The Vine Newsletter

Mrs Felicity Grima - Principal

Welcome Back to the Campus
I cannot describe how wonderful it was to welcome students and staff back to the College over the past few weeks. Schools are very lonely places without the joy and activity of the students who bring it to life each day. Congratulations to all our students for navigating this difficult season with great resilience and perseverance. We are so proud of you.

At the end of last week, we also had the opportunity to celebrate our College staff with ‘World Teachers and Everyone who Supports Them” Day. Our College student leaders prepared videos of thanks and appreciation to recognise all the work our staff do each day. In a note received by staff, the students said,

‘Thank you for inspiring, caring, listening, guiding and shaping our future. (We) want you to know that you are without a doubt, pretty much the BEST TEACHER of all time.’

If you have not had a chance to see their videos, take a short break and enjoy their productions.

 Pre K and Primary  https://youtu.be/oVqX2L0Ggp0 

Secondary  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx0Oefp1utE 

Our College is Growing!
Interest in the College has been growing and I am pleased to announce that we will have 5 Kindergarten classes in 2022 capped at 20 in each class. We have 3 spaces available. If you know anyone who is looking for an outstanding school for Kindergarten, please feel free to refer them to the College website for further information or contact our Registrar, Mrs Hazel Salmon, by email [email protected] or by calling Reception on 4736 8100.

Online College Tours will be on Tuesday 9 November and Wednesday 24 November.

There are limited positions available in all other year groups.

Name: Daena Madon 

House: Cranmer 

Role on the Leadership Team: College Prefect 

The best thing about being a student at PAC: The best thing about being a student at PAC is the amazing opportunities that are offered to the student body. Students have the liberty to express themselves through the various activities that are run in the school, I enjoy participating in the co-curricular Debating Team and individual Public Speaking.   

One thing you feel you contribute to the Leadership Team: One thing I believe I contribute to the leadership team is my odd sense of humour yet at the same time my willingness to handle serious situations in a calm and composed manner. The Leadership Team is filled with unique personalities which makes it such a great group to be a part of.  

Something you are looking forward to about being a Leader: Something I am looking forward to about being a leader is getting to know the College community better and being a role model younger students can look up to. Being a leader is all about leading by example, I hope to set an example that is exemplary and encourages all students to strive to be the best version of themselves.

A surprising/random fact about you that most people wouldn't know: A surprising fact about me is I enjoy playing chess even though I am terrible at it and don’t win most of the time. When I do win, I always get shocked and take a photo or screenshot to memorialise the moments which are all saved in an album on my desktop. 

Wait for the Lord;

    be strong and take heart

    and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:14 NIV

Please pray for:

Those families in the College community experiencing times of hardship and stress.

Year 12 Class off 2021 who are enjoying their last week at the College before beginning their HSC exams.

Students who are exhausted by the return to routine.

Praise God for:

A wonderful first week back on campus!

Parents who partnered so well with the school during Off Campus Learning.

A large and open campus.

Miss Adele Crane - Director of Student Wellbeing

Readjusting After Off Campus Learning

We all experienced the recent lockdown differently due to our unique circumstances. As we now start to adjust to fewer restrictions and a return to ‘normal’, we may be finding that we are faced with a different set of challenges. Research is identifying that this involves trying to deal with things such as social networks that shrunk during lockdown, financial stress, and the worries of living with ongoing uncertainty.

It can take a lot of effort to cope with uncertainty, manage our own grief, anxiety and / or fatigue as well as supporting our children through these changes. For us to be able to look after our children well, we need to look after ourselves as a parent or carer. Some things that you might like to keep in mind over the next couple of months include:

• Adjust your expectations of yourself and others.
• Take each day step by step. Some changes will be progressive, and our adjustment might need to be similar.
• Focus and act on what you can control. This is a great approach to always remember, not just coming out of lockdown.
• Make plans you are comfortable with and recognise that others may have different levels that they are comfortable with compared to you.
• Remember that shared experiences of stress can bring communities together and we can be thankful for such responses.
• Rebuild your relationships where needed, organising to spend some time together, in order to reconnect.
• Reflect on your experience – take some time to think about whether you want to keep some new habits and change some priorities based on what you have learnt and experienced.

Some of our children may be struggling with recent adjustments and with processing all that has happened. Children may not recognise the impact that lockdown has had on them. It would be not unusual for them to feel tired, to have difficulty concentrating and to be easily distracted. Every family will be navigating different changes but many of the strategies to best support children are largely the same. Some ways we can help our children adapt to changes include:

Providing consistent, loving support

• Having open, age-appropriate communication (which involves listening to what children are saying and even at times ‘not saying’)
• Modelling positive coping
• Helping children identify their feelings and find ways to manage overwhelming ones
• Helping children stay connected to a network of supportive friends and family

Having a routine is a helpful way to help children recover and adjust, so the normal school day is naturally assisting students in more ways than just structuring their time. We are so pleased to have students back on campus, working with them to set realistic goals, guiding them to reflect on what they have learnt and achieved, and helping them to recognise that life may still be different in some ways and that it will take time to adjust. We all need to be reminded to be kind to ourselves and each other. We want our students to learn well, and for their learning not to just involve ‘facts and figures’ but also a growing understanding of themselves and those around them as they continue to build resilience in the light of new and varied challenges.

