Welcome back to term 2. I hope you have all had a restful break.

One of the highlights during the recent holidays was attending the Coloured Diggers March in Redfern on ANZAC Day. It was a pleasure to see a number of our students at the commencement of proceedings on the Block in Redfern. A special mention to Leila and her mum Di who performed as part of the Welcome Ceremony. It was a delight and honour to march down Redfern St to Redfern Park and hear from guest speakers such as the Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Linda Burney and our NSW Governor General who spoke about how our Indigenous servicemen and women bravely served Australia during war time but on their return they did not receive the same adulation or rewards as their non Indigenous servicemen and women. Uncle Col Wattego who we have had speak at our school on previous occasions also spoke passionately during these proceedings.

National Reconciliation Week this year is from Monday 27 May to Monday 3 June. This year’s theme is Now More Than Ever. Our Gawura and Junior Schools will be visited by Ms Gibbs on Monday 27 May to participate in National Reconciliation Week activities. On Friday 31 May our secondary Aboriginal students will be attending the annual Indigenous Veterans Service at the Hyde Park Memorial. We will be laying a wreath on behalf of St Andrew’s Cathedral and Gawura Schools to honour our Indigenous veterans. We will also be hosting some Year 8 and Year 9 Aboriginal students from Carinya School in Tamworth at a lunch back at our school after this event.

Our preparations for NAIDOC are continuing. Our Aboriginal Dance teacher, Aunty Rayma has created a new contemporary dance that will feature at this year’s NAIDOC Assembly. The students were amazing at rehearsal for this on the first day back at school this term. It will be very special when they perform it. We have also booked an Aboriginal performance for all Gawura School and Junior School students in K-6 to see as part of NAIDOC week as well. Our annual NAIDOC Assembly will be held on Thursday 27 June in the cathedral starting at 9.30am.

May grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Mr John Ralph
Head of Gawura

Premier’s Reading Challenge

It was wonderful to see so many students complete the Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) over the holiday break and excellent to know I was not alone on catching up on my ‘To Be Read’ list.

We now have 84 students who have completed the Challenge but there is still plenty of time. The Challenge closes on Friday, 23 August 2024.

Special mention goes to our Year 1 and 2 Gawura class who have all now completed the Challenge:

(Year 1) Lemeke Alamoti, Charlotte Cox, Bronte Miles, Leilani Roche-Faitua, Billie Rose, Jabeck Walker and (Year 2) Hazel Charles, Amaali Dower-McGurgan, Yileen Gordon, Patricia Mundine, Teliyah Roche-Faitua.

Congratulations also to:

Kindergarten
Annabel Nicholls

Year One
Liam Bradley
Samuel Fernandez
Carissa Wong

Year Two
Austin Nicholls

Year Four
Sophia Theodosiou
Imogen Tyler

Year Five
Samuel Cobb
Vanessa Tsui
James Wu

Year Six
Aadya Dua
Leo Kiang
Gabriel Magee
Vivian Neelamraju
Georgie Nicholas

If you have any questions regarding the PRC, please do not hesitate to contact me on rcosentino@sacs.nsw.edu.au

Read More Challenge!

These 84 students who have completed the PRC are now also eligible to enter our Read More Challenge. For every additional 10 books they read, they have the chance to win a book of their choice up to the value of $25. Entry forms are available from the Library.

Our first draw was held in Week 11 of Term 1. Congratulations to Sophia Naidoo in Year 1 who was our very first Read More Challenge Winner this year.

Get Social!

Did you know that the Junior School and Gawura Library is on Instagram? You can find us at sacslibrary, along with each of the School’s Libraries. Here we post upcoming competitions, student activities, new release books and other events.
 

Follow us today!
 

Mrs​​​​ Rachael Cosentino
Library Coordinator ‑ Junior School and Gawura

Term 2 Thursday afternoon sports overview

As the clock winds back an hour and the weather begin to cool, we are looking forward to another exciting term of Thursday afternoon sport focusing in on some of our winter sport options. We have once again been able to provide students across K-6 with various options for Sport. Kindergarten will be progressing from their introduction to sport into learning some ball sports. Year 1 and 2 will be heading out to Bunnerong Gymnastics for one of our best external programmes for the year. Years 3-6 have the option from three non-competitive sports below. Alternatively, our eager Years 4-6 students have the option of competing competitively in soccer against other schools.

Year 3-6 Non-Competitive Sports:
Students in Years 3-6 have been given the following non-competitive sporting options for Term 2 on a Thursday afternoon.

• Netball
• Cricket
• Soccer.

