On Thursday 4 May our students participated in the annual Cross Country Carnival at Queens Park. This was a wonderful event that our students thoroughly enjoyed. Some students had wonderful results and a special congratulations to our Year 6 Gawura student Talaara who came first in her U12/Open Age Group across both Junior School and Gawura School.

A big thank you to all of our Gawura families who engaged with the Gawura Strategic Plan Consultations which were conducted by Aboriginal Consultancy Firm 2 Point Co. More news about this and how you can be further involved will be made known in the coming weeks.

Finally I would like to remind everyone of our Yarning Session With Parents – Tribal Warrior Cruise Event to be held on Tuesday next week 23 May. We will meet at the Eastern Pontoon which is half way between Circular Quay and the Opera House on the left hand side at 10.15am. We will be cruising Sydney Harbour hearing about the lifestyle the Gadigal People enjoyed before colonisation and some of the impacts that occurred after European settlement. We will be walking on Clarke Island and viewing a Welcome Dance. Morning Tea and refreshments will also be provided. If you could please RSVP through the link HERE so that we know you will be attending and how many we should be catering for.

Please see photos below of our Gawura students at the Cross Country Carnival and in a recent Science lesson with Mr Jim Boddy. 

"Yesterday the Gawara Students were learning to make a healthy meal, Sushi, in Science. The aim was to plan, design and produce a healthy meal. They were all successful and created and ate their own Sushi food. This is part of the Science Stage 3 program"- Mr Jim Boddy, Science Teacher.
 

We wish you all a happy and safe fortnight ahead.

Mr John Ralph
Head of Gawura

Winter has arrived!

Greetings, parents and carers. What a blessing it is for our students to have a versatile School uniform that allows them to rug up and be warm for these cold mornings and days.

It might benefit some of our community to be reminded of some aspects of our uniform and dress code, noting the following:

Hair – neat and tidy. For boys, we request it is cut above the collar, ears, and eyebrows. No features that might create comment such as designs or lines cut into the hairline. For our girls, if hair is below the collar, please ensure it is worn tied back with navy or white elastics or ribbons.

Jewellery – girls may wear a single pair of studs or sleepers in plain gold or silver. No other jewellery, make-up or nail varnish is to be worn.

Blazers – are to be worn to and from School and to the Morning Assembly on the rooftop. Please do not substitute the blazer for sports jackets or other items. Vests and jumpers are available from the Uniform Shop that can be worn under the blazer.

Socks – boys have the option of longer winter socks, available from the Uniform Shop.

Please note that students playing soccer are required to wear shin-pads. They should wear the St Andrew's Cathedral School football sock which allows enough length for shin-pads to be worn underneath without moving around and adding a layer of protection above the white sport sock.

Junior School and Gawura continues to acknowledge students who wear their School uniform well with our weekly awards. Additionally, we are looking to reward classes with our St Andrew's Cathedral School Pride in the Uniform trophy, handed out each week. The overall winner of this trophy will be granted a whole class reward at the end of the term (there are rumours of a pizza party!).

Thank you for your support in helping our student body wear the uniform with pride!

Kindly,

Mr​​​​ Selwyn Wu
Deputy Head of Junior School (Pastoral Care & Educational Admin)

Celebrating mothers

We hope that the mothers, grandmothers, aunties and special women within our St Andrew's Cathedral School community shared a special day with their families on Mother’s Day. One of our School Character Strengths is “Grateful” and in the midst of all the flowers and chocolates I hope that you have been able to hear some of the things that your children are grateful for. Mother’s Day is a great annual reminder to say thank you to the mums and other special carers who play an important role in our lives, but it is essential we mark the day with love and sincerity. Mothers will often put the needs of others above their own, so it is paramount to remind them to take care of themselves also, especially when it comes to mental health.

This SchoolTV Special Report highlights the role mothers play in the developmental growth of their children and the importance of self-care for good mental health. We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this Special Report, and as always, we welcome your feedback.