Miss Adele Crane
Director of Student Wellbeing

Our one and only Compassion competition for this term is being held during Week 7!

Every day during Week 7, students will be able to place gold coins in their grade-labelled transparent containers.

• K-2 containers will be in the area in which they play before school each morning.
• Years 3-6 containers will be on the stage in the assembly area.

Each day students will be able to watch their coin levels rise in their containers.

No Compassion donations were able to be given in Term 3 for our sponsor children and this is our only competition this term.

Let’s make it count!

Carlos Andres Morillo Oliver

Carlos is 16 years old and lives in the Dominican Republic with his mother and siblings. His brother has a job as a labourer and his mother is a poorly paid teacher. There are 3 children in the family.

Carlos likes to play ball games, ride a bike, play baseball, play group games, go to church and bible class.

Carlos’ jobs at home are to carry water, cleaning and doing odd jobs.

Carlos had been sponsored by the current Year 12 from the time they were in Year 4 but is now cared for by Ridley. Carlos replaced their original sponsor child Jose Carillo when his family situation changed and they no longer needed assistance. Praise God!

Mrs Sue Munce
Compassion Child Co-ordinator

Welcome back to our library! We are so happy to see students back with us.

We would be even happier if our books came back to the College as well! There are lots and lots of books which are due back from Term 2 and we hope to welcome them home to our library very soon.

Please help us by having a good look at home and returning any books you find as soon as you can.

Mr Leighton Corr - Deputy Principal (Secondary)

What a joy it was to see students back on campus this week. It was a wonderful reminder of something that we have not been able to experience for some time, but is crucial to Penrith Anglican College and that is community. Students very quickly found people to talk to and while we are maintaining social distance and following all guidelines provided to us about mixing of cohorts it was still great to see our students back together.

At our Assembly this week we were challenged by the new College Captains, Hannah and Ben about finding the positives out of our lockdown experience. They both reflected on the benefit of thinking positively about our time away from school and what they had been able to achieve during this time. This reminder on having a positive mindset was a very useful message for our students to hear as they returned to the campus.

October 29 is internationally recognised as World Teachers Day and was well celebrated here at the College. Our students left video messages and wrote letters to our teaching staff who have done a fantastic job this year coping with Off Campus Learning and all the added uncertainty of when events are on, postponed or cancelled. Teachers are not in this job for the recognition and the thanks, but it is certainly deserving in 2021, so a huge thank you to all the staff at PAC for their service!

We are looking forward to things continuing to having students here on site and adjusting to school in the coming weeks. It was a great week to work at Penrith Anglican College.

Mr Leighton Corr
Deputy Principal (Secondary)

Year 7 has been working on their Blackout Poetry, selecting words that catch their interest from another text making sure they make sense and then designing a new poem. A black marker is then used to colour over the words that aren't needed.

Mr Andrew Cox
English Teacher

Year 10 Photography students continued to create some amazing images during Off Campus Learning. For this task students looked at examples of photographers who create a series of images to tell a story. Their theme was ‘Lockdown’. Some series were hopeful and saw the beauty in a slower pace of daily life while others represented the more personal struggles many were experiencing during this time.

Well done Year 10 on this amazing work.

Mrs Katie Dunn

2021 has been a rather unpredictable year with many disruptions to our students, especially to Year 12.  As we farewell the Year 12 cohort, it was wonderful for Staff and Year 12 students to be able to enjoy breakfast together on Thursday 28 October. 

The day was also their chance to show the College community what they want to be when they grow up: engineer, pilot, doctor, nurse, teacher, before continuing the tradition of "beeping out" of the College after lunch.  Much fun and frivolity was had on the super slide the next day.

Year 12 will spend next week on stuvac.  We wish the Year 12 students the very best as they prepare for the upcoming HSC exams and ask the College community to keep them in your prayers.

TOYS ‘n’ TUCKER 2021

The College is proudly continuing its long involvement in Anglicare’s Toys’n’Tucker Appeal and we would love your help!

Anglicare has need of both NEW Christmas gifts for children up to teenagers and small items of food, especially Christmas items.

Suggestions for Gifts include:

Sporting equipment, games, books, toiletries especially for teenage boys and GIFT CARDS. Please do not wrap the gifts, parents are given wrapping paper to do this.

Food items need to be small packets not bulk packs as they are too large to fit into the gift boxes.

Christmas items such as puddings, long-life custard, nuts, nibbles, crackers, juice, sweets and canned hams are especially welcome.

Staples such as pasta,rice,  tea, coffee and jams are needed as are rolls of gift wrap and sticky tape.

Where:         

Pre K to Year 6 – please give to your Core Class teacher.

Years 7 – 12 – please give to your Mentor Group teacher.

Last day for donations is Monday 29 November.                            

Students who need a School Opal card or travel pass for 2022 can apply now. A new application will need to be submitted if they are applying for a school travel pass for the first time, or if they are requesting an additional travel entitlement as a result of a new shared parental responsibility situation.

Please see the attached letter from Transport NSW for more details.

The latest version of our Community Business Directory is now available for download.

The Community Business Directory acts as a link for business and families to support each other.  This initiative has been created by the Parents & Friends Association for businesses of Penrith Anglican College families rather than a general advertising site to assist our College Community during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Each business in the Directory has a direct link with a College family.