Last Monday 21 March the JSGS Student Leaders Commissioning Service took place in the Cathedral. Jenarose Jackson and her mum Taminya were part of the service along with all the other leaders from the Junior School and Gawura School. It was a lovely afternoon and we congratulate Jenarose on becoming the Gawura School Captain for 2022.

Thank you to the Indigenous Strings Quintet group who performed at the Gawura Cocktail Evening last Friday 18 March. The girls did a superb job and we also learnt more about the Emu in the Sky and raised some much needed funding for Gawura’s ongoing programs.

On Monday 28 March we had a presentation given to the entire JSGS from Wiradjuri woman, astrophysicist and astronomer Kirsten Banks who gave an insightful presentation about the Emu in the Sky. We also introduced Jarli which is a short animated film (8mins) about an Indigenous girl who has dreams of flying into space. Jarli is meant to inspire our students to study further fields of science and you can watch the Jarli film through this link here: Jarli

This coming Wednesday 30 March we look forward to the first of 2 sessions where our Indigenous students from Years 5-12 will be attending Paddle Polo which incorporates kayaking on Sydney Harbour. We thank Sydney Harbour Kayaks for this opportunity for our First Nations students to learn more about Paddle Polo and look forward to a second session which will be conducted in term 4 this year.

Gawura Parent Teacher Interviews will be held this Thursday 31 March and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible throughout the day. For those who cannot make it in person a link will be provided for you so you can still meet your child’s teacher online. This is a great opportunity where the staff can go through your child’s Personal Learning Plan (PLP) and will ask you for your parent goals that you wish for your child to achieve throughout the year as well.

Finally just a reminder that GPAC will be held this Thursday 31 March and for the first time in a while it will be held onsite at school with a number of restrictions having been eased since the last time this was held in person last year. For those who wish to join online the Webex link will also provide access for you to do so if you can not make it in person. This goes from 2pm to 3pm in the Community Hub on Level 4.

We trust you all have a wonderful and safe fortnight ahead.

John Ralph
Head of Gawura

Supporting kids in times of world conflict

Around the world, people are saddened and devastated by the events unfolding in Ukraine. Both adults and young people alike are feeling the stresses of war from afar as they experience fear, frustration and helplessness. The 24 hour news cycle has shown us upsetting images raising many questions, especially for our young people, about what is happening.

Parents and caregivers need to be guided by their child’s curiosity. There is strong evidence to suggest that having a supportive discussion about a stressful event in a developmentally appropriate way, can actually decrease distress. It’s best to “name it, to tame it.” This will also combat any misinformation to which they have most likely already been exposed to through social media, pictures or video clips.

Children need to know that they are being taken seriously. So it is recommended that you don’t avoid the difficult questions. Ensure you address their questions honestly and sensitively. With less life experience than adults, young people may need help navigating news about this crisis. Use this is as an opportunity to model and encourage compassionate views towards fellow humans, regardless of distance or circumstance.

This SchoolTV report offers guidance on how best to discuss the conflict in Ukraine. We hope you take a moment to reflect on the information offered, and as always, please feel free to contact us to talk more about any issues raised.

Here is the link to your special report.

Bronwyn Wake
Wellbeing Coordinator

Congratulations Amy!

Trinity College Music Exam Results

Congratulations to Amy Jung who has achieved Grade 6 Tuned Percussion with Distinction. This is another example of musical excellence in our school and we are proud to be able to showcase so many able musicians here at St Andrew's.
 

Learning an instrument at St Andrew's Cathedral School

We are keen to grow our wind and brass section in the Junior School. Wind and brass instruments are most suitable to start from Year 3 onwards due to student/instrument sizes and we would be keen to have applications for students to have private lessons on these instruments. Some examples of these instruments are: Clarinet, Flute, Oboe, Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone, Bassoon, Saxophone and these can all be found with an easy YouTube search. Once students are able to play at a basic level, they will be able to join the Junior Band.

To apply, click the following link SACS Instrumental and Vocal Music Tuition Application Form 2022 or email krobertson@sacs.nsw.edu.au for more information.

Mrs​ Kate Robertson
Head of Music (K-6)

Meet our Library Monitors

A heartfelt welcome to our Library Monitors for the first half of 2022. These students play a pivotal role in keeping our library functioning. They give up one lunchtime every week (and some of them offer more than one) to help us keep books on shelves, keep customers happy and keep our library looking interesting, inviting and fun. This year, our student volunteers have been organised into teams, with a team leader for each group. We are incredibly proud of the leadership, responsibility, commitment, and creativity this group of young people display in service to our library and our school. Last week, students were presented their official Library Monitor Badges by Dr McGonigle at a special morning assembly. Well done team!

