Click to view this email online

   
 

In this issue

 
Message Stick – Term 1, Week 6
Gawura: What is it? Why does it exist? And who pays?
Library News
Sport News
Volunteer for Gawura reading
Gawura Scholarships
Heart Mind Life Awards
Parenting Tips
Bullying - a note from our school counsellor
Gawura Doctor - Dr Shuo Zhao
Upcoming Events
Code Camp
Camp Australia – registration
   
   

Message Stick – Term 1, Week 6

   
   
 

Last Wednesday 27 February and Thursday 28 February I had the pleasure of attending the Yr 6 Kirrikee Camp to the NSW Southern Highlands. Our four Year 6 students – Stan, Mariah, Toni and Aliyah all had an absolute ball participating in a variety of activities including abseiling, bushwalking, water commando, initiative games and environmental ed. The students consolidated existing friendships and made new ones too. They even cooked their own dinner one night while staying just a little further away from the usual campsite. Abseiling was particularly challenging for several students from both JSGS but all four students mentioned above successfully completed the 12m abseil to the forest floor. Years 3,4 and 5 will get to experience Kirrikee later in the year in Term 4.

We were so very pleased to see two Gawura alumni visit us recently. Rachel and Georgia Durmush who graduated from SACS Yr 12 in 2015 have just both completed their university degrees and popped in to say hello to where their own Gawura journey began all these years ago. Rachel has just finished her degree in law and Georgia is starting her PhD in Aboriginal Education and Positive Psychology. We are all so very proud of both girls and wish them well in their future careers.We will be inviting other alumni to come in and speak with our current students to let them know the sky’s the limit on what they could achieve and to take the most of the opportunities that Gawura is able to provide them with. We know Rachel and Georgia will go on and make a huge difference and contribution to their communities.

I have received a request below from Ms Colusso who teaches Yr 11 Environmental Science in our high school.

I have a lesson with year 11 where we have been studying ecosystems. I have come across a point that I think could benefit from being taught from an Indigenous perspective.

What role can mythology, storytelling and anecdotes play in the passing on of scientific knowledge?

Is there anyone (perhaps a member of our Gawura families) who might be willing to come in and talk to Year 11 about how important factual knowledge can be passed down through story? Specific stories would be ideal. Ms Colusso plans to teach this lesson on Tuesday 12 March from 8.30am. Please let me know if you are interested or know someone who is willing to come in and help this Yr 11 class out.

Have a wonderful and safe fortnight ahead.

Mr John Ralph
Head of Gawura

 
       
   
 

 
     .    
     
 

Dates for your calendar

Thursday 7 March : Kindergarten to Tumbalong Park                                                    

Monday 11 March: ASISSA Swim Carnival

Monday 11 March: Grip Student Leadership Conference

Tuesday 12 March: Paul Kelly Cup (AFL)

Thursday 14 March: Years 1 and 2 to Tumbalong Park

Monday 8 April: End of term awards assembly

Friday 12 April: Term 1 concludes

 
     .    
     
   

Gawura: What is it? Why does it exist? And who pays?

   
   
 

Some 12 years ago, the last Head of SACS, Phillip Heath, visited a township in Soweto on the outskirts of Johannesburg, where he saw what was being done to lift the educational outcomes of communities which had suffered very extensive disadvantage under apartheid. He returned with the determination to commence a Christian social justice initiative for Australia’s First Peoples, our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, to ‘close the gap’ in educational outcomes. Thus, Gawura was born. It is our particular contribution on our patch to the Reconciliation Agenda, which emerged from then Prime Minister Rudd’s apology to Indigenous people for historic wrongs.

The focus of Gawura has been to provide intensive literacy and numeracy education, with very favourable student / teacher ratios in order to close the gap, so that Indigenous students who began behind students of other ethnicities (due to systemic disadvantage), would literally have the gap closed, so that they would commence Year 7 in our ‘regular’ high school on the same skills footing as all other students. In that respect, the program provides some specially focussed education, where they learn not only about, but through Aboriginal culture in a manner which helps them to be proudly Aboriginal (we have had Torres Strait Islanders in the past and currently Peter Brogan in Year 5). It also provides regular sharing of classes in non-core subjects with our Junior School, and that allows for the richness of a larger school with a bigger staff and assists in the transition to high school by introducing our Gawura students to a larger pool of friends.

