Blue Hills College

Dear Parents/Caregivers & Students

Thank you to Mrs Ros Hopkins for organising another great Book Week, the parade and the refreshments afterwards. Thank you also to all our students, teachers and the hard work of the parents to make this a success. It was wonderful to see so many parents, grandparents and friends come and attend the parade. We hope and trust you had the op-portunity to purchase some books as well. Getting our students to read is our ultimate aim.

Where Christian Values Matter 17 May 2019

Calendar NCIS Cross Country 17 May

Casino Church Service 18 May

Year 10 Immunisation 21 May

Pathfinder Camp 25-26 May

PK, K & Yr 2 Dental Check

29 May

NCIS Touch Football 30 May

Bonfire BBQ 1 June

Mufti Day 4 June

Pathfinder Expedition 8-10 June

Queen’s Birthday Long weekend

8-10 June

Athletics Carnival 12 June

Alstonville Church Service

15 June

Year 11/12 Excursions 17-21 June

Questacon 18 June

2

General School News

Project Based Learning (PBL) ANZAC Service & Parade

The parent/teacher interviews were held this week and the report cards were given out to parents at the same time. If you were not able to attend the inter-views, we would like to invite you to come and collect your child’s report card from the front office. All un-claimed report cards will be given to students to take home.

It you missed any of the teachers, please feel free to make an appointment to see a teacher between 3-3.30pm in the afternoons.

During the holidays a number of our students and staff participated in the ANZAC dawn service and the ANZAC parade later in the day. It was a privilege to be part of the activities and we would like to thank all the parents and students who came to participate. It was very much appreciated. Our two primary captains and our second-ary student leaders and captain attended the dawn ser-vice and laid a wreath.

The staff at Blue Hills are excited! They have spent the three pupil free days learning to implement Project Based Learning in their classrooms. This teaching strat-egy looks at teaching more than mere content—it teaches students the skills they are going to need in the 21st century workplace. Skills like cooperation, creativi-ty and grit. Here are some snippets about the training.

Aaron was an incredible presenter and teacher. I am a better teacher for having participated in his PBL work-shop. (Helen Hill, Year 5/6 teacher).

PBL learning is about building a culture of learning. A culture where students learn how to apply knowledge to the real world, and use it to solve problems and an-swer complex questions. Students at Blue Hills College are building skills in self-management, collaboration and critically thinking as these are about utilising PBL to bring greater rigour and understanding in the learn-ing for Blue Hills College students (Daniel Sekulic, Sec-ondary Teacher).

The best thing about PBL was working collaboratively with other staff and learning how to teach children to love learning. (Allison Parkinson, Kindy teacher).

Many of the teachers came back so motivated that they have already started to implement PBL in their classrooms. Others are planning to implement it in the near future. Stay tuned for more on this exciting devel-opment.

Mrs von Bratt

Every year we try to do a church service at each of our four local churches who support our school financially and this coming Saturday we will be attending the Casino Church.

On Saturday, 18 May, the Choir will be performing at the Casino Seventh-day Adventist Church, 140 Centre Street, Casino.

If you are planning to attend, the students need to be there at 10:30am in their full school uniform. We will be singing during the service which commences at 11:00am. We should be finished by noon followed by a luncheon provided at the end of the service.

Please come and join us, it will be very much appreci-ated.

Parent/Teacher Interviews

Casino Church Service

3

General School News

Mother’s Day Program NAPLAN Testing

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Nu-meracy (NAPLAN) assesses literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 partici-pated in the annual NAPLAN tests in reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punc-tuation) and numeracy this past few days. The assess-ment provides parents and schools with an understand-ing of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process - it does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance. NAPLAN also provides schools, education authorities and governments with infor-mation about how education programs are working and whether young Australians are meeting important edu-cational outcomes in literacy and numeracy.

Blue Hills College students completed their NAPLAN test this year for the last time on paper. All schools will change over to online testing next year.

