitors, where Aaron completed the course in a time of 33:27mins (43rd position) and Jacob finished strongly in 17th spot in a time of 28:06mins (winner’s time was 25:29mins).
On behalf of the college, we congratulate all these students on their performances at this State event. We wish to congratulate Suzanna and Jacob on their selection in the Victorian team that will compete next month at the Australian Cross Country Championships in Canberra. Well done Suzanna and Jacob on this fantastic achievement, and all the very best in Canberra.
Andrew Richardson, Director of Sport
Promoting Parent Tools and Resources for Digital Safety and Wellbeing at Home
At this early point in a new semester, and with several families who are new to the CCG community across our campuses, I’d like to encourage all parents to partner with us in your child’s digital safety and wellbeing by making use of the parent tools and resources available to all of our parents through our Cyber Safe Schools Program.
Base Level ‘Safety Filtering’ on College Laptops and VPNs
Most parents will be aware that we provide a base level of ‘safety cover’ filtering of internet content on all College student devices. This filtering is always active, on any network (home or school). The purpose of this level of filtering is to help protect students from potentially harmful content when they are engaging online – anywhere, anytime.
A change we will be making on school devices from August 14 is that VPN traffic will also be included in this base level of safety filtering. This is an important improvement to ensure that our safety filtering can always function correctly. This will mean that from 14th August, students will not be able to access and use VPNs on their school device.
Qustodio Parent App An important element of our Cyber Safe Schools Program is our commitment to supporting families and parents with managing their children’s digital devices in the home, especially the College laptop. Qustodio is a parental control and monitoring app that we offer our parents as part of our school program. This app provides parents monitoring on personal devices and the school laptop, as well as the ability to pause internet as desired outside of school hours. Use of Qustodio is optional, and parents can learn more information about Qustodio on our Online Safety Hub. The Qustodio parent app is available to all College families, and families with existing students in 2022 were invited to activate their parent account in November of last year. Families that have not yet activated their account and wish to, can do so by using the College’s activate now link and entering the assigned primary email for the family (as detailed in the invitation sent last year). Families with a child who is new to the College this term We are preparing to share some introductory information and an invitation via email next week to register and have access to the Qustodio Parent App. Look out for this email coming soon. Helpful Guide Videos for Parents I’m sure parents will find the two videos linked below very helpful. More Information and Help CCG Online Safety Hub If you’re a parent or guardian seeking advice, information and guidance around any aspect of digital wellbeing, online safety and young people then the parent advice section of our CCG Online Safety Hub is a great place to start. I hope that the above resources and tools are of support to all our families, enabling you to engage with and support your young people in the digital space.
Help for parents to navigate and make use of the information on the "Timeline" report within Qustodio.
This video provides parents (of schools that partner with Linewize) with a practical guide for how they can get help with their Qustodio Parent tools.
Brendan Vanderkley
East Timor Trivia Night
Preparations are underway for our annual Trivia Night which raises much needed funds for the work we do in Viqueque, East Timor.
Money raised this year will help pay for a new roof for Uma Maun Alin – Friendship House – where some amazing staff and volunteers run kindergarten classes for local little ones and English classes for older children and teens.
Part of the night is a Silent Auction and we are asking CCG families for any donations.
Some donations made already, thanks to the hard work of some of our prefects, include: a signed Cats guernsey, personal training sessions, café vouchers, Geelong Lawn tennis memberships, tennis racquet and re-stringing voucher, a vet clinic voucher... and so much more!
If you are in a position to be able to donate something to this incredibly worthwhile cause please contact:
Surfcoast Campus: Claire Deretic
Junior School: Carla Dunlop
Highton Campus: Graham Barton
Bellarine Campus: Samantha Bett
Senior School: Lee Stringer
Graham Barton
Discover Prep Week
During Discover Prep Week, August 7 – 11, three CCG campuses are offering interested parents, families and guardians the opportunity to get a firsthand view of Prep at Junior School-Belmont, Bellarine Campus and Surf Coast Campus. Our Prep programs are unparalleled and we invite anyone interested in enrolling children in Prep in 2024 and beyond, to come and visit, join a class, see our facilities, speak with teachers and campus leaders and have their questions answered. There are multiple opportunities at each of the three campuses to participate.
We would encourage our College community to spread the word about Discover Prep Week to anyone who is considering school choices for their children in 2024 and beyond.
All details, including booking information for sessions, can be found on our Discover Prep Week webpage – hit the hotlink on our homepage or click here to access it.
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 [email protected]
Uniform Shop Clearance Sale!
A MYTERN Thought for This Week
It’s easy to rush through a cup of tea or coffee and forget to stop and appreciate the moment.
Take time out now to simply appreciate being able to breathe in fresh air. Take a long slow breath and feel it rejuvenate every cell.
Make that your intention and watch your body smile from the inside 👍❤️
Discover more about MYTERN here
