Last Thursday 8 August saw both JSGS gather for the annual Athletics carnival at the ES Marks Field in Kensington. Many of our students performed really well with several going on the next level which is the ASISSA Athletics Carnival. Congratulations to Stanley, Toni, Mariah and Jenarose for making it to the next level.

Our Gawura students have been busy visiting several places for educational excursions. Years 1 and 3 have been to the Sydney Taronga Zoo in the last fortnight and last week students in Years 1-6 attended the Science Expo which was held at both Sydney Grammar School and the Australian Museum. Students participated in a variety of sessions including robots and looking at our skin through microscopes.

St Andrew’s Cathedral Gawura School have several students who have nut allergies and are anaphylactic. Although these nut products are not banned at our school, we do ask that you are allergy aware and please be considerate when packing your child’s lunch that other students do have reactions to certain foods.

Next Wednesday 21 August all 51 Indigenous students from our K-12 school will be visiting the Living Language Exhibition at the State Library of NSW. This will be an interesting morning and if you wish to accompany us on this day please just text me to let me know so we won’t leave without you.

Thank you for your ongoing support and we look forward to seeing you at the many events that will occur throughout this term.

Have a safe and enjoyable fortnight ahead.

Mr John Ralph
Head of Gawura

Premier’s Reading Challenge 2019

There are only weeks to go until the 2019 challenge closes (August 30), so get your reading records completed and join the more than 80 students who are already eligible for certificates at the end of the year.

Congratulations to the following students who have completed their challenge:

Taali Paku, Thea Sholl, Whitney Leung, Anthony Wu, Martha Way Stametellis, Darius Hopwood, Jenarose Jackson, Peta-Lacey Smith, Jada Caldwell, Mariah Keegan, Toni King, Zachary Beck, James Davidson, Marcus Davidson, Frederick Beck, Devon Olsen, Adam Davidson, Kittiruj Somchit, Julia Dzioba, Maya Steemers, Lawson Van Der Merwe, Oscar Dance, George Wilson, Victoria Jorden, Samuel Koutis and Zane Tortora.

For more information and the booklists visit the PRC website
https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html

*If you attended a different school and completed the PRC there, please come and see me so I can request that your records be merged. Otherwise this will be your first PRC year. This is especially important if you are eligible for your gold or platinum certificates this year and if you are looking at earning your Premier’s medal.

Book Draw

Finished the PRC for 2019? Well don’t stop reading!

The next draw will happen next week, so keep reading and go into the draw to win a book of your choice.

Parent / Teacher Challenge 2019
Congratulations to the following extraordinary reading role model:
Miss Sharp (1S)

Come on teachers and parents, grab a book and read alongside your child/ren and complete the Parent / Teacher Challenge this year.

Requirements for completion:
Read any 6 titles (in any language). Email me spaul@sacs.nsw.edu.au the titles and I’ll add you to our wall of wonderful reading role models.

Book Week is coming… and that means it's parade time!

This year’s theme is Reading is my secret power and our annual Book Week parade is taking place on Friday 23 August.  The parade start promptly at 9am in the Cathedral. We are asking parents to go straight in from 8.30am to get a good seat.

We encourage children and parents to work together to make a costume which represents a book character that is special to them. Don’t forget to bring the book along on the day as well.

Please also bring a gold coin on the day. This year’s collection will go to Room to Read, an organisation that focusses on girls’ education and children’s literacy across Africa and Asia. To find out more about the work they do go to their website https://www.roomtoread.org/

The library will be celebrating Book Week with competitions and activities every lunchtime every day of the week. So, to be in the running for a prize you’ll have to come in and get involved. We’ll tell you more about what’s planned closer to the celebrations, but it’s set to be a fun week.

Science Week (12–16 August)
We are also set to honour Science Week with a range of competitions. We are celebrating library science so come in and grab an entry form (there is no limit to the number of times you enter) and get involved. You might be the lucky winner of a science prize pack. There’s three up for grabs!

Library bags for sale
The Junior School and Gawura library is an active member of K.O.A.L.A. (Kids Own Australian Literature Awards) and they have just released new cotton tote library bags for sale.  They are $5 each and all proceeds go directly to K.O.A.L.A. to help ensure kids have a voice in the world of Australian literature.  If you’d like to order one bring $5 to Mrs Paul in the library.