Every Gawura student is on a 100% scholarship. This money is actively sourced by the school from generous benefactors, who include Foundations, Trusts and philanthropic individuals. Our long term partners have included the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, the Hunt Family Foundation, the Rali Foundation, Anglican Deaconess Ministries, the Anglican Board of Missions, Origin Foundation and the Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Recently, the GO! Foundation (former AFL players Adam Goodes and Michael O’Loughlin) have joined this list of SACS donors. We cannot thank enough these wonderful people, who have often not just given money, but donated their time as readers in our morning reading program. Some of our parents and staff are also generous donors. 

Gawura is registered as a separate school because that enables it to attract the favourable financial loading from government of 100% Indigeneity. However, this favourable funding is lost by high school, where the small number of Indigenous students in terms of any funding they may attract to the school are subsumed in the very large non-Indigenous enrolment, and so, in a school that serves an affluent community overall, government funding for these students is very sparse at high school level.

The recent uproar over the debate on Australia Day indicates how far we have to go as a society in the massive task of reconciliation between the original inhabitants of this land and those of us whose families have arrived more recently. This is essentially a question of justice, and one important aspect of justice for Indigenous peoples is full access to an education which is transformative in providing life opportunities.

Recently, the work of independent boarding schools providing places to Indigenous students has been in the news. These schools do important work. Education for those from remote communities is a very important work. At Gawura, an Aboriginal Kindergarten to Year 6 school of 32 students within our school precinct at St Andrew’s Cathedral School, our mission is different – to educate local Indigenous students in a day school while they live in community. Gawura has been operating for 11 years. It continues as our contribution in our demography to Christian social justice and the reconciliation agenda.

Funding up to 50 places (K-6 Gawura and the extension of these students into high school years) is very expensive indeed; we have no charter to spend the fees of other students’ parents on this initiative, vital and compassionate though it be. It is very worthwhile. Already 12 Aboriginal students have come through the program and graduated to university (Law, Medicine, Business, Events Management) as often the first person in their family to proceed past Year 9. One is commencing a PhD. Their parents understand education can be transformative and can break the cycle of poverty and despair.

Without extensive government funding, ongoing places are tenuous and dependent on the generosity and beneficence of Foundations, Trusts and corporate and individual donors with a social conscience and a desire to provide equity for Indigenous young people.

Educating Indigenous students, who have experienced poverty and hardship, in an independent school requires all to be on full scholarship. This is very cost intensive, particularly when they graduate into our high school. It is nonetheless vital for our nation if we are to be concerned about justice, fairness and our traditional concept of ‘a fair go’. Justice is a deeply Christian concept, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" – Amos 5:24.

Gawura is the first free-standing, deliberately all Indigenous school in NSW in the independent sector and possibly in any sector. Politicians who visit encourage us to the view that it is a program of national significance, replicable elsewhere and scalable in other situations. They understand the extensive costs. Over 11 years, parliamentarians from the Coalition and Labor, both state and federal, have visited in good numbers. All have declared themselves deeply impressed and open to the possibility of more financial assistance. All have promised to get back to us. With the exception of the admirable Verity Firth, former state Labor Minister for Education, none have done so.  We have never heard from any of them again. No federal Minister of Education or Aboriginal Affairs has ever visited, a former Labor federal minister ignoring repeated invitations. The current state Minister for Education has declined an invitation to visit. There is a yawning chasm between the rhetoric of politicians and their actions. Are politicians interested in substance or just appearances? Is it any wonder that Indigenous education in this country remains a scandal?

Four years ago, this school, along with some 20 other schools, religious and secular, high fee and low fee, urban and rural, combined together to put a proposal to the federal government for funding to replicate the Gawura initiative across all of our schools. Again, despite the rhetoric, the initiative was rebuffed. It became clear these processes are not merit based, but require extensive funding of professional lobbyists to gain access to politicians and their staffers in order to put a case. This seems to me to be a condemnation of the reality of allegedly democratic processes in our country.

