A very big welcome back to all our families for Semester 2 this year. Thank you to all the Gawura families and friends who turned out for our NAIDOC Week Assembly in the last week of last term. The students were amazing and the cultural dances were stunning. It was also lovely to see the secondary students produce such lovely videos about their totems and families.

As part of our transition program to Year 7 our Gawura Year 6 students are now with their Year 6 Junior School buddy classes full time from this week. We had a special coffee in the hub meeting to discuss these changes and for our Gawura Year 6 parents to meet with the Junior School Year 6 staff who will be teaching their children. Our Gawura Year 6 students will still attend our Gawura cultural excursions and of course this year’s On Country Tour to Worimi Nation and the Murrook Cultural Centre located at Williamtown, just north of Newcastle. More information about this On Country Tour will be shared later in the term. It will run from Wednesday 20 November to Friday 22 November, later this year.

On Thursday 25 July our Year 2 students will be having their annual sleepover here at school. This is part of our Outdoor Education Program and the first camp that our Gawura students will experience while at school. Our students in Years 3 to 6 go to our school’s outdoor education centre called Kirrikee which is located in the Southern Highlands near Moss Vale. In this morning’s Gawura Gathering we asked students in Year 3 to 5 to share about their Year 2 sleepover experience and all the responses were very positive. Our Year 2 students are now quite excited for this coming Thursday’s sleepover.

Our next GPAC Meeting will be held on Tuesday 6 August from 2.00pm to 3.00pm. Please attend in person or you could click the online meeting link that is in the calendar invitation.

Our next round of Parent Teacher Interviews will also be on Tuesday 6 August. You would have received an email from our school with a specific unique code just for you, that allows you to log on and select the interview time of your choice for that day. Perhaps you may like to select parent teacher interview times either side of GPAC so that you could attend both.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholarship that our Gawura students receive also includes the technology fees that other students’ families across SACS, need to pay for. Although there is no cost for Gawura families to receive iPads for Kindergarten to Year 2 students and laptops for Years 3 to 6 students, any damage to these school technological devices will be charged to your account on top of the term tuition fee of $250. Our IT Department are very thorough in their records and keep a photo of any such damage. All students are responsible for their devices and keeping them in good working order. If this is an issue for any Gawura family, can I ask that you reach out to me please.

Finally, I would like to thank Gawura parents Alisha and Yileen for providing a wonderful and unique opportunity at our last Yarning Session With Parents which was held at the Rabbitohs High Performance Training Centre in Maroubra in June. Our parents were presented with the story behind this year’s Rabbitohs Indigenous jersey and what it means, and which Elders were responsible for its design. It was followed by a tour of the new facilities and a special meet and greet with Rabbitohs player Jack Wighton. Our school was also presented with this year’s Rabbitohs Indigenous jersey which is currently being framed, to be hung in the Gawura School Open Area.

May grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Mr John Ralph
Head of Gawura

What's happening in the Art Space?

Our 2024 Art Captains, Isabelle Wood and Sophie Lesnie-James, and faithful Art Monitors, Georgie Nicholas and Claire Lou are a wonderful and creative force in our Junior School Art Space. They give up many lunchtimes to serve us by designing, making and assisting with our key projects and special events. Recently they have been creating our Puppet Theatre for Kindy Puppet Shows.

We have also welcomed Mrs Naomi Ryman, our new Visual Arts Assistant, who is supporting all things creative and resource-based in our Art Space.

Textiles Co-curricular

During Term 1 and 2, with the expertise of Mrs Amelia Charles, our Textiles Co-curricular group has provided a cohort of Year 5 and 6 students to take up the challenge of designing and creating a garment using a sewing machine.

This project has given all students many opportunities to ovecome technical challenges, to learn patience, to work with precision and to persevere to completion!

Mrs Miriam Daly
Visual Arts Integrator Junior School and Gawura

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The holidays are a wonderful time to relax with a book and students were given the opportunity before the break to borrow double the usual number of books. We hope that these have been logged and most students are now complete or nearing completion of the Challenge before it closes in late August.

As of Monday 1 July, we have 150 Junior School and Gawura students who have completed the Challenge.

