“Providing service and extending charity toward others helps us overcome our own difficulties and makes them seem less challenging.” (Silvia H. Allred) The College has supported a number of charity organisations as a way to raise our students’ awareness of the range of needs of people both in Australia and abroad. In Term 4 we distributed toys and tucker through Anglicare. Our Senior School students have a Compassion sponsor child, Josselyn, from El Salvador. The students have organised a range of fundraising activities to help them raise the money to sponsor Josselyn who lives with her unemployed grandmother. This term, as part of the Oran Park Festival, students have been collecting $1 votes from students to see three of their teachers “kiss a pig”. We have been overwhelmed by the students’ generosity and there is much excitement to see which teachers will have to kiss a pig during our Festival on Saturday, 2 April. Serving others is one of our College values. Students are given many opportunities to serve at the College as we teach them not just to consume resources but to make a difference with their life and to give something back. When we serve we shift our minds from me to we and we start to look at people and situations with an eye for what we can offer them. It also allows us to express gratitude and pay forward our gifts.

Thank you to the staff, students and families who serve our College community, willingly giving their time and talents for others’ benefit. The next few weeks are alive with a number of events which bring our community together, please take the time to read about them in this edition of The Life newsletter. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

Mrs Naomi Wilkins Head of Campus

Issue 4 I 18 March 2016

IT’S A BOY!

Mr and Mrs Blake announced the arrival of their

baby boy on Wednesday.

Welcome to the OPAC Family

Henry Levi Benson Blake

(Mrs Blake is a teacher on maternity leave)

Week 9 Monday, 21 March Senior Cross Country (selected students) Tuesday, 22 March 7/8 Girls Swimming 7/8 Boys AFL Friday, 25 March Public Holiday: Good Friday Week 10 Monday, 28 March Public Holiday: Easter Monday Tuesday, 29 March 7/8 Girls Swimming 7/8 Boys AFL Saturday, 2 April Oran Park Festival

Week 9 Monday, 21 March Y2 Swimming Kindergarten Zumba P-6 Harmony Day Skills Academy (Football and Netball) 3.30 pm - 4.30 pm Wednesday, 23 March 3-6 IPSSO Sport vs BAC Thursday, 24 March K-2 After College Sports (Netball) Open Classroom, Easter Hat Parade and Picnic lunch Friday, 25 March Public Holiday: Good Friday Week 10 Monday, 28 March Public Holiday: Easter Monday Tuesday, 29 March 3-6 OPAC Cross Country (8.50 am - 9.45 am) Wednesday, 30 March 3-6 IPSSO Sport vs St Peters Thursday, 31 March K-2 After College Sports (Netball) Stage 2 Day Camp Saturday, 2 April Oran Park Festival

As I walk around the College each day, I am excited to see so much activity going on in the classrooms and the adjoining break out spaces. Students are engaged in such a variety of activities and are clearly enjoying the tasks in which they are involved. Recent highlights have been the Science activities for Year 1, the making of our scarecrow contributions for the Camden Show, the successful wins for some of our IPSSO teams, the use of our small but growing Library and the excitement surrounding the launch of the Music Tuition and Band program in Year 4 and 5. I’m sure your children have been eager to share these experiences with you – ask them if you haven’t already heard! Harmony Day, 21 March, celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. It is a day for all Australians to embrace cultural diversity and to share what we have in common. The central message for Harmony Day is that ‘everyone belongs’, reinforcing the importance of inclusiveness to all Australians. On Monday, 21 March, our students may come dressed in mufti clothing in the colours of their favourite country and will participate in activities reflecting our national diversity and unity throughout the morning. A gold coin donation will go towards raising funds for Compassion. Our College cross country races (Years 3-6) will be held at College on Tuesday, 29 March, commencing at 9 am. Students in Years 3-6 are to come dressed in their sports uniform that day. The Easter season is approaching quickly and as