Is it any wonder that Indigenous leaders are frustrated with the glacial pace of change in educational justice for their communities? Too often, politicians patronise them with quick fixes about which they have not been consulted and promises that are as ephemeral as sand in the desert wind.

Mr John Collier
Head of School

 
     .    
     
   

Library News

   
   
 

Library monitors for 2019

We’d like to thank and congratulate the following two students who have also said they would love to be library monitors in 2019.

Madison Smart and Hugo Carrig.

Welcome to the very strong library leadership team, who have already had such an incredibly positive impact.

Premier’s Reading Challenge 2019

 
       
   
 

Opens on Monday 4 March!

The individual usernames and passwords for your child/ren will go out in the week starting the 4th.  If you still have your SACS username and password from last year you can login straight away. They don’t change unless you change schools.

The welcome letter includes everything you need to know about logging in, entering titles and the basic rules.  There are thousands of titles to choose from and all the books we have in the Junior School and Gawura library from the lists are clearly labelled so you can easily identify them.

Basic requirements for completion:

  • K-2 need to read 25 PRC titles and any 5 of their own choosing (30 total)
  • 3-4 need to read 15 PRC titles and any 5 of their own choosing (20 total)
  • 5-6 need to read 15 PRC titles and any 5 of their own choosing (20 total)

To complete the challenge students can read titles from categories above their own to challenge themselves.  K-2 can be read to but students in higher categories need to read (with help is ok) the titles themselves.

TOP TIP: Everything you read from September 1st last year can count towards this year’s challenge. It closes on 30 August this year.

For more information and the booklists visit the PRC website https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html

*If you attended a different school and completed the PRC there, please come and see me so I can request that your records be merged.  Otherwise this will be your first PRC year.  This is especially important if you are eligible for your gold or platinum certificates this year and if you are looking at earning your Premier’s medal.


Parent / Teacher Challenge 2019

We’ve launched this again this year too, so come on teachers and parents, grab a book and read alongside your child/ren and complete the Parent / Teacher Challenge this year.

Requirements for completion:

Read any six titles (in any language). Email me spaul@sacs.nsw.edu.au the titles and I’ll add you to our wall of wonderful reading role models.

“Children who know adults who read for pleasure take it for granted that reading is a valuable and worthwhile activity.” – Csikszentmihalyi, 1991


Svetlana Paul
Information and Digital Literacy Coordinator JS and GS

 

 
     .    
     
   

Sport News

   
   
       
   
 

Swimming Carnival

On Monday 18 February the Junior School and Gawura held their annual Swimming Carnival at Drummoyne Pool. It was a day full of fun and colour, with plenty of outstanding swimming performances on display. Congratulations to all students who participated in the day for making it such a fantastic event and particularly to those who managed to gain a ribbon. We are sending a strong team of 26 swimmers to the ASISSA carnival in two weeks, who’ll no doubt do the school very proud. Good luck to all students who’ve been selected!

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

 
     .    
     
   

Volunteer for Gawura reading

   
   
       
   
 

Reading in Gawura is the nicest way to start your day. We are looking for more volunteers to help our children. Please consider coming in one day a week at 8am or 8:20am – perhaps after you drop your children off. Our volunteers include SACS parents, grandparents, retired teachers, company executives, barristers and Old Andreans. All you need is a happy smile, a great attitude and a working with children check. For more information please contact Karen Swibel on 9286 9661 or via email kswibel@sacs.nsw.edu.au


Catherine Gunning
Gawura Fundraising & Foundation Development Manager

 
     .    
     
   

Gawura Scholarships

   
   
       
   
 

Dear Parents.

We are starting our 2020 Gawura Kindy Enrolment process by marketing for new applicants.

We would like to ensure that all siblings of our current Gawura students have the opportunity to apply, so that they can be considered for enrolment. Hence, if you do have children who are Kindy age 2020, please ensure you have sent an application form to me by the end of May.

Application forms can be found at https://gawura.nsw.edu.au/our-school/enrolment-application/ or email me at bperry@sacs.nsw.edu.au. Please do not hesitate to let me know if you need any advice or help.

Regards. 

Bruce Perry                                                                                                          Registrar/Mathematics Teacher

 
     .    
     
