Academic results and university entry

Between December of the previous year and March, the results of the outgoing Year 12 cohort and their tertiary destinations (university overwhelmingly, but also private colleges and TAFE), gradually unfold. This gradualness is partly because university offers are made in a succession of rounds over some months. It is a slow process also due to the International Baccalaureate Diploma remark system, where some students are able on appeal to boost their grades and therefore their ATARs. Our latest iteration of results and destinations (probably close to the final outcome) can be found here.
Please do take the trouble to open this link. It contains wonderful news on fabulous outcomes of this group of lovely young graduates, together with interviews which reveal the diversity of interests and passions amongst even just a few of Year 12, 2019. 

An analysis of the tertiary destinations of our students indicates the following categorisations of offers:

• Sciences – 55 (including Medicine, Pharmacy, Health Sciences, Psychology, Marine Biology, Podiatry, Nutritional Science, Nursing)
• Humanities – 38
• Business / Commerce – 30
• Engineering – 22
• Music – 13
• Media & Communication – 9
• Education – 9
• International & Global Studies – 7
• Design & Fine Arts – 6
• Law – 5
• Built Environment (Architecture, Construction, Property) – 5
• Information Technology – 4

It should be noted these figures are related just to public universities in NSW and its hinterland and do not include interstate universities, early entry offers, private universities or colleges, and excludes most ANU offers due to their early entry processes. 

In each year group, the trend is different. In 2019, it was much more heavily towards the Sciences and Engineering, rather than as we have seen in the past, Law and International Studies.  Universities making offers included UTS (45), UNSW (37), Sydney University (35), Macquarie University (24), Wollongong University (11). It is very heartening to see our young graduates moving on to such encouraging and enriching pathways.

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg at SACS!

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg is the best known adolescent psychologist in Australia. Previously, he was Professor of Psychology at Melbourne University, but these days spends most of his time speaking in schools and on the media. He has a powerful protective message for parents and students. He is under enormous demand. Approximately every five years we engage him at SACS for a new generation of students and parents. Last time we did so, his evening address filled the Cathedral, with around 650 parents in attendance. 

Dr Carr-Gregg will be here at SACS on Monday 25 May speaking to student groups during the day and to parents in the evening. The area we will ask him to address is teenage anxiety, stress and depression. This expertise does not come cheaply! We are providing it for the benefit of parents and students as part of our attempt to comprehensively care for our people, and the school is absorbing the cost. You may like to make a booking in your diary. 

Our intention is to address the apparent tsunami of mental health issues which are afflicting young people across the Western world. Our desire is to help our students apply the biblical precedent of letting anxiety go. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7. We are not assuming there is an easy fix, which is why we have invited an expert clinician to assist. This is a meeting not to be missed! It is relevant not just to those who have teenagers now, but to our Junior School and Gawura parents who will have teenagers soon.

The last time Dr Carr-Gregg came, parents found him extremely helpful. I always invite him to bring a set of his books to sell to parents. His only problem is not being able to carry sufficient quantity. As the date approaches, we will provide more detail on the exact topic and presumably arrangements through TryBooking. 

All of these arrangements of course presume that in terms of current pandemic concerns, we will be able to at that stage of the year to conduct large public meetings.

Coronavirus

As parents will be aware through email contact, the school is attempting to manage the international Coronavirus crisis through the best of caution and protective measures. We are responding to the daily briefings from NSW Health, who, at the time of writing have placed emphasis on personal hygiene through regular hand washing, and on regular scrubbing down within the school of door handles and other surfaces most likely to be touched during the school day. 

