The Vine Newsletter

Mrs Felicity Grima - Principal

Last week we were able to gather, with parents in attendance, to recognise the 2022 Primary School leadership team.

Their investiture marks a significant milestone, both in their learning journey at Penrith Anglican College and their personal development. Their investiture as student leaders is a testament to the College community's confidence in their leadership capability. 

Philippians 2 encourages us to live in a way that imitates Christ in the way we interact with each other with humility and compassion. This is at the heart of our College. We are all called to serve Christ and serve other people. We are encouraged to do nothing out of selfishness and self-promotion but to look to the interests of others first before ourselves.

Imagine our College in the next 12 months if everyone acted in a way that put others first? A College focussed on serving Christ and others. This is the College God calls us to be and, like Paul is saying in Philippians, it would make my joy complete. It would make me one very happy Principal if we could keep that as our focus and goal.

I encourage you to use the College values as your guide.

1. Compassion - seeking to love and serve others in our community and beyond.

2. Integrity - being honest, trustworthy, respectful and consistent in our actions.

3. Courage - confidence, the strength of character and resilience despite the circumstances you are facing.

4. Perseverance - making the most of every opportunity with determination and persistence.

5.  Humility - valuing others ahead of ourselves and showing gratitude and forgiveness to others.

Together, these values help us, as a College, to work towards our College motto: ‘To Serve Christ’.

I pray you will make the College values part of your life this year and that they will guide your thoughts and actions. 

Mrs Felicity Grima

Principal

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

Please pray for: 
The Year 12 Dusty Boots Service Trip leaving on 7 April for a week of serving the people of Wellington and Mumbil.
Those members of the College community experiencing times of stress and hardship.
Safety on the roads and in homes with all the wet weather.

Praise God for:
 The resilience of our community.
Jesus’ death and resurrection which we remember at Easter.
The opportunities our students have had recently to be involved in swimming, public speaking,
musical groups and so on. It is wonderful that these can all happen again!

Miss Adele Crane - Director of Student Wellbeing

When I was growing up and attending school, I was thankful for my uniform on some levels, particularly as I didn’t need much time or thought each morning due to knowing what I was going to wear. My brother went to a different school where he didn’t have a uniform, so each day he had to decide what to wear. Being a person who does not function well in the early morning, I was glad I did not have that same daily decision.

Reflecting on our student uniforms today, we know that it helps to promote equality amongst our students with no competition or differences between the clothing that is worn. It also helps to build unity amongst our student body and strengthens a sense of belonging for all. Many of our staff choose to wear clothing options too that proudly display our College’s logo. A sense of belonging can lead to a growth in self-confidence as students feel part of a team and build on that positive outlook. Reading also shows that when creativity is not used in expression of clothing, it can be channelled into other things such as student work and thinking in class activities and co-curricular involvement.

As discussed above there are numerous benefits to wearing a uniform. At Penrith Anglican College, we want our students to represent our College well and wear their uniform with pride. The way a uniform is worn can communicate much. If you consider the way uniforms are worn for employees of fast-food outlets that many of our students work at, it communicates a care for the food being prepared, a high level of hygiene and it builds confidence in the product being sold. We want our students to understand that the way they wear their uniform is important and communicates much about a student’s attitude and value of themselves and the place they represent.

This week Secondary students have been reminded of some ways in which they can take greater care to meet the expectations we have of the way they wear their uniform. I have included them below so that you can encourage your child(ren) to focus on these areas and meet our expectations in this area.

All students:

-          Don’t wear your hat inside
-          You can wear your blazer and or jumper with your College summer uniform, not your sports jacket.

 Boys:

-          Always tuck your shirt in (exception during recess and lunch when being active)

-          Hair needs to:

o   Be clean and kept neat and tidy, well-groomed at all times.
o   Not touch the collar or completely cover the eyebrows or ears. It cannot be tied back.
o   Not have any patterns, lines or under-cuts.
o   Be your natural hair colour.
o   Be no shorter than a number 2 length cut.
o   Not have excessive hair product.

Girls:

-     Jewellery that is allowed:

o   One set of pierced earrings (one in each earlobe only). These may be either small sleepers or simple studs (no larger than 6mm diameter). Note that clear, silicon-type earrings cannot be worn in other piercings.
o   No rings or bracelets, necklaces on display or facial piercings of any kind.

 -       Hair must:

o   Be conventional and neat hairstyles.
o   Be completely pulled back if longer than shoulder length (not partially up).
o   Only be accessorised with plain red, black or white accessories.
o   Be your natural colour.

Miss Adele Crane
Director of Student Wellbeing

Year 10 students are working towards a Certificate I in Active Volunteering. Today they were learning about workplace health and safety concerns including doing an safety audit in areas they may elect to do some volunteer work (our canteen and property areas) and observe and minute a WHS Committee Meeting. Through this unique opportunity students are gaining skills, leadership opportunities and a chance to contribute to our local community.

