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27 March 2015
upcoming
events
ST COLUMBA ANGLICAN SCHOOL · 3 IONA AVENUE PORT MACQUARIE NSW 2444
Monday 30th March
02 6581 4188 · www.scas.nsw.edu.au · www.fb.com/scasinfo
From the Principal
SCAS Sport - A Winning Future. In 2014, St Columba decided to review our
sporting efforts. Our levels of sporting involvement have grown each year.
Our efforts have seen successes after success at both individual and .....
Whole School
When we think of learning a language, our minds wander off to possible
holiday destinations where the native tongue might be French, Italian,
Spanish or perhaps Japanese. Schools have long held the view ....
Primary School
Over 450 grandparents attended our annual Grandparents’ Day this week.
After visiting classrooms and seeing how students are learning in the digital
age, they moved to the Iona Centre for a morning tea and ....
• Year 12 Half Yearly Examinations
• EES Science Field Trip
• Chess Knockout Competition
• Year 2-6 Boys/Girls Basketball
Competition
Tuesday 31st March
• Year 12 Half Yearly Examinations
• U15 Boys Bill Turner Cup Rd 1
Wednesday 1st April
• Stage 1 Easter Hat Parade
• U10 and U12 Rugby Training
• Hockey Training, Koala Street
Hockey Fields
Thursday 2nd April
• Innes House Mufti Day
• Last day of Term 1
SCHOOL HOLIDAY BREAK
Monday 20th April
• First Day back for Term II
Secondary School
Year 11 students travelled to Sydney on Tuesday this week for their Tertiary
Awareness Excursion. This beneficial program includes activities targeted
to different learning areas of the HSC, local university tours.....
Performing Arts
Tuesday 21st April
• Year 9 to 12 Drama to Glasshouse
Excursion
Wednesday 22nd April
• U10 and U12 Rugby Training
• Hockey Training, Koala Street
Hockey Field
A wonderful concert was performed by the Junior Choir on Thursday 19th
March for all family and friends to listen to the hard work that each and
every choir member had put into term 1. We performed songs .....
Thursday 23rd April
• Battle of Bands Meeting
Sport
Friday 24th April
• Whole School ANZAC Ceremony
• Year 7 to 12 Trinity Youth Group
39 students recently represented SCAS at the Hunter Region Independent
Schools (HRIS) Division 1 Swimming Carnival held at Lambton Pool in
Newcastle. Despite a couple of .....
St Columba Anglican School - SCAS Connections Page 1
From the Principal
SCAS Sport - A winning future
Mr Terry Muldoon
Principal
[email protected]
In 2014, St Columba decided to review our sporting efforts.
Our levels of sporting involvement have grown each year.
Our efforts have seen successes after success at both
individual and team sports.
We long ago stopped being “easybeats” and are now
competitive with the very best.
Surely, that is enough?
No way!
SCAS’ strategic imperatives are to strive for Excellence,
Effectiveness and Enterprise in all we do and that, most
assuredly, includes sport.
After wide consultation, planning and a lot of hard work,
our Sport Staff (Primary and Secondary) have created an
Excellence in Sport Program (ESP) that will be refined to
ensure that SCAS not only remains a competitive sporting
school but continues its development towards being an
excellent sporting school.
Aspects that will be included in the Strategy will be:
•Developing a scope and sequence K-12 to ensure
effective development of sport across the whole
school
•Further integrating Health/Fitness/Sport into the
Primary curriculum
•Improving the profile of sport at the school and
ensuring our sportspersons and teams receive the
recognition they deserve
•Identifying and establishing development plans for
focus sports
•Improving the effectiveness of the sports training
offered by the school
•Ensuring excellence through ongoing staff
coaching, accreditation and development
•Developing a system of sports leadership/liaison/
development responsibilities
•Developing an elite athlete program (Horizons)
•Developing partnerships with other sports groups
•Promoting “Life Sport” participation
Watch this space. It will be exciting!
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Whole School
Parent Lounge Tips
Reporting an Absence
There are two places to report an absence on
the Lounge. There is a clickable link on the home
page, underneath the Welcome message, or you
can click on “School Links” tab on the top menu
and choose “Report a Student Absence”. There
is also a form for completion for extended school
absences.