We have sought advice from NSW Health and a summary on virus transmission risks is:

• The virus is spread through contaminated droplets spread by coughing or sneezing, or by contact with contaminated hands, surfaces or objects
• The virus is not airborne and therefore the risk of it transferring through air conditioning is very low
• Most COVID-19 cases appear to be spread from people who have symptoms
• The virus is spread from someone with coronavirus to close contacts with that person
• Close contact is someone who has been face to face (less than 1.5 metres) for at least 15 minutes, or been in the same closed space for at least 2 hours
• The best prevention is basic hygiene - cleaning hands thoroughly with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub, covering nose/mouth with a flexed elbow or tissue when coughing and sneezing, avoiding close contact with anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms.

Currently, we have one Year 12 student still quarantined in China and one who has recently returned from Japan also undergoing temporary exclusion. Overseas tours which this year were to go to China, Japan and Italy (amongst other European destinations), have unfortunately needed to be cancelled. Should the school need to undertake on advice any further measures, we will keep parents informed. 

The question arises as to what approach parents should take where they have travelled from countries where infections have spread in considerable numbers of cases. These include China, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Italy. We request that such parent travellers do not come to school for 14 days after returning to Australia. Their children, who live in the same household but have not been to those countries, should only be excluded from school for a quarantine period if the parents with whom they are in close contact are displaying flu like symptoms. 

Some parents have indicated they would like their children to come to school for the time being in masks. Our information from NSW Health is that masks are currently not necessary unless one is dealing extensively with an infected person. However, if parents wish to maintain this precaution with their own children, the school has no objection.

International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme

It was lovely to be able to present our Year 11 students with their MYP certificates from last year, and it was very pleasing that so many parents were in attendance at this special assembly. The magnitude of the occasion should not be underestimated. No Australian state or territory any longer has a Year 10 credential. Our Year 10 students from 2019 have an international credential, which will be something special and extra in their portfolio for their futures. 

While all our students need their graduation from this demanding programme celebrated, it is right to point out that some of our students gained Grade 7 in one or more subjects. As this is the highest grade available, these are truly world class qualifications, as the IB is taught in 157 countries.

Welcome to Country

We have commenced to use a new form of words in our Welcome to Country. This new Welcome was written by an Aboriginal elder in our school community. It has been approved and advocated by GPAC (Gawura Parents Advisory Committee). It brings together the school’s Christian foundations with our acknowledgement of and respect for our Indigenous Peoples.

Old Andreans Association Executive

Our OAA is a critical organisation in maintaining our longitudinal links with our SACS community. They do wonderful work. In recent years, the executive has been in the hands of undergraduates, currently all under 40 years of age, with many under 25. This is helpful in that they have the contacts with recent graduates and are therefore able to network to the effect of extensive OAA activity. This by no means minimises the value of involving older graduates. It is simply a mechanism for not letting our recent Year 12 students drift away from the school. 

At last week’s Annual General Meeting, the following people were elected: 

• Matt Noble OA2005 - President
• Lynley Hurst OA2013 - Vice President & Secretary
• Mika Rosewarne OA2016 - Treasurer
• Chris Turner OA2009 - Public Officer
• Claire Darwell OA2015 - Councillor
• Kath Thomas OA2018 - Councillor
• Jack Toohey OA2010 - Councillor
• Will Torney OA2017 - Councillor
• Layla Harris OA2019 - Councillor

We are all grateful for the goodwill, energy and indeed dynamism of these very committed SACS people.

Honour for SACS staff member

In the last week, our Leader of Learning Gifted Education in the high school, Mrs Estee Stephenson, has received two honours. She has appeared on the Dean’s list for Excellence in her Master of Education Studies (Gifted Education) at the University of NSW, and has received a favourable response to publication of an article on gifted education from one of the leading educational journals. Congratulations Ms Stephenson!

Dr John Collier
Head of School

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

How to Manage Screen Time at Home

One of the reasons the School moved from iPads to Microsoft Surface Pros this year was to reduce student reliance on devices, particularly for recreational use. The increased restrictions on the new devices have meant that the devices are being primarily used for school work rather than social media, browsing, videos and games.

