What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humour, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies. – Rudolph Giuliani

What a wonderful day the Primary community enjoyed last Thursday as we blessed our special Grandfriends!  It was extremely heart-warming to see the children sitting with their Grandparents and Grandfriends enjoying Devonshire Tea and other treats, engaging in excited conversation. The Primary Choir, Concert Band, String Ensemble and Rock Band performed superbly to entertain our guests.

Grandfriends visited learning spaces and experienced a snippet of the children’s learning journeys. The spaces were buzzing! Stage 3 shared some learning, made their Grandfriend a loom band adornment, dressed up for a special photo, potted plants, drew portraits and watched a Zone video filmed by the students. Stage 2 talked about some favourite learning activities related to their Matrix unit about different cultures, revealed a Google map of Stage 2 NBCS family origins, made finger print characters and shared their poem for the GO Speak competition later this term. Stage 1 students shared their narratives, worked with Weebly Blogs getting their Grandfriends to post some comments, discussed a time when their Grandfriends had been brave and made a bravery badge for them, did some craft, shared poems and played spelling games.

At NBCS, relationship and community are treasured. Relationships form the foundation on which rich, deep learning can take place. A strong community, centred around shared values, connects people and provides a support network. We are so thankful that Grandfriends form an important part of the NBCS community, partnering in growing precious young lives.

Peter Grimes
Head of Primary

This week at CIA in the Zone we discussed what it is like to have faith like a mustard seed (Matthew 17:19-20).

We asked students if they saw God’s miracles as something that really happened or as just simply stories. The Bible tells us that to believe in his miracles, you must have faith the size of a mustard seed.

The dictionary defines faith as a ‘confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea or thing.’

To explore the concepts we conducted two experiments. Students had a great time trying to disprove the ‘Banana Miracle’. If you have the opportunuty you should ask a Stage 3 student! They were further challenged with a trust activity in which four students were blindfolded and then had to rely on their other senses to determine the mystery items in a bowl.

We discovered that while mustard seeds are small and look incapable of producing a plant, they grow into a bush that spreads rapidly. The ministry that Jesus began on earth rose from humble beginnings and, just like God’s word, as we share the message about Jesus with others, it too can spread quickly.

We finished with a powerful video clip that defines what it is to be a true believer of Jesus. You can find it on our Zone page in PETE. The students were given a symbolic seed to plant at home. They were asked to water, nurture and nourish the seed into a seedling. Just like faith, which needs nourishment from the Bible, growing a plant is an ongoing process that needs care and attention right from the very beginning.

“But these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name.” John 20:31

Mrs Hofmeyr
Stage 3 Teacher

Observing and watching children over a period of twenty six years or so as an educator has been such a wonder for me, a true privilege. I have come to a few conclusions and I feel confident to say that they are a global phenomenon.

One of them relates to making. The desire and need to make is a natural part of each child’s DNA. Indeed even dissecting and pulling apart is part of the need to make, to understand how something works. It should be valued as much as creating, for this is how a child constructs new knowledge and understanding. It can be a springboard for wondering, hypothesising, testing and innovating.

In Stage 3 this term, our Eco Warriors Matrix has been a launching pad for the students to grow their knowledge and understanding of natural environments, human impact on the various habitats, built environments and our stewardship of the natural world in terms of responsible action. The students have been very industrious in completing learning tasks which build skills, knowledge, attitudes and values, propelling them towards the PBL of planning and building a mini city called Eden.

Everyone has a role and is part of a group which will collaborate, research, design and present their team's component of Eden. Roles such as Project Managers, Architects, Housing, Construction, Transport, Electricity, National Parks & Wildlife have been embraced with enthusiasm.

It has been wonderful having parents who are experts in fields such as Project Management, visit and take workshops with the respective student teams. This is what begins the transformation of a student’s learning into ‘real world’ application. As a team of educators we are very excited about this particular unit of Project Based Learning and look forward to sharing it with the Stage 3 parents on the evening of Thursday 26 June.

Imma Buono
Stage 3 Manager

On Wednesday 29 May, the NBCS Primary Choir sang at the Northern Beaches Eisteddfod. Our hearts were pounding as we stepped up on that timber stage at Allambie Heights Community Centre. The whole choir sang beautifully and tried our best! We sang Let It Go from Frozen, and Happy by Pharrell Williams. At the eisteddfod, we competed against 10 different choirs. We had tough competition, but we tried our best.

