2021 Newsletter Term 4, Week 10
Parkes Christian School
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From the Principal
Hello, Goodbye and Merry Christmas!
And just like that, the 2021 school year is over! As I write my final newsletter article for 2021, I can’t help but think back over the year that’s been and reflect on all the highs and lows we’ve experienced over the past 12 months. Lockdown and At-Home learning featured again this year, but there were also plenty of other great things happening at PCS. Our new Industrial Arts facility has come along nicely and is scheduled to be opened at the beginning of next year. We’ve...
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Toiletrees
Year 4 decorated their Christmas tree with toiletries for the SRC competition. The toiletries were kindly donated to the Parkes Anglicare Pantry in the second last week of school. The Anglicare Manager presented Year 4 with a thank you card and a bag of lollies to show their appreciation.
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Parkes Shire Library Ambassadors
PCS Parkes Shire Library ambassadors were invited to a wrap-up afternoon tea at the Shire Library last week. Knox Lamont and Molly Clohessy have represented our school during library visits and by keeping PCS students informed of events happening at the Shire Library. Next year there will be new ambassadors to represent our school. Thank you to the Parkes Shire Library team for inviting us to be a part of this wonderful program every year.
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Farewell Mrs Pobjie
As the teachers wished the students a safe and Merry Christmas on the last day of school, Primary also said a sad farewell to an amazing Primary teacher, Mrs Pobjie. Mrs Pobje has been teaching Year 1 for the last 2 years with such creativity, joy, energy and dedication. She has always shone her bright smile and caring heart to every student she spoke with from K-12. Her classroom has been inviting, beautifully displayed and such a hub for learning. Mrs Pobjie will be greatly missed not only by the students but also the PCS staff. She would go above and beyond to support, encourage and work alongside the Primary team on every project. Her iconic laughter will be greatly missed as well as her selection of stylish beanies. Mrs Pobjie will be returning to her family in Newcastle. Their reunion will be filled with joy and PCS wishes Mrs Pobjie God’s blessing and favour in 2022 at her new school. You will always hold a special place here at PCS Mrs Pobjie, best wishes from the PCS community!
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End of Year Class Parties
PCS celebrated the end of the 2021 school year with a bang!
On the last day of school students enjoyed a class party lunch. Primary's lunch included pizza, hot chips, a platter of fruit, a lolly bag and a bag of chips whilst chatting with peers and listening to Christmas music. Whilst our High School students enjoyed lunches with their Year Advisors including roast pork, kababs, grazing boards and even KFC.
The festive spirit of fun, laughter and joy was definitely shining bright in each classroom. It was the teachers' delight to see the glee and reminisce with the students about the year they shared together. What a fabulous way to celebrate together!
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Year 11 Food Technology
Year 11 Food Technology is a new course for senior students 2022. So far the students have prepared Irish Stew, prepared and compared packet and homemade cakes and assisted with the preparation of the Year 6 Graduation lunch platters. It is exciting to see students develop their skills in all aspects of food preparation, presentation and understanding of our food choices.
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Electronics Students
The Stage 5 Electronics class has had a great start to their studies over the last 4 weeks. Students have so far studied power generation, how to wire simple household circuits, and this week started a topic on microcontroller systems, utilizing Arduino Uno boards. Pictured here are the students going through some of the early projects to get use to using the board and the programming system behind them.
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Year 12 Biology
Year 12 Biology students recently completed their course with the HSC exam. To celebrate, students were gifted with a plant, individually named and gifted to each student, taking a little bit of Biology home with them.
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1950s Celebration
Year 10 History finished the year with a celebration of all things 1950s. We sampled a traditional roast, the influence of American diner food with milkshakes, cheese toasties and choc chip pancakes - some braver students even had a taste of bread and dripping. An ice cream parlour via the Icicle Tricycle served us while we listened to 50s tunes and some tried on fashions from the era. Watch this space as students prepare and present an intensive dive into the decades next year!
