Welcome to our very last Message Stick for 2018. Our students and staff have had a wonderful year together filled with both academic and cultural learning. Listening to the staff mention every student’s name and the progress they have made throughout the year reminds us teachers why we love our job so much. Watching a student gain in competence in both literacy and numeracy is very fulfilling but also watching them grow and how they navigate socially and their ability to solve issues and become thoughtful citizens is also very rewarding.

Our two Year 6 graduates Kayliah and Torey had a lovely Graduation Evening on Friday November 23 along with over 80 of their fellow Year 6 classmates. We wish Kayliah and Torey all the very best as they move into Year 7 in the secondary school here at St Andrew’s. We will still see lots of these two fine young ladies as Gawura will be involved in excursions including our second On Country Tour.

Thank you to all the parents and carers who attended our Junior School and Gawura Awards Assembly last Wednesday. It is lovely to celebrate your child’s success here at school from their fine efforts during the year.

Last Friday we were invited to Grill’d in Crown St, Darlinghurst to have a hamburger lunch by the manager Jordan. Gawura is a recipient of the Local Matters Community Donation program which Grill’d run. We were fortunate to receive the highest months’ worth of bottle tops from the customers at Grill’d which saw our school receive a cheque and Jordan presented to us last Friday. Our Gawura students were superbly behaved and wonderful ambassadors for our school.

Just a reminder that this Wednesday December 5 is the Junior School and Gawura Picnic Day where our students can wear their usual sports uniform. No lunch orders will be taken this day so please pack your child’s lunch this Wednesday. The students will be going to Centennial Park and you are invited to join us too if you can. Thursday December 6 is our last day of school for 2018 and will finish with Carols in the Cathedral from 2-3pm. Students will need to wear school uniform this day and you are also invited to come along and sing some Christmas carols with us.

Finally thank you to all of our wonderful parents, carers, volunteers and donors in our community. Together we have a wonderful program happening in our Gawura School which is only going to grow and prosper further into the future. I’d like to thank our teaching staff, Mrs Price, Mrs Gibbs, Ms Stevens, Ms Ferguson for all their dedication and hard work this year and also wish Mrs Naden all the very best at Calrossy Anglican School in Tamworth next year. I also would like to personally thank you all for your support throughout this year as well. Our students are wonderful and it is a real pleasure and privilege to work alongside you all in partnership in educating these fine, young and proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders of the future.

May you all have a blessed and peaceful Christmas and a safe and wonderful holiday throughout December and January. School will resume for Kindergarten on Tuesday January 29, 2019 and for Years 1-6 on Wednesday January 30, 2019.

Mr John Ralph
Head of Gawura

Want more photos?

For more pictures, please visit the Gawura Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pg/gawura.sacs/photos/

Student Representative Council Activities

The School Representative Council have nominated assisting drought affected farmers for our Term Four Junior School fundraising. NSW farmers are entering their sixth summer of drought and on Friday 30 November the Junior School will be hosting a "Fiver for a Farmer" event in support of them.

Students who donate $5 may come to school wearing a farming associated costume. Some suggested ideas include:

• Cowboy/Cowgirl
• Scarecrows
• Straw hats
• Farm animals
• Checked shirts and jeans
• Fruit/vegetable

Junior School students who participate must bring their $5 on the day of the event. All clothing must be modest, appropriate and contain no offensive slogans. No thongs or singlets. Students must wear closed in shoes.

Mr Daniel Murray
Stage 3 Classroom Teacher
SRC Coordinator

Gawura School and Junior School Student Leaders 2019

Congratulations to the following students who will represent the Junior School and Gawura in their capacity as leaders for 2019

Leadership Team in 2019

• Gawura Junior School: Mariah Keegan
• Junior School Captain: Bianca Zhu
• Junior School Captain: Aiden Carey
• Junior School Vice Captain: Jamie Spittle
• Junior School Vice Captain: Oscar Dance
• Music Captain: Ilia Campbell
• Drama Captain: Thea Sholl

House Captains

• Canterbury House Captain: Cydney Sadler
• Durham House Captain: Charlie McCabe
• Hereford House Captain: William Fife
• Salisbury House Captain: Freddie Cobb
• St Paul's House Captain: Orlando Lennon
• Westminster House Captain: Emily Dries
• Winchester House Captain: Charles Gunning
• York House Captain: Edie Swibel

As the semester and year concludes we have pleasure in presenting your child’s Semester Two Report for 2018. The teachers have assessed your child’s work across each of the Key Learning Areas of the curriculum.