   

Heart Mind Life Awards

   
   
 
 
Heart
 
 
 
 
La Quaelah Roberts-Carr Year 2 For always setting to task quickly and diligently
 
 
 
 
La Quaelah Roberts-Carr Year 2 For being a diligent and efficient worker
 
 
 
 
Sonny Rossiter Year 5 For being kind to others and showing diligence in reading
 
 
     .    
     
 
 
Mind
 
 
 
 
BJ Carr Kindy For participation in Wiradjuri
 
 
     .    
     
 
 
Life
 
 
 
 
Latrell McGrath Kindy For trying hard with all his work
 
 
 
 
Kaleb Roberts Year 4 For his eagerness to participate in the school swimming carnival to help get house points. Well done.
 
 
     .    
     
     .    
     
   

Parenting Tips

   
   
       
   
 

Personality Strengths

Prof. Lea Waters has written this blog in Parenting Ideas this month. It makes an interesting read.

Personality strengths—our character—play a big role in helping us build our talents. Think about anyone who has built a talent and imagine if it could have been done without character. Imagine Einstein without curiosity, The Beatles without creativity, Mother Teresa without compassion and Neil Armstrong without bravery.

Yet for decades, scientists were blind to character strength. We focused on talent, often on physical strength and skills. In fact, when I first ask young children what they think a strength is, they almost always point to their biceps or talk about being able to lift something heavy.

It turns out that three elements come together to form a strength. For purposes of strength-based parenting, we need to keep our eye on all three:

1. Performance (being good at something)
Watch for when your child shows above-age levels of achievement, rapid learning, and a repeated pattern of success.

2. Energy (feeling good doing it)
Strengths are self-reinforcing. The more we use them, the more we get from them. They fill us with vigor. You’ll notice your child has abundant energy when using a strength.

3. High use (choosing to do it)
Finally, look for: what your child chooses to do in their spare time, how often they engage in a particular activity, and how they speaks about that activity.

For true strengths, these three elements form a beautiful feedback loop. Great performance provides the child with a shot of high energy, so the child naturally chooses to do more. In turn, high use—also known as effort or practice—improves performance levels. So, for example, if you notice that your child is energised when they play the piano, and you provide enjoyable opportunities for them to play, if they are mining a true strength they will likely practice more, which improves their performance, which then energizes them… and so the loop continues.

Keeping this triad in mind will help you avoid pushing your child into an area that seems like a strength just because your child is good at it. It will also help you differentiate between whether your child is bingeing on an activity in an escapist way or expressing a true strength. For example, parents have asked me, “My kid is great at computer games and wants to play all the time. Is that a sign of a strength?” I reply, “Observe their energy levels at the end. Are they drained and cranky? Or energised and full of life? Are you seeing the full triad?” Computer games can tap into a child’s strategic and problem-solving skills or stimulate creativity (in some games, you invent whole new worlds). Or they might just be about filling time. So look for all three signs. When you see your child do something well, with energy, and do that activity repeatedly—you’ll know you’ve unearthed a strength.

At SACS we have a slight variation on the aspects above. We look at character strengths based on biblical themes. Here are our character strengths and we encourage our students to work at developing them throughout the year. They are acknowledged during our weekly and end of term merit awards. We look for and discuss these strengths in our studies and units of work.

HEART:  caring grateful principled courageous servant hearted
MIND:   knowledgeable thinking inquiring open minded reflective
LIFE:  hopeful self-controlled persistent balanced communicative

Joy Rohrlach
Stage 3 Leader

 
     .    
     
   

Bullying - a note from our school counsellor

   
   
 

Bullying: No way!

 

Our Junior School is a positive community, one in which our students are growing in and learning the character strengths of being caring, principled, courageous and helpful.

During Week 7 we will be taking part in the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA). This is an important way for us to focus on ways of building positive relationships, and standing up against hurtful words and behaviours. Our particular focus this year is on taking action everyday and being an “upstander” rather than a “bystander”. Through lessons, activities, videos and resources students will be encouraged to be a buddy to others, to interrupt negative interactions, to speak out and express that it is not OK, and to tell a trusted adult. Students will receive a pocket sized information card to bring home and a wristband which they can wear throughout our “Bullying: No Way!” action week (11/3- 15/3).  If you would like further information about this nationwide initiative please visit www.bullyingnoway.gov.au.