Thank you to Mrs Hill who taught us very well and continues to inspire us with her amazing voice, to Miss Wade who played piano beautifully and inspires us with her groovy moves and her beautiful piano playing, and to Mr Mees who inspires us with his great bass guitar playing and makes us groove!

We are so excited that our choir continues to grow in number and that more and more boys are joining.

Holly Preston
Year 5 student

At NBCS you have many opportunities to do extra-curricular activities such as the Primary Concert Band. The Concert Band is for students that are in their second, third or even fourth year of playing. I have been playing for three years now and this is my fourth year. Playing in the band has boosted my confidence because I get to play with people that I don't know, and also from having to learn new ways to play. This year the band is small, so we don't play like a big band. We do try to sound good, which has been working well - in our first Eisteddfod we came second! Our conductor Mr Rees has guided us and helped us along the way. The band is a great opportunity for students and although I won't be in the Concert Band next year, I hope that it will become better and better.

Audrey Keating
Year 6 student

Year 5/6 Girls AFL Team
Congratulations to our girls who competed in the AFL Regional Final at Moore Park on Monday 26 May.

The girls played three matches, winning two convincingly, narrowly missing the finals on a count back. Well done to these girls and a big thank you to the parents who gave their support. Our volunteer coaches did a wonderful job training and coaching the team: Mr Bill Barden and Mr Kelvin Millsom.

Team list: Alex Lefevre, Annie Walker, Audrey Keating, Charlotte Raspass, Emma Hancock, Faith Sherwood, Jade Daly, Jordan Lefevre, Lauren Turk, Leah Fenley, Luca Halmagyi, Marlie Grozier, Sally Finn.

Zone Cross Country Team
The Cross Country Team has been training hard this term, and their efforts were rewarded at the recent CSSA Cross Country Carnival.

Age Group Placings:
1st - Cayla Phillips
2nd - Liam Parker, Aidan Parker, Emma O'Reilly, Claudia Callaghan
3rd - Alex Lefevre
4th - Mackenzie Davie
7th - Beau van der Wallen, Tiah Shaw
10th - Chris Wyatt

Five out of eight NBCS teams (21 students) have progressed through to compete at the CIS carnival on Thursday 12 June. We are proud of our competitors and wish them all the best for the Cross Country event at Eastern Creek.

CIS Touch Football Trials
On Wednesday 28 May, six of our Stage 3 students had an early morning drive to Penrith to attend the CIS Touch Football Trial Gala Day. Max Dowling, Tom Chidiac and Jordy Wysman, together with Lara Wilkinson, Alex Lefevre and Jordan Lefevre were placed into barbarian teams with over 60 of the top Touch Football players from Independent schools across NSW. Each team played six fast paced games from which a final CIS team of 12 players was selected. Our students represented NBCS with great enthusiasm, team spirit and pride. Their leadership, encouragement and support of each other, as well as their new-found friends, was a credit to them and was noticed by parents and officials present. Thank you to all parents who gave their support and in particular to Tracy Dowling who transported and photographed the players.

Rugby CIS Trial
Congratulations to Max Prince who represented NBCS at the recent CIS Rugby Trial at Homebush. It was a great experience for Max, with close to 100 boys trialling for only 22 places. He felt privileged to witness the amazing talent on display and to receive a certificate.

Australian Futsal Team Representative - Declan Annear
Congratulations again to Declan Annear. As well as being selected for the Australian Futsal team to play in Malaysia later this year, Declan has also been selected as goalie for the Australian Disney Football team, which will compete in the USA in July.
A fantastic achievement!

NSW Regional Karate - Tom Pywell
Congratulations to Tom Pywell who recently competed in the NSW Regional GKR Karate Tournament. Tom achieved a Bronze medal in the Kumite – a great achievement! As a medal winner he is now eligible to compete in the Nationals in Queensland in December.

Karen Mitchell
Acting Head of Primary Sport

With two of our Go Program teams heading to Rwanda and Uganda in June, including Mr Wearne and Mrs Deibe, we would love to send them on their way with an African themed Mufti Day.

Wednesday 18 June is your chance to dress in your most African outfit! Or you could consider taking your inspiration from the Ugandan and Rwandan flags! Alternatively, why not choose colours that reflect the exuberant spirit of Africa?

We were reminded in CIA last Friday of just how far a $5 contribution can go in these countries. Wear your colourful best and bless our African neighbours with vaccinations, mozzie nets, bricks and school supplies. As always, this is an optional fundraiser.