From the Principal
Anglican Schools Corporation Review
Mrs Felicity Grima - Principal
Every five years, the Anglican Schools Corporation (ASC) Board conducts a review of each of its schools. Each Review provides feedback to identify the College’s strengths and identify areas for future planning to ensure that all our Corporation schools are flourishing learning communities.
An important part of the review process is hearing from the school community (parents, students and staff) through a suite of surveys. For each stakeholder group, it is an opportunity to share their experience of the College and have a voice in future planning and direction. Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey. Your feedback is appreciated.
The next stage of the Review will be a three-day visit with a Review Team made up of experienced educational leaders who will meet with staff and observe the College in operation. This visit will take place from Wednesday, 3 April to Friday, 5 April.
Our summary of the findings will be provided to the College community towards the end of Term 2.
Parent Code of Conduct - NESA Registration
Dr Justin Coulson - Tuesday 21 May
Tickets are now on sale for our event with Dr Coulson. He will present his workshop on 'Carrots and Sticks' next term. The session will commence at 6pm, in the Lighthouse Theatre. The seminar is suitable for all ages P-12 and this is an open event so please invite your friends and family to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.
Tickets are $21 (including booking fee) and can be purchased on the College website via Trybooking.
Carrots & Sticks
Better ways to build boundaries with your kids
Punishment and reward are the foundation of discipline for most parents. Parents would prefer not to yell, threaten, use time-out, smack, or generally get the kids in trouble... but what else is there? And when it comes to rewards, they're a pain to administer. All those stickers and gold stars. Plus, why should we have to bribe kids to pick up their mess or be nice to their siblings?
The typical toolkit for parental discipline needs an update. Fortunately, smart science is pointing the way to positive parenting solutions for every parent. Join Dr Justin Coulson for this provocative presentation as he slays several sacred cows of the parenting world.
You'll discover:
- Why punishment is unhelpful in raising thoughtful and considerate kids
- The reasons time-out needs to stay in the naughty corner and never come out again
- The challenges with praise and why it can hurt children's development and growth
- The most powerful parenting strategies to help guide your children successfully
Prayer and Praise
From the Director of Students
This week in Chapel, I had the opportunity to speak to students and share a story of a time when I was in an unfamiliar environment, away from help and pretty scared. It wasn’t a major life trauma, just a very challenging evening involving geckos, crabs and darkness, but at the time it was a hard thing.
Life is hard. There are definitely delightful moments and moments of deep joy, but life is hard. When life is hard, we can experience big and challenging emotions. As a parent, I know when my children face such times it is really difficult. I want to save them from these emotions, to make them feel happy again and to return to normal programming in our lives. Sometimes this simply isn’t possible, and sometimes I do my best work by choosing to step back and allow my children to deal with hard things and to sit in the uncomfortable emotions for a while.
Many of our students at school face hard things too. Whether it’s family situations, chronic illness, learning disabilities, mental health challenges or other things that can make life challenging, many of our students experience difficulties in participating in normal school activities and experience big and uncomfortable emotions like anxiety, uncertainty and sadness regularly. Sometimes a chat and a cry and heading back to class is what’s needed, other times higher levels of interventions might be helpful. But we strongly recommend that student be allowed to journey through hard things with the appropriate support rather than being removed from them.
One way of journeying through hard things is to become reactive. To lash out, to express your emotions unhelpfully. Part of growing up and becoming a functional adult is to develop the ability to become responsive rather reactive. This does not mean ignoring emotions or pushing them to the side, but rather learning to sit with them but not be triggered by them. Going for a walk or a run, having a shower or a bath, getting a good sleep, journalling, deep breathing, talking to a trusted friend or family member, praying and turning to God and being self compassionate are all helpful ways of dealing with big and difficult emotions. I personally find that expensive ice cream helps as well!
All of these activities help our brain to accept reality and understand the reasons behind our emotions rather than reading any kind of discomfort as a reason to set our alarm systems off, triggering our fight, flight or freeze response. Wanting to quit in the middle of adversity is normal and reasonable, but pushing through with the right support, accepting the uncomfortable emotions and persevering results in a great deal of growth in self-efficacy – the belief that we have the ability to do what is needed to attain our goals and manage situations.
At PAC, we work to support and resource our students as they do hard things, because we are interested in crafting young men and women of good character who are resilient and resourceful and leave us ready to contribute positively to the world beyond the confines of the College.