Help us make a change …
“Over 750 million people are illiterate and two thirds are women and girls.” – UNESCO Institute of Statistics

Svetlana Paul
Information and Digital Literacy Coordinator JS and GS

Character

I have had many conversations about the importance of character in the lives of our children and Michael Grose has written an excellent blog on his Parenting Tips webpage. For those who don’t know Michael Grose, he is a leading parenting expert who writes down to earth articles about kids. His articles are full of great, practical advice with interesting and thought - provoking ideas. I very often, quote him in the newsletter.

At SACS, staff work through developing character traits in our students, especially embedding them into our teaching strategies. All staff have participated in a survey to find out what our main character strength was. It proved to be an interesting and informative discussion!

Here are some of Michael’s ideas on the importance of character.

Character matters
“Cognitive skills by themselves aren’t enough for children to succeed over the long journey. Many recent studies (most notably the work of US-based Angela Duckworth) have found that character, not cognitive ability, is the single most reliable determinant of how a person’s life will turn out.

These traits include the inclination to persist at a boring task (grit); the ability to delay gratification (self-control) and the tendency to follow through with a plan (conscientiousness), which are invaluable traits at school, in the workplace and in life in general. 

Character works as an indicator of success when it’s seen as a set of strengths and personality traits, rather than personal values such as loyalty, tolerance or forgiveness.

Character is forged under difficulty
"The key character traits of grit, self-control and conscientiousness are forged under hardship and duress. This makes our current propensity to overprotect and over-indulge kids problematic. When kids continually experience easy success we set them up for failure because when they finally face up to difficult situations, many lack the capacity to push through the tough times.”

“Encouraging kids to step out of their comfort zones and take learning and social risks is one of the great challenges for modern parents. It’s critical that we challenge children and young people to attempt activities where failure is a significant option.  Overcoming setbacks and pushing through difficulties are how character is formed.”

Character is malleable
“The good news is that character, like intelligence, is malleable. It’s not fixed. It’s important to establish in your own mind as a parent and also in children’s minds that character traits such as grit, self-control and conscientiousness can be developed.
To this end it is important then that parents steer clear of using absolute language to label behaviour and view traits and abilities as fixed. Comments such as “You’re no good at maths” become a rule that young people learn to live by, and become default thinking that’s hard to budge.”

Parents should reflect on the language and terms they already use and build key phrases and terms around the following key character strengths: grit, self-control, conscientiousness, enthusiasm, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity.”

I hope you found this an interesting article and perhaps think about some of the ideas presented.

Joy Rohrlach
Stage 3 Leader.

Athletics Carnival Years 3-6

The Junior School and Gawura Athletics carnival was held at ES Marks on Thursday 8 August. It was a beautiful day full of athletic excellence and passionate house competition. It’s so pleasing to see students in an environment outside the classroom where they get the opportunity to push themselves and demonstrate character strengths in a variety of events. Congratulations to Winchester who were house champions on the day!

Congratulations to Cadel Holmes who has qualified to represent NSW in two events at the School Sport Australia Track and Field Championships in Darwin next month. At the selection trials, Cadel won the 11 years long jump and finished sixth in the long jump. This is an incredible achievement and a testament to the hard work he’s put in!

Tony Dunseath
Coordinator of Sport and Cocurricular K-6, PDHPE Teacher

A Huge Thankyou!

Thank you to all our Year 6 parents for supporting our first cupcake stall so sensationally. The feast of cakes was amazing. They were all sold … with a little help from many Junior, Middle and Senior School students as well as many staff. We raised a record amount! A smaller stall may happen later in the term to completely secure all we need to cover.

Many thanks again.

Joy Rohrlach
Stage 3 leader

We have been advised of a case of head-lice in the school.
Please check your child and treat if necessary.

NSW Public Health:
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/environment/headlice/Pages/treatment.aspx

The Facts

Head lice infestations are a common occurrence, particularly in primary schools.

• about 23% of primary students have head lice at any one time
• anyone can catch head lice regardless of their age, sex, or how clean their hair is
• head lice move from one person's head to another via hair
• head lice do not survive long when they are off a human head
• head lice do not live on furniture, hats, bedding or carpet
• head lice have built up some resistance to head lice treatments

Treatment
Daily combing with hair conditioner using a fine tooth comb is effective in getting rid of head lice and eggs (nits). Tips for parents in reducing the spread of head lice:

• regularly check your children's hair
• teach older children to check their own hair
• tie back or braid long hair
• keep a fine-tooth head lice comb in the bathroom and encourage all family members to use it when they wash their hair.