Nicole Cotter
Coordinator of Digital and Information Literacy – JS & GS

ASISSA boys football trials

On Thursday we had the following Year 6 boys trial for a spot in the ASISSA Football Team; Charlie Cassar, Angus Collins, Manning Gavagna, Peter Joseph, Sam Heaydon and Hamish Anderson. Competition was tough, with only 12 boys selected out of 80 students trialling across all schools within ASISSA. The boys were great representatives for St Andrew's and all trialled extremely well on the day. A big congratulations to Manning Gavagna who was selected into the ASISSA team to compete at the NSWCIS competition, 31 March. A fantastic achievement!

ASISSA swimming

The ASISSA Swimming Carnival was held at Warringah Aquatic Centre last Friday. We took a small team of swimmers with us and they all represented the school with great enthusiasm and heart. The carnival on Friday was a lot smaller than past carnivals as a result of issues with Covid, floods etc, but a good and productive day was still had by all. I am excited to share that two St Andrew's Cathedral School students qualified for the 50m breaststroke events at the CIS carnival – Ingrid Chin and Archie Lo. Both Ingrid and Archie had a great carnival, improving their qualifying times by several seconds and getting personal PBs at CIS. Congratulations to our swimmers!

Ms​ Lauren Archer
Sports Administrator, Coordinator of Infant and K‑6 Sports/Sporting Events

Taking journeys in the art space

Year 6’s in-depth study of The Journey of Life, as reflected in art forms, depicts how our lifelong journey can often be seen on the human face as we get older. Perhaps it’s the lines, the smiles, the wrinkles or the look in the eyes that hint at the joy that has been learned along the way through difficulty and then endurance, which in turn can produce character. Year 6 students have worked to capture something of this in their black and white side-view portraits of an aged person known to each one. The work of Rhys E, Carla C and Ren B above beautifully captures something of these characteristics.

Mrs​ Miriam Daly
Visual Arts Integrator JS and GS

Congratulations!

Click here for the latest Heart, Mind, Life & Uniform awards.

How to Raise Optimistic Children in a Pessimistic World.

Generation Next, a well-being and mental health organisation that looks at student well -being. They often hold conferences, more recently online due to Covid. At their last conference, there were many speakers, and the topics were excellent. Amongst things discussed were Anxiety Disorders in Young People, Understanding and Managing Anger, Aggression and Challenging Emotions and Nurturing a Healthy Mind.  The speakers were great, and it was an information filled day.

Posted in the Generation Next magazine, Caroline Knorr for Common Sense Media. has written an excellent article on the topic above. She raises some simple but effective ideas to help us, as parents and teachers, guide our children to look on the positive side of life, especially when all around us and in particular, through media, the world is a bleak place and anxiety in children seems to be on the rise. Caroline writes, “Thanks to the 24-hour news cycle, social media, cell phone notifications — and even sources you wouldn’t expect, like Instagram and YouTube — children are immersed in doom and gloom. Consider their world: The suicide rate is up, countries are divided and at war and cyberbullying is rampant.” And add into the mix, Covid!

Here are her simple and effective ideas to help combat the gloom:

• Put things in perspective

Help your children put things in perspective by explaining that the loudest voices capture the most listeners. When you “right-size” things, it lessens childrens’ fears and restores hope.

• Talk about what you’re grateful for

Counter defeatist attitudes by nurturing your children’s character. Strong character grounds your children when the world feels chaotic. Take the time to share what you’re grateful for. Encourage them to persevere against obstacles and to have compassion for others.
Research shows that expressing gratitude actually makes people feel optimistic.

• Fight fake news

Confusion, doubt, lack of trust — these things get in the way of being optimistic. But children have the tools to fight fake news. They can use online fact-checking tools to discover the truth (or at least uncover the fraud). They can refuse to contribute to the spread of false information by not sharing stuff they can’t verify.
Taking fact-checking into your own hands is empowering.

• Stand up to cyberbullies

• Tune out the world for a while

Grab your family spend time with just them. Simply being together, whether it’s to read, have a device-free dinner, or talk about an issue recharges you and sends your children the message that family time takes precedence over everything else.
By managing your media and reclaiming your family time, you show your children what’s really important.”

It is an excellent article for today’s crazy world, perhaps for us as well as our children!