Research has shown that high rates of screen time for children with low social interaction can contribute to isolation, anxiety, unhappiness and depression (Twenge, J. iGen. 2017). We want our students to have a balance at school and at home. The Australian Institute of Family Studies’ Growing Up in Australia longitudinal study of Australian Children 2015 Report stated that 12-13 year olds screen time is 3+ hours per weekday and 4+ hours per weekend day. The Australian Parents Council and the Australian Government recommends 5-17 year olds home screen time should be less than 2 hours per day.

The Royal Children’s Hospital of Melbourne’s Child Health Poll (which regularly surveys 2000 households with children) found that 43% of all children regularly use screen based devices in bed and 26% have reported to have sleep problems related to screen use. Half of parents do not place any limits on screen time.

In a recent update, Apple and Android introduced a new Screen Time feature that enables parents to monitor and control the screen time of members in their Family Sharing group. I personally use this at home and can strongly recommend it. It is helpful to limit your child’s use of certain apps per day (eg. social media and games to an hour) and shut down the phone and/or iPad from 7pm – 6am. Your child can send you a request for more time (eg. an extra 15min, hour, etc). You can see the Apple Screen Time instructions here and the Android Screen Time instructions here. We still recommend that parents monitor their child’s laptop use and ensure devices are not kept in their child’s room at bedtime.

Surface Pros in the Classroom

Over the last two weeks, Leaders of Learning and Executive staff have been visiting every secondary school teacher to watch them teach and provide them feedback. It has been extremely interesting, encouraging and exciting to see the learning happening in classes. Students are using many different learning strategies such as collaboration, inquiry, and higher order thinking to solve problems and engage in new learning. Our focus for the last few years on Prof John Hattie’s Deliberate Teaching and Learning (which has a very high effect size for student learning) is evident in our classroom visits. Hattie states in his book Visible Learning (2012), “The teacher decides the learning intentions and success criteria, makes them transparent to the students, demonstrates them by modelling, evaluates if they understand what they have been told by checking for understanding, and re-telling them what they have been told by tying it all together with closure.”

Teacher and student use of the new Surface Pro laptops has been impressive. Teachers and students are using One Note to not only organise their work but also collaborate and easily share resources. Students are using their styluses in sophisticated ways to draw, design, solve maths problems, create virtual grid or lined pages, use ink to text recognition and use virtual rulers and maths tools to measure and draw. The stylus also allows students to rapidly change pen colours and highlighters to emphasise their work. Some students are using dark mode to make screen use easier on their eyes. It is interesting to watch students in class picking up tips from classmates in using shortcuts and different tools to make their work easier and quicker to produce. Year 7 students are picking up quickly how to use email to communicate with teachers and One Drive to safely store their work.

My thanks to Mrs Pip Hoermann (Head of Innovation and Enterprise), the IT Department, IT Integrators and classroom teachers for ensuring this new technology is working seamlessly in the classroom and is helping students learn in so many ways.

Jewellery at school

A reminder of the following from the school diary: “Boys are not permitted to wear earrings, piercings or any form of jewellery. Girls may wear a single pair of pierced earrings in the lobe only; they need to be of a small sleeper or simple stud style; no other jewellery is acceptable. The wearing of rings, bangles, bracelets and necklaces or other items of jewellery is not permitted. No visible body piercings are permitted for either boys or girls; including tongue studs – this includes clear studs or stoppers.” Students not following uniform rules will be corrected and may face a range of consequences including detentions, exclusion from classes or being sent home.

Blazers now mandatory

As temperatures are now milder, students have been instructed that they must wear blazers to and from school and between buildings.

Mr Brad Swibel
Deputy Head of School (Secondary)

Welcome to what looks to be an exciting year of Service Learning opportunities at SACS! My roles as 7-12 Service Learning Coordinator is to grow and facilitate service learning activities in our academic, pastoral and extra-curricular spheres. I work alongside teachers and students to provide spaces and opportunities for exhibiting hearts that love, minds that grow and lives that give. Everything we do for others is modelled on Jesus, the epitome of a life of service – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Mark 10:45.

