In Focus - Vol 6 - Edition 10 - 21 September 2018

With Term 3 drawing to a close we can reflect on the achievements of this busy and rewarding term. Young bodies and minds have been challenged as we have worked hard both in and out of the classroom. Some highlights of the term have been the Book Week parades, the ELC Tabloid Sports, Junior School and Senior School Athletics carnivals. I thank the P&F for their continued support of the School, with another successful Dad’s Campout, Maggie Dent seminar and canteens at the carnivals. The ASC Combined Music Concert provided a unique opportunity for our students to perform under the guidance of some of Australia’s best conductors with students from all 14 ASC Schools. Since our last newsletter, we have celebrated Arts Week and R U OK? Day.

Junior School Athletics Carnival

The Junior School came together to compete for House Honour in the Junior School Carnival last week. The spirit of competition was delightful to observe as students proudly displayed their place ribbons on the House shirts. Congratulations to Murray for winning the House Shield. It also provided a unique opportunity for Mrs Steel to meet our Junior School students and parents in a less formal atmosphere.  To view the Athletics VIDEO, click HERE.

R U OK? Day

Last week the Senior School explored the serious topic of suicide prevention through R U OK? Day activities. Strategies to start conversations around RUOK, how to support friends and loved ones, as well as mood boosting games and mindfulness sessions all added to the skill set of our students to help them cope with all that life throws at them. Thank you to Mr Halliday and his pastoral team for putting this powerful day together.

To see the R U OK? Day Clip, click HERE

Arts Week

It was wonderful to see so many parents, students, alumni and community members at our Arts and Technologies Exhibition and Sundowner on Friday evening, including Major Carol Adams and House Patron, Mr Keith Lindbeck. Our guest artist, Stephen Draper, displays sculptural works at iconic WA locations including Frasers Restaurant and Indiana Tearooms. Stephen was impressed by the creativity on display. A mix of musical items, textiles flash mob, art, metal work and woodwork made the evening a delightful experience. Thank you to our Arts staff for their hard work in bringing the exhibition together. Arts week continued this week with activities including the Music Night and PCACS Got Talent.

To see the Arts & Technologies Week Clip, click HERE

Staffing

Miss Kierin Janes leaves us this week to take a well-deserved rest before the birth of her child. We are indebted to Miss Janes who has taken on the role of Acting Head of Junior School on several occasions in recent years. I thank her for her professionalism and her calm and measured approach. Her love for PCACS is evident in everything she does. We wish her well as she begins this new phase of her life and look forward to her return. There is certainly something in the water at PCACS as Mr Holland and Mr Radulovic both celebrate the arrival of their first born babies. This term we say good bye to Mrs Jenny Swanepoel, Mrs Diann Buchan and Mrs Claire Eriksen. We wish them all the best for the future.

I wish all families a safe and restful holiday and look forward to Term 4.

Ms Felicity House
PRINCIPAL

Spring Holidays Offers Outdoor Activities

As we near the end of Term 3 and look forward to a very welcomed spring holiday with many sun-filled outdoor enjoyable activities it is important to flag some important events and dates for Term 4.

Year 12 ATAR Trial Examinations Friday 21 September – Monday 1 October

Year 12 students who are enrolled in ATAR courses must complete examinations scheduled for both the Trial ATAR Examinations and the SCSA ATAR External Examinations.   The Trial ATAR Examinations will be held at PCACS commencing Friday 21 September and will concluded on Monday 1 October.  Students have been given timetables for both the Trial ATAR Examinations and the SCSA ATAR External Examinations.  Please note that the External ATAR Examinations will be held at Peter Carnley Anglican Community School with SCSA providing invigilators to supervise these examinations.  Please note any student who does not complete any SCSA ATAR External Examination will risk losing their grades towards their WACE for any missed examinations.

Please contact Ms Jude Stringer for any absences for any examinations or further information.

National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy 2018 (NAPLAN)

PCACS can again be very proud of our students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who have achieved excellent results overall.  Our choice to run NAPLAN Online has been a big success and our students and the staff who supervised the assessment programme are to be congratulate for their planning and preparation for each session.

Individual student reports will be available early in Term 4.  Parents are encouraged to access the following link to review the “Information for Parents Brochure” that provides background information about NAPLAN 2018 for parents.

https://K10Outline.saca.wa.edu.au/home/assessment/testing/naplan/parents/results-reporting

Parents will be advised when their child’s report arrives and the process for distribution to parents.

For further details, please contact Mrs Shirley Steel (Junior School Years 3 and 5) or Ms Jude Stringer (Senior School Years 7 and 9).

Senior School Parent Teacher and Student Interviews

Year 7 – 12 Parent, Teacher and Student interviews will be held over two consecutive nights.  Parents are welcome to make a meeting time with their child’s teacher on either night.