It is very exciting to report that we now have two Gawura classes who have completed the Challenge. In Term 1, 1/2GM completed the Challenge and they are now joined by KGP, who have all completed it too. Great work Mrs Price and KGP! Congratulations 
Riley Hansen, Miro Jarvis-Bowling, Christian Lesa, Blossom Maxwell, Camira Riley and Lydia Tagiwasa.

Congratulations to the following recent finishers:

Year 1
Caleb Blankfield
Beatrix Dearden

Year 3
Elise Atkins
Hadi Inaty

Year 4
Eleanor Bunmore
Antares Qi
 

Year 5
Ethan Poon
Rose Vitomir

Year 6
Annabelle Douglas
Parker Edwards
Charles Guo
Zara Ho-Shon
Mark Morgan
Montgomery Norris
Jude Payne-Clarke
Angus Sime
Alberto Tescaroli

To log books, please visit the link below, enter your username and password supplied in Term 1 at the beginning of the Challenge. If you are unable to locate this, please email me at: rcosentino@sacs.nsw.edu.au

Read More Challenge

Students who have completed the Premier's Reading Challenge are 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 most recent winners were Winnie Hong (pictured) in Year 6 and Carissa Wong in Year 1.

Both Winnie and Carissa showed their financial acumen by choosing box sets for their $25 prize money – bargain shoppers!

In Week 9 we held our final draw for the term and the winner was Veronika Kroslak in KN.

Teacher and Parent Reading Challenge

Modelling reading to our students and children is vital if we want them to grow up to be readers too. Our Teacher and Parent Reading Challenge is designed to encourage our children and students to see us as readers as well and take the time away from devices to learn something new or immerse ourselves in other worlds. 

The Teacher and Parent Reading Challenge supports this aim and I am pleased to report that we now have five teachers who have completed the Challenge by reading 10 books and colouring in their bookmark.

Congratulations to Mrs Sommer, Mrs Wake, Miss Vanny, Mr Kirk and Mrs Cosentino who have all completed the Teacher and Parent Reading Challenge so far. 

We would love to hear from parents who have completed the Challenge so we can celebrate them too.

NAIDOC Week

NAIDOC Week was held from 7-14 July this year. As it fell again during school holidays, our Library celebrated all of our First Nations people in Week 9 with a range of activities in the Library each lunch time with a focus on those First Nations People who are "Keeping the Fire Burning: Blak, Loud and Proud".

Accross NAIDOC Week, our students chose to learn about one of the people from Corey Tutt’s This Book Thinks Ya Deadly and wrote how they were keeping Aboriginal and Torres Islander culture and representation strong and proud.

We played Pirrha, a game from the Lake Eye women where the aim is to keep the ball rolling the longest – in our version, using paper plates!

During lunch, students played 'Eels and Chutes’, 'Aboriginal Tools Memory Match' and other card games.

Our final day of celebrations concluded with weaving bracelets and yarning about holiday plans.

Finally, we also held a competition for all students to match an information card to the picture of a First Nations person – First Nations "Who am I". The winner of this competition was Patricia Mundine in 1/2GM. Congratulations Patricia!

Save the date: Book Week 2024!

Book Week commences on Monday 19 August and concludes on Friday 23 August this year. The theme this year is ‘Reading is Magic’.

Save the date for our Book Character Parade and Book Fair! For more information, scroll down to the 'What's on: Upcoming events and activities' section of the newsletter. 

The Book Character Parade will be held in the Cathedral from 9am on Friday 23 August and the Book Fair will be open in Upper Chapter House from 10.15am until noon for parents and students to purchase books. 

We hope to see you there!

Write a Book in a Day

On Wednesday 26 June, selected students from Years 5 and 6 participated in The Kid's Cancer Project Write a Book in a Day Competition. As part of this event, students had to work in teams of 10 to write, illustrate, edit, and publish a full book of 1500-2500 words in one 12-hour period. The book had to meet a range of criteria and include specific elements that were only revealed on the day.

Not only does this competition challenge our creative writers, the teams raise money to support children's cancer research and their completed texts from the competition are donated to hospitals around Australia for children undergoing cancer treatment.