We seek to embed service learning opportunities across the curriculum in meaningful and authentic ways. Service learning takes many forms: learning about issues; action; projects; community engagement; and advocacy. For example, MYP demonstrate that they actively engaged. They record their service through their tutorial Schoology pages each term. Students can choose from a range of in-school service opportunities, and/or participate in service activities outside of the school. Our Year 11 and 12 IB students complete CAS projects with the support of their teachers, enabling them to explore the world outside of the formal in-class curriculum. Our HSC students are often the first to volunteer for various House charity events and undertake a range of service activities integrated within their subject disciplines.

In 2020, our SACS Partner Organisations are:

• Anglicare – including local services Rough Edges and One1Seven Church - https://www.anglicare.org.au/
• Anglican Aid - https://anglicanaid.org.au/
• The Indigenous Literacy Foundation - https://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/

Our partnership with Anglicare is longstanding and a core part of service learning at SACS. Our Annual Bake-Off raised over $4100 this year for Rough Edges – a fabulous effort on the part of all students who baked, decorated and supported the SACS Houses to enable Rough Edges to continue its valuable outreach to the Sydney homeless community. Senior Students are able to volunteer to help out with Rough Edges and/or One1Seven Church preparing and serving food to people who are homeless. They can contact Mrs Burgess or Mrs Chakarovski for further information. In addition, the High Schools Sleep Rough is open to all students Years 10-12 this year. This event raises money for Rough Edges and affords students an insight into what life is like for those who are doing it tough.

There are a host of other service learning opportunities this year including:

• MS Eco Club on Monday lunchtimes
• MS Just Knits on Tuesday lunchtimes
• Year 10 Community Service Week
• Canterbury and St Paul’s Take Love initiative
• Year 7 and 8 Term 4 Tutorial Service
• Sydney Climate Action Summit: Student dialogue forum on climate change (student applications to attend are open 31 March and due to Mrs Skipsey by 17 March – email eskipsey@sacs.nsw.edu.au for details)

And excitingly our new partnership with Anglican Aid has kicked off! We’re currently looking at options to run an overseas service trip in 2021 with Anglican Aid, likely to Nepal, to visit their project partners and learn what it is like to be involved in development initiatives on the ground.

I look forward to walking alongside and learning along with our students as we all grow our hearts and minds and enrich the lives of those around us.

Lizzie Skipsey
K-12 Service Learning Coordinator

Save the date

Annual Showcase Concert - Sydney Town Hall

The 2020 Showcase Concert - Into The Light - will be held in Sydney Town Hall on Tuesday 23 June starting at 6:30pm. This concert will feature most secondary music ensemble students, the Junior School choir, all of Year 7, and all elective Music students.

Inaugural Showcase Concert fanfare competition

Students in Years 5-12 are invited to compose a brass fanfare for our 2020 Showcase Concert in Town Hall. The fanfare must be written in standard music notation and must be written for two trumpets, French horn, trombone, and tuba or bass trombone. The instrumentation could also include organ and/or percussion. The fanfare should be one minute or less, and should represent the 2020 Showcase Theme of “Into the Light” in a creative, musical way. Interested students should email Dr Watson for further information, and submissions should be emailed to Dr Watson: cwatson@sacs.nsw.edu.au by Friday 1 May (Term 2, Week 1). The winning submission will be performed at the start of the Showcase Concert in Sydney Town Hall!
 

Dr Christian Watson
Director of Performing Arts

Dance and Drama news

Theatresports Update:

Rolls Closing: Theatresports is now in full swing, and we need to finalise our roll for 2020. If you have been thinking about joining Theatresports, but have not yet committed, you have until the end of Week 7 (this week) to get on the roll for your age group. If you are not on the roll by the end this week, you will not be considered for the competitive team in Term 2. Regular attendance will be required to ensure our teams have the best chance of success in the competitions next term.

