Our Presentation Night was another marvellous celebration of the year that was at Glasshouse Christian College.

Along with the Academic, Diligence, GREAT and character awards there were highly prized individual awards given out on the night. This year Patrick McKenzie was Middle School Dux and Jesse Woods College Dux. The Year 9 All Rounder was Madeleine Roulston and the Principal’s Award was presented to Bakani Kombanie in Middle School and Ella O’Keeffe in Senior School. The Emily Lord Senior All Rounder Award was presented to Jordan Bull. 

The Long Tan Leadership and Teamwork award went to Kate Jackson in Year 10 and Rory Tait in Year 12. The CWA Community Service Award was presented to Darna Andrews. The University of the Sunshine Coast presented the Rise and Shine awards to Ariana Doolan and Kacey Dickens.

I would also like to congratulate our new Middle School Captains Natalie Beakey and Jared Post along with our College Captains for 2018, Aaron Lerch and Jayde Curtis.

The night was much more than presenting awards; it was about celebrating all the students and the College as a whole. Someone likened it to attending a wedding – not everyone is in the bridal party or has a speech to give but everyone is an important part of the event. Thank you to all the parents, caregivers and students who attended the night and supported their fellow students in celebrating together.

Building and campus improvements and some traffic interruptions

I mentioned in my speech at Presentation Night, that 2017 was the first year we haven’t had a building program but we will be making up for that in 2018.

Activity has already begun over at the new eastern oval construction site and it is very exciting. At the moment tree surveys are being done and the real work will begin in the very near future. This project will be completed in time for next year.

We also just learned that council has approved our plans for a performing arts complex and sports centre so now we can go full steam ahead with these important projects.

To gain that council approval there has had to be some extensive restructuring of the traffic flow through the College. This restructuring will include;

• Closing off the current entrance as the ring road will be no more. This will be access for staff and for deliveries.
• The current main exit will be widened and reconfigured to be both an entrance and an exit
• There will be some modifications done to the church carpark
• All traffic will be re-routed through the eastern carpark exit while this work is going on
• The eastern carpark will also be extended but this will not affect traffic operation

This is a case of short term pain for long term gain as the result is a more beautiful and open campus with excellent pedestrian traffic flow through the College.

As yet we have not negotiated with the builders when this road work is to begin. However, we anticipate the bulk of the work will be done during one of the holidays next year. All of the work will not be completed by this time however and there will be some significant interruptions to normal traffic flow. Although it would have been ideal to begin construction over the upcoming Christmas holidays, the government grant did not come through in time so we doubt this will happen. 

As we continue to negotiate with our new builders, architects and traffic engineers watch this space for further developments.

Lookout there are children about!

In light of the tragedy that happened in a Sydney school earlier this week where a car crashed into a demountable classroom and killed two young people, I thought it pertinent to remind us all of the importance of safety during pick up and set downtimes.

It is mostly about setting a good example to the young people who are watching you as parents. Please be careful to do the following;

• Use the crossings. I frequently see people crossing the external and internal roads only metres away from a crossing, even manned crossings.
• Make sure you obey the speed limit. 10 km/h is very slow but it will give you the necessary reaction time to avoid any potential situations. It is worth it when you consider the unpredictabilities of the volume of students that we have.
• Do not cross in between traffic. While you may have the road sense to do this the young people who are watching you do not.
• Obey the school zone out the front of the College of 40km/h. Especially during this time do not pass people who are turning right into the College by going on to the road shoulder as you are westbound on Roberts Road.

Thanks, everyone. There are few things in life that are genuinely life or death situations but this is one of them. “Look out, look out, there are children about!”

Funfest held over to 2019

The new buildings we are planning will be a magnificent addition to our facilities, but the campus will look more like a building site than its usual pristine appearance for much of next year. For this reason, the Funfest Committee and the College have decided that Funfest, our College fete will not go ahead for next year as planned. It will return in 2019 once we get over the restrictions that the building activity will necessarily place on the event.

Current facilities now on website

Remember the Google indoor tour we organised for many of the ground floor classrooms and a couple upstairs? These have now all been separated into smaller, bite-sized tours and are on our website under About GCC/Facilities. If you have friends or family that don’t live nearby and you want to show off your classroom or some of the other facilities, you can share the direct link with them. I wonder how many people will see how large our turtle has become in one of the classrooms?

Free Christmas gift

As part of its 200th-anniversary celebrations, Bible Society Australia is giving away copies of a little children’s book telling the “really good news of Christmas”. The little book is full of colourful illustrations and rollicking verse, retelling the Christmas story from the Bible.
“Christmas is gift-giving time, and Bible Society is delighted to offer a ‘really good’ gift to all Australians – the true story of Jesus,” said Bible Society Australia’s CEO, Greg Clarke. “Many Aussies now have never heard it. We trust it will be a blessing and a joy to hear.”
To claim up to three free copies please visit www.biblesociety.org.au/reallygood

Mike Curtis, Principal