It is that time of the year when we take time to

salute our mothers and grandmothers.

The meaning of being a mother is virtually end-

less. A mother is a protector, disciplinarian and

friend. A mother is a selfless, loving human who

must sacrifice many of their wants and needs for

the wants and needs of their children. A mother

works hard to make sure their child is equipped

with the knowledge, skills and abilities to make it

as a competent human being. Being a mother is

perhaps the hardest, most rewarding job a wom-

an will ever experience.

Last week on Wednesday morning we had a

Mother’s Day program at school and we had

more than 75 visitors who attended. Thank you

to all our mothers, grandmothers and friends

who joined

us for

some short

presenta-

tions by

each class

and some

refresh-

ments

after-

wards.

Thank

you to

our staff

and

helpers

who

made

this a

huge success. We

hope and trust you

all had a wonderful

and blessed Moth-

er’s Day.

Volunteers Needed

We are always looking for volunteers to come and help

us in a variety of ways here at school. There are mainte-

nance issues, reading recovery programs, Choir, sport,

classroom support, admin/library, canteen, gardens,

child support, and many more.

Please consider helping us this year. Thank you!!

4

General News

5

General News

6

Community News

www.bluehills.nsw.edu.au (02) 6625 6000 (02) 6625 2637

reception@bluehills.nsw.edu.au

Contact Us

The Live More Project

At Blue Hills College, we believe in the pow-er of prayer. Please contact us if you would like to share specific prayer re-quests with our staff. We ask you to join us in praying for specific individuals, both stu-dents and staff.

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what hap-pens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” (Phil 4:6-7, MSG)

13 May Malcome Goltz

Lydia Krampe

14 May Ginevra Lazar

Brodie Lockhart

15 May Jack Lynch

Charlie Mattock

16 May Nicholas Newell

Mia Osborne

17 May Jessica Pearce

Isaac Rapmund

Staff Aminta Flanigan

Daniel Sekulic

20 May Mia Puglisi

Sienna Saunders

21 May Charlie Shaw

Mason Squires

22 May Edward Stevens-Kowald

Daniel Benfield

23 May Elke Bulmer

Jack Burns

24 May Grace Buswell

Travis Camaroni

Staff Sky Carden

Dean Doyle

Prayer List

The Live More Project is a fun and innovative series

that improves your mental health and vitality. This

is a short 10 week program that addresses holistic

strategies that help you get more out of life.

Blue Hills College will begin running this program at

the beginning of Term 2, on a Thursday night from

7-8pm.

To reserve a booking or if you have any further

enquiries, please contact:

Katelyn 0410 877 920

or kwaite@bluehills.nsw.edu.au

Allison: 0414 902 299

Cost: single $ 75, Couple $55pp

Please see the video link for more information on

the program.

https://vimeo.com/282445729/

bceafdd3a0fbclid=IwAR2IiYWEZpJ16R3zv2QFGofvP

7rq-4CDzNWIv33R2AQmKhXPY27Z6gGDQLs

Katelyn Waite (School Chaplain)

ACE Community Colleges, 59 Magellan Street, Lismore NSW 2480

Time to let go of that stress. Smile more, do more and get to where you want to go nice and happy. Can we make a suggestion. REDUCING STRESS AND BUILDING RESILIENCE START MON 20 MAY | 9.30AM - 3.00PM 1 SESSION | $90 Trainer: Sally Johnston

From Wednesday 1 May to Tuesday 25 June 2019, you can earn one Wool-worths Earn & Learn Sticker for every $10 spent.

There are three op-tions you can choose when you get stickers:

1.Sticker Sheets will be available at your local Woolworths store for you to complete then return to the College Office.

2. Place any stickers in our labelled Blue Hills College Collection Box (if applicable) outside the store.

3. Hand in any stickers to the front office.

Thank you for your support in this easy way to earn valuable equipment for our College.

ACE Community College

Woolworths Earn & Learn!