I hope you all feel rested and were able to enjoy some quality family time without the hectic rush of drop offs, preparing lunch boxes, and ensuring homework is done each night.
We were very excited to learn of our excellent OP results over the holidays. Congratulations to Jesse Woods, Jordan Bull and Rory Tait who each received an OP1 and also to Alisha Mens and Kerryn Geldenhuys for their OP2s. The Sunshine Coast Daily did a full article on Jordan and Jesse and you can read it here.
I look forward to seeing what the future holds for all of the young men and women of our graduating class.
Bible verse/theme for 2018
A lot of thought and prayer goes into what we select for the Bible verse for each year and the one that stood out to us was: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6. As a leadership team we felt this was a good verse because some parts of it are very easy to understand and apply and other parts require more exploration during the year. I am sure you will agree this will be a focus for all of the Glasshouse Christian College community for this year.
We have chosen and adapted several senior students’ artwork to feature this verse and I’m sure you will be seeing them around the campus soon.
Baby Beattie news
Congratulations to Matthew and Valerie Beattie who welcomed their daughter into the world on Saturday 13 January. Isla Florence Beattie was born a very healthy 4.075kg (9lbs) and was 54cm long so she is sure to be able to keep up with her older brothers in no time flat.
Parent calendar
We have a new parent calendar that will keep you as well informed as possible about College events. This calendar is automatically updated as soon as the change or addition is made to our in-house College calendar. You can find it on the home page of our website and all you need to do is to scroll down until you see it. It is mobile-friendly so it is easy to quickly check times or dates on your phone.
Another advantage of this calendar is that there is an option to add the event to your own Google calendar (if you have one). Just click on the event then select ‘copy to my calendar’
For those of you who are already planning the next Christmas holidays, please note that the last day of school this year (apart from the senior year levels) is Thursday 6 December. This is still a week earlier than the public schools but is a little later than last year.
New staff
I hope you will join with me in welcoming several new staff. We asked them to write their own introductions so you can learn all about the first three by clicking here (more next week). I think this is the smallest batch of new staff that we have ever had so it is good to see that people enjoy working at GCC.
Parking/projects
While 2017 was our first year of no building projects, we are making up for it in spades in 2018! We have about five building projects on the go and it is going to be a huge year. For those who follow us on Facebook, you would have already seen the oval clearing.
Very shortly work will begin on our Sports Complex which will be built on the space currently occupied by the volleyball courts. The complex will be the size of two full basketball courts and will be completely undercover. This will be a huge boon to our growing sports departments – especially with Queensland’s unpredictable weather.
The biggest of the building projects begins in 2018 but won’t be finished for a few more years. Work will begin on our Performing Arts Centre with the first stage being the completion of much needed classrooms. As you know, the centre is being built on top of what is currently our western car park so very shortly we will lose those car parks.
The good news is that we are building another car park to accommodate this and it should be ready early in the piece. The new car park will be down past N Block so we continue to encourage all of you to make full use of the Kiss and Go zone to alleviate parking and traffic congestion.
It is going to be an exciting year and I’m looking forward to travelling on this journey with you all.
Bus drop off and pick up procedures
As you will recall, last year we began our bus pick up and set down procedures from the new bus zone that is located out on Roberts Road to the immediate east of the main exit of the College.
Currently before the Sunshine Coast Council is our plan for a very large undercover bus waiting area. Unfortunately, we were hoping that this structure would have been completed by now but the approval has still not been forthcoming. We are very confident that the approval will be obtained soon and then the construction can begin, but in the meantime we will continue with last year’s procedures, however with one important exception.
On a trial basis, we will be allowing Primary Students Year 3 to 6 and all Middle and Senior Students to wait for their buses at the bus zone. The students will be well supervised. Prep to 2 students will remain in the Prep Shed yard and will be escorted to their bus when it arrives. This should alleviate some of the congestion that we are currently experiencing around the eastern entrance to N block and the Kiss and Go area.
Of course, this will not solve all of the congestion problems in that area and we ask for your patience. Please do not congregate in these areas or on the path adjacent to the Prep Shed leading out of the College grounds as this is a major thoroughfare for the students. The whole procedure will be working much more smoothly soon enough.
Swimming Carnivals
The Secondary Swimming Carnival is next Tuesday 30 January and the teams are already entering into the competitive spirit. It was great to hear a bit of good natured ribbing about which sporting house would come first at assembly this week.
This is always an exciting day filled with fun and hard work. What makes the day particularly special is the participation by all the students which is why we make it compulsory for all students. The GCC Swimming Carnival is an outdoor classroom where students learn about teamwork, building character and striving for their personal best.
Mike Curtis, Principal