Mrs Fiona Wright
Director of Students 10-12
Mrs Fiona Wright Director of Students 10-12
From the Deputy Principal (Primary)
Mrs Melinda Richardson - Deputy Principal (Primary)
We love reading!
Research clearly shows that developing a love for reading is one of the best gifts we can give our children. Students who are avid readers usually demonstrate greater skills in the area of Writing, as the familiarity of quality literature permeates their ideas and enables them to identify when things aren't quite right. There are many infographics doing the rounds on social media that demonstrate the power of reading. This not only is in regards to students being able to independently read, but also the beauty of being read to, and seeing the connection between the skills of reading and real-life.
At PAC, we also love to promote a love for and of reading. Our library staff dedicate themselves to ensuring a wide range of quality literature is available for our students, and presented in engaging ways in our library spaces. Additionally, they actively organise events that also aim to hook students into reading.
Author Visit - Sami Bayley
We are looking forward to meeting Sami Bayley next Wednesday 20 March, as she as she shares her love of all things weird and wonderful with our students from PreK to Year 6. Sami will be speaking, drawing and sharing her love of the natural world with all of our Primary students. Students have the opportunity to purchase books that Sami will sign during the day, please speak with a member of our administrative team if you have not received this information.
Premiers Reading Challenge
The Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely. The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is open to all NSW students in Kindergarten to Year 10. The Challenge runs from Monday 26 February through to Friday 23 August.
Please speak with a member of our Library team for further information.
SAVE THE DATE - Book Parade
Wednesday 22 May (T2, W4) will see our Primary School come alive with characters from a range of books! Further information will be provided closer to the date.
P - 6 2025 Information Evening
It was wonderful to meet with a range of prospective families last night, exploring enrolment at our College. I would like to extend my thanks to those of you who promote our College as a wonderful learning environment. Through the interview process, a number of prospective families comment that it is through word of mouth, that they are interested. Thank you for your amazing support of us, this is very encouraging.
If you have any children seeking enrolment at the College for 2025, can I please encourage you to start the application process, if you are yet to do so. We have a lot of interest already in our Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten for 2025.
Celebrating our students
From time to time we hear of wonderful achievements of our students outside normal school hours. We love to celebrate with you and your family, so please be encouraged to let your child's teacher know.
This week, we celebrate the Public Speaking achievements of Jayesh (Year One). Jayesh has recently been involved in two separate events, where he raised awareness for kindness and sustainability. Both of these events were attended by local members of parliament, and at each event, Jayesh was acknowledged for his efforts, and awarded certificates, a medal and a trophy. Congratulations Jayesh!
Upcoming Events
- Easter Hat Parade (Tuesday 26 March), commencing at 9am on the Oval. A fundraiser bake sale will be available for adults to purchase morning tea, as well as a coffee cart. Please bring a chair!
- Years 3 - 6 Cross Country (Tuesday 26 March), commencing at 11am on the Oval.
- Easter Chapel (Thursday 28 March), commencing at 12pm in the Gym - families are welcome to attend! Students are permitted to leave at the conclusion of this event (approx. 1pm), with supervision provided for remaining students.
Mrs Melinda Richardson
Deputy Principal (Primary)
CRU FIT
On the 8th of March, 18 students from Years 5 and 6 attended the CRU FIT (Followers In Training) leadership event at William Carey Christian School. The students learnt about the Bible through team games, videos, talks and memory verse challenges from the CRU Schools Ministry Team. Following on from this Christian leadership training, the students will be assisting the teachers in running activities at BIG Senior our lunchtime group that runs on Wednesday for Years 3-6 students in the Recital Room.
Compassion Sponsorship Program at the College
Felix, who is also called Thata, lives with his mother and father in the Philippines and he is 14 years old.
He is one of 6 children. His father occasionally works as a day labourer and his mother looks after their very humble home. Due to a very low income, his family struggles to survive.
Felix likes swimming, volleyball, and handball. His jobs include carrying water, gathering firewood, and caring for his siblings.
We began sponsoring Felix when the current Year 7 was in Pre K. He is now sponsored by Ridley.
A story of hope from Cinthia, a 17-year-old young lady from Honduras:
“I never thought that my days of begging on the street and tugging on people’s clothes asking for food or money would come to an end.
I marvelled when I started attending the Compassion Centre because I was given warm meals and hugs, school supplies and shoes, gifts, and a Christian life I never thought I would encounter. I’m grateful for what I have been given. I could have grown up without the right to an education, and instead, it was granted to me.