Saving Parent Lounge Calendar Events
Did you know you can save items from the Parent Lounge calendar to your personal calendar? Open the full School Calendar
on the “Calendar” drop down, then click on the item you would like to save to your calendar. At the bottom left of the Event
Details, click on “Save to Calendar”. This will download an “.ics” file which can be imported into your Google or Outlook
Calendar. You can google for more information on .ics files and how to use them.
Flexischools coming soon
From Term 2 the school will be introducing a new online ordering system in the School Canteen called “FlexiSchools”. FlexiSchools is
well established and tested, and operates in hundreds of schools across Australia.
This new system allows parents, students and staff to place food orders from home or work at any time. Payment is also completed
online, so there is no need for paper bags and cash to be sent via your student to school. As well as being convenient for parents,
the online orders are much faster and easier for the Canteen co-ordinator to process - so it makes everyone’s life a little easier.
The online menu is the same price as the normal Canteen menu, however there is a small fee of 25 cents per online order to help
pay for the labels and the website system. Parents and students can, of course, continue to order and pay cash for their canteen
orders as they do now.
More details on the Flexischools systems will be emailed home to parents in the next few weeks. In the meantime, you can get more
information on the Flexischools website, www.flexischools.com.au
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Whole School
ICAS Competitions
Mr Geoff Lancaster
Head of Innovative Learning
[email protected]
Each year the University of NSW offers external assessments across a range of subjects. These ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for
Schools) exams provide students with the opportunity to compare their skills with other students across the country. Further details can be found on
the ICAS website, www.eaa.unsw.edu.au/icas/about
The examinations run by ICAS are:
Digital Technologies (Yrs 3-10) - Tuesday 19 May - $8.80
Science (Yrs 2-12) - Wednesday 3 June - $8.80
Writing (Yrs 3-12) - Monday 15 June - $18.70
Spelling (Yrs 3-7) - Tuesday 16 June - $12.10
English (Yrs 2-12) - Tuesday 28 July - $8.80
Mathematics (Yrs 2-12) - Tuesday 11 August - $8.80
If you would like your son/daughter to participate in the ICAS examinations, please complete the ICAS expression of interest form emailed home to
parents this week. Expressions of interest need to be completed before Friday 3rd April.
If there is insufficient interest in running these exams (less than 5 students), the exams will not run. Parents who indicate that they would like their child
to participate in these examinations will be billed the cost of the examinations via the Parent Lounge prior to the student sitting the exam. Students will
be removed from their regular class to sit the exam in a supervised classroom on the date shown.
If you have any questions about these exams, please contact Mr Geoff Lancaster via email at the above address.
Recycling Initiative
Aneeka Brownsberger
Secondary School Captain
Let’s get recycling!
As many of you may have heard from your children, there has been a new initiative
at St Columba Anglican School requesting as many plastic bags as you own. This
is called the plastic bag initiative! It is aimed at creating an environment at school
where students and parents can bring in any soft plastics to decrease the horrific
levels of plastics within our landfills and oceans.
Once they are brought to school, the plastic bag team collect them, count them, and then take them to the local Coles plastic bag
recycling bins, which then recycle them into outdoor plastic furniture for Australian primary schools and pre-schools.
You may be asking why we do this and why there is such a strong emphasis on recycling plastic bags? Well…in 2007 it was recorded that
3.9 billion plastic bags were used in Australia alone. The estimated use of plastic bags WORLWIDE was 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags
each year. Yet 1 bag takes almost 1000 years to fully degrade in the environment. The impact of this on the environment is detrimental
with an estimated 4.3bn of crude oil used each year to create all these bags, using incredible amounts of an already finite recourse. There
was approximately 100,000 deaths of marine animals due to the plastic bag pollution in the ocean as there are around 46,000 number of
plastic bags found in EVERY square mile of the ocean. Although these bags are very useful, and harmless looking objects, they continue
to cause an incredible amount of environmental impact on the world.
So how can you help? All you need to do is collect any plastic bag or soft plastic material (e.g bread bags, biscuit packaging, confectionary
packaging) and bring it in to school to the Secondary School office. There are four coloured bins, and all you have to do is put the bags
into the coloured bin matching the colour of your house (eg Innes, Farrell, McCabe or Robinson). By doing this you will be saving the
world one bag at a time.
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Whole School
Learning a “different” language
When we think of learning a language, our minds wander off to possible holiday destinations where the native tongue might be French,
Italian, Spanish or perhaps Japanese. Schools have long held the view that learning a second language is beneficial, at St Columba we
are offering an alternative to these traditional languages, today’s student could be learning a programming language such as Java,
Python or Ruby.
