Our Year 7s were privileged to have Andrew Wallace, our local MP, meet them and spend time showing them around Parliament House in Canberra last week. As they gathered in the Marble Foyer, his words to them were; ‘This is your Parliament House; it’s not the government’s, it’s not the Parliamentarian’s. It’s the seat of democracy which means that every Australian, over 18 years old, votes for who they would like to represent them and to speak on their behalf for matters that relate to the Australian people’.
A little later, while touring the House of Representatives room, Mr Wallace pointed out his seat, and then said to the students, “Many years ago, when I was a little bit older than you, I visited this room and thought, ‘this is where I want to be, this is what I want to do’.” His explanations and inspirational words were a highlight of this visit for our Year 7 young men and women.
We also visited the Australian War Memorial which is always an evocative experience for our students. The group I supervised learnt about the impressive Billy Sing, a part Chinese Australian sniper who served during World War I at Gallipoli; and, Sarbi, an explosive detection dog. Together, it is estimated, that these two saved over a thousand lives in their respective battles. And these were just examples of those who have served on behalf of all Australians. These reminders gave me the ‘green and gold goosebumps’ – Australians are afforded many privileges.
Both the freedom we experience as a safe and peaceful country and also to have the people’s voice heard through the system of democracy can at times be forgotten or taken for granted. As Mr Wallace pointed out, “There are two ‘lotteries’ in life: Who our parents are; and, Which country we are born into.” This ‘lottery’ is a gift from God and our young Glasshouse Christian College men and women are given many opportunities to work out how to use their gifts and talents for the betterment of others.
Our Year 7s also enjoyed visiting the snow this year for the first time. Snuffles, coughs and colds didn’t hamper their enjoyment of the week. The staff who attended gave over and above to make this trip a success and are to be thanked for this commitment.
Year 9 Camp Feedback
The Year 8 and 9 camp’s focus for Glasshouse Christian College is on building resilience and self-reliance through outdoor education adventures. For some students, these camps can be very challenging.
While the experiences revolve around camping and physical activities, the intended purposes are 
less about appreciating these and more about building confidence in themselves, resilience and independence. The real adventure is doing a variety of things that are, to some degree, outside of their comfort zone and having success in doing these. The feedback from the anonymous survey that all the Year 9 students completed is quite insightful and I thought it would be beneficial to share some of the key findings:
- 72% said they tried new things on the camp that they would not have dared before
- 77% said they had learnt more about themselves and become more confident from being on camp
- 83% said they thought they worked better in a team now that they had been on camp
- 75% said they thought that the camp activities would help them make better decisions in the future.
These are good statistics and are encouraging for our team teachers as they evaluate and make plans for future years.
Year 8 and 9 girls high tea
Did your daughter take up the opportunity to be blessed by a few of our Year 11 girls on Tuesday afternoon? A big thank you to these girls for their gift of time and words of encouragement in their busy schedules to offer this special afternoon tea.
Listening to your teenage kids
Sometimes talking with your teenager may be difficult. You may find this one-minute YouTube video helpful.
Jacqualina Vreeling, Head of Middle School