From the Principal
Mrs Felicity Grima - Principal
Welcome to Mrs Melinda Richardson
On Monday 28 August our new Deputy Principal (Primary), Mrs Melinda Richardson, will begin at the College. I am looking forward to working closely with Mrs Richardson as part of the Executive team. Please make her feel welcome as she settles in.
I would also like to thank Mr Phil McMurray who has taken on the responsibility of Acting Deputy Principal (Primary) for the past three months, as well as his usual role as Director of Teaching and Learning. I am grateful for his willingness to step in as required.
2025 Pre-K to Year 12 Information Evening
The College will be holding an information evening for prospective parents for 2025 enrolments on Wednesday 6 September 2023, 6.15pm - 7.15pm.
If you would like a tour beforehand, please register separately. https://enrol.penrith.nsw.edu.au/events
National Child Protection Week
National Child Protection Week starts on Sunday 3 September. Throughout the week a series of free webinars will be available. The webinars have been designed to extend the 'where we start matters' conversation through thoughtful discussions with innovative thinkers. NAPCAN Webinars
From the Deputy Principal (Primary)
Mrs Melinda Richardson - Deputy Principal (Primary)
Dear Families
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest greetings. I am very much looking forward to becoming a part of the Penrith Anglican College community.
From as early as Kindergarten, I wanted to be a teacher. I have fond memories of my Year 2 teacher allowing me to help them put stamps on student work when they were marking and can recall the feeling of responsibility and pride in being allowed to do so. I have always enjoyed working alongside children through ministry opportunities, thriving on planning and thinking about creative ways I could make learning fun and purposeful. Completing my degree in Education further cemented that teaching was what I wanted to do.
I am passionate about inspiring children to love learning and to support them in finding their path within this world. It is an honour to join this community, where our foundation for learning is built in Christ. Over the past few weeks, I have been assured by the words of Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. I pray that I can share this assurance with our students. God has a plan for them, and they are valuable and special to Him.
I have come a long way from the little girl who just wanted to tick, sign and stamp work, and I am looking forward to professionally continuing my learning journey with you all.
Mrs Melinda Richardson
Deputy Principal (Primary)
Uniform Change Over - September 2023
Prayer and Praise
Teaching and Learning
To celebrate National Science Week, the Science Department organised a variety of activities.
Sydney Science Trail
On Monday 14 August, Year 9 students participated in the Sydney Science Trail which took place in the Australian Museum and the Royal Botanic Garden. The students visited an expo where various scientific, engineering and conservation groups presented demonstrations and engaged with the students. They also toured the museum, heard stories from working scientists, and toured the Botanic Garden where they watched how fire can open banksia seed pods, and experimented to see if smoke helps acacia seeds germinate.
Science Riddle of the Day
Each day during Science Week, Secondary students were given a Science Riddle of the Day to solve and to earn House points – plus some extra cred for being first to answer. This generated some discussion amongst students throughout the week.
Secondary Visits to Primary classes
This year we had over 50 students from Years 8 to 11 visit classes from Year 1 to Year 5 to give them a fun science experience. Each of the primary classes had visits from two of several teams who presented activities around various topics such as electric circuits, sinking/floating, wind power, straw gliders, balloon rockets and paper stomp rockets. The theme for Science Week was Innovation – powering future industries.
Some children saw how a piece of foil can sink or float depending on how it is formed. They then built boats to try and hold as many marbles as possible.
Children in the electric circuits group were challenged with how to make a light bulb work with a battery and a single wire. From there they tested which items were electrical conductors and which were not, and some figured out how to power buzzers and fans.
The wind power group saw how turning the handle of a generator could get a light to work, then saw how a wind turbine could be used to turn the generator. Some of the children correctly predicted that the faster the wind, the brighter the light was. After this they made some colourful pinwheels.
The groups building balloon rockets and paper stomp rockets first saw demonstrations to help them learn about Newton’s 3rd Law which they could then use to understand their rockets.
On Friday afternoon, secondary Science teachers visited Year 6 classes to challenge them with a Gallipoli Balloon Bursters activity. They had to innovate and collaborate by using everyday items such as string, pins, and dripping water to burst a balloon after a 30 second delay. This was inspired by Lance Corporal William Scurry, who helped troops retreat safely from Gallipoli by using dripping water as a timed weight to set off a rifle.
Sydney Zoo
On Monday 21 August, Year 7 visited Sydney Zoo where they attended Living World Workshops which complemented their recent unit on Living Things and Classification.
I would personally like to thank Mrs Jay, our Science Laboratory Technician, and the Science teachers for their work. I extend a special thanks to our 50+ student volunteers who did a fantastic job of engaging the Primary students. I would also like to thank Mrs Madden for organising our two excursions.
Stephen Matthews
Head of Science
Father's Day Breakfast and Chapel
Year 2 Zoo Excursion
Year 2 was very excited to travel to Sydney Zoo together to build on their understanding in Science and Geography. The students learnt from the Zoo educators what living things needed to survive. They worked in groups to make a shelter for a Blue Tongue Lizard to protect them from predators. Year 2 is looking forward to continuing their learning about animals all around the world.
Miss Meg Anderson
Primary Teacher
National Science Week Visits Year 5 W
Three students from Year 10 came to our classroom for National Science Week. Their names are Rishelle, Elizabeth and Gabi. They showed us how to make Stomp Rockets. They also taught us about Newton’s Third Law. It was so much fun building and launching the rockets. One of my favourite things about it was pushing/banging on the big bottle which then blasted air through a pipe. The air went up our rockets applying pressure to the end of the rocket and shooting it up into the sky. It was so much fun to see all the rockets fly off across the playground. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait for another visit next year.