Dates scheduled for these important interviews:

• Tuesday 16 October 3.30pm – 8.00pm (Years 7 – 12)
• Tuesday 23 October 3.30pm – 8.00pm (Years 7 – 12)

Parents are welcome to contact me at the School for further information.

God Bless

Ms Judith Stringer
HEAD OF SENIOR SCHOOL

At the Heart of PCACS Junior School – A Newcomers Perspective!

Commencing as Head of Junior School in Week 8, I arrived wondering whether my high expectations would be fulfilled.  I already knew that PCACS is held in high regard within the Kwinana region, and that the community is a vibrant and welcoming one.  However, what I first encountered far exceeded my initial expectations.  I received an incredibly warm welcome from staff, students and families alike; out in the playground, in the classrooms and at events such as the Chapel Services, Assemblies, P&F Seminar, Athletics Carnival and the Art Exhibition.   I have been instantaneously accepted into this wonderful community of learners and educators. 

Throughout my first weeks I continued my quest to ascertain what makes PCACS the great school it is, and to identify what lies at the heart of PCACS.  This what I discovered:

Positive Spirit – There is an abundance of joy and enthusiasm, and a genuine desire to see things in a positive light.  This is evident in the interactions between staff and students, and the way students cheerfully go about their learning in classrooms.  Students sing with gusto when at Chapel and Assembly, and applaud their classmates receiving awards.

Acceptance and Inclusivity – Everyone is welcomed, included and valued.  Watching the students cheer each other on at the Athletics Carnival and seeing the audience applaud those who sang solos at Assembly is testimony to this.

Care and Respect – The environment is cared for, and one student told me ‘At PCACS we pick up litter even if we didn’t drop it ourselves.’  Students help those around them, such as a child helping a classmate in a wheelchair access the lift.  Everywhere I look, there is a helping hand outreached.

Honesty and Truth – At the heart of trusting relationships lies honesty and truth.  At PCACS the students are encouraged to be truthful and sincere, and to hold fast to fairness and compassion.  The staff patiently and respectfully foster these values in the students.

Striving for Excellence – The staff work hard at PCACS, and so do the students!  There is a culture of self-reflection and self-improvement, making this an excellent choice for schooling.

I truly feel privileged to part of this great school and to serving the community in the best way I can.  Please don’t hesitate to stop by introduce yourself because I am looking forward to getting to know you all better.

Good-Byes and Well Wishes

At the end of this term we are farewelling some very special staff members.

Ms Kierin Janes – A heartfelt thank you goes to Kierin for over ten years of service in variety of roles including Phys Ed Teacher, Classroom Teacher, Coordinator, Director of Upper Junior and Acting Head of Junior School.  Kierin is wished very well for the next phase of her life as she begins her maternity leave, and we look forward to hearing about the birth of her beautiful baby boy.  Kierin’s last day is Friday 21 September.  Please join me in wishing Kierin well.

Mrs Jenny Swanepoel – Jenny has been teaching Kindergarten since the beginning of this year and her last day with us is Tuesday 18 September.  We thank Jenny for her contribution to the school and wish her all the best for her future endeavours. 

Mrs Claire Eriksen – Gratitude goes to Claire for her work in Year 1 and we wish her well as she leaves the school at the end of this term.

Safe Holiday Wishes 

Students and families are wished a safe and happy holiday and the staff and I look forward to seeing the students refreshed and back at school on Tuesday 9 October.

Mrs Shirley Steel
HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL

Student Withdrawal notice

Families are reminded that the School requires a full Term’s notice should you intent to withdrawal your child.  The last day for the School to receive this written notice for students not returning in 2019 is Tuesday 9 October.  One term’s tuition fees will be charged in lieu of such notice should a student be withdrawn after this date. 

Student Absences

Families are reminded that if your child is absent from school you are required under the School Education Act 1999 (WA) and the School Education Regulations 2000 to notify the school as to the reason why.  You can do this by either phoning Student Services 94114814, emailing absences absences@pcacs.wa.edu.au or filling in the online absences form found on our website.  

What an amazing Netball season we have had. From our first game back in April up to our Grand Final this past Saturday we have played in the pouring rain, in the heat, shot hundreds of goals, thrown thousands of balls and caught and intercepted most. Best of all we have made new friends, developed skills, learnt new rules, had fun and this year have had no major injuries. Our seven teams from Net Set Go up to our Open team have all gone on the court each week and played their hardest, win or lose. I have seen great sportsmanship from our players and all players have improved their game.