we head in to the period of the year when we celebrate Jesus’ death and God’s love for us, Junior School students are looking at the story of Easter in the Bible and remembering God’s plan for mankind through history. They will celebrate their Easter Hat parade next Thursday 24 March. On that day also, classrooms will be open for you to visit and sit with your children for a while to experience a morning of 21st century learning. You are welcome to stay then for the parade, followed by a picnic lunch with your children. We are looking forward to sharing a wonderful morning together. There is still so much to do before we finish the term. Kindergarten will participate in a special ‘50 Days of Kindergarten’ day, Year 6 will travel to the city for an excursion to Parliament House and Prep will hold their ‘Rainbow Day’. Added to that, our Festival coming up on 2 April promises to be an amazing day with many stalls, rides and attractions to draw the crowds! Come along and join in with our College community – the day promises to be awesome! May your Easter break be blessed with safety on the roads and some good times with your family and friends. I would encourage you to visit your

local church to celebrate Easter over the weekend – there are many in the local area from which to choose if you do not have a home church of your own already. Mrs Cathy Grant Junior School Coordinator

Camden Show Year 1 had a fantastic time at the 2016 Camden Show last Friday. We saw many interesting things and lots of animals. We also found out that our scarecrows were very popular and achieved first and third place in the competition. It was a great day and a wonderful opportunity to be part of our community. Mrs Worthington

Dance Group The Years 3-6 dance groups are working really hard for their performance at the Oran Park Festival and can't wait to perform for you. Mrs Worthington

In the classroom with Year 2 Year 2 have had a very settled start to the year. Literacy and Numeracy groups are in full swing and stage number groups have allowed explicit teaching in streamed groups. Students are learning strategies of how to work with numbers by doing lots of hands on games together. Year 2 have been investigating materials found in our world, both man-made and natural. Students have enjoyed conducting experiments to determine the qualities of a variety of materials and discussed the importance of choosing the right material for the right job. We also had a ball creating our scarecrow for the Camden Show. We created ‘Sally the Synchronised Swimmer.’ She enjoys all water sports and loves swimming with her friends. Year 2 love their physical activity time and many smiles have been seen during formal swimming lessons at Atlantis Swimming Centre. We also enjoy PE time where we have been learning important gross motor skills such as balancing and hopping. Dancing is in full swing, with the heel and toe polka, barn dance and the Queensland Backstep being among our favourites. Thank you to the parents from Year 2 who have volunteered their time during our Literacy, Mathematics and swimming group time. There are still some openings for volunteers. Please let Miss Pritchett or Mr Baker know when you are available. Come and join the fun in Year 2!

In the classroom with Mr Hudson Year 5 have been very productive this term. In Science we have been learning about how states of matter change from solids to liquids and then to gases when heat is applied. Students have been both inquisitive and surprised at their experiment results. We have been enjoying learning about the Gold Rush era and how this event in history has shaped Australia as a nation today. Students have also learned why gold is so precious due its properties and its many uses. They have all shown great enthusiasm for learning a new skill in playing an instrument during their Music tuition and Band sessions. Thank you for allowing them to practise their instrument at home. There are some sweet sounds emerging already, so their practise and patience has been worthwhile!

In the classroom with Mrs Lane During Week 6, Thomas Hassall Anglican College’s Intermediate Band came out to perform for the Junior School. Using the break out area as a performance space, students watched in awe as they saw the band play, consisting of members mostly primary school age. Each instrument was introduced to them and a variety of repertoire was played. This was a great inspiration for the Year 4 and 5 students who have just recently been given band instruments to learn for the year. A big thank you to the Intermediate band for this wonderful incursion!

Promoting resilience in students is a not a single event but a continuous process that requires all adults connected with the child to be supportive and empathetic when things don’t go to plan but allowing the child enough room to develop resilience. Self-doubt and lack of confidence hold more children back than any other factor. Real confidence-building is the most important skill that children can develop. Research shows that children with healthy self-esteem and self-confidence learn more, achieve more, have more friends and are generally happier than those with low levels of confidence. Building a child’s confidence is complex and we don’t want to overdo it and create little monsters. We need to tackle children’s lack of confidence on a number of different fronts – that is, what they think, how they feel and what they do. Confident children appear to take more learning risks; they separate themselves from failure or lack

of success and they aren’t dependent on the approval of their parents or teachers. Mr Steve Moynan Senior School Coordinator