How do I get on the roll? Just turn up to S540 on the appropriate nights from 3:30-5pm.

Just as a reminder, The Junior Team, (Years 7 & 8), will train on Mondays. Students in Years 9-12 can now elect either Tuesday or Thursday for training. This will avoid conflicts some of you may be experiencing with other events around the school. You must choose one of the two nights and need stick to the one you choose- you cannot change from week to week. Once you have committed to a training day you will be expected to regularly attend that afternoon, however, you can elect to also visit the other afternoon if you wish to do extra training, (with the permission of the teacher on the day.)

Theatresports is open to all SACS students- there are no auditions. Just show up on your appropriate day to be added to the roll.

We hope to see you there!!

Ryan Desaulnier
Leader of Learning - Dance and Drama

ISA Finals

Basketball

Four SACS teams featured on grand final day at the Penrith Basketball Stadium. It was an amazing day of basketball with the SACS teams Girls 1st V, Intermediate Girls, 14A Boys and the 15B Boys all winning their games to be ISA Champions.

Play opened with the Intermediate Girls team up against St Paul's. The Inters had a disjointed start to 2020, missing games in the first two weeks of 2020 due to heat and then rain but they still managed to finish at the top at the end of the regular rounds. They had lost their last meeting with St Paul's but by full time on Saturday they had scored a 37-28 in a game where the result never seemed to be in doubt.

The 1st V Girls side was up next against the Blue Mountains side and despite some pre-match nerves they played an energetic and controlled game to win 21-11. The defence of the SACS team set the tone of the match and at half time they had limited the BMGS team to just 6 points and it was 10 minutes into the second half before their 8th point was scored.

The 14A boys were odds on favourite in their match up with Oakhill. This SACS team had been undefeated in two seasons but the Oakhill side had a game plan which challenged and gave them a big chance of an upset. The Oakhill side led early and maintained their lead until the second half. SACS finally found the lead, but the Oakhill side kept up the pressure. With 1.6 seconds to go Oakhill were down by three and a three point attempt, which would have seen the game draw, bounced off the inside of the rim. SACS won 34-31.

The final game of the day was the 15B boys. Despite finishing fourth in the regular season the 15B side had knocked off the top placed side in the semi finals to find themselves in the final. The SACS team took the lead in this game early but scores remained tight throughout. It was a close contest and across the board the SACS players worked hard through to the final whistle (a never-say-die mentality was a feature of their game all season). I think all of the SACS supporters were holding their breath when the full-time came and SACS had won by a single point (24-23).

Congratulations and well done to all of the players and coaches for their efforts throughout the season.

Softball

This softball season has been an exciting one, with our junior girls coming in 4th to secure their spot in the semi-finals. It was fantastic to see such a positive, supportive and enthusiastic group of girls on the field, most of whom had never played softball before this season. Having gone down to Oxley College last week, the girls knew they had a tough game ahead in the semi. The girls had a fantastic game, only losing by 1 point to Oxley College! The girls should be extremely proud of their efforts this season and I look forward to seeing you all back in softball next season.


Mountain Biking

On the weekend, rain caused the cancellation of the season ending MTB race, with the team training in the gym instead.

The summer Mountain Bike competition is the largest regular schools competition in the country. There is a very high standard with Australian representatives competing in these races. During the season SACS riders obtained some encouraging results in their respective age groups. Congratulations to Phoenix Ringma-Ward, Oli Montague, Rene Liu, Robin Luo, George Giese and Nick Hole for top 20 results.
 

Lauren Archer
Sports Administrator

Code Like A Girl – Let’s Get Ethical

On Wednesday 26 February, I attended, along with three of my peers, a seminar organised by Code Like a Girl, a social enterprise aiming to “provide girls and women with the confidence, tools, knowledge and support to enter and flourish in the world of coding.” This would be an interesting opportunity to explore and discuss issues surrounding ethics and gender equality within the technology industry, but none of us really knew what to expect or what was in stall for us that evening.