The cycle of poverty ends with me, and my generation will be different. I have found not only my calling for serving the youth, but also my passion for dancing as I joined the dance ministry. There is no other place I would rather be than at church.”
An inspirational teen story from Compassion International
How special for us to be invested in the life of Felix and our other sponsor children. They too will have the chance to reach adulthood and break the poverty cycle in their families! Imagine how blessed they must feel to not have to beg for food anymore! To receive the blessing of an education and the hope of a life with meaning, purpose, and direction!
The Brownie Stall was so much fun. There were so many children eager to buy our brownies! Everyone’s brownies were so good and so yummy. People had great ideas of making their brownies look really cool and creative. We also thank Mrs Munce, Mrs Faurie and Mr Bell because if they hadn’t organised it, we wouldn’t have had yummy brownies. When you see those teachers say a big thank you!
By Jenson Pillai and Harry Wang 5W
Library
Look Inside the Library
Scholastic Book Club
The latest edition of Scholastic Book Club has arrived! Check out the catalogue for lots of bargains and great reads, with all purchases supporting the library. It's packed with hundreds of books from just $3 to help on your child's reading journey.
If you’re new to book club check out the guide at this link.
Premier’s Reading Challenge 2024
Welcome to this year’s Challenge! As always, we will be encouraging students from Kindergarten to Year 9 to take part in this reading program which runs until Friday 21 August 2024.
We have provided Year 3-6 students with login details and K-2 students will have their details sent home very soon.
For more information about the Challenge go to the official website.
Secondary School
Latimer House Charity Day
Charity Days are always a lot of fun with food, games and entertainment but all for a good cause. Latimer House raised $3500 for Anglicare's Take Love. A big thank you once again to our College families for their support. We love our College community!
Take Love is a youth initiative of Anglicare Sydney which is all about taking the love of Jesus to the community and inspiring others to do the same. They help equip young people, schools and youth groups with practical ways to get involved in Anglicare’s life-changing work. To find out more, visit their website: https://takelove.org.au/
Young Archies Entries – Art Gallery of NSW
This week two of our talented Year 8 Art Club students completed and submitted their entries for the Young Archies Competition at the Art Gallery of NSW. Congratulations Mariia Imameeva and Anastasija Mansell.
LOTE Excursion
Thursday 14th March, the French Elective classes (yr.9 and Yr.11) attended the French Film Festival at the Palace Moore Park Cinema. Students watched the film Divertimento which was based on the true story of female musicians who took classical music to the suburbs of Paris. They were fortunate enough to hear from renowned conductor Zahia Ziouani, of whom the film is based, as she spoke to the students prior to the commencement of the film.
Afterwards, students enjoyed a typical French meal at the Little Snail French Restaurant in Pyrmont. Year 9 students particularly enjoyed using their recently acquired language to discuss their meals and interact with the waiters. The photos show well the students taking advantage of a wonderful language and cultural opportunity.
Pi Day (Maths)
PAC students celebrated Pi Day around March 14th . Students in Year 7 and 8 participated in Pi-related activities like reciting Pi to 20 digits, created Pi inspired poetry and stories, reading a storybook about Pi, and competing in a trivia relay.
Fantastic
In
Mathematics
(Pi-ku by Hannah Devoy)
Math is fun
So
Practice it now
(Pi-ku by Izaak Casha)
This is a
Pi
Haiku, a Pi-ku
(Pi-ku by Ivy Letertre)
Together
We
Can all do Maths
(Pi-ku by Jonathan Fox)
TEA Texstyle Excursion 2024
I'm thrilled to share that our Year 10 and 11 textiles students recently ventured to the TEA Texstyle Exhibition at Gallery 76, and what an enriching experience it was! They had the chance to dive into an array of major works, exploring the different focus areas with a keen eye on fabric types, decoration, and the craftsmanship behind textile manufacturing. More so, the students were able to study the detailed folios that accompany such projects, gaining insights into the depth of preparation and creativity required.
The trip didn't end there; on our way back, we popped into a fabric store in Parramatta where the students’ selected fabrics for their first assessment task. Inspired by the day's discoveries, they've been buzzing with ideas on how to weave some of these professional techniques and materials into their own projects. I am eagerly anticipating the innovative and creative projects they will produce, and I'm confident that the inspiration drawn from the TEA Texstyle Exhibition will lead to truly spectacular outcomes in our textile’s classes.