Everyone Belongs
Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity. It is a week to celebrate Australian multiculturalism which is one of our greatest strengths. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. In our community, we are eager to work in harmony, to respect and complement each other and appreciate the diversity amongst us.

The wonderful thing is that God values and loves people from all cultural backgrounds. 

"Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." (Colossians 3:11).

And God encourages us to..."Live in harmony with one another." (Romans 12:16a)

Secondary School created a display for G Block. Using the materials provided, each student made a hand and included things that identify their cultural connections such as countries they immigrated from or their family did, the Aboriginal land that they live on, and students were encouraged to write “Everyone Belongs” (the motto of this week) in whatever language they know.

Dear Families

As we approach the end of the term, I am delighted to share with you some wonderful events that we have celebrated over the past few weeks.

Primary Leaders Investiture
We celebrated our newly appointed Primary Leaders at their investiture on Monday 21 March in front of the whole Primary school and our families. It was a wonderful moment to see our students take their oath as a leader and to hear about the kindness project they have already started and what that will look like throughout the year. It was also a special moment to have our Secondary Captains join us and share some encouraging words about leadership. Thank you to Miss Fowler, Miss Hanna and Ms Horner for assisting with the organisation of the Year 6 Investiture.

Earth Hour
Primary students were very excited to participate in Earth Hour on Friday 25 March which gave them the opportunity to participate in learning without lights, electricity or their devices for an hour. They were challenged to discuss the ways we can help reduce our carbon footprint for the future and to speak about the effects of climate change in our world. Thank you to the teachers who supported this initiative for the students and for continuing the discussions and learning opportunities with our students. Additional information about earth hour can be found by clicking this link.

The Importance of Being Healthy
Each day, we encourage our students to maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating well and moving more. As you are aware, our school participates in and encourages Crunch and Sip every day.

Why Crunch and Sip? Participating in a daily Crunch and Sip break provides an opportunity for children to drink water and eat an extra serve of vegetables or fruit to support good health and to help with learning and concentration in the classroom. Crunch and Sip is also a fantastic opportunity to increase vegetable intake by choosing to pack vegetables more often.

On Thursday 31 March, the entire Primary school participated in the Big Vegie Crunch where everyone crunched on a vegetable at 10am. It was wonderful to see so many students with healthy foods in their lunchboxes and we hope to see more in the future. Thank you for supporting our initiative in encouraging a healthy lifestyle.

Easter Hat Parade-Jesus is the real King
The students have been very busy creating Easter hats for our parade on Wednesday. Students in Pre-K and Kindergarten have been spending special time with their buddies creating the most incredible hats. It has given our students the opportunity to build positive relationships with their buddies and talk about things that are important to them. We are excited to showcase all of their creations on Wednesday. 

On behalf of the Primary School, I would like to thank you for your ongoing support this term, navigating the challenges our community faced with the floods and effects of COVID and I look forward to celebrating the story of Easter in our last week of term.

Warm Regards and God Bless,

Mrs Ljubica Mansell
Deputy Principal (Primary)

Year 6 Buddies has officially begun!

Students in Kindergarten and Year 6 have been enjoying getting to know each other on Tuesday afternoons. The classrooms were filled with conversations and giggles as the students worked together to make Easter hats for the upcoming Easter Hat Parade. Buddies Time is a definite highlight for the biggest and not-so-littlest in Primary!

Awino Zabiba lives in Uganda and is 18 years old. She lives with her parents. Her father occasionally works as a day labourer. There are 3 other children in the family.

At home, Awino’s duties are to carry water from a well to her village, to gather firewood to sell at the market and caring for her three siblings. Awino’s favourite things to do are to play group games, ride a bike, play ball games and go to bible class.

Awino has been sponsored by the current Year 11 since they were in Kindergarten. She is now being sponsored by Ridley.

Awino lives on the plains of Ibuje. There are approximately 25 000 residents. Houses are constructed of dirt floors, mud walls and thatched roofs.

The regional diet consists of maize, beans, fish, cassava, sweet potato, rice, simsim, peas and potatoes. Most adults work as subsistence farmers and earn the equivalent of $12AUD per month!

Awino is almost ready for a promising future as an adult. She is healthy, well nourished and educated because she has been generously sponsored by students at our College. Awino and her family would like to say a MASSIVE thank you for the opportunities, support and love that she has been shown by our students over the past 12 years.

Mrs Sue Munce
Primary Compassion Coordinator

Our school has a subscription to World Book Online!  Login through the student portal or from home via www.worldbookonline.com.