Mrs Meridith Ebbs has been teaching Computer Science at SCAS for ten years. Five years ago Mrs Ebbs began teaching coding in the Primary
School and she continues to run a boys and girls KodeKlub each week. Interest in computer programming is at an all time high. Last year
England was the first country in the world to mandate the subject for both primary and secondary students.
“Coding is great”, says Mrs Ebbs, “it teaches logic, problem solving and creative thinking”.
Director of the Innovation Creativity and Excellence Centre, Mr Chris Delaney, also encourages students to take an interest in programming
and computer science, “Rather than just surfing the internet, build a website. Instead of playing computer games, or downloading the
latest mobile app, students should be designing and developing”.
In this era of unprecedented technological change, Australia needs computer science experts to remain competitive in a global economy.
“Since 2001, the number of Australian students who have a university ICT qualification has declined by 30%. For the past 12-18 months
various commentators have been warning of a significant skills shortage in IT related fields,” explains Mr Delaney.
In the coming weeks, SCAS students will be presented with further opportunities to develop their skills and interest in ICT; planning is
underway to launch a Google CS First Club and students from years 4, 6, and 10 are participating in the Bebras Computational Thinking
Challenge.
For students, parents or staff who would like more information (or to start learning to code), Mrs Ebbs maintains an excellent website
with a wealth of educational and fun resources, visit kodeklubbers.weebly.com
Girls Primary School KodeKlub runs on Wednesday at short break 1:40-2:10pm, boys are welcome Thursdays at long break from 11:0011:30am.
To get you thinking like a computer programmer, try this Year 3/4 Binary Logic problem.
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Primary School
Grandparents’ Day
Over 450 grandparents attended our annual Grandparents’ Day this week. After visiting classrooms and seeing how
students are learning in the digital age, they moved to the Iona Centre for a morning tea and concert performed by our
Infants and Primary choirs, and the Performance Club.
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Primary School
National Day Against Bullying
More than 890,000 students from almost 2000 schools took part in the National Day of Action
Against Bullying across the country last week. The SCAS students, staff and community are sending
clear and powerful messages that bullying and violence are not okay at any time. The Primary
School was happy to play a positive part in this important initiative and for joining the nationwide
movement to say, "Bullying. No Way!"
Year 5 Shadow Puppets
Year 5 classes have been studying light in Science. Over the course of Term 1 they have been investigating how light travels, forms shadows, and can be
absorbed, reflected and refracted. To culminate their learning they have come together during Year 5 Superclass and worked in collaborative groups to
construct, create and perform shadow puppet plays. This task has provided students with opportunities to represent what they know about light and
demonstrate their learning from the unit. Students' puppets included examples of opaque, translucent and transparent materials in their construction
and included a simple story line.
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Secondary School
Year 11 Tertiary Awareness Excursion
Mrs Cheryl Dimmock
Year 11 Patron
[email protected]
Year 11 students travelled to Sydney on Tuesday this week for their Tertiary Awareness Excursion. This beneficial program includes
activities targeted to different learning areas of the HSC, local university tours, and reflections on tackling the challenges of tertiary
study provided by SCAS alumni. The students also participate in a team-building geocaching exercise in the city to strengthen the
relationships of the cohort and familiarise students with navigation of new places.
#SCASMATH
Maths Brainteasers
Dr Janine Stewart
Mr Don Wilson
[email protected]
[email protected]
The first in our regular series of puzzling problems.
Answers on page 8.
a) Simplify (x – a)(x – b)(x – c) . . . (x – z)
b) If you had only one match and entered a dark room in
which there were a kerosene lamp and a candle. Which
one should you light first?
c) You have fifteen cents in two coins. One of them is not
a five cent coin. What are the coins?
d) There is three errers in this sentence. Can you find
them all?
e) In a year how many months have 31 days, how many
months have 30 days and how many months have 28
days?
f) You have three cups of coffee and fourteen lumps
of sugar. You have to sweeten the cups using an odd
number of lumps in each cup. How can you do it? (You
must use all the lumps)
g) Can I find a trick recalling pi easily?
Secondary Maths
Years 7 to 10 students are enjoying
following the Maths Department’s
@scasmath instagram page.