Our Year 5 team is called The Authentic Authors.
(Patrick Bloxsom, Idelia Cao, Willa Goyal, Olive Haoui, Winnie Hong, Leon Kenny, Sophie Kent, Pella Robson, Jonathan Wood and William Wu)

Our Year 6 team named themselves The 10 Little Writing Pigs.
(Aiden Bhuyan, Zac Collins, Annabelle Douglas, Bligh Jordan, Annie Liang, Koji Takamura, Genevieve Williams, Isabelle Wood, Vanessa Yang and Hannah Zhang)

The Authentic Authors created a book titled, The Missed Flight and the Mountain Climb, which tells the story of a young TV star who misses her flight home from boarding school for the Christmas holidays. The 10 Little Writing Pigs wrote their text, My Super Crazy, Panda Obsessed, Delusional Grandma, about a hilarious grandmother who gets lost and confused at a University Open Day for her grandson.

Both these texts are now available for borrowing at the Junior School Library, if you’d like to find out what happens next!

All funds raised by our teams go directly to The Kids’ Cancer Project to raise vital funds to support sick kids. If you would like to support our fundraising efforts, you can do so at the links below.

"Write a Book in a Day is one of my favourite academic events all year. Writing and planning all day is just so chaotic but fun at the same time, and you really learn how to work under pressure, write as a team and demonstrate leadership skills. You have less than 24 hours to write, edit, illustrate, and publish an entire book, which gets given to children in hospitals – a great cause to support. I really recommend any aspiring authors or illustrators give it a go in the future!" Vanessa Yang, 6L

"Write a Book in a Day was such a fun and exciting experience. It felt great to be working with my peers and donating money to such a good cause. I'd like to say a big thank you to all the teachers who worked very hard to plan and organise the fabulous day, we couldn't have done it without them." Annabelle Douglas, 6L

Congratulations to these students on their excellent achievement.

Mrs Rebecca Lord
Coordinator of Gifted and Talented Education, Junior School and Gawura

Bravo, Maestros!

Congratulations to Laura Wu (Year 1), Tynan McDonald (Year 2), Patricia Mundine (Year 2), Lucas Wu (Year 4) and Hugo Gilmovich (Year 5) who performed at the Sydney Youth Orchestra’s Winter Showcase, held at the Sir John Clancy Auditorium at the University of New South Wales on Saturday 22 June.

A number of our students also recently performed at The Metropolitan Orchestra (TMO) Junior Music Festival. Each performer played a piece of their choice in front of a large audience and received medals and reports. Bravo to Antares Qi (Year 4), Vera Yang (Year 4), Zachary Beck (Year 5) and Hugo Gilmovich (Year 5) for their performances.

Gabriella Lam and Hugo Gilmovich were recently involved in a workshop and performance with the Australian Haydn Ensemble at the Joan Sutherland Theatre in Penrith. Congratulations on your hard work and being part of this wonderful opportunity!

Aidan Martin recently participated in the Ryde Eisteddfod and won the Sacred Solo Combined U12/U16 section with his performance of Panis Angelicus. Congratulations Aidan and thank you to his tutor Chris Richardson on this wonderful success!

We would also like to acknowledge and congratulate the following students who have recently completed AMEB exams:

Shuichi Matsumoto – Piano Comprehensive Grade 3 – High Distinction.
Declan Wu – Violin Grade 4 – Credit.
Christopher Haoui – Violin Grade 1 – Credit.
Nathan Zhang – Piano Comprehensive Grade 1 – Credit.
Violet Pendlebury-Simmons – Speech and Performance Grade 4 – High Distinction.

Term 3 Ensembles

All Junior School Ensembles commence in Week 1. We are looking forward to another wonderful term of music making.

Mrs Kate Robertson
Head of Music (K-6)

AFL Paul Kelly Cup

The rescheduled Paul Kelly Cup was held on the last Tuesday of Term 2 (25 June) at Queens Park. It was a beautiful day with some outstanding AFL being played by the three St Andrew's Cathedral School teams attending on the day. 