We arrived to behold an array of snacks (including lemon slice!) which I think had us hooked from the beginning. However, while the appeal of the food provided was immense, we were all enraptured by the thought-provoking and intriguing debate that would ensue for the following two hours. The format was simple and highly effective – there were two teams of three representatives who held roles in companies relating to technology. There were three statements that would be debated over the course of the event by these representatives; both the positives and negatives of a situation would be explored before they handed over to the public (us) who were able to share their views, contribute to the argument and ask questions. It was, really, quite beautiful to watch – how the debates would go off on eloquent and stimulating tangents which sparked the development of more ideas. The diverse group of people attending this seminar allowed in turn for diverse concepts to be explored. Indeed, I was given the chance to link my own knowledge from History class to one of the statements discussed. In short, people were willing to contribute, and others were willing to listen, so that there was a reciprocation of debates.

It is right to say that all of us were very grateful for the opportunity to listen to and reflect upon why technology is so important in our day-to-day lives, and the challenges that come with using and relying on it. Technology is for everyone, and therefore stigma surrounding who should and shouldn’t work in the industry must be eradicated.

If you are interested in attending an event like this, or in further exploring Code Like a Girl, visit their website to learn about upcoming seminars. I would highly recommend it!

Keira Sparshott
Year 9

The Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad

In Week 6, 32 excited Year 9 – 11 students competed in OzCLO. They worked in teams of four to use computational thinking skills such as pattern recognition to work out grammar structures and vocabulary in unfamiliar languages and dialects. If you are interested, have a look at the 2019 paper for an example of the sorts of activities they completed. The students had a lot of fun participating in this competition, and we look forward to receiving their results shortly! Congratulations to all for maintaining focus and energy for four hours of gruelling puzzling.

Upcoming Competitions and Excursions

Built Environment Design Thinking Challenge for High School Students

• Who: 4 x Year 9 students, 4 x Year 11 students
  What: https://events.humanitix.com.au/designthinkingforhighschool
• When: Friday 20 March, 9am – 3:15pm
• Cost: Free
• How: Students complete this form to express interest in this challenge and justify why they are a valuable team member. The four best entries from Year 9 and from Year 11 will be selected to participate in the excursion. Entries due by 8:30am Monday 16 March.

STEM Video Game Challenge

• Who: 5 – 12
• What: https://www.stemgames.org.au/
• When: Submissions due in July
• Cost: Free
• How: Form a team of 3 to 5 and go to Innovation Club (Tuesday 3:30 – 5pm, S426)

Pip Hoermann
Head of Innovation and Enterprise

Photographic and digital media adventures

Year 9 PDM students ventured across the bridge to Darling Harbour during a recent lesson to snap the surrounding sights. The students documented examples of texture, tonal contrast, movement and leading lines in preparation for an upcoming task on compositional strategies. They experimented with DSLR cameras and went to great lengths to capture the perfect shot.

Bronwyn Zucker
Head of Winchester House, Visual Arts and Design Teacher

Buying and selling 2nd hand uniforms

At the Uniform Store, we have a wide range of pre-loved uniform items in great condition at very reasonable prices.

Many of these have been donated by generous SACS families and the proceeds from the sale of these items go to the School Foundation which supports Gawura School and the Heath Bursary Fund.

Alternatively we can sell uniform items on your behalf on a consignment basis. You must ensure that your consignment items are current uniform and in good condition. Blazers MUST be dry cleaned and all items must be cleaned, ironed, no stains, no paint, missing buttons, rips or tears etc. Please bring your items into the uniform store so one of the staff can assess them and complete the paperwork with you.

When you need uniform items for your child, save money and recycle by taking a look at our second hand uniforms.

Larissa Taylor
Uniform Shop Manager

The T&L Model is at the centre of practice that demonstrates Quality Teaching at SACS.