Each week our maths gurus add
challenging questions on the
photos posted and students can
try and solve them. Answers
are written down and given to
Secondary maths teachers for the
chance to win a major prize each
week.
If you’ve ever wondered in maths
class “when will I use this in
real life?” then the #scasmath
challenge is for you!
Head of Secondary Maths
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Secondary School
iPad Training for Seniors
Last week St Columba students had a chance to use their technological know-how to benefit members of our community at the Tech
Savvy Seniors workshop organised by the Port Macquarie Hastings Council as part of the Sensational Seniors Expo.
Several students from Secondary School volunteered to attend the workshop to help the seniors with iPad activities such as taking
photos or finding websites and games to play. From all accounts it was an enjoyable experience for our students and the seniors.
Maths Brainteasers Answers
a) 0, as (x – x) is a factor, which is equal to 0. Anything multiplied by 0 is 0.
b) The match.
c) The other coin is 5c, and this one is 10c.
d) Is, Errers, and the fact that there are only two errors makes this another error.
e) Seven months have 31 days, eleven months have 30 days and all twelve months have 28 days.
f) Put a lump in the first cup, a lump in the second cup and all twelve lumps in the third cup. This is a very odd number (to put 12 lumps in a cup of coffee).
g) Count the words (Count the number of letters in the question and answer sentences: 3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3 5).
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Secondary School
Year 10 Work Experience
Our Year 10 students enjoyed getting out into the workforce this week with a range of diverse experiences showcasing
the interests and career opportunities for our future graduates.
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Performing Arts
Primary Choir Concert
A wonderful concert was performed by the Junior Choir on Thursday 19th March for all family and friends to listen to the hard work
that each and every choir member had put into term 1. We performed songs about cockroaches, spiders, clouds, cats and a traditional
indigenous song.
Thank you to all the parents who contributed to the afternoon tea. It was a pleasure to meet some of you afterwards.
An even bigger thank you to parents who make sure the choir members are at our weekly rehearsals. It is a pleasure to teach 60+
students each week who are happy to be there and make a beautiful sound. Mrs Branch, Mrs Wills and myself are looking forward to
an even bigger term 2! Remember rehearsals are open to everyone in years 3 - 6, and are held at 7:45am each Thursday in the
Chapel.
Yours with singing, Mrs Hartley
Year 10 Drama Production
The time for the Year 10 Drama Production of
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is coming! The
show will be held on Friday 24th April 2015
commencing at 6.30pm in the SCAS Chapel.
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a pioneering
Australian play written by Ray Lawler which was
first performed in 1955. It was the first play to
portray distinctly Australian life and characters.
Two masculine sugarcane cutters, Barney and
Roo, travel south to Melbourne for five months
of frivolity and celebration with two city women,
Olive and Nancy (bringing with them as a gift a
kewpie doll, hence the name). One of the women,
Nancy, has gotten married just months ago, so
in her place Olive has invited Pearl to partake in
the tradition. But this seventeenth year will be
different from all the rest….
Don’t miss this great performance from our Year
10 Drama students!
ST COLUMBA ANGLICAN SCHOOL YEAR 10 DRAMA 2015 PRESENTS
Summer of the
Seventeenth Doll
FRIDAY 24TH APRIL
6:30PM THE CHAPEL
GOLD COIN DONATION
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Performing Arts
Calling All Parent
Thespians!
The Drama Department is in need of some new
members of the parent group “The Backstage
Crew”.
These are parents who assist in the backstage
organisation of the Secondary School Drama
Production in June and who generally
would like to support and assist the Drama
Department throughout the year.
It’s great fun and gives a lot back to the
teachers and students.
If you would be keen to be involved please
contact Mrs Catherine Grootenboer.
Drama News
Mrs Catherine Grootenboer
Secondary Drama Teacher
[email protected]
Earlier this term the SCAS Year 11 and 12 Drama students travelled to Sydney to attend a Group Devising Workshop with Leeton High
School at Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills. They also had the chance to watch archival footage of one of the HSC Drama texts ‘Stolen’
which will assist them in their HSC written examinations at the end of the year.
After Belvoir St theatre at the Seymour Centre, 2014 HSC Drama student Cassie O’Brien was awarded her ‘OnStage’ certificate for her
outstanding Director’s Folio HSC Drama Project. The Senior Drama students were also able to watch the performance showcase of
2014 excellent group and individual performances at the evening show of ‘OnStage’. It was a great production and gave everyone a
better understanding of what they are aiming for in the HSC Drama course.