The Net Set Go Zodiacs and Pegasus finished a few weeks ago as they do not have finals. Moonbeams and Meteors sadly did not make the finals this year. Lil Divas and Starbursts were in a 14A pool with Starbursts finishing fourth getting them into the A1 semi finals playing the top team who have not lost in two years. Unfortunately they lost the Semi Final , but played an awesome game. Lil Divas finished ninth which made them the top of the A3 group, they got through to the Grand Final which they unfortunately lost.

Our Comets finished joint top of their Open 5 division, getting them into the Semi Finals which they lost, but still had a second chance which they won getting them into the Grand Final. Comets played a brilliant game and won by 16 goals. Ex-student Darcy McNamara was awarded MVP of the game.

On Sunday we had our windup and presentations, congratulations to all those girls that won Most Valuable Player, Best and Fairest and Most Improved.

Thank you to all our Coaches, Managers, Parents and Grandparents who have supported the girls throughout the season. 

Next year we hope to have more teams. If anyone wants to play next year we need at least seven players and a coach to proceed with a team.

Watch out for an 'Expression of Interest' form at the end of the year or you can contact me at kyliemac77@hotmail.com.

Mrs Kylie Trent
NETBALL COORDINATOR

On Wednesday 12 September, we took a group of 28 Years 10 and 11 students to P.A.R.T.Y at Royal Perth Hospital. Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y.) is a dynamic, interactive health promotion programme and is intended to promote injury prevention through reality education.

The Program enables teenagers to experience the journey of an imaginary trauma patient from the hospital Emergency Department through to the Trauma Wards at Royal Perth Hospital.

I hope that the knowledge gained from this programme, especially where drugs/alcohol or risk taking behaviour was a contributing factor, could lead to a reduction in related trauma incidences in the 15-24 year old age group. The Program is designed to empower teenagers to recognise and analyse their behaviour, choices and decision-making.

The Program incorporated a tour of the trauma unit in Emergency, the intensive care unit and the trauma ward. It was accompanied by a series of presentations from physicians and nurses in each area. Students were also involved in role-play activities led by the Physiotherapy department to experience some of the difficulties that injury survivors face. It concluded with an interactive discussion with an injury survivor from Paraplegic Benefit Fund.

Faith Clowry (Year 10) said, “It was a good day but very confronting!”

Mrs Cara Barrett

YMAD – Youth Making a Difference

YMAD (or Youth Making a Difference… or occasionally, Muffins and Doughnuts) is a lunchtime Service Learning group that is led by the Anglicare Ambassadors.  Students are encouraged to come with their ideas, skills and passions, and as a group we discuss how we can help our community and work towards actioning these ideas.  Our focus so far has been on changing our thinking to realise that raising awareness of a cause is just as important as raising funds.  Any students from Years 5 to 12 are invited to attend this group.  We meet Thursday lunchtime (even weeks of the term) in the Admin Seminar Room.

For more information, contact Mrs Weddikkara (rebeccaw@pcacs.wa.edu.au).

Connecting Communities for Kids

Recently, I met with the team from Connecting Community for Kids.  They are a passionate group working in partnership with the City of Kwinana to celebrate cultural diversity and create real connections in the community with the aims of enabling children in Kwinana to attain an optimal level of physical, social, emotional, communication and language development in their early years.  It also will help to reduce barriers and stereotypes, build community spirit and make the community a friendlies more inclusive place to live.  With over 50 nations represented in Kwinana, there is amazing scope for this to happen.

A series of events are being held every two months called ‘That Was My Home’ and over the next two years the following nations/cultural groups will be celebrated: Aboriginal, India, Philippines, Sudan, China, Germany and New Zealand.  These events are a platform for cultural diversity, friendship networks and information exchange.

The first event is a celebration of the Aboriginal Culture.  There will be storytelling, a smoking ceremony, cultural food tasting, performances and information stalls from various service providers.  It will be held on Friday 28 September from 4.00 to 7.00pm at Medina Community Hall.  You are encouraged to attend this event to support your local community and learn more about the Aboriginal culture.

If you would like to be a part of the working group and share your culture, customs, cuisine, history and traditions, you are welcome to attend the monthly meetings.

There is a school holiday workshop being held as part of the That Was My Home project.  Children can learn to cook with native herbs and spices from Australia.  This is being held on Thursday 4 October from 10.00am to 12.00pm at the Child and Parent Centre in Calista.

For more information, see the flyers below or contact the Connecting Community for Kids team on info@connecting4kids.com.au.