Joy Rohrlach
Year 5 Leader

Our team to play for the TSC Cup

On Tuesday night in the Black Box Theatre, St Andrew's Cathedral School hosted the second heat of the Theatresports Primary Schools Challenge. Due to the ravages of Covid it was a small competition with only St Andrew's, Pymble Ladies College and Tara Anglican School for Girls being able to present teams. Even the St Andrew's team was reduced to a squad of three, with several other players unable to play due to being in isolation as close contacts. Despite these setbacks, the St Andrew's team of Alizah Hays, Violet Bloxsom and Luca Murray, took to the stage and did not disappoint.

The scoring was tight throughout the Matchbox but our team had an edge on their competitors scoring 3, 3, 4 in their first scene, a Slow-Motion Commentary about writing a letter (the messy writer won), 4, 4, 4 in a Character Swap about launching a rocket (never complain about the fit of your space suit if Violet Blossom is the head of Mission Control) and a 4, 4, 4 for a Soap Opera exploring the emotional highs and lows of delivering a parcel. However, a late surge from PLC saw them score a 5, 5, 4 in their last round, and St Andrew's and PLC shared the glory in equal first.

As a result, all these teams will be back in the Black Box at 6pm, Thursday 31 March, to play for the coveted TSC Cup. You can come along and cheer our team home with tickets on sale at the door from 5.45pm: Students $5, Adults $10.

Congratulations to the team, coach Cameron Ryan and thanks to Mr Murray for all his support.

David Callan
Acting and Theatresports Coach

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Jonathan Liu for placing first in the VEX Robotics National Competition in Adelaide. In May his team will represent Australia and compete in the VEX World Championships in Dallas. Jonathan competed as part of the Sydney Robotics Academy 858A team. The team is made up of five students from Years 4-7 who are all from different schools. They won the Teamwork Challenge National Championship for the VEX IQ elementary school division.

VEX Robotics teaches students critical computational skills. By using VEX Robotics, students learn a range of science and engineering principles including programming, sensors and automation. Additionally VEX Robotics encourages creativity, teamwork, leadership and problem solving.

The VEX Robotics Australian National Championship is the highest level of VEX Robotics in the country. It is run by the Robotics Education and Competition which has more than one million students participate each year. The VEX International Championships is the world’s largest robotics competition.

There are three key roles in a VEX Robotics team. These are robotic main builders, log book and coder. Jonathan’s role is as robotic builder and driver. Jonathan’s team trains every Monday evening as well as Saturday afternoon and evening. Competitions involved ten round driver control games and six round auto drive. In each game the robotic needs to finish the task within one minute. The highest scoring team wins. Jonathan’s team earned the highest score of 148 and 127 in the VEX IQ division titled campaign.

Below is a short interview with Jonathan:

Q: What do you enjoy about VEX Robotics?
A: I enjoy driving our robot because we built it from the scratch.

Q: What new skills have you learnt since joining the 858A team?A: I have learnt a lot from VEX Robotics. For example, I have learnt about teamwork, engineering, coding and problem solving.

Q: What do you find challenging about VEX Robotics?
A: The most challenging part of VEX Robotics is when our team members have different thoughts. When we need fix a problem not everyone agrees go ahead with one idea.

Q: What are you looking forward to at the World Championships in May?
A: I am looking forward to competing against different teams from all over the world.

Emma Clemens
Gifted and Talented Coordinator JS and GS

Reminder

A reminder to all Stage 3 students interested in trying out for the IPSHA Debating team. Tryouts will be held at Afternoon Tea on Tuesday 29 March in the Stage 3 open area. Please prepare a one-minute persuasive speech arguing the topic: 'Books are better than TV.' 

Mrs Harriet O'Donnell and Mr Tim Ryman

Performances this week only!

Come and enjoy our Senior Drama Ensemble performance

The Senior Drama Ensemble presents Arms and the Man: an anti-romantic comedy by the iconic George Bernard Shaw.

Raina dreams of perfect 'chocolate box' soldiers to fit into her perfect life, until one incidentally climbs through her window late at night to hide from her own countrymen. The play is set during the Bulgarian wars and features a distinct British sitting room comedy vibe.

Arms and the Man
Directed by Ashleigh Chakarovski

Date: 31 March – 2 April
Venue: Chapter House

Australia's favourite school holiday programme

With DJ Camp, Animation Camp, YouTube Creators, Coding Camps and BRAND-NEW Drone Camp, there's something fun for everyone!

11-13 April, 19-21 April
9am-3.30pm

To learn more and book, head to www.codecamp.com.au/sacs