Username: penrithac 
Password:  library 

World Book Online is a safe, trusted, 21st-century learning environment for students. It supports the curriculum with a range of content and features that spans all subjects and grade levels.

Features include:

• Reliable and age-appropriate information for research and assignments
• Search by keyword or subject
• Read aloud
• Translations
• Multimedia including videos, sounds and 360-degree photographs
• EBSCO magazine articles
• Compare Countries
• Interactive maps and atlas
• Citation Builder: MLA, APA and Harvard
• Behind the headlines and current events
• Webquests
• Curriculum aligned Maths and Science games
• Research Skills incl. Planning Research and Evaluating Sources
• Trivia Quizzes
• Over 5,500 online books in a single search
• Primary Source Documents
• World Newspapers
• 650+ Timelines
• Create, edit and share Timelines

Mr Leighton Corr - Deputy Principal (Secondary)

As we get closer to the holidays let me again commend our students for their resilience and character they have shown this term. We have needed to tweak, adjust and change a lot throughout the term but our students have ‘rolled with the punches’.

It is also appropriate for me to acknowledge the ongoing hard work of our teaching staff. In a term where casual staff have been hard to access, classes have needed to be moved around and changed and lessons moved online I want to thank our staff for their hard work. I have the pleasure of seeing each day our staff go above and beyond to ensure our students learning experience is the best it can be.

I also want to take this opportunity to communicate about the upcoming College Musical, taking place towards the end of Term. Even with so many restrictions, our students have been fantastic in their rehearsals and I am looking forward to seeing a high quality show. Earlier this week, I wrote to families inviting them to join us in partnership for this event with a limited number of sponsorship positions available. Please make contact if this might be of interest for you or a business you know.

Finally, as we come to the end of Term 1, I want to note to families that our enrolment demand for 2023 has been incredibly strong. At this stage, we have over 100 students confirmed for Year 7 and positions are now limited. If you have not yet lodged an application for a child in this year group, or knows someone who might be interested, please make contact with Mrs Hazel Salmon, our Registrar, as soon as possible. There are exciting times ahead for PAC.

I trust you all have a wonderful break and have an opportunity to spend time with friends and family over Easter reflecting on the significance of what was achieved on the Cross.

Mr Leighton Corr
Deputy Principal (Secondary)

The College community is warmly invited to attend Easter services at the local parishes.  Please see the flyers below for more details.

The Uniform Shop will be open during the April school holidays on Friday 22 April 2022, from 8am – 4pm.

Appointments are now available and can be made by clicking the link https://penrithanglicancollege.permapleat.com.au/schoolbookings/

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact the Uniform Shop by email and we will respond during store opening hours.

Normal trading hours will recommence on 26 April 2022.

Geared at students in Primary, Nepean Aquatic Centre has Intensive Lessons, Swim Camps, Aqua Fun for Kids on offer – the Swim Camps particularly are a great option for working parents, $100 for 2 days or use your Creative Kids Voucher to cover (for this Camp children must be able to swim). Full information is available at this link and on the flyer attached.

Nepean Rowing is pleased to announce an exciting program that they are launching in partnership with the Western Sydney Academy of Sport. The Rowing Talent Identification Program is targeted at 13-17 year olds who have no prior experience with rowing and who want to pursue high-performance rowing.

Please see attached flyer, or contact Mr Daniel Waddell, Rowing Coordinator, for more information.

National Driver Education is accredited by Transport for NSW as a provider of the Safer Drivers Course for Learner Drivers.

The Safer Drivers Course was developed by Transport for NSW to assist young learner drivers to transition from being a supervised Learner driver to being a safer unsupervised driver when they get their P’s.

Learner Drivers earn 20 BONUS HOURS in their logbook at the completion of the course.

MODULE 1 & 2 ARE CONDUCTED ON THE SAME DAY. Refreshments, Morning Tea and Lunch provided.

Next  Available Course dates:

Blaxland - Wednesday 13 April 2022 (School Holidays)

Windsor - Thursday 14 April 2022 (School Holidays)

Quakers Hill - Thursday 21 April 2022 (School Holidays)

Penrith - Sunday 27 March 2022 and Wednesday 20 April 2022 (School Holidays) 

Please visit www.ndeaustralia.com.au to book a course or call 02 9853 3243.

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.

Please note, the Parents & Friends Association, Penrith Anglican College and their staff will not be liable for any interactions or transactions that occur between any parties connected through this P&F Initiative. The Parents & Friends Association has not vetted the information, products or offerings provided by these businesses. 

We will continue to update this document and post a link to the updated version on the website and the College App.  If you would like your business to participate in the Community Business Directory, please fill out the form via this link. There is no cost involved.

We are excited to be able to support our College families in this way, and hope you find this Directory helpful.