Reports will be emailed this week.

Comparative Reporting information for this semester is certainly available from the School (Year 1 to Year 6) to individual parents upon request.

If you would like to know how your child’s individual results compare to the grade, please contact the Junior School Reception and this information will be sent directly to you. The email contact to request comparative grades is jsreception@sacs.nsw.edu.au.

Our recommendation to parents is that if Comparative Reporting information is sought from the School, that such information is not shared with your child. Should you require any further explanation, or details regarding your child’s progress, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher initially.

Thank you for entrusting your child’s education to the Junior School at St Andrew’s Cathedral School. It is a privilege and pleasure to work with you and your child, and I thank you sincerely for your on-going and crucial contribution to our learning partnership.

What an amazing night of Celebration of Stars the Year Six Graduation was!

The stars were certainly out with the Heath Centre looking fantastic, thank you to all the mums and dads who helped with that. The students looked so grown up and were beautifully and handsomely dressed.

The assembly was, as always quite an emotional time for everyone...parents, students and staff. Year Six did Mrs Turner and Mr Millis proud by singing Hall of Fame amazingly.

Up into the Heath Centre for dinner and a disco which was enjoyed by all, everyone showing off their dance moves, DJ Edgg was an incredible hit. Thank you Edward for your fantastic DJ skills.
The evening was over in an instant it seemed, it really was a night to remember!

Joy Rohrlach
Stage 3 Coordinator

The School Representative Council nominated assisting drought affected farmers for our Term Four Junior School fundraising. NSW farmers are entering their sixth summer of drought and on Friday 30 November the Junior School hosted a "Fiver for a Farmer" event in support of them.

We have raised an impressive $1,900 for the drought affected NSW farmers. Money will be sent to "Drought Angels"  an organisation who provide very targeted relief assistance to farmers.

Mr Daniel Murray
Stage 3 Classroom Teacher
SRC Coordinator

You read it correctly! Thor and Batman travelled a long way from their comic book, graphic novel, film script, non-fiction, fiction and picture book appearances to meet our 2018 Premier’s Reading Challenge certificate recipients. They stayed long enough to protect the library from tyranny and have their photos taken with all our certificate recipients. Students have received copies of their photos with their PRC certificates and the video with all the photos is now showing in the library on the big screen. It was a fun way to celebrate our readers who also, in SACS and Gawura PRC tradition got to walk the red carpet at an assembly. Congratulations to all our students who joined in and proudly celebrated their reading and stood up as wonderful reading role models for the rest of our students. Thank you to all the family members who encouraged and supported over 170 SACS and Gawura students from K-9 this year. Equal thanks goes to all the staff and parents who joined in our 2018 Parent Teacher Challenge as reading role models too.

A message to students… keep reading because everything you read now counts towards your 2019 reading challenge! You could be finished it before the passwords even go out next year! Even if you’ve never joined in before, 2019 is your year to start.

Year 6 visit the Middle School Library

All our Year 6 students will visit the Middle School Library in their final library classroom lesson for the year. They will be introduced to the staff and collections available and even borrow for the holidays. It’s a wonderful and very different space to our little Junior School and Gawura Library. They can borrow more, eat their lunch, join the various clubs and activities running in the space and even play giant wall scrabble. All their favourite games and titles are available so they’ll not miss out on their comfort reads. Probably most popular though are the beanbags! Enjoy the Middle School facilities and thank you to all our year 6s who’ve loved and help make our little library a wonderful space. We’ll miss you, so pop in from time-to-time and say hello.

Holiday Borrowing from the library

Are you a good borrower? Are you an avid reader? Are you looking to keep up or even improve your reading level over the Christmas holidays? Then our library can help. We have holiday borrowing available over the Christmas holidays. If you have no overdue items, a good borrowing history and are returning to SACS and Gawura in 2019 (even into the secondary school) then you can double your usual borrowing limits.

Merry Christmas to all our students. I look forward to sharing more stories and facts with you all in 2019.

“Doctor Who: You want weapons? We're in a library. Books are the best weapon in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself! (from Tooth and Claw in Season 2)” ― Russell T. Davies

Svetlana Paul
Junior School and Gawura Teacher Librarian

High Jumper Cadel Holmes gets gold medal

Cadel Holmes Yr 5

Congratulations to Cadel Holmes who received a gold medal at the Australian School Athletics Championships in 10 years high jump! He’s officially the best 10 year old high jumper in the country! This is an incredible effort, which comes from hours of hard work and commitment from him and his family. Cadel always conducts himself extremely well while representing the school and we couldn’t be more proud of him and his efforts.

