Launching GCCC’s Facebook Page
The word ‘Facebook’ is enough to make any parent or school uneasy. When dealing with children the prevailing thought is often, ‘better safe than sorry’.
However, being safe doesn’t mean we should miss out on the opportunity that platforms like Facebook can bring to our College family. At different events, I’m constantly told that schools should be using the technology available to them and Facebook comes up repeatedly.
It is often the case that when a school doesn’t have a Facebook page, someone else creates one. The problem with this is that the content may not always be as helpful as a FB page run by the school.
Facebook is an excellent way to share information rapidly. For example, while Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea was still happening on Thursday, we were able to post a few photos of the event with a quick note. We hope to post more brief news and photos in the future and some things that may not be newsletter worthy but a funny event or a good photo of a student’s achievement.
Facebook won’t replace our newsletter or website posts but it will be a great way to communicate information and photos fast for FB users. You don’t need to join FB to get important information but if you are on FB anyway, we hope that you will ‘Like’ our page and share it with your friends.
GCCC’s adoption of a Facebook page does not mean that students can use FB on campus. It also doesn’t mean that we want students to have FB access at home unless their parents approve them as being mature enough. GCCC’s FB page is mainly for parents, friends and anyone interested in our school.
To make it easy for you to find and ‘Like’ our Facebook page, we are emailing you the link today. As most of you are aware, once you have ‘Liked’ the page, new posts will pop up on your wall or timeline as they are uploaded.
P and F Trivia Night
The numbers were down a little on last year but the P and F Trivia Night on Saturday was even better than the previous year. An atmosphere of fun pervaded the whole night and each group went to a lot of effort to decorate their table in their colours.
Aqua table won the décor prize for bringing a live fish as their centrepiece! A member from the pink table turned up in pink pyjamas, the red table had long stemmed red roses, the black team incorporated elegance to their table by adding gold trim, the blue team sported a creative homemade centrepiece of pipe cleaners and chocolate, the purple team had purple chair covers and a huge Cadbury chocolate centrepiece, and the rainbow team sported every colour of the, well, rainbow.
Mark and Alaina Westaway did a wonderful job planning and hosting the night and I’m sure we all appreciated their hard work.
Courtney Devitt on study leave
Drama teacher Courtney Devitt has taken study leave for 12 months beginning next term. Courtney will be studying under a fellowship with the prestigious Trinity College in London to further expand her expertise in teaching Drama.
Next term we will be welcoming Samantha Law who will teach Drama in Courtney’s absence. There will be a photo and more information introducing Samantha to you in the next newsletter.
Congratulations to Kylie Trendell
I’d like to congratulate Kylie Trendell and her husband, Andrew, on the safe arrival of Summer Faith. Summer was born Saturday morning at weighing almost 8lbs. She has dark hair with blue eyes and, as you can see in this photo, is very beautiful.
Kitchen Garden Biggest Morning Tea
Unfortunately, I was unable to participate in the Biggest Morning Tea for Cancer last Thursday, but I heard that it was a succulent success with tables of delicious treats and steaming coffee. Thanks to Mandy Ward and all the parent volunteers who worked hard for this very worthy cause. I’m sure Mandy will have more details in her news article.
Strawberries for sale
Although the College won’t be holding its mission trip to Fiji until 2014, Neil Daniel is leading a small group of people from Glasshouse Country Baptist church on a working trip to Fiji in September. The Fiji Bible College has some urgent building needs and Neil and his team are fund raising to help purchase the materials so they can perform the work when they arrive.
To help raise these funds Neil and his team will be selling strawberries (kindly donated by Oaklands Farms) each Friday afternoon around 3pm in the bus shelter.
Community and Charity Support
It’s been tremendous seeing our student rise to the challenge of helping others. Our Primary students have been collecting groceries for a local food bank; our Middle School students have raised money for Destiny Rescue to help children in slavery; our senior school students have been collection and putting together toiletry packs for the homeless in Nambour. Middle and Senior . Other Middle School students have been performing community services such as helping elderly with yard work and more. I hope you enjoy reading more about these activities in the other articles in this newsletter.
Happy holidays
I hope you will be able to plan some fun, relaxation and lots of family times during the upcoming holidays. I know our students have been working hard and deserve a good relaxing break. Please remember that Monday 8 July to Friday 12 July is a pupil free week so students don’t come back until Monday 15 July. See you then.
Mike Curtis, Principal