Bronwyn Wake
JS and GS School Counsellor and Well Being Coordinator

 
     .    
     
   

Gawura Doctor - Dr Shuo Zhao

   
   
 

Wednesday and Friday Appointments Available.

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.

 
     .    
     
   

Upcoming Events

   
   
 

Balmain Area Picnic Day – Sunday 10 March

 
       
   
 

Get to know your SACS community on the Balmain peninsula.

Join with local SACS families, the SACS Boys’ Choir and Darling St Anglican Church for a church service at 10am followed by Garden Party.

For more information visit: www.darlingst.org.au/SACS

 
     .    
     
 

Kirrikee Picnic Day – Saturday 16 March

 
       
   
 

Join us for a great day out at Kirrikee on Saturday 16 March.

There’s high ropes, abseiling, log rolling, billy carting, laser shooting, mountain biking and loads more.

Kirrikee is only 1.5 hours from Sydney’s CBD.

Enjoy the day, lunch included. Overnight stay optional.

Tickets free for Gawura families. Please email rhetherington@sacs.nsw.edu.au or call Rebecca on 92869596 to get your free tickets.

 
     .    
     
 

Gawura Cocktail Evening Fundraiser – Friday 22 March


 
       
   
 

Please come and celebrate the International Year of Indigenous languages and the life changing work that happens in our Gawura classrooms every day.

Join us at our 2019 Gawura Cocktail Party and help us raise funds for this important educational work.

Bring your friends, bring your colleagues or bring a group of parents from your child’s class. Enjoy the music, the company, the fun and we will even teach you some Wiradjuri language.

It’s a great way to get involved in the important work of Gawura.

  • Where: L’Aqua, Roof Top Level Cockle Bay Wharf
  • When: Friday 22 March: 6pm – 9pm
  • Cost: $120 per head

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

 
 

Book Now

 
     .    
     
 

Fiddler on the Roof - Thursday 4 April - Saturday 6 April

 
       
   
 

The 2019 Musical of Fiddler on the Roof will be performed at NIDA on April 4, 5 and 6. The cast members have been rehearsing for months and are ready to put on an amazing show.

Come along and see our talented Secondary School students sing, dance, act and perform for you.

Based on Sholem Aleichem stories by special permission of Arnold Perl
Book by  JOSEPH STEIN  Music by JERRY BOCK  Lyrics by SHELDON HARNICK
Produced on the New York Stage by Harold Prince Original New York Stage Production Directed and Choreographed by JEROME ROBBINS
Licensed exclusively by Music Theatre International (Australasia). All performance materials supplied by Hal Leonard Australia.

 
 

Bookings open Wednesday 6 March

 
     .    
     
 

Junior School and Gawura Grandparents' Day - Friday 7 June

 
       
   
 

We welcome the grandparents of our students and seek to embrace them and give thanks for them as key members of our student’s families. Please save the date.

We hope you can come!

More details about this event are coming soon.

 
     .    
     
   

Code Camp

   
   
 

Autumn Code Camp on Sale

It’s that time again! Camps are officially on sale and if parents book before Sunday 10 March they will recieve our $20 ‘Early Bird’ discount.

Upcoming dates at St Andrew's:

April 16-18 (Week 1) and April 23,24,26 (Week 2, not 25th due to ANZAC).

 
       
   
     .    
     
   

Camp Australia – registration

   
   
       
   
 

To attend our care, parents/guardians must register their child with us by completing an online enrolment form via our parent portal. It’s very important that parents/guardians fill out all compulsory enrolment documentation for their child and notify us of any medical conditions, illnesses and other, to ensure the health and safety of all children in our care.

Families can register for free at https://pp.campaustralia.com.au/account/register-contacts

For more information, please visit https://www.campaustralia.com.au/

 
     .    
     
 

Get connected on our social media

Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/gawura.sacs

Follow our Twitter: @gawura_sacs

Follow our Instagram: @gawura_school

Visit the Gawura Website: http://www.gawura.nsw.edu.au/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/3685836/profile

 
     .Back to top