Resilience is a 21st Century concept. Some children are just naturally resilient. Their temperament helps them to be mentally and psychologically tough. They bounce straight back up after a setback or disappointment. Rejection in the playground doesn’t faze them. Unfortunately, not every child has such a natural resilience. The good news is that most of the research shows that resilience can be nurtured and developed, particularly when parents themselves are resilient and they actively foster it in their children. Resilient kids share four basic skill sets- independence, problem-solving, optimism and social connection. From a resilience perspective, we need to coach children through some of their more challenging moments and review what they may have learned for next time. Sometimes this means to avoid solving all their problems for them. We can help students promote a lasting sense of resilience by having a positive attitude ourselves, by bouncing back from some of the difficulties we face and by ensuring that we have a ‘we can do it’ attitude for when students meet some of life’s curve balls. As educators we often look for ‘teachable moments’. Many students’ learning opportunities are disguised as problems. We like to make the most of these opportunities so that students can grow and learn from some of the challenges they face.

In the Classroom with Year 7 PDHPE Both Year 7 PDHPE classes have been investigating the health-related components of fitness. These are areas of our health that is important for our lifestyle as they allow us to be active throughout the day. The health-related components of fitness are: cardio-respiratory endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, body composition and flexibility. Each lesson we are examining one of the components through a physical activity, such as Zumba or tug-of-war. In addition to this, we are examining how to create a fitness program for each of these components through the F.I.T.T. principle: Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type. The students have really enjoyed the varied activities within this unit.

In the Classroom with Year 8 PDHPE Year 8 PDHPE has been investigating the skill-related components of fitness – power, coordination, agility, reaction time, speed and balance. Within this unit, we are inquiring about how to maintain lifelong physical activity through different sports that focus on these skill-related components of fitness. Frisbee golf, Bocce, pedometer circuits and tabloid activities are some of the fitness activities that Year 8 has participated in. This is an interesting and challenging unit for all the students. In the Classroom with Year 9 PASS PASS stands for Physical Activity and Sports Studies. Year 9 PASS students are looking at Event Management for the remainder of this term. The students ran the high school Cross Country, with each student given a role, such as starter, course official, recorder or place judge. The students did an exceptional job and I look forward to working with them in the future!

Teasing Vs Bullying By Michael Grose Bullying is a term that’s wrapped in emotion. For many people it’s associated with bad childhood memories. It’s been estimated that around 40% of people have experienced bullying in the past. It’s something that we don’t want to happen to our kids. But I fear it’s being overused at the moment and confused with teasing and rudeness. Rudeness refers thoughtless behaviours and thoughtless words. Kids often do rude things to each other without thinking their actions through. Examples include breaking wind in a child’s direction; joking about the colour of a child’s hair in front of others; failing to share possessions and neglecting to acknowledge someone. Rudeness is usually about selfishness and thoughtlessness. Taken on their own many rude behaviours can be seen as an element of bullying but when looked at in context they are more about thoughtlessness, lack of consideration and poor manners rather than a deliberate attempt to hurt someone. Teasing refers to annoying, hurtful behaviour that is used to get a reaction from someone else. Teasing can be persistent in nature; but not always. It’s generally an attempt to get under a person’s skin. It can involve name-calling; it can be personal and hurtful in nature. It can also infringe on another person’s rights. But generally teasing doesn’t have the key ingredients that make up bullying.

Bullying is the selective, uninvited, repetitive oppression of one person or group by another. It involves three elements – intent to hurt or harm; power imbalance; and repetition over time. It takes many forms and guises including physical aggression; verbal abuse; emotional aggression (or blackmail); intimidation and harassment and exclusion. Why the distinction? Our ability to be discerning about bullying is as important as the action we take when we are sure that our child is on the receiving end of Bullying behaviour. These actions include: dealing with feelings; providing emotional coping skills, getting others involved; building up a child’s support networks; and building self-confidence that can take a battering. Bullying needs to be taken seriously. But we also need to be discerning about bullying behaviours. For more information see Michael’s website, www.parentingideas.com.au Mrs Clare Calderwood College Counsellor

Junior School K-2 Sport K-2 Girls After College Netball has been going really well. It's been great to see our students having so much fun playing Netball games. Kindergarten have also been learning movement skills as part of their Zumba program. 3-6 Sport 3-6 Girls College Sport Netball is also coming to an end and our students have learnt some valuable Netball skills. A big thank you to Netball NSW for their support. We have just played our third IPSSO game and it was a great effort by all of our teams. Congratulations to all students and particularly for Junior Basketball winning their third game in a row. There were some great individual efforts as well with Lachlan Rogan batting through the innings and Cole Jordan taking a wicket. In Oz Tag, Ahrieal Dearle scored a great try.