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

Loose, footloose kick of your Sunday shoes...well it was Saturday shoes on this occasion. On Saturday 1 December, 30 of our Year 5 students attended the Dance Sport competition at Homebush. Nervous excitement filled the foyer as we waited to be ushered to the dance arena. Each and every student put 100% into their performances and represented SACS with enthusiasm and impeccable behaviour. The students proudly cheered on their peers and the huge smiles indicated they all had a fantastic time. A special mention to Jamie and Orlando who placed 9th overall in the Cha Cha, and Felicity and Ben who placed 5th in both the Tango and The Waltz. A very big thank you to Miss Stephanie for her dedication in teaching Year 5 how to dance. Thank you to the parents who supported us throughout the event, we can’t wait for next year.

Mrs Claire Linnett
Year 5 Classroom Teacher

Music @ SACS

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Ensembles Evening on 16 November. What a wonderful showcase of the musical talent we have here at SACS. Huge thanks to Dr Watson, Mr Milis, Mr Oshiro, Ms Oh, Ms Chen, and Ms West for the enormous effort they provided on the night. Corralling children before their performances is not an easy job, especially when nerves are frayed. Thank you to Mrs Robson for her ongoing support of the Music programme and for attending our concert on a double-booked night.

Particular thanks and praise to Weng Kwong Mah and Sophia Craft, our Performing Arts Captains 2018, for running around ALL day trying to find members of orchestras and choirs to rehearse. They did not complain at all about having to take care of the children and showed true leadership qualities. They both shall be missed when they go into the Middle School.

Oscar Su in 3A recently undertook his piano exam in Grade 1, for which he received an award of Honours! Congratulations Oscar. This was his first exam and he showed diligence towards his preparation, and the result proves that hard work and preparation are key to success.

Aidan Carey (Year 5) has recently undertaken his Grade 5 AMEB exam for Speech and Drama - Voice and Communication and passed with High Distinction. It was a very entertaining program and we are obviously very pleased with his results.

David Kaploun (Year 6) recently undertook Grade 5 Oboe, and received the outstanding result of Honours. Darius Hopwood (5L) also undertook his 1st oboe exam and achieved an Honours result in Preliminary Grade. Congratulations to David and Darius!

We are slowly coming to a close in the Music department. In the last week, our children have performed in the Year 6 Farewell celebration, The JSGS End of Term Awards Assembly, and Carols in the Arcade. I am so proud of all the students who have participated in any musical performance and very grateful to all involved.

Still to come: Junior Choir only. They will be performing at the End of Year Celebration and Prize-giving Evening on December 4, as well as the Carols Service on December 6. Information for the End of Year Celebration has been sent home – please meet Mrs Turner at 6pm inside Town Hall, near the stage. Rehearsals will be conducted during the School Day.

I wish you all a peaceful and festive Christmas. Please take the time to refresh and enjoy some time with friend and family. Thank you to everyone for your support whilst Mrs Robertson has been on Maternity Leave and I know she will continue to share your successes with me.

Sarah Turner
Acting Leader of Learning Music Academic

2019 Music Information

Music Information 2019 for Years K-6

Please visit the Music folder to find all information relating to involvement in music at SACS in JSGS. This folder includes:

• a full Rehearsal Schedule (with details such as which instruments are in each ensemble; rehearsal days, rooms and times; minimum expected standards; audition requirements; and ensemble size limitations)
• an enrolment form for individual Music tuition on an instrument/voice
• the letter that was emailed to all K-5 parents last week concerning Music Ensemble changes in 2019, and information concerning how to be involved in Music ensembles in the JSGS
• Year 6 students moving up to Year 7 at SACS in 2019

Ensemble Enrolment for Year 7 2019

To enrol in high school Music ensembles for 2019, all students (new or continuing) must be enrolled online at the following links. This is only for high school ensembles.

Middle School Instrumental Ensembles (Year 7-9)
All Vocal Ensembles (Year 7-12)

Wednesday and Friday morning appointments offered to Gawura families

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.

Mr John Ralph
Head of Gawura

Benefits of an Evening Routine.