Mrs​​​​ Bronwyn Wake
Junior School and Gawura Wellbeing Coordinator and Psychologist/Counsellor

National Simultaneous Storytime

Akin to the build-up in the territory, the library’s build-up to National Simultaneous Storytime has begun! Perhaps your child has noticed that sloths have been making appearances in the library over the last few weeks. First, some posters of fun facts about sloths began popping up and lately, two soft and cuddly sloths have joined the library team. With those kinds of adorable clues, it doesn’t take too long before students’ interest is aroused, and they start asking “Why are there sloths in the library?”

The answer of course, is that National Simultaneous Storytime is coming up fast. To promote the value of reading and literacy and the fun of books, on Wednesday 24 May, we will join with the growing community of book lovers (now over 2 million) to read together the story of a sloth who never let go of his dream to compete in the Great Race. We will be holding events over each Stage’s lunchtime, enjoying this inspiring story by Sydney author Rebecca Young, and illustrated by Heath McKenzie, to celebrate all winners… especially those who don’t come first.

Mrs Nicole Cotter
Coordinator of Digital and Information Literacy

Saturday sport

We have started the Winter Saturday Sport Programme well, with Junior School and Gawura netball and rugby 7’s teams playing in the IPSHA competition. 

Girls netball – Year 5 drew 2-2 against Meriden, already showing great improvement. Year 6 had an awesome game against Kambala with a win 7-1 and they have also showed their development from training sessions and games. 

Boys rugby 7’s – Our U11’s had two very impressive performances, winning both games. Our U12’s had two difficult games against Scots and Newington but showed great determination even without a couple of our more experienced players.

We are still looking for more U11’s rugby players, if your child is interested in playing rugby 7’s this year, please contact the Junior School Sport Department jssport@sacs.nsw.edu.au

Junior School and Gawura Cross Country Carnival

We were blessed with a beautiful morning last Thursday, 4 May, for the Junior School and Gawura Cross Country Carnival at Queens Park. With some outstanding results across the day, students highlighted their running talents with impressive form. The winning house from the day was Westminster!

A special thanks to all the wonderful School staff who made this day such a fun and enjoyable experience for students, it was also great to see a lot of parents come out to support our amazing runners. Selected students will be participating in the ASISSA Cross Country Carnival on Thursday 18 May.

K-2 Fun Run

Our K-2 Fun Run event has been pushed back later in the term to allow for more planning and preparation for this event to become a fundraiser and colour-run event! We are very excited to be able to give the students the opportunity to enjoy their fun run with some additional fun activities (colour explosion!). More details of this event will be sent home to K-2 parents once details have been finalised. This event is scheduled to take place Thursday 8 June at Wentworth Park in the afternoon.

Thursday afternoon sport

Our new sporting programme for Years 3-6 kicked off last week with students being able to select their preferred sport for Thursday afternoon sport (during school time). This was a great addition to the programme with students being able to participate in netball, touch football, soccer or inter-school soccer. It was great to see so many students returning at the end of the school day, looking tired after having enjoyed themselves at sport.

​​​​Mr Oliver Denny
Head of Sport, Junior School

ICAS Assessments

In Term 3, Junior School students across Years 2-6 will have the opportunity to participate in the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) Programme. These assessments are designed two years above grade level, therefore are not recommended for every student. They require students to apply higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills.

Students placed in an accelerated class will be automatically enrolled in all six of the ICAS assessments. Parents wishing to withdraw their child’s enrolment must contact Mrs Rebecca Lord Lord rlord@sacs.nsw.edu.au before Wednesday 31 May. Participation in the ICAS assessments for students in accelerated classes is strongly recommended.

Students in the mainstream cohort (including those in Year 2) must enrol in ICAS using the following form before Wednesday 31 May: https://forms.office.com/r/XwuxkfHSjW. The schedule for the assessments is listed below.

Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge

In Weeks 1 and 2 selected students from Years 2-6 participated in the CSIRO Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge. This competition is comprised of highly complex problems which require a diverse range of thinking dispositions. It involves the skills needed to think about how a computer might solve complex problems and create systems. Computational thinking draws upon logical reasoning, algorithms, decomposition, abstraction and patterns. Below are some reflections from Year 2 students about the competition.