Year 4-6 Interschool Sport:
Students in Years 4-6 have the option of participating in interschool sport where they compete against other neighbouring ASISSA schools. This term, students (both boys and girls) have the choice to partake in interschool soccer. These games are all played at Queen's Park on Thursday afternoons between 1.40pm – 2.40pm. We encourage parents who are keen to come and support their child to watch and support the various St Andrew's Cathedral School teams playing in the ASISSA interschool competition.

Recent and upcoming CIS Trials

Throughout Term 2 there will be several CIS representative trials where we are sending some of our astonishing athletes to show their talents with the aim of making the CIS team in their sport. The students attending upcoming CIS representative trials include:

• Maya Hughes (netball, touch football, and rugby sevens)
• Nyarla Gordon (netball, touch football, and rugby sevens)
• Oliver Chu (touch football and rugby league)

We wish these students the best of luck in these upcoming trials and we are excited to see where their sporting endeavours will take them throughout and beyond 2024.

Additionally, during the last week of Term 1 we had Ned Robertson, Oliver Eagan, and Alex Schlomka participate in the CIS Primary AFL Trials (see image left). We are super proud of our boys for participating and giving their best amongst a very talented group of boys across all Independent Schools in NSW.

Student Spotlight: Jesse Lo NSWPSSA Swimming Championships

During the holidays our champion swimmer Jesse Lo (5W) competed at the NSWPSSA Primary Swimming Champions at the Olympic Park Aquatic Centre with the chance to swim for selection for the NSW Swim Team. Jesse came 4th in the 50m breaststroke and 14th in the 50m backstroke, to which we are immensely proud of his achievements. We wish Jesse the best of luck as he continues his swimming journey, and we are super excited to see him grow in the years to come.

CIS touch football

On Wednesday the 1st of May three students from our School were selected to attend the CIS touch football trials at Kingsgrove touch football fields. Due to injury sadly, Oliver Chu was unable to attend, Maya Hughes and Nyarla Gordon both attended and represented themselves and the school very well. Congratulations to both Maya and Nyalra who made the ‘possibles vs probable’s’ game at the end of the trials. A special congratulations to Maya for being selected in the CIS Primary girls touch football team! This is an amazing achievement and something to be vary proud of. We wish Maya all the best at the NSWPSSA touch football championships that will be held in Wollongong in August. 

Mr Oliver Denny 
Head of Sport Junior School

Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge

In Weeks 1-2 selected students from Years 1-6 participated in the AMT Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge. This international competition involves over 2.9 million students from across 60 countries. It is an excellent opportunity to extend students who have demonstrated high ability in mathematics. The questions are complex and multifaceted, providing above grade level challenge.

The Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge assesses student’s problem-solving and computational thinking skills which are highly sought after in current and future digital careers. The competition includes fifteen questions. The level of difficulty determines how the question is scored. Questions build in complexity across the challenge. 

Computational thinking is a set of skills that underpin digital technologies education. These skills help students to engage with the process and techniques of using digital systems. Some of the key computational thinking skills include:

• Decomposition: Breaking down problems into smaller, easier parts.
• Pattern recognition: Using patterns in information to solve problems.
• Abstraction: Finding information that is useful and taking away any information that is unhelpful.
• Modelling and simulation: Trying out different solutions or tracing the path of information to solve problems.
• Algorithms: Creating a set of instructions for solving a problem or completing a task.
• Evaluation: Assessing a solution to a problem and using that information again on new problems.

Here is a sample question from a past Bebras Challenge, see if you can solve it.

Beaver Bruno has a tree in his garden. Unfortunately, the tree has a disease and all its leaves died and turned brown. Now Bruno needs to cut off all the branches with the dead leaves. Then the tree can grow new branches with healthy leaves.

In the picture, the numbers show the time needed to cut each branch. When Bruno cuts a larger branch (for example, the branch marked with 5 inside the blue ellipse), all the leaves attached to it fall down and then Bruno does not need to separately cut all the smaller branches (the ones marked with 1 and 3 inside the ellipse).

Question:
What is the shortest time Bruno needs to cut off all branches with dead leaves?

Emma Clemens
Gifted and Talented Coordinator, Junior School

This year's Junior Andrean Awards theme is “Light”, inspired by our school crest, Via Crucis, Via Lucis (“the way of the cross is the way of light”).

The Andrean of the Year and Junior Andrean Awards competitions were established to provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate their creativity (supporting the school vision of “inspire students to be passionate, creative learners”).

