2021 Newsletter Term 2, Week 7

Parkes Christian School

A Message From the High School Coordinator

Be encouragers, not discouragers!

During this week's Chapel Service I was lucky enough to be able to get up and speak to our High School students about fear and worry.
One thing I am really passionate about is teenagers believing in themselves and not being afraid to show off their talents and abilities.
It really annoys me when adults write off teenagers as being lazy, rude screen-addicts who will never amount to anything. It's the exact...

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School News

Novel Reading with Year 3
It has been a busy term in Year 3 and one thing they really enjoy is sitting back to listen to our daily class novel. Each day, they have their fruit break while listening to the adventures of Blue and her twin brothers who truly are little tornados in Red Dirt Diary 2 written by Katrina Nannestad. The class loves listening to how Katrina describes the misadventures of the twins and they are now learning how to bring this creativity to their own writing. Year 3 is learning how to set the scene using their own sense of smell, sight, touch, taste and feeling to describe it. We are looking forward to sharing our writing in the coming weeks. Reading is such an important and enjoyable part of each day and we hope your family is able to tap into this great bonding experience too.

Eco Day with Year 5
On Friday the 28 May, our Year 5 class travelled to the Forbes showground to participate in Eco Day organised by Central West Lachlan Landcare Inc.
The Year 5 students listened to traditional elders and participated in six different hands-on workshops.
These workshops included the importance of compost and worm farms, looking under microscopes at water bugs, learning about birds and how they use their beaks, discovering the importance of copper and how the NorthParkes mine works and the importance of clean drinking water and recycling water from Parkes Shire council.
The day was topped off with hearing Costa Georgiadis from Gardening Australia speak about the importance of sustainable living, reusing, recycling and rethinking the use of waste for the future of both humans and animals. Year 5 even got to hold his silver logie!
Our students interacted with interest and excellent manners with all the different presenters.
Great job Year 5!

CWA Public Speaking Competition
On Wednesday four amazing students entered and completed in the Oxley Group CWA Speaking competition.
Lexi received a highly commended award and now gets to compete at the inter comp at Trundle on 22 June.
Grace received a reserve place in the 3/4 CWA section.
Arabella received a reserve place in the 5/6 CWA section.
Matthew delivered his speech with confidence and clarity.
All students are to be congratulated for their courage to prepare an interesting speech and presenting it in front of a large audience. Great job everyone!

House Colours Day + Bake Sale
On Thursday 27 May, the SRC ran a great bake sale during the house colour day. Many students, parents and teachers revealed their amazing baking skills which was appreciated by ravenous teachers and students. Everyone worked hard to set-up the stall and sell the amazing treats to a very colourful group of students. The SRC also ran lunch-time activities, including tag-o-war and chalk art challenges. As always, it was a very successful and joyous event and we are so grateful for everyone's support.

Running a Business in Commerce
Year 9/10 Commerce students have been busily working behind the scenes to set up two small businesses that will operate here at school on Thursday (10/6) and Friday (11/6) of Week 8. They have split into two teams and taken on roles in Operations, Marketing, Finance and Human Resources to have a taste of what running a business is like. Both teams have chosen to provide delicious goods at reasonable prices which will run similar to the SRC Hot Food Days.
Introducing PCS Shakes who are ready to make delicious milkshakes for our staff and students at the cost of $4.00 each on Friday 11th and also introducing 10dah! who will provide a Jolly Meal with nuggets, chips and a drink on Thursday 10th at the cost of $4.00 for Primary and $5.00 for High School.
Both can be ordered via Google Forms - please complete the form and finalise by paying at the Office or via direct deposit by Friday 4th June.
We look forward to providing you with a great product and learning in the process!

Year 9/10 PASS
Year 9/10 PASS students are focussing on Lifestyle, leisure and recreation and how this affects physical activity. They look at patterns of participation, barriers that may occur as well as the benefits for participating. As a formal assessment, students had to create an overseas trip to attend a Leisure or Physical Recreation activity of their choice.
In their presentation they had to include:

Pictures or a short video clip of the activities being performed.
Any travel details and a budget with all costs including airfares, taxes, spending money,
visa requirements.
A tour itinerary.
Accommodation details and expenses
Activity costs and ticket prices

It was fun travelling with them around the world, in mainly first class, staying in 5 star hotels and participating in a variety of sporting activities. Great job guys!
Click the link below to view one of the students assessments:
Link: https://youtu.be/uE_AgL7NgEA