Miss Harris
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Unger Farm Excursion
The Year 11 and 12 Agriculture class visited a local farm last week to see harvest in full swing. They chatted to Mr Unger about his farm, what happens during the year and the management tools he uses. The students asked questions to learn more. The students walked through his crops, including fava beans, wheat and canola. Thank you to Pete Unger for allowing us to see his farm.
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Mathspace Winner - Stephanie Ellis
This month 20 teachers and 20 students from across Australia have been named as the Mathspace Transformative 20, recognised for their commitment to mathematics education.
Building on the success of the inaugural 2019 program, and joining an impressive alumni, the student winners include Stephanie Ellis from Parkes Christian School, New South Wales.
Mohamad Jebara, CEO and Founder of Mathspace, said this year’s winners had shown resilience and strength as schools
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across the country faced yet another year of uncertainty. “Over the past two years we have all encountered stories about how COVID-19 has devastated learning. But what we have also learned is that the uncertainty has also led teachers and students to act creatively and with ingenuity. “This year I am particularly proud to celebrate our Transformative 20. Everyone has experienced different challenges this year - from remote learning and teaching, to separation from loved ones and general anxiety for what the future holds. So it is more important than ever to celebrate teachers for their drive to improve mathematics education and students for their commitment to their maths learning.” Mr Jebara said. From a pool of more than 8,000 teachers and 300,000 students, 100 from each category were selected for the shortlist. The top twenty teachers and twenty students from the shortlist were then selected to become the finalists for 2021. Candidates were selected based on a criteria covering innovative practices, a commitment to continuous improvement, and selflessness demonstrated through helping others.
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House Colour Day and Bake Sale
On Thursday Week 8, the students and staff at PCS got into their house spirits by dressing up in their house colours. Shades of red, yellow and blue were seen throughout the school. Thank you to all the students, parents who baked and purchased the yummy treats on the day. All funds raised have gone towards new SRC projects and activities.
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Water Games
Another wonderful end to the year, but this time not as hot! We still got out the water games and students had every opportunity to smash their teachers with water balloons. The teachers held their own though as they ran a variety of activities including; water balloon battleships, sponge throw, water relay, water trivia, water balloon obstacle course and a slip and slide. We love celebrating a great year at PCS this way and it is something students look forward to each year!
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Colour Run Fun!
PCS finished the year on a bright note. The whole school participated in an obstacle course filled with colour. I would like to thank my senior PDH class for creating awesome courses and all the staff involved, as the kids truly enjoyed themselves. What a fantastic way to end the year!
Mrs van Wyk
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House Cup Presentation
Our third House Cup ceremony was held on Wednesday, with the Discovery Eagles taking out the prize for the first time. They broke the undefeated run of the Endeavour Lions by just 179 points - which is a very tight margin considering the Houses scored just over 24,000 points for the year!
The Lions did win the High School Shield for the first time, while it was a three-peat for the Endurance Sharks in the Primary competition.
Chloe Amery achieved an outstanding 1,051 individual points for the year, to be the top scorer in high school for the second year running. She is also the only student to receive a Platinum Award for scoring over 1,000 points in Year 7 and 8. Can she make it three in a row in 2022?
Luke Hall-Matthews also scored over 1,000 points, while Sam Quince was the highest scoring Shark with 678.
We love the House Point system, as students can receive points for any aspect of school life, and the focus is on positive achievements. We look forward to more fun and healthy competition next year.
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Presentation Assembly
We were able to celebrate 2021 in style at our annual Presentation Assembly on Tuesday afternoon.
Despite not being able to have parents and families in attendance, we were able to broadcast the presentation of awards via Zoom, and record it for families to be able to watch at their leisure.
Otherwise, we were able to have an event just like we normally would, with awards handed out, captains announced, and items being performed by some of our talented students.
