Term 3 | The Way Newsletter | Friday 1 September 2023

We have had an amazing fortnight off gathering College students and families and staff. Several major events have been conducted to celebrate learning and to celebrate the community.

The Year 12 Illuminate evening is now in its 13th year. The students who have major works as part of the HSC program exhibit their works for parents and friends. We included works from the following subjects this year:

• English Extension
• History Extension
• Society and Culture
• Music
• Drama
• Visual Arts
• Hospitality
• Design and Technology

Illuminate 2023 was an excellent evening and our thanks go to each of our teachers involved. Congratulations to Year 12 students. We wish every Year 12 HSC student well at this time.

The NASSA Senior Athletics was held last week at Campbelltown with many outstanding performances from students in our team. NESSA is the pathway we belong to which allows talented sports students to complete at higher levels. Some students progress to Australian level competition. Congratulations to students competing at NASSA or higher in both Junior and Senior school.

The Young Performance evening was also held last week, and hundreds of students and parents enjoyed individual performances by students in the peripatetic music program.

The 2023 South West Festival was judged our best ever, with estimates of more than 15,000 in attendance.  We trust you had a great day of celebrating the College and the South West. Congratulations to Carmen Pasapera our Director of Community Relations and her team; to Rebecca Clarke, our Business Manager and her team and Jason Swan, Scott Hobbins, Peter Ford and their teams for such a presentation. All staff supervised the day, and we know you will enjoy the photos in this edition of The Way.

How delightful was out Fathers’ Day Breakfast this morning?  Just ask the 1,200 Dads and children across the College years. We are sure they will agree. Again, we are so blessed to have organising teams, this time also including the MRK team who from 5am were preparing a hot breakfast, fruit, and juice. Congratulations staff and families for such a fortnight.

“You are my refuge and my shield;  I have put my hope in your word.." Psalm 119:114

The South West Festival 2023 was a fantastic day. It was great to see our community, staff and students be involved and join in on the day. We would like to thank all those who volunteered, planned, served and assisted on the day, it would have not been possible without you. 

Particularly we would like to thank our Major Sponsor, Liverpool City Council for partnering with us once again for this wonderful festival. 

We would also like ot thank our Gold Sponsors, Intelec, Ray White Carnes Hill, Morizzi Civil and Stanton Dahl Architects for their on going support 

And finally we would also like to thank our Silver Sponsors Good Az Gold Tours, Gowans & Son Printing, Storm International and Joylands Amusements. 

On the Thursday 17 August, a team of 8 students from years 5 and 6, participating in the interschool competition known as ‘GATEway 8’. There were 19 teams participating this year, from about 15 schools. The team worked hard to solve challenging problems and we are proud of their efforts. Some of the team have written reflections about their experiences: 

I really enjoyed participating in the interschool competition, 'GATEway8'. We competed in 6 tasks, challenging our many different abilities. Some of these tasks were Science, English, Music, History, Maths and Creative Design. I particularly liked the English task. We had to rewrite the song 'The Teddy Bear's Picnic' but to make it about saving the environment, and answer some comprehension questions. We also had to write short reflections on how we changed the original song, but from the perspective of some of the teddy bears. We are all very proud of the effort we put in, and everyone had lots and lots of fun. - Lizzie

The Gateway 8 experience was amazing! Even though we did not win, I had a great time learning and expanding teamwork skills. Some things were super challenging, and I enjoyed that!  - Serena

I really enjoyed attending the interschool gala day 'GATEway 8' in 2023. It was truly a breathtaking experience. This year, the theme for all tasks was wood. We competed in numerous fun activities, designed to make us 'think outside the box'. I am enormously glad I was selected to be there and was able to compete in these activities. Thank you again, Mrs. Saville for signing us up to attend GATEway 8! – Ali

The GATEway 8 competition was hard but also fun. The competition was held at Macarthur Anglican, my mum’s old school. I enjoyed the day, mostly because I could connect with people in year 5 and 6 that I didn’t really know. Knowing I was part of the team also helped my self esteem grow.  – Abigail

GATEway 8 was a fun day of learning and solving problems. It was challenging to work as a team and to work out what a question was asking. Sometimes we didn’t have enough people working on a task but we fixed that. It was hard to try and finish in the time limits but we tried and gave it a shot!  - Arin

Mrs Alex Saville 
Gifted and Talented Liaison for the Junior School

A beautiful winters day was filled with the sounds of music at the South West Festival.

A jazz marching band set the tone weaving their way through the crowds spreading joyful tunes and rhythms throughout the day. Our junior and senior ensembles performed an array of band, jazz, classical and pop music to a large crowd of parents and friends. Individual students also performed solo items on our second stage to the large crowds of onlookers. It was an exciting opportunity for the students to perform in an outdoor space and to experience the buzz and excitement of the festival atmosphere. Well done to all the students involved in performances throughout the day.

Mr Byron Mark
Director of Ensembles

Book Mark Competition

To celebrate Book Week this year the Junior Library will be running a 'Design your own bookmark' competition. Students will need to design an original and creative bookmark for the library. The winning designs will be printed and laminated for all students to use.

Blank bookmark templates are available to collect from the Library. All bookmarks must be submitted no later than Wednesday 6th September. 

Hunt for the Golden Ticket

The hunt has started! Ten golden tickets have been hidden in the barcodes of ten different books in the Library. The only way to discover a golden ticket is to borrow one of those books. Great prizes to be won for every student who discovers a ticket. Make sure you remember to bring your library bag to College, the more times you borrow, the more chances you have to win!

Mrs Arabella Issa & Mr Michael Smith
Junior IRC Library Team