Yr 9/10 Science Fair
Did you ever want to know;
- which butter makes the best tasting brownies?
- how to change the colour of white roses?
- how to preserve apples?
- what happens when you give different levels of fertilizer to plants?
- which brand of glue is the strongest?
- what foods best attract mice to traps?
- how do energy drinks affect teeth or what type of petrol gives the most kilometres in a motorbike?
Students were investigating these and many other amazing ideas in the very first PSC Science Fair. The students have been working for nearly a term on the Student Research Project for their Science assessment task. We are very proud of our student's efforts. Giving students the ability to study topics of interest was a great opportunity for them to plan and carry out experiments that affect their world.
The students set up display boards of their information from their research, and where possible, students also bought in some practical experiments. Year 5 - 8 students came to the Fair to see the amazing projects and discuss the students' ideas and concepts.
Students work was so well completed that it was difficult to judge, there were three different categories of prizes; best-communicated task - written or spoken, the most original idea researched and the best overall project. The winners of these prizes will be announced soon.
The Year 9 / 10 Science Fair was amazing! We are looking forward to seeing the Year 7 / 8 Science Fair next Tuesday 1st June.

Senior Music
In Compressed Music 1 this term, we have kicked off our HSC course content with a look at Australian Music and have now kicked off our unit on Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Our students are busy working on their core performance and elective performance pieces, showing a range of songs from over the past 120 years. Our students are encouraged to pick songs that they love, but are moderately challenging, to try to extend their instrumental abilities. One example is Edward Mayo on electric guitar, who has been learning the song "Reapers" by the band Muse. He has been working with Tyler Boland on drums, and they hope to perform the song for their upcoming HSC external performances.
Here is a video of Edward practicing the intro to "Reapers" in class.
Click the link to see the video https://youtu.be/ME8oBVsdeI8

Raising the Roof (New COLA)
The roof of our new COLA (Covered Outdoor Learning Area) was spectacularly raised and positioned on Thursday.
Jim Davis led the crew that included three cranes that lifted the entire roof and placed it above our old basketball court. Our students were able to head out onto the oval and watch the action and get a taste of how great this space will be for our school.
The roof is just the first stage of the project, as the surface is going to be completely relaid, and new basketball backboards will be attached to the roof so they can fold up and down as needed.
Thanks to everyone who worked on the project and helped to improve our school.

PCS Staff

Name: Alison Nunn.
Your Role at School: Year 3 Teacher and Year 7 Mathematics Teacher.
Favourite School Memory: Feeding Mr Abbotts piranhas in Year 7 and hatching chicks in my homemade incubator.
Fun Fact: I like to eat snails (escargot.)
The Best Thing about Working at PCS: Being part of a family.
Favourite Quote/Verse: If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

Name: Wendy Richards.
Your Role at School: Laboratory Technician and Library Assistant.
Favourite School Memory: Being a part of the liquid nitrogen demonstration for Stage 2 and seeing their faces as they all learned about science (including the teachers and Mr Westcott).
Fun Fact: I got to know my husband by writing to him for three years while he was on the other side of the world.
The Best Thing about Working at PCS: That God is here and I get to work for him and help other people.
Favourite Quote/Verse: Philippians 2:14-16—Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.
Colossians 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.

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SCHOOL CALENDAR

Monday 31 May

School Photo Day - Full Winter Uniform
Homework Hub - Yrs 2 - Yr 12 (3:07pm - 4:00pm)
The Little Mermaid Rehearsal - select students - check the facebook events or website calendar for more details (3:10pm - 5:00pm)

Tuesday 1 June

Year 10 Immunisations
Science Fair - Yrs 7 and 8
Shire Library Visit - Yrs 1 and 2 (1:45pm - 2:45pm)

Wednesday 2 June

Sport; Golf & PCYC - Yrs 7 and 8 (1:30pm - 3:00pm)
Sport; Lawn Bowls & PCYC - Yrs 9 and 10 (1:30pm - 3:00pm)
The Little Mermaid Rehearsal - select students - check the facebook events or website calendar for more details (3:10pm - 5:00pm)

Thursday 3 June

NRL Country Cup Gala Day - selected students (8:30am - 4:30pm)
The Little Mermaid Rehearsal - select students - check the facebook events or website calendar for more details (3:10pm - 5:00pm)
Colin Buchanan Live in Concert (see attached flyer)

Friday 4 June