Year 6 students Aimee Ross, Llewellyn Pepper and Clare Amery did a beautiful rendition of "Hold on to Me", while Leilani Lavaka and Tyler Boland wowed everyone with their performance of the beautiful Brooke Fraser song "Who Are We Fooling".
Some of the major awards went to:
- SRC Primary Student of the Year - Knox Lamont
- SRC High School Student of the Year - Chloe Amery
- Reuben F Scarf Award - Talesha Ellis
- Primary Dux - Aimee Ross
- Primary Allrounder - Clare Amery
- High School Allrounder - Laura Hall-Matthews
Our student leadership team was also announced and are as follows:
- Endeavour House Captains - Heidi Barker, Mila Ballantyne, Tyler Boland, William Ellis
- Discovery House Captains - Calantha Knott, Mackenzie Lees, Mackenna McGuire, Luke Hall-Matthews
- Endurance House Captains - Judah Pearce, Charlotte Wilson, Ashlee Ross, Jorja Rusten
- SRC - William Bligh, Imogen Collits, Chloe Amery, Zac Nash, Riley McMaster, Thomas Fredericks, Mitchell Unger, Bella Gould, Jorja Rusten
- Primary Captains - Zac Herden, Arabella McCutcheon, Jacob Cowie, Lara Amery
- High School Captains - Nicholas Unger, Leilani Lavaka, Tyler Boland, Bethany Moss
Well done to all our award winners. A website featuring every award winner and highlights of the assembly can be found at the following link: https://pcsinnov8.wixsite.com/my-site-1
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Staff Christmas Party
School officially finished on Wednesday for our PCS students and to celebrate all the hard work the staff at PCS have done throughout 2021, it was decided we have a staff Christmas party on Thursday!
A massive thank you to all our staff, we can’t wait to see you all again in 2022!
Have a safe and relaxing Christmas everyone!
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2022 Hairstyles
Thank you everyone for a wonderful year here at PCS. Our students have maintained wonderful standards in their attitude, work ethic and caring for others. Students have also shown incredible talents and skills in a whole range of areas. However, there is one small area we would like students to consider for 2022. While we would love our students to develop the skills and abilities of NRL stars like Ryan Papenhuyzen and Jai Arrow, we think their hairstyles are better left on the footy field as opposed to at school.
We love a well-groomed, neat and tidy mullet, but please don’t do mullets with shaved sides or the top of the head.
The Skullet
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Check our facebook page to see more images and videos from our newsletter!
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SCHOOL CALENDAR - 2022
- PUBLIC HOLIDAY - Australia Day
- School is Back for Term 1 - Kindergarten to Year 12
Friday 28 January
- Ice Blocks for Sale at Lunch
- Year 12 Graduation (6:30pm)
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Old School Shoes = Educational Opportunities for Others!
If your child has grown out of their school shoes please don’t throw them away. PCS will be collecting your used school shoes on the first day back of school 2022 (Thursday 27th January).
The shoes will be packaged and sent to an African country where they will be used by students who cannot afford shoes in order to attend school.
This project is undertaken in collaboration with Geogies Boutique we appreciate their support of this valuable project.
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Students in the Community
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The Girl in the Pink Dress
Congratulations to PCS student Aimee Ross on being selected to take part in the Parkes 'Overture' promotional video and for being selected as part of the choir performing in April 2022. You can see Aimee at the beginning of the promotional video on facebook... She's the girl in the pink dress!
Tickets are on sale now for Overture. Don't miss out on the opportunity to see Lucy Durack & Josh Piterman live on stage under the beautiful night sky in Parkes NSW. There's limited reserved seating so get in quick!
Purchase tickets now: https://www.123tix.com.au/events/23498/overture
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Dylan Wins Motorcycle Competition
Congratulations to PCS student Dylan McDonald on winning the 85cc boys event at the endurance motorcycle track and his sister Danielle on winning the under 16s girls title.
What an amazing result for these two uprising champs.
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