Many thanks to Ms Lakin, Mr Mills, Mrs Kelly and Miss Thomas for their assistance with the Drama students on this excursion.
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Sport
HRIS and AICES Swimming
39 students recently represented SCAS at the Hunter Region Independent Schools (HRIS) Division 1 Swimming Carnival held at Lambton Pool in
Newcastle. Despite a couple of late withdrawals and the unavailability of some senior students for the day, the team performed competitively and
placed seventh overall.
SCAS was represented at the end of day presentations by Joe Begbie, who was named U14 Age Champion and also achieved top male swimmer for the
meet. In addition, the SCAS trio of Joe Begbie, Izaac Stewart and Will Goodwin were awarded with an age champion pennant for the school with the
most points accumulated on the day in the boys U14 division.
Other outstanding performances on the day came from Grace Bannon, Sam Begbie, Madeleine Brown, Ellinore Frederick & Angus Thompson, who all
qualified to compete at the Association of Co-Independent Educational Schools (AICES) event held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, Homebush.
Unfortunately, due to an already overloaded schedule, Joe & Sam Begbie could not make it to the AICES event, although SCAS was still well represented
with the following results achieved:
Ellinore Frederick
Grace Bannon
2nd in 50m Breaststroke
1st in 50m Breaststroke
6th in 200m Individual Medley
4th in 100m Freestyle
5th in 50m Freestyle
7th in 200m Individual Medley
Madeleine Brown
5th in 200m Freestyle
5th in 100m Freestyle
8th in 50m Freestyle
Angus Thompson
6th in 50m Freestyle
7th in 50m Backstroke
8th in 50m Butterfly
Congratulations to each of these swimmers and the entire SCAS swimming team for their effort and outstanding representation of SCAS at these events.
Combined Independent Schools (CIS)
Open Boys Football Cup – Round 1
A squad of 15 boys made the trip to Speers Point (Lake Macquarie) to play Wycliffe Christian School from the Blue Mountains in the First
Round of the CIS State Football Cup. The SCAS boys played extremely well and were very dominant, winning the game 4-0. Goal scorers
were Paul Galloway (2), Aaron Oppedisano (1) and an own goal. SCAS will now play Trinity Grammar in Round 2. Well done to the team
and we wish you good luck throughout this competition.
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Sport
Cross Country
Primary School and Secondary School held their
annual Cross Country events in recent weeks
with students from Kindy up to Year 12 being able
to participate in the days. Many families came
to watch their children compete and cheer on
other students. All of the students showed great
enthusiasm and encouragement towards others
and had a lot of fun at the events.
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Community News
Stage 1 cleans up on Clean Up Australia Day!
What has now become an annual event, Stage 1 particpated in CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY. Highlight was donning their gloves and
searching high and low for rubbish all around the school. They scoured the gardens, behind doors, under bins...and what did we
find? Loads of plastic straws and their wrappings, paddlepop sticks, foil wrappers from muesli bars, many rotten apples and one
dead bird. The children felt immensely proud of their efforts. We hope that they have gained an appreciation of how big a responsibility it is, ensuring our school and community is rubbish free. After all, it is up to us.
Thank you to Staff and parents for your support.
Columba Cottage OSHC
Columba Cottage offers an extensive and enjoyable Out of School
Hours Care service that caters for all primary school children in the
Port Macquarie area. University trained and qualified educators
present and lead the program, incorporating a range of sports, craft,
science and cooking experiences.
Before School Care is available mornings from 6.45am, with a drop
off service to other schools, at a cost of $15 per session.
After School Care is available from 3.15pm until 5.45pm, with a pickup service for other schools, at a cost of $20 per session.
Our service is CCB and CCR approved, which can significantly reduce
the overall cost to parents.
Vacation Care is offered during School Holiday breaks and is open
from 7.45am until 5.45pm, 10 hours a day, Monday to Friday at a cost
of $55.00 per day.
Excursions to attractions in the local Port Macquarie area are
provided including Billabong Zoo, Hydro and Putt Putt Golf, Centre
of Gravity, Wow Fun Park and Timber Town.
For all enquiries please contact our friendly staff at Columba Cottage
on 6581 4433 or email [email protected]
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Community News
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Community News
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