Inspirations for students for this theme could be:
• Short Story – light vs darkness themes (ie good vs evil), light/shadows motif (eg use of a lighthouse, candlelight, firelight…), light as a metaphor for hope/goodness/innocence/realisation).
• Art – light and shadow techniques (eg. chiaroscuro, impressionism), sunset/sunrise photography (eg. golden hour, blue hour).
• Music – light and shade in music (eg volume, intensity).
• Design – use of light sources, electronic illumination, reflective surfaces, solar power.

Time to start planning your entry! We can’t wait to see your ideas come to life and show all of your creativity.

Judging and prizes
Entries will be judged on creativity, skill, audience engagement and originality in exploring the theme. Entries must be created in 2024 and no group entries are permitted.
• Winners in Years 3-6 in each category (Writer, Artist, Composer and Designer) will be awarded $100; Runners-up $20.
• Apprentice Award certificates will be awarded to writers and artists in Kindergarten - Year 2 for Highly Commended, Commended and Participation.

Entries close Monday 21 October 2024.

Mr Brad Swibel
Deputy Head of School (Secondary)

Senior College academic scholarships now open!

I’m pleased to advise that our Senior College Academic Scholarships are now open for Year 10 or 11 entry in 2025.

• Applications close: Friday 14 June, 2024
• The ACER exam date:Tuesday 23 July, 2024.

Senior College Academic Scholarships are available to students currently in Year 9 and Year 10 who are keen to take their learning to the next level in Year 10 and Year 11, 2025.

Scholarships are awarded based on an ACER examination and a successful scholarship interview. Applicants need to demonstrate commitment to their learning and school/community life.

Year 9 and Year 10 applicants must be exemplary students with a strong academic track record, who are motivated by the outstanding opportunities and academic choice offered at St Andrew’s Cathedral School.

All eligible students, including current St Andrew’s Cathedral School students, are encouraged to apply.

Click here to apply!

Enrolments Team

Storytime Shenanigans Trivia Night is a fundraising event – it’s not too late to help!

Do you have an item you can donate for the silent auction?  Maybe you have a holiday home?  Or could you provide some professional advice?  Could you donate a restaurant voucher or a case of wine?  The more variety on offer, the better the auction!  Please consider donating and contact community@sacs.nsw.edu or complete the donation form: SILENT AUCTION DONATION FORM

We also need items to go in the hampers so please don’t forget to drop an item into school reception! We are happy to accept any suitable item that is new or unused and in date. We have suggested themes for each year group:

Hamper packing
We will be packing the hampers on Wednesday afternoon and evening and would welcome any help from volunteers.  Please sign up and join us for a fun afternoon or evening with tea, wine and nibbles: https://signup.com/go/eORXtte

Saturday 11 May, 6pm to 11pm (Trivia starts at 7pm)
Heath Centre, Level 5, St Andrew's House

All Year 3 and 4 parents and carers welcome!

All Stage 2 (Years 3-4) parents are warmly invited to join us for Coffee in The Hub to meet other parents, key Junior School staff, and Lucy Whelan, Numeracy Coordinator, to talk about numeracy. Download the flyer here.

Thursday 16 May, 8am-9am
Community Hub, Level 4, St Andrew’s House

Please RSVP here by Monday 13 May.

A great opportunity to be informed on technology at the School

Join the P&F for an interactive and informative evening on technology and how we manage it as a school. The evening will include presentations by expert St Andrew's Cathedral School staff on policy, technical aspects and student welfare across K-12.

Our panelists include Mr Brad Swibel, Deputy Head of School (Secondary School), Mr David Hamaty, Director of Academic Systems, Mrs Bronwyn Wake, Head of Character and Wellbeing K-12, and Mr Tim Ryman, K-6 Coordinator of Logistics and Technology. There will be a Q&A following the presentations.

Refreshments will be served.

We look forward to you joining us for an interesting evening.

Tuesday 21 May, 6pm
Community Hub, St Andrew's House

Please RSVP here to confirm your attendance

The Anglicare clothing drive is coming in Week 4!

The St Andrew’s Cathedral School Junior School and Senior College Community Service Team are thrilled to announce the return of our clothing drive in partnership with Anglicare.

There are many thousands of people in Sydney who find it difficult to balance the costs of food, accommodation, utilities and medical bills. The money made by the sales of the clothes you donate enables Anglicare to provide food parcels, housing assistance, help with utility bills, household items or clothing for those who need them. Your support is crucial in this effort. By donating gently used, still-in-good-condition clothes (excluding undergarments), you can help provide comfort and love to those in need.

Drop your clothes off at the St Andrew's House (SAH) foyer between 7.45-8.30am, 20–24 May, Week 4 this term.

Your generosity matters! Let's come together to bolster Anglicare's mission.

20-24 May, 7.45am-8.30am
SAH Foyer