Girls:
The St Andrew's Cathedral School girls had a dominate day, winning all their group games before making it to the final, which they narrowly went down in against Randwick PS. A special mention to Maya, Nyarla, Genevieve & Tara (Year 6) for some outstanding performances across the day. Runners up on the day still leave the door open for this team to progress to the next round, we will hopefully receive confirmation of this in the coming weeks.

Boys:
We took two boys team to the competition this year, with some outstanding results from both team across the day. The Boys A team playing some great games on the day, an impressive comeback after being down against Maroubra junction PS saw the boys take a victory late in the game, sadly they were unsuccessful in the semi-final play off against Waverley. A special mention to Ned (Year 6), Rafael (Year 6) and BJ (Year 5) for a great display of skill and perseverance across the day.

Netball Outing

On Sunday 30 June over 30 die-hard Year 6 netball fans and their families headed to Sydney Olympic Park to watch a nail-biting match between the Swifts and the Firebirds, which ended in a loss for the Swifts in the last seconds. Thanks to all the families who attended and to Kimmie for organising such a great initiative.

Join us for prayer and breakfast next Friday!

You are invited to join School Council, staff, parents and students for our Community Prayer Breakfast. Our guest speaker, Mr Gary Hill, is the Executive Director of CRU. CRU works alongside 220 Independent schools in NSW, the ACT and WA providing support for voluntary Christian ministry as well as running holiday camps and student leadership retreats.

We hope you can join us! Seats are limited so please secure your spot, using the link below. 

Friday 2 August, 7.15am-8.15am
Chapter House, St Andrew's Cathedral

Do you want to know how to contribute to the conversation in a culturally appropriate and sensitive manner?

This P&F event is an opportunity for you to hear and learn from informed School staff as they share their expertise with the community.

The presenters on the night will be:

• Mr John Ralph, Head of Gawura and proud Gumbayngirr man.
• Ms Emma Walker, Aboriginal Education Mentor and proud Yuin woman.
• Ms Bindi Jarvis, Modern History and Aboriginal Studies Teacher.

This informative, welcoming and fun evening is for everyone who has ever been unsure of what to say or what to do when engaging with Aboriginal Australians. There will be a short presentation and plenty of time for discussion and questions. 

This event will also be available online and the link will be available soon.

Tuesday 6 August, 6pm
The Community Hub, Level 4, St Andrew's House
 

Please RSVP for catering purposes.

What makes your child ready for school?

Join us at our information evening where you will have the opportunity to:

• Find out what the school readiness indicators are.
• Know what preparations you can make at home to support your child transitioning to school.
• Talk to Kindergarten teachers to find out what happens during a regular school day.
• Listen to experts, hear the latest research on what to do to give your child the best advantage to start their education.
• Learn the questions to ask your new school to determine whether it is the right school for your child.

This event will assist parents in deciding whether their child is ready to attend school or should be ‘held back’.

Any interested parents, pre-school directors and teachers are welcome to join us.

Wednesday 7 August, 5pm
Level 7, St Andrew's House

Please RSVP to the event by clicking below.

All new parents and carers to our School are welcome!

Parents and Carers who are new to the Junior School and Gawura in 2024 are invited to join us for morning tea to get to know other parents, meet a selection of staff, and have an opportunity to ask all the questions you have about school life, now that you are here.

Thursday 8 August, 8am-9am
The Community Hub, Level 4, St Andrew's House


Please RSVP by Tuesday 6 August by clicking the link below.

Book Week 2024

This year’s Book Week theme is ‘Reading is Magic’ and we are exploring magical stories and characters throughout the Term.

Our official celebrations begin on Monday 19 August with a week of magical storytelling before school and during Lunch in the Library. On Thursday 22 August all of our Junior School students will be visited by author Tim Harris. Tim is the best-selling author of several laugh-out-loud series for children including Toffle Towers, Mr Bambuckle's Remarkables and Exploding Endings. Tim will share his tips for creating ideas for stories and his approach to writing and refining stories.

Book Week 2024 culminates in our Book Character Parade on Friday 23 August starting at 9am in the Cathedral. Parents are most welcome to attend this event, along with the Book Fair that will follow in Upper Chapter House.

We look forward to seeing you at these events and can’t wait to see the wonderful costumes!

Friday 23 August, 9am
St Andrew's Cathedral