Last week I spent two days and an evening with our Year 9 ladies on an overnight retreat. It was a great privilege to watch them work through what it means to be a young woman of character and strength. As we hopped off the bus at the end of the retreat, I also had the unexpected pleasure to be welcomed by the Year 9 gentlemen offering to unload the girls’ bags. It is encouraging to see our Year 9s grow into thoughtful, respectful young men and women.
At this point in the term, Middle School students are putting their knowledge to the test or representing their newly formed skills into projects and assignments. Please remember to encourage your child to communicate with their teachers if they are struggling or unsure.
Recently we celebrated Book Week. It was wonderful to see how many Middle Schoolers enjoyed getting into character of a favourite book. Books really do ‘light up our world’, which was this year’s Book Week theme.
The Bible states that ‘the word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths,’ Psalm 119:105. This message was reiterated and echoed by a recent visiting band LZ7 from America last Friday and the Freestyle BMX stunt crew – JCEpidemic this week in Chapel time. Besides the photos below there are some awesome videos on our GCC Chaplaincy Facebook page.
I hope you enjoy these photos of some of these recent ‘extras’ in the MIddle School curriculum and that these will give you some points to probe your child about as you chat over your evening meals or taxi-drive them to various events.
As the term winds to an end, please help with ensuring uniform standards remain high. One area in particular are sports shoes; these must be full black leather. Any other coloured sports shoes are not to the uniform code. It has also been a few weeks now since our ‘hair check day’ and a few students are due for a trim once again. This cannot wait until holidays as there are too many weeks still remaining. Remember also the Assessment Calendars for each Year level can be found on the Connect site. If there are valid concerns that a deadline cannot be met, an Assessment Extension form needs to be downloaded off the Connect site and sent or handed to the relevant teacher, at least two days before the due date.
Jacqualina Vreeling, Head of Middle School