Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing time with your family. As you can see, there wasn’t a lot of resting or relaxing at the College as the building projects went full steam ahead.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your patience as we instigated the new traffic flow procedures. I have been out most mornings and afternoons monitoring the flow and have been very impressed with the spirit of cooperation that is on display. I want to particularly thank the people I didn’t see in cars because they were walking their children to and from school. What a great way to spend quality time together and model healthy lifestyle practices. Naturally not everyone lives close enough to do this so please let me encourage you to make full use of the drop off and pick up zone on Roberts Road for Middle and Senior students and the Kiss and Go outside N Block for those with Primary students.
Now that we have seen the traffic flow in action we will be removing the contradictory arrows and establishing better signage.
We will also be reconfiguring the pedestrian access to the Church Carpark. At the moment the pedestrian access is a fairly convoluted process of crossing at the exit of the carpark and then walking on the right hand side of the truncated ring road and then making a final crossing over to the school side of the road. In the next few weeks the crossing across the carpark exit and the crossing to the Admin will be removed along with the bollards. Instead a new crossing will be established to the west of the carpark exit. As there is no vehicle flow here at all this will be the safest possible option and will not impede the progress of any traffic.
Don’t forget that the Kiss and Go pick up and drop off is an excellent way to collect and drop off your children. This lane is open in the morning and then reopens at 2:55pm every day. Please follow all of the directions that are given by Yvette our Kiss and Go Supervisor and the other staff that are doing their best to ensure a safe and smooth flow of traffic.
Easter service
Our whole College Easter service was held on the last day of Term 1 so there wasn’t time to include it in the Eagle although we did post the videos and photos to Facebook. It was a very moving service with student participation from the very young to our senior students.
For the first time ever we were able to broadcast the entire service on Facebook live and hope to do this for more events in the future. If you don’t have Facebook we have included the photos and a link to the Easter playlist on our YouTube channel.
GCC families can see all the photos on Pixevety.
Easter Service videos
&layout=gallery[/embedyt]Cross Country
I’m watching Wednesday’s tropical downpour as I write this I’m sending a thanks to God that our Cross Country was on the Tuesday. The weather was almost perfect with no rain but just a little hotter than ideal. All our students ran well and there will be more details later on is this newsletter. Photos from the Primary section can be viewed here and in Mrs Stott’s article later on in the Eagle. Hopefully we will have Secondary photos to you next week.
Congratulations to Sinai who won the Senior School section, Ararat who won Middle School and Zion who won Primary. The overall house points were:
Ararat: 404
Sinai: 396
Zion: 395
Anzac Day march
We have a proud tradition of supporting the local ANZAC march as a whole College. This tradition is born out of a deep respect and gratitude for our Australian soldiers and what they have done to protect our freedom. I would like to strongly encourage you all to keep this tradition alive by participating in the Beerwah ANZAC Day march or your local ceremony if you live further away.
The details are the same as last year in that the march will begin in the Coochin Creek Co-op carpark and everyone needs to be assembled by 9:15am at the latest.
The march will exit the Co-op heading down Peachester Road, turn left into Turner Street and then right into Turner Park. The service will begin promptly at 10am. It is often hot so please ensure your children wear sunscreen on the day and have their hats and water with them.
This is the last newsletter before ANZAC Day so please put these details in a handy place or type in ANZAC Day in the search bar of our website to call them up when you want to refer to them again.
GCC Anzac Day service
The day before Anzac Day we will be commemorating this event as a whole College in the Undercover Area. Each year this service is a special time and we always receive feedback from the special guests on how respectful our students behave during the event.
Parents are welcome to attend this event which begins at 8:40am and finishes at 9:40am but seating is very limited so you would need to be prepared to stand for the full hour.
Thank you P and F for the Ping Pong Tables
We are delighted to have taken possession of three outdoor ping pong tables that have been kindly donated by our wonderful Parents and Friends or the P and F.
These are not your ordinary ping pong tables. These ones are all weather and are designed for being outside and set up 24/7. They are worth 1300 dollars each! The P and F also donated the funds for the concrete pad that they sit on too.
Of course, the idea for the ping pong tables came out of the Student Representative Council last year, so thank you students for the excellent suggestion.
The tables have already been a big hit with the students and we are looking forward to seeing some high energy ping pong being played in future lunch times. It was too wet to take photos of the tables in use this week but we’ll have some for you soon.
P and F Disco
Our first disco for the year will be happening next Friday at the N block OLA. There will be a flyer coming out detailing all of the specifics soon. This night is always very popular with the Primary students.
Last year, because of legal advice we had to make a change to the format of the discos which meant that children below school age could not attend and as such there was a special area cordoned off for these children and for parents to supervise.
We understand that this arrangement inconvenienced some families.
For this reason we will be removing this cordoned off area and allowing children below school age to be in the main dance area again.
It is important for all parents to understand that the disco is a P and F managed event, it is not a College event. Supervision will not be provided by College staff (except in a voluntary capacity) and it is solely the responsibility of parents to ensure their children are obeying the safety rules of the disco and are closely supervised.
Open Day
Saturday 19 May is only a few weeks away and I am looking forward to seeing you all there. We are often under a lot of pressure to change the date to a weekday like most other schools but we keep it on a Saturday so our current families can attend without having to negotiate time off work.
This year there will be lots to see as progress on the music rooms and sports complex will be well underway. To compensate for some of the messy areas we are bringing in quality food trucks and will also have our favourites like the P and F barbecue, Hospitality goodies and tasty options from our Tuckshop.
All our favourite activities will be back like the free train rides, animal farm, and jumping castle. Of course, the stars of the day are our students and we will have jam-packed performances during the four hours of the event. Our students are the best advertisement we have for the College and do a great job showing their character, skills and servant-heartedness on the day.
Mike Curtis, Principal