Mrs Rebecca Weddikkara
SERVICE LEARNING COORDINATOR

LINKS:

"This is my home, my heartland" - Celebrating Aboriginal Culture

Celebrating Culture - Monthly Meeting

"That was my home" - Cultural Cooking Class

On Thursday 13 September, the PCACS Senior School students celebrated R U OK? Day.  R U OK? Day is a day dedicated to inspiring and empowering everyone to meaningfully connect with people around them by asking the simple question “Are you OK?”.  Our goal was to develop workshops and activities that would give students the opportunity to improve their own health and wellbeing and encourage them to care for those around them. 

Included in the day’s activities was a video of support and congratulations to the PCACS students from West Coast Eagles player Jeremy McGovern, and channel 9 news presenters Scherri-Lee Biggs, Tracey Vo, and Louise Momber.  Their messages helped reinforce the importance of looking after our own and others wellbeing.  Students then rotated through a variety of workshops and activities including, Mindfulness and Meditation, Yoga, Hip Hop dance, Inflatable Games, and workshops run by ‘Armed for Life’ exploring the topics of resilience, stress management, bullying and self esteem.

It was fantastic to see the PCACS community come together once again and embrace the R U OK message.  Students and staff were fully engaged in the day’s activities and the overwhelming feedback has been that we as a community were able to develop skills and strategies to improve our mental health and wellbeing.  The challenge for everyone is to remember the message behind the day and ensure we continue to care for those around us and promote healthy choices on a daily basis.

CHECK OUT THE FEATURE VIDEO OF THE DAY HERE

The Junior School has been involved in a Sustainability program with Alcoa this year.  All Junior School students at the Wellard campus have had the opportunity to become involved in a number of initiatives this year.  Our Year 3s have been in charge of paper recycling.  The Year 4s and 5s have been running the worm farms and the Year 6s have been leading the nude food revolution. 

On Wednesday 12 September, we held two parent workshops that focused on how to make Bees wax wraps.  They learnt two ways to create the wraps and the event was well received by members of the community.  On Wednesday 19 September, we had our main community eco-event, the Litter-Free Picnic.  Parents and friends attended the event and brought food and drinks in reusable containers.  It was wonderful to see so many smiling faces and some community members also tried out their beeswax wraps on the day! 

We thank Alcoa for supporting our initiatives.

Miss Alexia Mallett

As part of Maths Week, every student from Kindergarten to Year 6 participated in a range of challenging and hands-on Maths activities.  Many of the challenges were not possible, unless completed as a team.  In groups, students moved around the space, solving the problems that lie ahead.  When each group completed two challenges correctly, Professor Maths would graduate them to the next level, where they would earn themselves a pair of glasses, a wig, a vest and finally, they would become ‘Genius Mathematicians.’  All students involved worked extremely well as a team and most of all, had fun.

‘Your students were so polite and eager to learn.  I put your school as one of the best and most welcoming in WA’ - John ‘Professor Maths’ O’Halloran

Mr Ross Griffin and Mrs Alysha McDonald

Earlier in the term, several students from the Junior School represented PCACS at an Interschool Spelling Bee alongside 13 other independent schools from around Perth.  Held at Guilford Grammar School on the evening of Wednesday 5 September, Mr Griffin, Ms Janes and the students’ parents accompanied and supported them through the evening.  The students put much effort into preparing for this event, which included spending numerous lunch times together practising the spelling and meanings from a list of over 700 words.  Some of the words spelt by contestants on the night included aficionado, sacrilegious and bourgeois.  Each student did PCACS very proud and a big congratulations goes to Yeushabelle Caquilala and Kanchana Nawarathna in Year 6, Mackenzie Bewetz and Rhiz Rubenecia in Year 5 and Ranjaya Rupasinghe and Rhys Cameron in Year 4.

Mr Ross Griffin and Ms Kierin Janes

Hello Parents and Friends,

Welcome to our very last report for Term 3, wowsers has that gone fast!

Term 3 has seen us very busy with Sports Carnival canteens, the Book Week morning tea, a visit from Maggie Dent, and of course the Dads Camp Out.  We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who volunteered their time across all these events, without your help, we would not be able to run them!

Next term will be a little quieter but we have a few exciting events on the books.  Our Back to School Quiz Night has been scheduled for Saturday 20 October 2018.  This is our annual night out for adults only, which means parents and friends can kick back and enjoy a night of socialising without the kids.  You can buy a table ticket for $100 for up to 8 people, or if you don’t have a full table, this year we are also offering single tickets at $12.50 per person.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.trybooking.com/WZTF.  There are tons of amazing prizes up for grabs so be sure to book your babysitters and grab your ticket today.

We are also planning an end of Term 4 extravaganza with loads of fun activities, food trucks and an outdoor movie night, so make sure you don’t plan to run off on holidays too soon in December!  More details coming next term.

In the meantime, we wish you all a very safe a relaxing break and we look forward to seeing you next term.

Ms Clarissa Thomson
PRESIDENT