Our next games are as follows: Wednesday, 23 March 2016 At Broughton Anglican College Juniors 11.55 am Seniors 12.45 pm Wednesday, 30 March 2016 St Peters Anglican Primary School at OPAC Juniors 12.20 pm Seniors 1.10 pm Cricket will be held at Harrington Park Reserve, Harrington Park. All other games are held at College. IPSSO Training Wednesday 8.00 am Oval for Oz Tag and Cricket On the courts for Basketball Mr Chapman P-6 Sport Organiser

Senior School NASSA Swimming On Wednesday, 1 March, Mae Alden (Year 8) and Angus Geoghegan (Year 8) represented Oran Park Anglican College at the NASSA Swimming Carnival. Both students swam well and showed courage and determination. Well done! Angus was selected to represent NASSA at the AICES Swimming Carnival in 50m Freestyle. Good luck for the upcoming meet!

All-Schools Triathlon The individual and team relay All-schools Triathlon took place on 2 and 3 March. Cody Turner (Year 9) represented Oran Park Anglican College in the individual triathlon. He participated well. Unfortunately he was disqualified due to being sick before the start of the race and starting too late. There is always next year! The Team Relay for Triathlon consisted of Angus Geoghegan (Year 8 - Swim), Cody Turner (Year 9 – Bike) and Lachlan Roberts (Year 9 – Run). The team encouraged each other and excellent sportsmanship was evident. Well done and bring on next year!!!

Girls League Tag Gala Day On Friday, 11 March, 9 students in Year 7 and 8 participated in a Girl’s League Tag Gala day. Although we did not win a match, the girls played really well, scoring tries, running hard and tagging vigorously. Well done to the following students who represented Oran Park Anglican College with determination and excellent sportsmanship: Leah Veld (Year 7), Phetmanee Vongpoothorn (Year 7), Ashley Rahme (Year 7), Alaska-Rose Powers (Year 7), Kayla Prendergast (Year 7), Naomi Wyatt (Year 8), Mae Alden (Year 8), Gabriella Russo (Year 8) and Madison Poll (Year 8)

BMX Championship Rory Southwell in Year 7 recently competed at a high level in the Australian BMX Championships between 1-6 March at Bathurst. BMX racing is an exciting sport that involves sprint races of approximately 50 seconds on a purpose-built off-road single-lap race track. The track usually consists of a starting gate for up to eight racers, a groomed, serpentine, dirt race course made of various jumps and rollers and a finish line. He first represented NSW as part of the Dynamites competition, then raced his 20 inch bike against 12 boys but didn't progress past the eights final. The week culminated in Rory making the final on his cruiser bike and placing 6th in the final. He is now ranked 6th in Australia for 11-12 year old cruiser boys and can wear the plate 6A on his cruiser bike until next year's Australian Titles. Rory is a former State BMX champion and is currently trying to make the NSW Dynamites team again. He has made a good start coming 1st in the first round of the NSW State series which was held at Macarthur BMX track in February. The State series runs over 6 rounds throughout the year.

A word from our team:

Hello everyone! We have had a great term so far with weekly themes such as sun safety, sustainability, autumn, and diversity. We have also introduced our children to the Camp Australia Foundation program “Better Buddies”, which is designed to help children settle in to the new school year, form positive relationships with each other, and to prevent bullying. We’ve recently started getting ourselves ready for term 2 and have received some wonderful input from the children, including new activities, resources and themes which they feel particularly enthused about! Camp Australia is offering Holiday Club at Thomas Hassall Anglican College again for the April holidays. The entire team at Camp Australia is incredibly excited about the “Jungle Quest” adventures to be had! The excursions inflatable

world and the movies look fun, as does the silent disco and disco jungle yoga… To book, just head over to www.campaustralia.com.au/holidayfun If you would like to access bus transport from Oran Park Anglican College to Thomas Hassall Anglican College then please advise the College Office separately using the form emailed to parents last week. We’re here to make before and after school care visits the best experience possible – for you and your child. We look forward to seeing you at the Oran Park Festival, where Paige and Sam will be offering face painting. The Camp Australia Team Program Details To find out more about our program, view fees and to register visit www.campaustralia.com.au.