The competition was very challenging. I found the questions interesting, I had to think really hard to find the answer. I had to use lots of problem-solving skills. I had to read the question carefully and properly, then think about the steps to find the answer. – Maya Usmar

The questions were about lots of different topics. For some questions, you had to plan ahead. Then other questions required a yes or no answer. One of the questions was about which building instructions had to be used to construct a house. I worked out that one of the building instructions would have had the roof at the bottom of the house, that wasn’t logical. I found the competition challenging because some questions had small differences in the possible answers. I had to make sure I checked the question carefully. – Henry Dethridge

I think the competition was a bit hard but also a good challenge. One of the questions asked about making a hamburger using specific clues and rules. It was difficult to work out the order because there was only limited information and the clues connected and impacted each other. – Oliver Salmon

The competition was quite hard but also fun at the same time. Some of the questions were very challenging. I couldn’t find the answer straight away or figure it out in my head quickly. One of the hardest questions was about a tug-of-war. Some beavers were strong and some were weak. You had to add them up to make it close to a tie of a tug of war. You had to balance out the numbers. – Ethan Ratilal

I had to think really hard and try to read the questions over and over again so I didn’t miss any details. I sometimes had to think more about a question before finding the answer. One of the questions was about a robot picking up trash. The robot had to pick up the trash that was closest to him. The question asked me to find out the last piece of trash. There were rules about the path the robot could take which had to be followed to find the solution. – Shaheli Peiris

Below is a problem from the 2022 competition. See if you can answer it.

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

Sign up for the Gawura/NAIDOC working bee

Gawura is celebrating NAIDOC Week, commencing Monday 19 June. The highlight of the week is Gawura leading the Junior School Assembly, Thursday 22 June. This year’s NAIDOC theme is “For Our Elders” and Gawura has some truly wonderful plans on how to do that.

Are you able to support this celebration by volunteering to make sets, create props or sew? A working bee will take place on Saturday 3 June. If you are available, please sign up here.

Celebrating Our Elders – introduce your Elder!

As part of our Gawura and Junior School NAIDOC Week celebrations, we’d like to pay homage to the Elders within our Community.

To participate within this, we request that each family sends a photo and brief blurb (a sentence or two) of an Elder within your community to gawura@sacs.nsw.edu.au. This will be displayed during the NAIDOC Morning Tea, held after our NAIDOC Week Assembly, Thursday 22 June. This is for families within Junior School, as well as Gawura. Please email your entries by Thursday 15 June.

An example:
Aunty Mindy and Uncle Wayne are Yuwaalaraay Elders from Goodooga. Uncle Wayne owns a local trucking business servicing roads between rural communities and Aunty Mindy has worked at Goodooga Central School as a Teacher and Yuwaalaraay Language resource teacher for more than 35 years.

Aunty Mindy and Uncle Wayne are Mrs Williams’ Mum and Dad and are the proud grandparents to Bokhara, Djani, Djillirra and Sonny – all students at St Andrew's Cathedral School and Gawura.

Thank you,

Marita Cranwell
Donor Relations Manager

Thank you!

The SRC would like to thank the community for their generosity, as over $700 was raised from the Easter Hat Parade for Anglican Aid to provide fresh eggs to children in developing communities.

The Student Representative Council

For information on new applications, updating your details or replacing lost cards, click here:

Opal cards 2023

Join us tomorrow night!

Who are we and how do we work together?

There are many seen and unseen branches of the St Andrew’s family, and they connect and work together in different ways for different reasons. Learn more about how we all fit together. 

Please join the P&F for this wonderful opportunity to hear from our panellists and have all your questions answered.

The expert panel is comprised of: 

• Ms Nicola Warwick-Mayo, Executive Director of School Services, will explain our School’s unique governance, our relationship with the Cathedral and Diocese, School Council and Foundation.
• Lyn Jarvis, Director of Community Engagement, will share a little on the School’s relationship with the P&F, OAA and Hessians.
• Dr Julie McGonigle, Head of School, will outline how it all interacts, the various roles of key school staff and how it comes together to make the school community function and flourish.