As infestations are particularly common in primary schools, it is best to choose a treatment that can be used over time. There is no single solution to eradication, only persistence.

The Anglicare Food and Clothing Drive is on again this year at SACS!

As part of their Take Love Campaign, St Paul’s House and Canterbury House have teamed up to partner with Anglicare for this worthy service. Our school community is invited to donate clothing and food that will be distributed to those in the greater community who are in much need of these material goods.

Here are the details:

When: Term 3 – Week 5 (19th -23th August)

Where: SAH Foyer – a collection stall will be set up from 7:45am- 8:25am.

What: Donations of clothing in good condition and food that is canned or packaged

We look forward to the gracious and generous spirit of SACS we have always seen in previous years.

Thank you
Mr Sahlstrom & Mr Kim

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” – Acts 20:35

Be encouraged and come together to pray for our school community at our Breakfast Meeting OR Lunchtime Meeting in the Community Hub, Level 4 SAH.

• Thursday 15 August 7.30-8.15am / 1-2pm
• Thursday 12 September 7.30-8.15am / 1-2pm

Muffins will be provided in the morning and BYO lunch for the afternoon meeting. Tea and coffee will also be available.

Contact: Felicity Brazel 0425 329 432

Come and see the 2019 Middle School Drama Ensemble production of Girl Asleep by Matthew Whittet.

Caught in the headlights of her 15th birthday in 1970s Australian suburbia, Greta wishes she could be anywhere else. And strangely enough ‘anywhere else’ is exactly where she finds herself – a peculiar Through-the-Looking-Glass existence that transforms the weird hypocrisy of the adult world into something absurdly beautiful. The nasty girl who make school a misery, her almost too-romantic imaginary boyfriend and her eccentric mother all crop up in her tour of her own subconscious. But eventually, even a girl asleep has to wake up. From the wry, warm and wonderfully distinctive voice of Matthew Whittet comes a play about being lost in the jungle of teenagerdom and coming out the other side.

Details

Dates:

• August 15 - 7pm
• August 16 - 7pm
• August 17 - 3pm, 7pm

Location: Black Box Theatre, Senior Collge, BBC

Wednesday 4 September 2019

Wednesday 4 September is Indigenous Literacy Day, a national celebration of Indigenous culture, stories, language and literacy. It is also a day to reflect on how we can partner with Indigenous communities to improve access to Literacy resources.

The Great Book Swap is a fantastic way to celebrate reading and raise funds to support the work of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. As well as supplying culturally appropriate books to remote communities that need them, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation has published 88 books written by Indigenous communities, many in their first languages. Now is a good time to prepare for the Great Book Swap by looking through your shelves for books which have been enjoyed but are no longer needed. Donations of pre-loved books can be brought to the Junior School Library in the week leading up to Indigenous Literacy Day. On the day of the Great Book Swap, students choose a book for each gold coin donated.

Svetlana Paul
Information and Digital Literacy Coordinator JS and GS

All are welcome to come along to The Spirit of Sport Winter Dinner, celebrating the achievements of our secondary sports teams, coaches and individuals.

Our guest speaker is RAAF combat fighter pilot Matt Hall, who is Australia’s only Red Bull Air Race pilot and has had three podium finishes at the world championships.

• Date: Friday 30 August, 6pm
• Location: Dockside, Balcony Level, Cockle Bay
• Tickets: $95 per person (three-course meal)

Matt is a highly regarded motivational speaker who will share stories of his success and how his dreams, goal-setting, and approach to risk and time management enabled him to “aim higher” and become one of the most accomplished pilots in the world.

Students must wear full school uniform.

Wednesday and Friday Appointments Available.

I would like to advise you that we have secured the services of a very generous doctor in the city who is willing to see our Gawura students and their families free of charge (he will bulk bill through Medicare) if the need arises. Dr Shuo (Shore) Zhao is located at Level 1, 70 Pitt St, Sydney. You can book an appointment with him on any Wednesday and Friday morning between 8am – 12pm.The number of the practice is 02 9233 3399.

We understand that many parents already have their own doctor that they use, possibly even through the Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) in Redfern but this is just another option for you to use if you choose to do so and one that is located in the city, near our school.