Chloe Turner
National Science Week was a lot of fun and we made paper rockets that launched into the sky! My favourite part was designing them. The Year 10 students first told us about Newton’s Third Law and showed us how to make our rockets. We created a roll of paper, then added a cone on top and some tails. We started propelling them and learning how to make them go further by using a launcher with a milk carton and some pipes to push air to release our rockets. There was a competition for Best Looking, Furthest and Highest. It was great fun and a wonderful part of 2023 Science Week!
Aaryan Angrish
Library
Book Week 2023
We are celebrating Book Week 2023 in the library as we share the joy of stories with readers throughout the College. Secondary Mentor Groups will participate in our ‘By the Book’ trivia while Primary students have taken a closer look at CBCA shortlisted books during library classes to find out what makes them special.
This year’s winners of the CBCA awards are below and we congratulate authors and illustrators in all categories.
Remember Story Box Library is available to our College community and many of the shortlisted books are accessible at home.
Go to the link on the Library home page https://pac.softlinkhosting.com.au/oliver/home/news and log in to Story Box Library with username penrithac and password Library2020
Primary libraries have come alive with the Read Grow Inspire theme for Book Week and feature green and gold in support of the amazing Matildas in their World Cup performances.
Secondary School
Message from the Deputy Principal (Secondary)
Mr Leighton Corr - Deputy Principal (Secondary)
Each week all students in the Secondary attend Chapel on a Wednesday during Mentor Time. This is a wonderful weekly event where our students come together and build community.
For all of our Chapels we hear from the Bible and have someone deliver a sermon. This term we are looking at a series titled God with us and are looking at how God created us to be in relationships and constantly throughout the Biblical narrative makes an effort to dwell with his people. This week we focussed on God sending Jesus to come to earth and live as a man, in the flesh and to experience everything we experience. This was God’s plan to find a way where He could dwell with humanity forever.
The running of Chapel is shared by our mentor groups who are each responsible for one chapel each year. This gives students a chance to MC, pray, read the Bible and run activities. This week, one of our Cranmer mentor groups ran the service and their activity was a real hit, as you will see some photos of the watermelon eating competition.
At PAC we encourage all students to consider what they believe and how they make sense of the world. We are a Christian school and seek to fulfil our motto of Serving Christ. We have students from many different faith and cultural backgrounds and this diversity is important to us, but Chapel each week does give us a chance to share with all of our students the good news of Jesus coming to save humanity and wanting a relationship with his people.
I hope that our students continue to engage positively in Chapel and Christian Living classes.
If parents or families have any questions about Chapel or our commitment to the Christian faith, I would love to have a conversation with you.
Mr Leighton Corr
Deputy Principal (Secondary)
Year 8 Medieval Day
Year 8 History students enjoyed a hands-on experience of the Medieval period on Friday.
James Adams presented to the cohort regarding Medieval weapons, warfare and punishments. Students had the opportunity to see weapons and armour close up and to view some demonstration of their use. Classes also role played the Battle of Hastings as either the Saxons or Normans, having created some shields for the activity. It was an engaging and enjoyable day.
HICES Mathematics Tournament
HICES Maths was an extremely fun and educational event that challenged me to think further in Maths and face questions that were quite difficult. It showed me there was a wider range of mathematics that required further thinking and knowledge. I had especially enjoyed the Swiss Challenge at the beginning of the day where you had to figure out the pattern and then say the number. You were only given 3-5 seconds to answer until it had cycled through the line back to you, over and over until the first minute was over. It was quite an enjoyable task that stretched my thinking and would take me a while to figure out. But overall, HICES Maths would be something I would definitely participate again.
Out of 18 teams, Team 1 placed 7th and Team 2 placed 9th overall.
Penelope Robson
Year 8 Student
Sports
School Sports Australia 15s Touch Football Championships
Congratulations to Jayden Baumgartner (Year 10), who was selected to referee at the School Sports Australia 15s Touch Football Championships in Darwin. Jayden was appointed to the 15 Girls Semi-Final, and TWO Gold Medal matches – 12 Boys and 15 Boys!
Additionally, Jayden was selected to referee at the National Youth Championships, which are held on the Sunshine Coast (Qld) in the Spring Holidays. This event has both school-based and external association 18s teams playing. As a student, there’s few higher levels that Jayden can reach. This is next level amazing news and the whole PAC community is behind you!
Parents & Friends Committee
Father's Day Stall
Community Notices
Senior Students' Big Gig at The Penrith Show This Weekend
Some of you would know from PAC’s Got Talent and our recent HSC Showcase that some of our Year 12 students are in a band called The Red Frogs.
They will be performing on stage this Sunday at 12 noon as part of the Penrith Show and would love to have some support from College staff, students and families. If you do not have plans on the weekend and are able to head along, the boys would really appreciate it.
Latimer House Charity Day
CRU Rush Day Camp
In 2022 the College partnered with CRU in running the first ever Day Camp here for Primary aged children based on our site. This was a huge success and we will be running this event again in 2023.
The Day Camp will run from 25-29 September, which is our first week of holidays in the upcoming break.
Registrations are now open, so be quick to book a spot!