For every classroom, there are essentially three TEACH elements in the T&L Model:

• Instruction (conveying factual knowledge and demonstrating how an expert thinks).
• Practice (setting exercises to make it stick) and
• Feedback (providing information about students’ progress towards a goal).

This week, I am outlining the component of Instruction:

1. Teachers will check prior learning. This is because connecting lessons to prior knowledge supports mastery learning in our SACS classrooms.
2. Focus the lesson. As discussed last newsletter, teachers are using Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for orienting students towards the learning focus.
3. Teach expanded vocabulary. Students need to move from “basic” vocabulary to “explicit” and “specialist” vocabulary at all levels. Ask your children about new words, definitions and language they are learning in each classroom.
4. Explain and model. At SACS, we know that new learning is best acquired through clear explanation and worked examples or models of what we want students to produce. A WAGOLL (“What A Good One Looks Like”) sets the standard for the quality of work for students.
5. Questioning. We want our SACS students to engage in dialogue and questioning, as this deepens understanding and knowledge. Teachers are using and modelling factual, conceptual, and debatable questions for students in SACS classrooms.

The role of parents and carers:
Parental/carers' encouragement and support for learning activities at home combined with parental/carers' involvement in schooling is continuing to be found as a critical element to children’s education, and we are thankful for your support of your childs’ learning at SACS with continued conversations about Learning Intentions, Success Criteria and WAGOLLs.

Mrs Kirsten Macaulay
Director of Teaching

Just Knits is a lunchtime club open to all Middle School students who want to flex their creativity and contribute to knitting blankets for Anglicare to give to aged care facilities and families in need. It’s a fantastic service learning opportunity that runs each term and allows students to gain knitting skills, enjoy friendly chats with their peers, and to make a difference in the wider community. All the materials are provided and no prior skill is needed.

Lizzie Skipsey
K-12 Service Learning Coordinator

Sometimes the big issues of the world seem so mountainous that change looks impossible, but we know that every single student at SACS can be change makers and the leaders of the future. All Middle School students are invited to attend Eco Club on Monday lunchtimes in S426 near the Middle School Level 4 Library. Each term we create a project/s and work alongside the staff, students and community of SACS to make a difference in the world. What a great way to learn about and care for our world!

Lizzie Skipsey
K-12 Service Learning Coordinator

Gawura Cocktail Party

It’s your last chance to book for the Gawura cocktail party on Friday night. Bookings are open for another two days. In addition to seeing our students perform, if you’re at the cocktail party you can bid on wonderful items donated by Qantas, the cast of School of Rock and the NRL and AFL football clubs that our Gawura students support.

Please book here.

We hope to see you, but if you can’t attend you can head online to support our students by donating before the event. Click on ‘Book Now’ for a list of items you can donate towards to support our Gawura students.

Come along and support Gawura through our live auction and wishing fishing nets. Musical performances by Gawura students 

Event details:

• Date: Friday 13 March
• Time: 6:30pm to 9:30pm
• Venue:  Macquarie Group. Level 10, 50 Martin Place, Sydney 
• Cost: $110 per head 
• Dress:  Cocktail 

For further information please contact Catherine Gunning - cgunning@sacs.nsw.edu.au or at  9009 5465.

Please come along to our first General Meeting for the year to be held in the Community Hub 6pm on Tuesday 10 March 2020. As always, there will be a little wine and cheese and the opportunity to hear about a number of plans for 2020. Attending P&F meetings is a fabulous way of getting to know other parents from the school and to get involved in various events and endeavours!

• To see the full Agenda, please click here: 10 March 2020 P&F General Meeting Agenda
• For the minutes of the last General Meeting (November 2019), please click here: November 2019 P&F General Meeting Minutes.