As this year comes to an end, this is the last of Parenting Tips for 2018. I hope you have been challenged to read through some thought provoking and yet simple tips and ideas helping us all navigate this gig called parenting!

Routines can take a bit of a siesta around now, so these ideas may be worth considering for a great start to 2019.

Keeping a regular routine is important for a lot of things, including for health reasons. Similarly, the Harvard Graduate School of Education has published a blog outlining how a predictable evening routine on school days can help create quality family time.

Here are some suggestions for parents, based on a two-hour routine:

• Begin by spending five to ten minutes discussing the day.
• Have children take out their homework, guide them in making a list of assignments, and ensure they have the supplies necessary to complete them.
• Eat dinner as a family; use conversation starters, such as ‘Would you rather live in the future or the past?’ to encourage table talk. Encourage good table manners; give thanks for the good things in your lives.
• Sit with the children as they complete their homework to ensure it gets done thoroughly.
• Allow 30 minutes for a bedtime routine, including reading with the children.
• Now not all these are doable in our busy lives, but they are certainly worth thinking about.
• GenerationNext has linked an article adding some other tips that could be included in the above suggestions.
• Put electronics away and out of reach after dinner.
• Instil a regular bedtime routine.
• Pull back on the crammed schedule.
• Teach time management

I hope you all have a truly wonderful and blessed Christmas with your family and friends. May your 2019 be a filled with much joy and happiness.

Joy Rohrlach
Stage 3 Leader

Summer Uniform Term 4

St Andrew’s Cathedral School is one of the most visible schools in NSW with students moving between buildings throughout the day, seniors visiting the Town Hall Arcade during lunch and over a thousand of our students catching public transport all over Sydney and beyond as they travel to and from school. Parents send their children to St Andrew’s because of its high standards in academic, pastoral care, co-curricular and Christian education. In turn, St Andrew’s has high expectations of students. Literature also shows that good uniform standards lead to reduced discipline problems, an increased sense of belonging and higher academic engagement and standards. It also shows pride in the school.

Summer uniform is to be worn from the beginning of Term 4, students have been reminded of our uniform standards.

Below is an outline of the topics that have been discussed:

Hair – to be neat and tidy. Hair cuts must be conventional and unlikely to cause comment. No shaved sections, no facial hair. Girls’ hair to be completely tied back; boys’ hair to be cut above the collar and eyebrows.

Shirts & Ties –shirts must be tucked in, top buttons done up and boys’ ties worn correctly at the neck. Shirt sleeves not to be rolled up.

Blazers – to be worn to and from School and between buildings. (If it is very hot, I will communicate to students a variation to this rule on the day)

Jewellery – no rings, bracelets, necklaces. Only one pair of earrings for girls - small sleepers or simple studs only. No other piercings allowed. No earrings for boys.

Makeup – no makeup or nail polish allowed.

Sport Uniform – students to wear SACS tracksuit/sports uniform to and from venues.

Shoes – black leather traditional school shoes. No casual style allowed. Please see student diary for allowable styles.

Socks – Boys must wear grey or black socks. Girls must wear white plain socks that sit above the ankle. Socklets are not allowed.

Skirts – skirt hems should be at the knee. Skirts must not be rolled.

Please be aware that these expectations and standards remain applicable to the very last day of the school year. For those who have summer uniform requirements, please contact Mr Ralph or the Uniform Store, on 9286 9547 for a fitting time.

Please label all new (and old) items of uniform.
The Uniform store normal Hours of Operation are:
Monday – Wednesday – Thursday  |  8am to 3.30pm

For details of end of year vacation care click here or go to https://www.sacs.nsw.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Summer-Holiday-Club-2018-2019.pdf

Uniform Store

For those who still have 2018 uniform requirements please contact the Uniform Store, on 92869547 for a fitting time. Remember that students in Kindergarten to Year 6 wear the same uniform so please label all items of uniform.

Mobile phone use

Older students, who travel to and from school on public transport and have a mobile phone, need to ensure that they are switched off during the school day and kept in school bags or handed to your child’s/children’s teacher each morning.

Health Centre

Please send in a note detailing any daily medication needs. Daily medication is to be dispensed by the School Nurse at the Sick Bay. Any medication to be dispensed by the School Nurse must be given to the nurse in its original box (containing the prescription label and your child’s name).

Absences

If your child/children are absent from school, I ask that you text or call Neal on 0439 653 334 or the Reception on 9286 9500 before 9am to notify us. The school requires a note from a parent or guardian explaining any absence from school.