Term 2 I Friday 7 June 2019

We are all busy aren’t we and the benefits of being organised and planned are obvious. And we know that next week will have something unexpected to deal with too. 

There’s plenty of action and excitement at the College just now. If you have a look at our Facebook page you will know something of the busyness. Let me relay some of the highlights.

Last week Year 4 students travelled to the Powerhouse Museum.  Have you been there before?  What a great adventure of learning for young people.

We hosted the ‘Band Jam’ for 5 schools on Wednesday night with the combined band of 130 students coming together after just 5 hours of training during the day under the guidance of celebrity musician and conductor, Mr Nic Jefferies of 2016 The Voice fame. 

The Japanese Tour held its presentation evening for parents and friends on Thursday evening in the Anne Marsden Centre following the exchange program from the Easter vacation.

Year 10 Drama students were part of the Riverdale Theatre’s ‘Short Sharp Theatre’ Scriptwriting Competition, and 3 of the students were selected to have their scripts performed last Tuesday evening.  What a thrill for the students and the performers.  Miss Chavura is full of commendation of the experience.

Year 12 and Kindergarten came together for the Annual Teddy Bears' Picnic in the new Kindy Centre with stories being read and bear masks being made together. Our ANZAC Bear Able Seaman Andy Miller also made a brief appearance. Teddy Bears remind us of friendships and positive relationships don’t they? Last Monday evening, Year 12 were part of the Term 2 Parent Teacher Night and with just over 4 months to go in their HSC year, the target is very clear. 

Several sporting events are talked about later in this edition of The Way.  It’s reporting time and every teacher is busy preparing the reports of students for this first half of the year.  Office staff are assisting in every area and our College support staff are busy with the daily operations of a large learning community.

Thank you for your contribution and support of the variety of College programs.

We’ve opened up the College for the future again today with the ‘Experience Year 7 for a Day’ program for Year 5 students from our own class group and for students from other schools. 

As young people grow they do well to learn the skills of planning, review reflection; and preparation. Teachers are keen to teach these skills. Our programs encourage students to plan for the future.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." – Jeremiah 29:11

The second base for the trip was our sister schools in Japan. A group of 10 students visited Fukuroi Senior High School in Shizuoka Prefecture. Shizuoka is about an hour south of Tokyo. The students travelled from Kyoto, catching a bullet train or shinkansen and then a local train. Fukuroi is a rural district famous for their production of green tea and several of the green tea bushes can be seen from the High School playground. There are over a thousand students in the Senior High School and it has a very active after school club program that all students participate in. English language skills are very good amongst the students and the school has set up a visit to Australia program, visiting the College every two years. Families in Fukuroi are always keen to host Australian students to practise their English and showcase Japanese culture and life.

Olivia B is one of our Year 10 Japanese Elective students who participated in the April school holiday Japan Trip. She was asked to reflect on her homestay experience. This is what she said:

“One of the highlights of my trip to Japan was staying with my host family. My host sister and her family had a lovely home and I felt very welcomed. Part of the Japanese culture is removing your shoes when you enter the house and wear slippers. Japanese houses are typically smaller than ours. At meal times we would bow our heads and say “itadakimasu” which means “let us eat”. My host mother’s cooking was the best food that I had on the whole trip! One of the biggest challenges was communicating, although I am learning Japanese and my host sister is learning English at school, there were times when we had to use google translate to understand each other. My host family asked me about my interests, I said is that I am passionate about marine science, so they took me to the aquarium. I was blown away when we arrived at the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium. It was better than Seaworld! We watched the killer whale and dolphin shows, we saw beluga, penguins, sea turtles, jellyfish and sharks. I had an AMAZING day there with my host family a day that I will never forget. I also told them that I was interested in seeing Mt Fuji, so the next day they drove me a few hours to the Fuji Sky View where we went on an enormous ferris-wheel which had spectacular views of Mt Fuji. We were very fortunate that it was a clear day for viewing the mountain. My three night stay was one of the main highlights of my trip. I was treated like part of their family. We were in tears when we had to say goodbye. We plan to continue staying in contact and I hope that they come visit us in Australia one day.”

Mrs Fiona Byrne
Languages and Christian Studies Coordinator 

Band Jam is an initiative where students from various Anglican schools combine to form a mega Concert Band under the direction of a guest conductor. This year, Mr Nic Jefferies was the guest conductor, and did an amazing job with the 130 student musicians from five schools, including Broughton Anglican College, Wollondilly Anglican College, Macarthur Anglican School, Shellharbour Anglican College, and students from the Thomas Hassall Senior Concert Band.

Mr Jefferies is a professional vocalist and saxophonist, and has performed with James Morrison, Schools Spectacular, was a contestant on the Voice in 2016, and has his own Academy of Music on the Northern Beaches. He brought along a wealth of knowledge, wisdom and experience to our students, and they all had a great time learning how to sing, listen to each other and perform a variety of music. Throughout the day, they workshopped three contrasting pieces, including orchestral piece ‘A Joyful Journey’, a fun ‘Tribute to Ray Charles’, (where all got to hear Mr Jefferies sing too!) and a popular closing item ‘Havana’, which had a great Cuban flavour, and featured the percussion section, and select students from all represented schools performing improvised solos. Tinashe M and Joshua C from Year 8 were the nominees from Thomas Hassall in the improvised section.

Every student had a great day, and the evening concert was well attended and supported from parents and family from all schools involved. Big thank you to all the teachers and support staff from Thomas Hassall who helped make this day possible, and we are looking forward to Band Jam 2020!

Mr Byron Mark
Director of Ensembles

Thomas Hassall Anglican College teams in the Macarthur Independent Schools Association (MISA) Competition have had a great start to Term 2.

The Junior Mixed Frisbee, Junior Girls Basketball and Junior Boys Basketball are all undefeated after the first three rounds of the competition. This comes off the back of our Junior Teams being crowned the Term 1 MISA North Champions for three out of the four sports offered in Term 1. 

After Term 1, Thomas Hassall Anglican College featured well in the MISA Champion Schools standings:

North Zone

Junior Girls – 1^st 

Junior Boys – 1^st 

Senior Girls – 6^th

Senior Boys – 3^rd 

Overall Champion School – 2^nd 

Interzone

Junior Girls – 1^st 

Junior Boys – 1^st 

Overall Champion School – 2^nd 

Congratulations to all of our teams in MISA Competitions!

Mr Michael Fox
Senior School Sports Coordinator