Event details:

• Date: Tuesday 10 March
• Time: 6pm 
• Venue: Community Hub, Level 4, St Andrew's House

*Due to an overwhelming and unprecedented response we have had to close bookings for this yearly event.  We are sorry if you have missed out on purchasing tickets but you can still enter our guessing competition to win your own weekend (one night and two days) at Kirrikee for a group of 10.

All you have to do is answer the question : What is the name of Kirrikee’s local Rural Fire Brigade.

• 1 entry for $5 or 5 entries for $20
• Click here to enter.

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE PENROSE RURAL FIRE SERVICE

As part of our desire to support and recognise the needs of our gifted and talented students and their families, St Andrew’s Cathedral School is hosting a special information evening in Gifted Awareness Week that is aligned with the¬ 2020 national theme of 'Wellbeing - a no limits approach'.

Our keynote speaker is Kathryn Taylor, an educator and careers coach with 20 years of professional experience working across many sectors. Her talks and professional development sessions help individuals identify their potential and become motivated to reach that potential.

Kathryn will speak to parents about the wellbeing of gifted students, focusing on strengths as a reflection of their skills and the challenges of perfectionism and negative self-esteem in areas where they have not yet achieved mastery. Parents should walk away with two or three strategies that help address low self-esteem and perfectionism in their gifted child.

This session will be followed by a Q&A panel, which will answer questions on the gifted education program and wellbeing program at St Andrew’s Cathedral School.

Event details:

• Date: Thursday 19 March 2020
• Time: 5.30pm for a 6pm start, 7.30pm finish
• Venue: Heath Centre, Level 5, St Andrew’s House
• RSVP: To register your interest in attending our Gifted Awareness Week event, please book by March 6 2020

Our guest speaker is Two-time Olympic 5000m and 10,000m finalist Eloise Wellings.

Eloise is a highly regarded motivational speaker who will share her amazing story of overcoming adversity to become one of Australia’s most enduring and celebrated athletes.

Students must wear full school uniform.

Event details:

• Date: Friday 20 March, 6pm
• Tickets: $75 per person (three-course meal)
• Venue: The Foundation Room, TAG Family Foundation, Grandstand, Level 3, Oval Number 2.

Jane Eyre is a dynamic re-imagining of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece by The National Theatre UK. This vivid adaptation uncovers one woman’s fight for liberty on her own terms. From her humble beginnings as a destitute orphan, Jane Eyre’s spirited heroine faces life’s obstacles head-on, surviving poverty, injustice and betrayal to find her place in an unrelenting context with resilience and hope. Newcomers and Brontë-holics will be amused and moved by this powerful Drama.

Please come and enjoy this production at the ARA Darling Quarter Theatre.

Event details:

• Performance dates: Thursday 26 March
  Friday 27 March
  Saturday 28 March
• Performance times:
  Thursday and Friday Matinee – 11.15 am
  Saturday Matinee – 2.00 pm
  Thursday – Saturday Evening Performances 6.30pm
• Venue: ARA Darling Quarter Theatre, Terrace 3, 1-25 Harbour St, Sydney NSW 2000.

Students, parents and alumni are invited to join the Old Andreans Association for ZERO iN: Gender and Work, the first in a series of interactive breakfast panel discussions hosted by the OAA on important issues facing young people today.

At the inaugural panel event, Old Andrean moderator  Anthony Segaert will be joined by Gabrielle Trainor AO, a non-executive director of entities including Infrastructure Australia, Zurich Insurance and the AFL Commission. She is a former lawyer, journalist and an inaugural GWS Giants board member;  Nikki Gemmell - best-selling author of more than 15 books and columnist for the Weekend Australian magazine; and Andrew Stevens, Chairman of Innovation & Science Australia and the Consumer Data Right, a founding member of Male Champions of Change, a group of CEOs and Directors working to make gender equality a reality.

Event details:

• Date: Monday 6 April
• Time: 7.30am 
• Venue: BBC Auditiorium, Senior College campus, 51 Druitt St
• Cost: Free