The panellists will give a short presentation which will be followed by a Q&A session. On the evening, sign in at reception and come directly to the Community Hub.

Tuesday 16 May, 6pm
Community Hub, St Andrew’s House
Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP for catreing purposes.
You can also join online: https://bit.ly/3ndV3bL

For enquiries, please contact the St Andrew's Cathedral School Community Engagement Team: community@sacs.nsw.edu.au | 02 9286 9661

Book your place to witness this exciting discussion

Students, parents and staff are invited to be part of our exciting new seminar series Big Questions – providing stimulating, thought-provoking and interactive conversations by expert guests on interesting topics.

The first in the series is a conversation between Pastor Ray Minniecon, who represented Australia's First Nations' peoples at the 26th Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in 2021, and Dr Andrew McGonigle, an award-winning volcanologist, inventor, pioneer and teacher. They will explore Environmental Stewardship from both Aboriginal and scientific perspectives.

The format will see our two guests on stage, sharing their knowledge, understanding and different experiences of the world around us. This will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

Wednesday 24 May, 6pm
Chapter House

Coffee in the Hub - Year 1 and 2 parents

All Year 1 and 2 parents are warmly invited to join us for Coffee in the Hub to meet other parents, key Junior School staff and the P&F.

Thursday 25 May, 8am to 9am
The Hub

Please RSVP by Monday 22 May, 12pm.

Term 2 P&F General Meeting

All parents and carers are welcome to join the P&F Executive, a senior member of staff and other parents at a P&F General Meeting to discuss current school activities, school focuses, upcoming school events and future plans.

P&F meetings are a great way to get to know what is happening at your child’s school and to meet school staff and other parents in an informal setting. If you have any questions that you would like discussed on the night please send them ahead of the meeting to P&F@sacs.nsw.edu.au.

Tuesday 6 June, 6pm
Community Hub - Level 4, St Andrew's House

No RSVP necessary.

Join us for a special assembly and morning tea

We are excited to invite grandparents of our Junior School and Gawura families to join us Friday 9 June for a special assembly in the Cathedral as we celebrate your role as a grandparent and your importance in our greater school community. This will be followed by morning tea and an opportunity to visit your grandchild(ren) in the Junior School and Gawura.

This event is for grandparents or a special relative, godparent or auntie/uncle only. Unfortunately this is not a parent event.

The programme for the day will be:

• 9:15am-10:15am: Cathedral Service (doors open at 9am)
• 10:15am-11:00am: Morning tea in either Chapter House or the Heath Centre (hosted by the Association of Parents & Friends)
• 11:10am-11:30am: Move to Junior School/Gawura to join your grandchild(ren)
• 11:15am: Book Fairs commence
• 12pm: Event concludes

Friday 9 June, 9.15am
St Andrew's Cathedral

Please RSVP by Friday 2 June to reserve your place at this special morning.

Grandparents are welcome to take their grandchild(ren) out to lunch. Returning children must be back by 2:45pm OR students can be signed out and taken home for an early departure on this day.

The 2023 Junior Andrean Awards theme is "The Opera House"

Junior Andrean Writer, Artist, Composer and Designer of the Year Competition

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of Sydney’s most iconic buildings, this year’s Andrean of the Year theme is The Opera House. Consider the ideas of its Sydney Harbour location surrounded by Botanical Gardens, ferries and crowds, its innovative design and creativity that reflects nature, or that it has been a place of performance, protest, Vivid light shows, and New Year’s fireworks.

You could even redesign or extend it for the 22nd century and reimagine what new things might take place there.

Judging and prizes
Entries will be judged on creativity, skill, audience engagement and originality in exploring the theme. Entries must be created in 2023 and no group entries are permitted.

- Junior Andrean Awards (Years K-6) First prize $100, runners-up $20.
- Andrean Awards (Years 7-12) First prize $200, runners-up $50.
- Apprentices receive certificates.

Entries close: Monday 16 October 2023

Click here to submit your entry.